"And that clears the first floor," Zhi says, her eyes surveying the front room. "Downstairs next."
After the many traps so far, the woman continues to exercise caution by checking the stairs before they descend.
The stairs are not trapped. They lead down into a long room. The walls and floors here are made of masonry blocks, each one of slightly different shape and size but fitted perfectly together, giving the room the appearance of a giant puzzle. Along the two long walls, strands of black and purple cord stretch from the top of the walls down to iron rings set in the floor. The thousands of silken strands give the room the appearance of a giant cradle or cocoon, with a clear path leading to the double doors on the far end.
A constant, soft whispering fills the air. It almost sounds like people conversing, but too indistinctly to make out words. It makes it difficult to hear other noises in the chamber.
Zhi notices four creatures lurking behind the strands a moment before they rush out to attack! They appear to be undead elves, with pallid flesh, sharp claws, and pronounced canine teeth!
The four elves charge at Sara before you can react, ripping into her and draining her life force.
"Ew. A perversion of the long and graceful life of elves."
Zileska sniffs disdainfully.
Zhi twists between two of the elves to flank with Sara before vanishing from sight and stabbing at one of them .
"Stop! Obey me!" Melodie commands, her voice lashing at the undead like a whip.
Not realising Mel was targeting it with a spell, Maria slipped to the side and attacked that creature, flanking it with Zhi.
EDIT:
Though the undead elf succumbs to Melodie's spell, it temporarily ignores its effects. Just as well, as Maria drives her sword into its chest, though she fails to follow-up her initial strike.
Zhi and Sara take down the elf they are flanking, then Safina finishes off Maria's foe with her crossbow bolts before injuring a third. As the elves die, they explode in a spray of alchemical gore, drenching all those around them with vile fluids! Zileska ward Sara from energy drain.
The remaining elves continue to attack Sara, their claws slicing into the lightly armored brawler, though they no longer can drain her life force.
Melodie suddenly feels a burning pain in her back as a hand crossbow bolt lodges itself in her spine! Magic emanates from the bolt, threatening to silence the mesmerist. Looking back, you can see a blanket of impenetrable magical darkness has fallen over the hall behind you, its edge about ten feet away.
Melodie turns, more annoyed than actually hurt, and upon seeing the darkness begins to whistle. The sounds reverberate around her, allowing her to locate the figure in the darkness!
{"Guide me to 'em, Princess,"} Zhi cajoles as she moves away from the remaining two elves and towards the darkness.
Nodding in thanks to her lover, Maria moved to help Sara with her foes.
Zileska silently curses herself for once again forgetting to prepare invisibility purge and she settles for separating the battlefield: She quickly casts a wall of stone between the elves and Sara, thus isolating the undead out while the team deals with whatever's in the darkness with the crossbow (probably a dark elf, she thinks). This also gives Sara a breather.
Using echolocation, Melodie can see a humanoid creature within the darkness, as well as an incorporeal one lurking nearby. She directs Zhi to the former, and the diminuitive woman rushes forward and drives her blade into the figure's chest. She hears a masculine grunt as air escapes the humanoid's lungs, leaving him stunned! A hand crossbow clatters as it hits the floor.
Maria scores a hit on one of the elven undead just before Zileska blocks them off with a wall of stone. Sara moves into the darkness to support Zhi, and Safina fires where Melodie points, two of the seeking bolts from Dignity's Barb finding their mark! With the final shot, the man groans and falls to the floor.
There's a shriek of anguish from the incorporeal creature, then Melodie can see it vanish. The undead claw at the wall of stone from the other side, but it will likely be several minutes before they can break a hole large enough to get through. You're out of combat for now.
When you drag the dying man out of the darkness, you can see he is clad in distinctive leather armor with a long-nosed mask. The garb is unmistakable, as you've seen it before in Lost Silhouette on Axis. This is the Masked Marquis, the leader of the Brotherhood of Silence!
Beneath the mask is a bald man with pallid grey skin and bulging yellow eyes. It appears he is a fetchling, a humanoid touched by the Shadow Plane.
Realizing who the shadowy assailant is, Zhi pales. "Zileska, could you keep him alive, please? I have ... questions. I'm sure that he'll be resistant to answering them, but I have faith in someone's ability to dig out the truth." She gives her wife a quick smile.
Once the man regains consciousness, Zhi focuses her attention on him.
"Yes, you're still alive. If you answer my questions, that condition may continue," she says. "We'll start with something simple. Tell me everything you know about a Tian man named Mai Zhen. He may also be known as Karasu - The Raven."
Without even waiting for an answer, Zhi turns to Melodie - fulling expecting her wife to plumb the depths of the man's mind as the answers come to the forefront of his thoughts. To assist matters she mentally passes along a mental picture of her father.
Melodie nods to her wife and crouches down in front of the pinned man. "I would very much like you to answer her questions." She says sweetly. "I will get the answers, one way or another. So why not just tell me before I have to do something drastic?"
Zileska is only too happy to stabilize the Marquis. ”We’ll still have to finish those vampires in a few moments,” she notes.
The Unmasked Marquis's resolve melts away in the face of Melodie's charm spell. "Mai Zhen. Yes, I know the man. He came to the Brotherhood of Silence a few months ago trying to fence an item of inestimable value. We agreed to find a buyer for it in exchange for him performing a stint in our service. There are currently several more weeks before his contract expires."
Zhi pales but shows no other signs that the news is a surprise in any way. She starts to speak again, but has to clear her throat a few times before she can ask her next question.
"Where is he now?" she finally asks in a calm voice, ignoring any prompting from her companions that they're on limited time.
Melodie relays the question and adds one of her own. "How might his contract be ended early? Is it within your power?"
"He is in Oppara," the Marquis tells Zhi before turning to Melodie. "I can give the order to release him from his contract if you take me back to the city. Alive, of course. I'm no good to you dead."
"I can release him from his contract as well," Zhi says in short tones. "By cutting the throat of every single f@~%ing member of the Silent Brotherhood. Starting with you. Where in Oppara is he?"
"Can you give me a few minutes, Zhi my dear? I think I can help this transaction along," purrs Zileska.
... once she has the time and the room, Zileska paces back and forth around the Marquis.
"I see you have had some time to pursue your plans," she purrs. "Working on this conspiracy for a while. Embedding people in important places in Taldor."
"Now we, too, have an agenda, and we have agents embedded in many places, and we will see this through to its end. And now you are going to help us, because my desires are going to become your desires."
The priestess bends down to caress the Marquis and then slap him, in a fairly common domination technique. Still leaning down, she hisses, "You want to help us, because you don't want to spend the rest of your life - however short it may be - as a miserable, gibbering wreck."
She leans close like she's about to kiss his cheek, then turns and grabs his head from the opposite side and shoves him unceremoniously.
"I bestow upon thee this quest: That thou wilt endeavor with all thy power to bring us into contact with Mai Zhen and release him safely from his contract."
After a minute or two, the remaining elven undead claw through the wall of stone, but you are ready for them. The melee is brief and bloody, ending with both creatures erupting into clouds of gore and fluids that stick to those in close combat with them.
Zileska invokes her quest upon the Masked Marquis, and he shudders as the powerful curse takes effect. "I will do as you command. We can accomplish it as early as today, if you are so inclined."
"We can't go right now," Zhi says, the words painful to say. "We have to find the leaders of this Circle organization. Can you tell us any more about them?"
She looks at Zileska and mouths, "Thank you."
"The Inner Circle dwells within these dungeons, but truth be told, I know little about them. The Immaculate Circle has contracted my services but I am not yet a full-fledged member of the organization. My main contact has been a half-elf named Lady Nenareen Adella. She is a master of necromancy and alchemy--those elven vampires were her creations."
Zileska gives Zhi an almost imperceptible nod.
"We'll start with Adella then," Zhi says. "Any other traps set up between us and her?"
"Dozens of them. The whole corridor ahead is lined with traps every few feet. Let me lead and I will get you past them safely. "
With a glance at her wife and Zileska, Zhi nods at the man.
Melodie knows the man is still under her spell and nods reassuringly to her wife.
"Do be careful." She adds, "I'd hate for a mistake to be made and any of us to get hurt."
Zhi will follow behind the crime-lord, keeping an eye out for traps herself.
The Masked Marquis hits a hidden switch to bypass a trap on the doors before opening them. Beyond the entry hall, a seemingly endless length of tunnel gradually descends through the ground. The masonry blocks have been smoothed and draped with silk to give the tunnel a sinuous, unbroken feel.
The fetchling leads the way, taking deliberate steps. Indeed, Zhi spots numerous minor traps, ranging from hidden pits to concealed spears and dart launchers. After a bit, the Marquis stops at a blank patch of wall and presses on it to reveal a hidden flight of stairs leading down. "These lead down to Adella's laboratory. The main tunnel continues on to the chambers of the other Inner Circle members."
"I guess we start with her," Zhi says. She looks to the others. "We should prepare now before descending."
She proceeds to do so - refreshing the existing spells on herself as well as recasting some that have expired.
Once the spells are cast, she follows the fetchling down the steps.
A set of gold spiral steps descends into the ground. Thick black curtains hang closely around the staircase on all sides, forming a column of opaque silk. Motes of golden light dance up and down the stairs, reflecting off the shimmering curtains.
The curtains flutter with the motion of your passage as you descend 100 feet to the chamber below. The walls of this room sweep out in grand curves like the sides of a goblet. Snow-white silk curtains cover the walls, rippling in an unseen wind. An elaborate, knotted pattern has been cut into the floor, covering a large circular area in the middle of the room. Double doors exit to the north.
In the circular area, you see none other than Princess Eutropia! She is chained to the floor, and when she notices you, she begins calling for help. "At last, you have come! Please, release me! The Immaculate Circle has been keeping me prisoner here. They left a duplicate at the palace to convince everybody I had been murdered! There's no time to waste. We must stop them!"
Suspicion clouds Zhi's face and she turns to her wife without taking her eyes off the 'princess'. "Mel?"
Melodie too passes out her own gifts, refreshing her tricks on her companions.
When 'Princess Eutropia' appears, Melodie activates the Subtle Mask, urging it to help her see the truth of the situation.
Melodie's true seeing reveals the "princess's" true form as an amorphous blob of liquid metal! Her sharp senses also let her notice the presence of three humans lurking behind the curtains around the room's perimeter with bows drawn.
Zhi leans over to their guide and whispers in his ear, "Fall back. I wouldn't want anything to happen to you."
As Zhi keeps up the conversation Melodie looks over her shoulder at the others. "Trap." She mouths silently, "Archers behind curtains. Be ready."
Once her companions acknowledge Melodie takes a deep breath and focuses her will on the 'Princess'.
"I know Eutropia well. She is a good woman, proud, strong and she would do anything for Taldor, even kneel!" There is a ringing note in her voice and a wave of magic washes across the room. Mel's hair stirs slightly on a phantom breeze and her face is suddenly back-lit, making her look radiant and terrifying in equal measure. As her voice passes everyone feels a quiver in their bones, a compulsion to kneel, to worship that voice, to bow down.
The feeling passes in barely a second, but its clear that the power was not intended for you, but for Eutropia and her friends....
The false Eutropia’s overhears Melodie’s whispers and curses. ”The jig is up! Attack!”
Melodie invokes her spell, becoming an avatar of fury! The three human archers who were emerging from hiding fall to the ground, bowing before her. The shape shifting impostor is normally immune to such effects, and it manages to ignore the spell for now.
Managing to avoid the urge to kneel before her wife, Zhi dashes over to the furthest of the archers and takes a flanking position before stabbing at them with her rapier.
Zhi drives her blade into one of the archers’ sides.
As they struggle in vain to overcome Melodie’s spell, the shapeshifter’s body turns to liquid metal and it oozes out of the chains. It reforms into the shape of a bare-chested, bearded man, one of his hands formed into a jagged blade. ”Come on, then, ruffians! You face the immortal Earl Travarak Denzarni!” With a gesture, lightning leaps from his hand and arcs among your party!
Zhi vanishes from sight, but continues to stab at the archer near her.
Concentrating on her magic, Melodie is too slow to dodge and takes the full brunt of the 'Earl's' lightning. She manages not to cry out but her pale skin blackens and chars under the magical assault.
"How dare you?" She asks, full magical power behind the question, and strikes the earl with a terrible feeling of remorse!
The earl's eyes widen as Melodie's compelling voice breaks through his normal immunities. The lingering effects of her previous spell overwhelm him, and he drops to the ground, whimpering as he bows. "No! Wh-what is this? Wh-what are you doing? What have I done?"
Zhi swiftly executes the enemy she is standing over while Sara and Maria move into position to take out the other archers. Safina keeps her crossbow trained on the earl.
The shapeshifting nobleman manages to throw off the effects of Mel's overwhelming presence, but he is drained and shaken as he stabs at himself with his own blade-arm. The wound begins to regenerate though.
The other archers are unable to recover, and Sara and Maria put them down for good.
”Ow,” Zileska whines about the lightning.