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Graxzos holds his position in the second rank, but begins to grow impatient and fidget as Rogar stares at the empty room. "If'n there's nothin' 'ere, let's go on in."
Once inside, he glances at the hag carvings before turning to the corpse. "Weird biddy. Any kooky symbolism there? An' who d'we think this fella was?" As everyone looks around the room, he'll gingerly approach the corpse to search it for any evidence of identity...or valuables.
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"No ghosts, that's a good sign! They get really grumpy if you don't make sure they go home." She trusts Rogar well enough, he was one of the shinier sort of folks, so she's patient as he searches the room. Though she does get a bit distracted poking the corpse with the end of one of the wakizashi she's holding like a pair of sticks.
"Yeah, definitely not ghosts, they get mad if you start poking their bodies. Looks mostly like the symbolism of rot, and that's all I know about him."
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Each time you eat the corpse, you become sick for 1d6 hours unless you succeed a fortitude DC12. The more you eat, the more you're sick! It accumulates.
Everyone, except Seren, suddenly feels a tired wave upon them.
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Rogar begins to feel sleepy but then shrugs it off.
"hey whats happening to you guys"
-Posted with Wayfinder
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While the rest of the group is debating taking a nap, Seren peels a piece of the rotting body off with the end of her sword and brings it towards her nose to sniff. She opens her mouth as if to take a bite, then suddenly gags and flicks it away. "Geck! Eck! It made me try and eat it! There is a ghost! Quick someone do something!" Seren stumbles away from the corner and trips over one of the now sleeping pair. She flails back into a wall, but doesn't fall.
She seems a bit green around the gills, but collects herself through a mixture of spitting on the ground and rubbing a sleeve over her mouth.
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Eraith feels the wave of magical energy wash over him, then looks on bemused as Kaspar and Graxzos succumb to the magical effects. Seeing no immediate threat to the sleeping members, he is startled by Seren's actions, but doesnt say anything aloud
What a strange one. Could it be that the spirits in her fight for dominance and influence her behaviour?
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This long, high-ceilinged hall is partially flooded with murky, stagnant water, and the sound of slowly dripping water echoes ominously throughout. A massive banyan tree has breached a large section of the south wall, and the tree’s enormous invasive roots now extend several feet into the hall. Long sheets of thick moss and other detritus cling to the twisted tree roots, forming a curtainlike barrier.
As Rogar is about to step into the water, he taps it bit at first. During this time, the water froths and churns
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Seren was rather proud of herself for not trying to plug Kaspar and Graxzos's noses to wake them up. It had been a powerful urge to resist, and yet she managed. By the time they're up and moving she's managed to regain her composure from trying to eat a rotten corpse.
"Ummm..."She doesn't seem particularly concerned about the water, since the smartest fellow in the party seems to be ignoring the weird frothing. She's happy to let someone else stand in front of her, though.
She reaches an arm over her shoulder and starts fumbling around in the back while muttering sounds like she's taking directions from someone on where to reach. "Aha! Wynn was right! We do have a silk rope and a grappling hook, Dwarfy." Which she starts pulling out with one hand, the other keeping a grip on one of her blades.
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Eraith, ignorant of anything not found in the city, looks around the hall and the banyan tree while waiting for the others to finish with whatever they are doing.
He spots a bag hanging on the Banyan tree's roots. "Hang on, there's something there" Eraith points out the bag to the others, then climbs to retrieve it
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As Graxzos attempts to scurry across using the rope, he figures it's much too difficult of an acrobatic feat to get across without falling into the water.
As you move to the end, within a double move, nothing happens yet. The frothing continues, you feel ticklish a little at the bottom but nothing happens to you.
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"Is there? Huh," Graxzos says, managing to get the grappling hook caught and secured on the tree. He gives the rope a few short tugs, but then, looking around the group, winces.
"Yeh know...I coul' prob'ly make this climb, but I got m'doubts about some o' the...older an' frailer members of our group 'ere. But the bad news is..." he turns gloomily toward the water. "...I got kinda a policy 'gainst goin' inta water tha's swarmin' wit' beasties. Even when they be little." He frowns thoughtfully. "I got a grenade an' some alchemist's fire in m' bag...wonder if tha'd do anything?"
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Eraith moves into the water unscathed, but makes a few remarks about feeling some wriggling, but it doesn't bother him. He makes it to the base of the tree unharmed. Following his lead, the rest of the party of stumble their way across to the other side, this time waiting for Eraith to pick up a satchel he caught out of the corner of his eye.
Within the satchel is a watertight scroll tube made of horn containing a scrap of parchment with a hastily scrawled note: “We lost Gavreth, Kehm, and Nars in the Hall of the Flesh Eaters. Before he died, the wizard claimed the horror is a work of necromancy. I know it at least responded to holy water, so that means we should be able to—“ The rest of the note is smeared and illegible.
However as he climbs back down, out of the water, a swarm of leeches has congregated together blocking his path.
Caladrel, Eraith, Graxzos, Kaspar, Rogar, Seren
Leeches
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Seren watches the water froth, and as Eraith attempts to return she is not amused by the presence of LEECHES. She was no bookworm, but she knew a leech. And these were really, really big.
She blanched, paling considerably over how much blood they likely drink, then paling further as she screamed bloody murder and stumbled into the same twirling dance from before to take a swipe with one of her wakizashi at the first one she reaches. The pitch of her voice drops quickly to the same masculine voice from their last fight by the time she reaches her mark.
Spirit Aura: All allies within 30ft gain a +2 bonus on all non-spell damage rolls.
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Graxzos snarls. "See, this is why we 'ave policies." Stumping forward, he levels his pistol at the leech that he has a clear shot toward.
He tips another handful of black powder into the gun along with a bullet, cursing under his breath as he does so.
No action: 5' step
Standard: Attack southern leech
Move: Reload (normal shot)
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The Pathfinders, in attempt to clear the path for Eraith, strike at one of the leeches and deals some heavy damage to it . It looks frail after the attempts.
Caladrel calls for a divine blessing upon himself to prepare himself for the upcoming fight.
Caladrel (Divine Favor), Eraith , Graxzos, Kaspar, Rogar, Seren
Leeches Top -18 Bottom
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Eraith closes in on the injured Leech and deconstructs it by spewing it's guys all over the water with a quick slick of his Wakazashi.
Rogar eyes the final Leech and comes towards it drawing his large falcata. And single handedly he takes down a leech all on his own, in an amazing feat of power.
Further examining the satchel, it also contains an amulet.
Moving toward the next room... This cathedral-like hall has a vaulted ceiling supported by eight square pillars. Dominating the middle of the hall is a huge mound of undulating gray-green flesh covered with weeping scarlet boils. The entire mass stinks of a weeks-old corpse.
Immediately as you enter the room, you notice that a in front of you, a bunch of undead looking creatures are gathered around the corpse, eating it, and they pay no attention to you at this point.
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Graxzos breathes a sigh of relief when the leech goes down. "Good swing there, Rogar!" He checks to make sure his pistol hasn't taken any water damage, then helps Eraith out of the water. Eyeing the amulet, he just comments, "Tha' looks pretty...anyone know if it's worth anythin'?"
When the group opens the doors to the next room, Grax snaps his pistol up and keeps it trained on the nearest undead creature. "Tha' don' look good..." he mutters. "I 'magine if we try t'move past 'em they'll notice us, aye?"
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Kaspar grabs the amulet and gives his expert opinion.
"What I can say is that it is magical. Probably not cursed, seeing that it was found in an explorer's bag. But you never know."
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In the next room, the old necromancer pushes the others aside so he can get a better look at the undead eaters.
Markov tells his fellow Agents what he knows about them. "No point in trying to avoid them," he whispers as a response to Graxzos. He starts sneaking closer to the corpse-eaters, in an attempt to surprise them, and when within 30 feet of them, he channels his necromantic powers.
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She looks a bit green around the gills as she peers over Kaspar's shoulder at the amulet as he examines it. The young woman is courteous enough to turn her head aside when she feels the need to cough violently after having a spirit jammed up in her sinuses. It's left her off kilter, but she can still nod along with the more learned wizard. "Yep, magical for certain. Not too shabby to look at either, but we can sell it to the Captain for a pretty penny."
Seren isn't the sneaky sort, she stays well back and attempts to prevent her articles from clattering too loudly while Kaspar and Eraith set up their trap, her weapons kept ready and on hand the moment she sees what appears to be a giant, glopping mess of... some sort of fleshy, squishy undead ooze. She's rather proud of herself for not gagging or retching just at the stink of it.
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The first creature, the one in larger numbers are ghouls. . They're not known to have any special weaknesses or resistance beyond that of regular undead creatures. What makes them deadly is their natural attacks. They are known to cause diseases and paralysis.
The second creature are Festrogs, similarly to the Ghouls, they are nasty biters.
Kaspar and Eraith's movement go unnoticed by the creatures of the dead. Kaspar's spell is super effective as all but 2 ghouls and 1 festrog are affected.
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Graxzos looks at Kaspar slightly incredulously, but nods.
Graxzos pads almost silently up alongside Kaspar, and takes careful, deliberate aim at the ghoul Kaspar pointed out. He raises an eyebrow at the others, holding up one hand in a questioning thumbs-up.
Once he gets the signal, the dwarf turns back to the feeding ghoul, grins, and pulls the trigger!
As combat is joined in earnest, Grax reloads his gun, moving quickly.
Surprise Round:
Move: up to Kaspar, OR (if that doesn't count)...
Round One:
Standard: Attack, using Up close and Deadly!
Move: reload (standard shot)
Graxzos delays his action until the signal, fires in the surprise round, and then has an action left to fire again in round one!
...and reloads as a swift action with an alchemical cartridge.
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Seren falls into a familiar routine to the party, moving to engage the rotting foes with a dance rather than a battle charge. It's this lack of fan faire and the light touch of her toes across the floor as she slips past Eraith and Kaspar that likely gives her the edge to approach unnoticed despite her normally ungainly movement.
She twirls, pales, and her eyes vanish into her head as she takes up position in front of the creature Kaspar has indicated to not be under his control. She belts out in her new, deep tenor voice. "Fire away, dwarf, let your barrel sound us to action!" And she strikes as the party moves with two quick cuts.
Spirit Aura: All allies within 30ft gain a +2 bonus on all non-spell damage rolls.
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Caladrel calls for the blessing of Shelyn to protect himself in battle.
Graxzos gets a quick shot to injure one of the creatures badly but not enough to take it down, but swiftly moves Seren to strike it killing it. She moves in closer to get another good strike at one more of the creatures injuring it.
With four immediately taken care of, considering Kaspar's spell, the party gains confidence in wiping out so many undeads.
Pink -6 dmg