Shae reaches in to retrieve the gems and gold.  As she reaches down, her arm begins to burn terribly.  Apparently, some sort of chemical reaction between the ancient fountain and the stagnant water has turned the water into a powerful acid.  Shae reaches back in pain, clutching her injured and burning arm, which is now red and sizzling.  (6 hp dmg.)

Kahan is digging through the coins.  His right hand clasps around an ancient scroll...and then something clasps onto his own hand.  The pain begins.  Kahan cries out in pain as he pulls back his hand.  A beetle-like creature with pincer front teeth has dug into the side and back of his hand.  It is about the same size as his hand, has a golden back and ebony side.  It is well armored, does not appear to have eyes or other appendages, but is now boring into the side of Kahan's hand.  (4 hp dmg.)

Any efforts to forcefully remove it appear that they might result in the partial amputation of his hand.

If nobody can come up with a better option in the next thirty seconds, Kahan will shove his hand in the acidic fountain water to attempt to make the beetle let go.

Kahan runs in and puts his hand in the acidic water.  The beetle shivers and lets go, shaking in the acid and then jumping out and digging itself into the mound of skeletons.  Kahan's hand is damaged by acid and the bite.  (Another 7 hp dmg.)

Meanwhile, the scroll Kahan had found rolls to the ground near Tahldar.  It is written in magic and will require a Read Magic spell to decipher exactly what it is, though it appears to be a mage scroll.

After you count, there are a total of 678 gold coins in the chest.  The chest itself is too weak and old to sustain much damage or carrying around, though you could keep the coins in them and put it in the portable hole.

OOC: That was the "solution" I had also envisioned. 

OOC2:  For Shae and Kahan, their right hands are both disabled for 1 day, regardless of other healing, due to the acidic damage to their hands and the nerves there.  This will transfer over to any shapechanges by Shae (i.e., no flying).

"Damn these old places."  Borimer keeps watch for other dangers while considering how to harness the power of the acidic water for combat purposes.

"We need to find some way to kill or debilitate that beetle so it doesn't do any more harm." Kahan states, bandaging his hand and then doing the same for Shae.

Borimer nods and locates the beetle. He crashes the Godslayer onto the beetle's tiny armored head...

Kahan sets about bandaging himself and Shae.  (+2 hp each.)

Meanwhile, Borimer searches around the skeletons for the beetle.  It is quick, but his reflexes are quicker, and he stabs it through its head.  Surprisingly, the gold and black beetle sends lightning-like pulses when hit, which travel up the sword to Borimer's hand, shocking him.  Borimer lurches back in pain, and the beetle goes still.  (2 hp dmg.)

About this time, you hear a commotion from your semi-comical colleagues down the way, as if they are talking between two different rooms.  You hear Fingas say, "What if I push it?"

"No," Batruss replies, "don't."

Fingas says, "I already did."

"What in the Nine Hells is that!" Fingas then cries out in an alarmed voice.

Then you hear Batruss yell, "Run!"

A moment later, you see their light from far down the hall move from left to right (east to west).  You can't really see them, just the flow of their light in the distance.

"What now?" Fingas yells.

"I don't know."

In alarm, Fingas cries out, "JUMP!!!"

You hear a muffled scream as one of them descends.  Then the hall is quiet...and dark.

"Well, I hate to cast another spell, but this might be worth it." Tahldar says as he picks up the scroll.  Weaving his hands carefully he casts read magic and waits to see what the magic reveals to him.  Ignoring for the moment the turmoil swirling around him, though he can't help but smile a little at the seeming plight of Batruss and Fingas.

OOC:  I will cast read magic on the scroll.

OOC: Read Magic is a Level 0 spell in this campaign, so it shouldn't hurt his spell casting much.  Read the house rules for more info.

Tahldar casts Read Magic, and the words light up, showing invisible writing that was magically hidden.  The words themselves are written in Allevian and state:


OOC: For those who don't speak Allevian, this is a new mage spell (that I created) called "Wall of Anything."  As a description to those who want to understand more, it basically does this:

If there is any aggregate, non-living material around (not connected to an individual like clothes or weapons), then the caster can make all that loose material fly together to form a wall to block the way.  Rocks, sticks, or other loose material are commonly used.  The spell can be used to also try to trap and injure someone who just had a wall form and slam into them from both sides.

I updated the Magic Rules thread.  All I did was copy and paste from the open source website.  I guess it's not technically a "house rule," but maybe an "adopted rule."

Kahan bandages Borimer's wounds then goes a little ways down the hall to see what the commotion was about.

Borimer bites back a curse when he's bit by the electrical shock of the beetles demise.  He thanks Kahan after being bandaged, amusing himself with the possible fate of the would-be heroes...

"Well this should be very useful once we reach the dragon.  It's a wall spell that will protect us from it.  It would be a shame not to inscibe it in my book for later use, but being alive is much more important I think." Tahldar says as he tucks the scroll away.

OOC:  Tahldar will take the scroll as long as no one else objects.

Shae thanks Kahan for the healing and curses her own carelessness.  She looks down the south corridor and the corridor going west to see if she can tell what's there.  In particular, she squints to the south (infravision, if possible) to see what might have frightened the two braggarts.

"I've got a plan that will keep us safe against the dragon, but I'm not sure you will like it." whispered Didit "It first occurred to me when I was at my lowest, but I still think it is the best way."

Borimer leans in to hear Shapfren's idea for dragon protection.

"With this scroll I think we might be able to skirt by the dragon without having to attack it.  With luck it will try to follow us if it sees we won't fight it and thereby leave it's healing pool.  And then I could try to follow up with my own wall of force to keep it from trying to flee."

"But we'd need a well buffed Borimer to make this happen.  I can cast a stoneskin on him, but we'd need protection from whatever type of breath it has.  Which we don't know yet."

"Who knows, maybe the two braggarts in front of us might figure that out for us.  In any event we have a lot of ground to cover and this place is crawling with traps it would seem."

"Is there any of us that can snuff out a trap and open a lock?"

"The only way the dragon would leave his healing pool would be if we had something worthwhile for him to come after. Perhaps an extremely rare and valuable item or gem, or something that has a significant meaning to it, like a lost heirloom or some such thing. I don't know if we really have anything that fits this description aside from perhaps the Deathbane and Godslayer, assuming he even knows what those are." Kahan responds, turning to Shapfren to hear her idea.

"I was just thinking that this dragon has no reason to leave his pool. And probably won't. And we have no reason to slay it beyond getting the berries for our cure. A confrontation over berries is just a senseless waste of life anyway you see it, a dragon that never leaves it's horde is no treat to anybody. But then we could make deal with it. And we have something dragons desire that has nothing to do with money or riches, if you know what I mean"

Borimer tries but misses her subtle point.  "What do we have?"

"I can likely sneak in and get the dragon's attention"

"Oh and I have a knack with traps and such"
This message was last edited by the player at 22:30, Thu 28 Aug 2014.

Didit smiled and forced herself to try not to look too proud or even pretentious as she pointed towards herself "Me, if dragons in this world are even slightly similar to home, they will have an appetite not only for riches but for fair maidens like me. And if this dragon has spent so much time on the lake he hasn't had any in a long time".

"So your offering yourself up as dragon bait?"

Borimer rubs his chin thoughtfully, "It just might work...although you're not much more than a quick snack for dragon bait."  He grins, "You fool it to come out and play, and then we kill it. Count me in."

Leogold follows Kahan and Shae over to the hallway to see what caused the commotion. "If we are venturing forward my vote is to start with the hallway leading west. I'm not too keen on going the way those two, who supposedly killed 30 giants, were scared off by something."