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Nal in a heroic last stand, either she or the creature will die, moves quickly over to the crab like creature. Bringing her shortsword back above her head she delivers an accurate blow with the pointed tip of her sword into the soft unprotected flesh around it's neck. The crab turns and holds it's claw up ready to strike at it's attacker.
As Nal withdraws the blade. The blade is covered with the blue blood and flesh of the crab, opens up a deep cut out of which a flood of vital life juices leave the crab. The claw drops and Nal plunges her sword once again into the already dead hunter of the wine cellar.
As the crab thing lies dead, the smell of it's blood and death fills the wine cellar.
Redd's Granma comes back from the kitchen, calling to her child's child, "Redd my deary, I've made some crab cakes and a little Crab & Sweetcorn chowder if you want some soup?"
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Breathing heavily, Nal immediately drops her sword beside the wall and pulls out her healer's tools. Swiftly, with hands only shaking slightly with the nerves of a novice, she begins cleaning and binding Redd's wounds as best she can.
Wow! Beginner's luck, I guess. "Whew! Glad to have you back in the land of the living, Redd."
"Okay Rannarix. Thanks for being patient. Your turn." Hope my beginner's luck holds...
"Uhhh... Sorry, I... um... I'm new at this." Sheepishly, she looks to Redd and Aunt Cindy for help. "I suppose there're always healing potions, too."
Finally, she retrieves her sword, cleans it as best she can, and sheaths it.
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Redd slowly stands. A bit disoriented, she teeters then grabs onto Nal to steady herself.
Thank... you... Nal.
She shakes her head to clear her mind.
Pathfinderin' is dangerous! I thought I was a goner. And to think we just got down here!
Redd looks around at the rest of the group.
Everyone else okay? Maybe we should go up top really quick and get more supplies before venturin' further.
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After a good hour of Nal treating Redd's wounds, Redd feels much better. She profusely thanks Nal for a job well done.
I'll try to help out Rannarix. His physiology is much different than I'm used to, but, I'll give it a try. May I borrow your healer's kit, Nal?
Okay, Rannarix. Try to stay still. This might sting a little bit.
She adds salves and tinctures and stitches up the kobold's wounds.
There. That should make you feel a bit better, Rannarix.
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With the cave fisher defeated, the healing of Redd and Rannarix taking place, Incendia and Nal are able to take time to have a detailed look around the room. While the wine racks themselves are in ruins, the door at the back is of interest. Though this was once a superbly crafted secret door, it is now clearly visible.
You are able to push open the door, not because the door is stuck, but it is a door meant to be opened by a cyclops.
Leaving the door for a moment, Nal and Incendria continue to search the room, where Incendria finds a miraculously undamaged bottle of wine tucked in one corner, which is worth 4 gp.
You know the creature was a Cave Fisher(Elite).
You can't quite be sure, but probably a crab
The think the creature was a Eurypterid, a crab like creature with a nasty poison from it's stinger.
You know one of the cave fisher’s filament glands can be harvested. To harvest the filament gland you need to make a Crafting or Survival check. You know if you succeed the gland could be worth 7 gp.
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Once Redd is feeling better, Nal steps around the gore as best she can to inspect the creature that attacked them.
"Huh. It's a cave fisher. We had these back home, but this one's bigger. If we can manage to harvest the filament gland from the back of its throat, it's worth some money. I used to know a guy who made sovereign glue from it. I'm not confident I can this without messing it up, though. Does someone else want to try?"
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"Ow, ow, ow, yeah. Oh, that's the spot!" Rannarix feels better when Redd heals him. "Hey! Glad you ain't dead, Redd. Thanks!"
He looks over at what Incendia's doing and, filled with unmerited confidence, says "So what you want to do is put the knife right under there, with a, like, filleting motion."
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With Rannix's help the filament is extracted from the cave fisher and the party are ready to move on ..... each tries to open the door ....
With an almighty, almost super kobold push, Rannarix manages to push the huge heavy stone door open .... into a large dark corridor, suitable for cyclops.
After following the unadorned corridor for several hundred feet, the roughly hewn stones become smoother and more worked. Further down, statues line the corridor. The corridor splits at its end, continuing north and south.
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As you think about what happened in the cellar, you realise that the cave fisher must have entered from the outside some time ago, it managed to trap enough food, hence the bones, that it grew too big to escape. The crab like thing you saw as you searched, was the husk of the cave fisher that was shed when it got bigger and grew a new shell.
Nal and everyone listens to the silence of the corridors, turning to the right you are presented with a large stone door once again, another door fit for a cyclops. Rannarix tries to move it again, but his strength fails him this time. After everyone helps the small kobold in his task, you push for a minute or so, to eventually open the door.
Stone benches and cabinets line both sides of this long room, all clearly sized for large creatures. The benches are covered in beakers, alembics, and other glasswork used for experiments. The cabinets contain all manner of pots and flasks full of powders and liquids. While full, and clearly disused, the items look ordered. An acrid smell permeates the air, that has hung heavy over the centuries. There is nothing moving in the laboratory, it looks like nothing has been in here for a long, long time.
At the far end of the laboratory is another large stone door, that seals the rest of the complex from this laboratory.
To your left are 3 cabinets, to your right 4 benches with the beakers etc. arranged in a tidy and methodical manner.
Incendia - Investigate - Perception +1 for scout?
Nal - Avoid Notice - Stealth +1 for scout?
Rannarix - Search - Perception +1 for scout?
Redd - Scout - Perception +1 for scout?
Incendia Perception
Nal - Perception
Rannarix Perception
Redd - Perception
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Bearing in mind the cave fisher they just fought, Nal cautiously enters the room searching for tricks or traps. She warns the group: "Watch out for creatures."Where would I hide if I were an ambush predator? Her eyes fall on the cabinets. Good hiding places. Or maybe booby-trapped. Approaching the cabinet closest to the entrance, she first inspects it for traps or signs of having been used, disturbed, or moved recently. If all seems well, she'll try to open it.
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Unfamiliar with alchemical equipment, Redd moves slowly with bow in hand towards the center of the room to keep a lookout for trouble.
Wowww. Look at all this stuff. I'm afraid to get too close to anything. It looks so fragile with all that glass.
Be careful, everyone. Don't break anything.
She says quietly as she scans the room.
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Completely missing the subtext, Rannarix bounds eagerly into the room. "Yes! So fragile!" With the air of a five-year-old in a crystal shop, Rannarix begins to examine everything he sees.
Rannarix will look for anything with labels, particularly among the cabinets. He's certain there's got to be magic potions in here. What else is a laboratory for?
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Incendria makes her way carefully to the first of the laboratory benches, first using her knowledge of the magical forces to find anything that might still be left after all these hundreds of years. If there was anything, the auras have long since ceased and the magics dissipated. She carefully handles the glass flasks and containers, holding faded grey powder and brown stains from what might once have been a liquid. Everything seems inert and useless.
Nal starts to look in the cabinets, making her way down the laboratory. Just like Incendria, she finds nothing of any great interest, just mainly useless now inert reagents with empty flasks and other glass like instruments. But essentially worth nothing.
Redd is meanwhile carefully moving through the centre of the laboratory, on the lookout for any live or dead enemies that might lurk in the darkness. She strains her eyes to look beyond the light from Incendia''s spell.
She sees nothing, she hears only her companions, more especially Rannarix who is rapidly looking through the flasks, beakers alembics used for experimentation, as Rannarix moves from bench to bench.
Incendria, in her slow more considered approach to investigating and searching the benches, looks up thoughtfully. "These two benches, they are setup in a particular way. Everything is neat and organised. It looks like they were being used to conduct multiple experiments simultaneously upon this dried up substance, what ever it is?" She continues "Each of the experiments, seems to be researching a different property of the substance."
As Nal is about to start investigating the next cabinet, Redd shouts out a warning, "It'll collapse, careful."
At about the same time, Rannarix, who has been rummaging through the flasks on the third bench, picks up a bottle that suddenly explodes under the pressure of it's contents, sending shards of the glass bottle all around covered in the fermented fluid contained within.
You take 1HP of damage and please make a fortitude save.
As you search one of the cabinets, you find some undisturbed rare herbal and powdered ingredients worth 10gp. In addition you find an ampoule of lesser alchemist's fire.
Incendia Perception (Nature)
Nal Perception ooc
Redd Perception - Seek +2
Rannarix Perception
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Intrigued by Aunt Cindy's discovery, Nal pauses her investigation of the cabinets to peek at the mystery substance.
As Rannarix's flask explodes, she whips around in a flash, hand on her shortsword and ready to draw it. When she realizes what's happened, she relaxes. "Rannarix, are you okay?"
As she begins to patch up Rannarix's wounds, Nal quickly remembers that she *still* doesn't know much about kobold physiology and all that. She sheepishly apologizes to him and plaintively asks: "Umm...Redd? Can you take over? You did much better than I did last time."
Once all that's settled, Nal will turn to the unstable cabinet. "Let's see what I can do with this."
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Keeping a careful watch around her, Redd quickly turns upon hearing the pop of the exploding bottle and sees the startled Rannarix holding a shard of broken glass.
I told you to be careful, you silly goose! Some of this stuff could possibly create a poison gas -or worse- if it gets mixed with other stuff.
She sees the shelves that Nal is investigating shift from the wall and plaster crumbling from the wall supports behind it.
Hurry, Nal! Shift the support on that edge before it falls!
She shouts as she points at the shelves.
I'm on it, Nal!
She darts over to Rannarix and tends to his wounds.
This isn't a candy store, Ranny. You gotta be more careful.
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As Rannarix is caught unawares by the bottle as it explodes, his body is peppered by shards of glass as they cut into his flesh. The fermented potion clinging to the glass, is injected into his body, too much of it for him to resist.
With the attention turned to Rannarix's misfortune, being healed and admonished by Redd all at the same time,
Whilst Redd looks after the rather unwell Rannarix, he feels his head still spinning, Nal and Incendria continue their exploration of the laboratory. Nal is able to identify that the cyclopes were performing experiments with the resin of the bruorsivi pines, by recognising the dried bruorsivi pine resin in many of the containers. This substance could be of great value to the archaeologists studying the cyclopean culture.
Nal the leaves Incendia to continue whilst she attempts to make safe the cabinet. She to gently places some wooden dishes under the cabinet to support its weight and stop it from collapsing on top of someone. Nal searches the cabinet and finds that it’s filled with many now-useless items, but also a lesser acid flask and a lesser alchemist fire, both contained in glass ampoules.
Incendia continues to search the contents of the benches, and on the fourth bench she finds in an easily visible beaker a fingerlike object, made of flint, etched with runes in the Cyclops language and painted with a golden "fingernail.”
There seems nothing else here of any value ...
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Incendia pulls some empty vials from her kit and gathers all of the potentially useful or interesting reagents from the remains of the laboratory.
She holds up the beaker with the "finger" inside says, "Anyone recognize the writing on here? I would assume it's Cyclops. We could try to puzzle out the meaning using that book that Eando Kline gave us."
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Nodding, Nal agrees. "Yeah, let's do that, and bring it with us." She gathers up the ampoules of still-useful items and hands them to Aunt Cindy. "Here. My hands'll be full."
Carefully clearing a space on the bench for the book and the beaker, Nal pauses a moment to peer at the "finger". What is this, really?
Finally, she steps back to give Aunt Cindy room to work on the translation. In the meantime, she asks Redd and Rannarix: "So, which way now? Try the other hallway, or push through this door? Personally, I prefer to know that nothing's going to sneak up on me, so the other hallway is attractive. Then again, if this door can open easily..." She trails off, then moves like liquid shadow to the door at the other end of the room to inspect it for signs of having been opened recently, or any traps.
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Yeah. That flint "finger" looks like it could be a key to a lock or puzzle. Be sure to not lose it.
Ah! The book! I have it in my pack... Here.
She digs in her pack and withdraws the book of cyclopean translations.
Redd sees Nal handing the flasks to Incendia.
Heya, Nal. I wouldn't mind hanging onto a couple of those. I even have a little spell called thoughtful gift and can teleport an item in an instant to any of you if you need it.
Redd scans the opposite hallway with the light from her wayfinder.
It looks like the hall curves back around opposite here. We should check out that area before descending the stairs.
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Redd takes her time to translate the finger with the book of phrases given by the Venture Captain. Our ego deferred, this gift of heartwood blessed.
Translate flint finger -
Rannarix leads the party, back around the corridor to the other room, slightly smaller than the laboratory.... but still just as dark only lit by Incendia's light spell.
A library surely something that Incendia and Redd will find interesting and stimulating, if they can keep Rannarix's child-like enthusiasm to discover new things in check. Whatever is in here could be of significant historic interest, this library could be a great find.
One wall of this room is completely covered by a 30-foot tall bookcase, with a sturdy ladder on a rail providing access to the higher shelves. Both the ladder and the books are obviously sized for large creatures. On the other side are what appear to be reading desks and chairs, though they are hidden under draped sheets gray with dust. Central in the room, near the entrance, stands an irregular block of a warm yellow material, a creature of some kind visible within.
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The first thing Nal does is carefully scope out the room. Yeah, she didn't do that last time, but that was stupid. What if there's another ambush predator in here? The last area she checks is the cloth-draped furniture. Seems like a cozy hiding spot.
Once she's satisfied that there is no imminent threat in the room, she makes a beeline for the creature in the yellow block, circling it to get every possible angle on it.
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Huh. I wonder what this "Our ego deferred..." stuff means.
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Wowww. Look at all these tomes. There must be tons of knowledge and history recorded in these.
Redd says as she looks about in awe.
Be careful about touching any of the books. They're probably so old that they could crumble to dust from the slightest touch.
She notices the strange yellow block and walks towards it.
I wonder what this is?
She's suddenly startled by the creature inside.
Yikes! What's that inside? Is it a monster?
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The party make sure there are no other creatures or traps in the library, before going up and looking at a large block of amber, inside of which is a medium sized looking creature. Though the view is distorted through the block, the creature looks like a squat, broad-chested dog with skin covered in sores
Rannarix and Redd look at the shape of the animal in the amber block, nod their heads and agree, Definitely a canine!
Incendia and Nal both chuckle gently, before they look intently into the amber. They both raise their eyebrows when they realise that this in no friendly looking pet, but a trollhound. A big dog like creature that have a fearsome regeneration ability that can be deactivated with fire or acid. On a collar around its neck hangs a red, long crystal—another stone finger.
As Incendia and Nal, study the amber they begin to understand that to retrieve the finger they need to disrupt the spell that contained the trollhound and the finger in the stone. "There are key points to the spell, find them and we can disrupt the amber."
Rannarix rubs his finger across the amber, "Or I suppose we couldn't just try and bash it into pieces, I mean, it won't take much longer than an hour will it?" the kobold smiles happily at his fine suggestion. Nal thinks back to her time relieving people of their unwanted heirlooms and adds, "Maybe, you know amber can sometimes react with acid too!"
Incendia Arcana
Nal Nature
Rannarix Arcana
Redd Nature
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"Wait, Aunt Cindy! Wait! Let's investigate the rest of this room first. Who knows how much will get damaged when that trollhound gets loose. How about these books?"
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Incendia's understanding of arcana doesn't match her knowledge of the divine, rather than undo the magics that hold the amber prison in place, the arcane locks seem to have strengthened. It would seem chipping away the amber is the only option left .....
Nal tensely waits for Aunt Cindy and the others to agree before heading over to the books. Whew! Now let's see... Her posture relaxes, then tightens as she remembers that this type of thing really isn't her strongest suit. Nal wanders over and sees shelf upon shelf of books written in cyclopes.
It comes to Nal that this library was a quiet place for cyclopes to research. She looks at the titles, with the aid of Eando’s phrasebook she tries to gain a general theme in the books.
While some of the titles can’t be fully translated, due to referencing proper names of people and places now lost to history, it is clear these are alchemical treatises, books about magical research, and strangely enough, books about gardening. While there are simply too many books for the you all to take them back with you, identifying the topics and choosing a book from each of the three general topics might be enough for an initial
You realise that Koloran was far too ancient of an empire for paper, leather, and other substances in this room to last until now without extensive magical or alchemical treatments. As it turns out, the cyclops
who built this place used both.
Continuing to search the room and looking at the carefully placed sheets, whoever left this room intended to return. Peering under a sheet you find a comfortable leather chair and a small (for Large creature standards) table that contains writing supplies such as quills, parchment, and an inkwell. The ink in the well has gone bad over the years, and the inkwell could perhaps be used as an acid flask.
Nal does this over the hour or so it takes for the amber block to be chipped away by others in the party.
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Oh good. Acid. Hopefully. Claiming the inkwell, Nal checks in with Redd to help with the books however she can. "See, the way I worked out the translations, it looks like this one would be good..."
Once the sample books are packed away, Nal wipes her hands on her pants and draws her dagger and light mace. "Say, if we just chip away at the section that encases the object, we could pull it out without releasing the trollhound. Right? Let's try it." She sets the blade of her dagger against the amber and pounds on the hilt with her light mace, using her weapons like a chisel and hammer.