You can't see me, dwarf!
What you can see is... another door to the right.
You don't see any traps, but the door is locked with a truly lovely piece of ancient craftsmanship. It might be difficult to unlock.
Anzath's gonna try anyways.
Bedlam looks (from the rear, of course) at Anzath beginning to tuning the lock. He begins to dig in his pack...retrieving his lock picking tool set, the dwarf makes his way to the door.
Smiling at Anzath, he begins his attempt.
"Snick-clink!" goes the ancient lock. It falls into Bedlam's perfectly manicured fingers.
The door swings open.
Beyond, you find an empty room.
But opposite wall isn't empty. There's a closed door leading south through the back wall.
This is not a dream.
"Let our advance continue.", says Talathel, breaking the silence.
Bedlam places his tools back in his pack. The dwarf grabs a snack. He then opens the door before anyone can react...
....glaring at the empty room, Bedlam frowns.
It be un trap!
Bedlam downs an Extract of Heightened Awareness and See Invisibility.
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"I loosened it," Anzath declares as Bedlam finishes the lock-picking job. Then she checks out the room.
+3 for trapz.
Seeing no traps, Anzath tries the other door. It swings open, revealing a dark staircase descending into unknown depths. You hear the sounds of rushing water beyond.
At the sounds and sights of the staircase, Tragershen comments "It is good that this level is not a dead end. However, I would recommend we continue to explore this level before we descend; it betters our chances of having a good means of regress without interference."
If our scouts push to go down, Trag will of course go along. Otherwise, we'll close the door to the stairs and head back out to the hallway.
Anzath now wonders if the lock was placed on the OUTSIDE of this room for a reason. She suggests they keep this room secured. "Kould be poop monster down dere."
"I agree that the 'pooze' could be down there. Let us secure this door and resume our search of this level."
On you go. There's a third door.
No visible traps. Inside, an awful mess of broken boxes. Knowing you all, I'll just:
You find four odd potions in the wreck and wrack.
As you reach the end of the corridor, you see a pair of doors: one dead ahead, one to the right/south.
Neither appears trapped.
Ippolit flips a GP:
The door swings open.
The well-cut stone of most of the level is completely absent from this chamber. Strangely, the walls, ceiling and floor of this room are made of hard-packed dirt. As you look up, a slight trickle of loose dirt falls from the ceiling to the ground. Several passages radiate into the darkness...
Aurora bunches her shoulders as they enter the earthen room, squinting into the darkness. "I can't imagine there's anything friendly here... possibly more of the rats?" she says quietly.
Bedlam--from the rear position--examines the potions. The dwarf seems to stick a finger in each one, tasting them.
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Anzath wedges her crowbar under the door leading down, to hopefully jam it shut.
At the dirt room, she tries to calculate where they are in relation to the level above.
Also, any tracks visible in the dirt?
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Bedlam briefly panics when he thinks he's popped a drop of "Flesh to Stone" into his mouth... but when his mouth doesn't freeze shut, he realizes that the potions are the similarly flavored elixirs of "Stone to Flesh." Excellent for treating kidney illnesses and gaze attacks.
Anzath determines that you all are not directly beneath the upper levels. Instead, you're a bit to the west.
There are many rat tracks in the dirt cave. Some are larger than standard dire tracks.
"Vereratz..."
Lolygert pokes his head into look at the rough-hewn tunnels, "Hmm, a rat buffet for you , Bed!" he comments to the dwarf.
Bedlam passes them each to a different party member.
If you be seeing sumone git'n stiff; use dis.
The dwarf then grants assistance to Anzath.
"Given our location, it would be more surprising to expect, let alone find, friendly elements here.", Talathel says in reply to Aurora.
He turns to look at Gelver, then adds:
"Though not impossible."
The elf looks ahead once again.
"Let us skewer some more rats, regardless of their size."
There was a trickle of dirt coming down from the ceiling...
"Anzath, is this safe? It looks like it might cave in at any moment?" Then he looks down where Anzath says there are rat tracks. "Though finding another route to the surface would be a very useful discovery."
Tragershen's question reminds Talathel to do a swift health and safety asssessment of the earthen tunnel.
Talathel's fairly confident that a tunnel in such frequent use must be at least mostly stable.
"The earth tunnel is mostly stable, at least for our purposes. Let us move through without lingering overly long."
They are and she can.
Anzath follows Mone's nose, or else ducks down the tunnel with the most apparent traffic.
+3 for trapz
Bedlam pushes his way through the widow shoppers; and the grumbling dwarf heads into the tunnels with Anzath.
He aids her in both.
When Anzath advances, Tragershen hesitates. With her graceful strides, the tunnel may still be compromised.
Then there's Bedlam. When the stumpy dwarf barges through without consequence, Trag is comfortable following them in.
As the start, Tragershen reaches into his pack for a candle. He lights it and holds it aloft. He watches the flame for any sign of unusual movement that might indicate moving air currents. If one of these tunnels leads to the surface, it might clue us in.
Talathel smoothly moves into his regular position in the marching order, his senses still seeking excessive vibration and noise.
You see air currents, indeed, Tragershen! The candle flickers in the light. You use it to determine that one of the offshoot tunnels is air-currently more interesting than the others.
When Anzath pokes her head around the corner, she sees a glorious garden of mushrooms in a 40 ft x 30 ft cavern.
Aurora gently rubs Nicothoe's head as the others work on ensuring the passages ahead are safe for them to traverse without risk of structural collapse. As the marching order moves, she smoothly moves with them.
Mushrooms? From the relative safety of the middle of the group, Tragershen tries to identify some of the fungi.
Knowledge (nature) . Same number for dungeoneering if that's appropriate.
Adelie, who has been quietly following along, also takes a look at the mushrooms.
Talathel pauses in his movements and scrutinises the fungi from what he hopes is a safe distance.
Bedlam walks by picking muchrooms and stuffing them in a sack and his mouth...
Adelie recognizes multiple species of dangerous fungi.
Talathel's dungeoneering knowledge reveals that this place is dangerous.
Both know roughly what kind of threats the garden poses, but Bedlam demonstrates the dangers.
As Bedlam bustles forward and begins the harvest, some mushrooms start exploding, some start screaming, and some start moving.
A yellow one explodes in his face when he reaches towards it:
He breathes it all in, grinning.
Tragershen may act! Adelie, you know that the violet fungi that are now moving towards the party are mostly dangerous because their tentacles rot flesh on contact. How fun!
Tragershen will delay. "I don't recognize these..." He looks to Talathel and Adelie for their insights on the fungi.
Bedlam ignores the pretty pollen misting about the air. The dwarf absently waves around the marvelous mushroom patch.
Dem be poisonous; but be real guud un da rat pot pie!
Three violet fungi start lurching towards Bedlam!
One fungus unfurls its tentacles and begins trying to rot Bedlam's flesh off of his bones:
Bedlam's incredible resistance to poison is put to the test:
...test passed. Seven damage to Bedlam.
Another lurches towards him, flipping a single tentative tentacle his way:
The third merely moves twenty feet, now within range to do damage next turn. You observe that they are very slow.
Ippolit takes his post as rearguard, sticking close to the light sources. "I've got your back..."
Squandering his opening to protect you from surprises/save his own skin, he allows two more shroomy soldiers to approach:
ummm
The closer of the shrooms slings a tentacle:
It misses!
Bedlam gives Aurora a wounded look. He winks a Nico. Watching Anzath getting her drink on; causes the dwarf to do the same...
Licking his lips, the dwarf prepares to open the door....
Bedlam (chewing mushrooms) barely notices the flailing of his dinner.
Me mudder be saying dat yee shouldn't be playing wit da food!
Talathel advances, not charging, and stabs at the nearest violet fungal mass!
Talathel stabs one of the mushrooms.
Another mush shambles towards combat, placing itself in range of the interlopers from the kingdom of Animalia.
Bedlam smiles. He chews. The dwarf merrily watches the fun-guys surround him.
Be un art ta roast dem just right!
The Alchemist tosses a bomb!
At 6th level, a grenadier can detonate a bomb so that it splashes in a 20-foot cone rather than affecting a radius. The cone starts at the alchemist and extends away from her in the direction she chooses. The alchemist designates one creature in the squares affected by the cone to be the target of the bomb and makes her attack roll against that creature; all other squares in the cone take splash damage. If the alchemist has the explosive bomb discovery and throws an explosive directed blast, the cone of splash damage is 30 feet long instead of 20 feet.
This ability replaces swift poisoning.
Lolygert sees his little buddy having fun with the fungi and moves forward to participate with his greatsword...