Alorea remains paralyzed!
Vyana fights off the tingling sensation that creeps along her skin and ignores the disgust she feels at being coated in living slime.
Siobhan and Vyana combine their efforts and cut the cube into ribbons of slime - it eventually loses all cohesion and dissolves into mush. After a few moments, Alorea's paralysis wears off and she is able to keep moving.
Vyana pulls a spare cloak from her bag and tosses it to Alorea. She then produces a thin blanket and uses it to wipe as much of the slime and goo from Von's skin as possible.
"Here, let me get ..." she mutters as she continues to tend to the girl's injuries even as they pull back.
Once she can move again, Alorea uses the cloak to wipe all the caustic slime off of her. "Ugh, thank you. That was more harrowing than I would have liked."
After healing up, the halfling examines what remains of Druingar Glintaxe's gear. "Poor Druingar. I would not wish such an ignominious fate on anybody."
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"We can take these and bury them when we have a chance." Siobhan offers, resting a hand on Alorea's back. "A dwarf would want to rest in the earth and that would be the least we could do I think?"
She respects the halfling's grief for a few minutes, standing hand in hand with Vy in silence.
"We should press on." She says eventually. "Hopefully there won't be any more oozes..."
The suit of full-plate armour needs a good rinse to wash the acid off, but it hasn't been corroded and is in good condition. The battleaxe bears an inscription in Dwarvish which Alorea recognises as Druingar's runic name.
Several hours of walking later, through the maze of endless corridors, and there is no trace of the gelatinous cube's slime trail. It clearly hasn't visited this part of the caves, or at least not recently. At the next corridor junction, you find a curious sight: a headless corpse in patchwork leather armour. Several large rats are feeding on its remains, but they flee from the light you carry with you - although not far. You hear them chittering their annoyance from the bolt-holes in the wall.
Vyana recognises the boots the corpse is wearing as being boots of elven-kind.
Tucked into the clothing is a blood-soaked journal. Much is illegible, but a few sentences can still be read.
...I warned Kemmrick the secrets of the dwarves should remain beneath the ground, but he would not be placated. We’ve already lost Martren, and without his divine guidance, we are truly lost in the dark. Monsters lurk in every shadow, but something worse jangles in the deep. I feel its evil from afar, like a blistering heat threatening to melt away my soul. The Dark Smith might be forgotten, but I fear one of his vile servants still prowls these halls, keeping the fires of Droskar burning for hundreds of years...
...Their shrieks tore my courage from me and left my heart cold. I don’t know what they did to me when their rancid-tasting lips locked on mine, but my thoughts jumble now, and my hair falls away in bloody clumps... If only Martren were here, he would know what sickness ails me and pray for my salvation. The only prayer I can muster is that this plague takes me before that hellish shackled servant of Droskar returns to drag me off in chains as he did Kemmrick. I still hear his screams in my mind....ears wet... thirst so thirst... lost in the dark... tongue gone now... itchy... face rot rot... blood tastes good... fly soon fly...
A few moments after leaving the headless corpse behind, the passageway opens out into a large, circular chamber with four massive iron doors at each point on the compass. The doors behind you and to the right stand open, while the doors directly in front and to the left are currently shut. At the centre of the room, a strange stone obelisk rises from floor to ceiling, its surface covered with metal bands and encrusted with deposits of a strange greenish mineral. The floor is strewn with headless skeletons and scattered bones. A dented steel shield and bits of metal armour lie at the foot of the obelisk.
You don't have a lot of time to take this in, because almost as soon as you enter the room, you hair stands on end and sparks fly across your metal weapons and armour as a bolt of crackling electricity surges up from the obelisk, arcing across the room to discharge in the doors and yourselves!
The doors that were open immediately slam shut, while the doors that were closed fly open to reveal a pair of creepy, demonic winged heads - just the heads. They fly lazily towards you, jaws open wide.
Alorea passes the magic boots to somebody who can make good use of them. She frowns as she reads through the journal. "This does not bode well. Stay alert."
***
Alorea shrieks as the electricity zaps her, causing her muscles to convulse painfully. She has little time to deal with the pain as the horrid winged creatures appear!
She wildly hurls one of the metal objects at the things as she raises a shield in front of Siobhan! "Get 'em!"
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Practical in all things Siobhan takes up Druingar's axe, since it is enchanted and therefore a step up from her mother's blade (although she does whisper a soft request for forgiveness from her mother's spirit first).
Alorea's face tells the young champion everything she needs to know and as she leads the way onwards Siobhan does so with her shield up and her senses on high alert.
---------------------------------
Shocked into action by the trap Von strides forwards and introduces the creepy heads to Mr Axe.
Vyana spends a few moments admiring the workmanship of the boots before slipping off her own worn and muddy boots and pulling on the elvish footwear.
"Feels a little too fancy for me," she says with a shrug before stuffing her old ones into her bag.
~~~~~
Gritting her teeth and attempting to ignore the trembles shaking her limbs, the half-elf draws and fires at the nearest of the floating heads.
Alorea's flung projectile misses both the flying skull-creatures, but Von lands a solid hit with her axe and Vy's arrow sinks deeply into it, although it spins round to face both the young women with a malevolent glare before it bites the paladin several times. Its teeth rend her flesh, but more dangerously, Von feels the insidious sting of poison leaching into her wounds!
The other skull flies to close the distance with Vyana, before distending its jaw hideously and - the sound goes on and on and on and into your very soul, threatening to freeze you into immobility.
Alorea shatters her multi-layered shield spell to protect Siobhan!
Resisting the paralysis, Alorea unleashes her psyche. She soothes Siobhan's wounds before hurling another projectile.
Alorea's projectile smashes into the already-wounded creature, knocking it out of the air and sending it rolling down by Siobhan's feet. That leaves the other one, which is floating in the air ominously next to Vyana...
With her friend in danger, Vyana refuses to let the unearthly shriek prevent her from acting.
-4 hp
Vy's arrow hits but doesn't do a lot of damage. In return, the winged skull-creature nuzzles up against Siobhan's paralysed form, in a sickening parody of a lover's kiss...
Alorea hurls another projectile at the disgusting creature.
The magus sends another magically charged arrow at Von's attacker.
-15
Von's attacks miss, but more importantly she keeps her wits and prevents the creature from condemning her to a wretched fate. Spurned, it hisses angrily as Alorea's projectile slams into it and bites at the paladin again. She avoids the worst of it, but the teeth catch her arm and she again feels the sting of poison.
The colors cease swirling around Alorea as her mind begins to recover from stretching the limits of its potential. She concentrates through the haze, though, and impales the monster with another hurled projectile!
The power of Alorea's mind shatters the flying demonic head into fragments - it bursts apart in a welter of ichor, gore and shards of bone.
Vyana turns, looking this way and that with a nocked arrow, seeking out any remaining targets. When none are forthcoming, she lowers her weapon and stows the arrow.
Rushing to Von's side, she looks over the woman's injuries. Quickly realizing that whatever she's suffering is beyond the half-elf's ability to treat.
"Alorea? Can you do something for her?" she questions, frustration coloring her voice.
Obvious relief fills Vyana's face and she completely misses her friend's glance at her lips. "Absolutely disgusting," she agrees with a nod. She gives the girl a quick hug. "I'm just glad you're okay."
Pulling out a soft cloth from within her tunic, she reaches up and wipes at Siobhan's face. "Here, you've got some ..." She stops and hands her the cloth.
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"I don't want to know do I?" Von replies with a shy smile, before using the cloth to wipe her face down thoroughly. "Thanks Vy."
Once she's done she rolls the cloth up and stows it in an outer pocket for later washing before looking around. "I guess that's what happened to those two headless bodies from earlier. Let's hope there aren't anymore."
Disturbed but undaunted she squares her shoulders. "Let's push on."
Alorea looks down at the dead creatures. "So gross! This place certainly doesn't lack for horrors, does it?"
After spending several minutes meditating to regain her focus, the halfling is ready to press on.
A few moments later and you are healed and ready to keep going.
Leaving the chamber of dead vargouilles behind you, you continue travelling down the narrow stone corridors as the heat continues to get more oppressive and the whispers on the edge of hearing continue to sound distractingly in your ears. The corridor eventually opens out into an arched chamber which features rows of statues lining the east and west walls. The statues to the east depict fearsome dwarven warriors clad in simple plate armor as they heft their warhammers high. The statues to the west depict grotesque caricatures of dwarves as overly obese, pig-nosed brutes with huge, grinning mouths and beady eyes. These western statues are arranged in two lines with the front row kneeling, and both rows hold sharp, jutting spears leveled at the warriors opposite them.
The corpse of a kobold remains impaled upon the stone spear of one of the western statues. The limp body unceremoniously sags on the haft, eye to eye with its statuesque killer.
Alorea keeps her eyes and ears open as she watches Siobhan walk forward.
Vyana bites her lip to stifle a protest and frowns as her friend moves forward.
As Siobhan moves forward, there's the click of unseen stonework mechanisms being activated, and then suddenly the entire room flips on its side! What was the wall opposite suddenly becomes the floor, and the spears pointing outwards are now spiked death for anyone unlucky enough to be impaled on them.
Siobhan loses her footing and tumbles helplessly down towards the spikes.
As if that weren't bad enough, the warhammer-wielding statues which were on the opposite wall - now the ceiling - topple downward on rattling chains to crush anyone who survived the spikes...
Alorea immediately hurls herself backwards, deftly grabbing the edge of the floor and hanging on for dear life!
Fully expecting something like this to happen, the half-elf successfully grasps at some protruding stones to prevent her own fall. She mutters to herself something about never having the right spell prepared before she realizes that Siobhan wasn't so lucky.
"Von! Look out!" she shouts, too late.
Despite Vyana's warning cry, the young woman is unable to avoid the falling masonry as it crashes into her, barely missing her skull! She is bloodied and bruised, but still alive - although for a moment she might prefer it otherwise.
After a few more agonising moments, just as Alorea's arms are threatening to give way, there's another series of clicks as the stonework rights itself and the floor once again becomes the wall opposite.
The only difference is that there's now a young woman impaled on the spikes, alongside the kobold.
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Von a. is stubborn and b. refuses to worry her best friend, so she starts extracting herself from the spears with slow movements, gritting her teeth against the moans of pain which threaten to escape her.
"Watch out for that stone." She says, pointing and managing to force a tiny bit of humor into her voice. "There's a trap!"
Sadly, cursed as she is, her divine healing flickers and fails.
"VON!" Vyana screams out and, stumbling to her feet, races over to where the woman is bleeding out on the statue's spear.
With gentle hands, she manages to pull Siobhan free from vicious weapon and into her lap. In desperation she turns to Alorea. "Please. You've got to help her."
Alorea’s first healing spell falters. She unleashes her full psyche, this time managing to heal Siobhan’s body and mind before slumping back, holding her head.
”That’s all the magic I can muster. Perhaps we should fall back to rest and recover.”
Continuing to hold her friend in her arms, Vyana agrees. "Yes, we'll head back up the corridor a little bit and take a moment there," she says and ignoring Von's protests that she can walk just fine, carries the champion back towards the archway.
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"Just give me a few minutes Vy, I'll be fine!" Von protests again. It's no use so she harumphs and waits until Vy gets tired.
It takes about twenty minutes, but divine power flows smoothly through Von's body and something shatters, releasing a barely perceptible weight on her shoulders. The champion practically bounces up looking cheerful.
"Much better now! Let's go!"
"Much better now! Let's go!"
"Are you sure?" Vyana questions, her eyes narrowing with disbelief. Her attention drifts down to the gaping rent in her friends armor revealing the undamaged skin beneath. Without thinking, she reaches down and pulls the opening slightly wider to verify that Von is no longer bleeding. As if just realizing what she's doing, Vyana pulls her hand back as if burned and steps back, her face burning crimson.
"Y-yeah, you look ... you look okay. We should continue on."
Her eyes are everywhere but on her friend.
Moving beyond the chamber with the trapped floor, you keep going down the seemingly endless passageways. After several more minutes, the low ceiling opens out into a much larger chamber which clearly once functioned as the living quarters of an important dwarf. In one corner stands a simple stone bed near a large stone table. A large anvil on the other side looks somewhat out of place with a massive maul attached to it by a crude mechanical arm. Atop the anvil rests a dwarf skeleton, its skull crushed.
Before you have a chance to see much more, a swirling, vaguely dwarf-shaped shadow confronts you! Its hollow voice snarls at you in Dwarvish, which none of you understand but it's clearly NOT happy to see you.
Its appearance seems to root Alorea and Vyana to the spot, but Siobhan keeps her wits and can act!
Shadows, unfortunately for Von, hunger for life even if they emerge from the soul of someone decent and/or sane; and the long-dead dwarf who gave rise to this abomination was neither. Claws extending, it lashes at the impudent young woman, cursing at her in languages she doesn't understand.
The rending shade tears not merely at her flesh but at her essence, leeching away a part of the paladin's own shadow!