Raz will make a full attack action and make a flurry of blows
I am very grateful to have Tove beside me and sish with relief as the divine energies start to course through my body. Unfortunately I see another fire flask coming towards me and duck out of the way.
Rufus continues his attempted assault on the Derro.
But once again is unable to connect as he nips at the enemies heels.
Jacobus is glad that the sorcerer-monk was plowing into the derro.
Seeing the man cornered, he once more swung his mace.
---------
, nope
HP 19/22
AC 20, touch 12, flat-footed 18
Conditions: -2 STR
Melee (heavy mace): +3 = +1(base) +2 (STR)
Melee Damage (heavy mace): 1d8+2, x2
0/1 judgment with surge, 6/6 agile feet, 2/3 1st level spells
"No need for me over there in that packed little corner, is there now?" Torsten waits for the situation to change.
Adjxeer cackles with glee as his magical defenses ward off the combined efforts of Razarak, Jacobus, and Rufus.
"Kill the bastard already!" Thulwar impatiently yells, unable to do much more.
As Tove touches her healing hand to Theodore, she glances up and groans as another flask hurtles toward them.
Thankfully she finishes her healing spell and rolls away from the wall in time to avoid the worst heat of the fire ball.
Letting out a fearsom roar she once again calls on the power of her god to heal the party, being sure to direct the flow of positive energy away from Adjxeer.
Adjxeer reaches to his belt again, intent on hurling another vial at some unfortunate member of the party, but to his dismay he is out of the vials in question. Letting out what you can only assume is a loud curse in his native tongue, Adjxeer pulls a dagger from his boot and stabs at Razarak, but misses the dragon-blooded sorcerer monk.
+ poison
Rufus bites at the Derro's legs once again while Theo watches and hopes that he can get the foe to the ground.
I stay where I am, while I order Rufus to protect Lanyssa again. As Rufus rushes passed, I reach out and stroke his head, "Good boy." I feebly raise my shield in case the Derro decides to go for me.
Raz will again flurry of blows as a full round action.
Hoping that at least one hits.
The inquisitor once more tries to brain the pyromaniac derro.
---------
HP 22/22
AC 20, touch 12, flat-footed 18
Conditions: -2 STR
Melee (heavy mace): +3 = +1(base) +2 (STR)
Melee Damage (heavy mace): 1d8+2, x2
0/1 judgment with surge, 6/6 agile feet, 2/3 1st level spells
Razarak manages to land another punch, but both Rufus and Jacobus are not as fortunate.
Once again Torsten awaits events.
Tove prepares to call forth another wave of healing energy but holds off, noting that her last casting seems to have healed most of her companions' wounds.
The furious exchange continues for another half a minute or so before Adjxeer is finally brought down by coordinated strikes from sap, fists, and mace.
Adjxeer lays on the ground, his breathing labored, but yet the derro lives.
"Strike him again!" Thulwar calls out. "Either that or get out of the way and I'll finish him!"
Before anyone can act, Lanyssa speaks up, her voice trembling in anger. "That creature does not deserve a swift death. It deserves nothing less than what it did to so many...for what it did to me. I would surely have died in that pile of that creature's victims had you not come along. Let it experience what it had done to so many others."
A quick scan, along with the aid of a spell of magical detection, over the unconscious form of the derro leader reveals a number of items:
A mithral shirt, a dagger of fine quality, a bag of garnets, and another bag that radiates magic.
DC 25 from Current Location
(with Strauch)
"I wonder how much these are worth?, and what this bag is...
"A fine, masterwork quality dagger, these others, though, not too sure about..."
Noticing that Razarak has excluded himself from the decision on how to deal with the Derro I go Lanyssa and speak softly so I can reassure her. "While I agree with what you are saying; he should pay for his crimes in a way that makes him realise just how much pain he has inflicted upon others, do you really want to become just like him by causing unnecessary pain when justice and Law both demand his life? To save ourselves from living with this bad decision for the rest of our lives, I believe we should make it as quick as possible."
Lanyssa begins to say something, as to disagree with Theodore's assessment of the situation, but stops short.
Realizing Adjxeer's last cruel joke to her was to nearly strip her of what was left of her humanity, Lanyssa howls in anguish and slumps to floor sobbing.
DC 25
(with Strauch)
Theodore somehow manages to hear a muffled call over Lanyssa's sorrow coming from the cavern from which Adjxeer came originally.
Ivo pats Lanyssa comfortingly on the shoulder. "We'll make it out of this," he says sadly.
I go to comfort Lanyssa when I spin suddenly. I look as if I am listening or looking for something. "Jacobus, would you be willing to keep an eye on him?" I point to Adjxeer, "There is some muffled noises coming from that direction."
I start to walk that way, Rufus alongside me as we investigate the noise. I try to see if Tove is willing to come as well, in case the muffled sounds are from another near death victim.
Tove watches as Theodore manages to calm Lanyssa's blood lust, happy to see that her humanity remained intact.
As Theodore spins toward a distant sound she is suddenly on alert again. She pulls out her bow in case the noise represents a new threat and follows the halfling and his companion.
Theodore, Tove, and Rufus follow the muffled sounds into the next cavern. Looking around the trio sees a pair of gore covered tables, obviously where Adjxeer had committed a number of his atrocities, a pile of various belongings and gear that likely once belonged to the derro's victims, and the source of the muffled sounds - locked in a cage and bound, a blindfolded and gagged woman and badly beaten man who's mouth has been sewn shut.
Tove stands, mouth agape in shock at the awful sight.
"How such evil can thrive on our mortal plane... this is disgusting."
She rushes to the cage, and seeing it locked, begins searching nearby for a key, suppressing the urge to retch as she searches among the gore.
Testing the cage door Tove finds it to be locked. Despite the priestess's best efforts, a key is nowhere to be found.
Hearing the cage door rattle, both prisoners within react, the woman with fear as she can not see you, and the man with guarded hope as he can see that you are not derro.
I go to comfort Lanyssa when I spin suddenly. I look as if I am listening or looking for something. "Jacobus, would you be willing to keep an eye on him?" I point to Adjxeer, "There is some muffled noises coming from that direction."
Jacobus keeps an eye on the downed derro while Theo and Tove walk away, "Don't get in over your heads. Come back at once if you suspect trouble."
"Hang on their, Tove," says Ivo, rushing on his short legs to get to the cage. "Get your healing tools - I'll worry about getting them out." He produces his slender picks and bars and starts to work on the lock.
Ivo works at the cage door's lock bit fails to open it.
The gnome furrows his brow and says, "This will take some work. Watch my back. Hang on! We're going to help you!"
After a significant amount of time and effort, Ivo manages to successfuly open the lock.
The gnome wipes his forehead as he stows the tools. "Cunning device, just what I'd expect from the buggers," he says unhappily. "Tove, can you check on these people? Let's get them out of here."
Once Ivo has worked on getting access to the derros' victims, Tove enters the cage, crouching beside the two unfortunate souls and whispering to them in a soothing tone.
"Don't worry, everything is going to be okay. My name is Tove, Priestess of Erastil. My companions and I are here to free you from your torment."
She looks over the two captives to assess their injuries, explaining her actions as she goes so as not to startle them.
These stitches will need to come out, it might hurt a little, but things will improve with Old Deadeye's blessing."
Tove works as quickly as is practical to unpick the stitches sealing the man's mouth closed.
Next she turns her attention to the woman, removing the gag and blindfold. Tove prays the derro have left her sight intact but doesn't hold out much hope.
Once her assessment is complete, she takes her two patients by the hands and says a small prayer. Hoping to restore them to a fit condition for travel.
"Erastil, grant your mercy to these poor souls."
Back with the others, "I am no miner, but magic, that I know" says Torsten.
"But maybe it should take a greater adept than I to learn the secrets here."
Tove begins to remove the stitching from the man's mouth and is disturbed to find that large portions of the man's skin have been flayed from his body. As the final stitch is removed, the man spits out a reddish-black gob of coagulated blood. Unintelligible noise and sobbing is all that you hear from the man as he lies on the ground in a fetal position.
Tove turns her attention to the woman and is pleasantly surprised to find her physically intact. After the priestess removes the gag, the woman says, "Thank you! Thank you! I thought that I was doomed." Throwing her arms around Tove's neck, the young woman breaks down into tears of relief.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Hearing all the commotion from the other chamber, Thulwar asks, "What's going on in there?" Turning to the others, suppose we ought to have a look."[/b] the deep gnome comments before solidly kicking Adjxeer in the face. "Can't have the bastard waking up, can we?"
I help Tove in any way that she orders me to, making sure that I am as much help as I can be. Hearing Thulwars question I answer back, "We have a couple more people who have suffered under the creatures hands. They are both alive."
Jacobus whispered back to Thulwar, "His days terrorizing people are over. it's only a matter of time and means but he's dead."
tag?
He yelled back to Theo, "Do you all need help in there?"
tag?
Thulwar comments, "I'd be more than happy to sink the head of my pick into his skull and end it while the halfling is in the other chamber."
Thulwar comments, "I'd be more than happy to sink the head of my pick into his skull and end it while the halfling is in the other chamber."
The inquisitor nodded silently to Thulwar while he took the woman away.
"Here, let's go see who Theo and Tove found, maybe you know them..."
As the inquisitor leads Lanyssa into the other chamber, he hears a slightly wet sound before the tell-tale ring of metal on stone.
I speak softly to the captives, "Where do you live and is there anyone there who can take care of you? We wish to return you to your families."
I go to answer Jacobus but notice them walking around the corner, I shake my head at him whilst gesturing to the captives. "I wonder how that son of a deep dweller would like it, if we performed his experiments on him ... the vile grotesque!"
Jacobus leads the woman inside where Tove and Theo worked with the captives, "Is there anyone you know?"
tag?
He then turns to Theo, "I guess some people are beyond redemption. What does your order do with those irrevocably evil?"
tag?
"We either send them to serve a life sentence in prison, or we hang them. Part of our code is to reduce the amount of bloodshed in the world, so hanging those who are black of soul keeps that part of the code."
While Jacobus and Theodore have a philosophical discussion off the the side, Thulwar strides toward the rest of the group, wiping blood and gore from the tip of his pick.
"Tis done." the deep gnome flatly states. "Adjxeer will trouble no one else in this life."
Meanwhile near the cage, the young woman introduces herself among her many thank yous to the group as a whole for freeing her before the vicious deep gnome could do any lasting physical harm to her.
"I don't know how I'll ever repay you all." the young woman says in between tears of relief and joy. "I am Solaina. When our camp was attacked in the night, I thought that perhaps I was to be saved, but as it turned out it was an exchange of one dread consequence for another."
Gesturing toward the flayed, tongueless man, she continues, "Hadden had stolen me from my parents home...he intended to use me as a present to the bandit king in the south in hopes of joining their two factions." Looking over at the state of the man called Hadden, she says, "As much as I hate the bastard, I'm not sure he deserved that fate. Death to be sure, but torture?"
Torsten looks at Hadden and shudders. "It is a bad story but not yours or ours to own. These derro and bandits made it between them. We should make it harder for the derro to take captives again, certainly, and maybe there will be fewer bandits seeking to court their favor now."
He looks brighter as an idea occurs to him. "If we can find their cavern entrances and collapse them, then have someone check them again from time to time, that should serve to hamper their raids. Can we ask you to organise checks on the caves once they are blocked, Solaina?"
Torsten looks at Hadden and shudders. "It is a bad story but not yours or ours to own. These derro and bandits made it between them. We should make it harder for the derro to take captives again, certainly, and maybe there will be fewer bandits seeking to court their favor now."
He looks brighter as an idea occurs to him. "If we can find their cavern entrances and collapse them, then have someone check them again from time to time, that should serve to hamper their raids. Can we ask you to organise checks on the caves once they are blocked, Solaina?"
Jacobus nods toward Thulwar, "The derro deserved what they got."
He turned to Torsten, "We should ask Thulwar before collapsing any tunnels as those may also be used by the deep gnomes. And we do want to set up trading with them."
"The idea of collapsing a few tunnels is a sound one." Thulwar admits. "Particularly until I can return from home with a more suitable garrison to watch over this area."
When asked about organizing checks on the cave system, the young woman looks back a the wizard with a confused look on her face. "I..I'm not even sure where I'd start on such a task. It's not like there are large villages in the area to draw such parties from. At best there are small homesteads with two or three families working together...loosely at that."
Tove eyes Torsten with a puzzled expression when he suggests Solaina undertake the dangerous task of watching out for signs of derro raiders. She holds a hand to the young girl's shoulder as Solaina gives her response before saying "It's okay child, my friend misspoke, we will find another more suited to the task. Tell me, where is your parent's home, is it far from here?"
"I'm not really sure where here is." Solaina says despondently. "I can tell you that Papa is usually gone for two days when he leaves to go to the trading post for things we can't grow or make on our own."
"That's fine, we'll find it for you. Tell me, when he leaves to the trading post, which direction is he travelling?
"It depends on the route he's taking. Could be either west or north." Solaina responds as helpfully as she can muster, seemingly taking a liking to Tove.