Against the prone spawn, Eponine will lash out with her blade.
To hit
Damage
Eponine drops her blade, leaving a nasty gash on the back of the creature. It cries out in pain, but still lives.
As the creatures on the stairs wounds slowly nit back together, Erylium flutters back and recites arcane words of power. Kern feels the heavy flai in his hand start to vibrate as a loud ringing sound fills the air. In sudden burst the weapon is shattered and made useless.
As the creature falls, Victor revels in it's death. "Nice shot, Belril!" He congratulates him as he then raises his sword high and drives it in the creatures skull. Splitting it open wide, gore pouring out of it, "I forget a many things demon, but I have not forgotten how you filth never want to die." He says venomously as he twists the blade to and fro, making sure he tears everything up inside.
"You have to drop soon," Wren grunts toward the demon, firing another bolt of energy from her wand tip.
Damage
Victor decapitates the creature and its head bounces down the stairs. Erylium screams as another of Wren's magical barbs smacks into her. As she does the glow surrounding the demon fades as does the cloud of dust that was glittering above the pool. Belril is a keen shot and strikes her again and she tumbles in the air and splashes into the pool within the ring of spikes. She appears to be barley clinging to life. The creature on the floor in front of the raised podium scurries back a few feet and stands, glaring at Eponine with wrathfully hungry eyes. She takes an opportunity to slash at it as it rises from the ground, her blade comes close but fails to draw more blood. It swings one of its elongated arms trying to rip her throat out. The blood crusted claw slashes her skin and the creature screeches with glee.
Kern is up next
Kern stares in disbelief at the haft fragment that he still holds in his hand. The rest of his flail lies in pieces around him. However, he quickly regains his senses and drops the small piece of flail and reaches for the cold iron longspear. With it, he reaches across the pool and stabs at Erylium, hoping to end her threat once and for all.
"Sorry," Sophy calls apologetically to Kern as he stares at his shattered weapon. "I think we forgot to mention she could do that, too."
Eponine strikes out at the spawn before her, hoping to take it out of the fight so she can go after the hated demon.
To hit
Damage
Possible crit, confirm
Possible damage
Kern stabs towards the center of the pool, but the ring of spikes makes getting an easy hit difficult and he is unable to stab the now swimming demon.
Desperate to keep Erylium from escaping once more, Sophy shuts the doors behind her; even if she goes invisible, we'll know she's still in the room, she reasons as best she can through the clamor of the quasit's profane thoughts in her head.
Despite the clamor of dark thoughts rolling in her mind, Sophy is clear minded enough to slam the cathedral doors shut. The demon screams at her from the pool,"You can not trap us in our home pretty, we will destroy you!" Eponine lands a vicious blow on the creature before her, spreading more blood and gore to the floor as it crashes down at her feet.
The demon vanishes and the pool splashes violently for a moment leaving a ring of ripples that ebb and crash among the sunken spikes.
Turning and seeing Eponine fell the creature she was fighting, he immediately hurries to make sure that one gets finished off as well. "Well done, Eponine." He nods congratulatory. "Allow me." He says as he raises his sword high and brings it down hard on the beast's head, splitting it in half.
Wren stands motionless, waiting for the demon to pop back into view, hoping to finally blast it out of the sky once and for all.
"Blast!" Kern looks about, hoping for some sign of the demon.
Eponine steps to Y32, sheathes her blade and pulls her holy symbol of Sarenrae from beneath her blouse.
She'll scan the room, looking for any sign that gives away the presence of the demon.
Perception
Failing that, she'll kneel by the pool and sayKeep it off of me while I consecrate this site. That will put an end to all of this!
Bluff
Sophy stays in front of the closed doors, determined that Erylium won't get past her again. She notices with relief that the immediacy and intensity of the thoughts invading her head are fading, then opens her eyes wide with alarm. This might be their one chance to get any information from the awful little creature; Desna knows she won't give tham anything useful voluntarily. She closes her eyes and, with a little bit of trepidation, plunges into the violent filth of the quasit's thoughts. They had already been in some sort of prison cell with Brock but hadn't seen any sign of Ameiko. Where is she? Where do you keep your captives (or sacrifices?) down here?
Victor drops down the stairs and quickly dispatches the creature at Eponine's feet. Wren stays absolutly still, her eyes scanning the room for the tiny demon while Belril arms his sling-staff and keeps alert for his target to appear. "Blast!" Kern's voice breaks the silence in the air. Sophy stands firm at the door and closes her eyes and intent, almost tortured look upon her face. The seconds tick by and Eponine moves to the edge of the pool and attempts to goad the demon.
The demons raspy voice calls out from the podium, "Silly feychild you think your goddess will destroy our pool of water? It is our masters Runewell you need fear." She cackles an evil laugh and the waters in the triangle pool become agitated again.
After finishing off the spawn, he sees another lying on the stairwell. Heading towards that one, "Did any of you make sure this one is dead?" Not waiting for a response, Victor drives his sword into the skull of this one as well. "Best not to take chances, no?" He remarks, smiling wryly.
Sophy opens her eyes with a cry of revulsion, and a deep shudder runs through her body that almost makes her stumble. To her relief, however, apart from the last memory she plucked from the morass, the swirling maelstrom of Erylium's perverse thoughts has receded from her mind; that last one is enough, though, to cause her to run her hands down her arms as if trying to wipe herself clean of the experience. "Ameiko's not here," she tells the others. "Never has been. The little 'queen' is doing nothing but wasting our time and resources," she spits out bitterly.
"What are you talking about, Sophy? How do you know what the demon knows or doesn't know about Ameiko?"
Sophy blinks up at Wren, stammering. The whole experience of being flooded with the quasit's memories has been so intense and immediate for her that she can barely realize the others weren't aware of anything happening. And ... how did she know, exactly? She has no words to explain the incident.
Upon seeing the disturbance in the water, Kern stabs at that spot with the spear.
Victor strolls to the other stairs and permanently ends the life of the last spawn. As Wren questions Sophy's bizarre knowledge, Belril takes aim at the podium and fires at the invisible creature. He is hoping to hit it above the frothing triangular pool as the bullet streaks across the room. It hits something solid in mid air...something that screeches in agony. You can tell she is directly above the pool that another new spawn creature is forming in.
Eponine will delay; she is waiting for the spawn to come up so she can engage it, since the demon appears out of reach for her without entering the pool.
MDM:
Knowing her magic is almost exhausted, Wren fires her last reserve of magical energy at the spot where she thinks the demon is currently located.
Damage
d100 roll
Eponine will delay; she is waiting for the spawn to come up so she can engage it, since the demon appears out of reach for her without entering the pool.
MDM: ** spoiler omitted **
Hearing the demon cry out, Wren reacts by blasting another force bolt at the sound. Miraculously the arcane power strike the invisible creature and Erylium crashes to the floor of the podium directly in front of the spawning pool and the half formed creature it is creating.
Kern, Sophy and Eponine await what happens next...
A new creature emerges from the pool, bellows and angry cry, then rushes and leaps off the podium headed directly for Victor. It lands in front of the warrior and lashes out with one of it's long arms and wicked claws which Victor easily avoids.
"Erylium! Get to Erylium!" Sophy cries, as soon as the little creature falls. "Her monsters come back to life when they seem dead; how much more will she!" She follows her own advice as soon as the spawn is off the podium, running up the stairs and approaching the still creature with trepidation.
"HAH! Good shot Miss Wren!" Upon seeing the new creature form and come at him swinging, "Uh-oh." He mumbles as he dodges and then returns a swing of his own.
Connecting solidly, Victor is a little surprised he caught the creature so well. "HAH! Take that demon spawn! Let us end this!" He hollers in victory.
Wren seizes on the moment. "Someone help me make sure that demon is dead for good!" she yells excitedly as she rushes toward the fallen monster, pulling her dagger.
Kern hurries up the stairs to the fallen demon.
Sophy runs up the stairs to get next to the spawning pool. Victor slashes the creature with a vicious gut tearing blow and it falls unconscious to the ground.Belril takes a couple of shots but the stone bounce off the podium floor harmlessly. Wren and Kern follow Sophy up onto the podium surrounding the tiny body of the demon.
Round 11 - Eponine will move around the far side of the pool (top side of the map) heading up the stairs to the far side of the fallen demon.
Round 11 - Eponine will move around the far side of the pool (top side of the map) heading up the stairs to the far side of the fallen demon.
Eponine will instead go up the south stairs (via Z32, AA32, AB33, AB34, AA35, Z35) and strike at the demon.
To hit
Damage
Eponine rushes up the stairs, and drops her blade on the creature ending its miserable life for good. Victor also easily dispatches the last of the spawn creatures in much the same way. The waters in the triangle pool are still, but dimly glowing.
"Thank the Gods." Wren says, once she sees the life go out of the demon. "Let's find Ameiko and have some of the local clergy come down here and destroy this evil shrine. And Sophy, what in the world were you talking about when you said the demon didn't know anything about Ameiko?"
Sophy stares down at the mangled form of Erylium, looking like a swatted mosquito. "She wasn't a queen; she had a master, at least once." She looks up at Wren. "I ... I don't know exactly what happened. I asked her where was Ameiko ... and somehow I ... I broke into her mind?" she tries to describe the experience. "Her thoughts and feelings came flooding in. She was a familiar to an evil wizard, a vile thing. He was torturing people -- and she was enjoying it -- asking them about ... Alaznist?" She looks around at the others to see if they recognize the name and shakes her head helplessly. "It could have been decades ago, centuries.... Things like her don't die of old age. Could have nothing to do with this. But she had never seen or heard or even thought about Ameiko."
Know. Arcana
Know. Dungeoneering
Know. Engineering
Know. History
Know. Nature
Know. Planes
Kern breathes a sigh of relief and collapses onto the floor. He sits there for a moment, breathing heavily. "Good work, everyone," he says, rubbing one of his many wounds.
Then he clues in to what Sophy is saying. "Wait a minute, I thought this demon was the one who kidnapped Ameiko. How could she know nothing about her?"
Upon thinking about Alaznist, Wren remembered a few details that she could share with the group.
"There have long been legends of ancient magistrates known as the seven runelords, powerful wizards who showed special skill and passion for the use of runes and arcana. Yet, as these wizards’ powers increased, they grew discontent with servitude and living at the whim of the First King. In secret, they forged their own pacts with mysterious extraplanar powers, covetous dragons, and the devious aboleths. I think I once heard a traveling bard mention the name Alznist when telling tales about the legendary empire of Thassilon."