Booam hefts his axe and prepares himself to follow closely behind the paladin.
Wendaug and Jod each nock an arrow and follow the melee combatants.
The adventurers form up. The stairs, as before, form a choke point and they know that something waits for them above. With the previous battles and the lack of stealthiness of most of them, whoever or whatever it is will be aware of them and will hear them coming. But there is little else for it but to climb up and take it down.
Mulluq and Booam lead up the stairs. As they reach the top, a huge axe swings at Mulluq.
Guarding the room, and the closed door at its end, is a hulking bull-headed humanoid covered in hair a peculiar purple-red, like blood. Its wide horns are a shiny polished black, like ebony, and its eyes glitter with feral intelligence. As it recovers from its attack it bellows loudly.
Mulluq is reluctant to accept the potion offered him, as he is wont to do in so many instances. Taking stock of what he has, being no more ability to lay on hands, and only a single heavy potion himself, he acquiesces. The potion fills him with resolve and a feeling of Iomedae being with him.
Climbing the stairs, shield up and sword leading, he is given pause when his sense touch the degree of evil in the room. He holds his shield high, and prominent to catch whatever swings at him as he enters. Seeing the size and scope of the creature within the room, he knows this is what his goddess needs him to do.
"It's calling for aid, there may be others."
”Wendaug, we should ready ourselves to fire at any reinforcements. Do not fire at Mulluq’s opponent, not yet.”
Hannik scowls at the jam of people on the stairs and loads her crossbow, glancing at Ghroth as he gets used to his new form.
The eidolon seems to be flexing and testing every muscle in his body, admiring his new weaponry, and a bit confused with the loss of the exceptionally long tongue. But he's ready to jump into the mix once all of the girl's friends let him through...
The oracle of Gozreh holds the magical mace in his left hand, but draws forth a shortspear as a first salvo once he's able to see the tableau.
The diviner pulls his familiar from an oversized pocket where he'd been squirming. Whispering, he says, "No farther than the top of the stair. Tell me when another enemy appears." A little worried as he watches the creature head up the steps, he considers what he will to with the information when he receives it.
Too far from the front to do anything effective, the oracle delays until he can move forward.
On her turn, Wendaug will similarly hold her action. Booam, however, will move to engage, presumably behind the lead of the paladin.
With the size, fiendishness, and potential ferocity of the beast standing before them, Mulluq knows what he should do. He invokes the name of his goddess, asking for her strength and divine protections, before he strides guardedly around the creature. His goddes must have found him fit to serve her in this exchange, as his swing is both bold and true, possessing her divine inheritance.
Hannik traces runes through the air while chanting and reaches out to bolster Ghroth for whatever is up above. With a touch keratinous lumps grow like pads of rocky armor in along the eidolon's long forearms, thighs, chest and back.
Wendaug seizes the opportunity and hustles up the stairs. When she reaches a point where she can see their foe, she realizes the danger of the creature’s reach and hesitates.
She calls down, ”No room for a shot. Jod should bring his sword.”
Heeding her advice, the ranger moves up the stairs, prepared to draw rather than shoot.
The minotaur swpies at Mulluq as he moves to flank it.
Again, the blow is clumsy, chewing up the floorboards where Mulluq was standing. Mulluq's riposte is brutal. His sword seems to hunger for the creature's destruction, slashing open its belly and sending ropy viscera spilling out in gory loops. The beast's unearthly stamina keeps it upright, stumbling amid its own guts. Booam's charge sends his axe high, shattering one of its horns and only narrowly avoiding splitting its skull.
I hate these choke point stairways.
As the minotaur staggers, Jod finishes the minotaur with a slash from his blade, hacking through bone and sinew to sever its hand. Its axe drops with a crash to the floor and it collapses, spurting blood. The door it was protecting lies undefended.
Jod wipes the gore from his blade and stows it once more before readying his bow.
Wendaug steps down the stairs so she need not yell. ”The path is clear. The beast spoke something when we arrived, however, so it seems likely that another surprise lies behind the door.” She heads back up.
The two of them position themselves to fire through the door when it opens, but wait for the rest of the party to see what the plan might be.
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"Whatever's back there didn't come to help its big horned fiend, so it's either scared or has something nasty waiting for us. I think I might be able to use my illusion spell to bend light around Mulluq or Booam so they couldn't be seen. If there's nothing right in the doorway, maybe they could get inside before the fighting starts."
Mulluq waves off the suggestion, "Use your magic on Booam, as I do not fare well trying to hide from my enemies, and if there is evil beyond this door, I will take little time before making my presence known." As he does, he walks up to right in front of the doorway, and holds his palm up before it to concentrate, looking for the very evil they expect.
At Sol’s suggestion and Mulluq’s refusal, Booam shakes his head. Straight ahead and straightforward makes more sense to him.
”I think it sounds like a great idea, myself,” says Jod.
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Sol shakes his head. "Of course it's a good idea! Mulluq really is an idiot sometimes. It's like he thinks getting himself killed will make the world a better place. Still, given how my last illusions have turned out maybe he'd be right not to trust them. "
"Change of plan. I'll make myself invisible. Try to get behind whoever's in there. "
"So Mulluq, can you at least wait for Jod and Wedaug to fire through the open door, and for me to slip inside before you and Booam charge in?"
Hannik and Ghroth follow the others up the stairs. She steps awkwardly over the fallen minotaur then casts again to empower her eidolon. "Get ready Ghroth. We must be close."
Kira ignores the conversations, and walks up behind Mulluq sword drawn. "What do you sense my Friend?"
Mulluq keeps focus on his detection, but answers Sol's affront at his turning down the spell, "I did not say your plan was bad, just that I was a bad candidate for it. I can make no promises about my actions beyond the door, until I see the space and the enemy within."
Jod and Wendaug maneuver with the others so that they have a potential firing lane through the doorway. Sol and Jod swap places so Sol has a chance to slip in through the door when Mulluq throws it open. Wendaug and Kira similarly swap so the inquisitor can bring her sword to bear after the lead attackers.