Runt peers over the edge too.
"Wow, another elf! You know, until I came to this town I'd never seen an elf before. Wondered if they were just something folks made up to scare little goblins."
I am fhable. I came out here trying to find the ones that wronged my people.
Thank you for pulling me out of the pit. It was a rough fight down in there. Have any of you seen my stuff or a blade to lend me so I can fight my way out of here.
Lavanor quickly glances around the room to make sure no other monsters are loose before walking over to the open pit with the elf.
"Greetings, Fhable, I'm Lavanor. How long have you been down there? We haven't seen any equipment yet, but perhaps it is nearby," he says as he looks around the room more carefully.
"Should we check the other pits to see if what is inside is friend or foe? I would rather not see any more of these things attacking us or the town," he asks the group.
Runt is already in progress, looking from cage or pit to cage or pit, to see what she might find.
Some gear appears to have been haphazardly tossed into the southwest corner. A quick peek at the other pits reveals they each have a mindless zombie in them.
Fhable runs to corner to check what is tossed there
The gear does indeed appear to be his own though all gold and small pilferable items have been taken.
"Say, what should we do with the zombies? Anyone got one of those cool magic spells you can use all day long that will reduce them to puddles?"
Fhable takes the time to put his gear on.
Lavanor shakes his head. "I have a longspear but I'm not sure I can reach them easily from up here. I'd rather not use a bunch of arrows on them. We may have to come back later to take care of," he says.
Speaking of cooking them. The wooden grates covering the holes fall apart when you move them. There is plenty of kindling. Otherwise, the hall to the south beckons.
Seeing the potential for a plan developing, Camil pipes in, I’m with Lavanor, let’s come back for this mess and save our time for now.
Considering the tattooed elf, Camil addresses him directly, Fhable, there seems to be a lot going on down here, would you like to accompany us through these passages and we can see about helping you more when we get topside, preferably with a glass of gin, or wine?
Meandering toward the south passage Camil indicates the party should move on, Should we, friends? There cannot possibly be that many more passages to explore down here.
When the rubble falls, does it form something the zombies can climb? If not, I'm good with putting it off. It's not like she's never had to live around zombies and skellies before.
The grates are barely fibrous weaves. Even if they could reach the 15' down the zombie would need to grasp it would fall apart upon touch. A cleric of lamashtu would do the zombie thing or perhaps call upon the mother to bring them back as something more twisted.
Heading down the hall, you come to an open archway to your left. It is a stairwell leading up. Alas, the ceiling has collapsed leaving the stairwell blocked. To the south stands a stone door with a pull handle.
Checking the door quickly for any nasty surprises, Camil checks the door and then steps aside for Lavanor to open it and see what is on the other side.
This place is an amazing warren of pits, snares, and weird temples. Why has no one ever found this before?
Camil finds no nasty surprises so he steps out of the way. Lavanor pulls open the door. The room is a fifteen-foot-diameter sphere. Several objects float in the room, spinning lazily in space—a ragged book, a scroll, a bottle of wine, a dead raven surrounded by a halo of floating and writhing maggots, and a twisted iron wand with a forked tip. Yet perhaps the most unnerving aspect of the room is the walls, for they are plated in sheets of strange red metal that ripple every once in a while with silent black electricity that seems to coalesce into strange runes or even words far too often for the effect to be chance.
Lavanor stares into the room trying to grasp what it is that he's seeing with a look of confusion combined with concern. "What the ... I don't like the looks of this. Anyone have any ideas?" he says as he looks for anyone or anything that might be causing the items to float.
@Camil
"Well, it's not like the entrances are out in the open with a sign on them. Most folks don't just walk through random doors anyway, and someone probably had a vested interest in keeping this place secret."
@Lavanor
"Yea, leave it be or, better yet, find a goblin and push it into the room... I suppose I could summon an eagle in the room and see what happens, but I'd rather use a goblin."
There is no one or no thing that is causing the stuff to float as far as you can discern.
Scratching his head, Camil utters, May as well roll the dice... and steps into the room, he will reach out and take the book from its glowing orb. They say knowledge is power, yes, might as well see what we're dealing with here.
Camil floats into the room with his step. His momentum is enough to carry him to the mass of floating items and a little beyond. He grabs the book as he floats by. It is written in harsh spiky looking letters (Abyssal). He is within easy reach of the other items as well. While floating in the air is somewhat relaxing, Camil realizes he has no means of locomotion and is probably stuck where he is at until he gets assistance.
Seeing his predicament not exactly going the way he had planned, Huh, this is like floating just before you fall asleep.
Camil calls out, Well, I got the book, I can't read it, but I got it. Let me see if I can grab anything else. And can someone try to throw me a rope, I can't seem to move... Oh I wouldn't come in here since I seem to be suspended in space. It is sort of like when you feel like you are floating before you fall asleep, but being fully awake, if that makes sense.
Camil begins to gather the other floating objects into his possession, starting with the forked wand, then the scroll, and the bottle of wine.Finally he is confronted with the dead raven and its halo of maggots.
Looking in horror at the dead raven covered in maggots, Um, this raven is pretty gross, I don't want to touch it, maybe I can loop a rope around it and pull it with me?
He then begins to take out a length of rope to not touch the dead bird, and attempts to lasso it to drag out with him.
Runt merely observes and makes no move to help of provide a rope. Of course she doesn't have a rope. Or pole. Or long arms. So, as far as she is concerned, nothing is the thing to do.
Lavanor tosses Camil a length of rope and they soon have him back on solid ground. The raven they find is just a raven, putrid with a solid maggot colony. The other items can be identified with the right application of smarts and/or magic.
Runt casts a read magic and confirms the scroll has burning hands on it.
But the wand is a mystery.
"Wow, you're a brave one Camil. Glad I didn't waste a summons on that, but I still think we should have sent one in first, just in case. I don't have all that many friends, and I'd hate to lose one."
Runt looks a bit embarrassed or, perhaps, uncomfortable about saying the second part, though the word friend rolls of her tongue in a way that suggests she savors the syllables.
CL 3 for the scroll
Nodding at Runt's words, Camil thanks her. Was no trouble Runt, it just felt like the right thing to do for some reason. Thanks Lavanor for pulling me out of that, would have been quite the pickle if we'd all been in there!
Looking around the grim walls of the underground tunnels, Camil adds, I believe we only have one pathway we haven't explored, shall we double all the way back there and hopefully get out of this place?
"Not a problem, Camil, although I have to agree with Runt about sending a summons in first. Nice job on retrieving the items though. Most of it should be useful," he says while putting his rope back away.
Glancing back at the stairwell, he tries to determine where in town the stairs might lead.
"I agree, Camil, I think we just have the long set of stairs we came across earlier. Let's head that way."
Nodding his head, Camil assents to Lavanor and Runt's caution, Fair enough, I'll be more careful next time. Although it did work out just fine. So let's see where those stairs go, hopefully outside is where we'll wind up.
Lavanor is certain they are still below the town but where exactly they are below the town, he is unsure.
Although it has been a long grueling set of events, it is still the same day as the goblin battle. I suspect Isabella is nearly tapped out. However, Fhable has only used one cure light wounds on himself and has a couple remaining.
In the meantime, the group travels back to the last remaining dark passage.
"Here. Let me help re-invigorate you," Isabella says to Lavanor.
After the healing, everyone is at or near full health except for Lavanor who is at 19/24.
Fhable casts cure light wounds on Lavanor
Hope that helps.
"Thank you both," Lavanor says when he is healed. "Now let's finish clearing this area," he says as they head back to the stairs. He pauses at the top to listen at the door.
Camil will also check the doors for traps and see if he can find anything. Can't be too careful, this may be a smuggler's doorway.
Camil finds no traps and they hear nothing on the far side. LIke most of the doors in this complex, it is stone with a simple pull ring. (note, I had my stair cases backward. This one is leading up with small landings. The arrows point in the down direction.) Lavanor steps up and opens the door. Water ripples quietly in a circular stone pool lined with skulls here. Smears of what looks like blood mar the pool’s rim in places.
Runt pauses in mid step and stares at something on the ceiling.
"Ick!"
Lavanor pauses when he sees the head stuck to the ceiling. Not sure if the head is animated or something will come out of the pool, he carefully steps into the room, ready to attack anything that comes at him.
Satisfied that nothing is coming to get him, at least not right away, he inspects the pool before moving over to the opposite door.
Camil waits for Lavanor to cross the threshold, then follows him into the chamber once its proven safe.
That head is pretty disgusting on the ceiling there, Camil points to the head to indicate it for the less observant members of the party. This place gets odder and odder as we move forward here.
When Lavanor steps over the threshold of the door the eyes on the head snap open and it drops from the ceiling, the leather unwrapping to reveal batlike wings. It drops to about six feet from the floor and shrieks at you all.
Your action, if you can move.
Camil peers into the room and is frozen by the horror of whatever just dropped from the ceiling.
Unimpressed, Runt just scowls at it.
"I've seen uglier than you, bat boy."
Even though he was half expecting it to move, the shriek causes Lavanor to freeze.
Fhable sees the head and seems to be unfazed by its sight.
Fhable draws out bow and attacks the beast.
Fhable pulls out his Bow and lets one fly at the beast.
The arrow hits.