Shen starts to cast, while Silgil joins in the magical assault.
With only the one obvious target for him, the uncompromising Baillaset continues to wail upon Hadanka.
attack:1d20 ⇒ 5
And despite his... unlucky attacks, his raw skill and strength power through the barbarians defences.
damage:1d6 + 10 ⇒ (3) + 10 = 13
How he remains standing is anyone's guess, and certainly seems to surprise his equally large foe (who honestly, doesn't look that much better).
Sebastus groans in horror as he sees what his (presumably short) future might be looking like.
Okay RNG, time to do your bit and show these pecky pathfinders that this really is an unlucky place for them. Straight 1s....
Status: bold may post
Graff - 11/27
Shen -
Silgil 77/79 hp; resist fire; prepared haste
Hadanka - 0/41 damage; Plus 2xDC20 fort save vs 1 point con drain each. Disabled.
Sylvester,
- shaggy fatigued
Ledt -35/37
Sebastus - fatigued.
Baillaset - used one AOO; 99 damage
Unwilling to proof his luck against the unlucky curse Ledt just follows up with another shocking hands "Curses! How is that one still standing! Hit it harder Hadanka!"
Electrical damage burning hands:5d4 ⇒ (1, 1, 1, 2, 1) = 6 Ref DC 16 for half
As the electricity really fizzles the halfling curses again "Damn! This place is really cursed to 1"
HP 35/37 AC 20 TAC 15 (+2 vs evil)
prot. from evil 5 min
mage armor 1 h
Shen summons a lantern archon, double moves forward and then points at the monster!
”Attack this thing!!!“ Shen shouts and the lantern flies in and shoots a light ray!
light ray overcomes DR touch :1d20 + 3 ⇒ (12) + 3 = 151d6 ⇒ 6
Aura of Menace (Su)
Any hostile creature within a 20-foot radius of an archon must succeed on a Will save (DC 13) to resist its effects. The save DC is Charisma-based, and includes a +2 racial bonus. Those who fail take a –2 penalty on attacks, AC, and saves for 24 hours or until they successfully hit the archon that generated the aura. A creature that has resisted or broken the effect cannot be affected again by the same archon’s aura for 24 hours.
Light Ray (Ex)
A lantern archon can fire beams of light to damage foes. These light rays have a maximum range of 30 feet. This attack overcomes damage reduction of any type.
Male N Gnome Sorcerer 7 Buffs: | HP 72/72| AC 15 Incorp T 12 T 12 FF 14 | CMB -1 CMD 10 | F +10 R +5 W +6, +2 vs Illusion| INIT +7| PER +16 Low Light SM -1| Speed 20' |Resist Fire 5|
Magic pours into the poor, unlucky Bailaset. Missiles, electricity, even bolts of light.
And let us not forget the scythe. Really, quite unfair that such an obviously nasty undead villian should be faced with an opponent wielding one rather than having one himself.
The end comes dramatically. Even as Hadanka slashes and drops, the foul form of Bailast drops to the ground. Or does he?
The scythe passes through him, and he errupts into a a bloody red mist, which hangs around in the room, coating each of you even as more of it settles onto the bloody channel behind where he stood.
"That was Magnificent!" cries the tired Sebastus, relief flooding every word.
"So see Sebastus, you made good to turn sides it seems" Ledt smiles as he sees the Bailaset falling.
The halfling performs a quick exploration of the area with detect magic.
"The place smells terribly. We probably should clean the space from all these bodies" Ledt covers his nostrils while he observes the open bodies "If you pile them, I can try to incinerate them without making a fire"
Male N Gnome Sorcerer 7 Buffs: | HP 72/72| AC 15 Incorp T 12 T 12 FF 14 | CMB -1 CMD 10 | F +10 R +5 W +6, +2 vs Illusion| INIT +7| PER +16 Low Light SM -1| Speed 20' |Resist Fire 5|
The tunnel leading into this chamber makes a sharp ninety-degree turn to the north before opening into a twenty-foot-high, thirty-five-foot-long cavern filled with a shallow lake that glitters in the faint greenish light from algae on the ceiling.
Shen notices some half melted skeletons in the green water.
Near her feet, Shen also notices a small metal rod in the ground.
Male N Gnome Sorcerer 7 Buffs: | HP 72/72| AC 15 Incorp T 12 T 12 FF 14 | CMB -1 CMD 10 | F +10 R +5 W +6, +2 vs Illusion| INIT +7| PER +16 Low Light SM -1| Speed 20' |Resist Fire 5|
"It is a nice plan but there is no way that Gumbo will be able to get here without collapsing the cave on the way in. I really do not want to get stuck in here."
Ledt can easily determine that the rod used to be magical, but it would seem the magic is now depleted. She however can't tell what its purpose was. Maybe one day she would be skilled enough at reading auras, but not yet.
Spellcraft check failed.
Shen on the other hand... Shen peers closely at it, raising an eyebrow (does she have eyebrows?) She thinks the rod was likely some sort of one-shot minor artifact.
The red is easy enough to lift with a mage hand and floats into the air.
While Ledt plays with the rod, Shen fires an acidic ray at the skeleton. Nothing much happens, a little more bone dissolves.
Not content to let the others play with magic, Silgil brings back pony for a visit. Nothing tries to eat it. The pony, surprised at its unexpectedly non-violent end, neighs happily once before vanishing.
Hadanka feels much better (but still has a point of Con Drain, which will need to be handled by the end of the adventure)
Ledt frowns as Shen leaves his basic knowledge in evidence. The halfling looks as the elf goes into the pool of acid "Well, if it is part of an artifact, we should better keep it with us, it might be worth some gold"
Observing the walls surface to check if it would be easy to climb, he offers "I can likely enlarge someone so they could easily squeeze through the upper part of the walls, bracing to opposed walls to progress through the tunnel without touching the acid"
"Or I could just cast a fly spell. or a Resist Acid spell. But since Shen already took the dive, so to speak, the point is moot. What are you thinking, Ledt?"
Male N Gnome Sorcerer 7 Buffs: | HP 72/72| AC 15 Incorp T 12 T 12 FF 14 | CMB -1 CMD 10 | F +10 R +5 W +6, +2 vs Illusion| INIT +7| PER +16 Low Light SM -1| Speed 20' |Resist Fire 5|
Silgil normally enjoys gnome humor, but that does seem a bit grizzly to him.
"Why? Can't Shen just take a look? Or someone who knows traps. In fact, I'm sure there is a trap there and if we don;t spot it just leave it alone unless we can get gumbo down here. You know, I think I could get him down here if I cast a Reduce person on him."
Silgil has an open 1st level slot and a bonded item for flexibility.
To Shen, Ah... Shen... That 'water' seems to be eating your legs. Might want to get out of it.
To Ledt, I suppose I could try. But it seems like I would slip before I got all the way there and back.Don't know if you ever tried that before in real life. I did as a teenager after watching some movie and getting into a stupid argument. It is really tough, even on something regular with grip like a dry brick wall. I can't imagine doing it on a wet slimy cave wall. Well not without a Spider Climb spell or something.
How deep is the 'water'? Bodies don't really stack all that well.
Male N Gnome Sorcerer 7 Buffs: | HP 72/72| AC 15 Incorp T 12 T 12 FF 14 | CMB -1 CMD 10 | F +10 R +5 W +6, +2 vs Illusion| INIT +7| PER +16 Low Light SM -1| Speed 20' |Resist Fire 5|
"Hey Sebastus. What do we need to do here? Is there any loot here or are we just wasting our time and Shen's boots at the acid covered altar to Zyphus?"
Hadanka eyes up the walls dubiously. Lets hope there are no traps there.
The north wall looks quite smooth, but the south wall is much rougher and would be not *too* difficult to climb. DC in the 10-19 range
Sebastus looks up tiredly. "Well, that used to be water. We had to kneel in it for _ages_ in front of the altar. Boy was it cold. I tell you, life as a cultist was not bunch of laughs"
Heading down the corridor you spy a very dead cultists hanging from the ceiling, his head distorted and purple from the weight of all of the blood in his body. A small pool of blood mars the chamber’s floor beneath him.
It starts to get noticeably colder.
Sebastus says "This was once the 'bath house'.." Now it is more of an ice-house with the water frozen and a few bodies frozen solid into it. Round the edges it is now starting to melt. But it is likely to take some time.
The pony looks oddly at Silgil as it arrives as if to say "That was not what I signed up for. My hooves are cold, but at least nothing cut me in two this time[/b]" as it tries to keep its balance on the ice, and then vanishes.
And a detect magic doesn't show anything in here either, just a lingering transformation aura.
Silgil thinks the cold is just coming from the ice. And given the lingering transformation aura, it was probably a spell that converted the water to ice, complete with bathers.
Male N Gnome Sorcerer 7 Buffs: | HP 72/72| AC 15 Incorp T 12 T 12 FF 14 | CMB -1 CMD 10 | F +10 R +5 W +6, +2 vs Illusion| INIT +7| PER +16 Low Light SM -1| Speed 20' |Resist Fire 5|
Ledt touches the ice with the tip of his right foot "These cultists are crazy"
"I guess if you want to melt a section I can try to help, but in no way I am going there, melted or not. I had enough water swimming in my last two adventures" the halfling will use burning hands to melt as much ice as he can.
Burning hands damage:5d4 ⇒ (2, 1, 3, 1, 1) = 8
If there is no more cultist and nothing else of interest, he nods in agreement with Sylvester and makes his way out, up the rope.
I do not like the thought of leaving in place an alter to that demented deity. I want to shatter it. But how...
GM, are these tunnels just dug into the ground or actually carved into the bedrock? Now that we know where the alter is, could we just dig through the wall from this side and get to the altar that way?
Ledt melts a big chunk of ice, crisping a couple very dead cultists in the process.
@Hadanka, my take is these are basically natural tunnels, thus the sinkhole you went down. Some have been modified either by the Sarenites, or the Zyphus cultists.
Feel free to come back down if you want, but to keep things going...
The team returns back upstairs to the room with the cliff, and the unopened door at the end of it.
