The door to the south are stone and appear to have an elaborate locking mechanism with an indented seven-pointed star, but the others seem the same - wooden and with no visible lock.
Glancing about to ensure that everyone is ready, Elisile takes out Nualia’s seven pointed medallion – the one that the elf had advised Alwyn they keep for examination – and presses it into the indentation in the south doors.
Nothing happens - the medallion is the wrong size and shape. Whatever presses into the indentation has a number of protusions, rods and slits to fit the shape of the door correctly. The medallion is clearly not the appropriate key, and the door remains resolutely shut.
"Well, that was not what I expected, I'll admit that." Alwyn considers saying something about how the presence of the seven-pointed star lock clearly proves he was right about the medallion's inherent bsadness, but thinks better of it. Instead, he pushes open the door to the east.
Inside this room are three low tables with various grim-looking surgical implements. A strange plie of bones lies on the floor. All is covered with the dust of ages.
"Nasty! It looks like the previous owners tried to graft a small man onto the back of another." Alwyn picks up a few implements and look them over. "Sick freaks. Perhaps they, too, venerated the Mother of Monsters?"
Disgusted, Alwyn gives the table a good kick before turning to leave. "Any success in opening that door? Anyone find anything that looks like a key?"
Also, to one side is an odd looking-implement, different from the knives and saws. It looks like a seven-pointed star mounted on a long, curving handle, one surface studded with nodules and blades.
"Nevermind - I think I answered my own question." Waving his newfound gizmo, Alwyn runs excitedly back to the locked door. "This looks promising, no?"
Looking at the horrible, bladed contraption, Vethran swallows. "I don't know about 'promising,' but it does look like what we're looking for."
Elisile readies her bow, nodding for Alwyn to try the door.
Flanked by Hudak and Dravite, Alwyn slots the odd-looking key into the star-shaped indentation in the door and turns it.
Let's play.
Flanked by Hudak and Dravite, Alwyn slots the odd-looking key into the star-shaped indentation in the door and turns it.
With an audible click, the doors unlock.
As the lock opens, Alwyn flings the doors open.
The room is 40' east-west and 25' north south, with the double doors opening in the middle of the north wall. Opposite, on the south wall, is an immense seven-pointed star, while lighting the centre of the room is a fire pit, mysteriously still burning after millenia and filling it with the scent of damp, burning hair. In the western end of the room lies the still form of a naked woman in a foetal position, her back to the door. She lies in the middle of a circle of carved runes and glyphs, etched in silver metal on the floor.
know r: 2
"what the hell is this shit?"
Dravite puts his hook away and pulls out his bow, sliding an arrow into place and training it on the woman.
"I be jus' makin' sure she be covered. I donnae inten' ta be shootin' unless'n she be attackin'. HEY WOMAN! Git oop an' start talkin' ta us aboot who ye are."
"It's a summoning circle. It is used to trap and bind demons and whatnot. The body has to be some kind of trap - look at the thickness of the dust outside. Nobody's been here for millennia, and now we find a preserved body? NOBODY STEPS INSIDE THE CIRCLE!" Alwyn steps into the room. "Show yourself, demon!"
“I believe you are right,” says Elisile, “regarding both the circle and the dust; the claw-armed one did not come this far. I believe that the fiend we seek lies within that circle. Do not let its appearance deceive or tempt you.” She casts a quick glance that encompasses Hudak and Larken in particular.
“It is highly probably that the summoning circle acts as a prison, hedging it in. As long as we do not cross the circle we should be safe.”
The woman in the circle shudders where she lies, and makes a sudden, gasping inhalation as if she had been holding her breath for a long time. She rolls over on to her hands and knees and groans, and turns her head to peer mutely at the group confronting her. Her features are elven, her long hair coal black and her huge eyes green.
“Be alert,” murmurs Elisile very softly to those party members closest to the door (Alwyn, Hudak and Dravite). “The sanctity of the circle may already be broken, or close to it. The fiend may already be out.”
More loudly she calls into the room. “What are you? What is your name?” She keeps her bow trained on the woman.
The woman gazes at the group, coughs, and then whispers something hoarsely.
Her beautiful naked form is somewhat distracting to the more red-blooded, male members of the party .
"What's a nice girl like you doing in a skanky dungeon like this?"
The woman stands up unsteadily and faces the party, unabashed. She stares intensely at Hudak for a several uncomfortable moments, and than says haltingly, "Who... are... you...? Alaznist... send... you...?"
"You know Alaznist?"
Elisile glances at Vethran and Larken, both of whom seem to be at least somewhat conversant in ancient languages and history.
She looks intently at each of the party members, then over their heads and around the room, then down to floor, her gaze lingering on the summoning circle.
She looks back up at Elisile, and says:
"Why in the Nine Hells are we even talking to this thing? Only immortal beings could have survived imprisonment in this cell for more than a month - and it has been here for far longer than that. Don't you get it - she is the imprisoned demon!"
"She's kinda hot."
Illes cocks his head to the side unable to take his eyes off the woman. Speaking slowly he asks, "How do we know she's a demon? Demons don't look like that do they? She looks more fey to me. Maybe this Alznist was just a kinky wizard?"
"Aww, man;..." Hudak whines.....he knows he is no challenge for Illes in the lady's man department.
As an aside to Hudak he adds, "Demon or not, I wouldn't kick her out of bed."
Ezreal
Vethran cannot help but be entranced by the creature's beauty. However, he acknowledges the danger and steels himself.
In Thassilonian:
"Aww, man. She likes smart, language dudes."
The woman gives Vethran a dazzling smile. She speaks to him, gently cupping one of her breasts in her hand, and nodding towards Alwyn and Elisile.
"Kill them for me."
Larken has been slouching in the back, brooding and letting the rest of the party deal with the situation, but he gives a start as the woman speaks, and says "She's trying to convince Vethran to kill us. I don't think she's a damsel in distress."
At the same time, Alwyn cast Bull’s Strength on Dravite (lasts 30 rounds), and everyone who had them applied oil of Magic Weapon and quaffed potions of Protection From Evil (lasting 10 rounds each) … or at least Vatters and I suggested that’s what everyone did – no one really confirmed it, but no one said they didn’t either. Davos specifically said he was not casting his buff spells till it looked like battle was about to start. Illes had started his Bardic Music (but maybe stopped it to chat with Hudak?).
So the question is how many rounds have passed since the coin? I would guess … somewhere between 8 and 16 rounds.
Elisile ignores the woman’s question, keeping her bow trained on her. However, despite her intended vigilance, her attention is drawn slightly by Illes and Hudak’s conversation, and the hungry look that Vethran seems to be giving the naked woman.
By the time Larken gives his warning, her bow has lowered and she needs to reacquire her aim.
"Do not break the circle," she warns ... assuming it is not already broken ...
INIT R6+2=8
1d20=13+7 20 Initiative.