Undaunted, Djack tries one more time, and manages to disable the magical trap. He believes the rune would have paralyzed him for quite some time, and probably anyone close to him. Could have been disastrous if some other danger wandered by in the meantime.
Bugger... it's the one thing I hate, being unable to move.
Other than finding the trap, there is little for Djack to perceive here, unless you want to look through the fallen door into the area beyond that.
Djack tries to tread softly to the opposite door, peeking through.
"Seems you've taken care of it, with or without Xenxotl's aid." She nods, before moving into the room properly.
Looking back and nearly tripping. The whole is ALWAYS greater than the sum of its parts, Yoltzin... there is no telling what would have happened without your conveyance of the blessing or how much intervention occurred.
Perhaps it allowed me to be more confident... or hesitant at the right moment.
"Perhaps so." She agreed.
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In the dim glow of your lightsource, Djack gets a glimpse of the room beyond the door. His view is partially cut off by the angle of the entrance; Djack can tell the room stretches on beyond your vision on the northwest side.
Then, on the floor, Djack senses movement. Looking in, he sees a prone man in chainmail, a shattered shield beside him. He's moving, and seems in agony. Djack prepares to spring over the rubble to assist him, but something causes him to hesitate. Then, a nightmarish abomination appears from further in the room. This nightmare shambles along the ground on eight muscular tentacles, and as it does, a horrid stench fills the room. Its skin is moist, green-black, and covered in warts and protuberances. On its back, dozens of fist-sized pustules shift and pulsate with nauseating vitality, like sentient oily bubbles.
But the true horror lies in its eyes, for they gleam with a sinister mad intelligence. The downed man screams.
It's difficult to tell from the angle, but Djack becomes stark still... and listless.
After a few seconds, the youth makes his way back to the others and explains what he saw. All the while, unable to keep himself from shuddering.
She could hear the screams- how could she have not? Yet hearing the description from Djack sets the tone for the coming encounter. "We need to pass this... Creature, regardless. I think if I call forth a spirit into the room and we enter after it, we can keep it's attention largely off of us."
Pass it?
Oh, sister... we NEED to kill it. I can't sleep or live knowing that thing is out there... His breathing is quick.
We go in and hack it to little pieces so small that it's horrid evil eyes can't see them.
Can your spirit help with that?
She squints her brow. "We are not related by blood. Further, that was my intention from the start."
Blood, yeah... maybe not. But WE are from this... somewhat sane world. THAT is from someplace else, someplace in---sane.
"Yes...? Which is why we are going to try and cleanse this tomb. My spirits may go in ahead of us, and then we'd come in after while it is distracted to launch our own offensive." Yoltzin proposes, again.
"Spizz think Yoltzin should send in her elf-ghosts. Then maybe Spizz come in shooting fire at it, and rest of party can assist screaming human."
Climbing over the remains of the door will make some noise; there will be a -4 penalty on Stealth Checks. That said, Spizz can shoot fire around the doors, if he wants. Likely Rocko will come in last and just smash through them.
No, you can fire over the obstacle with little problem.
"I can block the door t'keep whatever it is in."
Rocko pauses as he realizes.
"Not that a hundred beasties escaping 'afore weren't bad enough."
Getting herself into a decent position where she could see into the room, she waited for those who intended to engage in melee with the creature to position themselves. Then she chanted, pleading with the lingering lost souls to take part in combat once more. She could feel them grasping onto the tentative planar connection, and thrust her hand outward to bring them fourth.
Three eagles blessed by celestial fire burst into existence, letting out piercing cries and flew over the horrid abomination to distract it away from the entryway, before lashing out with claw or beak.
Two of the three Eagles find their mark with the attack, but it is uncertain what damage they inflict, if any.
The creature still seems unaware of your presence, and stops approaching the dying man in favor of the flying creatures in its midst.
Attack on Eagle:
Damage:
Eagle Fort Save:
One of the three creatures is smashed out of the air by a powerful tentacle, and disappears back whence it came.
Djack sees the flight of eagles and his spirits are lifted.
The young man clambers over the debris and approaches the creature with steel drawn.
Please allow me... to introduce myself...
As Djack moves up to the creature, its stench and appearance almost overwhelm him. He manages to hold down his breakfast, but barely.
Djack is sickened (minus 2 on pretty much everything).
Djack takes his attack, and his weapon strikes home, piercing the creature with a sickening popping sound.
At this point, we need Initiative:
Creature:
Spizz:
Quince:
Rocko:
Yoltzin:
Creature, then party.
Djack gags, Gods... you literally make me sick!
Unsurprisingly, the horrid beast doesn't take kindly to Djack's presence.
Need a DC 16 Fort Save from Djack. Failure means he's nauseated by the creature's touch for 1 round.
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At the creature's strike, Djack vomits in his mouth, spitting it out.
Djack can control himself no longer, and starts actively retching despite the pain of the attack.
Rest of party may act.
"Grrr. Spizz cannot get good shot for big magic!"
Spizz defaults to his flame jet spell
Spizz's spell goes high, almost clipping one of the eagles as it misses the target completely.
As her spirit summons take up offensive against the creature, the elf knocks back an arrow to help drive the attack home. She took careful watch of Djack's condition, ready to step in if he was looking truly dire.
Eagle 1
Eagle 2
The eagles continue to harry the horrid creature, though, they cannot get close enough to hit it this time.
Just before Yoltzin fires, she sees a faint orange come from around the corner of the visible area of the room. The orange glow flies to her, and hovers around her wrists, settling on a family bracelet on her bow arm.
Yoltzin looses the arrow and flies slightly truer than before, just enough to hit the beast.
Yoltzin's bracelet is now a +1 Archery Bracelet, giving her +1 enhancement bonus to hit and damage with any long or short bow she holds, and the attack counts as magic.
Not willing to let Djack face the creature alone (eagles notwithstanding), Quince climbs over the barrier and moves up to the creature, taking a slash with one of his butterfly swords.
Rocko's action, round 1
Rocko has shield and axe out as he makes his way into the room. Although he planned on standing on guard, poised to keep the beast from having an open path out of the cave, he pauses as he notices it might be more important to get this wounded solder a bit more out of harm's way.
"Easy there, I be a friend wantin' to help." he'll tell the soldier in anticipation of a bad reaction to being grabbed.
Rocko thinks twice abound the ankle, seeing the damage to the man's lower body, but pulls him away instead by his wrist.
Rocko is also sickened by the smell of the creature (-2 to a bunch of stuff).
Top of Round 2
The creature pays little attention to Rocko, focusing instead on Quince, the latest opponent to damage it.
Quince Fort Save:
Quince manages to keep from being nauseated, and can act this round.
Rest of Party, including Djack, may act this round.
Djack attempts to tumble out of reach.
Djack manages to move out of the way, but thinks better of hitting the ground. He's now 5' away.
Djack manages to move out of the way, but thinks better of hitting the ground. He's now 5' away.
With the soldier in a somewhat safer position, Rocko will switch his axe back to his main hand, step up, and then take a swing at the beast. As much as he'd love to chop with all his might, the queasy feeling in his stomach makes him think twice about anything fancy.
Rocko's powerful swing connects, making a rending, tearing feeling as hit hits. Grotesquely, Rocko notices one of the boils on the creature's back swivels, and two tiny eyes open to look at him. This is followed quickly by the opening of a tiny mouth filled with needle-sharp teeth.
Also, since Rocko's weapon is magic, he notices it's more effective than Quince's attack with non-magic blades.
Quince attack:
The elf is stunned for a time as the objects takes shape around her wrists. A gift from the spirits, perhaps? She could not spare the time to consider it a .moment longer, as she saw her her companions flagged. Clutching her pendent, a pleasant warmth radiated through them in order to mend their wounds. As a bonus, it would help the injured knight as well.
At this point, Djack realizes he has an opening, and is free to make an attack in Round 2. (see discussion page for details).
Djack father's himself and tries to help end this... thing. Finished heaving, he breathes drop and stabs before strong away.
You don't belong... here!
That seems likely; their attacks don't seem to be doing much at all.
However, one does seem to have distracted the creature enough for Djack's "close" attack to become a hit.
Djack pokes the creature again.
End of Round 2
Top of Round 3
The gross living boil that looked at Rocko last round pops off the creature and flies at the Gnoll's head.
Ranged Touch Attack
bleed
The creature sinks its teeth into Rocko's neck and attaches to it, syphoning blood (to the tune of 1d2 hp per round it remains attached).
Super-secret roll for who knows what.
The creature lashes out with a nasty tentacle at Quince.
Quince drops to the ground, blood dipping from his ears.
Party may act.
Rocko fends off the urge to desperately rip off this toothy thing to focus on finishing off the source first. He also notices it helps to have a friend opposite distracting the thing, so he slides over to be opposite the one eagle that didn't disappear. Since he seems to have the best advantage, he'll slash down with as mighty a swing as he can muster.