Wizard 0: Acid splash, Mage hand, prestidigitation, open/close. 1:Mage armour, Magic weapon, Ray of enfeeblement(S) Colour spray. | Subtle misdirection 6/6. Bonded item 1/1.
Twilight mutters the words for the healing wand and taps each of her hurt companions in order.
Atticus:
Devan:
Nargun:
"Do they have anything that might give us a clue where to go or what to expect down here?"
Twilight taps each of the injured men with the wand, restoring Devan and Atticus to full health, and Nargun nearly so.
Mirela finds nothing at all of value after picking through the slightly disgusting derro nests. A few rat bones, some partially eaten fungus, and lots of filthy rags.
Devan leads the group out of the nesting room and back down the other fork leading from the ossuary. Moving single-file through the narrow passages, the group sees the other branch open into another natural cavern.
Three wooden tables stand in the middle of this room, their surfaces stained rusty red with old bloodshed. To the east stands a ten=foot wide hutch with wicker doors opening onto a straw-lined cage.
The prostate body of a human corpse lies on the second table, and what appear to be 4 small, bloated insects lie atop it in various places, their long probiscius stuck into the body, draining blood into the rotund bellies of the bugs. A single female derro stands at the foot of the table monitoring the work. As the light source of the heroes comes into view, she moves to flick the latch on the cage inside the wicker cabinet, releasing more of the blood sucking creatures which fly towards the group to attack.
Exsanguination Chamber - Round 1
19 Nargun
18 Devan
13 Mirela
12 Twilight
11 Yellow Stirge
10 Red Stirge
8 Blue Stirge
8 Derro
2 Atticus
Nargun doesn't waste time, he moves toward the derro and strike, knowing this attack will probably keep the creatures focused on attacking him.
His hardened skin and sturdy constitution should be enough to ensure his survival.
Maybe.
It's not as if this particular dwarf hadn't a deathwish.
Hearing something going on up ahead Mirela quickly moves up to the end of the passage and in a moment assesses the situation.
Stirges and another one of those magic dwarves! Damn, we can't afford to fight these in the dark!
Making an snap decision, the agile young woman sprints across the room calling out as she does:
Watch the Stirges, if they get close they suck your blood!
In a flash she ends up behind the strange dwarf trying to cut off her line of retreat from Nargun.
Devan raced across the room along with Nargun & Mirela, thinking as they did that dropping the derro-thing quickly was the best objective to begin with. The musician eyed the bugs next to him nervously, but got opposite the priestess, waiting for the creature to be distracted before poking at it with his rapier.
Wizard 0: Acid splash, Mage hand, prestidigitation, open/close. 1:Mage armour, Magic weapon, Ray of enfeeblement(S) Colour spray. | Subtle misdirection 6/6. Bonded item 1/1.
Twilight dashed up the hall, intent on seeing what was going on before it was obscured in darkness again. Upon seeing Devan rush into a swarm of stirges she quickly does what she can to protect him from the oversized mosquitoes.
She raises her holy symbol ”Protect this man from the probing needles of these vile creatures”. The pleasant warm glow surrounds Devan, warding him against harm.
Exsanguination Chamber - Round 1 - continued
Seeing another foe, Nargun muscles ahead, rounding one of the wooden tables, and swinging his axe at the female derro. The underdark dweller is quick enough to avoid the blow, however.
Devan also hurries into the room, trying to skewer the derro worker but his rapier also misses, leaving him rather exposed to the stirges.
Thinking to cut of the derro's retreat, Mirela circles the long way around the room, ending up behind the evil humanoid.
Applying the blessing of Calistria to Devan as he fights heedless of the stirges, Twilight moves into the room.
Freed from their cages, the hungry stirges look for the first taste of blood they can find, and since Devan was so kind as to move right next to all three, they all move in a swarm to attack him.
Devan is able to strike the first stirge with his rapier, skewering it till it dies. The second is stopped by his suddenly harder skin, but the third successfully attaches. The stirge begins draining blood from the swashbuckling musician immediately, his face paling.
Wild-eyed at the sudden burst of attacks, the derro steps away from Devan and Nargun, and swings her funny hooked club at Mirela. The priestess interposes her buckler to block the attack, gritting her teeth against the force of the blow.
Devan cursed as the derro fled from both him and Nargun, sighing in relief as its strange weapon was stopped by Mirela's buckler. A quick motion of his wrist brought down one of the flying bug-things, but one of them attached and his eyes widened as he felt himself being quickly exsanguinated. In a near panic, he reversed his grip on the rapier and sought to impale the blood-sucking beast as it fed upon him.
Nargun moves toward the derro and strikes again, aiming his axe at the belly in a powerful blow
Die, you filthy rat!
Moving next to the red stirge, Atticus hammers it with his morningstar in a two handed grip.
Wizard 0: Acid splash, Mage hand, prestidigitation, open/close. 1:Mage armour, Magic weapon, Ray of enfeeblement(S) Colour spray. | Subtle misdirection 6/6. Bonded item 1/1.
Seeing one of the stirges latch onto Devan and start drawing his blood made Twilight’s already queasy stomach churn even more. She pulled out the wand of missiles, it was the most accurate thing she had at her disposal, the magic was unerring so she wouldn’t hit Devan. She just hoped the magic was powerful enough. ”Shield your eyes Devan, this will be bright of a moment.”
Unfortunately, the missile while unerring is not very effective. "By Calistria's barbed words, someone help Devan before he loses more blood! "
Mirela keeps up the pressure on the Duro trying to keep the thing from making the area dark.
That's it Dwarf! Don't let 'er focus!
Exsanguination Chamber - Round 1 - concluded
Atticus strikes Red Stirge, but not with enough force to outright kill it. The bug-thing is disabled however, and looks to be near the end.
End of Round 1
Exsanguination Chamber - Round 2
19 Nargun
18 Devan
13 Mirela
12 Twilight
10 Red Stirge
8 Blue Stirge
8 Derro
2 Atticus
Nargun moves up and gashes the derro with his axe, slicing a painful wound across her abdomen.
Disgusted by the blood-sucker attached to him, Devan reverses his blade and thrusts the rapier toward himself, impaling the bug on its blade and killing it as a rush of blood spews from the punctured stirge.
Mirela clunks the wounded derro on the head with her morningstar, but despite the new wound, the evil foe fights on.
Using her wand, Twilight evokes a missile of force which is unerring in its flight, but less powerful than she'd like. She targets the one remaining stirge, which has already been wounded, and when the magic missile strikes it kills the final blood-sucker.
Her eyes widening with desperation, the female derro reaches out to club Mirela but the priestess blocks the attack with her buckler.
Atticus moves closer and again attacks his enemy, this time the derro.
Exsanguination Chamber - Round 3
19 Nargun
18 Devan
13 Mirela
12 Twilight
8 Derro (17hp dmg)
2 Atticus (pending rnd 2 action)
Taking a bit of a start and using his inspiration Atticus jumps on the table.
Nargun presses the attack and strikes again, wanting to end the derro's life as bloodily as possible
Mirela continues to press the attack against the corrupted dwarf.
But she just can't find an opening.
Seeing that the area around the derro woman has become much more crowded than just moments ago, Devan remained where he was, though he was ready to spring into action if needed. Instead, he called out a few lyrics to a song he knew, hoping to distract the creature long enough for his companions to finish it off.
Wizard 0: Acid splash, Mage hand, prestidigitation, open/close. 1:Mage armour, Magic weapon, Ray of enfeeblement(S) Colour spray. | Subtle misdirection 6/6. Bonded item 1/1.
Twilight moves up behind Mirela and calls out to the strange creature ”You’re surrounded with nowhere to go, it’s time to give up.”
Even as she says this Twilight prepares to assist whoever gets attacked if the blue gnome doesn’t surrender.
Exsanguination Chamber - Round 2 - concluded
Atticus runs through the room and leaps upon the table to close in on the remaining derro foe.
End of Round 2
Exsanguination Chamber - Round 3
Nargun's big axe takes another notch as he downs the derro with a fell blow that might have stopped much bigger foes. The underground dweler falls in a heap, ending the fight.
End of Combat
This derro is dead. Seek if she has Something that might be helpful to us, and get a look at her victim, see if it's still alive or not. I'll Watch out for other foes.
Nargun keeps looking for another derro to kill, nervously caressing his blood stained blade, muttering for himself in Dwarf.
Wizard 0: Acid splash, Mage hand, prestidigitation, open/close. 1:Mage armour, Magic weapon, Ray of enfeeblement(S) Colour spray. | Subtle misdirection 6/6. Bonded item 1/1.
”How are you feeling Devan? That stirge didn’t get you too bad, did it? Does anyone need a tap with the wand?”
After ensuring everyone is fine Twilight moves about the room, wrinkling her nose in disgust behind the scarf. She examines the remains on the table ”What to you suppose she was trying to do here Professor?” she asked Atticus, her curiosity just barely managing to outweigh her revulsion at the moment.
Nargun's muttering catches her attention as he is peering down the dark corridor. She doesn't understand what he is saying, and maybe she is just misreading it, but something seems off. She discretely directs Devan's attention to the Dwarf if he had not already noticed himself and then goes over and kneels beside Nargun. "Is there something wrong Nargun?"
Nothing wrong Princess. Just found some new people to kill after Lamm's demise.
There is an eerie smile on Nargun's lips, and a promise of unrestrained violence in his eyes. There is Something lustful in Nargun's attitude, as if his body was craving death and blood, and whether its his foes death or his own blood doesn't seem relevant to the battle-crazed dwarf.
Mirela makes sure that there are no other Stirges or things that can threaten the group and then she checks the strange dwarf for any useful equipment.
As she does this she hears Twilight offer help with the wand.
Twilight, those wands do be even more useful then I thought. Do you think one of use should learn 'ow to make 'em?
Devan let out a pent-up breath as the derro fell to the combined might of his allies, looking around quickly to make sure nothing else might be creeping up behind them while they were otherwise occupied. When Twilight inquired of his health, he took a moment to self assess, then shrugged. "I feel a little winded, honestly, like when you have a nagging illness that you otherwise can't notice but leaves you feeling a little less than capable? Maybe it will pass."
As the half-elf indicated the muttering dwarf, the musician's brow furrowed in concern and he approached their companion along with her, listening to his explanation with a bit of trepidation. Unrestrained bloodlust wasn't necessarily high on Devan's list of qualities he admired, but then again he didn't know much about these derro-things beyond the last five minutes, so he was willing to waive his misgivings. Maybe he could find out more later.
As Mirela prudently checked their opponent for anything useful, Devan steeled himself and approached the body on the table along with the Professor, looking to see if perhaps this was the wayward Shoanti they were looking for.
The derro was clearly using the stirges to drain the body of blood. There are four very fat, blood-engorged stirges still attached to the dead body, but they are clearly sated and not a threat to attack. The wicker hutch holds cages that the stirges live in when not in use.
Examination of the victim shows he is clearly dead, for a several hours at least. The man is short, grey-haired and aged, clearly not the Shoanti youth you are looking for.
There is no real treasure in this room besides the derro's gear, a funky club and a shortsword, none of which is anything more than mundane.
Atticus grimly investigates the table and reports his findings!
Should we kill the bloodsucking beasts? If not now, later, maybe, we have more pressing matters
Devan stared in dismay at the corpse on the table, wondering where the old man had come from. To live a full life, only to end up in a place like this...how dismal. The musician was snapped out of his reverie by Atticus and Nargun, nodding his understanding and agreement with them both. He didn't know what the purpose of these little beasts were, but they were clearly a menace to a person. If everyone was in agreement, he would help to slaughter the remaining stirges while they were bloated and fairly helpless.
With that done, unless anyone has another suggestion, Devan indicated the tunnel the derro had seemed to be trying to retreat to as the next option for exploration, in the same marching order they had been utilizing.
Atticus shows no real pitty. He had seen enough of those in his studies, and while a death is a tragedy, the days past had shown him worse. He does look for any information to give his family a hint and finally makes a quick sketch for later identification.
Mirela helps to get rid of the pests then gets ready to head out again, Morningstar and buckler at the ready.
Glancing at the body she says:
Maybe we should bring the body back up with us when we leave. It might let some family at least get closure over their missing loved one.
"I think we will have our hands full with the corpse of the Shoanti. The this man is already in the cemetery, when we take care of the necromancer we can let the Pharasman's properly tend to this body and any others we find down here. If we want to look for his next of kin, Atticus' sketch should help with the identification."
The dead man looks to have lived a hard life, and is poor at best, but possibly just a vagrant or drifter. It's doubtful there are many people missing him based on his appearance and condition.
After disposing of the remaining stirges, the adventurers climb the short flight of steps, which reveal a long narrow hall whose walls and ceiling are encrusted with dozens of yawning skulls. Their mouths open into dark holes in the walls.
There seem to be small niches at each end of this hall, and a passage that leads farther east near the far end.
Atticus nods at Devan, urging him to lead on.
Look out for some tricks... I don't trust that skulls...
Mirela casts Detect Magic and looks carefully at anything ahead of her to see if she can see anything physical or magical that looks dangerous.
She calls out for the people in front to stop if she see anything that looks out of place.
Devan's eyes narrowed as they went through the short tunnel to a more worked area of the complex. He arched an eyebrow at the skull décor, thinking that perhaps this necromancer was a little too into the whole gig. The musician peeked around the corner at both ends, but unless something terribly interesting was present in one of the niches, the bard would urge Nargun to continue down the corridor towards the passage that would take them further east (unless Mirela or someone else called out a warning, of course).
"You don't suppose any of these skulls have been animated, do you? I wish I had a means of detecting the undead" Twilight said as she eyed up the skull dubiously.
"One moment" she calls out, noticing the alcoves up ahead. With a simple word and gesture, the sunrod she is carrying begins to float forward from her hand until it is positioned between the openings, illuminating them.
Nargun leads the group into the hallway. When Mirela gets close enough to see inside she begins casting Detect Magic. Behind her, Twilight casts Mage Hand and ignites a sunrod, the eerie magical hand carrying the torch forward to investigate the alcove at the north end.
As Mirela scans for magical auras, she does notice the presence of them, which is not particularly surprising given the location of the mage hand. As the hands gets to the end of the hall, nothing ore than skulls can be seen. As Mirela's divination continues she can tell there are two magical auras in the area of the spell, of equal strength. As she is about to say this to the party, a spray of liquid acid pours from several of the skulls on all sides of the room and the ceiling, bathing those in the room (and Mirela, who has cover at least) in its damaging spray.
hit
fail
hit
hit
hit
hit
miss
crit
hit
hit
Skull Corridor - Surprise Round
18 Mirela
15 Nargun (surprised)
13 Red Necrophidius
12 Twilight (surprised)
11 Devan
8 Atticus (surprised)
6 Green Necrophidius
As the chaos of the acid shower ends, Mirela and Devan both hear a low rattling sounds like sticks scraped on rocks, and turn in time to see a pair of long, sinuous skeletons of large snakes, each with a humanoid skull with snake jaws sliding towards the party.
Atticus quickly yells. "Those are constructs. Beware of their dance, it can paralyse you!"
I ain't a good dancer anyway...Axe or mace to destroy them, Atticus?
"Mace, clobber it"