Bertolt shakes his head. "Ah, my mind was not mine own! I shall fell these foul creatures!" He turns his enlarged form and charges into the fray, going for the northernmost creature as it's closer to the stairs.
|
Vengis looks like he is about to succumb to the deadly spell. But he calls on something deep inside of him--the stuff of heroes--and rallies.
He responds by casting a spell at the drider, hoping to punish the enemy with mental torment of his own.
Critical Success The target is unaffected.
Success The target takes half damage and becomes frightened 1.
Failure The target takes full damage and becomes frightened 2.
Critical Failure The target takes double damage and becomes frightened 3.
Bella shot another sling bullet at the drider and reloaded. Then she moved next to Bertolt, preparing to bandage his wounds.
Eyenia keeps up the assault with her spiritual weapon, trying again to slice and blast the drider.
Kragga fires off a bevy of magic missiles to batter the drider. Vengis tries to afflict it with despair, but it resists some of the magic. Bertolt bashes Jafaki with his shield, but the seugathi's rubbery body resists the bludgeoning attack. Bella, Eyenia, and Zetty all miss with their attacks.
Jafaki stabs at Bertolt with their rapier, following up with their bite!
Meanwhile, the drider attacks Zetty with its glaive.
Zetty's jelly-like form absorbs the strikes from the drider with a series of quivering squishes, and doesn't look too bad off once the flurry of glaive slashes is done. She retaliates with her own attacks, first doing a wiggly feint before slamming in with her pseudopods.
Bertolt lets his hammer fall, opting for his slicing longsword to deal with the rubbery body of the Jafaki!
Bella quickly bandaged Bertolt's wounds. Then she tried to counteract the poison in his wounds.
Eyenia commands her spiritual weapon to keep up the attack on the drider before moving in and placing a hand on Bertolt, summoning healing power to mend his wounds.
Zetty successfully feints, then she batters the drider with a critical hit! The monster's neck snaps from the force of the blow, and it drops to the floor, collapsing in a heap.
With the aberration dead, Eyenia and Vengis shift their focus to Jafaki, striking the seugathi with magical force. Bertolt changes to his longsword to slice into Jafaki's body. Kragga hurls a ball of fire that misses Jafaki.
Jafaki quickly draws an elixir from their belt and drinks it to heal some of their injuries. They then continue to attack Bertolt.
Bertolt blocks the rapier, catching it in one of the edges and twisting it hard!
Zetty finds herself in an awkward position. She'd been counting on bludgeoning Jafaki with some pseudopods, evidence had shown that wouldn't be worth much at all. She instead resolves to help in a different fashion. She wriggles down the side of the wall, concentrates to dispel her ooze form, and then flourishes her pen once more. "Alright Jafaki, if that's what your name is, how would you like a nice portrait... of you in the trash!"
It's not her best ever line, but it would have to do.
Bella shot a sling bullet at the remaining enemy, then reloaded and moved forward.
Eyenia switches the target of her spiritual weapon to Jafaki before trying to blast the foe with divine power.
Bertolt fails to disarm Jafaki. Bella manages to hit the seugathi but the sling bullet doesn't seem to faze them, while everybody else misses with their attacks!
Jafaki continues to attack Bertolt, scoring two hits.
Bertolt weathers the blows and bullies him into a corner, stepping after him. "FOUL BEAST, YE SHALL FALL NOW! SURRENDER!"
Zetty hurries over to stand behind the massive Bertolt, hoping his defensive prowess continues to hold Jafaki off. As he pulls back to swing his longsword, she touches the tip of the blade with her inkpen, injecting the weapon with a magical augmentation!
"Eyenia, any healing magic left for Bertolt?"
Bella cast a divine spell to heal Bertolt, and then reloaded her sling.
◆◆Cast Heal
◆Reload
Jafaki continues to prove quite pernicious, completely resisting Vengis's spell and avoiding all attacks save for Bertolt's sword and Eyenia's spiritual weapon. The seugathi still seems quite hale and healthy as they attack Bertolt yet again!
Having done all she can for Bertolt's own offenses, Zetty switches back to inspiring courage in her allies and starts sketching. She telekinetically grabs the drider's glaive and sends it spinning through the air at Jafaki.
Bella took another shot with her sling, and then reloaded. Finally, she tried to treat Bertolt's poisoned wound.
Though Zetty and Vengis both miss with their projectiles, Kragga finally manages to connect with her magical flame, burning Jafaki. Bertolt lays into the seugathi, scoring a critical hit and following up with another strike that eviscerates the creature! At last, the wormlike Jafaki falls from the air, landing on the floor of the laboratory and lying still as greenish ichor pools around their body! You have finally emerged victorious!
Scattered around the lab are all the pieces for expanded alchemist’s tools, expanded healer’s tools, and a superb repair kit. None of the proper pieces are together, however, so it takes several minutes of hunting around to assemble them all. A crafter’s eyepiece and two vials of moderate antiplague sit on the shelves.
It seems Jafaki's current project was an attempt to manufacture a flesh golem with occult machinery here. They intended to assemble it using the morlock’s head and the neatly labeled body parts scattered around the room. A sketch pad bears the instructions for assembly and notes that ambient necromantic energy in the Abomination Vaults will animate the flesh golem. The key to this experiment is the occult machinery keeping its head alive, which focuses this ambient energy. Dismantling or destroying the machine will kill the morlock head and prevent the golem from being completed.
Zetty carefully prods the rubbery worm with her foot. "It's dead, right? No tricks?" She shakes her head "That was horrible. Our mummy friend upstairs could have warned us a bit better on just how dangerous Jafaki was." She looks over the group's injuries "But we pulled through, somehow!"
She peeks out of the room to see if anything or anyone is coming to investigate Jafaki's demise, then helps the others gather up all the interesting bits and bobs the seugathi left behind. The occult machinery and the preserved morlock head earn a grimace from her. She takes the sketch pad with the instructions into her bag, then comments "We should probably break that thing, the machine that is, before we have some kinda flesh hulk on our hands. Seems like it'll work automatically even without Jafaki's help. And then after that... well, I think it's past time for us to get out of here and get some rest!"
Bella healed everyone's wounds, in case the group encountered more enemies.
After she finished, she proposed, "That was a quite the fight. I've depleted my healing abilities considerably. I think it makes sense to return home and rest up."
Exhausted from the grueling battles, you make your way out of the Abomination Vaults and back to Otari. The townsfolk welcome you home, and all the town's services are available to you to rest, recover, or upgrade your equipment before returning to the dungeons once more.
Zetty heads for the Rowdy Rockfish for a mug of hot chocolate, which she ends up cradling as she pores over the drawings and maps of the most recent floor the group had explored. At first, she'd expected it to be nothing but Seugathi labs, but the tavern in the middle of it all had totally thrown that out the window. She can't help but wonder if the clientele will stick around with more of the seugathi dead and gone.
Despite her good intentions to catalogue everything, Zetty falls asleep mid-perusal, her head falling into the pile of loose papers.
Bertolt loudly enters and finds the nearest chair, collapsing into it dramatically. "Arrrghhh, what a day! It was a glorious one, but truly exhausting! Barkeep I will take your darkest, stoutest ale, and keep it coming!" He pats his grumbling stomach. "And two hearty meals!"
Zetty wakes groggy and with a inky imprint on her face from the mass of drawings and diagrams she's fallen asleep on. She settles back into the chair with a yawn, stretching all four limbs before snuggling the blanket someone had put around her during the night. She briefly considers shuffling up to a room to sleep another couple of hours, but a quick look out the window at the rising sun changes her mind. She waves her thanks to Brelda, the inn's proprietress, before heading out into the town. There were items to sell and plans to make before heading back!
After finding decent prices for the group's gear, she heads over to Wrin to fill the woman in on the group's latest discoveries, including the presence of seugathi deep within the catacombs. She also mentions a likely connection to the darklands, given the presence of the tavern deep below. "I think we'll be going back in today. That mummy we met might be helpful, or might be dangerous, now that we've done what he wanted. What do you think? Or what have the stars been telling you?"
Bella rose just before dawn, and dutifly perfrmed her prayers to the rising sun. Then she set out to join up with her comrades and make plans for the day.
Wrin consults the star charts from the previous night. "The stars have shown that the mummy with grant you weal, not woe. I believe he will assist you as he promised. What lies further down, though, is anybody's guess. Be careful, and may Desna bless your travels, Zetty!"
After having his armor forged with the new magic properties taken from the crypt, Bertolt returns to the others with his beaming smile, ready to proceed!
Zetty gives Wrin a thumbs up "Thanks! That's reassuring for sure. Maybe we'll learn something critical about Belcorra. Or even better, learn a way to set her back." She waves as she heads out and rejoins the group, shouldering her pack and psyching herself up for what's likely to be another harrowing day.
"So, we go down to our new mummy friend first? Any objections?"
Bertolt cheerily throws an arm around Zetty. "Agreed, onwards!"