A smirk comes over Callomeleth's face. At least she's having trouble hitting us as well, he thought, pulling another arrow. Her bow has superior magic upon it. I wonder if that could make it past her shield?
Gan draws and fires again, somewhat impressed by the harpy's bravery at least.
Tybus, Gan and Callomeleth all manage to miss Zaiobe this time, but Lamsfel's shot and both of Tristan's find their mark. The harpy gives another silent shout of pain, and this time she flies away another 80 feet before touching one of the wounds. The arrow pushes itself free from the injury as some of the damage is repaired.
Gan squints, drawing a bead on the fleeing harpy.
You're not far enough away just yet, turncoat, the elf thought as he pulled another arrow. And your magics won't save you forever.
Taking another shot, -2 for range penalties.
Tybus crinkles his nose as he watches her fly even higher. We knock her out o' the sky, she be falling a long way, he observes.
Grimly, Lamsfel draws and lets fly again.
Tristan sends another pair of arrows after the fleeing harpy.
The healing avails her almost nothing, and her protective spells are useless as well. First Gan, then Callomeleth and Lamsfel fire, and with each of their shots Zaiobe jerks under the impact of another arrow. Lamsfel's shot proves to be her breaking point - she tumbles out of the sky, landing with a sickening crunch you can hear clearly even at this distance.
Tybus retrieves and stows his weapons, then studies Kikuno's corpse with detect magic. Someone with a strong stomach should find where the bird fell. She had a nice bow. She may have had some other things as well.
Assuming someone does that (or he needs to do it himself), he'll also detect Zaiobe's gear.
"I'll check her out and make sure she's dead," Callomeleth says, shouldering his bow and retrieving his glaive. "I'm not much of a student of the arcane, so I'll probably need someone to tell me what I'm looking at, once I find out if it's magic or not." The priest approaches Zaiobe's still form warily, cutting off her head both to make sure she's dead and as a mercykilling if needs be, then examines her corpse to find out what besides her bow is magical.
Kikonu's chain-sickle weapon has a magical aura, but otherwise only the bow Gan claimed seems to be worth much among his possessions. In addition to the one remaining flaming arrow in her quiver, Zaiobe's composite (+1) longbow also detects as magical; there are also some glass shards and liquid seeping from what's left of her pouch that Callomeleth suspects might have once been potions, but are now irrecoverable.
Lamsfel accompanies the cleric in examining the betrayer's body and gear, but really has little to contribute once she verify she's truly dead.
Tybus studies the enchantment on the chain-sickle weapon.
Realizing what Gan's about, Lamsfel assists.
The two bodies burn easily enough once the pyre is built and lit, a process that takes several minutes. The castle remains dark and quiet while the fire is built and lit.
We've got ourselves a kusari-gama, whatever that be. Lamsfel, yer always interested in the strange weapons. Want to see if ye can manage this thing? Tybus asks in half-jest.
When the bodies are ablaze, Tybus begins looking at the quiet castle. I'm not so foolish to think there won't be more dangers inside, but I think we may have drawn the worst of them out. I'm ready to find that third vault. How about you? He stowes his bow and draws the katana.
With a grin, Lamsfel says, "Sure, I'll have a look."
Tybus remembers the outsider they encountered earlier in the day. Spivey? You still around? he calls out.
Callomeleth picks up Zaiobe's bow, and casts a foul look upon the fallen harpy's body. "I shall sing upon your folly tonight," he says to her still form. "And upon my own, for ever trusting you."
Try the main door, or shall we go through the entrance where we met that ogrekin lass? I'm thinkin' the front door.
"Unless something indicates a different course of action, I grow tired of nibbling around the edges. The front door sounds fine to me."
Agreed
"With the master and lady of the house dead, we should find our path a bit easier, I imagine."
All right. Let's do this. Tybus strides boldly toward the front door and pushes it open, katana out.
Dancing Wasp, a +1 kusarigama that makes a shrill whistling sound whenever it is used in combat. Once per day as a standard action, the wielder of Dancing Wasp can whirl the weapon above his head as a full-round action to summon a giant wasp. The wasp appears in the air above the wielder’s head and follows the wielder’s mental commands to the best of its ability as long as the user continues to twirl the weapon (requiring a standard action each round), to a maximum of 5 rounds, after which the wasp vanishes.
A small leather pouch containing several vials of ink, five shiny pearls , and a darkwood-and-silver disc decorated with an intricate etching of Brinewall under the noonday sun. The disc radiates faint transmutation magic, but does not have any innate abilities on its own.
Pushing open the main doors, Tybus finds himself staring down a wide, lengthy passage. Rotting, faded banners hang from the walls of the hall, depicting a stylized castle sitting on a seaside cliff. Thick stone pillars support the ceiling, while at the far end of the hall sits an old wooden throne, its back carved to resemble the towers of a castle wrapped in the coils of a serpentine dragon. Five doorways out of the room are readily visible - two in the nearer part of the room, on either side of the hall, two more at the halls' far end on either side of the throne, and a set of double doors in between at the end of a short but broad side-passage heading right. A flight of stairs near the throne climbs to the castle's upper level.
As the party moves toward the castle, Lamsfel tries to get a feel for the unusual (at least to him) weapon, settling on holding the sickle with one hand as he swings the heavy metal ball at the end of its chain.
"Not sure it will ever be my favorite, but I can definitely see some tactical options that my swords lack."
Tybus takes a few moments to absorb the great hall before thinking about the next move. Why don't we try this side, he suggests, pointing to the first doors to the left.
Lamsfel takes a moment to look around the hall and listen before nodding and following the magus. He loops the kusarigama and hangs it from his belt, drawing the twin wakizashis.
Although nothing in the hall itself catches his eye, Lamsfel's sharp ears detect voices raised in argument coming from the other side of the door that Tybus is heading toward.
Gan moves alongside Tybus and stands guard near the door, spear readied. He nods, ready.
Lamsfel lets the others know about the voices he detected. Moving up to the door, he listens to see if he can recognize what is said or at least identify the language.
The shouting appears to be some kind of argument in Draconic. The voices are hissing growls - distinctly reminiscent of the troglodyte voices Lamsfel heard earlier.
Looking at the others, Lamsfel indicates his ear and the door. "May be more troglodytes. Seem to be unhappy about something." With a grin, "Uninvited guests, maybe?"
"Do we sneak on by while they are distracted?"
"[smaller]If we do that, we risk getting our escape route cut off. We should probably deal with them."
"Right, then. If they are the lizards, getting into a scrum with them can be a problem. Ranged attacks will serve us well. I suggest we plan accordingly."
He draws his sword. "Someone to stand in front while the others shoot, perhaps?"
All right. I'll kick in the door and meet them head on. You ready your bows, Tybus volunteers.
Once everyone has arrows nocked, and positions are taken, Tybus draws the katana and puts a boot to the door.