Lashing out with his billowing flames, Kaelaah struggles to shape them through the opened door and into the room beyond...
Orin quickly covers the distance between the door and the tiny fiend but his blade whistles through the air below her without making contact. Kaelaah's flame, likewise, soars wide with no effect.
Suddenly finding herself nearly surrounded, and having been struck by Tera's magical bolt, the fiend cackles and answers, "We shall see who 'has business' here!" As she speaks, the self-inflicted wound on her wrist finishes closing itself up. Flitting up just out of reach of her attackers, she concentrates for a moment and vanishes...
Before anyone can react to her disappearance a wet, snarling wrathspawn bursts forth from the gurgling pool and lands next to it, in reach of Orin and Zache.
Stepping diagonally to flank with Zache, Orin attempts to strike the sinspawn before him.
For
Cursing his luck, Kaelaah attempts - with no joy whatsoever - to turn his flames on the wrathspawn...
Tera turns and closes the doors.
"That's all I've got," She calls out as she puts her back to them and scans the room for any sign of the diminutive fiend.
Kaede frowns slightly when the flying ...thing vanishes, leaving another wrathspawn for the party to deal with.
"The spawn is just a distraction... We need to be remove it as fast as possible, so we can focus on this chamber's guardian when she reappears..." she states as she dives forward to assault it.
"So now, foul demon, leave this town, our home,
Or holy might will banish wrathful shades!"
Continuing his rhyme, placing extra stress on his words, Zache prays his allies will notice. Nodding to Orin, thanking him for the flank, he adjusts his stance before swinging twice at the wrathspawn.
Kaede and Sal land solid blows, but both pale in comparison to the devastating strike from Orin that seals the wrathspawn's fate.
"Strong of arm, weak of mind," the flapping demon cackles as she reappears. She completes a series of esoteric gestures and utterances and Orin feels his mind beginning to disconnect itself from his body...
Kaede takes one look at the flying demon and quickly comes to a plan of action. She takes a quick step around the glowing pool toward Salomae and lays her hand on Salomae's bow, causing the bow to glow as white as well. "I trust your aim is better then mine at range," she said with a smile to her friend.
Tera pulls out her bow and prays that the Golden Key will bless this shot and let her hit.
As she watches the tiny fiend weave her spell, Tera's eyes grow wide with shock.
"It's a mage! It's using a spell to try holding Orin in place and it's not innate," she calls out to the others.
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Orin pauses for a few moments to really admire that last blow on the wraithspawn.
Sculpting the flames, art more than craft, Kaelaah shouts encouragingly towards Orin as he slays the wrathspawn... and then turns his attention towards the demon...
"You hold our guardsman frozen in his place
And dance beyond our reach, a taunting move," Zache continues through gritted teeth, moving closer to the fiend before throwing one of his blades at it.
Zache's starknife stabs deep into the quasit's left side but fails to inflict as much damage as he expected . Bolstered by the bard's song, Salomae just barely catches the demon with her arrow. This time the creature hisses in pain.
Moving out over the pool for safety, she fixes her gaze on Sal and the usually brave woman feels a deep dread growing within her...
Gathering courage and force of will, Orin attempts to break free of the imp's magical bonds.
Frustrated at his inability to shape his flame, Kaelaah shouts in frustration...
Kaede looks at the flying fiend and with a sigh, she drops her glaive to draw her shortbow, the bow starting to glow as she begins to aim.
Tera maintains her position front of the door and draws her bow once again. Her aim is almost perfect, and she starts to feel a little more confident as she hits her target.
"But as you flit, we fight with guile and grace,
And soon your influence will be disproved!"
Zache moves toward his dropped starknife, before throwing the remaining one after the demon.
Now that the injured demon has been visible for a moment, it is apparent that it's wounds are slowly knitting themselves closed much like the three-armed goblin's had (perhaps a little bit faster though).
Despite the lingering fear, Sal's shot finds its mark once again. The quasit snarls angrily as its flesh is seared by the blessed arrow. It hardly seems to notice when Zache's starknife sails by it and clatters against the far wall, or even when Tera's arrow slices across its neck with frustratingly little effect. Through all that, its gaze remains fixed on Sal until she feels an overwhelming drowsiness welling up within her...
Seeing the arrow have little effect, Tera draws upon the arcane power that she'd grown since coming to sandpoint. Twin golden hawks the size of her fist streak from her hand as her voice thrums with the words of power.
While trained with the bow, Kaede has never needed to actually use it in combat, preferring to be in the thick of things. However, there's a time and a place for everything, and attempting shoot down this little monster seems to be the best option. And so, after a second of centering, Kaede releases the arrow, letting it fly at the little fiend.
"I don't know," Tera exclaims to Sal's question, "we just need to kill this thing fast!"
Once again Salomae's arrow strikes true but this time it is not met with anger but pain and fear on the face of the tiny demon. As if on command, Tera's golden eagles crash into the quasit as she speaks and the creature falls limply into the fountain where it begins sinking.
Orin moves to the fountain and fishes the creature out with his shield, flopping it on the ground and watching for signs of healing.
The demon lies motionless and silent on the floor for a moment, its flesh slowly healing around the arrows. Suddenly with a sputtering cough it vomits out a surprising amount of water and inhales air desperately. It does not yet show any sign of consciousness.
Kaelaah looks to his companions, leaving what he is thinking unsaid.
Should we end this now?
...as the flames continue to lick around his wrists.
Kaede quickly looks at Zache, "Are you sure? This is a demon?" she half-asks, half-insists. While waiting for a response, she re-acquires her glaive and moves hastily toward where Orin and the demon are.
Tera readies another spell in case the fiend awakes once more.
If the tiny fiend is still healing after Sals blow, Orin will also Coup De Grace it.
The demon never has the opportunity to regain consciousness as her twisted life is ended with little hesitation.
"It is - was - a demon," Zache says with grim conviction, nodding at Kaede and grimacing as the pathetic creature expires. "A quasit, one of the lower ones, sometimes called as familiars." He collects his starknives, spins them, and hooks them back onto his belt.
Tera nods and helps Sal in her search.
Scouring the room, Salomae and Tera find a wren hiding in one of the closets, and notice that the quasit's dagger has fallen in the large pool of water. The demon herself wears an obsidian unholy symbol of Lamashtu, and a small but ornate tiara that may actually be a bracelet for a human woman or an elf. Up on the stage the smaller, orange pool continues to gurgle and glow.
...find a wren hiding in one of the closets
Kaelaah, his flame now starting to dissipate, clambers up to examine the orange pool...
As Kaelaah moves up and examines the pool he discovers that despite looking like it's at a low boil the orange pool is actually the source of the unnatural chill in the room.
"Is it a pet of the little demon?........Or perhaps it's future meal?" Orin muses. "Are we sure that it isnt a threat? I have heard of beings able to change their shape to match beasts."
"A bird's down here? How'd that happen," Tera asks before muttering the words of arcane power that allowed her to see things normally hidden to human eyes.
The bird has an aura lingering about it... as if it itself had been magical until mere moments ago...