We talked to Augrael again and he was actually helpful. He was happy to see the dead librarians and seemed eager to start munching. Evidently the Morlocks had been displaced from below and he was infected by the ghoul pox during their migration. So, he didn’t really have any loyalty to them. We tried to pump him for information. He wouldn’t say anything about what monsters were below or the dread knight we had seen in the next room but he did say that the column of green light was “tapping” an innocent victim that we would probably “like”. Townsperson or maybe one of the side quests? And that they’d be dead by midnight. After some discussions, we decided to forgo finishing off level 3 and make for level 4. He gave us a map of parts of the next level but it was so crude, I’m not sure anyone gained anything from it. Southeast from the stairs behind Belcora’s office.
We came to a grand dining room with 8 doors. In there were 4 skeletons that we assumed would animate. Xeelie tried to do a Recall Knowledge to recall their resistances and Brian pointed us to a catalog of foes we’ve faced on a tab in Foundry. However, there wasn’t much in there but question marks and it turned out these we Corpselights, not skeletons. They weren’t too tough but they resisted slashing and piercing. Double from bashing though. Once they dropped, the blue light animating them moved to find another body. The only thing that seemed to affect those was Clarisa’s Vitality Lash. So, we bashed them and she finished them off. One got away and returned with a new corpse just as we thought it was over. Unfortunately, Oakwood was standing by the door and got crit. That moved him from barely injured to badly injured. TerStegan wasn’t so great either nor was Xeelie. The plan was to take 10 or 20 to heal up and refocus but the door to the south opened before we could.
Volluk Azrinae arrived, identified us as intruders and attacked. As usual, the big monster went first. (This was a 7th level monster, upsized to 8th to make us sweat.) It seemed to be a human shaped bag of bugs. We’ve encountered Belcora’s chief craftsman at each level in some form. He cast Worm Repast on TerStegan. He took 6d6+4 plus persistent damage and was almost out. With more persistent damage to come. He then used a hero point to reroll and critically failed instead. So rather than bleed out before he can go, he just dropped. It then Demoralized Brisco for good measure. Clarissa cast a full load of magic missile and at least moved it to injured. Its AC and DCs were up at 27. Xeelie, once she cast fast healing on herself, bravely ran across the room and closed the door since Volluk hadn’t actually stepped in yet. Oakwood grabbed Ter Stegan and his axe and got back to the stairs. The DC of 27 was too high to stop the persistent damage and stabilizing him wouldn’t do any good since he'd just take more damage anyway. Brisco cast AOE heal and got him up.
Volluk went next and cast Dimension Door through the closed door into the room. Unfortunately, he arrived right where the stairs entered the room. That really gummed up the movement for the next few rounds. And ended any thoughts of fleeing. He then attacked Clarisa and critted. (Of course.) That attack did no damage but did 4d8+2*10 persistent damage. She cast more magic missiles and it was badly damaged. (That spell doesn’t have to hit or best a DC.) She then took 47 and missed the flat check. TerStegan stood and his axe was given to him for free since Oakwood used an action to bring it. But he couldn’t reach or get past us and it. Brian allowed him to shove past us and get engaged. But he missed its AC 27 by 1. He then missed the Acrobatics roll Brian made him roll for the shove and switch maneuver. He missed it and fell prone. However, he took minimal damage and saved against the persistent damage. He was barely conscious. Xeelie ran up and rolled a 19 on the die and hit. Plus, her sneak attack damage. But he was still only badly damaged. Of course, he resisted some of it, being made of bugs.
Brisco missed a Gouging Claw. Oakwood did the same position switch that TerStegan did to get in range and rolled a 1 on the Acrobatics. But he had just earned a hero point so he used it. But then missed anyway. It was Volluk’s turn again. (Using actions to keep people from dying really impacts our damage output.) First, he regenerated 7. Then he stepped into Xeelie square. Reflex save 25. Saved for half. 17/2 for 8. And then did a 30-foot cone on a 27 Reflex save. Oakwood and Brisco critically failed and TerStegan and Clarisa just failed. TerStegan used Dive for Cover hero card to automatically save but become Clumsy 1. But still took half. Brisco used his Halfling Luck and just saved. So, everyone took 15 and Oakwood took 30. TerStegan stood up, ran around to get flanking with Brisco and missed by 1. Xeelie delayed her turn to try to get flanking (and sneak dice) but Brisco didn’t end up moving. Instead he turned into a Giant Insect and attacked. He did 13 but again it was reduced. Xeelie got out of its square and attempted to give herself flat footedness with her Tumble Through. She could not best its Reflex DC. She then did a recall Knowledge but like everything else, that DC was too high for it. She missed her attack, used a hero point and hit but it wasn’t enough.
Somewhere in there Clarisa went down. Again, Oakwood Medicine skill wasn’t good enough to do any good. He instead did Battlefield Medicine on her for 2D8. That at least reset her Dying clock. (I’m not sure we did the Dying, Wounded and Dead rules right but TerStegan would have probably died if we had.) Oakwood then moved and attacked. He missed, used his last hero point and hit with a crit. He rolled crap damage but it was enough. Its bugs started to scatter and evidently we needed an AOE damager to finish them off. Clarisa stood and cast her Floating Flame on the square. She needed a 15 flat check to succeed. She missed it, used a hero point and made it. And then took 31 more points from the persistent and dropped. But somehow in there the persistent ended. TerStegan went next. He ran over to her and administered a healing potion for 19. Somehow, we all lived. We hid in the storeroom for 5 10-minute blocks to do healing and refocusing. It seemed like a lot but it’s better than the 5 hours it used to take. Nothing more attacked us.
During that last 10 minutes, those not refocusing searched the dining room. The villain had nothing however the skeletons did. We got 48 gold and a Bracelet of Dashing (+1 on acrobatics rolls and +10 movement for 1 minute once a day). That went to Xeelie who was planning on building one when she had the cash. We also found a Viper arrow. (When shot, it turns into a viper and acts like a summoned creature.) I think the plan was to sell it since no one much uses a bow. Although Brisco was talking about taking it and using it to create a trap at our clubhouse. Not sure what use that would be but Dave hates to give up anything magical. He held onto that smoking spear for 3 levels, despite not being able to switch from two handed weapon to a shield to a caster fast enough to get any use out of it. So, we’re back to almost full hit points. The casters are depleted, especially of their high-level spell. But we’ve got someone to save so I think we will press on next time. We did two rooms in one night. This is going to take a while.
