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The choker that had been strangling Kalla hisses in displeasure at Sajan's dart. Rain gasps in surprise, but quickly begins pelting the other choker that's up on the wall as well! "A. Derleth's monograph on Chokers supposes that their floating elbows can be aggressively reconfigured to temporarily weaken their grasp."
The choker doesn't seem to recognize Rain's words, continuing to batter and strangle Dawn!
Choker (Blue) -11, Takes +2 precision from next Strike, 10' off the ground
Laszlo - Inspired
Choker (Red) -7 Reaction used
Kalla -7
Sajan
Nixoret - Inspired
Dawn -7, Inspired, Grappled, Can't talk or cast!, 6 Rounds of air left, 2x Basic Fort DC 19 vs. 5 and 8 bludgeoning.
Rain in Cloudy Day
"Bruit... I don't think I have a specific command for this yet... Push Rising Dawn!" The mechanical dog cocks its head at its master as if to say "Really?" then proceeds to shove Rising Dawn with all its hydraulic might. As his hound does its best to protect his companion, Laszlo draws another Versatile Vial and tosses it at the choker in the form of another Alchemist's Fire.
The newly refired choker strains to keep Dawn in its grasp, while the other one slips away from the fray to hold Nixoret fast!
Choker (Blue) -19, (1 Fire), 10' off the ground
Laszlo - Inspired
Choker (Red) -7
Kalla -7
Sajan
Nixoret -6, Inspired, DC 19 Basic Fort vs. 5 bludgeoning, Grappled, Can't talk or cast! 6 rounds of air left.
Dawn -13, Inspired, Grappled, Can't talk or cast!, 6 Rounds of air left
Rain in Cloudy Day
Dawn gurgles and her vision swims as the monster continues to choke her. With a valiant effort, though, she manages to pry its claws open enough to slip free. Gasping for air, she intones a healing spell to tend to her own severe injuries.
After his target retreats further away, Sajan turns to focus on an easier target. "Can anyone bring them down? I'm low on darts!"
Heaving as air rushes back into her lungs, the young street bard has had enough of these things and rushes to help their kobold friend, lifting her massive sword and attempting hack the things head off. Twice.
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Nix frantically kicking his feet in the air, angles his mirror to his side and a copy of himself fuzzes into existence.
Still choking, he wills himself to take a step under the arm that is squeezing the life out of him just five feet away and slashes up at the taut arm of the creature as he evaporates from its grasp
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A dart hits the choker on the wall and Everything goes wrong for the choker on the ground. It tries to yank Nixoret into the path of Kalla's great blade, but stumbles and barely avoids being wholly disemboweled by stepping into the ricasso. Then its prey vanishes in some sort of treacherous mirror trickery!
With a hiss, the other choker plucks the dart from its flank, stretching down from its perch to try to stop Laszlo from continually immolating it, but its unable to make hide nor hair of the alchemist's strange anatomy and it can't get the right leverage before slinking away with Rain's seed pods thunking into the wall behind it!
"Good job Nixy! Oh! Have you considered that per the unfinished monograph of Belknap the Long they might have reduced visual acuity towards parabolic arcs? Try not using right angles!"
Choker (Blue) -24, (1 Fire), 10' off the ground
Laszlo - Inspired
Choker (Red) -17, +2 Precision to next Strike
Kalla -7, Inspired
Sajan - Inspired
Nixoret -11, Inspired
Dawn -2 - Inspired
Rain in Cloudy Day
Content with the burns already inflicted, Laszlo decides to experiment a bit. Chasing the choker around the corner, he tosses a Dread Ampoule at it, intending to frighten the already wary creature. With another whistle he calls his "faithful" "hound" to his side, ready to intervene if necessary.
The choker lashes out at Nixoret and Kalla, but when it's not able to grab both of them, it scampers away, still holding Nixoret by the throat with its gangly arm.
Choker (Blue) -25, (1 Fire), 10' off the ground
Laszlo
Choker (Red) -17, +2 Precision to next Strike
Kalla -7, Inspired
Sajan - Inspired
Nixoret -20, Inspired, Can't talk or Cast, Grappled
Dawn -2 - Inspired
Rain in Cloudy Day
With a sheepish look, Sajan realizes one is already on the ground. "Ahem... yes thank you..." He strides over to the grounded choker and enters his signature stance.
Kalla attempts two quick swipes of her blade (both from the left, she might have misunderstood about angles) and then drops the sword to pull out her rope dart to help with the one above.
The choker hauls Nixoret into the midst of the fray, warding off one of Sajan's strikes with the kobold's battered body, but Kalla and Sajan are able to bring down the monster in a hail of strikes nonetheless!
Ceiling is 15' high
Room is dark
The Bold May Go!
Choker (Blue) -25, (1 Fire), 10' off the ground
Laszlo
Choker (Red)
Kalla -7, Inspired
Nixoret - Dying 1
Sajan - Inspired
Dawn -2 - Inspired
Rain in Cloudy Day
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Kalla's last strike, while barely passable if you happened to be a teacher of the sword and was wanting to grade someone randomly, was strangely inspiring. Producing an arch of crimson in the air, sending the chocking back with a strangled death cry, and for a moment everything seemed to slow down to appreciate the effect.
Rain **thunks** the last choker with a seed pod, and it drops off the wall into a heap on the floor. He focuses and Nixoret's wounds stabilize.
"Chokers are opportunistic hunters, and can often be found at the entries to ruined buildings without having originated within, so they may or may not portend further developments. They usually hunt alone or in pairs, but if there's a full clutch here then we might need atypical strategies?"
The chokers don't have any treasure or interesting artifacts, but the rest of the ruin beckons. Three different paths lead out of this room.
A long hallway moves from south to north. Exits lead off from the southeast and northeast points of the hall, while a branching hall to the north is covered from floor to ceiling with debris. A single stone door is sealed near the southern end of the hall.
Caves stretch out from several breaks in the walls of the stone complex. Though the cave is mostly damp, patches of permafrost show up regularly within the dug dirt walls. In several places, moisture has come through the dirt, only to be frozen in place.
A stone door blocks the last portal. Any handle or other protrusion it once had has been broken off over the years, but there are still a great many carvings of spidery inscriptions along the edges of the door.
"Thank you for the assistance," Dawn says hoarsely, massaging her sore throat. Before the party moves on, she calls on her nature apparition to conjure a garden of healing to tend to the wounded, then performs a lengthy dance to regain her focus.
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Taking the moment to refresh some of his supplies, Laszlo notices that Nixoret is not responding as well to the magical garden as everyone else. Taking a moment to add another "potion" to his rotation. With a puff of acrid green smoke the mixture finishes and Laszlo draws the contents into a small eye dropper which he hands over to Nixoret. "Here, for your throat. Take no more than three drops. It is the concentrated equivalent of ten to the second power cups of Chelaxian Breakfast Tea, which until now has been regarded as the ideal treatment for Esophageal Bruising. Unfortunately, I don't think it will do much for the blunt trauma."
Turning to Rain in Cloudy Day, he continues "You were here researching the local civilization, right? I wouldn't think the natural caverns would be of much use for that, but this door screams 'important' if we can find our way through it."
"I does make all sorts of very yummy sounds." Kalla breaths in a bit of awe as her rose covered glasses stare at it in fascination.
Dawn quickly notices that although the door is still and shut, it practically hums with energy, the runes encircling it keeping it barely in check. The enchantment has been damaged, otherwise she doesn't think it would even be possible for any but a Master to safely discharge the runes, but even so, it would be difficult...
Rain studies the runes from a safe distance. "These runes are... oh interesting! They're not Thassilonian! It looks like an Azlanti dialect, but that means there could be an entirely different material culture at work here!" He looks up at you all. "The door is discovery enough for me to write a paper, but we'll go deeper, right?"
Kalla doesn't touch the runes, but does her best to memorize them and think about them, heck she wants to touch them, but doesn't. "Maybe we can find something that helps us figure out how to open it..." she sighs, then smiles at Rain "To the hallways."
A long hallway moves from south to north. Exits lead off from the southeast and northeast points of the hall, while a branching hall to the north is covered from floor to ceiling with debris. A single stone door is sealed near the southern end of the hall, but the runes surrounding it have lost their power. As you examine the hall Dawn and Nixoret find a few traps, wall sockets, probably spring-loaded that connect to triggers in the floor tiles.
You found all of them, right?
Kalla sheathed her sword to concentrate and then moves down the hallway, warier than a cat walking down tall alleys on laundry day. "One trap means go away. A few means we will kill you and laugh as you melt. And that means there are even worse ones hidden in the eves to catch you unawares just in time for needles in a bad place." she whispers back to the others as she takes the lead, gesturing for them to Hang Back.
Kalla methodically goes through the hallways, disabling triggers and blocking the wall sockets, including on another pair of traps that she finds, which might have already been dysfunctional.
With the hallway cleared, you're able to explore the small chamber closer to the entrance. You find a skeleton with leather gear that isn't nearly decayed enough to be from when this place was built. Their tattered effects contain a spear seemingly of Azlanti make, a lesser darkvision elixir, two minor healing potions, and a +1 bastard sword.
Rain asks if you could remove the spear from one of the traps, "We can leave the other ones in situ, but acquiring more samples could help us narrow down the material culture we're dealing with and confirm what happened to the deceased. Or.... I guess we could press on to find the source of the monsters first..."
"A spear, mmm, yes, believe I can do that for you, Rain." Kalla says and then manages to pry her eyes off that lovely Big sword.
Rain happily squelches to himself as you continue down the hallway, passing one of the spears over to Nixoret for examination. "They match! It's what I expected of course, but it's always good to confirm your suppositions."
You turn the corner, and even beyond where your lights reach, it's immediately clear that you've found the problem.
Pale and glistening with moisture, a pair of sluglike creatures stare vacantly at you as droning moans escape their slobbering lips. Behind them, a massive stone column ten feet wide rises from the tiled floor of a circular chamber. Strange glyphs dance along the column, pulsing with dull green light, though many of the glyphs wink in and out of existence as though malfunctioning. The ceiling here ascends twenty feet from the floor.
Collapsed stone debris prevents the use of two connecting halls you've already passed to the west and southwest, while breaks in the eastern walls open the area to an adjacent network of caves.
The groaning slug drags itself forward and regurgitates a horrible splatter of digestive juices to engulf Nixoret and his surroundings in noisome spew!
The piteous moans of the creature grate at your mind, as if wailing at what this thing has become.
Rain does his best to put up a fight, but is quite overcome. "It has- *urp* organs, but they're not *hnng* fixed. Gravity usually pulls them to the *rrrk* lower parts of the torso"
Glistening Slug (Red) +2 Precision on 1st Strike
Dawn -4, DC 17 Will
Laszlo DC 17 Will, Bruit DC 17 Will
Rain -4
Kalla -4
Glistening Slug (Blue)
Nixoret -22
Sajan -4
"That sounds absolutely disgusting. I must get closer and see what it is."
Laszlo makes his way around the corner. "Well, we could do with seeing less of that" Struggling to keep his bile down, he quickly adulterates a vial of Alchemist's Fire and throws it at the creature. He briefly attempts to whistle, then falls back on just moaning out "Bruit!" calling the hound to attack. Lacking biological functions, the mechanical hound is largely unaffected and hurries to its master's aid.
The moan grates across her skin from the inside out, making the bard nearly vomit.
Then she does vomit, but it does not help at all. It does not stop her from moving wobbly toward the enormous undulating slugs, sword in hand. "Never... have we been... presented with more deserving foes... to be put out... of their misery." each pause allows her magic to marinate in the foul atmosphere. Still the words infuse the others somehow.
Dawn gags and retches at the horrid moan and disgusting stench from Nixoret being digested. She manages to get a spell out to heal the kobold.
Laszlo's alchemicals sizzle and smoke, though the slug-thing seems almost insensate for all the reaction it gives. The other one begins its own piteous moans, squelching forward to drench Sajan in digestive juices, but the agile monk is able to duck safely behind the corner of the wall and is safe from harm.
Glistening Slug (Red) -5 (1 Fire)
Dawn -4, Sickened 1
Laszlo - Sickened 1, Inspired
Rain -4, Inspired
Kalla -4 Sickened 1
Glistening Slug (Blue)
Nixoret -10, Inspired, DC 17 Will or Sickened
Sajan -4, Inspired, DC 17 Will or Sickened
hurk
Sajan does his best to keep the contents of his stomach down, but ends up swallowing some vomit while spitting some more on the ground.
Intent on ending this fight as quickly as possible, Sajan takes a flanking position against the nearest slug, assumes a fighting stance, and unleashes a flurry of attacks.
Nixoret is familiar with all manner of disgusting liquids and emissions from his youth in the sewers and is able to keep his lunch while shaking off the juices. After letting the worst of it roll off of his body, Nix puts his mirror in his mouth and fishes out an sachet of coarse sea salt from one of his many pouches. Grumbling under his breath, he rubs the sachet on the head of his hatchet and dashes forward to exact revenge on the slug.
The slug-thing's wails hit a new keening pitch as Nixoret carves a sizable chunk out of its caramelizing flesh. The blow seems to have drawn something like it's attention, for it smashes down at the Sewer Dragon with its globby claws, gutting him and leaving him down in the smoke. Kalla with her inspiration is the next to draw its questionable focusm, but her disgust motivates her to keep its grasping claws far from her flesh.
"Nixy!" Rain in Cloudy Day cries. He pelts the slug-thing with a seed pod, then seeks out Nixoret's bruised mind and body, soothing his injuries from afar.
Nixoret -11, Wounded 1, Prone, Disarmed
Glistening Slug (Red) -35 (1 Fire), V:3 Nixoret
Dawn -4, Sickened 1
Laszlo - Sickened 1, Inspired
Rain -4
Kalla -4 Sickened 1
Glistening Slug (Blue)
Sajan -4, Sickened 1
Kalla=s sword thrusts are all over the place, much like the contents of her stomach. Somehow she encourages the others throughout "Just a little more. Keep imagining how blissful it will be when there sickening whispers go away."
Laszlo grunts out "Bruit! Karom!" and staggers through the cloud to get a clear view on the the other... creature. Pausing to attempt to settle his stomach, he powers through and tosses a Blight Bomb, while the mechanical hound claws at the enshrouded one.
Dawn retches and fires a divine lance but neither are successful.
Laszlo bombards and Bruit tears away at the noisome slugs, but Dawn and Kalla are flailing amid the horrible groaning and wretched smells and tastes of the slugs.
The less injured one sits still and heaves what seems to be several digestive organs full of spew directly at Kalla, engulfing her in a disgusting tidal wave that carries her to the floor!
Nixoret -19, Wounded 1, Prone, Disarmed, Inspired
Glistening Slug (Red) -44 (1 Fire), V:3 Nixoret
Dawn -4, Sickened 1,
Laszlo -8 Sickened 1, Inspired, Bruit -8
Rain -4 Inspired
Kalla -Dying 2, Prone, Disarmed, Sickened 1
Glistening Slug (Blue) -7 (d4 Po)
Sajan -4, Sickened 1, Inspired
Continuing to struggle with his unruly stomach, Sajan does his best to finish off one slug and block Kalla from further attacks with his body. After taking position between Kalla and the other slug, he draws an small vial.
Sajan tears into the awful slug, and some organ inside it ruptures. In an instant the rupture cascades; the slug-thing swells, leaking against Sajan, but even that grievous wound doesn't release enough pressure to stop what comes next.
The explosion.
A new wave of sickening slime engulfs you all, drenching almost the whole of the battlefield in ruined viscera.
The little leshy acts, his eyes still wide with horror. "Ms. Kalla? Can you get up please? I know everything hurts, but I think you really really need to move!"
Nixoret -19, Wounded 1, Prone, Disarmed, Inspired, DC 19 B. Fort vs. 7 Acid and Sickened 1
Glistening Slug (Red)
Dawn -4, Sickened 1, DC 19 B. Fort vs. 7 Acid and Sickened 1
Laszlo -8 Sickened 1, Inspired, Bruit -8 DC 19 B. Fort vs. 7 Acid and Sickened 1 (for both)
Rain -11 Inspired, Sickened 1
Kalla -14, Wounded 1, Prone, Disarmed, Sickened 1. Should still take the fort save in case there was a critical failure. That would mean she's Sickened 2
Glistening Slug (Blue) -7 (d4 Po)
Sajan -4, Sickened 1, DC 19 B. Fort vs. 7 Acid and Sickened 1
Nixoret's scaly hide helps to protect him from the worst of the slime explosion and he is able to barely hold on to his consciousness. Knowing that he is in dire straits, he grabs his trusty hatchet, stands up and moves out from the immediate line of fire
Have you ever been woken from near death only to breathe in the worse viscous sludge down your newly heaving lungs, only to vomit it back up as quick as possible.
Well, Kalla has now.
The bard decides she does not want to move, might not want to live even. "can't... path... finder" Instead of moving, like the very wise Rain suggests, she raises her palm, stutters out her magical words and lets three orbs fire out to ram into the remaining slugs.
Laszlo draws forth another Versatile Vial and shakes it until it turns the ghastly colors of a Dread Ampoule, throwing it at the remaining slug beast. "Bruit!Véd!" His hound darts in, hacking and spitting despite its mechanical nature, jaws snapping at the creature.
Rising Dawn calls on the healthful spirits of grass and leaf and all good things that grow, and the awfulness gradually begins to recede. Kalla and Bruit beat the slug-thing backwards and it rears up in surprise and dismay, crashing down on the mechanical hound with its ponderous limbs and leaving Bruit sparking on the floor.
It sprays the area once more with digestive spew, but only manages to spatter Kalla - practically a reprieve.
With everyone still conscious, Rain simply pelts the slug-thing, but keeps his distance for now.
Nixoret -18, Wounded 1
Dawn -3, Garden of Healing
Laszlo -7 Sickened 1: Bruit - Broken 1
Rain -7, Sickened 1
Kalla -15, Wounded 1, Prone, Disarmed, Sickened 2
Glistening Slug (Blue) -36
Sajan -0, Sickened 1, DC 19 B. Fort vs. 7 Acid and Sickened 1
Dawn maintains her spirit's healing as she fires a divine lance that misses the mark.
There isn't an unsoiled inch of her body left at this point, so Kalla barely flinches as she is splashes yet again with sick. Her chanting didn't even pauses (other than to seal her lips when the spewing hit her), and three more orbs flash out of her palm to slam into the creature.
With Kalla's safety ensured by the rest of the team, Sajan turns his focus to the remaining slug, flanking it before unleashing a flurry of slashes while continuing to fight the urge to vomit.
Sajan once more rips open the unstable organ sac of the horrible slug beast, showering the area in venomous acid, but Rising Dawn's spirits are more than sufficient to the task of setting everything right once more.
As you examine the room, the first time someone draws closer to the central pillar there's a sudden odor of decay, a popping sound, and a gruesomely wet ghoul collapses to the ground out of thin air! It's weakened and badly outnumbered, quickly dispatched, but there's no knowing how long it will be until the next monster is summoned forth.
"We should try to disable it if it's sending monsters to the Tskikhani, but maybe we could leave it mostly intact? I can make out some of the inscriptions, and it looks like prayers of thanksgiving after a cataclysm - that could date this site to after Earthfall!"
"That was our most disgusting battle to date." the soaked bard groans as she gets up, retches for no effect, then shambles over to where Rain is pointing.
"Okay... so if I erase this... and this and this.." Kalla tries to pick out the parts that would change its meaning enough while trying to keep herself from doubling over.
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Laszlo looks sorrowfully at his mechanical hound, kneeling down to pat it softly. "You my friend are going to take a bit of work, but it is worth it." Turning around to his breathing companions, he raises a finger toward Kalla, then puts it down. Best not to interrupt her, if that goes wrong it could be terrible for us all.
He looks back around and locks on to Nixoret. "Come, come, this has not been your day, but let's get you patched up and tomorrow should be better. Clearly your humours are out of alignment and must been seen to. What have you been eating, man?" As he approaches the kobold, he begins drawing forth potions with arcane labels like "Hematemetic". Medicine is a messy process, but we're already covered in... stuff, so the faster method should be fine.
Caves stretch out from several breaks in the walls of the stone complex. Though the cave is mostly damp, patches of permafrost show up regularly within the dug dirt walls. In several places, moisture has come through the dirt, only to be frozen in place. Along the east, several smaller tunnels, too small for even a child, connect to hidden passages beyond. "Good subjects for later excavation," Rain muses.
Sajan and Nixoret notice that the patches of permafrost all seem to be near similar patches of mold, and once they're pointed out Dawn easily recognizes them as Brown mold. A heat-sucking mold that can kill living creatures through hypothermia, and also use greater sources of heat to expand and reproduce with incredible speed! A careful and skilled Survivalist can scrape away the colonies, they are vulnerable to the application of cold, which denies them the heat they feed on, you could press up against the walls to try to keep to safety, or "I could talk to them, maybe? They aren't sentient exactly, but there's communication possible," Rain explains.