And dear Hetta, you once mentioned your ability to transform yourself into a wolf. We all know, from our experience above, the ferocity and strength of those critters. Is it possible that transforming into a wolf would lend you some of it's strength, to help us push this over?"
Greylan moves over to the block and starts heaving on it. He lets out a giant groan and turns red in the face. "Hetta....maybe...this....is....weird", Greylan says, huffing, "but...can...Hugh....help?"
"Hugh's stronger than I am, even as a wolf. Let me try to get him to help."
"If you all still think this is a good idea ..."
Kallista joins Greylan and shoves half-heartedly.
True adds her muscle to proceedings.
"If you all still think this is a good idea ..."
Kallista joins Greylan and shoves half-heartedly.
The large stone slabs topples away from you with a crash revealing a corridor beyond but your view is soon obstructed as a green gas pours out of the mouths of the statues and into the area you're all stood in.
True is caught totally by surprise when the block actually moves.
"-," she breathes in to commend everyone.
True:
Hetta:
Noticing True's sudden intake of breath, Kallista braces herself.
EDITED* to add the second one.
Fort save: 1d20+4; [19,4] = (23)
Fort save 2: 1d20+4; [13,4] = (17)
"Oh. Oh. I think I need to sit down . . ."
"Ahhhh! Sweet Mystra's flame! What is this gas?"
Secondary Fort save (1d20+4=10)
True gulps down the gas and starts coughing and retching.
Greylan:
This would be essence of oilcloud, when it's inhaled it weakens a target.
True:
"We need to get Hetta and the Lady out of this gas. Now."
Kallista looks around panic-stricken.
"Down the corridor? Back up?" Sighting the button on the wall, she holds her breath, surges through the gas and hits it.
"Hmm, unpleasant..."
The warrior priest reaches out one arm towards the wall and misses. Slowly she starts to keel over as her legs go to rubber.
"Poison!" she gasps. "Get - cough, cough, retch"
"Bloody flaming Gehenna!" Mikel exclaims as he realises, "Er... erm... buggeration... True? True!"
"Help me move them."
Without wasting any more time, Kallista lifts the warrier priestess and moves down the corridor past the stone block.
Mikel grabs Hetta, "Excuse the forwardness, but poison gas has a tendancy to bring one closer to one's comrades..."
The air in the passageway beyond is a lot clearer. Curious carvings that seem to represent a stirring tempest cover the walls of this ten-foot-wide passage. At ten-foot intervals, small alcoves flank the passage, and each alcove contains an androgynous humanoid figure with cupped hands. The figues stand roughly 7 feet tall. A faint wind seems to play within the passage but it's difficult to tell where it's coming from.
Behind you you can here the cylinder responding to Kallista's pressing the button and swishing to a halt on this floor, it's doors opening to take you back upstairs if that's your wish.
You take a second to catch your breath and regroup when Kallista starts to feel suddenly a little tired.
Greylan hustles to the other side of the chamber, with the others.
"Poison gas! Now, that's not playing fair. Ah, this corridor seems to go on further. What in the Hells could be down here?"
"I didn't think carrying the Lady would be this ..."
Kallista thuds to the ground in a heap.
"Kallista? Kallista! What's wrong!"
Greylan rushes over to the fallen warrior.
"She obviously smelt your eau du toilette, Grey." Mikel says innocently, "Seriously, what is with the females dropping like stones thing that's happening right now?"
On hands and knees now, True starts gulping in the air. Her arms tremble.
Hetta:
Hetta, sitting leaning against the wall, suddenly gasps and points at one of the statues. "Look! Eyes!"
GM:
Mikel says soothingly "Yes, it's alright, dear, we all have them."
Greylan reflexively looks over to where Hetta is frantically pointing.
"What? The statue has eyes? Are they following us as we move? I hate when they do that."
"No -- eyes behind the statue! I saw them!" Hetta lifts herself to her feet and calls Hugh to her.
Greylan snaps to attention, his mind focused on protecting his two vulnerable friends. His hand flashes in front of him, as he begins to chant and swirl his finger through the air.
Thick smoke begins to pour out of his finger, billowing and filling in the space behind and in front of the statue. He wants to smoke the thing out of hiding, where ever it is. The black smoke coalesces into a cloudy wall.
"Get out here, you foul creature! Show yourself!"
"Show yourself... in the smokey cloud... smooth, Grey, smooth..."
"Shush you! I'm trying to make it leave the cloud! It won't want to stay there. We should be able to hear it's coughing and sputtering any second now."
"cough, cough, splutter, splutter!"
True tries to help Kallista.
Kallista stirs uneasily in her sleep.
"Yeah... it's really on its last legs... listen to all that coughing and spluttering..."
*SILENCE*
"That's enough out of you! It's coughing right now, I'm sure. It's just really quiet. Listen."
Greylan turns his head and see True, down the hall, coughing and sputtering.
"Oh, nevermind."
With her friends' help Kallista slowly awakens, not entirely sure what happened. After a short while a shape can be seen moving in the smoke. Emerging from the misty screen comes a pair of eyes, a pair of eyes connected only by a 3-foot-long strand of striated muscle, it stares blankly at you all.
True staggers away from it.
"I am too weak for a fight." She manages to raise her holy gauntlet of Torm and prepares for battle.
"What the..." Mikel gawps at the creature.
"Wurb?"
As Kallista rouses abruptly, her hands automatically go to her weapons. She takes in her companions, the corridor and finally the floating eyes.
"That can't be good - can it?" she asks blearily.
"Oh. That's why it can't cough."
Hetta shrieks, and her hand goes to Hugh's harness.
The floaty eye thing just floats there, watching you all closely, seemingly doing nothing.
"Guys, I want to ZAP this thing. Give me the word, and I'll take it out."
"If this thing just dropped me in my tracks and hurt Hetta and the Lady, you're not alone. Eyeballs on string, what next."
Still bemused, Kallista readies herself to leap into action.
"Grey, let's not start zapping things just yet, we might be on to something here. A denizen of the depths who doesn't attack us on sight..."