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Kaylan turns to the others after examining the horses. "If Harmon is willing to help, I say lets unchain his son and take him down below. I will lead on the stairs, having the best chance to survive whatever blessing that trap is going to hand out." He nods form Phinkis to the horses and asks quizzically.
" ...any chance you have a more sensitive magic stick to wave at these necromantic nags to see if you can gather any more information? I would wager a barrel silver these things are fading in an out of their decaying state or simply cloaked in an illusion. If not, then only thing we need to figure out is how to get you three past the fear enchantment on the stairs."

"My magical perceptions are fairly limited but I can give it a look." Sense Magic on the horses. "I think we can overcome the enchantment on the stairs if our eyes are closed and if the effect is magical in nature I may be able to shrug it off but that depends on how the enchantment works." Phinkis thinks about it for a minute more. "If we can find the source of the enchantment I may be able to disrupt it but I would think that is at the bottom somewhere. There are also these other amulets. Thurton certainly doesn't seem afraid to go down those stairs but I would like not to put one of those on."

Upon close examination, the horses sense as faintly magical in the way many undead do. You swerve your "sense magic" beam towards the stairs, and sure enough, the source of the enchantment seems to come from far below, much further down than you can see.

" So... your thinking that amulet fused to him is shielding him, somehow?' Kaylan asks Phinkis skeptically. " I was thinking they were somehow connected to a transformation into the horses....but I will defer to your magic detecting proboscis. If your correct, I can understand the apprehension, but that list we found states the emerald and gold ones are weaker or lesser....maybe they will shield you and Harmon without fusing to you. Even if they start to, you can shut them down long enough to pull them free right?"

Kaylan frees his hammer and slowly moves to the stairs, glancing back to the others. "well unless you object Im going to go have a conversation with a trap, while you two free Thurton and see if the amulets work, and are safe enough to use."

"I'm not sure if shielding is the right term. In his current state he just might not be capable of fear for all I know."

Phinkis turns to Harmon, "Will you be able to restrain him once we free him? I don't want him running off and getting hurt."

Phinkis opens a pouch on his belt and begins rummaging through it. The clanking of small bottles can be heard. "I wonder if I have anything in here that may be useful."

Phinkis smiles and pulls a vial from his pouch. "Well, this one can fortify a person's mind against all sorts of debilitating things, including fear. Unfortunately I only have one."

Harmon takes a deep breath. "If my son is down there, I'm going. As long as I don't look at those stairs, I'm alright. We just need one person who doesn't have their eyes closed to lead us."

"Well then, Mr. Barl, let us unchain Thurton and head on down after Sir Kaylan. He will lead the way, followed by you, and I'll take the rear, with Thurton between us."

"Sir Kaylan!" Phinkis hollers towards the stairs, "We're coming down behind you. If you need my assistance with something that will require me to see, I will be keeping that potion of mine close at hand."

Phinkis heads over to Thurton and begins freeing him. "You happen to have something we can use as blindfolds?" Phinkis asks Harmon.

You release Thurton from his chains. He rushes towards the stairs, but you are able to hold him back. After a moment he calms, and seems to follow your instructions. He’s very spacey though. He continues to blather. “Shutto ghoony gluth.” Harmon tears a few strips off his shirt for blindfolds, and your group heads down the stairs.

The stairwell descends for a ways, spiraling down. Without sight, sound becomes much more apparent. At one point, you hear metal sliding against stone ahead of you Phinkis. Kaylan curses, then he directs you where to carefully put your feet on a few steps. At the bottom of the stairwell you feel a sudden…ease, and you take off your blindfolds. You hold your lanterns high to reveal a wide natural tunnel with stalactites high above. Kaylan’s foot is bloody, but he soldiers on. Glancing over your shoulder you can see the back of a statue directly at the foot of the stairs. It radiates Fear, and you quickly turn away.
Cautiously, you follow the tunnel for a time. At a bend, there are barn style doors along one wall, barred with a wooden beam, and tracks in the mud. You open the doors to reveal daylight and trees. It’s clear a cart was wheeled inside here. There are tracks that lead further down the tunnel too. “The grand prize?” Harmon questions. There’s also another small metal cupboard here, hiding a compartment dug out of the wall. It’s locked, and you cannot force it open.
Following the tunnel again, Harmon yells, ” Thurton? Thurton?! Something’s wrong. He’s getting worse.”

And indeed, Thurton appears to be having difficulty walking, as if his limbs are no longer responding to commands correctly. “Noburga Jubo Tathy Rukotham Vloga!” Thurton moans. Harmon props him up, and helps him forward.

You get to a part where the tunnel cuts through the roots of some massive trees, and instead of stone along the side, you see bulbous wood. Thurton’s body suddenly goes still, and falls down through Harmon’s grasp to the ground, lifeless. A moment later, a ghostly double of Thurton rises to stand over his prone body. This Thurton is not wearing an amulet. Each second that passes he starts to get more and more solid. The ghostly Thurton looks around, then down at his body. “Oh, crap.”

He is interrupted, however, by the arrival of another figure. A man on horseback appears before you. He is wearing a golden circlet on his head, and a yellow tabard with three hawks on it. His horse’s flesh is rotten. He lifts a gauntleted hand. A black glow emanates from it and the tree roots come alive violently. They shake and twist into mockeries of humanoid forms, then pry themselves from the dirt walls on ‘legs’ to attack. The rider then immediately turns and gallops off down the tunnel. You make to follow him, but your way is now blocked by these creatures.

It’s time for combat (combat rules to come in a bit).

Here’s how this will work. There are six ‘Root Creatures.’ You may fight up to three rounds (stop whenever you like). Describe your battle.
If you take a “Wound” three times, you will need Surgery (or die). Take one or two Wounds, you are fine (no mechanical disadvantage).

After combat is over, as long as you are alive, any Healing will remove all Wounds.

Round one: A twisted ‘root-man’ crouches to strike.
Choose one of the following (then reveal it): Roll two dice (http://www.random.org/dice/), add or subtract the modifier from your choice above, add an additional +1 for weapon specialization, add +1 if you are wearing armor of any kind.
9 or higher= you defeat your opponent.
6-8 = neither you nor your opponent do significant damage.
5 or less = your opponent ‘Wounds’ you.


Round Two: A root-man with impossibly long limbs approaches,
Choose one of the following:
Roll two dice (http://www.random.org/dice/), add or subtract the modifier above, add an additional +1 for weapon specialization, add +1 if you are wearing armor.
9 or higher= you defeat your opponent.
6-8 = neither you nor your opponent do significant damage.
5 or less = your opponent ‘Wounds’ you.


Round three: A Root-man glares at you.
Choose one of the following: Roll two dice (http://www.random.org/dice/), add or subtract the modifier above, add an additional +1 for weapon specialization, add +1 if you are wearing armor.
9 or higher= you defeat your opponent.
6-8 = neither you nor your opponent do significant damage.
5 or less = your opponent ‘Wounds’ you.


Note:
If there are still creatures left after everyone has fought, you may each try another 3 rounds. Repeat.

In the battle Harmon does not fight, but he quickly tears off some more strips of cloth, and prepares to administer what limited healing he can.

Phinkis channels disruptive energies through his sword into the first root creature, destroying it. He barely gets his magical defenses up in time and deflects the necromantic backlash that tries to destroy him.

As the second root man attacks, Phinkis swings his sword low but fails to connect. Luckily the root man swings high and seems to sail over Phinkis' head. (Rolled 1+5=6, 6+2=8)

Growing tired of the delay Phinkis steps to the front of the group, hands raised. His eyes burn red and the air around him starts to shimmer like the air over a campfire. A wave a flame rushes forward from his outstretched hands and flows down the tunnel. (Rolled 6+6=12 12+5=17)

"Phinkis...take it slow until I get these traps hand....AAAAaaayyahhhill gut ya ya beardless son of a gnome!!" Fervent hammer on stone and metal follows Kaylans outburst. "PHINKIS!! When we are done here you are wizarding me some wheres-he-at on the soon-to-be corpse that built these infernal traps...."

Once the others have gotten close, Kaylan pints out where to safely step. " be wary of these two, and completely avoid that rat bastard right there...it will turn your William into a Betty and giggle about it the entire time." Kaylan clubs the step with his weapon, seemingly out of spite and to no obvious effect before grumbling and limping down the step.

At the bottom Kaylan scans the area (SPOT) and takes a moment to inspect the statue. " Turns out the fear culprit is little more than a statue in the shape of a woman in robes, arms waiving like she is casting some ritual and a skeleton standing up in front of her. someone wasn't fond of her or it since they gave her face a tickle with long scratches from a blade. Face is gone. Funny how women can have that affect on a person eh?"

Once its discovered, Kaylan moves to the metal cupboard and makes every attempt to open it, even using his head to open the stubborn locked door as he did with the last one. He stands still a moment before staggering about a few strides, hand on his face. when he steadies himself he mumbles something about adding that to the cracked birds I-owe-ya tab, and the need to get some lock picks of his own. " a bit more stubborn than your upstairs cousin eh....we will be coming back to you Im thinking..." Kaylan half limps and half staggers over to the other men and speaks to Harmon. "Hey Harmon...", Kaylan asks while trying to shaky the groggy form his brain "...any talent with locks by chance?"

When Harmon cries out, Kaylan scans the tunnel to see if there is any indication of a source of the sudden change in Thurton. Kaylan looks up to Phinkus " I think you need to be ready to help me remove that amulet, or he may be done for. Better to have him take his chances after zapping it and cutting it of than letting it keep having its way with him."

When Thornton falls limp, Kaylan begins to direct Phinkis to magic the item, but as the Thurton apparition appears, he simply stands back slowly eyes wide in surprise. The appearance of the ghostly rider and mount shakes Kaylen back into focus. "Phinkis heads up, in bound hostile!" Kaylan shouts back as he pushes his will into his, now raised, hammer, causing it to glow and spark with a deep crimson magic.

As the root men advance the dwarfs hammer lunges in and up under the "chin" of the lead creature, hitting it barely but with enough effect to send the head behind it in a rain of splinters and magical sparks.

Round one total.....9=(1+3)+2(lunge)+2(armor and weapon focus)+1(plot damage enhancer)

Kaylan sidesteps the double armed grab of the odd limbed attacker and spins around, turning his back to the monster and brings his heavy shield hard against the side of the creature as he completes the spin; pushing shield and dwarf behind the blow to crush the rootling against the tunnel wall into chunks of quality kindling.

Round two total.....12=(5+3)+1(Body Slam)+2(armor and weapon focus)+1(plot damage enhancer)

Re-orienting to face the third rootling, Kaylan barely positions his hammer to parry the creatures sharp wood claws as they race for his neck. the follow through sweeps the arms attached to the claws up, and Kayan drives the hammer over the creature and straight down. It exploding into shards of root wood, smoldering in the red lighting that was dancing over, and into, the attacker from the hammer strike.

Round Three total..10=(5+1)+1(Parry, then strike )+2(armor and weapon focus)+1(plot damage enhancer)

Kaylan's gaze sweeps the area to ensure no one is overmatched to see Phinkis decimate the his with a magical flurry. " show off..."

There is still, by my count, one more root-man left, if one of you wants to take another round (or two). Just start at round one again. You've gotten a better handle on the fight, by now, which explains your foreknowledge of one of the choices.

Spot doesn't reveal anything more about the features of the statue, Kaylan, than you've already seen. At the locked cupboard, Harmon shakes his head when you ask him about it. He tries pounding on it too, for a bit, with no success. "I know animals, I know planting. Yannick could have opened this if he were here; he's quick with his hands. Funny, I can break all sorts of things around the homestead when I'm not trying, but this..." You end up moving on.

As the last rootling shambles over towards the others, Kaylan steps across its path and hints at a crossing strike with the hammer. Hen the root beast moves to deflect, Kaylan steps left and changes the attack into an upward swing aimed at its center mass. The blow lands, but with such force the rootling is lifted from its feet and lands on Kaylan knocking him flat with his enemy motionless on him.
Kaylan yelps in protest and rolls the dead root man off, but then has to spend a minute grumbling as he struggles to free the stuck weapon.

Round one total.....13=(5+5)+0(Feint)+2(armor and weapon focus)+1(plot damage enhancer)