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Torra finds little more of use in the room and begins to investigate the doors. The northern single door appears to be locked, though you were giving a small silver key that looks to fit it from Matala's belongings. The double doors to the south appear to be unlocked.
Bangy can't tell much from the crazed situation outside of the ooze must have been the receptionist from the front and contracted the curse in some way. Though that doesn't explain a wooden statue coming to life outside of it being set as some sort of guardian.
Scratch frowns as Urrda smashes the statue with scary efficiency, avoiding the need for his poorly aimed shot. He resets the safety and lets a grim smile cross his face She'd make a heck of a wife to some lucky, or maybe UNlucky Dwarf! He can already start to feel the bruises from the honey moon.
"Don't worry 'bout Scratch here, he's fine. If ya can dodge a wrench you can dodge a flyin' wooden splinter they always say." He slings his crossbow over his shoulder and hops down off the table to take a closer look at the statue.
"So which way you thinkin... prolly that little door with the key be the straightest path... but them double doors sure are invitin'..." He scratches his beard, slowly walking towards the double doors and opening them unless someone pipes up with an alternate plan.
Utek strokes his chin. "Yes, go ahead. Don't be too hasty though. We can't know what's back there. Be careful."
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Scratch digs deep and realizes that this must have been some sort of wooden golem set to protect the area. Having not recognized the ooze as an intruder it laid in wait. Wood golems are resistant to most weapons unless they are adamantine. While immune to magic the wood golem is harmed by fire spells, healed by plant spells and slowed by earth spells rather than their intended effects.
Wood golems are often given vaguely humanoid shapes, almost as if cobbled together from scraps of firewood and discarded burls. It's less common for wood golems to have artistic embellishments such as engraved patterns, or to be carved in the shapes of different types of creatures to meet the tastes of their owners. While wealthy patrons have been known to commission wood golems to be painstakingly carved to resemble themselves or their ancestors, to serve dual purposes of protection and ego bolstering, most wood golem crafters don't bother. Druids and creatures who protect woodlands, such as arboreals, typically see wood golems as an affront or an abomination, akin to the horror humanoids often feel when facing a carrion or flesh golem. As a result, it is rare to see such creatures serving as guardians for fey or druidic holy sites, despite the thematic match between the wood golem's appearance and such locations.
Scratch breaks the golem apart even ore as he opens the double doors to the south into a storage room. Several sturdy shelves hold a variety of crates, urns, barrels, and boxes. A double door leads west, and two double doors lead east.
An urn nearly as large as a man sits against the north wall where it vibrates slightly.
I give it five seconds before the ysoki unleashes yet another slime from that urn, Urdda thinks to herself.
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"Fire? No. No fire for this witch. I can make tentacles appear out of the ground though."
Utek follows in behind Urdda. "This is so strange. Why is that urn vibrating?". Mita vibrates as well. "Stop that. You're weird, you know that?"
Scratch walks into the room and throws a suspicious eyeball at the urn, then creeps quietly to the south to look at the bookshelves along the eastern wall.
I'll let Bangy take the brunt of that.. thing in there. He seems ta like helpin' with stuff like that.
Torra makes sure to stay far back from the urn, also wondering what's inside, but knowing they'll have to find out.
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Leaving the urn be the group gives it no more than a suspicious eye as they search among the shelves to the south. Mita picks up a magical presence from within one of the crates.
Eight narrow wooden boxes are stacked on one of the shelves. Seven contain sticks of cinnamon and are worth 15 gp each, and the eighth holds a vial containing a moderate healing potion.
The urn puts off no magical auras and yet it vibrates.
Renthiel slowly rises from the floor and looks around. He clenches his jaw and strolls over to the urn and investigates it.
Utek moves to one of the crates. "Which one did you say it was? That one?" Utek moves closer to crate with magic. "Well, here goes nothing..." Utek opens it up.
Then seeing Renthiel approach the urn, "Be careful there. Could be something hiding inside the urn. Another ooze maybe?"
Urdda clears her throat as Bangy reaches for the cinnamon. ”And how exactly do those further our investigation?” she asks with a raised eyebrow. ”Or have we become common thieves under the pretense of an investigation?” Her tone makes it quite clear what she thinks of that.
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Renthiel looks over every crevice of the urn and isn't able to come to a reasonable conclusion on why it would vibrate. Digging out some tools he goes to make a few samples and upon touching the old urn it cracks and bursts open as thousands of centipedes comes swarming out onto the floor.
the centipedes immediately crawl all over Renthiel, biting at whatever exposed skin they can find.
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Centipedes
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Urdda** (85/85)
Torra
Renthiel (46/46)
Scratch
Utek
Bangy Piper** (81/81; Leather armor 16/16)
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"Utek Shul'm - do you have that talisman?"
"Renthiel Simnan - get out of there!"
"Let's get him out Gramma Urdda - you can scold us later!"
◆) Inspiring Martial Stance
◆◆) Ready a Strike w/ Viscous Incisors if they get close!
piercing
Critical hit? Fortitude vs Class DC 21 or Slowed 1
Renthiel screams as he is swarmed by an unfathomable number of centipedes. He then runs across the room clawing frantically to rip them off.
Urdda sighs heavily as the elf runs away barely alive yet again. Well, he’ll learn someday. Rolling her shoulders, she moves to the other side of the yelling ysoki and settles into her comfortable defensive position. ”Clear out folks - don’t stand close to each other,” she rumbles.
Scratch's grey eyebrows rise up slowly as Renny cracks the case wide open "Huh. Not what I figured we'd find vibratin' in an urn..." He says outloud, while he looks at Bangy and winks seeing the valuable spices. Gotta have operatin' cash flow right? His eyes seem to say.
"I told you something was in there!" A shiver goes down Utek's spine. "I hate bugs... but let's destroy them."
Utek looks at her friend Renthiel, who got bitten heavily by the centipedes. "The future looks bright for you. Let fate guide you."
Then he looks around for a small rock, book, or something of the sort. He hurls it towards the closest swarm, hoping to smash a few of the bugs.
Horrified at the masses of centipedes that engulfed Renthiel, Torra immediately follows him, , and then begins chanting. A familiar energy surrounds Renthiel, .
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Urdda stands like a mountain before the riling wave of centipedes. She begins stomping hard into the ground on them, smashing them beneath her boot, while it seems to kill quite a few of them it doesn't seem overly effective as the centipede's writhe beneath.
Torra quickly tends to Renthiel's wounds, though it doesn't help the poison still continues to run its course. Renthiel screams running across the room , ripping the insects out of his clothes.
Scratch recognizes these to be a bit stronger version of centipedes, namely Mwangi Millipede's. Centipede swarms are resistant to bludgeoning and piercing weapons while less so to slashing weapons. They are quite weak to area effects and splash weapons. As Scratch has seen their bites can inject a small bit of deadly poison into their victim.
Utek begins to nudge Renthiel's fate so as to help guide the poison through his body safely, before tossing a stone against the wall, missing the swarm.
Bangy begins to inspire as the large room begins to look much smaller. The insects begins to slowly swarm across the room, biting angrily at everything they can reach.
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Centipedes (Red -21)
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Urdda** (85/85)
Torra
Renthiel (46/46; Poison Stage 2; Clumsy 1; FF (1 round) 5/6 remain)
Scratch
Utek
Bangy Piper** (81/81; Leather armor 16/16)
As the centipedes start to move, Urdda stomps instinctively. ”Not so fast,” she warns.
Trigger: A creature within your reach uses a move action or leaves a square during a move action it’s using.
You strike out when your foe tries to flee. Make a melee Strike against the triggering creature. If the attack is a critical hit and the trigger was a move action, you disrupt that action.
Urdda continues her work, ignoring the crawlers still attached to her boots with their oversized jaws. Why is it that someone makes a mess and then leaves it to other people to clean up? she wonders to herself. Don’t any of these young folks know how to take responsibility for their actions?
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Urdda stomps into the mass as it comes at her. This causes the centipedes to recoil momentarily. The swarm manages to still get a few small bites in as the poison enters the dwarf's blood.
Urdda's thick dwarven blood quickly purges the toxins as the poison runs its course. Urdda's stomps on enough of the centipedes that it causes half of them to scatter out the door and into the cracks of the floor and walls out of sight.
Bangy manages to get a little bit of poison himself as the centipedes crawl all over his body. Bangy leans down and begins scooping pawfuls of centipedges into his mouth. They burst open with a small bit of surprising liquid but mostly just fill his mouth with their dried bodies as it is almost like eating a mouthful of straight cinnamon powder, but tastes much worse, like sawdust.
Bangy's poison begins to get worse.
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Centipedes (Green -5)
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Urdda** (76/85)
Torra
Renthiel (46/46; Poison Stage 2; Clumsy 1; FF (1 round) 5/6 remain)
Scratch
Utek
Bangy Piper** (78/81; 5 Temp HP; Leather armor 16/16; Poison Stage 2; Clumsy 1; FF (1 round) 5/6 remain)
"Ren, remember what I told you. Let fate guide your way."
◆
Seeing the swarm approach, Utek steps back. He doesn't want to get close!
◆
"Now Scratch. I know these bug are kinda gross. But can you please go kill them off for me. You're the best."
◆
Sincerely wishing she'd changed her primal cantrip to Acid Splash this morning, Torra grimaces, concentrating, and sends a blast of cold at the centipedes, . Then she casts Shield on herself, .
If it hits,
"Dry like woodchips? Reminds me of overcooked squirrel tail." He flips his crossbow up into hand as Urrda pulverizes and Bangy gnaws on the vermin.
"Oozes and swarms of bugs... how come we couldn't get hired to hunt dire rabbits or beach thugs?" He takes aim the best he can and tries to pin a pile of bugs to the floor boards, then reloads.
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Torra sprays the swarm with frost as it slows enough for Scratch's crossbow bolt to tear through their center. Only a few bugs remain and scatter into the cracks, well out of sight.
Urdda** (76/85)
Torra
Renthiel (46/46; Poison Stage 2; Clumsy 1; FF (1 round) 5/6 remain)
Scratch
Utek
Bangy Piper** (78/81; 5 Temp HP; Leather armor 16/16; Poison Stage 2; Clumsy 1; FF (1 round) 5/6 remain)
Scratch moves over to try helping Bangy with his poison bites "Ya got some still munchin' in yer pelt Banger. Lemme give 'em the ole whiskey treatment!" He takes a sip then applies liberally to the area.
Treat Poison Single Action
Manipulate
Source Core Rulebook pg. 248 2.0
Requirements You are holding healer's tools, or you are wearing them and have a hand freeYou treat a patient to prevent the spread of poison. Attempt a Medicine check against the poison’s DC. After you attempt to Treat a Poison for a creature, you can’t try again until after the next time that creature attempts a save against the poison.
Critical Success You grant the creature a +4 circumstance bonus to its next saving throw against the poison.
Success You grant the creature a +2 circumstance bonus to its next saving throw against the poison.
Critical Failure Your efforts cause the creature to take a –2 circumstance penalty to its next save against the poison.
Torra goes over to Renthiel and first treats his poison.
, so a +2 to his next Fortitude save.
Then she treats Bangy's minor bites.
for .
Then Urdda's bites get tended.
for .
Then she treats his remaining poison damage.
for .
And . For a total of 24 HP healing to Renthiel.
Renthiel lays back down and closes his eyes, looking quite ill. As Torra frantically works on him his face contorts in sick pain. Several moments pass and Renthiel doesn't move.
Utek takes this moment to stamp out any remaining bugs that linger.
"Take that. And that. And that.".
The orc feels cathartic. "That felt good. You have no idea.".
Utek takes the healing potion from the crate. "Little Mita here detected this. Perhaps one of you should carrying it. I believe it's a healing potion of some sort."
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Bangy Piper watches Utek stamp out the bugs "That's a no then" and pockets the snack for later.
He rushes over to check up on Renthiel, and seeing him lie absolutely still - a corporeal state the ysoki is completely unfamiliar with - pokes him with his lockpick to see if he is still alive.
Seeing so, he eyes the door just east of him, trying to determine if it's locked - feeling expectant of Urdda's minding gaze upon him as he squints to contemplate what may be on the other side!
Utek looks at Bangy and discretely takes some vermin. He pops it in his mouth and chews. Quietly, he whispers, "that was tasty."
Renthiel waves off Bangy's poke weakly. "I'm recovering. Go see what's in the other room or something," his airy words carry a tired dismissiveness.
Urdda nods appreciatively to Torra as the gnome once again works her magic. ”Remind me to buy you a drink later,” she says with a smile as the healer heads over to tend to the elf. ”And maybe another kit, given how much you’re having to use that one these past few days.”
Is it possible the elf is learning not to stick his nose into everything? the dwarf wonders in amazement as Renthiel remains in the floor. If the livestock are airborne when we get back outside, I’ll know the world has truly gone mad. With a resigned expression, she watches Bangy contemplate the door.
Glad that Renthiel has recovered nicely, Torra joins in with the others searching this room for items or evidence of what is happening in Kibwe.
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With Scratch's help Bangy purges the poison rather quickly. This is not the case with Renthiel. The elf lies there for several minutes as the poison leaves aches and pains.
This room contains little more of use as Bangy investigates the southern set of doors.
This wide yard is open to the sky. The ground, covered with straw and sand, is crisscrossed with human and animal tracks. Two sets of large loading doors lead east, with the southern set of doors standing slightly ajar. Other doors leading west and north are labeled “Storage” in Common and Mwangi. A trough of stagnant water stands between the two doors to the west, and a flimsy table and chairs occupy the yard’s southwest corner. A veritable mountain of boxes, casks, and crates are piled in the southeast corner of the yard beneath a makeshift awning.
Renthiel notices something odd about the floor. The sand conceals a rune beneath with unknown magics.
Urdda** (85/85)
Torra
Renthiel (46/46)
Scratch
Utek
Bangy Piper** (81/81; Leather armor 16/16)
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Bangy Pipe draws his shortbow.
He looks over at Gramma Urdda, waiting for the "okay" to proceed, resisting his urge to go rummage through the boxes piled in the southeast corner!
-Human and Animal Tracks allover floor
-Southern Doors, slightly ajar
-"Storage" doors, West and North
-Stagnant trough, between West doors
-Table in SW corner
-Boxes / Crates SE
-"Odd" Runes on floor beneath sand
Utek is immediately drawn to the rune under the sand. Without concern for centipedes or oozes or anything else, he'll slowly walk in with a bit of caution. With Mita on his shoulder, he crouches down and wipes some sand off of it.
"Be careful. Who knows what magic this rune holds. It could just be decoration, but with the ooze and the magic wood man in the other room, we can never be too careful"