The Herald works to injure Gad'larr with rapier and shield. "False decrier! I'll smite you in the name of the Living God!"
The Herald's rapier slips into Gad's defenses and scores lightly across his ribs, but not does not penetrate deeply.
Snarling, Gad sweeps his hand through the air in a subtle hint of his abilities as he tries to ignore the small
stab wound the false priest managed to make already.
"False priest! Thief! Liar!"
-Includes Dragon Style!
+Stunning Fist!
Fort DC:14
+ Flurry!
Provokes an attack of opportunity if not stunned!
Gad back-hands the masked man hard, then attempts to snap-kick the rapier out of the false-priest's grip.
Brezik advances towards Beltharion and the prone guard but stops for a moment to toss a throwing hammer past Vivian and at the guard still standing on his feet.
Qina followed the others up the steps staying just ahead of Allister. Not wanting more of these fake priests to come up the stairs after them, she reached her hand into her pouch and grabbed a hold of the slab of butter. Rubbing a tiny bit off, she turned and focused on the bottom half of the stairs while spitting out more arcane words.
Gad'larr's backhand crushes the man's mask into his face, causing him to drop his shield and rapier, allowing a follow-up snap-kick which nearly dislocates the man's wrist.
Brezik's hammer finds its mark, making a deep crunch as it impacts the priest's chest. The man, not taking kindly to this steps forth to attack Vivian.
The man's shield comes forward and knocks the breath from Vivian, allowing him find weak scales within her armor. The blade only just misses her vitals, though it still scores deep within her flesh.
The other priest, not recognizing the figure of the reaper above him moves to stand and stab out at the nearest foe.
The sword slips up the underside of Belathorian's chain though it only grazes his ribs on the way out.
Allister moves forth, his sword inexorable as his justice, Vivian's words inspiring him to find the weakness in the man's defenses and running him all the way through.
As the priest jumps to his feet Bel brings his scythe in, aiming to block the mans sword but gouging into his leg. The sword slips through and spikes his shoulder. Grunting in pain Bel reverses his grip on the scythe and swings it round once more, hoping to fell the man once and for all.
|
Vivian spits as she regains her breath and moves around Allister.
She continues down the balcony towards Gad and the apparent local leader. "Confess your crimes against Nirmathas and find what little grace there is for you in repentance!" Blood showing between her teeth and staining her lips a brighter red than normal.
The Herald continues to reel from Gad'larr's blow, moving slowly as the world spins around him.
Brezik charges forward bringing his axe around in a big vertical arc to drop the second guard. He looks at Belathorian. Grisly work...
"NO MORE!"
-Includes Dragon Style!
+ Flurry!
With a hazy notion of speed, Gad's furious punches land on the false priest's torso with thumping hollow sounds.
Brezik finishes what Belathorian started and Gad'larr drops the Herald with a couple of well placed punches.
Opposite the grand mask stands a pair of tall double doors, made from shining silver. Carved into their surface is the symbol of Razmir, beneath which dozens of supplicants are portrayed holding up piles of coins, jewels, and other wealth to the icon of the Living God.
|
|
Standing over the Herald at the elaborate doors, the adrenaline of battle doesn't fade from Vivian as quickly as the battle itself had left the room. She begins barking orders.
"Take 2 to recoup. I'll stabilize these three, but think it's wise to keep them under until we deal with what else lies ahead. Smoke'em if ya got'em. Breaching the door in order 1-3-2."
She then sets out stabilizing the three knocked-out men. If any seem to need a extra "tap" from Gad to prolong their nap she'll indicate it to Gad. "Bel, could you double check me on this one?" she says indicating to the Herald. "He seems out but if any of them are a danger, I feel it'd be him."
"Brezik, are their any traps on this door? It looks impressive...so that usually means dangerous in my estimation."
With the fight coming to an end Brezik retrieves the weapons off the three fallen priests as well as his own throwing hammer.
No reason to leave them armed, eh?
Then at Gad's behest he checks the large ornate door for traps.
There's a magic trap on the door. It will blast the people in front and just to the sides with terrible cold if opened.
Yeah, it's trapped. Back a safe distance while I do my thing.. The barrel shape dwarf waits for his friends to back to a safe distance and then kneals down trying to disable the trap.
Yeah, it's trapped. Back a safe distance while I do my thing.. The barrel shape dwarf waits for his friends to back to a safe distance and then kneals down trying to disable the trap.
[dice=Disabe device]1d20+10
[dice=Disabe device]1d20+10
Brezik tinkers with the trap, but his sleeve accidently brushes the door as he works, opening a freezing gale on his head.
He is able to throw himself backwards over the railing to avoid the cold. Pulling himself up he checks the door once more and it appears the trap is gone for good.
This room has many doors, three on each side and a pair of double doors opposite the entrance. In the center of the chamber, a twostep dais serves as a base for a sculpture made up of dozens of masks, carefully forged into a humanoid shape. Quite suddenly, a voice booms out from the chamber asking, Just as suddenly as the voice came, all is silent.
Hoping Brezik was ok, Gad shakes his head.
"Rats! We have a quandary and not much time. Think the answer is 'Razmir is the one true god'? Yeah...NO I didn't
think so either. I wonder what pounces on us if we give a bad answer? The statue? Qina? You were here before. Do you remember
anything about this question?"
|
Shaking the blood from his blade, Allister prepares for the next room. He stands at the ready behind Brezik and Captain Vivian.
Inside the room of doors, Allister begins to spin in circles looking at all the possibilities.
The true Gods? More than one?... Lightbringer Naabi used to say most people only believed in money and power. But that thing said who.
Allister looks at the other doors and wonders if there are traps on them, too. Are the doors magic or trapped?
Evlar's ruse will not keep them distracted for much longer.
Brezik tinkers with the trap, but his sleeve accidently brushes the door as he works, opening a freezing gale on his head.
Freezing!: 4d6 ⇒ (2, 5, 5, 3) = 15
Reflex: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (18) + 5 = 23
He is able to throw himself backwards over the railing to avoid the cold. Pulling himself up he checks the door once more and it appears the trap is gone for good.
As Brezik pulls himself back over the railing he laughs CHILL GUYS I'M FINE... ALLISTER YOU GET IT? CHILL...!!!
This room has many doors, three on each side and a pair of double doors opposite the entrance. In the center of the chamber, a twostep dais serves as a base for a sculpture made up of dozens of masks, carefully forged into a humanoid shape. Quite suddenly, a voice booms out from the chamber asking, Just as suddenly as the voice came, all is silent.
I Doubt that they mean any of the real Gods... or even Razmir himself. Prolly something more like what they told us when we joined... Something like fortune and Glory. Aren't those the words Egathis used... the path of fortune and Glory.
Gad snaps his fingers and smiles as he remembers a phrase the first priest had said before they were drugged and taken away.
"Power and Glory!"
The voice does not come back, but the statue made of masks in the middle of the chamber begins moving on its own.
"Uh, does anyone know what that thing is? I don't think I've ever seen one before."
"NO! Back away! This is my fault!"
Gad immediately pushes past Brezik, and attempts to get close enough to the construct for a swift kick attack to its knee.
Gad's kick shatters several of the masks that make up the construct's knee. It refuses to collapse and ponderously swings both arms at Gad'larr.
The first blow sends the golem to the knee Gad did not destroy, though the second still manages to clip Gad'larr painfully.
Bringing up the rear of the party Bel is the last through the doors into the room. He carefully closes the door behind him and is just looking arround for something to bar it with when the construct springs into life...
As the... thing moves for Gad bell moves to flank it swinging at the monster's intact knee as he does so
Belathorian hooks the blade of his scythe around the golem, however the masks allow his blade to slip through when he pulls and the golem remains on one knee.
Brezik runs around behind the Mask golem To get a flanking Position.
Brezik looking from the back realizes that most of the masks look like simple initiate masks but that there are a couple that look like higher steps masks... So he aims his Battle axe at a clump of those.
So 19 or 56 slashing damage no magic or anything....
Vivian manages to smash another section of masks holding the golem's form together.
Brezik takes a glancing blow as he circles around the construct's other side. While his axe is not the best tool for the job, appearing to scrape off the sides of several masks his overwhelming strength and power crash through the cluster about the golem's 'head', destroying everything in the axe's path. When he is finished there is little more than fragments about the ground.
As the dust settles and the fragments shift on the pedestal a pressure plate is released. An alarm begins to sound from somewhere distant...
Brezik smiles big. Well that went better then I would have thought.
The dwarf immediately turns and begins checking doors for traps and unlocking them as needed.
There doesn't seem to be anything to bar the doors with.
Brezik doesn't see any traps on any of the doors and is able to get the doors open for three of the single door rooms. The first room is well made and a cursory search finds a small chest tucked under the bed. The chest contains a necklace, bag, potion, and parchment. The second room is barren having little more than a mattress. The third room is immaculately clean, with the bed crisply made, the floor swept, and all of the personal effects carefully stored and organized.
A map of Tamran with a number of routes detailed hangs upon the wall.
In addition to the map, a small desk in the corner contains a number of pieces of blank parchment and a quill and ink. A half finished love poem dedicated “To Iramine, to celebrate your great conquest” lies on top of the desk, and a crumpled up piece of parchment in the trash bin beside the desk lists your names and Evlar. The list also gives notes about your performance as acolytes.
A gold dagger, set with a wide variety of colorful gemstones, rests in the back of the desk drawer.
A large plush bed on the south wall, facing a carved oak desk on the north side, furnishes this large and opulently decorated chamber. In the center of the room, a large carpet, woven with the mask of the Razmir at its center, spreads across the floor.
While there is nothing unusual about the bed, a small table positioned next to it bears a small whip, a pair of manacles, two bottles of Andoren brandy worth 20 gp each, and four vials of exotic perfumes worth 50 gp each.
Going through the bookcase Vivian discovers three ledgers hidden behind other books. One of these tomes chronicles every copper the temple has taken in since its founding, including detailed notes concerning how it was obtained. Most of the listed transactions are illegal in Tamran, from slave trade and drug deals to blackmail and protection schemes. The second ledger covers how the money is spent, from bribing known officials and guardsmen to paying for illegal goods and services. The tome also records a number of notes of tribute, covering vast sums of money sent back to Razmir for the Living God’s tithes. The third ledger, though mostly empty, covers all of the temple’s exploits in Kassen, including detailed reports from the priests sent there to retrieve the “fragments.” This ledger ends with a short paragraph
dated around 2 weeks ago.
Now that I have the completed
amulet, I shall return to the City
of Golden Death to finish what
was started all those years ago.
At the time, I thought Kassen was a
fool for insisting that we abandon
such wealth, but now I must thank
him. The treasure shall enrich the
Living God, so that he will never
die. Such is the price of immortality.
Now I must return to the Isle
of Terror, and I cannot say that my
journey will be without terrible
danger. May Razmir protect me.
The doors to the antechamber burst open, Egarthis striding in backed by two other Heralds, one the first you've fought not long ago, the other fresh. "PRETENDERS! I will prove my love to Iramine by killing you and sending your corpses to Razmiran!"
Without hesitation, Gad moves forward drawing some shuriken from his sash, then let's loose on the battered looking Herald from earlier!
"Brigands! Thieves! LIARS!"
+ Flurry!
|
|
As Vivian reads the most recent excerpt aloud and shows what the three ledgers contain she beings to pace excitedly. "This answers it! All the proof, where they have gone with the key.. we have to follow whoever this is. Two weeks, it's not too late.." Then Egarthis and the two Heralds bust through the doors...
"No longer Egarthis! Today you pay for your sins, you pay in full by the hands of the Keepers of the Flame!" Vivian then shifts a step to the side and summons an ethereal Great Sword next to one of the heralds with a powerful yell! "AHHHH!"
|
|
Allister rifles through the rooms, flipping mattresses and opening every drawer, carrying whatever his friends find in the bag of holding they found earlier.
When the priests burst into the room he grins to hide his fear. "Hey, Eg!" His greeting almost sounds genuine, but the gleam of his bloody greatsword says otherwise.
Allister glares at Egarthis and pulls his mask up so they can see his face. "What will Razmiran think of you letting a member of the Dawnguard join your cult?"
Allister will charge and power attack Egarthis
Qina had followed along quietly. She watched in awe as Brezik cleaved the statue of masks into pieces. She quietly searched around the room along with the others, but when Vivian found the evidence and began reading from the ledgers, her silence was broken. Countless lives ruined by these defilers. This would end here and now.
"You know, in some cultures, they take the eyes of thieves."
She forced her hand into her pouch and pulled out a smaller, tiny pouch. She didn't bother trying to untie it. She just squeezed it as hard as she could. Tiny grains of ground up mica leaked into her hand. She screamed the ancient words, the anger of something larger filling her lungs with fury. She held her arms up and drew the arcane symbols, summoning magical dust that clung to everything.
Gad'larr's shurikan are deflected by the shields of the Heralds. Vivian's weapon springs into existence and slashes the Herald. He still looks woozy, but he has his rapier and shield ready. Qina's spell takes place just before Allister's charge seemingly taking Egarthis by surprise.
"You have subverted the natural order of this place for too long, your false got is unnatural and I will see him dethroned. Your spiral however, ends here."
As Bel makes his pronouncement he advances to Al's side , facing the unharmed Herald.
Egarthis cries out as Qina's dust covers his eyes and stumbles backward into the railing. He throws his hand out where Allister was before him and screams arcane words of power. "Now you burn heretic!
የሚለበልብ ሬ!"
The ray screams over Allister's shoulder and sets the bed on fire!
Egarthis shakes his head and yells out again, "Now that I can see you fools are doomed by the Living God!"
The Heralds, however, take their opportunity to put the hurt on Allister.
Their strikes are opportunistic and vital, smashing ribs, cutting skin, and nearly rending organs. Allister drops in a slowly expanding pool of blood.
Brezik here's more of the fight then he can really see. He simply charges the only Enemy he can see.
Brezik here's more of the fight then he can really see. He simply charges the only Enemy he can see. [ooc] charging the unhurt priest
As Brezik arrives he loses a little of his drive... Allister needs help. Get out here guys.