(082) The Darkness Below

[coffee]

Once we stop, Karl turns fully to face the back. He'll also look at the ceiling and floor in particular, but mostly our backtrail.

[Eris]

Karl sees Fried back near the back keeping a close eye on our backtrail.

That seems to have been his role so far, so he's still doing it.

[waysoftheearth]

The first door is about 30ft down this new passage, on Leudigar's right. By the time he arrives at it he can clearly see the next door is 10ft further along on the left-side of the passage. Another 20ft beyond that, the passage runs into a stair which descends into a deeper darkness...

Leudigar listens at the first door, but hears nothing untoward, so he quietly tries it...

...at this moment in time, the Karl and Fried rearguard duo are approximately in the T intersection, 30ft back.

...the door knob, uncharacteristically, yields far too swiftly and the door swings inward before Leudigar even realises what is happening. It seemed to fly open itself!

The room inside is roughly 40ft square, the walls are painted in crazy red and ocher patterns, and it is lit red by scores of burning candles that are arranged on the ground in some kind of 20ft wide pentagram. About a dozen hooded monks are kneeling around the pentagram in a circle droning a sonorous incantation, with heads bowed... they seem not to notice Leudigar's arrival for a tantalizing moment... before the monk opposite the door snorts and jerks to awareness, his rabid glare falling upon the tracker!

Listening check 1d6=?
Door check 1d6=? ah, the clever door...

There are monsters here, so we run a surprise check:
Players 1d6=5! The players have surprised the monsters!
Monsters 1d6=3. The monsters have not surprised the players.

The players have won a free surprise segment...

What do the players wish to do with this precious commodity?

[mgtremaine]

Looks pretty evil to me, are we rushing in and chopping up monks?

[ehiker133]

Quickly taking in the horrid colors and pentagram on the floor, Leudigar KNOWS these monks are something other than "good" and must be stopped.

He attempts to grab the monk and pull it out into the hallway and close the door so they can silence it before it can alert the others.

[Eris]

Looks pretty evil to me, are we rushing in and chopping up monks?

Fried sees the door fly open quickly, but is too far back to see what is going on up front.

Yeah, monks around a Pentagram sounds like a bad thing and one we should break up ASAP! I'd say get archers in the room and pepper the monks, then make a shield wall and close on them for hand to hand, but Freid isn't in position to make that so.

[Eris]

Quickly taking in the horrid colors and pentagram on the floor, Leudigar KNOWS these monks are something other than "good" and must be stopped.

He attempts to grab the monk and pull it out into the hallway and close the door so they can silence it before it can alert the others.

I don't think that's going to work. Nice idea, but... Probably, a fast bull-rush is the best we can hope for here, get in and kill them before they can engage. Anything else is going to be a real Cluster-Fark, if you get my drift.

[ehiker133]

I don't think that's going to work. Nice idea, but... Probably, a fast bull-rush is the best we can hope for here, get in and kill them before they can engage. Anything else is going to be a real Cluster-Fark, if you get my drift.

It always seems to take a while for people to file into a room. I figured this way, we could make a 2x formation on either side of the door and fight them as they come out. Control them that way.

I just went with a gut reaction sort of thing. Who knows. Maybe it will work! Seems like it would work in a movie, right? So... why not in a game?

[Tonneau]

Zax is simmering in a stew of frustration over their slow progress, the constant winging of some of the long-legs, and the distinct paucity of skulls to break when suddenly a bounty of soft, evil-monk skulls are laid out before him.

His vision goes red.

He bustles past Leudigar (as a burly sheep might) and begins methodically laying into the anti-god-huggers with his pick.

strategy's for long-legs

[flightcommander]

Akbar watches as Zax works his way into the room. As soon as he gets a load of the assembled monks, he tosses the lit torch into the room (ideally, into a flammable robed figure) and then lets fly with a bolt from the arbalest.