Kvit seems exasperated "We can't solve everything with diplomacy!"
Kvit moves up to get a better line of sight on the Morlock in the doorway. He tries throwing a gout of flame towards the Morlock that Kka has pinned down but has hard time hitting the Morlock while avoiding Kka's bobbing and weaving.
Kvit repositions himself and throws a spell, but the ball of fire goes wide.
Yellow Morlock runs out of the room to escape the bright light, but not before Lough gets the chance to swipe at him some more.
Yellow can't even set a single step before Lough's claw swipes at his belly, and disembowels the Morlock! Yellow keels over and dies on the spot.
Green -29, bloodied.
Sam
Lough
Kvit
Giyozara
Cherry Berry
Kka
Cherry Berry and Kka may act!
Lough curls his clawed hand into a fist, conks the fleeing Morlock on its head and it passes out.
The final Morlock throws down his projectile launcher and asks, "Um, can I go now? I won't alert the others, but I presume I get to live, right?"
Combat over!
The Morlocks both carry one warhammer and a contraption no sane person would pay money for. The rest of this room contains a lot of mechanical knickknacks and half-finished projects, but nothing of value.
|
"Oh nope. Not dead!" our paranoid hero observes a pulse in the fallen morlock.
"As for you: Yes, you may keep your life - take your friend with you. But your weapons are mine!" claiming the useless junk as some sort of gesture - perhaps a tribute.
He looks around the party with suspicion, before adding "And if you run into anyone else, tell them that the King of Mitflits has banished you from this Lighthouse!"
Kka was about to slice into the remaining morlock when he suddenly throws down his weapon and gives up. She groans in disappointment. ”Nooo. Don’t give up just yet. It waas just getting interesting.” She clops around loudly for a few seconds in frustration. As the morlocks leave, she calls out after them. ”We better not bump into you guys again. Next time we won’t be so nice.”
Cherry Berry will wait until the morlocks are gone before asking. "Was anybody hurt?"
Kvit seems unimpressed by the Morlock. He wanders through the area picking up bits of their projects and tossing them aside. "A bunch of useless trash so far. Not sure what they're even trying to make here."
Sneakers comes slinking back into the room and sniffs around. "Geeze, this is almost worse than the mitflits"
"Worse than the misfits. They were just in it for pranks. These guys want blood sacrifices. Let's see what that weird light is about."
Kka wanders up to Lough. "So you waant to try this one next? Why not." She gives the door the once over. Then after warning the others ("All right guys, we're going in") she gives Lough the green light. "I'm right behind you, big maan."
Green Morlock grabs Yellow by the leg and drags him out of the room. "Thank you for sparing us, I guess."
He heads into the direction you came from. A short while later you hear cursing as daylight hits his eyes.
Kivt takes a look around. Most of their projects you can't even make sense of, and the ones you can, you question their usefulness. A spoon with a grappling hook attached to it? A steam-powered couch? Seems like they were just banging parts together and looking to see what works.
From the north, behind the barred doors, Kvit notices an extremely foul smell.
With a little effort, Lough opens the door to the east.
The air here is cool and moist. A low stone well sits to the east. Armor, weapons, and tools lie in heaps in the north.
The pile of weapons aren't trapped. The pile contains three suits of studded leather armor, two rapiers, one broken rapier, three sets of thieves’ tools, a lesser healing potion, and 13 gp.
The rope and bucket that were used to draw water from the well are gone.
"Anyone hurt?"
Sam heads over to the well and looks inside.
Sam gets her companions' attention. "Fellows, the well looks like it's how to get down to the next level. There's some murmuring sounds but I can't quite make it out."
Kka goes over to the well and has a look down as well.
"Looks like a loooong waay down to me. I don't like the sound of that crowd down there either. I sure hope we find an easier route down when the time comes."
She then goes over to look at the heaps of stuff to the north. "Interesting assortment we haave here. Doesn't look like it belongs to the morlocks. Probaably all that's left of some recent saacrifices to the ghost queen. Poor sods." She shakes her head. After sorting out all the loot, Kka picks up the healing potion. "Oooo, nice! A bit of an upgraade from the cheap plonk we usually see." She hands it over to the cleric. "Here you go, Cherry. Why don't you hold onto this for the time being. If one of us goes down, then pour it down our throats." Then, pocketing the gold, she adds, "I'll add this to our paarty funds. The rest we caan pick up on our waay out."
Finally, she moves over to the northern barred doors and checks for traps and sounds before stepping back and letting Lough have at it.
Lough spends some time removing the boards from the door, then opens it.
Alcoves along the walls might once have been storerooms, but the stone shelves are all empty. The room smells foul.
Inside are also three people dressed in rags. As soon as they see there's no Morlocks in the door opening, they pour out. "Thank the heavens, you saved us! These crazy idiots wanted to sacrifice us to their deity-queen. They already sacrificed Tanji a few days ago, and they said we were going to be next!"
These people are clearly malnourished and in varying states of shock due to a combination of fear and hypothermia. They all have a bird tattoo on their right shoulder.
Giyozara pauses for a moment but then decides that he is the better gnome.
He hands out a day's worth of rations, one meal to each of them. [b]"Here, here's a bit of food for you. Gonna have to buy another set of rations at this point. Anyway, yes, food. The way up should be clear, do you think you can make it back to Otari on your own, or do you need an escort?
"I-if you bring us to the exit of this level, w-we can make it back, I think," one of the men says.
"I'd feel much more confident if we had our weapons and armour, but the stupid Morlocks took them before they imprisoned us. We all had rapiers and studded leather armours. Part of the, er, uniform," the remaining woman grins.
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Lough hands forth his morningstar.
"Kka" uncharacteristic command in his voice "Give these men their implements. And you: to replace your broken rapier" overseeing the transfer "We will keep the gold and potion as payment for your release" he remembers something "Kvit - do you have a Repair Kit?"
"And yes, we will come with you, back to the entrance!"
Kka follows Lough into the room and stops short when she sees the three people in rags. "Whaat in blue blaazes are you guys doing here? Is this where you've been hiding this whole time? Yin's been worried sick." She looks around expectantly. "Where's Taanji?" Her face drops when they tell her that she'd been sacrificed a few days ago. "That's too baad. I really liked her." She falls silent remembering her friend.
When the survivors mention their equipment, Kka snaps out of her reverie. "Oh, thaat stuff is yours? Come in here." She leads them into the side room and points to the heaps of equipment. "Thaat's all that's left. Get dressed and I'll taake you upstairs so you can get yourselves home. We still haave some work to do down here." Once they gather their equipment, Kka leads them up the stairs and gives them instructions on how to get back to Otari. She specifically mentions that the bridge is weak and that they should go over it one at a time or the slurk will have them over for dinner.
As they start on their way back, Kka calls after them. "And maake sure to tell Yin that I waas the one that found you and got you baack. She's not going to wriggle out of paaying me thaat bounty she posted for you."
"Just leave the slurk alone. He hasn't bothered us at all."
The woman takes Lough's morningstar and takes a few experimental swings with it. "Hmm, not quite as balanced as my rapier, but it'll do. Thanks, stranger. You can keep the broken rapier, I'll buy a new one when I get home. Not like it'll do me much good right now."
You lead the trio back to the stairs. They thank you for your help and run upstairs, back to Otari.
Kka's mood had darkened when she'd heard of Tanji's sacrifice by the morlocks. She and Tanji had trained together under Yinyasmera, and she'd developed a good raport with the older woman. They were confederates at the Osprey Club and that meant they were supposed to look out for each other. News of Tanji's death would come as a blow to Yinyasmera and the others. Still, it could have been worse; at least they'd managed to save Gorul, Shad, and Ziskilly.
Kka's sorrow quickly turns to anger and thoughts of revenge. She can be heard mumbling to herself under her breath. "If I'd known about Taanji, those morlocks would've gotten no mercy. As Caalistria is my witness, the next ones won't be so lucky."
Head down dejectedly and still grumbling to herself quietly, she clops behind Lough towards the double doors at the end of the passageway. Doing a quick once-over, she steps back to let Lough to do his thing.
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Kvit side-eyes Lough at his suggestion of a bomb, but finds himself considering it. "I mean, I could, but uh, we don't even know who's down there. Plus an explosion that big could bring this whole place down on our heads."
******
Kvit follows into the makeshift prison with the others and gags. "Every room in this place smells worse than the last!"
******
Kvit looks at Lough and takes the broken rapier. "I thought you were carrying the repair kit in your pack?! That mini-anvil is heavy...
He clears off some space on the side of an upturned dresser in the Morlock's "workshop" and sets the rapier down.
Halfway through, the dresser collapses and dumps the repair project on the floor. "This is all junk! I can't get anything done properly here."
*******
He throws the broken pieces in his pack and catches up to the group back in the hallway.
You regroup and ready yourselves to open the door to the southwest.
This large open area is a filthy mess, even beyond the collapse to the south that clogs part of the room with rubble. Half‑eaten fish, cat‑sized beetles, and bits of waterfowl lie strewn about in a tangle amid gnawed bones of larger creatures.
To the south, multiple doors hang open to ruined bedrooms, clearly stripped of value a long time ago.
Four smaller, runtier-looking Morlocks are lounging about. Some are banging tools together, trying to make something but clearly lacking the technological prowess of their smarter kin.
As the door opens, light falls into Green's eyes and she hisses as she gets blinded. "Kateri IDIOT prinaša svetlobo notri?"
"Mislim, da je treba žrtvovati več ljudi," says Red, while squinting against the light.
"Potem jih zgrabi!" Green says, trying to rub the light out of her eyes.
"More people to be sacrificed, I think," says Red, while squinting against the light.
"Grab them, then!" Green says, trying to rub the light out of her eyes.
Kka
Lough
Giyozara
Cherry Berry
Kvit
Sam
Pink
Green - blind
Red
Blue
Everyone may act! These Morlocks are smaller than the ones you've met previously . Remember that their light blindness might kick in as the light source moves. Right now, the wall blocks the light, so Pink isn't affected yet.
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I knew this day would come!
Lough panics with paranoia, for he had once told a story about how "eyeless men" would take hostage a townsfolk to their god and impale them horribly on a spike. Remembering the story now, he recalls how Tanji had laughed him off, slipping spirits down her throat, believing what had just been spun - - would not come to pass.
But today is that day!
"For killing Tanji - you die!"
◆) Raise a Shield
◆) Stride
◆) Snagging Strike
+
↺) Shield Block
↺) Attack of Opportunity
~) Whichever reaction triggers first
Cherry moves forward and waves a frond towards the closest enem(ies)
"Please surrender, you are outmatched."
◆Stride
◆◆Electric Arc on green DC 18 Reflex, Electric Damage
Electric Arc on purple DC 18 Reflex, Electric Damage
Kvit sneers. In some ways these things were more terrible than the Mitflits and just as useless. He moves up behind Lough and the Morlock he was engaged with and fires a bolt of electricity.
DC 18.
<><>Ray of Frost
<>Shield spell
Kka looks through the open door and sees more morlocks. Her mind goes blank and she let's out a loud guttural caw. . She plunges headlong into the room, ducking past Lough and heading straight for the next morlock, which she then proceeds to cut down with zeal, her beak snapping closed with every strike.
"<Clack>"
"<Clack>"
Lough raises his shield, walks forward, and slashes Green across the chest. Cherry Berry and Kvit follow after, both throwing electricity at the closest Morlocks. Poor Green gets the full blow of both attacks, probably because she is blind. The other targets only get part of the damage. Then, Giyozara hits Green in the face with a ball of ice and Green drops to the floor, dead. Finally, Kka rushes in and slashes wildly at Blue, who barely drops after her second attack, thanks to Kvit's electrical attack.
Kka
Lough
Giyozara
Cherry Berry
Kvit
Sam
Pink - 2 damage
Red
Sam may still act!
Sam walks forward, drops into her fighting stance, and shoots two arrows at Red. Sadly, both her arrows miss her target.
Red Morlock hisses and runs towards Kka, grabs a dagger, and slashes wildly at the Tengu. Luckily, he fumbles the dagger and it clatters to the ground.
Pink Morlock scuttles away from the bright light and joins Red. Pink also draws a dagger and also slashes at Kka.
Thanks to Red distracting Kka, Pink's dagger finds soft Tengu flesh.
Kka - 10 damage
Lough
Giyozara
Cherry Berry
Kvit
Sam
Pink - 2 damage
Red
Everyone may act! Remember, they might get blinded when Cherry Berry's or Giyozara's light moves. That might be relevant.
In her rage, Kka barely notices the deep gash the morlock inflicts on her. If anything it merely adds fuel to her actions. She brings her shortsword down hard on the morlock that had the temerity to cut her open.
"<Clack>"
Having revenged her wound with a greater wound in return, Kka turns her attention to the remaining morlock. With another mighty croak of rage, , she dodges one way, then cuts back with her shortsword.
"<Clack>"
[dice=Shortsword Attack]1d20 +8 +1
[dice=Shortsword Damage]1d6 +4
In a fury, Kka slashes wildly at Pink, finds an artery, and Pink goes down in a spray of blood. Red's still standing, but she also gets a big slash from Kka.
Lough advances and slashes, but his claw misses twice.
Kka - 10 damage
Lough
Giyozara
Cherry Berry
Kvit
Sam
Red - 12 damage
Giyozara, Cherry Berry, Kvit, and Sam may act!
Giyozara will move forward and Fire off another ray of frost.
<>Move
<><>Ray of Frost
Kvit fires off a bolt of flame at the last morlock, but can't hit it with all the folks in the way. He moves up to try and get a better angle.
Giyozara moves up, fires a bolt of frost, and it connects! To add insult to injury, the Morlock is now also blinded due to Giyozara's bright light. Kvit tries to do the same, but the ball of fire goes wide.
Kka - 10 damage
Lough
Giyozara
Cherry Berry
Kvit
Sam
Red - 17 damage, heavily injured, blind
Cherry Berry and Sam may act!
Cherry steps forward to get a clear sight line to the last enemy, the lets loose with another bolt of lighting!
◆Stride
◆◆
Red, also blinded, doesn't see the electricity coming, and takes the bolt fully to the chest. She shudders, then keels over, dead.
Combat over!
There's a stairwell to the south that leads up, but that has collapsed ages ago. You could dig it out, but that would take several hours, if not days.
Sam heads over to Kka and has a look at her wounds. Taking some bandages from her healers kit, she patches her up.
Kka is panting from her exertions; her mind slowly clearing of the fog that had gripped it. She starts shivering lightly as she lifts her head and notices the corpses of the morlocks around her as if for the first time. Much like her sword and a good part of herself, they are covered in blood. Her initial reaction is one of revulsion, both at the sight of the corpses as well as her part in their deaths. Her head drops again as she tries to make sense of it all; she barely notices Sam starting to patch her up.
The Savored Sting was a fickle mistress. When she smiled on one of her followers and aided them in their vengeance, she did not care the price it would exact on her so favored devotees. That was not Calistria's concern; they were left to deal with the repercussions of their choices alone.
Over the next few minutes, Kka slowly recovers, both physically and mentally from the wounds of the recent encounter. Those morlocks had sacrificed her poor friend Tanji to their so-called ghost queen and had paid the price. An eye for an eye was the way of the world and there was nothing that could be done about that except to strike first and be the last one standing. But whoever this ghost queen was, assuming it wasn't merely a figment of these morlocks' fevered imaginations, she had a lot to answer for. Kka hoped she'd survive long enough to meet this morlock queen and put an end to her rule. Her hand once again grips her sword tight in anticipation.
By the time Sam finishes with the bandaging, Kka is almost herself again. "Thaanks Sam." She flexes her arm muscles to make sure they're fully functional again. "Nice work. You're getting pretty good with those baandages there."
Kka goes over to the rock slide and spends a moment mentally overlapping her memory of the upstairs area with this one, using the stairs they came down to orient herself . "I think this rockfaall here is paart of the collapsed pit we met Lough's mitflits in upstairs. We should leave it alone or we'll end up with the whole plaace coming down onto our heads." Instead, she does a quick scout of the area, including looking through all the little rooms that come off it in case there's anything hiding in them. She also confirms that the secret door they saw leading out of the conference room is accessible from this side (in case they need to use it later) before going to the double doors leading west and giving them the once over for traps and locks.
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Sensitive to extreme emotions such as anger, Lough relaxes by part as Kka does in co-regulation, even sitting with her, unwounded himself, as Sam patches her wounds. Even welcomes the 20 minute break with nothing to do. Except...
"You think it'll hold?" he goes to examine the rockfall.
Once everyone is up and moving again, he joins Kka once more at the double door. "Everyone ready?"
Cherry also looks up at the rockfall. "A good point Lough. And as a secondary question do we want to try to clear it? It could provide a faster and more direct path to the surface."
Kvit hangs back from the group for a moment as Kka calms down and Sam patches her up. He knew they were a bit of a ragtag bunch, but Kka's sudden frenzy surprised and worried him. We already have one unstable personality in the group. What if things get worse and someone flips out and turns on the group?
Sneakers scrambles up his shoulder as Kvit whispers. "Did you see that? Just watch yourself and keep to the sidelines.
Kvit and Sneakers wander the periphery of the areas looking for anything useful. So far it had just been junk. At least it wasn't pixie mud and rotten corpses though.
Kvit and Sneakers wander around some more, looking for something useful in this mess, but come up empty-handed. The Morlocks have pretty much been content living in half-broken furniture that isn't even worth salvaging for scrap metal.