"You're damn right, Saorise. Let's show these darklands monsters what it means to mess with the surface."
Elestar moves towards the illusory wall the monster retreated behind, back to the cavern wall and blades in hand.
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Undercommon: "I mean, you might...or you might have knife holes in all your major internal organs. The future is unclear, what with this being the Age of Lost Omens and all. Maybe, just maybe, we have a nice chat, you tell us what's going down in drow-city below, and we don't messily kill the lot of you. I know it's a long shot, but I figure you lot might want to actually live a bit longer. "
"Well then, we would not want to disappoint your drow guests. Perhaps they would be willing to drop any weapons and surrender peacefully, so as to avoid any more of their people dying needlessly? I mean, I know I'd prefer to keep all my organs inside my skin." Elestar moves towards the back wall, nodding towards Saorise as he does.
"Drow past the roper? I mean, if we're gonna get involved in some kind of civil war, we're gonna need local information. And probably local clothing and gear to blend in. We pay the monster and see if it will turn over those drow or we steike and try and put it down. Its a tough and wily predator, though, and quite capable of killing."
"These potions are worth like 100 gold, and will heal about as much as two uses of my wand. If we can get some intel on the drow, I'd say that's a fair price. And if the monster tries to betray us, well, we Stab the heck outta it. "
"Let me just check with my comrades, and see if anyone has such items to potentially trade. Gimme one second and I'll be back." Elestar slips back to the rest of the group with an uneasy smile in place. "Dunno if you all heard that, but there's a roper beyond the illusion. It suggests it has information on where the drow are and wants to trade for some healing magic, like potions or wands. Anyone feeling up for some negotiating?" Elestar slips a pair of CLW potions from his belt and shrugs.
"We would certainly be interested in hearing where the drow went, but as you say, that is valuable intelligence." Elestar raises his voice a bit and scans the area to ensure his escape path is unobstructed "What would a roper consider suitable trade for such information?"
"Well, I really don't have any reason to be down here other than the villagers those drow took. If we can find them and get them back from their captors, great. If not, we're gonna have to keep searching til we can do so." Elestar stays as far away from the roper as he can, cautious of whatever was spellcasting earlier and not looking to be ambushed himself.
Elestar sneaks to where the illusory wall is indicated and listens closely, trying to determine just what kind of creature is speaking and possibly how many spellcasters.
"I don't know if you could hear, but they have at least two additional spellcasters behind the person talking. If I had to guess, they're delaying us to try an ambush while we're unawares. If so, I'd kind of like to stab them a while lot. I have a trick that will drop a veil of darkness around a spot, pretty much noone but me can see through it, so I could stab and slice plenty good while they're blinded. Of course, if we proceed and just wait a minute, they might come up and deliver themselves to be counter ambushed."
"Hey now, I have my hands conspicuously and entirely not suspiciously off my sheathed weapons. And like Saoirse said, we're looking for some kidnapped folks. Plus the drow who took them, of course."
"One for sure dead, the other one driven off. I take it you were not a fan of the spider monsters, then? If we are to be on speaking terms, it's typically considered polite if we can see one another." Elestar stays by the wall, hands hovering near his pistol crossbow and knife handles.
"Many thanks, everyone. If not for that damned spider monster and its poison id be just fine. But I do appreciate the help, for sure. "
"No, I am okay to continue. Just means I gotta be super sneaky and not get poisoned more. Thanks, though, ill be good. " Elestar does just that, stealthily moving forward while keeping a close eye out for further traps.
"Ugh...that was a nasty poison, venom, whatever. I could feel it just trying to eat me up from the inside out. Thanks, Wintyr, whatever you did certainly helped." Elestar reloads his crossbow and stows it, along with his offhand knife. "I don't suppose anyone has magic to help fix this?"
Sliding his knife into its sheath, Elestar snapdraws his hand crossbow and looses a holt at the blinded monster. "Here's steel in your eye, spider!" to hit vs blind. For and damage
Seeing the outsiders get lit up by the casters, Elestar grins despite the venom in his veins. for and for and Offhand for and for and
Moving forward and hugging the walls, Elestar keeps a close eye on the spider monsters, ready to stab if it gets within reach. "Saorise, know what they are? I can't make out what kind of creature they are." (if possible), Move action 30' along the wall, ready to stab if an enemy gets within reach.
"Huge, huh? I wonder if it likes to be stabbed in its vital organs. Saorise, what do you say?" Elestar draws his blades and moves close to the entrance, crouched low and ready to spring through. Assuming he sees nothing on the floor to impede his movement, he dashes forward as silently as he can, hoping to get the drop on the creature.
"Right...arcane magic. Well, lemme try and see if I can't zap you up them. Or maybe Nicodemus can use it easier?"
"Oh, shoot, why didn't you day something earlier? Here, use this, I think you can make the magic happen, right?" Elestar hands Saoirse a wand of cure light wounds with a smile. "I'll keep an eye out for more traps like that, hopefully we can avoid more zaps or pokes going forward." (+5 vs traps)
"Well, that could have gone worse. I mean, it could have gone better, but noone got hurt or possessed or anything crazy so there's that. Let's continue, shall we?" Elestar carefully takes point, looking for more nefarious traps or dangers.
to recognize unknown language? "Yeah, you're right, Saoirse. Let's get outta here before miss see-through turns hostile." Elestar backs up with his allies, keeping an eye on the spectre.
"Uh...ghost? Not sure who she is, or was, but she looks a lot like the woman in sculpture over here. I wonder if ther is an inscription or plaque." Elestar looks for such an identifier.
One way to mitigate that slow-down is to standardize our approach while in dungeons exploration. If SOP is "kick door, kill monster", well be triggering all the traps we come across. I'm perfectly fine with the GM rolling my perception as our SoP might include Elestar searches for traps and checks for locks bef[ore we try to open anything. I wish I had taken Trap Spotter but that'll have to do for now I gueas.
"I've got this trap settled. I'd suggest not touching any other doors, chests, or the like. At least, not til I've looked them over, please." Elestar begins an examination of the room, in case any other surprises lie in wait near the doorways. "Anyone know who that statue is? Is she someone we should know?" (+5 vs traps)
"If I were to guess, it has something to do with the undead we encountered earlier. That, plus the summoning trap and now this zap-spell trap means someone really did not want anyone coming down below. It also means they were expecting to return and traverse this area, since a magical resetting trap can be keyed to people, phrases, or carried items like a passphrase. Perhaps I should take the point going forward, so I can look for more shenanigans like these." (+5 vs traps)
Elestar looks at the door, careful not to touch the trigger, and then attempts to disrupt the magical trap.
Elestar spins his blade and returns it to the sheath with a flourish. "Hey, no sweat, Saorise. None of us knew the baddie would come back. Even Nicodemus had to do that eye-rolling, looking into the spirit world magic trick to learn about its weaknesses. That's why we work as a team, yeah? You do great as our big bad sword angel lady, and do it very well, but neither of us are the big thinkers here. No offense intended, of course." He turns to Wintyr and smiles. "I'm ready to go, or we can wait a bit for your magics to come back to mind. Either way, my knives are plenty sharp."
"That would work, so long as noone comes along and pulls this torch outta his chest. Its something, at least." Elestar gladly helps move the staked vamp outside if everyone wants to do that.
"Wooden stake to the heart? I guess thatd kill most things, eh? But if you say thats the trick to keeping Mister Spooky Eyes out of our way, I'm game." Elestar pulls a torch from his pack and deftly sharpens the end with a few strokes of his blade. "Okay then...here!" He plunges the wooden shaft into the vampires heart, tapping on the end a few times to ensure its purchase. "Okay, that's dealt with. Shall we continue?"
Yeah, just waiting on Nicodemus to tell me what to do and then we sac a torch, stab the vamp, and move on.
"The creature poofed and ran into this mausoleum place. And Nicodemus said it wasn't really gone until we did something special. Then he went all glassy eyed and speaking funny, when we came running to help out. I didn't stick around to hear what he had in mind though, not with all the yelling and roaring and stuff."
"Hold up a tick, Saoirse. We have to make sure that undead is gone permanently, and can't get back up and ambush us on the way out. Also, you should probably take a bit to patch yourself up. Those lions did a number on you." Elestar looks around and makes sure no other traps lay around to trigger. (+5 vs traps)
Yeah, had to do that, as well as a PW reset
"Keep your eyes open! Saoirse is yelling and screaming about somehting." Elestar draws his knives and heads towards the commotion at top speed.
Plan is to rush and help Saoirse, assuming the vampire doesn't jump up to bite me first. Wasn't expecting a split the party situation but we'll have to adapt and overcome
We just learned Saoirse is getting mauled, if I understand correctly. I'll be heading that way asap, but wasn't prepared to jump in until the vamp was toasted.
Nope. No religion here.
"I have no clue how to make this thing stay dead-dead. I can guess maybe burning it might work? But other than that, I dunno." If the stone is breached quickly, Elestar will produce some oil and prepare to torch a sleeping vampire, otherwise when the screaming starts: "What in the hells is that? Why won't she be patient for once?"
"So when we get in there, what do we do? Burn the guy? Chop him up? Is there some kind of magic we can use?"
"Man, I have got to get one of those fancy daggers. They really do slice through anything, huh?" He fiddles around in his pack for a moment, then resecures the flaps. "Nope. Thought I brought a crowbar, but I have the grapple hook instead. Fat lot of good that'll be here. "
"I agree with Nicodemus. We mustn't lose sight of the danger down here, and it might take a bit to get in or gain access to the vampire's resting spot." Elestar looks for an entrance to the mausoleum, possibly hidden or bricked over. (+5 vs traps)
"I dunno, but I think I'd like to try and stab all its organs in alphabetical order then cut its head off. Think that'll do the trick?" Elestar stows his crossbow and quickdraws his offhand blade, readying to stab the vampire as soon as it becomes available.
Elestar again dodges the magical attack, returning the vampires sneer. "I really wish he would come down and get sliced up." He reloads his crossbow and takes a defensive stance, hoping to get a flank soon.
Elestar moves around the corner and drives his blade home, hoping the distractions and chaos has afforded him an opportunity to strike a vulnerable point on the vampire. to hit, hopefully vs flat-footed, for and . If sneak attack applies, debilitating strike for -2 ac, -6 vs me.
Elestar dodges the flames with ease, his clothing steaming ever so slightly as the heat dries off the accumulated chill of the crypt. "I'm going after him. Let's take him down, Saorise!" With a single blade in hand, Elestar moves towards the mausoleum, rolling on the balls of his feet and trying to maintain a silent approach.
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