Mr Sickle spots Azmerai as the half-orc levels his weapon and charges with blinding speed, at the last moment a gust of smoke obscures Sickle's vision and his blow goes wide. Not so Azmerai's mighty strike, hacking in to Mr Sickle's leg and nearly destroying it.
Frustratingly, Turrey simply cannot find sufficient handholds in the wall to get any purchse, and fails to get any height at all. He is sure he could do it with pitons, but that would take a good 5 minutes to set up, as the ogre roars again he realises it's time he doesn't have right now.
Polonius' ball of fire sails through the air and impacts on the ogre's chest, burning a distinct hole in the decaying flesh and adding more charred corpse smell to the air.
Shomari's well-aimed blow causes significant damage, and causes half the ogre's face to peel off and dangle down. It is plain to Shomari that the necromantic energies holding the corpse together and moving it are likely to dissipate soon.
Mr Sickle is nearly tottering on his feet, but he winds up for another mighty blow, sickle raised and pounding down on to
The blade bites deeply in to Lenneth's shoulder, carving a path down her chest and leaving her collapsed unconscious on the floor from the blow. Azmerai, Shomari and Lilith all hear a sound of tortured anguish come from Indigo, an unsettling event as his wail of lament sounded almost human in its sadness...
Smoke gusts across the street...
AC 20 (Touch AC 8)
CMD 19
Condition (Mr Club): A blackened, stinking pile of rotted burned flesh on the floor. Unmoving.
Condition (Mr Sickle): Looks more disgusting than before, part of a leg missing, burn hole in chest and half his head sloughed away. Barely mobile.
No,no,NOOOOO
Moving in for the kill Azmerai steps a quick one closer and waits for Shomari to move into flanking position. In his eyes is the fury of someone out for destruction and he ramms the blade home once more.
Shomari moves to where he can swing the halberd and hacks at the monstrous creature.
Under the combined onslaught of Azmerai and Shomari, the zombie collapses to the stone of the street, unmoving. The gusts of smoke ebb and pulse around you all. Lenneth's form seems tiny compared to the mound of undead flesh you have just felled.
As soon as the zombie falls, Polonius runs to Lenneth's side.
She's losing a lot of blood here.... He reaches his small hand inside the wound, pressing and pulling at the ragged flesh and he feels her twist in her semi-conscious state as a wave of fresh agony must flood through her. But if he doesn't find what he's looking for she'll be dead in seconds. He pushes his hand deeper into the gaping wound until he is drenched in blood up to the elbow.
Come on you bastard, where are you..? he curses and then; Got it!
His fingers seize on the severed artery and he pinches it shut with all the force he can muster but he feels the hot blood pump between his fingers.
Shomari, do you still have that extract I gave you? Give it here, quick! he doesn't balk at shouting orders to the massive Hobgoblin. Normally he wouldn't dream of raising his voice to the warrior but now instinct has taken over.
With his one free hand he snatches the flask from Shomari and rips the cork out with his teeth. He then pours the thick liquid into the wound and sees it begin to partially close. It buys him enough time to reach into his pack and pull out a tiny needle attached to improvised thread - fishing line. It would have to do. With deftness and care, he sets to work and pulls the damaged artery back together.
Shomari kneels beside Lenneth and finds the artery pumping under her skin. He presses his fingers against the spot, slowing the bleeding long enough for him to fish the extract out of his belt. He tears a strip of cloth from his sleeve to make a tourniquet to stop the blood until Polonius' magic can take effect.
When the danger has passed, he stands and scowls at the two rotting ogres.
"This is new," he says. "We haven't seen them wielding weapons before."
"Had zombies with spiky gauntlets. You help woman I will play ladder for stunty."
Polo sits back on his behind with a thump, breathing a deep sigh of relief.
We are now that you're awake...
He looks about him as best he can through the smoke.
But we won't be if we sit here chatting about it, let's get inside, quick!
He helps Lenneth to her feet and across the road to the apothecary.
As the group moves over to join Turrey by the apothecary, you have time to notice that Mr Club's weapon is wired in to his fist. Whether he was able to use combat skills from when he was alive or whether the undead menace simply lashed out with whatever was (literally) at hand, is impossible to know however. One thing is clear though, to be right here, right now, these things must have been waiting for you.
Azmerai is able to act as a ladder for Turrey.
Azmerai grabs the halfling and says"LL manage"
Waiting for us... Polo mutters under his breath. Those damn things were here waiting for us...
He can't think about that right now. Deal with what's in front of you now, what you can affect. Hypothesis comes later.
The half-orc grabs the halfling and flings him high towards the window. Turrey, despite the unorthodox manner in which he attained the height, manages to grab hold of the window-frame rather than falling straight back down again.
Turrey can see the remnants of a bedroom inside, the splintered and scorched furniture would lead you to believe something volatile exploded here, albeit a long time ago judging from the look of things. There is a single (blackened) door leading out of the room.
Turrey squeeks with surprise as he's tossed into the air, but he manages to catch onto the window without much trouble. He hops inside as quietly as he's able, finds the sturdiest looking leg of the scorched bed, ties his rope do it, and throws it down to his companions.
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Lilith rushes to the witch's side as she is hit. Lenneth! escapes her limps as she kneels to help stabilize the woman. Her hands feel, inexpertly at the wound to try to stop the life blood from spilling.
I moved and left her open for the attack. she thinks as she moves to help. But that hit would have likely ended me. What else could I do?
After Lenneth is stable and conscious Lilith watches as Turry enters the upper window. She reminds the group that she can get in with her arcane jaunts and stands ready to do so if she hears the rogue in trouble.
Falling out of rage, Azmerai leans winded to the house. "Waiting... or guarding valuables? Like at... bridge? And pointy,... you in, ...door closed, hard to help! Maybe go up and help... quick stunty" Catching his breath again, Azmerai waits for the others to climb the rope.
The party is not disturbed further as they take turns to climb the rope and assist each other getting in to the apothecary's shop. It's clear to you that this upper floor hasn't been lived in for some time. The air smells mouldy, and the areas around the open windows are saturated from the rain, the floorboards are swollen and creak loudly under your feet as you move around.
The rest of the upstairs is much like the bedroom, anything of value long gone. A claustrophobic kitchen and a sitting room not much bigger make up half the space on this floor. Opening the last door your hearts skip a beat, but the two corpses lying on the bed are still and unmoving. A man and a woman, both gnomes, dressed in simple homespun clothing. You briefly recall the spinning wheel in the adjacent room, with a small, scorched and pitted leather apron hung upon it.
Whether it was the sound of your footsteps or something else, you notice a tiny grubby white shape crawling out from under one of the pillows on the bed, hands going to scabbards and weapon hafts gripped tight as it jumps towards you, you then realise it is another paper creature, this one a frog. Azmerai feels the stirring of its sisters in his pocket.
There is a single rickety staircase leading downwards in to a hallway. Three doors lead off it, one to the front of the building which must lead to the main shop area, one towards the back which might lead to a storeroom, and one under the stairs which presumably leads to a cellar.
All three are boarded up with a serious amount of wood and nails. If you want to open any of them it looks like it will take a few minutes work and noise to do so unless you can think of another way round them.
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Lilith casts and maintains Detect Magic through her search. She searches each room almost frantic to find medicines.
Seeing the paper frog Lilith wonders our loud Do we have some friend trying to lead us to the cathedral?
When faces with the three doors she notes My power to dimensionally hop, if you will, will not help here. I must see where I am arriving.
We have no choice but to make our way through these doors. If there is medicine here we need to find it soon, that lady isn't going to last much longer. It's still the best chance she has.
Turrey looks down at the bloody stain on his abdomen, and the intestines starting to bulge out of his open wound. "Lenneth, I suppose I should be next in line. I have to admit I'm feeling pretty woosy right now."
Turrey relaxes some as he sees the wound seal up, though he can tell it'll take more than that to heal the internal damage. "Thank you, Lenneth.
"Polo, I'm afraid I'm still in a bit of a bad way, if you can spare one of those elixirs of yours.
"As far as battering doors down, I'm afraid I won't be of much aid, though I'll lend a shoulder to the effort if it'll help."
Azmerai uses his shiny new sword to hack down the first door.
As Azmerai starts the noisy task of breaking in to the bedrooms, Polo bends down to look at Turreys wound.
He says over his shoulder, I'm sorry Lillith, I know you are suffering as well. If there is medicine to be found here rest assured you will have it.
Downstairs. The front is most likely to be looted!
Turrey drinks the extract and feels a bubbly tingle as much of the bruising and tenderness in his gut go away.
That was the last healing extract I could prepare today. If we run into more trouble, particularly at the cathedral I'm thinking, there won't be much I can do to heal. Let's hope that medicine is here after all.
Though not ideally suited to the use, Azmerai's sword hacks chunks from the wooden barrier, sending splinters and nails spreading out over the entire corridor. The space beyond is dark, however Lilith conjures her familiar animated lights and they speed in to the area to illuminate it. Wooden stairs lead down to a small room, no bigger than 20 feet each side. There is a painting of the two gnomes you saw upstairs hung upon one wall, they are grinning at each other and the background shows it as their wedding. Another wall has a stunning number of carved wooden glyphs and pictograms etched in to it. The last wall has an odd contraption mounted on it, consisting of twenty levers set in four rows of five, with each of them seemingly set randomly.
After you have all squeezed in to the room, you are startled when the male gnome in the painting starts to speak, mouth moving though the eyes still stare at his bride lovingly.
Welcome stranger, do not move lest my magic leave naught but smoking boots!
Do you have proof of your permission to be here? it asks.
Lilith replies No, but you are dead, and we are in desperate need of medicine
The painting is silent a moment, then announces
If I'm gone, you are either a plunderer needing punished or unknowing friend in need. Let's find out which! Bought black, used red, discarded grey
Lilith looks quizzical for a moment, then explains
I think this setup is a simple spell, used in a complex layered manner, the question's correct answer will likely trigger further words to explain how to proceed. Anyone any idea of the riddle's answer?
Azmerai smiles and whispers:"Coals,fire,ash."
Gnomes don't have the same tradition of riddles and word games as Halflings, but the fey-folk have their own love of language and, just like the wizards who left this trap, Polo was not completely ignorant of the simplistic beauty of word play.
He nods sagely at Azmerais answer and tips the half orc s wink.
Azmerai shruggs."Steal easely often, and keeps shack warm"!
As soon as Azmerai says 'coal', the painting speaks again.
Alchemist, bard, riddlemaster or clever thief you are. Next push the two levers that make eighty together.
Looking over the contraption with many levers, they are numbered in different scripts, and judging from the positions of those the party understand, they are not in order.
{ooc}Lilith is able to decipher the meanings of the labels in context, you definitely have the numbers 1 to 20 and can identify each individually[/ooc]
What in Asmodeas fat arse means that. I have no clue!
Turrey is nervous at the thought of what could happen here -- so soon after getting sliced open by that groaner -- but he can't help but get excited by the puzzle of it either.
He nods to Lilith. "I agree, I think those are our only choices. Other than doing something beside playing the game."
Before they act, Turrey gives the contraption -- and surrounding area -- a thorough examination.
Turrey's thorough search and assessment reveals the following:
There are several mechanisms behind the lever contraption involving counterweights and the like.
The opposite wall of carvings has a number of nooks and crannies concealing hidden holes and hinges. There is certainly the potential for traps to be built in to the wall.
The doorway you entered by is reinforced, and also looks like it has a mechanism attached to it that does something.
The levers themselves are all of the same material, shape and size.
One thing occurs to Turrey as he stares at the levers, with his feet on the floor, he can only easily reach the lowest row.
What is the lowest row. The first listed or terran
Turrey's eyes light up! "Lilith's got it! The clue is that the 20 is too high for me to easily reach, and that would be true of the gnomish creator too."
Now the excitement of puzzling has overcome his fear of the traps, and If no one objects he'll happily pull the lever.
He adds, "It's probably worth mentioning, there are mechanisms behind these levers, and that wall there, and the door we just came through. It seems pretty clear his talk of traps is not a bluff."
At the mention of traps, Polonius hesitantly suggests;
Maybe this doesn't need all of us to be in the room. Lillith and Turrey seem to have the combination of intelligence and mechanical knowledge to have the best chance at solving it. the rest of us can offer suggestions from the doorway but be ready to jump in and help should anything go wrong.