"Unearthing the Past" by Jesse Decker (WotC Cliffhanger) - Part 12
Bang. The door slams shut behind Briar. He shakes his head and chuckles,
"C'mon Twinkle, we can look through the rubble later-" he breaks off as he turns to find the gnome is not in sight, and the door to the rubble-filled room is closed. A prickling sense of unease - and a sick lurch of déjà vu - launches the young rogue toward the door.
You were supposed to be watching, kid. So how'd it go wrong?
Briar doesn't stop to open the door: he simply shoulder-charges into it. The wood, weakened by age and years of damp, gives way in a spray of splinters and broken planks.
The young man skids to a halt, drawing his sword as he spots Twinkle's body, lying face down on the stone floor.
"Briar?" he half-hears the call from the others, and the sound of them coming back toward the room, but he's not paying attention to that. Instead, he steps forward quickly and bends to grab the gnome's shoulder, starting to drag her toward the door.
As he does so, he notices the livid mark around her neck.
Briar spins, raising his sword reflexively, but it is too late. The creature lurking above the door lashes out with both arms, the slender, rubbery limbs stretching like tentacles to wrap themselves around the young rogue's throat and arm.
The others, hurrying back toward the door, see Briar lifted bodily into the air, then released. The young rogue crumples to the floor, blacked out from the pain. The tentacle-like arms withdraw back up toward the ceiling.
"Time for a taste o' m'axe." Ulfgar rushes into the room, shield raised above him. He scans the walls and roof, but there is no sign of the creature. "Damn thing's run a-"
The creature suddenly scuttles into sight - running straight up one of the walls. It is a small, grey skinned humanoid with unnaturally long limbs and an almost shrunken head that is thoroughly over-provided with sharp teeth.
Hooking its toes into all but invisible cracks in the walls, the beast - which they later dub a 'choker' - lashes out at Ulfgar. The dwarf's raised shield deflects one grasping tentacle, but they other catches him with a fairly heavy blow to the head. Ulfgar hurriedly fends it off with his axe, before it can get a grasp on his neck.
Macwood rushes forward and starts to pull Twinkle to safety, while Ming Li steps up and jabs her quarterstaff, spear-like - at the scuttling choker.
The creature snarls as the staff raps against it, arms swinging down to try and wrest the weapon out of the monk's hands. Ming Li is not about to give up her staff without a fight, however, and hangs on grimly, trying in turn to pull the creature down toward them.
Seeing an opportunity, Ulfgar slashes at the creature's tentacles with his axe, scoring a deep wound in the closer limb. The choker squeals in outrage and releases the staff, swatting Ming Li in the chest as it does so, then scuttles across the ceiling and back into hiding behind the rubble.
"Quick!" Ulfgar gestures to Briar's body. "Get him out of here before it comes back!"
While Ming Li and Macwood drag the young rogue to safety, the dwarf grabs a lark chunk of stone and hurls it over the pile of rubble, hoping to force the choker to stay out of sight. The gambit doesn't work, however, as the beast races up one of the walls and lashes out toward them.
Ming Li is buffeted again, but Ulfgar's sturdy chainmail protects him, and the beast chitters in anger and frustration.
Both adventurers strike back at the choker while Macwood occupies himself with tending to their unconscious comrades. Both strike true, and the beast falls from its perch on the wall, mortally wounded.
While Ulfgar ensures that the choker will disturb them no more, Macwood and Ming Li use their two potions of cure light wounds to restore their companions to consciousness. While the healing effects of the first potion are enough to restore Twinkle to full mobility, if far from full health, Briar's batch was evidently weaker, as the young rogue can barely limp along at half the pace of the others (DM's note: on 0 HP exactly)
"I think we need to return to town." Ming Li suggests, as her own wounds are attended to. "The creature hurt us badly."
"Aye." Ulfgar nods, "Macwood and I could go on, but it's not worth the risk to the rest of you."
"I wasn't even scratched." The halfling tactlessly reminds them.
Despite the comfort of knowing Macwood is unhurt, the others wisely insist on a withdrawal, and the group tiredly limps back to Amberdale, where a night's rest leaves them all feeling refreshed and ready to face the arduous task of purchasing more healing.
Upon their arrival at the Sanctuary, they are greeted by a young priest none of them have met before. He appears to be of elven blood.
"You're new." Ming Li has a way of stating a fact that sounds like an accusation.
"I am Sirdros." The priest inclines his head in greeting, "I came here as part of the High Priest's retinue. How may I help?"
"We need healing." Ulfgar explains in an overly patient tone, "We've been clearin' out a nest of orcs near the road to the coast."
"Of course, the adventurers." Sirdros nods, "I have heard of you from the local priests. In recognition of your efforts to serve the town, we have been asked to heal you today without charge."
"Good deal." Briar whistles through his teeth, then remembers something, "Hey ... do you know what this is?" he digs out the holy symbol they found on the man in the tunnels.
Sirdros examines it, his expression distasteful,
"It is an emblem of one of the death cults." He says at last, "I don't know which one. If you slew the person who carried this, you did us all a favour."
A few minutes later, the priests' spells have restored the group to full to health and they once more on their way to the tunnels.
The Ominously Large Stone Door awaits ...
Hehehe.
)
