Shesik falls into a crouch and lashes out with her claws. ”I’m gonna guess they don’t get much food down here. Of course they wanna eat us!”
Zelvin looks up from examining his pistol and shoots from the hip at one of the fire beetles.
In his haste to fire, his shot flies wide and the sound of the pistol echoes through the cavern.
Shesik's claws tear open the beetle's carapace, but in its frenzied state it still throws itself at her, biting furiously. She knocks it away and it falls to the ground, bleeding out. Its comrade, just as desperate, simply climbs over its corpse and lunges at Shesik with its mandibles, with the same results.
On the other side of the melee, the third beetle latches on to Tyn's ankle, biting painfully through his boot.
Tyn Foyle
Hekau
Xaerai
Shesik
Zelvin
Zelvin quickly draws one of his custom alchemical cartridges and drops it into his pistol with a little puff of sulfurous smoke. Then he points at the beetle and fires again.
He curses to himself as his pistol again fires in the wrong direction.
Threat detected, assessing counter-measures. Systems impaired.
Hekau draws a dagger, strikes at the beetle, and steps back.
Tyn takes a bite from the beetle. Under normal circumstances he probably would have cried out some sort of infernal oath, but it was a rather small nip, and at this point, it's just another brick in the wall of a crap-house day for him.
He nearly reaches for the sickle he would be normally toting in his prehensile tail, but he quickly realizes he forgot to secure it in the appendage for the swim down, and retrieving it now would risk another reactive bite from the attacking Dynastes ignis.
A myriad of philosophical questions bolt through his mind,
"How many halflings would it take to relight a doused everburning torch? What is the average velocity of an unladen giant stirge from the Northern Mwangi Expanse? How many coconuts could it carry and how would it accomplish this?"
His thoughts clear-shaking off the corrosion of a few good years of domestication-and he takes a five foot step back, uttering something that probably sounds like random nonsense to his new allies,
"It could grab them by the husk!"
With a few quick movements he pulls out a small vial, imbuing it with his arcane-ish essence, causing it to become volatile. He then wings it at the little ankle-biter.
Dodging the grasping mandibles of the two glowing beetles before her, Shesik growls, "I am not your lunch!"
As the injured insect slumps and it's compatriot climbs over it to reach her, she swipes at the newly incoming menace.
Assessing that Shesik has things well in hand, Xaerai pushes her nausea aside to step to Tyn's defense. Winding back, the dwarf swings her right leg forward in a powerful kick.
As the beetle advances on Shesik, Zelvin and Hekau try to intercept it. Zelvin's second shot goes wide as well, and while Hekau's dagger connects, it does so at an awkward angle, the blade mostly deflecting off of its hard carapace.
Shesik, it turns out, needs no help, as she sets into it with her fearsome claws and tears the animal to pieces in seconds. On the opposite side of the melee, Xaerai eschews weapons, magic, and technology alike in favor of a single hard boot to the beetle's head. The beetle attempts to bite the descending foot but succeeds only in perfectly positioning itself for the blow, which sends it flying into the cave wall behind it. It lies still, unmoving.
"Well that wasn't so bad! The food situation must not be very good down here, for them to attack a group of larger creatures." Re-checking her pistol, the dwarf clambers up the ledge leading deeper into the complex.
"Shall we?"
"Let us wait for our systems to purge the poisonous waters.
I believe my performance in that situation was impaired by toxins.
After that, I will be ready to proceed."
A collection of stalactites and stalagmites choke this lowceilinged cavern, making it difficult to squeeze between them. Matching stalactites close in from the five-foot-high ceiling, giving the impression of a maw of needlelike teeth bearing down on one another. A dead half-orc sprawls on the ground near the cave’s eastern entrance.
A barrage of bullets and claws whirl around Tyn as he comes to from a hallucination of doing something somewhat heroic. The Teifling doubles over, retching the last of his nausea out.
"Alrighty then, let's do this"
He looks up at the ledge and shrugs,
"Really...how much worse could it get?"
While the party waits for their nausea to ebb, Zelvin reloads his pistol. "I didn't imagine I'd be firing this thing very much, but I reckon it just goes to show this whole cave-exploring thing is as dangerous as Mister Khonnir said," he grimaces.
Once they have tied Shesik's silk rope to a stalagmite, he easily climbs up with the others.
Waiting for her stomach to settle after the swim, Shesik gives the beetles a good kick into the water. Once feeling herself, the climb up the ledge was easy. Helping Xaerai secure a rope for the others she comments, ”These places hold all sorts of dangers. Step carefully, cave-ins are also a hazard.”
As the group collects up off the darkening beach, she bends over the half-orc’s corpse. Speaking of hazards, what did this fellow in?
She carefully examines the body, both for signs of injury and for anything useful it may contain.
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Hekau will follow the others climbing up.
"Tyn, I believe that was a rhetorical question. Am I correct in that conclusion?
Or do you wish me to describe how much worse it could get? As Shesik says, there these places do hold all sorts of dangers."
Hekau conveys a hint of pride that he has successfully (he thinks) picked up on the social cue of "rhetorical question." Best to be sure, of course.
Zelvin smiles at the familiar sound of Hekau improving his understanding of social interactions. His earnest intensity was charming in its own way.
Zelvin blinks. "That's Parda!" he exclaims. "She joined a group of thugs that was exploring the caves after Mister Khonnir came back the first time. Everyone said that it would be the end of the line for her-- it's too bad that they were right. Does it look like she was stabbed? Guessin' her companions turned on her." He shakes his head sadly.
"S'damn shame, sorry for your friend Zelvin--but why would a group take the trouble to come town here just to shank one of their number? Seems like more trouble than your basic mugging is worth. I fear something worse is brewing down here."
Tyn initially makes no progress with the rope, but he is determined to succeed on his own.
Tyn trudges up the rope with a small feeling of victory, things are finally looking up for him. His little personal euphoria fades a bit when he comes up to join his allies and hears the name. He lowers his head in respect.
With a soft grunt Shesik stands and leaves the poor woman alone. ”Yeah, looks like she was stabbed. The question is by who or what. It could just as easily have been another one of those automatons as her companions.”
Her mismatched eyes scan the area for some sense of who or what else was here.
Hekau observes the scene. He has some hypotheses, but far too little information to be certain about anything.
"On our way back, we could bring Parda's body out of these caves. At the very least we could give her a proper burial. It is also possible that Master Kyte can cast Speak With Dead to ascertain the cause of Parda's demise."
Xaerai nods at the android's suggestion. "S'a good though, Hekau, but it'll have to wait. We've a job to do still."
[GM Screen]
Making your way through the dense "forest" of stalagmites and stalactites is slow going, and everyone but Xaerai must also contend with the five-foot ceiling and its almost magnetic attraction to the party's foreheads. Fortunately, it's only a short journey to the next cavern, which opens up significantly.
Its twenty-foot-high ceiling is thick with stalactites. A rocky shore overlooks a placid pool and stream, fed by a trickle of water leaking from a narrow fissure to the north. A small garden of toadstools and dark mold grows along the banks. Shesik is the first into the cavern, and spots a frog-like humanoid curled up on the far side, some kind of brand on its flank and the tattered remnants of a hood on its head. It begins to stir at the sound of the party's approach. Fortunately, its movements are sluggish, and Shesik's shout of warning spurs the rest of you into action.
Zelvin
Tyn Foyle
Shesik
Hekau
Frog
Xaerai
With a warning cry of ”Hostile creature ahead!” Shesik slides along the cavern wall and engages the strange creature.
"The creature is a Blindheim. Its eyes emit a bright light that can blind you."
Hekau draws and loads his crossbow.
Zelvin moves forward, charges his weapon with magical energy, and shoots at the creature, his pistol's explosion echoing through the small chamber.
Tyn perks up at the sound of impending conflict. Eager to prove his mettle, he advances to see the frog-like creature. Getting the feeling this will not end in any sort of diplomatic fashion, he pulls out one of his alchemical vials signature to his vocation. In a split second, it starts to glow and becomes volotile as the tiefling infuses it with his arcanish essence. He then hurls it at the creature.
Shesik's claws bite deep into the creature's flank, drawing blood and bringing it to consciousness immediately. Its eyes flash open and suddenly the cavern is awash in a wild, bright light as it looks around frantically for whatever is attacking it. In the confusion, Zelvin's shot and Tyn's bomb both go wide, sending up a gout of water to the north.
The blindheim climbs to its feet and tries to bite at Shesik with its oversized jaws. The changeling ranger tries her best to evade the attack, but it clamps down on her leg all the same and sinks in its teeth.
Xaerai
Zelvin
Tyn Foyle
Shesik
Hekau
Frog
With allies in the way, and the risk of being blinded for an entire hour, Hekau decides there is no optimal course of action.
He shuts his eyes and listens to keep track of what is happening.
Shesik’s swipe goes wide as the frog thing sinks its teeth into her leg. Her strange eyes protecting her from the thing’s light, she slashes her claws at it. ”That hurt!”
As the blinding light washes over her, Shesik's sight seems to cloud over for a moment, but the sensation quickly passes and she is left unharmed. In punishment for its attack on her, she scores another wound on the creature, though its tough hide deflects the worst of her blows.
Zelvin sighs and averts his eyes.
However, he does not react quickly enough and some of the light is caught by his sensitive eyes.
He blinks rapidly and squints, but his vision is filled with black splotches as it so often is. Nevertheless, he casts a spell through his pistol and shoots a silver bullet in the direction he last saw the monster.
"Why are we killing the glow-frog? It was just sleeping," As her friends are blinded by the blindheim, Xaerai sighs and approaches it. "Sorry pal, I realize we started this but our mission's too important."
She raises her pistol and fires.
Tyn shakes off the cloudy sunspots that try to form in his eyes as a result of the blinding flash emitted by the frog-beast. Upon seeing Shesik incur a nasty bite, a wave of panic washes over him. Despite, once again, not having properly prepared himself, he knows what he has to do. The tiefling dashes up to the side of the changeling and channels his innate racial darkness arcana-melding it as his adoptive parents taught him into a wave of healing energy.
Though he knows it will provoke a reactionary attack and knock him a good wallop, he cannot chance losing the magic in Shesik's dire situation by taking a defensive stance.
Even before he delivers the touch, he winces from all impending consequences,
"Ouch!"
As he delivers the healing, his head suddenly rocks back like someone just socked him in the face. A small trickle of blood runs from his nose.
Zelvin's aim is spoiled by the sudden assault of light, and while he is quickly plunged back into darkness, it is total. Tyn and Xaerai rush past him, to harm and to heal, while Hekau takes cover in the stalagmite forest.
Xaerai's firearm booms in the confined space, the metal ball carving a furrow in the blindheim's hide. It howls and lunges at the dwarf, but its teeth bite down on nothing but the steel of her armor.
Xaerai
Zelvin (Blind for 1 hour)
Tyn Foyle (3 nonlethal, potentially more)
Shesik
Hekau
Frog
Unwilling to give up even though he is struggling to see what is happening, Zelvin listens carefully before tossing another coin at the monster.
I hope the Zelvin’s sight returns. How can a robot be scared of being blinded.
Shesik continues to slash at the, as Xaerai so aptly put it, glow-frog. ”Fine, ignore me now that you’ve tasted me.” Bet I don’t taste good.
"Tough little blighter, eh?" Xaerai fends off the blindheim's bite and drives an armored knee up, aiming for the weird little frog-thing's throat or jaw.
Satisfied that he has finally done something constructive, Tyn joins in on the melee...
Unfortunately for Xaerai, she drives her knee directly into the creature's waiting teeth, and it bites down on her leg with tremendous force.
Fortunately for Xaerai, Shesik and Tyn quickly come to her rescue, with Shesik gripping the blindheim with her claws so that Tyn's sickle can neatly separate its head from its shoulders. As it rolls across the floor, the cavern is bathed in a spinning light show before fading back into darkness.
Using the boon granted to him by his strong faith in his deity, Tyn grabs the back of his neck to relieve himself of the slight damage done by his channeling healing upon Shesik.
He takes a look at the nasty bite on Xaerai,
"Unfortunately I can only channel the celestial healing ability taught to me by my adoptive parents but once per day-still working on the formula to recharge it. Blast the gnomes and their resistance to sharing secrets! And what's more mocking at this point, my own extracts do not act as infusions...I am afraid a cure would merely make you sick!"
He sighs,
"I know, I know, a bit useless I am at this point. On the cusp of brilliance one season removed! No one would happen to have a healer's kit per chance?"
Xaerai tests her weight on her shredded leg, biting back a hiss of pain. "Hss....I'll manage," she gives Tyn a tight nod as she reloads her pistol.
Tyn turns to the party,
"Under the circumstances, I would like to offer a strategic plan of action. As I can only heal myself at this point, by my extracts, any melee engagement should be done by me first, so that I may risk the brunt of initial hostile assault. Either after the outcome of the attack itself, or upon a successful hit against me, maybe you all stay at range. When I incur a wound, I can then withdraw for the second melee combatant to step up and hold the line."
He turns to the changeling,
"Shesik, as vicious as those claws of yours are, that would most likely be you!"
He holds up an extract of Cure Light Wounds,
"If I go down, this is what you administer to me. As I have told Xaerai, at this point it will only make any of you sick without benefit. If I die in the process...then I die. I would rather sacrifice myself than have one of you perish as I stood helpless to save you."
Tyn realizes that it is definitely time to explore his faith to a fuller degree and become "ordained."
Shesik flings the body of the glow-frog to the ground as it's head ceases to glow. "Well, we're done with that. Fortunately"
With Tyn offering strategic advice, Shesik cuts a few scraps of fabric from her cloak and begins binding Xaerai's bleeding knee. "If you feel like taking point for a bit. Just try to keep an opening in case one of us can provide assistance more immediately."
Still working on the dwarf's wounds, she looks over at the others. "Hekau, you recognized that creature. How long do you think your brother will be without his sight? Hopefully that's not permanent."
Realizing that this could take longer than expected, she looks up at Tyn. "Tyn, you asked about a healing kit. Do you know some healing arts? If so, would you be willing to lend a hand?"