Fellowship of the Dice

"Oh hey, that's new." From his now quite elevated position, he points above the tall doors. "There's a hidden passage up there, not visible from the ground. You have to get up high like me to see it. I'm going to swing over and check it out. Maybe it's a 'service bypass' or something, avoiding more traps or the like." He agilely swings over, and waves from above the doorway the other two have access to.

"Did you want to check it out together, or have me do a quick scout and report back? I can lower some rope or something to help you up if you like."

Dreams calls out, "How much room do have to maneuver? If there's too many of us, it might make it hard to retreat. Maybe we could tie a rope around your waste, so we can pull you to safety if we need to?"

From his elevated position, the scout looks confused. "Um, I'm higher than you. 'Pulling me to safety' would make me fall quite a distance, wouldn't it?"

Dreams facepalms and says, "Yes, you're right--I'm not sure what I was thinking. Maybe the best thing would be for Torias and I to climb up--you could scout ahead quietly, but we'd be in a position to come after you quickly if you got in trouble."

Torias just nods. He gets ready to climb.

There is room enough up there, so the trio figure out a good way to do this without setting off the trap. After a few minutes and a few dangerous moments with the heavily armored dwarf you are all up in the secret passage. You head along a long narrow passage for a good while, the end grows brighter and brighter, and you begin to hear a voice up ahead so you switch into stealth mode. You come to chamber...

Radiance pouring out of a giant water droplet suspended from the roof fills this chamber with more light than a noon sun. The fat droplet is fifteen feet in diameter and just as long, and quivers slightly in the still air. Within it, something serpentine and translucent undulates slowly.

This chamber is blinding in comparison to the rest of the caverns. Treat the entire space as brightly illuminated. The floor of the chamber is divided into five separate pools of clear water. Ten feet below the giant droplet is a shallow, square pool 10 feet across and perhaps 3 feet deep, bounded by a stone walkway 1 foot wide. Images of other places appear on the pool’s surface and then are quickly gone. Passageways open to the chamber from each of the four corners of the room, and a narrow stone path leads to the central pool, with four trapezoidal pools formed by the intersecting pathways. The walls and ceiling are smooth, worked stone, glistening with moisture.

Standing in the chamber is Poltur, shouting commands at the moving shape inside the water droplet, "Show me the canal landing now!"

Dreams whispers to the others, "This seems like a good opportunity to ambush Poltur. My only concern is that he might be able to summon something that could pin us here. Nate, maybe you could provide covering fire while the other two of us drop to the ground?"

The gunslinger smirks. "Oh yeah, I have no problem providing cover fire against this guy."

"Ready" Torias whispers, as he prays to Kilmorph to strengthen and quicken his body. "Let's go!"

The trio pause, ready to bum rush Poltur. Now is the time to end this. Weapons draw, Torias summons the power of Kilmorph and with Nate ready to cover them, the Elf and Dwarf charge forward as fast as they might in hopes to ambush the man. The passage provides no cover, and heavy armor makes plenty of noise. Yet Poltur seems to be focused looking down at the pools of water and is nearly taken by surprise. Its only when a voice from the shimming drpolet calls out that he turns, "There they are," is the elemental voice that flows liquidy from the droplet. Poltur turns and finds you nearly on him in this narrow space. Nate, with a clean shot before Torias and Dreams start down the passage opens the fight, with Dreams a moment or two behind his shot....