"Is it wise to take time to clean up? Don't misunderstand me, I am as horrified by this scene as you all are, but any significant efforts will only delay us in our ultimate goal. What good will it do us to honor the fallen here if our tarrying causes some greater cataclysm?"
Hyram nods his head vigorously at Quinn's statement then with no other foes in sight the thought of Lord Hulrun's corpse being desecrated so fills the Inquisitor with a both a burning rage and profound sadness. As a fellow Inquisitor he had always looked up to Lord Hulrun, and he can't believe his body had been used in such a vile manner. The more he thinks about it, the angrier he gets. I'm with Aladir! Let's end these vile creature's existence, unless someone has a compelling reason why we can't.
"As a priest of The Inheritor, I must see to the cleansing of this place, and the burial of the fallen. As a soldier thought I understand the importance of making this place secure as soon as possible. We do not know the progress of their rituals." Ezro says, mulling things over. Stroking his chin, he grimaces trying to think of the best course of action.
Looking at the bodies and the desecration, his eyes linger on the altar to Iomedea.
"I suggest this. We cleanse the altar room of the Inheritor, and withdraw to rest. I myself could use a replenishment of my gifts, and see to the wounds we have sustained. We can take the bodies of Lord Hulrun and the other man back with us and see to their burial. On the morrow, we can return, finish securing the complex, and go about cleansing it all in peace. One night would not be enough for the enemy to reinforce itself completely.
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Nodding at Ezro's suggestion, Alikia vanishes into the priest's room, as she begins to riffle through the assortment of papers and notes strewn about on the desk, looking for the alchemist's formula book. She checks under the bed, the desk and everywhere for her prize, as she mutters to herself. "Book. Book. Booooook. Where's his damn book? Take the book and cut off the supply..." As she goes to straighten herself up from under the table, she bumps her head. "Ouch! Stupid table." Offering a kick to the desk, Alikia is only able to stub her toe. Uttering out a curse, the wizard hops around on one leg, as she waits for the pain to subside.
"A full withdrawal?" Quinn's eyebrows arch in surprise. "That could be a costly decision. They may regroup over the next few minutes, but they cannot reinforce or resupply now without coming through us."
Quinn shakes his head, "No, I cannot endorse a withdrawal while we have this much advantage. We may return on the morrow to find a legion of demons awaiting us."
+1 vs traps
With the demons and guard dead, and the alchemist fled to the upstairs, you come to a decision to spend a few minutes checking out the first level for anything obvious and useful.
Hyram and Quinn stand guard at the room with the stairs leading up so the other three can search the first floor quickly.
Alikia, knowing that alchemists use a formula book, searches the room off the main temple and finds a thin book, written in abyssal that also has diagrams, and mixing instructions. This must be the book he was using.
Ezro checks out the small shrine, and even though he does not have time to clean it, it wipes the altar down a bit, and kneels to say a quick prayer before he continues.
Aladir quickly looks around the temple, but finds nothing till Ezro walks in and then a soft glow appears on the western wall and Aladir is able to find a secret door that has no apparent way of being opened.
A shout of triumph issues from the priest's chambers as Alikia appears with her prize in hand. "Success! Now, at least if that bomb-thrower escapes, he won't be able to prepare any extracts. However, I'd still be cautious of his bombs. This should only cut off his healing and buff supply."
Flipping through the tome absent-mindedly, Alikia throws an odd look at Aladir and Ezro. "Any luck finding anything?" Pausing at a diagram, the half-elf flips the book upside down trying to make sense of it. "Hm... I can't understand a word of this. I think it's written in Abyssal, with some form of shorthand. Oh well, I am sure that someone somewhere will pay a pretty pinch for this." Closing the book with a snap, Alikia notices the outlined door for the first time.
"Oh, what is that?! Is that some secret door you crusaders came up with?" Approaching the altar, Alikia positions herself so that the altar is between her and the door, in case something nefarious emerges.
Ezro ponders the phrase revealed to him for a few minutes as he returns to the group, startled out of his thoughts by Alikia's exclamations, he smiles.
"Well done my friend. He was a nasty enemy, I would hate for him to keep any of his precious belongings.While cleaning the shrine, it revealed a passage to me, which is most odd..." Ezro begins to say to the group, until Aladir finds the secret door, and Ezro follows Alikia's gaze. Smiling, the cleric walks over to it, and lays his hand on the glowing door.
"I have a feeling the Inheritor is showing us the way. Let us inherit thine arms, Iomedae!" he prays upon the door.
As Ezro says the words "Let us inherit thine arms, Iomedae." the door glows even more, then opens revealing an armory containing arms and armor. Looking in, his eyes widen as he sees the following.
The weapon rack contains three cold iron longswords, two cold iron shortswords, two heavy crossbows, a composite longbow (+2 Str), a masterwork cold iron heavy mace, two cold iron longspears, 50 cold iron crossbow bolts, 100 cold iron arrows, a +1 cold iron longsword, 5 +1 holy arrows, and an arrow of evil outsider slaying.
The armor dummies hold two sets of masterwork chainmail and a +1 breastplate emblazoned with Iomedae holy symbol.
The two heavy steel shields are both marked with the holy symbol of Iomedae. One is a masterwork shield, and the other is a +1 blinding shield.
"I thank you, Iomedae." Ezro says and moves into the room.
Looking at the items, he takes quick stock of what is available to them.
"My friends, I believe we have found some useful items."
Inheritor bless us! Hyram says as he sees the demon-fighting equipment. Let's take what we need and find that other miscreant!
"These arrows are something else! Not for any ordinary foe, that's for certain. Quite the trove you unlocked for us, Ezro! My thanks you!" Aladir says, looking over the find.
Alikia's eyes almost roll out of her head as everyone else clambers for the weapons. "I'll just move this over with the rest of the bodies." She grumbles to herself, grasping onto the pile of limbs and half carrying/ half dragging it out to rest besides Hulrun's body. Depositing the large cache of body parts, Alikia stops by her bag, Stuffing the formulae book into the pocket, while refilling her bolts to ensure that she still had some for the fight to come.
"I feel like I'm missing something... But what?" Passing by the museum door, Alikia slaps her forhead. "Right! The heads!" Reentering the destroyed room, Alikia gently picks up the two crusader's heads, adding them to the pile to take back to Defenders Heart. With the grisly task complete, Alikia returns to the group, with a bored look on her face as she wipes her hands off on her tunic. "You know, if I wanted to play with dead bodies, I would have majored in Necromancy instead of Conjuration." she speaks to no one in particular, watching the others reaction to the small cache.
Quinn looks across the room to Hyram. "It sounds as though our friends have discovered something of value." Nevertheless, he keeps his eyes trained on the landing above...
Quinn blows a low whistle, as the others present an entire armory of demon-fighting weapons. "By the Lady, that is an impressive stockpile."
Quinn picks up one of the shields, hefting its weight. He laughs softly at the shields magical properties. "So, the last thing some of those cultists will ever see is the Lady's sigil glowing like the sun? I rather like that."
Alikia wanders back into the chapel, addressing the rogue and cleric. "By the way, there might be something more in the priest's quarters. I was too focused on finding that book, so who knows what I could have overlooked."
Picking up the wands and the bolts Quinn had gestured to, Alikia casts detect magic and attempts to identify them. Holding up the first wand, Alikia merely shrugs, but pockets it none-the-less, before holding up the second. "Ah, this one should be prove useful." Looking over the magical bolts, she divides them into two sets, grouping similar looking ones together. "I believe that these bolts will be extremely useful in our endeavors. Hyram, would you like to carry them? I'll take the unknown group, as this second group is being irritatingly resistant to my prodding."
Hyram smiles, I will put them to good use, Ms. Sokol!
Quinn sheathes his sword and brandishes the shield with both hands as he edges up the stairs. Before his head crests the next floor's landing, he pauses, sending a meaningful look down towards his allies.
Quinn's pause lasts barely a handful of seconds, giving his friends just enough time to ready themselves before charging the last flight of stairs, activating the shields power and directing its blinding flash towards the nearest danger.
Ezro takes the moment to give a blessing to the group, before nodding that he is ready.
-----------------------------------------
Cleaning up the various rooms quickly, including moving the heads and bodies of the fallen crusaders to where Lord Hulrun and the other body are, you identify and split out the treasure as best suits the needs of the group. Ezro casts bless and nods that he is ready to head upstairs. Everyone else falls in line behind Quinn as the paladin leads the way. As soon as he reaches the top of the stairs, six tieflings step out from down the corridor and form a phalanx to block the groups further progress.
Alikia UP
Your lives will only cause us a small delay.
Hyram says as he skewers the tiefling right in front of him.
Breaching the landing, Quinn is entirely unsurprised to find the phalanx of cultists blocking their path. He levels his shield and unleashes the blinding flash from the sword and starburst symbol.
Looking up to the top of the stairs, Alikia sighs heavily as she cannot make out what is going on. "Ezro, would you like to switch? I fear that I'm not going to be able to contribute much until we gain some footing on the second floor." Waiting to see what Ezro has to say, Alikia keeps an ear out for the combatants.
Nodding to Alikia, he says, [/b]"Of course, my usual contribution is after the fact."[/b]
Moving back, he makes room for Alikia to push ahead of him.
Alikia asks Ezro to switch places, which they will do when he is able. Quinn's shield lights up with a blinding light on his command, however only the tiefling directly in front of him seems to be affected, but he and all his brethren attack anyway. None of the short sword attacks hit, and only one crossbow hits for a small amount of damage to the holy warrior.
Aladir UP
Retracting his blade from the corpse in front of him, Hyram will try to slay his new opponent, but just misses.
Quinn puts his shoulder behind the shield and slams hard into the flanking tielfing, pushing him back against the wall.
Aladir takes a quick step backward to put dime distance between himself and their assailants, then snaps off an arrow.
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Ezro readies himself incase anything comes at them from behind, as he yells, "How is it going up there?"
Listening to the sounds of combat, Alikia leans to whisper in Ezro's ear. "That's a good sound, right?" As she sees Aladir move backwards, Alikia tilts her head. "Maybe not?"
Alikia waits at the bottom of the stairs as she can not do anything right now. Quinn meanwhile bull rushes the opponent to his left and pushes the tiefling back against the wall.
The blinded tiefling swings wildly in front of him where Quinn was. Two of the tieflings in the back row, switch to short swords and yell "kill them for Jeslyn", so three of them attack Quinn, and the one with his crossbow still in hand shoots a bolt at him. Iomedae is with him as everything misses. As Hyram steps up and attacks the blinded tiefling, the remaining tiefling with short sword attacks him but misses.
Aladir shoots an arrow at the blinded tiefling as it is falling and the arrow goes overhead. Ezro asks how the battle is going, as Hyram puts down the blinded tiefling.
Alikia UP
With one of the tieflings back against the wall, Quinn uses the edge of the shield to slam the pinned foe's head back, snapping its neck. "You can die for whomever you choose. Jeslyn is as good as any other demonic scum."
Hyram will take a five-foot step into the hallway and stab at the tiefling to his right
As his sword slips in between the tiefling's armor, Hyram says, I won't even bother learning your demon's name! It matters not to me!
Quinn / M38
Quinn / M37
Hyram / L36
Hyram / M36
Alikia still downstairs waits for a chance to move up, but is content to let the warriors carry the battle for now. Quinn bashes the edge of his shield into the tiefling that he pushed back, killing it.
"For Deskari!" shout some cultists, wearing chain shirts and wielding glaives, and one comes out of the room to Quinn left and you hear at least three other voices near the door. The two tiefling next to Quinn swing at him, but only one connects. The other two wait for someone to step out from the stairs which Hyram obliges and the one that Hyram attacked and damaged, returns the favor.
Aladir steps up and shoots at the tiefling on the other side of Hyram and wounds it badly. Ezro moves up the stairs, closely followed by Alikia but has not opportunity to engage the enemy.
Alikia UP
Edit:
Hyram tries to stab the cultist again, but his wounds cause him to miss.
"It's getting a bit too crowded in here," Quinn says, quite grateful to have Hyram at his back. "Don't let them flank you," he warns, oblivious to the obviousness of that statement...
He leaves the tiefling guards to Hyram and the others to bash the newest threat.
Hearing the sounds of fighting, Alikia tries to peer over the ledge to see what is going on. Unable to crane even her neck that far, she goes back to attempting look anywhere but at Ezro's butt that is at almost eye level. "Well, at least we know which demon we are pissing off. Ezro do you know anything about it?" Feeling like she is in line at a small bookstore, the wizard begins to count the flecks on the wall, for something to do.
Ezro racks his memory on anything he might have heard about Deskari, but comes up short, recalling nothing on the vague name. Turning to Alikia, he shakes his head, "No, I know nothing of this Deskari, but I can wager a guess that he is not a good guy!"
Without any means of joining the combat, Ezro keeps himself ready to leap to the aid of one of his allies if they find themselves in trouble, and room opens up.
"It appears ot be getting crowded up there!"
------------------------------------------------------
Aladir will do his best to maneuver around to the left, trying to avoid an attack from the tieflings there, both to get a clearer shot for himself and to allow Ezro and Alikia to continue advancing.
Once back on his feet, he will snap a shot off at the tiefling behind him.
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Hyram 18
Quinn 18
Quinn 18
Quinn 18
Alikia ponders on who or what Deskari is, and in a flash it comes to her. Quinn concentrates on the cultist next to him, leaving the guards to the others and severely wounds the one next to him.
Three of the tieflings swing at Hyram, one hitting him, and the other tiefling swings at Quinn, also hitting him. The cultist that Quinn injured takes a step up, allowing another cultist to step up and both attack Quinn with their glaives however the movement throws off their swing and both miss. The cultist in the door way casts a spell at the Paladin and yells "drop!
Aladir tumbles past the wounded guard, and landing on his feet puts an arrow into its' back, killing it. Ezro and Alikia move up the stairs, with both now able to see the battle in front of them.
Alikia UP
Hyram will try to stab the tiefling right in front of him but miss.
Quinn's newly acquired shield clatters to the ground. He stares momentarily at his hands as though they had betrayed him. His eyes narrow dangerously, staring at the new arrivals. "You were better off facing the shield," he hisses, before his jaws open impossibly wide though he snaps impotently at the air...