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Grum, surprised at what he had done, attempted to repeat the arcane prowess with a flourish. He looked at his blade and his hands in confusion when nothing happened. He tried again, with the same result. A feeling of panic crept in, as he fell back, so that the others might continue to blast away with alchemical and arcane fire.
William moves back 20 feet and uses the wand again.
Amkarang moves back and pulls an alchemist's fire from his pack.
The rot grub swarm is immolated by the two additional fireballs. The party doesn't need to throw any of their alchemists fire, even as their prepared to keep the swarm at a distance.
Beyond the reach of their darkvision and in the distant shadows thrown by the small bits of detritus that has caught fire, there are still the sounds and glimpses of the morlocks lurking.
It's been an uneasy night, and barely restful, but that's the best the party can manage in such hostile territory.
The group has one obvious means to explore deeper levels of this complex of ruins and caverns, and that is to follow the morlock lurkers in their warrens. There are two other possible means of descent with no sure means of success -- going back to the crevasse and rappelling down, or exploring the well with its rushing torrent of water.
Benedict, like Grum, only need two hours of sleep, but it was not the most restful - especially with being interrupted by the swarm attack.
He considers options while William studies his spellbook.
"If we can see a destination, your magic to move us through space could be useful."
"Being attacked while climbing is not great. I should go first, though; if they attack us with poisoned blowguns, I am immune."
Warren looks towards the warrens and says "That's probably the easier way to go. It's too bad they keep just outta sight. Tempted to shoot some light down there to see what we can see."
Amkarang sleeps like a boulder. He breaks his fast on smoked meat and equally smoky black tea, pitching in his opinions as he chews and sips, "Well, the warrens would be the easiest to traverse, but probably the most foes. Not that I'm opposed, of course. My hammer gets thirsty."
Climbing down through the warrens may be the easier, but it's certainly nastier. The morlocks living on the upper levels apparently use the way down as predominately a latrine and garbage chute. Using it to reach the next level down is incredibly foul and disgusting.
However, the morlocks continue to retreat, staying just ahead of the party and at the cusp of vision.
The chute opens into a room of worked, finished stone, though piled high with the filth from above. Carvings along the walls bear the grim, stylized faces of a half-dozen looming dwarves, all with their visages smeared and defaced with decades worth of offal.
A passage leads to the northeast, and fresh tracks of bare feet that stepped in the filth leading back and forth from the exit.
Aerel casts light repeatedly on pebbles that he throws ahead down the tunnel, forcing the morlocks to retreat farther than just range of darkvision.
"Let's proceed cautiously. Find out where the enemies are, get them to come to us if we can, and advance on them carefully if we cannot.
I don't want to try to sleep in this place again. So that means we need to make our resources last."
Benedict will move so that he has a view of the passage to the northeast. Can he see anything down the corridor?
Benedict's darkvision is replaced by a low, ruddy glow in the chamber beyond. He can hear the rushing of water just ahead, indicating that the well is likely still pouring down into this level as well.
The dim light offers a limited amount of vision, but Benedict is able to see a morlock standing within the chamber, just within his field of view.
Benedict will report back.
"The room is lit, for some reason. Even though morlocks have darkvision.
There is one morlock in the room that I can see, but I couldn't see all of the room.
I would suggest we assemble in the north of this room, and have William Fireball the next room with the wand.
Make him come to us - charging in to a room that I can't see the whole of could be dangerous. Grum and I learned that at the munitions camp.
William and Aerel in the corner using ranged attacks, and the rest of us forming a wall around them.
Any thoughts?"
"They have been retreating, staying just out of sight. What is this one doing? Do we have a quarrel with the morlocks or are they just in the way?"
"They are allied with the Ironfang Legion and took part in the attack on Longshadow.
The morlocks are servants of Zanathura, one of their commanders."
"They are our enemies.
As to why this one isn't retreating, I am guessing there is some sort of ambush in that room, and they are bait.
So I propose that we not go into that room, but instead draw them out.
Do you have any idea of how you might scout? I don't see any cover, and I'd rather not use up the Spectral Shroud right away."
The morlock Benedict spotted seemed different than the others they've faced so far. He was wearing robes, and had a number of floating stones orbiting around his head.
As the party discusses their plan of attack, they hear a voice calling from the chamber. "Жер бетінде тұратындар! Мен сенімен сөйлесер едім!"
"Surface dwellers! I would talk with you!"
”One can hide from darkvision just like normal… what was that? Are they casting a spell?” Aerel draws his bow and moves to get a line of sight on any...thing that might come their way.
Benedict replies "No, they are asking to talk. I will ask them to come to us. Hold your fire. There may be advantage in speaking."
Aerel steps back from his vantage point to find a new one where he can observe the negotiations unobserved.
The morlock steps forward stiffly like he has a bad leg, but he does not go all the way into the room.
"I am Iuwlas, loyal acolyte of the World Serpent. But I fear my tribe has been taken in by a false idol. It lurks in levels beneath this one.
"You are formidable foes. If you promise to not attack more of my clan, and instead fight this false god, I will lead you to it."
Benedict snarls.
"He claims that his tribe was misled by a 'false god'. Well, he doesn't seem to be the leader. Just a priest. I don't know."
He responds in Undercommon.
And then what? We seek passage to Kraggodan. The dwarven ruins in the Valley of Aloi suggest that this might be a path. Is it? And if so, would you let us pass?"
He will attempt to gauge the truthfulness of the morlock's response.
The morlock scoffs.
"The Serpent bade us to follow the orders of the gray-skins. Many brave warriors followed the orders to glory. I alone see through the false idol's lies. It is hollow, a shadow of the real Zanathura.
"There is a passage to the Dark Roads beyond the false god's lair. If you seek those long, desolate roads, you have no choice but to go through the false god."
Benedict relays the information to the others.
"What do you all think?"
”Play along. Anything he shares, we will have to doubt, but if he’s sincere, we avoid an unnecessary enemy.”
"An ally of convenience is more help than none at all. Better not to trust someone but work alongside them than try to spill their blood."
William turns to Benedict with the wand of fireball in his hand and says "You tell him" and he points the wand down the cavern toward the morlock "that you know he's not telling you everything and that he better if he wants us to trust him or we can just clear these caverns out of these filthy slimy morlocks with fire and then take care of his problem." and then lowers it.
"I'm not particularly good at that approach, William, and it isn't my style."
"I don't think I can threaten someone into being trustworthy - I think it would backfire and he would plot against us. Even more than he is.
I suppose we just play along, take what information we can, be alert, and not let on that we are suspicious of him."
Benedict will respond to the Morlock, with a pretty decent display of false gratitude,
Benedict quite expects that the Morlock will turn on the party after we have done his dirty work, but he hides it and acts entirely trusting of the Morlock.
The morlock nods sagely.
"You will need to climb down the fissure to the next level. The titanic centipedes that lair there will probably attack you unless you are very quiet. If you wish to avoid them, you will have to jump into the water here in this room to the cistern. Take the leftmost passage and follow it, staying to the left, until you come upon a great dwarven door. The false god is just beyond."
Hearing the plan, Aerel offers, ”Centipedes probably mean venom. Best handled at range, but that burns resources and makes noise.”
He pauses, ”But I don’t look forward to a swim, either.”
"Climbing down into the waiting mandibles of titanic centipedes sounds like a terrible idea.
I think we might do better to take the water path."
"We can tie off a rope and climb down. If we have to jump, at least there is water at the bottom."
The morlock Iuwlas waits patiently while the surface warriors decide which route to take. Taking a look at the waterfall, it's a rushing torrent of water cascading down from a hole in the ceiling. The worked stone is worn smooth from the centuries of water, but Benedict can see handholds dug into the rock. The well in the middle of the room descends to the limits of the party's darkvision, but there's a soft bluish glow about twenty feet beyond that.
"Might be a good idea, Grum - or Haela could."
Benedict addresses the Morlock.
He looks down.
Try the handholds? Rely on Grum's magic? Have two of us hold a rope for Grum to climb down? Or just jump?
The morlock gestures down the well and laughs in an unpleasant way.
"It's water. You can drown. The glow is from crystals around the waterfall."
Benedict looks to Aerel.
The Morlock hasn't been speaking Common, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't understand it. So Benedict takes an extra precaution.
A cylindrical torrent of water rushes down from the ceiling into a 40-foot-wide cistern of water, creating a deafening racket. Colorful mineral formations cover the walls both above the water and below. A glint of gold twinkles from the water’s depths.
A short corridor leads out to the east, opening up into a large chamber.
It's easily within range. You feel confident that the corridor is not trapped.
Aerel's ghostly form rises through the floor after a short time. He moves to the west side of the opening in the floor, gesturing to the others to join him. Pointing into the hole, he whispers, "There is a light glimmering below for a little longer. Use your magic to place yourself on the left side of the light and two paces farther east and you should find yourself in a dry corridor to a new chamber. Safe as far as I could tell." As he speaks, the magic of his shroud wears off and he becomes solid again.
"If you didn't see any danger in the cistern, then I can just dive. Conserve our magic. Anyone who feels confident, follow me."
He uses Alter Self to take the form of a Flood Troll, then dives down the cascade, into the cistern.
As a Flood Troll, he gains a Swim speed of 10', plus 2 claw attacks (1d6 each), while keeping his Darkvision. He also gets +2 Str as per Alter Self.
"I cannot make that drop confidently. I thought the plan was to use the magic."
Haela nods. She teleports Aerel, Grum, and William down to the corridor.
If it allows the party to be 2 abreast, then she will have the group in a square, with Grum and herself towards the next room, and Aerel and William against the cistern.
If it is too narrow for that, then she'll bring Aerel, Grum, and Amkarang in a T-shape, with Grum and Amkarang in the next room, her behind them, and Aerel behind her (against the cistern).
The "hallway" is so short that Haela and Grum are actually in the next room. What do they see?
Several walls of this old, massive storehouse have collapsed, and rocks, detritus, and large, chitinous plates litter the floor. The ceiling rises to thirty feet here and has partially collapsed, exposing a large fissure leading up to a faint, green glow. The sound of rushing water echoes from the cistern behind the group. The only visible exit is a partially collapsed tunnel to the northwest.
To the south, massive shapes of glossy chitin and innumerable thick legs begin to stir.