Tolenn mutters to Victor after the Grey Maidens depart, "Well done, this ruse of yours, using thier loyalty to the Queen against them."
She then hears the sounds coming from behind the doors and her face hardens, striding forward she pushes or pulls the doors open....
The doors are solidly made and firmly locked, and do not so much as budge as the paladin pushes upon them.
Tolenn mutters to Victor after the Grey Maidens depart, "Well done, this ruse of yours, using thier loyalty to the Queen against them."
The congratulatory words of the scarred warrior took Victor by surprise "It's no trouble, just trying to carry my weight in the group" He replied in his typical manner of speech, finally shedding the exaggerated tone he'd used with the Grey Maidens.
When the sounds of agony catch his ears he immediately begins to focus his magics, his shadow spread into a sheet of darkness in response and began covering the floor in hazy umbral ripples.
Victor does not detect anything on the door, but through the door he can feel a faint glimmer of magic. Honing in, he can tell that there are four magical effects in place, all of 'faint' strength. They all emanate from the room beyond, but in different areas, likely signifying that they are in different locations.
Amira moves up to the door, going down to one knee. Studying the lock for a moment she shrugs, muttering under her breath."Here goes nothing"
Pulling out her lockpicks she closes her eyes, her hand touching the floor, reaching her spirit down, through the walls, the floor, into the earth to touch the spirit of her city.
Guide my hand. All locks are yours. All secrets are yours and mine to discover.
With a smile she opens her eyes and sets to work on the lock with supreme confidence.
Thankfully for Amira, there is no trap on the door as she begins to disarm it, calling upon the City Herself for aid. After a couple of minutes of fidgeting, swearing, and sweating, the druidess finally grins, getting to her feet with a nod of satisfaction. She at least seemed to think she had locked the tumblers in the door into place and that it would open should they try to enter again.
"There are four sources of magic beyond the door but their faint and it doesn't look like their all in one place" Said Victor after Amira stopped tinkering with the look, his eyebrows raised in surprise as he didn't expect anyone in the group to have expertise in lock-picking.
"What? I protect a city, wouldn't be very good at it if locked doors were an obstacle would I?" Amira asks with a smirk, seeing Victor's expression.
Drawing one a packet from a belt pouch and bringing a boot up against the door she looks over her shoulder. "Everybody ready?"
Wednedsay shrugs and nods.
Terri nods grimly as she tightens her grip on her glaive.
Victor nodded at both Amira's explanation and her question, then he let out an exhale and prepared himself to deal with whatever awaited them behind that door.
Tolenn waits patiently as Amira works on the door, hands clasped behind her back, gently rocking back and forth on her heels.
As Amira steps back and gets ready to push open the door with her foot, Tolenn steps forward to stand at Amira's shoulder, scimitar rasping from its scabbard.
"Whenever you're ready, Amira." she breaths into her friends ear.
Smiling at Tolenn's go ahead, Amira kicks open the door, prepared to hurl the weapon in her hand at the first sign of opposition.
"... don't care what kind of celestial you are! If your entire demiplane is populated by your cats you're still a crazy cat... oh."
Cassandra and Park appear right behind Amira. One moment they aren't there. The next, poof, there they are.
"Hi! What did I miss?"
Cassandra plucks the long, neon pink octopus tentacle off of her shoulder. The rest of the creature seems to be missing.
"Calamari?"
"Plague. Zombies. Raid." Wednesday narrates before his brain comprehends the reappearance of their wizard ally. Turning his head to her he arches a curious brow. "Oh, welcome back. Victor, Tangled Briar. Briar, Victor." he says as he sweeps his hand between the users of the arcane.
Terri whips around and falls over with a yelp when she recognizes Cassandra.
"What happened to you," she asks, her green eyes wide with surprise.
Shaking her head in half amusement, half resignation Amira simply mutters, "We'll talk later." moments before kicking open the door.
"Well, sometimes when you teleport you turn left along the E axis when you meant to zag windershins and end up in the home of a celestial cat lady."
Cassandra rolls her eyes and draws her grappling hook!
Terri stares at Cassandra for a moment before shaking her head and standing up.
"I haven't the slightest clue what you just said, I'm just happy you're here now," the cleric says while giving Wednesday a thankful nod.
"And, as you can probably guess, Wednesday left a good deal of the picture out of his brief painting of the events that have happened."
Tolenn takes a step back as Cassandra appears suddenly, then relaxes as she realizes it was her old friend.
"It is good to see you well, Cassandra. We are about to confront Dr Davalus... will you join us?" she asks.
Victor jumped back when he saw the woman appear out of no where and was almost ready to use one of his spells to disable her till they knew who she was, but stopped when he noticed the waves of affection she received from the rest of the group, and then grumbled in acknowledgement when Wednesday introduced them.
"We can do the whole greeting thing later, let's focus here" He turned his gaze back to the door and readied himself once more for whatever they;d find behind it.
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Arching a brow at the priestess Wedneaday nods back after a moment. "Yes, and it was a very nice painting too. Thanks for reminding me, I'll have to remember to go and retrieve it later."
Rows of white-sheeted beds line the walls of this room. Each is occupied, every bed bearing a patient restrained by leather straps that bind the figure to the sturdy metal frame. At the room’s center stretch simple wooden worktables, each covered in fluid-filled beakers, intricate glass tubes, small burners, and other alchemical instruments.
There are fifteen beds in the room, and the patients in each bed are either sleeping or sedated to a point of incomprehension. Three of the Queen's Physicians stand ready at the doorway, swinging at the doorkicker, Amira! Though the woman is caught by surprise, the shield of the City stands firm, turning aside all of the blows made against her.
Terri claps a hand over her eyes as she winds up setting herself up for embarrassment later.
Terri steps up so she can get at the physicians.
And misses horribly.
Smiling at Tolenn's go ahead, Amira kicks open the door, prepared to hurl the weapon in her hand at the first sign of opposition.
Ranged touch: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (10) + 8 = 18
"Cassandra Wagner. Free-runner. Teleporter." The perky little mage offers to Victor. "This is Park."
She motions to the monkey on her shoulder. He's wearing tiny little goggles, too.
"I think you've got the beating people up part..."
Which is why Cassandra doesn't throw a spell or her grappling hook but instead examines the room curiously, shifting through space to the center of the room so she can examine the curious alchemical instruments. Her monkey pulls his goggles over his eyes and studiously examines the instruments as well.
She motions to the monkey on her shoulder. He's wearing tiny little goggles, too.
The melody of swords swishing through the air sprang right behind the physicians, as Victor clicked his tongue in his mouth while covering his lips with a shadowy veiled hand.
While we're waiting for Tolenn, I'll go ahead and roll Fort save. (Had to read up on who interrupts who with readied actions, LOL).
Her face serene, Tolenn advances on one of the club wielding 'physicians', her purpose implacable...
Amira tosses a flask as the door opens and the Physician's attack, striking the middle one directly in the chest.
The middle Physician seems a bit taken aback by the turn of events, but has little time to rue his mistake as Tolenn makes short work of him, striking the physician twice with her scimitar, the man falling hard to the ground.
Terri attempts to jab at one of the Physicians standing to the side of the door, but her angle is poor and she doesn't come close to hitting.
Wednesday steps up in between the two men, his patchwork sword flashing through the air, pummeling through the pathetic defenses of the Physician. After he retracts the blade, the man stands, but barely.
Victor covered his mouth with his hand, clucking his tongue as he again called upon his shadowy arcane might. The sounds of battle seemed to start 'behind' the Physicians. Both look over that way, their bird's masks betraying no emotion.
Cassandra studies the alchemical set up in the room, her monkey providing his own expertise to the task. Even through the distraction, Cassandra is fairly certain this room has been set up as a testing laboratory, focused on medical treatments (probably for Blood Veil). Although the wretches up here are in bad shape, they seem to be in poor physical health due to the Physicians' experiments than from Blood Veil. In fact, none of them seem to display any symptoms of the awful disease.
The Physicians, trying to stem the tide, both attack Wednesday. The first Physician missed his swing, but his distraction allowed the other to land a solid hit on Wednesday.
Summary:
Physician - Dead
Physician - 11 damage
Wednesday - 11 damage (26 total?)
Wednesday stand back at the physician that connected.
"Your invisible, behind them and can't even hit them?! Keep swinging ya idiots" Shouted Victor at the nonexistent attackers, hoping that the doctors would in the pit of his lie.
As he waited to see the fruits of his seed of deception Victor shifted his fingers and in response two shadowy tendrils reached into his pack and grasped at one of the acid vials he kept. The shadow mage focused for a moment before he swung his hand as if he was throwing something he was holding, and from it splashed a tar like liquid aimed at any doctor that was still alive.
Stepping up to face the Physician opposite Wednesday's opponent, Amira draws he scimitar, slicing at the twisted false healer.
Cassandra picks up a vial and holds it up to the light, then nods to herself and sets it down.
She completely ignores the chaos and battle going on behind her. After all, her friends and the shadow guy can handle it, yeah?
"No, Park." Cassandra says after her familiar chitters something to her, "We don't have the medical expertise to know if there's an actual cure in here. Maybe Terri can figure it out when she's done not hitting fake, sadistic doctors."
shifting through space to the center of the room
Her imemditate foe dispatched, Tolenn turns her immediate focus to the next available 'physician', her scimitar tracing beautiful arcs through the air....
The remaining two Physicians are efficiently dispatched before they can attempt anything else. The sounds of a raging battle still echo from the back of the room, though there is nothing there.
"Those men aren't sick."
Cassandra points to the victims of the mad science experimentation. Park mimics her motion.
"They are, however, being experimented on either using the plague or with cures for the plague. I'm not sure which."
Cassandra waves to the vials and beakers and bubblers and bonglers.
"I don't think they actually have the plague, though."
Park leaps from Cassandra's shoulders to the rafters above, hanging up there for the moment.
Terri drops her glaive and rushes to help the people in here. They may not be sick, but they were most certainly in need of aid.
As Terri rushes forward, she sees that Cassandra's assessment is indeed correct. Furthermore, it seems that these people, all of Varisian descent, have been drugged. Many bear horrific cuts, and a couple are even missing fingers or toes. The ones who aren't asleep groan in agony, not even realizing through their drug haze that their possible salvation is at hand.
"Reminds me of way I stopped trying to be a doctor." Wednesday says to no one in particular as he steps into the room in earnest and looks over all the poor souls gathered therein.