”The demon’s attacks don’t draw blood, neither do our attacks. Something is at play here.”
[ooc]Can my communal protection from Evil protect us from this creature?[/dice]
”The demon’s attacks don’t draw blood, neither do our attacks. Something is at play here.”
Can my communal protection from Evil protect us from this creature?
Joriannika's worried look deepened. Thomas had never been so badly wounded before while they'd been in the same group. She decided to see what leverage her arcane knowledge might grant her.
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Hanzo circled the demon, watchful and ready to leap in at the earliest opportunity. He'd been in deadly knife fights before, but this was the one that counted.
On the beast's turn, its going to attack you, Stone, and miss.
Thomas shakes his head and looks at the big wound in the middle of his body. While standing up, still slightly confused, he casts another healing spell on himself.
The inquisitor changes his stance all the while staying focus on the demon. He attempts to slash the creature once again.
"Speak for yourself, yelled the inquisitor at Sheorlis. I'm not going to stand idle and let this abomination roam free, not after all he did. Try to dodge this!"
This predicament which had moments ago seemed like a dire, hopeless situation, suddenly doesn't seem so hopeless. Joriannika's worried look deepened. Thomas had never been so badly wounded before while they'd been in the same group. She decided to see what leverage her arcane knowledge might grant her. Determined to deny death its day, she cast a healing spell on Thomas, who awakens with a groan. Looking down, he sees through the dangling threads of torn fabric as his sternum pieces itself back together, pectorals are restitched into place and new skin is stretched over his chest. He should be dead, but he is still alive. He stands and mirrors the motions Joriannika had just performed, which revitalized him. No one really noticed this, primarily because Sheaorlis' size blocks most of Thomas from view, but also because, moments earlier, the demon was jabbing its razor-sharp halberd at the cleric. Fortunately, Stone is much faster than his namesake, and he parries the blade away. The demon bowed his head at that same moment, intent on goring the cleric through with its horns. In a fantastic display of athleticism, your friend is able to raise up his bastard sword, one hand on the flat of the blade, and block the demon-goat. Hanzo circled the demon, watchful and ready to leap in at the earliest opportunity. He'd been in deadly knife fights before, but this was the one that counted. And since this vile thing had chosen priestly soldier instead of him, he decided that opportunity was now! He steps in, swift as can be, and thrusts one of the mithral dagger-keys into the demon's temple and the dives the second dagger right into its heart! The goat-headed humanoid from hell howls, but soon begins choking on its own blood, pooling in the back of its throat. Hanzo pulls both blades out simultaneously as your enemy thunks on the ground.
What happens next?
Global Condition: |Stone HP: 27/27 AC: 20/12/18 Status:
Sheaorlis HP: 8/22 AC: 16/12/14 Status: enlarge person: Large, 10ft reach, +2 STR, -2 DEX, -1 AC, -1 Attack Rolls; 1 minute…. // Justice Judgment; +1 to attack rolls
Thomas HP: 12/35 AC: 18/12/16 Status:
Joriannika HP: 17/17 AC: 17/13/14 Status:
Hanzo HP: 20/28 AC: 17/13/14 Status:NPCs:
??? HP: -41 AC: <21 (+2) Status: Dead
It's not long, less than a minute, before Sheaorlis begins returning to normal size. Thank goodness, too, because he was tired of having to slightly crane his neck, so as to not bump his head.
This near death situation made Thomas rethink a lot of his choices. He was silent for much longer than what the others used to know of him. Then he listened for the voice of his passenger.
Well, what do you think? You're oddly silent up there?
I'm pittying myself. Why did I get such a WEAK HOST? I deserve BETTER!
He immediately regreted trying to talk to Belmanok and concencetrated on his suroundings. "Man, that was close! I mean, beyond close. I wonder what else the wizard's demise let loose..." Thomas was still feeeling his wound and trying to heal it a little more.
Unaware of Thomas' inner dialogue, Joriannika beamed at him as he stood. "You're all right! I was worried!" She gave him a big hug, then began to investigate the room, her curiosity overwhelming.
But she took care to skirt the horrible dead demon. "Nice work, Hanzo!"
Hanzo watched the demon for signs of trickery, almost not believing his own eyes, even though he'd felt the knives go in to the hilt. Then he wiped his daggers off and re-sheathed them in his sleeves. This was one fight he wasn't going to forget!
"Think I can get a painter to make a picture of me with this thing?" he joked, planting a boot on its head. Chuckling, he then went about searching its disgusting body for loot. Surely things from other dimensions didn't count as "things in the wizard's mansion" that they couldn't take.
"Those were some nasty blows, I must admit I haven't thought we would take the creature down so easily." Sheaorlis addressed Hanzo, feeling more relaxed after returning to his usual self.
He turns to Joriannika, "What did you mean by the wizard ordering the demon? The wizard should pray he is never found or else he would face two lifetimes in prison just for the deeds we've discovered up till this point."
"Well, that's what wizards do with demons, right? They call them up and order them around. To do... stuff." Admittedly, that was the entirety of Jori's "knowledge" of evil wizards, gained from reading a lot of books of adventures and fairy tales as a child. Brushing away her niggling doubt, she went on, "We did find the wizard, though. He's dead. He got crushed when he went down into the tower that the kobolds brought down. Apparently he wanted them to do it, so I'm not sure why he got caught down there when it happened if he was so smart."
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Hanzo grinned at the half-orc. If he'd still had his daggers in hand, he would have spun them. "Yep, no matter how powerful you are, a dagger in the heart will seriously cramp your style."
Around the corner in this room is the pit which apparently was where Hunclay kept the demon. There are no chains and the pit is only 10 feet deep. The runes on all the walls must have been how the wizard ensured the demon stayed in the demon. Hanzo finds nothing on the demon-goat. After a thorough search, you're confident there's nothing left in this room to do except turn around and go back the way you came.
"Still, keeping such a dangerous creature restrained or not near a community is asking for trouble. Then I do hope he plans to remain dead otherwise he will spend most of his undead life in jail."
Sheaorlis raises the axe on one shoulder and slowly heads out of the room.
"Even though the demon was not guarding anything precious, at least we neutralized a danger. Let's see what's at the other end of the corridor, and take a rest once we're done searching the basement.
What do you think?"
"I wonder what the wizard was using it for," Joriannika mused as she followed Sheaorlis.
"I can't believe it wasn't guarding anything good," Hanzo mourned. "I got stabbed for nothing? The Baroness ain't paying us enough to fight demons. What else is down here?"
A pair of regular metal doors, bearing no lock, stand at the other end of the hallway. When opened, you find yourselves in some sort of large lab or workshop. Six stone slabs sit on the floor of this chamber. Heaped upon each are metal tools, gears, springs, and other parts for the construction of mechanical creations. Most importantly, nothing screams at you or attacks you. The room appears empty.
Thomas eyes the lab equipment and books warily. He dare not touch any of them. "I know better than to touch these mumbo jumbo things." He scans the room and the equipment thoroughly with .
"Does anyone have expertise in mechanical constructs so we can evaluate this? It definitely increases the value of the property."
The inquisitor follows Thomas's advice and does not mess with the gears but looks around the room for any signs of traps or hidden chambers.
Thomas, neither the parts or tools in this room contain any magical auras that you can detect.
Sheaorlis ends up ignoring most of the stuff in the room once he sees that nothing is reacting to their presence.
Joriannika squinted at the wall, going so far as to go over and peer at it at close range.
"Y'all, this shouldn't be here. See those stones, how they line up? I think this is a door."
Hanzo cleared his throat, stepping up when Jori took too long looking around. "Let me have a look at that."
"All clear!" Hanzo pronounced. "Let's see what's behind here."
"Nice find, Jori!" Thomas readies his sword and waits for Hanzo to open the secret door.
The door squeaks horribly on its hinges when opened, the sound echoing all the way down the the long hallway on the other side.
"Not bad observation skills, with a bit more faith and persistence you could end up a good inquisitor apprentice." The inquisitor enters the narrow corridor taking one of the light sources from the previous room with him to illuminate the way for the party.
The cleric casts Detect Magic and inspects the items in the room while the others determine what they wish to do with the secret door.
”If this is just his basement I can’t wait to see what’s in store for us upstairs.”
You detect no magical auras present on the tools or parts in this room.
Down the hallway to your left, which goes on for only twenty to thirty feet, you reckon, is an iron gate which hangs ajar. Peering through, the room within is bare, except for a conjuration circle of silvery metal inlaid in the stone floor and a small, rickety table on which sits a thin journal. Inside the circle sits a horrific creature. A childlike blasphemy made up of the conjoined features of a plump, human infant and a gigantic, gore-flattened fly.
It speaks towards the door when someone peers through, in an unsettling buzzing, clicking tone, "Please! Please help me. Release me back to Hell! That damned wizard trapped summoned me and abandoned me here! I just want to go back..." Is it... whimpering? "P-please.. if you just break the circle, I will be free to return. Even laying something over the line would do the trick. Please release me!"
Thomas shudders at the sight of the horrific creature, then whispers to his allies. "Never. We can never let something like this go free."
The inquisitor remains impassive, props the axe on the wall and prepares his bow for a shot. "Our main objective here is to make sure the house is secure for the next inhabitant. Does anyone have some leftover magic to deal with this creature without risking letting it loose?"
"...bzzzzziiii I just want to go home! Please!"
Joriannika frowned at the creature. Surely you could never trust something so evil, but it sounded so pitiful...
"How can we even know you'd do as you say?" she demanded.
She ventured cautiously into the room, intending to examine the journal on the table. Maybe it had some kind of answer.
"We can't just leave it here," Hanzo said. "It could get out and kill somebody. I'm with him," he jerked a thumb at Sheaorlis. Then he put away his daggers and drew his shortbow.
"You've seen what happened with the last monster we've encountered here." The inquisitor aims for the flying creature but the arrow flew wide of the target.
"Careful an arrow doesn't break that circle," Hanzo advised, nocking an arrow of his own. "It's probably the only thing holding it back. It must be more dangerous than the other one, to be trapped in there."
"The same goes for bullets, doesn't it?" Thomas sheats his sword and draws his sling and bullets.
Sheaorlis and Thomas, not waiting for the creature to answer, both take shots at the vile creature, but it's too fast. However, in their recklessness and haste, their attacks disrupted the energies of the magic circle, and the creature realized it was no longer bound! Hanzo tried to worn them them, but his words cross his lips just as the half-orc's arrow left his bow.
"We've gotten rid of one more magical anomaly in the basement. Now let us see about this creature." Sheorlis said, unconcerned that the creature has gotten free.
Hanzo muttered a curse and dropped his bow in favor of his daggers. "Don't come any closer!" he yelled, not so sanguine as Sheaorlis.
Jori eeped and stepped back behind Thomas with the journal - but there was no time to read it now. Remembering that her bombs had done no good before, she lifted her crossbow and took a shot.
LOL
"That's the spirit." Sheaorlis cheers encouragingly after seeing both Hanzo and Joriannika join the fight. He nocks another arrow and lets it loose immediately without aiming too much.
Combat Order: Chirrit (25), Sheaorlis (19), Thomas (11), Stone (8), Jori (7), Hanzo (4)
Round 1
The creature is quicker than you imagined. Hanzo yells out, "Don't come any closer!" which, unfortunately focuses the demon's attention onto him.
But Hanzo ain't exactly slow. His dagger blade flashes up to parry away the jaws of this horror. Upon seeing the shining metal, it veers off, missing the rogue in the process, circling around towards the back of the room. Hanzo takes a swipe but misses. "That's the spirit." Sheaorlis cheers encouragingly after seeing both Hanzo and Joriannika join the fight. He nocks another arrow and lets it loose immediately without aiming too much. In fact, his arrow misses by at least five feet, which would normally not be that bad, except that the target is only about twenty feet away. But he knows that something feels off. He doesn't feel well. He shakes off the feeling and resolves himself to focus. Jori's crossbow aims straight and true, her bolt hitting the devil square in the chest. However, it bounces right off and the accuser just laughs, except that the laughter is mostly a overwhelming buzzing mixed with a guttural voice.
Global Condition: |Stone HP: 27/27 AC: 20/12/18 Status:
Sheaorlis HP: 8/22 AC: 16/12/14 Status:
Thomas HP: 12/35 AC: 18/12/16 Status:
Joriannika HP: 17/17 AC: 17/13/14 Status:
Hanzo HP: 20/28 AC: 17/13/14 Status:NPCs:
Accuser Devil HP: -0 AC: ≤19
"Not good!" Thomas shouts as he drops the sling and draws his sword, while stepping next to Hanzo.
Stone invoked his Patrons holy confidence in the face of devils.
”With our combined powers this starved devil will be overcome should it not take this opportunity to flee.”
He places inspiring word on Thomas.
Thomas, eyes glowing, swings his blade and slices a gaping wound in the demon, which squeals in an disturbing voice that is almost intolerable. This time it looks properly scared. In an instant... *poof* ... it's gone.
A minute or two goes by and you decide that it didn't turn itself invisible, it must have allowed the spell that brought it here to send it back.