"What's going on up there?" Maria called as she ran to catch up, getting frustrated at the narrow confines of the hallway.
Zileska lifts her skirts and hustles down the hall to catch up, then releases a burst of invigorating energy as she lags behind the team.
Maria and Zileska move down the hallway, the latter channeling healing energy over the group. Melodie fires a bolt, but it goes way wide.
The little girl slaps and kicks at Zhi again. Her nails seem to rip open jagged wounds in the rogue's stomach! The spiritual dagger misses once more.
Zhi feints one way and then the other before attempting to slide past the abomination in front of her.
She then turns and stabs at the creature.
The little girl moves to block Zhi, but the Tien woman dodges her opportunistic swipe. Zhi stabs her again, and she whines pitiably as blood pours from the wound.
Sara yells in anger as the little girl attacks Zhi again and again. "No!" she shouts, running between the two, placing both hands on her friend and shoving her behind, shielding her from the cruel little girl. "You don't get to hurt my Zhi. You have to go through me, b+$#$."
It isn't immediately clear whether or not Sara simply said Zhi's full name or is being possessive over her.
Staring straight at the girl's drooling mouth and weird long arms, Sara calls out behind her, unsure of her decision to place herself directly in harm's way.
"Zileska? Any way you can trip this creepy child?"
As Sara grabs her, Zhi sputters out "What are you ... ?"
Once the tall woman steps in to take her place facing the creature, Zhi halts her protestations. Her face is a mask of surprise, indignation, and ... something else
*crack* *snap* *yank*
Zileska's whip yanks the girl's feet out from under her. She grunts as she falls on her back.
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A part of Maria was concerned that they were attacking a little girl, albeit one who seemed to be more dangerous than she looked, but on the other hand she knew that Zhi wouldn't have been attacking her without a good reason.
Weaving her way through her companions, she quickly got to the far side of the girl from the others to give them room. She stabbed at the girl, hoping to any god that was listening that she was making the right call.
Maria hesitantly scratches the girl with the tip of her blade.
As you attack, the glamer concealing her true form vanishes, revealing a horrid monster! What appeared at first glance to be a child has skin more akin to cracked porcelain barely covering a black, insectile carapace, and it has spiderlike legs where one would expect arms. It has a pair of wicked claws, each made of black chitin and pieces of jagged porcelain. It also sports a similarly serrated bite; its mouth resembles disjointed spider mandibles with a second layer of chipped porcelain.
Your blade scratches her porcelain skin but doesn't seem to hurt her much, if at all.
"Melodie, step back and shoot her! She's not a little girl, she's a monster!"
"Errr..." Melodie says, confused and somewhat scared by the entire situation. She does as Sara asks although her hands shake badly as she does so. Luckily the magic of Dignity's Barb seem to compensate, somewhat...
Melodie's shot narrowly misses the girl. She steps back to allow Zileska to move forward.
The girl snarls and climbs back to her feet, opening herself up to attacks. She doesn't seem to care though, her face a mask of cold anger. "You're going to regret ever coming here,'" she growls. Another glowing black dagger appears and stabs at Sara, while the first one follows Zhi and attacks her.
Sara spits on her face in reply, smashing her table leg into her shoulder as she stands, before attempting to shove the thing in her mouth and shatter it.
Zhi grabs her bow and lowers herself to one side to attempt to take a shot at the creature.
Ignoring the creature's response, Maria stabbed at it again. Normally she would try to work out what it was, but the creature wouldn't be giving her much of an opening to focus.
Maria stabs the creature twice more, her hits blunted by it's supernatural resilience. Sara fares a bit better, smashing the creature's shoulder and then driving her chair leg into its jaws. The little girl screams and thrashes, biting the wooden leg in half as blood streams from her mouth. Zhi fires an arrow into its arm that barely slows it down.
Melodie stays out of the way, unable to do much or shoot accurately given the crowding in the corridor.
With her free hand, Zileska takes the opportunity to tap Zhi with the healing wand.
While Zileska heals Zhi, the creature bites and claws at Sara. It hits with one of its claws, then its body momentarily goes slack. Jerkily, it swipes at Sara again, as if it is being pulled by invisible puppet strings. Fortunately, Sara's mithral shirt protects her from the rending claw.
Both spiritual daggers attack, stabbing Zhi and Sara. The former one disappears after the attack, leaving only the one menacing Sara.
"Zhi, if you would allow me?" says Zileska, pointing with the team's wand at Sara.
Although appearing reluctant, Zhi steps farther away from the fray.
She then takes another shot with her bow.
Briefly distracted by the wound and the subsequent application of healing magic, Sara casts eyes back on Zileska. "Thanks, dollface," she murmurs, dropping her broken table leg on the ground and pulling a new one to slam into the bizarre young girl, shattering it beyond use.
The chair leg shatters into splinters as the girl's skull fractures under the force of Sara's blow. She falls lifeless to the floor, like a puppet whose strings have been cut.
As she falls, the glamer disguising her vanishes, revealing the true horror of her form for all to see. The spiritual dagger hovers in the air without direction before disappearing after several seconds.
Sara crouches against the wall, breathing slow.
"Zileska, beauty, I think we would all appreciate a bit more healing. I know I would. Thank you as always for your help and kindness." She prods the dead body with a stick, murmuring. "Disgusting"
"Zhi, are you alright?" she calls out, genuinely concerned for the girl's safety. Standing up, she approaches, placing a hand on her shoulder before turning away awkwardly. "Sorry for pushing you. I just," you think you see her blushing but it disappears. "I want to protect those close to me."
"Zhi, are you alright?" she calls out, genuinely concerned for the girl's safety. Standing up, she approaches, placing a hand on her shoulder before turning away awkwardly. "Sorry for pushing you. I just," you think you see her blushing but it disappears. "I want to protect those close to me."
"I wanted you to ... you don't need to ... " Zhi says haltingly before shaking her head.
"I'm not a child, Sara. I can take care of myself," she snaps before pushing past the taller woman.
The hall turns south before ending at an open door. A long table occupies the enter of this dining room, surrounded by chairs. Maps of Taldor's many prefectures cover teh walls here. The maps have various notes on them in several different secret codes and ciphers.
A hole in the wall opens onto a narrow tunnel that connects his chamber with the common room to the east.
Melodie, who tried to avoid looking at the body after the descriptions she received from the others is the first into the new room. The rest of the group find her examining the various maps closely and muttering to herself as she puzzles at the ciphers.
The ciphers seem to be a rather elaborate code. Without formal training in linguistics, they are impossible to decode, and even then, it would take several hours or days to crack them. Since this is Martella Lotheed's safe house, it's likely she knows the codes--perhaps one of the reasons why the Brotherhood of Silence hasn't killed her yet...
"Damn! Zhi says as it's obvious that they've just traveled in a circle. "I guess we try the other hallway."
--
Once they reach the closed door, Zhi checks it for traps and then opens it.
A short hall to the right ends at a door. Straight ahead, a large stone room contains three stuffed training dummies along its southern side. Arrows and daggers protrude from the dummies, while weapon racks stand neatly along the northern wall.
A single halfling stands watch by the western door. His eyes widen when he sees you and he reaches for his rapier!
Zhi's eyes lock with the halfling as he reaches for his weapon.
She dashes forward, drawing her rapier to match his.
Before the halfling can draw his blade, Zhi rushes forward and stabs him through clean the neck. He gurgles blood as his body goes limp, and the Tien woman has to use her foot to dislodge the halfling's body from her blade.
Behind the door the halfling was guarding, you can see beakers and vials covering a table spanning the entire northern end of the room. Four shelves containing alchemical ingredients extend from the southern wall. A door is set in the western wall.
After wiping her blade on the halfling's clothing, Zhi turns around and walks purposefully back to the rest of the group. Once there she looks at Sara.
"I'm not a child," she repeats.
--
Zhi then moves to the northern door and checks it for traps before opening it.
Two large bookshelves, an elaborate L-shaped desk, and a well-dressed bed decorate this lavish bedroom. A variety of springs, gears, and small tools clutter the desk alongside pages of sketches and designs.
"These must be Lotheed's rooms," Zhi says, looking over the pieces and parts in the bedroom and the alchemical gear in the workshop.
"So what was he guarding?" she continues as she walks past the cooling body.
Sara's eyes steel over. "I know you're strong, Zhi, I don't doubt that, but that doesn't mean you weren't in over your head, fighting some spidery hellbeast with no one to help you. If it's truly what you want, next time I see you suffering, I will not intervene."
Martella uses gold components in some of her gadgets to resist corrosion or harsh chemicals. In all, 150 gp worth of gold gears, springs, and valves can be found scattered on the table. In addition, two of her brass clockwork crickets sit in one corner, ready to be used.
Several poisons cover the northern workbench in the alchemical lab, including 2 doses of black adder venom, 2 doses of medium spider venom, 2 doses of oil of taggit, 1 dose of blue whinnis, and 1 dose of giant wasp poison. Along with this trove of poisons are six vials of antitoxin, a potion of delay poison, and a potion of neutralize poison.
As Zhi crosses the room, she brushes against a hair-thin wire. It vibrates at the contact. The rogue sees that it connects to the other side of the western door. There are no obvious effects.
Sara sits down to apply the dose of blue whinnis to her heels, pocketing one of the clockwork crickets.
Sara's eyes steel over. "I know you're strong, Zhi, I don't doubt that, but that doesn't mean you weren't in over your head, fighting some spidery hellbeast with no one to help you. If it's truly what you want, next time I see you suffering, I will not intervene."
"I didn't say I didn't want help!" Zhi snarls in frustration, "What I wanted was ... never mind."
"Dōshite son'nani bakanisuru hitsuyō ga arimasu ka?! she mutters to herself.
As Zhi crosses the room, she brushes against a hair-thin wire. It vibrates at the contact. The rogue sees that it connects to the other side of the western door. There are no obvious effects.
Zhi's face goes ashen.
"No, no, no, please tell me I didn't do that!" she says shaking her head in denial.
She turns to the others.
"That's got to be an alarm," the young woman says. "Now they know we're coming!
As requested, Zileska deploys the wand to finish up helping the other ladies.
"Should we hurry up then?" Melodie asks, smiling her thanks to Zileksa for the healing magic provided. She breathes deeply and fits another bolt to Dignity's Barb before speaking again.
"If Martella is there we need to keep her safe first of all. Sara, you should go for the jester lady if she's here, since it seems like she's the leader. Zhi, go with her. If we finish of the leader then the rest will be more likely to surrender. That's what Max always said..." She mumbles, rather losing the aura of command she had just gained.
"Zileska, we need to take down as many as we can quickly, hold them up so Zhi and Sara can do their job. Maria, do you want to decide for yourself? Help out wherever seems best?"
Assuming no-one objects to her, somewhat tentative, plan Melodie begins to sing quietly under her breath, the same familiar lullaby she normally uses.
Sara nods, ready to drink her potion of bull's strength, and applying oils of magic weapon to her shoes and a table leg.
Zhi looks back and forth between the western door and the group as Melodie outlines her plan.
I've got to make this right.
"I'm sorry. I should have been more careful. I'm going to see what they're preparing for us. If you hear me call out, please come. Otherwise, I'll be back in a few minutes."
She looks pointedly at Sara.
"I'm sorry."
She then pulls a vial from her thigh bag and drinks it.
--
Once she takes on the misty form she moves to the western door and slips under the edge.
Dissolved into mist, Zhi slips stealthily under the door into the next room. The room here gives way to an open cavern beyond. Six sets of manacles, evenly spaced along the western cave wall, dangle down to the dirt floor. All but one set hang empty, while the final set secures a beaten and bruised Martella Lotheed. She wavers on the edge of consciousness, a gag in her mouth.
Zhi can pick out several shapes lurking in the shadows around the edges of the room. She can see three human cultists with swords drawn, along with a familiar face--the halfling jester Wyssilka the Fantabulous. She strikes a much more sinister figure than at the Exaltation gala, clutching a black dagger as she watches the entry door.
None of them notice Zhi's gaseous form.