Chapter Six - Negotiating with Monsters

[AdamDaBomb11]

Grask says to himself, these things just wont end. Then he realizes they are probably thinking the same thing about him. He then tries to end the last of the threats to him.

OOC

Full-Attack power attack. If it wasnt for this dr Grask would be dead by now. Haha.

[Trogdor]

Right now it's all over but the cleanup. Abigail waves her hand and one of the last of the troglodytes is sent to sleep by the power of the witch's patron. Daerith quickly follows up with a mercy strike that ends the poor diseased creature's life.

On the other side of the battle, one lone troglodyte faces the large earth elemental, with predictable results. Grask smashes one stoney hand down on the troglodyte, breaking nearly every bone in its body and ending its life.

That leaves one troglodyte remaining in the tentacles. But it's so firmly grasped that it can't get out before it's life is slowly crushed out from it.

A eerie silence falls in the cavern as the fight finally comes to an end.

Roll

Abigail uses Slumber hex on T7
Will Save (DC 22): 10; fail - Zzzzz
Tentacles: do 9 damage to T9

Mamoon tries to break out of Hold Person spell
Will save (DC 13): 19; success

Grask attacks T6: 24; hit for 18; DEAD

Daerith executes a CDG on T7: auto crit for 39 damage; not down below 0 HP
Fort Save (DC 49): 22; fail; DEAD

T9 is eventually crushed to death by the tentacles.

Combat over.

Hit Points

Abigail: full
Daerith: 98/113
Grask: 114/135; diseased
Mamoon: full
Simira: 67/94

GM

Oops, I apparently goofed in that I hadn't realized that Elemental Body gave you Dr 5/-. That makes a HUGE deal when fighting these troglodytes, who only do 1d6+2 with their claws and 1d4+1 with their teeth. (90% of the hits they did would have bounced right off.) It would be a real pain to go back and recalculate how much damage Grask would actually have taken, so I'll just say that he gets 60 HP back.

FWIW, if you ever have DR, I'll always note it in my damage, e.g., T2 attacks with claws: 19; hit for 7 (-5 DR) = 2 damage. If you don't see me mention DR in your damage total, odds are I forgot about it, and you should remind me.

[Vardaen]

Twice Daerith dispatches one of the sleeping enemies with a neat finishing blow. He delievers the fatality to the second troglodyte and stands flicking the blood from his blade against the nearby cave wall. He glances south then north, and the stillness of the cavern sound is only broken up by the noise of the writing tentacles slapping against the huts and crushing the corpses of the dead. He cleans his blade, and himself with a quick wipe of a cloth and looks about. "Well this was rather foul."

He stands before the tentacle mass and glances back at Abigail, "I think its safe to lower this now. Everyone alright?" He then notices he himself is lightly wounded, but shrugs it off for now.

[Eilandor]

As the last breath of air is squeezed from the lone troglodyte captured by her tentacles, Abigail waves a hand and utters a word that dismisses the spell at will. Her stomach, which had been turning for several minutes is starting to return to normal. Stowing her rod of withering to her belt, "Well that was a fair bit of fun now, wasn't it?"

[Trogdor]

The cavern-village seems quite pitiful. This wretched community troglodytes is primitive even by their standards. The village consists of a dozen crude mud and stone buts, each built at a respectful distance from a large 20-foot-tall statue just barely visible in the distance. The huts are cobbled domes of rock and mud that cover shallow pits in this large cavern. Entered through holes in the stone roofs, each damp dwelling reeks of rotting meat, reptile, and pungent herbs. Crude paintings on the wall depict all manner of reptilian creatures feasting on humanoid shapes. Many of these reptiles have two heads.

The two huts nearest the gated opening are filled with dead troglodyte women and children, crushed to death by Abigail's black tentacles. The other huts have scared, but defiant troglodytes who curse at the blasphemers who have invaded the cavern, though they take no offensive action beyond defending their huts. Not that they seem capable of much in any case. All of the troglodytes that the Sea Wyverns can see appear afflicted with vile rigidity to some extent.

In the middle of the huts a pair of large cages with wooden bars sit precariously at the edge of a thirty-footwide charnel pit. One cage contains two dead reptilian humanoids, their bodies twisted masses of tumors and shingles of unnecessary skin. The other contains another dead troglodyte as well as what appears to be a dead human.

Map

B1: Where you came in
B2: The cages with the dead people
B3: The huts
B4: A big statue and an altar in the distance
B5 & B6: hard to see from where you are.

GM

There are perhaps 30-35 troglodytes in various stages of vile rigidity in the huts. They'll defend their huts if they have to, but otherwise they'll just curse in Draconic at the group and huddle in their huts.

[Vardaen]

Daerith steps into the center of the cavern and lifts his voice in Draconic for the troglodytes to hear. <Draconic> We have defeated your warriors, and slain the guard at the entrance of the cavern. We will slay you as well if you do not remain where you are! We have come for the Black Pearls, we have come to end the Red Pirate's rule on this place. You suffer because of the foul magic of this place, of the darkness of the pearl. If there is one among you that will come and speak to me, we can give you healing, and we will take what we need and go without further troubles. Resist us, refuse us, and the black tentacles of the deep will rise up again and crush all of you."

Daerith spots the cages, and looks to Abigal and Mamoon, "Check on the bodies in there, see if anyone is still alive."

He gazes at the large alter and other places to the north, but for the moment deals with one thing at a time. "<Draconic> Is there one among you who will speak? Come forward now and let us parlay."

[Trogdor]

"They won't listen to you," a weak voice says in Draconic-accented Common from one of the cages. It's one of the troglodytes, and he's not quite dead. Curiously enough, he also doesn't seem to be diseased, the first troglodyte you've seen in these caverns who isn't afflicted by vile rigidity to some degree.

"They're zealots, every one of them, down to the youngest child." The troglodyte weakly shakes his head. "They think their disease is a blessing from Laogzed - they call it the Laogzed's Embrace. But I know better. I know that it's a disease spread by the Lords of Dread. Sadly, they wouldn't listen to me. Instead they imprisoned me and left me to die." He gives forth a hoarse chuckle. "For all the good it did them. Now they're dead and I'm still alive. I don't suppose you'd consider letting me out of here? I can assure you, I'm not as closed-minded as the others of Laogroat."

[Vardaen]

Daerith turns at the sound of the common tongue coming from the cage, he at first expects it to be the human, but its not, its one of the troglodytes. The magus captain moves to the cage and comes to stand before it, "I am Captain Daerith of the Sea Wyvern, and if I have your word of your good behavior we shall free you and bring you with us on our ship away from this place. Tell me more." He reaches into his pack and produces a small tin cup and his waterskin, fills he cup and hand it to the prisoner through the bars.

[Trogdor]

"That I can promise," the troglodyte replies weakly. "I have no desire to be complicit in what my former companions have done. They have corrupted the teachings of Laogzed and brought doom upon my people." He takes the cup eagerly and quickly drinks it. "Thank you, sir."

"I can also tell you more of this place, if you wish," he says. "But you may want to check on the one of your kind they have imprisoned." He gestures at the other cage. "He was alive when I spoke with him yesterday, but he was sorely weakened from the disease. It's a terrible affliction, I'm afraid. There is hope, though. The priests of Laogzed had the means of curing it; they simply chose not to use it, viewing, as I said, the disease as a gift from Laogzed. I know for a fact there was at least one potion in the priest's hut that could magically cure disease. For I was one of them before they turned away from the true faith. I can show you where it is kept and we can use it to cure my fellow prisoner." He shrugs. "That is, presuming he is still alive."

[Eilandor]

Abigail starts towards the cages, then stops as she is startled by one of the seemingly dead that starts talking. At the suggestion that the human may still be alive, she approaches and kneels down. "Are you still with the living?" She reaches through the bars and gently grabs the male prisoners wrist, checking for a pulse.