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Bielsi shakes his head and works his jaw open and closed several times t clear his mind and stop the ringing in his ears. The combat is already heavily underway with the ever diligent Kenza holding the line for the rest of them.
But that first volley hurt the Pathfinders bad and one of their number is already down. Even as Zarisha is moving forward to exact her revenge, the Oread draws his healing wand and touches it to Avasir to bring him back into the fight.
"On your feet, my good man. There's cultists to be vanquished!" he declares.
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Zarisha also shakes off the stunning report of the cultist's spell, though she does not have the strength of will to resist the minor curse as the others have. Still, she is ready to vent her ire on her opponents and marches forward to deliver a fist to someone's face.
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Ash's spell falls short as the cultist stands his ground unmoved by his attempt. "Hah! You think I will fall for such simplistic magic?!" He taunts the undine.
Kenza comes up quickly doing a quick feint with a good solid punch on one of the acolytes. Before the acolyte is able to return the favour, Frostwind drops a bomb in his face from around the door and the blast sends the enemy out with a concussion.
Bielsi immediately comes to Avasir's aid to cure the elf back into the light to fight another minute against the cultist horde. Meanwhile his companion phantom further engages the remaining acolyte but finds that the other one is a little bit more proficient in dodging blows.
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Avasir awakes to nearby chaos, his ears still ringing from the initial blast. He sees that three teammates are to the front and side of him, so he feels safe in slowly standing up in place to survey the scene and get his bearings.
He steps up next to Frostwind to give himself a bit more time to figure out what to do.
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The little man Lindwickett hurries into the fray, as fast as his little legs can take him, moving just enough to get into reach of the acolyte with the green eyes. He stabs him with his rapier and pierces his lungs! The acolyte cannot take the pain, gasps for air, and falls unconscious.
The tides seem to have turned in the Pathfinder's favours, but soon, out of the corner, a creature turns out of the shadows, mumbling curses under it's breath. This disembodied and bestial head covered in lashing hair and curling horns hovers above the ground. It then creates a telepathic link with cultist tormenting him to do his bidding. The cultist seems to have a headache but grows a little stronger as well.
In some sort of frustration, the cultist takes step back and yells as he grasp his (un)holy symbol that he wearns around his neck. This is follow by a burst of negative energy that overcomes the Pathfinder's near him.
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Avasir recognizes the creature as the one that has been taunting the city, a Doru. Dorus are the divs that whisper in the night, the foul inspiration that drifts upon fetid winds, the messengers of pretender gods.
Kenza continues to bring the fight to the cultist scum, and delivers a good right hook. But the human continues to defend himself adequately not to take a pummelling.
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Bielsi catches sight of their true opponent and she is truly hideous. A wave of dark energy pulses out of her and washes over Zarisha, a fact that he can feel through his link to her.
It's not so intense that he needs to feed his own life force into her to keep her active...yet.
He marches forward to engage their opponent and reaches out with his mental powers to shake her resolve.
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Avasir runs up past Linwickett. "Cover me!"
He quickly throws his dagger at the cultist behind Kenza.
As soon as it reaches its target, it flies back into the elf's hand.
He yells out to his group. "The float head is immune to fire and poison! Resistant to acid, electricity, and spells. Physical harm requires cold iron up to a point."
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Attempting not to let the appearance of the Doru distract them, the Pathfinders continue to focus their efforts to eliminate the cultist threat first. Ashwell throws a mind thrust attempting to penetrating his thoughts. The thought of loss and despair rings in his head but not enough that it causes him to doubt himself.
On a similar note, Bielsi too attempts to cast a desperation of doom on the human. But after Ashwell's little trick, he fortifies his mind against the attack.
Bielsi comes in with a melee attack but the cultist dodges her strike but not in time to avoid Avasir's floating dagger. Lindwickett follows through with an attack of his own, prodding the human with his rapier.
The Doru forces the cultist to react once more tormenting him telepathically immediately retaliates against Kenza swinging his morningstar in hand. But Kenza does a little twist to avoid the knock.
Agitated at the turn of events, the cultist countinues to step back to release a wave of negative energy.
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Like Avasir, Lindwickett succumbs to the negative energy and falls to unconsciousness.
Avasir and Frostwind persevere through against the cultist and unleash more mind attacks and bombs. The enemy takes on too much hurt and eventually collapses, rendering him unconscious.
The doru looks on with further frustrations and decides the fight is over for him. He turns himself invisible and attempts to flee the scene.
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Unfortunately, the doru is too cunning and escapes out of sight without the Pathfinders able to track it. However, with the cultists defeated, the ritual ends abruptly. A crescendo of frantic telepathic whispering spews from the gem: “I am awake! I see you—all of you! My strength grows. Do not forget…” before fading away. Upon a closer inspection of the jewel, it appears to be the onyx sage jewel, a minor artefact and one of the foundational relics of the Jeweled Sages organization. Like other such jewels, it likely contains the memories and knowledge of generations of scholars.
There is also a folded, faded, and threadbare banner that bears a charging leopard on a background of tan and black— the crest of one of the Tekritanin League city-states that occupied this region long before Thuvia’s unification.
With the immediate threat of the cultist annihilated, the Pathfinders are able to peruse the rest of the hidden ruins cautiously finding a trove of cultist belongings, from ritual daggers, cultist robes, alchemical components, and ledgers and fragmented notes to suggest something more sinister is at hand.
As you prepare your reports in the Meab lodge, Amenopheus himself makes an appearance. Amenopheus and Diya takes great interest in your interaction with Zurnzal who he confirms openly serves Grandmaster Torch. Diya grumbles with some disappointment that Torch has gotten himself involved but Amenopheus is more restrained on the matter. "Nonetheless, no matter the cost, Pathfinders are people of their word, I am obliged to uphold the contract. It perhaps was necessary as part of the situation at hand. Let us hope this does not come back to haunt us."
However they take delight in and commend the crew for recovering the jewel, explaining this discovery is beyond what they had hoped. When Amenopheus attempts to communicate with his ancient colleague’s memories within the sage jewel, it flares angrily, and he casts it across the room instinctively.
Amenopheus catches his breath before walking over to wrap the thrown jewel in a thick cloth. “Unfortunately, this confirms my earlier theory: the sages’ memories are not alone within these gems. The records you recovered and observations you made suggest that the first Jeweled Sages might not have create the sage jewels on their own, but rather modeled them off someone else’s design. Now it seems that prototype was the soul receptacle for an utterly depraved servant of the Pharaoh of Forgotten Plagues who inflicted countless atrocities upon northern Garund. If she is awakening, the whole order is at risk unless we can use your findings to deduce some way to purge this evil.”
He massages his forehead for a moment before noting, “Whatever lies ahead will be difficult, and the future of the Jeweled Sages relies on what we can do about this threat. Once we have a plan, you shall be the first to know.”
Additionally he adds, "Worry not about the Doru, he is the least of our problems right now, and I have a strong feeling he will not be a problem in the near future." Implying that other Pathfinders are on the matter and have likely taken care of it.