Fungus and dark vegetation grows in places on the roof and walls. Several doors line this room. A faint sloshing water sound can be heard coming from the west. The southern end of the room is flooded and it appears that there may have once been a wooden pier stretching into the water. The ceiling past the water has collapsed, leaving the southernmost end of the room nothing more than a pile of debris coming out of the water.
A dead body had been recently floating in the water, but Fortis used his magic to move it out of the water and turn it over on the stone floor of the chamber. It’s face, hands and stomach have all been eaten away, leaving it unidentifiable and quite disgusting to look at.
As Fortis examines the dead body at the edge of the water, several large crabs lurch out of the water waving their pincers in the air.
Fortis hovers out of reach of the on rushing crabs and asks Silver “would you like them cooked?” as he gathers a ball of light and flings it at the nearest crab.
“Normally I would wince at the attempt at humor, Fortis, but actually … I think boiled crab legs sounds quite scrumptious. Yes. So we don’t want to mess up the meat too much when we take them out. Maybe magic instead of brute force would be a good idea. Of course transporting them back out might be hefty work but we have some strong backs. Yes, maybe Fortis and I should handle this. My lightning bolts might actually do more good with the water to help spread the shock.” Valinya rubs her airy hands together with a lean and hungry look in her eyes.
“Okay then, Arn, Silver, stay back and let the airborne handle these critters. If they attack, of course, defend yourselves, but otherwise let’s let them have at it.” Seeing that there are several other entrances to the room, Seeker keeps his back to the wall and an eye out for trouble coming from an unexpected quarter. No sense putting our ground troops in danger if the fliers can deal with things from a safe distance. Not suer how long we’ll be down here, or how deep it goes. If we can avoid getting our front line injured over some seafood, so much the better.
“OK, Fortis, let’s grab dinner.” Valinya happily sings her song, building a charge of lightning crackling around her hand, building it to the right size.
Silver maneuvers around the water, staying clear of the water but looking for a way to line up as many crabs as possible. As she does so she calls out “Are you sure you don’t want me to cook them all now? They’re kind of like fish but with hard shells, right?”
Fortis absentmindedly tosses the sunbolt into the path of the nearest crab, attempting to send it back into the water, and demures to his companions. “If you feel you want the practice then go ahead and roast them Silver, but be very careful not to ignite the corpse. There may still be clues to be gathered or inferences to be made. Actually, as soon as you are finished cooking and dining it may be a good opportunity to view the History of this place to determine the nature of his demise. I’m assuming that he didn’t walk in alone and stab himself in the back.”
The crabs do not seem to want a fight, they just want their dinner back. As Fortis backs away from the body, the crustaceans crawl up and begin crawling over it and attempting to drag it back into the water.
“Hmm, roasted crab. That actually might be as good as boiled, though of course the intrinsic spices used to boil would be missing. However the heat on the surrounding water might add a bit of a steamed component. That … could actually be pretty interesting, to have a combination of roasted and steamed at at the same time. Yes! Please do Silver, I’d love to try it. This is fun!” Still, she tosses her lightning bolt at a crab … no need to waste a spell
Silver glances over at Valinya, to see if she’s throwing more lightning. Seeing she isn’t right away, Silver moves up towards the nearest crab. “If you want me to not roast the corpse, I’m not going to be able to bake them with them doing this…” SIlver instead moves up to attempt to bite one of the crabs from behind.
One crab scuttles back away from Fortis’s sunbolt and the other one fairly explodes after being hit by Valinya’s lightning bolt. Silver scoops one up in her draconic maw and its pincers, now much smaller looking hanging out of a Dragon’s mouth, snap wildly, trying to find purchase on dragonscale. The remaining crab flees back toward the water and disappears into the darkness. A grating crunch signals the end for the crustacean trapped behind Silver’s teeth. Fingers of flame sneak out and smoke curls up from Silver’s nose as she chews and swallows the now dragon-flame cooked meal.
The Ellyl smiles at his friends, marveling at their ability to feast on life’s bounty as he drags the corpse into the driest position before continuing his investigation. “Does anyone else want to examine the body in more detail? If so, would additional light help you?” He peers at the partially destroyed remains. “Perhaps one of you would be interested in inventorying anything he had remaining on him while I take a more thorough look at his wounds?”
Seeing her crab explode, Fortis’ run, Silver’s eaten and the other escape Valinya looks crestfallen. She looks around to see if there are any more crabs. She sticks out her little girl pouty lip and moans, “Now I’ll never get to eat steamed-roasted crabs. Well, at least not soon.” Turning to the body she wrinkles her nose and makes a yucky face. “That is rather disgusting. I’ll pass on the examination, thank you. I’ll take a moment to rest and recover and leave you to that particular brand of fun.” Moving off she prepares herself to meditation and renew her magical energy.
Seeker pushes off the wall and looks to Moonscar. “Brother, I’ll go check out the corpse. You’re on sentry.” He skirts the crab fest and approaches the dead body. He squints in the gloom. “Actually, Fortis, if you could give me another light source, that would be handy. Thanks for offering.” Maybe if I keep rewarding him for selfless or good behaviors, he’ll start learning better how to differentiate between good and evil choices.
With barely a thought Fortis provides a Continual Light source for Seeker, anchoring the spell on the buckle of his harness near the Wolfen’s left shoulder, just where he indicated it would be most convenient for him.
Seeker says, “Thanks, that helps a lot.” Eyeballing the corpse in ti’s rags, he turns and says hopefully, “Hey, Valinya, is this guy dressed like Penkus from your vision? Or can you tell?” He carefully and efficiently searches the body for anything useful or unusual. Hmmm, how long has this guy been dead? The crabs have done some work on him - how long might that have taken?
Looking over Valinya lets Seeker know … “Given the poor condition of the body and clothing it’s impossible to tell but with the degree of decay and my recent vision it’s extremely unlikely. My vision showed that Penkus was further on, past that western door, though of course he could have moved since I cast the spell.” That said she resumes her meditation.
The body is bloated and gnawed upon to the point that it is barely recognised as Human. It is believed to be a male but there is no actual proof to that. What clothing remains is ruined and falling apart. Seeker guesses that it's been here for a couple of weeks. It's smell is quite powerful and both Seeker and Moonscar have to cover their snouts after a few minutes. Fortis thinks the body may have suffered some knife or sword wounds to the back but it's nearly impossible to tell. There is nothing of value on the body and nothing of any type of identification.
After failing to gain any insight from the examination Fortis turns to the History spell for answers and exerts himself sufficiently to see the events of this room for the past month.
Fortis casts his spell and determines the recent history of the room. His spell tells him that from the timespan of about a month ago til about 2 weeks ago, nothing exciting at all has been going on in this chamber. The water ebbs and flows a bit in the southern part of the room. Occasionally the crabs clamber out onto the flagstones, but not often. About 2 weeks ago, though, a group of maybe three people came through here, for some reason it is hard to tell exactly how many were in the group. They came from the eastern double doors and went through the western door. A short while later one of them came running back out and was then viciously attacked by “something”, but the information on what that “something” was is not clear. The attacked person perished and fell at the edge of the water. The “something” then exited through the eastern door. Another short while later after that, another of the original group came crawling back through the western door. It was a Coyle. The Coyle tried to help it’s dead companion and then the northernmost east door opened and several shambling undead entered. They attacked the Coyle and killed him. Before they dragged him off, back through the same door they entered through, they approached the open western door, slowly and carefully, then slammed it closed. Several of them rammed their entire bodies into the door, making sure it was securely closed before leaving. Over the next two weeks, up to the present time, the crabs spent much time pulling and moving the body, just a little bit at a time, eventually, with the help of rising and lowering waters, got the body into the pool, where they proceeded to feast upon his face and submerged sides. Several other small marine creatures also partook in the free meal. A few times throughout the last 2 weeks, one or the other of the eastern doors would open and three to four undead creatures would wander in. They would walk around the room opening and closing the doors. They would never mess with the western door though and seemed to avoid the pool of water to the south. Fortis shakes his head as he explains what he saw, thinking the situation to be quite strange.
Finishing his search of the corpse, Seeker wanders over to where the body was found. He keeps an eye out for any of the crabs that got away, and wades out into the water, searching the area for anything that might have fallen off the body. Be careful, man, those crabs could have friends. Remember what you just told yourself about minimizing injury to the front line?
Seeker finds nothing but water, rocks, the remains of what looks like a pier, some crabs and a few eels. The crabs and eels begin to harass Seeker but they quickly learn it is best to leave him alone.
After that, he takes it upon himself to start checking out the other doors. Based on Fortis’ vision, he starts with the one in the northeast corner of the room. Best not to get flanked by any strange creatures. Fortis said that the creatures he saw in his vision went out through these doors. And they took the body of the Coyle this way. Maybe we can find that body and get some better idea what’s going on down here.
All the doors in the room are wooden and waterlogged like the one the group entered through. They are all jammed firmly into their frames. None of them appear to have any kind of locking mechanism, though remnants of what might have been bars can be detected. The hinges and hardware on all of them are old, crude and rusted.
After listening to Fortis' recounting the recent events in the cavern the druid offers, "Well, I think when we get back I'll try looking for Vanthus in a different manner. Perhaps the differences in the Path of Wisdom will bypass the protections of the Path of Power. I don't know much about that but likewise you guys don't know much about the Path of Wisdom - sometimes that makes a difference. Until then, Silver, would you please roast the corpses behind Door Number 3 before they decide to pay us a visit?"
Fortis looks quizzically at Moonscar “Why would we risk opening the door when we can put a little hole in it, see what is on the other side, dispatch it if we need to and use the door as a barrier if we need the security?”
Moonscar yawns and shrugs, "Flames versus walking corpses. I like those odds better than walking corpses versus doors that they know how to open. Of course, if we can convince them that we're even scarier than whoever's behind Door Number one then that could work to our advantage. . ."
While Moonscar and Fortis discuss, Seeker, seeing an axe in his hand, attacks the door. Wel, isn’t that convenient! The chopping noise echoes in the subterranean chamber, bouncing off the walls and the water. He’ll first attempt to make a hole in the door to see through, but if nothing untoward shows itself, he will continue chopping until the door is reduced to (soggy) kindling.
Seeker makes quick work on the soggy door and has a hole he can see through fairly quickly, though his hacking has ended up opening the door. It swings out into a small chamber a few inches at a time as the Wolfen pummels it. Seeker can see the space is about 5 foot square and another soggy wooden door lies directly across from the first.
Floating over after being refreshed, Valinya says, “You know, I could just float under or through the doors to see what lies beyond … unless you like the exercise. It does make your muscles flex nicely but the facial contortion isn’t as flattering.” After a pause she adds, “Though admittedly I’m not an expert on Wolfen tastes.”
What’s Behind Door #1?
Not to be outdone by Valinya in the offering of alternative solutions Fortis flies over to Seeker and extends his hands. “Or, if you prefer to use a slightly quieter and less destructive tool you could use one of these” A bit and brace appears in his doubles grasp, presented almost like a sword in a knighting ceremony. “If you would like this at any time, please let me know. Do remember though that if you put it down it will disappear.” The Ellyl extends his tiny arms to their fullest extent, as if urging Seeker to take the drill.
As Seeker creates a new vantage through the old door, Moonscar swaps his knife for his bow in preparation to deal with whatever may come to investigate the noise, leaving his readied cloak wrapped around his forearm.
Silver pokes around for another crab, but they all seem to have run off. She doesn’t make the effort to wade into the water after them, and instead turns to look at the doors. She follows Seeker over to the eastern door ((#5)) and waits for an opportunity to help out. “I could help dry out that wood, although it might make it a bit smokey in here”
Seeker shrugs and takes the mechanical device from Fortis’ hands. I’ve heard of these things, but never had a chance to use one. He crosses the small room and tries the second door. Finding it also tough to open, he applies the bit and brace to the door to get a peephole. Hope the hole is big enough to get some light through so we can see what’s up on the other side.
Unfortunately, Fortis’s magical tool does not work as intended and Seeker cannot get the tool to turn smoothly. He resorts to just poking the bit into the door until he finds a sufficiently soft spot then wiggles it back and forth until it creates a hole in the wet wood. He leans over and peers into it then pulls his head back and looks at Fortis.
As I was afraid of. “Um, Fortis, can you take a look?” He gestures at the tiny hole the tool had been able to make. “I can’t get my eye and a light source to line up correctly, and your eyes are better,” asks Seeker.
Fortis hovers about a foot from the door so that his line of sight is even with the new hole and peers into the room beyond. He keeps enough distance that a few rays of light just manage to make their way through from Seekers buckle.
Without a light source in the other room, it is very difficult to see anything, but Fortis believes that he can make out another chamber less than 20 feet across. Another door can be seen on the other side of the room, directly across from the one he is looking through. The room is wider than he can see through the narrow opening in the door. He cannot make out any other details of the space besides it looks similar to the rooms already seen: rotting wooden post supporting a sagging roof, wet, uneven brick-lined floors and walls. The door across the next room appears to open inward, opposite of the one he is peeking through.
Fortis relays his observations to his teammates.
Seeker shrugs and drops the bit-and-brace-shaped object, observing as it vanishes before it even hits the ground. Cool! That could have other uses - perhaps for simpler objects? Things Fortis could actually make? Although giant-sized for him, I guess. Man, it must be weird living in his preserve. Everything so tiny...
“Thanks, Fortis, it was worth a try.”
Realizing that he might have overlooked something, he checks the door to make sure it is not already open. It isn’t. He readies his axe and proceeds to make a way into the next room. He stops every few swings, at a random interval, pausing to listen in case there are any of the creatures Fortis reported shuffling about on the far side of the door. “Always take the opportunity to keep your foe on the defensive.” Yea, yea, thanks, Father.
Silver maintains a bit of space behind Seeker so she doesn’t get hit on his backswing as he chops at the door. “OK, I’ll take that as a ‘no’ then.” She hunkers down a bit and waits to see what’s on the other side of the door.
Seeker’s ear twitches. “Oh, sorry, Silver. I thought you were joking.” Gotta remember that Silver takes fire and fire-related stuff really seriously. He eyeballs the door. “I think trying to dry it out would, like you said, make it smoky in here.” He grins sheepishly. “And I don’t mind the exercise.” Growling quietly to himself, he resumes his attacks on the soggy wooden door.
After just a few swings of the axe, the door opens about a quarter of the way, its sodden bottom edge dragging heavily on the brick floor. With a push and a shove, Seeker pops the door all the way open, letting his light spill into the dark, brick lined room.
With Fortis and Seeker investigating the northeastern door the available light in the main room diminishes. Only Arn, with his magical Demonslayers helmet can fully see in the dark. The deepening shadows play havoc on Moonscar and Valinya’s eyes. Arn positions himself near the door the group entered, with his back toward the wall so he can see every one of the doors in and out of this room as well as Valinya, Moonscar and Fortis. The only thing he cannot see is the water behind him and to the left. Moonscar stands across the room, next to one of the rotting wooden support poles. He too can see all of his companions and each of the 5 entrances to this room as well as a good view of the water behind Arn. Valinya stands near Arn, by the double doors the group initially came through to get into this room.
As Seeker, with Silver right behind him, starts to investigate the small chamber, Seeker hears the tell-tale sound of the far door being pushed upon. It shakes in its frame a few times then, with a rough grating sound, is pushed open about halfway before getting stuck against an uneven brick in the floor…
At nearly the same time. Valinya calls Arn’s attention back down the hallway they first came in through. She hears the sound of doors being pushed open down at the far end, past where they entered the complex of rooms.
The Bloated Dead
Bloated, dead bodies push through both doors, arms outstretched and jagged teeth gnashing, vacant, dull eyes staring down at the floor, or off to the side, but nevertheless, the zombies are drawn toward the life essence of the living.
Seeker thinks quickly. “Arn, Val, Moonscar! We’ve got two fronts! If you need to, fall back into this room. Silver, let’s take care of them in here. Maybe use that idea you had for drying out the doors for torching these guys. Don’t let them get around us!” He catches himself before giving a task to Fortis.He’s made it clear that his ego can’t handle any sort of attempt to coordinate with others during a battle. Hopefully, if I can get the rest working well together, he’ll come to appreciate the merits.
As soon as he hears the scraping of the doors Moonscar snatches the waiting arrow from his enchanted quiver muttering, "Mm hmm, right on cue. I just wonder if it's anyone we knew. . ." He heads swiftly toward Valinya as he answers Seeker, "Covering Sis and Uncle; let's see what an arrow will do to these things. Suj-dahk means they're about to get into the main room,¨ then raises his bow to draw and aim down the hallway as he takes position next to her.
Despite his years of dangerous living and anticipation of trouble Fortis appears flummoxed by suddenly being surrounded by ravenous hordes of flesh eating zombies which, if one were to consider for a moment, is a perfectly reasonable thing by which one might be flummoxed.
Arn steps up and readies his shield and mace while Valinya takes a step back, making room for the Dwarf to advance. She sings a quick melody and flicks her wrist at a spot on the ceiling about halfway down the hallway and a faint, glowing light appears, giving just a little bit of illumination.
Meanwhile, back in the other chamber, Seeker crouches and scans the room for a tactical advantage as he backs up, giving room to Silver and her fire breath. Silver steps up and lets loose a fiery blast from her toothy maw, filling the corridor with flames and momentarily engulfing the advancing Zombies. It catches the Zombie on the right full on while the one on the left is protected somewhat by the door frame and shape of the corridor. Both Zombies are now on fire, one considerably more so than the other. The Zombie that is completely engulfed stumbles and falls to the floor but the other one lurches into the room, its tattered clothes slowly burning. It maneuvers away from the smoking jaws of the Dragon and invades Seeker’s space.
The other Zombies shamble down the hallway toward Valinya, Arn and Moonscar, making it about as far as Valinya’s pale magical light.
The little archer draws his bow back and prepares to relieve the bloating of the nearest advancing zombie. When Valinya’s light provides a better view he wrinkles his nose and comments,” “Oh, I am so not biting that throat.”
Seeker hastily steps back from the flaming monstrosity. Okay, so maybe lighting zombies on fire wasn’t a good idea. Good to know! He swings his throwing axe at the zombie, hoping to finish it quickly. His step back exposes some loose ground, so when his attack seems to miss, the zombie stumbles into it’s path! Hey, where’s Fortis? Usually he’s tossed off a sunbolt or something by now. At the very least some color commentary. He sneaks a look over his shoulder. Wait a minute! Is he flummoxed? He is! Fortis is flummoxed! Guess these nasties caught him way off-guard. I hardly ever see him flummoxed. Gotta make sure I draw a picture of that when we get a moment to rest.
The Zombie doubles over as Seeker strikes him. It makes some incomprehensible noise that Seeker imagines must be something like “I still want to eat your insides…” or something like that.
Wrinkling her nose at the very sight of the shuffling undead, almost anticipating the stench, Valinya quickly hums a staticy melody to conjure a bolt of lightning in her hand. Without even mimicking a throw she mentally commands it to leap towards the nasty body, willing it to explode the vile thing.
The Zombie takes the full blast of Valinya’s lightning bolt. It’s thick, bloated flesh ripples and pops as the electricity courses through it but the abomination keeps its feet and shambles forward with its companions.
Quickly regaining his mental awareness Fortis blasts the zombie engaging Seeker with a rapidly flung sunbolt hoping to kill it, permanently this time, or at least drive it back so Seeker has more room to maneuver.
The bolt sizzles as it punctures the fleshy torso of the zombie. A muffled popping sound is heard from somewhere inside the creature as it keels over, falling flat on its face between Seeker and Silver. The other Zombie, the burning one, is struggling to get to his feet in the doorway across the room. A little ways past it, Seeker can see another Zombie, maybe more, making its way through the corridor. Silver watches the burning Zombie in the doorway ahead and advances on it slowly as it pulls itself to a kneeling position. Silver sees two more Zombies appear in the hallway behind the burning one.
Arn charges forward, running right through the airy form of Valinya. A quick “sorry lass” from the Dwarf is rewarded with a slight giggle from the Elf maid. Arn flings his bat-mace wildly down the hall at the rightmost approaching Zombie then takes up a defensive stance as he waits for his magical weapon to fly back to his waiting hand. The mace strikes the bloated Zombie square in the chest, sending him staggering backward but not down.
Moonscar watches as Olum Scian Kanat flies back to Arn’s hand out of the corner of his eye, the whole time aiming at the Zombie in the middle. He spots some movement beyond the three approaching menaces and calls out “More rotters coming up from further in!”
The three Zombies in the hallway continue their advance, though two of them are slowed by the injuries they sustained from axe and bolt. Moonscar keeps his aim on the faster one in the middle who is quickly approaching Arn’s position. The Kankoran knows he needs to let his arrow fly soon if he wants to take advantage of his aim.
Seeing the zombie drop from Fortis’ spell bolt, Seeker gives a quick “Thanks, man!” He calls out, “Don’t hold back, folks! These guys are tough!” He moves across the tiny room to try and create a bottleneck. Don’t want to get swarmed by these monsters. I learned that on Firewatch Island!
Moonscar takes a step back as he fires his arrow at the approaching zombie and asks, "Sis, can you do anything to the floor to slow them down?"
He growls in frustration as the arrow flies past his target down the dark corridor and hopes it skewers one of the second stinking wave.
Silver shuffles briefly to get the best angle she can and blows flame through the doorway and down the corridor again, hoping to get as many Zombies as possible.
Craning his neck around Seeker, so as to not burn his companion, Silver sees that his flame breath managed to catch two of the three Zombies. A second one in the hallway is now burning in addition to the one that is kneeling.
Valinya couldn’t repress the giggle as Arn walked through her … it tickled so! But this was certainly no laughing matter. Floating backwards slowly she again summons the power of the storm to channel lightning to her hand and then willing it to strike her same opponent … he WILL go down this time. As she does so she responds to Moonscar saying, “I think we should back out and trap them in that room for now.”
The Zombie makes a futile attempt to dodge the oncoming bolt of lightning. It strikes the Zombie in the shoulder, sending a shower of blue sparks coursing over its bloated, dead body. The Zombie goes rigid and then falls over to the ground, stunned but not defeated.
Fortis flings another Sunbolt at the zombie closest to the group seeking to disable them from as far away as possible to keep Arn and Seeker clear of any opportunity to get themselves bitten by the vile undead.
Fortis threads his shot just past his companions and watches as it strikes one of the flaming zombies. The abomination moans as the Sunbolt explodes on its rubbery skin.
Seeing Moonscar’s arrow miss its mark on the approaching Zombie, Arn raises his shield and charges forward, screaming “Rolling Thunder!” He slams into his foe, crushing rotting bones and bruising undead flesh. The Zombie flies backward and falls to the ground, stunned. Arn stops at his feet, breathing heavily from his heroic charge, ready and waiting for the next Zombie to get into range.
The Zombies surge forward, most more slowly than before because of their new wounds. A few of them fall forward, their undead energy leaving their bodies. The two downed Zombies in front of Arn shake their stunned condition and start to move to get up. More zombies can be seen approaching down the main hallway toward Arn, Valinya and Moonscar from the areas beyond their vision. Arn bangs his mace on his shield and shouts “Bring it on!”
The sound of Zombie groans and growls echo off the dripping and mildew covered bricks that line the walls of the tunnels.
Thinking back to his last encounter with soggy zombies Fortis summons a pillar of daylight cantered in the middle of the hall through which the zombies are approaching. “Even if this doesn't hurt them at least everyone will be able to see. And if I maintain it long enough it may help alleviate the pervasive mildew problem.”
Seeing that her lightning isn’t as effective as desired Valinya changes tactics, opting for more of defensive approach. Floating closer she sings to one of the shambling newer arrivals hoping to deprive it of sight. To her comrades she says, “I’ll blind them, you bust them.”
Valinya’s intended Zombie target pauses for a moment, bringing its hands up toward its face, confused as to why it can no longer see.
Much encouraged by the improved visibility Moonscar grabs and draws a second arrow calling out, "Okay Sis, light 'em up! Just give me some light too so that I can hit them."
Seeker growls and brings his axe across and into the zombie’s head, then shifts his stance to prepare for the one that slipped around him. “Just two left over here! How you guys doing?” Should I push through, try for a flanking move? Or turn around and go back the way we came? ”Silver, you got my flank here?”
Moonscar calls in reply, "Uncle's got three down but still twitching. Looks like a full paw on the way in a couple more waves.”
Fortis takes a moment to observe the reaction of the zombies to the brilliant sunlight. “Does anyone one see the zombies being affected by the sunlight like the drowned ones were?”
The Zombies lean back, surprised at the bright light in the corridor, but do not seem affected by it. The Zombie that took an axe to the head, on the other paw, was very affected and falls to the ground at Seekers bare feet.
