Hearing Autumn's question, but not looking away he responds
Maybe I can rid it...I will try.
He continues to peer into it, judging its depth. Finally he sends an orb of magical light into the darkness. The tips of his antennae glow with similar light as it speeds away...
He quickly re-establishes the disc of arcane force off of his forearm, waiting for anything to rush out at him.
Autumn’s eyes widen when Vildran disperses the darkness, overpowering it with a luminous orb more brilliant than anything she’s ever seen—it’s as if an angel empowered his magic with celestial might. “Fetch,” she says softly, clearly impressed by the wizard’s arcane prowess.
With her path cleared and illuminated, the sorceress moves a bit closer, to get the dero within range of her spell, then unleashes another phase bolt at it.
As the darkness melts away, San sees Morga has been surrounded by the derro. In quick succesion San fires two arrows at the closer one. "Hang in there Morga! You're doing great!"
Unwilling to let her face the two foes alone, he swaps out his bow for the magic halberd.
"Cute party trick. Are all your spells this worthless?" Morga taunts the elderly derro, punctuating her words with swings from her hammer.
Again, she snaps her shield up to protect herself from the newcomer. Two on one, but his back is going to be a pincushion soon enough.
The spell once more only manages to tire her out without posing a great threat Dismayed, he shifts back toward the chasm.
|||| INIT ||||
Vildran (2 dmg)
Autumn (1 dmg, Rust creep stg 1)
San (12 dmg)
Morga (14 dmg)
Elderly dero (15 dmg)
With two down, and just one elderly dero to go, Autumn presses their advantage, rounding the outjutting cavern wall to get a clear shot. As she closes in, she takes her cue from San and calls out “Zaiox! Surrender!” and watches for his reaction. Could this really be the dero leader? Then she fires a juddering blast of arcane energy that phases through the protruding rock that gives him cover.
Surprised that the derro is running San gives chase. Attempting to cut off the creature from running further, he tries to slip past him.
Vildran continues to chase after the melee, taking note of little details in this next chamber. Some messy bedding for the older dero. He stayed apart from the others.
Wait... how many beds were in the communal chamber? We should count in a moment after this.
He's already started the incantation as he rounds the corner and plants his last step.
An orb of biting cold coalesces around the dero, freezing its body.
Her way blocked, but grateful for a breather, Morga casts Guidance on all three of her teammates.
However, even with those wounds he's not about to go down easily. He fixes San with his piercing, hypnotic glare.
San finds his vision clouding and his mind growing fuzzy . Zaiox follows with a spell cast to blast the whole group . A burst of cacophonous sound explodes around all four of you.
While Morga endures the blast with her now-characteristic consistency, the rest of you buckle under the sonic attack .
|||| INIT ||||
Vildran (13 dmg)
Autumn (12 dmg, Rust creep stg 1)
San (23 dmg, dazzled 1 rd, stupefied 1 1rd, deafened 1 rd)
Morga (19 dmg)
Elderly dero (36 dmg)
Okay... this one is not just the brute force of his underlings. It's time to addle his mind.
Vildran sows seeds of confusion in the dero’s mind, causing its actions and thoughts to become clumsy.
Success The target is clumsy 1 and stupefied 1.
Failure The target is clumsy 2 and stupefied 2.
Critical Failure The target is clumsy 3, stupefied 3, and confused.
Despite the stars in his eyes, San still sees the derro attepting to cast spells. Taking advantage of the momentary opening, he strikes!
Cursing his inability to squeeze past has put them all in a vulnerable position, San tries once more. Blinking to try to get the sparkles to fade, he waves the halberd in an unpredictable pattern to strike twice more.
"Much obliged," Morga thanks San for moving as she steps into the space he vacated and doggedly swings at the remaining derro.
Grimacing at the sudden blast of noise, Autumn covers her ears and shakes her head in pain. She glances at one hand, as if expecting to see blood from her ears, then grimly faces down the dero leader. Unable to hear Morga’s words with the cacophony still ringing in her head—was it some tactical advice she was offering?—the sorceress takes her cue from the barrage of attacks unleashed by elf and dwarf. Zaiox must be close to dead, so gambling that a small push is all they need, she glares menacingly at him, then pushes into his mind in an effort to unhinge it.
Combat Over! You each gain 120 XP
The swirling blue light from the dero's eyes fades. You look around and see that the tunnel you entered to fight him appears to be some sort of small bedchamber. A flat bit of rock here has been cleared of debris and lying atop it is a crude bedroll stitched from several patches of leather. A small pile of rocks sits next to the bedroll.
“So much for Zaiox.” Autumn eyes the dero's bloody remains, then gives San a look that is clearly impressed by his deadly effectiveness. “You should use that halberd more often.”
She takes a few moments to survey the rest of this tunnel, up to where it meets the chasm, just in case there are any other threats, then returns to search the dead bodies.
Vildran nods vigorously, agreeing with Autumn.
Yes, that halberd looks an effective addition to your repertoire!
Looking around more closely in the bed-chamber, he's interested in the small pile of rocks next to the bedroll.
There must be something hidden in this...?
"Heh, if only I could figure out what makes this so good and make my bow do the same. Now then, why would he choose to sleep this close to the chasm?" It's obvious he's putting on airs of being OK, but it's easy to tell San is hurting from the fight with the leshy then the derro after. But Morga put up such a good showing of resiliency, he doesn't want to hold the group back.
Looking around the bedchamber, San casts the usual charm to find if magic is around.
Vildran (13 dmg)
Autumn (12 dmg, Rust creep stg 1)
San (23 dmg, dazzled 1 rd, stupefied 1 1rd, deafened 1 rd)
Morga (19 dmg)
"Hold on. Those things will still be there after your wounds are healed. Come here." Morga begins fussing over San, who's clearly had a hard time of it.
With everyone together, Morga uses Gorga's wand to top off her allies.
Once all that's finished, she begins searching the area along with her allies.
Returning to them main chamber that must have once served as a common area for the dero, you find nothing valuable or interesting. The humanoid over the coals is small but unrecognizable, while the dead grey gnome in the cage has cleared been dead for a while. The dero you fought here has two more vials of the same kind his two allies had, as well as a rope, a club, a hand crossbow and a very strange healer's toolkit whose components are all made of thin slivers of glowing blue crystal. It feels unpleasant to handle, and you're pretty sure using it or wearing it would make you sick.
The only other chamber here is the packed communal bedchamber that once was used by the rest of the dero. Eight bedrolls lie here, surrounded by a cluster of glowing blue mushrooms. The mushrooms radiate a similar blue light to the toolkit.
Dark blue oil! If not magical, maybe alchemical?
These tattoos look edgy!
Vildran casts Translate to attempt to figure out the dero's angry aklo tattoos.
"Uh, don't bring that along." Morga advises Autumn, knowing she'd probably want to see how much she could sell it for. "It's a cytillesh toolkit, and it'll make you sick if it stays close to you for long enough. I'm curious about those vials, though."
Vildran also leverages his magic to translate the text of the tattoo. What he finds is that it seems to be a message addressed to Zaiox, though it isn't signed by anyone. It says:
"Zaiox. You are now needed. Send your kin south through the ancient ways to the island we met those years ago. You will find a boat off the coast. Kill everyone on board except one, an old woman bearing the sign of the tankard. Do this and your debt to me is discharged. I will be watching."
While Vildran is reading this, Morga takes a look down the long tunnel to the south. It descends and begins winding irregularly with other branching passages visible. It seems likely that this tunnel descends deeper into the Darklands.
Vildran recognizes that the blue vials are an unusual and particularly unpleasant alchemical poison known as cytillesh oil. There look to be three doses left here.
--------------------
"Zaiox. You are now needed. Send your kin south through the ancient ways to the island we met those years ago. You will find a boat off the coast. Kill everyone on board except one, an old woman bearing the sign of the tankard. Do this and your debt to me is discharged. I will be watching."
He relays the full details to the rest of the group, and then sets to thinking about what it means.
Zaiox's instructions... why spare Ordwi specifically?
"Hmm... Perhaps she was needed for the ritual. She *was* kept in a separate area from the others."
San looks across the chasm to where the skeleton is sitting to see if the ledge is any closer or more accessible. "There's got to be something to that being over there. It's to far for the charm to sense if there's something significant over there. Although..." San thinks back to the first obstacle they faced on the island. "The gap in that rift in the shoreline on that island wasn't as wide as this chasm but I still have that grappling hook if we want to try to get over there."
Vildran approaches the chasm and waves his arms wildly as if trying to get the skeleton's attention.
Vildran's wave earns no response from the skeleton slumped against the far wall of the distant ledge. If it plans to spring to life, maybe you're simply not close enough to trigger it.
Looking slightly embarrassed, Vildran laughs nervously and backs away from the edge of the chasm to let someone else forward who has a grappling hook (or other way across).
"Let's go back to where we came down the stairs. We should see if anyone is hiding behind the circle of stones, or down that passage to the west."
Morga briefly checks back the way you came from and sees the shadowy outline of the open stairwell hanging in the darkness. She doesn't hear anything obvious other than the ever-present dripping of water on stone. If there is anyone else around here, they're probably further away or quite good at hiding.
Okay... there were more passages that way. Vildran concedes.
San takes a long moment looking to the ledge with the skeleton then down into the chasm. "Probably not worth the risk. Let's go check out the path beyond the stones. Just watch out for that trap trigger."
You wander back to the room where you first arrived when you descended down the stairs. Looking to the east you can see that a narrow, low-ceilinged tunnel leads to another chamber, though due to a turn you can't tell exactly what may lie that way. To the south you see the circle of stones and then the faint tracing of arcane script on the walls further south that Vildran earlier identified as the magical trigger The script exists on both walls so there's no obvious way around it. You might be able to disable it if you were careful and sufficiently skilled, or a spellcaster might be able to dispel the magic.
Autumn exhales and cautiously approaches the trapped area.
Vidran looking over her shoulder perhaps isn't helping.
As you continue onward southward, San notices something. First, in the corner where the tunnel turns to the east, a depression has been covered by a large leathery hide of some animal. It almost looks like a welcome mat of some kind, an appearance reinforced by the patches of gravel and dirt deposited on top. But then San spots a small gap that reveals that below the hide is a deeper pit. Avoiding the hide-covered-opening will require you to balance along a narrow section of the tunnel or jump across.
You all hear a hostile hiss from something around the corner of the tunnel. It seems your approach has been noticed. Nothing comes around the corner right now, suggesting that the hidden source isn't eager to reveal itself.
Morga cautiously approaches the hole, shield up in case the hisser decides to charge after all. If it's smart, it'll wait to pick us off one by one. ... Pity it's too far for me to jump, she muses, eyeing the presumed far edge of the hole.
Once one of her teammates gets close, she murmurs: "Should we ask if it speaks our languages, just in case? Not that I think it'll change the outcome, but we might find out more about what we'll be getting into here."
Vildran suggestively signals to the others that they back up to the stairs to discuss the situation a bit more freely. He still speaks in hushed whispers even at that distance.
I could make the most quiet of us invisible to traverse that ledge and get a good look at what we're dealing with...
"That would not be me," Morga replies, gesturing at her breastplate and heavy boots.
Backing off a little as you whisper to each other, the hissing warning that came from around the corner subsides. You have a moment to listen to it as you remain quiet and before it falls silent in turn you get the sense that it comes from something more bestial than snake-like. Still, without getting a look it'll be hard to determine exactly what it might be.
You get respite of ten minutes for Vildran to refocus as you watch the tunnel.
Vildran nods, conceding Morga's discomfort. He wouldn't want to do it either. He glances at Autumn. No, this is too much to ask.
May we approach the pit again and try to coax it out by offering greetings in multiple languages.
San thinks on what he knows about beasts that hiss but comes up with nothing. "Seems a good a strategy as any.
Morga shrugs. "Sure, give it a try. Worst case scenario, I go over there and set up with my shield so the rest of you can file in behind me without too much danger."
It takes a few languages, but Vildran proves to be an elf of broad education. When he speaks up in gnomish he hears surprised chatter from down the tunnel before a voice speaks back in gnomish, though heavily accented. "Who are you? Why do you intrude here? We have nothing left for you to take." A rasp fills the voice that speaks, but its clear enough to Morga that the creature speaking sounds anxious and weary.
From the earlier chatter you get the sense that there might be multiple individuals back there out of sight.
Now that Vildran has started a dialog, San relaxes a bit hoping that there isn't another fight to be had. Even though he can't understand the words, the conversation doesn't sound hostile yet. Whispering to the wizard, "Should I try to navigate my way around the pit? Show that I'm not hostile... despite the arsenal I'm carrying."
"Let's see what they say first. I'd like to go in front with my shield, in case it's a trick."
"There are those that came before that spoke sweetly like you do. We didn't give them what they wanted and they turned on us without a second thought. They partnered with the vilest scum of these caves, those dero, and soon our kin suffered." The voice spits harshly "Prove you are what you say. Bring us the head of the old dero. We will pluck his eyeballs and see if you tell the truth."
You hear another, smaller voice "Do not think of coming closer otherwise. We are many and fierce. And we have learned our lesson. You will pay in blood if you call the dero and the surfaceworlder liars your friends."