"They could be some unholy vault-like things that only a virgin can open?"
Whatever they are made of, Hilde had no problem opening them! Kit says with a nod of approval in Hilde's direction.
Hilde nods, smiling.
"They could be some unholy vault-like things that only a virgin can open?"
Dilwyn has to stop Hilde from punching Iskender teeth out.
As the eight creatures are dead, you leave this room and move onto the next door, with Hilde and Kit upfront. Kit touches the steel rod to the green disk and it glows, like the others did, and he touches the disk and the door slides open.
The same fragrant smell of the goo released from the open cylinders fills this stone chamber. Eight more of the dark green leathery cylinders stand in the four corners between the walls, their transparent panels already open.
You see four unconscious creatures, the same gnoll looking ones, already lying on the floor, their fur still partially covered in goo. Standing among them is an attractive humanoid female, who looks at you, and in an accent that you have never heard before, "please, mercy. These creatures were about to kill me."
Picture of Female (sans spear)
Hilde stands in from of her, sword at the ready, baring her teeth.
Dilwyn, still feeling the aftereffects of the adrenaline from trying to keep his allies from turning on them, steps forward and shows the woman an empty hand, palm outward, in a show of peace.
"The same thing happened to us," he says, trying to keep his voice calm and soothing. "We've been trying to find our way out of this place for the last several minutes. So far we've only found more of these tubes in other rooms. Do you happen to know what they are, where we might be, and, most importantly perhaps, the way out?"
"Kit? Shall we handle this as men, and dice for it, or does rock-paper-scissors work?"
Hilde looks at Dilwyn with a worried look, and stands partly between him and the new woman.
She turns to see her again, and her eyes show fury.
Get in line Iskender! Kit whispers with a good-natured grin.
Running his fingers through his beard in a crude attempt to comb it and trying to push his unruly hair back, Kit says to the woman, Fair maiden! My companion speaks the truth! We had found ourselves in a similar dire situation with only our wits to defend ourselves! He bows deeply, Kit Bridger at your service!
Kit smiles thinking he pulled off a courtly air quite convincingly, but it is obvious to everyone that the only 'court' about him would be him as a court jester!
Zal waits to see how things unfold but is quiet...
"And I am Andretta" replies the woman. "You have strange accents for the trade tongue."
"Where are you from on Alastor? and do you know what and where this prison is?"
She indicates the four creatures on the floor, "they are just asleep. I used my magic on them to do this. While I have never seen one before, they are creatures of folklore long thought extinct. On Alastor they are called bahgra, and they were a slave race to an ancient empire now in ruins. I know this because these bahgra speak a dead language, known as Ultari."
"We need to be away from here when they wake up, as they are vicious and will attack."
Seeing one of you carry the spear, "that is mine. May I have it so I am able to defend myself?"
Well met, Andretta! Kit says as he bows again. He then scratches his head. Alastor...Alastor...Is that near Trunau? or is it by Sandpoint? Hmmm...I have been all over Golarion and I can't reckon I've heard of Alastor!
He then looks down at the sleeping creatures. We could make these..uh..what do you call them again? bregas? We could make their condition permanent. We wouldn't want them to be a danger to others that might be in this prison.
23
19
"Alastor is some subfiefdom of Cheliax. If that is your home, then you have come far to be here."
As soon as Hilde hears the Gnolls are alive she smiles.
"Go out so I can deal with them."
She growls.
Zal scrunches his face at his warrior companion, Is that really...necessary?
"Everybody slow down a bit," Dilwyn says, frowning with confusion. "When did we end up in Cheliax? And why are we in prison?"
He kneads his forehead with the knuckles of his free hand as he tries to put all these puzzle pieces together into a cohesive whole. Trouble is, none of them seem to fit together and he can't find an edge or a corner.
"I think she must be as confused as we are," he concludes. "I'm certain we can't be far from Kaer Maga. Let's find our way to the sky, then we can finally lay the issue to rest once and for all before deciding how to proceed." He gives Andretta a level look. "I am alright with returning your spear to you if you wish to ally yourself with us until we all figure this out. The fact that you're convinced this is a prison worries me, and more allies are better than fewer. I'm Dilwyn, by the way. I think Kit has your spear."
Still more concerned with the confusing nature of the information, he absently follows Hilde's command to leave the room, issue of the sleeping creatures forgotten for the moment in favor of more troubling concerns.
As soon as everybody leaves is chopping time for Hilde.
Off with their heads!
Kit seems flustered when he realizes that he does have Andretta's spear. Apologies mi'lady! Kit says as he tries to speak in a courtly like manner again. He holds out the spear to Andretta.
"Andretta, if I may, what more do you know of this place? We wish you no harm, and in fact, our task has been to stave off the end of the world, which arguably we have, or have not, already accomplished. Although, at least the world has not ended yet."
She receives the spear from Kit, and curtsies slightly, "thank you, Kit"
As Hilde makes motions to kill the sleeping creatures, Andretta blanches "do we really....." she trails off her sentence, "I guess so, otherwise they would follow us. The legends say they are vicious and fierce combatants." She walks thru the door into the hallway, and lets Hilde do what needs to be done.
"The end of the world?" she queries. "How and when is that supposed to happen?"
"I know nothing of this place. I awoke with these creatures and if I did not have my magic, they would have killed me. There are three other bahgra in the other pods, but they are all dead."
"I would like to join you for now, at least till we get out of here and find out where this is. Hopefully we can all return home?"
Hilde leaves the room last, a satisfied smile on her face, blood on her axe.
She tries to move to get between Dilwyn and Andretta, eyeing the woman suspiciously.
Dilwyn opens his mouth to respond, but finds that no such thing is forthcoming. He's at a copmlete loss for words. That they might be on another world from home altogether had never occurred to him, and why would it? He can feel the panic welling up inside of himself once again and he clutches his symbol of Gozreh tight. The need to get out of this place feels more pressing now than just a feeling of mild claustrophobia. He has to know, has to prove to himself that this is still his world with his sky. In all his life of wandering the wilds, he'd never truly felt lost before. It's not at all a pleasant feeling and he burns to be rid of it. He presses on to the next door eagerly.
"I will wager that you are far from the only ignorant townie who was unaware of their surroundings and the outside world. Fear not though, you are in good hands. Once we get out of here, we will work on getting you home, provided the world hasn't ended yet. I have never been to Cheliax myself, and would probably not want to go, but a ship can likely be found that is headed your direction, although you might need to change vessels in Magnimar, or elsewhere. What might be a thousand miles as the crow flies, may well take months in actuality to get you home. Although, if there is some teleportation magic going on here, it may be accomplished much sooner."
When Andretta thanks him Kit blushes. You're welcome! he says with a bow.
Hearing the discussions back in forth, Kit sighs. I think we did not prevent the end of the world and this is the afterlife. Again I am highly disappointed. If I wasn't going to be greeted by Erastil, I was at least hoping for music. He looks at Iskender. Maybe you're the one that's supposed to provide the music? He then bows again to Andretta. At least there are beautiful women in the afterlife and yes, Hilde I am including you in that as well. He says with a bow at Hilde and her axe dripping blood on the floor. Then let us explore all that the afterlife has to offer! he says as he moves the rod over to the next door.
Hilde smiles at Kit.
Iskender moves to where Kit can see him, but Hilde cannot and he gives a thumbs up to Kit.
"So you think we failed, and this is the afterlife? Somehow I thought an afterlife would either be much less gritty than this, or it would have been much hotter."
Kit shrugs his shoulders. We went to sleep drunk and happy in the world we knew, and then wake up..here! He shrugs again. I'm going with this is the afterlife until I know different.
"Certainly a conclusion worthy of one who worships The Drunken Hero! Are you thinking of converting?"
Unfortunately I have been heard to curse the name Cayden while gripping the commode after a night of serious carousing. Kit says looking around. Besides if this is the afterlife then the absence of ale does not speak as well for Cayden as the absence of woods and deer does for Erastil! Kit harrumphs.
"Don't give up on your quest for deers and beers quite so soon my friend. Have hope!"
Having no taste to watch Hilde doing her work the elf peers over at the other large door to the East of the main hall and moves to see if also can be opened...
This rectangular stone chamber is empty except for two strange cylinders set against the northern wall and attached to root-like cables extending into the stone ceiling. These cylinders appear somewhat different than others found in other areas. Two well armed creatures notice you and prepare to attack.
Hilde roars, and her "feline" shape takes over. She charges the closest one, jumping on top of it, trying to rip it's face out with her claws.
Kit follows the cat and attacks the guard she's not.
Can I tell what the strange box on his midriff is doing?
(or whatever knowledge skill is appropriate)
Iskender will, of course, start his song, and move to let our warriors at the bad guys.
As an aside, I go before Hilde and Kit, so they get the +1/+1 also!
Zal will also move out of the way and imbue the party with luck.
Round 1, Initiative Count 20
Upon realizing that those they just discovered were hostile, Dilwyn moves into position to help. The room is pretty small, so he decides to let Hilde and Kit move into engage them at close range. Instead he maneuvers to get a line on the one that's closer to the door and conjures a ball of electricity in his hand to fling at it. Unfortunately, his concentration is not what it should be with his mind occupied with the worry that this may not be the world he's used to and the bolt just kind of fizzles out before reaching the target.
"What are those?" he inquires of anybody with an answer. "Are they... people?"
vs Hilde AC 12
vs Kit AC 19
Really!!!!!!
The two creatures swing their battle axes, but are so off balance from the sudden attacks that they miss.
"Friends, these creatures are being controlled via those contraptions. Might I suggest that we see about removing or damaging them, as a means to free the creatures, and possibly gain allies?"
With that, Iskender will attempt to "Disarm" one of the creatures of their harnesses. If I am threatened, I will 5' away if possible.
Wha..? Kit says as he quickly turns his axe so the flat part will hit the creature.
Hilde seems to understand what Iskender wants, and tries to knock the creature out using his closed claws.
Round 2, Initiative Count 20
Iskender's announcement that the creatures are being controlled by a similar phenomenon to one that they've already experienced brings Dilwyn's focus back to a state of clarity and calm. All of a sudden there isn't any more mystery to their situation in his mind. Whatever has happened, it's related to what they experienced in and around the town of Holver's Ferry. They must have missed something important there, and that something has come after them for revenge or something.
With this new information at the forefront of his mind, Dilwyn steps forward into the room. He no longer has any intention of hurting the creatures if he can help it and tries attacking the controlling entity of the one Hilde is currently engaged with directly with his quarterstaff.
Feeling powerless to do more in the space's confines, Zal moves forward to keep his allies within his sphere of influence but otherwise stays out of the way...
vs AC 19 Zaladrel
vs AC 19 Zaladrel
vs AC 19 Zaladrel
As the two foes in this room go down, three more appear at the rear of the group and two of them attack Zaladrel with their battle axes and the third fires some kind of projectile from a weapon. All three attacks miss.
Round 3, Initiative Count 20
Unable to properly see what's going on, and with no room to get back out there to properly defend Zaladriel, Dilwyn does the only thing he can think of. Tracing some lines through the air while speaking a short prayer to Gozreh, he fills the area with a cloud to provide defense.
"Try to draw them back here to bottle-neck 'em," he calls out to the others outside the room. Hopefully the enemies won't understand. Then he steps away from the door, over one of the unconscious creatures.