Korriban faintly feels the liquid poured down his throat and some of his wounds close. He wakes up with a start, looking around frantically and struggling to get away from perceived dangers.
When he calms down, he looks up to see Lantressa's face. "A-Am I dead? Is this what heaven is like?" He looks around. "D-Did we win?"
As he's guided to his feet, everyone can see that the young rogue is still worse for wear. At everyone's concerned looks, Korriban smirks. "What? Do I have something on my face? I'm fine."
At Callie's statements, Korriban frowns. "Listen. We have to clear this place out before these a******s decide to run. Besides, for what this guys did to me, I demand vengeance! They will be brought to Calistria's justice!" He sighs. "However, if you feel like I would be a liability, then I can head back upstairs and see if I can intercept the marshals."
Teodor is startled by Korriban's revival. "Even a battle seems quiet without Korriban. Did ya see the Void, son? Touch the Nothing? Few things give a better high. But there's a nasty underside, for sure. Calls for a shot of cure-all."
Teodor produces a flask of strong moonshine whiskey and offers it to Korriban.
Callie is clearly unable to figure out what any potions are today. Perhaps her history with dangerous substances makes her reluctant to deal with mysterious liquids. She leaves them out if anyone else wants to take a look.
She holds up the breastplates: "These have a nice, basic magic enhancement. Worth a pretty penny if no one wants to keep them. Probably worth tucking away if we can."
She also hands a set of keys to everyone.
Shrugging at Korriban she says, "It's not about you or anyone else being a liability. It's about not getting ourselves killed. Vengeance is pointless if you don't live to enjoy its comforts, cold though they might be. I can't cast any more spells. I expect if Teo could help us with healing he would have by now--correct me if I'm wrong, Teodor. We can drink all our curing potions and hope they sustain us, but we're running this cart on three wheels. We can hope we've seen the worst of it, but if not--it is very likely we could get ourselves in a bind we can't get out of. And if we get ourselves killed, who is left to reveal the truth to the masses and protect Korvosa?"
"If you have a plan how to stay safe while we're operating on little magic and a lot of bleeding, open wounds," she points to the bloody rags she has used to badly bandage herself, "By all means. For all I've said, the idea of leaving this unfinished makes me feel sick."
Teodor is startled by Korriban's revival. "Even a battle seems quiet without Korriban. Did ya see the Void, son? Touch the Nothing? Few things give a better high. But there's a nasty underside, for sure. Calls for a shot of cure-all."
At Teodor's questions, Korriban shakes his head. "Don't know. It felt like I was drifting between unconsciousness and fading into death. I think I heard Calistria and Shelyn's voices in my ears. I also think there was some... thing watching me in that dark. Though..." He smirks at Teodor. "...that may be because of my friendship with you, Teo."
Teodor produces a flask of strong moonshine whiskey and offers it to Korriban.
Korriban looks at the flask that Teodor offers and takes it. He sniffs at it. He looks at Teodor. "And, will this help me? I'm not much of a drinker."
"Korri, it won't fix what yer feelin. But it'll help a bit. Get your center back. I also have healing left, but not much."
Korriban looks at the flask in his hand. He shrugs and says, "Eh. Why not? Bottoms up." He then takes a quick drink from the flask before handing it back to Teodor, coughing from how strong it is.
Korriban is too busy coughing to notice anything about the potions.
She holds up the breastplates: "These have a nice, basic magic enhancement. Worth a pretty penny if no one wants to keep them. Probably worth tucking away if we can."
She also hands a set of keys to everyone.
Korriban takes his set of keys and stashes them in his coat pocket.
Shrugging at Korriban she says, "It's not about you or anyone else being a liability. It's about not getting ourselves killed. Vengeance is pointless if you don't live to enjoy its comforts, cold though they might be. I can't cast any more spells. I expect if Teo could help us with healing he would have by now--correct me if I'm wrong, Teodor. We can drink all our curing potions and hope they sustain us, but we're running this cart on three wheels. We can hope we've seen the worst of it, but if not--it is very likely we could get ourselves in a bind we can't get out of. And if we get ourselves killed, who is left to reveal the truth to the masses and protect Korvosa?"
Korriban sighs and grumbles. "You got a point there."
"If you have a plan how to stay safe while we're operating on little magic and a lot of bleeding, open wounds," she points to the bloody rags she has used to badly bandage herself, "By all means. For all I've said, the idea of leaving this unfinished makes me feel sick."
Korriban looks at Callie's bandages and sighs, scratching the back of his head. "I don't know. We're really caught between a rock and a hard place here. I could see what grenades I have and we could try to take them by surprise."
"Fair point. If we drink some potions and are super careful, we could do some more scouting ahead at least. But we can't plan on charging through doors again." Callie looks pointedly at Riceak. She then adds with a smile. "Fun as that is."
"But if we hear something we can't handle we may need to be prepared to pull back. Or die in ignominy, as you will."
She scratches her head. "First, we should see what's in their footlockers though. Korriban, you want to try your hand at checking for traps? Then we can try the keys. Or pick the locks, whatever.
Amused at Korriban's reaction to coming to as he was she rose and said, "No, I don't think you're in heaven Korri, I am certainly not an angel." Her tone was laden with innuendo as she spoke and she blew a kiss at him before going to the remains of the cultist in yellow. Glaring at the woman's corpse she said, "Your goddess isn't all that after all it seems."
Amused at Korriban's reaction to coming to as he was she rose and said, "No, I don't think you're in heaven Korri, I am certainly not an angel." Her tone was laden with innuendo as she spoke and she blew a kiss at him before going to the remains of the cultist in yellow.
Korriban smirks and chuckles, despite the pain. "Yeah? I'm having a hard time believing that. Maybe you should show me?" He chuckles at his own flirtatious remark.
"Fair point. If we drink some potions and are super careful, we could do some more scouting ahead at least. But we can't plan on charging through doors again." Callie looks pointedly at Riceak. She then adds with a smile. "Fun as that is."
Korriban smirks. "Yeah. That was fun. They were like 'Oh no! Please don't hurt us!' and we were like 'Yeah, no. F**k you.'" He chuckles before cringing. "Ow..."
"But if we hear something we can't handle we may need to be prepared to pull back. Or die in ignominy, as you will."
Korriban nods. "Yeah. I guess you're right on that. We may need to fall back if things go t**s up."
She scratches her head. "First, we should see what's in their footlockers though. Korriban, you want to try your hand at checking for traps? Then we can try the keys. Or pick the locks, whatever.
Korriban nods. "On it." He moves to the footlockers and searches for any traps.
Korriban doesn't find any traps on the footlockers, and a close look actually reveals that they aren't locked either. Rifling through them, the group finds a number of rather disturbing personal effects, but also a number of more valuable objects:
[list]
Callie takes a good look at the robe using detect magic.
But she does not know what it does.
"As to the discussion we were having before, what do the rest of you think? Heal up and scout ahead carefully, or head back?"
Korriban shrugs. "You know my thoughts on the matter. Scout ahead."
Lantressa cautiously samples one of the potions, and her face lights up. "Oh, I know what these are! They're simple, basic healing potions. You get used to the taste, living up near the Wound." She rolls her eyes slightly.
"Well, that would have been annoying we hadn't known what it was--those can come in handy. If we're going to scout, I'll take a couple right now."
"Once we're all healed up, you wanna lead the way, Korriban?"
Callie also drinks her own potion of CLW that she's had in her pack.
Lantressa took one of the bottles and drank it after realizing what it was and felt her wounds heal up. "If you want I can take a couple extra of these to use on peaople during combat. I'm only going to have a small number of useful spells in me if we don't rest and that way I can at least contribute."
"Let's be careful. I have a bad feeling that there are more cultists here. May Desna and the empyreal lords help us."
Riceak wipes the blood off of his sword.
Korriban perks up when he hears about the potions. "Healing potions? Gimme, gimme, gimme!" He stops before he takes any and thinks about how many he can take and for the group to still be good.
Once you're all healed, you proceed forward. The door that the escaped cultist fled through still stands slightly ajar to the south so, reasoning that it's unlikely to be trapped, you approach it cautiously to proceed. The door does indeed prove safe, and pressing through, you find yourselves in a large hall--it's the room that, when you glimpsed it from the foyer, seemed to have the moving walls. You can see what caused that, now.
The hackles on the back of your neck rise. Behind thick panes of glass, fragments and even whole bodies of the living dead line the walls and floor of this chamber. Their rotting faces sneer and broken fingers claw at each other as the shattered forms twitch in vain, their splintered appendages grasping hopelessly. Yet rather than some massive, nightmarish grave, this horror show seems instead to be a stomach-churning attempt at art. Torches set in wall sconces provide illumination.
The two doors into the sleeping quarters you came from lie to the north; to the west lies a large double door, slightly ajar from your fight earlier, that must lead back into the foyer you started in. There are three more doorways: a double door to the east, carved with a massive skull, and two smaller, unassuming doors to the south.
Korriban grabs thee of the healing potions and downs them, trying to heal as many of his wounds as possible.
Korriban gulps as the group moves in. He looks around, absolutely horrified by what he sees. "Wow... These guys arranged these poor people into some sort of art pieces. This is insane..." At the original room, Korriban says, "Okay. Should we move on?"
Teodor studies the piece, tongue clicking, humming. "Not without skill but a little . .. on the nose, wouldn't you say? A trifle ...obvious. Dilletantes," he finishes with a spit.
Teodor tilts his head. "They're preparing for us."
Korriban curses at Teodor's report. "Damn it! What now? I could try to look over what I have. See if we can try and toss things into the room beforehand."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Callie swallows hard, trying not to be sick at the gory sight--and if she is able to compose herself at all, it is because she already recently had to deal with the sight of that awful harlequin's corpse desecrations earlier that day (was it really only earlier that day? Ye gods).
"If they're preparing for us... we could stay here or fall back into the last room. If they come looking for us, we can trap them in a bottleneck, rather than charge in where they might be waiting in ambush."
Korriban scratches his chin at Callie's suggestion. "Falling back to trap them sounds like a good idea. Should soften them up."
Tressa looked on at the disturbing sight of the mangled bodies twitching, it was...horrifying but yet oddly engaging. She looked on in disgusted fascination as her darker nature reveled in what it saw, her inner demon may have preferred a live victim writhing beneath her, or on top of her, in pleasure as it was drained of it's very life force but it found this too, enthralling, for what it was. She shuddered as her attention was dragged from the display by a sound to the east and she looked that way as she said, "Y-yes, I agree, we can't handle a serious fight if we aren't prepared for it. falling back and setting a trap is the better solution to dealing with them." She looked to her friends and asked, "Who will be the bait?"
Korriban thinks about Lantressa's question. "I could lure them. I could swap out my boots to wear my magical boots to help increase my speed."
"They're fortifying a place they can defend. They'd be fools to be lured out. Bigger fools than they already are."
"What, Teodor, you don't think you can lure them out with that silver tongue of yours?"
Callie nods when the others make motions to go back to the antechamber.
Korriban chimes in. "I could try and lure them out. I'm not as good as Teo when it comes to bluffing. But I am faster."
"Sorry, Korriban, I didn't mean to sound like I was ignoring you. You're welcome to it. I just was trying to prod Teodor."
"I enjoy a prod as much as the next guy, but they have little reason to chase out after us. We may have a siege on our hands."
"Fair enough, but we can try--and if they don't take the bait we can wait and rest, which still gives us something we need. If they want to leave at least the way some seem to come, they'd have to come through to the elevator anyway."
Teodor shrugs and nods. "True, a fair point."
He takes a quick swig and readjusts his mask, moving within yelling distance of the door. "The Queen has turned on us. We are surrounded by her Grey Maidens, the Griffin-Riders, and Hellknights. If we surrender now, we will be spared."
"Sorry, Korriban, I didn't mean to sound like I was ignoring you. You're welcome to it. I just was trying to prod Teodor."
Korriban waves off Callie's comment. "Ah, it's okay. Didn't feel like I was ignored. Just chiming in."
------
Korriban adjusts his mask. He doesn't change his boots, believing that there's no time. When Teodor shouts, Korriban aids him. "They're pouring in! We've been betrayed!"
Callie backs up a good ways so her voice sounds more distant than Korriban or Teodor's. Since Teo and Korriban have presented the idea of being beset by many invaders, she plays the part of the invaders.
"Surrender, you monkey-brained stooges of death!"
She casts ghost sound to create the sound of 20 people fighting: weapons clanging, and so forth, starting quiet but very slowly increasing in volume to make it sound like it is coming closer.
Lantressa gives a cry of, "No! Their about to breach the artistic tribute! STOP THEM!" She paused and then bellowed out. "Oh no, they're destroying our beautiful plague! THEY"RE HEALING THE VICTIMS WITH AN ANTIDOTE!"
You're all making a very convincing racket, as though the place was being invaded, and over the din you can hear noises of consternation from beyond the door. It sounds like a (short) debate, though you can't make out the details over the sound of the "battle" in the hall. Finally a clear voice cuts through, delivering a challenge:
"If we must die here in the service of our goddess, so be it! Come, you lapdogs of the law and of a traitorous queen--we've blades and plague enough for you all!" The voice sounds cold and furious, but also resolute: they really are prepared to die defending this place.
"A siege it is. Reinforce every exit. Let them DIE with their filthdreams."
Korriban whispers, "Wait. What if we say that these 'maidens' have Davaulus and are threatening him? Surely, those guys would come out for someone important like him."
"They already think he's dead. Zealots. We will eradicate them in time. "
Callie still maintains her spell, the noise of fighting still very slowly growing louder. "Did you hear something?" she asks in a high pitched voice.
"Probably these idiots begging! Get ready to start the fires!" she responds in a lower voice in a different accent.
She then goes over to the group to speak more quietly, hoping her spell and, indeed, the still-shut door is enough to prevent her from being heard by those on the other side.
"No, seriously. Do any of you have any lantern oil?"
"There's obviously nothing good going on here, and given we've already learned little else and taken out their leader, we probably have nothing to gain from exploring the other rooms. Let's just start a fire and burn these pigf!@&ers out--they'd destroy all the evidence by the time we came back anyway. These corpses are quite desiccated so they're probably flammable. We can put them to rest AND clean this place out. I've got a spell that can ignite a spark from a ways away. If we've got some oil and anything that might help get a fire going, like alchemist's fire--if we pour it out carefully, it won't ignite until it's lit or hit hard--let's burn down this 'art' and let the fire spread. We take the elevator back up and then destroy its mechanism. Then we'll help evacuate the patients and get out of dodge."
Callie knew what she was suggesting was barbaric, but it was becoming increasingly evident these cultists were incapable of reason, let alone redemption, and the sheer numbers of them they were encountering down just in this basement were a threat to Korvosa. The sight of the mutilated corpses alone were enough to goad her into her own idea of sickening violence.
Korriban looks at Callie in shock. "Whoa there, Blue. That's a tad extreme, wouldn't you say? We have to bring them in for justice. Besides, didn't we come here to look for your friend too? I don't think we saw him upstairs. Let's not start burning things yet." He checks his pockets. "Let's see. I got a tar bomb, four vials of alchemist fire, two smoke pellets, a smokestick, and some flash powder. Maybe I could toss in a smoke pellet, the smokestick, or the flash powder. I would just need know where in the room they're all lurking about."
"She's right. They must be burned out, like the disease they are. They must not escape."
Korriban frowns. "Yeah. But I'm not putting any potential victims down here at risk. That is one thing I refuse to do. If you two want to start buildings on fire, go outside and do it." He scratches his chin. "Here's a thought. Is the lift the only way down here? Are there stairs that we could look into? We could send another team to try and find them and then box them in."