Concealed by the fog and thus able to cast spells readily, the creature casts something at Viv.
...but it seems to have no effect.
Able to locate him by his unique stink, Lyraesel brings her cudgel slamming down hard on the enemy spellcaster
May Torag assist me with this
Morgrym grips his weapon as he attempts to bring the hammer down on the birdy.
Bernard fires more.
Morgrym and Bernard both miss; Viv slashes again.
Viv manages to impale the bird-thing and it croaks as the air exits its chest cavity, dead instantly.
Eventually, the unnatural fog clears away.
Dozens of paintings of a towering humanoid figure with four wings, a bird’s head, and a scorpion’s tail decorate the walls of this room, seemingly painted in blood. Old pews sit in a line facing the eastern wall, where a hideously defaced statue of a winged woman stands.
Morgrym cleans his Warhammer off, and then picks up his Urgosh when the fog clears.
By the gods, that was a pain.
He then looks around at the paintings.
Deface one of the gods, I think we should destroy the paintings in this old church.
He then walks over to the defaced statue and tries to figure out which goddess it might have been.
Oh yes, and does anyone have one of those healing wands I might be able to use? My ears are still ringing.
Up close, Morgrym thinks that the statue was once of Desna, but her wings have been hacked in two (making her appear to have four rough, smaller wings) and her head has been replaced with a crude bird's head piece of stone.
Drawing the wand, Lyreasel exhausts it's power healing the worst of the group's injuries.
"Spivey, was this once dedicated to Desna?"
"I think so... it's been pretty badly defiled. At a guess I'd say that the birds were followers of... Pazuzu, maybe? Four-winged bird-demon-god?" says the tiny faerie.
Bernard gathers his arrows and breathes deeply.
Four winged bird demon? That sounds like your friend had more here than she let on. He nods at Kenji.
Morgrym looks at Lyraesel
My thanks for the aid.
He then looks back at the statue.
I don't know who they were trying to make, but I think they defiled Desna. May Pharasma have mercy on them as I know her followers will not.
He starts looking over his gear as the party tries to figure out what direction to go next.
"If it wasn't for the harpy girl I'd say burning this place down sounds like a good idea. Is there anywhere we haven't gone at this point?" Lyreasel asks after giving Morgrym a nod.
Burning the place down does have its merits, but also the we promised that harpy that we wouldn't.
I will not break my word when given, so another option is needed.
Morgrym looks around at the group.
There is the still the basement, as much as I don't want to go down there.
I think there is more information to be gained from that harpy. If there's been worshipping of a bird-demon lord then the harpy seems like an obvious leader. If there are more traps and forces down there she'll know.
"So what's your plan? Interrogate her after we agreed on a truce?" Lyraesel asks, clearly finding the idea distasteful.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I hope not, we gave our word that she was not going to be molested by us.
Ask questions, yes, but interrogate, not by me.
As Morgrym says, I'm not suggesting we capture her and torture her, but I see no reason why a truce means we can't get annoyed at the fact that she seems to have been holding out on us.
A search of the bird-priest(-ess? how can you tell with a bird?) turns up:
* A very well-made longsword
* Three scrolls (magic)
* A wand (magic)
* Studded leather armor
Shalelu says, "There's also a staircase going down in the war room, on the first floor."
Morgrym takes a quick look over the items that turned up.
Well, this scroll will remove enchantments, and this wand is charged with divine power but to hurt people, and not heal people.
He looks up as Shalelu comments on the staircase.
Well then, I guess we should be looking into that when we go.
"This one holds a healing spell like the wand did but more powerful" Lyraesel says indicating one of the other two scrolls. "I agree, let's head down."
You head down the stairs and into what seems to be a dark mess hall. It is littered with the broken remnants of plates and tableware.
At a door on the east side is a small band of troglodytes. You recognize the stench almost immediately. They seem to be slouched and bored, but they quickly become active as your light flickers its way down the dark staircase into the chamber.
Morgrym looks around
Does any one mind if i hold onto the wand
Damn, some smelly lizards
Morgrym moves to try to get a clear shot at one.
Only to drive the arrow into the door on the far side.
Stepping into the room and remembering the vile stink of the troglodytes they faced before, Lyraesel moves backward, clearing a path for the more melee oriented members of the group, as she fires at the rearmost of the enemies.
Lyraesel's shot is solid and wings the troglodyte in the back (#5).
Bernard moves forward and fires a pair of arrows at the nearest troglodyte.
I don't want to think about what they will smell like when they are dead.
Bernard's surprise shot fells the troglodyte in one hit to an artery in its chest!
Kenji rashly moves forward and makes a jumping kick that sends fire shooting out over all of the troglodytes.
Then he nearly doubles over gagging from the horrid scent of oily, burning lizard flesh.
Viv moves to engage the nearest standing trog.
Despite her keen gnomish sense of smell, she seems unaffected by the horrid stench.
She keeps the trog near herself and Kenji on its toes, that's for sure.
Shalelu moves to a better position for a shot and takes one at the trog at the north end of the group (#3).
She finishes off that one with a well-placed shot!
The trog facing off with Kenji (#2) attempts to rip into the kineticist!
Meanwhile the other one in back (#4) rushes around to attack Shalelu.
...but it is unable to land a claw on her.
Morgrym then hustles into battle! He steps over the fallen body of one of the trogs, misses with his first attack, and prepares to swing again.
Spivey hangs back and waits to see if anyone will need healing.
Seeing the troglodyte attacking Shalelu, a quiet snarl escapes Lyraesel's lips as she takes careful aim, sending an arrow sailing over her shoulder with an extremely difficult shot.
Lyraesel makes the difficult shot and fells the trog facing off against Shalelu. Shalelu spares a quick glance over her shoulder and mouths 'thanks.'
Bernard hustles up to the north side of the room and fires a shot at the remaining troglodyte.
The last remaining troglodyte tries making a line toward the east door to retreat, but Bernard's shot finishes the last troglodyte! Goodnight, lizard.
With the troglodytes defeated you're left with just the remains of their stench filling this room, which used to be some kind of mess hall. No doubt it's connected to kitchens and other underground areas...
Morgrym makes sure the Troglytes are good troglytes before checking them over for what they had.
He then looks at the others So where we going next?
Bernard looks over the door to the north, looking for traps and then opens the door.
"This way I suppose." Lyraesel says Drawing another arrow and creeping forward. As she moves past Shalelu she gives the ranger a little smile. "Always."
Morgrym chuclkles lightly at Lyraesels comment as he takes post again at the back of the group.
None of the troglodytes are carrying anything of value - if they own anything, it must be stashed somewhere else.
Bernard gives the door a short inspection, then opens it.
Stone pillars support the ceiling over this large kitchen—although the fire pits, tables, and pantries here look like they haven’t been used in decades. Thick layers of dust cover everything in the room.
"Looks like no one comes down here." Lyraesel mutters sneezing at the dust she inhaled. With an irritated little growl she scans the area for signs of anything of note.
As Lyraesel circles around the west side, Shalelu circles east. Both of the elves check the dusty surfaces of the old kitchen.
Bernard slinks in after the elves, one arrow notched.
"Actually, both corbies and trogs through here. This door's locked," she whispers upon falling back to the rest of the group, indicating the eastern door. "The other one isnt."
"Which way?" says Shalelu. "Several doors."
How about blocking off the locked door, and we take the unlocked one
Makes sense. We can use these tables and such. Gonna want someone to watch that other door though so we don't get a flurry of arrows through our backs. Kenji?
He starts pushing furniture to make a makeshift doorstop.