Dark River Cave - Round 2
26 Ba'hahk (12/23hp - pending shield dmg)
22 Zaria (blind 1 rounds; guidance active)
18 Karina
11 Creature (6hp dmg)
9 Alpha-47 (blind 3 rounds; sickened)
Zaria will attempt to recall any information on 'frogmen' that she has heard tales of while living in the area.
Karina calls upon the viol and bow to rise from the ground, mimicking life, this time the bow attempts to slash the skin of the Blindheim like a sword. The viol then falls to the ground by the blindheim with a splash, motionless once more. She then raises her shield, music still playing the entire time lest her ruse fall apart. The ice around her and her familiar still remains as she casts.
"Oh foolish, weak-willed Blindheim, even your very *name* gives away your ocular ability to blind. If any of you have anything that targets the mind , it shall serve you well. The one spell of the sort I have prepared is sadly linguistic."
Dark River Cave - Round 2 - continued
Temporarily robbed of her sight as she is, Zaria cannot recall any specific details about frogmen or whatever Karina described, so she frustratingly just waits for the light blindness to pass.
Still playing her lute, Karina causes her other instrument to make yet another melee attack on the creature, but this time it strikes only the hard cave wall before splashing back into the water's edge once again lifeless. The side effect of an icy coating on the area around Karina continues, making all adjacent squares ice-covered and slippery.
Having taken a big hit, he retaliates against the attack creature with his clawed hand. Due to his eyes still adjusting from the flash, he barely grazes it
+2 bleed
Dark River Cave - Round 2 - continued
Near the strange creature, Ba'hahk casts a spell that allows a magical claw to appear at the end of his arm. He strikes the foe with that claw, doing minor damage, but opening a bleeding wound that make continue to hemorrhage for a while. The orc then also raises his shield to protect against the likely counterattack.
The monster bleeds out a little more, and then lashes out again at Ba'hahk, the closest foe, with bite and 2 claws. The claws slash wide of the mark, but the bite again finds the fleshy druid after being partially knocked aside by the hide shield, which now is quite battered and torn.
fails
hit
miss
miss
shield takes 4hp and is broken
Alpha-47 will continue feeling around, "Call out where you are, I still can't see anything, what does it look like"
He'll cast guidance and feel around for Karina to help guide her as well.
Dark River Cave - Round 2 - concluded
Still blind and fumbling, Alpha-47 can only stumble into the icy area around Karina and deliver another minor blessing spell from Brigh.
End of Round 2
Dark River Cave - Round 3
26 Ba'hahk (11/23hp; shield broken)
22 Zaria
18 Karina
11 Creature (10hp dmg; bleeding)
9 Alpha-47 (blind 2 rounds; sickened)
Ba'hahk easily discards the broken shield as he growls in defence at the creature engaged with him, before he takes another swipe at it with his magical claw
+ 2 Bleed
Zaria moves up to support Ba'hahk now that she can see.
Karina rinses and repeats, not wanting to waste proper spells on the creature since they might just... bounce off. This time she opts for simply stabbing the creature with the bow as the viol proper dances around, ice still forming around her.
Dark River Cave - Round 3 - continued
As the fight continues, Ba'hahk recasts his claw-creating spell but this time he slips in a pool at the shoreline, and his attack fails to materialize.
Able to see in the cavern again, Zaria pinpoints the creature and steps up to assist the orc in melee. However, her first swing with the club is easily turned aside by the blindheim.
Once again animating her viol, Karina makes another attack, this time stabbing instead of whacking, but even with a blessing from Brigh, the resin bow cannot penetrate the hide of the foe, and attack causes no damage.
A small amount of blood still trickles from the claw wound suffered by the blindheim before, but then you notice it staunches for now. Screeching out ferociously, the underground creature makes a series off attacks with tooth and claw against Zaria and Ba'hahk. This time all of those attacks are beaten off, and the heroes suffer no damage.
Alpha-47 begins to inch his way toward the sounds of combat.
Dark River Cave - Round 3 - concluded
Still unable to see, Alpha-47 works his way towards the sounds of fighting, careful not to slip on the icy patch surrounding Karina.
End of round 3
Dark River Cave - Round 4
26 Ba'hahk (11/23hp; shield broken)
22 Zaria
18 Karina
11 Creature (12hp dmg)
9 Alpha-47 (blind 1 round; sickened)
"Encore, Karina says as she once again commands the lifeless Viol and bow to strike the creature once more, managing to strike the creature with the bow before they both fall to the ground. Heat still is being sapped from the air, 5 feet around her being supernaturally chilly.
The white orc takes another magical swing at the beast right after he positiones himself that it's between him and Zaria
+2 Bleed
Zaria tries to sweep the creature's leg from under it before she smashes it with her club.
Dark River Cave - Round 4 - continued
Karina continues to conduct her stringed instrument in attacks on the frog-like creature. This time the bow successfully smacks the monster with a loud wet slapping sound, and a cry of pain. Ice continues to manifest around the musician as the attacks continue.
Ba'hahk also re-casts his claw spell and slices a bleeding wound on the blindheim's neck and shoulder before the magical claw appendage dematerializes once more.
Zaria swings low on the wounded enemy, trying to sweep the leg, but it stands firm against her trip attempt. Her next strike also misses, but her last strike score a hit, though not as damaging as she might have hoped, having spent herself on missed attacks.
Severely wounded now, the blindheim fights with determination of one who knows they in a hopeless situation, bleeding a bit more from the neck wound. It bites and claws at Zaria. The bite tears open a massive wound in Zaria's side, leaving her quite hurt. Then the foe splashes into the water, attempting to escape any way it can. The ice around Karina holds it up just a bit.
fail
critical
miss
18total dmg
Alpha-47, blinking his eyes furiously awaiting the end to the sensory overload in his eyes. Sensing something has drawn close, you notice Alpha-47's arm seems to open up and they draw a light hammer that was somehow hidden inside an internal compartment concealed in his arm.
Dark River Cave - Round 4 - concluded
Still struggling to clear his senses, the android cleric equips his hammer, but does not make a blind attack. Instead he hopes that he can see soon enough to make a difference.
End of Round 4
Dark River Cave - Round 5
26 Ba'hahk (11/23hp; shield broken)
22 Zaria (1/21hp remain)
18 Karina
11 Creature (26hp dmg)
9 Alpha-47 (sickened)
Seeing the condition Zaria is in, Ba'hahk quickly heals his combat ally of some of the wounds she has sustained
"Thank you." Zaria says to both Ba'hahk and the creature that has opened up some distance. She puts her club away, brings out her crossbow, and fires.
She then reloads.
"No, no, you aren't going to limp away to terrorize someone else with your blinding lights, frogman," Karina says with a sigh, knowing that her and Luther's best course of action is to split up, if only temporary. So, fitting with the ruse, she takes out a baton , and backs up as the lute starts to continue playing while she "conducts" both instruments... all the while the Viol once again rises to strike the Blindheim once again, bludgeoning the creature... but she misses. The ice around the familiar still exists, hopefully slowing the creature's progress.
Dark River Cave - Round 5 - concluded
Seeing the massive wound left in Zaria's side, Ba'hahk shifts from offense to healing, casting a spell that, at the very least, keeps the ranger upright.
Gritting her teeth through the pain, Zaria brings out her crossbow as the creature gets a bit of distance, than fires a dead-eye shot that hits the monster right in the back of the head, dropping it face-first into the polluted water dead.
Karina moves away from the lute which continues playing, the ice forming around it still, and at her conduction the viol moves to attack, but the foe is already down.
End of Combat
Karina then rushes over to the "lifeless" lute as it falls to the ground on cue, waiting until Luther is safely in her hands to drag the Viol towards her using Spirit Object once again, opting not to sap the heat from around her any longer.
"Only place left to go is south, right?"
As silence settles over the subterranean cave once more, the team hobbles together and gets a better chance to look around. The tunnel where Karina stands with her light still active seems to continue farther to the the south, with a branch heading back to the west, through what appears to be a forest of stalagmites. The stream you had been following seems to end, where a gush of water pours from a very small crevice in the rock into a place where the pool deepens just a bit more.
Alpha-47's eyes finally adjust, returning to normal just in time to see the creature fall dead.
"That creature is hideous by all accounts,"
Looking to the others, taking stock of their injuries. "You look wounded, I can treat one of you at a time, if we take 10 minutes, it will be easy enough. 20 minutes, and I can patch up both of you."
Alpha-47 gets out his healer's kit and applies some bandages, salve, and sutures to Zaria's wounds, and by the time he is done, she is good as new.
Now that the fight is over, you can see the Blindheim has the remains of a tattered leather hood on its head which mostly just hangs in strips at this point.
While 47 is busy with the others, he treats his own wounds where he got cratched up
"We may want to check the passage to the west first. Just to make sure nothing can cut us off if we need to retreat." Zaria suggests, but if the group wants to head south first, she doesn't protest at all.
She also muses. "I am a little surprised that we are meeting opposition so soon. I'd have thought that one of the other groups who came looking for Khonnir, or he himself, would have dispatched the creatures we have encountered. There may be more going on here than we suspect.
"Migration is a possibility. As creatures get displaced through attrition, monsters change location" he offers his own musings
"There was also what looked like a second way to get here. Perhaps Khonnir and his team used that pathing?" Karina says, pointing to where the other potential path leads, were it to go directly straight. "We should probably check that location as well, just to be safe. A creature could ambush us from that direction."
"Looking at the cave formations, it is possible they found alternate entrances, or exits. Its possible that creature had grown desperate and hungry, explaining its attack on us and not other groups,"
Alpha-47 stows his healers kit and places his light mace back in the internal compartment within his arm. "Ba'hahk, we don't have much time, but we may need to stop soon and fix your shield before it gets any worse,"
"Looking at the cave formations, it is possible they found alternate entrances, or exits. Its possible that creature had grown desperate and hungry, explaining its attack on us and not other groups,"
Alpha-47 stows his healers kit and places his light mace back in the internal compartment within his arm. "Ba'hahk, we don't have much time, but we may need to stop soon and fix your shield before it gets any worse,"
The cloaked orc turns to 47, "Unless you know how to do that, I may have to stow it away till we can find a place or a person to do so. As you said, time is not our friend"
Nodding, pulling a repair kit out of his backpack, "Brigh teaches us many things in her calling, repairing a simple shield is something even an acolyte could do, if you have a back up we can wait, otherwise if its your only shield, please hand it over and I'll set about fixing it."
Zaria stands guard until the repairs are complete.
After 10 minutes or so of sewing, stretching and bending the frame, the hide shield is ready, for the most part, to go back in action. During the repairs, nothing unusual was noted by Zaria from either direction (south or west).
"Let's head south," Karina say as she continues playing her lute/familiar, her Viol "walking" its way towards her as she plays. (Again, specifically not manifesting any knew limbs)
"I believe getting the cave cleared first, then head down a road. Well. Unless the cave goes really deep" silently he hoped the cave goes deep, anything to bring him closer to finding out what has called him here
As you move to check the western area, Karina's light spell fills the chamber which holds a collection of stalactites and stalagmites which choke this low ceilinged cavern, making it difficult to squeeze between them. Matching stalactites close inf rom the five-foot high ceiling, giving the impression of a maw of needlelike teeth bearing down on one another. A dead half-orc sprawls on the ground just inside the cavern's eastern entrance nearest you.
Karina goes to investigate the half-orc, wondering if she's seen them around before. "Who might you be, Dromaar? Doubt you can talk now, but the answer might come to one of us nonetheless."
The fallen half-orc looks like it has been dined on for some days by the insects, vermin, and rats of the cave system, but despite that unkindness, Karina recognizes the corpse as Parda Garr, a female brawler from Torch who was one of several thugs that traveled into the caverns after their discovery and before Khonnir Baine returned from his first expedition. Parda, while running around with thugs, was friendly enough to everyone, and was a regular at Foundry Tavern, where she saw Karina perform on a regular basis.