Bel's Age of Worms [IC]

[Debatra]

Tobul will pick up the non-magical ring and hold it flat on her palm.

"Does anyone else want this?" If nobody responds, she will slip it onto her finger.

[rax]

Narl

Narl assists in clearing the beetle dung as best as he can, using his flail as a digging stick to break up particularly resistant lumps. When the first of the bodies is found, he takes a break and moves into the corridor for a breath of relatively fresh air. He also takes a moment to speak to Fardus away from the rest of the group.

"Excuse me, Master Fardus, do you have a moment? I was wondering, do you have any more spell power left in your healing wand? My potion healed the worst of the burns I sustained in this battle, but it couldn't get all of them and, well you see, there's a particularly uncomfortable one left in a somewhat...erm...delicate spot. So, any relief you could offer would be most welcome!"

[J-H]

Casper
Casper helps clear the lumps off the bodies. "What's this star? If these were killed by the bugs, it was an organized attempt at retrieving whatever is in this strange place.

[redzimmer]

Seramal

"Eh, who knows. You there, god-botherer!" she points at Cyrius. "Any of these look like anything?"

Sifting through the bodies, she takes a ring for herself.

[DrK]

Cyrius

Sifting through the rubble and the beetle excretions Cyrius passes out the potions and the rings to the others. "Please help yourselves to these. They will no doubt help us in the fighting to come. My Goddess protects me for the time being so I should be okay." As the loot is systematically stripped and shared he peers down the corridor. "If all of these bodies are here it perhaps bodes well for the chambers beyond to not have been spoiled. Perhaps greater riches and relics of power lie in them?"

[BelGareth]

After hashing out the newly found beetle dung covered gear. You move on, heading down the stairs, you find dark water gently lapping against the base of the stairs, effectively blocking you way.

[PeacefulOak]

Fardus the Dwarf

"Quite so, my good chap! Not a worry at all." With a flourish the wand is produced once more and tapped gently against the wounded man's forehead, healing energy spreading from the tap to soothe the burns and bites. Though the party moves forward and down, the dwarf hangs back, examining the statue and the platforms in the one room, and any older features in the other carefully before following the group down.

Spoiler: OoC

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Going to take 20 on searching both rooms carefully (for a 22), and take 10 on any relevant knowledge checks that come up.

EDIT: Forgot to mention 1 charge used from my wand, 11HP over 11 rounds to Narl.

[J-H]

Casper

"After dealing with those bugs, I'm not sure we want to go swimming. However - let's see how far this goes." Casper closes his eyes for a moment, and a faintly glowing shark-like humanoid figure appears. Although Casper doesn't realize it, it looks rather like a Sahuagin. After a moment, it dives into the water, swimming at his command. Thanks to its streamlined form, it enters the water nearly silently.

Spoiler

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Astral Construct, 1pp, with Swim. Using Wild Surge +1 to make my ML 3 for an extra round of use.
Enervation check, low is bad (1d100)[96]
It has a swim speed of 30' (double that in a straight line). It's commanded to swim horizontally (if possible) or vertically (if possible, or diagonally if neither is possible, until it finds another dry area, and then return. Knowing its speed and how long it takes should help Casper determine how far we'd have to travel underwater.

[rax]

Narl

"Aah, that did the trick," Narl thanks Fardus with obvious relief.

Moving forward to the edge of the water he stops and scratches his beard thoughtfully. "Well, I don't know how to swim, but I have a handy mask to help me breathe down there. Not to keen on going under alone though," he says to no one in particular.

Just then, Casper's astral construct appears and dives below the surface. "Now that's really handy," he whistles in appreciation. "How did you do that?" he asks, his eyes alight with curiosity.

[BelGareth]

Caspers astral construct manifests, and moves into the water following its mental commands.

The water ripples as it steps down into the dark water, and as soon as it's head is submerged, the water seems to churn and whirl into a vortex, your construct gets battered by the whirlpool, and slips into it uncontrollably. The dark depth froths and foams, and you see the construct every now and then, a limb breaking the surface as it was pulled around again, a foot there.

A few seconds and it was over.

You can feel the construct fade away, back into it's ethereal silver ectoplasm as the water stops churning, the momentum lapping it against the bottom step of the stairs before you.

[rax]

Narl

"Aaand now I feel even less like going under by myself," Narl notes drily as the water stops churning. "I didn't see or hear any creature just then. It looked more like the water started churning by itself. Some sort of spell trap perhaps? Or can anyone think of what else might have done that?"

Spoiler: Knowledge check

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Taking 10 for 17 on a Knowledge (arcana) check if allowed.
If not, rolled check equals (1d20+7)[27]

[BelGareth]

Spoiler: Knowledge the planes DC 17

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A water elemental could be responsible for such an affect.

[J-H]

Casper

"Just a little trick I have to make sure I'm never outnumbered. Unless it's a bunch of bugs we're fighting."

He backs up the stairs as the water elemental(?) attacks his construct and destroys it. "That may be a spirit of elemental water. Let's not fight it in its home element. I could try stabbing it from afar, but it'd be like stabbing at a fish in the water, when the fish is water-colored, knows you're there, and is also made of water. No..."

[redzimmer]

Seramal

"Well, you think hot steam will hurt it?"

Letting actions answer her questions, Seramal fires a jet of steam at the last place the churning water was visible.

Spoiler: Rolls

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DC 13 reflex to save
Chance to hit? Concealment? I'll do a percentile and a D20, use whatever result with whatever relevant bonus on my PC sheet.
% (1d100)[54]
Any other requirement (1d20)[10]

Spell damage (2d4)[5]

[Deophaun]

Rose

Rose finishes affixing the sunrod to her belt before taking a rope to forms a harness around her chest. "Unless you have some spirit bait, I don't see us having much of a choice in terrain." She brandishes her two daggers. "A knife fight with water. That would be a new one."

"Sir Casper, if you could send another of those creatures in to draw the spirit to the surface, I'll leap in and strike it while it's distracted. I could also use a good, strong back on this rope to haul me back up if this creature gets too frisky. Who else is with me?"

[DrK]

Cyrius

The young cleric looks at the water, then at his armour and pulls a knife as well. "We can see how deep it goes Rose, but I cannot swim encased in steel. Draw it to the stairs and we can take it together. "

In the light of the sunrod you can see him looking nervous.

[rax]

Narl

"I'll hold your leash if you like, Mistress Rose. And Brother Cyrius, with all that armour on you could probably just walk under the water to strike at the elemental. Though I suppose there's the minor challenge of holding your breath in a fight to the death to consider," Narl chuckles.

[J-H]

Casper
Casper holds his longspear ready, able to stab into the water from a safe-ish distance.

[redzimmer]

Seramal

Seeing no real result from the steam, the sorceress instead summons another invisible servant to churn up the waters.

"Go frolic," she tell it.

Spoiler: Boom

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Wand charge.

[BelGareth]

The unseen servant does as it is bid, and enters the water. It has taken a few steps, and instead of the frothing water from before, this time it gets sucked under! This time, you can see the slight outline of some amorphous shape, perhaps it is a water elemental like Casper said!

~actions~

Spoiler

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You may take actions (like jumping in), roll initiative

Map

[rax]

Narl

"Aaand, here we go..." Narl whispers to himself, his eyes flicking from his companions to the commotion in the water...

Initiative: (1d20+1)[11]
Actions: Maintain grip on Rose's rope harness (free action); retrieve auran mask and put it on so that it's hanging about his neck (2x move action), i.e. he can't breathe through it without another move action to put it on properly.

[redzimmer]

Seramal

"Hang in there, Vizzy! You don't need to breathe!"

She moves closer, ready to launch another unseen servant.

Spoiler: Roll. Action

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(1d20+2)[9]
Move to Q15.
Wink suggestively at Fardus.

[Debatra]

Initiative: (1d20+1)[7]

[J-H]

Casper
Casper makes sure that the elemental is in range of his spear, concentrates, beginning to form another shark-like astral construct from the ether.

Spoiler

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Init (1d20+1)[16]

Step forward if necessary, so that I can AOO the elemental if it does anything provocative.
Spending 2pp, plus 1 from Wild Surge to get a 2nd level Astral Construct. It appears and acts on my turn next round. I'll deduct PP next round as well, in case we somehow kill it first.
Enervation check (1d100)[26] low is bad.

AOO if needed (1d20+4)[12] for (1d8+3)[6]

[Deophaun]

Rose

Rose takes a deep breath and leaps into the water, a pair of piercing daggers leading the way.

Spoiler: Actions

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Initiative: (1d20+4)[23]

If she reaches the creature before Casper's summon forms, uses distracting ember as a swift to gain flanking.

Standard: Wolf fang strike versus creature
Attack 1:(1d20+5)[21] Damage:(1d4+5)[7]
Attack 2:(1d20+5)[21] Damage:(1d4+5)[8]

Spoiler: Status

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HP:13/14
AC:17 Touch:13 Flat-footed:14
Fort:2 Ref:6 Will:4

Conditions:
Filter mask: +2 to saves against gas-based effects.
Island of blades: Flanking if Rose and ally are adjacent to the same creature.

[DrK]

Cyrius

the crusader looks in surprise as Rose leaps into the water and is relieved to see that she can stand up and not's deeper than her head. WIth his dagger he follows her in, splashing down the steps seeking to close the distance to the elemental creature. "I'm behind you Rose, do not fear" he calls out amidst the splashing and the intake of breath as the cold water floods under the half plate.

Spoiler: Cyrius

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Init (1d20-6)[11]

Free: Moves - Crusader strike, Stone bones, and (1d3)[1] vanguard, lead, douse
Move: advance 20ft towards the elemental, wading not swimming!
Swift: Go into martial spirit stance
Standard/move: If i can't reach it move again. Otherwise stab it!! Using Lead or Vanguard if I got them
- (1d20+4)[21] dam (1d4+3)[7] Heal 2 to Rose or Narl if either is still injured

[BelGareth]

As the unseen servant disappears before, either it was destroyed by the water elemental, or you can no longer see it, you spring into action, Casper summons another astral construct behind the elemental (if one can do such a thing to a creature that is in the same stuff that is it made up off), while the combined daring attacks of Cyrius and Rose, whose attacks are not as accurate in the water, nevertheless strike and destroy the thing. Sending it's body and soul back to the plane of water, where it most likely longed to be for however long it was stuck in this place.

Spoiler

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You defeated it, nice job!

[Deophaun]

Rose

Rose returns to the surface, soaked but otherwise unharmed for the dip. "Whatever that was, I do not think it will bother us again."

"I doubt this subterranean pool was a feature intended for a tomb of a Wind Duke. We should see what the water has claimed since its construction. Sir Narl, if I could trouble you to hold onto that rope for a bit longer. If I'm not back in a minute or you feel a sharp tug, please haul me back with all due haste."

Spoiler

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As Rose is carrying in excess of 17 lbs, she should be able to walk along the bottom of the pool without a swim check at half speed (20').

Search (take 10): 23
Spot (take 10): 14
Listen (take 10): 17

[redzimmer]

Seramal

The half-orc nods, satisfied the cursed bathing pond has been subdued.

"Helm's Codpiece, this wand is handy," she exclaims. "So what'll we smash next?"

[Debatra]

Tobul only manages to take a step or two forward before the creature's apparent destruction.

"Well... Alright then."

She nonetheless draws her sword for whatever else might be waiting for the group.