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Anthony bares his teeth at Graypelt in turn, "You'll talk later then. We appreciate it."
He talks in whispers to his teammates as he makes his way out of the door. "He needs us to dispatch the creatures in that room." He points south to the eastern door. He continues, "From his description, I'm fairly certain they are Darkmantles, cephalopods which hang from the ceilings of dark caves. They can emit an inky darkness, blotting out torchlight, and have a predilection for strangling hapless adventurers. The plan: Davi and I go in first to try and draw out their darkness early. We'll still be able see through it, so we can lead them to the rest of you waiting outside, where you'll be ready to strike. I'll be needing a torch for them to buy it. Any questions?"
He'd be all business now. He couldn't allow the fear to get to him. As long as he was acting, moving, he could be himself.
"Sounds good to me. Let's slay the creepy crawlies and be done with it."
Soroza draws her short sword.
"There are sick people back at town, and proper beds and meals waiting for us."
Davi follows Anthony's lead and keeps her voice to a whisper. "When in doubt just assume it's something that wants to eat your face off. That's a Handy Dandy Adventuring Tip." Davi pats Jansen on the shoulder. "I'm ready whenever you are Anthony"
Not noticing Jansen's question, despite his invitation to ask them, Anthony asks Adrac for a torch. After lighting it, he begins marching toward the room with the Darkmantles. His focus is singularly on getting into the room and finding the creatures before they find him. "Watch the ceiling. They'll be up there. Be on your guard." he murmurs to Davi. He draws his blade, and then charges it with energy without looking away from the chamber in front of him.
Anthony lights a torch and proceeds down the hallway with Davi.
He creaks the door open and finds a desecrated shrine. Pews of darkwood lie tipped over and covered in dust on either side of this ancient shrine. At the far end sits a large ceremonial anvil, but its surface is defaced and ruined.
You can see 2 darkmantles on the ceiling, hiding amongst the rafters.
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Soroza retorts, in a whisper as well, "Well, that's my style, yes."
She offers a snarky smile and ribs him playfully with her elbow. "You strike me as the sort who wouldn't engage them until a Contract of Honorable Conflict was signed, in triplicate, by all parties involved."
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"See anything? Maybe they've gone out to lunch?" Davi tries to sound flippant but it's obvious that she's nervous. She steps into the room and moves sideways so Anthony can follow her in.
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"In point of fact milady, I abhor paperwork, give me a good chase with her bow three points into the wind on the outskirts of a gale against Katapeshi slavers any day, rather than the bureaucratic monotony of filing things in triplicate. At least in the sea chase, if you die, it shan't be from boredom." He pauses a moment, "besides, in the former case, you can always claim that all copies of the Contract of Honorable Conflict had been located on the adversaries ship when it went down." Again he pauses, before finally winking at her conspiratorially.
"It's like listening to Lorefel and James all over again... I'm not sure if I feel more nostalgic or agitated." Adrac mused, staying quiet and allowing the one who can actually see in the dark through.
"See anything yet?"
"Don't look now but there are a couple of them hanging up in the rafters. Get ready to strike. When they drop their darkness, run to the others." Anthony whispers. He meanders in as innocuously as he can, signalling Davi to follow suit.
Anthony and Davi move in, together, into the abandoned temple. Though they go into great efforts to conceal their intent - the darkmantles don't seem to even notice- the creatures are far too simple-minded to assume that the living creatures moving below them are anything other than prey...
Initative Order:
1. Jansen
2. Darkmantle 2
3. Anthony
4. Darkmantle 1
5. Davi
6. Adrac
7. Herral
Suddenly, the cathedral goes pitch black, as a thick, supernatural darkness falls across the room.
The darkmantles fall from the ceiling towards Anthony and Davi. Davi thrusts her rapier out against the darkmantle, her mismatched eyes glowing faintly in the darkness, like a cat's. Her rapier sticks through the darkmantle like a needle through cloth. The creature is taken off-guard, and tumbles away from Davi onto the ground.
Anthony - you may roll your readied attack action against Darkmantle #2. You are also entitled to an AoO vs Darkmantle #2.
Ready for the incoming darkmantle, Anthony attempts to skewer it as it descends, catching it by surprise.
The darkmantle leaves itself vulnerable to attack as it descends, and Anthony is able to skewer it through, piercing right through the wiggly creature. It shrieks and withdraws back to the ceiling.
Suddenly, another darkmantle descends from the ceiling, a third creature that Anthony and Davi failed to notice on their inspection of the room. Anthony reacts in the nick of time, barely dodging the creature as it hurtles past his head.
Anthony is up.
After the creature shirks to the far side of the room, Anthony retreats from its brothers and attempts to lead them out of the room.
The darkmantle which attacked Davi withdraws back to the ceiling as well, giving her a chance to move out of the room. After a few moments,it becomes clear that the creatures have no intention of leaving their lair within the darkness - they stay huddled up on the ceiling of the temple, patiently waiting for something to move beneath them once more.
As Anthony makes his getaway into the hall, he looks back and realizes the creatures aren't following. "Oh." He says. It seems they would only be engaged in their lair. He doesn't have any magic himself that could cancel the darkness, and he doubts Herral possessed magic of that strength either. Anthony shrugs at Herral and Jansen and says, "Looks like they aren't leaving. I'll try to get rid of them. You can come too I guess, but be careful."
Anthony walks in front of the doors to see if the darkmantles react.
"Those of us who can't see in the dark could enter, but stay close to the door, prepared to strike any that come for us. If the creatures gain the upper hand, we could then easily retreat back into the light."
The darkmantles remain huddled on the ceiling, watching Anthony warily with their many little red eyes.
Anthony breaks eye contact with the darkmantles and leaps forward, casting a spell. As he finishes his stride, a flash of light sprays from his fingertips, engulfing the three creatures.
Anthony swiftly incapacitates two of the three darkmantles. They fall to the ground with a plop. The remaining darkmantle swoops down onto Anthony, but the tiefling quickly side-steps it.
Davi swiftly accompanies Anthony into the room and stabs at one of the darkmantles on the ground.
Seeing two of the creatures tumble to the ground, Soroza amends her proposed strategy.
"Or that. That works, too. Anthony, should the rest of us wait back at Falcon's Hollow? You seem to have everything here packed away rather neatly."
Anthony grunts as he dodges the oncoming tentacle beast, "As amusing as that was, I unfortunately only had one of those prepared today. Also please don't shoot, I'd rather not have to deal with that on top of these things trying to strangle me."
Provided no one else decides to interrupt the melee, Anthony swiftly gives the darkmantle a full on assault with horns and steel.
With an unnerving thunk, Anthony's thrust slams into the darkmantle's centre, but its odd physiology means that nothing vital is ruptured. It shrieks, and retreats back to the ceiling.
Davi stares down at the darkmantle in front of her and lances it through with her rapier. It perishes almost instantly.
Adrac blinks, standing back a bit and waiting for the pair to return from their work with the dark creatures. "...you are definitely James' son, Anthony. Fighting smarter, not harder."
Anthony follows the darkmantle with his gaze as it retreats. He draws a dagger from his belt and flings it at the center of the floating sack of arms. He is focused on the systematic extermination of these creatures from their home.
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Soroza begins to get frustrated about feeling at a loss to contribute to the fight, so she decides to play the odds with the poor visibility. She steps through the open doorway with her shortsword drawn, prepared to strike at anything she sees moving towards her in the darkness.
Anthony chucks his dagger at the darkmantle on the ceiling, but misses miserably.
The darkmantle on the ground is no longer unconscious, but is still stunned from the color spray. Davi moves closer to it, and thrusts her rapier at it.
The darkmantle on the ceiling drops down onto Soroza. Soroza stiffens, hearing the subtle sound of the creature moving towards her in the dark. She stabs out blindly but misses terribly. It wraps itself around her midsection, but proves too weak to do any real damage to the woman - though Soroza can feel its slimy tentacles around her body.
"If you have a dagger I can throw, that would be great." Anthony says as he throws his last one.
Despite being only ten feet away from the darkmantle assaulting Soroza, Anthony chucks his last dagger at it. It hits its mark, embedding itself in its flesh. It squeals horribly, retreating to the ceiling - in the darkness, Soroza cannot react to it in time.
Davi continues to try and stab the incapacitated darkmantle on the ground - but she is overzealous in her thrust and misses.
"...you kids rely too much on your eyes." Adrac mused, before striding into the dark with his hands behind his back, eyes closed. His ears twitch as he listens for the sound of weird flapping webbing above him. "There is more than one way to see the world..."
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Anthony moves over to the darkmantle Davi is attacking to assist her, stabbing abruptly down at the blinded, stunned creature.
The darkmantle on the ceiling rushes down towards Adrac. He can hear it, and so kicks out at it, but in the darkness he is unable to aim properly and misses terribly. However, Anthony seizes the opportunity to lunge at it. Using the full length of his weapon, he energetically thrusts forward and land a mortal blow.
Meanwhile, Davi takes the opportunity to finish off the darkmantle on the floor before it can attempt to flee back to the ceiling. Descending rapidly upon her target, she pauses for a moment to silently make sure it is dead before cleaning off her weapon.
A few minutes later, the darkness dissipates, revealing the room to those with less acute senses in the darkness.
Anywho, darkness works just like light - it emanates from an enchanted object.
So you can simply locate the object that had darkness cast on it, either by detect magic or by simply using the perception check outlined here to locate it by sound, then move it out of the room or obscure it somehow in a pack or pocket. This was all hinted at using the knowledge checks on this post but alas only Anthony had the K. arcana for it.
Alternatively, you could have simply waited the darkness out - it only lasted for a few minutes, and I would have given you the exact duration could have been determined for a K. arcana or spellcraft roll. You'd have had to do this once for each darkmantle, but they could only do it 1/day, another piece of information you could have asked for with a K.arcana roll (magical beast - 1 question). I did not give hints towards this solution - but you can always ask more questions if you are feeling inquisitive with a knowledge roll :)
Or finally, you could have simply had the blind people wade into the darkness and have Anthony lure the darkmantles towards the blind people, and given verbal commands as to which square the darkmantles were on ("To your right! In front of you!") - I would have considered this sufficient to hone in on the right square, and the rest would have come down to the 50% concealment you are under in darkness.
Readying attacks for any darkmantles that attacked you would have been a good way to get some damage in early as well - you could have taken advantage of the K. arcana rolls here about the darkmantles to understand their tactics: they drop from the ceiling, and if they miss their grapple attempt, they fly back up and try again. You could have used this to your advantage by simply readying attacks for each time they attempted to charge you.
Those are the three (four?) solutions for the encounter I had cooked up for you and presented and given hints for! Just trying to assure you that it wasn't intended to be an encounter for Anthony and Davi to two-man.
Soroza wipes darkmantle slime off of her leather armor, making a sour face as she does so.
"That big wolf certainly knows how to party", she quips, but her heart is clearly not in it.
"Between this and the overgrown bug, it may just be easier to replace this armor instead of trying to wash it."
After less than a minute, Soroza abandons any attempt to tidy up her armor and then scans her eyes across the room.
"May as well give this place a good once-over, see if there's anything interesting lying around."
Soroza gives the room a good look over. Pews of darkwood lie tipped over and covered in dust on either side of this ancient shrine. At the far end sits a large ceremonial anvil, but its surface is defaced and ruined. Soroza notices that on top of the anvil are five small depressions.
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"It might be best for all of us if Adrac takes point." Anthony adds as he goes to collect his daggers.
"Any of you have any kind of idea what that bloody anvil is for?"
After he collects his knives, Anthony pads over to Soroza to inspect the anvil.
"It is not merely an anvil. It's a shrine dedicated to Torag. It may have also been used for its more mundane purpose, considering the nature of his followers. This is no doubt a valuable find, though you would be hard pressed to find someone to carry it, much less buy it. It's fascinating though, isn't it? Worship at an Anvil? I've never seen a monastery of Torag before. I wonder what it was like before they were removed." Anthony's eyes all but gleam as he seems to forget his cares or what they were here for.
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"Suppose that makes sense. Still can't seem to shake the feeling that there's more to this room...", Soroza gives up and shakes the thought away.
"Let's go tell the Big Bad Wolf we took care of his pest problem."