"Did you find what you hoped to?" Ysme queries as she pulls herself to her feet by the means of Betheda's coat. "Let us depart this place before even worse befalls us."
Sihdron? Brothers? Do any of you know what those mean? Should we go to Magnimar and see if we can find her townhouse?"
"Sihedron ritual?" Eli mutters.
"Questions better answered after we have made our way of this hellhole!" Ysme lashes at the others as she attempts to get the moving towards the exit.
Looking around at the others to be sure they're ready to go, Pirknok nods and leads the way to the stairs. "If wer dun here, then we kin go."
As the party makes it up to first floor with perhaps more questions than answers, that familiar sense of dread seems to follow them. The walls of the floor are somehow more yellowed and peeling than when the party first entered and a familiar mold seems to have crawled up their surface. Pirknok and Ventus both have a hard time shaking a subtle need for one more slimy bite.
A deep moaning voice calls out from the mold-covered walls.
A hideous mound of dark spongy fungus pulls itself from the ground blocking the exit.
"Ysme's right. This house is evil. Even the mold is trying to kill us!"
She whips a couple daggers at the thing, hoping they'll have some effect.
As the party is leaving the room below the house, he says, "This Sihedron is related to the Thassilonian Runelords. The ritual is somehow tied to the Runelords, perhaps trying to direct power to them in some way. Maybe this Brotherhood is a Runelord cult?"
Outside...
Eli steps back and primes a bomb. "By Desna!" he exclaims before throwing it at the monster.
Eli's bomb sails over the statue and collides with the fungal monster with a wet 'pop'. It seems to little damage but does burn up some of the spores growing along its surface.
With ease it slithers forward over the statue and swings a tendril at Eli.
Pirknok steps forward and growls in anger. "Quit... yer... nasty... magics!"
Focusing on destroying the mold before it can hurt anyone, he swings his sword in a powerful blow.
Circling away from it, Jessamy pulls her bow and lets loose a shaft.
Eli staggers back from the thing's attack, just out of its reach, and throws another of his dwindling supply of bombs.
"See if you can't get around it on the other side!" Ysme cries as she runs towards the fungal mass.
Following Ysme's directive, Betheda lopes around the opposite wall to snap at the offal mound.
Pirknok lands a solid blow that makes the mass shudder in pain but Jess's arrow just seems to sink in with no effect. Eli's bomb has similar results to last time. Ysme and Betheda both connect tearing chunk of fungus free from the creature.
Ventus tries to look for an opening but eventually settles for trying to get around the blob of mold.
The fungus monster slams down with its slimy tendrils on the offending humanoids.
"OUCH!!" yells the dwarf as he's struck full across the face. He retaliates a moment later with a powerful attack of his own.
Panting & scrabbling madly, Ysme struggles against the fungal mass.
Desperate to save her companion, Betheda snarls, tearing once more into the fungal mass.
Pirknok lands another massive blow splattering bits of blackened wriggling fungus across the room.
It shudders in anger and waves its free tendril at the dwarf.
Ysme’s claws fail to damage the spongy mass but Betheda tears another foul chunk free in her jaws.
"Just burn it!" Ysme cries out at Eli. "I'd rather die in fire than that!"
Eli, looking nervous that his bombs are not having the desired pyrotechnic effect, grabs another vial.
Eli's flask of alchemical fluid connects and freezes a chunk of the creature solid which promptly shatters and crumbles away.
Ventus finishes circling around and finds an opening next to the wolf that had been following Ysme around lately. Lacking a better course of action, he stabs at the mold monster while whistling for his companion outside.
Jessamy sighs as she realizes the others want to get up close and personal with the creature instead of attacking it from afar or trying to circle around it.
This is what being a hero is, I guess...
Quickly firing another arrow, her aim wildly off, she slings her bow across her back and pulls her blades, ready to move in.
I hope I don't die.
The creature whips Ysme about before releasing her long enough to slam back down again.
Beaks can be heard squawking and banging on the door.
Knowing it is now a matter of who dies first, herself or this...
thing, Ysme tears into it with all she has.
Ventus steps back to open the door.
Tearing into the obscenity with renewed vigor, Betheda worries at the mass.
Ventus finds that the door is unlocked but sealed shut.
Ventus whistles more insistently trying to galvanize Beaks into taking more drastic measures.
Ysme shreds a little bit more of the monstrous fungus creating an opening for her noble lupine companion to dive into the heart of the thing and tear out something dripping and foul, but somehow vital. The fungal creature thrashes madly just as Ventus gets the door open and the waiting Beaks, after a squawk of disapproval, charges in biting and tearing. The thoroughly throttled dwarf is dropped unceremoniously as the two animal continue to tear the unnatural plant matter to pieces until the whole room is covered in bits of the stuff but, for the first time since they've arrived in the Misgivings, the party feels safe.
Pirknok stares grim-faced and angry at the monster hitting him and his friends, and watches in approval as the rest of the party tears it to shreds. As it falls to the ground, once again lifeless, he leans heavily against the wall and falls unconscious.
"The dwarf!"
Jessamy pats her various pouches to see if she has a potion she could use to heal him, but can only look around helplessly as she comes up empty.
"Eli, I have plumbed my own depths & have nothing left to give Pirknok. Use the wand." Ysme calls out as she struggles to forestall her friend's death.
Eli steps up with the wand and applies its magic to the Dwarf's wounds.
"Live, damn you!"
Pirknok coughs a few times and feels around for his katana. "Ah'm livin', ah'm livin... quit yer yellin' a'ready!" he grumbles.
"Can we get out of here now," Jessamy asks plaintively, her voice just a shade off from a whine.
"Yes, it appears we are free to leave," Ventus said, calming Beaks and picking bits of the worryingly persuasive mold from her feathers.
Pirknok hoists himself to his feet and nods tiredly. "Thuh sooner wer out uv here, thuh better."
The trip back to Sandpoint is blissfully quiet but after the long day, very long. When the party passes through the gates, it’s already closing on the midnight hour.
Tired, sore, and probably a little shaken still, the group disperses for their homes to get some rest.