Feline-Hilde screams at being unable to hit anything, but smiles at the appearance of new enemies.
She run past all of her allies, and lunges herself against one of them!
"Arrrgggg!"
Iskender will attempt to disarm the nearest opponent...
... and will back up as suggested.
Kit will try to swap places with someone. I suppose you want these alive as well! Kit says as he does another non-lethal attack.
"If I have to choose, I prefer me alive!"
Zal will move back as others move up
-Posted with Wayfinder
vs Hilde AC 14
1-20 miss
vs DC 15
vs Hilde AC 14 (1-20 miss)
The only standing foe swings at Hilde with its fist, but misses.
Iskender will move over to Hilde and touch her gently, more of a caress really...
In trying to do non-lethal damage, Kit, by turning his axe slightly, has his aim thrown off.
Round 4, Initiative Count 20
Dilwyn watches with a wry smile as the forms of the others push past him through the fog, pretty much the exact inverse of the plan he'd hoped to put into motion. He finds the result amusing rather than frustrating, though. It's not like anybody ever nominated him to be the strategist and, in retrospect, he probably should have realized that Hilde would be unlikely to respond well to any plan that's more defensive in nature than offensive. But at least he's pretty sure that Iskender and Zaladriel have used the cover, such as it is, to get back away from the change in front lines.
He has a moment of internal debate before deciding that the mist is more trouble than its worth in an offensive strategy, and concentrates on dispersing it before moving through the door into the hall to see what it is they're up against.
Hilde feels Iskender healing her, and smiles with new energy.
She don't attack. She stands in front of the creature, arms at her sides, clawed hands facing forward, and looks deeply at the creature's eyes, with all the intensity she can muster.
And she let out a deep growl, a hunting growl.
Zaladrel stands aside and lets the fight continue.
vs AC 12 HIlde
The creature, now having a clear view at Hilde swings its axe and undoes most of the healing on her.
After continuing the fight, Hilde continues to rage and downs the creature, killing it.
"The two that are asleep will only be that way for a minute or two, so do what you need to do before they wake up. Have you seen this kind of device before, or know what it is?" Andretta asks pointing at the device on the creatures, with tubes running into its body.
Hilde drops to the floor, and slowly starts to recover her human form.
"Yes, we saw them earlier. I don't know how they work exactly, and not being an expert, I propose at least severing all of the connections to their bodies, or pulling those tubes out. They appear to be controlling them, so let's try something."
Iskender again heals Hilde...
Hilde weakly takes Iskender hand and press on it, thanking him.
Kit tries to find something to tie the prisoners up. I really don't want to fight these..uh..whatever they are again!
Kit will take the rope from Hilde and start tying up the sleeping whatever they are.
While Hilde and Kit deal with the unconscious attackers, Dilwyn joins in the discussion with Iskender and their new friend.
"When we encountered this sort of thing before," he elaborates, "we were able to restore the victim to mostly normal functioning. The poor fellow was an emotional wreck afterwards, though. The controlling entity made him do some rather unpleasant things and he remained consciously observing the whole time without being able to stop it." As he talks he bends down and tries to remove the equipment as safely as he can.
"The one that was in control before was an entity called Vuelib. Is that a name you've ever heard before? We were fairly convinced that we'd found and dealt with this Vuelib at the time, but it is certainly possible that we were mistaken about either side of that equation. It was some sort of ooze creature, and I usually can't make heads or tails of those. You know, since they don't have either of 'em."
Iskender rubs his chin, "Vuelib, yes, we encountered something by that name. Odd. How many lives does it have?"
Zaladrel works to help tie up the creatures taking the opportunity to examine the connections to see if just yanking them out would hurt and more or less. The elf decides it doesn't really matter and waits for the first one to be tied up before cutting the tubed connections.
Zaladrel and Iskender cut the tubes on one of the harness that is attached to the creature, and it goes into spasms and dies.
While figuring out what to do next, you take a quick look into the room where the three foes came from, south of where you are, and see a stone chamber contains several more dark green, leathery cylinders, all with open hatches along the walls. Eight humanoid bodies lie side by side on the floor, each one with a single puncture wound at the base of their skulls. It is obvious that they were coup de grace.
Iskender points at the assassinated creatures, "so that appears quite ominous."
So if we are in the afterlife, where do those poor souls go to? Kit says as he pulls the knots snugly.
"Maybe nowhere," Dilwyn suggests. "Perhaps these have been the same ones over and over again. I can't really tell them apart." He frowns.
"Speaking of not telling things apart," he says once it looks like they've made it all the way back around to the room from which they've started. "So far there hasn't been any way out. But there has to be, right? Unless they teleported us in, I suppose."
Seeing that the creature died without its harness, Hilde moves towards the biggest live and tied one and slaps it, hard, to wake it up.
Once woken up, she will start slapping until it starts taking some sense, or she is stopped.
Now that the three remaining creatures are asleep or disabled, but also tied securely, you begin to wonder how everyone got here, as well as what the creatures are. Hilde, meanwhile has had enough and starts shaking one of the creatures that was asleep, waking it and the creature begins to grunt and growl in a language that none of you are familiar with.
"That is the Ultari language and it is not saying nice things to you" says Andretta as she stares at the creature. "I have heard of these things" as she looks over the harness and tubes attached to the creature. "I believe the creatures are called Klaven, and they are the almost mindless slaves of others. Perhaps we should see if the door on the central pillar leads somewhere?"
"That is the Ultari language and it is not saying nice things to you" says Andretta as she stares at the creature.
Hilde smiles, look at the creature approvingly, and proceeds to beat it back to unconsciousness.
She stands, and gets a knife out, and points at the unconscious creatures, asking for approval to kill them.
As Dilwyn looks around at the various doors that exit this ring-like hallway with confusion, it occurs to him that he's been thinking only of moving radially outward to get away and has given no thought to the notion of moving inward. He makes a quick circle around it, getting a feel for how big it is. The answer is not very, but it could be big enough for a ladder at least. As he looks he does, indeed, spot another door in its side providing access. He thumps on it with his staff.
"Looks like there's only one door left to try," he calls out to the others. "Hopefully there's a ladder or something inside, and it's not just a privy. Who's got the key?"
I feel bad about killing them if they are mindless, but it seems they don't want to be friends neither. Kit shrugs. While you do not have my blessing, I'm not going to stop you either.
Kit is glad when Dilwyn asks about the key, not really sure how to answer Hilde. Got it right here! he says producing the 'key'.
"Enough lollygagging, let us get out of this place."
Hidden just behind a sliding panel, this dark 10-ft.-by-10-ft.-square shaft goes vertically up and down. Green fibrous material lines its walls, and a thick, vine-like cable hangs down the center from some unknown location in the darkness above.
Looking up, the shaft continues beyond light and darkvision, although there appears to be several other levels. Looking down, about 35 feet, you can see the top of what must have been and "elevator" car.
It should be an easy climb down, or up.
"Who would have mined this all out, and what the devil is it for? How far underground do you think we are? If only we had a dwarf with us, they always know such things."
Hilde, after dealing with them (the quickest, cleanest and painsless way possible), checks the strange creatures items.
"I don't think it was mined," Dilwyn muses. "The layout of this level is too organic and all this fibrous materials make me think of plants and such. If I had to guess I'd say we're probably somewhere in the Darklands. Hopefully just the first level, but there isn't really any easy way to tell for sure. The one thing I can say, though, is that if we're underground the best way to get out is most likely up."
Dilwyn casts light in the tip of his staff and holds it into the shaft to see if the extra illumination can help him tell how far it extends upward.
Zaladrel follows wordlessly.
I agree! If this is the afterlife, I don't think I want to head down! Kit says looking up and down.
"Not all mythologies would say that down is bad in death. Some dwarves and gnomes view that their mystically amazing resting places are deep below the surface of Golarion."
After dispatching the five Klaven creatures, Hilde checks them for equipment, and finds five battleaxes, and five devices that seem to fire some kind of projectile like the one that was fired at you by the creatures during the beginning of the battle. Four of the devices still have five such projectiles in them and the other has four.
Gathering the rope, you all look at the shaft, and decide that perhaps going up is the best alternative. Climbing turns out to be easier than thought as there are lots of places to hold onto, and many hand and foot holds in the spongy wall. Reaching the second level the "door" on this level is open, you spread out just a bit from the entrance with Hilde and Kit positioning themselves so they can protect most of the group.
Hilde carries the equipment next to the pit, and throws it at the feet of the others.
She climbs first, and takes a defensive stance. She looks at the others, questioning where to proceed with her eyes.
"What the heck is all that? Are we pirates now, to be plundering everything we encounter?"
"Yes."
They won't be needing it and we might as well use it for all the trouble they put us through! Kit says picking up one of the spur rifles. I wonder how this thing works?
"I dunno," says Dilwyn, shrugging. "The handle is strange and the shaft appears to be hollow. I think I'll stick with a nice, solid piece of wood, myself."
He takes a moment to survey the new level that they climbed to.
"Whoever built this place sure loves their rings," he observes. "Hopefully they aren't all just more dead ends. Pick a place and start working clockwise, yeah?" He taps his chin for a moment, wishing that he had more information to go on than blind guesses. But, if blind guessing is the only way to proceed, he'll start by heading into the short hallways just beyond the door they climbed out of and pick the left-hand side.
"Mind if I borrow the key for a while?" he asks Kit. If the ranger is okay with it, he'll take it and start opening doors, beginning with the one he guessed blindly.
Hilde moves behind Dilwyn.
Be my guest! Kit says handing the 'key' to Dilwyn and putting the slug gun in his backpack. If no one minds, I would like to hold on to this. Don't know if it might help against critters immune to a good bashing. Kit winks at Hilde.