We were still in the circular staircase room at the start of level 5 and chose the door to the east. In there was a big room full of chains, similar to the torture room we found the level above. There was a rusty looking grate over a pit in the center of the first area. And another chain fiend standing there. There was discussion about trying to fight her from the hallway and avoid the room of chains (i.e. at range) but TerStegan would have none of that. We moved in. Xeelie came in saying “Hello” and TerStegan came in saying “We killed your sister, prepare to die.” Sort of mixed messages. We rolled initiative and she started attacking us with the various chains in the room. She could pretty much attack anything she could see in there. She had the usual Fear effect, forcing everyone to make a Will save or be Frightened 1 or 2. She also got an opportunity attack on anything that moved (but only once a round). And 3 actions with a high attack value but at least she suffered from MAP. TerStegan charged in and she fell back into the corner. Xeelie moved up and did her evaluation thing. It was resistant to most everything but vulnerable to silver and holy. (Holy, not vitality.)
When Clarisa moved in, she plotted her path across the grate. BTO squawked in surprise and was accused of meta gaming. So, Clarisa went ahead and fell 40 down to the next level, taking 20. Oakwood threw her a rope on his turn but it took all 3 actions to fish it out and toss it. She then spent 3 actions climbing and he spent 3 actions pulling her up the rest of the way. The net effect was that it was TerStegan and Xeelie alone for the first 2 rounds. They got battered. On the second round, TerStegan was crit with a chain and took lots of damage plus 2d6 persistent bleed damage. And he was grappled (no movement actions and flat-footed) and impaled (can’t recover from the persistent damage). That was one action for her. She beat on Xeelie with the rest. So, when Brisco showed up, TerStegan was almost out and Xeeile is badly injured. Once he did his usual “I’m running away”, he charged forward and did his battle medicine. But that and Xeelie’s fast healing wasn’t enough to keep him up.
From there, it was a scramble. We tried to keep him alive and he tried to fight from the ground. Xeelie used a healing scroll and Brisco used both of his day’s battle medicine on him. The other two joined the effort. Oakwood’s new Aeon stone bounced the persistent damage on him. Clarisa tried her vitality lash, discovering that holy was not the same as vitality. By the way, the fiend also had fast healing 10, However, any round that Xeeile hit it with her silver starknife, it didn’t get it. After a few more rounds, our numbers won out but we were beat pretty good. Oakwood started handing out Fresh Produce and Brisco did his Treat Wounds. We searched and found nothing. Clarisa said that the pit led to another hallway with more doors so we figured we’d get to it when we got to the next level.
There were double doors to the north that lead to 3 cells. Each had a pile of garbage and filth but nothing was moving. We started to search and someone spotted the gleam of copper under the center pile. Oakwood used his Mage Hand to pull it free and awakened 3 undead blob things. He turned on his fire damage and took a shot at one. Xeelie said these were resistant to slashing and piercing and vulnerable to vitality. Did they have a fear effect? I can’t recall. They did a flesh slap or a bone shard range attack. They had no trouble passing through the bars. They also had an engulf power but Brian was unable to land it. After a couple rounds, we finished them off. We searched and found nothing but the copper key. Our only treasure of the night. We ate more fruit and went to the double doors to the south.
This seemed to be an examination room or maybe a morgue. There were 3 tables and various scary equipment hanging from the ceiling. There was one body on the furthest table. Brian sort of forced the action, having Clarisa check under the sheet. It was a carved up Morlock body from which a Specter emerged. This was similar to the monster we fought in the Otari crypt and pretty mad about being chopped up in its past life. It had a fear zone and was resistant to everything but vitality and ghost touch. Thankful, our bright lights made it Clumsy 2. TerStegan started swinging while the rest of us moved up. He took advantage of Clarisa standing there to get flanking. Xeelie attacked and then Oakwood got flanking from her. However, then BTO logged off and Oakwood’s flanking ceased to exist. And then Clarisa fled, stopping TerStegan’s flanking. But then he moved around and finished it off with a 58 point crit. Again, no treasure or anything of interest. This level, at least so far, has been much emptier. It was late so we stopped there. There was a debate about returning home for a long rest or pressing on. The casters won out and we went home. That’ll reset the battle medicine and TerStegan’s Bless as well. Xeelie is eager to make magic items for people and people are eager to get them so we may stay in town a few days. That’ll allow us to protect the next election although I think it is still 5-6 days away.
