Kern splashes through the incoming water and flurries his blade across decayed tendons and rotten flesh.
[dice=Elven Curved Blade vs Prey (1)]1d20+17+1[dice=Damage]2d8+2+1
[dice=Elven Curved Blade vs Prey (2)]1d20+14+1[dice=Damage (Forceful)]2d8+4+1
It's dead before you get there, so I'm having Kern stride to the second zombie and applying the first strike to it.
Mikhail, Alister and Aristu destroy the closest zombie. Kern splashes past its falling bulk to stab the farther monstrosity.
STATUS
All: Inspire Courage +1 to hit/damage
Mikhail
Kernithar
Alister
Aristu
Piotr
Dragonfly Nymph - 28/46 hp
Cyclops Zombie #2 - 14 damage, slowed 1
The dragonfly nymph attacks again.
Piotr summons a ball of flame to hurl at the cyclops zombie. He has to move closer, though, before he can reach the zombie.
The big insect tears a chunk out of the undead monster's hide. Then Piotr absolutely ignites the zombie, like a gargantuan stinking tallow candle.
Burning away, the giant attacks Mikhail, smashing down its huge fist against the warrior's armored form.
The water continues to rise, and is now up to your thighs, making it hard to maneuver.
STATUS
All: Inspire Courage +1 to hit/damage
Mikhail - 84/112 hp
Kernithar
Alister
Aristu
Piotr
Dragonfly Nymph - 28/46 hp
Cyclops Zombie #2 - 68 damage, slowed 1, 8d4 persistent damage
Kern flays the flesh of the giant with his blade.
Mikhail tries to bring down the second Undead creature.
Between the two of them, Kern and Mikhail carve the monster to pieces. Literally. Its disgusting muck fouls the water you're standing in, which is rising ever higher as water continues to thunder down from the ceiling.
COMBAT OVER!
"Let's get out of here! This way!" Alister leads the group forward, trying to avoid the rising water.
Kern attempts to re-position the bronze decoration back to to it's original orientation.
Alister tries to examine the portcullis mechanism to see if it can be disabled.
Kern, the bronze decorations are way up on the ceiling. And there are dozens of them. With the water rushing through, they're only going to be closed by completely covering them with something like wall of stone.
Alister, the portcullises cannot be disabled, but perhaps they could be lifted or broken or teleported past.
The water continues to rise...
Mikhail trudges through the rising water to the portcullis that blocks their way forward and tries to break one of the ancient metal bars away to provide a way through to the next area.
Yeah, that portcullis is not budging.
Kern approaches the portcullis and looks beyond for something that could open it.
He finds nothing.
"I don't see a way out here. Piotr, Aristu, Alister, what magic do you have to blast this damned thing open?!" Kern shouts as the water creeps up.
"If someone can get to the ceiling, perhaps they could close the sluice gates and stop the waters from rising!" Mikhail says as he looks up to where the water is pouring down.
"I have no spells that would be helpful," replies Piotr.
"Nor can I summon a creature that can destroy the portcullis or the sluices."
"Do you have a Fly spell that you can cast on Kern or Alister so they can go look at the Sluice gates?" Mikhail throws out as he does not see a way for him to get up there.
Aristu shouts to be heard over the deluge. "I can give Kern flight! I can try and blast the bars with lightning, too, but I'm no sure how safe that would be!"
Alister looks up at the room filling with water. "Perhaps once it fills, it will reset?" He shrugs and begins trying to search the rest of the room.
Kern nods a thanks to Aristu and flies up to inspect the ceiling for any way to stop the water.
Kern is convinced that short of magically filling up all 16 sluices, this trap can't be stopped. Eyeing the stairs at either end of the area, it's obvious that this whole region will be completely submerged when the trap is finished. There are no drains.
Alister finds no alternate means out. It's the portcullises or nothing.
The water is now 3' deep and is Greater Difficult Terrain.
"There's no way to stop this without magic! We need to open the gates. Hit it with everything you've got!"
Kern shouts as he fires a Ray of Frost at the portcullis.
Mikhail attacks the bars in an attempt to sunder them.
Piotr follows Kern's lead, except that he is using fire. Perhaps he will be able to melt a bar in the portcullis.
The water is over your heads when you manage to break one of the bars of the portcullis, enough for Mikhail to twist it out of the way and allow you through.
Kern flies down into the water and through the gate, moving onward into the tunnels.
Mikhail follows kern through the damage portcullis and into the next hallway.
The five companions swim through the broken portcullis and arrive on dry land when they climb onto the stairs. The stairs rise just high enough to be higher than the water at its height, but then descend rapidly into the depths below the river spire.
The crooked stair is uneven and hewn from the living stone. It winds downward, apparently following a natural seam in the rock. At long last you come to a heavy pair of double doors carved of stone and decorated with stylized images of cylcopses, big and small.
"They definitely put time and effort into their art. I wonder if such carvings were common in all of their buildings or if this building had significant relevance to their culture and community?" Mikhail starts to reach out to run his hands over the carvings but stops himself until Kern has a chances to search the area for more traps.
Kern looks over the door.
It's nice art, but nothing like in Kyonin... He thinks to himself.
Kern discerns no threat on or surrounding the door. It appears to be just a door. The dust lies thick and undisturbed here.
Kern steps aside for the Anthropologist of Abadar to go first.
Mikhail enters the room and continues to look at the remnants of civilization.
Piotr casts a cantrip to scan for magical auras.
Aristu moves forward and prepares to cast spells as Mikhail opens the door.
To the north, this room is paved in patterned tiles of different colored slate and subdivided by a pair of pillars carved in the likeness of leering fiends. Beyond them, friezes on the walls depict processions of animal-headed creatures marching along a black river’s banks toward dual shrines in opposite corners of the chamber. These each depict a shadowy individual standing in a sinister longboat. Between them stands a bronze double door, its face decorated with a mosaic of a winding river crafted from obsidian tiles.
The southern shrine is a simple stone altar with an unlit oil lamp. The northern shrines each consist of a large piece of quarried quartz upon which has been set an unlit oil lamp and a shallow drinking cup stained with some dark residue.
Mikhail enters the area and begins looking around at the shrines and motiffs.
Mikhail then points to the depicted figure and says, "That is Chiron, the daemonic Horseman of Death. I do not know anything about this Shrine though."
Alister goes up to the altars to see if there is any inscription on the pedestals, bowls, or cup. "Did the cyclopses revere him? Or perhaps they just revered death itself."
"That's clearly not Chiron. It's just a grim reaper. The cyclops must revere death if they depict reapers in their art. We should be glad they are no more." Kern retorts.
He moves toward the southern altar to investigate.
Piotr studies the scenes depicted on the wall.
"Sorry, Kern," replies Piotr. "But I agree with Mikhail - that is Chiron. What I find concerning is that the material left in that cup is blood ... and it is no more than week old."
The wizard peers around at the room. "Does anyone see signs of something passing through this room?"
Aristu moves into the room and towards the southern shrine. He casts Detect Magic and examines the shrine before heading to the other side of the room to examine the other two shrines.
Kern ignores the incorrect humans and sets about lighting the lamps in this room.
Once they're lit, he'll scour the room for indications of recent activity.