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Under heavy attack, the mighty black dragon falters, blood spilling from dozens of wounds. She staggers forward, raises
her wings, lets out an ear-piercing roar, and takes flight, headed for the harbor.
With the way now clear and your attempts to sneak around the courtyard's perimeter now unnecessary, you delve into the mausoleum in search of Charvion.
You remember the purpose of the first set of rooms, which serve as a number of dissection chambers.
These rooms contain large, steel surgical tables. Their perimeters are lined with additional work areas whose tables are covered with texts, surgical instruments and tools, alembics, scales, abacuses, and similar devices used in alchemical and biological tests. The rooms also hold barrels of wash water, along with bottles of various fluids and salts used in sterilization and embalming. The center of the floor contains a drain for run off, as well as a few waste buckets.
Perception
Initiative
Jal sneaks in up to the northern rooms in the dissection chambers, but after listening and opening several doors, finds them all empty and devoid of life - friendly or otherwise.
The group forms up again, and seeing the large hall before them, moves in.
This cavernous hallway is contains a number of elaborate skeletal displays. The reassembled creations consist of both accurate assemblies and imaginative creation built from the bones of multiple specimens. Several large, glass cylinders contain colonies of dermestid beetles for cleaning bones. Several have actively decaying specimens. Arches along the side lead to small workstations. Near the back sits another, larger work area filled with kilns, a hearth, and some large iron vats. In the middle of the floor, six corpses lie piled together is a pool of blood.
Jessa peers into one of the cylinders, while everyone else spots the greenish scalps of a trio of goblins darting about the room seeming to circle the beetle-filled cylinder.
Surprise Round
23 Kel :
19 Taika :
13 Kaleb :
12 Rogar :
11 Goblins :
7 Jal :
Now Up: Kel, Taika Kaleb, Rogar
Taika's arcane bolt thuds into a gobline while Kel rushes up and prepares himself for the perfect riposte...
Still Up: Kaleb, Rogar
As the Pathfinders move in, the goblins shout at you all in crude Common.
"Give up humans! You outnumbered! Three to Seven!"
A second goblin yells at his friend.
"You idiot! We outnumbered... unless!"
Evil malice glimmers in this goblin's eyes as he barrels ahead at the giant cannister in the case, smashing into it and knocking it to the floor as it shatters and strange beetles begin scurrying all over.
"Aiieeee!!"
They immediately devour the flesh from his friend that claimed you were outnumbered.
Meanwhile the third goblin smirks, takes a stab at Kel and discovers why swashbucklers are never to be underestimated as he gurgles and drops to the floor.
The strange beetles swarm over Rogar and Kaleb .
Additionally, the beetles hold on with amazing tenacity as their pincers sink into flesh.
The lone remaining goblin fist pumps.
"Yeaaa! I did it! I did it! Now you outnumbered like... like... a jillion to four! Or, three... five??"
Surprise Round
23 Kel : Moves 30ft
19 Taika : Magic missile #2 for 3 dmg
13 Kaleb : Moves to Rogar
12 Rogar : Moves, drawing hammer
11 Goblin #1 : Moves over, knocks over cannister
11 Goblin #2 : Screams in terror, then dies (RIP)
11 Goblin #3 : Strikes at Kel, immediately parried and slain (RIP)
11 Beetle Swarm : Swarm G2, Rogar and Kaleb for 7 damage
7 Jal :
Round 1
23 Kel :
19 Taika :
13 Kaleb :
12 Rogar :
11 Goblin #1 :
11 Beetle Swarm :
7 Jal :
Now Up: Everyone!
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Taika looks worried as she recognizes these particularly voracious beetles. "Weapons will be fully useless against them," she calls as she reaches into her haversack. "If you find yourself feeling nauseous due to their bites, get as far away from the center of the swarm as you possibly can. They are viciously adept at feeding on the distracted... and they are speedy as a full-grown person."
Her fingers close on a flask of acid, which she hurls at the pavement just short of the swarm. "I am afraid I have not studied the sort of spells that work best on these creatures! If you have options, use them!"
"Can anyone see into the kiln? Is it lit?" Taika calls, as she cannot from her current position.
Rogar stumbles away from the beetles, several still clinging to his body as their mandibles are buried deep in his skin. .
If a creature leaves an army ant swarm's square, the swarm suffers 1d6 points of damage to reflect the loss of its numbers as several of the crawling pests continue to cling tenaciously to the victim. A creature with army ants clinging to him takes 3d6 points of damage at the end of his turn each round.
As Rogar doubles over, the beetles still clinging to him double their efforts to clean the flesh from his bones for their Pathfinder keepers .
Surprise Round Con't
7 Jal : Moves over
Round 1
23 Kel :
19 Taika : Hurls flask of acid, sizzling swarm for 1
13 Kaleb (7dmg => 19 dmg if cling continues):
12 Rogar (19 dmg): Stumbles away, distracted/nauseated, taking 12 damage
11 Goblin #1 :
11 Beetle Swarm (6 dmg):
7 Jal :
4 Jessa : Burning hands for 14/7+50%
Still Up: Kel, Kaleb
Swarm
Takes 21
Kaleb backs away from the swarming beetles, with several still clinging to his body and devouring his flesh .
Meanwhile Kel fires at the goblin who opts to abandon the room, chasing down Jal but failing to stab him.
Meanwhile, the swarm mindlessly continues its path towards the helpless, bloody Rogar and in a matter of seconds seem to have sucked away most of the dwarf's flesh.
With a plan to stop this dangerous threat, Jessa strides forward and fire from her outstretched hand seems to incinerate half the beetles who whine and "scream" in agony yet continue to mindlessly eat any flesh they can find.
Round 1
23 Kel : Fires at and misses goblin
19 Taika : Hurls flask of acid, sizzling swarm for 1
13 Kaleb (7dmg => 19 dmg if cling continues): Withdraws
12 Rogar (19 dmg): Stumbles away, distracted/nauseated, taking 12 damage
11 Goblin #1 : Chases Jal, stabs and misses
11 Beetle Swarm (27 dmg): Pursues Rogar, feeding for 24hp
7 Jal :
4 Jessa : Burning hands for 21!
Round 2
23 Kel :
19 Taika :
13 Kaleb (19 dmg; 10 more if clinging happens):
12 Rogar (43 dmg; bleeding at -8):
Now Up: Everyone (except Jessa)
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Taika's pale face becomes paler as in an instant, her words about the danger posed by the swarm are made terrifyingly evident. Rogar falls into the midst of the swarm and in the wink of an eye not much can be seen of the dwarf but bloodied flesh.
"It is going to finish devouring Rogar's flesh within a few more seconds!" she calls. "Throw the wretched goblins closer to it- perhaps we can distract it."
She taps Jessa on the shoulder. "If it doesn't care for the goblins, we must remove ourselves-- we are currently its next likely meal, as we are the nearest souls in proximity. You, in particular."
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Taika does not in fact cast a haste spell. Debating with herself, she does something that strikes her as very foolish but perhaps the only way to save a life: she runs forward and uses all her strength to haul the dwarf's bloodied body out of the swarm.
"THROW A GOBLIN IN THE OTHER SIDE!" she shouts. "Or it will certainly devour me and Rogar!"
Jal spares no thought at his blade sinks deep through goblin body.
Meanwhile, Quick thinking and teamwork seems to swap Pharasma's plans for Rogar with that of Gutsnot the Goblin as Taika drags the poor dwarf from the hungry beetles and Kel lobs in a replacement meal.
Meanwhile, Kaleb manages to barely thwart the dozens of beetles seemingly eating him alive.
Round 1 Con't
7 Jal : Cuts down last goblin (#1)
4 Jessa : Burning hands for 21!
Round 2
23 Kel : Hurls a dead goblin into the beetles
19 Taika : Moves up to Rogar, drags him out of swarm
13 Kaleb (19 dmg): Quickly throws off beetles eating him alive
12 Rogar (43 dmg; bleeding at -8): {needs to stabilize}
11 Beetle Swarm (27 dmg): Munches on the goblin
7 Jal :
4 Jessa :
Round 3
23 Kel :
19 Taika :
13 Kaleb (19 dmg):
12 Rogar (43 dmg; bleeding at -8 ~ possibly 1 more if not stable):
Now Up: Everyone!
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"Keep feeding it goblins, please!" Taika shouts from far too close to that hideous whir of clacking mandibles and thousands of tiny skittering feet. "...those are not words I thought I would say today..."
She snatches a potion from her haversack and pours it down Rogar's throat, knowing that they will be able to get out of the room much more quickly if he can use his own legs.
"...that was a cheap potion," Taika says as she looks down on the still-minced-meat dwarf.
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"Oh no, Rogar! shouts Jessa in shock at how quickly the swarm almost devoured the dwarf.
She draws a Harrow card and charges it with magic and throws it towards the Rogar. As it touches him a wave of healing energy flows from the card. The card then flies back along the same path to return to Jessa's hand.
"I have a wand that sprays fire and two flasks of alchemical fire in my bag if anyone wants them."
Taika and Jessa both team up to mend Rogar's injuries, and quickly help him leap rom the room while Kel hurls another unconscious goblin into the writing mass of beetles which excitedly begin stripping it down to the bone.
Set deep into the building’s walls, a pair of plain, iron-shod double doors provide a service entrance into the Slabs, a sort of morgue-like storage area for bodies and parts.
The Slabs take up a large section of the rear of the East Wing.
With some effort, Jal heaves these open.
This huge chamber is entirely tiled with plain gray flagstones. It’s uncannily cold, and only a trickle of light slips through a trio of tiny windows, one set into each adjoining wall, just below the eaves. The room is lined and partitioned with rows of massive stone cubicles. The cubicles stand twice the height of a grown human. Each cubical has an iron door with a brass plate on it. The plates are labeled and numbered with a black wax pencil.
The cubicles in the Slabs have been magically augmented to maintain a emperature just above the freezing point. Most of them contain humanoid remains, though a few hold the remains of other creatures. Each cubicle is labeled with a creature type and a date, as well as a brief description of the nature of the cubicle’s contents. These contents range from entire preserved corpses to various organs or other parts. All of the sampled contents contain at least some soft tissue, as cleaned bones are stored in the Ossuarium instead .
Taking a glance into the room, Jal doesn't notice anything immediately obvious; but that doesn't preclude a few goblins lurking about quietly.
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Rogar walks slowly and is very pale while retrieving his wand.
"thank you friends.... i was certain i was to meet the ancestors.... i will have to retrieve my bow and hammer later... can i borrow a weapon from someone?"
Rogar stashes his hammer back where it belongs and walks solemnly, bow in one had, arrow in the other.
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Before heaving the door open, Jal looks appraisingly at Rogar … then slaps him on the shoulder. ”You’re tougher than you look, Old Man.”
Stepping into the Slabs, Jal gives a slight shudder. ”I hate this place. It gives me the willies.” Then he stalks in, watching every direction for signs of danger.
Perception
Jal: Already rolled 28, sees
sees
sees
Initiative
for
Surprise Round
26 Spectre : Appears, strikine Jal for 2 dmg, possible level drain
25 Kel* :
21 Rogar* :
10 Jal* (2 dmg):
Round 1
26 Spectre :
25 Kel* :
22 Kaleb :
21 Rogar* :
15 Taika :
10 Jal* (2 dmg):
4 Jessa :
Jal only gets a couple steps in before suddenly the room gets even colder (if that were possible) and a ghostly apparition rises from the floor next to him.
It then lashes out, a horrid look on its face as it hand reaches through Jal and he feels his heart skip several beats and agonizing pain ripples through his very core.
Now Up: Kel, Rogar, Jal (surprise round actions)