"What are we doin' here? How bout we just get out? An' I dunno... get some meatheads back in town fer this?"
Harkness starts to back away from the direction the critters are emerging from.
Sharra'es looks curiously as Qua flees to the other end of the room. When she takes out her revolver and points it at the corridor, Sharra crouches down into a fighting stance, ready to protect the caravan and her allies.
As the groups turns to look, 4 Long dull grey scaled snakes with deep black eyes and knife sized fangs slither up from the left staircase. The snakes are side by side, all in a 10 foot square blocking the left staircase, about 10 ft from the group
As the group is ready for the attack, and the snakes didn't expect you. you each get a surprise round.
Turn order for Round 1 after the surprise round.
Harkness
Vrax
Sharra
Snakes and lastly Qua
"Aw, cmon! This is what we should have people for!"
Harkness protests as he moves in. He doesn't draw his old sickle this time, preferring to use his bare hand to lash out quickly and effectively.
Vraxiss grabs a handful of powdered silver from his beltpouch and throws it into the air, chanting in Draconic. Suddenly a cloud of thick black smoke appears covering the Basilisks and the groups of kobolds. "Don't let them look you in the eyes. The smoke is illusion, but hopefully they won't realize that."
Harkness rushes forward carefully, slashing one of the 4 snakes with his claws. The trail of blood streaks through the air, turning into a powdery mist that quickly turns silver and forms a smoky cloudy. There's hissing from the snakes, they tilt their heads confused.
Sharra 'es charges forward as the mist appears.
She starts to stumble before the mists fade away. Seeing clearly again, she moves to a spot to take advantage of Harkness's position or at least be in a position to momentarily.
Sharra, seeing through the illusory smoke with a keen eye, rushes forward and with a quick move Stomps on the unsuspecting snake creature, catching the group by surprise. But now the snakes are aware of the group and preparing to lash out, a dual assault from The good doctor and the trained Sharra leave one bloodied and angry
Round 1 officially
Harkness
Vrax
Sharra
Snakes and then Qua.
Qua is going to do something wildly uncommon for gunslingers, she’s gunna shoot the baddies with a gun.
“Bad news Doc! Way I’m seein’ it we got a job here and we are the “meatheads” who were brought in to handle the problems!” Qua yells to Harkness amid the combat.
Qua's shot rings out in the small space, the focused fire from everyone on the Young Basilisk leaves it bleeding but still holding on. Now the reptiles are aware of the party and readying to act,
Harkness, Vrax and Sharra you're up first before the snakes first round. 1 Snake is fairly injured, looks about to drop.
"Meathead? I ain't no meathead! I got me a surgical degree from a respected institution!"
It seems the doctor distracts himself out of sheer outrage and is unable to see through the buffed illusion placed by Vraxiss.
Sharra 'es shows no mercy, striking out at the already injured snake once she sidesteps to give the shooters a clearer shot.
Vraxiss tries to keep the snake closest to the doctor off guard with a spell.
There's some hissing from the snakes, some form of communication maybe. The Snake shakes off the mental compulsion of the spell, before turning around and pulling a full Withdraw, preventing its potential death.
Meanwhile the two back row snakes slither off down the stairs. The remaining snake stays
Despite its inability to see, it still lashes out at Sharra
Only too Miss due to the smoke and Sharras Nimbleness. You see a thick black liquid dripping from its Fangs
Qua shouts back to Harkness “Yeah, yeah doc you’re very smart. But also you’re fighting a dangerous monster with your bare hands!”
"Agh! You're right!"
Harkness retreats as well due to not just cowardice, but also his inability to see his enemy anymore. But mostly the coward thing.
Qua's Blast grazes the stubborn snake leaving a mark, meanwhile Harkness prepares his crossbow for a quick shot should anything hostile emerge.
Vrax your up
Vraxiss tries his spell again, not wanting to throw lightning into the melee.
Feeling her advantage lost, Sharra'es stikes out at the stubborn snake anyway.
Sharra's strikes miss as the snake bobs and weaves.
It then shakes off the daze and follows up by lashing out, only to miss again.
"Hun the sooner you learn I'm always right the better." Says Qua with a wink at Harkness.
Harkness weighs his options. On the one hand, the basilisks probably wont come out of the cloud at this rate. On the other, he still cant see them. So taking his chances, he just levels his crossbow and fires where he remembers the creature had been before. If he hits Sharra instead, at least he's the one who can patch her back up.
"Sharra, get outta there! Those things might be dangerous!"
"Hun?"
"Can you two focus?!" Vraxiss complains, his frustration obvious as steps forward striking at the snake with a hand wreathed in electricity. "Stupid spell only works half the time."
Hoping to end art least one threat, Sharra strikes again taking advantage of Vraxiss's attack.
With the parties combine efforts the snake gives a final hiss as it dies. Once the smoke dies down... No snakes remain. A trail of blood, from the injured snakes remains, leading down the cathedral stairs, into pitch black darkness.
"If we are to create a safe passage, we should end this threat now. Hopefully it is just the three remaining in their nest.
"I agree, but we must be more cautious. I'll not be able to cast that spell again today, and this time they will be expecting us. I have a single smokestack, but unlike the illusory smoke we'll be as hapered as the snakes should I be forced to use it."
"I was pretty hampered already. Do we have anything besides clouds left? I mean if we just gotta do this ourselves."
With that the doctor closes his hand around a small vial, using Heightened Awareness.
"I still say we get ourselves some plucky adventurers and have 'em give it a go."
"Understood Vraxiss. Be ready to flee if the need arises. I seemed to be able to dodge their attacks before. Hopefully I can continue to do so. I may need one of you to distract them so I can make the most of my abilities if things take a turn."
Vraxiss nods, "Just know that if that catch you with their gaze you will be frozen, not likely to stone, but unable to move. You won't be able to dodge should that happen."
The group heads down into the darkness, the air is humid and thick. Its quiet...all you hear is the sound of running water, but you can't see it.
Theres a wooden door half hanging off it's hinges, this room looks like part of a storage room, many old barrels and boxes. The room is covered in thick fungus, not like the reddish sweet stuff upstairs. This is a black mushroom, growing out of Blackish moss. You don't see any snakes down in this room, looking beyond the door you see hallways, but thats as far as your dark vision can see. There's no light at all down here.
Black fungus could be dangerous... better move quickly.
Sharra'es holds her breath as she hurries through the room to the hallway beyond. She looks around trying to pierce the darkness.
Harkness will look past the door for a moment.
[B]"Awright fine. If we're going out here on our own, Im checking ahead to make sure ain't no one else to cause a problem.
With that he attempts to scout ahead.
You both don't see anything other than Black fungus and hearing the water rushing noise. Anyone else want to try?
Make a Fortitude save
“Heya doc, I’m not totally sure that messing with the fungus is a good....”
Qua stops mid sentence as Harkness messes with the fungus.
"It's fine, I'm fine."
But he was not fine as the spores visibly landed on him.
Confident in her abilities, Sharra'es soldiers on.
Everything seems fine...
Harkness and Sharra walk through the door into the hallway that leads to an overlook of a large open area roughly 100ft all around including 100 ft plus upward. You see a flowing river going through the center of the Chasm.
This area is the most humid and warm, like walking into a Sauna, you see petrified remains of animals laying across the ground here in large quantity.
Sharra'es calls out to the others, "Vraxiss, Qua, you two coming? Thre fungus doesn't seem to bad past the first room. There's lots more petrified animals in here." while she waits for an answer, she looks around for signs of the snakes.
Vraxiss looks as Qua and shrugs, "I suppose so." he falls out before walking forward to going 5he others.
Qua shrugs and says “look I wasn’t just gunna go stomping through until I knew if this was super death fungus or not.” and she will saddle up next to Sharra before asking “I know it’s probably not the time or place but what’s your deal? Doc is a doc and he does pretty good speaking from experience. What’s your story? How did you end up delving through fields of death fungus?”
Looking around carefully you see the quick darting around of a serpentine creature, but it quickly disappears just beyond your darkvision, further into the room...