Falling (more than once) Farther In
The other adventurers, Gil, Jie-An, and Bob Arby, arrived to view the aftermath of the fight with the dire hyenas and gnolls, impressed at the amount of carnage. Gil and Jie-An used their healing talents to help the badly wounded Kendrick and Tesrae. A magic ring was found on one of the gnolls. Not knowing what it was Pale put it on to no immediate effect.
Finally, a tense night was spent amid the death and blood.
Leaving the bodies behind, the party pushed deeper into the mountain and found a curious room that appeared to be a wizard's bizarre experiment. Steps led down to a sunken floor whose bottom was obscured by a viscous, frothing white liquid. A narrow stone bridge crossed the room above the goo but was bisected, like the rest of the room, by a glimmering curtain of bluish fire halfway along its length. Gil tossed a small rock into the fire only to have it create a large spark and trail through to the other side smoking. Unsure how to proceed, Bob experimented by trying to dispel the obviously magical phenomenon of the fire... and succeeded. The heroes began to hurry across the bridge.
Unfortunately, even with the help of a rope, the heavily armored Tesrae was unable to keep her feed and fell into the goo. She found it wasn't hot, nor did it interfere with her breathing. She then walked across the room floor to the other side. Gil was the last to cross and as he did so, the suppressed blue fire flashed to life again. Gil decided to brave the goo as well and tried swimming under the blue fire. He succeeded in getting across without injury.
As Tesrae and Gil walked about, they found that the goo was hardening quickly. A bit of time spent peeling the hardening goo and judicious use of pretidigitation managed to clean their armors enough to allow easier walking.
The next chamber they found had a single rope hanging from the ceiling and no apparent exit. As Kendrick, Jie-An, and Gil entered the room to search for secret portals, Tesrae went to try to climb the rope to see what it was attached to (it wsa attached at a recessed hook in the ceiling). As her full weight hit the rope, the floor dropped out from under everybody, dumping them into a shallow pit with a pool of acid at the bottom. It also caused a hidden door to pop open directly across from the initial entry. Tesrae managed to hang on to the rope. Kendrick, close enough to the other side to climb out quickly, did so. Gil took a bolder move and used is power of flight to get out of the acid, grabbing Jie-An on the way. A couple further trips were enough to bring Tesrae, Pale, and Pale's cat with him.
Trudging on further into the tunnels, the next chamber they found had a stone, cigar-shaped statue in it with several tentacles. Not being truly fooled by what they believed to be a likely creature, they were still surprised by its speed and reach. Kendrick, Gil, and Tesrae were all eventually grabbed by tentacles. Bob peppered the statue (a stone roper, or sto-roper) with repeated magic missiles as the rest tried to hack their way free (no easy task due to the creature's rocky hide). A few moments later and they managed to kill the creature. Pale cut it open further and found some cash and gems in the creature's gullet.
Beneath the creature, the tunnels continued deeper and deeper.
Once again, the heroes found an empty room, but this one was paneled in knotty pine and had a door across the room. Gil, wary of traps by now, crossed the room to examine the door, looking for trouble. He found it. There was clearly some kind of spring mechanism involved that would send spikes through the knots on the door. Unfortunately, Gil's powers of observation were stronger than his powers of sabotage and he accidentally triggered the trap on himself. Four sharp spikes in Gil's hide later and the heroes were past the trouble.
The final room encountered was a massive affair with large pillars. More concerning, however, were the occupants of the room. Fanked by both gnolls on one side and ghouls on the other, a large emaciated gnoll-like figure sat on a throne, leering at the heroes and exuding evil. Between the gnoll-like figure and the party of adventurers was a very large lizard creature with a bony shell on its back and a club tail. It immediately roared and charged the party, Tesrae in the lead.
Whatever the creature charging was, Tesrae managed to avoid it. Pale attacked it with his spear, hitting home, only to have his spear corrode before his very eyes. Tesrae, in heavy metal armor, took the better part of valor and moved to the rear of the adventurers. Bob tried to target the emaciated gnoll-figure but found that something was causing his fireball to explode prematurely. He then decided to cast a web on the ghouls instead.
The lizard-like creature fell surprisingly quickly, leaving the emaciated gnoll creature and his gnolls to oppose the adventurers.
Finally, a tense night was spent amid the death and blood.
Leaving the bodies behind, the party pushed deeper into the mountain and found a curious room that appeared to be a wizard's bizarre experiment. Steps led down to a sunken floor whose bottom was obscured by a viscous, frothing white liquid. A narrow stone bridge crossed the room above the goo but was bisected, like the rest of the room, by a glimmering curtain of bluish fire halfway along its length. Gil tossed a small rock into the fire only to have it create a large spark and trail through to the other side smoking. Unsure how to proceed, Bob experimented by trying to dispel the obviously magical phenomenon of the fire... and succeeded. The heroes began to hurry across the bridge.
Unfortunately, even with the help of a rope, the heavily armored Tesrae was unable to keep her feed and fell into the goo. She found it wasn't hot, nor did it interfere with her breathing. She then walked across the room floor to the other side. Gil was the last to cross and as he did so, the suppressed blue fire flashed to life again. Gil decided to brave the goo as well and tried swimming under the blue fire. He succeeded in getting across without injury.
As Tesrae and Gil walked about, they found that the goo was hardening quickly. A bit of time spent peeling the hardening goo and judicious use of pretidigitation managed to clean their armors enough to allow easier walking.
The next chamber they found had a single rope hanging from the ceiling and no apparent exit. As Kendrick, Jie-An, and Gil entered the room to search for secret portals, Tesrae went to try to climb the rope to see what it was attached to (it wsa attached at a recessed hook in the ceiling). As her full weight hit the rope, the floor dropped out from under everybody, dumping them into a shallow pit with a pool of acid at the bottom. It also caused a hidden door to pop open directly across from the initial entry. Tesrae managed to hang on to the rope. Kendrick, close enough to the other side to climb out quickly, did so. Gil took a bolder move and used is power of flight to get out of the acid, grabbing Jie-An on the way. A couple further trips were enough to bring Tesrae, Pale, and Pale's cat with him.
Trudging on further into the tunnels, the next chamber they found had a stone, cigar-shaped statue in it with several tentacles. Not being truly fooled by what they believed to be a likely creature, they were still surprised by its speed and reach. Kendrick, Gil, and Tesrae were all eventually grabbed by tentacles. Bob peppered the statue (a stone roper, or sto-roper) with repeated magic missiles as the rest tried to hack their way free (no easy task due to the creature's rocky hide). A few moments later and they managed to kill the creature. Pale cut it open further and found some cash and gems in the creature's gullet.
Beneath the creature, the tunnels continued deeper and deeper.
Once again, the heroes found an empty room, but this one was paneled in knotty pine and had a door across the room. Gil, wary of traps by now, crossed the room to examine the door, looking for trouble. He found it. There was clearly some kind of spring mechanism involved that would send spikes through the knots on the door. Unfortunately, Gil's powers of observation were stronger than his powers of sabotage and he accidentally triggered the trap on himself. Four sharp spikes in Gil's hide later and the heroes were past the trouble.
The final room encountered was a massive affair with large pillars. More concerning, however, were the occupants of the room. Fanked by both gnolls on one side and ghouls on the other, a large emaciated gnoll-like figure sat on a throne, leering at the heroes and exuding evil. Between the gnoll-like figure and the party of adventurers was a very large lizard creature with a bony shell on its back and a club tail. It immediately roared and charged the party, Tesrae in the lead.
Whatever the creature charging was, Tesrae managed to avoid it. Pale attacked it with his spear, hitting home, only to have his spear corrode before his very eyes. Tesrae, in heavy metal armor, took the better part of valor and moved to the rear of the adventurers. Bob tried to target the emaciated gnoll-figure but found that something was causing his fireball to explode prematurely. He then decided to cast a web on the ghouls instead.
The lizard-like creature fell surprisingly quickly, leaving the emaciated gnoll creature and his gnolls to oppose the adventurers.
posted by Bill D91 at 3:27 PM
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