Taking a risk, Elena once more recites a passage from The Whispering Reeds, looking to obliterate the incorporeal monster with her knowledge of Nhimbaloth's creations.
Paranoia fills Elena as the dark teachings of the book open her up to the Empty Death. Her gaze darts back and forth, as if she's spotted... something.
elena risks much, but delivers. The eldritch magic rips parts of the shadow apart. Whatever it kept repeating before is replaced with shouts of angry words.
Round 1
Peldur (49/92): Stance!
Religion to ID: Miss
Carrufikus (63/80): Lash!
Elena (Stupified until Rest): Derp + boom
Tal (HP: 24/83, Stupified 2): Go
Bibi: Miss
Noroc (54/68): Golden Shower
Location: The Library
Noroc: DR 5/Physical
Tal's head is still spinning from the unholy touch, but the bow is all instinct...
Strike! , Damage on Hit:
Strike! , Damage on Hit:
Strike! , Damage on Hit:
Even as the shadow reels from Elena's costly spell, Tal is nocking an arrow. The third strikes at the center of the shadow, which evaporates with some final words in Necril...
Wow, Papa...nice shooting. You don't look so good, though. Here. Bibi hands Tal her flask while turning toward the room for a search.
While Bibi searches the room, Carrufikus goes over to tend to the wounds of Tal.
"Tal, that was impressive shooting! You can never underestimate the damage that a shadow can do. You might think that it is nothing, but evil has a way of wounding."
After treating his patient, Carrufikus casts a Heal from his font to replenish everyone's wounds in the company.
"Reinvigormend"
Seeing that this is still not enough, he calls upon Desna once again for more healing.
"Reinvigormend"
After checking over his friends to see that they are feeling better, the gnome decides to use his two wands of healing.
"Is everyone feeling better now?"
Peldur (91/92)
Carrufikus (80/80)
Elena (Stupified until Rest)
Tal (HP: 83/83, Stupified 2)
Noroc (68/68)
"Thank you friends. I'm... Finding it hard to focus but am otherwise fine. Let us quest on."
Carrufikus works his magic. Unfortunately, Tal still feels a bit fuzzy.
"Bibi, can you check that door on the right ? Does it look safe to open?"
Finding no traps, Bibi enters the guard room, then the archer room. There she gains access to the handle that raises the portcullis.
"Bibi, can I pull the handle? Let's keep the portcullis open, then if we need to run away, we can."
After trying out the handle several times, Carrufikus returns to central room.
"Shall we go this way next?" The gnome articulates as he points to the south door.
The handle is rusted, and it takes Carrufikus throwing his weight to use it, but it does open the gate.
Initiative assumes Talborel is Scouting
Avoid Notice (T)
Detect Magic (A: +2 (U), N: +11 (T), O: +2 (U) , R: +11 (T))
Investigate (A: +13 (T), N: +9 (T), O: +11 (T) , R: +9 (T))
Search (E)
Avoid Notice (E)
Scout (Init ties to Tal)
These two rooms seem identical, except for two discoveries made through trianing and luck:
”Oooh. Check these magical proboscides out! Magic and blood together can never be good.”
Carrufikus attempts to determine the properties of the magic items.
After checking one out for 10 minutes, Carrufikus is confident that these are bloodseeker beaks.
”Are you familiar with mosquitoes? How about stirges? Well, if you afix this to your weapon, you too can be pesky! Whoever gets struck by your weapon will certainly bleed a lot!”
oooOOOoooo...I'll take one if no one objects
"No one is going to object, Bibi. You are the sneakiest one in the party and you always love to catch your foes flat footed. Go ahead and use them. If you look at me, you will never see me using my staff for anything other than healing you folks up."
”Bibi, take us through the secret door you found. I always feel extra sneaky when we go through doors that others didn’t want us to find.”
Elena beckons Peldur to follow her, moving her hands through a simple detection spell as she approaches the secret door. "Let me make sure that there's no surprises of a magical sort beforehand."
Cautiously, the party makes their way south through the secret door. the trail leads to an empty chamber for a guard to sleep in, and the room also leads to a secret door on this side of the arena balcony.
A reasonably thorough search uncovers nothing of note.
Tal readies an arrow and motions with his head to the double doors.
"Into The West"
Bibi will attempt to work her magic.
(E, +1 v. Traps)
(T)
(T)
(E)
(T)
(E)
Without resistance, the double doors give way to a long tunnel, quite long. After a while it empies out into a place you recognize, it's Smuggler's Refuge. From this side it's easy to pull the rocks out.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Now in the cave near the fishery-turned-home, the party has a chance to reflect. They have accomplished much since first the first Foray to the Ruins of Gauntlight nearly two months ago. Emboldened, it didn't take much for you to descend into and clear out the Servant's Quarters, the Library, and even Belcorra's Retreat.
Sometimes the Ruins fought back.
Trouble wasn't always just in the ruins. Sometimes it was in Otari itself. But hey, you got a new base out of it.
Now you've nearly cleared out the Arena, and thanks to Peldur's impetuousness, you've forayed a bit into the [b]The Laboratories.
The question is, where to now?
Did we miss anything on our way down? Noroc asks, leaning weakly on his walking stick. We...we got it all, right?
"There is a door I think that we missed. Let's go check it out."
Carrufikus brings the party to another door to check out.
Tal nods and leads the way.
The door opens to a set of stairs that lead down. There's a door at the bottom of the stairs. It doesn't take elven ears to hear ...easygoing? conversation on the other side.
"Should we... knock?" Elena whispers, looking at everyone. She's unable to not be on edge, given how often things have tried to kill them.
can we determine the language they're speaking?
after a pause
You want I should sneak in and scout and overhear more closely??
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Noroc is distracted by the prospect of knocking in a dungeon. Is this a dungeon hack Elena is just now sharing...? "Eliminate days of slaughter with this one simple trick"?
Bibi recognizes that they're speaking Undercommon.
It's hard to make out because there's.... live music from the other side. There's a conversation though. It's snippets about the raids from the surface, and that they don't get paid enough to deal with it.
Tal looks to the others, to see if anyone recognizes the language.
If not, Gunboat Diplomacy it is.
”Don’t look at me. I much prefer nature and the good outdoors to a dark language like that.”
”Don’t look at me. I much prefer nature and the good outdoors to a dark language like that.”
Noroc pauses to listen a moment, then shrugs. I can't hear a thing. Are you certain that's the Language Formerly Known As Undercommon (Sakvroth)?
Tal nods solemnly and kicks the door in.
Polished wooden tables, chairs, and a long wooden bar mark this chamber as a tavern. The smell of spilled beer and fried morsels pervades the room. In the southeast corner, an elevated stage overlooks the seating. Doors lead out of this room along all four walls, including a double door to the west that looks to be the main entrance.
As Tal kicks in the door, the inhabitants of this... tavern stop and stare. There's a female drider flipping through a book filled with crudely drawn drow erotica, two morlocks playing a card game, a morlock tending the bar, and another morlock leaning on the bar.
There's a trio of morlock musicians on stage who also stop somewhat comically at your entrance.
There's a LOT of rapid-fire chatter in Undercommon before the bartender switches to Taldane.
"Are.... are you the surface dwellers rampaging through the ruins killing and looting?"
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Bibi blinks once. Well..."rampaging" is a little strong...
"There's a trail of bodies bigger than Belcorra's between here and the surface."
One of the game playing morlocks chimes in, "Yeah, but they're mostly killing bad guys."
His partner adds, "There was another team who was really good to our friend Augrael. These guys may be them."
Everyone then toasts to Augrael, even the drider who looks extremely uncomfortable right now.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Tal narrows his eyes and walks to the bar. He taps a couple times on the surface and (if my GM allows) is served a drink of something mid-range and little rough. He drops two coppers on the bar and hoists the tankard.
"To absent friends, and the unexpected. To Augrael."
Tal chins the tankard and finishes it, slamming the cup on the bar. He sidles over to the Drider and regards her with an even stare.
"I don't know if I'm scared or aroused. At my age, that's impressive."
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
The drider stares at Tal with 8 wide eyes, "The f*+*?" and then turns away.
The bartender pours Tal somethign that tastes like fermented mushroom. It's like beer with an aftertaste of dirt. The four morlocks all converge on Tal, though they're not threatening. The band starts back up.
"To Augrael."
The bartender speaks up, "Look, we call this the warped brew tavern. We're not all worm-slaves. The world is hard. This is a place of rest. you keep the peace, and you can drink here. Don't steal or start violence, and you're welcome here."
One of the game playing morlocks chimes in, "Yeah, but they're mostly killing bad guys."
Bibi immediately points at the speaker here and nods her head vigorously
His partner adds, "There was another team who was really good to our friend Augrael. These guys may be them."
Everyone then toasts to Augrael, even the drider who looks extremely uncomfortable right now.
We are CERtainly them!! I'm having my pappy create a beer and calling it Augrael's Redemption!! Maybe I can bring a cask down here and we can toast him again, proper-like!
Elena takes all of this in, shrugs, and moves towards the bar. She ignores Tal's flirting, because their preferences are their own.
"What my friend the halfling said. Her name is Bibi, that's Tal, and trailing is Peldur and Noroc. I'm Elena, and yes we're adventurers. We're also friends to Augrael, who was beyond kind with us as we navigated this place. But rest assured, we're peaceful. More often it's violence, particularly from those who serve Belcorra, that finds us. Not the other way around. You'll have peace from us."
She picks up on something said, and looks to get clarity. "You said that there was another group? What can you tell us about them?"
The bartender takes the lead, "My name is Dovrix. The impatient one right here is Jif. The two playing cards are Torvus And Turvos. The 'bouncer' here is Lallizanx. The band is called Shadow Malice. The manager is in the other room. His name is Vischari."
Jif then speaks up, "Well, we just assumed there were two groups. Hard to square the circle of someone being kind to Augrael, but also killing everything that moves."