Kaley darts behind the throne, pulling a small blue vial out of her pocket as she does so. When she swallows the contents, her height shoots upward to match the dwarf at her side, and she grins.
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The now-familiar sound of Kaley's weapon clanging to the floor echoes through the room. She spins, lashing out at the attacking skeletons with her claws and fangs while forcing her way through the room.
"KaleyDorinBriarColgenPetros," she recites, as if it were a single word. "Names are meaningless. What's yours?"
"No one of consequence." She speaks calmly and begins to cross the room, still tapping the floor in front of her with the tip of her sword before she steps. As she passes through the doorway, she steals a glance toward the eastern table to scan it for any noticeable contents. When she arrives in front of the chair she gives a slight curtsy, then raises an eyebrow at the skeleton expectantly.
Kaley does her best to help examine the area.
If nobody does anything else, Kaley will now open the door and dive to the side, as described above.
"Err, after you, of course." Kaley raises an eyebrow at Briar. "You'll allow us the pleasure of having ceilings fall on our head?" she replies, grinning. "How chivalrous." She grabs the rest of the healing potions, drinking another and passing one to each of the others. Then she crosses to the southern secret door, waiting for anyone to check for additional traps. When the rest appear ready, she yanks the door open, stepping quickly to the side and dropping to the ground.
At the mention of healing, Kaley grabs one of the potions and drinks it in a single gulp. As the healing begins to take effect, her attention turns to the armor. "This is some of the best armor I've seen in a while - must have cost a small fortune. Mind if I start using it?" As she picks up the chain jacket, the note flutters out, and she catches it with her other hand. "I can't read this either, although I could make an extract to change that." She glances toward the two secret doors Colgen pointed out. "But something tells me we should keep moving. We must have attracted enough attention already, I hate to think of what could arrive if I take the time to make an extract or put on armor." She pockets the note if no one else can read it and slides the armor into her backpack, grunting under the added weight.
As the ceiling crashes down on top of them, Kaley falls to the ground, clutching at the gash in her temple. "No." Her scalp bubbles furiously as her open wound settles into a deep scar.
At Colgens verdict, Kaley passes through the hallway, using her sword to test the ground in front of her. When she arrives at the next room, she reaches out with the sword and nudges the chest slightly to the side.
"Well, it didn't seem to do much." Kaley glances back at the door. "If we keep moving, we might be able to find them before they hurt anyone else." She swiftly inspects the closet for any more contents and scans the wall for any signs of a concealed door or compartment.
Even as the zombie's shriek hangs in the air, Kaley drops her sword once more and slices it into ribbons with her claws.
PHEW! Yes, yes it was. We might need a Rogue... Either that or tie up a zombie and force it to lead the way.
Kaley thinks back to the recombined corpses from earlier. "...Scientists?" Prodding the ground in front of her with her sword, she crosses to the closet and attempts to peer in through a keyhole or crack, her inhuman senses piercing the darkness within.
"Sure, why not?" A bit out of sorts from her fall, Kaley will pause for a moment, allowing anyone else with leadership ambitions and/or a death wish to take the lead. If no one does, she will turn back toward the northern room with the door to the east.
Kaley exhales in relief as the rest of her gashes begin to patch themselves up. "At the very least, we can keep our eyes and ears open. And I should probably test unfamiliar ground before I step onto it." She surveys the surrounding area. "It looked like that passageway extends about 30 feet to the right, with a couple more doors leading off of it. But unless one of you is hiding a ladder in your backpack, I think we'll have to find a way around: either to the east or to the west."
"Thank you, Colgen." Kaley accepts the rope and begins to climb it, taking care to avoid the spikes. "And thank you, Mr. Briar. Some healing would be wonderful, although I believe Dorin still has a wand."
Kaley lets out a strangled cry as she comes to a halt at the bottom of the pit. "I think..." She gasps for breath and rolls to the side, yanking herself free from the spike that had imbeded itself in her shoulder. "...we should start checking for traps." She clutches her shoulder, and it begins to churn and boil, contorting itself beyond functionality before solidifying back into its normal form, its wound partially closed over.
Kaley gets up, wincing as she limps to the edge of the pit. "Now, how about a rope?"
"So, south?" Kaley asks, entering the new corridor.
Kaley gives the others a slight smile and a tight nod, before wordlessly wiping off the spider's blood onto her sleeve and moving to help Briar clear away the webbing.
As the spider's fangs sink into her side, Kaley twists away and snaps back with fangs of her own, dropping her sword to rip at the spider with sharp claws.
Even as the spider launches its web through the air, Kaley's feet are already moving, lunging toward it and swinging her blade in a low arc.
"Let's try the direct approach." After scanning the newly visible room for threats, Kaley crosses to the opposite door and attempts to cut through the webbing in front of it with her sword.
"Petros? Now might be a good time for one of those bombs."
"I'm with you and Briar. If a skeletal hand is pointing somewhere, we might want to start heading in the other direction." Kaley moves to the southern door. If the others assent, she opens it.
Kaley nods slowly, but still appears slightly disturbed. Nonetheless, she busies herself collecting silk from the spider's lair.
Kaley sees Dorin raising his axe and starts to blurt out, "Wai-" But her interjection is cut off with a thud as the axe severs the spider's unconscious body in two. "...Never mind. It's just... they understand human speech, you know..." She trails off. They understand human speech and they build homes and they plan and they work together in teams and... Her attention is reclaimed by Dorin's effort to extract venom from the spider's corpse. Her eyes light up, and she begins scanning the area for intact strands of spider silk, attempting to safely store any she finds in her pack for future use - potential use, at least.
When her task is complete, she kneels next to Dorin as he harvests the venom and mutters quietly, "I'm all for collecting useful alchemical ingredients, but please try not to use those for anything you'll regret, okay? I've seen what things like that can do to people, and I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy."
"Oh, I remember these! Hold on a minute." Kaley pulls out her formula book and flips through it eagerly. "That's a moon spider - pretty clever, but not our problem anymore." She turns to the open trapdoor in front of them. "I'm more curious about this trap, and what it's supposed to be protecting."
Kaley steps up quickly in pursuit, slamming the flat of her blade into the mist.
Kaley swings her blade in an arc over her head, slashing at the spider as it scuttles into view along the wall.
Kaley tilts her head to the side, listening closely to the clattering limbs in an attempt to trace the direction of their movement.
Eyes narrowing, she calls out into the darkness in what can only be described as a growl. "Show yourself."
Kaley looks up at the hole in the ceiling and reports her findings to Petros and the others.
She then looks down at the apparent trapdoor in front of her. "If this is a trap, then there might be something important on the other side." She slips her backpack off of one shoulder and begins rummaging through it. "Want me to seal it up? I have some alchemical glue in here that should do the job in a moment or two."
Kaley pushes through the door into the room, stopping short in front of the pile of rubble and eyeing the skeletal hand curiously. "Looks like someone wants us to go left."
Kaley borrows the wand from Dorin, sealing up most of the skeletal claw marks before passing it back.
She then slips the wayfinder in her backpack, retrieves her sword, and stands by the door to the south to wait for the others.
"After hanging around long enough to write a paragraph about their companion's corpse and put it in his coffin?"
Kaley searches the sarcophagi as well, scanning with detect evil before lifting the lids and rooting through them.
At Petros' comment, Kaley reads the note quickly before passing it to Dorin and Briar. "Looks like a chance for a small good deed," she comments with a slight nod. A moment later, however, she looks back at the sarcophagus and frowns. "But something seems off. How did this note get here? What happened to the person who wrote it? She scans the note again over the shoulder of the next reader, trying to recall what she could of Iroran burial customs from late nights of reading or periodic stays at whatever temples would take her in.
Kaley begins to panic from the relentless clawing of the undead, lashing back with claws of her own. She stumbles forward, clutching at a gash in her side. As she presses her palm against the wound, her flesh begins to bubble and steam, rippling for a moment before settling into a somewhat normal shape.
Kaley steps past the skeleton in front of her and lunges at the one behind.
Kaley lets out a small bark of surprise as the casket bursts open and Briar calls out a warning. She lets her sword slip through her fingers, and it clatters loudly to the ground. The skeleton lunges toward her, but she is already spinning to the side, ripping through its bones with sharp fangs and long silver claws - visible for the first time as they catch the fungus's glow.
Kaley steps up to the nearest casket and lifts the lid.
Kaley opens the door.
"Wow." Kaley crosses to the table and peers down at the dismembered corpses. "Did they really manage to transplant arachnid limbs onto a humanoid torso? That's fascina-" She clears her throat. "I mean, that's horrific." Kaley rummages through the materials on the table, ignoring the magic items but pocketing the needles and thread. When she spots the key, her eyes light up and she scoops it off the floor. "Aha! I thought something looked fishy about that wall. Maybe this will do the trick." She crosses to the north wall and begins to inspect it for a keyhole.
Kaley glances back at the others before trying the door on her left.
"This way seems clear." Kaley opens the door the rest of the way and begins to move along the hallway against the wall, doing her best to see and not be seen.
"Right now, I'm wondering what that alcove is for." Kaley shrugs, then walks over to the slightly ajar door to the southeast and looks through it.
Actually, upon checking the numbers it looks like we just reached 1300 XP, enough to level up. Here:
240 XP from working with High Mother Dremagne and fighting the zombies from the cave 350 XP from fighting the goblin cleric and his minions 160 XP from fighting the goblins with their dogs by the front entrance 200 XP from fighting the goblins with the horsechoppers in the bedroom 250 XP from fighting the zombies in front of the spire under the cage 100 XP from passing further into the spire
Does that seem right to you?
Same. The difficult terrain is gone too now, right?
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