Terri sees her companions continue to assault the last of their adversaries in the room after she checks the woman for any burns. Knowing that her death was likely to come soon, Terri tries to get her to surrender.
"Please, you must know that this fight's over. We are not without mercy. Please, for your sake, surrender," she begs the woman.
"Your words are wasted, Terri, though I applaud your effort. They are certain in their perfidy, I doubt surrender is an option for them." Tolenn says sadly to her friend, looking up as the others finish off the helpless Grey Maiden.
Victor again twirls around, more pernicious magics flung from his hand towards the armored woman on the catwalk, causing her additional pain.
Amira slashes at the Maiden with her starknife, the metal screeching off the plate armor, leaving a nice, shiny streak but otherwise not doing any damage.
Terri yells out for the Maiden's surrender, and not a second later Wednesday's blade makes such a request unnecessary, as the bloodrager manages to punch through the plate armor and cause a grievous injury to the Maiden, who collapses onto the catwalk as Tolenn comments on the irredeemable nature of the women.
The last cacophony of metal and flesh in thus battle have sounded, Victor knew that the smell of fresh blood wasn't as overpowering because of the different scents that have reigned supreme in the atmosphere of the Hospice. The sorcerer sighed before flicking his wrist and placing his hand over his lips. A beard audible sentence could be heard spoken by the sorcerer before he pointed the very hand he had parted words to towards Amira and Wednesday.
Their shadows leaned in slightly as if they were trying to approach their ears.
"Let's regroup, plenty of places to search and it's best we look through them together" These hushed words ehoed in their ears.
Another irritated sigh left Victor as his hazel eyes went over the mess of bodies they left in their wake. While he had no love for the queen's men, he didn't understand why they never ran That bloody loyal eh? His gaze wandered off till it fell on Terri and Tolenn and then the memory of the later being wounded several times hit him like a club to the head.
A grunt could be heard as the shadow mage made his way towards his scarred companion; his stride quick and loud. In moments he was standing in front of Tolenn with a wand in his left hand, in silence he turned his attention towards the magical object he focused and it hovered, as if raised by invisible strings. Victor's other hand now sheathed in a shadowy gauntlet was placed above the floating eldritch device.
The wand began to spin rapidly, Victor's gaze went to Tolenn and he placed his shadow armored palm in front of Tolenn, a few inches air between it and her face.
"Tolenn, this one's armor looks like it would fit you. With the full helm it could be useful getting us in certain places. So could the Plague Doctor's mask and coat for that matter." Amira calls from the catwalk.
"And the shield as well," Daud calls down before mumbling "been meaning to get me a new coat anyway."
He then proceeds to search though the fallen.
"Yeah, the two of you could definitely pull it off." Amira says thinking as she takes in the scenario.
"Me? I have no problem lying, not that I would really be lying either, but Tolenn's a Paladin, they're not really well known for their subterfuge." he confers with Amira while removing the Gray Maiden's armor.
After seeing Wednesday down the last of the Grey Maidens, Terri rushes for the stairs and scrambles up them, all the while praying she's not too late to help the woman.
She shoulders past Wednesday and removes the woman's helm before checking for vital signs and channeling enough of her goddess' power to, hopefully, keep the woman alive long enough for the young priestess to bind her wounds.
"Ever notice the Grey Maidens don't do a lot of talking? They're just the muscle." she says moving along the catwalk to get to the other Maiden's body.
"Yeah, and?" Daud asks, curious where Amira was going with her question.
"So she doesn't need to lie, just stand there and look dangerous." she continues.
"Oh yeah, she can definitely do that... unless we run into a higher ranked one."
"Those masked bastards didn't say much either" Commented Victor as he casually lifted one of the false faces of the physicians off the ground, he noticed a trail of dried blood droplets running diagonally from its bottom till the eye socket "Didn't look like they were good at treating sick people, pretty good at smashing heads though"
"Not good enough it would seem..." Daud mumbles, though unsure, while rubbing the back of his sore head.
Tolenn walks up and picks up the breastplate Amira had just taken off the former Grey Maiden, looking down at it contemplatively.
Softly she says, "Amira, Wednesday, your plan is sound. However, I must decline."
She holds up the breast plate, "This armor is a symbol of tyranny and oppression. Donning it, even in an attempt of deception on our enemies, would be an affront to my Lady of the Dawn. .
She sighs, looking down at the fine workmanship, "Perhaps when we've purged this den of evil, I may take this to the armorer at the Temple, where it may be concecrated and recast in the service of good. "
She then looks up at her friends, her a wry smile on her face at having to disappoint her friends.
On the four Queen's Physicians, you find four of the magical plague masks that match the one you found down in The Direption, including having an immunity to Blood Veil. On them you also find slightly ruined leather armor, and clubs fashioned so that they had exceptional balance (MW clubs).
On the four Gray Maidens, each one wears a suit of beautifully wrought (MW) full plate and a matching well-crafted (MW) longsword, and bears a heavy steel shield, a composite longbow, and twenty arrows.
Terri hurries up the stairs, but the Maiden that Wednesday devastated no longer clings to life, likely having died before she even hit the catwalk.
"So you wouldn't even wear it if it helps keep you alive in a fight? You could redeem it that way." Daud asks, worry creeping into his voice.
"She's a big girl" Interjected Victor as he carried a few masks and two pairs of leather armor to their growing mountain of loot "She can make her own decisions" The sorcerer placed the gear he carried on the rest of the items they liberated from their foes, not bothering to do anything as one of the masks tumbled from the top of the pile and made its way to the floor.
Victor turned his gaze to Amira "Any other plans? Or do we just keep moving and deal with whatever comes our way head on?" Asked the mage, as he made his way to another fallen foe, aiming to receive them of items they won't be needing any longer.
Wednesday slowly turns his head with a glare towards Victor but doesn't otherwise say anything as he loots the Maidens, taking one of the longswords for himself.
"Spare me the mean looks" Victor snorted as he dropped another armful of items on their pile of plunder "If someone doesn't want to strap on a piece of metal then I am not going to waste time by talking them into doing it, especially when they've shown me that they know what they are doing" The disgruntled sorcerer walked to another corpse that used to be their foe, his loud steps adding more strength to the irritation in his tone.
"This plague isn't going to sit back and wait while you argue about that bloody armor" Gloved hands roughly removed a helmet from one of the dead Grey Maidens, before they began working on unbucklking the straps of her armor.
"I respect your decision Tolenn. It would be good to see you redeem it at some point but I understand." Amira says to the Paladin. "We need to patch ourselves up and figure out what to do about this place. We can't heal everyone here, but it would be irresponsible to have those still infected just walk back into their neighborhoods."
"I am allowed to worry about people I care about, you sanctimonious prick." Daud says back while rooting through the spoils.
A rare smile made its way to Victor's face, he stood up a little straighter after plunging a sheathed sword in the middle of the pile then turned in the direction of Wednesday "Been called prick for as long as I can remember, but sanctimonious? That's a first" The shadow mage moved to one of the physicians, ridding them of both their leather armor and mask "Look I don't normally give advice, but ya almost made me laugh and also being called sanctimonious must mean I am moving up in the world" While most of his words came in the same gruff manner of speech he usually employed, the latter part was so overflowing with sarcasm and strangely enough...a bit of amusement.
"When someone says no in the way she did, it means just that, so trying to convince them otherwise is a waste of time" Victor walked back to the the hill of gear and items for the umpteenth time "But if yer that worried about her why don't ya move yer feet instead of yer tongue, carry this loot to a merchant, sell it and buy her a set of plate armor she has no reason to turn down" With that last word Victor let the contents in his arm fall on the rest of their battle bounty, he then turned his attention towards Amira.
"Agreed" Victor replied casually and made his way to Amira in a similar manner, the wand hovering slightly around his left hand.
Daud arches an eyebrow while the shadow mage went about giving him a talking down and collecting more of the equipment. Thinking the suggestion over he then shakes his head. "She already said she wants to take them to her temple so they can be put to good use, better that than to give it to some mercenaries."
Seeing that there's no hope of reviving any of the others that had fallen in combat, she returns to the floor, dragging the body of the Grey Maiden down with her. By the time she reaches the bottom of the stairs, her muscles tremble and her cheeks burn from the exertion. She pulls the body to where the others were being laid out then turns to Tolenn, wand in hand.
"Is anyone else hurt," she asks in a shaky, quiet voice as she taps the paladin with the wand.
"Fine as always." Wednesday grumbles.
"Seems everyone's back on their feet" Victor rested a hand on all the items they've recovered "Want to carry them with us? Or leave them and come back for them on the way out?"
"Victor's taken care of my injuries." Amira replies.
"Leave them for the moment, there might still be others here." Wednesday says while looking about the room and the connecting exit-ways.
"So you wouldn't even wear it if it helps keep you alive in a fight? You could redeem it that way." Daud asks, worry creeping into his voice.
Tolenn smiled, "Would that it were so, Wednesday. " before turning to assist in the gathering of the former Grey Maiden's possessions.
Raising an eyebrow as the discussion between Victor and Daud continues, she demurs making any comment, content within herself that her decision was correct.
As the healing was dispensed, she says "Thank you, Sarenae bless you all."
At Tolenn's comment Daud just slumps slumps his shoulders in defeat.
"Ok, grab anything immediately useful, leave the rest here. We'll take it when we leave. Let's finish clear this place, find anything else useful and figure out what we'll do next." Amira says refocusing.
Victor silently moves to the back of the formation, once there he takes a deep breath and begins conjuring the arcane energy around him. Shadows and darkness slithered towards the mage, clinging to his legs arms and chest, slowly forming into a morbidly emblazoned set of black armor outlined with a purplish hue. A moment passed and the armor was gone, it's outline barely visible, but if one to look at Victor's shadow they'd see that the armor was still very much visible there.
Daud grunts in agreement while getting one of the less savaged doctor's coat to wear before heading back over to the stairwell and the other areas of the warehouse.
"W-wait! There is one that still lives. Perhaps she has some information we can use, Terri blurts out.
"Conscious enough to talk?" Amira asks as she flips down from atop the scaffolding after tossing down the other Maiden's armor.
"I can have her conscious enough in a moment," Terri answers before moving to remove the woman's weapons and armor. She ties the woman's hands before pulling out her wand and using it to help the woman regain consciousness.
Tolenn helps Terri with the woman, warning the more bloodthirsty of the group away with a stern glance.
As Terri applies some of her healing magic to the Grey Maiden, Tolenn hauls the woman upright against one of the nearby cots, looking as she does so at the individual suffering there.
Wednesday just tilts his head oddly as Tolenn gives him a death glare for some reason. What did I do now?!?!
After Terri strips off the woman's gear and uses her wand once, the Gray Maiden regains consciousness. Like all her fellows, when her faceplate is removed you can see that she was once quite a lovely young woman, but has been scarred in what seems a ritualistic fashion, relatively recently.
Her blue eyes flit over the group, displaying alarm, but not panic. Her arms flex, testing her bonds, then she relaxes back against the cot, looking defiantly at Tolenn.
"Oh awake are ya?" Asked Victor rhetorically from where he was standing next Wednesday.
"Ya remember us, right? The Arkonas...lets say delivery boys" He continued his voice taking the same fabricated nonchalant tone he'd used upon entering this area.
"See her?" He casually points in Amira's direction with his thumb "Assassin, used to work for the Cerulean Society, the things I've seen her do with that star knife" He cracked a wicked smile "I still get shivers whenever I remember it" The sorcerer then motioned towards Wednesday "And him? well I found him on a day not very different from this, surrounded by bodies and carrying something sharp and bloody in his hand" Victor placed his hands in his pockets and casually looked around the room, not giving the Grey Maiden a second glance.
"So how about ya answer our questions without much trouble, eh? Cause really I can't guarantee their patience" The shadow mage added for extra effect as he strolled around the room in what appeared to be a very apathetic manner.
Wednesday cracked his neck from side to side as the shadowcaster went about his monologue, the guy loves to talk. Tuning most of it out as he drolled on though he did catch enough.
Ya'know, as a person I should really be insulted by that apt characterization.
But I'm not.
Terri shoots Victor a glare, but as she remembers the gurgling last gasps of a woman who had come to receive help, the strength isn't really in it.
"I would suggest you do as he says," Terri tells the woman before she has a chance to speak. She holds up her holy symbol so that the Grey Maiden can see it clearly, "While you'd be wise to question his veracity, trust me when I say that I am a full priestess of Shelyn, and I would love nothing more than to visit upon you the pain of these people lying and the woman you and your companions killed. Dark thoughts about joining with Zon Kuthon's priests are dancing in my head so that I can exact the punishments you and your ilk so richly deserve without having to shame my goddess with my actions."
The diminutive priestess flashes the woman a death-heads grin.
"So Grey Maiden, your first question is an easy one. Why did you attack after seeing that we could help, hmm?"