Not sure about those boots, check them later.
Premek passes by the nooks, just close enough to get a smell if anyone is hiding inside. (Although with troglodytes, probably anyone could smell them.) Assuming he finds nothing, he joins Malgrim at tunnel 6.
Those boots, I've seen those before, a lot of the rangers use them, they are elven make and enchanted to enhance movement and balance.
Those would be good for Ryll maneuvering around foes.
Malgrim examines the carvings briefly, and surmises that they represent abstract draconic figures, perhaps of Flauros, the demonic lord of fire or of Zevgavizeb, the demonic lord of reptiles.
Zdena glances around the sleeping chamber, looking uncomfortable, then goes to stand with Malgrim.
Ready? she asks the others.
The party departs the sleeping chamber, following the only avenue they haven't explored yet...
The air is damp and moist here, but it’s a fresh, cool mist. A rough crystal globe hangs from the ceiling, candles burning within it. The light from the globe refracts off the mist in the room and the crystal growths on the walls, filling the room with rainbows. A bubbling fountain in the center creates a jet of clear water that continually drains back into the ground. Two larger than Premek-sized frogs resplendent in red and blue skin tones, loiter near the edge of the pond, and two troglodyte minders looks over them. The Trogs scream wordlessly, and the large frogs are agitated by their minder's distress...
Something that color probably poisonous. Take it first, Zdena thinks as she steps forward and swings down at the blue frog.
Zdena crosses into the chamber, immediately moving to the blue-colored frog and ending its incessant Ribbit.. quickly and efficiently. The Reddish frog however, sees Zdena as an immediate threat, and its tongue lashes out, improbably far, to assault her. Its sticky tongue hits the half-orc, but cannot find purchase against her strength. The troglodytes continue to wail wordlessly. Taidal and Pharus enter the room, Pharus breaking to the right to menace the trog on that flank, and Taidal drops to a knee, planting an arrow directly in the center of the left troglodyte.
Graund disappears beneath the stone, reappearing just next to the water feature in the room, emerging from beneath the floor.
That's...that's just not right.
Ryll darts forward to slash at the greenish Troglodyte, taking care not to stray too close to the remaining frog.
Once the way is clear, Sighere cautiously moves to the opening of the chamber and assesses the situation. He quickly targets the Yellow trog and chants
Malgrim moves to join Ryll at the greenish Trog. They begin tapping on their drum as they move.
Ryll makes quick work of the trog in front of her, while Sighere's spell doesn't affect the other trog in the slightest. Malgrim's drumbeat inspires the companions while the yellow skinned trog and the frog with reddish markings remain.
Lirosa fires an arrow the the lone trog, and it misses horribly. Kinig, however, closes the gap and buries her battleaxe in an overhand strike at the remaining trog, taking it to the ground with a well-placed strike.
Premek hides behind Sighere...
...and then sprays acid at the sole remaining target (giving away his position).
Zdena goes for the remaining frog as well.
Premek's acid spray covers the frog in its unexpected delivery, and Zdena moves in for the finishing strike on the red-painted frog. A sudden stillness fills the room as the incessant chirping of the large amphibians ceases.
Glancing quickly around the room, the resplendent crystal looks as if it can be removed, and the spell upon it is readily evident as a Continual Flame.
Kining looks briefly at the fungi growing around the basin of water, similar in appearance and texture to the fungi throughout the caverns you've wandered through already, You know, this is all edible. It smells bad, but it has nutrients and can provide solid sustenance for people. Hell, you could even distill it and make a sort of whiskey with it if you wanted to... she muses...
Premek pauses, looks at Ryll, looks at her boots, looks at the elven boots from the last room, look at her boots, and looks at her again. Aren't you gonna put them on?
Ryll rolls her eyes at Premek, but casts Prestidigitation to clean the Elven boots, and quickly swaps them for hers while the others explore the cavern.
She glances at Kining as she tugs on her new boots. Good eyes, Kining. With any luck, we'll have some more mouths to feed, and this will all come in handy.
Premek looks satisfied and is ready to move on into the unknown.
Malgrim grabs the glowing crystal and tucks it into their haversack. Then moves to join Premek, ready to move on to the next room.
Removing the light from the center, Malgrim plunges the room into darkness, but the water continues to trickle and flow, leaving a pleasant sensation in the room generally.
Moving ahead cautiously, you enter the next chamber:
Countless bones jut from the clay walls of this chamber. Grinning skulls peer down over the ends of femurs and ulnas sticking out at odd angles. Most of the bones are from animals—some as large as stags and bears—but some are undeniably human.
Three Troglodytes stand in the chamber, and the smell of their stench is overpowering - Fortitude saves DC 17 or be sickened for 10 rounds. The largest one wears armor, unlike the other troglodytes you have encountered, and carries a massive stone warhammer in her hands
What cough, cough have you done with the people of Thornwood?
Malgrim moves into the room chanting and strikes their drum silently. Thrusting out their hand they launch the shards of sound at the armored troglodyte and the yellow tinged one next to them.
Meh.
As Malgrim took down the light in the fountain room, Premek mimed packing up the rainbow. Now, he scoots forward and releases it in a brilliant color spray, engulfing yellow and the armored troglodyte.
Zdena barely glances at the other two troglodytes, eyes immediately landing on the armored one as the biggest threat. She charges it.
The ever-increasing Trog stench, coupled with the violent jostling from the giant crabs finally proves to be too much for Ryll's poor abused stomach.
After spitting out a mouthfull of sour bile, she launches herself at the green-tinged Trog.
Malgrim's spell of hardened sound washes over the two Troglodytes shredding their exposed skin. Lirosa's arrow flies into the unattended Troglodyte as well, and Premek's magic renders the yellowish troglodyte, unconscious, or dead. Hadniss, the armored Troglodyte, Shakes her head clear from Premek's magic, then easily sidesteps Zdena's assault, and Pharus' feeble attack on her bounces off her spiked armor.
Ryll and Kinig focus on the other troglodyte in the room, but neither of their attacks seem to be able to penetrate the troglodyte's leathery skin, as both the attackers are sick from the overwhelming smell in the place.
The greenish troglodyte lashes out at Ryll, swinging his club, and flailing at her with a claw, even trying to close to bite at her, but she evades all the attacks with grace.
Pharus isn't so lucky, as the larger troglodyte rages, snapping her jaws on Pharus' arm, and throwing him back against the cavern wall. He lands solidly against the stone, and the stacks of bone all around him collapse, burying the tribesman in their detritus. He rests on the ground, unmoving...
Handriss pivots, bringing her warhammer in a defensive arc before smashing it into the overextended Zdena's side. Zdena can feel her ribs creak through her armor with the Troglodyte's mighty blow, and Zdena can easily tell that this enraged troglodyte is stronger than she is, so she better be careful...
Malgrim moves to join Ryll threatening the green tinged Trog. As they raise their rapier to trust and parry their hand drops to the drum at their side and starts tapping a steady beat.
Premek rumbles at Hadniss, then moves a bit along the wall, taking cover among the piles of bone.
Zdena grunts in pain at the solid hit from the warhammer, but she's now had a moment to watch the troglodyte move.
She can't quite push through the pain, though, and her strike is clumsy.
Ryll lashes out at the greenish Trog.
Finally succumbing to the stench Sighere starts gaging and casts a quick spell on himself.
He looks around and sees Pharus on the ground and quickly casts another spell
Sighere is overcome with the stench and sickened, then quickly moves to stabilize Pharus' unconscious self. Premek's rumble knocks Hadniss to the ground, and Zdena's resulting swing impacts oon the raging troglodyte's midsection. Ryll stabs the other, greenish trog and just misses gutting it, instead delivering a nasty wound to the troglodyte. While Graund punches a rock-like fist at the remaining troglodyte on its feet. Lirosa and her brother both aim arrows and fire at the standing troglodyte as well, attempting to overwhelm it with arrows. Kinig launches an overhad chop at the downed Hadniss, missing horribly due to her own retching. The greenish troglodyte weaves and bobs evading all the attacks of the party. Turning to face the threat in its face, it again assaults Ryll with all its attacks, missing each time on the sickened rogue.
Hadniss quickly regains her feet, eliciting an immediate attack from Zdena, as Kinig's axe finally bites home against the troglodyte. She again slams the warhammer into the half-orc with bone-crunching force..
As the troglodyte tries to stand, Zdena brings her Falchion down solidly on the top of her head.
Premek sprays acid out of the shadows, at Hadniss if Zdena didn't finish her off in the act of standing up, otherwise green.
(stealth was 25, last round)
Zdena's quick action does substantial damage to the raging troglodyte, although her follow-up attack misses. Hadniss' heavy-handed assault lands on Zdena, and she can feel another rib creak with the damage. Premek pops up from behind a pile of bones and sprays Hadniss with acid dropping the fearsome opponent to the ground. Leaving one green-skinned troglodyte standing against Malgrim and Ryll...
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Moving quickly from Pharus Sighere looks around at the other combatants and sees Zdena's injuries and pulls out a wand.
Malgrim continues to inspire their companions, playing "The Heartbeat of Phaendar" on their drum. As the greenish Trog strikes at Ryll Malgrim stabs at it.
But they miss.
Ryll strikes out at the remaining Trog.
Ryll drives her shortsword home, incapacitating the remaining troglodyte in the bone filled chamber... bone dust fills the air as you breathe hard. Lirosa and Taidal begin methodically searching the chamber as you wait for the sickened members of your entourage to recover enough to proceed down the remaining hallway.
They quickly pile up some goods, and Kining helps Ryll while they recover determine the value of the trade goods the half-elves located:
Mw quarterstaff
4 thunderstones
2 Onyx Gems worth 25 GP each
Scrollcase: Scroll of Darkness, scroll of false life, scroll ray enfeeblement
Stone Warhammer
MW Hide armor with armor spikes
Javelins x5
Wolf Fang Necklace worth 100 GP
Pharus (-4/12) is still unconscious and Zdena (16/29) is still wounded at this point in time.
anyone may make a perception check here...
Looking at the stone warhammer, Premek snorts derisively. Why would anyone bother to enchant a rock on a stick? It's the most basic of enchantments, but still.
Is that in fact a tunnel proceeding further down?
That will at least patch you up friend
Sighere stands up and helps Pharus to his feet. Come here a second Malgrim, you seem to be struggling with the stench, I may be able to help
Zdena sways a little as the fight concludes, then sits down, hard, right where she's standing. She rummages around in her belt pouch for a potion.
She eyes the potion with a frown, feels her ribs, and tries another.
Feeling better, though not great, Zdena hauls herself back to her feet and takes a better look around.
Malgrim accepts Sighere's aid and breaths easier with the enchanted breeze surrounding then. Their bright pink cloak now flutters dramatically as Malgrim walks around the room looking at the walls and piles of bones... And at tunnel Premek has spotted.
As Zdena joins Malgrim and Premek at the dark tunnel which slopes gently downward, she inadvertently kicks a pile of bones, which reveals a large pearl, glowing with its own internal light....
They all peer into the sloping darkness, preparing to head deeper into the cave system than they originally thought... As they loiter and wait for Sighere and Ryll, Lirosa picks up a silver locket and calls out to the lot of you, This looks like it's been here a while, but seems valuable? Kinig quickly confirms the value of the silver chain and locket, although when it is opened, whatever was inside it has long ago rotted away.
Who tossed this pearl before these swine? It's lovely. It would let someone remember a simple spell after they've cast it out of their mind, once a day.
No good to me, since I don't forget, but since owl shoulders needs Caleb to remind him of his spells every day, it would do him good. Premek winks at either Sighere or Caleb, it's a little unclear which.
Heading forward, the brave companions press onward into the darkness...
The corridor here slopes down at irregular angles and reeks of dampness. The walls are jagged and covered with sharp stone barbs. Mossy growths spread across the floor and walls, old bones lying pale against the dark moss. The winding tunnel abruptly ends at a pit in the floor, looking down you cannot see the bottom in this light, but you can see hand holds have been carved into the stone wall, going down…
This vast chamber seems more finished than the upper chambers. Walls of smooth masonry stones intersect a mirrorlike marble floor. A statue of a twisting, insectile form stands in the center of the large chamber, as if a beetle-like god were flowing like water. Reliefs along alcoves to the east and west depict rough-hewn reptilian forms gathered around a step pyramid. Rough purple gems have been wedged into the reliefs, forming starburst patterns. The western wall has partially collapsed, cracking the floor and blocking what was once the only hall leading out of the room behind tons of stone and rubble. To the west you can see some bits of armor on the floor.
Premek quickly makes his way down, stretching gracefully to step from one handhold to the next.
There are some hidden doors to the north and south at least...
um, what is that? Sighere points across the room at something I think it's moving towards us