"Now, let's begin, now what are these creatures," Karina says as she begins playing, her music marred by two notes, one sharp, and one flat, as electricity arcs off of Luther's head, and onto the two beetles (Green and Red) in front of her. She then reasons that she can't be seen raising her shield, so she decides to recall what she knows about these creatures.
Ba'hahk dives into the filthy water, swimming as fast as he could to catch up to his comrades, though much smaller than he usually is
Entry Cavern - Round 1 -continued
26 Green Beetle
26 Red Beetle
25 Ba'hahk (outside on the shore)
24 Zaria (14hp dmg)
16 Karina
15 Yellow Beetle
13 Blue Beetle
11 Alpha-47 (sickened, in the water)
6 Anri
Ba'hahk transforms into a small aquatic mammal and leaps into the odious water, making good time with his powerful tail and streamlined body.
Suffering from a pair of serious wounds, Zaria is undeterred. She steps up beside one of the beetles, but targets a farther away insect. Her aim is straight and true, and she kills the bug with her first deadly shot.
Karina spins up a spell that sends arcing electricity between the two nearer beetles. Both seem to avoid the worst of the blast, but each takes damage regardless.
With Yellow Beetle obliterated, its just Blue Beetle left to act for the monsters. It advances across the beach and takes a bit also at Zaria, who is out front. The first bite also penetrates Zaria's skin, causing further damage, but the second attack misses.
Alpha-47, struggling to continue swimming, tries to push through the fetid water.
Alpha struggles to swim through the water.
Entry Cavern - Round 1 - concluded
Alpha-47 is having a really hard time in the tainted pond water. In addition to being sickened, he struggles to make any progress swimming as the noxious water seems to choke and gag him just when he thinks he's making progress. Splashing and struggling, he only makes it about 10' closer to the cave opening.
Inside, Anri shouts out at the assault of the insects. "For the Inheritor!" clashes the hilt of his blade against his shield, and advances into the fray. The holy weapon of his patron slips from his grip with the first strike, but he recovers gracefully and makes a second strike that cuts through the outer carapace of Red Beetle, killing it.
End of Round 1
Entry Cavern - Round 2
26 Green Beetle (3hp dmg)
25 Ba'hahk (in otter form)
24 Zaria (17hp dmg)
16 Karina
13 Blue Beetle
11 Alpha-47 (sickened, in the water)
6 Anri
Green Beetle turns to Anri and makes a series of biting attacks against the shield-carrying champion. Only one bite finds purchase doing minimal damage.
Karina sends out yet another arc of electricity at the two remaining beetles, as her notes slightly sour as the electricity courses through the lute and towards the two creatures. She then raises her shield, her playing augmented by her familiar as she plays the familiar with merely one hand.
Zaria moves forward onto the beach, reloads, and fires at the trailing beetle.
Entry Cavern - Round 2 - concluded
Sending another bolt of energy from her performance, Karina jolts both the bugs, though Blue seems to avoid most of the shock. Green is not so fortunate, and is turned into a fried husk - killed by the blast.
Hurt but not down, Zaria circles behind the remaining bug, and looses a bolt at it, scoring a direct hit, and killing the last of the insectile enemies.
End of Combat
Ba'hahk swims over to Zaria before taking on his normal form, casting healing on her to help with her wounds
Karina continues playing as the glowing gland of one of the creatures slowly, but surely, slinks to her side as she picks it and examines it as she stops playing. Luther feels... worried about using the patron's powers so directly, but they've used them far more openly when fighting in the past to get to Torch; as a result, it's deemed acceptable to use them when fighting, but only when fighting.
"Hm. I thought these bugs were some poisonous variety, but I'm probably wrong given how they glow. None of you seem poisoned right now, right? "
As the gland moves, the water around it, and Karina even more so, seems to grow much colder, but the pollutants, thankfully stop the water from freezing outright and giving away what side-effect her hexes have.
"Thank you." Zaria says to Ba'hahk and then shakes her head to Karina. "They were not venomous."
"I apologise for being late. I simply wanted to make sure we had no unwanted tails." he apologises to the whole group
Alpha-47 continues to struggle to swim the rest of the way towards the group.
Thinking to himself, I probably should have learned to swim before today, though it seems my body remembers the motions of it after a time
Swimming past the others, joining Zaria on dry land. Alpha-47 purges his body of the toxic water, repeatedly. Looking Zaria and the others in the eyes, "Necessary to expel the poison water," Looking around at the rest of the cave, and its now dead denizens, "Locals did not take kindly to our entrance it looks like,"
Alpha-47 continues to struggle to swim the rest of the way towards the group.
Thinking to himself, I probably should have learned to swim before today, though it seems my body remembers the motions of it after a time
Swimming past the others, joining Zaria on dry land. Alpha-47 purges his body of the toxic water, repeatedly. Looking Zaria and the others in the eyes, "Necessary to expel the poison water," Looking around at the rest of the cave, and its now dead denizens, "Locals did not take kindly to our entrance it looks like,"
As the party recovers from the initial fight, Ba'hahk channeling some of nature's power into renewing Zaria and restoring her wounds, they get a real chance to look around at the entry cavern. A five-foot embankments stands to the west with stalagmites growing out of the top. It looks like it might take a climb to ascend it. Additionally, the water, which is still quite chemical-smelling and odious, wends around to the northwest, around a corner that can't be seen from the beach easily. The water here is shallower, around knee-deep. There are several scorch marks on the beach, as if a fire had recently burned in several different places along the sandy shore.
Eventually, Alpha-47 arrives inside the tunnel to join the others, heaving and retching from his extend time in the noxious pond. If it's possible for an android to look a little green, Alpha does now.
"Glad you can make it, Alpha, unless we want to sit around here and refocus, I say the northern path should be where this group should travel next," Karina says as she tries in vain to weave in flowery language.
Karina wades out into the knee-deep water to look around the northern end of the stream. Her light spell illuminates enough of the area for her to see the stream continues on to the east as as shallow creek running through another small cavern. To the south a stony bank rises up from the water. Thick carpets of green and grey mold and fungus grow on the bank, particularly around a trio of three-foot high mounds. The air coming from this second cavern is quite foul-smelling, more than just the sulphur water, more a smell of decay or rot.
The creek does continue past this small chamber, but Karina can't see that far in the dark cavern.
"We can't stand here all day. We have to get moving."
Zaria moves up to give Karina support.
Alpha-47 moved to Karina's and Zaria's side, the faint light from Karina's spell reflecting off their features as they studied the area ahead. "Agreed," they replied, their tone direct. "The northern path seems the most logical course."
Their golden eyes scanned the dimly lit chamber, focusing on the mold-covered mounds. "These formations may conceal more than just decay. If we proceed north, we avoid unnecessary exposure to potential hazards here." They paused briefly, then added, "However, we should be prepared for whatever lies further ahead. This stream could conceal more surprises."
Still feeling sickened, Alpha-47 encourages the others along the northern stream, staying in the water and giving the fungi covered lumps on the shore as wide a berth as possible.
Anri calls to the others, "I will stay here and hold the door in case we need to make a hasty retreat. Shout if you need my assistance further in, but I don't want to be cut off from escape." The stout champion stand sword and shield ready should more beetles, or any other threat, come down from the stalagmite area above his head.
As Karina's lights shines farther into the next chamber, you can see a dark cavern opens up ahead. It has a 20' high ceiling covered in stalactites. A rocky shore overlooks a placid pool and stream, fed by a trickle of water leaking from a narrow fissure to the north. A small garden of toadstools and dark mold grows along the banks.
"We have to keep moving. This is a rescue mission." Zaria says, and then she does exactly that by moving deeper into the cave system.
"Agreed. We probably shouldn't spend days checking every nook and cranny, we need to find Baine."
Ba'hahk steps ahead of the others to investigate the mushrooms and mold growing on the sandy bank of the latest chamber. As he does so, a brilliant beams of bright white light fill the area around the heroes. Since your eyes have gotten used to the mostly dark, the burst of sudden light disorients you briefly.
As the light explodes he covers his eyes in sudden shock
"What do we... aaaaaaagh!"
The sudden explosion of white light disoriented Alpha-47, their visual receptors overwhelmed by the intensity of the flash. Blinded, they froze, nanites adjusting in a vain attempt to compensate for the sensory overload. "I am blind…"
Zaria is also blinded by the flash. However, there are no cries from her.
"This is certainly... *illuminating*. Stand back if you don't want to get met with a chilly reception though," Karina says as she as she readies her patron's power, warning her allies of the potential result of standing next to her (Luther, technically) as she begins playing the lute, the tune gradually growing more and more complex as she prepares her hex, not that anyone knows it.
Fark River Cave - Round 1
26 Ba'hahk (dazzled 1 round)
22 Zaria (blind 2 rounds)
18 Karina (dazzled 1 round)
11 Creature
9 Alpha-47 (blind 4 rounds)
For those who can see at all, the brilliant blinding light seems to be emanating from the bulbous eyes of a small humanoid creature at the edge of the pool and wall. The creature looks bit like stubby frog-man with oversized head and eyes. Sharp serrated teeth fill its mouth and its arm-like appendages end in sharp claws. It clearly is looking for a next meal.
"I advise everyone to watch their step, doubly so now..." Karina says as the intensity of speed of her lute playing ramps up to a climax. Not that anyone can see well now, but her Viol starts to move on its own as she beigns properly casting her hex, hiding her casting behind the "bardic" magic she uses.
The Viol and its bow begin to "walk" (as one uses a compass, as Karina opts to not have anything sproute chicken legs -- obvious signs of her patron) along the now icy stream quickly, arriving at the frog's position within about 6 seconds, as the makeshift creature begins spinning around at its base to thwack the frog-man with the "attached" bow, before falling to the ground, lifeless once more.
Simultaneously, the floor around Karina grows extremely cold as all heat is sapped from 5 feet around her, causing the ground to be actually slippery with ice! "Now, let's see if we can illuminate what *you* are, frogman," Karina singsongs as she tries to figure out what the creature is.
Familiar of Freezing Rime Your familiar is cold to the touch, its breath always visible. When you Cast or Sustain a hex, you can cause ice to form in a 5-foot burst centered on a square of your familiar's space. Those squares are difficult terrain until the start of your next turn.
Thanks to Karina, Zaria knows there is some sort of 'frog-man' nearby. She tries to figure out where.
If successful:
After locating roughly where the frog-man is, Zaria risks a shot, since no one seems to have walked past her.
If not successful:
Unsure of where the enemy is, Zaria slings her crossbow and pulls out her club.
Dark River Cave - Round 1 - continued
Karina starts immediately spinning up a magical effect, though where it comes from is a bit concealed by the visual impairment of the others. Frost fills the space near her, then one of her musical instruments takes on a life of its own, moving across the pebbly beach and smacking the froglike creature.
Ba'hahk's natural knowledge does not stretch to cover this unusual underground denizen, but his rushed look at the mushrooms and fungus leads him to believe they are normal cavern flora.
Zaria simply cannot see. She tries to source the location of the "frogman" but cannot definitely say, so rather than shooting wildly, she puts away her crossbow and hauls out her club, just in case things get up close and personal.
The cloaked orc closes the gap to the creature, just as he gets close a claw appears from under his cloak as he attacks the creature
and 4 bleed of possible
The cloaked orc closes the gap to the creature, just as he gets close a claw appears from under his cloak as he attacks the creature
[Dice=Claw] 1d20+6 [dice=damage] 4d6 and 4 bleed of possible
[Dice=dazzled] 1d20
These creatures are known to be hardy and quick, but not especially keen of mind.
The cloaked orc closes the gap to the creature, just as he gets close a claw appears from under his cloak as he attacks the creature
[Dice=Claw] 1d20+6 [dice=damage] 4d6 and 4 bleed of possible
[Dice=dazzled] 1d20
Dark River Cave - Round 1 - continued
Ba'hahk treads carefully over the icy spots around Karina and moves to within melee distance of the light-emitting creature. He raises his shield to protect himself from the inevitable strike, gritting his teeth and steeling his nerves.
The creature somehow dims its blazing eyes, which now give off only a slightly luminous glow. It screeches shrilly and bites and claws at Ba'hahk, the closest intruder. The claw clangs off the shield, but the bite sinks into the druid's shoulder painfully.
Alpha-47 stumbles along, using his hands tracing the edge of the wall. He'll reach out, casting a spell, hoping to imbue one of his allies.
"What is happening? Are the mushrooms attacking us?"
Dark River Cave - Round 1 - concluded
Blinded now, and still sickened, Alpha-47 struggles to participate in the sudden combat. He leans against the cavern wall and moves out of the cold water and onto the beach, sending a small divine blessing to Zaria along the way.
End of Round 1
Dark River Cave - Round 1 - concluded
Blinded now, and still sickened, Alpha-47 struggles to participate in the sudden combat. He leans against the cavern wall and moves out of the cold water and onto the beach, sending a small divine blessing to Zaria along the way.
End of Round 1