"He's looking in pretty bad shape! Jack! Jack! Can you hear me!?"
Worried, she tries to soothe his mind and anguish to help him focus.
She continues to maintain her performance for Dora so she can whittle away at this... thing.
"We have to take this down, fast!" Edison shouts. He moves to follow the ooze, punching it. Though the gelatinous cube it is easy to hit, it can take a lot of punishment, and there are no critical spots to target. Dora blasts the ooze with ice while Dani performs and heals Jack.
The cube doubles back to try to engulf Edison again, but once more the champion dodges the creature. It continues its motion to try to envelop Dani!
"NononoNO!" Dani says as she scoots out of the way just in time to avoid being engulfed.
Stumbling backwards, she puts some distance between her and the thing as she plays, opting to shoot a bolt at it instead of use her spell this round so she can flee. "Get away!"
Between Edison's punches and Dani's crossbow bolt, the cube at last takes more punishment than it can handle. It deflates into a large puddle of inert protoplasm, leaving the paralyzed Jack lying amid the pile of gear that had been suspended inside the ooze. The dhampir eventually is able to recover from the paralysis, and luckily, the acid was weak enough to only damage his skin and not his fancy clothes!
Inside the gelatinous cube is a set of full plate armor, a tower shield, and a +1 mace, each emblazoned with a large holy symbol of Asmodeus.
"Jack...how're you feeling? Let me help you up. Do you think we need to turn back?" Dora queries, with a deeply concerned frown, holding out her hand to help him up.
"I guess people don't really come down here very often - apart from some Asmodean on a mission, clearly."
Dani moves to the other side of Jack and asks "Are you quite alright?", clearly concerned their mission would need to be put on pause.
"Does anyone have milk?" The Doctor asks. Unfortunately this bizarre request cannot be provided so he gets to work with what materials can be found to ease the pain of his burns.
Thankfully his improvised methods involve trying a fungus growing on the wall, which proves to be extremely effective at easing the acid, which is presumably how it survived in the first place. In a little more than 10 minutes Jack is ready to continue on!
"Let us continue with the mission." He suggests. "I am much better and we don't want to ruin Sargent Ollo's pretty dresses do we?"
You continue forward through the tunnels. A long crevasse cuts through the center of this sprawling cavern, spanned by a crude stone bridge. At the western end of the chamber, an even cruder barricade made from wooden crates blocks an exit. To the north, a narrow tunnel burrows into the wall several feet off the ground, the earth and stone scattered around its maw suggesting recent excavation. The ruined remains of a sunken building, its crumbling doors still somehow attached to their hinges, stand east of here, and in the southwestern corner is a similar architectural relic of old Absalom.
Three hideous creatures claw at the wooden barricade, but they turn when they notice you. They appear as emaciated humanoids with drawn gray skin, sharp claws and teeth, and long tongues. With a howl, they rush towards you!
"We are really not dressed for this!"Dora exclaims.
An arc of electricity shoots from Dora's outstretched hands, bouncing from one ghoul to another.
Jack restrains the urge to point out that they said he was dressed incorrectly, and steps forward, examining the ghouls as he does so.
"Strike at the neck for decapitation." He concludes, whistling the kukri through the air.
"Decapa-what?!" Dani exclaims, not envisioning decapitation on this evenings festivities when she got dressed today. She starts up a beautiful melody as she flings a loose stone towards the neck of the ghoul.
Dora zaps two ghouls, then Jack follows his own advice, swiftly decapitating the nearest undead! The other two leap to flank him, biting and scratching.
By a minor miracle Jack fights off the paralysis and moves to flank a ghoul with Edison.
Sadly this ghouls proves more dexterous and Jack cannot find a good opening to strike so he settles for applying a little TLC.
Continuing to play her song, she doesn't focus enough when she attempts throws the stone again and it nearly smacks Jack in the back. "Oooh. Don't stand there, move!"
Concentrating hard, Dora lets two more arcs of electricity jump between the two ghouls.
Edison moves in and destroys the more wounded ghoul with a powerful blow to the head! Dora zaps the last one, but Dani comes up short again.
The last ghoul snarls as it turns from Jack to Edison. It manages to rake the champion with a claw, but he resists becoming paralyzed.
You focus your attacks on the final ghoul and take it down before it can attack again.
In the aftermath of the fight, you hear a high-pitched voice call from the other side of the barricade. "Hey! Is they dead? Did you kill them ghoulies?"
"The ghouls are down - you can show yourself." Dora calls, standing very still and remembering not to identify them as the Agents of Edgewatch.
”How we know you not worse than ghouls?” the voice calls back.
Dora squints, looking confused for a second before replying.
"What evidence would you accept to say that we are not?"
”Um...” You can hear a second voice exchanging whispers and squeaks with the first, then the first voice calls back, ”You make promise you not here to hurt or maim us! Swear by a god that you worship! And you has to really mean it!”
She sighs at the request.
"I swear on Abadar's name that we will not attempt to hurt or maim you as long as you do the same for us."
”Oh! Abadar is law god. You must not break promise or he smite you, yes? Okay!”
Small hands dismantle the barrier, revealing the room beyond. The northern and eastern walls of this chamber appear to be excavated from the interior corner of a sunken, crumbling building, some of which has caved in along the eastern wall. To the southwest, a boulder from the cave-in blocks a heavy iron door.
A pair of ratfolk smile up at you. ”Thank you for killing ghoulies! We are Kekker and Gref, the Whisker Brothers! We come to trade with people who live down here, but we was attacked by a flock of horrid bat-things swooping in from nearby Darklands passage!”
“We run here and slam door, but all the commotion drew in the ghoulies who then attacked from the other side!” the other one says. ”We use trade goods to build barricade and keep them away. Good thing you came along before they eat us! Is safe behind you? We go now?”
"Well nice to meet you Whisker Brothers, we are....here for a party." Dora says, greeting them, but not holding out her hand just in case.
"You should be safe if you're just going back to the surface, just watch out carefully where you are walking, as we came across some transparent slime across the way."
"You say that you're traders? What were you trading down here, do you make good business?"
Gref immediately starts loading the trade goods back into their cart as Kekker answers Dora. ”Yes, good business. We trade ordinary surface goods that fetch higher price in dark caverns below.” He opens a crate to show that it is full of fruits and vegetables. “These lemons is yellow gold in the deeps! A right delicacy!”
Jack contents himself with watching the Whisker Brothers carefully, one hand resting on his kukri as he stretches a little to ward off any lingering stiffness from the battles.
"They sound delightful." Dora smiles at them endearingly.
"Who do you usually get to trade with down here? Anyone further along the way here?" She asks, nodding past their make-shift barrier.
"A group of caligni meets us in the cave ahead. But they run back down tunnel to Darklands when bat things attack! Bat things may still be lurking so watch out!"
Dani lets Dora continue to lead the discussion since she's earned their trust and she's doing juts a splendid job. She smiles pleasantly, ready to to throw the crate of lemons at them should they suddenly get violent.
Jack likewise continues to glower. Since nothing much is happening he waits and counts his pulse to check when he can risk another dose of carris root.
"We're headed that way, could you tell us about these bat things before you go so we could try to not get hurt ourselves?"
”They like heads with bat wings for ears! They have scary screams, and one try to kiss me! Yuck!”
Edison recalls stories of fiends called vargouilles that match that description. Their screams can paralyze their victims, and those they kiss suffer a terrible curse that ends with the victim’s head flying away from its body and turning into a new vargouille!
Dora waits for the rat-folk to leave, making small-talk about lemons and other citrus they might enjoy whilst Edison's knowledge of these bats runs through her head.
She turns to the group, looking concerned. "Edison, that is truly terrifying. Are we all sure we want to continue this path instead of trying the front door?!"
"I must say I was expecting more conversation and far less stabbing monsters in dark corners." The Doctor says archly. "Those creatures sound like stories of have heard of Vargouilles, they are supposed to be winged faces. From what I was told they suck your soul out through your mouth, but that sounds like a wild exaggeration."
Dani shrugs "We've come this far, why not press a little further?"
She gives pause after Jack's statement, trying to determine if he's just being a sourpuss or if he's serious. "Although, sucking my soul through my mouth does not sound appealing. I'll be in the back."
She then promptly moves behind Dora.
With a grunt of effort, Edison rolls the boulder blocking the door out of the way so you can continue on. Beyond the iron door, a narrow staircase winds up down to another cave. A massive pile of debris takes up the southwestern corner of the area, while passages lead to the west and south.
The Whisker Brothers said the vargouilles attacked them in the south cavern. You might be able to avoid them if you go west instead.
Whispering over Dora's shoulder to Jack she says "Looks clear. Go ahead. If they start to suck your soul, shut your mouth and you'll probably be fine."
"I appreciate the advice..." The Doctor says drily. "Let us take this path and see if we can skirt around them."
A shallow pond fills the western half of this chamber, its placid surface revealing glowing cave fish that swim slowly through the water. At the pond’s northeastern edge, water flows into a stream that runs north before cascading down into a yawning pit in the floor, from which a faint glow emerges.
When you go to look into the pit, a horrid worm creature lunges forth, tentacles writhing around its central beak! You battle against it, ultimately prevailing, and Jack patches up those who are injured.
The bloated, half-eaten corpse of a man floats at the bottom of the pit, illuminated by an everburning torch that continues to light the pit from the bottom of the pool. The corpse wears rotting but functional bracers of missile deflection and has a +1 weapon potency runs concealed within his robe.
The passage north ends in a door of iron-banded wood set in a frame of white brick, not quite thick enough to completely muffle the sounds of festivities of bacchanalian magnitude. This is the back door to the House of the Planes, and with a bit of fiddling, Jack is able to pick the lock.
If there’s anything else you want to do before going inside, now is the time to do so!
Dani pats Jack on the back and says "Great job keeping your mouth closed, Jack. I'm glad you still have your soul!"
Once Jack gets the lock picked, Dani does her best to straight up her dress. She helps Dora with her outfit and then puts her hands on both of their shoulders and positions herself between them. "Ladies and gentlemen, it's showtime."
Edison nods [b]"As you say constable Folsamir." Then he advances on the vargouilles.
At the last second, Dora whispers to Dani just as the door swings open.
"So what exactly do we do now?"
Realising that she asks too late, she plasters a smile across her face and lets Dani lead the way into the frivolity.
Jack meanwhile waits in the shadows for the rest of the group to enter. Then he waits a few minutes more, and only after that (when it is highly unlikely that he will be connected with the fancy folk that have already arrived) does he enter.
You step through the door and enter the House of the Planes. The walls of this room have been painted with an endless field of gravestones under a black sky. Open archways along the walls lead to numerous other rooms. A large crowd of people fills the room, drinking, laughing and carousing. Burly bouncers dresses as angels, demons, and other extra planar creatures lurk in the corners of the rooms, keeping an eye on the crowd.
A tall, black-robed woman with long white hair and ash-colored makeup perches on a spiral-marked headstone in the room’s center next to an oversized stone sarcophagus filled with dirt. As soon as she spots you, the white-haired host—obviously dressed as Pharasma— swans over to meet you. ”All right now, honey babies, are you ready for some judgment?” she asks loudly, giving you a wink. ”Now, let me take a look at you. Ah, yes! I can see by the determined look in your eyes that you’re here to talk to some big shots! Well, you’re in the right place, darlings.”
Pharasma gestures to the numerous archways. ”Each of our rooms is themed to a different Outer Plane, and in each room is a powerful figure holding court. The best way to impress these patrons is to show off your talents and bravery by completing the challenge in their room.” She illustrates this by pointing out the Boneyard’s patron, a halfling woman who is eagerly watching someone be buried alive in the sarcophagus. The man loses his nerve and cries out in panic, earning derisive laughs from the crowd.
”Impress the patrons and you’ll impress the crowd, which will help you loosen up some tongues, if you catch my drift, babies.” She winks again. ”Now if you, want you can stay here and have a seat on my spire, or you can get judged and assigned to your proper afterlife!”
"Work the room, sweetie. Work the room." she says with a devilish grin.
Dani takes the lead in front of Dora and Edison, moving up towards Pharasma while Jack makes his approach separately. After she explains how this works, the bard thanks her with a nod of her head and a soft hand on her shoulder "Thank you for the information." before leaning in and whispering into her ear "Maybe I'll be back to take a seat later, hmmm?" She pulls away with a wink before rejoining her two companions.
"It seems like this is going to be a lot more than just mingling, I'm afraid, we are going to be tested. Want to try and start with the halfling over there?" she says motioning her head to place the laughter was moments ago so Jack and see where they are going.
Dora holds back from Pharasma, not knowing what to make of her.
"Sounds like a plan, lead the way!"
Aiding in all of these checks is a challenge for each room: a themed activity that characters can undergo in order to earn both respect from the other guests and a circumstance bonus to Diplomacy checks in that room. (If the characters have already failed the Diplomacy check to talk to a patron, succeeding at the challenge allows them to try again.) Unless otherwise specified, this circumstance bonus is +4. Each character can attempt the challenge and the check, though they should generally do so one at a time.
The halfling woman grins up at you as the man in the sarcophagus bursts out and seeks out a drink to regain his composure. ”Welcome to the Boneyard. I’m Leila. You brave enough to be buried alive?”
As Jack enters, Pharasma campily saunters over to give him a similar spiel.
"Well hello Leila, I'm Kris. Of course I'm brave enough, do you think I'd walk over here if I wasn't?" she scoffs.
"Who you really mean though, is my friend Thomas. He's fearless, aren't you Tommy?" Dani says, pulling Edison forward. "He's ready to show you what real bravery is!" she says, continuing to nudge Edison forward. "Go get 'em, Tommy!"
"I'll even play some music to accompany his demonstration."
Edison steps forward. "Right right, let's get on with it."
Edison steels himself for his burial, and is able to stay calm through the ordeal.
The Doctor gives 'Pharasma' short shrift. "If you're Pharasma that makes me one of the horsemen." He says, adopting a sibilant voice. "Your sssspire isss of no interest to me."
With that he stalks from the room as everyone changes focus to watch Edison being buried.