Silently Sendi went about eating. She had trained for this, of course. But to actually kill with her own two hands? To face pain and death, to lie bleeding on the floor, certain in one’s own mortality? To see others fight and die. And to know that deep down part of her enjoyed it. It was all too much. The newcomers, the food, the sudden “safety”, it all felt surreal. What she needed was time to process all that had happened.
With breakfast done he stands up and stretches, "Who's ready for a gnoll hunt? Remember if you see the Carrion King run Sassarra will blast him. I will also slow him down."
She seems surprised to be called out specifically, pleasantly surprised. "I will do my best. I am grateful for those with the strength to meet the gnolls head on."
Lets kill his allies first! Then I can probably blind the bugger, I got some new tricks to play with.
”Can we not just focus on fighting our way out? If there was their leader, then it certainly will be collecting its forces. We won’t have the element of surprise anymore.”
Does he know we didnt completely leave? Like, if my considerable exposure to authoritarian leadership is any guide, he may currently be proclaiming an epic victory over the adventurers who cowardly fled, declaring the slain unchosen great heroes and get drunk to boost morale. Them Gnolls do like their booze, which by the way is effing horrid and should never be tasted, afterall.
Vivi interjects while stuffing her mouth with random edible things on the table.
She offers her knowledge to the group as her fiery hair dances over her head, "I put up a wall of fire between us and actually it was a circle. So he likely was burnt badly. I kept it up for 5 minutes before returning to your group, nothing came through. Once I dropped it I did not wait to see what was still beyond my destruction."
”Uh…yeah. About that. Who are you? How did you come here? How…I don’t mean to be rude.” She said, trailing off.
Liam is...hesitant. "The last...day? Two? Has been such a whirlwind. I'm not even sure where we stand now. We fled, but, did we all escape? I thought I'd died. Liam says, in the silence.
Her response comes from graceful lips and she takes time to choose the right words, "I am Pharos Alexandria, your main benefactor of this wonderful mansion. We attached a reaction spell to Aukan should he be in mortal danger. Thus we were teleported to his side. We have been watching. Not always just when Aukan called upon Sarenrae, our code word should he feel the situation turns dire. Aukan is our master we sisters of fire serve him for freeing us from slavery. Also the bounty and wonders of your plane are amazing. Any other questions twinkle toes?"
The cleric, assumably of Gorum, responds to Liam, "By my estimation you were all saved. At least shy of Vivi's death. As you can tell she is fine now. I am Nima Lily, cleric of Gorum. spiritual sister. Finally there is the quiet one, Sasha."
Metal has been listening quietly, gently rubbing his metal hand anxiously.
"I've never lost that badly before. Honestly, I haven't faced anyone nearly that strong before either."
Sighing, he adjusts his arm, extending and shortening it, various mechanisms locking and unlocking, before he finally evens out his arm lengths again. "So, what's the plan from here?"
Still stuffing her face with food, Vivi proposes:
Step 1 Nom, murder everything but the Gnoll boss. We do know where that bugger lives, so we go there last nom, because we are really cunning this time yesyes? If they all huddle around him well:
That gives us full access to the entire rest of the area and its resources, so Step 2, do some little psychological warfare to inform Mr. Gnoll king how much he effing sucks.
Step 3, murder the bugger and ramm his advisor into his rear end nom.
Aukan walks through the portal back to the tunnels, weapon ready in hand if needed.
Into adventureland the heroes bravely march
Vivi appears, marches through the portal, ready for violence. If anything, she appears significantly more upbeat after her more then near death experience.
Sassarra will quietly slip in towards the back of the group. With luck, the leader will stay in his throne room like they planned for.
But luck has never been on her side.
You see the goblin from before hiding in the far corner.
Exiting the portal nothing is waiting for you. No threats to be seen.
He asks the group, "Do we want to go up, clear out this level, or go back down to the 3rd level and make a ruckus?"
Lets clear the upper levels first, bigger boi Vivi Chuckles as she casts enlarge person on Aukan, before also casting it on herself, as well as protection from evil.
Last for 4 minutes, lets hit areas we havent hit yet.
It is just a DC 15 to climb the 40 feet.
With a direction in mind he heads back into the webbed room and at the end he climbs up rather than go down.
Metal follows behind Aukan, preparing himself for battle.
With a bit of redirection from Vivi, he moves down the hallway to a locked door.
Liam follows the others.
Numbly Sendi trudged along. It didn’t feel real. Not too long ago she was happily sitting in the sun, drinking tea and laughing with friends. Now she was below ground, walking after being impaled. A strange fire-deity walked beside her, apparently bound to the Demi-God that called itself Aukan. And instead of fleeing after their defeat they were now looking for more trouble. She kept expecting to wake up at any moment, realizing that it was all a dream. But with every step they took she had to admit that this was real, and there was no escape.
At one end of the room, a great stone sarcophagus covered with
arabesques and calligraphy sits, displayed upon a tiered dais.
Opposite the sarcophagus stands an ancient shrine consisting
of an upright wooden box, its faded colors also covered with
ancient scribblings in black and gold. The shrine is flanked by
short rows of badly tarnished candleholders holding naught
but clumps of dried tallow.
wrapped in tar-soaked strips of muslin. The mummy is
not undead—it is simply the long-dead body of an ancient
priestess of Rovagug who still wears copper armbands
worth 150 gp each and a ring of magic.
Once that is clear you head down a hallway at the end of the hallway is a closed door with some effort you open it into the room with the webbing.
With no one offering to take care of the lock he takes his greatsword and tries bashing the door. Taking his time to cut it down.
”Very much agreed. Given his strength I think that he is beyond any of us to take on. It seems folly to pick a fight so mismatched. Should we push on or backtrack the way we came? Even if it means just returning to town, at least we will be alive and will have caused for more damage than we have taken.”
No if the Carrion King is left there will be attacks from him in the near future. We will widdle his forces down and then widdle him down too! For Kelmarane!" With that said the door is broken and in pieces on the ground.
He walks in, seeing the sarcophagus and shrine he waits for knowledgeable members to make a call before he pillaged it.
At one end of the room, a great stone sarcophagus covered with arabesques and calligraphy sits, displayed upon a tiered dais. Opposite the sarcophagus stands an ancient shrine consisting of an upright wooden box, its faded colors also covered with ancient scribblings in black and gold. The shrine is flanked by short rows of badly tarnished candleholders holding naught but clumps of dried tallow.
|
"Be careful! Touch nothing until I get a look, please."
Auso moves into the room, looking about before going to anything specific.
Other items in the room often provide clues about the dead and how they may have been secured . . .. he thinks to himself before moving towards the shrine and begins scanning it for threats before turning to the script and seeing if he can decipher it.
Varvara supports Auso, keeping wathc for other threats as he conducts his investigations.
He likely reads it out loud, a story of a priestess of Rovagug. Of the many sacrifices she gave to her god and her gruesome story.
wrapped in tar-soaked strips of muslin. The mummy is
not undead—it is simply the long-dead body of an ancient
priestess of Rovagug who still wears copper armbands
worth 150 gp each and a ring of minor fire resistance.
------
Leaving the room with the sarcofogus, you walk South and enter a hallway.
Auso
Vivi
Sendi
Aukan
Liam
Metal
Sassarra
"Wait, there is a passage here." she approaches it, and touches it. "It is too heavy for me to move." With that she stesp out of the way.
"So let's move back as this door opens into the web room. Shall we try opening it or come back?" He asks as he follows the group to the door.
Lets safe this mystery for later and kill anything that moves and isnt us first, let move back, towards the area known as H4 and go north from there, I believe this area is unexplored by us yet!
The group moves on leaving the secret door to be explored later. Moving into the southern chambers you find most of them the group has already explored. Vivi and Aukan are still large as you begin searching the southern chambers again.
---
Aukan slams into the doors and they open with an explosion of stone from the other side.
The creatures stand stunned and confused by the quick appearance of Aukan.
Within the southern chambers he moves ahead of the group, leaving the nooks and small spaces for the rest of the group and he goes straight west to the double doors bull rushing them.
------
He moves forward and opens another set of double doors with his bulk. Slamming through those doors he sighs seeing the columns in his way.
He sees the humanoids at the other side of the room and shouts, "Who are you and who do you serve?!"
With no response he moves forward and hopefully easily. He dodges between the columns coming up to the center of the six creatures and in a quick motion cleaves them all dead.
Vivi moves up behind Aukan.
I heard surrendering is a smart idea whatever and whoever you are
She shouts to any possible leftover survivors.
You only see corpses.
He squeezes through the archway with a bit of effort. With nothing in the next room he looks through the hole in the wall.
Each round as a free action, a gibbering mouther can emit a stream of acidic spittle at one target within 30 feet. On a successful attack, the target is blinded for 1d4 rounds unless he succeeds on a DC 18 Fortitude check.
Gibbering (Su)
As a free action, a gibbering mouther can emit a cacophony of maddening sound. All creatures other than gibbering mouthers within 60 feet must succeed on a DC 13 Will save or be confused for 1 round. This is a mind-affecting compulsion insanity effect. A creature that saves cannot be affected by the same mouther’s gibbering for 24 hours. The save DC is Constitution-based.
The group that are within 60 feet of Aukan can hear a cacophony of maddening sound.
Aukan
Balan
Sendi
Auso
Liam
Bhashir
+4 Vivi
Sassarra
Metal
gibbering
gnoll
---
28 Vivi
23 Liam
22 Sassarra
20 Sendi
18 Auso
12 Bhashir
11 gnoll
8 gibbering
7 Metal
7 Aukan
6 Balan
I know drunk cat-dretches who sing better, yikes
Vivi charges or otherwise moves up to the mouther.
Liam shakes off the maddening noise and looks over the creature carefully as he draws his bow. Then he fires an arrow at it.
Vivi moves in and tries to push past Aukan, only to find a hole that a medium creature would need to squeeze through to get to the gibbering thing.
Liam shoots when there is an opening between Vivi and Aukan but it doesn't hit.