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Mutahir's foes vanquished, he turns in the general direction of the woman and starts moving forward, hoping to find himself in light quickly...
as he steps out of the darkness he blinks as his eyes adjust and then sees the woman and walks in her direction with a grin.
Godslave... your out of minions... it's you and me now... Why don't you make this easy and come down? I'll send you to your wolf whore quickly and painlessly...
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As the 'lady' lowers herself, Fimbir sees that he's managing to hit her. And that that's drawing her attention. It'll be easy to sleep once you're down in the ground! he yells, trying to pull off some ammount of bravado. The gnome gathers forth more energy and launches it again at the mage, this time with the fire looking thicker, and clingier.
for
After what seems like an eternity in the dark, Mutahir finally staggers out of the area of blackness into dim light that seems almost painfully bright in comparison. He is just in time to see the wolf fleeing back towards the entrance, and Daedîn leaping up onto one of the buffet tables on the southern side of the room. The sniper fires a carefully aimed arrow at the elven priestess floating in the air over Dynath. Although Daedîn's aim is good, he is not able to pick the real Morilaeth from her illusory image. The arrows passes right through the mirage, dispelling it.
But that gives the rest a clear line of sight to their target!
Tad tosses another bolt of divine flame, and striking her once more, burning off the last of her robes, and singeing the woman beneath. Dynath follows that with two blessed arrows of his own. The first strikes her in the thigh, but the second deflects off her breastplate.
Then it's Fimbir's turn. The little gnome starts to hear the voices screaming in fear in the back of his brain, and puts everything he has into his next shot. Once again, the flames from all around seem to bend and flow towards him, building up around his body and funneling down his arms, until he lets it all loose in a mighty blast of fire that streaks across the room like a comet.
The flames strike her dead center, engulfing her in a fiery blaze! You hear her scream in pain, and anger... a scream that slowly dies out as her body crumples, and descends to the floor between Dynath and Mutahir... still burning, but no longer breathing.
The band, who had been hiding out under the bandstand, suddenly makes a break for the entrance as their queen falls. The derro hiding in the alcove beside them joins in, screaming as he goes, though he seems to be having a hard time just getting past the tables without tripping over his own feet in his drug addled haze.
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Tad gathers everyone who is hurt together for healing. He explains to Mutahir that he is about to send out a wave of healing energy, and explains aproximately what its range is, so Mutahir can avoid it if he chooses. Then Tad grasps his holy symbol and prays.
He sees that everyone other than Fimbir and Mutahir looks better, so he casts a spell and then his tongue snakes out to gently tap Fimbir on the shoulder.
The little froggy looks sad that he doesn't know how to heal Mutahir.
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Mutahir looks at the downed creature with disgust, takes her holy symbol from her body, and with a few short strokes destroys it with his sword.
He walks away as the frog cleric heals everyone, seeming happy to have his wounds rather than allow to froggy healer to even attempt to patch him up.
Once everyone is back, he looks at the room where everyone is hiding.
We should search that place. As well as the rest of this. We can destroy everything of this godslave and her taint from this place, see if we can't find out what she was using on our friends who left earlier.
In the calm that follows Lady Morilaeth's defeat, you take a moment to recover. Daedîn goes to examine the dead elf, and she does indeed appear to be dead, and he realizes she is wearing a lot of makeup, most of it burned off now, revealing a slightly out of proportion face. Clearly elvish, but mixed in with something else unidentifiable. She is wearing armor and has a number of weapons, though she never drew any of them during the fight with you.
You also now notice a chair, jammed up against the southeast wall, behind the bandstand, that has a single occupant. The yellowed skeletal remains of what appear to be a dwarf lay draped over it, as if discarded there.
Tad casts a simple divination spell, and starts to scan about. He will immediately notice a number of magical auras on the fallen priestess, though he has to get close to filter out the auras on his companions. As he concentrates he starts to realize there are quite a few of them, half a dozen at least, ranging in strength from weak to moderate. As he continues to study them, he realizes that one of them is not an item on her person... but an actual effect on the corpse itself... which is of concern, considering she's dead... there should not be any effects lingering now.
He steps in and uses his healing skills, and she does appear to be dead... but wait... no... for just the briefest of moments, he thinks he feels a pulse, but then it's gone again. He starts to say something to the others, when suddenly her eyes open, and one claw-like hand reaches up and gasps him around the throat!
Suddenly everyone sees the form of Lady Morilaeth rising from the floor, apparently not as dead as you thought, the burned skin weaving back together as she starts to float into the air once more, the little grippli clutched in her hand, kicking his feet.
"You thought you could kill me?!" She cries, her manic laugh echoing through the hall. "You can not kill me in a dream, fools! I control this dream. I control all your dreams!"
And for the second time, a burst of negative energy washes out from her drawing just a little life from everyone! She is not even holding her holy symbol this time, you all saw Mutahir destroy it. Instead, she holds up the little grippli, as if he is now a symbol of Lamashtu. It shouldn't work, but somehow it does!
Fimbir's mind is instantly overcome with fear once more, his eyes going wide in fright, as he turns to flee. Mutahir and Daedîn once again feel the trepidation that nagged them earlier.
But with one hand on the grippli, and channeling her negative energy, she only manages to get a short distance off the ballroom floor, before the Pathfinders can react. Her second incarnation does not last long at all.
This time, you make sure she is not faking it, and stays dead.
Unless none of this is real... and you really are in some sort of dreamscape...?
As Fimbir recovers from his more recent, but thankfully brief, fear attack, he will realize that there is an additional doorway in the bedroom, open... that was not evident, much less open, the last time he was in there! All the derro and the mite that were in here are also gone, except for one, that seems to have gotten stuck half way under the bed, and passed out there with its legs still protruding. He can only assume the rest fled out the secret way.
Dynath will also notice a few spots along the northern wall that seem to be careful concealed doorways, his dwarven senses easily picking out the telltale markers in the stone.
You recover five magical items on the remains of the dead priestess, including two scrolls, her breastplate and a buckler, and her longbow. She also has a number of more mundane items, including a cold iron rapier, a number of holy texts, an expensive silver necklace and a second symbol of Lamashtu on a fancy silver ring.
The skeleton draped over the chair in the corner does indeed seem to be a dwarf, dead for centuries based on the yellowed state of the bones. An iron signet ring still sits on one bony finger and a rusty iron bracelet almost falls off the other bony wrist. A tattered leather satchel lays on the ground at its feet.
The ballroom is a mess. Tables have been flipped over, their contents spilled. The sound bursts litteraly shattered most of the bottles and plates on the northwestern tables, the entire area littered with sharp ceramic debris. Dead bodies lay everywhere. Some of them mites and derro killed by you... more of them mites and derro seemingly killed by whatever drug they were high on, or their hearts stopped by Morilaeth's fearful auras. The humans in the middle of the room all sport numerous wounds from swords and knives, but are all dead now. Whether they were alive when you first arrived is hard to tell. If they were, Morilaeth's initial channel probably finished them off.
Daedîn will find no traps as he checks out the two doors in the ballroom, though the one on the left is a much larger door, and looks like it has not been opened in a long long time. He suspects the buffet tables would probably need to be shifted slightly, to properly open that one, as the doors swing into the ballroom. The door on the right, by the throne, is a more normal size. It opens away from the ballroom, and a quick check finds it a little stuck... such that it might take a little effort to push it open now.
With a little work, you will be able to clear some of the tables, the roasted giant centipede doesn't smell too bad, actually, even if it looks totally gross, displayed as it is, inside the bisected carapace. Especially once you realize it has been splattered with blood during all the recent commotion.
Pulling open the larger doors, you find yourself looking into a wide shaft, leading downward. You guess it to be the top end of the lift you saw down in the workshop, but the machinery that once operated it is in no better condition up here, than it was down below. Clearly how the creations from the workshop were once brought up for display. Though it has been centuries since the Gallery of Wonders produced anything for anyone to look at.
The other door, takes a bit of muscle to push open, and doing so causes a brief collapse of stone. Once you do though, you find a hallway, cluttered with what look to be broken and dismembered pieces of statuary. The hall leads north a short ways, before turning to the right and eventually ending at a set of stairs going down. The stairs are completely choked with shattered dwarven sculptures. You could still make your way down them, but it would require a considerable amount of climbing over broken statues.
The last secret door, in the bedroom, is already open, and reveals a short twenty five foot long corridor, and a second secret door open at the far end of that. Both likely left that way by the escaping derro.
None of the secret doors, however, lead to gold of any kind. At least not at a cursory glance.
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Fimbir twitches as the Lady's last 'present' wracks the gnome with pain. Even as she soon twitches from multiple more stab wounds. Why do bad guys always pick being jerks over maybe surviving? he asks to no one in particular as the party moves on.
With the three doors open, Fimbir scratches his head at the one in the bedroom. Definitely didn't see that before. He turns to the others. We should follow, right? what if all the mites and guys stop being scared like I did and come back?
One of the drugged up derro is currently passed out with his butt sticking out from under the bed. The other 3 derro and the mite appear to have fled down the passageway.
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Daedîn shrugs. "Shall we take the stairs down through this north hall? Or perhaps this I assume it leads back down to the first floor opposite of where we entered. Perhaps we can explore/clear that area on the way out..."
Daedîn will stealthily head that way, bow drawn and eyes open for any further signs of danger...
Benny will find that you have already searched the ballroom and adjoining areas quite thoroughly, though as he checks out the ancient dwarven skeleton draped over the chair in the corner, he realizes that the rusty iron bracelet dangling off its wrist, rattles more then it should. A quick check, reveals a small hidden compartment, with over a dozen more of those odd glowing pearls from the Darklands, like the one Beggar stole from Torvic. Tad will notice no other magical auras that he did not already noticed.
Eventually, you finally decide to try the stairs, despite the fact they are clogged with broken statuary. It is extremely slow going, as you climb down, a task made more tedious by the complete absence of the phosphorescent fungi that you found everywhere else. It is totally dark, and you quickly realize a light source is required to navigate... making any attempts at stealth mostly moot.
Tad has no troubles at all, the little grippli easily able to make his way over the cramped rubble with no more difficulty then walking. Everyone else though, has to climb and squeeze down. It is only about forty or fifty feet, but feels like it takes forever!
Even before you hit the bottom, you realize there are some rather unpleasant smells coming up from ahead of you, and by the time you start to spill out at the bottom, to what appears to be a kitchen of some sort, the smell has risen to almost noxious levels.
Although perhaps grand in its heyday, what remains of the kitchen area is mostly just stone counters, and broken ovens. On most of the counters, are numerous ceramic pots and bowls, all of which are filled with strange fungal concoctions. It is these that have created the horrid smells. You have no idea what the derro and mites were trying to do here.
A door across from where the stairwell spills out, is open, revealing a short hallway, and a second door that is also open, to a small ledge and a large open area beyond. You see one of the costumed drugged derro revelers from upstairs laying collapsed in the hallway. In the doorway beyond it, a large pony-sized ant seems to be pondering coming in from the open area, and you see a second ant clambering up onto the ledge beyond it.
Only Tad reacts quickly enough to do anything about the ants, as the others try to finish getting down.
- Round 1 --------
Tad (-1), Dynath
ants
Benny, Daedîn (-6), Fimbir (-7, 10 nl), Mutahir (-23)
Tad and Dynath can go