Kobold Den of the Snake Redux

The tavern was crowded this morning; ten Freelancers had just arrived from Marshfork, three of which had just been rescued.  Cathance and Kaelani weren't sure they appreciated the new noise level, which clearly also disturbed Terrance and Hikawera, who came downstairs early, awakened by all the people just doing morning things around the barracks.  Cathance looked at Terrance sitting across from her, with her long red hair, and wondered how she avoided getting it caught in her beloved trees.

"Can I join you?" Fine Branch was there, balancing food and drink and looking for a place to sit, and they waved him down.  In between food and woven in with the noise, he told them of the rescue mission and grblins on giant bats.

The boisterous conversation noise was really too much, and they decided the best way to get away from it was to get a mission from Arnari, so once they were all done eating they paid Arnari a visit in her office.  She was sorting through the papers on her desk, and glancing up, she listed three missions.

• Investigate Waypoint Resource, where some of the Daystar lotion was shipped.  Church of Storms will pay 200gp/person.  This would be slightly stealth.
• Orderly Stone has two missions for us.
  • Freelancers cleared out the cave bears that had been attacking their goatherds, but now there are very large wolves.
  • Kobolds seem to be involved, and they want the kobold den rechecked, that had been previously cleared out by Freelancers.

They contemplated these missions.  That last sounded a lot like the mission that had ended up with Freelancers needing a rescue.

Cathance: will this recheck end up the way those others did?
Arnari:  hopefully not!  ...the wolves will be 250gp/head, rechecking the kobold den will be 200gp/person.
Fine Branch: what if it's a cerberus?
Arnari:  observers say wolf.
Cathance:  what if it's a hydroose?
Fine Branch:  what if wolves in kobold lair?
Arnari:  they aren't.
Kaelani:  not into stealth, but willing to go to Waypoint Resource.
Cathance:  thought you didn't like the Daystar cult.
Kaelani:  that's why I'm willing to go.
Cathance:  tell us about Waypoint Resource.
Arnari:  it's salted spires.  Can be climbing.
<Terrance smiles>
Hikawera:  I'm inclined to less travel.
Cathance:  how big are these wolves?
Arnari:  large.
Hikawera:  you can ride them!
Arnari:  several of you can ride them.
Cathance:  no wolves!  They will eat me!

So, they settled on rechecking the kobold den after all.  Since the Freelancers who had cleared the place were downstairs in the tavern, they left Arnari's office to talk to them.  They got directions and distance: it was a solid day's travel north and west out of Cliffshadow, and they also learned the place was full of traps.

Cathance picked up 4 more rations at the quartermaster so she'd have enough for Jigsaw, and they took off for the kobold den.  Hikawera looked sharp at all the landmarks, and Cathance cast guidance of The Tortoise on him, so they made good time, and by mid-afternoon they were near a little creek, facing a crack in the mountain that was uncomfortably short for Fine Branch and Terrance.

Staring at the entrance, Fine Branch produced a pipe, and started smoking it.

Hikawera went up to the crack in the mountain, and started looking for traps.  At that, Fine Branch cast enhance ability to grant Hikawera Fox's Cunning.  Hikawera went into the cave, and saw it was more of a room with a little stream running across.  On his left was a small open door, kobold-sized.  The room seemed empty and clear of traps.

"The room seems safe," Hikawera called back to the others, "Appears to be a Cathance room."

Cathance scowled.

They all went in and looked around.  Wild animals perhaps had tried to make a home in here recently, but not now.  Cathance went to the door, not admitting it was indeed correctly sized for her, and peered into the dark.  It was dark.

Hikawera cast produce flame and threw it down the small hallway.  There was a bend to the left after the first 15'.  She made a face at Hikawera and cast dancing lights, and went down the hallway.  After the bend, it joined with another hallway and opened up into a big room.  There was nothing up the tunnel, so she sent the dancing lights around the room.

The stream ran across it, with a bit of an embankment on the other side.  A pool was to her left, and a small part of the wall across from her had collapsed.  In the opposite corner of the room was a chest.

So, this was the room in which Kalleth and the other Freelancers had battled the kobolds.  She called back to the others what she'd found

"I bet the chest is a mimic," Fine Branch called back, his voice laden with cynicism.

Cathance considered his words, then cast chill touch on the chest.  The skeletal hand stroked the unscarred wood… leaving behind necrosis as it could only do to a living being.  Then it bared its teeth.

"Guys!!! The chest is a mimic!!!" she cried, "Fine Branch was right!"

Fine Branch moved like a cat to get through the low-ceiling'd tunnel and in front of the little Mikumwes, then cast spiritual weapon in the form of a mug to smack the mimic with force.  A bell jingle echoed throughout the cavern as he followed up with toll the dead, visiting more necrotic damage on the mimic, which gnashed its ugly teeth.

• Hikawera was unwilling to test whether his girth would be able to pass through the entire small passage, and went up the broader tunnel, perhaps thinking he could go around.  He was still looking for traps, and immediately found the remains of a noisemaker trap.
• The mimic moved across the stream, via use of pseudopods, and got close to Fine Branch, but not close enough to attack.  It formed a tongue and stuck it out at the nekomata.  "Nyahhhhh!"
• From her position behind Fine Branch, Cathance cast ray of frost at the mimic, slowing it down with cold.
• Terrance crouched down and dashed herself through the tiny hallway, to emerge past Cathance and next to Fine Branch.  She saw the pool, and moved towards it, then shot the mimic with her short bow.  Ichor oozed out around where the arrow struck.
• Kaelani lumbered down the secret passage.

At that point five … creatures? … coalesced from the shadows.  They looked like they were shadow.

• One[1] attacked Terrance, who dodged in the uncanny way of rogues.  However necrosis spread from where it struck, weakening her.
• One[2] attacked Fine Branch and missed.
• One[3] crit Kaelani, necrosis spreading across the Rock sagani, who yelled in surprise and pain.  He too was weakened.
• Two[4,5] attacked Cathance, but they both missed.
• All the shadows hid.  Two of them vanished: the one[2] which had missed Fine Branch and one4 of Cathance's attackers.

Fine Branch had the spiritual weapon mug smack the mimic again.  It went splat and the mimic lost its shape, flowing into the floor.  Then he called for "cats cats cats cats cats cats cats!" and was surrounded by spirit guardian cats, fading in and out so the only thing that persisted was their smiles.

• Hikawera, no longer enjoying Fox's Cunning and not wishing to set off the noisemaker trap, returned to the rest, moving his bulk through the narrow passage, until he got to Kaelani, and then started complaining loudly about Kaelani being in the way.  That did not stop Hikawera from granting bardic inspiration to Fine Branch.
• The hidden attackers were not that well hidden, and Cathance instinctively used tides of chaos to send a chaos bolt at the shadow[1] which had attacked Terrance.  The bolt splashed it with acid, which was clearly ineffective.
  • A small mechanical being appeared next to Cathance, beeping and whirring like a droid from an entirely different universe.  It was about the same size as such a droid too, which meant it towered over her by like half a foot or so.
  • Anyway, it pulled two small javelins from an array on its back and also attacked the same shadow.
• Terrance drew her magical rapier and skewered the shadow[3] which had crit Kaelani.  It puffed out.  She pulled out her magical scimitar and attacked the one[1] which had hit her, but missed.
• Kaelani stepped up and swung wildly at the same shadow[1] with his divine rainstick.  But the rain noise was slightly stronger than normal, and the wild swing connected anyhow.  The shadow puffed out, and everyone's eyes widened at this sign of favour from Ua.

The spirit guardian cats went to work on the shadows, countering their darkness with radiance, and one[5] of Cathance's attackers puffed out.  The shadow[4] that had vanished reappeared and attacked Hikawera from behind, and Hikawera shouted.

Fine Branch couldn't see past Hikawera, but tried to cast guiding bolt on the shadow[4] anyhow.  The bolt missed, so he moved the spiritual weapon mug closer.

• Hikawera moved out of the passage, to get out of way of Fine Branch and his mug.
  • The shadow attacked, necrosis spreading through Hikawera's limbs and weakening him a lot.
  • Hikawera cast produce flame and threw it at the shadow, burning it.
• Cathance cast chill touch on the shadow to see how it liked the necrosis, and saw that it had no effect at all.
  • The mechanical being moved towards the passage, pulling out another two javelins.  The first javelin slew the shadow4 so it threw the second javelin at Hikawera.
• Terrance, who'd assumed the mechanism was an ally, did a double take.  "Wait, what?"  She tried jumping across the water to where it was, and was foiled by the embankment, falling back into the water.  Undeterred, she climbed out and ran the mechanism through with her magical rapier.  It collapsed into glittery dust.

Terrance poked at the dust with her rapier, and glitterbombed herself.  Everyone else started going over the room for anything of interest.  As they did so, they realized the shadows had been kobold-sized.  Hikawera explained, with great authority, that their shadows had been left behind when the kobolds were chased out originally.

With the room yielding nothing of interest, Cathance moved up the big tunnel, keeping up the dancing lights, until she saw what used to be a pit trap.  The floor in front of it was covered with sharp shards of stones, which cut her ankles.  "Ow!!" she exclaimed.  The others headed over, curious.

Cathance looked at the ceiling above for a source of the stones, then down into the pit, to see it lacked any spikes, so she jumped across and went further down the tunnel.  Behind her, the other Freelancers jumped across as well, but Hikawera could not, so they set up a rope to help him across.

They continued around until after a bend to the right the tunnel opened up much wider and taller.  It would almost be a room, but the scree on the sides made it look more like the ceiling caved in.  At the far end, the way seemed blocked by a tall pile of rubble.  The place smelled like something had died.

Cathance:  hey Terrance!
Terrance:  what!
Cathance:  what's over this rubble?
Terrance:  you want me to look?
Cathance:  yah, how do you want the [dancing] lights?
Terrance:  spread'em around a bit.
Cathance:  sure!

Cathance lined up the 4 dancing lights evenly so Terrance could see without distorting shadows.  The others hung back in the narrower part of the tunnel.  Terrance saw a lot of rubble, and a big boulder the size of a small boulder.  A person Cathance's size could fit through.

Terrance:  hey Cathance, you will fit.  I won't?
Cathance <dubiously>: is it worth it?  We can go around
Terrance:  probably better

At that point, two creatures[1,3] which looked like really big maggots, except with tentacles waving about near their mouth and centipede legs, reached down from the ceiling and tried to attack Cathance and Terrance.  Looking up in surprise, the Freelancers saw there were three of these creatures, beady eyes staring down at them through the tentacles. These were the source of the horrible smell.

Terrance, appalled at these creatures, exclaimed, "Noooo whyyyyy!"  She shot the one1 above Cathance with her short bow, then did her best to hide and become one with the rubble she'd just been investigating.

• Cathance cast a chromatic orb at the same maggoty thing[1].  A brief rainbow of colours flashed from her bloodwell vial as the orb settled on fire, burning the creature.
• Hikawera moved to the chamber entrance and declared, "Well, that won't win any beauty contest any time soon!" which damaged the nearest creature[2] with vicious mockery.
• The creature[2] dangled down and tried to bite Hikawera, but missed.  It then sank a tentacle into Hikawera's shoulder, poisoning him, despite more cutting words at it.
• The first two creatures[1,3], deprived of Terrance, both stung Cathance with their poison tentacles.  She still managed to keep the dancing lights going.
• Fine Branch cast spiritual weapon in the form of a drill instructor hat, which struck the nearest creature[2] with force.  He then caused bells to echo through the chamber by following up with toll the dead.  Necrosis afflicted it, but the smell was unchanged.
• Kaelani moved into the room, weapon ready.  The creatures were out of his reach, so he tried to make himself a target so he could smack them with the rainstick.

From her hiding place, Terrance shot the same creature[1] with her short bow, then she hid again.

• Cathance backed up 10' and sent a ray of frost at it[1], but missed.
• Hikawera moved fully into the chamber and brought down bane on two of the creatures[2,3].  He granted Cathance bardic inspiration.
• The crawler[1] Terrance had shot bit Cathance, then crit her with a tentacle.  Thanks to the bardic inspiration she shrugged off the worst effects of the poison and kept the dancing lights up.
• The undamaged creature[3] struck Hikawera, who again shrugged off the poison.
• The creature[2] damaged by toll the dead attacked Fine Branch, who also avoided the worst effects of the poison.
  • That brought it closer to Kaelani, who struck it with his magical rainstick.
• Fine Branch had the spiritual weapon hit creature[2] back with force.  He then again called for "cats cats cats cats cats cats cats!" and was surrounded by spirit guardian cats.
• Kaelani moved between Fine Branch and Hikawera, weapon again at the ready.

From her hiding place, Terrance shot the same creature[1] with her short bow.  Burned and with 3 arrows stuck in it, it was barely holding onto the ceiling.   Then she hid again.

• Cathance killed it[1] with a ray of frost.  The corpse dropped from the ceiling between her and Terrance, and she moved around it a bit.
• Hikawera cast produce flame and threw it at the creature[2] attacking Fine Branch.  Burned, it glared at Hikawera with its beady eyes.  Hikawera moved to the other side of Fine Branch.
• Overcome by the holy radiance of the spirit guardian cats, the burned creature[2] died, falling from the ceiling where Hikawera had just been standing.
• The remaining crawler[3] was also burned by holy radiance, but attacked both Fine Branch and Kaelani.  The bane prevented it from succeeding.
  • Kaelani swung his magical rainstick at it, but missed.
• The spiritual weapon whacked the creature[3] with force, and as it did so a stream of invective poured out of it, which neither contained profanity nor repeated itself.  Over that sounded a clear bell indicating toll the dead, but no visible effect from it.
• Kaelani stayed where he was, ready and waiting.

Terrance, hidden and bitter about the poor lighting, lack of trees, and horrible smell, sank another arrow into the remaining crawler[3].  Then she hid again, so well even nearby Cathance lost sight of her.

• "Terrance, where are you?!  Are you okay?!" Cathance cried out.  She was so distracted her ray of frost went wide, coating the ceiling with little crystals of ice, which glittered in the dancing lights.
• Hikawera again cast produce flame and threw it, burning the creature[3].
• The crawler[3] succumbed to the holy radiance of the spirit guardian cats, which also melted the rest of the ice crystals on the ceiling.

It fell next to the first one, in front of Cathance.  She stared at the two putrid corpses in front of her.

Cathance:  what are we doing here, again?
Kaelani:  making sure there's no kobolds
Hikawera:  finding disgusting things
Terrance <from her hiding place>:  becoming one with the rocks
<Cathance looks and cannot find Terrance, with growing alarm>
<Terrance stands up>
Cathance <relieved>:  glad you are okay!
Cathance:  let's go around, to the other side.

Before they retraced their steps, Kaelani used lay on hands to heal Cathance.

The Freelancers backtracked to the entrance room, with Fine Branch leading, still surrounded by spirit guardian cats.  Cathance made sure to keep dancing lights up.  They proceeded up the other hallway; the noisemaker trap Hikawera had found was not functional.

Fine Branch found caltrops hidden in the dirt further down the hallway; he slowed down and warned the others to watch their step.  They crossed the caltops and it opened up into a larger chamber.

Across from them on the opposite wall, shiny tiles reflecting the dancing lights, was a raised mosaic effigy of The Snake.  In the center of the near end of the cave, to their right, was an obvious pit trap, its sides partially caved in and crumbling.  One of Fine Branch's tails started lashing, and Cathance and Kaelani reacted visibly poorly to this discovery.

Fine Branch walked into the chamber, and a group of stirges detached from the ceiling, fluttering about.  Terrance freaked out at the sight of them, but the spirit guardians were still surrounding Fine Branch, and killed the stirges as he moved about the room, then they faded out.

Kaelani moved in the room, inspecting The Snake.  It was part bas-relief, part mosaic, coming out of the wall, above a kobold-height base covered with coins and items.  He wondered if the celestial god can inhabit a statue; they'd been told by the other Freelancers the statue had been smashed.

"Should we destroy?" he asked the others.  The Snake seemed to stare down at them balefully, and seemed to say, I am the god of ambush.

Fine Branch checked the statue.  "There's no trap," he offered in reply.  Terrance checked as well.  "There's a trap," she countered, and they got in an argument under the unblinking gaze of the statue.  Fine Branch walked away, tail still lashing.

Terrance worked on disarming the trap, and managed to jam the mechanism.  Once she did so, they looked more closely at the coins and items.  They were covered with dust and stirge droppings, and appeared not to have been recently maintained.  Was that how it looked initially?  They could not remember.

Anyhow, they gathered it all, coins and 3 items:  1 egg-shaped stone, possibly agate; a black & green stylized snake mask; and a battered silver armband, which used to have decor, but they couldn't tell what.

They backed back up to the caltrops again.  Staring defiantly at the statue, Hikawera cast shatter.  It didn't do much, so he cast it again, and some dust rose from the grouting between the tiles.  On the third shatter, the wall crumbled, and the Freelancers ran out into the fresh air and back to the patiently waiting Jigsaw and Nighthawk.

Once out in the daytime, Hikawera sat down and pulled out his lute, to identify the items.  The melodies he played reminded the others of questing. 

• The agate was a stone of good luck.  Hikawera didn't even ask who wanted it, he just handed it to the hapless Kaelani.
• The snake mask increased the wearer's ability to intimidate, and could be used once a day to inspire fear in another.
• The arm band increased the damage of the wearer's melee weapon attacks.  Hikawera thought he could use such a thing, and kept it.

All required that the wearer attune to them.

The Daystar was westering, and the Freelancers decided they would camp a short ways away and then return to Orderly Stones Monastery with their findings and this snake mask nobody wanted.  The night passed undisturbed, and they arrived at the monastery the next day.

Taleisin had not been expecting them, but greeted them cordially.  Upon being presented with the mask they'd found, he was unpleased.  "Where did you get this?" he demanded.

Hikawera told him, "We took it from the statue of The Snake, which I smashed."  Taleisin nodded absently, turning the mask in his hands as he examined it.  "Good, it is smashed," he declared.

He looked up from the mask.  "I'll give you each 100gp for this mask, thank you for bringing it.  You are welcome to stay at the Monastery tonight, and return to Cliffshadow tomorrow, refreshed."  He bowed and left, leaving another monk to show them to chambers and get them settled.

The next morning the Freelancers broke fast with the monks.  Hikawera was sporting his new silver armband, which was much shinier now.  Taleisin came to them at the end of the meal.

"It's good you brought the mask to me," he informed them, "it had a strange curse on it!  If you weren't a worshipper of The Snake, it made you less… um, persuasive?"

The notion of reduced persuasiveness was particularly appalling to Hikawera, who had not detected that from his identify.  He became alarmed at possibly similar effects from the armband, then realized his spent spell slots had not been restored overnight.  He tried to strip the armband off, and in a rare moment of no cynicism, exclaimed, "O gee, I can't take this off!"

Taleisin's face was a study in so, you didn't tell me everything did you.  Fine Branch said with exaggerated calm, "I'm gonna try to dispel magic on the armband?" and then he did so, but the dispel magic did not work.  He cocked his head, then cast remove curse, which freed Hikawera from the attunement.

Hikawera took off the armband, and hesitated.  "Will this sucker the next person?" he asked.  From across the table, Kaelani's face changed.  Good thing he'd gotten the stone of good luck, which was his, and he would keep it.

Other monks had gathered around by now, and they passed the armband 'round, examining it.  "Someone without spells or innate magic could use this," they concluded.  "We'll give you 500 gp for it," Taleisin said.  "So tell us again how you came on these items?"

Hikawera explained they had gone to investigate the cleared out kobold den, and what they'd encountered, and lack of kobolds.  "But, the kobolds who'd fled, left their shadows behind to fight us," he added, explaining that encounter too.

"That's so cool!" Fuifui exclaimed.  "How do you do that?"

The monks paid the Freelancers 200gp each for checking out the kobold den ("Don't forget to give Arnari her cut," they admonished the Freelancers), and 500gp to Hikawera for the armband.  Hikawera, grateful to Fine Branch, gave 200gp of the gold to the nekomata.  Then the Freelancers bade the monks farewell and headed to Cliffshadow.

On the way back they discussed the items, and how Kaelani had lucked out by avoiding the cursed items.  Or maybe not?  Kaelani, however, still enthralled by acquiring a boost to his luck, was uncharacteristically possessive of the agate, and would not hear about handing it to anyone else to examine.