Round 3: Mac
Mac grunts, "Neat trick!", as he bleeds from his open wounds.
Garidan does two two quick slashes then retreats. He is bleeding heavily.
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Garidan picks up his whip and attacks twice. He misses the first time and hits the second. While the whip does no damage to the golem, the fire inflicts damage. The golem still stands with 89 damage.
Jon uses a reloading strike◆ on the golem to load in a life shot round.
Then he does another to load◆ an aberration round into the other barrel.
Then Jon steps forward◆
Hagrym uses another 2nd level heal, this one healing everyone within a 30’ burst.
Heal
Pen's ignition spell, instead of its normal damage, inflicts fire damage on the wood golem, which is just enough for the golem to "go down in flames", as it collapses to the floor.
"Puh. That hit hard. Sorry, Mac, for not going all in, but I was pissing my pants." Says a bleeding Garidan.
"No worries, Gar. I thank you and Pen for your fire magic. It got us through the fight. Cuz, thanks for the healing. Next time, we're in town, we definitely have to look into purchasing some alchemical items for the future. Mac searches the room for any things out of the ordinary.
You find 4 Bulks' worth of books in this room for Morbilint.
"Thanks, Grym," Jon says after Hagrym's administrations. "Shall we check out the door to the northwest?"
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Penflower says "That was tough. If I ever get myself a lab, I'll want a golem like that protecting it. Also, why do the ghouls have such a golem? And the other room that they were so concerned about fires... Were they maybe protecting this golem?" The elf shuts up before he spirals into too many questions.
He agrees to go northwest as Jon suggests.
After healing, you head to the NW to find:
The walls of this room are only partially completed and bear the telltale marks of chisels and picks. Discarded stone-working tools lie against the unfinished walls.
It looks like someone perhaps was planning an expansion of the natural cavern, but never got to finishing the job. Most of the mining tools remaining here are mundane, but one of them is a +1 striking pick.
You head west and open the door at the western end of the corridor.
The air in this room feels blisteringly hot, although the source of the heat isn’t apparent. Neither the wooden barrel containing a few iron scoops nor the metal bin with a hatch-like lid seems to be the source.
Mac happily claims the magical pick, assuming no one objects. He will use it for now, but has plans to move the striking rune to his greatpick when they next return to town.
"Should we check out the western door while we're on this side of the building?" Jon asks.
Hagrym had no objection to his cousin making his weapon better. ”Im fine with the western door, Jon. Seems as good as any to me. Hopefully, we’ve found our limit of golems today though.”
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As you analyze the room, Mac's sharp senses detect a trap in the room. Pen, via his magical scans, determines that the trap is not of an arcane nature. Hagrym, through his religious studies, can sense the presence of s restless spirit in the room that is related to fire. He determines that there is a haunt in the room emanating from the hatch. He can use his religious studies to quell the spirits, as he enters the room.
Hagrym commands the spirit to leave and is successful in citing to holy text and exorcising the spirit. The room is now safe to explore and you find a Ventriloquist's Ring buried in the ashes.
"Let's check out that door north of the room with the mist elemental now, eh? We'll have this floor cleared in no time," Jon says.
Garidan: 1d20+7
Hagrym: 1d20+9
Jon: 1d20+7
Mac: 1d20+9
Pen: 1d20+5As you analyze the room, Mac's sharp senses detect a trap in the room. Pen, via his magical scans, determines that the trap is not of an arcane nature. Hagrym, through his religious studies, can sense the presence of s restless spirit in the room that is related to fire. He determines that there is a haunt in the room emanating from the hatch. He can use his religious studies to quell the spirits, as he enters the room.
[dice=Knowledge Religion]1d20+11
Hagrym commands the spirit to leave and is successful in citing to holy text and exorcising the spirit. The room is now safe to explore and you find a Ventriloquist's Ring buried in the ashes.
The lantern's magical light attempts to reveal the unseen. You and your allies in the lantern's area of bright light gain a +1 status bonus to visual Perception checks to notice anything that is also within the bright light, and a +1 status bonus to checks to Recall Knowledge against creatures within the bright light, as the light exposes their true natures. During exploration, even if you aren't Searching, the GM rolls a secret check for you to find traps, environmental hazards, haunts, and secrets (such as secret doors). The GM rolls each time a given hazard or secret comes within 20 feet of you and within the lantern's bright light. These effects have the divination, magical, and revelation traits.
”I hate those tricky haunts! We got lucky there, I think,” he grumbles, happy to have avoided the thing. ”That door looks fine to me,” he agrees.
Mac follows the party, gleeful with his new magical pick, and eager to test out the striking rune on something.
In the room with the mist elemental, you find a secret alcove to the west, which contains:
*Two lesser bravo’s brews
*Two lesser healing potions
*Moderate skeptic’s elixir
*Barkskin potion
You venture through the door to the north and find a door to the east and another door at the end of the corridor. You try the eastern door that leads to a staircase leading up to the room where you fought the Bloodsiphon on the second level.
You continue to the northern door at the end of the corridor and open it and enter to reveal:
The walls of this empty room are decorated with hundreds upon hundreds of tiny little hash marks, as if someone had been counting days for ages. To the northwest, an iron door with a barred window sits in the wall, a large but open padlock hanging from the door’s latch.
Standing in front of the door is a fiendish looking 6' tall muscular male creature with horns wearing a breastplate and wielding a trident in one hand a whip on its belt. It has red skin, hooves for feet, and a long tail.
Upon seeing the party open the door to its room, the creature stands at attention. In a slightly bored voice, it says, "Intruders, you are under arrest and should hand over your gear before stepping into the adjoining prison." It does not make any hostile intentions toward you, but it is clear that it expects you all to comply with its request.
"Hell-o, Sir. Before we comply, what are the charges exactly? Because if this were an intrusion then we are wrongly accused. There was no indication of anything like that. No do-not-enter sign or the like. Who's property do you say we trespassed into?" Garidan starts to argue with the devil knowing they like this.
Religion.
Jon begins thinking of some badass one-liners to use to demoralize the creature, should the need arise.
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The devil puts his hand to his chin, as Garidan's reason seems to set in. "You do make a good point about the sign - nice observation. I did not catch your name. It seems to be more of a strict liability situation - just your presence in this room is enough to trigger the consequences. Those were Belcorra's orders, well, when she was alive. Unfortunately, I signed a contract to enforce those rules...like..." The devil looks over to the hashes on the wall. "Like 500 years ago. And, as you know, those contracts are legally binding. So, unfortunately, for you, in you go into the prison. Unless, there was something else that you wanted to discuss?" The devil seems very relaxed talking with Garidan.
"You're in a pretty bad spot aren't you? May I ask, what you got in return for signing this contract with Belcora? Surely, it can't be worth your services for such a long time? Have you ever considered that you fulfilled your duties? A clever law-savy man might argue that eternity does not actually mean eternity and that there's a reasonable time frame after her death that is considered enough. "
During his discussion Garidan had stepped in, but stayed out of reach.
The devil smiles, "I got to leave Hell for awhile...although I never thought it would be for this long. You do seem to have a good head about you about law. Perhaps, if you were to find my contract among Belcorra's possessions, maybe there is a clause that nullifies my servitude and I could return home. How about this for a bargain? I don't kill and/or imprison you and your friends now and if you bring me my contract, I can leave you all alone and go home. Deal?"
Garidan smiles friendly, surprised about this outcome. He would not want to decide about taking on this side quest alone, so he turns to his allies. "What do you think?"
”One less bugger to fight sounds like a win to me, assuming it does go home after we retrieve the document. He sounds lawful enough. If we strike a deal, I think he’d abide by it.”
"It'll save me bullets, so I'm in."
Mac nods at Garidan, "The more we conserve resources, the better. The deal is fine with me."
"East of the library is as good a place as any to resume our explorations," Jon agrees.
The devil smiles, "Then we have a deal. I will let you live for now. However, if you come back to this room without the contract, I cannot guarantee your safety. Safe travels." A smug grin covers the devil's face. You leave and close the door behind you.
"Yes, we have a deal. We're here to help. At least anyone, who accepts it. Just a quick question, before we leave. What is behind the door that you're guarding so honorably?"
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After they leave the room, Penflower says "I don't see what we gain from this deal with the devil. He says that he doesn't kill us if we bring him the contract... Only... It looks like he can't leave that station, so all we have to do is not go near him and we get the same benefit..."
He scratches his head and says "Maybe I should have said something when we were in there."
”Id bet for a devil to be summoned and bound, something very important is behind that door. And I’d bet it is something that we’d definitely want to find. I’d rather do that without fighting that awful thing,” Hagrym reasoned with his friend.
"Grym's right. We can't just let it stay there and bar us from the door he's guarding. It's not like we weren't going to find the contract anyways with our clearing out every room. We may as well use it as a bargaining chip to avoid fighting a armed devil," Jon agrees, and follows Garidan to the mist elemental room.
You head south from the mist room and encounter three doors: 1 east, 1 west, and 1 further south at the end of the hallway.
The cracks around the edge of this door glow faintly with greenish light, similar to the bathroom that you found on the upper floor 2. You open the door to reveal:
An ancient, tattered sofa sits against the east wall of this room. The south wall shimmers with strange green light.
When you enter the room....the green light flickers and forms the message, “Belcorra fell to the Roseguard, but we never knew of these vaults below...”
A moment later, the words slide off the wall and slither away, as before. The ribbon of green energy heads north past the party toward the mist elemental room and then east.
Mac ponders, "Otari's spirit again? Last time, we chased him, the spirit led us straight into a fight. We know where it is now, in case it resets. Let's head west for now."
"I hope that mention of vaults means there's some fabulous treasures down here," Jon smiles. "I agree with Mac. Let's leave that room for last."
You head to the southern door and open it to reveal:
This large, cross-shaped chamber contains several long couches, the leather cushions that once adorned them cracked with age. Dead plants lie slumped in planter boxes along the walls, and a long-dry fountain depicting a lighthouse stands in the middle of the room.
Seated on one of the couches is a ghoulish creature, but unlike any ghoul you have seen on this level. It looks like it was a morlock in life that became a ghoul. It has sharp claws on its hands and toes. Despite its tongue hanging out of its mouth, the creature stands when it sees you and in a calm voice, greets you, "Hello travelers. I am Augrael. And your names? What news do you bring of the outside world?"