Sasha makes to dash off after Seoni again, but Yola places a restraining hand on her shoulder. "Listen," she says. From the tunnels ahead can be hear the howls of more ghouls. "We wait for the others this time."
The two women are rewarded with the light of Malvick's ring spilling forth from the tunnel behind them. Malvick quickly takes in the view of the three dead ghouls. Yola beckons him forward and points to the passage ahead - the sound of scrabbling feet drawing nearer. Malvick nods andtakes a place between the two women, bow aimed straight ahead...
and fires as the first ghould charges out from the darkness. At less then thirty feet away, the arrow punches straight through the though the thing's cadaverous torso, ending its unlife instantly. But more ghouls charge past their fallen bretheren, leaping eagerly at the readied blades of Sasha and Yola. Swords flash. Yola lands several powerful blows against two of the ghouls and is clawed in return, while Sasha pierces a third with her rapier. Malvick kick a wounded ghoul, who falls to the ground, but before he can draw his short sword to finish it off, it grabs at his ankle and sinks its filthy teeth into his calf.
Finally Li Kao and Xer arrive on the scene. Li Kao acts with decisiveness and summons the will of Irori in a red tinged burst that spreads out from his body in a wave. As the red light washes over the ghouls they shriek in pain and terror as they smoulder then die.
Xer looks at the older priest with an arched eyebrow, but he forestalls her comment with a raised finger.
The companions take only the briefest moment to greet each other and celebrate this victory and then it is off again in pursuit of the undead Seoni. Yola takes the lead, while Malvick, limping slightly reprises his role as rear guard.
The cramped tunnel soon opens into a vertiginous gulf - a cathedral-like cavern with a rook arching thirty feet overhead and dropping into a sloshing pit of foamy seawater fifty feet below. A steep stone ledge winds down to these surging depths, its slopes glistening with moisture and mould. Narrow fissures cut into the rock face to the northwest. A stone door stands open in the northern wall, about halfway down the slope. The seaside wind crashing against the cliff and blowing through the narrow fissures is producing the strange "breathing" sound you first heard when entering the tunnels. To Xer's left the tunnels branch off to a smaller cavern. From it wafts the stench of rotten meat, and from where she stands she can see that its floor is strewn with bones and wet flesh.
OOC: Yola took a claw for 3 hp, and Malvick was bitten for 5 hp. The party can investigate the stinking cavern near Xer (yellow dot), or try to cross the ocean vent to get to the open door. The vent spirals down counter clockwise, and can be navigated slowly with a fairly easy climb check, or quickly with a less easy acrobatics check. A character could also leap down the ledges and moveback up the spiral clockwise, with a much harder acrobatics check. The sound of the surf crashing in and out of the vent below makes it difficult to hear each other once you start your descent.
7 comments:
While keeping the back of the group as secure as he can with so much unknown Malvick will be listening for any sounds as the environment permits. Since we are now below the manor he will also be using his knowledge of dungeons to identify anything the group may be able to put to use. Any information he can gather as well from ghoul trails would also do nicely (like numbers, size, whereabouts of the rest of'em, etc).
((Li Kao takes a moment to heal the party. Channel Energy once to heal all 1d6. Cure Light Wounds once on Sasha. Greg: remaining uses are? Channel energy 4 left? One more Cleric spell?))
Li Kao defers to Malvick's lead. Li Kao generally will save his channel energy blasts for when they are surrounded by 3 or more ghouls. Otherwise they'll be used as party heals.
Li Kao: Your chanel energy heals 4HP to each party member. Your Cure Light Wounds spell heals another 5 to Sasha.
You now have 4 chanels left,and 2 more cleric spells: Santuary and Shield of Faith. ( though you can sub these for more Cure spells).
Malvick: You can tell that some of the tunels you have come through are new construction - and poor at that. You would guess that Foxglove has been using is ghoul minions to expand the tunnels. As such there's not much info to be gleaned from their tracks due to constant traffic. You would guess that the area to the left of where Xer is standing now though is their midden and main lair.
"I am guessing we want to try te left tunnel first, but can we see if the door across the cavern is open or closed? If it is closed I am assuming that she did not go through there and we should probably take the stinking tunnel instead." I wish I had some sort of tracking ability sometimes.
"I'm with Xer on this one. I have a good feeling about the left tunnel. We can try the one-person opens and the other person dashes in routine if things get dicey."
"I agree. If the passage to the left seems to be the main lair of the ghouls we should deal with it now. No sense having them flanking us further on."
((if the rest of the party agrees I'd like Li Kao to take point with Malvick into the ghoul lair. That way Malvick can arrow one or two immediately and Li Kao can follow up with a channel energy blast. Might the quickest way of dealing with any remaining ghouls))
Xer wrote: "but can we see if the door across the cavern is open or closed?"
by the by, I did mention that the stone door on the other side of the cavern was open
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