Barrow Mounds: A Clamour of Harpies.

[Spearmint]

A Clamour of Halfling's.

Barrow Mounds, Duchy of Aerik.

June 5th 1066.

Descent into Collapsed Mound.

As the party take turns to belay down the dangling rope to the rubble like below, the vanguard take up positions around the central chamber.

Fydmar, removes his helm and goes to check out the accessible door, listening intently. Nothing seems disturbed beyond, unmoving, silent. The wooden door is ancient but well made, of strong oak and reinforced iron bands that are etched with familiar dwarven geometric designs. A sturdy lock looks to have been disabled for small pieces of tenon bar and inner cogs collect dust at your feet. The door does not open freely, sodden and swollen by the moist air but with a solid barge, it should open inwards.

A flaming firebrand stations itself at the entrance to the dark passageway. Two-Birds receives the benefits of another Invisibility spell and sneaks down the passage, not causing any shadow from her unseen steps.

The 'screeching and triple hoots' echoes rather loudly in the passage and suddenly breaking forth, ramming in to the unseen cleric and grasping for the firebrand as they tumble together, comes a bleeding and melting and visible Cadeweed.

A large jaundiced blob of ooze weighs heavily upon his back and shoulder, secreting acidic enzymes that burn into the clothes, armour and flesh of the halfling whilst absorbing his blood and plasma in return. It fairly pulsates with throbbing beats as it feasts upon the intrepid scout.

Everyone is momentarily startled then bursts into action.

Cadeweed make a [4d6] vs Dex check to grasp the firebrand. If you grasp it you can attack the Amber Jelly with the flame.

Dougal & Jorly shin the rope and may act this round also as Durgo remains rearguard with torchbearers next down the line.

actions please.

[gurusql]

Cadeweed

In a very disheveled state drops his second blade and grabs the floating torch and tries to burn the ooze on his back.

4d6 Check against DEX (17) - [_4d6]=(4+2+4+6)=16

Adding attack action
Random d20 [1d20]=18

[Spearmint]

Cadeweed make a to hit attack action please

[Quonundrum]

Moriartus

He half suspected a charmed Cadeweed to emerge from the passage. This was ... not a charmed Cadeweed.

Moriartus launches another pair of arcane missiles at the amorphous, amber blob attached to the halfling.

Magic Missile: [2d4+2]=3+2=5

Spell Recovery (17): [4d6+1]=14+1=15

[ravenn4544]

Jorly lands deftly on the ground and seeing the close quarters combat hangs back and keeps a watch out to their flanks and rear.

[Spearmint]

I will move this on as the conflict is actually resolved.

Cadeweed is saved by almost divine intervention. A flaming firebrand the answer to his hooting of three calls for help and anguished prayers as the Amber Jelly envelopes him almost completely. It scorches his scalp of hair, his back of skin and burns raw into his exposed flesh, peeling away from his bones as a banana skin is pulled from the ripe fruit. He grasps the floating torch, tearing it from the hold of the Unseen Servant and forces it into the jelly blob that ears and dissolved him in equal measure.

The effect is to shrivel the creature with the burning flames and then suddenly the Amber Jelly explodes, sending blobs of barbecued ooze in all directions as some arcane energy ripples its form with devastating impact.

The halfling can wipe goo from his eyes and see Moriartus, Dougal, Jorly and Durgo. Fydmar and Two-Birds remain invisible.

The halfling has been seriously injured by the Amber Jelly. The cleric gets to work on him before he expires, laying healing hands and praying Cure spells into him. +5hp. The prayers are answered and he stands as walking wounded, mostly intact.

Two- Birds casts CLW on Cadeweed [1d8]=2Two- Birds casts CLW on Cadeweed [1d8]=3

Character Status.

Moriartus. 10/10 has Unseen Servant
Cadeweed 7/12
Fydmar 8/8, invisible
Durgo 10/10
Dougal 7/15
Conmhaol the hound. 8/8
Jorly 6/9
Rickford 3/8
Duval. 6/6
Two-Birds. 11/11. Invisible. Spells: CLW's x2, Shillelagh, Bless, Protection from Evil


Eventually everyone, hound included, descend into the collapsed mound's central chamber.

discussions and next actions please

[gurusql]

Cadeweed

Cadeweed will thank Two-Birds for the healing, and then move up to Moriartus and "OK what happened? Three of us were supposed to be down that hole and you sent me down alone when I thought I had invisible back-up. And we had set-up some call signs and they were ignored. I am feeling a little exposed here Moriartus. Please help me understand what has me so confused? By the way there is more of that jelly creature in the hallway, so please don't go down there yet."

[Quonundrum]

Moriartus

"My most sincere apologies, Mr.Cadeweed. No sooner after you climbed down, Dougal and Jorly were paralyzed by a pair of ghouls. I had to entrust in the invisibility and your natural stealth to keep you safe until we dealt with the immediate danger. Before you burst forth though, I had only heard one hoot and what sounded like the screech of a wounded bird of prey. As I recall, it is two hoots that signals all clear, and three hoots that call for immediate help. I was rather confused, myself."

"Where is the jelly? Ceiling, I assume? I can dispose of it. Please direct my movement ..."

Moriartus will cast Light on the head of his Staff of Set, followed by Shield and Mirror Image upon himself, slowly proceeds along the passage until he locates the jelly, then will cast a Burning Hands spell upon it.

Spell Recovery (17): [4d6+1]=17+1=18

Spell Recovery (17): [4d6+1]=11+1=12

Spell Recovery (17): [4d6+1]=15+1=16

Spell Recovery (17): [4d6+2]=16+2=18

[scottjen]

Fydmar
So what was one hoot anyway? I don't remember there being a code for that.
Looks like the boss man is going to take care of the jelly, but I will follow along behind him, just in case.

[Cwreando]

Durgo

Durgo says very softly, "You look a bit scorched there Cadeweed. I'm glad they got you healed up a bit. So, fire is good on jellies it looks like. Anything else go on them? Live and learn I say. Best I know how to deal with stuff as we go. I'd imagine something sharp might not be too good on them.

Durgo gets his hooded lantern lit and carries it with his shield hand with his longsword at the ready. He gets into marching order. He scans the area as they gather to decide on the next course of action will be.

[Karaunios]

Dougal

"I'm sorry I got hit by the ghools, Cadeweed." He says with an honest tone. And then, to the whole group, "Excuse me, all the othars, if I'm not at the fraent, but I'm a wee injured meself." He gets his bow ready, seeing it the best way to attack any enemies from the rear.

Is the tunnel way to narrow/low for him to shoot arrows without it being dangerous to his companions? In that case he will guard the rear with his sword.

[Spearmint]

Barrow Mounds, Duchy of Aerik.

June 5th 1066.

Descent into Collapsed Mound.

The group have a little debrief, glad it is not a post mortem. There is a discussion on expectations and communication. The ghouls striking at a critical time certainly split the team's priorities and from then on, most were playing catch up.

Signals, passwords, codes. It is up to each player to memorize whatever is agreed or suggested. Going forward, the remaining portion of Amber Jelly is dealt with. Mage Moriartus burns through the ameoba and his daily spells. But the fire is effective and shrivels the creature to a pool of hot, acidic fat.

The passage was described thus to Cadeweed:

Cadeweed,

Armed with long nosed pliers, crowbar and wire cutters, the intrepid halfling sneaks down the archway passage, testing the sincerity of the floor.

You don't find any traps by knowledge or trigger any through negligence. However you do note that the passage is quite damp and probably has an inch of undrained brackish water on the floor. The passage is a typical dungeon build with an ill fitting flagstone floor mortared into place and rough plasterwork on the walls and ceiling. Faded pictures covered in dusty yellow mould decorate the plaster though with just infravision, you cannot really make out much detail.

The passage proceeds about twenty feet, so quite short, before opening into a T-junction. Opposite your entrance (so the middle of the T) you can make out a larger stone seal, which presumably would be an unexcavated main entrance. To the right and left the passage continues just 10'ft before ending. Standing against the walls of each are two weathered and dusty statues.

There are no traps but in inspecting the statues and walls for such, you have to get close and that causes the sticky mould that coats the statues and passage to erupt into a fine cloud of spores.

Not as bad as those which affected Dalin with Mummy Rot, but some mould is rather insidious and left untreated, possibly leading to fatal consequences. This though is not the more common yellow or brown mould but of an amber colour. As with most amber colours, you have to proceed with caution.

The spore cloud erupts, you need to make a saving throw vs poison or suffer the effects, which for this type of spore is a turn of incapacitation and vomiting.

Not so bad you may think, but often creatures have a symbiotic relation with other creature types and in this T-junction, unspotted by you as it dwells above the stone archway you ignored in favour of searching the statues; a large gelatinous amoeba, an amber jelly is settled. Disturbed by your coughing fit, it sends out a sticky pseudopod to try and snare you. It uses blind-sight and tremor-sense so being invisible is no handicap to its attacks.

A large, mucus covered, sticky and elasticated tendril shoots out from the blubbery mass to splatter just above your head.

You can burn the Amber Mold on the statues as well as the Jelly. The two statues, look like this:



Conmhaol is lowered to the chamber floor and finally the mercenerary duo descend. The dark passage is secured. Unfortunately for Moriartus, this collapsed barrow does not at first glance appear to be the lair of the Harpy.

next actions please

[scottjen]

Fydmar
Will wait until the mold is burnt before announcing: I'm going to check the statue on the left and the stone it sits on.
Stonework check [1d100]=8

[Cwreando]

Durgo

Durgo says softly, "I wonder if that Jelly stuff could be placed in a flask and sold in town for some extra coin? I've got an oil flask I can use after I top off my lantern and use the rest to oil up my blades. If someone has something better to hold the stuff that would work too. I'll stand guard for the group and if we can use the flask for the jelly I'll get it ready. If not, I'll just hang on to the flask."

Durgo stands guard and gets the flask ready only if they want to use it.

[Spearmint]

Fydmar
Will wait until the mold is burnt before announcing: I'm going to check the statue on the left and the stone it sits on.

The two statues are as depicted, hard stone with caricature features. They are well crafted and have withstood the erosion of time and barrow damp very well. Neither has any extra-ordinary features, hidden mechanisms or traps. Checking out the stone arch and door that is in the passage, this too resounds of dwarven artistry and construction. It is sealed, unbroken, a single large granite slab that seems set in place and not hinged for movement.

Durgo stands guard and gets the flask ready only if they want to use it.

You can use a metal spoon to feed remnant blobs of the Amber Jelly into a ceramic flask for study and research.

The Amber Mold spores were heavily built up in these side alcoves, lesser so in the dark corridor. You can freely move about the passage, interior chamber and across the fallen rubble. While you are down here, nothing seems drawn to your torchlight or seems alerted to your presence. A few raindrops fall through the hole and voices might sound a bit echoey. No sign of vulture or harpy or Bennerjake twins.

next actions

[Quonundrum]

Moriartus

"This is obviously not the harpy's lair. I therefore suggest we continue exploring northeast. I have lost the ability to cast another invisibility spell, so I will scout ahead using my cloak."

[Quonundrum]

Moriartus

He fastens his gear before climbing the rope. "I expect that Mr. Fydmar at least has an interest in further exploring this particular mound ... I suspect manipulating those statues may open that seal. I will return anon."

[scottjen]

Fydmar
Are there holes where the eyes are in the statue? If so, what size object would fit in them?

[Karaunios]

Dougal watches the rear.

[gurusql]

Cadeweed

"Moriartus I will say with you, if you would like."