Anticipating a greater foe in the wings - and hearing that wicked name, knowing that they are in for a grievous fight - Lord Talfryn drwas a wand as he does his level best to reduce the number of foes against which they struggle while conserving his firepower.
Feeling his muscles freeze, Garvid grits his teeth defiantly, his sheer anger overpowering the magical spell. "So she is here!", he roars, ducking under the gangway, nodding at Yazi working her magic onto the cultist leaning over the vat.
Lunging upwards, his massive hand reaches between the gangway's bars, grabbing the man's leg as he yanks him clear out. Swinging him around, the man's head impacts the vat's plague-caked edge with a dull, soft crunch, his body skittering across the filthy floors with a pinkish-gray trail. "Andaisin!", he roars. "Come out and surrender now, and you'll live long enough to see the hangman in one piece!"
The cultist on the platform above Garvid collapses thanks to the shaman's curse.
I forget: was my magic missile wand only 1d4?
Lord Blackoak's missile strikes the cultist on the far side of the room, inflicting minor damage.
Garvid's unnaturally low voice echoes in the vaulted chamber as he ends a cultist's life in a grisly manner. Sounds of motion and shouts of alarm can be heard coming from rooms to the north.
Li's actions continue to be a blur of movement as she fires bolt after bolt.
Li snaps a bolt past the gargantuan legs of Garvid, striking the fleeing cultist in the back. He stumbles for a second, but keeps on running, calling out for Andaisin.
Li snaps a bolt past the gargantuan legs of Garvid, striking the fleeing cultist in the back. He stumbles for a second, but keeps on running, calling out for Andaisin.
The door into the eastern room is shut immediately thereafter by another cultist, and Garvid can hear a lock click in place. More shouting can be heard coming from the eastern room, and the guardsman can make out a few words: "Intruders ... Andaisin ..."
The room the group is in grows quiet, as everyone you faced is either dead or unconscious.
Lord Blackoak hears noises of movement and agitated conversation coming from both the rooms to his north and south, as well as from farther way from the west.
Breathing hard from the excitement and tension of the moment rather than exertion, Talfryn enters the room at last. He peers around the massive vats and the equally large Garvid, then gestures up to the door through which the guard had escaped yelling Andaisin's name.
"Quickly," he says, "Before they have much more time to prepare."
Garvid raises his halberd, throwing a glance at Lord Talfryn. "Lordship, I'm planning to knock.", he suggests, raising the colossal halberd in the air. As the wizard moves away from the door, he brings the blade down in a fury.
Not sure if attacks or sunder would be better versus a door. Was it wood, or stone? For the latter, I think I have an earthbreaker.
Garvid smashes at the door in front of him with his oversized halberd, knocking a fair chunk out of it, and leaving it hanging on one hinge. The face of a panicked but grim cultist can be seen on the far side.
Trusting that Garvid and the others had the escaping cultists in hand, Li turns her attention to the room they had just come through. If they thought they were going to attack them from behind then she is ready to make them think twice.
Li believes she does a good job jamming the door behind her, cutting her off from being ambushed from behind, but also complicating the group's only escape.
Lord Talfryn lets out a cry as he throws up one hand and unleashes a mote of folding light right into the cultist's face even as he peers past her to see if he can catch sight of this Andaisin...
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"Nap time! Unless you want my big friend to tuck you in..." Yaziyah curses the second cultist behind the door, hoping that the sight of the giant Garvid behind her won't give them too much anxiety. After all, cultists need their beauty sleep.
The cultist on the other side of the door resists Lord Blackoak's spell, but the fleeing one falls prey to the shaman's powerful hex, collapsing as she heads for the far door.
Another cultist appears in the new new room to Talfryn's right. He casts a quick spell, his eyes throwing daggers at the wizard.
Talfryn feels his muscles momentarily contract, but his mind is too powerful for the spell, and it fades to nothing.
The cultist who had just blocked the door steps back and intones another spell, erecting a luminous barrier around himself that sparks with purple lightning.
Talfryn also has a moment to look beyond the panicked cultists into the room they are occupying. The reek of burning wax wafts through this morbid chamber, with several tall, misshapen candles being the apparent source. Workspaces strewn with tall beakers of foul-colored liquids, parchments covered in insidious symbols, and cages of whimpering rodents fill large alcoves in both the northern and southern walls. A pair of huge stone doors hang ajar to the east, revealing a long hallway leading further into the dark. At the room’s center stand four large, cylindrical glass vats, each filled with a bubbling emerald fluid that tints the chamber’s light a noxious green. Within each suspension floats a malformed abomination—something part human, part angel, and part horse—things of half-formed muscle with dead, fleshless equine skulls. Three of the forms are motionless, but the fourth twitches now and then.
Back on the far side of the chamber the group is occupying, Li can hear loud voices shouting commands from the room to the west. Someone tries the door she has just spiked shut, but it refuses to open. There follows a hammering and someone shouting: "Let us in! The temple is under attack!"
Garvid shoves the doors completely open, readying himself for whatever weapons the cultists have readied as he stampedes into the room with a shout. What in the Hells are those?, he ponders for a moment, before choosing instead to focus his anger on the cultist he'd just passed. Swinging around, he brings the halberd's hilt into the purple-dressed minion's torso with a roar. "Where is she?", he roars.
AC: 17
DR: 4
HP: 69/69
Li is fairly confident the door will hold against those trying to get in. Obviously, those knocking didn't realize that the temple had already been breached.
Taking advantage of Lord Talfryn's magic, the rogue quickly moves forward and gets a couple shots off at the cultist she can see.
"Better see to all the ones we knocked out, in case their friends come to their aid. I say just roll them into the vats and leave them to drown." Yaziyah speaks over her shoulder to Li as she dashes herself up the northern catwalk, preparing to push the solitary cultist there into the bubbling vat below.
Talfryn stumbles back from the doorway, making room for the massive Garvid to power on through, and then aims his wand of magic missiles at the cultist just within sight and unleashes a bolt of crimson force into her face.
[ooc]I'm trying to shoot the one without Shield, so correct my movement/aim if I got the wrong target![/dice]
The two cultists swipe at Garvid as he passes them, but are still fumbling with their weapons and fail to connect.
Garvid knocks out the cultist near the door as he barrels his massive frame into the room.
Both of Li's shots hit the cultist, injuring him, but he is still standing, while Talfryn's missile batters him some more. Clearly outmatched, he steps back and strikes one of the noxious crystalline vats with the haft of his scythe. The vat shatters and the creature comes sliding out onto the floor covered in a sickly green liquid. It stands up and stretches, letting out a lazy roar as it looks around the room.
The cultist who released it clearly looks terrified and points at Garvid as it speaks to the creature. "Kill him ... please?"
The banging on the door to the west intensifies, and it sounds as if multiple people are now actively trying to batter it down. It seems to be still holding, however, for the moment.
"Leukodaemon!" gasps Talfryn as he recognizes the monstrosity. Face growing corpse pale, he begins fumbling at his belt gracelessly as if suffering a heart attack.
"Foul spawn of Abaddon! It - it spreads disease, and beware! It is resistant to all forms of damage unless dealt by silver - silver, and - and -"
He drops a scroll case then bends down with a gasp to snatch it back up.
"- and good aligned weapons! It is a ferocious foe! Beware!"
And with that he cracks open his scroll and in a faltering voice casts a spell, gesticulating at the demon, his voice growing stronger and more assured as he proceeds until he casts the last syllable in a shout.
As the daemon is released, Garvid pauses for a moment, clearly staggered by the creature's horrid visage and unnatural movement. Pausing to hear Talfryn's word, he pats his back for his silver dagger, before grinning, patting the halberd in his hands. Turning a mad grin to the wounded cultist, he lets out a laugh. "Oh, I will. But not because you told me to!", he shouts, as he ducks between the intact vats, lunging forward for a vicious stab.
Li reaches for her silver bolts as Lord Talfryn identifies the hideous creature. If it be spreadin' disease mebbe they be usin' it fer tha plague.
The rogue's eyes narrow in disgust as she fires two silver bolts at the leukodaemon.
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Calcedon focused on the papers in front of him. Although they lacked the clarity and beauty of music, he had to say he wasn't displeased. The docking profits were up, the stables in the manor were being used as high end security for breeding horses and destriers from nearby well-to-do nobles and businessmen alike who have no walls. And the walls were themselves being repaired, bit by bit. If the city itself wasn't crumbling, he'd have good opportunity to continue extending House Fordyce's holdings. But the city was crumbling.
Pressing his three-fingered hand against his temple, a war waged within. Was it the right decision to move to financier? Was he not called by Zellara to be, to do something different, more direct? How was he supposed to move forward from here? Why was she still not speaking to him? How long would it be before the plague killed them all? What good was money if it couldn't buy an hour?
He looked out the door to the balcony, gazing over the smoking city, squinting his eyes at the movement outside the walls. Voris was still out there, searching for gods know what. He didn't like that the man had left without a word, and he really didn't like if he caught something and would bring it back to the manor. Almost to answer his concern, a shout came up from the courtyard. "First Chair!"
In a flurry of papers, he bounded over a pile of expensive sheet music weighed down with a cymbal, and out to his stone railing he was accustomed to pacing with a violin in his hands. There was something about the tone that he was called that sped his response.
"Report?" He shouted down at Lannah, the source of the call.
The girl started at the quick appearance, but she quickly recovered.
"Voris sent word!" She said, holding up a scroll.
Something was definitely wrong. Not only was the old man not returning to dote on his daughter and granddaughter, but he also didn't know even how to read, much less how to write. Rushing down the stairs he met the girl in the great hall as she was about to ascend the three flights he was cascading down. Without a word he grabbed the scroll, which looked a bit weathered from time rather than from use.
"Where is he?" He asked as she shook her head with no more information. "Who brought this?"
"Kevlast." She mentioned as he continued scanning the document. Gazing in wonder as the manner of his countenance shifted.
His mind whirled as he made the connections, it should have been easier than this. Where were they headed again? "Tell Henrik to fetch my armor. I've got an errand."
Finding the Hospice of the Blessed Maiden was quite easy, as everyone in West Dock avoided that block of warehouses like the plague. In fact, it was because of the plague that the area has become a no-go zone for everyone except the mysterious Queen's Physicians and their Gray Maiden protectors.
To his surprise, Calcedon found the front door of the Hospice wide open. Passing through the small foyer, he entered what appeared to be its main treatment ward, as it was covered with cots containing those infected with the dreaded blood veil. Some appeared to be unmoving, while others moaned in pain or desperately called for help. No Maidens or Physicians were to be seen, however, leaving the musician to wonder what had happened here. That's when he saw the body.
It was that of a Gray Maiden who was lying with her back against the eastern wall, her helmet and head caved in by a massive blow from a blunt object. Blood and brain matter covered the wall behind her, and her longsword still held in her rigored hand.
Leaving the body, Calcedon quickly scouted the rest of the level only to find it unoccupied. He discovered that one of the back loading gates had been opened, and that another back room contained an elevator shaft whose platform seemed to currently be in the building's basement. While studying the mechanism to see how it operated, he heard two sets of voices coming from different directions, one from the level above, and one from the bottom of the elevator shaft. The voices from below seemed clearer, as if traveling unobstructed to his ears, while the ones from above were muffled by the intervening floor and perhaps a door.
The sounds from below were mainly those of a single individual barking commands at others, combined with the sound of quite a few people moving about. Judging from the man's accent, he was obviously Korvosan and not from the city's upper classes. He was snarling about an "intrusion" and telling others to "find and kill them". The voice also had a familiar ring to them, although he could not place it.
The voices from above were of a number of individuals who were calmer, but who could not be clearly understood because of the intervening barriers.
Lord Blackoak focuses his mind on the daemon while casting the spell, attempting it to infect it with the unluck of the pugwampi, but can feel the magic simply evaporating as it reaches the creature.
Krein then moves to confront the creature, but finds that is is preternaturally agile and doges his halberd attack with ease.
Li is likewise unsuccessful at harming the leukodaemon, her aim thrown off by the lone cultist still standing in her way.
Hearing her companions call out from the other room, Yaziyah rushes in to help. Seeing the daemon, she crosses her fingers and mumbles: "Sleep."
The creature's knees buckle as it falls to the floor unconscious.
The lone remaining cultists shrieks in panic as he sees the daemon fall the floor. He steps back and gives it a quick boot to the abdomen to rouse it, screaming "Wake up, wake up, please wake up!!!" The daemon's eyes flick open and it mutters something in its language, its gaze fixed on Yaziyah.
"Oh do be shuttin' up," Li mutters. Needless to say, the rogue is annoyed her shots missed because of the evil cultist. The last thing she wants to do is miss again because the sniveling cultist is in the way. Therefore, she has to remove the obstacle to get to the real threat.
Seeing the demon prostrate on the ground, Garvid's reflexes kick in. "Stay down!", he roars out, his heavy boot slamming into the horse-head of the demon, the cracking of bone and flying of teeth clanging into the room. "Stay down!", he continues shouting, swinging the halberd down, but the blade catches in the shards of broken glass.
Li's first bolt pierces the remaining cultist's arm, but the second fails to penetrate his armor. He grimaces at the pain, shouting "Just you make me!" at the diminutive woman.
Garvid's halberd slams into the daemon's back as it attempts to right itself, inflicting a nasty wound. Before his astonished eyes, the wound partially closes up a split-second later.
"There's no way this will end well." Calcedon mused, with a furrow in his brow. He longed to pull out his violin and soothe the people's suffering as best he could, but if he did so, it's possible that death waited for more than just these.
Kneeling down on the floor next to the dead grey maiden, he breathed out a bit of an apology. "I'll be borrowing your fashionable cape. Should I have occasion to return it to you, I will, but it may not be so easy." As he spoke, he worked, removing the crimson cloth attached to her armor.
"I'm sorry. he replied, as if she had objected to the taking of her cloak. "I wouldn't be doing it if it wouldn't save lives. Aren't we supposed to do that if we can?" The cloak at last came free of the armor and Cal wrapped it around his own shoulders in a flourish. As he did, something about his physicality began to shift. His facial hair melded into his skin, his cheeks became less angular and his chin narrowed. Features all over his body became more feminine, and he lost about three inches out of the deal. In actuality, he ended up looking a lot like Li but distinguishable.
"They say imitation is form of flattery, and so I hope you'll take it as such." Looking very much different than when he came in, he took a moment to lay a hand on the fallen maiden's stomach. "I'll give you proper tribute for your bravery, I promise. Do keep an eye on the rest of these people for me, alright? It's time to go to work." With that he made his way toward the lift, hoping he was working it right, and activated the device.
Talfryn gathers himself and peers past Li through the doorway into the room wherein the daemon battles. Extending a shaking hand, he calls forth, "నాశనకరమైన వేళ్ళ నుండి మరణించినప్పుడు మరణం!"
Putting the demon to sleep a second time would not work, so instead she focuses on the remaining cultist. These did not seem much of a threat, but it was wise to thin their numbers whenever possible, or temporarily remove them from the fight so that they could focus on the larger menace.
Calcedon tinkers with the lift device for a few seconds and discovers how to recall it from the basement, and it slowly begins to climb back up the shaft. Once at his level, he quickly inspects the controls on the lift platform, and causes it to descend into the darkness. The sound of much running around and shouting can still be heard coming from below.
--------------------------------------------------
Talfryn's fire spell sizzles ineffectively as it interacts with the leukodaemon's supernatural aura.
The cultist nearest the leukodaemon drops into unconsciousness.
Still on the ground, the daemon hinges its maw open to an unnatural angle and exhales. A swarm of fat, purple flies stream out toward Garvid, enveloping the guard in a buzzing and biting haze, tearing at his flesh. The creature then stands.
Back on the far side of the other room, the door continues to be battered by a number of people trying to break them down.
Now that the cultist is on the ground and no longer blocking her shots, Li takes aim at the leukodaemon just as it expels purple flies.
"I don't want ta be knowin' what they be feedin' ya. Gross."
Releasing a couple of silver bolts in its direction, the rogue makes sure she stays away from the flies.
"Aaaaargh!", roars out Garvid as the flies begin to cover him. A brutal hit from the halberd's tip carved a deep wound into the daemon's flank, as the guardsman rushes through the tanks, waving the flies away. He braces the halberd's hilt on the side of his boot, as he urges the daemon forwards with an open palm.
Yay, DR!
AC: 19/10/19
Rage Rounds: 5/16
DR: 4
Yaziyah retreats behind Garvid to put some distance between herself and the one cultist that remains standing, looking the big man over with concern. She hopes that those flies don't carry too many diseases... meanwhile, she flicks her hand at the cultist almost as an afterthought, attempting to magically confuse them.
Yaziyah retreats behind Garvid to put some distance between herself and the one cultist that remains standing, looking the big man over with concern. She hopes that those flies don't carry too many diseases... meanwhile, she flicks her hand at the cultist almost as an afterthought, attempting to magically confuse them.
Now that there was only the monstruous creature to face, Yaziyah recalls Talfryn's lecture from earlier.
"Silver? I have silver."
Loading a silver-tipped bolt into her crossbow, she fires at the leukodaemon.
The demon's resistance to magic irks Talfryn to no end; sweating profusely, he pats at his figure as if seeking inspiration, some scroll or ring or item of power that might just hold the solution to this dilemma.
Then he lets out a cry of delight, clutches his pearl of power, and casts his hand in the demon's direction, causing a cascade of glittering golden motes to appear about their enemy.
Despite the forceful strikes from Garvid’s halberd, the leukodaemon staggers to its feat, the empty eye sockets of its skull glaring at the mortal man with a stone-cold silence, its claws flexing.
fail
But Talfryn’s cloud of blinding coruscation envelopes the daemon, blinding it. It roars and thrashes, the stench powerful even above the chymic reactions in the lab.
hit
hit
miss
fail
___________________________
Calcedon: 46/46
Garvid: 63/63, sickened
Li: 53/53
Talfryn: 46/50
Yazi: 37/43
Leukodaemon: -54, blind
Li is momentarily mesmerized by the glittering gold that suddenly covers the leukodaemon. "Pretty," she murmurs. But then a wave of stench assaults her nose, "an' gross."
Grabbing a few more silver bolts, her dexterous fingers make quick work of loading and firing them at the daemon. I be hopin' it ain't be smellin' worse when it be dead.
Her magic mostly exhausted or useless against the creature, Yaziyah follows Li's example and loads her crossbow with a silver bolt. How can she shoot them so fast? These old hands don't move fast enough.
Talfryn lets out a small cry of elation as his spell takes hold, and gathering himself he once more extends a shaking hand and calls forth, "నాశనకరమైన వేళ్ళ నుండి మరణించినప్పుడు మరణం!"
Li’s crossbow bolt strikes the creature’s skull in the eye, disappearing into the blackness beyond, but not before shattering a portion of the its zygomatic bone. .
Yazi’s attempt to shoot the daemon with a bolt of her own falls short, as the bolt merely ricochets off the wall behind it.
The arc of Talfryn’s ray goes wide , striking and shattering another of the four large, cylindrical glass vats filled with a bubbling emerald fluid. The liquid crashes across the floor, releasing the creature within to fall to the ground. It is another leukodaemon, a malformed abomination—something part human, part angel, and part horse—a thing of half-formed muscle with a dead, fleshless equine skull.
Luckily, this one appears to have predeceased its sibling, and lies motionless on the floor.
Garvid takes a step back, distancing himself from the thrashing abomination, then plunges the tip of his halbard toward its chest. The creature’s thrashing deflects the weapon, knocking it aside .
miss
miss
From the doorway, a lively violin caprice fills the room. Calcedon arrives, his instrument tucked expertly beneath his chin, his fingers flying over the strings.
The creature attempts once more to wipe the remnants of Talfryn’s spell from its eyes...
success
Its jaw unhinges and it unleashes a roar, one that leaves a ringing in your eyes. The darkness in its skull promises an especially painful death.
___________________________
Calcedon: 46/46
Garvid: 44/63, sickened
Li: 53/53
Talfryn: 46/50
Yazi: 37/43
Leukodaemon: -70