There doesn't seem to be any sort of door handle to the blue outline and it does not push open.
Saoirse's eyes light up a few moments after donning the new armor. She says, "Let us inherit thine arms, Iomedae." The blue outline fades, and with it the door itself gives way to a doorway.
Blood and filth smear floor of this long room. Six white stone statues of famous heroes line the hall—each clawed, bloodstained, partially smashed, or otherwise defaced. At the far end of the hall, a raised dais holds an upturned alabaster altar. Sitting atop the upside-down altar is a hideous mass of severed limbs that have been stitched together into a vile monstrous insectoid shape. Before the dais, seven ratty bedrolls have been laid out on the floor.
Thom grunts and points to the despoiled altar, "Deskari." His raspy voice is full of malice, "Lord of the Locust Host."
Nebbin blushes as Saoirse dons the new armor, looking away toward the weapons. At Thom's encouragement he picks up one of the short swords.
"I don't know," he says as he gives it a few tentative swings. "I guess I can hold on to it, but ... I think I'm more comfortable with my hammer."
He attaches the sword to his pack and then follows the others into the next room, blanching at the insectoid shape.
"That's horrible!" he says, retching.
"How can anyone do something like that?!" he continues, voice growing stronger and firmer in his obvious anger.
"I have a feeling we're only going to see more of this disgustingness," Thom growls. "It doesn't seem right to leave their vile markings on the Inheritor's altar like that."
Lucius carefully takes the magical bolts, stowing them tot he outside of his ammunition case, as if they might bite him. He knows that Iomedae's powers and those of Asmodeus do not always...combine favorably.
Seeing Saoirse in a shining breastplate with a blazing new shield fills him with hope, despite himself. She looks the proper image of a crusader, with magic armor and demon-slaying sword.
He steps through to the room with the defiled alter. Ugh. Thugs. Cheliax has a century of experience in re-dedicating temples. This is just sloppy. Disrespectful.
Aero will take a cold iron longsword.
Aero nods, disgusted by the defilement.
"Saroise, this alter deserves better, I know our time is somewhat limited but is there anything we might do to help?"
Saoirse's face pales as she steps into the room, though she is used to the smell of blood by now, seeing an altar to her Goddess desecrated so completely leaves a foul taste on her tongue and a queasy feeling in her stomach. Still, Saoirse turns from the altar after a few moments and looks towards the rest of the room covered in filth and . "I agree, it doesn't sit right with me to leave the altar like this but we might not have a choice. At the very least I suggest we clear this floor of enemies before doing something like cleaning this room. If that doesn't draw any reinforcements from up above we can come back here and fix this tragedy... agreed?"
Thom nods, Sounds good. I'll hold that south door while you all go through the far one. I'll follow as necessary."
Nebbin nods and, hammer at the ready, heads through the next door.
Suddenly, an area of dense, black smoke fills the area .
You hear running footsteps in the cloud.
"Hey, I can't see!" Nebbin cries, swinging wildly as he feels something pass him. He grunts as the maul collides with a solid form. "It had horns! I think it was a demon!"
Thom lashes out with the flat of his blade, trying to knock the creatures legs out from under it.
The smoke seems to not affect Thom or Nebbin, but both are not able to land a solid blow on the creature, Nebbin almost making contact.
"Gods damnit!" Thom growls as the whatever-it-is slides past him in the sudden fog. "Guys! Something's in here!"
He puts his back to the southern door, readying his longsword in case the man—or whatever it is—steps near.
Nebbin swings wildly again, but the smoke prevents him from seeing any target.
Aero will use his scale to alter self and look more like Thom to possibly confuse any creature they might come across in the mist.
Nebbin swings his enormous hammer to no avail, the smoke making it harder to aim at the dextrously lithe creature opens the door.
Cursing the slippery opponent, Thom slams a hip and shoulder into the door, trying to force it back shut.
"GUYS! HELP! KEEP HIM FROM GETTING OUT OF THE ROOM!"
Thom slams the door back closed with a resound CRASH.
Lucius grips the magic missile wand, ready to blast anything that comes out of the next room.
Saoirse rushes towards the smoke once its apparent that nothing is coming out of the cloud. Shifting her shield to cover as much of her body as possible, Saoirse heads towards the sound of Thom's voice. Her sword hand shifting left and right as she tries to get a better view of what is happening inside the black smoke "I'm here Thom! Who's trying... Woah!" Saoirse's voice catching in surprise as she gets a glimpse of a shadowy shape.
With the confusion going on, noone seems to be able to effectively do anything!
The creature tries to move back against the wall gracefully, but fails. He growls frustratedly then throws something at Thom.
The creature screams loudly in pain.
Thom grunts as his quickly-raised shield takes the brunt of the flames. The pain is a small thing against that felt through his bond with Saoirse.
"Surround him!" he grunts as he responds with a wild swing.
Unable to see the fire, Nebbin doesn't even realize there's something he needs to dodge, and the big man hisses as his skin blisters momentarily. He lets out a sigh of relief as almost as quickly a soothing coolness spreads over his arm, the burns fading.
Realizing what happened as a light gives Saoirse away, he feels his heart begin to race.
"YOU LEAVE HER ALONE!" he yells, barely able to see past the crimson filling his vision.
He swings the mighty maul and grunts slightly as he feels it slam into the demon creature who hurt Saoirse, missing his head by mere inches.
Nebbin's rage fueled swing hits home and shatters the tiefling's legs from under him. He collapses in a heap on the floor, still barely alive, but you are hearing sounds from upstairs...towards the door Thom shut.
His breathing seems to be normal.
Saoirse screams as the fire engulfs her armored body. Her exposed clothes on her arms scorched through as she drops Radiance to the ground and she starts to pat down the fires, her shield coming down over the worst of the burst of fire to try and put it out. Shivering as she feels the heat start to die down, Saoirse falls to one knee and catches her breath, her hands trembling as she picks up Radiance, taking comfort in the hard steel. Looking up towards Thom and Nebbin as she stands up once again, choking out a half-laugh as she hoarsely says "So... how do I look?"
"Alive," Thom responds gratefully as helps Saoirse to her feet, "... and that's a beautiful thing," He looks concernedly but helplessly at the door through which the sounds of approach are heard. "I'm out of ideas. Anyone know how to keep them in the dark as to who and what we are? Or to draw them in here for an ambush?"
Waiting for an answer, Thom does what he thinks is most urgent ... pulling the greater healing wand from his bandolier and quickly whispering it to life over his and Saoirse's skin.
You start to hear footsteps carefully coming down stairs in the room Thom was guarding.
Nebbin blushes at Saoirse's question, but any other reaction is stopped by the sound of approaching defenders.
"What do we do?" Nebbin whispers, eyes wide. "And I think this one's still alive!"
Lucius rushes forward, drawing a scroll from his belt. "Hide. Return to the armory. The aura on the doors kept them out once, it should do so again."
He kneels over the alchemist, looking over the face as quickly as he can. "Put him out of sight. I will dissuade pursuit."
He flicks the scroll open and invokes its key phrases, his form again shifting, this time into a near-duplicate of the unconscious man on the floor.
Glad to have a plan in place, Thom quickly sheaths his blade and grabs one of the tiefling's legs, indicating someone else should grab the other. Then he helps to unceremoniously drag the unconscious body as quickly as they can back down the long room and through the door they entered from.
Thom scratches his head (through his cowl) for a moment before the urgency of the moment sets in. Thinking quickly he tries to shuffle the unconscious tiefling into a corner and roll the table over him to block him from obvious view. Hoping it's enough, he hustles back into the armory.
Nebbin picks the other one up, a little too high, which makes dragging the tiefling awkward and follows Thom.
Saoirse nods as Lucius changes his form again, walking with Thom and Nebbin as they carry the body of the tiefling.
After twenty or so seconds the door bursts open and a group of 6 tieflings with short swords drawn stands in the room behind it. You can see a staircase in the middle of the room going up.
The tiefling who opened the door glances around.
He says, while looking around, "Sir, what happened down here? What's all the..." He looks Lucius dead in the eyes and his widen in surprise. "WHO ARE YOU?! YOU'RE NOT OTHIRUBO! INTRUDERS!!!!!"
One of the tieflings in the group runs back up the stairs.
Aero comes out of the secret room and then points at the tiefling directly in front of Lucius.
The creature snorts, tries to hold its mouth closed, then falls to the ground laughing maniacally and clutching its sides.
Hearing the loud voices coming from the altar room, Saoirse shakes her head as she says, "Guess it couldn't work every time."
Bursting out from the secret door of the altar room, Saoirse rushes forward her shield raised high, bodily blocking Lucius from harm.