Cassie lowers her hands "Oh. Fantastic. Nice work. Just a moment please."
She turns her back to the creature and and walks back to her party, pulling Mawl with her. She lowers her voice to whisper to her party "I thought that perhaps this creature belonged to the order. It would appear that it was brought here by the Asmodean's."
"It may have something to do with Ironi's rune that we passed earlier. It's likely this creature, a creature of Law might have an affinity to this place and the rune. If I remember from my teacher' he told me he spent some time with devoted follower of Ironi. He said that The Master's Rebus, is a star representing knowledge and enlightenment following out from Ironi, to to illuminate the Triune Selves of us men and other mortals. The horizontal line, it represents life and death, the vertical represents the raising the consciousness of our minds from the simple wants to higher enlightenment. There was something about another dimension, a third that represents the spirit, changing from positive to negative incarnations til it stabilises at the absolute centre, where the physical and mental lines cross. There are some rituals associated with the rune, what was it, laying sand along the lines and blowing it away, placing a candle at its centre," He stops and bows to the creature, making the sign of Master Rebus with his finger on the dust of the floor.
I made a roll of 20 for a 26 on the Knowledge on my work laptap before it hung on me and I lost the post. Hopefully you won't mind me taking the roll and taking the opportunity to talk about the rune some more. After all I don't think it was a great place to roll a 20.
”Oh...right...forgot they had mentioned you being here,” Surexeria says as she reaches into her pack, producing one of the symbols of Asmodeus they had recovered. ”Can’t always go around wearing these...not everyone approves of Asmodeans. I’ve gotten so used to just keeping it in my pack that it just slipped my mind.”
The creature looks at Surexeria for a moment and considers her words, eventually it shrugs "Very well Asmodean, you may pass but the others may not."
Mawl re-slings his weapon and turns around to move closer to the middle. As quietly as he can "I have no idea what you just said Horillo, but it sounded hopeful. Maybe a way to ghost this guy heheh. And after what you said Cassie, I'm glad you told me my weapon would be useless, kinda limits our options. The fact he is Asmodean...well that ticks me off to no end.
Wait, Surexeria just got past. All we need is one of those? Don't go by yourself Surexeria, you may be in danger."
”But these are my servants. They too follow Asomdeus but do not carry symbols as I do. Their allegiance falls in with mine.”
The creature considers her words once again. Either it isn't a very good guardian or it isn't all that interested in its task but it shrugs and then nods to Surexeria. As it steps the the side it notes "My apologies for delaying you. Please feel free to enter."
Cassie doesn't walk through first, but once Mawl enters she follows behind. Once through she turns to Surexeria and smacks her for stealing my idea congratulates her for such a wonderful idea. "Well done."
Opening the doors and leaving the planar creature behind, the group heads down even more stairs. Eventually reach the bottom the hall turns to the south where there are several doors set into the eastern wall and a couple passages leading off to the east. Cass tells the others that these are mostly just rooms for the various members of the order though she doesn't know what they are being used for now. The northern most passage leads to some of the orders Chancery Scribes rooms and the larger passage to the south leads to the artifact recovery room, lecture hall, and common room and eventually the meditation garden.
"You know, I'd like to see the meditation garden, perhaps some peace in this now defaced and violent house." says Horillo in hope.
"um yeah, I don't know what an artifact recovery room is but I like the sound of it."
Sorix looks Cassie in the eye with a warm, genuine smile and says, ”Thank you; it’s always nice to get a compliment and I appreciate it. Indeed it is always a pleasure to make the acquaintance of a fellow scholar. I’ve just always enjoyed studying about, well, pretty much everything. Do you have particular fields you specialize in?”
”Excellent, Cassie—I do believe you are correct. Although I think they resist non-chaotic attacks but are not completely immune. They also are extremely knowledgeable and their intelligence is so great that it actually helps to defend them. Additionally, their attacks are capable of draining the intelligence of others and manifesting it as a soul tome which contains all of their knowledge and secrets. They are also capable of retracting their bodies back into their tome to look like a normal book.”
”Nice work getting it to let us go by, you two,” Sorix says to Cassie and Surexeria. As the group rounds the corner to a hallway ending in closed doors Sorix moves slightly around the corner. ”Hallways make me nervous. Anyone wanna see if they can spot anything dangerous in the hall or on the doors? I’ll see if there’s any magic.” Sorix casts detect magic down the hall and at the doors, ignoring any auras coming from her allies.
"I'm a performer and so most of much skills and magic has been aligned towards such. I am afraid I don't have anything I can do offensively to help here today, but I am able to disappear for a short while as well as provide some inspiration."
Looking down at the whip in her hand, she continues "In addition to providing inspiration through song, I also am trained to use this thing for show. I suppose I could try and use it to slow their advances and make them second guess their courses of action, but..." she recalls how poorly this worked for her leading up to her capture. "I, I don't know if I'll be very helpful. I'll try to stay out of your way?"
When Sorix corrects her, she nods "That sounds accurate, thank you."
Cassie smiles when she is once more given praise by Sorix, offering a slight smile to the wizard. "Thank you."
Sorix doesn't immediately detect any magic.
"er, so Cass, do we need to check every room? I would guess so since you haven't been down here real recently. I'm not sure we could take another battle like the last one just now." He looks questioningly at the rest of the group.
Cassie nods "It's been some time since I've been down here. That," she says pointing to that guardian they just fooled "wasn't here last time, so who knows what else is here. It would be my suggestion we check each and every door down here to ensure it is clear and there are no other prisoners like me."
”And to kill anymore of that Thrunish scum we find...” Surexeria says quietly with a wink before slipping ahead.
"I'm quite tired with all this, my connection to Erastil is weaker after the prayer and healing. So if we can find somewhere safe to hole up, it might be good." Horillo echoes others views. Surexeria, she's trouble that one. in a nice way, she just manages to attract trouble. He shrugs his head, with a little prayer to Erastil, "Lok to keep Surexeria from harm and attracting trouble." though he feels no power surge from his god. "Erastil's power of healing is spent, no more can his green light spread warmth to your bones, blood and bodies. I remember only one more prayer." he smiles weakly.
"I'd rather not go past that guardian again, I'm worried we can't back through without a fight. Perhaps we can open one door down here, clear the room, secure it and rest here for a bit?"
"Good thinking Cassandis.. Cassendix.... I mean Cassie." the tongue twisted name is stuck in his mouth. "Best listen at the door first in case we can hear voices and the like."
Cassie offers a slight smile and places her cool hand on Horlli's forearm. "Just call me Cass or Cassie."
She puts her ear on the door and then searches for traps.
"I don't hear anything inside nor see any traps. Mawl, would you do the honors?" she says, backing away from the door.
"My pleasure m'lady," Mawl enters the room quickly, hoping to use the element of surprise on anyone or anything that might be in there.
Cass knows that these first few doors are smaller rooms and there is now way the whole group could fit in one, but just down the hall is where one of the larger rooms for the more senior members of the order is located may just do the trick. She checks to make sure the Asmodeans didn't set and traps and not finding anything asks Mawl to open it up. He swings the door open and finds a small room but large enough they could all rest, even if somewhat cramped.
The room looks like it hasn't been used in a couple weeks but has a single cushy looking bed a work space and a small open washroom. The group huddles into the room and each person claims some place to sit and sleep, leaning against a wall for support. One person, or two if they want to cuddle up close, could claim the bed. However, the group decides to sort their sleeping arrangements they setup a watch, and eventually people start to drift to sleep. The night is uneventful and no one tries to enter the room.
Cassie finds a corner and curls up in it to fall asleep. She isn't able to find sleep quickly though and she tosses and turns for thirty minutes before growing frustrated. She rises an looks at the snoring warriors who saved her. She wants to say something, but she doesn't want to wake anyone.
She looks over at Sorix sleeping on the bed and tiptoes over to her and climbs into the bed and lays down in front of her. She wiggles her self closer and picks up her arm and pulls it around her waist. She whispers "Sorry. I could not sleep. I hope you do not mind."
After leaving his holy symbol of Asmodeus on the table, on waking he picks it up and stows it away. Horillo exposes his holy tattoo and starts to pray to Erastil to aid him and his friends during the day.
"I´m hungry, we should get this final push through the mansion cellars done as soon as possible. If anyone went upstairs, then they will know that their guards and protectors are no more. Sent to meet Pharesma. We must be cautious but thorough to deal with these evil doers." he says pensively, his brows furrowed in thought. I may follow Erastil, but know little about these clerics of Asmodeus, other than their ways are evil and twisted. Their words are like serpent´s tongues, flickering with two meanings.
Horillo checks his bow and stack of arrows, the bow of the stag hunt, Erastil´s favoured.
During his time for sleep, Mawl sleeps deeply. He awakes the next morning, feeling fit and ready for battle. He listens at the door before exiting the room when the others are also ready.
Sorix stirs a bit when Cassie snuggles up, then returns the snuggle and mumbles, ”Not a bit—just please be careful not to squash Luna.” The small head of a snow-white bunny peeks out from beneath the front of Sorix’s robes.
After getting some rest the group starts to make their way through the complex. Searching the smaller rooms along the way they find that these look to have been recently used by someone, likely last night, but no one resides in any of the rooms currently.
Heading down the passage Mawl can hear noise from down the short set of stairs that lead into the next room, which Cass knows is the Artifact Recovery room where the order safeguarded and studied powerful and sometimes cursed magical items.
Having previously been unaware of said rabbit, she does a double take when Sorix pulls a bunny out of her robes. "Oh. Hello Luna." she says offering the rabbit a quick rub of the head. Turning over, she scootches backwards into Sorix and closes her eyes. Sleep does not come quickly, but it does come and she drifts off to bad dreams of the Asmodeans.
Cass sleeps on a bed for the first time in weeks and isn't one of the early risers. Resting on the edge of the bed, she enjoys every single moment of this luxury that is not the stone floor and grudgingly relents to getting back on her feet.
Approaching the artifact recovery room, she whispers "I do suspect that this room is of importance to those that raided us. It housed the most powerful items we possessed. Take care with items in this room and those that would wield them."
Mawl glances toward Surexeria to check things and advise him his best method to approach.
Before moving forward, Surexeria looks at Cassie and asks ”How many more were there that you saw?”
Cassie shrugs "I saw one most days. I saw others come and go but I was not able to keep track. I know if my mas-, er, the one you killed and white-eyed woman. I know there were others, but I couldn't keep track. I didn't think I would ever need to know..."
Surexeria sighs and says, ”Okay, fine. Do y’all want me to scout ahead, or we gonna rush them?”
"Scout ahead. Do you have a way to keep in touch over a distance, I have heard there are some who posses such magic. We don´t want to loose you in the darkness and find you a victim, we want to be able to help you as soon as you get into trouble." the cleric says concerned. "We have lost several of our friends already, we do not want to loose more. Let´s try and remove the head, because then the body drops also."
He fiddles with his bow, taking time to flick and smooth the fletchings.
Surexeria moves around the edge of the hall to the farside, where she can get a better look into the room. She starts walking down the steps when a horrible smell hits her noise nearly causing her to trip, but luckily she catches herself without a sound.
The overwhelming stench of rotting flesh fills this wide, table-strewn chamber. A web of barbed chains strangles its way throughout the room, supporting the decayed corpse of a man in drab robes. At the center of the web, suspended above the flagstones by its black iron tendrils, rests a fistsized, twelve-sided box fashioned from wood and bronze. Wooden cases along the southwestern wall have been smashed and overturned. Small pieces of paper covered with notes are scattered throughout the room, as if someone’s been studying the strange tableau for days.
Inside Surexeria spots four men, with journals writing furiously. They are so caught up in their work. They have yet to notice her sneaking into the room.
Surexeria quietly falls back to the group and whispers ”Four men like the ones before. Studying some corpse. Gimme a robe...”
She then dons one of the red and black robes and pulls the hood up. She even puts one of the holy symbols around her neck. So long as she didn’t draw attention to herself...it just might work...
”Be ready to move in...”
She then calmly walks into the room along the northern wall as if she were simply passing through...
Surexeria dons the robe and unholy symbol then confidently walks across the room avoiding the men to the south. One or two casually glance up at her, but don't seem too concerned being focused on their work. She manages to walk by all four and get to the other hall. In the hall at the other side of the room, there are two sets of double doors, both currently closed. One set in the southern wall of the hall, the other at the eastern end of the hall.
When Surex returns with the news of four men and mentions we should be ready, Mawl is hyper-alert, on his toes, ready to rush in swinging at the first sign. He maintains his alertness.
Unhappy at the prospect of 4 men between the party and Surex, creeps up to the door, trying to stay in the shadows as much as he can, with his bow ready to fire a tirade of arrows.
Cassie tightens her grip on her whip, knowing that she was going to need to step up here to help these stranger that saved her. She nods silently and tries to summon the courage to put on a brave face as she prepares to follow the others into the room.
Horillo moves forward and as he does, he finds the same slippery spot that Surexeria did, but he isn't as lucky as he has his bow out and smacks it against the wall drawing all the Asmodean's attention.
The men stop what they are doing and look to Horillo, cracking their knuckles.
Not wanting to give up on her rude just yet, Surexeria moves forward and just slightly behind the furthest Asmodeans...
Cass saw Surexeria almost slip and Horillo definitely slip, aware that there is something dangerous ahead. She can't see the swashbuckler anymore and the sounds of combat have not broken out yet. Not wanting to give up their plan yet, she delays.
Both women, sort of waiting to see the outcome of Horillo's blunder stand by in anticipation.
The cultists nearest Surexeria turns to her and calls out "Go! Warn the others of intruders, I will release Mephiry!" As he says this he moves past Surexeria to go toward the southern double doors.
The other men rush toward Horillo, only one close enough to get in a punch. The furthest one calls out to the others as he turns the corner and sees the rest of the group "There are more! Be ready!"
Caught off guard the man lands a solid blow on Horillo.
Surexeria nods once to continue the rise, but the moment he passes she thrusts her rapier at his spine! She then steps up and hooks an arm around his throat tightly! ”No need for all that, sugar!”
Cassie sees that combat is inevitable now and she starts to sing to inspire her companions, hoping to end this quickly.
”Mawl, don’t get too far away from me just yet—you’re about to become supermawl® again.”
Sorix starts casting enlarge person on Mawl.
Mawl takes direction well and he awaits his enlargement.