Backing up against the closed stone door, Jakob and Qhude had the demon pinned between them, each using a long weapon as they did their best to keep the thing's Halberd at bay. Jakob managed to get his spear into the Demon's abdomen, but the blow lacked any real strength and it seemed to barely harm the savage, fierce foe.
Tebati's eyes flash with anger as the child-demon bites N'bellocq. "Come, cousin," she exhorts him, "we will fight it together." Stepping out of the doorway, she moves to threaten the cherub, her trident at the ready in one hand as she wraps the fingers of the other around her holy symbol.
Seeing Qhude as the greater threat having received blows from both men, the Demon stepped in and dealt a gruelling swing of his own that Qhude leapt back from too late; a long gash was cut across his chest by the Halberd that would no doubt leave an impressive scar.
Qhude feels a flood of warmth wash over him, the exhortations of the Sangoma fortifying his body. As the horned demon turns from Jakob to focus upon him he growls as the white heat surges incandescent to meet the threat. The beast's halberd cuts bloody and deep across his chest... but Qhude is beyond the pain. Wood and steel clatters noisily against the ground as his guisarme is discarded in favor of his rope.
Stepping close, Qhude uses his left forearm to drive towards the demon's chest before smoothly angling upwards, forcing the demon's chin up and exposing the neck. He spins and jumps with right arm extended, aiming a crushing backfist at the adam's apple of the horned beast...
Ansha glances indecisively between the cherub-demon and the heavily-injured, horned schir. Scroll still in hand, she reaches for a pouch at her belt and invokes a command word as she touches the pearl inside. Arcane symbols flood into her mind again as she recalls one of her spells.
Qhude set up the strike well but his fist was deflected enough by the Demon's raised forearm that it lacked any real power once it struck the demon. It bared its teeth at Qhude but of the two, the bloodstained Qhude seemed to be the more intimidating of the two and perhaps even the more bestial...
Round 4-
Ordered Initiative-
Kieran- 26a
N'bellocq- 26b
Small Cherub Demon- 24a
Tebati- 17
Jakob- 13
Horned Demon- 11
Qhude- 9
Ansha- 5
Active Effects-
Bless on all PC's- +1 to attack rolls and saving throws VS Fear.
Protection from Evil on Kieran
Map-
Notes-
Action-
With the wolf apparently out of the fight, the focus was now on the powerful warrior-demon, barely standing but definitely a credible threat in its fury; and the cherub demon frustrating N'bellocq and biting chunks out of him...
N'bellocq:
Grunting at the pain and a slick sweat beginning to form from the exertion, N'bellocq keeps up his assault of bowshots...
Flurry Deadly Aim vs Cherub:
Flurry Deadly Aim vs Cherub: Crit? for extra if it crits
As soon as the 'wolf' hits the ground, Kieran moves quickly to position himself behind the halberd-wielding fiend, effectively between it and Jakob. Trying to take advantage of the creature's attention being focused on Qhude, the half-elf strikes at his foe's side, looking to bury his curved sword in the soft muscle between its ribs.
Both demons suddenly fell- one to Kieran suddenly backstabbing the horned one with all the strength he could muster and the other to N'bellocq. His last, utterly focused arrow shot put one directly into the eye of the cherub Demon; killing it instantly despite its relatively unwounded state. None of the demon's bodies faded away- the group had slain them; permanently.
The clashing of steel suddenly giving way to silence, Ansha relaxes. She replaces her scroll in its scroll case, then repeats a few arcane words to detect magical auras. "Good job," she speaks into the sudden silence, after observing any magical auras in the room for several seconds. "Clever, to set a trap in this room even as the other room remains in stasis, keeping us off-balance. I wonder whether there is a way to release them as well."
She goes over to inspect the fallen cherub-demon, carefully hands-off yet almost morbidly fascinated. "I've never heard of one like this before; it almost looks like it might be a daemon, rather than a demon."
Tebati steps back in disgust as the child-like demon hits the stone floor wetly, avoiding the spray of its festering sores. She spares a congratulatory smile to her cousin before rushing back to the doorway to see how the other half of the umkhaya has fared. Relieved to see all three still on their feet, she quickly informs them, "N'bellocq slew the third creature. He was bitten, but not badly, I hope. Qhude, Jakob, you were also hurt?" She crosses to Kieran, looking for signs of blood or bruising. "And you are well?" she smiles.
Qhude sees the demon fall, and Kieran fades into view as the source of the swordblow that felled it. His head whips around to look to the other two enemies... only to find those already fallen. With a roar of frustration, Qhude unleashes a solid body kick to the chest of the horned demon - loosing much of the anger and hate that fuels his white rage into the blow.
Spent, he drops to his knees and hangs his head with eyes closed. Labored breath begins heavy and slowly softens as the cruel cut across his chest weeps dark crimson blood. Roused from reverie by the Sangoma's words he does not yet open his eyes but replies "I am well Sangoma." though his form betrays the wicked blow he received, torso coated slick with his blood.
Finally raising his head, he gives Kieran a short nod of acknowledgement before grunting as he forces himself back to his feet. After looking around to ensure his kinsmen have survived, he steps to complete the task he originally intended... to read the plaques and learn of that which they have just slain.
Ansha startles from her fascinated inspection of the cherub-demon at Qhude's roar. Wincing at the volume of his cry, she turns to look at him silently, puzzlement written on her features.
An unbidden memory flits across her mind, which lifts her confusion into the realm of not-unwelcome curiosity: Shortly after Ansha takes a seat, there is a rustling from behind a row of shelves, and Tebati comes out with several maps. She smiles and nods to the elf before unrolling one across a tabletop. She only leans over and peruses the cartography for a moment, however, before looking up again, a knowing smile on her lips. "Panther," she says emphatically with a questioning eyebrow raised.
While Qhude studies the plaques, Ansha slips over to Tebati. "He's so...bestial," she says, lowering her voice. A wry smirk flickers across her lips. "As you said. Why is he so angry that we won?"
"He is not angry that we won," she replies quietly. "Perhaps frustrated that his was not the killing blow, or simply that the battle was over so quickly. I think that Qhude is only at peace when he is fighting."
The elf looks perplexed. "I could see that. I don't understand it, but I see it...."
Perception:
Qhude continues his visual inspection of the plaques, oblivious to the whispered conversation behind him.
"...So, the key to his heart is with a fist. If I punched him, do you think he'd trust me more?" She only seems to be half-joking.
Qhude struggled to focus upon the words on the plaque, but they seemed to garble and twist before his eyes; eventually seeming to disappear from the engravings; leaving only blank plaque's in their place.
"...So, the key to his heart is with a fist. If I punched him, do you think he'd trust me more?" She only seems to be half-joking.
"If you trusted him more, I think he would trust you more," Tebati replies with no humor whatsoever. "Does the door open now, Jakob?"
The elf frowns at Tebati's reply, but lets the conversation drop. I do trust him. I just trust him to say the wrong thing....
Qhude growls and sneers at the plaques "The words fade..." looking to Jakob to see if the portal was open before raising head to the others.
"Why did they live... and why did the guardians not warn of them? Something is not right..." brow furrowed in thought as he retrieves his weapon from the floor.
Seeing that Qhude bleeds approaches and after seeking non-verbal approval, salves his wounds with the touch of a fortifying wand.
Ansha glances toward Qhude. Seeing the writing upon the plaques fade, she walks up next to him. Her cantrip still illumining her eyes in a faint bluish luminessence, she looks over the plaques for any fading traces of magic that they themselves possessed. "I wonder if the plaques themselves bound and sustained these fiends here. If so, perhaps erasure would have slain them as surely as your glaive, Qhude," she says.
"Why then did the magic let these go when the plaques on the other side did not?" Tebati asks.
The enchantress shrugs. "To catch us off-guard? Those on the other side are native to this plane of existence, but these fiends are not, so perhaps there is an explanation in the precise spells used."
Eyes still betraying a lack of true comprehension, Qhude hefts his golden burden and makes to continue deeper. "There is only one way out at any rate..."
Ansha could detect no magic in the room now; perhaps the spell had already faded.
Moving through the door, the group found themselves once again at the stone door with the two gems; and this time, both were lit up and glowing...
However, the handle-less door was still firmly closed.
"Well?" Tebati looks at Ansha expectantly.
Ansha looks the door over for writing or command words, then shrugs. "Try pushing?"
"I could, I suppose, try and take a better look," Kieran offers as he moves closer to the door to do just that. "Give me a minute if you please?"
Qhude pauses with furrowed brow as Kieran makes his investigation...
Kieran slowly inspected the door and came to the eventual conclusion that it was stuck or jammed in some manner.
"Do you think we must kill the Order's enemies on the other side before they will let us through?" Tebati wonders. "The winged ape and the others?"
Qhude tenses at the thought of needing to face the other creatures, the demons were put down easily enough... but the words on the plaques talked with a gravitas that made the Bas'o not take lightly the threat they might pose.
Remembering what forced the frog daemon to fade, Qhude attempted the same phrase in the Azlanti tongue "Arioch, venerable founder of our order"
The door did not react to Qhude's words.
Grunting Qhude gives the door a solid kick, trying to gauge if it might respond to percussive encouragement...
The door doesn't seem to budge but it feels as though it requires a greater exertion of force rather than being locked in some manner. It feels as though a solid object or objects behind it are preventing it from opening.
Turning to the others Qhude divests himself of scepter and guisarme "Something is blocking the way... stand ready"
He then turns attention to the portal, planting his feet and thrusting bodily against the door. As he puts his thews to purpose, a growl undercuts his exertion.
With an impressive and fatiguing effort, Qhude spent a couple of minutes heaving and straining against different sections of the door and with different positions. Finally finding an optimal way in which to throw his body weight against the door, he strained with all his might; and the stone door opened- albeit only a little. Pushing harder, Qhude managed to make the double doors open just enough for one person to pass through at a time; apparently having moved debris, rubble and boulders to do so.
The room beyond was not a large one; and the group could just make out the edges of one of the pyramid's now-familiar stairwells, leading down. However, the stairs themselves; and indeed, almost the entire chamber; was blocked off with rocks. From boulders to pebbles and everything in between, the group could see hundreds of physical obstacles in their path.
This was clearly no cave-in; the walls and ceiling of the room were perfectly intact, and the familiar vein-like pulses of magic were ever-present on the walls. Even an untrained labourer could see that it would take dedicated work crews days, perhaps even weeks, to move such an impressive amount of stone out of the way. For now, it would be impossible for the group to proceed further...
Your familiarity with such ancient structures allows you to spot the faint outline of two secret doors, placed just behind the double doors themselves on the west and east sides of the room; just barely accessible while clambering over the rocks. It looks as though these doors would lead into the defensive positions the skeletons occupy.
While this information is likely not especially useful to you right now, it makes sense in the context of the fact that you surmise that this level of the structure was once a formidable defensive gauntlet; living defenders could hurl weapons, arrows and spells from these internal chambers and could not be easily reached without already breaching the formidable double doors Qhude had just opened.
Drawing labored breath as he rests against the wall Qhude is clearly frustrated and confused "This place bears no reason to it. Waxen guards, tests and the sentinels not of this world... for this" gesturing with his hand to the earthen barrier.
"...How anticlimactic," the elf murmurs. She folds her arms and leans against the opposite wall from Qhude. "If we can't get out of the pyramid back at the top to resupply--and for help excavating--we're going to have a problem."
"They blocked the way to protect their men ... if they were men then," Tebati explains. "The doors to the skeletons' chambers are there and there." She points them out on the eastern and western walls, behind the doors Qhude forced open. "Anyone fighting their way in could be targeted by the defenders behind the walls without being able to target them in return until they had forced their way in here. And, of course, it prevents trespass deeper into the pyramid as well." She considers a moment, then suggests, "Perhaps there is another stairway within the skeletons' chambers?"
Ansha nods. "It's a possibility." She goes over to attempt to open one such secret door.
Qhude rises from the wall at Tebati's words, but leaves his guisarme and golden scepter lying upon the floor. Moving through he looks upon the secret doors pointed out by Tebati, though it takes him some time to discern where they are situated.
"We may as well step upon each floor we can reach" looking to open the Western door first and see if there is any reaction from the skeletal sentinels.
The group was able to enter the skeletal-laden internal defences with little effort. A good hour of searching the inside of each one in great detail revealed only crossbow bolts; hundreds upon hundreds of them for the skeletons to reload their weapons.
The puzzle of the skeletons at their post continues to trouble Tebati. "Did none of them question their orders before they succumbed to starvation, thirst, or age? I wish I could believe they were dead already and animated to serve the Order's purpose when they entered these tombs."
Ansha shrugs. "At least we can safely surmise that they weren't walled in?"
"Perhaps they were all killed by something at the same time," Kieran offers with a shrug. "A spell, or maybe some poisonous gas or other?"