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The dwarf-like creature nimbly steps to the side and the ball of ice does a number on more rocks. I must say, the rocks are taking a beating in this fight.
Green steps back and red steps forward, but neither helps as more shots go wide, ripping holes through the innocent foliage. Who will win this battle, the rocks or the leaves?
Ongoing effects:
Bold may go.
Gnasher (-20 HP)
Urah Pyr (-3 HP, -1 str)
Malgrim Gryh (-24 HP)
Yellow (-0 HP)
Tarak (-21 HP)
Red (-0 HP)
Green (-24 HP)
Malgrim steps towards the next creature and continues to suck in the water in the air to empower his abilities as he sends another bolt out at their attackers.
Growling at himself for being distracted, Gnasher focuses on the enemy to the southeast. Taking a step after the creature, now clear of his fellow tribesmen, he swings the bardiche wide, twisting it wickedly as he feels it bite into the enemy.
Both of you hit and Gnasher takes out his target. The rocks and trees 'breathe' a sigh of relief.
; DC 14 fort save or strength damage
Ongoing effects:
Bold may go.
Tarak (-21 HP)
Red (-0 HP)
Gnasher (-18 HP)
Urah Pyr (-3 HP, -1 str)
Malgrim Gryh (-24 HP, need fort save)
Yellow (-0 HP)
Tarak wheels around and snowball bombs the thing nearest Urah.
Indeed, the bushes take another beating courtesy of the aerial bombarding eagle. Perhaps Tarak should switch to something explosive?
Red climbs the rocks and takes up position towering over the cowering Urah.
Ouch. That one landed, though due to not being in the combined sonic blasts, he is still less injured than any of the others. Bonus, it seems the clubs are not poisoned.
Ongoing effects:
Bold may go.
Gnasher (-11 HP)
Urah Pyr (-9 HP, -1 str)
Malgrim Gryh (-28 HP, need fort save)
Yellow (-0 HP)
Tarak (-21 HP)
Red (-0 HP)
Knowing his blade bit deep, Gnasher watches the enemy he struck fall. Turning towards he west, he sees one of the other attackers. Moving that direction, he lifts the bardiche and chops at the new enemy.
Malgrim steps closer to the creature threatening Urah and says, "Urah, get out of the way!" He gathers the moisture and prepares to blast the creature.
Gnasher's overhead chop destroys the dwarf AND the rock and many of the pieces decide to leave the area for safety. Indeed, though Malgrim misses the remaining attacker, the fellow is looking like he agrees with that sentiment from the glances he makes over his shoulder. Obviously it was an ill considered assault.
Ongoing effects:
Bold may go.
Tarak (-21 HP)
Red (-0 HP)
Gnasher (-11 HP)
Urah Pyr (-9 HP, -1 str)
Malgrim Gryh (-28 HP, need fort save)
Tarak wheels and screes out an arc of lightning at the remaining for.
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Once again Tarak sets to with a vigor to destroy the land he is sworn to protect.
, high is brave
Red decides life is not worth living if he flees and sticks it to Urah again, or would have if he could, but that wily ifritti roles out of the way (would have hit except for both the shield of faith spell and the prone shooter feat).
Ongoing effects:
Bold may go.
Gnasher (-11 HP)
Urah Pyr (-9 HP, -1 str)
Urah Pyr (-9 HP, -1 str)
Malgrim Gryh (-28 HP, need fort save)
Tarak (-21 HP)
Red (-0 HP)
Urah screams and dives for cover as the ground where he was previously on explodes. He had already being hit but he found he had no choice as an enemy was looming over him, snow and hail pelting his cover and then Malgrim was powering up this humongous water ball between his hands and he didn't want to be in range of that either.
Instead since Malgrim's position gave him certain vibes about screaming and powering up as well. Urah instead decides to place two fingers on his forehead and take a stance as well.
His finger glows slightly and he fires at the same time as Malgrim.
Utah's ray singes the back of the fleeing ambusher as it tries to make it to safety, glaring over his shoulder. After that he is too far away for the ray.
Seeing the last attacker begins to run away, Gnasher released his rage. Moving to the last enemy he killed and began inspecting the body. Asking, "Who were they?"
"I am not sure. But whatever they were they had a terrible explosion to start the battle. I am just glad that did not continue. We are all pretty banged up now." Malgrim looks to see if there is any sign of the tongueless woman.
You will find that they are all carrying leather armor, an aklys, a repeating light crossbow with 6 poisoned bolts, a number of gems with some kind of strange markings on them, and a potion of CLW.
In addition to this you also find a scroll of aspect of the bear.
The well hid woman comes out of her hiding place and rejoins you wordlessly.
Having a gift for the obvious, Gnasher raizes the aklys and repeating crossbows so everyone could see them."Curious weapons." He looks at his fellow tribesmen, "Magical?"
Turning to see the girl come out of her hiding place, he asks, "Girl, have you seen these people before?" Realizing she probably would not turn back he added. "If we give you one of these sets of armor will you wear it?"
As the group gathers together Tarak lands and shifts back to human form, wobbling on his feet a bit since he’s pretty injured.
”Ugh, what the Hells was that all about?” without waiting for an answer he looks over the bodies and gear and casts detect magic.
Malgrim kneels next to one and examines it to see if he can recognize the race.
Urah rejoins the rest. Looking battered though drawn by the allure of more possible magical weapons.
"Any magical auras about it? some might be magical?" he exclaims.
Malgrim recognizes these as Derro, the ancient enemy of dwarf-kind. He knows they live underground and only come to the surface to kill, maim, and enslave. A lot like Gnolls.
The magic items are the potions and the scrolls. The rest of the stuff is mundane. The gems have a few different markings. You can tell more with a decent appraise roll or any profession skill related to commerce.
Malgrim compares the gems to items he has seen while guarding caravans.
These gems have markings to signify their value and are used in the underdark as a form of high value coinage. With that said, you can estimate the value of their goods, not including the magic items, at about 300 gp.
Hearing from Malgrim the things were called Derro and how they operate, Gnasher, in a very human gesture, spits on the body of the Derro he stripped. Shrugging when the human girl doesn't respond to him, he packs the valuable items up in his pack. Gesturing the direction, the were going he asks, 'Tribe continue?"
"We need to heal up. If we are close to the gnolls we may need to find a place to rest. I can heal us all back to full, but it will make us weaker until we rest again." Malgrim says as he rubs at his ears that still ring from the surprise attack.
Having recovered from his fatigue, Gnasher had been ignoring the wounds. Nodding in agreement with Malgrim, he pulled out his wand, tapping his self, growling in gnoll. "நரக சிகிச்சை" As the infernal healing begins to bind his wounds, Gnasher gestures towards the others. "Ghost heal tribe. Gnasher have wand." He looks out at the horizon and asks. "Tribe return to 'camp' or make new one closer to gnolls?"
Malgrim pulls out a wand and uses it on Urah and offers it to Urah to use on himself and then touches Tarak and himself to heal their wounds. He tells Urah, "Tap yourself once and then use it on me as well."
HP totals:
Gnasher (-1 HP)
Urah Pyr (-9 HP, -1 str)
Malgrim Gryh (-8 HP)
Tarak (-2 HP)
And if any of you have a healer's kit and a decent skill you might be able to recover some HP that way.
"I think we could make it to the peak today, but it might be worth stopping short and approaching in the morning light." Malgrim suggests.
Urah declines the use of the proffered wand and instead draws another wand similar to what Gnasher used.
"This would would work better in our case." saying as he taps both Malgrim and himself. Letting the healing recover both their wounds easily.
Tarak thanks the hobgoblin for his healing magic and looks around as the group discusses bedding down or pushing on.
"I haven't had a chance to meditate for more magic today, so I be needing to do that this morning before we move on. Then we can push to where we need to go."
Watching as the others use wands and such to heal up as well, Gnasher tooks towards the peaks Malgrim speaks of. Nodding in agreement, "Ghost is right. Tribe head towards peaks. Find good place to lay low." Giving a toothy smile. "Then tomorrow kill gnolls." Resting his Bardiche on his shoulder he begins to lope towards the peaks.
The team cleans up and, mute ex-slave girl in tow, head toward the mountain.
Wedged into a wide precipice along the far slopes of Pale Mountain sits the crumbling ruins of a once massive temple. Passing centuries have weathered its stones, and while some of the outer walls remain standing, they have collapsed in several places, leaving the temple grounds open to any who would approach.
Like a child's sandcastle carelessly placed before hungry waves that lap against shore, the forgotten temple rests, nestled in the crags of the Pale Mountain. Its crumbling spires and domes bask in the pale grayish glow of the alien twilight of the mountain skies. The scope of such a creation seems implausible in such a remote location, yet it isn't hard to question why one might choose such a spectacular setting. Indeed, it seems unlikely that there exists another so close to the realm of the gods.
Among the broken stones and empty fountains, dry thorny shrubs poke through packed clay soil sprinkled with shards of bone. The temple would almost appear deserted if not for the ominous feeling of dread and the few dozen gory warnings hung upon the outer walls; headless bodies thick with swarms of black flies.
Pausing for a moment as he admires the majesty of the 'House of the Beast.' Gnasher points towards the ancient temple. "Gnasher wonder who built and how long ago."
Pausing, he turned back and looked at the girl and asks, "Mute girl been here before?" He looks at the others, "Tribe should scout perimeter, prevent surprises." He then begins to move around the outside of the temple making a mental note of entrances and exits and any oddities they notice.
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Pausing, he turned back and looked at the girl and asks, "Mute girl been here before?"
Apparently yes/no answers she can deal with as she shakes her head no.
Malgrim looks for a safe place to camp out and hopefully avoid scouts, guards or wandering creatures.
You find a nice comfy place to camp. It's even got an overhand and a depression into the mountainside. No tunnels and no secret doors for goblins to come out and attack you and you spend a peaceful night of rest. As usual, the girl finds a place apart from the rest of you to hide and spend the night in. Well, provided she gets a blanket or two so she doesn't freeze to death as it does get a bit chilly at night. Eventually you resume your travels and are presented with the sight described earlier
Urah checks to make sure everyone is healed enough to rest comfortably.
Then before he retires for the night, he makes sure to charge back wands he used.
Waking in the morning Gnasher removes his chain shirt ans puts the heavier chainmail on, gathering his gear, he casts infernal healing on the wand and Endure element on himself. When the rest of the group is ready, he lopes towards the broken-down temple. Asking Tarak "Chief going to scout as bird?"
Taking the time to circle the temple, he points towards the steps on the east, asking, "Tribe go in front door, or through hole in wall?" Adding, "Hole in north seem large and near building, maybe hide behind."
I think we go for the hole. We might be able to see inside and plan our attack a bit better then going blind through a door. Malgrim suggests.
Tarak squints at the complex, ”Aye, it seem prudent to take a look at it from closer, get an idea where things lie. T’will limit my shifting for the fighting, which we’ll see plenty, I be sure..
If there aren’t objections Tarak will take the form of an eagle and try to fly over the complex and look for areas to enter first, locations with few or no guards, or any kind of interesting features that would be notable. He’ll try to stay out of easy bow shot, which should be doable with an eagles keen vision.
Watching Tarak become an eagle, Gnasher nodded approvingly. Pointing to the complex, he hinted. "Tribe move north so near hole in wall while chief look for enemy." He then started moving around the perimeter, towards the north.
@Tarak, make a perception roll to see if you notice anything beyond this:
B. A lopsided minaret, its stacked layers sloppy and precarious, casts a long shadow across the courtyard. A weatherworn coil of stairs scrambles about its perimeter, ascending a hundred feet or so. The stairs slope slightly toward the outer edge and no rails exist to prevent an unsteady climber from tumbling off onto the shards of rubble below.
C. Protruding from beyond the safety of the western temple wall stands a fortified gatehouse built around a forty-foot-diameter dome covered in pale blue, flaking mosaic tile. Behind the dome stand a pair of slender spires. The top of the northernmost spire sheers off at a jagged angle about three-quarters of the way up, while the other bears extensive cracks circling its foundation.
D. A trio of towering minarets stands tall at the center of the temple courtyard. No ground-level entrances exist to the interiors of these minarets. Forty feet above the courtyard floor, a set of open window arches permits access to those able to reach them with flight or a DC 18 Climb check.
E. Along the east wall stands a thick gatehouse of ancient stone flanked by pale, crumbling minarets. On either side, worn steps burrow into the structure and twist inward, leading up to an open patio of cracked-tile mosaic. Holes in the surrounding brick indicate where wooden beams once spanned the patio, perhaps supporting rows of grape vines. Elsewhere, dry fountains, broken shards of pottery, and a worn stone trough indicate traces of what was once a lush and well-tended garden.
Currently, the gatehouse’s sole decoration consists of swarms of black flies buzzing above scattered piles of fetid dung. One of the fountains is filled with cracked bones of various humanoids. All the bones are marred with numerous teeth marks.
Two Pairs of hyaenodon-mounted Carrion Guards patrols this gate, keeping constant watch for trespassers.
F. In the southwest section of the temple rises a large, bronze plated dome set atop a raised stone foundation. The dome is badly cracked and a gaping hole mars the southwest wall. Several human-sized, brownish-black, egg-shaped objects lie about the yard surrounding the dome.
G. Rising from the center of the temple grounds is a tremendous dome of stone, brass, and crumbling plaster. The great dome sits on a octagonal base, inlaid in intricate geometric patterns with thousands of colored glass tiles. Time and the elements have reduced their once bright colors to faded pastel hues of blue, green, and yellow. In several places, the tiles have been completely worn away, exposing plaster and brickwork beneath.