The hulking stone golem points a muscled finger at Trace as the enormous cauldron continues to spew acrid smoke throughout the room. Although it doesn’t obscure vision, the smoke has an extremely harmful effect to good-aligned creatures. That’ll become important later.
Fobias and Richard charge into the room, hoping to create some flanking opportunities for the rest of the group. Using the bright runes on its head, the golem tries to negate Fyn’s Haste spell, but is unsuccessful.
Sticking to his mantra, Krask hangs back on the edge of the room. He fires several arrows at the golem, which don’t seem to have the same damaging impact that he’s accustomed to. In fact, all of the party’s attacks lack their normal purchase when they strike true. Only adamantine weapons can pierce through its rocky exterior.
Barnaby goes invisible to take advantage of the smoky atmosphere. He lands several key blows, but it is really Trace who comes through in the clutch. Because of the wording of Smite Evil, all of Trace’s damage hits home, something which surprises the stone golem.
Meanwhile, the smoke gets the better of Fyn, who is blinded and begins to wretch in the corner. It’s all Krask can do but to watch in curiosity as the elf doubles over in sickness. He’s only watching with one eye – kobold’s gotta fire some arrows, right?
Using the necessary bonuses from flanking, the party whittles down the chiseled stone golem until it collapses in death. If constructs can truly die, that is.
Between his watery eyes and lingering nausea, Fyn isn’t able to tell much about the cauldron’s properties other than its necromantic origins. But there isn’t any extra time to dawdle; the party’s healing resources are running dangerously thin. They decide on teleporting back to town to replenish their stock.
I mean, it WAS the plan, but Krask is too inquisitive to let the next room remain a mystery.
As the kobold peers into the adjacent chamber, the temperature drops considerably. Large suits of armor stand guard along the walls. Presumably, the magical chill is preserving the bodies of decaying hill giants and trolls within.
Without provocation, a voice reverberates through the chamber. It talks a lot about blood (editor’s note: I think they may have a problem) and ‘him’ being able to see and hear the group as they approach. Apparently the party’s blood will work wonders in death, but it’s unlikely we’re talking about donorship.
At the conclusion of the speech, the swirling cold coalesces into the ground, spreading towards the hallway where the party lies in wait. Then, nine decrepit zombies burst from the freezing ground, surrounding the valiant heroes.
Fyn wastes no time. After discerning that these undead aren’t immune to frost effects despite the temperature, he takes care of four instantly with a well-placed cone of cold. The aftershock also significantly damages the four hill giant zombies that have animated as well.
A helmeted head rolls off one of the nearby suits of armor, revealing a beheaded menace wielding two chilly hatchets. The party begins to affectionately refer to this one as Timmy the Tooth after the weapons’ completely nonsensical and inaccurate resemblance to toothbrushes. The GM can never get a break, eh?
Lyergo swings wildly into the fray and becomes the main target for the hill giants while the party focuses their efforts on Timmy. Again, damage resistance plays a decent part in the battle. Trace channels the holy powers of Sarenrae, causing several undead to flee the scene. One by one, the giants begin to fall.
Krask nails two zombies directly to the wall with a pair of well-placed arrows. By the time the last hill giant is slain, one of the hill giants that ran away in fear is completely out of sight down the long hallway. A loose end, for sure.
Once again, the party comes to the conclusion to teleport to town and find respite. Loot, however, catches their attention. And it just might cause the death of a character…
While the party tallies up their loot, including the pair of toothbrush hatchets, one of the walls morphs, opening up into a fiery maw. A spiked, metallic claw bursts from the wall towards Krask as a round, terrifying creature bursts from the stone.
How long has this creature been lurking in the walls? Does the party have enough stamina to take on a third fight in the same number of minutes? Why is loot so shiny?