As Ionaya summons invisible armor to protect herself and Morin moves into the dim lair to crack jokes, Zorden pulls the trigger on his musket to unleash a great blast of fire and black smoke. The deafening boom of the firearm is multiplied and extended by the tight quarters of the metal hallway, but for all the pain caused in the delivery, the bullet narrowly misses the petals of the the weedwhip's flower and imbeds itself in the metal wall behind it.

Startled by the sudden flood of light and the roar of Zorden's musket, the small vegepygmy drops its makeshift bucket, spilling its water on the bed of fungus covering the room, and takes cover from the loud weapon and advantage of the exposed, smallest member of the group. It lashes out at Morin with its two, thorned hands and manages to sneak one past the gnome's defenses, gouging his neck above his fancy chain shirt(-4 HP).

The Weedwhip drags its blub-body forward with snaking roots and lashes out at all of the intruders within the reach of its viney tentacles and the poisonous spiked pads at their tips. The deadly flower strikes all three, but the thorny pads fail to penetrate Morin's chain shirt and are stopped short by the invisible, magical fields surrounding Cain. Kelari's thick, heavy armor, however, fails to stop the poisonous thorns from finding a way through to her elbow pit and drawing blood(-4 HP) and making her feel immediately ill(Fort DC 12 or Nauseated.)

The door then closes, splitting the party and leaving the bard alone and surrounded in the pitch black.

Cain puts his arm over his mouth and nose to try to avoid the the worst of the stench coming from that room. Then the door closes in on them, leaving Morin stuck in there alone. "Son of a... I really hate these doors."

Smashing the controls to open the doors again, he steps into the room next to Morin and slashes at the plant thing attacking them.

OOC: Ok, so I rolled to Twist Away the Sickened. However, I then noticed that everyone was flatfooted until we act, so I can't actually use Twist Away. DM, can this roll serve as my Fort save? If not, feel free to make one for me and hit me with a debuff in necessary.

20:48, Today: Cain rolled 29 using 1d20+9 with rolls of 20.  Twist Away. – 29

Swift action to open the door, 5' step forward next to Morin and attack.

21:08, Today: Cain rolled 20,14 using 1d20+8,1d8+8 with rolls of 12,6.  Attack, Damage. – 20,14

edit: I forgot to account for Heroism bonus.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:54, Sun 21 Apr.

"I dunno." Morin replied, sidling around the vegepygmy towards the next closest door. "They're a little fiddly, but they do give us one key advantage." He still held his access card in his free hand, and swiped it up next to the card reader to lock it.  There were plenty of other doors in the room, but only the nearest one pointed the way the pygmies had swarmed the party before.  Locking it would at the very least delay any pygmy reinforcements from joining the fray.

Morin's claw wound was bleeding a lot, as neck wounds are prone to doing, but it didn't feel like the plant-man had hit anything vital.  Still, the bard kept his shield up as much as he could to ward off a follow-up strike.

FREE: 5' step SE towards door.
MOVE: Swipe card to lock door (if it's brown)
STANDARD: Take total defense action (+6 AC)
NOTE: My lingering song feat lets inspire courage persist for 2 rounds after I stop performing, so everyone keeps the +1 attack and damage.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:40, Sun 21 Apr.

Kelaria coughed viciously as the fumes, spores, miasma and who knew what else permeated her defenseless lungs.

Soon she was coughing, and more than coughing, heaving.  She pressed forward toward the battle, but  was too busy losing a fight to her own body to try to do anything to the enemy.

19:22, Today: Kelaria Ironclaw rolled 8 using 1d20+5 with rolls of 3.  Fort Save vs. Sickened. – 8

19:27, Today: Kelaria Ironclaw rolled 9 using 1d20+5 with rolls of 4.  Fort Save vs. Nausea. – 9

Move me in, Kelaria can't do anything useful so she'll try to navigate around the enemies with 5 foot steps and set up flanking bonuses for others who can attack.  I think she still counts for that even if she can't attack herself.

Cain, already familiar with the room's stench, has steeled himself against the repulsive wave and breathes slowly as he steps into the mold-covered room and slices deftly at the large flower's stem--cleaning separating the large flower from its bulb-like body(-14 HP). The body and its tentacles writhe in great pain but still move to defend its life.

Morin steps quickly away from the attacking vegepygmy and slaps his keycard to the closed door, turning the panel from unlit grey to dim brown. A mere moment after the shifting of the panel and the locking of the door, Morin's hand still briefly pressed against the wall, the gnome feels the vibration of something hitting the other side.

Kelaria is not as fortunate or prepared for the assaults on her senses as her fellow dungeon delvers and can only manage to press forward into the stench as she focuses her efforts on not vomiting in her helmet.

Ionaya and Zorden are up.

Zorden fetched a small paper sachet from a pouch.

As he moved forward to get into the room he wedged it into the muzzle of his gun before using the ramrod to shove it home.

Reloading w paper cartridge

Moving forward to just inside room

Stepping up besides Zorden she quietly scowled and reached behind her head, grabbed a javelin, and launched it towards the stinky triffid.

"Zorden, when next you are ready to fire, let's have your bullet ride the lightening as we've done before." Ionaya said as she threw a javelin away.

OOC: Ionaya rolled 8 using 1d20+3 with rolls of 5.  Javelin vs. Weedwhip.
(I think she missed.)

Zorden and Ionaya both advance towards the room and into the thick stench(DC 12 Fort Save or sickened for 1 minute) though the entrance is so crowded that they can't make it past the door. Ionaya attempts to finish the badly injured plant, but the javelin veers wide and weakly clatters against the nearby table.

The weedwhip, deflowered by Cain, backs away in a hurry while lashing at Cain with all its energy. All three thorned tentacles swipe at the half-elf, two missing wildly but one managed to slip past his invisible shield and through his invisible armor--gashing him in his side(-3 HP; Fort DC 12 or Nauseated.)

The Vegepygmy, now presumably cut off from his people, desperately lunges at Morin, though it is little effort for the gnome to weave and dodge the angry--if plants even feel emotion--attacks.

The door shuts again, sealing Zorden and Ionaya from the battle.


Everyone is up.
Kelaria: Another DC 12 Fort Save or be Nauseated this round.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:10, Wed 24 Apr.

Cain twists away at the moment he is hit, just enough to avoid getting the full brunt of whatever was on those thorns. The effort leaves him off balance and stumbling, but he still presses on to try to finish the wounded plant. "Time to pull out some weeds."

OOC: Sorry about the one-liner. Anyway, another 20. Dice roller is just biding his time with me, I'm sure.
07:10, Today: Cain rolled 29 using 1d20+9 with rolls of 20.  Twist Away. – 29

5' step after the plant and hack & slash.
07:19, Today: Cain rolled 28,14 using 1d20+10,1d8+8 with rolls of 18,6.  Attack, Damage. – 28,14

Off-balanced but unpoisoned, Cain steps in and hacks at the bulb-body of the weedwhip, driving his blade deep into the meat of the plant and leaving it unmoving and leaking sap onto the mold-covered floor.

As Ionaya gets a slight whiff of the stench coming from the room, a wind clears the surrounding air, saving her from the worst of its effects. She waits alongside Zorden, eager to add her lightning to his next shot. "Ready when you are Zorden!"

OOC: Ionaya rolled 17 using 1d20+3 with rolls of 14.  Fort Save.
She is preparing to use a charge of her Thunderstaff to add damage to Zorden's next shot.

Zorden's tail whipped forward and tapped the button to open the door.

Reassessing the situation for a moment, he shifted his weapon towards the pygmy.

"Firing."  Zorden informed Ionaya and waited for her to enchant his weapon before verifying his aim and pulling the trigger.


Zorden rolled 21.  Fort save.

Zorden rolled 18,5,5.  Attack (PBS, Deadly Aim, Inspire Courage), Potential Damage vs Vegepygmy

With a smile both playful and terrible, Ionaya lightly caressed the side of Zorden's gun, imparting a charge of lightning to the projectile within as it travelled towards its ultimate destination.

OOC:Ionaya rolled 4 using 1d6 with rolls of 4.  Thunderstaff damage.

Morin swashed his buckler, banging his rope lariat against the small shield with a hearty thunk. "Excellent gardening, everyone!  Sounds like our next contestant is right behind this door, too!"  The pygmy was too close for Morin to use his lasso effectively, and too insignificant to justify using a spell against it.  So the gnome simply stayed in his defensive position, content to hold the monster off while the rest of his party put it down.

STANDARD: Total defense.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:41, Wed 24 Apr.

As Cain steps aside to finish the Weedwhip, Zorden takes advantage of the rare clear shot at an enemy to loose another round. In a deafening burst of fire, smoke, and now lightning, the bullet crosses the room in an instant, trailing arcs of electricity behind it, and slams into the back of the small plant man, rips through its fibrous body, and dings off Morin's readied buckler before being lost among the fungus covering the floor. The vegepygmy fall to the ground twitching, dead mere moments after trying to water his flower.

Combat over, 200 XP each.

Zorden took a few steps forward to get into the room proper before the door shut again, and then reloaded his weapon.

"We should lock the rest of these doors before we move on."  He suggested as he poured a measure of powder into his gun.

"Sure thing."  Morin replied, going from door to door and locking each panel with his key card.  For good measure, he returned to the door they had come in through and set it to remain open. Assuming nothing jumped out at him while he was doing so, he headed back to the eastern door and casually took up a position beside it. "Sounds like the rest of the welcoming party is getting set up behind this door." He remarked, holding his keycard ready to unlock the door.  "Everyone ready for round two?"

Kelaria leaned over, hands on her hips, and with trembling hands removed her helmet.  And proceeded to vomit mightily.  She chose a distant corner of the chamber at least.

"Give us a moment to recover. Do you have something to use to heal our wounds while we wait?"

OOC: Just giving Kelaria a moment to get ready, Cain is good to go as soon as possible to make the most of his Shield spell. Did Morin pick up that wand of CLW we talked about? Could be good idea to burn a couple charges while we wait.

Also, do we press on through this door, knowing they are right behind it, or do we try to be sneaky and go through the other doors now? Cunning brutality or brutal cunning?

"Hmm?  Oh yeah, sure." Morin turned back to Cain, having seemingly forgotten about his own injury.  The scratch on Cain's side didn't look particularly bad, but Morin reminded himself that the half-elf wasn't as sturdy as some others.  He gave Cain a quick tap with his healing wand, as well as Kelaria if the barbarian was interested.

OOC: I'm using once charge of CLW on Cain (25 left), and another on Kelaria if she wants it (roll 1d8+1).

I'm leaning towards heading straight in once we've caught our breath.  We don't really know enough about the area to do anything tricky, and Cain's shield is ticking down fairly fast.  I'd say maybe one minute of downtime to lock some doors, heal up, and wait for the nausea to fade?

07:18, Today: Morin Matzylford rolled 5 using 1d8+1 with rolls of 4.  Wand CLW to Cain
This message was last edited by the player at 02:40, Fri 26 Apr.

Kelaria needed a swallow of water.  Actually, one to rinse and spit out, and then one to swallow.

"Ugh."  She grimaced, and then the big heavy blackened helmet went back on, and was locked into place.

With a grunt, she hoisted her hammer and tapped it on the floor.  Perhaps she also needed to harness the power of Vegetable in addition to Metal.

lol I just wanted a way to justify Kelaria recovering from her conditions between fights, I'm good now.

"I suggest we figure out who's going to be blocking the door when we open it and who's going to be in charge of either keeping it open or closing it as needed."  Zorden proposed now that they were looking ready to proceed.

ooc: While an ambush could be effective, who knows what else we'll run into along the way.  At least with the door we have a bottleneck and can always disengage as needed (assuming nothing gets in the way of the door).

"Swords to the front, the rest behind?" Cain asks as he gets closer to the doors.

OOC: Cain and Kelaria in front of the doors? Not much room to maneuver here I'm afraid.

"After you." Morin stepped away from the door, letting the party's melee fighters take up position at the front.

Kelaria figured she knew her assignment here, and just hoped whatever was behind this door wasn't so vile.  She set, grunted and raised the hammer.