Hector unseen flying to the combat.
or
The great black Blade hummmed,
"Your bringing the sisters, good they will feed"
Before Will can charge through the caves, Dragash unleashes his volley.
At the end, only ashes remain.
The remaining two cultists fight to the death; but precise blows over the next few desperate seconds prove enough to knock them unconscious.
Rosa comes to the others just as the fight ends. Her skin is blackened from fire but seems to be mending.
With her are three female Devils.
She looks at the others.
"Support, and its seems not needed now"
She orders the Three Devils to search the rest of the caves past the Black Blob.
She takes a seat close to one of the out cold cultists and reaching over pulls one of the amulets off it.
"So we keep one for Intelligence gathering, kill the rest?"
She looks around.
"Now there is something interesting, Hector come here."
The imp comes over, now all can see him for what he really is. An Imp.
Rosa grabs him by the neck and slips the Amulet over his head.
"What ya doing boss?"
he asks in a worried way.
"Checking to see if its coursed, now keep bloody still!"
She says, keeping hold of him and looking at him intently, her other hand is ready to snatch off the Amulet should Hector start talking about the big sky.
To the others she says.
"So we need to get past the black blob and to the temple true. Bit of desecration needed I feel."
She talks a harder look at Hector, checking for any signs.
Having seen Rosa and Will come from the entrance Dragash is a bit confused. "How did you guys get there? I thought you went deeper into the cave?" He folds his arms playfully then says with only a bit of sarcasm. "Here I was rushing over to help you! You even got other people here."
Though look like she's already begun looting, no surprise. Dragash shrugs as she goes off to pick up an amulet. "You can interrogate one if you like, I think I kind of burnt up the important one in the heat of the moment. I'd rather look for what stuff she might have left behind. Maybe she had an alter or an atelier with something about what she was doing here. She's far too dead to answer us now." Dragash says looking at the smouldering corpses he left behind.
If someone points out the potions he takes a moment trying to identify them.
Once he's found out what they are he tells the group and heads back to the bat creature.
"Hey there you miss me? Sorry about that, friends always stick together. Like your village if you remember, now let's see, what were you pointing at?" Dragash asks carefully again.
It appears Will is late to the party yet again. Only two cultists remain that are not burnt to a crisp. Will rushes them and makes short work of it, hitting them in non-lethal areas to question them later. He let the others do the questioning as he relieves them of their worldly possessions.
A lot of magical stuff for magicians. He keeps them separate incase the others want a look. He recognized the cure ones, he'd used them enough. The others he tosses to Dragash. The only thing that caught his attention was the belt and quiver. He had a belt and his own quiver was more than enough. He takes nothing.
As he is sifting, he looks up in time to see an imp fly by. Right to Rosa. Who also just ordered some devil's off down the tunnels. He shakes his head and returns to sorting, keeping one eye on the pit in case the thing inside came out. It seemed content to stay down there and wait for a meal.
Will grabs one of the dead bodies, now devoid of items, and tosses it down the pit. "That should keep it busy."
Rosa looks to find a seat, her burned skin slowly healing. She takes out a small cigar and lights it. Siting there she looks on as Will feeds the goo and Dragash looks over the potions before heading off presumably to Batwoman.
"That it will, Will"
She says as he comes back.
"Well I make it a point to keep promises, and when I said I they would pay for burning me up like that. I can think of no more fitting a way than meeting an end in fire themselves."
She holds out her hand and looks on as the skin starts to become white again.
"Well it sounds like the sisters did not find anything yet, no screams"
Of of the lesser Devils comes onto being before Rosa
"Nothing to report yet"
Its says to Rosa,
"Well keep looking until your time here is up"
Rosa says and with that its gone.
Rosa looks back at Will.
"Well now you know what my Raven is, and sorry about the shock moves, I needed to give us time and get them all nice and bunched up. Could not have gust how well that worked with Dragash fireworks. Very Satisfying"
Hector is looking over the loot, placing things now in neat piles.
"What's in the pit?" Dragash asks as Will throws a body into it. "Or we planning on just ditching the dead ones?" He continues to examine the bottles.
Dragash shrugs as Rosa revels in the idea that the cultists got some fiery karma. "I guess your welcome for their fiery demise? I can't say there was much malice behind it except I thought I was clearing the way for you guys. Sounds like you were able to get back to the entrance through a spell I presume?." Dragash says then looks at the pair of them. "Oh did either of you need a few dashes of my wand? It's still relatively full."
Rosa stood
"That would help Dragash. My healing can take a while. As for these &££*ers, they hit me and my pets with magic fireballs. I have no idea now many, but it was a few. Will's fast, he had the brains to got out the way But me, I took the brunt of it. My pets did not last long, However I'm a little more resilient to flame."
She chuckles, her flesh is still smoldering in parts.
"Yes we may as well feed the dead to the black Blob, as for the living. O I shall be having a word with them. See how big the cult is and what its up to. Because right now I just cant see a link between Star woman and bat woman. They where not even in the same part of the caves. Could be we have a brake away group."
Rosa's sword humms, is if it as well is looking over the dead.
Rose Checks the one of the living cultists is alive, and tied up, she places her sword close to it. But out of reach.
The words starts to whisper to the cultist in infernal.
Rosa fails to detect a corpse.
The ooze seems to have reformed itself into a scything blade trap.
In the cave with the rest of the cultists, a few treasures are unearthed atop the tables to the north.
The walls of this breathtaking cavern glitter with clear crystals. To the north are a few small tables stacked with supplies, while a field cot sits to the southeast. Additional folded bedrolls lie nearby, and a large chair next to a small writing desk rests before the wall opposite the only entrance.
The upper chamber is searched.
The temperature drops suddenly as a clammy breeze wafts up from the branching tunnels around this chamber.
Two bodies are slumped against the wall at the westernmost end. They feature hideous mutations and wounds consistent with horrific torture. Over them hover two transparent, ghostly figures with faces distorted into masks of terrifying wrath.
They do not pursue beyond the cave's exit.
Dragash identifies something he decides to name Dream Crystal Toxin.
The three Devils ferry back the key items to the group.
With thire time up, they sinking into the floor to the smell of brimstone.
Rosa looks over the items, the planetary spheres she put to one side, the large journal she picks up and starts to read a little, while she heals.
After 10 mins she look up at the others after a moment.
"This is going to take a few hours to read. Dos anyone object if I keep hold of this book. I would really like to read it. Feel free to do the same after, but right now my hope is it will tell me more about this stars cult."
She stands and walks over to the loot taking an amulet. She detects magic on it to check its is what it looks like. She slips it on and holds her hand out to see if her skins gets thicker. She feels safe in doing this as it had no effect on her Imp.
"The Scrolls of Invisibility, do you mind if I take two. The Spell books I have no use for. The Orbs and the journal I would will need to take back to the Hell Knights for assessment. This may be just a small group of a bigger problem."
She asks, then picking two scolls up she places them in her pouch. After the she gos over to the Cultists and pulls up her great sword. Placing it once more on here back.
She is fully healed now, her sin no longer black. She pulls out a wand and a few mend spells. Now her clothing as well is once more as it was.
A prestidigitation wand and she is clean and tidy. Looking at her now you would not guess that 6 mid level fire balls had gone off in her face not long ago.
"Dragash the odd drugs they concocted, you think you can work out what they did and how they did it?. If so I will pay you for a report on it."
Hector with his own Amulet on comes and sits on her shoulder.
"Well there is two spirits of the dead back there. The girls got most of the stuff to ya I see. Der is a whole load of Alchemical and Magical supplies pots of the stuff, a big old desk. what you want to go take one of dem down a mine Boss I have no friking idea. But they did."
He jumps off and flits around.
"Hay der is a magic missile wand here, If ya don't mind could I have that. Handy thing that to have in a fight."
He looks around at you all.
Rosa looks to the others.
"Lets get the living to the Entrance, and bring what we can there as well. We will have to see what we need to do next."
Holding the journal under one arms, she grabs one of the tied up and living Cultists with her other arm and drags him to the entrance.
"I think all of us would like to know what this stars cult does, so if you're going to read it first make sure you note down the important bits for the rest of us too." Dragash replies to Rosa first.
Dragash he nods after having a final sniff at the alchemical potions. "I think I'll call these Dream Crystal Toxins, they are quite a potent poison that could turn almost anyone myself included into a vegetable. No, not literally before you ask, I mean you will become as dumb as a rock. I was hoping this would be the mutation serum but it isn't. Dragash chuckles at the payment info. "Shall I do this as a friend or is the church hiring me as the Iadaran Alchemical Archer's Stockist? I might have to log the latter as an export from Kyonin."
"These cultists seem to want to worship the planets, or at least are quite interested in planets since now we've found four spheres. The bat creature also calmed down when I mentioned planets as well from her song." He looks over the alchemical lab with great interest, he wouldn't have thought one could be readily placed in a cave.
"Looks like I could make some things with this supply of things. I wonder if everything to make the Id mutation is here..."
"I managed to breakthrough to the bat creature and she seemed to want to tell us something so perhaps that might us find out where to prod next. We should also rest a little and read that book as it might give us the clues for where to go next."
Rosa nods.
"I understand what you mean Dragash, I will make such notes. As for payment. No that is me to you nothing more. Your Skills mean your in the right place at the right time to help me understand just what they where doing. The Hell Knights own Alchemical experts will want to work on a means to halt this drug that can effect whole towns."
"What's in the pit?"
"Ooze. Black."
Will peers down into the hole to see a trap instead of an ooze. Odd. He'd never seen one do that before. It was being very nice by staying down there though. As he watches the trap for movement, he feels a rush of hot wind accompanied by the smell of brimstone. He turns to see two some female devils carrying items. Items he assumes is from deeper in the cave. "Please stop them. Position is just as important as content," he says referring to the items they brought back. They'd need as much insight as they could get from these people as they could because right now, their actions were very strange.
Once it appears the ooze is appeased and nothing was coming to attack them, Will leaps across the hole and goes to explore the room Rosa's devils had said ghosts were inhabiting. They are not hard spot, floating above some corpses at the other side of the room. The lazy why they seemed move around contrasted sharply with the mask of rage each wore. They didn't move from guarding the bodies until he placed a single foot in the cave. Then they began to slowly float towards him. He took a step back and they floated back to their starting point. "Alright then."
Will stands just outside their range and closes his eyes. He meditates there before the wrathful ghosts, preparing his mind and body for a fight that needed to reach beyond the material plane.
Having missed the excitement, Zerisi taps his feet impatiently as the others move through the collected goods.
When Will stops the devils from looting the goods, Zerisi adds,
"The starry woman, that's where all the information was. Maybe we don't immediately obliterate everyone we come across from now on? It's much more fun to talk sometimes, Dragash."
"...and usually I LIKE explosions..."
The ghosts however, raise his spirits a bit.
"Now hold on Will, maybe THEY'll want to chat a bit. I've not chatted up a ghost in a good lone while."
He moves forward to the edge of the cave bows extravagantly, if inappropriately given the situation and the locale.
Rosa trys to stop the devils but its all a little to late. Not that it matters to her, Hector was with them and will fill her in on what was where.
Will seemed to be having fund true killing undead.
Rosa looks around.
"So you want to spend the night here or some place with beds."
"Good luck," Will says to Zerisi, without breaking concentration. If that didn't work, he intended to end them. A few Ki infused, fiery arrows should do it.
After they are dealt with, either diplomacy are violence, he checks the room and the bodies.
The latter of which he doesn't understand. Yes, they were mutated like Leeara and the bat woman. Once was a lizard and the other was too many animals to name. But why the torture too? Skin-peeled, fingernails removed, lacerations. Did pain quicken the change maybe? Will stands and sighs in frustration. No point in thinking too hard about it. He didn't have enough info to find a reason and he doubted he was smart enough to try. Might as well leave it to someone more qualified.
@Rosa: "Duskspawn is a day away. Too far."
"I don't doubt it Zerisi but I thought that they had trapped the others down the far end of the cave. Though I'm glad she didn't do lasting damage to anyone. Hopefully, the book will offer more answers and to be fair, she's the only one I've actually killed before we had the chance to talk so far." Dragash says, he knew Zerisi was right even though a cult leader would likely be raving but they might still offer some info little as it may be. "Ey.. wait, Rosa can you speak with the dead? It might a way to talk to her." Dragash had seen the speak with dead spell and it seemed right up Rosa's alley.
Rosa smoked a cigar.
"I was not thinking of Duskspawn, I was think of the warm beds in the Citadel of Dinyar. Where I would like to take the Badwoman and our living cultists here for the night, dropping them off. Will can be back 1st thing so anyone wish to come with us?"
Rosa asks.
She waits to see who wants to come.
Seeing the others are thinking over what she said Rosa turns and looks for a place to sit. She finds one close to the two tied up cultists. She slips off the black sword and sits. Laying it across her leg, the point resting on the body of a cultist. She looks her age, seeming world werey
sitting there. Her eyes resting on the back of the head of the cultist.
"Sometimes you wounder way they do it, following a faith that will end everything, even thire own afterlife. Things out there don't care, they offer the world but in the end your just meat to them. Something to feed on."
She prodded the cultist with her sword.
"I can only take three with me, so if one of you wants to come we have one to many cultists. I have no killing one to make room. That is unless you want to keep one."
She puts her sword down, and take out a smoke. Sitting there in thick smoke she give you all time to think on her offer.
"Sometimes you wounder way they do it, following a faith that will end everything, even thire own afterlife. Things out there don't care, they offer the world but in the end your just meat to them. Something to feed on."
"Some people just want to watch the world burn," Will says. See enough evil in your life, when everything is taken away and you have nothing left, some people can't take it and decide no one should have anything either.
"I'll stay. I can move faster alone and get back to town. Keep an eye on things." That he'd had enough visions of hell and the smell of brimstone for a while.
Rosa stands, And gives Will the book, then places her hands on the bat lady and the out cold Cultist
"Zerisi, your with me, My hope is bat lady will have no idea what is happening, the one out cold can't complain."
She waits till Zerisi is ready.
"Meet you back in town yes?"
And with that she, the batlady, Zerisi and cultist are gone.
Visions of the hells
"If you headed off, Rosa, I could do with an admixture funnel and some vials. Might be useful, I haven't run out of bombs yet but it's only a matter of time. I'm not sure what you are intention with the bat creature but let's find out what she was trying to point at before you take her off." Dragash says as Rosa prepares to leave.
"Zerisi will be doing the shopping Dragash, I have to report. If we give him the cash and items we don;t want, my hope is in the capital He'll find a place open tonight or 1st thing."
"Admixture, got it. Who KNOWS what I'll find there!. Maybe I'll bring back some surprises!" Zerisi says, growing excited.
"Arion can take us both," Will says to Dragash. When they finally get out of the mine, Arion is still watching the entrance obediently, nibbling on some foliage next to the trail. Will digs out the saddle bags from the bushes and tosses them back on. He then re-tightens the saddle and hops on. He offers a hand to Dragash to help him up in case he wasn't a rider.
On the designated porting stone work of the Cheliax embassy in Elidir the capital city of Isger porting room. Rosa, Zerisi and the two prisoners come into being. The wards on the building meant that was the only place you could port to. It was a cell in all but name, one guarded day and night. Around them the Hell Knight guard readied weapons. One shouted.
"State your names and business here"
Rosa said back quickly
"Hell Hound Cleric Rosa Luminass, Zerisi companion and two prisoners for interrogation of suspected Chaotic Cult activity. I wish to speck to the Hell Knight commander at the embassy at once."
Doors unlocked and the Hell Knights come for-would and push past Rosa and Zerisi taking the two prisoners. The one who spoke came to Rosa and lifted his Helm.
"The wards say you are who you say you are Cleric Luminass, I will take you to the commander at once. What of your companion?"
Rosa replayed
"He has urgent hound business in the city, please give him a pass token and let him out the back door onto the street."
Then looked back at Zerisi.
"You have 12 hours, make good use of them, when your done come back here. Show the token and say my name. They will let you back into here. Understood. Now I have a long night ahead and a report to give."
Rosa looks back
"I'm ready take me to him"
With that Rosa says no more but walks out the room with the Hell Knight leader her.
Zerisi, your lead to a small back door and out into a side street.
The door closes and your all alone in the big city of Isger and the clocks ticking.
As Will and Dragash got ready a Raven lands close by.
"Boss says I'm to stay with you, check out ahead, offer help and advice, that kind a stuff. So you need any you just ask. So where we a going?"
Says the Imp now in Raven form once more.
Rosa is shown through to refreshment and rest. The embassy leader proves eager to debrief you, and takes down what you say as part of his regular reports.
They go into close session, talking most of the knight. Rosa suggests that the two prisoners be handed to the order of the rack for interrogation. Then they are done she makes her way to the offered room, resting for two hours and then spending and hour praying. She is careful not to be seen by anyone from outside the hell knight ranks. In the morning she eats with embassy leader and waits for Zerisi.
Dragash already knew that Will was a man of little words, though they came from similar military backgrounds they grew into different men. He just nods to Will in thanks and rides with him. Once they are back they continue to exchange few words before they go to rest in Dalviss's inn once more.
Being quite so close to Dragash after the ride, Will does notice that Dragash feels bigger than he appears. At least bulkier than Will would expect for an Elf.
The cultists are taken by callous and experienced hands to the cells, and expertly locked up and processed.
Zerisi steps out the back door, shouldering the pack of goods he intends to sell. Unsure of which way the marketplace is, and not particularly concerned with that fact, he sets of at a quick clip, almost skipping with excitement as he moves through the city.
"Cheliax, what a treat!" he thinks.
After some wandering, and almost certainly more prodding of the increasingly impatient city guard, he manages to make his way to the market, and begins unloading his goods at the appropriate vendors, keeping an eye out for his shopping list as well.
"And the sooner I offload this, the more time I'll have to explore."
After he finishes the requisite shopping, he heads for the nicest establishment in town, having taken a cue from the last merchant he dealt with.
Embellishing his fame, and stretching the truth a bit, Zerisi spends the rest of the evening entertaining nobles sipping too much wine from over-sized goblets, surrounded by many dozen well-armed guards. He takes special joy painting Will a hero, spreading word of the General's conquests in his new territory.
As the last of the spectators slip into sleep and are carried home, Zerisi convinces the operator of the establishment to put him up for the night, or a few hours at least, getting just enough sleep to function, then making his way back towards the Hell Knight command post in time to catch his ride with Rosa.
Dragash makes a new batch of extracts and his mutagen in the morning. He goes for breakfast early, catching up with Dalviss on old times before Will gets there, he departs with the man when they're both ready. It is likely just before dawn breaks as they need a small bit of travel to meet up with the others.
When Will offered his hand to Dragash, something seemed off. He felt heavier than his build suggested. Even Arion seemed to feel it. The hand that grasped his arm on the way up felt bigger than what he could actually see.
But he could not perceive anything other than an elf. Will always trusted his sight last. It was the easiest to trick. But he could not figure out what trick was being played here.
Will keeps a subtle eye on Dragash the rest of the day. No answers revealed themselves in the man's attitude and personality. He seemed the same person and like most elves he'd met.
By night he gave up entirely. Dragash was hiding something but he doubted it was for any malevolent reason. He had thought that maybe he was a spy. But the amount of forethought and preparation necessary to do that seemed to expensive and time consuming for what they were dealing with. He was just a man with a secret. No point in being a bother about it.
Rosa is waiting as Zerisi comes back, happy to see he has her items she tooks them away. She is on the porting stones, a few hell knights looking on.
"When your ready Zerisi"
She holds out her hand, think of the .... says a word and then they Port.
Zerisi takes Rosa's hand, and braces himself for the spell.