Demitri casts a spell on himself and follows Ortik.
"Let the day begin." Karri reaches within herself and grabs some of Legion's seeds and the pushes them out of herself. You served me well before, but it is time again to feast. She takes them in hand and waits...
The door to the south flies open to reveal more Physicians, twirling polished batons and wordlessly eying the party.
"...they know."
"Kill them."
Their response is immediate as they swoop out of their room to engage the party, with one going for Ortik, two for Demitri, and one swinging at the sorceress in the middle of casting...
The Physician attacking Ortik is thwarted by the dwarf's shield...
...and the Physicians striking at Demitri end up almost striking each other in their haste to attack the inquisitor.
The Physician attacking Karri gets lucky and smashes his baton into her neck. The wound starts bleeding.
"It'll take more than that to kill me, friend," Ortik says, positioning his shield in the doctor's path and feeling it strike the wood. He shoves back, lashing out with his warhammer before retreating behind it again.
Demitri swings his blade at the physician east of him.
Ortik's hammer comes down hard on the 'doctor', landing with a satisfying *CRUNCH* upon his chest. The man staggers back.
Demitri's swing, on the other hand, is easily ducked under.
With a wrdless shriek Karri's spell fails and the energy she had pulled out of herself fades from this reality.
Backing up she screams and struggles for control. For now, she Keeps Legion at bay.
Nalun steps south to engage the enemies
Thanks Karri. he mutters as he attempts to ram his blade into the throat of the nearest "doctor"
Nalun's strike hits the 'doctor' squarely in the chest, drawing a lot of blood and sending the man reeling.
Lyla steps back and throws a flask of alchemist's fire at the Queen's physicians. Better make this one count, she thinks, worried about the depletion of her alchemical arsenal.
fire damage
Lyla's flask of alchemist's fire clips off of the nearby wall and falls down, right next to Demitri & Nalun. Lyla's target gets slightly singed.
Another Physician emerges from the room to the south while the rest continue to fight on...
As it turns out, fighting trained adventurers/vigilantes is considerably different to fighting other people once the element of surprise has worn off. None of the 'doctors' manage to land a single blow.
Demitri swings back at the one east of him.
Demitri brutally & efficiently strikes the 'doctor' down.
Ortik continues fighting the plague doctor before him. His usual calls for temperance are gone, replaced with a taciturn resolution that is synonymous with his people's warriors. He swings again, but he telegraphs his strike too clearly, and his foe leaps away safely.
Lyla pulls out the repeating crossbow and targets the physician in her direct line of fire. She turns the lever and pulls the trigger, and a poisoned bolt darts out seeking its mark.
I noticed Lyla never tried to find out what poison that was during the game. If I may, I'd like to make a retroactive Craft (alchemy) check to identify the poison, I assume she would have done that in the downtime.
Nalun steps over the fallen Doctor and tries to take another Doctor out
You bastards are responsible for this! he growls
Medium Spider Venom—injury; save Fort DC 14; frequency 1/round for 4 rounds; effect 1d2 Strength damage; cure 1 save.
Lyla's bolt hits the Physician she aimed at, but its poison doesn't have enough time to take effect before Nalun decapitates him.
Karri slings a gob of acid at the nearest doctor. His arm sizzles where the acid manages to burn through his jacket.
for
for
Karri's glob of acid does indeed find its mark, but it's not as deep as she would have hoped.
The 'doctors' continue to fight on, showing fanatical dedication.
The deaths of their comrades appears to have inspired them as their bludgeons find their way past defences, proceeding to pummel the three men!
Nalun grunts as the club glances off his wrist, he pivots and stabs at the Doctor
Favored Target, Power Attack
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Nalun fights like a man possessed, cutting down yet another Physician. A pity they can't heal themselves.
Demitri slashes again at a doctor.
Demitri misses wildly.
Lyla turns the lever again to reload the crossbow, and aims against the physicians. "My advice is for you to surrender after this shot, before my friend here finished the job", she says before firing another bolt. After the shot, she lowers the crossbow and shrugs. "Or not. You know, just follow your hearts", she mocks.
plus Medium Spider Venom poison
The Physician falls to one knee as Lyla's bolt hits home.
As the "fauxsician" before him drops to a knee, Ortik brings his hammer up across the man's chin. He grunts as he feels a welt beginning to form from where the club struck him in the forearm.
Again a bokt of acid at the last phu-sizhun.
for
Ortik's strike finishes off the wounded Physician, and Karri's glob of acid flies wide of its target and stains the ghastly mural on the wall.
It's a simple matter to mop up the last Physician.
After the fight, Demitri will heal both himself and Karri, hoping to stop the latter's bleeding. "Looks like we're on the right track."
A creature that is taking bleed damage takes the listed amount of damage at the beginning of its turn. Bleeding can be stopped by a DC 15 Heal check or through the application of any spell that cures hit point damage (even if the bleed is ability damage). Some bleed effects cause ability damage or even ability drain. Bleed effects do not stack with each other unless they deal different kinds of damage. When two or more bleed effects deal the same kind of damage, take the worse effect. In this case, ability drain is worse than ability damage.
Karri looks over the dying physicians and Legion recedes. With a gasp of real pain Karri reaches to the side of her neck where one of the doctor's blows broke the skin. She pinches down, trying to stanch the flow of blood. She winces, but the tainted ichor stops. "I'm okay." Her words come out, but they don't seem entirely honest.
"Soooo... that way?", lyla asks, pointing at the door whence the physicians came. "At least we don't have to worry about trap anymore." She pats down the fallen phsycians looking for valuables and then, with the crossbow in hand, quietly advances into the next room, taking care not to be detected.
"Thank you." Karri's gratitude seems almost perfunctory, as if by habit. Seems the norm as she is also unwilling to look you in the eye.
"Seems as good a way as any," Ortik replies. "Especially if we can't make it past Death's door." The dwarf takes a look into the room to the south with Lyla, keeping his eyes peeled for anything interesting as well.
The room the doctors came from appears to be some sort of guard post. A number of crates fill the room, and a particularly large one has been dragged to the centre of the chamber. It's surrounded by mismatched chairs & stools as a makeshift table.
The physicians were carrying:
--5 plaguebringer's masks
--5 mwk clubs
--5 healer's kits
--5 suits of leather armour
After collecting the belongings, Demitri will continue the search. "We should probably wear these as a safeguard against the disease." He says pointing to the masks.
Though she offers a disdainful sneer, Karri agrees, "Better safe than sorry." Then a bolt of insight, "Maybe we could go a step further and wear their clothes, too? Might let us get closer before we are discovered as raiders."
"That would be also a good idea."
Nalun gives a shrug as he begins putting on the physicians gear. If you can't hide, camouflage.
Lyla approaches the crates, starting with the large one. She reshapes her traveler's many tools into a crowbar, and then pries each of the crates open, searching for traps before forcing each one.
The party strips the doctors of their clothes and put them on.
Immediately, most of you can tell that your disguises are flimsy--aside from the blood and tears in the cloth, both Ortik & Lyla are too short for the robes to properly fit them.
"Well these disguises are pretty bad, but they'll keep up safe from the disease and it might fool someone." Demitri will open the next door.
The double doors open with a simple push.
Dozens of the living dead line the walls of this chamber, their rotting faces sneering and broken fingers clawing at each other. A layer of rotting bodies lines the floor, the shattered forms twitching in vain, bones and splintered appendages grasping hopelessly. Yet, rather than some massive, nightmare grave, this horror-show seems instead to be a stomach-churning attempt at art, as the mangled living dead lie trapped behind walls and beneath a floor of thick glass.
Another set of double doors sits on the east wall, two doors sit on the north wall, and another two doors sit on the south wall.
Demitri will open one of the northern doors.
Numerous black-sheeted cots fill this room, their satin coverings and overstuffed pillows seeming more akin to funerary trappings than the resting places of the living.
Numerous skulls are set evenly within the room’s stone walls. Candles inside them cause them to glow like morbid jack-o-lanterns and cast dim light across the room.
This room is not unoccupied--several maskless Queen's Physicians and other men in dark robes are in the room, along with four skeletons dressed in servant garb. One of the skeletal servants bears a platter holding several goblets and a bottle of pitch-black wine.
One of the Physicians looks up at the party and his eyes widen. "...bold of you, to intrude upon us. Did you REALLY believe we would be deceived so easily?"
The priests silently rise to their feet and the skeletons turn their empty eye sockets on the party.
The skeletons drop what they're doing and move to attack the party, swarming around Demitri with their claws!
Though they move swiftly, their claws fail to even scratch the inquisitor, instead raking along his armour and relieving him of a few itches.