Tamerius is no fool and decides to run with his comrades!
Natsume waits to see Tamerius move successfully up the stairs, before following him, covering the rear.
The four of you end up back in the big alchemical laboratory.
Wounded and panting from having rushed up the spiral staircase-- you wait a few seconds... but hear nothing coming up after you: the Amalgam is not following you.
You look around: nothing has changed here, the bodies of the drudges are still on the ground, their strange acid-blood pooling around them.
Natsume pants, leaning on her shield, muzzle resting on top of it as she watches the entrance for a few minutes—but soon it’s clear that they’re not being followed.
”See, this... haa... is why... I wanted... to let ourselves... lick our wounds first,” she wheezes.
Sitril raises his arm and licks the cut on it and waits a few seconds watching.
"I don't think to lick the wounds helps! I would prefer your mojo healing or Tamerius bandages."
"Yes, let's rest. But maybe outside the building. I don't want to be attacked once again by some monstrosity."
A blend of voices come from below: "Monstrosity? Me?!"
Its feelings seem deeply hurt.
What was THAT?! No outside of danger, Tamerius tries to remember something about the creature
But yes, I agree with Giggett. Let find a more secure place to recover from... this.
”Either that or barricade ourselves in here,” she says. ”Either way... hoo...”
Tamerius tries to remember something about the creature--
--and it hits him: his second-cousin, Adolberyus, had tried such experimentation, not very successfully, but this must be the same work-- but well done!
If one manages to find a way to not totally lose the failed experiments, in this case alchemical ones, to make the Drudges that can be filled with alchemical fluids that they can vomit or use to empower their strikes ; or the Homonculus (Pot-Holder) than can contain doses of poison... well, one way to not totally lose the failed experiments is by fusing them together!
That is what this horrible, pitiful thing is.
There is no name for it. As it is but an amalgam-- you saw parts that seemed Orcish, others from a Hobgoblin... and those pointed ears were that of an Elf.
You now recon it is made up of over a dozen creatures-- all brought together in a mass of flesh and limbs.
Most probably In nightmarish pain!
On a more prosaic side, Tamerius knows this is a Unique Large Aberration.
And he has analyzed how it was able to fight--
--Too Many Limbs (two-actions) The amalgam can make up to four Strikes, one with each of its listed melee attacks, but no more than two at any one target. It takes a –2 penalty to each attack, but the multiple attack penalty does not increase until all the attacks are made.
Seeing how it resisted Giggett's intimidation, Tamerius surmises that--
--Many Minds The amalgam has many consciousnesses floating inside its mind, and they are not equally affected by mental magic. The Amalgam always treats its saving throws against mental effects as one degree better.
Giggett starts to leave the room.
"Let's go outside, at a safe distance from the palissade. I'm pretty sure it'll take us an hour to rest, we can lose 10 minutes to get to safety."
You all carefully exit the building, slipping past the pool where someone said there were Elementals - do you believe him? - and out into the courtyard.
It is empty.
Through the palisade, and into the forest-- where you smell a fire, and rabbit roasting!
You stealthily approach and-- see two Orcs, that obviously went through all the snares the lady-Ranger-Orc put up, and are cooking a few dozen rabbits.
It smells great!
They spot you and run off into the trees, one of them limping along behind:
You settle down and can eat a bit while you heal up--
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Rested, healed, and focus-spelled up, you return to the palisade-- into the courtyard-- all is quiet.
You pass the doors, and enter the building.
Where to?
Natsume takes a deep breath. ”Let’s go put them all to rest.”
So, where to?
During the rest, Giggett would have asked:
"Do you prefer to be thorough when exploring the building or try to go straight to Vilree? I ask that because we already kind of lost ourselves in the middle of her creatures, so it may be better to progress carefully and map everything."
Natsume looks thoughtful. ”I think whatever element of surprise we might have had is gone. Better to be thorough at this point, I think.”
You are aiming to explore the rest of the upstairs-- like the stairs going up you never took?
"Ok, let us first explore the pool and the statue. Then the alchemical room, there could be items that we could use."
Speaks dwarf glad that he had opportunity to rest.
"When we go to fight the patchwork man can we use the Barskin potions? It was not using fire to damage us. "
So, off to explore the room with the pool and the statue?
You all move back to the room with the pool, that Sitril enters first.
Standing at one end of this long chamber is a marble statue of an elven woman holding a flask.
She is dressed in a flowing gown, and liquid tears streak down her cheeks into a small pool surrounding the statue’s base.
Other than the faint burbling of water, this chamber is peaceful and still.
Giggett turns to Tamerius:
"You said you've been attacked by water elementals as soon as you touched the water? Let's put ourselves in position, then, and touch the water once we're ready."
Giggett hide herself behind the opened double door, ready to shoot at any elemental she sees.
You set up--
--and then... who goes in?
Does Tamerius take a tinkle in the pond?
Sitril would position 5 feet from water and nod to Nat to go and touche the water. He holds his axe in both hands.
There is only one statue in the room you are in.
The other statue is in the other room, the one where you fought the drudges.
So, Natsume goes to touch the water--
Natsume tosses a pebble into it.
Natsume tosses a pebble in the pool, and--
--Tamerius sees the two elementals he met before forming and starting to surge out to attack you...
Tamerius moves away and cast Electric Arc on them.
May Hell's Thunder be your downfall!
The electricity hits both elementals as they surge forward, but not fair and square, as they are still nimble--
--the white one forms in the form of a watery shark, moving up in front of Sitril and trying to clamp down on the Dwarf with jaws of water... but at first it only splashes brine everywhere, and then it does not put enough pressure in.
Sitril moves away his legs and yells at the shark
"Let me cut you to pieces!"
He roars with anger and takes a swing with his axe
Giggett summons lightnings at the tip of her fingers and follow Tamerius' lead by unleashing them on both elementals.
lightning damage, basic Reflex save DC 19
She then shoots an arrow on the blue elemental, which hasn't had time to react to her presence yet.
piercing damage + precision piercing damage.
Her arrow strikes true!
Sitril's anger helps him slice into the coalesced water twice, sending brine and piece of seaweed everywhere!
Surprised, neither elemental thinks to avoid the electric attack, and the smell of ozone permeates the air as the lightning hits the seawater...
The arrow rips a channel through the other, bluer, elemental, sending water all around the floor.
The blue elemental does pull itself out of the pool, which now remains empty behind it, and lashes out at a Natsume Ren-- the jaws clamp down tight around the champion, hurting her, but not letting go... she is grabbed!
Natsume groans, but she's been snagged by worse.
"Hopefully this doesn't require too much fanciness," she sighs, swirling her flail around.
The furry fox does manage to squeeze out of the watery yet strong grasp, and conks white over the head-- making it dissolve into a puddle, that disappears, going back to the Plane it came from!
But blue avoids the blow--
Maybe baby, I'll miss you
Maybe baby, you'll be blue...
As Natsume puts her back into her second swing— unfortunately a broad miss—she looks back over her shield arm to see she’s splattered the first one. ”Awesome!”
Giggett moves to flank the blue one with Sitril and attacks it with her bow (and arrows!).
piercing damage + precision piercing damage.
piercing damage + precision piercing damage.
Giggett hits and then misses.
This time, Tamerius calls for Hell's fire to burn the elemental.
May Hell's Fire burn you to the ground!
The ray hits the shark-- just shy of ripping it apart!
And the fire burns hard-- but the water dampens the impact a bit.
So the shark only dies...
Natsume gives a “phewww,” slips her flail back into its holster, and places her fingers in the tooth marks across her abdomen.
”Holy Daikitsu, heal holey Natsume!”
”That went well. Anyone mind if I take a few minutes to pray?”
I will need to pray too.
Says Tamerius, satisfied by his action.
Giggett, you can look at the box in the water. I don't think it's trapped, but who knows?