Tanith advances until he spots the self-immolated birdman. ”What the-?”
The big man looks back at his friends in confusion. ”Uh, are we still killing them?”
Tanith can tell that the source of the flames appears to be coming from the pouch the kenku clutches. It's been doused with alchemist's fire, but for some reason he's not letting go. In fact, he seems to be getting ready to throw it.
Tanith's eyes grow wide at the sight and he gestures for his friends to back up. "Take cover!"
Zalamandra doesn't need to be told twice.
Cuetzpalli moves back into the secret door room, and Spiny follows him.
The last kenku rushes over and, cackling, lobs the burning bag.
It lands square at Eben's feet.
Eben sees several glowing orange beads roll out of the damaged bag. They are instantly consumed by the flames.
A moment later, Zalamandra and Cuetzpalli hear an earth-shattering kaboom. She and Cuetzpalli see flames gouting out of the passage, stopping short just before reaching their room.
The kenku boss staggers, caught off-guard by the blast. He is badly singed, but still up.
Tanith hunkers down. He manages to avoid a chunk of the flames but still ends up badly burned.
Eben doesn't even glance down at what just went BOOM beneath his feet before he's leaping straight up and rolling with the explosion. Amazingly enough, he winds up taking much less damage than someone standing on a bomb normally would, although it could be argued that's not saying much.
He glares from underneath scorched eyebrows at the bomber.
"Was that your best shot? Because we're still standing, b&!&#!"
An arrow goes flying to help punctuate the sentiment.
...and a firework goes shooting at the kenku as an additional punctuation mark; perhaps if the sentiment in question were a sentence from the diary of an overly emotional fourteen year old the excessive punctuation wouldn't seem out of place. Here, at least, there's no question of the emotion; the firework is buzzing angry as it flies.
Eben's arrow plunges through the injured kenku's black heart, killing him instantly.
"Aww, s~%+." he says wearily as the glowing beads pop out.
Farrukh tucks and rolls, hunkering down behind his shield as much as he can, saving himself from the worst of the blast.
He staggers to his feet, singed but alive, and advances on the kenku.
"I have had just about ENOUGH of you feathered bastards."
He swings his Klar viciously at the insane kenku.
Cuetzpalli comes rushing out the chamber, Cuetzpalli at his heels. "Gods! What was that? Are you all okay!?" He looks quite concerned, hefting his axe in case any more birds need killing.
"EH? SPEAK UP, YOU'RE TALKING TOO QUIET." Farrukh says, at a completely normal volume.
Cuetzpalli looks at Astraden in a pained manner. "F&*~! She's all burned!" If only I could do something to help her. It must hurt so badly.
Zalamandra covers her ears at the sound of the huge explosion. When she peeks out from around the corner, her face pales.
"Oh my." She retrieves her healing wand from her belt and approaches to give aid.
The explosion shocks Astraden back to her senses. Shaking from adrenaline and blood loss, she draws her rapier and plunges it through the skull of the last kenku.
"Follow me," she calls to the others, readying her holy symbol. She stumbles up the corridor, dropping her weapon, and, when the group has surrounded her, laughs a little. Two waves of healing wash down the corridor.
Zalamandra takes a closer look at Astraden's face.
"Um... Astraden, dear, I think you're missing an eyebrow." She cringes.
Eben feels better. "Thanks, Astraden," he says gratefully.
Tanith breathes a sigh of relief as Astraden's divine blessings sooth his burned flesh. "Thanks again Astraden."
With the danger behind them, the big man ponders the explosion again. "Red would have liked to see that."
"Seeing, yes. Being on the receiving end of... not so much, I think." Zalamandra says as Astraden's healing finishes healing her crossbow injury.
Eben picks up the torch and begins searching around the corridors for salvageable arrows.
Aside from numerous useless ones that smell of dead kenku, he finds a couple that survived being shot.
Farrukh breathes a sigh of relief as his eardrums *pop* as they are healed and he can hear properly again.
"Thanks, Astraden."
"Heh. I think Carina wouldn't have minded, really. She'd probably be scribbling notes on how to make her known while it was going on."
Cuetzpalli was barely injured, but Spiny is very appreciative of the healing. The olman warrior just looks relieved that his friends, especially Astraden, are okay. "So...What now? We explore and loot?"
"Of course. Also, be on the lookout for any documents or the like--something that will end with Smenk being strung up by his balls." Zalamandra smirks, readying her crossbow again.
"Oh, yay, stripping mutilated bird men corpses down for their goods. Always a hoot.", Eben says, de-bloodying his clothing as best he can with judicious cantrip use. "Oh, and we've got Tanith's prisoner to shake down too."
"Let's get someplace secure and see what this little guy knows."
"That room you left him in doesn't seem too bad," Astraden tells Tanith. "Let's gather the bodies and search them in there while Tanith interrogates."
Tanith binds the prisoner's hands and feet before crouching down and touching him with the healing wand. "Wake up little bird."
The kenku's eyes flutter open. It stares at Tanith, eyes slowly narrowing as it comes to understand its situation. It says nothing.
A quick search of the labyrinth turns up three more rooms, all extremely messy. They look more like huge nests than anything else, strewn with dark down and scraps of cloth. Despite this, they are clean, and the treasure is kept clear of the clutter.
Found are:
800 gp.
A small jeweled lockbox bearing the holy symbol of Vecna. It contains several small diamonds. Together, the diamonds and box are worth 400 gp.
Farrukh finds a hollow in the floor of one of the room that contains two crystal lenses. They radiate magic.
Tanith hunkers down and cracks the knuckles on his huge fists. "Listen up. You're going tell us everything you know about the labyrinth, the rest of the things living down here, and whatever fool is in charge of this place. Cooperate and you get to live. If you don't, or lie to us, I'm going to pluck you bald before feeding you to the lizard. Do you understand?"
The kenku looks between Tanith and the others assembled, then mutely nods.
Tanith cocks an eyebrow.
"Good. Let's start with the labyrinth. How do we get to wherever the guy in charge is - the Faceless man I think they were calling him. And how do we do so without him knowing about it?"
Zalamandra activates her detect magic power and gives the lenses a once-over.
"Secret doors," the kenku croaks. It raises one claw and points north. "Three secret doors to one big room, beyond, the Faceless One. You might can take the westernmost and sneak through storage room. His acolytes might see you still, or the spirit, such keen eyes. They will kill you, mighty ones, so you should leave this place."
Zalamandra identifies the lenses as eyes of the eagle.
These items are made of special crystal and fit over the eyes of the wearer. These lenses grant a +5 competence bonus on Perception checks. Wearing only one of the pair causes a character to become dizzy and stunned for 1 round. Both lenses must be worn for the magic item to take effect.
"Interesting... eyes of the eagle. Good for improving one's senses, as long as both lenses are in." She hands them off.
"How do we find the secret doors and how many more of your kind are down here? Wait, what spirit?"
"Only a worshiper of Vecna can find them," the kenku says with a hint of pride. "As for my kind..." He looks at the thousands of rotting birds littering the floor. "You must have fought the boss. No kenku still lives, I think, save myself.
"The spirit of madness fights with them. Drives weak-willed mad. Why we are not allowed in the Inner Sanctum."