Voran lobs a stone at the false Vsaati, missing.

Miss with sling-stone. 21:29, Today: Elder Voran rolled 5 using 1d20+1.  Attack on false Vsaati.

Albricht joins in, but fails to make contact.

07:27, Today: Dungeon Master, on behalf of Albricht Burghammer, rolled 11 using 1d20+3.  Attack Roll.

Lanliss also joins in, using the distraction provided by his party members' attacks to get a perfect strike in.

07:28, Today: Dungeon Master, on behalf of Lanliss, rolled 24 using 1d20+4.  Attack Roll.
07:28, Today: Dungeon Master, on behalf of Lanliss, rolled 12 using 1d8+4.  Damage Roll.
(Maxed both rolls)

The pieces of the second Vsaati fall wetly about, fading to a nondescript gray, with the face becoming equally gray and undifferentiated, lacking hair.

<And we're out of combat.>

Silverglade looks at the sleeping Vsaati. "What do you think, kill it or tie it up and question it?" he asks, his sword poised above its throat.

The real Vsaati shuddered.  "Whatever it is, it's too devious to trust," she said with strong emotion.  "I'd as soon see it eradicated."

She backed away and sat down on the edge of one of the bunks, arms wrapped around herself and one hand still fiercely clutching her dagger.

Albricht had been more than a little flustered by the multiplication of their rougette. He shuffled and scratched absently at his whiskers as the scene played out, and would have stepped in at many junctures, but had restrained himself. He walked over and placed his desert-sandaled foot on the sleeping creature's throat, lightly.

"If it wakes up mean, we'll kill it. If it wakes up agreeable we'll question it... and then we'll kill it."

His eyes narrowed at Vsaati, still not convinced.

Voran nods. "We will not stoop to their level and kill a helpless prisoner."

Roak ties the sleeping figure up soundly and then smacks it awake. "So, first question, cretin: what are you?"

“I vote for slow torture.  That is a luxury I’ve been deprived of for far too long.”

The Vsaati look-alike come to, prompted by Roak's slapping, and looks about itself wildly.  "What are you doing?" is pleas in Vsaati's voice, "why have you bound me, Roak?"  It seems to be on the verge of crying.

"Let's cut to the chase," says Silverglade, before drawing his dagger and cutting off one of the creature's fingers. Holding it in front of her eyes he says "You only have nine more chances to answer the question before you lose the ability to pick your own nose."

The finger in Silverglade's hand reverts to a nondescript gray, lacking a fingernail.

The creature shrieks in pain, but provides no further intelligible communication.

"Don't toy with it," the real Vsaati said, torn between disgust at the creature's abilities and behaviour and her distaste for such crude torture methods.  "If it won't answer questions, do away with it.  It's too dangerous to leave behind us."

Silverglade nods, then pushes his dagger deep into the creature's neck before wiping the dagger on the creature's clothes. "Filthy work," he says.

Sherborne raises an eyebrow but then rationalizes that this is probably the lawful outcome considering the situation. "Well that was disturbing but probably necessary as we are still alive."

Elboc groans, obviously thinking of the hours of cruel sport he has been deprived of.  This is what happens when you party with ‘good.’

"Bah! Hrrrumph!" The dwarf snorted at the scene unfolding around him. He was a dwarf of exploration and discovery, of caverns dark and dripping, of vast underground lakes of water so cold it made the teeth chatter just looking at its black surface in the dim torchlight. Such monsters were to be destroyed. After all, there was water to be found and treasures to be recovered. He knew this in his bones just as he knew that sand fleas were a nuisance.

"Kill it and be done," he grunted.

Shrugging his shoulders at his companions, "We could explore a little longer I suppose, but finding that Lost City ought to be our priority..."

“Any particular reason why?  It’s already been lost for so long... can’t it wait?  We could be passing up spectacular loot,” he says as he rubs his greedy elven palms together.

Voran looks taken aback. "That seemed unnecessary," he grumbled.

Roak glares at the cleric. "Less compunction, fellow. That was a doppelganger. It would kill each of us in our sleep if it had its way."

He looks at Elboc. "Three reasons that--for once in his life--the dwarf makes sense. First, we have a ton of loot that we are carrying around right now with no place to spend it. Second, we could stand to find a decent bed or the like, if this city would have such. Finally, I doubt very much that anyone is going to loot the other levels of the pyramid before we get back after a few days' rest."

The copy of Vsaati that Silverglade killed morphs back into something thin and gray, without hair, and with empty, white eyes.

It is a bit unclear which of the party members remembered it, and perhaps more than one did, but the recollection of the location of the entrance to the passage to the underground city comes up in the conversation.  It is in the northwest corner of the columned gallery in the north of this level, just behind the northwest pillar.

Without further ado, Voran proposes that the group head for this entrance!

"Wait... WHAT? HRRUMPH!" There was no subtlety there. Albricht was a bit incredulous. "Ye've known about this? Why didn't anyone say anything to ME? Bah!"

The bluster was quickly overcome with the twinkle in his eye that he always seemed to have when a new discovery was nigh.

The old water-finder rubbed his leathery hands together as he helped to locate the passage. He could almost taste the boiled deep-tubers and mushroom pie!

“Oh, very well.  If we must seek out the city before completing the task at hand, then I suppose we must.”

The elf does not look pleased, however.

“I do hope there won’t be too many of us leaving the group before we return... that always seems to happen.”

Vsaati gave no objections to heading straight for the city.  She too needed to resupply and hoped the settlement would provide that and other opportunities (for a burglar).  Plus, she might finally be able to find some decent clothes.  The spares she scavenged from the fox-lady were passable, but she'd like some more to her liking and style.  Preferably acid-proof too!

When they exited the room she gave the doppelgänger a wide berth and spit on its corspe as she went by, not so much in anger as superstition.  It was unnerving to find yourself copied and about to be forcibly replaced.  She would be glad to leave behind the room and never see another of those creatures again.

With the intention of descending to the city below, the group quickly locates the hidden trap door in the floor, just northwest of the northwest most column, in the northernmost room of this level of the pyramid. The passage is narrow, just wide enough to accommodate the party members with their full packs in single file.  Despite his dwarven heritage, even Albricht is concerned about what the party might do if encountering another traveler moving in the opposite direction, and everyone quickly realizes that a fight in this location would not go well for their group.

Still, the trip down the narrow, winding passage passes uneventfully.  Switchbacks and a constant steep angle of descent result in the party traveling for what must be more than a mile before reaching a widening in the tunnel that suddenly opens out into the northeast of a large cavern.  Even the exceptionally sharp eyes of the elves and dwarf are unable to see the far walls.  Directly ahead of the group some 100 feet or so is a columned street that travels due south into a small city of dozens of buildings, all dimly seen in the scant light here.  There is something that looks like it might be a large body of water to the west and south, and possibly some sort of mushroom farm due west at the northern end of the cavern.  Far to the west, on the other side of the water, there is a dull red glow that burns ominously.

A few Cynidiceans can be seen, wandering about here and there, all going about strange tasks in a world that seems quite disconnected from the reality around them.

<Action continues in The Underground City>
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:29, Tue 08 May 2018.