Thank you, Lily.
I guess that is kind of the point Jaed. A pathological liar who looks completely innocent and trustworthy, and dare I say, angelic, could do a lot of harm, could she not?
The naga doesn't have anything of interest on it, however, the cultists are carrying a fair amount of gear, some of which does indeed detect as magical.
While the group looks over the identifies the magic items the cultists had, Jaed checks the next door. He doesn't find any traps and the door appears to be unlocked.
Marzela takes the Masterwork Light Crossbow because she has been feeling ineffective at times, and thinks that having an option for a ranged attack might help.
She also encourages everyone to carry some healing potions, just in case she can't get to someone, since she has no more channels for the day.
Once everyone takes whatever they want, if anything doesn't fit in the bag of holding they found earlier, she offers to help carry the excess, or the sharp things that would harm the bag.
Lily picks up one of the light healing potions, a smokestick, and two sunrods.
Carrakas eyes the magical shield, but ultimately passes it over in favor of his trusted heavy shield. He does take a couple of the CLW potions, though.
"Oh, there are only 4 robes and 4 masks. This lot does not look very smart so we could probably play that trick again," says Jaed while he picks one of the light healing potions and an extra kit of thieves tools. After what happened to my sword I should carry double of everything. Just in case.
"If you guys are done, we should continue," he says just before opening the door.
Marzela follows Jaed through the door.
This chamber has high, vaulted ceilings, a simple stone floor, and unadorned granite walls. A large, 15-foot-square raised dais occupies the center of the room. In the middle of the dais rests a gray stone block with a grasping hand carved from the same stone rising from the center of the block. The hand is currently empty. The room is almost unbearably hot and entering is much like walking into a furnace. Luckily, it's not quite as hot as it was standing next to the channels of molten gold.
"Oh, you're here finally." An almost bored sounding voice calls out from the western side of the room. Turning your heads to look, you see a beautiful Elven woman, idly fanning herself with a simple mask. She looks annoying comfortable in the heat, devoid of even the barest hint of sweat on her brow. Though she lacks armor, she does have a beautiful curved blade hanging from her hip with an equally beautiful, rune-carved scepter topped by a ruby on her other. Around her neck hanges a simple, unadorned green agate that faintly glows blue.
"You know, you've been making quite the ruckus traipsing about the city. I'm a little surprised you didn't awaken every one of the Whispering Tyrant's undead minions and have them clamoring for your blood. But I guess that would be a little too much to ask for, wouldn't it? Nevermind though. I'm simply afraid I can't allow you to take the city's treasures for yourself. They've already been claimed." As she speaks these last works, she fixes her mask in place and draws her blade.
"Good that we can finally meet, whoever you are. We would've come earlier but a bunch of guys with masks kept entertaining us. Now they are with their god or something." Jaed says as he moves closer to the Elven woman. "Would you join them?"
Jaed moves and slashes at the woman. It looks like he's about to hit when he blinks, and suddenly she's a foot to the right of where he could've sworn she was just an instant ago. The woman tsks. "I'm afraid if you wish to send me to Razmir, you're going to have to do a bit better than that. Here, let me give you another chance." She then moves away from the rogue.
As she moves, she mutters a few arcane words until sticky strands of webbing shoot out of her hands to engulf the group.
Lily twists away at the last second and somehow avoids being snared!
She gestures and a cloud of blackened miasma briefly forms over the strange woman.
Marzela gets trapped by the web, then she breaks free and tries to move, and gets trapped again after only moving 5 feet.
Both Millsy and Finnrick are able to escape the webbing and Finnrick begins to cast a spell and Millsy leaps forward, but this time she gets tangled up in the web.
"Hey, don't run away"
"and stop the tricks!"
Jaed then moves, with difficulty, next to the elf.
Carrakas quickly reacts to the webbing, managing to not get any of the sticky substance on him - an impressive feat, given his bulk! He then gathers in some energy, and attempts to use blade rush.
After the blade rush had carried Carrakas only a short distance, an errant strand of the webbing lands on his armor, and somehow manages to stop all of the tiefling's forward momentum. He looks down at the webbing in disbelief, struggling with it, but the webbing holds fast.
The tiefling sails easily through the webbing, propelled by the earth swelling underneath him. He lands 5 feet east of the woman, and tries to bring his earthen hammer down on her back.
The cultist neatly dodges Jaed's second attempt at hitting her as she moves away.
While many members of the party manage to avoid the initial blast of web, they don't fair quite as well when trying to move through it. Millsy gets stuck somewhere in the center as does Marzela. Jaed manages with some difficulty to duck and weave to get to the far end of the web. Carrakas charges close enough forward to swing at the cultist, but gets pulled up short, throwing off his aim as the Elvan woman nimbly dodges.
Taking a slightly different approach, both Lily and Finnrick choose to stay put and start casting rather than risk getting caught like their companions. As Finnrick continues to chant, the woman completely ignore Lily's attempt to frighten her.
Chuckling as she watches everybody struggles through the strands of web, she backs up a step and begins casting again. The temperature in the room drops dramatically. At first it's a welcome change, but the relief is short-lived as hail and snow begin to fall and slam in to people.
As the snow and sleet continues to fall, it makes the already difficult to traverse area even more difficult.
Marzela is unable to break free, so can't even attempt movement this time.
Carrakas gives a mighty heave, pulling against the webbing, and snaps right out of it pretty easily.
He then concentrates for just a moment, grimacing in pain for just a second, before fixing his gaze on the woman. He then smiles, just a little.
Jaed covers his head with his swords as the hail comes down, although this does not seem to reduce the damage.
"Ouch, ouch, ouch!" he exclaims as he takes a step fordward.
Once next to the elf he attacks hoping not to miss again.
Lily switches to her bow again.
Ice storm: 1 full round
Millsy manages to break free and starts moving towards the cultist, but the web and icy floor vastly slow down her movement.
Annoyed that his mystery spell had failed, Finnrick gives a mighty pull, managing to rip through the web and finally escape it. He's so relieved he almost forgets about the raging ice storm and slips a bit, but manages to catch himself before falling.
Meanwhile, Lily fires an arrow at the cultist that clatters harmlessly against the stone wall above her head. Unfortunately, it's just close enough to distract Jaed's swing, causing him to miss the woman yet again. Freeing himself from the sticky strands, Carrakas watches and bides his time, smiling to himself.
Her confidence only growing as the group continues to be ineffective against her, the cultist woman once more steps backwards, making more arcane gestures. However, her armor gets in the way, messing up her spell.
Finally able to cast, Marzela casts Silence on Carrakas.
Carrakas gathers up some energy from the stones around him, and once more tries to rush out of the sticky webbing.
Though the webbing tries to take hold again, the sheer force of his bulk snaps past it as he goes flying out of the area of the spell and lands behind the woman, bringing an earthen hammer down on her back.
Millsy attempts to move and inches closer before being trapped again.
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Jaed takes a step forward and says a very intelligent and funny pun that unfortunately does not reach anyone's ears.
Well then, looks like Finnrick is drawing and loading the ol' sling-a-roo, why can't he use verbal components?
As Marzela's spell finishes, silence descends around Carrakas, engulfing all those around him. With a surge of strength, the tiefling charges forward, landing the first blow on the woman. Her face hides any reaction she might have from the hit as she turns to the warrior. Hoping to make use of the distraction, Jaed moves up behind the woman, but seems to bounce off an invisible barrier around the woman. Millsy tries to join in on the fun, but is once again caught in the web. Finnrick is about to try his spell once again when silence falls, so instead he pulls out his sling and loads it.
Lily continues to try to fire with her longbow, but the arrow simply get stuck in the webbing between her and the cultist.
Still unreadable with her mask on, the woman shifts over slightly and strikes back at the one person able to hit her so far. Unfortunately for her, her attack is not as effective as the tiefling's.
Marzela, unable to do anything else useful, breaks out her new crossbow.
Carrakas takes a small step to the south, setting up Jaed for the flank. He gathers up some energy, and forms his regular hammer again, though a close look will reveal some sticky tar coating the surface.
Jaed takes a step forward and unleashes both swords.
ice storm = 3 full rounds
Carrakas moves forward and lands another solid blow. He attempts to entangle the woman like she had done to most of the group with the webbing, but she is too fast and dodges out of the way, using her momentum to dodge Jaed's first strike as the second one once again bounces harmlessly off her invisible barrier.
Meanwhile from the other side of the room, a volley of ranged projectiles come from Marzela, Lily, and Finnrick. Unfortunately all the webbing and the still silently raging storm knock the projectiles asunder causing them to land wide of their intended target. Millsy bares her teeth in a silent growl as she struggles against the webbing holding her, but to no avail.
For her part, the cultist draws the gilded scepter holds it high. It begins to pulse a bright red color that slowly engulfs her. Flames burst down arms and quickly spread to the rest of her body, which begins slowly expanding. In the silence it's unclear if the fire is hurting her or not. Jaed, Millsy, and Finnrick are shoved back as soon a huge fire elemental stands where the woman once was. Her fiery form catches the edge of the web on fire.
Jaed eyes tells what his mouth can't when he sees the elf metamorphose into the fire elemental. Not wanting to be catch on fire, he steps out of the web
and attacks the elemental.
Marzela, not wanting to get caught in the fire that is spreading in the web, moves backwards, but gets caught again at the edge of the webbing.
"You gotta be kidding me..." Carrakas mutters in displeasure, taking in the sheer size of their foe. Shrugging his shoulders, the tiefling gathers his energy in once more, and forms his whip.
"Really? This is just rude," huffs Lily.
Lily waves her hand idly and a coruscating beam of energy fires toward the cultist.
39 + 1 + 16 + 1 = 57
Ice storm 4 full rounds
As Jaed attempts to reposition himself, the elemental slams heavily in to him, its flames burning and attempting to catch the man on fire. Somehow, despite the pain, he manages to land a blow on the creature, though it doesn't seem very effective.
On the other side of the creature, Carrakas continues to slam his weapon in to the elemental. He does quite a bit of damage but it doesn't seem as effective as it was on the Elven woman.
On the third side of the creature, Lily attempts to make the creature less effective at slamming in to people, but her shot goes wide. Marzela and Finnrick attempt to escape the web as Millsy attempts to take a bite at the creature and quickly regrets it before doing likewise.
Things thus far going well for the burning woman, she focuses her attention on the only person to thus far pose a real threat to her: Carrakas.
Carrakas grimaces as the firy creature slams into him. He tries to dodge away from the worst of the flames, but isn't very successful, and some of the fire grabs hold of him. He simply grits his teeth and ignores it. Instead, he gathers up his energy for another whip strike.
Marzela is able to escape the Web, and walks out of it, but that takes all of her effort for the round.
After the attack, and facing a serious risk of losing his life, Jaed panics and tries to flee.
Millsy has evasion, so takes no damage and breaks out of the web in an attempt to retreat.
Finnrick, meanwhile, is stuck with the flames approaching.
Carrakas deals with catching on fire, choosing to ignore the pathetic flames as he continue slamming his weapon against the massive creature. He's definitely making a dent in the creature, but is it fast enough to save the rest of the party as many hurriedly attempt to get away from either the dangerous foe or the rapidly spreading fire?
Lily,with her elven grace, deftly backs up by Marzela. She launches an explosion of golden motes all about the enormous fire-creature.