Zileska’s pretty tired of screwing around. She starts by warding her team from further electricity with a communal protection spell.
”You die now,” she intones as she points her holy symbol at the metalloid thing.
Earl Travarak manages a strangled cry as Zileska's spell consumes him in the vengeful flames of Calistria! His body burns away into a pile of fine ash, and the threat is neutralized!
Aside from the double doors to the north, a search of the room uncovers a secret door behind the curtains to the west. A podium in this room still holds a sheet of parchment that appears to have a speech written on it in a tight, precise hand:
All is not lost! The Sisters of Indulgent Dreams have come through for us. From the silver void, they have plucked forth legends of Taldor’s past; not snarled souls that would confuse divinations, but the psychic energy poured into reputation and myth, which will leave nothing for diviners to find beyond his destiny to rule as Grand Prince! We shall make him stronger, a more fitting tool for our use. These legends will drive him to rule once they mature, and whatever orders we deliver to that end, he will be compelled to obey. Soon we shall encircle Taldor’s throne.
With the fight over far quicker than expected - and thoroughly impressed and scared by Mel's magical capabilities once more - Maria started looking over the area and found the speech.
"Well, this doesn't sound good. Any idea what this might mean?"
"I'm getting more and more of an idea..." Melodie says, looking seriously worried under the massive burns that mar her skin and arms. She's moving like an old woman to try and avoid the burns splitting.
"Based on that book we found, the activity on the astral legend and now this... I don't think it was chance we found Carrius. He's been deliberately resurrected, unwillingly I think. Which means that his soul was missing. I think they've rebuilt him - using pieces of the famous Grand Princes. That's why Taldaris was dimmed in the sky in Axis - they harvested him somehow to fill Carrius in." The more Melodie speaks the more horrified she looks. "That's... more horrific than I could possibly imagine... it means that Carrius is just a puppet - a weapon for the Immaculate Circle. That must be why they killed Eutropia. She was the heir, even if Carrius was alive - so she had to be removed!"
Everything falls into place as she turns to the Marquis, wincing as her skin tugs. "Marquis! Did you kill Princess Eutropia for the Immaculate Circle? Do you know why they wanted it done?"
The Masked Marquis subconsciously pulls at his glove, and you realize that one of his fingers is missing, replaced by a wooden prosthetic. ”Yes, the Circle hired me to assassinate the princess. They did not give me a reason but promised it would put me closer to becoming a full-fledged member of the organization. I did not ask questions.”
"We still need to deal with Adella," Zhi says, watching the double doors. "Are there any traps here?" she asks their guide while looking over it herself.
Zhi finds simple poisoned lock traps on the doors which she easily disables.
Just to be sure she checks it again after disabling the needle trap before opening the doors.
Zhi glances at her wife as she checks over another door.
Zhi can't prevent the smile from creeping onto her face, but she tries to hide it.
Five iron-barred cells extend from the end of a long hallway beyond the secret door. Three living prisoners occupy two of the five cells—all elves kidnapped by Adella. The victims are weakened from blood loss and traumatized by their experiences. They can barely move. A lesser restoration spell can purge their bodies of toxins well enough to walk.
The fifth cell holds a catatonic and bloated elf. This unfortunate soul is late in the process of some sort of conversion, and will likely finish transforming into a monster in the next day or two. A restoration or neutralize poison spell are the only things that can stop the process now except death.
"Zil?" Melodie asks, looking compassionately at the elves. "Can you help them?"
She then turns her eyes to further exits, hoping to catch Adella as soon as possible.
"Everyone is going to stay here until we deal with the other threats, ok?" Zhi instructs. "We'll come back and get you when we're ready to leave."
She then makes her way to the double doors.
Zileska fiddles with her healing wand as the team travels, giving Mel some much-needed love.
Then she moves forward to cure the prisoner with a cleanse spell.
The prisoners are grateful for the promise of rescue. They can tell you the details of how they were kidnapped by Adella but have seen little of the complex. They were blindfolded when brought in, and have seen no other rooms. They warn you that Adella is something akin to a vampire, but appears immune to holy symbols and other normal vampire defenses.
The northern double doors in the previous chamber lead into a large lounge. Red silk curtains cover the walls here, billowing gently from unseen winds. Golden motes of light float in the air, illuminating the rich furnishings of the chamber: overstuffed leather and velvet chairs, tables and bookcases made of heavy, dark woods, and large paintings fill the space. A large table in the room's center holds a veritable feast--figs, grapes, jubilee pie, olives, pomegranates, tangerines, a variety of Taldan and Galtan cheeses, and a hunter’s roast: a roast goose stuffed inside a roast boar, stuffed inside a roast black bear.
An open letter sits on one of the end tables: Damn Lotheed! I’m tired of doing nothing! We’ve known Stavian killed his boy for twenty years and never did a thing with it. Now he’s dead, and that crown-worthy secret is just useless historical trivia! What’s the point of immortality if we skulk in the dark instead of making kings take a knee to us? I say it’s time we took the throne ourselves. Adella’s got a direct family claim, and Jeroth and I can be anyone. Why rule as a secret society when we can just rule? But I need your keen eyes watching my back, Ghoom. What do you say?
The portraits depict several notable nobles. You recognize the shapeshifting man you just fought, Travarak Denzarni, as well as the rakshasa Milon Jeroth and Panivar Lotheed I. There's also a pale half-elf woman who must be Nenareen Adella, and a handsome brunette man. The artwork is consistent with the style of famous Taldan portrait painter Genevixia Cross, who died in a very public assault 50 years ago.
A single door exits the room the to the east. The door is locked but not trapped.
Zileska's heal spell reverses the bloated elf's transformation, and he sighs with relief as he returns to normal. The elf, Lanarel, is immensely grateful, but has little to offer. He was a visiting trader from Kyonin and lost most of his worldly possessions in his abduction. He does offer more details about Adella, however, describing her as a powerful alchemist and strange undead who specifically used a set of mithral scalpels and syringes from her lab to pierce her own tough hide for experiments, and that when he first arrived in the lab, he watched as she slowly “grew a boy from a lock of brown hair, but a boy whose eyes lacked any spark of light.”
Lanarel also describes his one escape attempt. When he reached the lounge, another member of the Inner Circle removed an iron sphere from a hidden panel, and it exploded into restrictive shackles. With this information, you are able to find the panel easily and discover the magic item within: a set of iron bands of binding.
"Count Barenby Ghoom, one of Taldor's most renowned hunters, he was supposed to've died nearly a hundred years ago. Although judging by the contents of this letter, it seems the more ferocious parts of Taldan wildlife still have to keep an eye over their shoulders."
... giving Mel some much-needed love.
Zhi frowns for just an instant, feeling that, somehow, she's just been insulted. Shaking off the sensation, she kneels down in front of the locked door. "One moment," she says.
A huge glass and brass apparatus of connected beakers, tubes, retorts, and bottles covers the east wall. Liquid of all colors and viscosities drips and sizzles, moving through the tubes in an elaborate, synchronized pattern. A marble slab table holds more flasks and vials, crucibles and burettes. Wooden shelves and cabinets display countless stoppered bottles of powders and solutions.
Overhead, the ceiling is covered with a wooden lattice. Bundles of dried herbs and flowers hang from the lattice, canopying the room with withered beauty and filling the air with their musky odor.
Two more of the odd elven undead lurk here as well as a pale half-elf woman. Her pale skin is drawn tight across her frame, and her fingernails are extremely long and wickedly sharp. You've seen her before, on Axis and in the portrait in the previous room. This is Lady Nenareen Adella, likely one of the last scions of the expunged Adella bloodline to which the Stavians also belong, as revealed by Maxillar Pythareus's damning evidence.
Adella looks up from her work wit hirritation. "You are intruding where you do not belong. I am the Duchess of Blood. Leave immediately, or I shall warp your bodies and minds into truly horrible things simply to sate my curiosity."
"And I am d'Valois Mai Zhi. You and your circle compatriots have meddled in affairs that you have no business in. We have no intention of leaving until you face the judgement of the Lady of Graves."
She whips her tiny blade through the air and begins the words to her spell of speed.
Adella rolls her eyes at Zhi's declaration. The half-elf quickly hurls a trio of electric bombs at Zileska, frowning when she belatedly realizes the half-elf is warded against the energy. The two blood spawn charge at Zhi, shredding two of her mirror images.
Zhi completes her spell and then soars into the air to fly forward and take up a flanking position behind the long-clawed noble. Once she takes up her position, she vanishes from sight.
Figuring that Zhi is probably going to get the brunt of the deranged alchemist's ire - both because of her amazing stabby abilities and the fact that this alchemist seems to love warping flesh, so a pregnant woman is probably high on her preferred target list - Zil taps Zhi just before the latter leaps into the air and bestows upon her nine lives.
Melodie retreats with her magically enhanced speed and drops Glitterdust on on the blood spawn, hoping to hamper them.
With Zhi's magic accelerating her, Maria moved in on the alchemist to get things going.
Both blood spawn resist Melodie's glitterdust. Despite that, though, Sara and Safina puncture them with heel strikes and crossbow bolts, dealing enough damage that both explode in a shower of putrid fluids. Adella swipes at Zhi as she flies around behind her, destroying another one of the rogue's mirror images. Maria slips in while the half-elf's back is turned, stabbing Adella, though the alchemist's supernaturally toughened skin prevents a critical hit.
The wound begins to close before your eyes as Adella steps out of the flanking position. Her nostrils flare as she looks at Zhi, piercing her invisibility. "I can smell the extra blood pumping through your body. Pregnant, are you? You are not an elf, but I can still put that blood to good use. Join me. Become mine." Zhi can feel the weight of Adella's gaze trying to take control of her mind.
"Sorry, Duchess, but I belong to someone else already and she's not a fan of sharing," Zhi's disembodied voice replies.
She shifts to keep the woman between her and Maria and her blades flash out to stab at the woman.
"She's mine" Melodie hisses, ripping brutally at the alchemist's intellect.
Zhi manages to hit Adella twice. Melodie’s spell takes effect, and the half-elf shrieks in fury as her intellect drains! Judging by her sharp claws, she’s still a threat though.
Zileska casts a targeted dispel magic at the alchemist, trying to bring down some of her defenses.
~~~~~
Seeing the shift in Adella's expression, Maria nevertheless kept up the assault.
Zileska dispels Adella's displacement before Zhi attacks, allowing the rogue to land all of her hits. Sara moves up and sticks her fingers into the half-elf's eyes, blinding her. Maria stabs the woman three times, and Safina lands several crossbow bolts. With a shriek, Adella collapses into a puddle of roiling blood. The puddle sloughs over to the corner of the room and slips through a three-inch-wide hole in the south wall, fleeing the room. If Adella functions anything like a vampire, she will likely be seeking some refuge in which to regenerate.
Before you can move to pursue, however, Safina cries out in pain as a beam of green energy lances from behind her, burning her face! Fortunately, she resists being blinded. Rushing forward towards her is a handsome man with curling ram's horns and an eerie green light in his eyes. He slices her with a green longsword of force, further wounding her. "You may have defeated Travarak and Nenareen, but you will not fare so well against me, Count Barenby Ghoom of the Wild Hunt!"
Zileska once again deploys her wand to help ease some of Safina's battering.
"You people talk too much," Zhi mutters to herself before invoking another spell.
Her invisible form then flits to a position adjacent to the green-eyed man.
"Safina!" Maria called out as she saw her lover be assaulted.
She swiftly retrieved and drank her own greater invisibility extract before moving to engage the newcomer, avoiding his gaze and hoping she was guessing Zhi's location correctly.
Melodie whips around to meet the new threat and is so surpised by what she see's that she is briefly lost for words.