Seeing that Silver is a bit banged up by the recent cave in, Valinya casts a spell to magically heal the dragon while Seeker advances to keep up with Arn.
Moonscar sees that some of the Harpies have little pouches and clay vials strung at their belts.
He scans the prone thugs quickly for Bags of Naughty Tentacle Terrain Control or other useful tricks. “Cousin Magpie,” he calls to Fortis, “Can you see any magic tricks on any of these guys?”
Fortis listens to Moonscar's request and quickly scans the fallen Sea Harpies for magical auras and sees that some of the pouches and things hanging from some of the Sea Harpy belts radiate magic, but some of them are turned and laying in a way that it makes it hard to see everything in just one second.
Silver charges down the hallway, following Seeker and Arn,trampling right over the fallen Sea Harpies.
Cruncher continues savaging the downed Sea Harpy around the corner.
Arn continues down the hallway, running and looking for bad guys and Seeker advances to keep up with Arn.
Valinya says "Yes, I see that some of the items at their belts radiate magic as well. " She points at the one at her feet. "That clay pot and that pouch are both magic!"
Moonscar calls out, “Let's grab what we can quickly and catch up. Use their toys against them!”
Cruncher says "Grrrrrr" and looks at Silver with narrowed eyes as the Dragon approaches.
Arn continues his charge, hoping to find an enemy to hurl his enchanted mace into. He rounds the corner and sees an empty hallway, a closed door to his right. The Dwarf’s momentum carries him to the door on his left and he attempts to bash through it with his shield up. The door was not locked, just a bit stubborn in its jamb and flies open at Arn's shield bash.
The smell in this room is almost overpowering. Broken and gnawed bones line the floor. No lights burn in here and a pile of decomposing animal carcasses sit in one corner. Some ratty, torn up blankets lie in the other corner. This is probably Cruncher's lair. Another closed door leads south. No Sea Harpies are present.
Valinya floats about the room, pointing out several magical items to Moonscar. Fortis moves up to support his companions pointing out any trinkets Valinya failed to communicate to Moonscar.
Seeker charges up the corridor and through the door next to Arn. He calls out, “It's through there, Arn”
Arn replies, “I'm on it lad!”
Moonscar says, “Thanks Cousin, Sis! We need to spot any doors - don't want to get jumped from behind.” The Druid starts grabbing up what he can see and tucking it into the empty pouches of my harness. Moonscar starts looting the second Sea Harpy, rummaging around in the dark trying to find the Sea Harpies belt.
Valinya replies, "Ill watch the back way, Moonscar."Then adds, "Ill get some light!"
Fortis is in nearly complete darkness and can barely make out the light coming from around the corner to where Seeker and Arn ran off to.
Cruncher continues tearing the dead Sea Harpy limb from limb.
Arn continues further, turning left and heading south to the next door, looking to bash through that one as well. Again, the door flies open violently, slamming into the wall beyond it.
Fortis finds himself in an abnormally dark place and pauses for a moment to cast Continual Light at Moonlight strength
Moonscar thinks of traditional Kankoran tactics - ambush in a clearing, fall back and ambush surviving pursuit in another. This complex models the concept reasonably well and he worries about Arn charging into one!
Seeker see caltrops in the doorway. The only way past them would be to jump over altogether. He calls out "Careful, Silver! Caltrops in the doorway!" as he runs forward and then bounces through the doorway, avoiding some caltrops on the ground.
Valinya casts a continual light spell on Sunstroke, Moonscar’s Ironwood staff.
Valinya says "That better, Moonscar?"
Moonscar blinks, “Woah! Uh, yeah! Thanks!”
With better light to see by, Moonscar then finds a black pouch and a small clay pot that Valinya indicates are both magical
Valinya says "The dazed guy behind you has some on his belt too!"
Moonscar puts pouches on the left side of his harness and vials on the right.
Silver Silver approaches carefully, examining the ground ahead of her, not wanting to step on any caltrops!
Ahead of him, Arn sees a door and a hallway, both heading west.
Arn continues the same charge, hoping to leap past any caltrops or issues on the floor and attempts to slam into the door.
This room feels a little drier than the others in the complex, and the air smells slightly less musty. The room itself is furnished as a lounge, complete with stuffed couch and low table. Several lamps hang from the walls, but they are not lit. The ceiling is 10’ high.
Fortis moves forward to support the charging maniacs he considers friends.
Seeker does recall that there should be a passage that way but the wall he is looking at appears to be real, possibly like the one that had been blocking up the main entry way earlier. He stops short. "Hey! There should be a passageway here." He tries to disbelieve in case it is some sort of illusion blocking the passage.
Seeker stares at the damp, brickwork wall ahead of him and calls "Okay, Arn, clear that room and the one beyond it. Let's rally here."
Seeker ponders "If they have an Earth mage who can create walls, they can probably do what Valinya does and carve out new passages. The map Eilar gave us may be deceptive."
Moonscar is busy snagging tricky treats while Silver moves up slowly, being careful to avoid the caltrops. Arn moves into the room to make sure it is clear and look around to see if it leads to yet more areas and continues his momentum into the next visible door, turning his Dwarven form into a door smashing juggernaut! Another door goes flying open in Arn's wake
Arn sees that the next room contains two fairly comfortable looking bunks. A small table sits between them against the far wall. The sheets on them only sport a few spots of mildew. There are no light sources in this room. Fortis stops in the room and takes a moment to help regather the dispersed raiding force and calls to his new thrall, "Cruncher, please come here." Fortis hears Cruncher make an almost cute doggie noise somewhere behind him in the darkness
Seeker can see that the room that Fortis and Arn are in has a much higher ceiling than the short hallway he is still in. He moves into the taller room and says, "Okay, let's take five, folk. I think they walled us off again, so we will probably need Val to work her mojo."
Back behind the main group, Valinya and Moonscar pick over the defeated Sea Harpies. Valinya says, "Should we hurry to catch up with our companions? Who knows how far ahead they have gotten."
Moonscar agrees with Valinya, “I think so Sis - let's wrap it up,” as he finds yet another black pouch and clay pot.
Looking at a dazed Sea Harpy, Moonscar says, “This one looks like he can answer some questions in a minute or so - can you keep him drooly enough to bring along maybe?”
Valinya says "Come’on Moonscar, they went this way!" The two companions hurry ahead to catch up with their friends.
Silver sees that all of his companions have gone through the doorway ahead so she moves up to follow the crazy Dwarf. Arn investigates the next room but doesn't see anything interesting.
Fortis rests while the others continue exploring. He calls to the Worg again, "Cruncher, please come here. I need to ask you something." A distant yelp indicates that Cruncher is approaching.
Seeker stretches and cracks his neck. "Everybody okay?"
As Silver moves forward, she is confused by the lack of opposition, "Hmm, where's all the Harpies?" she says to Arn who has moved on to the next darkened area ahead but finds no further avenues of forward progress.
From somewhere nearby, Fortis hears Cruncher cry out in pain! This prompts Seeker to move to the other door to warn Moonscar of the caltrops while Fortis looks to see what happened to Cruncher. Seeker greets the now hobbled Worg in Wolfen, "Oh, hi, Cruncher." Cruncher is hunched over in the hallway outside the room, gnawing violently at his feet. He seems to have run afoul of the caltrops.
Moonscar and Val finally catch up tot the group, Cruncher growls at Moonscar, and Silver some more.
Seeker points to the new wall that is not indicated on the map that Eliar provided for them. "They're trying to slow us down with another wall, Val."
Moonscar adds, “We have a door left back here to check and drooling harpy we could question.”
Fortis looks around at the others, “If someone would kindly help Cruncher I'd like to heal him so he can continue to help us.”
Seeker says, in Wolfen, “You want me to look at those paws, bug guy?"
Seeker says in Wolfen, “You want me to look at those paws, big guy?"
Cruncher says in Wolfen, ““Yes, please. If you hurt me, I will bite you." The Worg then looks to Fortis for reassurance.
Moonscar puts his hood up to hide his silent laughter.
Fortis says, “These are my friends Cruncher, We would like to help you and like you to help us.”
Seeker says, "They've blocked off the passageway we wanted to go down; If we want, we could try and bore through here like we did before." His eyes gleam. "Or, we could bore through the wall of that far room and hopefully come out somewhere they don't expect."
Cruncher says "Ok. But do I get to savage some more?"
Valinya checks out the new wall.
Moonscar says, “I grabbed a couple of those tentacle bags - at least I think that's what's in them - and a couple of other magic vials”
Valinya says "Um, or we could just walk through. Its an illusion."
Seeker kneels by the Worg and gently picks up a paw.
Fortis says, “Yes, you can savage them some more later. Have they hurt you?”
Cruncher says "Your Dwarf hurt me with his mace. And those spikes."
Fortis says, “The dwarf thought you were going to eat the Kankoran... do you remember threatening to do that?”
Cruncher responds, "I still might if I get the chance."
Moonscar says, “Little Sister got trapped on the far side of the explosion and is waiting for us. At least the boat is guarded.”
Silver says, “Well, if that's an illusion, why are we waiting here?”
Seeker says, "Okay, good point, Silver. Are we ready to press on? The fake wall is to slow us down. Be nice if it didn't…”
Fortis looks at Cruncher, checking over his wounds. The Worg looks to be pretty seriously wounded.
Fortis says, “Well, the Kankoran is my friend, and a druid. I would have thought you would have had more respect for the wild places,” while Seeker removes the caltrops from Cruncher's paws. The Ellyl continues, “What can you tell us about the Lady Lotus while I heal your wounded paws
We need to find her.”
Cruncher says, "The Lady is good to me. She feeds me good meat, takes me to run, gives me play things to savage! The other two-legs here are scared, they stay away. I want to eat the Lady's pet though, he smells funny."
Fortis casts Major Healing on the remainder of Cruncher wounds, drawing on Narcelissa's necklace for power. Fortis asks, “Different how? and do you know where the Lady Lotus is?”
Cruncher says "Umm, yea, kinda. But not like these two legs. He's like your dragon there, but different."
Silver perks up at this comment. “Like me?” she asks.
Seeker muses, "Interesting."
Cruncher responds, "Kinda. It don’t have those wings and he’s green. Smells nasty. He’s mean"
Fortis shifts his illusion to imitate the description. "Like this?"
Cruncher says "I like mean, but she won’t let me play with ‘em. And by play, I mean eat."
Moonscar asks, “Hmm - does he always look that way - or does he look the rest sometimes?”
Cruncher answers, "He looks like that every time I seen it. "
Moonscar turns to Seeker, “We've ran into a couple of different kinds of reptile assassins before - think you'll recognize any of their scents brother? We may have found one of our quarry after all. . .”
Cruncher looks at the tiny green dragon illusion cloaking Fortis and says "Greener. Thicker scales. the spiky thing on the back looks good. It's got them front legs, but they are too short to run on."
Fortis modifies the illusion according to Crunchers corrective descriptions until he has a decent approximation and Cruncher looks it over, nodding. He says "Yes, that’s more like it, but with the thicker scales and the yellow fin. And bigger, more this dragon's size, not tiny like a puppy."
The illusion that Fortis is now wearing does not look like any Chaos Lord agents that have been battled before. It looks like a small, wingless dragon. Moonscar looks the illusion over carefully and sifts through his memory of Chaos agents that have been encountered but comes up with nothing. He turns to Seeker and Valinya, “Brother, Sis, any recall?”
Fortis asks again, “Do you know where the Lady Lotus is?” and then another, “Do you know who was casting magic in here?”
Cruncher looks as if he is getting confused with too many questions at once. Fortis slows down and concentrates his questions on the Lady Lotus. Moonscar chimes in, “Hey Cousin - keep that face up for a while - could be handy!”
Cruncher says "The Lady is probably in her chambers, I don’t know where that is. Beyond the training hall, I don't go back there. I can wander some hallways but not them all."
Valinya says "Hey are we gonna do anything about this illusion wall? You know we can walk right through it right?"
Arn chimes in...."Illusionary wall? send me through!"
Seeker says, “Okay, we ready to go? They know we're here - they're probably trying to leave”
Moonscar adds, “Or setting traps. Yup, let's course on”
Silver tries to poke her head through the wall. She sees past the illusion, a long hallway stretches out, some passages to either side and a T intersection at the end.
Fortis speaks to the Worg, “Cruncher, if you go find Lady Lotus and savage any Sea Harpies who get in your way well see about letting you play with her pet wingless dragon. I think you might be fiercer than it is. What do you think?
All of the sudden, another explosion rocks the compound. Dust and debris fall from the ceiling
Silver sees an arm poke out of one of the passageways on the left and fling two small objects down the hallway.
Silver takes a breath and breathes flame down the hallway
Another patch of tendrils appears a ways down the hallway and dark spot appears past that.
