Adding on tot the group's relief at having downed a treemendous deadly threat, Urah glances behind and sees two gnolls hot on his tail literally.
He Gives a manly Yell to let his companions know he needs help.
Kicking the head of the dead king, Gnasher, having released his rage, drops the axe and kneels beside his friend the druid. Not sure if he is in time or not, Gnasher draws one of the potions out of his pouch and pours it down Tarak's throat.
Hearing Urah's scream he call out, "Firestarter be quite more enemies may be near!"
Seeing Gnasher deal with Tarak, Malgrim moves to go and aid Urah.
Urah's panic wears off just as the ladies, if I may use that term, get within rushing distance of him.
Bascially, Urah gets an action (at close range), the gnolls get to attack, Urah gets an action (in melee), the gnolls get an attack, then the reinforcements arrive and obliterate them.
Theatre of the mind so don't worry about the icons and such.
Urah, you are up.
Urah seeing that he'll be attacked no matter what.
Digs in and spreads his fingers out!
With a yell, a splay of ice bursts fort from his fingers!
The two pursuers are covered in frost and do not look happy. Bad for the complexion and all that. They take it out on Urah's body with their clubs.
Urah -13
Urah is up. Urah, you are cornered so this is a melee round for you unless you accept AoO and start running towards your allies.
Realizing what he's hearing is the sound of Urah fighting the 'female' gnolls, Gnasher see's Malgrim heading towards the combat. Turning back to the Tarak still alive, he nods, smiling a toothy smile. "Firestarter be ok, Ghost help." As he draws out his wand of infernal healing, first tapping Tarak, then himself.
Nodding at the druid, Gnasher turns and begins to loot the body of the dead king. Eventually he will pull out a knife and carve the canines from the head, lifting them up "Maybe Gnasher make earrings."
Tarak sits up with a gasp, barely able to remain upright after a short moment, growling ”I be needing to keep away from big gnolls with axes.”. Looking around he sees Gnasher holding an empty bottle, ”Thanks big guy, glad to see ye won.”
As Gnasher turns around to do… Gnasher things, Tarak fishes around in his gear for healing items.
After burning through his entire healing wand, he feels reasonably better and manages to stand up, looking over the loot Gnasher had gathered.
"What have we got here?"
Urah winces as the clubs thud home.
He really wants to flee but he remembered that his companions were busy dealing with the Gnoll King. He was tough.
The least he could do was buy them time with his life though he truly wanted to just flee......
Attempting to squeeze through both gnolls, he ducks and weaves in an attempt to avoid being hit and spreads his fingers once more unleashing another spray of frost once clear of them.
Urah ducks and weaves through the two assaulters and takes a glancing blow before he wheels around and blasts them with another frigid cone.
Urah -14
Urah is up. Urah, you are cornered so this is a melee round for you unless you accept AoO and start running towards your allies. [/dice]
This time they are ready for it and are only caught in the fringe. One of them's nose looks a bit blackened by frost bite and the others hair starts cracking off. But neither of them fall.
With a howl of rage they purse Ural and try to give him a pounding.
Unsuccessfully.
@Malgrim you may now join in the attack. Urah is between you and the gnolls and they are currently in melee, though if you wait a second (until after Urah moves) that will probably change.
Tarak and Gnasher are busy healing and looting.
@Urah you are no longer cornered and can 5' step and get off a spell.
Urah sees his allies and flees towards salvation!!!!
"Arghhh!!!! Don't hit me!!!"
With a burst of speed, Urah runs away from the pair and hides behind Malgrim. (Withdraws with a double move).
@Malgrim
Will you do the honors and finish the pair off? Do you happen to have an area affect blast?
Malgrim aims a blast at the one he thinks smacked Urah and lets loose with a mighty blast aimed right for her head.
It is a messy hit, though fortunately water is a natural cleaner. Still, watery blood and guts are spread all over the place. Malrim needs to practice some moderation.
The insanely angry gnoll charges Malgrim, pissed over the death of her harem mate and even more enraged seeing her lover lying in a pool of blood.
Of course the club bounces harmlessly off the sturdy armor.
Urah laughs as the gnoll's club bounces off Malgrim.
Pulling the second canine from the dead 'King's' maw, Gnasher hearing Urah laugh, looks up to Tarak and smiles a toothy smile. "Fight with females must be going well, Firestart laughing."
Tarak himself chuckle's at Gnasher's comments, "Aye, sounds like they won't be needing our help. Malgrim is a stout fighter, I am not worried."
Malgrim shakes his head and makes a club of water to bash the gnoll.
It dies badly. Combat over. Urah can come out of hiding now.
Looking up from his task, Gnasher gives the returning Urah a smile. "Firestarter like Gnoll Women?"
Noticing that the ruckus is finally over, Tarak looks over any equipment that Gnasher might have dredged up, casting Detect Magic as he does so.
Afterwards he looks around the whole room, "That it?".
So you have three rooms to search and a bunch of bodies. It takes a while but this is what you discover that is of interest.
Masterwork Falchion
The air in the throne room is thick and hot, clotted with a repugnant charnel stench. Torches line the walls providing ample illumination. A foul plaster of clay, dung, and blood smears the wall, stamped with repeated patterns of paw-prints, crude symbols, and skulls. A gargantuan but shallow pit filled with broken, rotting carcasses crawling with larvae and vermin dominates this area, leaving a ten-foot wide walkway along the walls on the east and west edges. The bodies in the pit, mostly the remains of goats, cattle, and other animals, turn the pit into a roughly bowl-shaped depression, ten feet deep in the middle of the pit and nearly even with the floor along the edges. Along the eastern wall inside the pit there is a 20-foot wide gap in the pit wall that opens into a carcass-lined tunnel.
The walkways on the side curve inward around the pit where they come together at the northern end. Here a concave ledge sits on the wall that supports a gigantic framework of bone and sinew in the shape of a nine-legged spider with a gaping maw. Much of its surface is stretched with the dried skins of dozens of different creatures. Extending from here is a 10-foot wide stone walkway that connects to the top of a twenty-foot-wide pillar rising from the center of the pit. Atop this pillar sits a tremendous and gory throne made of shattered bodies, stitched together with rope and lengths of bent metal to form a throne of bones and maggot-writhing carrion.
To the south, a row of thick stone columns divide the large room from an equally large adjacent chamber. A long curved staircase dominates this room heading up to the floor above. A pair of large double doors sit closed in the western wall.
If you go anywhere near the pit, a powerful stench assaults your senses that threatens to reduce you to a puddle of vomit.
Looking up from his task, Gnasher gives the returning Urah a smile. "Firestarter like Gnoll Women?"
Urah shakes his head vehemently at that.
Pointing to Malgrim."He took care of them...."
Urah begins sortgin through the very magical pile as his greedy eyes catches sight of them.
"Magical breastplate. Enchanted to be stronger then basic crafted ones. No idea on belt..........Let's see......Greataxe hating on humans......useless. Magic something Ring. same for wand and this wand has one charge left." Urah mutters to himself as he identifies some of the pile and comes up short for the others.
Having taken long enough taking trophies and stripping the carrion king, for his fatigue to wear off, Gnasher takes out his wand and casts infernal healing on himself again. As he spreads out the items for Tarak to see, he asks, "Stormcaller able to help heal Gnasher some?"
As Urah starts to identify the items, Gnasher picks up the human hating axe in one paw, while holding the outsider hating axe in the other. Shrugging, []"Gnasher don't know which is better."[/b] Holding them out towards Malgrim he asks, "Ghost want one?"
As they begin to store the gear they had found, Gnasher moves around the compound, staying as far away from the stinking pit as possible, waiting for his healing to complete. Feeling more himself Gnasher moves out into the large room with the stairs, gesturing towards the double doors facing west he asks, "Tribe go that way?" As he looks at the doors.
"I can carry one if they are awkward for you to carry. But I would not use them." Malgrim says in reply to Gnasher. He will also go and look at the doors.
Giving a toothy smile, Gnasher answers, "Not awkward at all." Removing his pack, he takes the time to change the straps so he and tie an axe on either side, able to draw them at a moments notice.
Watching Malgrim study the doors as well, Gnasher bobs his head, turning and looking at Urah and Tarak. "Tibe ready?"
You are not interrupted during the search and infernal healing waiting time.
Tarak pulls out his several potions and hands them to Gnasher, "It be all I have left."
After, he looks over the pile of loot with Urah.
He adds, "Belt makes one tougher, more .. uh.. fortified. This wand is curative, only one charge left." he adds holding the wand up towards Gnasher, ready to go ahead and use that charge right away.
Urah nods as he waited for his own healing to finish as he waits for Tarak to identify those he didn't manage to identify.
"I have a few spells left but no more pretty colors spells."
@Tarak and Urah
Where did the spells come from. Wands or your own spell stash?
Shifting his shoulders as Tarak taps him with the wand, Gnasher nods, "Thanks!"
As Urah speaks about spells, Gnasher shifts and moves, realizing he wasn't feeling a hundred percent either. He asks, "Tribe check a few more doors? Or go rest?"
Malgrim shakes his wand and pokes himself a bunch of times.
"I am ready to move on, but I am not sure how much healing we have. With the Carrion King dead I am not sure if the others will flee or vie for power." Malgrim says.
Malgrim Gryh (-2 HP) 4 charges of CLW used
Tarak (-0 HP, flame blade) 5 charges of CLW used used
Urah Pyr (-3 HP) 1 charge infernal healing used
Gnasher (-36 HP) 3 charges of infernal healing, 1 potion of CMW used
1 charge from a looted wand of CLW used.
Do you head on in or rest? Gnasher (somewhat) wishes to head on.
”I be nearly tapped out for magic, be whacking with this club from here on out. Might be that waiting a day to see what the fallout is from the king dying will help. Might be that they fight even harder.” Tarak offers, without actually offering his own opinion on whether to continue or not.
"Maybe without their king, they might be more interested in fleeing." Urah looks hopeful never mind that usually he was the one fleeing most of the time.
Recognizing that the tribe isn't in much better shape than he is, Gnasher nods towards the double doors. "Tribe inspect here, then head back way tribe came." He then opens the double doors to see what they can find.
you see the room labeled I6 pretty much as the ex-slaves described it. In the center of the hall, a hallow diamond-shaped column decorated with elaborate tile mosaics frames a spiral staircase that leads up. Strewn about the dusty floor lie a dozen or so humanoid bones, cracked and gnawed with teeth marks. A wide corridor heads off to the left, bypassing the hall and a large but empty room may be seen off to the right, though large is relative as every room in this place seems excessively large.
Malgrim moves up to examine the tile mosaics. As he steps to avoid the bones he says, "They took care of this place."
Malgrim steps lively across the floor and makes a small misstep on an arm bone. The leverage lifts the hand up like it about to grab him by the thigh, but after a light bump falls limply back to the ground. Other than that bit of excitement, the room holds nothing of interest.
Chuckling his hyena-like laugh, Gnasher points to the floor, "Be careful, ghost, the dead are tricky." Seeing the stairs, Gnasher begins to head that way, "Place like maze, Tribe see if stairs join where tribe was at." As he moves to the stairs he begins to inspect the first steps, not wanting to get a sliver in the foot again.
Nothing much to see there except stairs.
Nothing much to see there except stairs.
"I'm all for a good rest to recharge but if there's no one else then I suppose we can manage." Urah joins the rest in opening doors.
Well they open and he watches.
From a safe distance.
"Shall we go up the stairs to get back or fall back the way we came? If we are that low, we should probably go back the way we came since its more likely to be clear." Malgrim says.
Pausing at the steps, Gnasher looks from Malgrim towards Tarak and finally back to the other side of the room where Urah is watching from around the doorway, "Gnasher not want to leave enemy above." He shrugs lightly, "Gnasher not so tired to not kill gnolls on the way back."
"Then lead up the stairs and I will watch your back." Malgrim says as he prepares to hike up the spiral stairs.
Nodding to Malgrim, Gnasher heads up the stairs, bardiche at the ready.
Malgrim follows after keeping an eye out for any gnolls waiting to ambush them or traps along their path.
Hefting his club, Tarak grunts "On we go then."