Victrix can't help but feel a pang of disappointment when the two ugothols attacking her are so easily torn to shreds by magic and blade.
"You've got those two, I think." She calls to the others. "I'm gonna make sure there aren't any more incoming."
With that, she hustles to the legs of the statue.
Calamity floats on over to the the center part of the statue and throws two cards at the creatures, blinding both of them.
Ema focused on the fiery sphere a moment and caused it to move over onto one of the two remaining stalkers. As she did so the archon lashed out at the stalker between it and Simon with a powerful slash.
While the stalker manages to dodge Ema's flaming sphere, Simon and the hound archon make quick work of the two remaining ugothols. Victrix moves quickly to see if more enemies are coming, but it seems that at last the flood of shapechanging monstrosities has come to an end. The courtyard is silent once more, strewn with aberrant corpses.
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As the Haste wears off, and Simon feels himself slowing down, he leans on his sword and surveys the battle, amazed at how easily they had taken this group of stalkers on.
The memory of the battle in the meeting hall is still fresh in his mind as he considers.
"These stalkers used different tactics than the ones back in town. Not one of them tried to latch on to us or drink our blood. I wonder what the difference might be?"
He bends down to examine one of the corpses more closely.
"Maybe they're runnin' scared. If this is their home turf, they've probably decided to forgo gettin' a meal."
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Standing back up, dismissing the mystery for now, Simon finally turns his attention to the statue.
"Quite the impressive statue, now that we get a chance to look at it. The damage to it probably happened during the Cataclysm, and it has lain here for ten thousand years, yet the features are still visible.
Quite remarkable! I imagine there must be some kind of magic keeping it in this state.
Now, I wonder who it was who deserved such a statue. The god who this temple is dedicated to, perhaps?"
Simon recognizes the statue as a depiction of Amaznen, the Azlanti god of magic and invention. It's possible the god's magic protected his cathedral from suffering major damage during Earthfall.
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Simon cleans his sword off on the shirt of one of the stalkers and sheathes it.
Standing up, he tightens the straps on his Haversack and prepares to adventure on.
"Ah, Amaznen, god of magic and invention. Perhaps you used to revere him, Ema? He seems in line with your current pursuits. It also makes perfect sense that the bee was headed here.
Hopefully, the stalkers haven't made too big of a mess."
Pulling out his extract of Invisibility, he heads toward the entrance.
"When you all are ready, I'll scout ahead. Go slow and I'll move about 30feet ahead. I'll whistle like a bird if I see something."
The staircase leads down into a darkened hallway, fifteen feet wide. This long hallway, some one hundred fifty feet in length, runs from the bottom of the courtyard stairs just north of the cathedral to another set of stairs in the south, leading deeper into the temple. Other corridors open from this one at right angles, and several doors line the walls.
Eight men and women stand in the corridor, clad in breastplates emblazoned with the heraldry of Andoran! They grip longswords in two hands and watch the stairs warily. Fortunately, none of them seem to notice the invisible Simon.
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Whistling softly behind him, Simon heads back to the party and informs them of what waits.
"Victrix, maybe you can call out to them and question them about Andoran military procedures. It is most likely a trap, but we know there are prisoners here somewhere.
We also have to consider that they could be humans who have been charmed by the Aboleth."
Ema felt a wash of relief at the fall of the last of the stalkers. The things still horrified her and left her wanting to run away as fast as she could. She turned her gaze to studying the statue and was more than a bit surprised at Simon's words. It wasn't that he identified the statue but that he didn't seem to deride her increasing belief that she might have lived back then. She walked up to him and reached out to lay a hand on his shoulder as she said softly, "You might be right Simon," she paused and then, "thank you for accepting the possibility Simon!" she hugged him.
Ema watched as Simon vanished after she released him and stepped back, the hound archon still at her side, and waited for him to return with information. When he did she considered what they could do and said, "Sadly I don't know that I will be much help from here on out until we can get a rest in. I'm running very low on spells now and won't be able to replenish my reserves to summon much more either."
All of the soldiers appear to be unaltered humans, but he recognizes the telltale mannerisms of an ugothol in one of them. At least one, then, is a faceless stalker in disguise.
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"You might be right Simon," she paused and then, "thank you for accepting the possibility Simon!" she hugged him.
Simon shrugs. "We were recently attacked by horrific hound creatures that punish time travelers. Your story sounds a lot more reasonable by comparison."
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Simon marks the known ugothol in his mind and informs the others. "If the others are human, they might stop attacking once that one is dead. If not, maybe we can try to take them alive."
I thought we'd had a prior fight today, wasn't that ooze thing that tried to absorb Viki today as well? I think I need to go back through my expenditures and see if I should have more spells or not.
"...right. Lemme give it a shot."
Victrix approaches the top of the stairs and begins to channel memories of her old drill sergeant.
"NAME AND RANK, SOLDIERS!" She bellows down the stairs.
Alerted by Victrix's cry, the soldiers grip their longswords at the ready. "You've come to rescue them, haven't you?" one calls back. "You're too late! They're already dead--and you're next!"
They begin to advance towards the stairs.
Simon doesn't believe the statement. Furthermore, he observes some of the soldiers are walking with stilted, forced motions, as if they are compelled by enchantment magic.
The half-orc's sword slices into the false soldier, eliciting a shriek of pain!
The wounded creature's face ripples as it morphs back into its true form, slicing at Simon. The other soldiers move into the room, surrounding Simon and Victrix and swinging their swords! Simon is hit once, while Victrix is hit twice.
Simon's furious assault brings down the faceless stalker! The chaos of the melee makes it hard for him to note any other impostors among the bunch.
With the stalker well in hand already Ema looked to the hound and said, "Get in close to those soldiers, they are probably under the mind control of an aboleth. You should be able to break that temporarily so we can help them." While the archon did as she asked Ema elected to stay back so that she could conserve her power for later.
Victrix grunts in disappointment and starts swinging her axe. "Oh well. Worth a shot."
She opts to keep her anger in check for now--and to swing non-lethally. Here's hoping Ema's hound can actually set 'em free...
The hound archon maneuvers to get each of the soldiers in its protective aura. Unfortunately, all of them continue their attacks unabated.
Victrix bashes one of the foes with the flat of her axe, but his body bends like rubber and resists the bludgeoning blow. She realizes that it's actually a faceless stalker!
Calamity stares at the revealed stalker with her evil eye, reducing his attack effectiveness. The thing reverts back to its natural form and moves to flank Victrix, slicing her with its sword and battering her with its fist. It tries to grab a hold, but the barbarian fights it off. The others attack Simon and Victrix, but none of them hit!
Victrix fights the urge to fly into a rage as the ugothol hacks and batters her.
"Right. You asked for this!" She growls and swings her axe twice in succession at the shapeshifter, this time not bothering to hold back.
"I don't think they are under control of any kind Simon, if it was the aboleth or the stalkers the archon's circle of protection from the evil influence would negate it until they get too far away!" She was about to cast a spell at the stalker behind Victrix when the woman tore into it with such ferocity. She wasn't sure what to do then. She was certain that the soldiers were under some kind of mind control and didn't want to hurt them. She called out to them, "Why are you fighting us? We came to try and save the prisoners! We're from the colony!"
The archon looked at the soldiers for evil auras intently, ready to strike at any he found.
"You'll suffer the same fate as them soon enough!" a soldier calls out to Ema, her attempt at diplomacy falling on deaf ears. Her archon reports there are three faint evil auras among the soldiers, though he will have to concentrate for a little longer to pinpoint their locations.
Victrix completely eviscerates the faceless stalker fighting her, spiling its guts across the temple grounds!
Simon scores one good hit on the soldier he's facing, battering the man with the flat of his blade.
Calamity targets another foe with her evil eye, though this one proves more resilient.
The foes slash at Victrix and Simon but none score hits!
Victrix scoffs at the soldiers' wild swings. "Who taught you how to fight? You're SLOPPY!"
She then swings the flat of her axe against the soldier to the south of her.
Victrix's axe impacts rubbery flesh. Another faceless stalker!
The archon focused on the auras to spot the evil doers while defending itself as it did not wanting to hurt an innocent. Meanwhile Ema tried to help Vici out since she was surrounded and began a spell. When she was finished a shadowy bear trap started to snap closed on her target's shadow so that Vic could adjust her position and not be surrounded.
Lamity continues nervously gazing around, spreading her jinx through her Evil Eye (targeting Red).
Calamity's target resists her jinx, and Ema's avoids her shadow trap. Simon batters his foe with a nonlethal blow. Ema's archon discovers the final faceless stalker among the soldiers, one battling Simon.
Thus revealed, the ugothols abandon their disguises, snapping back to their true forms. They continue the assault, along with the dominated humans. One soldier lands a lucky slice against Victrix, but the rest all miss!
Victrix plants her feet and swings her axe at the stalker fighting her...
...then follows through by swinging the flat of her axe at the soldier to her east.
Victrix slices the ugothol's head clean off of its body! Even before the body hits the ground, she turns and batters another soldier attacking her.
As Victrix decapitates a stalker, its head flies towards the nervous halfling! With a nervous yelp, she drops a card on the ground below her feet, scrambling down to pick it back up.
The archon shifted to get the nearest of the stalkers to it in range of an attack and lashed out with his blade.
Ema, meanwhile, chanted and gestured then sent missiles of force lancing out at the nearest stalker.