The other side of the curtain sounds mostly quiet, but Marzela's sharp hearing does pick up the occasional shuffling of feet or soft cough. It appears there are multiple people or creatures on the other side, though they don't seem to be doing much. Possibly just standing around.
Marzela motions to Jaed, letting him know that there are many people behind the curtain.
Then she backs off, wondering if the entire cult is waiting to ambush them. She casts Shield of Faith. [AC 19 for 8 minutes]
Jaed nods at Marzela and carefully looks from one side of the curtain.
A pale, magical light, radiating from the air itself, shines throughout this pillared hall. A balustraded walkway surrounds the upper floor of the two-story area. Passages lead from either side on the lower levels, as well as from entranceways at each end of the hall.
Though he tries to be quiet, Jaed knocks the curtain awkwardly and as if on cue, almost a dozen Vudrani cultists leap from the second floor, using the pillars of the room to slow their descent as the land nimbly on the floor and begin heading towards the group.
Hoping not to get mobbed and thugged to death this time, Lily hangs back at first and invokes mage armor.
"Here we go again. There's 10 of them." The rogue takes a step forward and attacks the cultist on his left.
Jaed steps forward and fells the man next to him. Not to be outdone, Carrakas moves to stand next to Jaed, using his whip to reach the other cultist in the corner. The cultists then, predictably move forward, swinging their fists at Jaed and Carrakas. While they manage to avoid swinging blades and whips from the two warriors, they seem unable to land a punch.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Lily advances with the team and drops her fun black tentacles to hit the back two rows of enemies.
Having no one to heal, Marzela takes a potshot at one of the cultists, even though she doesn't have a good shot.
Jaed keeps attacking.
Lily casts a spell as black tentacles spring up, attempting to grab the cultists. However, they all seem well suited to grappling and are able to dodge the black appendages. Marzela then fires at one of the cultists, but in her attempt not to hit her allies, the shot goes wide and bounces harmless off of one of the back pillars.
Jaed then lashes out with his swords, his offhand weapon cutting deep into the cultist to his left, who goes down in a gurgle of blood, leaving the third strike to land harshly against his neighbor. Not wanting to be left out, Carrakas grins grimly, finishing off the badly wounded man and almost knocking down another. The opening gives another cultist an opening to step when his fallen companion had been and land a punch on the warrior. Carrakas looks briefly stunned but quickly shakes it off.
Undeterred by the tentacles swirling next to many of them, the cultists move to once again close ranks on the two warriors, throwing punch after punch at the two. Many miss, but a few do manage to hit their mark.
You're also only supposed to roll once per round, so I'm just taking your first roll, which unfortunately fails.
Jaed stands his ground and continues the attack.
Waiting for Jaed and Carrakas to look a little more damaged, Marzela takes a couple more shots at the cultists.
Jaed manages to finish off the already wounded cultist next to him with a well-placed strike. However, as he moves to step backwards, it seems to throw off the aim of his other two swings, giving his new target enough time to easily dodge. Marzela doesn't seem to fair any better as once more her shots are aimed too high and whiz harmlessly over everyone's heads.
Lily take advantage of Jaed's opening to shoot a tiny jolt of acid at one of the gravely wounded cultists, managing to kill him as her tentacles continue to flail, unable to grab the slippery foes. Carrakas imitates Jaed, lashing out twice and felling another cultist before stepping into a less open position.
As the main fighters of the group step back, the few remaining cultists take the opportunity to flee unimpeded.
Marzela waits for Jaed to check for traps. If he finds none, she suggests they proceed to the first passageway on the right to start their search.
Lily dismisses her spell, giving Jaed better access to the center of the room as he looks for traps. Finding none, the group proceeds towards the Southeast. The passage ends in a small corridor lined with doors. Each door opens to a tiny, austere room containing little more than a sleeping mat and a small chest. Each chest seems to contain spare clothes, various personal belongings, and a small chit with a number on it.
Seeing nothing of interest Jaed leads the way through the passage to the North .
Marzela collects the chits.
Jaed leads the way to the Northeastern rooms as Marzela collects the chits contained in each of the chests. Failing to find any traps, Jaed pokes his head into what appears to be a refectory. In addition to a couple of tables at which people can eat meals, there's a variety of goods and equipment that seem to be for maintaining the complex, including cooking tools and cleaning gear. There's a 6-inch-wide crack above what appears to be a cooking fire that seems to serve as a kind of chimney. To the East is a doorway. After similarly checking for traps and listening at it, Jaed opens the door, revealing a small larder. There's a variety of dried meat, grains, spices, and a large quantity of rice stored as well as firewood and fresh water.
Jaed takes a quick look for anything hidden in the room
and then crosses the hall and heads towards the room on the other side .
Marzela packs up some supplies to put in the bag of holding and refills her canteen, and then follows Jaed.
Jaed pokes around as Marzela grabs some extra supplies, but there doesn't seem to be anything hidden. Moving across to another room, the group enters a shadowy chamber with a large, square shrine recessed into the wall opposite the entrance. From the center of the shrine, a dark, multi-armed stone idol seems to watch over the room. Deep-etched abstract designs fill the walls and ceiling. Offerings of dried flowers sit around the shrine, and the cloying scent of bitter incense hangs in the air. On top of the shrine appear to be more offerings to Dhalavei.
"Were have those cowards gone?"
Jaed approaches the shrine and inspects it and the offerings.
Marzela also takes a look.
Jaed only gets about halfway into the room (close enough to see that the offerings seem to be a mix of food, incense, perfumes, fine feminine garments, scrolls, and some jewelry) when a strange, 6-armed woman with 3 faces steps out from where she had been meditating in the shrine alcove. She cries out in Vudrani, "Fools! I will teach you to show the proper respect to the goddess!"
"Let's have some fun cutting off all those arms."
Jaed moves next to the woman and attacks.
Marzela takes a step and shoots twice.
Jaed manages to land a solid blow, but it doesn't seem quite as effective as he would have expected. The six-armed woman takes a step back out of the rogue's reach and casts a spell, causing her form to shimmer and distort slightly.
Marzela fires at the woman who simply moves effortlessly out of the way of the shots, smiling a condescending smile at her. "I'm afraid you will have to do better than that little ones."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Jaed moves around the woman, keeping an eye for attacks while he does.
Once in position, he signs to Carrakas to move to the other side of their foe and, once he is in position, the rogue attacks.
And he fails miserably...
Lily drops another spell in an attempt to shut down the opponent quickly.
Marzela takes a step forward and shoots again.
Jaed just barely manages to avoid giving the woman an opening as he navigates to the other side of her. As Carrakas charges forward, he's confident that he's got her right where he wants her, but the blade plunges about a foot to the left of where she's actually standing. Carrakas is so taken aback by this that his own blow is easily side-stepped by the woman. Meanwhile, she seems completely unfazed by Lily's spell.
She shakes her head at you all in mock sadness. "My, my, you all don't seem very good at this. Didn't your mother ever teach you not to play with tools you don't know how to use?" Quick as lightning she reaches out with two of her hands, attempting to grab Jaed's weapons. He manages to pull his frost blade away at the last moment, but she succeeds in taking his fire blade from him and swings it at him tauntingly. "Such a well made weapon for such a weak man. I think I will hang out to it." As she dodges Marzela's arrows, she steps away to a better position.
Lily switches to boneshatter, expecting nothing.
"Hey! Give that back!" Jaed moves his frost sword to his right hand and attacks once Carrakas is in place.
Lily feels some resistance but is able to push through it, and the woman cries in pain as she feels her bones crack and splinter. Jaed and Carrakas do their best to take advantage of the woman's distraction, but only the first of Jaed's blows manages to land.
The woman hisses as she suddenly looks a lot more worse for wear. "Well, at least one of your women seems to have some idea of what she's doing. It will not be enough to save you though!" With that she unleashes a flurry of blows on Jaed. She manages to trip the rogue but he manages to wildly roll around avoiding any actual damage. "Hold still you pest!"
"Nice done, Lily!" says Jaed from the floor before standing up .
"Hey big guy! You can start the smashing whenever you feel like it," says the rogue with a smile.
Marzela heals the party, excluding the multi-armed enemy.
The woman once more attempts to disarm Jaed as he stands up, growling as he manages to pull the blade out of her reach. Carrakas activates his tremorsense and zips behind her, giving Jaed a wink, "I figured since I'm normally the one doing so much of the killing that I'd let you have a chance to shine. Gotta make sure you feel like you're pulling your weight after all. But, if you insist your fragile ego can take it..."
With a cry of pain, the furious woman looks down at the earthen blade protruding from her stomach. She makes a confused expression before falling down dead. Carrakas merely gives the rogue a smirk over their foe's dead body.
Anyone want these? Marzela says, referring to the masterwork spear, masterwork kukri, and masterwork temple sword that have fallen to the ground.
Then she examines the body to see if there is anything else on it.
(+4 if disguised or hidden)
Jaed, you should check to see if there is anything valuable among the offerings. I think you were rudely interrupted last time you tried.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Jaed picks up his sword before inspecting the offerings. "I have a feeling she did not like me, even if I didn't understand what she was saying."
The woman does not seem to have anything else on her besides those weapons.
The offerings seem to consist of food, incense, perfumes, fine feminine garments, scrolls that based on a few that have come unraveled seem to contain poetry, and jewelry in the rear. The jewels look like they're probably worth about 400gp.
We gather up the jewelry. Marzela follows Jaed, whatever way he chooses.
Jaed turns left at the end of the passage.
When Marzela reaches out to grab the jewels, a feeling of dread fills her. It's like the idol to the goddess of the unsuspecting rot is watching her, focusing all its attention on her in condemnation.
The group then heads down the westernmost passage. A soft, reed floor fills this large, high-ceilinged stone hall; a gaping pit centered around a series of small platforms drops into darkness in the room’s middle. Target boards line the walls, and training dummies are spread around the room. As soon as Jaed steps into the room, a small chakram whizzes out at him, scoring a deep hit on his shoulder before disappearing.
Looking up, the source of the attack is a woman wearing dark gray wrappings and a scarf tied over her hair. A dark gem glints on her forehead and she bears numerous sharp metal rings at her belt and around her wrists.