Dacknar takes a quick look around to make sure that there are only these four foes to deal with and not some thing else trying to sneak up on the group.
He nocks another arrow and lets it fly.
But do to his quick scanning of the area, his aim is a little off.
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Gauis frowned at the creatures still stalking them and the prisoners. He had no doubt that they would all be smashed to pulp by his mighty companions once they joined a general engagement, he just hoped that they wouldn't lose too many prisoners before they won.
He kept shooting fire, using the bard's inspiration to good effect. But to hope to lose no one was just not logical.
Sometimes you just had to accept The Cold Equations.
Dacknar's arrow skips off the hard shell of one of the advancing creatures. The attack seems to have provided a signal to the three oncoming beasts for they immediately break their initial straight line formation. Even as Beordt and Rilkus try to charge the creatures, who are still thirty paces up the wall, two suddenly turn and begin running parallel to the narrow stairs. Gauis sends a blast of fire streaking toward the first of the two and it bursts upon the creatures exposed limbs searing flesh and blackening bone.
The third creature continues to scuttle down the cliff for a few more paces before it stops. Eye orbs twinkle with torchlight as it gazes upon Beordt and Rilkus who wait a just a few more paces below. Mandibles clack and a long, wild hiss escapes its tooth and tentacle lined mouth. A moment later, both Beordt and Rilkus see a phosphorescent pale green glow emerge within and snapping insectoid jaws. The two start to step back only to realize, there is no back except for the open blackness of the fissure. A foul smelling, searing mist of putrid, acidic liquid bursts forth from the aberrations jaws threatening to cover both heroes in its flesh, and metal, eating goo.
Toki again helps usher the refugees through, calling out to Beordt, Give them Hel, big bear!
Rilkus used his shield to it's full effect, using it to block the worst of the acidic attack. Even as he did so his silver hammer flashed out, threatening anything foolish enough to be within arm's reach.
Dacknar pulls back on the bow string and sights down another arrow at the wounded spider thing.
And this time with out distraction, his arrow flies true.
Dacknar takes a quick look around to see if the is a spot where he could gain surprise on the creatures. So his aim can be at some vulnerable spot on the creatures.
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Gauis moved along the path, keeping pace with two hunters above them, trying to keep one eye on them and one eye in front of him. He gave off attacking them now to allow his mind to take what he had learned of the foe--indeed, he thought that now that he saw them spit acid that should reveal a vital clue--and think back to his main strength, looking for some knowledge about what they faced.
Gaius and Dacknar both hit the creature that just spewed acidic goo upon Beordt and Rilkus. Badly wounded by the onslaught the creature scuttles back up the cliff in an attempt to put more distance between it and the two foes.
The other two creatures continue to use the distraction to their advantage and begin to angle down toward the fleeing refugees. The long line of wards providing ample opportunity to get closer without facing the sharp, heavy steel of their guardians.
The same hissing sound emanates from one of the creatures near to a group of human and scrawny gnoll refugees. Perhaps Schaphrigroadaz really is watching, because somehow all three caught within the balst of the attack manage to scramble back or forward just enough to avoid the worst of the stuff. Although all cry out in pain and fear as they attempt to brush off the stuff, they are able to continue on.
Bone Crab 1: 5/50
Bone Crab 2: 50/50
Bone Crab 3: 50/50
Feeling silly for presenting a target to a creature that wouldn't do the same. Beordt pulls his bow back out and takes aim at the one everyone else has been targeting.
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"Oh confound!" Gaius yelps in frustration as he settles on a conclusion. "More manufactured monsters, these!" he yells, hoping the knowledge will do someone some good. "In the same vein as the monsters from the river he just bested!
I can know little of them, but I begin to surmise that their foul spit might not be infinite, like the mastery a dragon has over their fire, but might be more limited, like that of their two-legged cousins, the Dragonborn.
This is just a hazarded guess, you understand," he concludes.
Having done all the good that his brain can do, he decides his suit must needs fill in the gap.
He wants to send a burst of healing light at one of the refugees, but they are not fighting. They are just getting in the way. The Clod Calculations, and all that.
He advances as much as he can before firing a blast of fiery fire at the one that has -not- yet spat at the refugees, playing on his guess.
Using his bow, Beordt finishes off the one that so recently spewed acid upon his person. Moments after the feathered shaft plunges into the soft, fleshy head the beast looses its grip on the cliff and plunges down to crash upon the steps a few feet from where Rilkus and Beordt stand before it then tumbles over the edge and disappears into the dark depths of the fissure.
Toki continues to hustle the refugees along while Gauis directs his fiery attack at the creature now looming above the line of refugees. But the blast mostly dissipates upon the hard bone built outer shell.
Dacknar tries to duck out of sight to get a clear shot of that soft spot on the creature.
Dacknar cunningly uses the stoic Rilkus and the cliff face to conceal his position just long enough to aim and get off a debilitating shot on one of the creatures cling to the rocks above the refugees. The arrow drives deep into the rubbery flesh of the aberration's head and it momentarily looses its grip on the wall. This causes it to plummet thirty feet where it lands on the narrow stairway and barely catches itself before reeling over the final edge and down into the darkness below.
Taking advantage of the plight of its fellow predator, who now blocks the steps, the final beast climbs down and lashes its tentacle at one of the trailing refugees just in front of Toki. A pair of the undulating limbs slap the hapless human refugee and there's a loud cracking of bones as he is bound in a tight grip. Having captured a suitable meal the creature prepares to scramble back up the cliff.
Bone Crab 2: 20/50
Bone Crab 3: 50/50
Toki grabs the tentacle in both hands and tugs to bring the creature down to their level, Why don't you come down and play! Rilkus wants a play date!
Dodging out of the shadows. Dacknar takes aim at the creature blocking the stairway.
Beordt moves closers taking careful aim with his bow. Trying to kill the beast grappling the human.
Dacknar once again avoids the creatures notice and slipping from the shadows sinks a steel-tipped shaft deep into the things brain. It continues to lurch about for a few more seconds before it simply slumps across the stairway in a lifeless heap of bone and vile smelling flesh.
Toki snatches the single remaining creature by its grappling tentacle and with a mighty tug yanks the captured refugee free while dragging the aberration back down the cliff. The sudden loss of both its prey and its footing leaves it wide open to attacks from both Gauis and Beordt. Fire and arrow slam into the thing and it suddenly realizes it may only have a few more minutes of life remaining if something isn't done. And so it belches forth a cloud of utterly black and noxious gas. The cloud quickly expanding to cover the surrounding area and blocking any sight of those inside its choking boundaries.
Bone Crab 3: 28/50
Beordt pulls forth his greatsword and rushes to where the creature had been. Bringing the sword down.
Seeing Beordt go in, Rilkus followed. He was just glad at the possibility of getting something into arm’s reach. Not that he could see clearly enough to tell for certain, of course.
Toki grabs the refugee and take them out of the cloud, hoping that they are still alive!
Beordt wades into the inky black cloud even as Toki drags out the gasping, battered and clearly dying without immediate aid, refugee. The bearkin's wild swings within the void dark are met with a pair of satisfying crunches that signal the destruction of bone, cartilage and flesh. The burst of radiant light briefly illuminates his sword cleaving across the creatures neck and midsection shattering the bone woven shell and fleshy remains inside.
It's mad scramble back up the cliff is quickly ended as it slumps back to the staircase.
It takes a minute or two for the black cloud to finally dissipate enough to cause no more harm or obstacle. With the air, and visibility, restored, it is only a matter of a moments work for Beordt and Rilkus to clear the path of the remains and open the way ahead.
The remainder of the trip down the passage is long, but uneventful until at last Grick leads you through a natural stone arch and into a large open cavern. Water churns as the underground river races east. An island stands in the center of the river. A wide, squat ziggurat standing in the center. The building is topped with a statue of a frogkin squatting as it faces east. It's head is topped with a stone crown and he is dressed in flowing robes of silk. A depiction of a bejeweled scepter is held in one hand a frog-headed, holy symbol of Schaphrigroadaz in the other.
More than a dozen short pillars surround the ziggurat, some have collapsed into the rushing waters while a few others still stand at odd angles having only partially succumbed to time and the elements. Layers of mushrooms, molds, and phosphorescent fungi cover just about everything on the island except the statue itself and the very tops of three of the pillars. The light from the fungi fill the entire cavern with an eerie green tinted glow. Additional light gleams from more colonies of the stuff hanging like great tapestries upon the walls both near and far across on the opposite side of the cave.
Overshadowing all of this is a terrific rumble that vibrates your very bones. As Grick leads you further along the edge of the river, this rumbling cacophony only grows louder and louder until finally you see true light glowing from a wide opening ahead. Thick mist sprays through the opening drenching everything and everyone within moments and nothing can be heard above the deafening roar of the mighty falls at the base of which you now find yourselves.
Grick waves you forward, gesturing at the slick, moss covered, path that skirts behind the flooding torrent of part of an entire continent.
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Gauis looks on with a mixture of consternation and jealousy as Toki traipses across the moss-slick stones with the surety of a highland goat.
"Hold, my friends, hold!" Gauis yells, turning to the throng and holding up his hands. "We are in no rush here, and it seems that the path before us is deadly treacherous! We have come too far to lose even one among us to some natural barrier caused by nature and neglect. Allow me some few minutes to overcome this obstacle. Indeed, I shall even use mundane means."
That said, Gauis kneels down and gets to work.
His first step is to take out a humble bar of soap and begin cleaning the stone of the years of hoarfrosted muck. This goes surprisingly fast. He once wrote a paper comparing a layer of saturated pond scum to a single living being--pull one part, and the rest of it can come off in one go.
Once done on the first stone, he can't make it dry, but he can make it safe to walk on.
He pulls out a hammer and chisel from his smith's tools (ubiquitous amongst artificers) and makes several marks in the rock until he has a satisfactory criss-cross pattern that would make for sure footing even if the thing was covered by a layer of ice.
His plan is to do this for every stone, ensuring that all that follow are surefooted.
Lastly he gauges how far Toki is on the other side to see if they can again toss him the rope for everyone to hold to.
Rilkus watched as Gaius went to work, marveling at the man’s ingenuity. ”Many times I wonder if Rava has blessed you.” The Paladin intoned.
Toki calls across the river, It's his god! He says, you may be blessed by them!
And someday, I will be too!
Dacknar stays to the rear of the group as rear guard. He notices that that group has not moved in sometime.
Ahoy, what's the hold up. Dacknar calls forward. He starts to make his way up until he sees Gauis making the stone steps. He looks back at the rabble they are leading. then calls to Gauis "Good work, I will stay back to make sure nothing tries to sneak up on us."
Dacknar then returns to the back of the group be rear guard, keeping an eye out for threats.
EDIT:
Toki swears and places a hand on the man's chest and another on his mouth, then he says a line from one of the edda... A man's skein was woven long ago, if this man's was not cut short at this point, it must be so...
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"There." Gauis stands up and arches his back, the motion accompanied by a whining of servos as his armor accommodates the unfamiliar movement. "There, that should do it," he says, proudly, looking on at a rather long walkway that would be traversable by a dwarven legion, if it were blasted by a hoary frost. The path is clean and well-swept. The criss-cross marks in the stone even sparkle slightly in their ever-present moisture.
"Proof is in the pudding and all that," he says, starting across the path he's so proud of.
He has to rely on the working of his suit and several times it glows deep blue with the signs of power charging up its various actuators. Still, eventually he gets across, ready as any to get moving again.
Rilkus crossed over next. It would have been disastrous, but-for Gauis' preparation. Once over he went to slap the man on the shoulder, but awkwardly stopped when he remembered that his hand was steel and the weight behind it. He completed the action, gently touching Gauis and quietly intoning a thanks.