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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 1066359" data-attributes="member: 143">Well, remember that I did let them all level before that encounter, but even so, those 1d3+1+2d6 sneak attacks are nasty.  And Zenna was right about the stalker's javelin killing her if it had hit; they get +3d6 sneak attack damage (plus regular damage, and the weapon was poisoned to boot).  She's still 1st level, with all of 5 hit points.Ah, I must be getting soft on my characters in my old age...* * * * *Chapter 22The four companions, bleeding and battered, gathered wearily in a small chamber adjacent to the room where they’d battled the creepers.  The room had been sealed by one of the gnome doors, but the automaton had made short work of it, surviving the blast of flames triggered by its opening.  The skulk prisoner was on the floor between them, a defeated look on its face.  The pulverizer automaton was in the corner, quiescent for now.  Despite being seriously damaged, it was still a potentially potent weapon, one that they obviously did not want to leave lying around.  They’d been weakened, and their resources were all but depleted.  Ruphos was out of healing spells, having used his final osiron to stabilize the skulk and keep it from bleeding out from the two punctures in its side and leg.  Arun had not been pleased with that, but they’d needed answers, and none of them felt particularly like seeking out and challenging the mysterious leader of the creepers that had fled during the battle.  Particularly not after the skulk had given them a description of the creature, the “stalker” named Yuathyb.   “We are fortunate that the leader did not join immediately in the attack,” Mole commented.  “One more skilled enemy in that melee, and things might have been different.”  Zenna nodded, but she remembered a javelin that had sped from the darkness, and the power she’d called upon in response, and shuddered.  “Your reprieve is going to be very short, skulk, unless you start talking, real fast now,” Arun said to the prisoner in Undercommon.  The dwarf’s injuries were still serious, although he’d called upon the power of his patron god to stop the bleeding and ease his pain somewhat, and that and the escape of the enemy leader had not left him in a forgiving mood.  The skulk looked up at them.  “If you swear upon your gods to set me free, I tell you everything.”  This one spoke a halting Common, enough for them to understand it through its thick accent.Arun frowned, but Ruphos quickly stepped in.  “Our need is great, and time is short,” he said, more to the dwarf than to the prisoner.  “We accept your terms, skulk, but all deals are void, if your words are false.”The skulk, however, seemed to have lost any motivation to dissemble.  It spoke quickly, incorporating some words in Undercommon that the dwarf translated for the rest of them.  They learned that the first skulk captive they’d taken had indeed misled them, directing them here to the lair of the stalker and its creeper minions rather than to the true location of the lift that provided access to the Malachite Fortress below. “Tricky,” Mole said.  “Of course, we could have uncovered this, perhaps, if we’d brought the last prisoner with us, instead of bashing its skull in.”  Arun did not respond in words, but his snort was a comment of sorts.  The skulk, however, did respond, letting out a high-pitched whine and covering its head with its arms.  “Hey, stop that, shut up,” the dwarf said, kicking the skulk almost absently.  The skulk subsided, its expression a mixture of fear and surly discontent. On prodding, however, it revealed the rest of what it knew.  The children, along with a number of other captives stolen from the city by the skulks and their creeper allies, were being held by a half-breed part-dwarf—the skulk could not be more specific—who commanded a significant force of hobgoblin renegades in the citadel deep underground.  Apparently this creature and its followers were the ultimate driving force behind the abductions that had been going on in Cauldron, selling the captives to foul merchants who came up into the Malachite Fortress from the endless tunnels of the Underdark.  “This must be ended,” Arun said, his hand tightening around the haft of his hammer as he spoke.  “Yes,” Ruphos said.  He turned to the skulk.  “We cannot let him go,” Mole said.  “He’d probably go right to this slaver... where else could he go?”  The skulk drew back and let out a hollow noise from the back of its throat.  “You promise,” it said.  “You swear.”“I know,” Ruphos said.  “And the followers of Helm keep their word.  I will personally intervene on your behalf with the city authorities, but we must take you into custody until this is finished.”“You sure you wouldn’t rather just deal with it now?” Arun said, hefting his hammer.  But he didn’t press it when Ruphos shook his head.   “So you want to go back up?” Zenna asked, divining where Ruphos was going with this. The cleric nodded.  “We must retreat, if only briefly.  I know that time is short,” he said, forestalling Arun’s interjection, “and I will return with you to face this slaver and his minions, but if we go on as we are, with our resources depleted, battered and wounded, we will be slaughtered to no gain.”Arun stared at him for a lengthy interval, then finally nodded.  “You speak the truth, priest.”  He turned to the skulk and roughly dragged it to its feet.  “Okay, we’re leaving, and you keep quiet and don’t try anything, skulk.  Remember,” he added, hefting his hammer, “all I need is an excuse.  The priest wants to keep you alive, but I made no such promise.”The skulk whimpered but offered no resistance as they gathered up their gear and set out once again.</blockquote>

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