Legacy of the Silver Dragon: Chapter 1 (Chickens, Demons, and a Missing Girl)

[Toric_Arthendain]

Seeing the gelatinous mass collapse into a puddle, and hearing Muzdim cry out in pain from the other corridor, Myst retrieves his torch from the ground in front of him and sprints forward towards the intersection to see what's wrong. He readies his shield on his offhand and keeps the torch in the other, leaving his mace hanging from his belt.

 

[gambler1650]

Ok... Let me set the scene here from the point of view of those in the side corridor:

The remnants of the gelatinous cube are puddled at the intersection, smoke still filling that area. You heard the yell of encouragement from Muzdin, followed by his 'yelp' (do Dwarves yelp? ).

So tell me exactly what everyone plans to do. Myst is charging towards the intersection. Stellan will follow.

I will assume that Muzdin turns to see what scratched him, and so below is what he sees.

Muzdin feels a wave of numbness pass over him for a second, his legs threatening to give out. But then it passes, and as he turns he sees two... pale things on either side of him attached to the walls. Because of where they actually are, there's a moment before he can realize that they're actually humanoid in shape. Small - maybe 3 feet 'tall', with wide heads and sharp, needle like teeth. It must have been the hands that struck Muzdin, as both have one hand raised - sharp claws gleaming in the remaining light from the gelatinous cube as it burns. They draw back with matching hisses as Muzdin turns, somehow appearing to sense the motion in spite of their lack of eyes. Where eyes should be, there is instead a featureless slight indentation in the face to either side of a very shallow impression of a nose. Both creatures are almost white and appear to be naked, but the one on the left seems to have something gleaming on one of the fingers of the hand that had swiped at the dwarven cleric.

 

[Binder Fred]

The Gelatinous Cube seems to spasm for a moment, appearing about to throw itself towards Muzdin, but the fire rapidly eats its way through the body of the creature. Combined with the previous damage, it can't hold its form and collapses into a gooey mess at the T intersection, the fire still burning and smoke filling the small space.

"We did it," breathes Antares in completely unexpected triumph. "We did it!" Excited now, he starts babbling, already trying to see the results of such a melting, what could remain behind: "What, do you think, was such a fell creature doing so near beneath the unknowing feet of fair Ascandar's-"

"Argk!" exclaims the dwarf surprised by the sudden pain.

"What? What is it?" shouts the elf, still trying to peer through the billowing whitish vapors, but in another direction now. "Another one?" He is suddenly reminded of why they are here -- of blue-clad girls and bone-white creatures, and of the clashing and shouting noises they all just made in said creature's burrowed den... Disastrous!

Myst is charging towards the intersection. Stellan will follow.

Antares hesitates, then he too follows. But whereas the others look left to muzdin's voice, the young mage clumsily hops right, across the gluey remains in one bound of his long legs, landing on the right side of the intersection, opposite the branch occupied by master Stonehand. All the while one of his robe's wide sleeves is pressed against his face to filter away the smoke, while the other beats at that airy foe with long strokes, trying to disperse it and gain vision to what ails their opinionated dwarf.

OOC: Antares follows Mysthyr and Stellan to the intersection, then hops into the right/east branch and hopes to get line of sight to the dwarf and his attackers. Possible attack incoming if he does.

 

[Toric_Arthendain]

Myst moves into and through the intersection, making an attempt to avoid as much of the gelatinous remains as possible. He takes a deep breath before passing through the smoking remains so as not to breathe too much smoke or fumes and makes his way towards the dwarf, brandishing his shield and torch before him.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Bosco draws his weapon and heads back in to see what new menace has been stirred up.

 

[Voda Vosa]

"Not sure, but soon be dead!" The dwarf quickly lifts the handaxe and throws it, his haste getting in the way of his accuracy. Quickly as well, he fetches his battle axe from his belt.

 

[gambler1650]

'Seeing' an increased number of threats, the pale creatures turn remarkably quickly given that they're on walls rather than the ground, and start to run down the corridor - still on the walls. Muzdin's axe misses, clattering against the wall. Very quickly, the creatures start to disappear into the darkness of the left hand side of the tunnel near the intersection. The whole time, other than the hisses they gave when they were noticed, they're remarkably silent.

Stellan also holds his breath as he moves through the intersection - a touch less careful than Antares to avoid stepping on the remains, but holding his breath. He moves to the left corridor with Myst, and behind Muzdin before readying his spear and preparing to launch it at one of the creatures. He's overcome by a fit of coughing however and rubs at his eyes, dropping the spear for a moment. He manages to cough out a "Should we follow?"

OOC: Stellan takes 1 point of damage, and his movement is halved the next two rounds.

Everyone who has moved through the smoke/remains of the gelatinous cube (Antares, Myst, Stellan) make a saving throw for moving through the smoke/gelatinous cube remains, with a +3 bonus for the precautions taken. Given where Bosco was, and the description, I assume he hasn't gotten to the intersection yet. Everyone who makes their save can make one ranged attack this 'round', and then let me know what your plans are.

OOC: If I recall, regarding the light situation, the lamp that Antares was carrying was shattered.. Both Myst and Stellan still have torches.

 

[gambler1650]

The map is below... Cr1 and Cr2 are the two creatures before they started to run. The arrows show where they will be, assuming someone doesn't kill one with a missile weapon. I normally would have allowed Muzdin to take a swing at one of the two as they started to run, but since he threw a hand axe and then drew his battle axe I ruled that he couldn't both draw and effectively swing before they got out of range.

The distance is close enough so that anyone with full movement can probably catch up to them. Anyone who fails their save against the smoke/caustic chemicals from the gelatinous cube will have half movement the next two rounds though.

 

[Binder Fred]

"Pause and evaluate?" suggests the elf from the back. He's overcome by a sudden thought and quickly jerks around... but the tunnel behind him is blessedly bare of all save dirt and torch-lit rocks <I assume?>.

OOC: Antares will examine the tunnel behind him for threat and continuation (does it really dead end where the cube used to be?), then will examine what the gelatinous cube left behind (in particular as relate to Myst's idea: is the skeleton female and recent? Could it be Anna?). If there is poking in gelatinous matter to do, he'll use the tip of his sword (at last a use for it! )

 

[Voda Vosa]

"Dinna know lad, I don't want them to approach on our backs if we keep advancing on the other tunnel. 'spose we shoulda!" Muzdim takes his shield to bare, and opens the march to the tunnels in purse of the creepy pair.