Wight Hunt
Location: Alexandria
Level Range: 6-10 Wights have made it into Alexandria from Dragonier -- and it's up to you to stop them!
Part 1
- No log available for Part 1
Part 2
- No log available for Part 2
Part 3
Arisha Constantin Morgan Serraphine Vaalyun Yelrona
You hqad moved on from where you had fought the giant, horrible gelatinous otyugh thing and left it behind. Now, you've found a sense of evil down a tunenl, where upon you've widened a crack in the crumbling sewer walls to investigate it.
So far, so good. It kinda stinks down this way, though.
GAME: Morgan refreshes spells.
GAME: Arisha refreshes spells.
GAME: Yelrona refreshes spells.
Yelrona looks around. "I can scout ahead a bit, if that's OK with folks. Or we can just go see what's there and deal with it."
Morgan follows the group mently grumbling about hating going in to the sewers "Hopefully we can finish this soon, my bath tub is calling my name."
"I'm hardly going to be sneaking anywhere with all this armor on." Vaalyun replies, "But if you want to go see what's ahead, just be careful that you don't wander into anything that we're not in range to help with." He adds with a wry smile, "Wouldn't want us to miss out on all the fun, after all."
Yelrona nods with a grin. "I'll try not to hog all the fun."
GAME: Yelrona rolls stealth+2+20: (13)+16+2+20: 51
GAME: Serraphine rolls stealth: (7)+-1: 6
At the back of the group, Arisha shows up and looks about. "I wouldn't count on it Morgan." She says looking at her left shoulder, then to Vaalyun. "I'm probably wearing as much armor as you are."
Serraphine, seeing that Yelrona is trying to be - where'd she go? She scratched her chin, shoving her back back into her bag of endless dog biscuits. Creeping along near silently.
CRUNCH-MUNCH-MUNCH-MUNCH-MUNCH.
What can I say? She's not a silent eater.
GAME: Yelrona rolls perception: (20)+23: 43
Morgan is floating above the water and icky things that most dont want to have touch them "Well when this is done any one can use it if you can fit in it when we are done with this job."
...well, then.
Yes, there's water down ehre. Plenty of it. It's all pretty gross.
The smell of sewer is the worst part of being here, but yes, alongside that is a rot that's hard to place. It's not the stench of death. It's not quite refuse. It's something else. With Yelrona moving ahead of you, you t least are given to know that the path beyond this crumbled wall, is not trapped and not deadly.
Except your clothes, anyway.
Yelrona continues to scout ahead, reporting back from time to time on what she sees. She also starts looking for any signs of other beings travelling through these sewers, especially of anything that might relate to that stench, or their mission.
GAME: Yelrona rolls survival+5: (17)+16+5: 38
Serraphine continues to sneak along with the rest of the group behind Yelrona. "You know, I bet Mayra would've hated it down here. Hated it so much. I wish I brought her, we could've talked about Sandy behind her back - wherever she's hiding around here." Crunch-munch-munch-munch. But her feet make no discernable noise in that sloshing water.
Arisha is mostly walking close to the front...mostly cuz of her ability to see in the dark. "You're pretty loud, you know that, Lancer?" She says looking ahead. "I still don't smell any undead around here....yet." She has already drawn her Khopesh and pistol though.
Serraphine takes another bite out of the biscuit, munching away in that loud way she does and giving a shrug to Arisha. "Serriel will provide more noise then to make sure I'm silent by comparison." Sage nod.
Morgan ponders on what Arisha said "How can you smell the undead down here."
Yelronafigures it's probably because the undead smell better than their surroundings right now.
Arisha chuckles a bit. "the stench of undeath makes me sneeze."
"Don't the sewers always smell like death, though? Or am I just noseblind to it after all these little jaunts down here." Vaalyun tilts his head, and says, "I suppose you could say that means the sewers of Alexandria are made of gold, at least for adventurers."
Morgan sighs "I am going to demand triple for coming down here." she says bravely but you all know she wont.
"Nono, this smells more like daisies. Undeath smells more like petunias." Serraphine gives a nod, a look back to Vaalyun, "Except replace flowers with something that makes you sick. Like in my case, flowers." She gives another nod and munches away on the biscuit.
Arisha shakes her head. "undeath has a different scent to it. One that stirs up memories, and heartache. Something I don't want any of you to experience, ever." She's still looking ahead though. "Didn't find anything, Yelrona?"
Yelrona appears out of the shadows and reports on what she's noticed, if anything.
So far, so good.
That's the best that can be said. Of course, Yelrona finds first that you're heading towarsd a cistrern, an old one, deep within the sewers. The sense of wrongness, foulness that hangs in the air speaks to more than simple waste. It's palpable to anyone, let alone those with the capacity to sense corruption more viscerally.
As you reach the cistern, you see that it's full of a horrible, horrible sludge. Thick and roiling like the worst stew imaginable, it burbles and blorps in horrific ways as you reach its edge, catching up with your scout.
Serraphine gestures at Arisha, "Yeah, see? Like daisies and petunias." Munch-munch-munch.
"That," Rona says, "does _not_ look tasty."
Serraphine looks down into the depths of it for a moment, trying to divine if it's evil as she mumbles, "There's something strange... and it don't look good." Crunch-munch-munch.
GAME: Morgan casts Detect Magic. Caster Level: 9 DC: 17
Morgan cant detect evil but most undead do have a aura of magic and she hopes that will help.
GAME: Vaalyun refreshes spells.
"I have no idea what this goop is," Rona says, drawing her bow, "but I'm willing to bet it _isn't_ friendly." She fires an arrow into the heart of it experimentally.
Arisha steps up and looks down at the bubbling....stuff. "Almost looks like the stuff that came out of the hyenas." She then looks to Serraphine. "It's not that stuff though. I'm sure we'd both recognize it if it was. Plus it'd probably attack."
"Well, I'm not going swimming to find out, that's for sure." Like the others, Vaalyun is made uncomfortable by the presence of this... stuff. "There is some corruption here. But is it this, or whatever lives /in/ it."
"There is no Mayra, only that pool." Serraphine mutters as she stares down into the depths. A pull of her mouth off to the side and then a turn to look up at Arisha. A blink and she squints at Arisha, before taking a rather crunchy bite of a dog biscuit. A pointed crunch, "Well, if that's what it is, I'm sure we'll see dogs and cat's living together - mass hysteria and all that." Munch-munch-munch.
Morgan is flying but does not want to get to close to the goop yet to study it.
"Whelp. Where ever vigo, I ope itshnot down 'n thar." Serraphine says it around the biscuit in her mouth.
"How you can eat around this filth, I have _no_ idea," Rona observes as she fires into the aforementioned filth.
Serraphine shuffles around in the bag of never ending cookies, yanks out another and shoves it at Rona questioningly.
Arisha says, "It seems the Lancer has a horrible cookie addiction and can't stop eating them." She says as she looks at the goop. "Check that side, Rona. I'll check this side.""
GAME: Serraphine rolls perception: (15)+3: 18
GAME: Yelrona rolls perception: (8)+23: 31
GAME: Arisha rolls perception: (1)+16: 17 (EPIC FAIL)
Serraphine shrugs again and starts to peer down into the sludge again, her mouth pulling off to the side once more. A blink, and with Rona not taking the cookie, she tosses it in - curious if it'll bounce on the surface. "Kinda looks like a gelatin mold to me, an evil gelatin mold."
GAME: Morgan rolls perception: (2)+12: 14
GAME: Vaalyun rolls perception: (18)+4: 22
There's a sudden blorp.
A blurble.
Then another blorp.
The slime is moving again, guys.
At least it's not a gelatinous otyugh again, right?
... right?
Yelrona continues firing at the thing, whatever it is, but tries to identify it as well.
There's nothing to identify yet. Firing at it doesn't really seem to accomplish anything.
Slime erupts in a pillar towards the ceiling of the sewer. You're all splattered.
Arisha wipes her face after she's splattered. "I think you can stop shooting, Rona.
Morgan waves a hand and all the goop is cleaned off "glad I have this scarf around my mouth."
As your eyes turn up where the slime hit the ceiling, each of you can now make out faint runes. They're too slime encrusted, as the pillar ends, to really make out what they say, but they are definitely arcane.
Yelrona looks to the wizard. "Any idea what those are?" she asks, pointing to the ceiling.
GAME: Morgan rolls spellcraft+2: (10)+22+2: 34
GAME: Yelrona rolls spellcraft: (16)+9: 25
Serraphine flicks her hand, sending the excess off - thankfully she had already finished her biscuit. "You foul obnoxious muck!!"
"I think we've angered the spirit of the sewers. Where's a sewer druid when you need one." Vaalyun says, wiping his robe against his face to get some of the grime away, and says, "Maybe we can clean them off to read them? Morgan, a little help?" He raises his hand and prays briefly, dumping water on the slime encrusted runes.
GAME: Vaalyun casts Create Water. Caster Level: 6 DC: 14
Sloooowly.
SLooooowly, scrubbing away the bits of grime from the runes renders them salvageably readable.
It's not exactly /easy/ and it does take some time, however. You have lots mroe sewer to search bu tthey'll definitely want to know about this, even if it isn't related to the wights.
Yelrona hrms. "OK... looks like the runes are designed to stir the sludge up, like we just saw, every half hour or so."
Morgan looks to the area "wow I herd of this once, that splater was to go off." she looks around and says "now this place is sealed off, so if we are going to get attacked this will be a good time to do that."
Arisha says, "We shall see if they do or not...."
Distinct humming starts as force walls seal off the exits. One covers the sludge, but for a gap in the middle, and another is over the exit you came int hrough.
They're brilliantly white and solid.
Great.
Arisha says, "Well.....unless someone can dispel that.....we're kinda stuck here."
Yelrona shakes her head. "I don't think so. Like Morgan said, I don't think this is a _response_ to us... it just does this. WHich means eventually the walls go down. Presumably it's to keep whatever the stirring disturbs from getting out."
Morgan says "I can dispell it maybe but if I did that I might destroy this part of the sewers. But we might want to find the fail safe and stop it, as its going to add stuff and we might dron."
Arisha says, "SO lets do that. Start looking around...."
"You know, it could also be that the gellatin is going to rise up and so it's to keep it in." Serraphine says this rather nonplussed as she stares down still at the evil mold.
Arisha says, "there's a hole in the middle, Lancer.""
"Alright, so explain this to me. Why the force walls? What does the goo explosion have to do with this? And where is the off switch." The Cleric isn't stupid, but nobody has really explained much about the situation. He looks around as if there should be some kind of lever that is conveniently labeled 'Pull if trapped'.
Arisha says, "How about we figure that out AFTER we find the switch, okay? Until then, let's leave the engineering to the engineers. Cuz the longer we stay here, the more likely we're going to get splattered with goo again, and I'd rather not.""
"Sure, but the goo hole is mostly covered." Vaalyun retorts. "So what are they keeping /in/ here. Are there any other openings that we missed."
"Well, like I said," Rona says, "I think the setup is intended to agitate the goo. I think the explosion we saw was that happening. And the force walls, I guess, are to keep anything from getting out when that happens." She shrugs and starts looking around the space for any nonobvious controls. "Beyond that, I don't know."
Constantin has arrived.
"Nope. I'm saying it's because the goop is going to rise up and smother us." Serraphine nods, she's not pushing Arisha's hole. Pfft. She starts to walk around the edge of it, ignoring the hole in the center. "Maybe it's because the goo hit hte ceiling." Serraphine starts to meander around still, though not getting closer to the sludge.
Arisha says, "Again, your inquisitive nature, Vaalyun, would be a little more productive in helping us find the switch."
"That would be a funny way to go, you have to admit," Rona muses.
Morgan looks around and says "If the enchanter was smart enough there is a shut off command or lever." she is looking for anything for that. "And you think they would want to make it obvous for the sewer workers."
Constantin flicks his sword alight again, and looks at the hole. "If we can't find something out, we might just have to go in there." He looks at the hole.
Yelrona looks down the hole at Constantin's suggestion. "Well. That would be unfortunate... there's really no guarantee we can get back up."
Arisha partly covers her eyes from the light of the sword. "Warn someone before you do that." She says still running her free hand on the walls to see if she can find a switch.
Despite the best efforts of those looking, that does not appear to be any obvious switch that would turn off the whole mechanism. In fact, it would appear that, Constantin May be right about your only egress.
Eventually, Rona concedes to the inevitable, and starts looking around for somewhere to affix a rope to. "At least there's a chance we can climb back up, that way." If she finds one she ties the rope there and begins to climb down invisibly. If she doesn't, she asks someone to hold on to the other end and does the same.
Constantin dimples at Yelrona. "Sometimes, the only way to find out is to jump." A glance at Arisha, and nods. If Yelrona needs an anchor, he anchors.
Morgan is flying so she hovers over the hole to see whats down there with her low light vision.
Serraphine just jumps off the edge, going for it. "SERRIEL WILL PROTECT ME!"
Morgan will now use her low light vision to see if Serraphine is splated down below.
Arisha will use her Darkvision to see if Serraphine SPLUTTED down below.
SPLOOSH.
Serraphine jumped in and fell about 10 feet down into a horrible sludge pit.
There's at least a few secure places that one can tie a rope before descending if one doesn't throw caution to the wind like Serraphine and that does make things a bit more secure. Still, Serraphine begins to... sink... into the sluedge.
Blurp.
Blurp.
Blurp. AND THEN SHE IS GONE.
"YOUR HOLE IS A LI-I-I-I-I-"Blurp. Serraphine totally knew she was right.
Once he sees the rope is anchored, Constantin looks down at Serraphine's performance and curses. Then, he steps off the edge and starts to waft down, reaching out to catch the rope before the level of the sludge.
Arisha sighs at Serraphine. "BLasted Arveks." She then looks to COnstantine. "be careful down there."
Morgan floats down to see what she can do to help
Yelrona looks around for a relatively dry landing spot. If she finds one she tries to swing over to that spot.
Arisha is one of the last ones to go into the goop......she's really cautious.
Constantin hangs on to the side. "We need to go Arvek-fishing." A pause. "Anyone have any fancy magic to do this, or am I getting dirty?"
Morgan just looks to Constantin.
There's no sign of the ARvek as you descend down the hole after all.
In fact, the slime level seems to be... lowering?
Maybe it's draining out of the pt. Either way, it's definitely swirling down...
... some kind of whirlpool really...
Part 4
Arisha Constantin Hun'rar Kaelyn Morgan Yelrona
Good news, everyone!
You're now in a swirling drain! Going after Serraphine! A veritable whirlpool swallows you and doooooooooown yoooooooou goooooooooooooo....
... until you're spat into what appears to be another cist ern, but at least this one has an exit, with water being seperated into channels for draining purposes. No doubt this intended to flow somewhere, right? Probably the Tornmawr, eventually?
You can see additional writing on the ceiling, though it's too faint to make out. It looks like someone scratched it in and the years have just worn away the stone until only the faintest of scrawls was left. One can not even make out a proper language from it just yet.
Also, it stinks. Bonus: so do you, now.
Arisha sighs. "Blasted Arveks." She says as she gets up. "Brain dead idiot acts...."
Yelrona finds the driest, least-stinky spot in the cistern she can to alight on. It is largely indistinguishable from all the other spots, but it makes her feel better anyway. "So. Well, _that_ happened."
Kae is pulling her self up out of the icky water, her arms flailing wildly, and slinging more polluted water everywhere "Stiiiiinks! My nose gigdget fell awaaaay!" she calls out, complaining loudly and whining to boot! There's then a brief pause...
"Oooh I know!" she calls out and pulls another nose thingie from her pocket and well makes use of it... "Yay for water tight compartments!" she calls out happily. "Sooo what did Phi do that was soooo wroooong?"
Morgan floats behind above the ground and water as best as she can
Hun'rar rises up, streams of dirty water rushing in rivulets from his armor "Could always be worse." he notes as he raises his visor for gasp of somewhat fresh air. "It can always get worse." he repeats
"I'm told the residents of Hell say that, also," Rona says to Hun'rar.
The good news is that there are no force walls blocking your departure. The bad news is?
You're now in an unmapped section of the sewers! But hey, you get to ADD to the map now! Who knows what you'll find down here? Undead? Possiblyu.
Yelrona shrugs. "Well, I guess we move forward from here." She examines the exit from the cistern, trying to get a sense of the most efficient way out.
Hun'rar takes a few tries but manages to clean himself off with a casting of prestidigitation. "I mean, I was going to say we aren't in hell and in theory we leave this place eventually. One way or another anyhow." he nods to Rona and walks along.
There is more than one exit here.
There's water flowing under a half-closed gate. You could squeeze through that in single file if you want.
There's water flowing out another exit, of course, but this one looks a bit... crumbly and water-eroded. There's also the matter t hat the passage is filled with fungus.
There's a third passage out of this immediate vicinity that looks /extremely/ dark.That's not a natural darkness at /all/.
Pick your poison, really.
Arisha looks down the very dark passageway and.....stares. "I....can't see very far down here." She says softly. THAT is a bad sign. "We should go this way....with a light."
Yelrona shrugs. "I say we deal with the darkness. Whatever's there, we'll likely have to deal with sooner or later.
Hun'rar nods "No darkness will stop the servant of Gilead. Also I can't see well out of my visor anyway." he adds with a shrug.
Kae tilts her head and flails arms some more "Pick a way out and stuff so we can go? I haz some research I wanna do!!!" she calls out cheerfully, then absentmindedly tugs a pair ofr dragon spitters from some more sealed pockets, examining them and their actions before putting them away... "All is good!" She says cheerfully then checks her ray gun... "so pick a direction y'all wanna gooo!"
Arisha says, "Come on then. I'll lead the way, but note I'll only be able to see just over a dozen feet in front of us. This is not natural darkness."
Morgan takes a look around the areas "we have magical darkness there, and all storys says that is the worse stuff. Now the fungus stuff might kill us slowly with poisons and a falling apart area means we get crushed."
Arisha waves to Morgan. "I just said there was magical darkness down here. And yes, it is. Which is why I said we should start there. it usually means that whatever we are looking for is there."
Hun'rar nods to Arisha "Lead on." he says, still lighting up his shield just in case they clear the darkness. "Just as long as we don't walk into a pit or the like."
Yelrona starts picking her way towards the darkened passage, her Ioun Torch lighting her way, at least for a while.
Arisha puts her right hand on Yelrona's shoulder. "Let me go first. I can see in this stuff, even if for a short distance." And she steps into the passageway.
Morgan sighs "I wish I knew we were coming here and I would of had light spells ready."
"Tarien will provide light as needed," Rona assures Morgan, nodding to Arisha. "What good is a joke nobody sees, after all? If you have an object you'd like lit, just let me know."
Arisha says, "I have my own light spells, but thank you, Yelrona.""
Arisha says, "Just...keep in sight of one another."
Morgan nods to Rona as she is ready to follow the group in to the darkness.
Kae flails some too "Oooh Light would be quite useful! I dun think I brought anys!" she says and rubs at the back of her neck again.. "Glad for armor though, might help in a pinch..." She says and grins again....
GAME: Hun'rar rolls perception: (12)+0: 12
GAME: Arisha rolls perception: (1)+16: 17 (EPIC FAIL)
GAME: Kaelyn rolls perception: (7)+10: 17
GAME: Morgan rolls perception: (20)+12: 32
GAME: Yelrona rolls perception: (6)+24: 30
The good news is that you're plunged into darkness.
That's the good news.
The /bad/ news is that it isn't long before you can feel the walls closing in and did we mention that they were sliiimeeeeyyy..
We didn't,. but now you know! And now you're moving ahead in the dark and the increasing cold.
Constantin has arrived.
Yelrona hrms. "Well. Whatever is putting up this darkness, it's strong enough to overcome continual flame... that's not a good sign."
Morgan has her staff out to help guide her "to many things can do this and none of it is good... well except for the tickle monster that is to uguly to show it self."
Serraphine puts her hand on the wall, "I can't see anything either, and I can normally see in this. I'm thinking it's not normal." She continues on with the group - slow-ish but still following with.
Arisha says, "Magical darkness is bad. Worse, it's getting colder, and the walls are getting slimey as well as closing in.""
Constantin follows as well. "Oh, that's exactly what we need? A gullet." He lights his sword, to see if it'll ward off any of the darkness.
Kae blinks and uhhhh's "Yup definately magical in nature, I thinkw e knew that before we came into here and all.... Soo it's a darkness spell, anyone have dispell magic?" she asks curiously, the girl tilting her head to the left now and grumbling... "Sooo need like alchemical true light or something..."
Morgan says to the group "heads up I am going to cast a spell." she recites some arcane words as she starts to feel a bit better "if you can protect your self from cold you might want to."
"It's more than a darkness spell, I think. Ordinary magical darkness, magical light ought to help dispel, but in this case it's not helping at all," Rona observes. Still, nothing seems to be attacking just yet. She invokes invisibility, just in case.
GAME: Arisha rolls reflex: (1)+5: 6 (EPIC FAIL)
Arisha stops moving and sighs. "guys? I'm stuck. Can someone gives me a pull? Or shove me. I don't care....."
Serraphine looks around for a moment... Then realizes again that she can't see. So instead - her hands out in front of her - she tries to find Arisha. "Yeah. I think I can try to pull you out if I can find you. Or if I don't trip."
GAME: Constantin rolls perception: (18)+9: 27
GAME: Morgan rolls strength: (12)+0: 12
GAME: Constantin rolls strength: (7)+6: 13
GAME: Serraphine rolls strength: (19)+3: 22
Morgan trys to help but since she is flying and a scrawny mage she is no help.
Constantin leans in to the great column of people, but his shoving is ineffectual at best.
GAME: Yelrona rolls strength: (2)+3: 5
Yelrona pushes in the wrong direction altogether.
Kae is confused about what's going on and ends up being pushed and pulled and whatnot! she starts to try to flail at this point "Not on meee!"
Eventually, there's a horrible pop sound and Arisha goes through with a jerk, only to find out that she's now sliding down something and OH NO, there goes Hun'rar. And then Serraphine and then Morgan and then Kaelyn and then Yelrona becasue everyone was LEANING IN and PUSHING and before long it was too late to really stop and you are SLIDING. WHEE!
Constantin uhohs when Yelrona disappears from under his hands. Then he leaps after, and then he's sliding too. "Oh shit."
Yelrona kind of enjoys it.
Arisha slides the fastest of course, cuz the force needed threw her free. So...down she goes....
"Yaay a slide, fweeeeeeee!" calls out Kae as she's now going down in the dark on a slide! 'May as well enjoy it before we hit the bottom!" She calls out cheerfully...
Morgan looks to her side to the light before she is draged down trying to help free her friend. "I think I seen a glimps of light... I think."
Eventually, you all sorta tumble off the slide and into something horrible and slimey.
Whatever it is starts burning immediately.
It's still too dark to see. Even with darkvision.
Constantin arrives last, and therefore probably ends up on top in the tangle. He tries to fight free. "Oh, that doesn't feel good." After taking a couple of steps back, he says: "Look out, I'm going to try to light my sword." Just to see what happens.
...and that's when you hear it.
A hborrible sound. A sort of...wet... /splorting/ souhnd. Like something horrible and wet sliiiiiding across the ground. Coming closer.
Morgan gets a idea in her head and says a few words in the arcane language as she sends out a blue wave of energy.
GAME: Morgan casts Dispel Magic. Caster Level: 9 DC: 20
GAME: Morgan rolls 1d20+9: (18)+9: 27
Light briefly is restored to the area. Towering over Arisha is a horrible creature made of putrid, green slime.
Great.
...and then you're plunged back into darkness, the magic reasserting itself shortly thereafter.