The acolytes start to unload the crates from the wagon. They manage to get Vixie & Maxilla's crate off the wagon when one of them pauses.
"...wait. Did you guys hear something?"
The senior priest starts walking towards the wagon. "Hurry up, you! No dithering about!"
Wincing internally at the little voice and continued to unload, and pop lids, as fast as he could manage.
Max waits quietly and patiently inside the box until it is opened. The first actual cultist they lay eyes on, the eyes will blink wetly. "Reeeeeetinzzzzzz new mazzzzterrrrrr!"
They will then draw upon the power of Father Apsu to lock the person up with their slitted draconic eyes.
Khalaban gets to work unloading the crates. His prodigious strength allows him to unload two crates--one much lighter than the other.
Then he opens the box--and Maxilla emerges.
The acolyte blinks in surprise and recoils. "What the F+@!?!"
The rest of the crates suddenly fly open, and the forest marshal team emerges!
Vixie pops up like she was born in a Jack-in-The-Box, bringing her shield up in a surprise uppercut on the nearest masked man!
The small creature bedecked in cake-themed o-yoroi armor is a sight to behold as she makes pretty decent contact!
The acolyte's head snaps back as Vixie's shield smashes into his mask. "OW! What the hell?!"
Khalaban swung around, heading for the head acolyte and trying to decapitate the leadership of this little squad before they could call for aid. Or at least give it a substantial concussion. "Master, what's happening? Help me!" Maybe it would avoid the attention before suddenly summoning his kinetic weapon and striking.
Khalaban whirls on the senior priest. "Wait a minute--"
Then, with a sudden eruption of earth, a club bashes the priest right in the mask. The man lets out a shout of pain and reels from the blow!
The forest marshal team start lunging for the priests. "By order of the Forest Marshal, you're under arrest!" Thorne shouts, leaping at the cultist Vixie bashed!
Only for the stunned cultist to stumble away from his grasp.
Davison throws himself at the cultist Maxilla tried to stare down...
...and he manages to seize the man by the arm!
Omalia steps up to help Thorne subdue his target...
...and she gets one arm around his neck and puts him in a chinlock!
Speier and Galek try to pin the senior cultist to the ground!
Galek's attempt fails, but Speier manages to grab the senior priest around the waist!
Khalaban moved to intercept the priest who had managed to escape the grapple. "Secure their mouths, if you all please, so that they cannot raise the alarm." He summoned the Earth to his hand at the same time to bonk the stumbling priest.
Khalaban's strike hits the one priest who wasn't part of the ruckus squarely in the head, knocking him into the mud. He lets out a groan of pain before lapsing into unconsciousness.
The marshals start trying to pin the cultists down!
Omalia promptly wrestles her target to the ground and puts her knee on his neck. "Suspect secured."
Davison follows suit with his cultist.
Or, at least, he tries to. He loses his balance and ends up right in the dirt with the acolyte on top of him.
Galek grunts and moves to seize the acolyte...
...and manages to grab him around the mouth, trying to wrench him to the ground.
Speier moves to pin the senior priest!
Unfortunately, the priest slips out of her chinlock and roughly throws her to the ground. Thorne leaps in to grab him!
And he comes up short as well!
The acolytes start thrashing, trying to escape from the marshals arresting them.
Galek's suspect struggles mightily to throw the half-orc off, but can't get enough leverage to do so.
Omalia's suspect, rather incensed by how easily she pinned him, aims a punch right in her stomach. The ranger doubles over wheezing and he rolls back to his feet!
Max throws open his cloak to reveal the embossment of the Waybringer!
"Dad, please help us stop the bad man in charge from getting away!"
If successful, a large set of dragon jaws appear in the path of the escaping leader ready to chomp some cultist.
However, it is unlikely that the Surprise Nibble will help matters...
Vixie hups as she raises her shield, covering herself as she retrieves her foxtail bill from a nearby crate.
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
Meanwhile down in the basement Redacted
The jaws of Apsu attempt to close around the senior priest, but he ducks underneath them and starts to race for the door!
When he reaches them, he fumbles in his pocket, looking for something...
Grunting in annoyance, Khalaban followed the senior priest and prepared to give him a little tap.
Khalaban swings his earthen club--and misses.
The forest marshal team start wrestling with the acolytes anew, with Omalia throwing herself at the acolyte who escaped her grasp...
...only for the man to duck under her and punch her in the gut again.
Davison attempts to help Galek secure his suspect!
And Galek tries to force the man to the ground!
In fact, it's only thanks to Davison's help that he manages to do so.
Speier moves to grab Omalia's resisting suspect.
And she gets shoved back as well.
Thorne tries to grab the senior priest and wrestle him into submission...
...and gets an elbow to the nose for his trouble.
The surrounded acolyte pulls out a short sword from his belt and tries to stab Omalia!
And he manages to nick her collarbone, drawing blood. Omalia winces but keeps trying to subdue him.
The pinned acolyte tries to escape...
...to no avail.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
...my word. Lyrienne is remarkably limber. And skilled.
Vixie hups out of the cart, landing on the floor and running after the senior priest with her billhook in-hand. As she approaches the masked man, she lashes out, trying to snag his ankle!
It probably doesn't work!
The senior priest kicks the billhook away.
The jaws continue to pursue the person in charge of this area lamely, being more gums than teeth, apparently. Or they were trying not to bite law enforcement on the tail....
Max heads for the boss.
"Daaaaadddd. Quit playing around and eat the bad man already!" Max offers with a tone of frustration as they rub the symbol on their breastplate. Or heal the folks who are trying to be Good here.
Omalia's injuries promptly heal--and so do those of the senior priest and the acolyte the two women are attempting to subdue.
The senior priest finally fishes out a wrought iron key and attempts to open the door with it--leaving himself open!
Vixie, who also gets an AoO (Mom said I could!) tries again! This time she threads her spear between his feet and cranks it backward as hard as she can...
Vixie does, indeed, yank the senior priest right onto his ass.
Khalaban swore as the man fled, and tried to punch him as Vixie brought him down.
Khalaban lands a solid punch on the priest.
The forest marshals continue to wrestle with their acolytes. Galek fishes out a length of rope and ties his cultist up while Davison moves to help secure Omalia's and Speier's target.
Davison, Omalia and Speier all draw their swords and start laying into the cultist with the flat of them!
Davison and Speier viciously beat the armed acolyte to the ground and keep swinging until he's an unconscious, bloody pulp.
Omalia races over to assist the rest of the party in subduing the senior priest!
The priest rolls to the side and avoids the incoming flat of the ranger's blade.
Seeing as how the rest of the rangers have drawn blades, Thorne draws his as well and starts trying to beat the senior priest...
...but the priest is proving to be quite agile, even on his back.
Seeing that things are generally well in-hand at this point, Vixie prepares to trip him again if he gets up.
Max moves up to provide a flank for the deputy immediately next to the senior cultist to help apprehend the guy. Morning star in hand, they stare intently at senior cultist. "The Maker of All will free your soul, if you but allow it."
The bitey maw appears to be holding back laughter at the antics of the nonscaled and their 'son' trying Very Hard! as it misses once again then vanishes.
The priest doesn't seem to be at all affected by Max's stare...
...but he IS affected by the party's wrestling and beating him into unconsciousness.
"Quickly, now, check for any incriminating documentation and or illicit parephenalia on them... secure that key. Once we get them tied up, we can use the crate to incarcerate them. Maybe if we tie or cuff them together we'll slow down any escape attempts, as well?" Max more directs than suggests, but they aren't seeming to notice the command air they are exuding.
Khalaban checked the man was secured, muttering that he had a head harder than Datyldo (a being made of literal rock), and then secured the key before going to see what evidence could be found.
Max does their level best to check out the captured cultists for equipment and resources for both the team and for the deputies to use.
Vixie also looks around the room! ...Kinda.
A search of the cultists reveals the following items:
-- gold pieces;
--2 potions of light blue fluid;
--1 masterwork rapier;
--1 suit of grey studded leather;
--1 masterwork light steel shield;
--2 sunrods;
--1 ring of iron keys.
It appears that these cultists don't have any particularly incriminating evidence on them.
"In that case we shall have to ask where what we need are located," Khalaban said as he held the keys and considered. "I do not suppose any of you fine gentleman would be willing to offer some hints without any coercion? Please be clear, I am not a member of the guards. I am perfectly capable of coercing."
The lone conscious and bound acolyte gives Khalaban a goggle-eyed look. "After that? Um..."
He starts thrashing around in his bonds. "HELP! HELP! HELP!"
The rangers all converge on him...
Sighing, Khalaban strode over and picked up the screaming man. By grabbing him around the mouth and hauling him to, then off, his feet. "Please do not do that. It will be greatly inconvenient if I have to hurt more of you." Khalaban smiled. "Now, those documents, please?"
"ULK!"
The cultist shuts up when Khalaban grabs him. He frantically points at the temple.
"...yeah. Yeah, you're a natural at this."
Adriana gives a innocent smile,"You are not bad yourself."
She looks around at the others and is wondering where is everyone.
While this has been going on, Max has been going around to the rangers seeing how they are doing, and once the prisoners are secured gets the injured ones out of the radius of the prisoners and helps them heal up a bit more.
Vixie mostly takes some time to pass out snacks to the rangers, following right behind Maxilla. "I-it's important t-to stay f-fed!"
Max manages to heal a few of the ranger's more painful injuries. They're all quite happy to take a few snacks from Vixie.
But you do notice something else--a noise that seems to be coming from behind the throne you're sitting on.
It sounds like something hissing.
Adriana will carefully investigate the hissing sound.
How often does debauchery happen in here if it didn't wake this sleeping animal up?
"I-is everyone r-ready? D-does anyone need j-juice? O-okay! L-let's go!" Vixie takes a dramatic stance, pointing down the hallway with her bill.
There are like, three doors down that way, and she's not pointing at any one in particular.
"Thank you for your help. Please do keep quiet. Thank you." Khalaban lowered him to the ground and pointed to the temple area. "This way, please."
"We'll keep the courtyard secure and open for the rest. Get going!" Speier says as the party approaches the doors. The ranger team gets to work opening the courtyard gates.
The temple doors open with the proper key.
Grand tapestries depicting the might and power of Razmir hang from the walls of this long vestibule, and a richly embroidered carpet runs down the center. Opposite the large doors leading outside is a pair of tall, slender doors, with a gigantic silver mask emblazoned on the front. A pair of smaller doors is set into the north and south walls. A flickering green light plays throughout this chamber from masked sconces that run along the walls.
A pair of white-robed, masked priests stands on either side of the interior double doors. They turn to look as the doors open--and immediately draw steel when they see who's standing in the doorway.
"Intruders. You are not welcome here." One says.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" yells Vixie, who charges immediately.
"...well, so much for subtlety." Omalia sighs as she opens the gates.
"Um....did anyone know that there was a giant snake in here?