The air in this cavern is thick and muggy, reeking with body odor and rotting food. Filthy bedrolls and slumped straw mattresses line the walls of the cavern, while a pair of rickety tables covered with moldy food sits in the center of the room. The cave is lit by a single sputtering fire pit just east of the tables.
There are six tieflings that start to shriek and howl when they see you!
"Now, hold on." Richard points at the closest Tiefling (in Orange)
"Now, let's calm down. Please, ask your other friends to relax. We mean no harm."
Sherix begins to Inspire Courage among her allies. "Why can't we be friends?" She keeps her longbow stored.
The orange tiefling stops shrieking and a thoughtful look comes over his face.
Duke stands ready, not wanting to make the first move here.
Yellow throws a rock at Richard.
He misses!
Pink steps up to Tal and attacks!
Orange calls out, Maybe we should hear them out!
Tal was about to lay waste to the toweling before him until he heard one call out to talk. The delay of death was only temporary though as he was still attacked first. He would give them 1 chance to stop attacking before he returned the attacks.
Power attack for
Crit confirm for
Iterative for
"Please, everyone, please calm yourselves." He watches the person in Pink walk up to the heavily armored Tal and ignores the giant sword. "For your own sake. You won't be doing much to us, believe me." He tilts his head to the side to avoid the rock.
Green, Blue and Red stop clearly confused about the situation. They probably are gonna eat us like the others and you want us to stop? One of them shouts to Orange while the others look warily at the party.
Noah gasps out in surprise "Eat you?!?!?! Why in the would would anyone want to do that? That's disgusting. We've got a job to do here. We don't have to kill anyone who let's us do it. We certainly aren't eating anyone we have killed so far."
"Yah, no one is eating anyone here. Where do you come from that this was even a consideration? What is your role here?"
"Look at me, how could I possibly..." She shakes her head. "Everyone relax."
Richard looks at his tiny assistant and nods. "My friends, we're not here to hurt you. We're trying to shut down the evil within this land. If you are able to help, we have a much better home base. It won't treat you like food for one thing."
’Home base’…what is Richard thinking about? We shouldn’t be telling them that and definitely not anything else . Tal’s eyes go wide at this mention but he stops from making any sudden moves lest the tieflings start attacking once again.
Well...let me tell you something! One of them says, First we were treated as slave labor and forced to live in this stinking cave. The our so called leader, Veladness, somehow summoned a succubus named Joriavah. Joriavah killed Veladness and then started eating us!
Noah listens to the man and says "I'm sorry to hear that. That information is helpful as we have a succubus to deal with now. What kind of work did they have you doing down here?"
The Mayor continues to read the contract. And here it mentions that there might be a way to shut down the infernal engine safely. Somewhere in the Nessian Spiral are five “cooling pools,” where waters from the River Styx are drawn in from the Great Beyond to regulate the infernal energies drawn off of the pit fiend, and in the event of a “cataclysmic failure,” the flow of waters from the Styx can be shut off with the application of a device called a Stygian Keyrod once kept by the Spiral’s Keepers. Shutting off this flow of unholy water should throttle the engine’s energy output, and while this could cause the engine to falter and fail, it is a much preferred solution than the destruction of the engine and subsequent release of its occupant. It says right here, 'This contract remains binding and legal for all perpetuity so as long as the consigned component of the infernal engine be a viable source of...
Tal pipes up now upon hearing some interesting news and looks for some tactical advantage. Where is this succubus at now? If we agree to kill her would you be willing to tell us everything you know of this place? We are looking for the caretakers of this place. You guys wouldn't happen to be the Spiral's Keepers are you or know where we can find the Keyrod?
[/b]
"Demons again. Are we sure we are prepared for this?"
"That sounds... terrible. Summoning such evil forces never pays off." Richard tilts his head slightly toward Sherix and smiles. "Any information you know about this... creature will be useful. We must kill it regardless."
Richard takes a deep breath. His uncle's fall from grace started with a demon. At least mortals had morals. The crime boss wrote of the cruelty he suffered before the demon grew bored and ate his remains.
"Yes, any information you can give us will help. Then we can end the nightmare, and maybe free you all."
Sherix smiles and looks at Richard. Maybe he finally regained his spirit.
Well...Since you asked, when she slew she chopped off his head! She says she worships someone called Nocturnal
She says she likes to walk the streets of Westcrown in human form looking for delicious victims to feed on. She teleports from here to the city. She robs noble houses of their art and sons and daughters, who she charms and 'plays' with. Once she gets tired of them she kills them and has us clean up the mess and dispose of the bodies, well, the parts she hasn't eaten. If she can't find anyone she likes to play with and eat, she eats one of us!
Noah thinks for a second and says "Might she have said Nocticula? Goddess of artists, midnight and exiles. She was a demon lord and very good at seduction, cruelty, and sadism."
Yeah! Yeah! Nocturnal! The tiefling says with a nod!
Tal shakes his head in purposeful disbelief knowing all too well that the tieflings were not making this up. That is atrocious! She must be stopped. What does she usually look like so we know when we see her if she is disguised as you say? Or will you come with us and I pay you for showing us the way to her? The removal of demon such as her would benefit all of Westcrown.
Some part of Tal’s brain ticks at him as if he missed something. Catching the thought he speaks it out loud before he thinks it through. If freed from her services what good are you for the betterment of Westcrown? Trying to correct himself he rephrased it, what would you do after this? They are tieflings afger all and trifling a do have a reputation. Take the Bastards of Erebus for example. I haven’t known of any tieflings that benefitted Westcrown society and those tieflings I have met have ended up dead at the end of my blade. I must be careful what I promise them.
"If she is charming folk, we could end up fighting innocents. Let's consider not killing everything we see today, eh?"
Richard and Sherix hear the name and nod in unison. "Nocticula..."
Richard speaks up. "If this demon worships Nocticula... Killing her will benefit everyone. Let's try to target her and keep any charmed minions out of it, or at least unconscious."
He turns to the tieflings. "Thank you. All of you. This demon is dragging you down a dark path. We will do everything we can to bring you to the light." He gives Tal a curious glance, but looks back to the tieflings. "Stay here for now. At least you'll have plausible deniability if we don't return."
He turns to his allies. "Do we go straight to her room, or head to the... waste disposal? I say we go straight for her."
"Agreed. Go for the head and then deal with cleaning up the mess."
Tal pin yes to trifling number 2 in the red shirt (for those Star Trek fans out there), Lead on or tell us exactly how to get there and the head of this devil will be removed.
RichD please correct me if I am wrong.
Red shirt leads you to the door of a room and whispers, She's probably in there.
This seems to be confirmed when you here giggling from behind the door. Red shirt quickly leaves.
Before the door is opened Noah holds up a finger and says "We should prepare a little. I'll cast a spell to prevent control of us." Pointing at Tal he says "May The Dawnflower protect you."
Thanks Redshirt! Now step back before you get caught in the middle of this fight.
Before Tal can open the door Noah cautions him and pulls him back to cast a spell. Remembering the problems with the vampires Tal is truly grateful for the protection. If we had this before we would have had a lot less problems obtaining the Marrowfell. Thanks Noah! Any traps on the door Duke?
When given the go ahead Tal will open the door and prepare to rush in.
Richard casts Good Hope before they open the door. "Thank you... Redshirt. Your help is invaluable. I promise a better life for you, if we survive."
He draws his whip as Sherix readies her bow.
Duke nods as Tal asks him to check for traps. Looking over the door, he steps back before relaying what he finds.
Thanks Richard! We all ready for this?
Duke determines that the door is not locked and Tal opens the door.
This cavern has been outfitted as a combination bedroom and study. The entire cave has been decorated with hanging black curtains, paintings and tapestries, thick swaths of black carpets and rugs, and a large number of guttering black candles, filling the cavern with a thick, intoxicating odor. Bits of jewelry lie scattered throughout the chamber, and what appear to be dozens of fresh, polished skulls decorate the area around the rumpled bed. Mounted on a stiletto driven up through the back of the bed’s headboard is a tiefling’s severed head.
Standing in front of the bed is a raven-haired gothic beauty. Between her and the open door which Tal is now occupying is a naked man and woman. They at one point were clean and well manicured but now each bare bruises and cuts and seem to be performing erotic positions with a glassy-eyed look on their faces. The succubus is giggling as the door opens and on seeing you all she purrs, What's this? More for our little orgy? Take your clothes off and partake!
Know local
Tal sees the naked people in a compromising situation. They were defenseless and at the succubus’s mercy. They had to do something to protect them. If you want my clothes off you will have to come over and help me out of my armor. I can’t do it by myself.
Diplomacy?
"Katerine and Gunter, minor nobles. They went missing three days ago." He turns to face the demon. "I'm just happy we got here before you built up an appetite."
This... could have been me. Richard tries to hide his disgust. Just fodder for some demon's lust. A slave to my own desires. Sherix has rescued me too many times from myself.
This will be... quite a challenge.
"Indeed. Pause on those two for a moment and you can get the remaining 4 of us." Tal is right. She could order the two to slit their own throats before they could do anything. Need to distract her. "Come on down, he's quite rugged but he needs someone to help strip him. You should have the honor of unwrapping your gift."
At this point, Richard begins his Bardic Performance, to Inspire Competence (+3 bonus) with Tal. If she pays attention to Tal or Richard he wants to buy some time.
He also takes this chance to Spellsong and weaves a casting of Charm Monster upon Joriavah.
Duke raises an eyebrow at the scene before him. He easily recognizes the pair from posters around town, but this beauty is something he may not have been prepared for. Still, more than one woman has tried to get him to lower his defenses... more than one woman has succeeded as well, though. Keep you focus on the task at hand, man!
Duke tries to calmly move a little closer to the pair, to see how badly they may be doing.
The woman smiles seductively. And here I thought it was going to be a boring night! She laughs a throaty laugh. Male Slave! Help him out of his armor!
The male extricates himself from his female partner and with eyes that don't seem to see, robotically approaches Tal!
But it is you that I want to polish my sword not him. At least the 2 thrills were separated and hopefully safer this way. Now to just get within striking distance to keep the attention on him and his sword. Tal moves 5ft closer to the gothic beauty waiting to rush her. I just hope no one ever tells Lily this or I am going to have a lot of explaining to do. Thankfully Mera isn’t here for this.
Diplomacy
Sherix lowers her bow to not arouse suspicion. Something feels familiar about all of this. In the tiniest corner of her mind, something tries to erupt and overwhelm her thoughts.
She shakes her head and focuses. At least Gunter is free.
"Might go a bit faster if Katerine also joins the stripping." She calls out.
As soon as they're out of her reach, I'm taking my shot.
Oh I prefer to watch-from a distance - for now! She says in response to Tal. She says to Gunter, Make sure he does not come any closer and strip him bare! Gunter starts feeling around Tal for his armor buckles.
In response to Sherix she says, Yes, it might go faster if she helps, but not stripping the big one. She looks the party over. Perhaps the singer. Yes! The singer! Female Slave. Strip the singer bare! This will be a delight!
Katerine approaches Richard with her hands out ready to remove his mitheral shirt.
Figuring this was as far as they could push their luck without him being naked Tal takes the initiative and lunges forward at the succubus with his longsword.
5ft step closer and lunge power attack for
Its time you die and return to the hell you originated from fiend!
Good. Both of them are safe. Good call, Sherix.
"Aha, yes! My friend is a bit feisty, but you enjoy the types who struggle first, yes?"
Whip ready, he tries to trip Katerine and slow her down.
Its time you die and return to the hell you originated from fiend!
"Yeah, you said it! Go get her!" Sherix begins to Inspire Courage (+2) among her teammates.
Duke decides to try to help remove the innocents from the equation.
Smacking Gunther first, flanking with Tal, he tries to knock him out.