"Thanks! And thanks to your patron. That helps a lot. Now let's see what's down the hole!" Rik pauses to rearrange his acid-spattered clothing and run a comb through his fur.
Badabar cautiously approaches the hole and looks down.
Andros looks down the hole well with his DV. If the plan is to climb down, the monk uses the chain and takes 10 for a total score of 19.
"Let me look first--I'm lighter, and the floor may not be stable."
You look down the shaft and you realize it falls 60'. As the walls are pitted and scarred, the climb down, if you wish, should be relatively easy (DC 5).
"It looks like an easy climb. Good thing, because I doubt the chain reaches that far. Master Andros, we should go first. I'll look for traps, and you punch anything bad while Masters Wilberforce and Osric climb down."
"Yeah sure, Rik. Can you make the climb? If not, you can get on my back and hold on."
"I need to take a couple of minutes to mix up two extracts before we go down. Just in case. We go down, make sure the area is clear. Then hold a torch so Masters Osric and Wilberforce can climb down safely."
Cedric smiles when he sees his healing has helped. "I used my only alchemist's fire so I won't be much help if we run into another swarm like that. I'll have to make sure to purchase more if we can find enough things down here that Allustan will pay for," he says as they walk over to the hole.
He glances down and listens to the plan. "I should also be able to climb down as long as we aren't in a hurry," he says as he prepares to follow.
The alchemist's jaw drops. "I completely forgot! He's paying us a per diem, too. Here's the first two days' worth." Rik gives each of the others five platinum pieces.
Andros pulls a flask of alchemist's fire and hands it to Cedric. "Your aim was pretty good with these. Use it well." When the party is ready, Andros climbs down the shaft and reaches the ground in 3 rounds, climbing 20' per round.
Rik follows, climbing carefully down and taking a bit more time.
Badabar guards the rear as the others descend.
Andros rushes down the shaft with ease, while everyone else takes their time and proceeds methodically. You descend to an alcove, from which you step into the following:
Dozens of bas-relief figures similar to the one on the sarcophagus lid in the room above stare disapprovingly from the walls here. Many sport crossed arms and stern expressions. A few of the statues’ heads are missing, and some have huge chunks torn out of them. Others have a weird melted appearance, as if they’d been sprayed by something terrible. A large glyph that looks like a stylized arrow points down a short corridor to the north that leads to a four-way intersection.
Rik lights a torch so that Cedric and Badabar can climb down, then passes it to Andros.
Cedric looks relieved to have reached the bottom safely. He looks around at the statues. "What could have done all of this damage?" he wonders out loud.
Andros moves to the intersection and looks to the east and west.
To the west:
The north and south walls of this large chamber taper in somewhat, and in the nook of the far eastern wall rests a wide stone basin backed by a five-foot-tall shelf. A hardened orange paste spills out over the two-foot basin lip and covers much of the shelf. Thousands of tiny beetles with bright blue carapaces skitter and tunnel through the chalky substance. A keening insect chorus fills the room. A huge organic mass completely fills the room’s southwest corner. Judging by the beetles spilling from within, it appears to be an enormous nest.
To the east:
Eight man-sized stone slabs, about four feet off the ground, are arranged in two rows in this large room. A long-dead corpse, possibly a human, lays sprawled out upon one of these slabs, his red leather armor the only hint of color in the otherwise drab room. The north and south walls taper in somewhat, and the short west wall abuts a small stone stage. The red clay statue of a powerfully built warrior wielding a cylinder-headed greatclub stands tall upon the stage, its eyes surveying the room.
To the north:
A hallway leading to stairs heading down.
Badabar watches Andros and waits to see if he needs backup.
Andros describes what he sees to the party. "Anyone have a preference for which way to go?"
Rik follows the oread to the intersection. "We're going to have to clear out those beetles, right? Let's do that first, so they don't cut us off from the exit. I've got an acid flask left. And my bombs, of course."
Badabar joins them.
"Beetles sounds like the place to start."
You head east toward the beetles. As you about to enter the room, the vermin skittering about the sludge coalesces into the form of an acid beetle swarm, and a Medium giant bombardier beetle, the cow of the colony, moves to attack!
"Here we go!" Rik tosses a bomb on the beetle swarm and retreats as it bursts in a flood of corrosive alkahest, covering countless crawling coleopterans!
Badabar pulls out his last vial of alchemist's fire and waits for the swarm to approach. When it gets close, he will throw it at.
* 1.5 = 5
Andros draws an alcehmist's fire and throws it at the swarm. If swarm is dead, he readies an action to throw it at the beetle.
Badabar and Rik combine to destroy the swarm with the bombs. The six-foot long bombardier beetle comes out of the corner and Andros misses with his flask of fire, as it smashes harmlessly against the wall.
Round 1: Beetle
The clicking beetle moves toward Andros and rips a chunk of his thigh with its bite!
Rik draws his crossbow and shoots the beetle, but his bolt glances off of the creature's chitinous carapace.
Badabar steps up with his greataxe raised high.
"Wilburforce!!!" he calls out as he brings it down on the beetle's back.
Andros grunts in pain loudly, as the beetle bites him. He flurries and tries to punch the creature with Combat Expertise.
Seeing the swarm and the giant beetle, Cedric fires his crossbow at the beetle to avoid entering melee.
HP: 19/19
Status: normal
Spells active: light
Items Used: 1 bolt
Cedric misses followed by a miss by Rik, but Badabar and Andros land telling blows that kill the beetle in a disgusting crunch. However, the noise from combat draws the skittering of another bombardier beetle from the eastern room, which attacks Rik, but the alchemist dodges the blow!
Round 2: 2nd Beetle!
Rik squeaks in a distressingly stereotypical manner and takes a short step back, leveling his crossbow at the beetle and shooting! His surprise does not help his accuracy at all, though.
The wounded Andros limps over and strikes at the beetle with his MW Kama and Combat Expertise, but his weapon bounces off the creature's shell.
Badabar weaves between Cedric and Andros to close with the next beetle.
He swings his greataxe in powerful upper-cut, hoping the beetles underside is less armored than its back.
Andros looks at Rik, "Badabar packs quite a punch! Either that, or he really hates beetles."
"Who knew that his god has an inordinate loathing for beetles?"
"The Ironhand doesn't have anything in particular against beetles, but he tasks his followers with defending their fellows against any dangers that threaten them...." Badabar says between breaths as he recovers from his swing.
With Andros and Badabar stepping up between him and the beetle, Cedric drops his crossbow and tries to get his longspear between his companions to attack the beetle.
Cedric's spear pierces the beetle's eye and kills it.
Rik waits to make sure that nothing else stirs in the room the beetles came from before cautiously entering and looking around. "Let's search this. Then some curing for Master Andros."
"Let's start with the room to the east."
Badabar breathes deep tp catch his breath. "Is that the last of the beetles?" he asks.
When no more appear, he wipes the beetle slime off of the blade of his axe.
As the others start to search, he approaches Andros.
"Let me see your wound Andros." he says.
Examining it he remarks "I can mend this with the power of the Ironhand."
He focuses his healing magic and knits together the edges of the wound.
Then he helps search the room.
In the eastern chamber, Rik and Andros notice the presence of three oblong lumps completely covered with orange sludge in the room’s southeast corner. These are the skeletonized remains of three long-dead human figures in soiled red leather armor. An eight-pointed star symbol marks the left breast of each moldy suit of armor. If you search the corpses, which I assume you do, you discover that one them has three intact potions and another has pretty looking pearl. You also notice a mummified hand wearing a ring. Cedric tells you all items radiate magic.
"Let me see those potions." The ratfolk holds each of them for a few seconds. "I have no idea what the star means, but I'll draw a picture of it for Allustan."
The four potions are Cure Light Wounds.
Cedric seems to recall coming across such a symbol in his readings.
"I've got no ability to identify magic." Badabar says.
When Rik reveals that the potions are potions of healing, he says "Those will come in handy if Cedric and I exhaust our healing magic."
With the others seeming to have everything in hand in the east chamber, Badabar wanders over to the west to look around.
He keeps his axe ready in case of more beetles.