Kilarra, as the others sisters in the room fall dead, keeps her focus on the sister in front of her. She quickly draws her machete and attacks the woman with both of her blades. Her first strike misses badly, but her next three all hit, sending the Sister to the ground, dead.
With all the Sisters slaughtered silence reigns once again in the basement for the briefest of moments. Then the next door over opens and a pair of men wielding sawtooth sabres and wearing night robes come out of the room.
Red Man steps out of the room and readies to attack.
Blue Man steps over to Makori and swings one of his sawtooth sabres. He misses.
Makori responds in kind to the red man by stabbing him.
Hearing sounds of battle, Kilarra hurries out of the bedroom and interposes herself between Talia and the enemies.
Then she attacks the blue man with her sabre.
Hearing more combat outside, Uruelleth moves back into the first room of the basement. He maneuvers past Talivar and Talia, then hops up on the table.
He then brings his falchion down on the red Mantis with an overhand swing.
The sudden appearance of the Red Mantis sent chills down Talivar's spine. It was time to take the gloves off! All this while he'd been carrying a wand for this purpose, he retrieved it from his pack and whispered the command word. The effect on his friends was dramatic, suddenly their movements where incredibly fast as if the flow of time had been speed up for them!
Talivar casts haste from his wand, greatly enhancing his allies and himself.
Kilarra hurries out of the bedroom and interposes herself between Talia and the enemies. Then she attacks the blue man with her sabre. She’s easily able to avoid an attack from one of the men before landing a strong blow on the blue one.
Uruelleth, hearing more combat outside, moves back into the first room of the basement. He maneuvers past Talivar and Talia, then hops up on the table. He manages to get up without stumbling. He then brings his falchion down on the red Mantis with an overhand swing. The blow crashes into the man, but he remains upright.
Talia makes her way around the table and gets into a position where she’s able to cast Color Spray on the men without hitting her companions. Both men appear stunned by Talia’s spell.
Seeing the men in front of her suddenly freeze in place and drop their weapons, Kilarra raises an eyebrow. With only a moment's hesitation she tears into them with her blades, starting with the blue one.
The blast of light and colors renders their foes easy targets. As Kilarra works on one, Uruelleth slashes the other.
It seemed the pair of red mantis where being overwhelmed by the furious assault of Kilarra and Uruelleth. Talivar decided to try and conserve his energy and use his crossbow instead. Unfortunately he wasn't that good with a crossbow in the first place and the melee denied him a clear shot, so his quarrels went wide. Still it seemed like it wouldn't matter given the extreme punishment they where taking.
Kilarra and Uruelleth make quick work of the stunned pair of Red Mantis assassins. Talivar’s crossbow indeed proves to be unnecessary.
With the Red Mantis dead, the basement falls silent once more. A closed door still lies near Talia. No light shines from underneath. The room you’re in also extends further, but other than a couple pillar-like objects in the distance, you can’t tell what lies that way without investigating further.
Talia immediately searches further, using her Darkvision, keen eyesight, and Dancing Lights to brighten up the current move.
The valuables Talia finds are mithral shirts for each of the slain Sisters and Red Mantis along with two sets of masterwork sawtooth sabres for the two Red Mantis assassins. All of the Sisters also bear unholy symbols of Achaekek.
Talia doesn’t spot any traps at the door. As she listens through the door, she doesn’t hear an animal, voices, or any other indication the room contains anything living. She does think she can faintly hear the sound of sloshing water.
Kilarra robs the assassins and nuns blind, taking their gear and possessions. She also takes the unholy symbols of Achaekek, knowing the might be of some use--target practice comes to mind....
Noticing the nearly hewn in half nuns/assassins, Kilarra raises an eyebrow at Ruel and smirks appreciatively. "Nice chopping. You got demons in those arms?"
Noticing Vorya being unnaturally silent--and knowing full well she's bleeding all over the place, Kilarra saunters over to him.
"Whip out that wand of your and make yourself useful, old man." She holds out her wounded arm, clearly insisting he use one of our healing wands on her.
Once she's healed, Kilarra stands right beside Talia, ready to slip into the room as soon as the door's open.
Talivar grunted with surprised when the red mantis where cut down like so much corn. "The apprentices at least are not invincible" he muttered. Noting Talia about to open the door, Talivar hold a hand up for her to pause and puts his head to the door to listen.
He then steps back to allow Kilarra space to enter.
Uruelleth pants for a few seconds as he regains his wind. He grins back at Kilarra. "No, just the fury of the god of battle. Nice slicing. Is there a whirlwind in yours?"
After the searches and healing is finished, his temporary exhaustion ends and he looks ready to continue.
Kilarra lets out a laugh. "Ha! I wish. Pretty sure all I've got going for me is a bad attitude." she chuckles again, then winks.
Vorya re-pockets the wand after healing Kilarra. He sniffs at Kilarra's and Uruelleth bravado. 'We did the job, nothing more."
He is uneasy. It had been easy...far too easy. Likely there was more to this place. The older man prepares to move through the door behind Kilarra.
Neither Kilarra nor Talivar notice anything amiss with the door. Talivar also thinks he can hear the sound of sloshing water beyond the door.
You press forward through the doorway, no traps triggering as you do so. The next room is a much larger chamber and is more of an underground harbor than a proper room. The source of the sloshing water is immediately apparent as a you face a decent sized body of water.
In the water, several small boats are moored. Most appear to be lashed tightly to the harbor’s dock. Two, however, appear to have recently been stocked with a few supplies in anticipation of use.
Three smaller waterways branch off of this room and there appear to be a couple additional ways forward, though one lies across one of the waterways.
"Reminds me of the Shark's little harbor. Such hidden slipways must be common in the city. Makes sense given the Red Mantis watching everything."
Vorya moves into the harbor area, being quiet and careful.
"Hmph. Boats. Let's check the ones with supplies first," he says softly.
He moves into the harbor, falchion out and ready.
Vorya doesn't see anything particularly interesting and he's not terribly confident he's being very sneaky, but there doesn't appear to be anyone around to hear him.
The room is pitch black save for your own light sources.
Uruelleth moves to examine the boats with supplies. They contain some dried food and quite a bit of rope. There are also some rags. Nothing particularly important seems to have been added to the boats yet.
Talia steps forward, glowing with radiant light, lighting up the entire room with the strength of her Daylight spell.
Talia's radiance illuminates the room. Water continues to slosh slowly against the dock, but nothing appears in or emerges from the water.
Talia shrugs. "Rags and Rope. I might be jumping conclusions, but wouldn't be a huge leap to assume they were for restraining and possibly gagging something. So either something was smuggled INTO this place, or the Mantis were planning on smuggling something OUT. I think we searched this entire place though, so perhaps they were stored somewhere else."
There's not much to see in the room with the well, other than a pail attached to a rope and the well itself.
Before Talia left the underground harbor, Talivar had a good look at the boats. He was wondering if any of them seemed sea worthy, if so perhaps they'd just found themselves a ride to that Island Shark wanted them to visit.
Talia shrugs. "Rags and Rope. I might be jumping conclusions, but wouldn't be a huge leap to assume they were for restraining and possibly gagging something."
Kilarra curses. "Let's hope we're not too late."
Talivar examines the boats and believes that they could be used for getting to Sharkfin Island. They would need to be used in relatively calm waters and wouldn’t move nearly as fast as the Red Mantis skiffs that Shark referred to, but they would get the job done. Talivar believes it would take at least two of the boats to get the six of you safely to the island.
Talia investigates the nearby door, noting that light streams from beneath it. The light is much brighter than the light you saw beneath the doors of the dormitories. She doesn’t note any traps on the door and can’t hear anything beyond the door.
The door opens into a room larger than the dormitories. Lanterns line the walls providing ample lighting to the chamber. Along the walls, four fully armored Red Mantis turn to regard you, but don’t move to strike. Their Mantis masks stare at you coldly.
Along the far wall, four bodies lie still against the floor, their hands bound by rope and their mouths gagged. They’re your missing sailors. Their chests slowly rise and fall. They’re still alive and appear to be in good shape from what you can tell at a distance.
In the middle of the room is a long table filled with ledgers, notebooks, and other assorted documents. A bald headed woman sits at the far end, quietly writing something.
The woman looks up briefly as she sees you enter before returning to her writing.
As she writes, she says to you, without looking up, “Nice of you to finally show up. I’ve been waiting long enough. You know those women take me a long time and a lot of money to obtain and train. It’s going to take me a while to recover from their loss.”
She pauses long enough to look up and study you for a moment before returning to her writing. “The profit I make from you six should more than make up for the loss. Lucky for you, otherwise your punishment would be much more severe.”
“Now, I know how this is going to go, but you’ve already caused me enough trouble, so I have to ask. Will you let my men knock you out and come along quietly? Or, inevitably, will we come to blows? I’m Sister Maeri, by the way, the proprietor of this fine Hospice you’ve so rudely intruded upon. I will also be your captor, one way or the other.”
With a further five opponents, Talia feels very justified in her earlier caution in attacking the Hospice. Still, she decided to save the 'I told you so' comments till much later.
"I don't particularly want to come to blows, but if you think I'm letting you take me to Sivlamlik, then you are very much mistaken Sister Maeri. If your sisters had merely given us our friends, all of this unpleasantness would have been avoided."
Vorya actually laughs. At least this woman was a professional.
"Do we really seem the type to go quietly?" the older assassin says, going on, "Besides, what do you even do here? Besides lurk in moldy tunnels and say cryptic things."
Meanwhile Vorya sizes up'her men'.
Not looking up, Sister Maeri replies to Talia, “No, no, not Sivlamlik. You’re not nearly good enough for there, child. And I think you and I both know that ‘this unpleasantness’ is unavoidable. Your blasphemous efforts can only end one way - with your deaths. And such deaths will be glorious acts of worship. Driara will be jealous that I did her job for her.”
Still not looking up from her writing, Sister Maeri says to Vorya, “You’ll know soon enough, Guildie. Soon enough.”
Vorya can tell that the men have similar physiques to the two you killed earlier. Unlike the ones before, these are fully armored, armed, and aware. Though it’s hard to tell considering the vastly different circumstances in which you fought the last two, you think these four might be slightly more trained than the ones before.
Kilarra scoffs loudly, then mutters something rudely in a foul language.
"Indeed. We'll be doing this the hard way." replied Talivar evenly before clicking his fingers and making a grand gesture with his arms - raising them up theatrically while muttering strange bizarre words.
A hemisphere of ice suddenly rose up from the ground, effectively cutting them off from the mantis! A layer of thin vapor formed where the humid air touched the ice.
Talia relaxes a little. "Oh good, its wonderful to know that you don't have anything particularly punishing or imaginative planned, just some dreary threat that every Mantis seems to make regarding killing us. I'm sure this threat will prove as pathetic and unsuccessful as all of the others. Are you going to wade into battle yourself like Driara did? It was vaguely watching a Vernai exert herself."
Uruelleth just shakes his head and scowls. He renews his grip on his falchion, and a mad glee is in his eyes at the prospect of killing more Mantises.
The Sister ignores Kilarra’s Infernal words, but she does seem to understand them.
She says to Talia, “I prefer to command from afar. Hence why you haven’t met me till now. But don’t worry, you’ll experience enough of me before this is all said and done.”
Sister Maeri finally looks up from her writing as Talivar begins casting his spell, trying to make a show of it. She rolls her eyes and says to the Red Mantis around her as she stands to her feet., “He’s simply casting Silent Image. Ignore it and press forward. It cannot harm you.”
Maeri smiles and says, “Let us begin.”
Talia immediately casts Evil Eys, targeting saving throws, at a Red Mabtis agent that looks unharmed. She then Chants to extend the duration
"She's probably a cleric." sighed Talivar gripping his wand. Once more he whispered the command word, and the world seemed to ripple as the flow of time was altered making the mantis appear to slow to a crawl!
Haste 5 rounds left
Other:
Extended Mage Armor, 10 hour duration
Extended Heightened Awareness, 100 minutes duration
Uruelleth casts shield, then renews his two-handed grip on his weapon. He moves forward to menace Sister Maeri, his battle fury taking hold.
Kilarra steps forward, into the room, and attacks the nearest assassin with her sabre.
Status
HP: 40/45
1/day— [x] daylight
Shaman Spells Prepared (CL 5th; concentration +10)
3rd—[x] akashic communion, [x] clairaudience/clairvoyance; daylight[S] or neutralize poison[S] [ ]
2nd—[x] insect scouts, [x][x] visualization of the mind (2); [ ] hypnotic pattern[S] (DC 17) or lesser restoration[S]
1st—[X ][ ] burning hands (2, DC 16), [ ] charm person (DC 16), [x] ears of the city, [x] heightened awareness[ACG]; color spray[S] (DC 16) or detect undead[S] [x]
0 (at will)—create water, dancing lights, detect magic, guidance
S spirit magic spell; Spirit Heavens Wandering Spirit Life
Channels (DC 16; 3d6) remaining: 4/5
Hexes: Chant, Evil Eye DC 17, Misfortune DC 17
Spells Known
2nd/ 3x day Blistering Invective, Surmount Affliction, Communal Protection from Evil, Zone of Truth
1st/ 2x day Disguise Self, True Strike, Vocal Alteration, Magic Weapon
0 / At will—Sift, Create Water, Light, Read Magic, Detect Poison, Bleed
Active Banes/Judgement- Bane against Humans.
Conditions-
As things get violent, Vorya channels his will into his blade. It hums slightly, now magically enhanced to attack humans.
That done he dashes into the room and jumps up on the table.
Standing on the table, he lashes out at the woman with his glaive.
Silently the older man sends Uruelleth a mental message, Get around her so we can flank!
Vorya, as things get violent, channels his will into his blade. It hums slightly, now magically enhanced to attack humans. That done he dashes into the room and jumps up on the table. Standing on the table, he lashes out at the woman with his glaive. His attack manages to land and she grunts in response to the blow.
Uruelleth casts shield, then renews his two-handed grip on his weapon. He moves forward to menace Sister Maeri, his battle fury taking hold.
Talivar sighed, "She's probably a cleric," gripping his wand. Once more he whispered the command word, and the world seemed to ripple as the flow of time was altered making the mantis appear to slow to a crawl!
Kilarra steps forward, into the room, and attacks the nearest assassin with her sabre. She gets in a decent blow and manages to study her target in the process.
Talia casts her gaze on Sister Maeri and chants.
Makori charges toward the purple Red Mantis, stabbing toward him with her rapier.
Sister Maeri takes a step back , then casts a spell at Vorya, hoping to repay him for the damage he dealt her. An arrow shaped projectile speeds through the air before colliding with the inquisitor.
Orange Mantis moves past Sister Maeri to stand near Uruelleth before swinging at the bloodrager with one of his sawtooth sabres. He misses.
Green Mantis moves to flank Uruelleth without realizing the bloodrager’s uncanny ability to dodge. He also misses.
Purple Mantis swings at Makori. He misses as well.
Yellow Mantis steps over to block Kilarra’s path to Sister Maeri before swinging at her twice with both his blades. His first blow lands.