"This is madness!  I'm going to try to escape!" Tahdar says as he tries to grab hold of a Gnome.

OOC: I will try to take a hold of a Gnome with one hand.  With my other I will test the wall that is speeding past to see if I can safely touch it.  My thought is we aren't really falling and the walls speeding by us aren't real.  If my hand is able to reach through what I think is illusion, I will move out and try to take the Gnome with me.

Borimer looks at his illusionary hand in disbelief before spotting the gnome about to plummet over the edge of the floor.  He grabs the person and keeps them safe tucked under one handless arm while using the other to dump oil on the hive for future burning.

not sure, but im thinking/hoping borimer can grab the gnome and make the hive with his half movement rate before his 'attack' (dump oil, but cant set on fire yet); if not, he grabs the gnome and keeps him/her from the creepy crawlies

ROUND 3
You suffer the following from lingering poison:
Lukas: 2 points damage.
Kahan: 1 point damage.
Shapfren: 1 point damage.

Tahldar saves the gnome that is delusional, but when he goes to touch the wall, he finds that the floor is, in fact, falling.  That is not an illusion.  He withdraws his hand.

Borimer also saves a gnome, cradling him in his handless elbow as he pours oil on the next fallen amber hive.

Kahan attacks, hitting the thing attacking Leo. Leo is also attacking the thing that is attacking him from behind.  They realize too late that the thing they thought was some sort of monster attacking Leo is really one of the gnomes.  The poison has made you hallucinate he was something else.  Kahan seriously injures the gnome, knocking it out cold with the mace.  The silver lining to this is that the delusional gnome is no longer attacking Leo.

Shae is smashing spiders.  Her swishing tail seems to be attracting the spiders to her and away from the others, giving you a little more breathing room.  (8 spiders smashed)  Especially since they can't seem to pierce her alligator hide.

Shapfren and Lukas continue to smash the spiders around them.  (11 spiders killed.)

This round, Shapfren is bitten by another spider.  (Saving throw failed. 2 hp dmg, -1 to attacks, -1 to future saving throws, -1 hp per round while poisoned.)  A spider also attacks Borimer.  (Saving throw failed; 4 hp damage, -1 to hit, -1 to saving throws, -1 hp/rnd while poisoned.)  The rest of you escape attack.

The insect swarm also goes straight for Borimer... (complete miss), but he swipes them away and throws oil down.

ROUND 4
(To keep this moving...)
Borimer: poisoned, -1 hp
Shapfren: poisoned, -1 hp
Lukas: poisoned, -2 hp
Kahan: poisoned, -1 hp

Borimer lights the oil.  It not only lights up the hive by Borimer, but also ignites all the oil spread around by Tahldar, sending a huge wave of flames all around you and destroying both remaining hives.

This destruction dazes you all as the blast of fire nearly blinds you (especially in your poisoned and bleary eyed states), but even better, the swarm of insects drops dead immediately.  The flames also kill a number of spiders.  (39 spiders killed.)  The remaining spiders recoil and begin fleeing from the flames.

As the flames begin to die down, you see that one of the amber hives has melted, revealing a dark pink and glowing gem.

You see that the spiders will likely retreat and not attack again as they begin hopping back to the walls and the pores in the walls.

But you are still poisoned...and the room is still falling...

"Maybe if we jump up and down really fast we won't get hurt when it hits bottom", Leo jokes as he gets up and sorts out his situation.

"It won't be hitting any bottom, Kahan responds, clearly not in the best of spirits after getting mauled by spiders and nearly killing one of his charges. He grabs the pink gem and attempts to shove it back into the pedestal where the other gem was.

When the new gem is placed in the pedestal, the room begins to slow and then finally stop.  The entry door opens to allow to leave.

But the poison is still in your system: (new saves versus poison...)
Borimer: Borimer shakes off the poison, still feeling it but not being further harmed by it. (Success.)
Shapfren: Shapfren still feels the poison running through her system.  (failure, -1 hp)
Lukas: Lukas also manages to shake off the poison, though he is still very nauseous, and the falling room didn't help any. (success)
Kahan:  Kahan still feels the poison hurting him as he grips his stomach in pain.  (failure, -1 hp)

You also notice that "FEAR" on the golden cube his lit up on one of its sides.  You have now completed three of the six tests, having completed DARKNESS, CONFUSION, and now FEAR.  All that remain are MIGHT, MADNESS, and EVIL.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:19, Mon 04 May 2015.

Leo moves around the the folks that are still poisoned to see if his herbalism skills might help in recovery.

Shae resumes her half-elf form.  "I can heal, if needed, but I cannot cure poison." She offers to cast a heal light wounds on any requiring it.

Kahan begins applying his Keoghtom's ointment to himself to see if it will draw out the insects' poison. If it seems to help, he will apply it to anyone who is still affected by it.

"Do we have enough in us to continue?  Or should we rest?" Tahldar asks he checks on the health of the Gnomes.

OOC: How are the Gnomes doing?  Do we still have 4 alive?

All of the gnomes are still alive.  Two of them are suffering from the "Black Curse" disease and probably have less than 24 hours before they go mad and then die.

The ointment from Kahan cures the poison on both you and the gnomes.  Oddly, although it does not heal the Black Curse, it seems to slightly abate upon application of Keoghton's Ointment.  You may have just given the gnomes an extra day or two.

OOC: For herbalism, here is the description:

Herbalism: Those with herbalist knowledge can identify plants and fungus and prepare nonmagical potions, poultices, powders, balms, salves, ointments, infusions, and plasters for medical and pseudo-medical purposes. They can also prepare natural plant poisons and purgatives. The DM must decide the exact strength of such poisons based on the poison rules in the DMG. A character with both herbalism and healing proficiencies gains bonuses when using his healing talent (see the Healing proficiency).

I think he has to search out and find plants to make the antidotes first.

OOC:  Fair enough.  I didn't know if it was assumed he might have been carrying anything or not.  It sounds like the poison problem has been solved anyway.  I guess we need to go back out if we are to try to treat the other.

I wasn't sure either, but just suddenly having him have the right ingredients seems a little too convenient.  When they leave the mountain (if they survive), be sure to use the skill to gather herbs and supplies.

That said, I agree he probably has something with him on the herbal side of things since he joined the group at a midpoint.  Go ahead and pick what herbs he has, up to a total of five doses--and by "herbs" I mean what the effect is (poison herbs, antidote herbs, etc.)--in any combination.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:16, Mon 04 May 2015.

Borimer watches his hand fade away with the effects of the poison and then growls. He stands at the exit to guard against sneak attacks and/or general mayhem.

In moving back to the area with the rubble and collapsed ceiling, you notice that the swarm of beetles has now gone.  You are not sure where the swarm has gone or if it will come back, but the corridor appears safe for now.

The latest map (You are in the rubble area on the southwestern side where the blacked out corner is at.):

This message was last edited by the GM at 22:59, Mon 04 May 2015.

"I say we try one more challenge before we sleep. We are on a limited time frame and I would rather not rest if we didn't need to," Kahan replies, his steely resolve unbroken by the fear-inducing hallucinations.

"It's a tough call, but I would defer to the spell casters on this one.  Also, would resting give us a chance to possibly find a way to cure or at least slow down this Black Curse?

OOC:  I found a random herb generator so I updated my character sheet with what I rolled.

Glad to see the beetles gone, Tahldar says "Let us continue then, but before we continue I am going to cast a couple of protective spells on two of the Gnomes who are hurt.  After this I will be out of any spells higher than the second order.  I pray what I have left will be enough."

OOC:  Tahldar will cast stoneskin on two gnomes before we go.  Targeting whichever ones are hurt the most.

With the beetles gone, you investigate a little further down the hallway.

There is a door immediately to your right (west).  It is like the ones you saw previously before entering the tests:

Like the other ones, the door itself is an ancient stone door that is long and tall, a full 15 feet tall at its top.  You brush off some of the old dust and look closer at the door.  The ancient stone has a bas relief carving of a winding dragon moving toward a glowing orb of some sort.

The door does not have any door handles or apparent hinges.  An inspection does not reveal any traps on the door.  However, the orb in the center of the door (about 6 feet off the ground) appears to not be carved out of solid stone and perhaps could be pushed in like the previous one.

Looking to your left (east), you see two more doors, one to the south and one to the east.  The one to the east is a similar looking door with the winding dragon and door that leads to another test.  The door to the south is a normal stone door that is halfway open.

Tahldar casts stoneskin on two of the most injured gnomes, one of whom is an elderly gnome that Borimer carried across the chasm bridge just a day earlier--though it seems so much longer.

"I'm pretty beat up, if we take more tests I need more of my health back or I might be in trouble."  Borimer speaks while gazing at the door, so like the others that have caused so much trouble.  "It's the Might test that worries me the most, don't know why..."
This message was last edited by the player at 00:48, Wed 06 May 2015.

Didit just rested on a wall, she was breathing heavily... "Please, can we rest just some? right now I'm so tired, I'm completely out of spells and I don't think I can just keep swinging a sword. Maybe if I had a bow I could still function as an archer, but right now I'm useless"

lukas find a spot to sit down, "knowing when to rest"

Shae says, "If we rest, I suggest we go back to the half oval room where you put the gems.  We can put our latest pink gem in its spot, and close both doors to lock ourselves in, and the beetles out.  I agree to a rest. I cannot shapeshift anymore today, and I can heal you before we rest."  The half-elf pushes back her dark hair and leans on her ancestral spear, still wary of the beetles returning.

She will use her healing spells on all who need them.

Seeing he's been outnumbered, Kahan resigns his motion to continue through one more test and begins moving back to the oval room. "Shae, if you or Tahldar have any useful spells left for today that won't have any real purpose in being used now, I would ask that you cast them into my Rod of Absorption to be saved for a later time. There are still six slots left and I will likely be using two of them but after that the rest can be filled if you two have any castings left," the priest states as he's walking, pulling out the rod and the explanatory book. He explains to Shae that the rod actually absorbs the spell's effect, not just its power like other Rods of Absorption do, actually allowing the spellcaster to use the spell out of the rod as if they had cast it themselves.

Lukas took the time to closely examine a dead bee and spider wondering how someone was able to control such insects.  Before joining the others to rest.