Suddenly I have a bad feeling around removing that barricade. I'm starting to thing we would agree with whatever the cultists decided to trap in there...
He eyes it warily, thinking another cythnigot at worst.
With a slight shake of her head Autumn returns and indicates that there’s no sign of activity nearby. “If it was Ordwi, they’d just lock her in a room like Morga’s great-aunt,” she responds to San. “Unless she’s turned into a werewolf, there’s no reason to add a barricade.” Still, San does have a valid point—just not in the right place. Now that she’s certain the place is devoid of cultists, she walks up to the padlocked door and knocks. “Ordwi? Is anyone in there?”
Hearing no response, she gives a half-hearted nod of agreement with Vildran. “Yes, but something’s off. Whatever is in there sounds smaller and weaker than it should.” Curious in spite of herself, she approaches the barricade to listen more closely.
Morga glowers, unsure of what to do. It could be acting weak until the door opens. There could be another-- "It could be another ooze. And I can only cast Heal once more today. Let's come back to this. It sounds small, too small to be Ordwi, and it's obviously not going anywhere. ...If we can't find her up here, she's either been killed already or taken down below. We can't afford to get sidetracked."
"Yeah, lets not dwell where we don't need to. Though I could try to force the lock over there. I don't have the right tools but I might be able to pop it."
"I could try too, I guess." Morga also takes a turn smashing her shoulder against the locked door.
"Ow. No. Not gonna happen." She rotates her shoulder gingerly several times to work out the pain.
"So do we waste another day to rest before going down the stairs so we can be fully fresh for whatever's left of the cultists? Or hurry to find Ordwi in case it's not too late?" The haunted look in Morga's eyes speaks to her guilt about how long her great-aunt lay abandoned while she rested. And rested again. And rested again. And--well, she's lost count of how many times the group has rested as a precaution, but it was clearly too many times for her elderly relative's health. And if Ordwi is in the same type of situation...
Autumn looks doubtful at the idea that the unknown creature behind the barricade is an ooze—she doesn’t recall the ooze making such sounds—but she nonetheless agrees with leaving the barricade alone. Whatever is back there isn’t human—and hence neither a sick patient like Ordwi, nor a cultist who needs killing—so it can wait.
“Let’s head downstairs then. Just use your healing kit if anyone’s wounds are still bothering them—there’s no need to waste an entire day.”
Returning to the secret lab on this floor, you look down the stairs into what appears to be even gloomier darkness deeper below. The stairs are straight as an arrow, steep, and have been cut perfectly smooth. You can't see the bottom from the floor you're on.
“Let’s head downstairs then. Just use your healing kit if anyone’s wounds are still bothering them—there’s no need to waste an entire day.”
Vildran has a moment of anxiety over his depleted spells, but he doesn't say anything out loud about it. His basics are still usable, and he has the wands.
Looking down into the gloom, he looks around at the group and begins incanting orbs of light.
Who would like one before we proceed?
He affixes one to the top end of his staff and looks down the stairs again.
Everybody ready for a fresh set of nasties?
Not sure of the situation at the bottom of the stairs, San holds his bow at the ready. "Thanks for the light. Might as well have one float by me. I'd rather be a target for hostilities than you or Autumn." Straining his senses, San tries to detect any threats before they are encountered.
Autumn nods her thanks to Vildran but politely declines. “Thanks, but I’d prefer to hide in the shadows.” She gives San a grateful look for volunteering to be a target, then gathers assorted scraps of metal from the laboratory—nuts, bolts, broken armatures and the like—and adjusts her boggard badge so that it’s prominently displayed. “Hopefully there are more helpful boggards down there.” She loads her crossbow, puts an oil of potency in her pocket for ready access, then gives the others a determined nod. “Ready when you are.”
Like Autumn, Morga fills her pockets with random scraps of metal. "You got that thingy from Gurga to prove that we're their allies?"
She declines a light. Shield up, she takes the lead down the stairs.
-
-
The stairs descend down and down, the passage growing colder as they drop over a hundred feet deeper into the earth. Without a light of her own, Morga sees her own shadow dancing on the steps ahead of her, the outline wavering from the lights cast behind her. She has to check her eyes when she notices that the passage ahead is gradually lightening, and then the stairs are done.
San's light spills out into the landing. This forty-foot-high chamber is dimly lit by flickering flames inset into small silver-lined nooks. The carefully controlled light artfully illuminates several painted frescos on the opposite wall. This tall gallery hosts finely crafted depictions of a horned and hooved giant in rusted full plate accomplishing great tasks of utter destruction, with the last in the series showing some sort of ritual. Part of the wall in the southeast corner has caved in somewhat, but the hallways exiting the chamber to the north and south are still intact. To the west, a massive fifteen-foot-wide iron door seals the passage beyond; sharp spikes and blades of rusted metal cover the entire surface.
You're caught off guard as two figures approach the stairwell, each one padding quietly but swiftly toward you. As they come into view you see their jointed jaws, long claws and tongues and gleaming, envious eyes. More sinspawn! These wield long curved halberds that they quickly put to use stabbing at Morga.
Their attacks prove both coordinated and brutal. She blocks the first stab with her shield but that just leaves an opening for the second sinspawn to impale her leg .
|||| INIT ||||
Autumn (Stage 2 Rust Creep)
Vildran
San (5 dmg)
Morga (27 dmg)
Sinspawn Red
Sinspawn Blue
He never gets used to it. Vildran looks on in horror as they slash at Morga.
Morga!
He quickly draws protective runs in the air, and they expand outward in a small (for now) circle.
He transitions seemingly into the next gesticulation, pointing at the sinspawn to the right...
Well, that's not good. Morga resists the urge to put her hand on the horrific gash on her leg; the blood on her hand would make doing everything else more difficult, and her hand isn't big enough to stop the bleeding from such a long, deep cut. "Plan?!" She calls back desperately to her team.
Autumn gasps when the sinspawn nearly take Morga down with just two vicious slashing attacks. Instinctively her eyes flash, and she sweeps her open palm laterally before her, as if trying to ward the abominations off with a protective spell. In response, a solid stone wall materializes, stretching across the room at the foot of the stairs. Five-feet wide and twenty-feet high, the thick barrier seems utterly impenetrable.
“Run!” she shouts back at Morga, and sets an example by hurrying back up the stairs. “We need to regroup!”
San once again swaps his bow for his hammer and gets ready to repel the beasts from their pursuit past the wall Autumn has summoned.
Autumn doesn't have to tell Morga twice. She turns, brushing past San, and limps up the stairs as quickly as her shredded leg will let her. As she passes Autumn, she gives the sorceress's arm a brief squeeze. "Good call. Thanks." She feels like a failure, putting Autumn and Vildran between herself and the sinspawn, but until she's patched up her leg, her shield won't protect them long enough for it to matter anyway. How do adventurers put up with this? And why?
-
You can hear the sinspawn shifting somewhere behind the wall, and then you spot the end of a halberd tentatively poke through the illusion. A second such halberd follows as the creatures probe at the wall. Perhaps it was hearing you clearly on the other side that convinced them, but it doesn't take them long to disbelieve and push through The red sinspawn steps up and attacks from inside the wall, now able to see through it. The attack lands, though its not as severe as the strikes Morga took .
The blue sinspawn follows, ascending up the steps to get into a position where it can attack San... only to find San ready for it. He goes to trip it but overextends himself. He slips on the smooth stone underfoot and falls prone himself . Perhaps the blue sinspawn is caught a bit off guard by this maneuver, because it's own swing is slow enough that San manages to roll to the side and avoid it.
|||| INIT ||||
Autumn (Stage 2 Rust Creep)
Vildran
San (11 dmg, prone)
Morga (27 dmg)
Sinspawn Red (4 dmg)
Sinspawn Blue
Acting swiftly as things continue to escalation, Vildran draws his wand of grease...
a greasy sheen appears below their feet but disappears behind the illusory wall.
Area All solid ground in the area is covered with grease. Each creature standing on the greasy surface must succeed at a Reflex save or an Acrobatics check against your spell DC or fall prone. Creatures using an action to move onto the greasy surface during the spell's duration must attempt either a Reflex save or an Acrobatics check to Balance. A creature that Steps or Crawls doesn't have to attempt a check or save.
Pleased by Morga’s affirmation and demonstration of common sense, Autumn flashes a tight but genuine smile as the dwarf hobbles past. “Staying alive is always the right choice,” she responds, but there’s no time to celebrate the walking wounded’s successful retreat—her illusion doesn’t last nearly as long as she would’ve liked.
With San apparently committed to holding his ground—to the point of hugging it, even—the sorceress gives the lead sinspawn the evil eye and unleashes a magical bolt that phases through Vildran en route to its target.
|||| INIT ||||
Autumn (Stage 2 Rust Creep)
Vildran
San (11 dmg, prone)
Morga (27 dmg)
Sinspawn Red (4 dmg)
Sinspawn Blue (7 dmg)
Unable to do much, and unwilling to flee unless San comes too, Morga dithers. She hobbles back down a step so that she can heal San instantly, and casts Guidance on Vildran and San.
"San! How tight is their grip on those halberds?" With any luck (haha), San will be able to disarm one of them and toss the weapon up the stairs. Even if no one else can use it, at least the sinspawn won't have the advantage of reach anymore. Of course, Morga realizes this is wishful thinking. Hopes and daydreams will get us all killed. Again.
San, from his spot on the ground, lashes out at the beast in front of him. A swift kick at a knee attempts to bring the sinspawn into the grease at his feet. He follows that up with a swing of the hammer before trying to knock the weapon out of its hands.
The blue sinspawn, furious at the injury, slams the butt of its halberd into San's head and then launches itself at him, biting at his arm with its jaws. His blood sprays as he falls unconscious. Within Autumn's illusory wall, the second sinspawn tries to advance upon the rest of you, but you see its limbs flailing out of the wall's surface as it wobbles off balance initially. It steadies itself and moves in, advancing slowly through the grease and up the stairs. It reaches Vildran but has not enough time left to bring its weapon to bear.
|||| INIT ||||
Autumn (Stage 2 Rust Creep)
Vildran (guidance)
San (26 dmg, prone, dying 1)
Morga (27 dmg)
Sinspawn Red (4 dmg)
Sinspawn Blue (18 dmg)
“Save your healing!” Autumn calls out sharply over her shoulder to Morga. She knows that the well-intentioned dwarf probably wants to heal San, but that would result in nothing more than a bloody mess on the ground trapped between two sinspawn. Besides, she might need that healing for herself, especially with how disastrous this battle has been.
“Vildran, burn them!” she cries, remembering how devastatingly effective his cone of fire had been against the cultists. “We need to kill at least one of them!” With her one eye seemingly melting into malicious midnight, the sorceress glares at the approaching sinspawn, turning its own envy against itself, and then launches a perfectly aimed phase bolt at the other, more seriously injured one.
Acting quickly at Autumn's suggestion, Vildran's hand moves down to his belt, simultaneously tucking the wand of grease and grabbing the wand of breath fire...
Pointing it down the stairs but at shoulder height so that the cone manifests into the sinspawn but over San...
He quickly pulls his arm back, bracing himself for their wrath.
As soon as San's head clonks onto the step, Morga casts Stabilize on him, then backs up. "This is going about as well as last time," she sourly gripes. Fear grips her guts; dying is such an unpleasant experience, and getting yanked back to life is so disorienting. You'd think she'd be used to it by now, but knowing how awful it will be makes her feel like she's about to soil her pants.
-
-
Red dodges part of the flame wave from Vildran and follows by striking back at him. A swing of the creature's halberd glances off Vildran's mystic armor, but it follows with a savage bite that catches Vildran's arm.
He pulls his arm free but finds his mind is overwhelmed by surges of envy that leave him reeling. All he can think about is the treasures others in the party have obtained while he's been left with so little. The other sinspawn smoothly steps up and onto San, stabbing past its ally. The halberd slices into Vildran's leg once, but a second stab bounces off the wall as the sinspawn tries to maneuver the attack in the corridor.
|||| INIT ||||
Autumn (Stage 2 Rust Creep)
Vildran (14 dmg, sickened 2)
San (26 dmg, prone, unconscious)
Morga (27 dmg)
Sinspawn Red (8 dmg)
Sinspawn Blue (24 dmg)
Staring down at two unarmored spell casters holding back her certain death, Morga casts Fear on the nearest sinspawn, then dashes up some more steps, shame burning her ears. I can't save them if those things cut me down with them. Bile rises in her throat. Why is it so hard to protect people?
|||| INIT ||||
Autumn (Stage 2 Rust Creep)
Vildran (14 dmg, sickened 2)
San (26 dmg, prone, unconscious)
Morga (27 dmg)
Sinspawn Red (8 dmg, frightened 2)
Sinspawn Blue (24 dmg)
“Worse,” Autumn replies emphatically, “so much worse.” Last time the sinspawn didn’t have elongated slashing weapons that could cut you down from a distance, and last time they at least killed one of them before the situation turned truly dire. The sorceress turns and flees, risking another halberd strike while leaving the elves to their doom, when suddenly she skids to a reluctant halt. With a silent curse she realizes her fate is tied to the wizard’s—without Vildran’s lights, which she had foolishly refused, she’d be stumbling up the stairs in the dark. It wouldn’t take more than a minute for the sinspawn to hunt her down.
With this grim realization Autumn turns and stands her ground. With a flick of her wrist she looses another phase bolt, hoping against hope to take down the more injured sinspawn. “Where’s Meitremar?” she asks the abominations in a taunting voice, wondering if they were even capable of speech like Azomi. It seems absurd, but somehow she would feel safer and more confident if they actually spoke. Words were always her favorite weapons.
Gaaaaaah! Vildran yells as he shakes the toothed jaw off of him. The sickness hits him immediately.
He wants badly to retch but his body is racked with so much more pain than just the nausea that he knows he'll soon join San on the floor.
He turns to run, bringing his light with him.
Ending up between Autumn and Morga , he doubles over and starts to unload his stomach onto the stairs. He feels cool and clammy, so that he hasn't even taken stock of his own injuries.
While Vildran doesn't recover from his sickening, the distance you've opened up means the red sinspawn has to slowly and ominously ascend after you. It reaches Autumn for another slash, tearing into her chest with a slash, and leaving her conscious only by virtue of her blood magic .
|||| INIT ||||
Autumn (21 dmg, Stage 2 Rust Creep)
Vildran (14 dmg, sickened 2)
San (26 dmg, prone, unconscious)
Morga (27 dmg)
Sinspawn Red (8 dmg, frightened 1)
Vildran continues spilling his guts on the stairs.
It doesn't help, but he gathers his will to thrust his staff forward at the remaining sinspawn to send a bolt of fire at it.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Not. Yet.
Despite her grievous wounds, somehow Autumn remains proudly on her feet, fueled by blood and spite. She is her mother’s daughter—the same mysterious magic runs in their veins, and she will be damned if this hateful beast lays her low before she can find her mother. At the same time, she is a realist, and as the stairs wobble and shift within her blurred vision, she knows she is on her last legs.
“Morga! Back up!” she gestures feebly at the dwarf, trying to clear a space within reach of her bloodied legs. Then she stares down the sinspawn, defiant, and looks past at the crumpled form of San. With half-closed eyes she focuses on memories of her mother, willing her magic into a more protective form, one that would bolster and soothe the archer’s mind, soul, and body. When San regains consciousness, she smirks, knowing—and surprisingly trusting—that he will come to their aid, even if only as a distraction. Then she hobbles up the stairs, just beyond the sinspawn’s reach, before turning to glare back down at her foe. Go ahead and strike me down, but vengeance is still mine.
Feeling the surge of vitality bring him back to consciousness, San takes stock of the situation. Seeing one sinspawn laying lifeless already, he looks up the stairs to see the other one still harassing the others. Grabbing his bow, he stands and takes a shot.
“Morga! Back up!”
"On it!" Swiftly, Morga slaps a bandage on the worst of Vildran's wounds before casting Guidance on Autumn and hobbling woozily up the stairs. I'm losing too much blood...
-
Autumn takes the opportunity of the exchange of fire to duck back past Vildran and heal San from a distance. From his spot near the bottom of the stairs San's able to grab his bow and sink an arrow into the creature's back.
By this point the sinspawn is surrounded and sporting multiple wounds, but its fury is hard to dampen. It slashes away at Vildran, but finally fate seems to be turning to your side, as both blows catch upon the walls of the stairwell and Vildran is left unscathed. The sinspawn starts to stagger away, ending up next to San.
|||| INIT ||||
Autumn (21 dmg, Stage 2 Rust Creep)
Vildran (8 dmg, sickened 2)
San (21 dmg)
Morga (27 dmg)
Sinspawn Red (19 dmg)
Even though she continues to bleed from two deep wounds, Autumn is in much better spirits—the wizard has miraculously escaped the worst of the sinspawn’s attacks, and the creature is pleasantly far away, preoccupied with San, with a relatively healthy Vildran as a buffer. “Finally!” she exclaims, pleased with their turn in fortune. It’s nice to have some space to breathe more easily.
With a withering look she glares daggers at the beast before unleashing her trademark phase bolt at it, hoping to put it down. "Let's end it!"
Vildran's anxiety returns when it staggers back to San.
No! Come back here!
He retches another time...
It still doesn't get better. Again he raises his staff towards the sinspawn.
With the creature back in his face again, San attempts to take its feet out from under it before backing away into the grease.
It kills Morga to be this close to everyone surviving, and be so close to death that she can't. Even. Help. Kill. The. Thing! She has to hide behind Vildran and Autumn like a fragile little...weakling.
Well, there's at least one thing she can do. Stepping up behind Autumn, she slathers a poultice on the worst of the sorceress's wounds.
Then, for lack of anything more useful to do, she pulls out the wand of healing.
The surviving sinspawn advances after San, moving steadily into the grease without falling. It tries to take him down and open up a path to escape around the corner and out of line of sight of the magical barrage. However San proves to be ready for its swings despite the uneven footing. One slash catches his armor only while the other misses outright.
|||| INIT ||||
Autumn (11 dmg, Stage 2 Rust Creep)
Vildran (8 dmg, sickened 2)
San (21 dmg)
Morga (27 dmg)
Sinspawn Red (28 dmg)
Much to her own surprise, Autumn’s response to Morga’s soothing poultice is decidedly ungrateful. “Later! San needs us to help kill it!” In the confused urgency of combat, she doesn’t consider whether the cleric possesses ranged attacks like Vildran and herself. But as the wound heals and the pain subsides, realization dawns and she is aghast at her own words. What am I saying? She should gladly accept all the healing she can! When did she start caring more about someone besides herself?
But this is no time for introspection. With the sinspawn now beyond the range of her phase bolt—and her altruism definitely doesn’t extend to getting closer to the beast—she aims her crossbow and pulls the trigger, loosing a quarrel that whizzes by the wizard. I need to figure out how to push my magic farther, she thinks to herself, even as she reaches out with unseen tendrils to tear into the creature’s mind.
Vildran steps forward to get just into range. Even this simple step has him trembling and ambling along, stomach shaky as evear, skin clammy and sweaty.
And incants another fire bolt, hoping to bring the sinspawn down for good.
Hoping his luck holds, San tries to take the beast off his feat again. Unwilling to drop his guard for even a moment, he follows that up with a kick.
“Later! San needs us to help kill it!”
"Well, when you're right, you're right." Morga grumbles, slipping past Autumn, then Vildran, and raising her shield.