The Pod-Caverns of the Sinister Shroom (Game Thread V)

[Jerrard]

While the wand is interesting, re-joining the group is his first goal, thus Jerrard pulls the group together and heads back to the Portcullis, "We try to lift it, if we fail, we go South."

(Jerrard, Elvenoff and Thurskar will attempt to lift the Portcullis, I will leave the check to you, if that is acceptable?)

[JadedDM]

Returning the way they came, Jerrard's party re-enters the vat room, crosses through the tunnel, and comes upon the portcullis. All three of them put their backs into it, and with a grinding noise, manage to lift the portcullis up and slip in under it.

Meanwhile, the vampiric moss on Locky turns redder as it drains blood from her body. Its wounds mend further, and the kender is left feeling very woozy as a result.

==========================

Jerrard, Thuskar, and Elvenoff attempt to lift the portcullis. (1d100): 23, success!
Vampiric Moss drains (1d4): 4 HP from Locky.

Round 13!

Party's Initiative (1d10): 3
Enemy's Initiative (1d10): 5

(Party wins!)

[Breila]

Babushka helps Locky to get the moss off her.

[Jenara]

"Oh my this rather hurts! Its interesting but one of the things i wouldn't like to do again.." she chats even with the drain she somehow manages to keep chatting. "Say leaffoam? Those pesky hanging things, the last one ruined some rather nice clothes, you don't think you could oh, ah, ee, could you stop them for me? Or would you get stuck?"

[JadedDM]

"The hanging snagworts would ensnare me as easily as thyself," Leafloam responds.

The girls manage to rip off the vampiric moss from Locky with an audible tearing sound, taking some hair and skin with it. The wooziness gets worse, and Locky suddenly feels very light-headed. Then everything goes black. She collapses in a heap, bleeding from the tiny wounds the creature had given her.

Shay attacks the moss with his blade, but it flops aside, avoiding the strike. Leafloam bashes it good with its branches, knocking it aside. The moss avoids the second blow, though.

=====================

Babushka and Locky attempt to pull off the vampiric moss on Locky. (1d6): 5 damage. Locky is unconscious and bleeding out. All spells are wiped from her mind.
Shay attacks the Vampiric Moss (1d20): 3, miss.
Leafloam attacks the Vampiric Moss (1d20): 18, hit. (2d8): 4 damage. (1d20): 9, miss.

(OOC: Ahh, afraid that would happen. Jerrard's team's next up.)

[Breila]

(ooc: Oh, what have I done!)

Babushka pulls Locky as far away from the moss as she can. With her limited knowledge, she binds up the wounds (they're shallow, you said), using her ointment that helps skin to heal. She's biting her lip, hard, her bad conscience heavy on her mind, but she does all she can.

[Jerrard]

Jerrard heads down the cavern to the fork they started at (unless he hears the noise from the Tree room, ie I doubt it) he will go straight to the Chamber with the Cages in.

"Let us rejoin the others at once, hopefully the haven't got in any trouble." He jokes but its obvious he is concerned, the two girls should never have gone alone.

[JadedDM]

Jerrard, Elvenoff and Thuskar head north, following the long tunnel.

Meanwhile, the vampiric moss flops toward Shay, but the rogue dodges. It does so a second time, but is successful and clamps onto him. "Aggh, get off, get off!" he cries. "I need my blood inside me!"

As the battle rages on around them, Babushka grabs Locky and drags her to a safer location. Quickly bandaging her wounds, she stops the bleeding. The kender remains comatose, however.

Shay tries to stab at the moss, but has trouble getting the right angle without stabbing himself. Leafloam, however, comes to the rescue. "Hold still," it rumbles, and then smashes the moss again with its branches, just narrowly avoiding hitting the thief, too. The moss shudders, then simply lets go of Shay. It loses its reddish tint and starts to turn brown instead. It moves no more.

While they catch their breath, Jerrard and his companions reach the chamber with the prisoners. Ulster, Merithina, and the crazy dwarf are where they left them. Although Merithina is now carrying a dagger, and in addition to Jerrard's bow, Ulster is also carrying Babushka's old staff.

"It's okay," Ulster says to Merithina. "They're back. Well, not them. The other ones." Turning to Jerrard, he said, "Did they find you? The other three went looking for you, but haven't come back yet."

==========================

Jerrard, Thuskar and Elvenoff travel 120 feet.
Vampiric Moss attacks Shay (1d20): 3, miss.

Round 14!

Party's Initiative (1d10): 9
Enemy's Initiative (1d10): 3

(Enemy wins!)

Vampiric Moss attacks Shay (1d20): 20, critical hit! No damage, just attaches itself.

(Party's turn!)

Babushka binds Locky's wounds and stops the bleeding.
Locky is stable, but unconscious.
Shay attacks the Vampiric Moss (1d20): 8, miss.
Leafloam attacks the Vampiric Moss (1d20): 13, hit. (2d8): 12 damage. Vampiric Moss dies.
Jerrard, Thuskar and Elvenoff travel 120 feet.

End combat!

[Jerrard]

"They left?" He curses in Goblin "They shouldn't go alone, damn!" He gives them a smile"We found one of yours, although he will need some help in the future." He reveals Thuskar, "Don't be alarmed, I believe with help and time he will be ok."

Reaching into his pouch he produces all the papers, the single slip of paper on his mind. "Please do not get to excited, but I found a few things in the Creatures Library." Thinking of the obviously Mad Dwarf he stops. "If this works, we may need to restrain the dwarf, Elvenoff, can you watch him, I will ensure the others are safe."

"Fahoorth" He utters, trying to sound confident.

[Jenara]

Locky lays unconscious, dreaming of flying plants and talking bushes.

[Breila]

With a violence Shay has never seen on her, Babushka stamps on the dead vampiric moss. She's more angry at herself than at the creature, but anger has to go somewhere...

She shakes her head to clear it, then talks to Shay and Leafloam: "We will have to retreat. Locky is very bad off, and I'm not much better. Leafloam, we have a place here that is easy to defend, where we left three other victims of the shroom. Will you come with us?
Shay, can you carry Locky?"

[JadedDM]

"Thuskar, no..," Merithina says in shock. Ulster simply shakes his head. "By all of the gods, what did those monsters do to you?" Thuskar turns away, pulling the hood of Elvenoff's cloak over its head to hide his hideous appearance.

Originally, the four fungus cages were spread out over the room. But the party had moved them all close to each other. Consequently, when Jerrard said the word 'Fahoorth,' all four cages opened simultaneously.

Ulster and Merithina were freed, but so was the crazy dwarf. As soon as the dwarf was free, his image began to waver as the illusion of a dwarf was dispelled. Standing in its place was another creature entirely. It stood nine feet tall and was humanoid in shake, walking upright but hunched forward with sagging shoulders. It had long, knife like claws and its skin was rubbery and green. A writhing hairlike mass grows out of its skull of the purist black.

"Merithina, watch out!" Ulster shouted, grabbing her arm and pulling her away from the monster.



Meanwhile, Shay hands Babushka his lantern and sheathes his sword. Then he picks up Locky and nods. "I agree. I'm worried about the others, too, but we're in no condition to fight. It's better to fall back for now."

"I shall accompany thee," Leafloam says.

========================

Round 1!

Party's Initiative (1d10): 3
Enemy's Initiative (1d10): 8

(Party wins!)

[Jerrard]

Jerrard wearily raises his weapon, cursing himself for being so hasty he too pulls in front of Merithina, blocking the creatures way.

"What a nasty trap, I should have known." He curses, "When it goes down, we have to burn it, otherwise it will get back up." Another reason to have acid, damn. He passes his torch to Ulster before attempting to strike the creature with his blade. "Attack it with this."

1d20=3 Oops, miss, no way that will hit in a million years.

(OCC: I assume he is well read enough to know of the "Special powers" of a Troll, int check: 1d20=13, pass

I have rolled the dice on Invis Castle, and waited, let me know if there is a problem)

[JadedDM]

While Babushka and her group start to walk back to the prisoner chamber...

Jerrard recognizes the creature from the descriptions he had read in his books back home. It is a troll, a violent, evil creature that continually regenerates its body unless fire or acid were used. The sorcerer steps forward, stabbing with his short sword. The troll hops back to avoid it.

When it reaches out toward Jerrard with its left arm, Elvenoff steps forward, chopping it right off! The troll howls as its black blood splatters the paladin's armor and pools on the ground beneath the severed limb.

Thuskar charges forward with the torch in hand, but stumbles over the severed arm and drops the torch to the ground as a consequence. It remains burning, however.

Ulster fires Jerrard's bow, but the arrow goes wide. This time taking careful aim, he tries again, but the bowstring snaps. "Oh, for Kiri-Jolith's sake!"

Merithina stays in the back, away from the melee, holding the dagger Locky loaned her up with both hands.

The troll, outraged, claws at Elvenoff who blocks it with his shield. It then hops forward, biting deeply into the paladin's shoulder with its sharp teeth. The paladin stifles a shout of pain. Then, to top it off, the troll's severed limb springs to life and claws at Jerrard's ankle, drawing blood from deep gashes.

===========================

Babushka, Shay (carrying Locky), and Leafloam travel 60 feet north.
Jerrard attacks the troll with his short sword (3), miss.
Elvenoff attacks the troll with his long sword (1d20): 20, critical hit! (2d12): 17 damage. The troll's left arm is decapitated.
Thuskar attacks with the torch (1d20-2): 1, fumble! Thuskar drops the torch.
Ulster attacks with Jerrard's bow (1d20): 3, miss. (1d20): 1, fumble! The bowstring snaps.
Merithina goes into full defense (AC improves 1 point).
Troll attacks Elvenoff with its good claw (1d20): 4, miss. It then tries to bite him (1d20): 19, hit. (2d6): 7 damage.
Troll's Severed Arm attacks Jerrard (1d20): 16, hit. (1d4+4): 5 damage.

(OOC: Jerrard, Thuskar was all ready carrying your torch. And I suppose a wizard in training would likely be able to identify a troll and what its capable of. No trouble with die rolls on this end. Also, yeesh! A crit and two fumbles? Is that supposed to balance out?)

.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.
.x._._._.x.x.x.x.x.
.x._._._.x.x.x.x.x.
.x._.x.x._._._._._. -->
.x._.x.x._.x.x.x.x.
.x._._._._._.c.b.x.
.x._._.g._._.d.a.x.
.x._._._.E.t.T._.x.
.x._._._._.J._._.x.
.x._._.U._._._._.x.
.x._.M._._._._._.x.
.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.

X – Solid rock
a – Merithina’s Cage
b – Dwarf’s Cage
c – Empty Cage
d – Ulster’s Cage
g - Grinder
J – Jerrard
E – Elvenoff
U – Ulster
T – Thuskar
M – Merithina
t - Troll

Round 2!

Party's Initiative (1d10): 8
Enemy's Initiative (1d10): 9

(Party wins!)

[Breila]

Lighting the way for Shay (and Leafloam if he needs light), Babushka leads the group back to the second camp. She's walking slowly and carefully, scanning the walls, ground and ceiling.

Is the portcullis up, or are there other signs that Jerrard's group has passed it?

tracking check (1d20=5)