Episode 1

Hinka is suddenly there at Thorn's side, reaching in with a quick unspoken offer to carry Rhone to safety before the doors close.

"Laoise! Hurry!," shouts Casidhe from behind the sliding east stone slab, yelling out in desperation to her older sister.

Though still threatened by an Ulathi assailant, Laoise realizes that she cannot delay an longer. She turns and sprints for the gap between the two blocks.

Dash.

The Ulathi lunges forward to make one more stab with his harpoon to kill the troublesome barren before she moves out of reach.

U2.1 Opportunity Attack.
Result: Hit

The harpoon pierces Laoise's shoulder. She stumbles forward and nearly topples over, but rights herself as she continues to sprint. She bleeds from the wound. Her face is wrought with pain, but she presses on, running for her life.

Latest Available Grid Map

Bryn steps forward and slays the last of the close fishmen - blasts straight through his neck with his razor sharp kukri.

U5.1 Slain.
Bonus off-hand attack preserved.

Maeriks is starting to run, a trail of Ulathi around him and another in route.

The space in between the great stone blocks is diminishing. The front (south) corners have slowed movement at a narrow distance one from another. The back corners are now swinging inward at a faster rate for the last stretch, apparently to come parallel and line up to fit the straight hallway.

The bodies at the north end of the passage way are being rolled up close to one another in the center. Soon there will be only a single lane of passage.

Bryn has to wonder if the bodies will become obstacles for his own retreat and that of his companions.

He sees Laoise glide over the bodies and into the hallway beyond.

Hinka is at Thorn's side, motioning for the big swordsman to give him Sorcha Rhone so that he can carry her to safety before it is too late.

In motion that seems choreographed, Kray steps forward and launches a blinding volley of arrows as Bryn clears the line of the last close opponent.

Shots 1 & 2 kill U2.1
Shot 3 kills U2.4
Shot 4 injures U5.4

Latest related Grid Map.

Maeriks is in full sprint. Kray's killing arrows slam into two of the Ulathi just as they are about to strike Maeriks as he passes them.

It is going to be close on whether Maeriks makes it or not. Kray knows that he must get in motion in the next seconds in order to make it himself or not.

Kray sees Hinka carrying Sorcha Rhone to safety, climbing over a pile of Ulathi bodies to make the last few strides.

Then he notices it. Are his eyes deceiving him? He does a double take to make sure.

Yes. The bodies of the Ulathi piled inside the narrow gap are moving. The bloody Ulathi behind them are rising up again!

One of the Deep Ones closest to Maeriks stabs out at him when the big Dannein turns to run away.

OA by U4.3
Attack: Spear

Thorn hands Sorcha Rhone to Hinka and then launches outward just as Bryn chops down the last close defender.

Thorn sees Kray begin to launch the arrows immediately as he passes by. Out of his peripheral vision Thorn sees that the gap between the two stones is extremely narrow now. He will have to be as fast as lightning to make this work.

Thorn makes it to the cauldron. Hoping that his theory is correct, he latches his hands onto the cauldron.

Thorn had inspected the room before all of the chaos. He had known that something about the cauldrons and the fires was strange. The flames rose and fell more by command than increased fuel source. They generated some heat, but it did not seem proportionate to the size of fires within.

He was correct. The cauldron was warm, but not blistering hot as it should have been.

Thorn heaves with all of his might and tosses the cauldron to his left with a powerful pivot. The fire in the cauldron immediately disappears, as if snuffed out by a single unseen gust of wind.

He tries to convert from a throw to a push at the full extension of the arc, hoping to use momentum to his best advantage to keep the heavy bowl moving towards the gap passage way.

A loud gong sound rings out in the chamber when the great cauldron hits the floor, and another gong sounds out when it bounces once. Strange coals and dust burst out of the inner container, dousing the ground and the air both in a blackish gray soot.

It then crunches into the body of a dead fish creature on the ground. Without delay, Thorn is there to steady the cauldron. He deftly shifts the bowl to its side as best he can and tries to convert the movement to a roll.

That works for a few feet. When he sees that the cauldron is about to stall out, Thorn grabs the inner edges of the cauldron once more. He pivots and shifts, and using every ounce of strength in his body he lifts and tosses the heavy weight forward. He feels a sudden pain in his back as his muscles, spine, and tendons absorb the strain.

The cauldron does not sail up, it is more like a slow glide, but it crashes down with a loud bang. One small bounce and it rattles into place: face down and right within the narrow gap between the two stones!

Success on feat of STR Athletics

Bryn and Kray are close by as the cauldron crashes in. Kray has to take a couple of steps back in order to avoid the incoming mass of brass.

Now outside of the gap passage himself, Thorn sees how close it is for himself to make the distance. Maeriks is even further away still, though in a full sprint.

As Thorn follows his throw with his own motion forward, he is shocked at what he sees.

Behind Kray and Bryn, the bodies of the Ulathi in the back of the gap are rising and moving forward!

The shout comes from behind. "Come on! NOW!" Doirind is yelling out to everyone in the narrow gap passage between the two blocks.

It is horrific. The bodies of the slain Deep Ones, covered in their own blood, their limbs and heads hanging limply, are being lifted by the invisible force. They float southward, towards the throne chamber, like bloody meat carried on unseen strings.

Kray, Bryn, and Ivor backed up when they saw the heavy bronze cauldron crashing forward. Their steps backwards bring them face to face with the floating bodies that are grotesquely dragging along the floor and sliding down the inner walls of the stone blocks.

To make it through to the hallway, the men will have to power through the floating bodies, shoving and pushing them aside as they travel in the opposite direction.


Area of Ulathi bodies is Difficult Terrain.

Latest Grid Map is somewhere within the time of TR3

The great stone blocks are closing in, just now making contact with the heavy cauldron, now turned upside down between them.

Maeriks is still several strides away, running for his life.

Every split second will count.

Kray, Bryn, and Ivor press through the floating bodies and reunite with those in the hallway. Doirind is now standing and holding an unconscious Sorcha Rhone. Laoise and Casidhe are already moving down the hall towards the light and the blue sky ahead.

Thorn jumps the cauldron just as the stone blocks clunk against it. Ever so slightly, the stone blocks stall!

But then the cauldron itself lifts slightly from the ground, floating.

Thorn powers through. The cauldron is being moved back out by the unseen forces, purged out of the gap like the bodies.

Maeriks approaches the entrance of the narrow gap between the stones. He is running as fast has he has ever run in his life.

He sees a cauldron turned over and floating out, and Ulathi bodies starting to float out as well.

He does not have time to wait to let them pass. He must do whatever it takes to jump the cauldron and force his way past the bodies and through the gap.

The Roll of Life or Death"I will crush you, interloper!"

Maeriks hears the vicious shout from The Hierophant.

He leaps the cauldron and charges headlong into the gap, crashing into the first Ulathi corpse.

Final Grid Map

Good luck, CB.

Do not... I repeat, do not get crushed. Just do like Fight Club and find your cave. Then...

Slide.

Clinging to any hope that he can, Maeriks hears the call of one of the last remnants of his decimated clan. He no longer holds the Locust Spear, but his people are still pulling for him to survive.

Maeriks has never heard his name cheered like that before today.

Despite his shortcomings, someone from his tribal family still cares about him.

Maeriks gains +1 on any Ability Check while in the Black Ziggurat.