Mazul blinks, suddenly coming to her senses as the screaming fades. "What...oh. Sorry Zin." It's fortunate he only took a scratch; she vaguely remembers swinging at him with all her might.
"Let's get out of here. Before that thing comes back." She sees Wan dropping the necklace of fireballs down the shaft and gives a nod of approval, even though she herself is heading for the door. "Hopefully that killed it. Or at least hurt it enough that it won't be screaming at us anytime soon." She shudders a little at the memory of those sounds. "We'll have to make a note when we go down to the next level to avoid that room. Or at least be very careful if we enter."
On the way out she snatches the healing potion from the pile of stuff in the corner. "This must have been Gorul, Shad, and Ziskilly's gear. No point in carrying their armor and weapons around with us, but before we head to Otari next we can pick it up and return it to them. I'm sure they'd appreciate it. I'll hang onto the healing potion though; if we need it we'll probably really need it and we can always reimburse them later."
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Orgun interposes his shield, absorbing most of the damage Zin inflicts on Akkaboo. Then he sees Wan say something about planning and drop a bead into the well, followed by an explosion.
Instinctively he raises his shield upwards to prevent any rubble from crushing himself and everyone around him. When the structure stands, he says "That may have solved the gibbering problem, but let's try to avoid causing explosions in ancient stone constructions."
He is glad everything worked out and says "Everyone breathing? Good. We can move on."
"I can do more if it would be useful," Wan offers. With no takers, the tengu sniffs to himself, pops the helmet of Proto back on, and offers a "Well I'm sure that I'm ready to go wherever you'll be leading us next" to Mazul.
"There's that door to the southwest, where the bedrooms were. We haven't checked that out yet." Mazul starts heading in that direction.
"We have run into more secret passages than real ones Orgun. That is my only guess." Zin begins to explain the layout of the floor above as he follows Mazul.
A desk with a chair sits in the middle of this room, while three empty picture frames hang on the walls. Two morlocks are tinkering with a broken clockwork construct. They are distracted and react more slowly to your arrival, but they snarl and reach for their clubs!
"These things," Wan gives a deep sigh as the gears inside his suit begin to whir quickly, "are pests, Orgun. Exterminate with as much prejudice as you'd care to muster. Coming through!"
Wan moves around Orgun and Mazul, then brings his exotic-looking club down on the right-hand morlock.
The tengu gets the handle of his khakkara stuck in his bulky suit of mail as he moves past Mazul. The resultant strike clunks against the stone wall of the oddly-shaped chamber.
"We should have asked how many were down here." Zin quickly rushes into the room, slices at the that Wan has covered.
AC 17 (18 w/ shield); Curse Stage: None (-0 AC)
HP 22/22 | Resistance Physical 3; Harm 5
Hero Points 1/3
Focus Points 3/3
Spells (1) 3/3 |
Wand of Heal (1st) 1/1
Curse Benefit: Resistance: All Physical 3
Minor - (Enfeebled 1; -2 to saves, Grapple, Shoved and Forced Movement)
Moderate - (Enfeebled 2; -3 to saves, Grapple, Shoved and Forced Movement)
Mazul moves into the cramped room. "Too many, as far as I'm concerned." One eyebrow arches. "Clubs? Really? You'd think your friends would have shared the modified crossbow design, not that you could use it here."
Knowing that there's no chance of flanking with anyone in such a crowded room, she weaves her rapier in a complicated pattern that she hopes will cause a similar amount of distraction.
Mazul moves in and feints the first morlock before stabbing it under the arm! Wan kicks his armor into overdrive but misses with his strike. Zin moves up between the half-orc and the tengu, landing his second strike on Wan's foe.
The morlocks draw their weapons and swing wildly, not hitting anybody!
"Don't mind me," Wan sing-songs as he raises his khakkara again, "I'm just going to continue with my wrathful critter mashing."
Wan admires his handiwork.
Taking advantage of the way the morlock's eyes keep following her rapier's erratic movements, Mazul quickly changes direction and stabs it in the chest. "Sorry Orgun, it's a bit crowded in here. Nice jump though." Following Orgun's example, she defensively raises her buckler.
Orgun comes just short of hitting his target, but Mazul slays her foe with a brutal strike to the throat before turning around to impale the other morlock. Wan hacks that morlock apart with two powerful strikes from his own weapon!
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Orgun says "I'm not claustrophobic, if that's what you're implying." It would be very embarrassing for a dwarf to not like closed places. It does remind him of a tale of such a dwarf which were a recurrent joke when he was a child, but it wouldn't be funny now. Still, he chuckles to himself, half sounding mad.
He looks at the clockwork and says "I don't know how to fix these, but they can be worth some money to an interested party. Let me know when you're ready to move."
"You want some spare parts for your armor Wan?" Zin pokes around the clockwork set, unsure on how exactly it functions.
"Claustrophobic?" Mazul looks confused for a moment before realization dawns. "Ohhhhh. No, I just didn't think you'd be able to make it in with all of us swinging like that. Most of the rooms in this place have a bit more, well, room. Except that one hallway with the living shadow, which can-" The rest of the sentence involves a lot of Orcish curses.
Vitriol about that particular hallway expelled, she jerks her head towards the clockwork assistant. "Nice and shiny Wan, just the way you like it. I think it would look amazing on Proto's shoulder."
"Aw, yeah!" Wan hops (literally) over to the clockwork mechanism, keen to extract the valuable pieces.
Wan gingerly pulls out the inner workings of the clockwork form.
"So SHINY!"
While Wan gathers his shineys Zin takes a peek behind door #1. "Bound to be more morlocks around here." His thoughts drift back to the gibbering creature in the well. Was that what spoke to him from afar?
Zin opens the door and quietly peeks through to see what is on the other side. One wall of this washroom has been gouged out by sharp claws, revealing a rough-hewn tunnel leading west.
Water drips down the walls of the cavern, at the end of the tunnel particularly along a jumble of dangling pallid roots to the south. Beneath them is a large, soggy nest of mud and bones. Resting on the nest is a horrible sluglike aberration. While its head and torso is vaguely human, its arms are rubbery and move awkwardly at its side. Fortunately, it doesn't seem to have noticed Zin yet.
Zin keeps his blade drawn. "We are just looking to pass through or do you also mean us harm down here?"
Calling out to the creature appears to have been a bad idea. It turns to regard Zin, then it begins to moan piteously as it slithers towards him, claws outstretched!
Seeing the disturbing creature turn and claw out at him causes Zin to scurry to the far corner of the room as a sliver of moonlight sears into slug-like form.
+ Dazzled 1 round (Minute if a crit)
AC 17 (18 w/ shield); Curse Stage: Minor (-1 AC)
HP 22/22 | Resistance Physical 3; Harm 5
Hero Points 1/3
Focus Points 2/3
Spells (1) 3/3 |
Wand of Heal (1st) 1/1
Curse Benefit: Resistance: All Physical 3
Minor - (Enfeebled 1; -2 to saves, Grapple, Shoved and Forced Movement)
Moderate - (Enfeebled 2; -3 to saves, Grapple, Shoved and Forced Movement)
The familiar whir from Wan's Proto-suit sings out as the horror begins to wail. It is followed by the sounds of deep, disgusted breathing.
"I mean, really, Zin?! You saw that thing and decided that you WANTED to make friends with it? We need to talk about your standards, honey. Ick."
Something goes within the Proto suit and Wan screeches. Before he moves into the fray, he chastises Zin again in a pained voice.
"Do you see what you made me do, Zinny?"
"What the hell is that thing?!" Mazul is deeply disturbed by the strange slug-human creature.
Whatever it is, it seems hostile. Mazul rushes past Wan to get to the other side, (even though unfortunately its back is still towards the wall). "Mind doing me a favor and stepping forward a little? I'd really appreciate it." She punctuates the request with a stab from her rapier.
Zin blasts the creature with moonlight, dazzling it. Mazul lands a hit but Wan misses by quite a large margin. Its only response to Mazul’s request is to claw at the rogue, narrowly missing her!
Zin rushes into the slug, slashing at its bulbous body. He looks around in confusion "I couldn't tell what it was!"
AC 17 (18 w/ shield); Curse Stage: Minor (-1 AC)
HP 22/22 | Resistance Physical 3; Harm 5
Hero Points 1/3
Focus Points 2/3
Spells (1) 3/3 |
Wand of Heal (1st) 1/1
Curse Benefit: Resistance: All Physical 3
Minor - (Enfeebled 1; -2 to saves, Grapple, Shoved and Forced Movement)
Moderate - (Enfeebled 2; -3 to saves, Grapple, Shoved and Forced Movement)
"I must restore some of my dignity," Wan says to no one - or maybe himself - before he attempts to land another blow.
"Akkaboo, sweetling? Come and join in the fun!" Wan invites the skittish goblin.
Unable to get behind the creature, Mazul begins waving her rapier in the same complicated pattern she'd just used against the morlocks. "Look over here...no over there...and stab!"
"Yuck!" Akkaboo's red eyes peer out from around the corner before the rest of her slowly follows. "I don't think I want to know what it is..." Carefully she coaxes a spark to life between her hands, shielding the flame from the gross creature before throwing it violently towards the mayhem.
Orgun narrowly misses with his attack, but Akkaboo burns the monster with flames. Zin is unable to recall what type of monster it is, but he is able to slice it with his blade. Wan hits it this time, and while Mazul succesfully feints, her follow up attacks fall short.
The monster turns its focus to Zin, clawing him once.
"For the sake of good taste AND my gag reflex, this thing must die!"
Wan launches into a complex attack.
Unfortunately, the close quarters makes Wan's attacks ineffective. The tengu ponders the thing's origin, trying to be of use.
Getting a small nip, Zin continues to hack and slash at the bulbous body.
AC 17 (18 w/ shield); Curse Stage: Minor (-1 AC)
HP 16/22 | Resistance Physical 3; Harm 5
Hero Points 1/3
Focus Points 2/3
Spells (1) 3/3 |
Wand of Heal (1st) 1/1
Curse Benefit: Resistance: All Physical 3
Minor - (Enfeebled 1; -2 to saves, Grapple, Shoved and Forced Movement)
Moderate - (Enfeebled 2; -3 to saves, Grapple, Shoved and Forced Movement)
"Okay... what is it..." Akkaboo's tone makes it quite clear that her thoughts on the matter have not changed significantly - nor has her penchant for fire.
Mazul flails wildly at the creature, but apparently Wan's bad luck is infectious. After a couple failures she gives up and raises her shield instead.
Akkaboo recognizes the creature as a grothlut, a fleshwarp that was once human. Many fleshwarpers consider the grothlut to be a failure of a creation, as the transformation all but stamps out the human consciousness. Others disagree, arguing that warping the creature’s mind makes it all the more useful, since its stupidity makes it pliable and easy to herd.
Zin slices the grothlut once, then Orgun bashes it twice. With that final blow, the monster’s digestive organs rupture, unleashing alchemical acid and poison upon you as it dies a gory, explosive death!
Mazul's relief at seeing the creature fall is short-lived. "Ow, ow, ow..." Being covered in something's stomach acid is not her idea of a good time. The realization that she is in fact covered in stomach acid is enough to make her spend several seconds retching in a corner.
"Ugh." She straightens shakily and wipes her mouth. "Let's not do that ever again."
She tries to find some ointment in her bag to take care of the worst of the burns, but comes up empty. "Zin? Or Orgun? I could use some of that good healing magic if you've got any."
Proto’s natural defences show up for the first time as the unsteady Wan gets slimed by the exploding fleshwarp, blocking some (but not all) of the acid damage.
"Enough of this drudgery!" Wan exclaims, producing his healer's tools.
"B$*#&@$s!" the frustrated tengu exclaims. He then pulls out a vial, pops the helmet on Proto, and begins furiously retching.
Choking up a bit of mucus, Wan spits it out, then downs the potion in his mitt.
Wan winds up hacking and choking a bit more before he’s ready to drink his potion.
Zin immediately begins to vomit as some of the 'juice' gets in his mouth.
Getting the thick goo from his mouth Zin spits a few more times before seeing who needs tended to.
Zin's supplies are still extremely low, but he tries to make due. Growing frustrated he pulls out his wand and offers a bit more.
AC 17 (18 w/ shield); Curse Stage: Minor (-1 AC)
HP 11/22 | Resistance Physical 3; Harm 5
Hero Points 1/3
Focus Points 2/3
Spells (1) 3/3 |
Wand of Heal (1st) 0/1
Curse Benefit: Resistance: All Physical 3
Minor - (Enfeebled 1; -2 to saves, Grapple, Shoved and Forced Movement)
Moderate - (Enfeebled 2; -3 to saves, Grapple, Shoved and Forced Movement)
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Orgun is bathed in stomach acid and retches for a while until his body catches up to himself and he recovers. He hears Mazul's plea and touches him, filling him with divine healing magic.
Afterwards, he says "Despite this smell, I think I want to check through this thing's belongings." He goes to its nest and tries to find anything useful, possibly the remnants of someone it ate."[/b]
Searching the room does not uncover anything of value.