Hannik swings her bag around and flips it open. She digs around until she comes up with a battered old scroll case and unfurls a sheet of stiff parchment. Then she crouches low and tries to get close enough to help her allies.
Booam moves forward in an effort to engage the tieflings. He swings viciously at the tiefling not glued to the floor.
Mulluq savages the peryton. But Booam's axe fails to connect.
The tiefling shoots at Ghroth but simply embeds a bolt in the ceiling.
Kira continues to hammer at the beast in front of her.
Reinvigorated by Rhok's spell, Kira thrusts at the peryton. The tip of her magical sword slides into the beast's chest and through its heart. It collapses with a clatter of hooves and antlers.
Reinvigorated by Rhok's spell
The amphibian nightmare tears into the tangled tiefling with tooth and claw.
Jod glances at his friend, but shakes his head.
Unable to approach, Jod looks at his cousin on the stairs and sees his bow. Stashing the melee weaspon, he reaches toward the oracle, "Here, Rhok, thank you for bringing that up."
Rhok similarly delays after handing the weapon to his cousin.
Wendaug takes a moment to count arrows, allies, and foes and decides that she will conserve ammunition for the moment and keep an eye out for the next wave of cultists.
Hannik holds the scroll, but the tide seems to have turned. For now she waits it out to see if the warriors can finish things.
Booam nods in response to the attack and replies in kind.
With the team crowding up in the hallway on the one tiefling, Mulluq pushes the advance, making his move all the way up to the last remaining enemy. As is normal, he hunkers down and prepares to absorb the brunt in order to move the line.
Kira moves up to help Booam...
The tiefling staggers back as Kira slashes him across the chest.
The ranger stows his bow and draws his falchion as he moves closer to the remaining battle.
"Hey, when you are tired of getting stabbed, step back and let someone else have some fun."
|
Wendaug stalks forward, almost casually drawing an iron tipped arrow and fitting it to her bow string. She waits for a gap to materialize between Kira and Mulluq, then launches the missile at the last teifling.
...
Shield in hand, Sol also shuffles forward to look through the open northwest doorway.
Kaygan moves to AI7 and readies an action to fire his wand at the tielfing should it attempt to attack again.
The tiefling falls as Wendaug's arrow finds its mark.
A long table engraved with a relief map of Mendev stands to the east in this long room. A dozen bodies lie scattered about the room, each bearing a gaping empty hole in the chest.
Stacks of scrolls, books, maps, and more sit atop a large hexagonal table in this room. The walls are painted with detailed maps of Sarkoris, over which features of the Worldwound have been painted.
Once Kira recovers her breath, she cleans and sheaths her sword, then walks over to look at the relief map.
Jod takes time to make sure each of the supernatural foes is well and truly dead before checking the humans to see if they breathe yet. If they bleed out while he's looking elsewhere, he figures that's the fate they signed up for. Once that's done, he looks to see what his allies have found - coming in to see the map that Kira is studying, for example.
However, the bodies are too much to ignore, so he studies them instead.
All of their foes from the battle are slain, so Jod looks at the corpses in the room. They look like prisoners of the cultists. Their chests have been rough ripped open and the hearts torn out.
Kira examines the relief-carved table. It depicts the whole of Mendev in some detail, with hills, forests, rivers and roads shown. However, it looks more like a curio for the geographically-minded rather than anything especially useful for military planning.
"More gruesome work. Wonder if we killed what did this already..."
When it is clear that the fight is over Hannik squeezes through to Ghroth and looks the eidolon over scolding him. "Watch it Ghroth. You get too far ahead of me and I can't help you." Ghroth look down at her blankly and croaks, "Didn't need help." She looks at the gashes across his chest and thighs skeptically. "Yeah. Whatever you say." She places one hand on its chest and opens a link to Ghroth's home plane. Through the planar link a thin trickle of power seeps toward the eidolon as she draws it like thread and infuses his injuries with a pale blue glow. They quickly heal but slowly other changes begin to manifest throughout his form. The probing tentacle retracts and his original jagged maw of fangs grows back. The claws on his feet thicken and each comes to a harder sharp point. The glow of power begins to fade while the eidolon flexes his new talons. Hannik snorts, "Yeah. Just try to tell me you didn't want those five minutes ago."
With Ghroth tended to, Hannik joins Kira in sorting through the scrolls. "Hmmph. Basic, but they could be useful." She tosses a couple of scrolls to Kaygan, "These make any sense to you?" The maps of Sarkoris catch her eye and she briefly glances over them imagining a world she never knew lost to the Abyss. Then she looks over the party. "We aren't finished yet. That Wardstone is here somewhere. Is everyone able to carry on? That can't be all of them."
Hannik walks into the other room with the maps and the papers on the hexagonal table.
Hannik glances through the papers to see whether they are from before the demonic invasion or after.
Jod comes to look over her shoulder. "What are you looking for? Can I help?"
"What? I'm no scholar, but I can read"
[dice=Spellcraft on Potion 2 from the tiefling alchemist on the lower floor]1d20 + 8 Potion of CMW
The papers look much more recent, and seem to be intelligence reports on the movements and capabilities of the Mendevian military forces arrayed against the Worldwound, which seem to be being compiled and summarised.
”Well, this shouldn’t be here.”
Once everyone is ready, Hannik nods to Ghroth to open the door across from the bloodbath.
Jod moves to aid Hannik's thing, noting that it looks different somehow.
Once others are preparing to open more doors, Kira will draw the sword once again and ready her shield.
Ghroth opens the door. The southern portion of this room holds a wide alabaster basin filled with bloody entrails. The outside of the basin is carved with images of warriors around a raised sun, holding longswords aloft. Standing round it are the animated corpses of six crusaders, their bellies gashed open and gaping, gazing mournfully at their separated remains. They turn slowly to face the door.
A flight of stairs ascends to the west.
Mulluq growls at the crusaders turned mindless dead, serving the corruption of the demon cause. He moves into the room and calls out a prayer, "Iomedae, let these good men suffer no longer under the travesty that is the curse of undeath. Guide them sagely to your godly plane, that they may bask once more in your glory and be rid of this fowl form they have been tortured into."
Jod leans to his right and waits for Ghroth to stoop down just before his customary spring into the melee. As the creature ducks, arrows fly forth from the bows of Wendaug and Jod.
Booam, seeing no further arrows forthcoming, enters with his standard subtlety, moving to engage the undead in the far corner.