Both Mary and Valeros seem like they're naturals on the ropes, they both climb down very easily. Both Kyra and Ezren aren't as athletic as their counterparts so they both struggle. But eventually everyone makes it to the bottom!
Once all the heroes climb down the cliff, you can examine this area. There is little of interest here, but anyone who looks can find a trail in the dust and grime, making it clear that creatures have come this way in the recent past. Moisture and time have obscured any details such as footprints, however.
There is a patch of mushrooms in the corner that look like they could be edible.
And there is a set of stairs heading down to the north.
Ezren stops to examine the mushrooms, wondering if they would be useful for magical spells or even for harvesting to sell.
Mary is ready to go, but notices that Ezren is distracted by the local funga. "Hey, Ez! What's the deal with the shrooms? I'm not sure now's the time for mycology. Grab one to check out later and let's move on."
She moves to the top of the stairs heading north and prepares to go down quietly as soon as everyone is ready.
Ezren takes a note of the mushrooms. He believes they are safe to eat and not poisonous.
They are the most bitter thing you've had in a long time. Edible, but very bitter. Maybe the rats skipped the mushrooms due to their bitterness.
The tunnel continues deeper underground, eventually opening into a large chamber. Patches of glowing blue fungus cling to the ceiling and provide dim light. You can just barely make out vast strands of webbing across the floor and walls of this cavern, stretching between stalactites like shimmering curtains.
When the idea of tasting the mushrooms is brought up, Mary scrunches her face in distaste. "Ew! Not a chance, Ez. You can keep your strange subterranean mushrooms to yourself."
When they get to the large chamber and notice the glowing blue fungus, Mary nudges Ezren and points at a patch. "Ez! Whaddaya think of this? Looks especially tasty, no?" and finishes with a chuckle to show she's only kidding.
Mary surveys the chamber and looks at Kyra askance. "If by my speciality, you mean me being trapped in a giant web and eaten by giant spiders, then it looks like I'm your girl." After examining the situation for a few minutes, she says, "OK. Looks like I can work my way across by carefully stepping from rock to rock and sliding along that ledge over there." Without further ado, she says, "Wish me luck." and springing onto the nearest stone...
...agilely works her way into the room by stepping lightly from rock to rock. When she runs out of rocks, Mary pivots in place to bring the ledge she spotted earlier within reach, and...
...with slightly less finesse than earlier, still manages to reach the ledge and slide along its length before stepping off onto the bottom step of the stairs out. "Phew!" Turning to face her companions, she says, "Wasn't all that tough after all. Who's next?"
Ezren examines the mushrooms, but with the others' reluctance to touch them, he decides to leave the fungi where it is.
As Mary crosses the webbing, Ezren considers what might have created this webbing across the room.
When it's his turn to cross, Ezren tries to follow Mary's path through the cavern.
As Ezren trips on some of the webbing, he notices that some of the larger webs start to twitch. He looks towards the northeast room. It's pitch black so he doesn't see anything. Suddenly, hundreds of eyes light up! A giant spider indeed!
Only Valeros is quick enough to react to the spider!
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[u]Round 1[/u]
Valeros (24/24 hp)
Giant Spider
Mary (15/15 hp)
Kyra (17/21 hp)
Ezren (16/16 hp)
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Before the spider attack. Valeros watches Mary bound across the stones
"Couldn't we just light the webs on fire to make our way through?"
But Ezren starts to make his way and get stuck in the web. "Ha ha old man. don't you have a spell to clear these webs? Wait, what that over there? By the gods, a giant spider. Ezren watch out!" Valeros yells out.
He rushes forward to protect Ezren.
Forcing and cutting his way through the webs Valeros stands between the spider and Ezren raising his shield to deflect any attacks.
Valeros slowly approaches the spider, trying to put his body between the more squishier of his companions.
The spider shoots out a web at the fighter, but webbing just tangles up a nearby stalagmite instead. Then it slides down one of its webs and bites down hard on Valeros.
Valeros feels the spider inject something into him.
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[u]Round 1-2[/u]
Valeros (17/24 hp) ()
Giant Spider
Mary (15/15 hp)
Kyra (21/21 hp)
Ezren (16/16 hp)
Ezren's eyes go wide as he sees the spider dashing towards him. He manages to breathe a small sigh of relief when Valeros appears and puts himself between the creature and the wizard.
While grateful, Ezren knows the spider on its own turf will be formidable. He speaks some arcane word and flourish his staff. Three blindly bright darts shoot out of the staff and spin around the room before slamming into the spider.
Mary sees the spider eyes light up. "Uh oh. What've you done to us now Ez? That feller looks a little hungry and I'm guessing we look a lot like spider food right now."
As Valeros moves up to engage the giant spider head on, Mary carefully makes her way around to the back of the creature and picking her target well, jams her rapier into a soft part of its thorax.
Valeros feels the venom trickle through his veins. But luckily, the pain goes away rather quickly.
Ezren blasts the creature with a trio of missiles. Mary makes her way in and stabs the thing, nearly killing it. Both Kyra and Valeros slice and dice the spider till it's no more! ()
Valeros (12/24 hp)
Mary (15/15 hp)
Kyra (21/21 hp)
Ezren (16/16 hp)
Looking into the spider's lair, no more spiders come out, thankfully.
The group heads northwest. After the web-infested cave, the passageway leading deeper underneath the streeets of Otari appears to be mostly natural, but someone, or something, has worked to open the cavern and level out the floor, making the passage easily traveled. A crude barricade made from old wooden planks and part of a barrel blocks the entrance to a side tunnel, while the main passage continues off into the gloom.
The area is unlit, but anyone with a torch or darkvision can tell that the tunnel opens up into a larger room ahead, with a large rectangular object in the middle.
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At the spider lair.
Finding the web bunddle.
"Look over here. It looks like a mini lizard man. Who ever it was, it sure had a fancy weapon. Nice gem on this shortsword. And look a vile of some sort of healing potion I believe. Kyra can you take a look at this potion."
In the cavern:
Valeros says quietly to the others.
"Well this is odd. Who would build this down here and why would they do it? Do we knock it down or leave it be? Does anyone think that this could have be build by more of the mini lizard men?"
”Nice catch there Val; not sure how I missed that. I’m just glad we didn’t end up like that lizard guy.”
”Dunno. Maybe it’s to keep the spider out.”
”Nope. Not having any luck here. Anyone else want to give it a try?”
Ezren examines the barricade, trying to be quiet once Kyra notices that something or someone might be on the other side. [smaller]"Look here, Mary. I think this area is all bearing weight on these few cross pieces..." He tries to slowly remove the key elements of the barricade.
As Mary attempts to quietly dismantle the barrier, the large barrel that serves as the foundation comes crashing to the ground. It explodes in a large *crash*. With the help of Ezren, they clear the rest of the rubble and head further in.
Beyond the barricade, an old cavern corridor winds down into the earth, ending in an ancient burial vault lit by a strange torch with blue flames. Alcoves line the walls, each one containing a rotten wooden coffin, while the center of the room has a raised platform holding a stone sarcophagus.
That's not all thats in the room! You must've disturbed their rest when you collapsed the barricade. The undead have risen! Four skeletons stand up in the coffins. In the center, a greyish figure with rotten flesh stands up as well. Only one thing to do here!
The red skeleton steps out of its coffin and stumbles into Mary. With one claw, it glances off her armor. The next claw, she easily dodges out of the way of the attack!
Only Ezren and Kyra are able to react before more undead arrive!
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[u]Round 1[/u]
Red skeleton
Ezren (16/16 hp)
Kyra (21/21 hp)
Pink Skeleton
Valeros (12/24 hp)
Mary (15/15 hp)
Yellow skeleton
Zombie
Blue skeleton
"The dead should stay dead!" Ezren makes a flourishing motion with his hand and electricity spring out going from the skeleton that attacked Mary to the zombie in the center of the room.
In the moment, Ezren gets distracted by the skeletons in front of him. All he knows is that they're made of bones. Probably from a human or other humanoid. Definitely undead.
As he shoots off his electric arc, the bones sort of act as a conductor and just channel the electricity into the ground. ().
Kyra moves slightly closer to get the zombie in range. She holds out a symbol of Sarenrae and attempts to lance the undead enemy. And lance she does. It seems to do quite a bit more damage than she expected! ().
The pink skeleton sees its chance. It shambles up to Valeros, arms raised. It slashes at him, then slashes again. But no luck, his armor is too tough!
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[u]Round 1[/u]
Red skeleton
Ezren (16/16 hp)
Kyra (21/21 hp)
Pink Skeleton
Valeros (12/24 hp)
Mary (15/15 hp)
Yellow skeleton
Zombie
Blue skeleton
And Valeros destroys the skeleton in front of him! Bones fall to the floor. The other skeletons (and zombie) now look towards him!
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[u]Round 1[/u]
Red skeleton
Ezren (16/16 hp)
Kyra (21/21 hp)
Valeros (12/24 hp)
Mary (15/15 hp)
Yellow skeleton
Zombie
Blue skeleton
When the barrier comes crashing down, Mary hops back looking a little sheepish. ”Oops! Sorry about that, guys. On the plus side though, we can get through now.”
After she barely avoids the red claws of death and watches Valeros take out his skeleton, Mary ducks and passes her own skeletal attacker. ”Welp, I’m outta here. Take care of this one for me, Val. I’ll take a shot at the uglyer one.” Rapier in hand, she makes a beeline for the rotting figure and coming at it from its blind side, jams the point of her sword into it a couple of times.
Yanking out her rapier, Mary realizes that she doesn’t have time to get out of the rotter’s reach. ”Uh oh. This could get nasty”
Mary steps in, closer to the zombie. It looks curiously at her right before the rogue stabs it with her rapier. She stabs at it again. Her blade sinks in deep both times. The zombie doesn't look happy ... as it collapses into a heap of flesh and bones. ()
The yellow skeleton sees Mary, an easy target to get to. It shambles forward, both arms raised.
With it's claws, it slashes Mary across her chest. But all it seems to do is tangle with her armor. It tries again... same thing.
The blue skeleton wanders forth, towards the cleric Kyra. Same thing: arms raised, ready to slash.
One claw just rakes against her armor, but another lands a solid blow and slashes Kyra's face. ().
The last skeleton only has one option in front of him: Valeros. And it only knows to do one thing: slash slash slash!
And lucky for him, Valeros's armor is tough and blocks each successive attack.
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[u]Round 2[/u]
Red skeleton
Ezren (16/16 hp)
Kyra (17/21 hp)
Valeros (12/24 hp)
Mary (15/15 hp)
Yellow skeleton
Blue skeleton
Ezren frowns as the electricity seems to have no effect on the skeleton. He decides to use his ray of frost on one of them instead. Stepping up behind Kyra, he points his staff at the one near her.
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With the skeletons so close Kyra raises her shield before unleashing another bolt of positive energy, this time following Ezren's lead.
Disruptive Undead auto-hits withing 30' for and a basic Fortitude save DC 17. On a crit failure, the creature also takes a –1 status penalty to melee attack rolls, melee damage rolls, and Athletics checks.
Mary braces herself for the zombie’s counterattack, but it never comes. Instead it collapses in a heap at her feet. She kicks at the remains to make sure it really is dead. ”Huh. Not so tough as all that, I guess.” She looks up just in time to dodge the skeleton’s attack; instead, its claws scrape across her leather armor leaving scratches. ”Holy smokes! This armor’s already paid for itself twice over.” ”Hey bub! You better hope these scratches buff out or I’m sending you the bill.”
Since her double rapier attack on the rotting guy worked so well, Mary sees no reason not to try again.
”These skellys are tougher to damage than I thought. All bones and no flesh makes Mary an angry girl.” Rather than waste time on another futile attack, she decides that discretion is the better part of valor, and withdraws strategically.
Ezren blasts the blue skeleton with a ray of frost. It hits! The skeleton freezes in place for a second, but continues to move. The attack doesn't seem as effective as it could be though.
Then Kyra finishes it off with a blast of positive energy to the face! The skeleton crumples to the floor.
Mary continues to stab at the yellow skeleton. She pokes and pokes, but her attacks just can't seem to hit. Or rather, they just hit the air in between it's ribs. ()
Valeros raises his shield, hopefully blocking off any further attacks. Then he slashes at the red skeleton. His sword strikes across it's ribs and he plays it like a xylophone! Not as effective as he would have thought, but the skeleton seems nearly dead.
The yellow skeleton looks at Kyra then looks at Mary. It thinks Mary is closer, so it walks her way, arms raised.
But Mary is too agile for its claws!
The red one continues its onslaught on Valeros.
And it's claws can't penetrate his armor!
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[u]Round 3[/u]
Red skeleton (-3 hp)
Ezren (16/16 hp)
Kyra (17/21 hp)
Valeros (12/24 hp)
Mary (15/15 hp)
Yellow skeleton
Another skeleton goes down! Only one left and its staring Mary down.
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[u]Round 3[/u]
Ezren (16/16 hp)
Kyra (17/21 hp)
Valeros (12/24 hp)
Mary (15/15 hp)
Yellow skeleton
And the last skeleton crumbles to dust! No more undead seem to rise... at least not for the moment. The torch with a blue flame right above the sarcophagus doesn't seem to shed any heat.
Also, inside one of the coffins, one of the skeletons was buried with a polished shield carved to look like a roaring lion. It functions as a steel shield. Or you can sell it for 5 gp due to its fine artistry.
Ezren (16/16 hp)
Kyra (17/21 hp)
Valeros (12/24 hp)
Mary (15/15 hp)
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After Mary notices that her rapier thrusts are not having the full effect they should, she says, ”Uh guys? Looks like pokin’ at these skellys isn’t working real good. I’m gonna try some slicin’ n dicin’ instead.” Mary then drops her rapier and whips out her shortsword.
Another claw attack is thwarted by her armor. ”I’m beginning to think this armor might be magical.” ”That’s it! You are def getting the bill for this.”
Mary slashes at the skeleton but her sword ends up passing through a cloud of dust as Kyra’s spell takes effect. Looking at her companion across the room, she says, ”Was that me, or did you do that?”
Mary puts her shortsword away and picks up her rapier. ”I guess we know why they put up that barricade now, eh? Only question left is who they are. Maybe more of those lizard men that Val found earlier.”
She examines the torch, then tentatively touches it and finds it cold. ”Nice! Looks like one of those fancy torches that stays lit forever.” She pulls it out of the sconce. ”Waste not; want not. I don’t think these folks’ll be needing it anymore,” and stuffs it in her backpack. ”I think Ez and Val’s lights are more convenient than carrying this one around anyway.”
Indicating the shield, she says, ”that’s a pretty posh looking shield the skelly had there. Looks like it might be worth a few gold.” Looking over at Kyra, she asks, ”Could you or Val use it? Looks a little sturdier than your wooden ones.”
While Kyra and Valeros’s wounds are being taken care of, Mary tries to see if she can do anything about the scratch marks on her previously pristine leathers. After a couple of futile minutes, she gives up. ”Nope; nothing for it I’m afraid. It’s going to need a leathersmith. Prob’ly going to cost me too, but we can’t be going about town looking shabby now, can we?”
When everyone is ready to go, Mary leads the way down the southwest passage.
Ezren examines the shield and the torch. "Quite interesting. I wonder who they might have been." The wizard looks for any inscriptions on the graves.
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Wait for a bit Mary. Let me see if I can patch us up.
After bandaging a few of her own scratches Kyra turns to Valeros.
Neglecting your injuries is how they become fatalities. Next time say something when you're hurt.
With that she sets to work half mummifing the battered fighter.
20 minutes later she's finished with both and waiting for the results of Ezren's investigation.
Ezren knows this is an Everburning Torch. Very useful!
He also continues to search the room. Besides the shield and the torch, nothing jumps out as magical. There do seem to be some inscriptions, but time, moisture, and mold, have all but eroded them.
Ezren (16/16 hp)
Kyra (20/21 hp)
Valeros (24/24 hp)
Mary (15/15 hp)
Mary repeatedly runs a small whetstone along her rapier to bring its edge back. After testing the sharpness with her thumb and being satisfied with the result, she puts away her stone and looks up. ”How’s it going? Looks like you’re still bleeding a little from that face wound, Kyra. You may want to take care of that before we move on.”
Ezren holds the torch above his head. "This is an Everburning Torch!" He looks at the others excitedly about his declaration. Suddenly he realizes that the name is fairly self-explanatory. "Oh, um. Yes, that's what it's called."