Home for Monsters (Part 5)

The treasure stands before you glittering and golden, a faint hissing sound emanating from the room which holds another door just beyond the golden coins and gems. Behind you lies the wolfcubs, and the corpses of the wolves that you've slain. The question now is... what you are going to do next?

GAME: Walery rolls perception: (13)+9: 22

Heinrich walks a step or two into the treasure room, to get out of the doorway. He prods the treasure gingerly with his falchion.

GAME: Heinrich rolls Perception: (15)+6: 21

As you draw closer to the pile of gold you realize that the gold looks a lot like scales, and before Heinrich can draw back from prodding the golden horde a great snake rises up out of the treasure. It is golden in color, with a great black mark on the back of its head. It is difficult to see the mark because the snake towers over you, its golden eyes piercing.

GAME: Walery activates his Titan Armor, gaining: +4 Dex
GAME: Walery rolls 1d20+10: (17)+10: 27
GAME: Walery rolls 3d6+5: (13)+5: 18
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+8: (11)+8: 19

Walery acks as the golden snake appears where there was just gold before. No wonder they'd missed it before! Walery doesn't much like snakes, you don't get them often in the lab, and this one looks menacing, so he shoulders his death ray, inserts a brass thing with fiery looking runes, and fires a bolt of raw fire at the critter. This is by way of him trying to get it to go away.

GAME: Heinrich rolls fortitude: (3)+8: 11
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d4+2: (2)+2: 4
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d4: (1): 1

The snake descends upon Heinrich, and bites him on the shoulder. It's fangs seem to barely pierce his body, but the man falls to the ground limply.

GAME: Niara rolls scimitar: aliased to bab+dexterity+1+1+1: (9)+5+5+1+1+1: 22
GAME: Niara rolls scdam+5: aliased to 1d6+dexterity+2+1d6+5: (5)+5+2+(4)+5: 21

Heinrich staggered back as the mound of gold becomes a big snake, but when it bites him, the wound is hardly a scratch, yet collapses the knight to the earth, senseless.

GAME: Olav RAGES!, gaining +2 to melee attack/damage/Will saves and 4 temporary HP
GAME: Olav rolls 1d20+2 bab+3 str+1 wf+1 mw+2 rage +2 charge-1 pa: (19)+2 bab+3 str+1 wf+1 mw+2 rage+2 charge+-1 pa: 29
GAME: Olav rolls 1d12+4 2handstr +3 2handPA +2 rage: (12)+4 2handstr+3 2handPA+2 rage: 21

Niara dances forward pulling her scimitar, a word bringing the lightning to dance along the blade as she deftly slashes at the snake with a precise hit.

Olav blinks up at the snake, wondering if this is the sort of snake you talk to or the sort of snake you stab. Sometimes it's best not to stab the talking monsters. At least, that's what people tell him, though he's better at stabbing, by and large, than talking. Then it bites, making that answer pretty clear, and he roars indignantly and charges at it, slashing it open with his grandfather's axe. "Raar!"

GAME: Walery rolls 1d20+10: (8)+10: 18
GAME: Walery rolls 3d6+5: (13)+5: 18
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+13: (8)+13: 21
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+8: (3)+8: 11

Walery looks a little worried as Heinrich drops, but then Olav and Niara are in its face, and he shoulders his death ray again and does what he does best, which is stand back where it's safe and shoot the enemy with fire. He works the mechanical bits on his death ray, cycle a runed brass thing into the combustion chamber, and fire a bolt of raw fire at the snake, which is burned by it, though it shows no signs of stopping.

GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d4+4: (2)+4: 6

The serpent gathers Heinrich up in its coils and begins to wrap around his body. It looks less than comfortable, and distractedly the snake strikes out at Niara. It misses her entirely, and hisses angrily at its failure.

GAME: Heinrich rolls CMB: (3)+7: 10

Heinrich says, "UNH!" as he tries in vain to free himself from the grip of the Muscle-with-Fangs that has him bound,

GAME: Niara rolls scimitar: aliased to bab+dexterity+1+1+1: (14)+5+5+1+1+1: 27
GAME: Niara spends ONE point of PANACHE.
GAME: Niara rolls scdam+10: aliased to 1d6+dexterity+2+1d6+10: (4)+5+2+(6)+10: 27

Niara is glad it missed her but keeps dancing about whipping her shocking scimitar in deft precise movements as she cuts deep.

GAME: Olav rolls 1d20+8+2 flank: (9)+8+2 flank: 19

Olav follows up his first attack with a second that passes right through the cut he made the first time, doing no additional damage.

GAME: Walery rolls 1d8+5: (6)+5: 11

Walery can't find a clear shot with the snake twisting around Heinrich, but he's not out of useful things to do. He pulls a red ampule from his belt, slides up behind Olav, and triggers it. There is a hiss, and the red vanishes, as do Olav's wounds. "Good stuff," he says conversationally, with a forced smile. "Only hurts a bit."

GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+13: (5)+13: 18
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+8: (11)+8: 19
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d4+4: (3)+4: 7
GAME: Heinrich rolls CMB: (7)+7: 14

Heinrich keeps on struggling.

GAME: Niara rolls scimitar: aliased to bab+dexterity+1+1+1: (20)+5+5+1+1+1: 33
GAME: Niara rolls scimitar: aliased to bab+dexterity+1+1+1: (7)+5+5+1+1+1: 20
GAME: Niara rolls scdam: aliased to 1d6+dexterity+2+1d6: (1)+5+2+(5): 13

Niara hits dealing the final blow.

Olav nods appreciatively to Walery. "Hurts less than being bitten by a wolf," he replies.

Walery nods to Olav. "That's good, that's good. Sorry about the sting, I can't quite get an effective formula without that, though. I've tried," he says forlornly. "The more intense the healing, the worse the sting." He shrugs weakly and looks around, calling out to Heinrich, "You OK? Or need a hand?"

Heinrich just says "thanks" to the others, then "It did do me some injury" in response to Walery.

Olav checks out the room around the ex-snake, looking for better-behaved piles of gold.

GAME: Olav rolls perception: (7)+7: 14

The room is empty save the corpse of the snake. The promised gold seems to have been an illusion created by the animal. Nothing else exists in the room save the two doors. One of which leads back the way you came, and one that leads forward.

The one leading forward seems to be locked.

Olav sighs. "To lock a door, my grandfather used to say, is to insult its purpose." He gets into position to force the door open. "Shall we?"

If anyone seems inclined to coordinate he tries to force the door open with them, otherwise he tries to force it himself.

GAME: Olav rolls strength: (19)+3: 22

Walery will watch with interest. "What is a door's purpose? If not to be locked?"

"To let people walk through walls," Olav replies as he puts his shoulder to the door, hard.

GAME: Niara rolls strength: (20)+1: 21

Niara moves over to help.

The door swings open with the force of the effort put into opening it, clearly far weaker than such effort warranted. You stumble a little at how easily the door gives way and you find yourselves in an empty room. It is quickly followed by another and the darkness in each room seems to grow a little greater, as though your torches and ion stones are working a little less than they should. You open the next door the door snaps shut behind you. Immediately a deep voice belts out from the darkness. "Ah... Dinnertime!"

Worst of all, your torches are no longer working at all.

Walery thinks about that. "That can't be right. The purpose of a door/way/ is to walk through walls. But a door is to stop you from walking through a doorway, isn't it? And to keep out the wind, of course." He looks at his torch suspiciously.

"Do you people just sit around waiting to feed on adventurers?" Olav asks incredulously of the deep voice as he adopts a defensive stance. "I mean, there can't be that many of us, can there? What do you do the rest of the time?"

Niara looks around to see if her natural darkvision still works after the torches go out.

Walery adds, "We're from Better Homes and Dungeons, and our readers are quite curious about that."

GAME: Walery rolls diplomacy: (19)+1: 20
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+5: (9)+5: 14

-TBC-