The company returns to the damp, stifling air of the dungeon, now thick with the stench of decaying plants. Nyx’s familiar saw nothing but motionless silence during their absence, and true to that, everything seems unchanged – including the leafy bulges scattered across the floor.
Subeen enters first to test against dangers. Once she feels the location is secure, she sets to work, slicing open the bulges one by one. Inside, she finds three twisted corpses entwined in vines. What remains of them are mere splinters of bone, the flesh and organs dissolved by acid, leaving behind only a grim, dried blood residue caking the inner vines—likely the source of that rancid smell.
Amidst the carnage, you find remnants of the dead adventurers' gear. Two of the bodies are tangled in metal
chain shirts, a futile defence against the vine's relentless grip, but still in good condition. The third, draped in tattered robes corroded by acid, holds a different discovery—a leather
scroll case still intact. Inside, Elara identifies a
Lightning Bolt spell scroll, the likely cause of the magical glow she detected earlier through her ritual. It’s a bittersweet find, knowing the mage who once owned this powerful spell never lived to cast it.
[ +- ] Lightning Bolt Spell
Level: 3rd
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range/Area: Self (100 ft)
Components: V, S, M *
Duration: Instantaneous
School: Evocation
Attack/Save: DEX Save
Damage/Effect: Lightning
A stroke of lightning forming a 100-foot-long, 5-foot-wide Line blasts out from you in a direction you choose. Each creature in the Line makes a Dexterity saving throw, taking 8d6 Lightning damage on a failed save or half as much damage on a successful one.
