We entered the cell to find the fugitive Tiefling hanging upside down in shackles. She was dehydrated and starved but not damaged per se. There was much discussion with her and about her, with Xeelie and Briscoe adopting their usual good cop/bad cop roles. To summarize. She had mundane gear which was returned. She had made a deal with the boss devil of this level, to deliver Carmine Rajoni to him. She had the impression that some greater devil wanted him. When she was unable to deliver, she was seized. She seemed eager to have us help her do it or cash in on the offer ourselves. We did not want to help a devil in any way. She also postulated that maybe any Rajoni blood would do and supposedly Carmine had a daughter in town. (Amicia.) Xeelie attempted to deflect that by claiming that daughter was only a step daughter. No mention of that fact that Xeelie was also a Rajoni. Eventually we let her go and tried to discourage her from going back into Otari. The bounty hunters were still there and getting Carmine out of jail and down here was going to be ever tougher. Only time will tell if we should have murder-hoboed her.
The other cell was empty. The other door led to a 10x10 room and then double doors beyond. Based on our maps we (correctly) surmised the trap room laid beyond. We didn’t want to go to the statis room nor fight the boss so we decided to give it a shot. A rope was tied to TerStegan and he entered the hexagonal room with the glowing light. He had to make a stiff Will save and missed. He was paralyzed. Oakwood wanted to pull him back but initiative was rolled because monsters were on the way. Two of those spidery abominations and two big brutes. TerStegan was eventually pulled in but not before he took 40 points of mental damage and a couple of hits. Somehow Briscoe managed to pull one brute into the room and close the door. But they just opened it. It was probably supposed to be a medium challenge but with TerStegan out for most of it and rolling poorly, it was almost the end of us.
The spider things stayed in the trap room and shot cloud after cloud of needle darts. The damage and Reflex save wasn’t too bad but it added up, especially for those that missed the saves. The fact that they were hitting their brutes as well didn’t seem to bother anyone. And we couldn’t reach them in there although we couldn’t get past the brutes regardless. The brutes were tough but as usual, it was their crits that were devastating. TerStegan was quickly dropped and dropped twice more before it was done. Briscoe also went down a couple of times as did Clarisa. Once people went down, others spent their actions aiding them. That was particularly important under the constant needle fire. Clarisa managed a staff Fireball and a Clarisa Fireball and Xeelie used a scroll Fireball which did a lot. It was nice to see foes that weren’t immune to fire and didn’t have reactive strikes for a change. You know, our level. Oakwood finally took out a brute but unfortunately the other brute used its reaction to keep him up. Fortunately, it was his turn next and the Nimbus took him out for real but unfortunately it exploded for lots and knocked people out. It became very dicey as people’s wound and dying numbers were adding up. Somehow Xeelie and Oakwood managed to keep them from dying while finishing the monsters off. That was likely the closest to a TPK we’ve had in a long while. A poor night for TerStegan is a poor night for us all.
We decided to take 10 minutes to Treat Wounds and do Dash of Herbs. We were in decent shape but we had used up a lot of healing. Especially the BFM and DV which needed time to reset. We were debating whether we should spend another 10 minutes, flee or press on when a Warrior Wraith appeared. It was drawn to death and seemed intent on generating some more out of us. Briscoe pulled out a sunlight bomb he’d had for years only to discover bombs were a martial weapon. He was untrained and missed poorly despite the great impact it could have had. Flee or fight? It hit TerStegan with a big will save that blinded him and cursed him. And then moved into a wall. With no targets, people started moving towards the stairs. When it reappeared, TerStegan started fleeing and that convinced the rest to go as well. We made it back to the cabin. Briscoe still had a Remove Curse memorized from the last time and fixed him. He also noted another curse (that lucky ring) and intended to do a follow up remove curse the next day. Those that were Drained needed a day’s rest anyway. Xeelie was eager to go scroll shopping and the chronicler went to bed. I assume we’ll heal up and go back in.
Unfortunately, we are no wiser as to how the paralysis trap worked. Evidently, we needed a master in Thievery to even try to disarm it and we had none. Maybe the brute bodies have a clue as to why they were immune to the effects. Not that we can expect much treasure from a guard room but so far, we had earned none. Assuming that leads nowhere, we’re back to the stasis room or the big door at the end of the level. Assuming we live through that, we’ll probably earn 8th level after that.
