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"Aye Ulfen, their doom shall be their only mercy." Byakko follows close behind Skäne, muttering as he casts a spell, he casts his gaze on the woman with Krosh as he does so.
Making preparations for what is to come, you advance down this changed hallway until it opens up into a larger chamber.
Like a harrowing cage woven from bone, wood, and sinew, a tangle of massive drying racks exhibit the splayed remains of dozens of woodland creatures, some dead, some still twitching. Narrow wooden planks serve as precarious walkways leading between the racks, with several rope ladders ascending to various levels. Bloodstained leather buckets filled with cruel and filthy vivisection tools hang from the hideous structures in several spots.
Perched on the wooden walkways you see three bizarre humanoid figures. Each has the legs of a goat and grey, wrinkled flesh, their hunchbacks causing them to ever lean forward. They have heads sporting thick horns that extend and curved downwards to flank their flat faces. Most strangely, each has a half-withered third arm growing from their torsos. Dressed in blood and viscera-stained aprons. They carry blowguns and have belts with many pouches. They eye you as you enter and begin snickering and glancing towards one another, before one excitedly makes an exclamation.
They all sneer and ready their blowguns.
Init:
Map
Dungeon so far
Geedra 20
Byakko 18
Skane 18
Krosh 16
Enemies 12
Mithas 10
Geedra tells the others ”Geedra am not speak that dumb language. Blowguns am look nasty though,” she warns.
Not having any other idea, she begins calling out to the strange creatures in the languages she does speak, hoping there might be a language in common between the groups.
Interested to see the results of the diminutive goblin shouting in a variety of languages (yet unable to contribute more than a growl only a Tiger could comprehend), Byakko advances cautiously. He takes heed of the goblins words though and crouches behind his shield. He growls to Enni <Take down middle, I'll take my flank, be wary of stings from mouth tubes>. Enni's response is a deep growl <These play too much with food, not right>.
Round 1
As Geedra calls out to the strange creatures in several languages trying to get a response, Byakko and Enii move into the room, the former's bestial features having taken over as enemies have presented themselves. Byakko invokes his magic, a moonlit sheen sweeping across his face as he flings a hand forward, gossamer threads of silver emerging from his digits that rush through the air and into one of these torturers before flickering and disappearing. As the oracle yanks his hand back the creature lets out an anguished, chattering scream as his bones are forcefully shunted around in his body.
Krosh moves slightly in front of Greala, shielding her from any potential incoming blowdarts, and conjures up flames in his hand.
Geedra 20
Byakko 18
Skane 18
Krosh 16
Enemies 12
Mithas 10
Less fanciful in his approach than his companions, Skäne hefts shield and spear and moves to engage their warped foes;
Not fully trusting her spells right now, Geedra uses her fortune hex on the hex, blessing him in his efforts to defend the group, as she cackles to keep the fortune hex in effect.
Round 1
Geedra tugs on her fickle eldritch threads bound to the whims of fate and tugs them around her target, stitching boons for the chosen.
Byakko's spell wracks the strange creature on the right, and the sudden, violent shaking of his bones gives his body a forward jolt, causing him to stumble clean off of the perch he had claimed and toppling to the ground below.
As the enemy falls, Enii ascends, leaping from the ground to the latticed drying racks. Her nails digging into the wooden frames, she scales the apparatus until she reaches a point to threaten the centermost torturer.
Skäne readies his shield and spear and marches through the room towards his quarry, nearing the drying racks and ladders. The stench of the dead and dying fauna affixed to the racks hangs in the air; blood and bowels and rot.
The grounded enemy stands, grunting as he shakes off the effects of the spell, and glares at Skane's incoming form. His eyes glow red as he waves a hand, and the red glow transfer's to Skäne's armor.
The torturer being accosted by the climbing white tiger shifts away (5 ft step) on the plank and looses a dart from his blowgun at her. The dart hits, barely piercing the tiger's skin, but as with most blowguns, the danger is not in the sharpness of the dart itself...
The third enemy of the left sends his own dart towards Byakko. This shot too lands, pricking into the oracle's skin. Swiftly the half-elf can sense the poison on its tip stinging into his blood.
Mithas raises his bow and sends off two shots at the leftmost torturer that shot Byakko. Both hit, but the projectiles seem to barely effect the bizarre creature.
"Must be some manner of fey or demon," the elven scout announces. He looks to Skäne and calls out "cold iron!"
Perhaps by the innate magic of the Rimepelt he wears or perhaps a brutally cold will, the magical heating of Skäne's armour dissipates leaving whisps of steam from the advancing Vikingr.
Heeding Mithas' words he nods mirthlessly and stoops, slamming his shield repeatedly into the prone torturer;
Byakko moves forward hoping his aura will help his allies and hinder the attackers. He casts Bulls Strength in Enii.
Enii Barely notices the dart or its effects as Byakko's spell takes hold. She steps up to the torturer and lays into it.
Geedra tries to determine what these creatures are.
Know. Planes
Know. Nature
Round 2
Geedra studies these bizarre three-armed creatures, conjuring to her mind something that would identify them.
Byakko and Enii both succumb to the initial effects of the poisoned darts, the toxicity taking hold.
As Byakko advances and acts to mitigate the disadvantage of the poison, Enii leaps at the enemy she has been clambering after. The target shows a surprising level of agility, maneuvering out of the way of the tiger's bite and first claw before being struck by the third. It lets out a panicked wail - akin to perhaps an overbearing, uppity child getting its comeuppance - as blood oozes from the ragged wound.
It pushes the tiger away with impressive strength, avoiding being grappled.
Skäne sneers at the fey as he brandishes his cold-iron shield, the fearsome boss invoking some level of obvious discomfort in this strange being. When the bulwark is used as a weapon, however, the priomal instinct of the creature and its disdain for the cold iron takes hold, and he nimble dodges both shield strikes.
Krosh helps Enii from afar, gesturing forward, hand aflame, to send a small orb of fire speeding across the room, where it crashes into the back of the entangled with the cat. He howls once more, the blood-stained tunic and flesh beneath now burnt.
The torturer on the left side of the room runs across the wooden plank up on the racks to assist his brethren, flanking Enii and laushing out with a claw of his own, but it clatters futilely against the tiger's new centaur-made armor.
The central figure already fighting Enii lashes out with both of his own claws and proves to be more effective in the melee, slashing the cat with both claws.
The final of the trio, facing down against Skäne on the ground level, takes a step back and swiftly produces a vial from which it drinks, and suddenly his movements seem to increase and becomes lighter on his feet while his flesh tightens are hardens..
Mithas once more invokes his magical talent and vanishes from sight, preparing for a stealthy sneak attack of his own.
To round 3
Geedra 20
Byakko 18
Skane 18
Krosh 16
Enemies 12
Mithas 10
plus
plus
Geedra moves 60’ to the north (if you’d be so kind as to move me, GM), all the better to use her hexes next round.
Byakko grimaces as Enii roars in pain. He funnels his own fear for his friend into his Aura and then concentrates it into one of their opponents as he moves into range.
Enii roars at the deep slashes and sidles away in an effort to protect her flanks before lashing out again. .
Round 3
Geedra dashes into the room, eyeing the battles occurring up on the walkways and below on the ground. She gains enough ground to ensure her continued ability to manipulate this battle.
Byakko presses onward as well, his empathic link with the trusted Enii causing him pain as he feels the burning of the foul creature's claws ripping through fur and flesh. With bared teeth and a guttural intonation, the oracle envelops his menacing aura around all three of these torturers.
Enii furiously lashes out at the fiend that gouged her, showing the misshapen specimen what true claws are. With a mighty shriek she sinks fangs into wrinkled grey flesh and carves trenches of sickly blood across his limbs.
Another well-placed jet of flame surges forth from Krosh's outstretched arm, crashing into the back of the enemy now entangled in Enii's thrashing, slashing limbs.
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Enii's pursuit of her target, coupled with Krosh's flame jets from behind, bring the fiend down, sending it toppling off of the walkway into the floor.
Skäne grimaces as he bears down on the fiend once more, putting his shoulder behind his cold iron shield and letting out a roar as he surges forward in another series of bashes. The first slam finds its target, smashing square into the creature's torso with a heavy thud. As it makes contact with the flesh of this torturer, the likeness of the mighty bear Ilvarang suddenly emits a powerful roar and the creature howls in pain and covers his ears, recoiling from the blow. All eyes suddenly shoot momentarily to the sound of the roar, never having heard it before.
plus sonic
The remaining fey-fiend embattled with Enii takes a step back and quickly quaffs an elixir, and his bloodstained clothes suddenly split as muscles bulge and his size grows slightly.
The grounded fey, now frightened by the Mortal Terror spell and feeling the burn of the cold iron shield, breaks and run, withdrawing from Skäne and dashing left across the room to hug the far wall and making for the exit leading out to the west.
Mithas watches invisibly as the frightened fey runs by, smirking as he notches an arrow and lets fly at the back.
plus
The arrow sinks hard and far into the torturer's back, clipping spine, and sending him collapsing onto his face in an unmoving heap.
Geedra 20
Byakko 18
Skane 18
Krosh 16
Enemies 12
Mithas 10
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Byakko sees the grounded opponent go down and hurries to the aide of his feline friend, climbing to the catwalk.
Enii, satisfied that her original opponent is no longer a threat moves on to the last remaining threat.
Round 4
Byakko moves to assist his beset companion but the strange latticed network of scaffolding proves difficult to scale swiftly and he gets a bit tangled up, equipment catching on the many gaps.
Enii, incensed by the wounds inflicted upon her, lashes out, pursuing the torturer on the planks above. Despite the alchemical concoction toughening the creature's flesh, Enii's predatory fury prevails, sinking claws and fangs into the brute and holding tight. The enemy hisses out in pain as blood runs in rivulets down his limbs and he thrashes to escape the grasp of the mighty cat.
Geedra casts Misfortune hex on the remaining enemy, trying to make its odds even worse. She cackles to extend the duration.
Round 4 Continued
Misfortune plagues the remaining fiend as his fates are stitched, the following cackle prolonging the malus.
Skäne looks up at the melee on the walkways and glowers, tossing his spear up a few inches to change his grip on it to ready a throw. He takes a few steps forward to put some momentum behind it and hurls it upward. It hits the fiend squarely in the side, nearly sending him staggering off of the plank with the force. Just as he reels, another jet of flame surges forth from Krosh's palm and burns into him as well. The combination is enough to send him careening off of the perch and he falls to the ground with a thud and no longer moves.
After all is still, you hear the maiden Greala from her cowered position behind Krosh. "You see..you see what horrors the Warden fills this place with!"
Krosh slowly looks at her and then to the woodland creatures lashed to the torture racks - foxes, hares, squirrels, even a fawn - and shakes his head with his trademark jingling of trinkets. "These beasts deserve better," he says flatly. "They may be beyond healing, but we should at least end the suffering of the ones still..twitching."
Geedra agrees with Krosh that there was no need in prolonging suffering. She chooses to quickly end their pain, but she takes a hare and stashes it in her bag, figuring it would be a tasty treat for later. ”Am yum, yum,” she says as she collects it.
Enii forlornly watches the last torturer fall from her claws limp. He growl of rage is obvious that she wasn't done taking her anger out on the creature. She swiftly drops to the floor and dispatches two creatures writhing in pain before roaring in fury again. She settles to her haunches and licks her deep wounds. Byakko steps forward and also swiftly dispatches another writhing creature. His tongue returned Byakko's voice still comes out as a rasp in anger, "This Warden has much to answer for. What could they possibly gain from torturing such meek creatures?". Byakko spits in disgust but the alchemical reactions displayed make him curious enough to loot the bodies.
Skäne shoots a black look toward Geedra;
"Its meat may be hel-vízkr Puka. Best nei yum-yum."
The burly vikingr nods at Byakko's words;
"Aye. The Varðr will know our wrath... for these kykvendi alone."
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Geedra suggests the group finish searching this room before heading to the exit from this room.
Byakko tends to Enii with the wand.
Byakko isn't satisfied with the wands work. He casts Cure Critical Wounds.
Byakko nods his ascent at Geedra's suggestion of direction. His Aura and anger giving him confidence as they progress.
Your search of the room turns up enough components to comprise a full alchemist's lab, as well as various bloodstained tools that make up a few torturer's kits. You also find a potion of remove blindness/deafness. Closer inspection reveals that the three fiendish fey are actually identical to one another - either triplets or some manner of cloned specimens. They each carry a masterwork blowgun and you uncover a total of 24 darts for them. They also each carry 4 doses of shadow essence poison (for a total of 12 doses).
Departing from the room, you traverse a long, narrow hallway for about 100 feet before it opens up into the next chamber. To your immediate left is a fifteen foot square alcove that has seemingly been stripped of any furnishing, and the rest of the chamber stretches out as a more natural looking cavern. The air here is still and rancid, permeated with the scent of rotting flesh. At first glance, the floor of the cavern seems curiously wrinkled, but you soon notice that they have in fact been carpeted with some sort of dried flesh. In the center of the chamber, five wooden totem poles hold up a huge, angled, lean-to like tent crafted from an untold number of poorly preserved skins crudely stitched together. The backside of the structure is facing you and you can't make out the opening - or what may be housed beneath the canopy, from your vantage. The poles themselves are carved with the leering faces of old women; each face is slightly different, but all are hideous and disfigured with hooked noses, oversized warts, snaggletoothed maws, and other exaggerated features.
You see another hall to your right leading out of this chamber, but you cant see the walls opposite to you due top the tent blocking your line of site - it's about 40 by 30 ft.
Geedra points at the tent. ”Bet scary monsters am in tent,” She whispers to the others. ”Group kill baddies!
Grimfaced, Skäne nods in agreement;
"Aye Puka. A hovel of kvenn-skratti ..."
He hefts shield and spear with a black grin.
"Komm my friends... Let us get blóðugr "
Preparing yourself for another entanglement with the denizens of this strange place, you move into the room around the sides of the grotesque tent, where rancid odor in the air grows stronger. Rounding the sides of the structure, you see within the cover of the tent a perhaps unexpected sight of eight large cats - not so large as Enii but about the size of a leopard. All of the beasts are dead-eyed covered in open wounds where greyed gore hands limply, and their black fur as missing in several patches exposing yellowed bone and black sludge beneath. It's not difficult to realize that these animals are undead, their low, breathless moans. They seem, to be aware of your presence, but don't react.
Just then, you hear a shuffling noise coming from the hallway on the left side of the room, and a moment later another bizarre creature enters, muttering to itself. This small, hunched humanoid looks like a cross between an emaciated feral gnome or goblin and a porcupine. About three feet tall, its face is dominated by a huge hooked nose and a mouth of sharp, rotting teeth. It has no hair, but rather a huge mane of quills that goes from the top of its head almost down to the floor. It wears a soiled smock of what looks like stitched together skin, and is currently dragging a wrapped bundle about as large as itself with a length of rope. It freezes as it enters the room and blinks as it sees you before coming to its senses and barking out a in a high pitched squeal : "Yik! Gettem, pretties!"
Upon its command, the eight cats suddenly move into action.
Round 1
The quilled creature drops the rope he is carrying, snaps his fingers, and vanishes from sight.
Map
The green line just denotes the side of the tent that is open / accessible.
Init:
Quilled Man: 23
Skäne: 20
Byakko: 17
Krosh: 14
Mithas: 8
Gredra: 8
Cats: 7
Geedra attempts to cast Blessing of Fervor on her group.
Percentage for spell failure
Unfortunately, the spell fizzles and the goblin curses and stamps her feet.
Unsure what to make of her undead cousins Enii tentatively moves forward, the stench of decay filling her nose guides her actions but even so she tentatively paws at the first undead cat inside the tent in an attempt to pin it down and examine it closer. Byakko moves knee to knee with her, wary to avoid any flanking options given how poorly that went for his friend last time. He casts Channel Vigor on himself .
Keen to put the dead things back to the mud Skäne marches forward and engages the first of the rancid cats, jabbing repeatedly at it with his spear;
Round 1
Skäne marches forward in an inevitable advance and plunges his spear into the nearest undead cat, skewering the abomination and putting it to rest. It gives a faint moan as it collapses, the necromantic energy draining from it.
Byakko and Enii follow suit, the former becoming a bit more bestial as he invokes a spell with guttural intonations, moonlight flashing across his eyes as his speed and reflexes heighten. Enii takes a mighty swipe at the smaller feline, but it seems quicker on its feet than it appears, twisting out of the claw's reach.
Geedra starts calling up her own spell, but her tongue betrays her, fumbling the words as the Witch Tree's curse takes hold once again. The goblin can almost hear the crackling chuckle of the tree in the back of her mind.
Krosh rounds the corner to put eyes on the cats and he shakes his head slowly. "Foul things..." he mutters. A jingling talisman releases the shower of warming silver motes you know so well, though this time when they spiral they do not flutter around your wounds like pollen, but rather swarm aggressively as wasps around the undead cats. They groan as the sacred energy courses through them.
Mithas takes up a position against one of the grotesque totem poles and chooses out a target near Enii. He looses an arrow that streaks between Skäne and the tiger to strike one of the undead panthers in the head, ending it instantly.
The cats finally react, rushing forward with impressive speed for corpses, swarming around Byakko, Enii, and Skäne, aiming to clamp their gruesome fangs down on their targets.
Skäne batteries away a leaping zombie panther with his shield. It lands in front of him and lets out a half-groan, half hiss.
Two leap at Enii, and both look to find purchase with their bites, but at the last moment Byakko casts a dire glance at one of them, forcing it off target with a shove of misfortune.
As three teem around Byakko, his enchanted agility assists him in dodging and parrying all three bites.
Round 2
With a horrifying screech, the strange quilled man reappears, right behind Krosh. "No! My pets! No sacred magics here!" He screams, lashing out with his sickle-like claws. Krosh grunts as both claws dig into his back, and when the strange man pulls them back they are dripping with blood.
Map
Quilled Man: 23
Skäne: 20
Byakko: 17
Krosh: 14
Mithas: 8
Gredra: 8
Cats: 7
plus
Byakko's eyes light up as he and his friend are swiftly beset by the pack. Their mutual trust evident as no commands given and no words spoken beyond the low grumbles emerging from the depths of their chests as they both go to work.
Geedra decides to hex the Quilled Man to assist Krosh. She cackled to keep the power in effect.
Round 2 Continued
Byakko and Enii lay into the line of undead felines with abandon. A maelstrom of katana slashes, fangs, and claws wash over the risen dead in a divine wind, cutting ribbons through their cold, bloodless flesh. The carnage puts four of the cats back to rest, with Byakko cutting a swath through two as Enii crunches and swipes her way through another 2.
Geedra turns her sight on the now-visible quilled man, pushing her dire gaze upon him. The unsuspecting creature withers under the gaze, paranoia gripping its eyes as it looks swiftly around as if for some unseen entity.
Skäne barrels into the cat in front of him, stabbing twice with hard spear thrusts. Both impale the undead, putting it on the ground.
Krosh, breathing heavily, steps away from the sudden assailant and heals himself with his hex of healing, staunching the flow of blood.
Mithas puts some distance between himself and the creature before firing off another arrow., which catches the quilled main right in the collarbone.
The remaining zombie cat lashes out at Byakko with fangs and claws, and even a headbutt, but each of the blows fails to find purchase.
Round 3
The quilled man shrieks and dashes back towards the hallway from which he came, skidding to a stop to fling two quills from its back at Byakko and Enii. "Hate, hate hate! he screams. Both of the vicious looking quills seem to be perfectly on target before veering off and clattering to the ground. Geedra cackles in the back as her hex takes hold.
misfortune
misfortune
Geedra continues her misfortune hex on the Quilled Man, calling with delight at seeing his frustrations!
Byakko grimaces at the snapping remains of a once noble cat and returns in kind with steel and jaws of his own. He moves 5ft to the SW knowing Enii will be moving at the opponent flinging quills at them both.
For Eniis part, she hardly needed a prompt after seeing the flung quills, but Byakko growling to her, <Bring spikey down!>, sets her course. She charges the quilled opponent.
Skäne moves to shield Krosh, then advances to engage the quilled wretch;
"Come let us embrace fjöðr bastarðr!"
Round 3 Continued
Byakko delivers another flurry of slashes at the remaining undead cat, finding purchase with one but only catching glancing blows with the others, and his feral bite coming just shy of a landing. Still, the connecting slash is a good one, opening a long gash that exposes more of the tight, necreotic musculature holding the beast together.
Enii charges off in pursuit of the strange quilled being, leaping and crashing into the vile thing with all of her weight. Fangs break through his wrinkled flesh, and in the tangled thrashing the two become, claws from both fore- and hind paws tear into him further, sending blood spraying all about the floor. The entity screams out in a tantrum, thrashing about.
Skäne marches to the fray, yelling out a threatening promise, but the creature is either too insane or too ignorant to the call due to his current predicament to offer much of a response.
Krosh takes a measured step of his own, hands gripped tight on his boar spear, and thrusts it into the final zombified panther, capitalizing on the wounds opened by Byakko. The head of the spear sinks in and twists, putting an end to the final beast of this eerie menagerie.
Mithas takes advantage of the beset enemy to fire another well-placed arrow, sinking it into the shoulder. The thrashing slackens a little as he stops fighting back against Enii so hard and starts changing his tune.
"Alrights, alrights, stops it!" he screams. "Calls off your beastie! Yous wins!" His cries are punctuated by his coughing up globules of blood.
”What am group get if let Quilled Thing live? Better be good stuff, or big cat am eat Quilled Thing?!”
<Enii Stop!> Byakko growls before his tongue begins to return. He strides to his friend and lays a hand on her shoulder but he doesn't pull her back. Byakko raises his bloody katana at the creatures gut, Enii follows suit, baring her fangs as she continues to loom over the creature blood dripping from her chin fur. "Best start talking, Enii is hungry and she prefers her meat still warm. Tells us of these tunnels and it's denizens."
The strange, grotesque, quilled specimen before you sweats and shifts his beady eyes back and forth, half-mumbling in search of an answer before he snaps his long fingers.
"Oh oh, what you get?" I know," he chirps, pointing back to the bundle he had been dragging into the room. It looks like a lumpy bedroll or other cylindrical array of fabric. "Have this! I stoles it from those nasty giants that came in. Thumping around, so loud, so loud! Stoles their little treasure right under their noses, dids I!" He grins, showing off his sharp yellowed fangs pocked with brown. "I'd give you pets too, but you deaded them all," he says with a sigh. "Hard work finding and making, now have to make more.." His eyes glaze over for a moment as he seems to be coming up with some sort of mental plan before he realizes you are all still standing there. "Oh, uhh...so, we make nice?"
Greala, from behind Mithas, half-calls, half-whispers, "are you really going to let this vile thing go? It must serve the warden...I can only imagine what other horrors...and what other victims..it will find.."
”What quilled man am know about this girl,” Geedra says, pointing at Greala. She still didn’t trust her, and was hoping to find out more information.
Byakko pats Enii on the shoulder, a signal to stay, and examines the bundle. Wary of a trap he prods at it with his sword first.
The quilled man squints at Greala and pokes his chin, advancing on her and circling her with a look of intense thought. "Hmmmm..." he muses, looking her up and down. Greala looks beyond nervous, a little frightened, moving a bit more behind Mithas. "I not sees this one before..bah, many news visitors stomping arounds here lately. Horsefolk and ginats. Crowded! Not like."
Checking the bundle, it doesn't seem to be trapped in anyway, nor does there seem to be a way to trap it. It is some sort of burlap tarp or sheet that has been wrapped a few times around something, the whole thing is only about three feet in length. A single length of hempen rope as been looped once around it with a four foot lead that the quilled man was using to drag it. The bundle is slightly lumpy, alternatively rigid or yelding depending on where it is prodded.