"Good find, Aurie. It must be a fantastic blade to have held up in the waters that long." He looks east to the unexplored area. "I assume we look for other treasures while avoiding... big bats?"
Not that you see a place for big bats to hang out but there is a lot of guano in the area.
Knowledge (history)
"Mordente," Molasbar says. "Though to the commoners and rogues of the day, it was typically called 'Biter.' It and its eleven counterparts were carried by the personal guard of the first Lord Mayor of Magnimar. In a typical display of vanity, as much enchantment went into making the blade tidy and impressive as it did into making it effective in battle."
Molasbar's naming of the sword is noted with some interest. Then, Shathee moves to the east, the others follow. Thick guano covers the floor of the room. Stalls divide the western wall, and a stone bench and fountain stand to the east. Shathee steps around the corner and to his relief he does not find a giant bat, however, he does find a colony of bats. Several wake when he rounds the corner and begin to screech which begins to awaken the others.
(What do you do?)
Aurie draws a torch in her off hand and buggers off a bit.
Not setup for dealing with swarms in the slightest!
Anyone got any alchemist's fire? Rheagar asks, bringing up his shield to try and ward off the impending bat swarm.
Shathee backs up slowly, trying not to disturb any more bats than necessary and whispers, "I was really hoping for a single large bat...".
Molasbar raises his hands, thumbs tip to tip and fingers fanned out.
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The bats worked themselves into a frenzy and no sooner did Shathee back out of their makeshift resting place did they erupt. Molasbar unleashed fire on the flying vermin as they came around the corner, causing several to drop to the ground singed. Then the swarm engulfed Molasbar and Rheagar striking for faces, hands, any place not covered by armor these things were voracious (dmg 6). The bats do not seem to be in a mood to leave, they are here to feed.
Round 1
Arodus 14, 4712
1015, 83 degrees, humid, misty (outside)
Shathee 14/19
Aurie 13/26
Molasbar 11/22; bleed 1
Rheagar 18/27; bleed 1
Swarm -6 moderately impacted
Aurie lights the torch on fire (move action I think) and throws
Aurie's attack drops a bat or two (assuming you keep a hold on your torch, a throw misses).
Round 2
Arodus 14, 4712
1015, 83 degrees, humid, misty (outside)
Shathee 14/19 <<<
Aurie 13/26
Molasbar 11/22; bleed 1 <<<
Rheagar 18/27; bleed 1 <<<
Swarm -7 moderately impacted
Rheagar withdraws away from the swarm, Ach I'm bleeding everywhere, damn bats! If you can disperse them I can start to heal us. But we need to be close!
Likely hitting again.
Round 2
Arodus 14, 4712
1015, 83 degrees, humid, misty (outside)
Shathee 14/19 <<<
Aurie 13/26
Molasbar 11/22; bleed 1 <<<
Rheagar 18/27; bleed 1
Swarm -7 moderately impacted
Shathee screams like a girl, takes a deep breath, and jumps into the water aiming to swim to the back and keep down near the bottom of the pool as much as possible.
Molasbar joins Shathee in the dark water. The pair can hear the squeaking of bats as an eerie noise beneath the surface. The bats, undeterred by Aurie's swinging torch, engulf her and Rheagar (dmg 3 each, Rheagar bleeds 1).
Round 3
Arodus 14, 4712
1015, 83 degrees, humid, misty (outside)
Shathee 14/19 holding breath 1
Aurie 10/26; bleed 1
Molasbar 10/22; bleed 1, holding breath 1
Rheagar 14/27; bleed 1
Swarm -7 moderately impacted
Shathee continues holding his breath and keeps moving his arms and legs to swim down to the bottom of the shallow pool.
Holding breath round 2.
Aurie books under the fairly familiar water.
Rheagar follows suit. It takes the bats about a minute to get tired of waiting before they leave. Shathee's lungs in particular are burning quite a bit when the team finally surfaces. The bats are gone and after checking the area around the corner they are not there. Likely, they went out the small window above the pool after being roused.
Shathee makes it to the side of the small pool and takes several steadying breaths, refreshing his strained lungs. After checking to make sure they were not getting ready to be attacked again, he began wringing some of the water out of his soaked clothes.
"I think we have everything we need and we have certainly explored all I care to see. Can we take the captive and leave now?"
And yet, the stairs to the west that lead further down beckon to the adventurer in you all with the promises of more treasure, more murals, and the possibility of another shard piece. Perhaps with a hint of danger, but what is life without the threat of losing it.
Lets rest and then continue? Aurie offers
Plenty of defensible parts to rest in!
Pull back to Ayala's room? Doors, a bed, a little food.
Reaghar looks at the others, Aye we can rest and reassault the stairs. Shall we set watches? Before we do, let me channel Iomedae's blessings upon us.
He says, glowing with divine energy...
Shathee sighs and says, "I suppose we could finish exploring a bit more as long as we avoid any more of those bats.
He visibly shivers as he considers all of those hungry faces and considers his childhood in the dark alleys of Katheer. The rats were often just as hungry as he had been but were far more vicious. He still had a scar on his arm from one particularly nasty vermin. But he shook off the haunting memory brought back from the flying rats and offered to take the first watch.
With agreement to rest and recover, the team withdraws to Ayala's room. They close the doors and find a spot to rest as they can. Some pull out food, others water, all are battered, bit, or burned and sigh with relief when they finally sit or recline. It is early yet in the day so before the spellcasters attempt to rest their minds to regain their spells the look to see what aid they can provide their comrades. Molasbar uses prestidigitation to dry out everyone's clothes. Then after spell casting is done, those who need to refresh spells look to get a nap at least and to let their mind rest before attempting to prepare spells again.
Arodus 14, 4712
1900, 73 degrees, humid (outside)
Shathee 19/19
Aurie 20/26;
Molasbar 20/22;
Rheagar 24/27;
Before sleeping, Aurie gracefully goes through several motions of her relatively unusual dance like fighting pattern.
It seems to be more of an unlimbering exercise, not quite a dance, perhaps owing to her not incsondierably wounds.
I assume there will be some sort of watch setup? In pairs maybe or just one at a time? I do not hold the standing of guard against a caster so they can participate same as everyone else. Does Rheagar have any spells left to change into cure spells before everyone beds down?
Rheagar expends some of his last remaining spells to heal any remaining wounds. Then the team is able to bed down and they make it safely through the night. You find you are refreshed several hours later albeit a little stiff.
Arodus 14, 4712
1900, 73 degrees, humid (outside)
Shathee 19/19
Aurie 26/26;
Molasbar 22/22;
Rheagar 27/27;
Shathee rolls up his sleeping mat and packs it back into his pack. Thankfully, the room had stayed fairly uniform temperature and having something to soften the ground was all he needed.
He moved over to the door and listened closely before moving the chair and opening it back up.
Hearing nothing, he goes ahead and opens the door while everyone is getting up and ready.
Nothing new is outside the room. The magical metal doors glisten across the way with the opening between them inviting adventurers forward.
Molasbar will nock an arrow and approach the door, but he'll wait for someone more sturdy to go through first.
Molasbar crosses the large room to the yawning silvery doors. Through it he sees no threat. There is blood splattered about from the morning and the two large rats down the hall which have drawn flies. Other than the buzzing of the flies it is otherwise silent. The other three follow Molasbar to the door and see what he does.
Right in front of you
Aurie intensively scans for threats, flies do not cause such wounds.
Moving into the room where, just a few hours ago, the team had faced off with the leader of the Tower girls they find nothing beyond the rat corpses from earlier. Down the hall, the dark stairwell they were headed for when Ayala attacked awaits.
Shathee starts heading down the dark stairwell continues the exploration of the structure feeling significantly better now that they have rested. Shivers run down his spine as the thought of those bats still hanging around somewhere nearby and he aims to avoid them at all costs.
Shathee heads down the stairs and comes out on the landing in the room where they battled the giant amoebas. From here, he easily remembers not to go to the left where the bats were resting. It would be best to be as quiet as possible and perhaps check out the hall and staircase to the west. As the group moves to the western stair Rheagar notices an anomaly in the southern wall (secret door).
Great job Rhaegar! Aurie perks up as Rhaegar presumably annoucned this.
Now how does one open that? Shathee you got an idea?
Everyone feels around the area after Rheagar points out the outline of the door. Shortly thereafter a stone in the wall is found and depressed which unlatches the door. A good shove gets it to open onto a long hall leading south. It is dark but the sound of lapping water can be heard.
"With the number of hidden doors in this place, I don't believe we'll ever search it completely. But the others we have found have been lucrative, so let's see what treasures we can find here." Shathee whispers loud enough for those around him to hear. They were still too close to the bats for his comfort and he did not want to attract their attention.
Indeed, may we blessed with a lack of swarms too!
Aurie whispers as she stealthily moves into the secret door that was just opened.
Molasbar provides light as everyone walks down the long dark hall. It shifts back and forth finally ending at a pool of water some 10' below. The water is lapping against the sides showing there must be some tie to the ocean outside. A narrow ledge runs to a rotten looking board which crosses over to a pylon in the middle of the pool.
With no apparent reason for going out on the pylon and no treasure to be found, the team heads back toward the stairs. The stairs go down one turn and then begin to go east as they descend. The stairs empty into a hall. From the bottom of the steps Aurie can see the hall opens up into a large room with mounds of dirt.
"Something strange ahead. I've seen large wyrms crawl through dirt before and leave similar holes, but in a tower like this I wouldn't expect below ground creatures or others to be digging for treasure. Let's stay on guard."
Using his naturally light step, Shathee quietly moves out to look into the room.
Oui Aurie replies as she stealthiyl follows shathee