Sewer Hunt
You've been tasked to find a little girl (blond, elvish, three years of age) who was last seen headed into the sewers. So here you are, headed down as part of a search team into the sewers. It's surprisingly clean here, the scent not nearly as bad as one might expect, and there's not much of what you might expect to find in a sewer laying about. All in all aside from being underground it's almost pleasant. Even if it is a bit odd to find the sewer system so... spotlessly clean.
Kruulvog mopes as if disappointed that the sewer isn't living up to expectations. He whispers to a snake that sticks its head out of the unbuttoned top of his baggy shirt, "Sorry, Greenfang. It looks like all the juicy rats have gone elsewhere." Whether his lament is for the snake or for himself isn't readily apparent.
Clanking her way into the Sewer, Felicia looks about....and lets out a breath from her nose. "If I wasn't worried before, I am now. Never figured the sewers would be this clean....."
Walery will head down with everyone, though he does wonder aloud, "What sort of person sees a three year old child wander into the sewers and doesn't stop them? Or was it more headed toward the entrance, but they assumed the child would never go in? Who lets a three year old wander loose in Alexandria in any part of it?"
Brianna trudges along, its hard for her to be very quiet, though she tries. Her titan armor does make noise with her movements. She nods her head a bit and just keeps looking around, not really saying much at the moment.
Finding little girls that have run off isn't exactly Suha's usual kind of task. But, well. He's a pretty upstanding fellow, and that brings with it a certain degree of predictability. So when he heard of a little girl going missing, well... of course he's going to go look for her. Though he's quick to tell those contracting him to do so that, if she's gone into the sewers, there is a possibility that she's already dead. Tactless monk is tactless. Still though, even if she IS dead, there's nothing wrong with finding her body so her parents can bury her. So... here he is. He raises an eyebrow at the state of the place. "...Lot less stench and feces than expected," he admits.
Darius looks around and says, "I really don't want to meet whatever it is that's keeping this place clean, it's probably some monster that likes.... err, excrement..." He shudders, but there's a child involved, and because of Aika, Darius isn't going to say no, although he does also question the parenting skills of the child's parents in this case.
Kruulvog mutters to the snake, "Either that black slime has consumed everything or the otyughs have been feasting."
GAME: Darius rolls perception: (7)+5: 12 GAME: Kruulvog rolls perception: (1)+3: 4 (EPIC FAIL) GAME: Walery rolls perception: (6)+9: 15 GAME: Brianna rolls perception: (16)+8: 24 GAME: Felicia rolls perception: (15)+3: 18 GAME: Suha rolls perception: (10)+7: 17 GAME: Felicia casts Detect Undead. Caster Level: 5 DC: 14
Walery sniffsniff. "Ah, that's the smell of sewer, right there," he declares. "It's not Alexandria if you don't want to puke."
Felicia says, "No....it's something worse." She says as she taps her shield....and her eyes begin to glow. "Well......I would suggest you draw your weapons. The smell of rotting meat is undead."
Felicia also unhooks her mace.
GAME: Kruulvog casts Mage Armor. Caster Level: 1 DC: 14
At the declaration of undead nearby, Kruulvog says, "Undead? Crap. I was hoping for fresh sewage." He casts a spell.
Suha's nostrils flare briefly, and he tilts his head up. He's not sure where it's coming from. "...Rotting meat?" he mutters. He expected refuse, waste, or feces... but not rotting meat. Then again he's never been here before so he doesn't quite know what the place is supposed to smell like. Felicia's warning gets a nod, and he tenses. He's looking around, looking for where the undead might start coming from first.
As you come around the corner you see them. So many of them. A veritable horde of what looks like zombies headed right toward you. Each one glows faintly blue in the dimness, lit up from the inside like fireflies.
Darius draws his greatsword and says, "As long as it's not a Mind Flayer or Vampire, I'm fine..." He probably said that more to himself than anything.
GAME: Darius rolls weapon5+2: (18)+12+2: 32 GAME: Darius rolls damage5+2: aliased to 2D6+10+2: (6)+10+2: 18 GAME: Darius rolls weapon5: (8)+12: 20 GAME: Darius rolls damage5: aliased to 2D6+10: (9)+10: 19 GAME: Darius rolls weapon5: (8)+12: 20 GAME: Darius rolls damage5: aliased to 2D6+10: (5)+10: 15 GAME: Aftershock rolls 3d4: (7): 7
Darius, seeing the horde, rushes forwards with a war cry and with one swing, removes 3 of the multitudes of zombies facing them.
And all three explode in a wave of blue power spraying bits and pieces of their bodies in every direction.
GAME: Walery activates his Titan Armor, gaining: +4 Dex GAME: Walery rolls 1d20+10: (7)+10: 17 GAME: Walery rolls 3d6+4: (8)+4: 12
Walery presses a button on his belt, and an eyepiece comes out of his helmet snaps in front of his eye. He brings his death ray to his shoulder, selects FIRE, and fires. Squeezing the trigger, he sends out a bolt of fire towards the nearest undead. It explodes at a safe distance, luckily.
GAME: Felicia casts Deadly Juggernaut. Caster Level: 5 DC: 16
Felicia sees the ones explode in front of Darius taps her symbol with her finger. We have a grave threat in the city, my lady, please aide your humble servant...."
GAME: Kruulvog casts Entangle. Caster Level: 1 DC: 14 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20: (1): 1 (EPIC FAIL) GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20: (16): 16
Kruulvog mutters, "I don't know Greenfang. I don't see any growth in here, but maybe there are some mushrooms." He casts a spell with a single word, then watches in surprise at what ensues.
GAME: Brianna activates her Titan Armor, gaining: +4 Str GAME: Brianna casts Titan Fist. Caster Level: 4 DC: 15 GAME: Brianna rolls ranged+1: (15)+5+1: 21 GAME: Brianna rolls fdam+1: aliased to 1d8+strength+1: (5)+6+1: 12 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+4: (19)+4: 23 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+4: (6)+4: 10 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+4: (20)+4: 24
Brianna looks at the exploding zombies and frowns. She activates her armor. It pulses as it charges and grants her more strength. She lifts one of her arms aims at one of the zombies. A slap to a button on her wrist as the fist glows then launches at the zombie. It hits powerfully the zombie exploding it. The first the materializes on Brianna's armor.
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+4: (3)+4: 7 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d6+4: (3)+4: 7 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d6+4: (4)+4: 8 GAME: Suha rolls Weapon3: (13)+4: 17 GAME: Suha rolls 1D10+3: (2)+3: 5 GAME: Darius rolls weapon5: (14)+12: 26 GAME: Darius rolls weapon5: (17)+12: 29 GAME: Darius rolls weapon5: (20)+12: 32 (THREAT)
The horde of zombies piling onto Darius is Suha's target. He pulls the three-section staff from its place and flings the end out at one of the zombies.
GAME: Darius rolls damage5: aliased to 2D6+10: (3)+10: 13 GAME: Aftershock rolls 3d4: (7): 7 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d4: (4): 4 GAME: Walery rolls 1d20+10: (8)+10: 18 GAME: Walery rolls 3d6+5: (8)+5: 13
Walery backpedals as the zombies advance, racking the action of his death ray and sliding another spell device into the breach. He points and pulls the trigger, and the zombie staggers from the impact, then explodes nicely.
GAME: Felicia rolls 3d6: (10): 10
Felicia calls upon her patron again.....and the energy that pulses out from here burns all of the undead around her....
GAME: Kruulvog rolls CMB: (8)+1: 9
Kruulvog shrugs and tries his hand at grappling a zombie, one that is in the midst of its own wrestling match with the war champion, Darius. But, not being trained in such martial styles, his attempt is fruitless.
GAME: Brianna rolls fist: aliased to bab+strength+1: (1)+3+6+1: 11 (EPIC FAIL) GAME: Brianna rolls fist: aliased to bab+strength+1: (10)+3+6+1: 20 GAME: Brianna rolls fdam: aliased to 1d8+strength: (5)+6: 11 GAME: Aftershock rolls 2d4: (4): 4 GAME: Aftershock rolls 3d4: (9): 9
Brianna swings both large armored fists as the zombies that moved up. Her first fist misses but the second hits causing the zombie to blow. Which in turns cause the rest in the area to go down.
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+4: (2)+4: 6 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+4: (5)+4: 9 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+4: (7)+4: 11
There are only a few zombies left, and they attack Kruulvog and Darius in the mindless way that undead seem to. Not very effectively, but relentlessly.
GAME: Suha rolls weapon3: (19)+4: 23 (THREAT) GAME: Suha rolls damage3: aliased to 1D10+3: (6)+3: 9
Two on one is still unfair, so Suha flings the three-sectioned staff out again, at one of the zombies attacking Darius.
GAME: Darius rolls weapon5: (10)+12: 22 GAME: Darius rolls damage5: aliased to 2D6+10: (7)+10: 17 GAME: Darius rolls weapon5: (17)+12: 29 GAME: Darius rolls damage5: aliased to 2D6+10: (3)+10: 13 GAME: Darius rolls damage5: aliased to 2D6+10: (11)+10: 21 GAME: Aftershock rolls 3d4: (11): 11
Darius, heedless of the exploding zombies bathing him in pain and causing him to suffer, continues to swing and swing and kill more and more zombies until there are none left. Once the way is clear, he drops to his knee holding onto the hilt of his greatsword for support as blood drips from multiple wounds. He pants, "Ok... Now I hate zombies almost as much as black slime or creepy homo-erotic vampires..."
Felicia sighs and puts her mace away, before walking over to Darius and puts her hand on his head. "At the rate you're going, you're not going to like anything, Darius....
Kruulvog also gets up, his target having been exploded by the panting human warrior. Although normally a wretch, the deed does provoke him to say a sincere, "Thank you." to the heroic human.
Darius replies, "Would you? I mean, I hate that vampire because it tried to... err... violate me with it's fangs and made it into something disgusting. But these things are seriously a pain and annoying, I mean, really... Zombies that blow up?"
Splash splash splash splash. There's a sound of someone running up to them at a relatively high speed, though it may not be immediately obvious who or what it is. Those who can see further in the dark might notice it to be a particular mul'niessa before some others, as she comes to a halt in front of the group. "Zombies?" she asks, reaching for her axe but then takes a few moments to look around and raises a boot that seems to have been stuck in some zombie gibs. "Ew.." she says, scraping it on some nearby stone.
Felicia says, "you missed them. They all exploded into chunky bits and made a satifying splat sound."
Suha faces the source of the sound that turns out to be someone arriving, and nods. "Exploding zombies," he confirms. "Mind the bits," he adds, when she scrapes some unidentified piece of viscera off her boot.
Kruulvog says, talking to the snake who pokes its head out of his shirt again, "Now we hunt the wee elf-bairn again."
GAME: An'thirya rolls Survival: (16)+0: 16 GAME: Kruulvog rolls Survival: (9)+11: 20 GAME: Felicia rolls survival: (18)+3: 21 GAME: Darius rolls survival: (9)+0: 9 GAME: Suha rolls survival: (18)+2: 20
An'thirya says, "There's a few others, I believe."
GAME: Walery rolls survival: (12)+1: 13
Once everyone is settled, and feeling a bit better you get on tracking the girl. It's no easy feat, particularly not with bits of zombie laying about. Together however, you persevere. Eventually you hear the sound of sniffing from a side passage and there you find the little girl curled up beside what seems to be a hole in the otherwise perfect wall. It's fairly small, only big enough for a large child to fit through. She spots you and curls up closer to it fearfully.
Felicia says, "Hi there." she says. Though a fully armored Arvek is fairly scary in its own right. However, she makes no move to go closer. "The zombies are gone....."
Kruulvog hangs back at the back of the group. He knows only too well that he and his snake are unlikely to portray a comforting visage.
Suha looks relatively not-scary, being human and kind of scrawny. So he steps forward, and kneels down. "Your parents are looking for you," he states. Then he asks the girl, "Will you come out so we can leave here and go back?"
The girl looks at all of you with wide eyes and points to the hole. "But pretty." Her voice is soft and demanding.
"What's pretty?" Felicia asks as she looks to the hole that the girl indicates.
Suha also looks in to see what the girl is pointing at.
GAME: Walery rolls perception: (9)+9: 18 GAME: Felicia rolls perception: (14)+3: 17 GAME: Brianna rolls perception: (18)+8: 26
Brianna stands with the others but has been quiet.
GAME: Kruulvog rolls Perception: (16)+3: 19 GAME: Suha rolls perception: (7)+7: 14 GAME: An'thirya rolls Perception: (4)+6: 10 GAME: Darius rolls perception: (7)+5: 12
Inside the hole you see a flat space dipping down into a pool. A beautiful black glittery pool. As you stare down at it the little girl smiles and points again. "Pretty!"
GAME: Felicia rolls CMB: (3)+5: 8
Darius hangs his head and says, "Ok... that's it... I'm tired of this..." He pulls out his Everburning Torch and says, "Give me some torches, we're going to <sexual expletive>ing burn this <sexual expletive>ing piece of bull<excrement> into ashes!"
Felicia grunts. "Damn." She grumbles and goes to grab the girl.....and misses horribly....due to the fact that she has full plate on. "Let's get the hell out of here. Grab the girl. Let's go."
Felicia also looks to Darius. "You do that and you'll set Alexandria on fire, Darius. THINK before you act!"
Maybe it's the yelling, maybe it's the woman lunging at her; but the little girl quickly scurries through the little hole and into the cavern where the pool is.
Suha sighs and starts trying to crawl through the space. Hopefully he's small enough.
Felicia takes a deep breath before she looks back to Darius. "I suggest you calm down, Darius. NOW there is a girl in that little area.....and she is scared." She then looks to Suha. "You're better at this than I am. Just be careful of the ooze in there."
Brianna looks around to see if she can find another way to get into the cavern.
An'thirya seems to be reclining against a wall near the hole. "Here's hoping." she says, glancing at Suha's entry into the passage.
GAME: Suha rolls escape artist: (9)+6: 15
"I understand," Suha replies to Felicia's words, and then tries to go after the girl. He's... yeah, he's actually not really fitting through here, since it's so small a hole he's trying to squeeze through. "Nnf..." he grunts. "It's like trying to fit through a stone birth canal," he grumbles. A wince as skin is scraped off in the attempt. And of course he'd get stuck about halfway through. He pauses, pushing all the air out of his lungs, causing his torso to shrink juuuuuuuust enough to squeeze through. Not without more scraped skin though. Finally he tumbles out the other end, and starts to look for the girl.
The little girl is standing some three feet from the edge of the pool utterly bespelled by the beauty of it. She points it out to Suha as he comes in. "Pretty!"
GAME: Brianna rolls 1d20+4: (16)+4: 20 GAME: Darius rolls strength: (19)+5: 24
Brianna cocks her head to the side, "I am not going to fit through there." she says as she starts to work on widening the hole some, she does succeed a little.
Darius, far past being calm, reaches out and rips open the wall like a berserker barbarian in the middle of rage and says, "I... am... going... to find... a way... to destroy... these... POOLS! If it's the LAST THING I /DO/!!!!!!!!!!!!" with that declaration he tries to shoulder his way inside, not caring if he gets stuck or hurts himself. He REALLY wants to see this damned pool.
"They're a problem, but you have to think of the girl in front of you." An'thirya says, "I don't care how angry you are, it's not going to help us fix this." she observes.
GAME: Suha rolls diplomacy: (5)+1: 6
Suha nods to the girl's words. "But it might be dangerous," he warns. "Maybe that's why the others were upset. Please step back from it." He's not sure if she'll listen or not, but aggression is what scared her last time, so he tries not to get to upset at her himself. He also tries to keep himself between the girl and the wall, since it's pretty much EXPLODING inwards now. An awkward pause, and then he finally notes, "We're supposed to bring you out of here. Let's go."
It's probably not totally Suha's fault, there IS the wall being broken in. Chunks of it falling away as Darius and Brianna bust their way through. In fact it might be Darius's barbaric roar. Either way the girl runs away from Suha screaming in terror. Her little shoes make splashing noises as she runs along the edge of the pool as quickly as her little legs can manage... which is surprisingly fast given her size.
Brianna nods her head, "Well at least we can help now if there is something dangerous." she murrmers.
GAME: An'thirya rolls Diplomacy: (6)+2: 8
"Our first priority should be the get the girl out." Felicia says before she actually blocks Darius from going in. "Safely. Which means you can either calm down...or go back to the guild hall....."
"Hey." An'thirya says, "You know fire, right? How it's pretty, but it hurts you? I think the pool might be like that. Could you come here?" she asks.
GAME: Suha rolls CMB: (17)+4: 21
Suha sighs. This isn't going well. Talking to her doesn't seem to be working, and she's getting way too close to something that, from all accounts, is very dangerous. So instead of trying to talk to her again, Suha just... grabs for the girl. He's almost surprised when he manages to catch her, and lifts her up, stepping back away from the pool. "Careful now," he cautions. "If it's dangerous and you touch it you could get hurt." He'll try to keep the grip gentle, because he doesn't want to hurt her either, but also doesn't want her to slip away.
"But pretty!" The little girl complains in a demanding tone, struggling only a little and futily at that.
Walery suggests, "We can take her to Sandy. I'm pretty sure she doesn't eat the orphans right away..."
"Sandy? I've not seen much of her, but she doesn't seem like the type." An'thirya says, "Either way, she could take care of her until we can contact her parents though." she observes.
Felicia says, "newp."
Felicia says, "Lets get her out of the sewer first." She then looks to Suha. "got a good enough grip?"
Kruulvog has been silently watching everything happen, but in the end, he also looks charmed by the beautiful pool. He nods affirmatively and simply repeats the girl's word, "Pretty."
Darius narrows his eyes at Felicia and says, "This pool... and the one in the forest... is a MENACE that has to be ELIMINATED before it becomes such a threat that it can't be dealt with. Do you, or do you not understand that?" Noticing that the girl is out of the way he says, "There, she's safe, now let's destroy this pool with fire or something else so that nothing else happens down here!"
Suha pats at the girl's side. He nods to Felicia's question. "I think so," he notes. "Should I take her back and let the rest of you deal with this problem? It does need to be dealt with, or she will keep trying to come back."
Felicia says, "No....you are staying where you are, Darius. And I won't hear any arguments."
Brianna cocks her head to the side. She just looks between people and then back to the pool, not a good idea to ignore the pool.
GAME: Walery rolls knowledge/Military Theory: (3)+12: 15 GAME: Felicia rolls knowledge/military Theory: (3)+7: 10 GAME: Darius rolls Knowledge/military theory: (1)+6: 7 (EPIC FAIL)
Walery hrms about the pools. "Well, someone put this here for a reason. Let me make a sketch of it, I'm gonna do some research when we get back." He pulls a pad and charcoal from his pack with some searching.
GAME: Walery rolls knowledge/arcana: (1)+12: 13 (EPIC FAIL) GAME: Kruulvog rolls Knowledge/Arcana: (4)+7: 11 GAME: Brianna rolls Knowledge/arcana: (6)+13: 19
Walery suggests, as he sketches, "Anything down here, that's actually water and not filled with filth and crawling critters, is almost certainly magical..."
Suha nods. "Since I don't know what's going on here, and at least one of you does..." Here he looks at Darius. "I'll take the girl back." Since the little hole in the wall is big enough for a human-sized being to go through, he heads that way, and then out the way they came in.
An'thirya goes with him.
Kruulvog walks up to the edge of the pool and sniffs at it.
Walery eyes Darius. "You seem to know what's wrong with this pool?"
Darius glares at Felicia and then relaxes enough to turn and says to Walery, "This pool is made up of some sort of black slime that can rise up and become slime monsters. It also changes animals and other creatures into dangerous ones, like my pet Fluffy was and the zombies you just met. There is another pool in the forest that we got rid of that replenished itself and changed some bears into Dire Bears. This is a MUCH bigger pool than that and unless we get rid of it, could turn Alexandria into a nightmare of monsters and destruction. I am willing to not do anything and wait until the Guild can send someone or someones who can get rid of this pool permanently, but until then, I AM /NOT MOVING/, understand?" He directs the last to Felicia.
The pool lays there innocently as though reputing Darius' accounting of it's dangerous nature.
Kruulvog asks to nobody in particular, "So if this is merely a pool of magical water, what makes it take the form of slime every so often? Is it the alignment of the stars? Is it some mad scientist pouring a strange potion into it? Is it on a repeating cycle?"
"Slime Monsters, hmm? And you honestly think a blade will solve the problem?" Felicia actually shakes her head. "Ever try to cut into jelly? No..you haven't, because you can't. You cut into it, and all you'll do is multiply it, Darius. You would be making the problem worse, not better. Plus, give a smaller faction enough time, it'll return to full size. That's probably what happened in the forest. You cut off a bunch of pieces...and one managed to get away. Now it returned, and it's full sized."
Walery hrms to Darius, and says, "Well, that definitely sounds dangerous." He says to Felicia, "I'll wait with him, then. I have fire," he pats his death ray. "In case it acts up. But hurry back."
Darius just blinks, "Which is why I want to BURNT IT WITH TORCHES you dolt!" He points to it, "We did that last time and it worked"
Brianna sighs a bit. Staying quiet
Kruulvog looks at Felicia and says, "That actually makes a lot of sense, but it doesn't explain it taking such a fluid shape as this... this... water.
"Darius....I'm going to tell you once and only once....Anger will get you nowhere in a fight. And calling your allies dolts will only alienate you from further adventures. I can tell you're a good fighter, but if you don't calm your temper....you'll be fighting a lot of battles alone." Felicia then unhooks her mace from her belt...and clacks it onto Darius armor. Whether he takes it or not, she doesn't care. If he doesn't, she drops it at his feet. "If you intend on staying here...use my mace. Not your sword." She then looks at the pool. "I'm not strong enough to handle this myself...so I'm heading back into the guild and getting someone who does know a few things about this. Whoever is staying here, stay. I'm headed back." And with that...she clanks off.
-End-