Elena goes for electricity: and the skeleton dodges most of it. The electricity that does connect seems to simply crackle over the surface of the bleached bones.
Round 2:
Carrufikus: DUx2
Bibi: Go
Talborel: Miss
Elena: EA
Skeletal Minotaur: TBD
Noroc: TBD
Peldur: TBD
Minotaur: 28
Bibi opts for fists and feet rather than blade, punching and kicking at the thing's shin bones with abandon!!
Bibi opts for some ankle kicking. She connects twice, and the angle is perfect! A spider web of cracks form in the lower leg and foot!
Fully formed, the skeleton takes a single swipe of the glaive against Bibi:
, but misses!
It then turns ands sweeps the glaive across both Noroc and Talborel:
,
Miss!
Round 2:
Carrufikus: DUx2
Bibi: Hits
Talborel: Miss
Elena: EA
Skeletal Minotaur: ATK
Noroc: Go
Peldur: Go
Minotaur: 47
The deadly glaive attack is too much for Noroc, who soundlessly crumples to the ground.
His breathing settles in to shallow breaths.
Pedlur steps further around the minotaur and strikes our, hoping to break more bone.
Peldur's opening strike misses, but then he follows up with a dirty roundhouse knee to the femur. He connects with enough force to blast the femoral head right out of the hip. The giant skeleton falls in a pile of bone, finally inert!
The green line on the floor is beginning to fade!
Not wanting to lose a lead, Peldur rushes forward, opening the door, and following after the green line.
Peldur yanks open the door without waiting for Bibi. It leads to a short hallway. The hallways itself leads downwards a bit. A thick knot of roots hangs from the cavern roof over a muddy beach at the bottom of a short set of stone stairs.
The bright green line vanishes under a wall to the left. There's clearly a secret door here, but no obvious way to open it yet.
Peldur keeps his momentum going and rushes to that section of wall and begins searching for the hidden door.
"Noroc, now is not the time for rest."
Carrufikus goes over and casts a two action heal on him.
"Don't let those big glaives get you down."
Elena does her best to follow after the fleet-footed street rat. Though her magic has been nigh unto useless against the skeleton, she's determined to be helpful.
Somehow.
Bibi hustles up to look for the secret door, quoting a wonderful book she has read many times.
Now where is that secret knot?? It's imPOSSible to find...
Knowing that it's there, Bibi works until she finds the mechanism, the secret door opens when the rise on the top step is pushed a certain way.
It opens as soon as she discovers it. The green line quickly vanishes, as if it evaporated like water.
what are we looking at here? Hallway? Or room? Or cupboard?
They're stairs Ray.
After healing up Noroc, Carrufikus checks on the others. "Are the rest of you doing okay after that battle with the bones? Do any of you need me to treat wounds?"
Turning to Bibi after she finds a secret door.
"What did you find, Bibi? Is it safe to enter? With a little luck, maybe we can find something useful."
are we trying to catch that green light? Because these stairs are the only way...
"We are trying to catch that, yes. Because we are curious, as dangerous as curiosity can be."
Elena looks to the others. "We don't know where it's taking us, or what its motives are. I can promise you this: there will be worse dangers than what we've faced. I don't know this, yet... it's true."
Luck favors the bold. Perhaps ours will hold out. Go!
Noroc gets to his feet, woozy but determined, and brings up the rear of the party.
Bibi pokes her head down the stairs. It leads to a hallway that acts as a landing for two staircases: the one she's on, and another across the way that leads back up to the second level. Splintered, rotten wood lies scattered around this hall.
As the green line vanished at the top of the stairs, there's no particular direction that stands out. Though, to the left the hall opens into a room, but thick clouds of white mist fill the room entirely, making it difficult to discern any details.
Bibi hesitates, her uncle's voice piping up in her mind.
THINK girl!! Why are you trusting a strange light, in a strange lighthouse that has show its strange lights to be dangerous?? Because it spelled out the thief's name?? You DON'T just blunder in when you don't know what you're up against, especially when you're being baited!
She takes a good look at the room, then turns around. I don't think we're ready to follow this light. I think it could very well be a trap, and we're running right into it. We need to slow down, learn more, be a little more methodical.
"Bibi, you sure are cautious. What makes you think all of this is a trap? Is it the white mist that is filling that room?"
Carrufikus looks right and left, making sure everything looks safe for everybody.
He then casts detect magic to see if the mist radiates any magic.
Elena listens to Bibi, seeming to see her in a new light. "You are, of course, right. We don't know what we don't know. And a strange mist, something is out of place I think, simply reinforces that. I trust your instincts, Bibi. And I would not wish to make you uncomfortable."
"There was a set of double doors that we passed. Two doors would suggest a larger chamber, and perhaps that it is an important space. Perhaps we can learn more there first?"
Since the mysterious guide has vanished, we may as well head back upstairs and investigate further.
Let's go back to the previous level and continue to work.
The thief sighs and straightens her shoulders, turning away from the mist and the mystery. She glances back, and mutters We'll be back, Ortari! before heading back up the stairs.
She then checks out the double doors for dangers.
Bibi declares the doors safe and steps aside. Peldur opens them to reveal a hallway. Several wide alcoves adorn the walls of this L-shaped hallway. Each alcove contains a small diorama of the same city facing different perils—a massive fire, a devastating tsunami, a thunderous earthquake, an attack by an enormous tentacled monster, and an invasion of an army of undead.
the city depicted isn't Otari, is it?
Elena takes a couple steps in to study one of the dioramas. She too is curious about the city, suspecting that it could be Absalom.
Initiative assumes Talborel is Scouting
Trap Finder
Detect Magic (A: +1 (U), N: +8 (T), O: +1 (U) , R: +8 (T))
Investigate (A: +8 (T), C: +8 (T) M: +1 (U) N: +5 (T), O: +7 (T) , R: +5 (T), S: +8 (T))
Search (E)
Avoid Notice (E)
Scout
Everyone knows right away just by looking, it is Otari
Elena takes a look at the diorama. Suddenly the sounds of devastation rise from the diorama, and a beam of shimmering energy lances outward from the tiny model of Gauntlight towards Elena. It strikes her square in the chest. The flames leave her badly burned
Bibi lets out an oath (CAYDEN'S CORKSCREW!!!!) at having been caught unawares. Trusting the others will look after Elena's wounds, Bibi jumps in to check the trap & see if it's still dangerous.
Tal would immediately spring to Elena and use his healing kit to stabilize her and treat the burns.
Medicine:
Bibi rushes over and checks it out. She determines that she could likely disable it or the party could likely sneak past it. Either way she thinks that it'll reset itself in about an hour.
"Tal, let me in to help."
"Elena, you are going to be alright. Just rest for a moment."
Carrufikus follows up the treat wounds with a Heal spell.
Bibi gets to work with her tools to take the sting out of this thing.
Bibi has no problem at all disabling the trap!
Initiative assumes Talborel is Scouting
Avoid Notice (T)
Detect Magic (A: +1 (U), N: +8 (T), O: +1 (U) , R: +8 (T))
Investigate (A: +8 (T), C: +8 (T) M: +1 (U) N: +5 (T), O: +7 (T) , R: +5 (T), S: +8 (T))
Search (E)
Avoid Notice (E)
Scout
But that's not all....Bibi gets a hunch that the next one is trapped too. The second diorama appears to have another trap built into it. This one will smash anyone in the hall with a torrent of water, like a tsunami... another fate for Otari.
Elena picks herself up after Carrufikus' magic closes most of her wounds. "Thank you, my friend. The fact that you are here truly is a gift from Desna."
She then watches Bibi do her work at disarming the trap, relief filling her when the rogue gives the group a thumbs up. It's short-lived though when Bibi finds another trap linked to the next diorama. "Where there is two, there is more. Should we all stand outside the room and let you work, Bibi? If you want, I can probably force one or two of them to trigger with some magic. But I think you know best here."
Your first suggestion will probably work best. Ideally if a trap has to hit us, it hits only one of us. Let me do my thing and I'll give the all-clear when I disable all these traps!!
Bibi waits until everyone else is out of this new room, then settles down to work.
Bibi sets to the tsunami trap, but flubs it up, setting off the trap! for
Bibi, seriously injured, manages to eke out that the second trap is disabled.
ow…um, help before I continue please thank you?
Suddenly Bibi rolls back up to a standing position. It appears the wary halfling thief was nimble enough to dodge the blast!
She moves on to the next diorama, and predictably finds a trap. This one releases a sonic pulse as part of an earthquake. She deftly disables it
It takes her a bit before she finds the 4th trap. The monster on the diorama can cause mental damage. It takes a fair bit of her secretive training, but she manages to shut it down.
The final one is really tricky. but she disconnects the negative energy damage which would have emanated out from the undead in the diorama.
Justifiably proud of her work, Bibi declares the hallway safe.
With the traps disabled, Elena once more enters the hallway. She moves towards Bibi, studying each diorama as she goes.
She whispers the arcane syllables for a simple incantation, hoping to detect any signs of magic in the area. Concentrating, she turns her magically tuned gaze over every nook and cranny.
When she (presumably) finds nothing more, she waves the others in. To Bibi she says, "Can you check that door at the of the hallway? Perhaps you can hear sounds on the other side?"
Elena finds that Bibi is pretty thorough, having disabled any remaining magic. Nothing in the dioramas jog her memory, though the series does make her uncomfortable. It's like someone truly dreamt a series of nasty endings to Otari itself....
"Bibi, thanks for disabling all of those traps. You sure are clever with all of them. The luck of Desna must truly be with you."
Initiative assumes Talborel is Scouting
DOOR
Detect Magic (A: +1 (U), N: +8 (T), O: +1 (U) , R: +8 (T))
Investigate (A: +8 (T), C: +8 (T) M: +1 (U) N: +5 (T), O: +7 (T) , R: +5 (T), S: +8 (T))
Search (E)
Avoid Notice (E)
Scout
Bibi finds no traps on the door, but Peldur can just barely hear a repetitive clicking. It doesn't seem to have a predictable rhythm, but no one (even the erudite Elena) has a guess on the source.
"Bibi, thanks for disabling all of those traps. You sure are clever with all of them. The luck of Desna must truly be with you."
yes, yes...SOME of the time!
"Perhaps there is some sort of creature on the other side? It might be wise to brace for a fight if we're going to open the door," Elena says, looking at the door with concern. "Though perhaps we open it a sliver and see what is there, then close it quietly?"
lets prep to fight and also crack te door. that way if we mess up the recon we fall back to The Other Way
bibi waits until everyones ready before tryin to peek discretely
Bibi takes point and cracks open the door as quietly as she can.
This large, low-ceiling room has a cross-shaped table at its center. Ten chairs stand around the table. The walls, floors, and ceilings of the chamber are completely covered with thick layers of webbing. There's a horrid creature squatting atop the table. The hideous purple creature walks upright like a man, but its face is that of a spider, and its hands are sickle-shaped claws.
Bibi's eyes grow wide, and only her tricksy instincts and training with Unca Bofus stop her from slamming the door in fear
Hhhoooookay...heres whats in there
full disclosure--see spoiller, can i describe well enough for them to also see the pic?
Webs burn, right? Because...kill it with fire please!!