Zamanda follows, hanging back quite a ways, but her bow ready to hit anything coming at the party.
Bashiel quickly follows after Varor with a "Varor, wait, not so fast! We don't know what could be-" He stops mid sentence as he looks around at the skull encrusted room, half-expecting the trap to immediately reactivate. When it doesn't he sighs and heads to the door in the north east end of the room.
If he doesn't spot any problems with the door, he'll pause for a moment to allow some of the others to take a look. If no one calls out in alarm, he'll open the door and proceed with longsword drawn.
Pel follows after everyone else, grateful that Quin was able to disarm the trap... however unorthodox his method may have been. Though Pel sticks to the back, he doesn't linger, moving through the skull-lined hallway as quickly as possible.
"We don't know what other tricks the cultists may have in store for us. Please be careful," Pel whispers to the others as loudly as he dares.
"Agreed Pel. Keep those eyes and ears looking for trouble everyone."
Nothing else leaps out or sprays upon the party while it traverses the corridor of skulls. Varor and Bashiel move up to inspect the door at the end. Bashiel determines it to be free of any traps and likely unlocked.
Not willing to linger too long in the creepy skull-lined corridor, Bashiel steps forward and opens the door to the east. As he steps into the next room he keeps his longsword at the ready to deal with any surprise attacks.
Pel follows Bashiel through the door, but is careful to stay behind the paladin. As Bashiel keep his longsword at the ready, Pel also readies to cast a couple magic missiles should anything immediately attack them.
Zamanda steps into the alcove opposite the door so she can shoot through it if necessary, staying back, but ready to assist.
Varor holds his scimitar at the ready, taking in and releasing a long breath as Bashiel opens the door.
Quinlan, like the others, stands near the door, shortbow in hand with an arrow nocked and ready...
The door opens and on the other side you find wooden tables stacked with vials, beakers, and other alchemical gear, although the southern one is heaped with broken vials and leans awkwardly on a hastily repaired leg. Three large cauldrons sit against the east wall, one of them upended. Its foul, rancid contents—old rendered fat—have spilled onto the floor. Within the room is one of the cultists. Rather than ready for combat, though, he seems panicked and stammers as the door opens, looking left and right as he tries to figure out whether to fight or flee.
-----------------
Unable to see and feeling claustrophobic, Zamanda walks into the room and opens fire when she sees the enemy.
(just in case that hits)
Kalem ran forward and swung his hammer at the man. He could feel the power of his blood pushing to come out, but he held it back. He was already strained from the excursions of the day and knew that there would likely be more dangerous foes to come.
Bashiel moves quickly to cut off the cultist's escape, but the confusion of the cultist is echoed in Bashiel's own thoughts. Why is he surprised? I thought this whole den of evil would have organized against us by now. Or is this...
The sudden sense of unease causes him to adjust his blade mid-swing to a less lethal blow.
...an illusion, enchantment, or trap?
Seeing Bashiel and Kalem go on the attack Varor takes a moment to decide on his own plan of action and quickly moves to one of the wooden tables while sheathing his scimitar.
Quinlan steps into the room behind the front liners... He's a bit confused by the enemy's demeanor... the fellow seemed more frightened than enraged, and might be willing to talk if captured... but when he sees the party lay into the man with such lethal effect, he loses much hope of taking him alive... still, he steps forward and switches from his bow to his rapier... he makes no attack though, having spent his round changing weapons...
With only a single cultist present in the room, Pel decides it's best to hold off on using his remaining arcane reserves on the man.
Pel takes a step into the room , and loads his crossbow before firing it at the cultist.
Kalem and Bashiel charge forth as Zamanda's arrow flies past them, sinking into the cultist's shoulder. The melee combatant's paired blows quickly drop the man and send him to the brink of death.
Kalem spat on the man as he lifted his hammer and turned his back. ”One more down. I don’t know what they were doing here, but he deserved worse than what we gave him. We should hunt down the rest of them.”
Zamanda casts Detect Magic and looks around to see if there is anything valuable in the room before they move on.
Bashiel furrows his brow at the fallen cultist "His shock was strange. Didn't make sense..." Bashiel mutters his thoughts as he concentrates.
Bashiel will try to stabilize the gravely injured fellow.
Bashiel's concerns lift a little and he says "...He does seem to be one of the cultists. I suppose we should forward like you're suggesting Kalem."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Varor moves over to the dying cultist and quickly pulls out Zamandas arrow, offering whatever healing he can.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
”Are we equipped to take a prisoner?” What he wanted to say was ‘just kill him already’, but with two priests around it seemed like a bad idea. That, and his fingers were itching like crazy...
Pel's not the best when it comes to healing magics. He's much better with the arcane variety. As such, he lets Bashiel and Varor handle saving the man.
At Ilsa's remark, Pel says, "That's possible, I suppose. I think it's also possible he was just surprised by us."
The arcanist looks over at Bashiel and says, "Is he evil?"
Bashiel tries to get a sense of the cultist's motives and detects the traces of foulness and darkness one would find on a junior member of an evil faith.
The Pharasman acolyte steps up behind Bashiel and Varor, looking down at the fallen cultist and scowls. "I agree with the tiefling. Better to let him die and rid the world of his taint." But as Varor saves the man from death, he merely shrugs rather than argue the point further.
Looking around the room, you see a passage heading east and a door to the south. Zamanda also discovers a secret door on the north wall.
From the east, Zamanda and Ilsa both hear something. Voices. But not the cultists. It's muffled and the gender is indeterminate but it sounds like it could be a call for help.
"Do you all hear that? It sounds like someone needs help. Kill him already, Pharasma will sort it out. We have to go."
Zamanda tells the people over the fallen man If he has a holy symbol, take it away at least so that he can't channel to kill us all.
After discovering the secret door, she quietly lets the rest of the party know, without being loud enough for the sound to travel to another room.
There is a hidden door here.
After hearing what could be a call for help from the east though, she attempts to be stealthy and peek down that corridor.
Bashiel shakes his head in distaste "I can feel the evil of his faith in him. He's just a fool, not a trap. Kalem's right though, we're in no shape right now to take prisoners. But..." He looks over his shoulder at Varor as the elf applies his healing powers "We can leave him unconscious and pick him up afterward. Cressida will likely want to have someone to question." Cyric is right though. For those devoted to Urgathoa as he is, there's little chance of turning away from their choice. Best he dies and seeks redemption in his next life. Likely more merciful than leaving him to Cressida's questioners.
While the others keep their eyes and ears open, Bashiel divests the cultist of his worldly possessions, taking particular care to grab his holy symbol with a piece of cloth rather than touching it directly (not taking his armor though, in interest of time).
"Let's find the source of those voices." He focuses his own attention to the east passage to try to catch the call for help Kalem and Ilsa mentioned.
As Varor finishes healing the man and starts searching for an unholy symbol he bites down his words, not wanting to start an argument. "I help those that I can," He says.
Quinlan nods at the exigency of needing to move on, though he regrets not being able to take a prisoner and question him... much could be learned about what they might find in other rooms... Varor, I know I counseled toward taking a prisoner and questioning him, but the others are right, we don't have time right now... best leave him here and let him pass... if we need a prisoner, we'll try to take one later. We're running out of time."
Quinlan quickly checks the secret door for traps while the others listen for the voices and ready to move on.
Whatever he learns, he passes on to the others rapidly, but rescuing prisoners of the cultists seems more important than even a secret passage or cache right now.
Pel doesn't particularly care if the cultists dies, especially since Bashiel confirmed that the man was evil. The arcanist finds himself frequently agreeing with the paladin's opinions. Pel doubts that Cayden would approve. Not entirely, at least.
Pel shrugs to himself and follows after Bashiel toward the east passage. As he does, he says, "If someone's crying for help, it may mean they know someone other than the cultists are here. If that's the case, the rest of the cultists likely know we're here as well. We need to hurry. Like Bash said, we can deal with the unconscious one later."
Cyric nods slightly and rests a reassuring hand on Varor's shoulder, "I understand." Though he disagrees, he passes no judgment.
Quinlan inspects the secret door and finds no traps. Bashiel's ears are ringing with so much blood and adrenaline he isn't able to make out anything, but Zamanda quietly heads to the east and finds a branching series of roughly hewn tunnels. There is another, clearer call for help coming from the south, while a small series of steps leads up on the northern cave.
Kalem takes off running towards the cries for help, his hammer at the ready. "Varor, he's your responsibility! Secure your prisoner. Now let's go, before we are too late."
Zamanda proceeds cautiously, walking to the intersection to see what is around the corner, but she no longer worries about stealth, since there is someone running toward the sound already. She has her bow ready, and will fire if she sees a cultist (if she is sure it is a cultist and not a prisoner).
Kalem setting off at a run throws Bashiel into action as well. "Careful Kalem! A trap, it could a trap!" He heads after Kalem to back the tiefling up in case it really IS a trap.
As he squeezes through the tunnels, he thinks back to the corpse littered rooms the group has seen so far... Please let at least some people here be safe, Osiris! And Briget among them.
Pel follows after Bashiel and Zamanda, making sure to stay near the rear of the group. He's not sure what is to come, but he's as ready to face it as he's going to be anytime soon.
After disarming the cultist and tying him to a cauldron Varor looks over to Cyric. "You stick with Quin while I go investigate down there," He says hooking his thumb to the south corridor.
[spoiler=Cultist's Belongings (aka "loot")]
Masterwork switchscythe
Leather Armor
50 gold
2 potions of cure light[/spoiler]
Varor moves to the south to inspect that door while Cyric and Quin supervise the prisoner and the rest of the party heads east and towards the sound of the cries for help. Varor finds the southern door is boarded over. Removing the boards will require several minutes of work, but the whole thing could be smashed by a particularly strong person with some effort.
Those who head east round the corner to find a foul-smelling cavern bordered on three sides by ten-foot deep pits. From these pits wafts the rancid smell of excrement and decay. Each pit contains a few heaps of moldy straw, a wooden trough containing filthy water, a few rotting body parts, and a couple of still-living prisoners.
In the center of the room is an oversized and grotesquely malformed humanoid. He -- It? -- is making a chuffing sound of some sort as the voices from deeper in the pits call for help. It must be laughter. In a voice that sounds like it's pushing through mush, it says, "There be no help for you, little things."
As Kalem rounds the corner, the disfigured thing turns and yells, "Rolth give me big reward for your head, ugly thing!"
He screams, charging Kalem and begins throwing his mallet-sized fists at the tiefling's face.
-----------------
The creature swung a mallet size fist at Kalem. The tiefling stepped to the side, barely dodging out of the way in time. His eyes flashed, and fire leapt out. His teeth sharpened and his fingers transformed into claws. With an appearance that mimicked his outsider heritage, Kalem let out a bestial roar. As he did so, his hammer was once more engulged into flames. He brought it around, trailing fire as he did so, and brought it around directly into the back of the creature's neck. His muscles swelled with unnatural strength as he did so.
Bashiel throws himself in the way to shield everyone else from the (assumed) explosion of gore.