"Well, large fits due to it being based on one's perspective. I...it doesn't matter, actually." Silas first interjected, trying to be helpful. His attention turned to the little fey, he nodded. "I am Silas Asgavan, Cleric of Lathander. Like my friend Myev said, we wandered into this strange place to escape the desert's heat. Who are you?"
"Another sandstorm?" the small creature asks in an exasperated tone. "That's how we ended up here...although I'm sure how long ago that was now. We stopped in out of curiosity and then the whole place got buried."
"I'm Astergion, and these are my kin-folk" he says, gesturing to the winged-creatures behind him.
Taking note of the silver-skinned monk's comment, Astergion says, "Well, you are still large to us..."
While everyone else attempts to communicate with the small fey creatures, Tek's curiosity is focused on the bales and crates they were laughing over. Using as many of the shadows as possible the gnome tries to slip around unnoticed to get a closer look at what the big boxes might contain.
"Two sandstorms that get two groups stuck in the big stone building, huh? Seems convenient," Myev comments, glancing down at Meebo and raising an eyebrow. "What do you think, Meebs?"
"Kinda feels like this temple wants people to be trapped in it. I mean, makes sense for sandstorms to roll through regularly, but to bury and unbury and rebury this place?"
"Perhaps there is a spell...or a curse on this place...doomed to spend most of it's time buried beneath the sands." Baheera surmises
While the others seem to have the fey creatures distracted, Tek sneaks a peak at the contents of one of crates.
"But it's open now?" Astergion confirms.
Before anyone can respond, the winged creatures all rush out of the room, seemingly heading for the exit and the world beyond.
"Welp. Can't say as I blame them. I don't like the idea that this place might get buried again with us inside. Not like we'd survive a trek across the desert the way things stand tight now." Meebo sighed. "Hopefully if we help them with the tentacle monster guy, Big Z, they can help supply us enough to make a push for civilization."
Myev watches the fey go, eyebrows raised. "Well, hopefully they survive." Myev shrugs and looks around, nodding at Meebo's words, and then shrugs. "What else can we do, I suppose?"
She sidles up to Tek, glancing over the boxes near him now that the Fey are gone. "What've we got, Tek?"
"Oh wow, there they go." Silas muttered as the winged creatures fled out of the room towards the world beyond. He turns to the rest of the group and gives them a nod. "There is just that last room down the hall, then we're ready to descend yeah?"
With the fey gone, Tek simply opens the crates for everyone to see the assorted firecrackers, rockets, and fiery candles.
"I'm not sure what those tricksters would planning that had them all a-twitter, but my guess is we just saved the other folk living in this ruin a whole bunch of trouble." He says.
With nothing else of interest in the room, the party continues down the hallway. At the end of the hall are three earthenware jars, each about 4 feet tall.
Silas listens and the door and hears nothing. After investigating the door for traps he is satisfied that it is neither locked nor trapped and opens the door.
The entire floor of this twenty-foot by twenty-foot is covered with a green oozing slime. Otherwise, the room appears to be empty.
Tek is nearly knocked over as Meebo rushes forward to look into the open crates, her eyes as wise as saucers. "Oh , sorry!" she exclaimed, helping steady him momentarily before returning her complete attention to the goodies. "We are taking ALL of this."
Her pack already full of gears and bits, she removes a few to make room for the fireworks.
Seeing a potential use as a distraction or lures, Tek slips a few of the firecrackers into his pocket before he is practically bowled over by the gleeful Meebo. Shaking his head at his fellow gnome's pyrotechnic enthusiasm, Tekumbray quietly reminds himself to add a bit of extra distance between himself and his fire wielding, explosives laden companion.
"Meebs..." Myev says, rubbing her hand over her face with a little bit of exasperation. "Please be careful. Need me to carry anything?"
----
Down the hall, to green, oozy slime room...
----
Myev peeks into the room suspiciously, not liking the look of the slime. "Be careful..." She says, narrowing her eyes at the space.
Myev finds the ooze suspicious and wracks her brain for what might cause such a thing...
...unfortunately, there were some gaps in her education in regards to various kinds of oozes.
"Meebs..." Myev says, rubbing her hand over her face with a little bit of exasperation. "Please be careful. Need me to carry anything?"
"No, that's okay!" she said happily as she packed the explosive items into her pack. The very same pack that fueled her flame thrower.
--------------
"Eww, what IS that?" she said, regarding the slime.
"I...I don't like the look of it." Silas says, looking around the room in general. Shining his light in, it seemed that this slime had covered everything on the floor and there was not a spot to reach without it.
"Just leave it or maybe burn it." Tek says stepping back from the door careful to get nowhere near the putrid green slime.
Baheera makes sure to keep her distance from the slime covered floor until her companions can better identify it.
"I...I remember there being an infestation of this back at the temple. One of the walls to the sewer had broken and flooded the room then. It is...well...green slime. Corrosive to the touch to flesh and it eats through metal and wood even faster. Fire, ice, sunlight, radiance, or any magic that can cure disease eradicates it."
Going through his bag, he produces a torch and sets it ablaze with a matchstick. Leaning into the room, he brings it down to the floor and sees if the slime begins to burn away.
"If there is anything magical or made from stone, it could have survived the slime." Silas explains, hopeful that they could find more to support them in this conflict they were drawn into.
Nodding his agreement at Silas' recollection, Tek lights his own torch and joins the cleric of Lathander in trying to burn away the noxious slime.
"We used to get the stuff seeping into the lower vaults back home. Mother and father would have do go down and burn it out a couple times a year."
Silas and Tekumbray, knowing full and well what this particular dungeon malady is, go about the business of burning it away. A few minutes later, the slime is gone, but unfortunately anything of note or value that may have been in the room had already been consumed by the slime.
With exploration of the current level of the pyramid complete, the group heads back for the previously discovered stairwell further down into the depths of the ruin.
At the end of the stairs is an iron door, after a quick examination by Silas and Myev, it is determined to be safe and you travel through. Beyond the door lies a forty foot long corridor that travels southward before turning east. Twenty feet along the eastward run Silas notices something, a hidden door in the stonework of the northern wall.
Members of the party search for the mechanism to open the door and find that it is nothing more than pressing solidly on the stone slab that causes it to open, revealing a thirty foot square room filled with crates and casks. Four large brown beetles, each about three-foot long, are busy boring into the soft wood of the containers with their wicked mandibles.
There is a metal door of some sort in the far wall of the thirty foot chamber. It does not seem that the beetles have taken notice of you.
Taking in the sight of the room and the beetles eagerly trying to get at the contents of the crates, Baheera wastes no time blasting away at one of the beetles once she has a clear line of sight.
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Myev sees Baheera fire off an eldritch blast and charges into the room, taking a hit at the nearest beetle she sees when she enters.
Myev wonders if perhaps this buried building is cursed, and the curse has seeped into her bones, preventing her from being able to hit anything at all.
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"I wonder if these are pets of...EEP!" Tek throws himself aside as Myev charges in, the massive head of her wild maul brushing the top of his oversized hat even as thunder still rings in his ears from Baheera's eldritch blast.
Rolling aside and back into a fighting stance, the gnome gives Myev a Watch out for the little people! look before stepping up and jabbing his blade at whatever soft spot the nearest beetle offers.
"Wow! I never saw such big b-" A blast of eldritch energy bursted past him moments before the powerful half-orc charged into combat. The time for peace was done and he was not going to let his comrades be left alone. Praying for Lathander's protection, a radiant spark began to manifest upon the beetle beside Myev before it erupted into holy fire.
Baheera blasts the furthest of the beetles, thunder echoing through the halls, while Tekumbray slinks in behind Myev and stabs the creature to right of the door. Meanwhile the same bug manages to dodge the pillar of radiance caused by Silas.
Possibly due to nearly tripping over Tek in her exuberance to get into battle, Myev badly over-extends her swing, missing badly.
Utsuri targets one of the beetles with their blowgun narrowly missing.
Meebo has an action before the initiative order starts.
"More bugs?" Meebo stands in the doorway and launches a glob of flames at the one directly in front of her .
Having been attacked, the beetles are now fully aware of the presence of the party.
Beetles bite at each of Tekumbray and Myev, but fail to do so meaningfully. Suddenly the two beetles at range spit out an oily substance in the directions of Tek and Myev but miss their targets. The oily substance hits the ground with an acidic sizzle.
"I am getting really, really sick of missing everything in this freaking place," Myev says through gritted teeth, taking another swing at the beetle closest to her .
Myev will then move to the next nearest beetle, ready to smash it if it's not dead by the next turn.
Myev smashes one of the beetles into a sizzling acidic goo, then moves to engage another.
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Utsuri's first strike badly wounds the already wounded bug, the shin strike landed the killing blow.
Meebo steps into the room, making a grossed out face at the dead beetle beside her. She charges up her fire lobber again, and sends a blast at the remaining beetle, though her aim is a bit off and the glob that emerges is pitiful and weak.
She frowns and whacks the side of the flame spooter a couple times, inadvertently aiming it at Tek as she does so.
"Everything is so quick down here! Let us see if we can strike." Silas murmured, giving another prayer for retribution to protect his comrades. Another flame of holy light manifests where the beetle remains.
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Stepping into the doorway with a flowing motion amid the chaos, Baheera maintains her focus on the fartherst of the beetles, this time hitting it full on with a devastating blast of magical force and rolling thunder.
Tek moves to engage the beetle nearest Myev and escape the rather ominous opening of Meebo's flame chucker, which he discovers is suddenly pointing directly at chest. Am I charging the enemy or fleeing a friend? Is the thought the flitters like a drunken butterfly through his mind. He simply can't shrug off the uneasy tingling in the center of his back and the distraction is just enough to bring his aim on the beetle into question.
Meebo's gout of flame misses its target as does Tekumbray's latest strike with his blade.
The combined might of Silas's radiant pillar of flame and the thundering beam of energy hurled forth by Baheera, splatters the furthest of the beetles.
The lone remaining beetle's pincers bite deep into Tekumbray's leg, badly wounding the gnome.
"Tek! Are you alright?" Silas says, quickly moving in a bit closer. With his holy symbol in hand, another pillar of holy fire seeks to engulf the last remaining beetle.
Myev takes another whack at the remaining beetles, if there's anything left after the others have hit.
It would seem the curse has reared its ugly head again.
With everyone rushing to aid Tek, Baheera has difficulty getting off a clear shot at the beetle.
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Tekumbray gasps in pain and barely manages to catch himself as his mangled leg suddenly struggles to hold him upright. Fortunately, adrenaline pumps into his system faster than a jack rabbit at a coyote convention when Myev's maul once again whistles nearby closely followed by a booming blast from Baheera and a look he can't quite define in Meebo's eyes.
Got to finish this beetle off quick. His rapidly panicking mind screeches along with a definite commitment to archery from this point forward. With a desperate move, Tek jabs his blade up and through a seem in the big insect's carapace. Although there isn't much strength behind the blow, he still feels it bite something.
Gorn Steelbreaker
