Pratavh blasts the nearest cultist with a fusillade of missiles, which knock him over!
Deepti puts on a burst of incredible speed and with surprising grace she leaps from the top level and sprints towards Lilly. With a grunt, she jumps and as she goes past Lilly, she lashes out with a kick that bloodies Lilly's lips. Deepti lands a few feet past Lilly and mutters, "Bring IT ON!"
Pratavh
Deepti
Alwyn <----- WE ARE HERE
Darkness Acolytes
Zaffira
Master Bvar
Lilly & Shikyo
"Uhuh, my thoughts exactly.", as Lilly spat blood at her.
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"And with just a few strokes of fire kissed steel and shadows true strike, fair but evil Zaffira met her end; yet her sister with eyes of molten fury stands ready to redeem her failure. The heroes fear not though as blades are readied, words whispered and bows twang!"
Alwyn begins to sings once more ending his current verse with his own bows twang.
Alywn takes aim at Deepti, but he has to dodge the furious blows of the two acolytes and misses.
---> MISS
---> MISS
Surrounding Alwyn now, the pair of acolytes pound him with kicks and punches. But where ever their fists are, Aluwn is not... The men curse their ill fortune.
---> MISS
---> MISS
---> MISS
---> MISS
The other two acolytes tag-team Pratavh! The one he knocked to the floor stands up and runs behind the mage while the other one pummels him!
---> MISS
---> HIT ---> OOPS
Seeing Pratavh in trouble, Master Bvar sends two deadly accurate arrows into the wounded cultist. The first spins him aside, the second transfixes his throat. The man drops like a stone.
---> HIT
---> HIT
Pratavh
Deepti
Alwyn
Darkness Acolytes
Master Bvar
Lilly & Shikyo <----- WE ARE HERE
----> Sorry he connects.
"Alright Deepti, you're in for it."
Lilly steps 5ft towards the woman and hews at her with fanaticism.
*
*
Lilly hits Deepti powerfully, scoring a deep wound into the lithe dancer's side. She follows up with a another deep cut to Deepti's left shoulder!
"Shiko, join in and we can finish this one off too."
Shikyo moves forward to flank with Lilly, something he's been trying to do for ages it seems.
ugh
Shikyo uses a KI point to attack once more
Deepti had thought her superior maneuverability made her unkillable. She was wrong. In the blink of a eye, Lilly had her gravely wounded and distracted. Thrown off her beat, she didn't notice Kuro-san appear behind her. It was with surprise she noticed her head was no longer attached to hear body, but this didn't last long. The world grew dim but as it did the screaming of the many souls she'd slain and the the clamor of Dhalevi's demons grew overwhelming. Realizing she was doomed, she tried to scream but could not. And then it was over, but the pain and torment had just begun...
Seeing two masters dispatched so suddenly and ruthlessly proves too much for the cultists. They each uncork a bottle and swallow deeply and begin thrashing about as they die messily...
COMBAT OVER
In the distance you hear a great bell tolling, and the thud of something heavy coming this way...
Lilly sees Shiko's handywork's result and smiles.
"Way to go Shiko, give me 5.", she holds a hand up.
Before the big thumping, "Shiko, you're looking pretty beat up.
Let's fix that after we tap Bvar enough with the wand."
After the thumping:
"Wait a minute....now what? O_O"
Lilly uses the wand on Shiko, after Bvar had his turn.
Both back topped.
Shikyo only replies Root and Stem. We are not finished... and then hides
Taking 10 for a total 22 Stealth.
Find I himself able to move again Pratavh managed to pick up his staff and pulled out a bottle from his pack which he quickly drank. As his wounds began to knit closed he pulled a second one out and drank it as well. With it down the last of his wounds heal up. He made his way to his companions and said, "Whatever that is it can not be good. I would suggest we find a more defensible spot or track the last leader down quickly."
"Agreed, something that makes this much noise must be big.
Taking a corridor suited for us, too narrow for something big, would be a good means of escape."
Bvar comes over to inspect Lilly and Shikyo's handiwork and he swigs a brace of potions on the way.
He nudges the remains of Deepti with his foot and grimaces before suggesting, "Maybe up there is good? Whatever it is seems to be coming from behind us."
He points to the stairs leading to the upper level.
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"Though she came bent on revenge,
safe in her own defenses,
they let her down this day;
as again fire kissed steel and shadows strike,
left her a might bit shorter when reunited with her sister,
she stands in Pharisma's judgement.
Watching the cultists kill themselves bring little satisfaction to Alwyn but immense relief nonetheless. Collecting the wand from Master Bvar as he returns to the group "Good shooting Master Bvar, hopefully that will continue, as you seem to be bringing another guest to this party. he says in friendly jest As you said, perhaps upstairs would be best."
Alwyn puts the wand away and grabs his bow to head upstairs.
"Hmmm, if the general consent is upwards, i'm not arguing.
Let's just hope it can't demolish the structure enough for it to fall down, with us along."
Alwyn heads up and notices a thin tunnel that stretches to the west, and three rooms to the north. The rooms to the north are sumptuously appointed with teak furniture, and bedding of the finest silk.
This room has a dressing table with a large mirror, and there are many fine dresses and saris in two neat rows inside the teak wardrobe.
A noticible lack of lamps or other lighting and a well used target board on one wall hints at the former owner of this room.
A thin layer of dust covers everything here. An empty bookshelf is the only personal feature of the room.
This room is locked and the door radiates strong abjuration magics.
Pratavh gestured to the west as they began to head upstairs, "There is something over there, it sounds like someone banging against the wall. Could they have captives down here?"
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Alwyn studies the rooms before moving to the overlook to see what is keeping the others, "Pratavh, what's going on down there? We have 3 rooms up here 2 well used and a third that appears to have been abandoned for a while. There's a 4th room you should look into, strong abjuration magic protecting it, half tempted to take a pot shot at it from a distance." he ends with a mischievous grin.
"What's stopping you?", Lilly smiles.
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"I'll let Pratavh inspect it first and the we'll poke holes in it to see what happens. You gonna let whoever's in there out? I'll provide over watch from up here just on case."
Alwyn moves to get a clear shot of the doorway waiting to see what wants out. Similar to how Deep time attacked from above.
Shikyo goes and attempts to open the door once Alwyn talks about it.
Shikyo opens the door, which has a simple latch and gets assailed by the stench of human misery. Ahead of him is metal grating covering a smooth shaft which drops 20 feet before opening out into a filthy, 20-foot-tall oubliette. It's not hard to imagine the cultists storing prisoners here until an auspicious time for sacrifice arrives.
The grating is held shut by a simple bolt which is well out of reach from below. There is a coiled rope in the corner of the room.
Shikyo looks below and there are half a dozen emaciated and filthy prisoners, which remind him of the villagers. There are three other prisoners of note, a pair of brawny human men who look in reasonable condition and a stunningly beautiful woman with the physique of a master of contemplation.
The noises behind Shikyo are getting closer and louder...
Looking at his companions Pratavh says, "I would suggest we hide in there while whatever that is passes us by. I would like to find out who these people are and see if we can't get them out of here safely."
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"And your plan, if whatever is coming, decides to bed down outside the door Master Pratavh?" Alwyn is thinking back to the ?guardian? they didn't approach at the alter. "If it is like the statue from the alter room all it has to do is plop itself in front of the door, effectively blocking it, and we starve to death. Free those down there if you wish and bring them up, there are multiple exits up here. " he says from above.
Shikyo makes an annoyed sound These poor wretches might distract whatever comes...
He runs over to the rope and attempts to free the prisoners
Do what you must to prepare...
Shikyo throws the rope down and there is a ragged cheer from below, but the athletic looking woman puts a hand on the shoulder of the first villager who made for the rope. She studies Shikyo and asks with a slight frown, "Stranger, my name is Jalissa. Are all the masters defeated?"
How many were there...I slew two of them.
She seems to deflate a little, "Oh. So their crazy prophecy can still happen, I had hoped for a moment you had stopped them. Well there are three masters, only one of which is needed for their ritual. They planned to sacrifice us all and feed our souls to that filtly altar. Once satited with our blood, the master would use it to open a rent in space and time, allowing a particularly unpleasant sounding servant of Dhalavei to crawl through."
"We have not killed them all yet, but we are hunting for the final master of this place, do you have any idea where we might find them?"
She shakes her head and sighs, "Its not like that."
She looks Pratavh in the eyes and tells him, "You don't nees go looking for them. They'll come for you, they have their prophecy to fulfill and they need us and you for it." She nods at Shikyo and says, "Like he said, do what you must to prepare."
Bvar comes bursting in, "You've gotta see this! That statue is dragging the altar and its almost here! Oh and its not alone, there's a levitating freak with it..."
"Great...well, seems it'll be more cleaning duty to attend to."
"Alright you guys, come here for a second."
Shikyo readies himself, and drinks his Prot. from Energy potion, choosing Acid. He also drinks his remove fear potion because why not.
Lilly casts protection from evil on Shiko. (+2 to AC and saves vs evil sources)