Nebbin continues to pound the table.
Since it doesn't sound like reinforcements lie to the south, Lucius will scatter the caltrops as best he can, just south of the northern opening.
He instructs Nebbin to break the table. His voice still low, he says "This stone has been desecrated with demonic sacrifice. You're a quarryman. Can you break it? That ought to get their attention." He looks around. "Everyone else, make ready."
Once Nebbin begins smashing, he steps to one side of the room and reaches into his belt pouch, activating Tendralev's scale. He mutters a quiet prayer, <<Father, lend me your might.>>
When the slab resists the first strike, but noises come from the north, Lucius whispers to Nebbin, "Again!" (Though, it is more of a stage-whisper, to cover the distance.)
Ravana moves up to have a clear charge.
Saoirse sets herself up close behind Wenduag, her sword and shield held ready as she hears Nebbin smashing his hammer into the altar, glad to see such a hideous sight destroyed.
A male tieflings comes running through the curtains, brandishing a shortsword. It yells in a foul language "Bonke abasondela Lady Hosilla, ungisindise, ziyafa."
As he comes to stop in the caltrops and the arrow from Wenduag clatters into the far wall, he looks back over his shoulder. "Wenduag. I should have known. Baphomet siyophuza umphefumulo wakho."
He whirls into a defensive spin and throws his hand out with fingers spread. Suddenly the light in the room seems to darken and it gets harder to see.
From the northern room you hear, "Baphomet, guide my glaive to strike true the unbelievers."
Unsure what to do, Nebbin looks around with eyes wide.
Should I keep smashing the stone?
Lucius glares at the swordsman. <<Lord Asmodeus demands that you lower your sword!>>
Aero will sheathe his rapier and call upon fortune's favor and cast ear-piercing scream on the tiefling. + Daze
Concealment:
Attack:
Damage:
Saoirse's eyes narrow as the demonic looking man rushes through the curtains. Stepping forward Saoirse slashes her sword at the man as the darkness erupts in the room.
Saoirse's strike whistles wide and the tiefling grins wickedly at her. "A neqhawe ongcwele? Kumelwe bazizwe amandla Baphomet."
The curtain door parts again and what must be Hosilla stands with a wicked looking glaive in her hands. She lunges forward with it at Wenduag.
"I knew you weren't to be trusted. A traitor to her people and a traitor to her god."
The tiefling shakes his head then drops his shortsword. He turns his head rapidly until he sees Lucius and says "Ta ni o sin, eniyan?"
The tiefling shrieks in pain as Aero wordlessly screams at him.
Aaaaaaahhhhhh!
Nebbin screams in fear!
"Aaaaaaahhhhhh!"
"Ta ni o sin, eniyan?"
Lucius brandishes his holy symbol at the tiefling, <<The one who all obey, even yourself.>>
His voice drops, no longer projecting for the tiefling's benefit. <<Prince of Law, whose reach is long.>> He flicks a finger at the dropped sword.
"Nebbin, help Wendaug!"
Lowering her horns, Ravana takes a deep breath and charges the tiefling standing in the caltrops.
Turning to the side, the evil minion avoids the horns as Ravana draws up short to avoid running into the caltrops. Cursing her luck, Ravana prepares to slam her fists into the beasts at the next opportunity.
The horned man grins and steps forwards, towards Nebbin.
"Owesifazane oyisiwula You!" he cries out in pain as Saoirse's sword strikes true.
He holds his bleeding shoulder and advances towards Nebbin. "Umhlatshelo wakho iyakuba olandelayo, umhlaba-full."
"Aaaah!" Nebbin screams again as the horned man approaches.
"Get away from me!" he cries, swinging his hammer and looking around for a way out.
He breathes a short sigh of relief as he hits a glancing blow with his maul, though the power of even that forces the creature back a step momentarily.
Uziel steps back from the impact of the hammer. He sinks to a knee a half second later. Another half second and he slumps down on the ground next to the cracked altar.
Saoirse turns to watch Nebbin swing his hammer down on the demonic man's head, a grin splitting her face as even the untrained swing fells the creature. Turning back to face the shadow shrouded woman, Saoirse side steps the caltrop field and brings her sword to bear on the woman. "Your evil has lasted long enough down here!" Saoirse's sword flashes with a burst of white light as she thrusts it forward with all the righteous anger she can give.
Concealment:
Smite Evil Power Attack:
Damage:
Critical Hit:
Damage:
Total Damage: 23
Lucius will move toward Wendaug, digging into his pocket for his healing potion.
Ravana has neither darkvision nor low light vision. She's just a human.
Hosilla tries to raise her glaive defensively, but Saoirse's holy rage drives her sword through the haft and sinks deeply into the woman's shoulder. She falls to the ground with half of a whimper of pain escaping her lips. Blood continues to pour from the open wound onto the floor.
Wenduag thanks Lucius for his kindness as she tips the contents of the vial into her mouth.
She gets up and kicks Hosilla's body, then grabs a rope from her backpack and ties up the tiefling.
Lucius nods at Wendaug approvingly as her wound closes. "Is everyone whole?", he asks, before summoning fresh dancing lights and working on clearing the caltrops. "Search them both."
Aero will cast detect magic and examine the bodies.
Nebbin's eyes widen, his breathing coming fast, as he realizes the fight is over as quickly as it began.
"I'm OK. Did I kill him? Oh gods, I didn't mean to kill him!" He looks around, eyes wide.
Lucius looks up. "You did good, Nebbin." Suddenly, he looks down and scowls: he nearly pricked his finger on a caltrop whilst looking away. "Besides, I don't think he's dead, or Wendaug wouldn't have bothered to fetch that rope." Another short pause, while he ties the bag of metal spikes closed again. "I think we need to have a talk with him, when he wakes up."
"I did? Thanks! I didn't mean to hurt him so badly, but he just came at me and ... I guess I couldn't help myself. It's not like hitting stone. Stone is harder. And doesn't scream."
Lucius can't help but chuckle at that, now that the danger seems to have passed. "I do believe it was you screaming, not him." He preempts a reaction by Nebbin by saying "Don't be embarrassed, it's easy to lose yourself in a moment like that. Time slows down, or sometimes speeds up. I have a mind-clouding magick that creates a similar effect." A pause of realization. "Or exaggerates it, I suppose. I don't have experience with fighting either, save a few straw dummies at seminary. In any case, take a deep breath. Drink some water."
He steps back over to his pack, fetching the waterskin, which he passes to the big man, before stowing the sack of caltrops and sitting down on the pack himself. "You crushed that maggot in the cave without a second thought. That...demonchild wasn't any different. He was going to hurt you, or one of us, if someone didn't stop him. You stopped him."
His face hardens, a bit. "You're an imposing man, Nebbin, even if you don't know it. And while your innocence is...endearing, the world is a harsher place than that. I doubt we've seen the last of danger. That witch and her 'bodyguard' might not be the last thing you have to fight. I am glad to have you around, if I...if we all can count on you. Can we count on you, Nebbin?"
Aero stands asside, not wanting to interrupt the moment but waiting to give Nebbin a big slap on the back.
"Oh, but the maggot was just a bug. I mean, we ran into dangers like that in the quarry, but that's not fighting like the crusaders do," he replies, taking a drink.
"But I guess if you need me to do more, well, I don't want to let you down. I don't know how much use I'll be -- I'm not trained to fight" -- his eyes flick over to Saoirse -- "but I can try. Don't I need a weapon, though?"
Saoirse looks down at Hosilla as she gurgles out her last breath, her hand shaking for a moment as the rush of battle and her anger settle down. Saoirse barely hears sound for a few moments as she sheathes her sword and drops to her haunches by the side of Hosilla. Gradually hearing more until Nebbin's eyes move over to her and she responds.
"Fighting is never quite what you expect... "
Saoirse's voice seems distant and distracted, talking to the room more than anything else, as her hands reach out to begin searching the dead woman's body, her hands pressing and looking for... anything really.
"You already carry a weapon Nebbin, even if you don't think of it that way. Lucius is right, you did good. As for training... that can come later. For now, let Iomedae guide your hand."
Lucius inwardly bristles at the mention of Iomedae. He can't tell if that's what Saoirse would have said anyway, or if she was specifically trying to shut him out before he could mention the Prince of Law.
It doesn't matter. The time for that will come later, when Lucius has proven himself a success to everyone, including the Medevians and their 'Goddess'. Not now, when he's a foreign nobody they can collectively ignore as probable demonfodder. Or as a heretic no better than the demonic cultists - Humanity is cruel, petty, and stupid everywhere. A proper deity acknowledges that instead of hiding behind platitudes and 'ideals', leading her followers by some misguided example instead of simple discipline.
"Saoirse is right. You do carry a weapon. A hammer that you know well is better than a thousand swords you do not."
Lucius rises off the pack. Speaking of swords, he'll fetch Uziel's short sword from the other side of the room using his still-active mage hand. He offers it to Wendaug (who presumably has the matching sheath, since she tied Uziel.) "Will he live?" he asks her. "I would speak with him before we leave this place, but we will leave him your prisoner. This is your home." He nods his head in the direction of Hosilla's body. "And I believe you may have just come into a promotion."
As Saoirse's hands check what she thought was a body, a gasp of air and a sigh followed by steady breathing come from Hosilla.
Wenduag gratefully accepts the shortsword and puts into the scabbard from Uziel...but she does not strap it to her belt. "He will indeed live, for the time. Indeed, I was second in command before our old chief was slain by these two. I believe I may try to contact...Chief...Sull and ask him if we can rejoin our people."
Yantel's Sword
"We have done a great deed today, rescuing this sword from the forces of evil. Let me tell you about it..."
Nebbin looks at his massive maul as if seeing it in a whole new light.
"A weapon? Huh. I guess, yeah, maybe it is. Strange, it seems so different hitting people than rocks. But I can try. Maybe Iomedae will help me like the crusaders..."
He looks at the earth breaker for a few moments and finally looks around, confused.
"I'm supposed to clean it, right?"
Saoirse's eyes widen as she realizes that Hosilla is still alive, but seeing the woman is incapacitated for the moment she continues her search. Eventually happening upon a note and a key Saoirse flips open the parchment and reads, holding the key in the palm of her hand. After handing the note over to Aero Saoirse looks puzzled .
"Yaniel's sword... but there's no sword here..."
Hearing Nebbin's confusion Saoirse smiles and nods, slipping her backpack off of her shoulders and pulling out a worn and blood-stained cloth.
"Yes Nebbin, you must keep a weapon well cleaned, here."
After handing Nebbin the cloth, Saoirse turns and moves away from the group, heading into the room that the pair of Baphomet worshipers came from with the key. Saoirse scans her eyes across the room, looking for anything that the key might fit into.
Wiping the blood off the head of his maul, Nebbin follows Saoirse, holding out the cloth to return to her.
He looks around the new room, curious what else is down here.
Lucius will try to stake a claim to the potion of cure moderate wounds to replace the potion he gave to Wendaug. He'll also try to take one or both flasks of alchemist fire. He might try to take the crossbow and bolts, but only if no one else tries to stake a claim first.
He'll wish to look through the prayer book, but afterwards he will probably insist on burning it. He'll also examine the vial of sludge and the note.
When he discovers that Hosilla is still alive, he will suggest that her hands be bound or broken, or possibly to just kill her. The mongrelfolk called her a witch, which means she has magic, which means she's potentially very dangerous, even disarmed. He'll use his own ability to bend minds as an example.
Nebbin points out the lockbox to Saoirse, still holding out the filthy cloth for the Iomedan crusader to take.
Lucius flips through the book. "I don't read demontongue, but I do recognize the structure of magic, though it mentions Baphomet a rather large number of times. It's some kind of a spellbook. Which is slightly strange, since she looks to be a divine servant of some kind. Of course, demons are often unorthodox. Perhaps she has a fetish for the written word. Or perhaps her pitiful, demonic patron cannot grant her power the way most subjects of worship do, and she needs the book as a crutch."
"I apologize. I was thinking aloud. In any case, it should be destroyed. Demonic knowledge does no one any good, least of all those who would treat it as truth." He sets the book down atop the shattered ruin of the altar. "We have some time before our prisoners awaken. We should search their room. The more we know about them before questioning, the better an interrogation will go."
Taking back the cloth from Nebbin, Saoirse stuffs it back into her pack and then nods. "Let us see what that lockbox holds."
Saoirse moves over to the lockbox and presses the key into the lock, turning to unlock and (assuming nothing happens) flips open the top of the iron box.
The lockbox holds a small leather pouch containing an assortment of
semiprecious gemstones (three chips of lapis lazuli, two bloodstones, a citrine, and a white pearl) as well as 2 scrolls. A long, thin darkwood sword case is also in the lockbox.
Inside the unlocked sword case is a sword of breathtaking make. The blade appears razor sharp and looks as though it was just forged yesterday from gold.
While his compatriots search the northern room and rifle Hosilla's lockbox, Lucius will investigate the room to the south, throwing open the curtain.
"Oooh, it's pretty," Nebbin exclaims as he looks at the sword. "Do you think it's Yaniel's?"
"You should use it, Saoirse. I bet no one else has a gold sword in the crusades," he continues excitedly.