Round 5
Weakened again by a rat swarm, now fights for his life against it.
"May you last breathe be as bitter as over-aged rum, Dagio!" The cleric curses up at the intelligent rat.
Liraela will follow the rat thing, attempting to stab it in the back.
Up close, Xallis can see the terrible burns exposing Navia's alien innards in all of their glory. He raises the scroll, chanting to release the sealed magic that slowly begins to regrow the patch of missing skin.
Infernal Healing
You anoint a wounded creature with devil’s blood or unholy water, giving it fast healing 1. This ability cannot repair damage caused by silver weapons, good-aligned weapons, or spells or effects with the good descriptor. The target detects as an evil creature for the duration of the spell and can sense the evil of the magic, though this has no long-term effect on the target’s alignment.
Navia grits her teeth as she atatches to the wall, clawing through those delicate circular designs as she chases after her target. "Get. BACK. Here."
Round 5
Tychus shots at Dagio. His bolt seemingly bypasses Dagio’s shield but then another layer of magical protection deflects the bolt at the last second.
Liraela ascends the stairs and drives her dagger into Dagio’s gut. The rat spits out blood and his eyes bulge in disbelief. ”I am Dagio the Great! A familiar no more. Granted immortality. You cannot kill me!” he shouts, but you can sense his own wavering belief in that statement.
Then Henrika, with a flash of psychic energy, stops his heart. Dagio grabs his chest in pain and with a final dying gasp, falls to the ground.
With no master to guide them, the remaining rats disperse.
Dagio had two magical items on him, a ring and a wand.
You successfully identify them both as a ring of protection +1 and a wand of shocking grasp (with 22 charges).
Trevor, his fine formal wear in tatters from the rat attacks and acid damage, wearily walks over to help Dame Trant off the floor.
"So. The mystery of Factor 12's missing wand and ring has been solved."
The cleric look up to Henrika and Liraela. "Excellent work, ladies. Excellent work, all. Will the injured make their way toward me, please?"
Trevor readies his holy symbol.
Malphene drops her weapon and squeezes Trevor in a powerful bear-hug. ”You saved me. Without your timely healing, I would have been rat food. And the rest of you, thank you too.”
The other nobles slowly make their way into the room. Imistos speaks up and claps. ”Well done. Well done. I can sense that we are nearing our escape but I see that this fight took a lot out of you. Let’s sit and rest for a moment before carrying on.” He sets down the glassware set that he’s been carrying for you and starts to fill the glasses with water and hand them out.
The others find seats around the lecture hall and sit to calm their nerves.
With the threat gone, Navia can climb back up to the crèche in the ceiling when she is ready.
Dagio’s crèche in the roof contains the dire rat’s treasury. Along with his spellbook, the small room contains four pristine rubies and a magical pearl hidden within a pile of chewed and torn paper, as well as a scuffed jewelry box, a family treasure that his master Eros inherited and the rat has jealously guarded ever since the human’s death.
The rubies are worth 100 gp each.
The pearl is a pearl of power (1st level).
Inside the jewelry box is the second relic you’ve come across. This one is a magical ring called the Envoy Ring. Its abilities become apparent as soon as someone handles it.
Exploring the room further, the other set of double doors to the east are locked with the same double-lock as the doors you opened from the other side. Without the key, Liraela would need to succeed on two disable device checks to pick the lock open.
Anyone who wants to can also make a Perception check.
Malphene drops her weapon and squeezes Trevor in a powerful bear-hug. ”You saved me. Without your timely healing, I would have been rat food. And the rest of you, thank you too.”
Trevor can't help but chuckle as the titanic woman picks up the cleric in a gesture of thanks.
Once let go, the Kastner noble takes this opportunity to influence Dame Trant once more. Trevor takes the Malphene's hand and kiss her knuckle."Your servant, m'lady."
Tychus rests his discharged crossbow onto his shoulder as the fighting subsides, and lets out a big sigh of relief. He paces the room as the rest of the group sits down to rest, taking but a moment to sip from a glass of water.
As the group discovers the stolen items, Tychus' interest is finally piqued.
"We would do well to return the missing items. I see no reason why we can't keep this other ring, though."
As Tychus handles the relic ring, his eyes widen as he begins to understand it's power.
"One of us could definitely make use of it's powers." He hands it back to the group, loads another bolt into this crossbow, and returns to pacing the room.
"One of us could definitely make use of it's powers." He hands it back to the group, loads another bolt into this crossbow, and returns to pacing the room.
"One of us?" Trevor questioned. "More like ALL of us!"
Henrika takes a deep breath and cleans the edge of the masterwork sword on the former familiar's robes. "I have definitely had my fill of oversized rodents. Let us hope that its passing into shadow heralds a new year of prosperity and warmth."
She gathers with everyone else to receive healing and to allow Imistos the chance to be useful by waiting on the nobles. "I thank you, that is good thinking, and a welcome bit of civilization in this forsaken archive. But no, good Imistos, let us not drink plain water," she says as he brings her a glass. "In thanks to our good friend Trevor's patron god, we must have wine! Milord, can Cayden indulge us?" She dumps out the glass and holds it out to the cleric.
As they sit and examine the items found in the room, she watches Malphene Trant. "I admire you, Dame Trant," she says simply. "You are brave and though you might be headstrong, that is a noble quality in a warrior. You do your father and your family great honor. Would you join me in a toast to his memory? Perhaps you would share with us something you recall from your childhood?"
She sips from the glass and nods to Trevor in appreciation. "Mine own father died when I was still young, and though it was deemed an accident, I have always wondered if my uncle had something to do with his death. Sometimes I imagine Father's spirit follows me, and lends me his strength in need. Perhaps you will find the same is true for you."
When Tychus suggests returning the missing items, Henrika wrinkles her nose. "No," she says. "While I believe it is the duty of those in power to govern lawfully, I think sometimes it is necessary to bend the rules to achieve a greater purpose. No disrespect intended to you, Tychus! But I believe these items would do more good in our hands than if they were returned to the vault. I will claim them as rightful spoils of our conflict, and vow to return them to the vault at some point in the future, when our task is completed." She holds up the wand. "I cannot use this, but I am sure it will come in handy. Who would like to take it? Xallis, perhaps?"
She gathers with everyone else to receive healing and to allow Imistos the chance to be useful by waiting on the nobles. "I thank you, that is good thinking, and a welcome bit of civilization in this forsaken archive. But no, good Imistos, let us not drink plain water," she says as he brings her a glass. "In thanks to our good friend Trevor's patron god, we must have wine! Milord, can Cayden indulge us?" She dumps out the glass and holds it out to the cleric.
Trevor smiles and bows to Lady Karthis, like a magician in a show, and refills the glasses with created wine. "You know. There are legends among the caydenites. In many customs, it is expected to pour out a little of your drink onto the floor of the bar or tavern you are in, in thanks to Cayden Cailean. Many caydenite acolytes believe Cayden Cailean has a demiplane full of donated alcohol, which The Drunken God uses as storage. And some believe that the alcohol produced using the caydenite version of create water, comes from this fabled demiplane. Filtered and purified. Brought to you by the generosity of The Accidental God. Cheers!"
Once drinks have been drank, Trevor continues with his healing administrations.
"So? Should we check out that hidden door right there?" Trevor asks as he points to it.
Malphene clinks her wine glass against Henrika’s. ”To my father! Perhaps he is watching over me as he always did in life. But now I will stand on my own two feet and he can watch and be pround.”
”I’ll politely stick to my own drink.” says Imistos with a smile when offered Trevor’s wine.
Lord Botoles, Sir Plastion, Lady Urbaen, and Jowuan gladly accept the wine and their attitude shifts positively. Lord Botoles says, ”I for one, can not wait to finally get out of this dungeon. This whole experience has been positively dreadful, present company excluded.” The others nod in agreement.
Perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (17) + 5 = 22
Assuming Trevor shares, at some point during the brief revelry, Trevor wanders around the outside of the room and notices a panel that looks slightly off. He raps on it with his fist and hears the telltale sound of a hollow space behind it. He finds that the panel is a secret door, although, you’d need to open it to see where it leads.
I do not wish to end our party on a sour note, but I believe that when and if we end our expedition here that we be very cautious. We have no idea who was fully in cahoots with the massacre and should go to ground until we learn more. Ichabhod removes the magical item that allows him to receive the secret messages. I suggest others do likewise until we learn more. An ounce of prevention and all that.
Henrika is too engrossed in her toasting and drinking to pay much attention to Imistos.
”I’ll politely stick to my own drink.” says Imistos with a smile when offered Trevor’s wine.
Trevor returns the smile, whether Imistos can see any predators in that smile, is up to the other cleric. The caydenite raises his glass back to the halfing.
Trevor touches his holy symbol, converting a cleric spell he prayed for for a healing spell for himself.
When Liraela gets passed the ring to take a look at it, she is immediately enamored with it.
"Does anyone mind if I keep this? It almost seems to be made for me..." she says, looking down at it admiringly. "I'd be willing to trade this ridiculous wig for the opportunity to keep the ring, if anyone else wants it."
She can't help but laugh at Tychus' suggestion that they return the 'stolen' items. "I'm not nearly as noble in my intentions as the fair Lady Karthis, but I still think we should keep anything that might get us out of this hell hole. To that end, I don't think we'll be returning the items. Besides, we didn't steal them, we just reclaimed them from the person who did steal them."
She will enthusiastically take a glass of wine from Trevor, downing the entire drink at once by throwing her head back and consuming all of the liquid in the glass like she does with her food.
"Are we ready to move on, then? Plenty of ways to head from here I think."
Trevor at the secret door, listening to the others discuss their actions.
"I say keep the ring and wig, Lady Liraela. But if we come across another, it's mine!"
The aasimar attempts to open the secret door. "Factor 12 seemed like a nice enough bloke, for an being from Axis, I mean. I would have like to return the items we found. Might receive a 'finder's fee."
Xallis takes the wand in one hand and a drink in the other, testing the magical item's weight and waving it at some imaginary opponent. "Sadly, this wand's spell isn't in my repertoire. My specialty is more in summoning and physical reconfiguration. And while I could touch the wand's very essence to coax the magic out of it, I think Trevor has a point. I suggest we return this and the defensive ring to its rightful owner. If for no other reason than to have an interesting creature in our good graces."
"Does anyone mind if I keep this? It almost seems to be made for me..." she says, looking down at it admiringly. "I'd be willing to trade this ridiculous wig for the opportunity to keep the ring, if anyone else wants it."
"The other ring, however? By all means, keep a hold of it. It looks lovely on you."
Navia stretches, sighing happily as the fell magic reconstitutes her body. When people begin discussing moving on, she begins crawling along the ceiling towards the crèche she was investigating earlier.
"Hey, don't forget that other hallway." she calls down to them as she checks. "A couple rooms back, I think? Before the kobold and the haunt and that Lamashtu-damned rat."
”Well, technically speaking, we are the rightful owners now. Claiming it from a defeated foe gives us the right to keep them both, surely?”
Liraela seems incredibly confused at why the two members of the party want to return it, but “proper” city people always were strange to her. She turns to their budding ally for support, or a real reason why they should return them.
”What about you, Lady Malphene? What do you think we should do about the items? Keep them and use them to survive or return them to the vault to rot away under the senate building? If it still stands, that is.”
Diplomacy: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (14) + 10 = 24
Malphene tilts her head in thought. "If it were just me, I'd probably just pocket the items and continue on my way. But I suppose it couldn't hurt to see if the robot would reward us for them. I also want to get out of here as soon as possible, but the library wasn't very far. Let's go back."
With that, you exit back out the way you came. When you pass by the greeting room, Mimips is gone. Without anyone watching him, he must have scurried off back to wherever he came from.
Around this time, Tychus feels some minor abdominal pain, but it quickly passes.
When you get back to the library, the other gishvits are still sleeping. Biblio perks up when you return to his old home and hops down from Trevor and excitedly bounds in circles around the room.
Factor 12 greets you, "Oh! Greetings. I was not expecting your return for at least half a century. How can I help you? Did you forget something?"
When you offer to return the stolen items, Factor 12 bobs up and down with joy.
"I was not expecting this. You have done me a service that I can not properly repay. If my master ever returns, I shall not be scolded for failing at my duties." He thinks for a moment. "As a reward, I'll reinstate my policy of allowing you to borrow two items at once. I also, have a few coins hidden around here somewhere. I'll pay you for the other returned item as thanks."
You keep the ring and Factor 12 takes the wand and returns it to a locker. "Hmm, less charges than when it was stolen, but no matter." He digs through some dust covered drawers and gathers up a small pile of coins. He gives you 330 gold worth of ancient gold pieces. They are still Taldan, but the crest is from a time way before any of you were born.
When you get back to the library, the other gishvits are still sleeping. Biblio perks up when you return to his old home and hops down from Trevor and excitedly bounds in circles around the room.
Factor 12 greets you, "Oh! Greetings. I was not expecting your return for at least half a century. How can I help you? Did you forget something?"
When you offer to return the stolen items, Factor 12 bobs up and down with joy.
"I was not expecting this. You have done me a service that I can not properly repay. If my master ever returns, I shall not be scolded for failing at my duties." He thinks for a moment. "As a reward, I'll reinstate my policy of allowing you to borrow two items at once. I also, have a few coins hidden around here somewhere. I'll pay you for the other returned item as thanks."
"Well, Factor 12", Trevor asked innocently enough. "I would be interested in receiving the magical breastplate for lent, sir."
He kept the wand of shocking grasp and paid you for it. But if you meant the wand of remove disease, then yes, the two items lent he is referring to is the ring of protection and the wand of remove disease.
Once Trevor returns to the others, he divides the gold pieces between those how fought against the rats.
"ladies and Gentlemen, before we go any farther, I'd like to ask Jowuan to assist me in examining those who were bitten during the rat attack. Now would be an excellent time to address any lingering health issues."
Trevor takes out his healer's kit.
I have some skill with healing.
"Yes , I suppose Abadar would allow me to at least take a look."
Jowuan helps Trevor examine the others, but he gets in the way more than helps.
Eventually, Trevor gets frustrated with Jowuan's "help" and Icabhod steps in to help in his place. Icabhod proves to be more useful and the two are able to diagnose everyone.
After a thorough examination of everyone, Trevor diagnoses that Icabhod, Henrika, Liraela, Xallis, and Malphene are all displaying early signs of a disease called Filth Fever. If left untreated, after an onset of 1 to 3 days, the patients will begin to suffer Dexterity and Constitution damage.
Xallis scratches at the spots where he had been bitten earlier, looking slightly distraught. "I wish that rat were still alive so I could have Navia kick his filthy head in."
Trevor consults with the investigator and both confirm the diagnosis. The caydenite sits the infected down to tell them the news. "Well, the good news is that we found out about the rat fever right away. And we have the wand of remove disease to help in ridding you of the illness. The bad news I'm not that powerful of a cleric, so there's a coinflips-chance my treatment may not work."
The cleric asks everyone to drink some caydenite created water to toast Cayden Cailean for the success of the healing. Once the toasting is done, the caydenite cleric goes to a quiet corner to drink and pray. After 5 minutes, a tipsy, but resolute Trevor returns, holding the wand of remove disease.
"Be with me, Cayden", Trevor whispers to his deity.
Henrika nods in thanks to the cleric, unsure if the remedy worked. Then, she has an idea. "May I have the wand, now that there are no charges remaining?" she asks.
Trevor hands the chargeless wand of remove disease to the mesmerist. "A trophy, dear lady?"
Henrika smiles enigmatically. "Something like that," she says.
Before they leave, she goes back to the robot’s archives. "I have come to return another one of the items we borrowed," she says. "I wonder if I might request the temporary use of another item in its place? The breastplate?"
Liraela watches the exchange between Lady Karthis and Trevor, thinking she has an idea as to what she has planned.
Upon seeing her return to the archives, she smirks and holds in a laugh.
”Oh, I like this one.”
Icabhod looks in dismay at the bites. Hmm..we have a few days before this really starts to harm us. So we need to get to a temple of more skilled healer to treat the bites.
Trevor cures the majority of those infected. However, Xallis' symptoms don't fade. He may warrant further treatment in the following days.
Afterwards, Henrika takes the expired wand and brings it back to Factor 12. He takes the wand from her and returns it to the locker. "Done with this so soon? Thank you for properly returning it. You'd like to borrow the breastplate? Of course. One moment please." The inevitable withdraws the breastplate (+1 breastplate) and hands it over.
Once away from Factor 12, Liraela starts laughing.
"What a wonderful heist, Henrika. Didn't even have to do any real work, we just asked him and he gave it to us! Truly a master thief."
Henrika brings the breastplate back to the group and gives it to Trevor with another nod of thanks.
It seems that such beings have little knowledge of deceit.
"I prefer to think that they value different things," Henrika says as she squints back in the direction of the library. "It was important to Factor 12 to have the empty wand returned, which we have done. I don't feel I have treated it badly or taken advantage of it, though we might perceive it that way. So long as the wand is returned to the vault, we have helped the creature to fulfill its purpose. Shall we now investigate the secret door?"
”I’ll politely stick to my own drink.” says Imistos with a smile when offered Trevor’s wine.
Sense Motive DC 20
Tychus raises an eyebrow at the party's antics, half annoyed but also half amused. He shakes his head a bit, as if to clear his mind of the day's many troubles. Slowly a hummed song emanates from his throat, seeming to placate and soothe his tired body and mind.
When it looks like the party has rested enough and tended to their wounds, Tychus rifles through his bags, preparing for the journeys to come. He pulls out a fistful of crossbow bolts and counts them thrice over. With a grimace, he places them in easily accessible loops in his already stained new armour.
"Shall we now investigate the secret door?"
"Let's see what that little rat was hiding. But if it's the exit, we should double back and ensure there aren't any unchecked rooms behind us. Just to make sure we don't have any other surprises sneaking up on us."
Navia puts a hand on her hip and smirks.
Xallis sighs. "...and I want to see if there's anything else left here. I get the feeling things are going to get really busy whenever we get out of here, and I'd like to check for any other advantages we can salvage before we leave. Armor, wands, what have you."
You return to the long hallway and walk over to the unexplored door at the far western end. You open the door and go inside.
The wooden walls along the northern section of this room give way to natural stone. From the narrow entry alcove, the room expands into a vast area filled with rampant green vegetation. Thick briars and vines cover the eastern and western walls. To the west, the vegetation overruns several neatly arranged sets of patio furniture. Further south, past the morass of vegetation, a stone building looms, the top of it emblazoned with a brass-winged eye.
Once intended to store seeds and dried or preserved samples of various plants for study and preservation, a water leak has allowed the hardier plants—blackberries, kudzu, and mosses—to take root here, lit by several continual flame spells cast onto braziers hanging from the ceiling. Now the rampant growth forms thick tangles of briars and vines that hinder movement within 15 feet of the east and west walls, but also provide some steady meals for those residents of the sublevels who need (or at least enjoy) food.
You detect movement in the western vegetation patch. What seems to be a mass of diseased fibers growing on a plant suddenly moves and slithers independently from its host towards you.
•Mindless.
•Blind.
•Immune to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, polymorph, and stunning.
•Not subject to critical hits or flanking. Does not take additional damage from precision-based attacks, such as sneak attack.
Round 1
Initiative
23 – Garden Ooze
21 – Icabhod
20 – Liraela
19 – Xallis
18 – Navia
15 – Malphene
10 – Tychus
05 – Henrika
02 – Trevor
The plant-creature slithers towards Henrika. A tendril of rotten leaves slaps against her armor but without enough force to harm her. Where the tendril touched sizzles slightly and Henrika notices that the vine is dripping with acid.
Round 1
Initiative
23 – Garden Ooze
21 – Icabhod
20 – Liraela
19 – Xallis
18 – Navia
15 – Malphene
10 – Tychus
05 – Henrika
02 – Trevor
Everyone goes.
"I said I wanted fresh fruit, but this is a little much. I don't usually intend on fighting my breakfast."
He takes a careful stride behind Xallis, gives him a reassuring tap on the shoulder, and lines up a shot and fires past Xallis's shoulder into the mass of vegetation.
"On your right!" he shouts as a warning so as to not surprise his ally.
Henrika brings the breastplate back to the group and gives it to Trevor with another nod of thanks.
Trevor humbly bows as he accepts the magical armor. "Well done, Lady Karthis."
☆☆☆☆☆Round 1
Trevor attacks to hack at the plant monster with his rapier.
Icabhod starts moving around to try to flank
"I think this grassy knoll intends me harm," Henrika sneers. "It smells of citrus, but it burns. Ah well, as they say, 'When life gives thee lemons, make thy lemon aide.'"
She swings her sword at the ooze.
"No point in getting fancy with tactics here. Smash it!"
Navia smiles with delight as she shifts her position around the creature, finding the nearest open space to establish a proper battle line. She attacks it with a half kick, half stomp.
Xallis, meanwhile, will channel a bit of magic and give Malphene a tap on the shoulder for good luck.
Round 1
Liraela stabs at the plant-creature. More agile than it looks, the creature dodges to the side.
When Navia gets closer, her sensitive nose finds the rotten smell to be extremely off-putting so her stomp is off-center and smashes into the stone.
Malphene steps around and attacks. Even with Xallis’ guidance, the ooze dodges again.
Tychus fires a bolt straight into the bush along the wall leaving the rest of the party wondering where he is aiming.
Finally, Henrika lands a solid hit. She slashes off a flowering tendril leaving a stump that drips acidic sap.
The ooze reacts by emitting a foul-smelling gas. The stench of these vapors is overpowering. Malphene’s face turns a nauseating shade of green and Henrika wrinkles her nose in disgust.
Trevor then takes a stab at the ooze and gets in a second hit.
Round 2
The ooze flails at Henrika. Mindless and unaware that its tentacle was severed, it swings a stump through the air. Acidic spittle lands harmlessly at her feet.
Round 2
Initiative
23 – Garden Ooze (8 damage)
21 – Icabhod
20 – Liraela
19 – Xallis
18 – Navia
15 – Malphene (Sickened 3 rds)
10 – Tychus
05 – Henrika (Sickened 1 rd)
02 – Trevor
You’re up.
Henrika coughs and tries to cover her face, but takes a big whiff of the noxious fume. "Ahh!" she cries. "Fie on this foul-smelling hedge-thing!" She swings at it again, a bit more wildly as she tries to keep her eyes from watering.
Liraela will strike at it again, wondering how she missed a giant plant.
Round 2
Trevor tries to inflict harm upon the garden salad once more.
Icabhod steps up and concentrates, trying to strike a telling blow
"It's so dusty in here. It's throwing off my aim..."
Perturbed that he missed such an easy shot, he tries again, but has some trouble aiming due to some of his allies being in the fray.