Waedin glances at Ascaede. Well it ain't a ghost. The heck is it and how do we fight it?
Unspecific Lore: DC 16
Specific Lore: DC 13:
Sebastian watches Stepnik lob a bomb at the [I]Ghosty Dwarf Skeleton]/I]. His curiosity ceases to be fun once the Cube is discovered!
Crap! Is it too late to call in an actual ghost?
Ever present to the circumstances, the Bard begins his Courageous Anthem!
A bit distracted by the Cube just wavering and wiggling at him, Sebastian decides to Recall Knowledge, as he Strides further away and, perhaps around a corner....
Waedin channels the wrath of her god at the cube.
And raises her Shield.
Ascaede peers at the clear-ish cube for a brief moment and nods. Then pulls a six-sided die from her vestments, but fumbles it into the air, and after nearly dropping and only just catching its bouncing shape she quickly taps it against her temple blade.. Then attempts to quickly raise her shield in an overhasty preparation for the creature’s attack.
◆ ExpLoit Vulnerability ◆ Raise shield ◆ Possible Step/Stride?
You know that every creature, no matter how obscure, has a weakness. By identifying and empowering the right object, you can strike down even the most resilient of monsters.
You gain the Exploit Vulnerability action.
Exploit Vulnerability [one-action]
Esoterica, Manipulate, Thaumaturge
Frequency: once per round
Requirements: You are holding your implement.
You scour your experiences and learning to identify something that might repel your foe. You retrieve an object from your esoterica with the appropriate supernatural qualities, then use your implement to stoke the remnants of its power into a blaze. Select a creature you can see and attempt an Esoteric Lore check against a standard DC for its level, as you retrieve the right object from your esoterica and use your implement to empower it. You gain the following effects until you Exploit Vulnerabilities again.
Critical Success You remember the creature's weaknesses, and as you empower your esoterica, you have a flash of insight that grants even more knowledge about the creature. You learn all of the creature's resistances, weaknesses, and immunities, including the amounts of the resistances and weaknesses and any unusual weaknesses or vulnerabilities, such as what spells will pass through a golem's antimagic. You can exploit either the creature's mortal weakness or personal antithesis (see below). Your unarmed and weapon Strikes against the creature also become magical if they weren't already.
Success You recall an important fact about the creature, learning its highest weakness (or one of its highest weaknesses, if it has multiple with the same value) but not its other weaknesses, resistances, or immunities. You can exploit either the creature's mortal weakness or personal antithesis. Your unarmed and weapon Strikes against the creature also become magical if they weren't already.
Failure Failing to recall a salient weakness about the creature, you instead attempt to exploit a more personal vulnerability. You can exploit only the creature's personal antithesis. Your unarmed and weapon Strikes against the creature also become magical if they weren't already.
Critical Failure You couldn't remember the right object to use and become distracted while you rummage through your esoterica. You become flat-footed until the beginning of your next turn.
You can attempt to Exploit Vulnerabilities in one of two ways: either by invoking properties that repel that type of creature, or by attempting a more improvisational, ad-hoc method with your esoterica that can impose a custom weakness on any creature, albeit one that usually isn't as dire as a creature's existing weakness:
Mortal Weakness After identifying a creature's weakness, you use a thematically resonant bit of esoterica to attune your attacks to your discovery. Your unarmed and weapon Strikes activate the highest weakness you discovered with Exploit Vulnerability, even though the damage type your weapon deals doesn't change. This damage affects the target of your Exploit Vulnerability, as well as any other creatures of the exact same type, but not other creatures with the same weakness.
For example, when fighting a pack of werewolves you might use silver shavings or crushed moonstone to deal damage that applies their weakness to silver to your attacks against any of the werewolves, but you wouldn't apply this damage to any other monsters with a weakness to silver.
Personal Antithesis You improvise a custom weakness on a creature by forcefully presenting and empowering a piece of esoterica that repels it on an individual level; for instance, against a tyrant, you might procure a broken chain that once held a captive. This causes the target creature, and only the target creature, to gain a weakness against your unarmed and weapon Strikes equal to 2 + half your level.
Sebastian shivers!
gelatinous cube! It will attempt to engulf anything and anyone in its path!
Sebastien nudges Waedin’s divine lance an inch to the left, and she finds that this massive block of gelatinous goop is rather easy to hit.
Meanwhile, Ascaede fumbles around with her accoutrements and becomes unsteady on her feet. She moves over next to Stepnik, still within arms reach of Waedin, but out of the path of the cube.
That same cube begins slowly wobbling forward, hissing along the floor, bubbling pools of acid leaking from its bottom edge. The dwarven skeleton suspended within holds a passive if not frightening countenance, a grim reminder of what fate may behold our adventurers! As it approaches the group, it starts to pick up speed, and it slams into the front line of Ustemir and Kolek.
Kolek deftly pulls backwards and avoids being engulfed, however, his dear master isn’t quite fast enough and gets pulled into the cube! Paralytic acid begins burning into his skin and shocking his nervous system. Ustemir finds himself floating in a matrix of clear gelatinous acid, being digested alive, face to face with the macabre grin of a long dead dwarf. Worst yet, his muscles fail to obey his brain’s command.
Sebastian winces as he views the new predicament that Ustemir has gotten himself into this time.
I was seen an orc wearing glasses. Not that unusual actually. Probably look good too.
The Bard then decides to Aid his friend by Inspiring Confidence !
The Bard then gives Ustemir Liberating Command !
The cube continues to burn.
Waedin grunts in frustration and starts to whack at the huge thing over and over.
Don't get eaten! We'll.. get you out!
Ascaede’s eyes grow wide as Ustemir is enveloped…swallowed entirely by the…thing-cube. Thinking quickly, the acolyte drops her shield, rummages around in her back pack and retrieves her grappling hook. Thrusting her arm in as far as she can and grimacing against the pain of being digested with acid she tries to hook it on Ustemir. Then, once hooked, she moves away from the cube, pulling with all her might…
◆ Stride
◆ Strike (Flame Vial)
Throw
Fire, +1 Persistent, +1 Splash (Using Bomber to only do splash to target).
◆ Stride (Out of the room)
Ustemir's mind, paralysed though quite lucid, is screaming in agony as his skin is being burned off. He attempts to fight back and regain control of both his body and the situation.
Waedin bangs against the wobbly cube with her hammer. Her first and third whacks have enough umph to do some structural damage.
Stepnik runs around the cube and lobs another firebomb, igniting another of its six faces.
Relieved that Ustemir has escaped his cubic prism, Ascaede tries to slice the die…
◆ Strike ◆ Strike ◆ Raise Shield
Ascaede slices and dices the cube, which seems to be quickly losing integrity. However, it mindlessly wobbles forward in search of its next meal.
This time Waedin and Kolek get sucked into the jelly matrix, however, they withstand the paralytic acid and maintain their wits.
The cube then wobbles and whacks Ascaede with one of it's six faces.
The cube continues to burn.
Ascaede’s eyes widen again as two of her companions are sucked into the platonic solid flambé. Seeing as her blade seemed to slice it before, she slices again and again. With completely underwhelming strikes…Then judiciously moves away at pace…
◆Strike ◆ Strike ◆ Stride
The Bard then gives Waedin Liberating Command !
Sebastien then Orates!
Waedin lets go of her mace, laboriously draws her venerated clan dagger that she would never lose and never forget of course and slashes!
◆ Draw
◆ Strike
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Ustemir manages to climb out of the jello box, hissing from pain as his skin and tunics darken and drop dry blackened flakes on the floor. He shouts for Kolek to support the bear's efforts, and starts hacking at the cube in a fit of pain-induced rage. First - a double slice across the cubes side with both weapons simultaneously, then a follow up slices with the shorsword. "Let go of my friends, you glorified cake decoration!"
◆ Twin Takedown (Flourish) - Frequency once per round - Requirements You are wielding two melee weapons, each in a different hand.
You swiftly attack your hunted prey with both weapons. Make two Strikes against your hunted prey, one with each of the required weapons. If both hit the same hunted prey, combine their damage for the purpose of its resistances and weaknesses. Apply your multiple attack penalty to each Strike normally.
Kolek attempts to break free, swimming within the cube with his clawed paws.
Sebastien reminds Ascaede that she's more courageous than she thinks.
Waedin abandons her magical hammer and draws her trusty clan dagger that has definitely been there the whole time! With Sebastien's encouragement, she cuts her way out of the cube!
Ustemir jumps right back into action, attacking the cube with half-orc-like ferocity!
Kolek obediently claws his way back out of the cube!
Sqrk! Sqwk! Sqrk! goes the cube as it leaks acidic goop from its many new holes, lacerations, and burns.
Stepnik throws a remaining vial that breaks against the broad side of the cube, spreading in a thin sheet of ice and frost, cold enough to finally break the gelatinous cube's cohesion. The hungry cube pops in a gush of semi-liquid polysaccharid goop.
Too bad, too, because it's next move would have been to eat your captive kobold, who shivers wide-eyed with fear as the armor clad skeleton of a dwarf settles down next to him, clutched in its bony grip a gleaming, glowing battleaxe.
Breathing heavily, Ascaede slumps a little, blinking against the sweat on her brow. Slinging her shield and sheathing her blade she moves close to Kolek, hands upraised.
”Ustemir - will he let me treat his wounds?” the acolyte asks, trying not to allow the distress in her mind show on her face as she assesses the acid damage to the poor ursine.
Ustemir chuckles and moves closer to Kolek to pat him on the neck. "Hah! This guy? He won't snap at anyone unless I ask him to. Well, unless you threaten him. As far as I know, we might even be able to ride him." Ustemir pauses for a moment and looks at the kobold. "Say... How much rope do we have? Maybe he could carry the scaly."
Ascaede nods with a big smile, perhaps to hide her nervousness. And nervous she does seem to be, proving to be completely ineffective.
She frowns.
”Perhaps our alchemist or priest might prove more valuable…”
Ascaede rummages in her pack, and with a wistful look at the prisoner presents Ustemir with some poor quality manacles. And a long coil of rope.
The slime covered Dwarf Skeleton watches on with a dispassionate grin.
The full-plate armor it wears may need a good washing, but is in good shape and fully functional. The battle-axe is etched with a potency rune (+1) and has Continual Flame cast upon it, thus its eerie green glow. It also bears an inscription in Dwarven along its blade.
The chests and footlockers in this bunk room are mostly empty save one. A backpack has been stuffed inside containing the equivalent of an Adventurer's Pack and a Climbing Kit, as well as a journal entitled "In the Shadows of Toil: The Adventures of Druingar the Glintaxe"
Within the journal are folded two ancient looking maps. One map seems to detail the location of the Crucible of Kamus, although it is alternately labeled Temple of the Great Seal.
The second map details a second location somewhere far to the east, identified in Dwarven as "Shedim Onul" which Waedin can translate as Shadow Mountain.
Sebastian looks at the armor. He smiles.
The Halfling then looks at the axe. He smiles wider.
The Bard then looks at the diary, finding the maps particularly intriguing.
Found ol' Glintaxe!
Sebastian looks at the dumbfounded faces around him.
Trust me, it's a good day.
The Bard wouldn't mind taking the time reading and such....
Looking at the dinged up group Waedin sighs.
Gather round. Gerana'll help us get up and running again.
Should be enough for now maybe?
Looking over GlintAxe's loot, Waedin stares at the armour.
I think... if no one else wants this, then I'd really really 'preciate it.
Uatemir hisses as some or his wounds get chaffed by rope. "Waedin, you will really want to clean that up before putting it on. Or risk burns like these." he points to his still darkened arms. Arms that are in the process of securing the kobold to Kolek.
Waedin very happily spends a few minutes scrubbing the armor while Sebastein reads the diary.
If Kopek don't mind giving rides, then I think that'll make our prisoner easier to watch out for. Hey Ascaede maybe you can ask the lizard how long this cube's been stalking their halls and how maybe we should be feared and respected for slaying it. Would really prefer to not have to fight everyone left in this dungeon.
Verkrik is visibly shaken from the past few encounters, having watched you defeat the Grick and Gelatinous Cube. He is able to inform you that the 'ghost dwarf' has been lurking these halls since the Truescales first claimed these halls as their lair. The kobolds have actively avoided this room for fear of the 'ghost dwarf'. Occasionally they may throw a dead rat or scraps of rotten meat in here, as that seems to keep the ghost satisfied, or else it might wander the halls.
So, it seems that if you close the doors and hang out here, you may be relatively safe, at least from the prying eyes of kobold scouts. Plus, there's more than enough beds to make yourselves comfortable.
Ascaede nods at Waedin’s suggestion, and carefully crafts a question as to how long their prisoner has been scared of this particular now-defeated “dwarven ghost” while also suggesting that the removal of such surely makes a kobold lairing here somewhat safer…
As to the arrangement of their prisoner’s security, the acolyte feels it prudent, once question and answer time is over, to favor tying the prisoner bodily to Kolek - a rope between them is too easily severed. Also, the idea of a wearable “tactical kobold” on a bear is too much fun.
Sebastian seems happy to read all night....
After having first entered the subterranean halls of what appears to be an ancient dwarven temple the party caught a kobold mining crew by surprise, and vanquished them, although Waedin nearly lost her life in doing so. This resulted in a parlay with a seemingly traitorous kobold caster, Kerrdremak, and his followers, in which confiscated weaponry was traded for intel and a prisoner. Then, in investigating a nearby hellish pool of molten slag and blood, they were attacked by a vicious hungry worm, which was quickly dispatched of, but not without very nearly losing Ustemir. Then, following Kerrdremak's advice, they proceeded to the west, but ignoring his advice, they investigated the supposedly haunted room, only to find the 'Ghost Dwarf' was really a skeleton suspended in a gelatinous cube. After suffering som suspense moments themselves, the cube was defeated, and the skeleton discovered to be that of the missing adventurer Druingar the Glintaxe. Among his remains was found the original copy of his journal, the very same journal whose incomplete copy was checked out from the local library by the missing Drazmorg the Wizard, whose supposedly disappeared after searching for the 'seal that guards the way back from death'.
So, after a few tenuous encounters, and having discovered a relatively safe room full of bunks and a good read, the party decides to settle in, having no particular frame of reference for the time of day outside.
Sebastien peruses Druingar's journal and discovers the following:
Druingar came across the two maps while sorting through the estate of a deceased uncle. Convinced that they lead to a long lost family crypt, he began to do thorough research. He discovered that during the 1st century of the New Gods Era, the Dwarven Kingdom of Bhogkaldur waged war against a tyrannical elven necromancer who held dominion over the Silverpine Forest. After defeating the wizard, they razed his tower and built this temple around 'The Great Seal'. However, as human clans from the northern Sunderlands began moving south into the Aster River Valley, the dwarves retreated back to their mountainhomes and left the temple isolated. The clerics of Ferrakus and Linium fell to corruption and worship of Kamus, Lord of the Chain, and renamed the temple The Crucible of Kamus. Over the next millenia, the Crucible became lost to history, until Druingar's discovery.
The second map points to a location in the Eastern Crescent Mountains, along the border with the Zethinian Empire. The name Shedim Onul is only whispered in the dreams of only the eldest of dwarves. It is said to be the first Mountainhome of the dwarves after their arrival during The Calling, and is rumored to be a place of tremendous wealth and prosperity. However, scholars the world over have given up on their search, and Shedim Onul has been relegated to the dustbin of myth and legend. If this map holds true, it could be the key to one of the world's great mysteries.
In his journal, Druingar records his musings and his decision to seek 'the seal which guards the way back from death' as preparation before tackling The Shadow Mountain, for the possibility of resurrection is appealing for such a daring adventurer.
After a good snooze, our heroes are up and at 'em. As they gather their gear together, they hear a strange shuffling sound outside the door.
Stretching and yawning as the shuffling steps of the Halfling take him to the door.
Who ordered room service?
He opens it....
"Well, I guess we're up for an early start today..." Ustemir sighs as he pulls out his blades.
By this time the full plate armor has been scrubbed clean and Waedin puts it on cracking her knuckles as she does so.
I can't carry me old Chain Mail around with this armor on, if someone else can take it then that'd be much appreciated, otherwise we can leave it behind I suppose. I'll open the door!
Waedin throws open the doors to find a strange kobold aimlessly wandering the halls. Covered in wounds and stained in dried blood, it looks an awful like one of the kobold warriors left dead near the obelisk, except its glazed over eyes glow with an eerie and disturbing yellow light.
The strange kobold seems unaware of your presence.