Gamon's attacks are deflected, barely, by the maiden's full plate armor, twice. The result of the attack is an assault launched by the maiden herself, waiting to strike when she knew where an opponent was.
Gamon is able to step away from the blind attacks with no problem, allowing Jolon to come in and try his luck, though once again the maiden's armor saves her skin.
Nicolai winds down as the others mop up the remaining opposition.
The Maiden resets, preparing to strike and continuing to try and blink the glitter out of her eyes.
Aloysia saunters up, and says, "Aw, you poor thing, let's stop teasing you and get this over with..."
Gamon barely cracks a smile at Aloysia's taunt, his face a mask of focused calm as his axe raises once, then twice, with two brutal chops.
Jolon frowns at Aloysia's joke, but says nothing as he presses the attack.
The Maiden drops under the flurry of blows, all too much for her to react in time.
Jolon takes out a rag to clean his sword. When he finishes, he looks around the room they've entered.
Other than the corpses this room doesn't have much more than the doors to the north, south, and double doors to the east. All of the paintings of scythe wielding skeletons send Pharasma's cold embrace swirling around Jolon's skin. Or it could be his ancestors. Possibly both, for this place reeks of evil and undeath.
Nicolai spends a moment scanning the fallen Maidens for magic before looking around the room "Where to now? I'd be interested in seeing what's behind these doors they were willing to die to protect " he indicates the double doors in front of them.
"I like this idea, Nicolai," Aloysia says. She stares at the door with an intensity, her breathing rate is increased, she tightens and loosens her grip on her daggers repeatedly, and she has a small curl of a smile. Anyone who looks at her eyes can see that going from kill to kill has left Aloysia in a state of euphoria simultaneously with a need for more like a drug addiction.
She moves to the doors and does her routine check for traps, locks, and sound on other side.
Jolon casts align weapon on his sword, protection from evil on himself, and divine favor upon himself.
"Let's cleanse this place."
Aloysia's inspections don't find anything on the door, but she does hear the rattle of bones and slow shuffled steps on the other side.
Aloysia turns to the group, "I'm relatively certain there are undead on the other side of this door. Enjoy yourself, Jolon!"
She opens the door standing to the side of the entryway...
As Aloysia opens the door the skeletons painted on the wall surrounding the door breathe forth a poisonous gas and animate their scythe-wielding arms to strike from the painting as if they were real.
Only Aloysia's heightened reflexes allow her to duck out of the way of the scythe, but that doesn't stop everyone from being exposed to the poison!
"You honor me and my ancestors, Aloysia," Jolon says before the gas hits his lungs like a hammer.
He starts hacking and wheezing.
The skeletons on the other side of the door are quick to respond, especially with everyone getting a face full of poisonous dust. They begin crowding the doorway and Aloysia, rusted swords ready to fight. One manages to slip past her to attack Gamon, just a step behind.
These skeletons appear to have been animated for some time, the necrotic forces holding their bones together causing them to jiggle and shake, missing every slash of their weapons.
Nicolai steps back from the door and pull the wand from his sleeve. "Augifico" he intones as he aims the wand at Gamon, causing him to double in size. "Go get 'em, big guy." he says with a smile.
A smile stretches across Gamon's broadened face as he quickly takes out the two nearest undead.
The zombies also begin crowding in, trying to destroy you.
Aloysia keeps herself positioned in front of the unopened door to force a bottleneck at the open door and readies and attack for the first zombie to get into position for a flanking attack.
The skeletons continue their mindless assault, the one before Aloysia attacking with its scimitar and claws, while the second remaining skeleton moves into the room to attack Gamon
As expected for adventurers of your caliber they do nothing worth noting.
Barely even paying attention to their undead foes, Gamon's axe claims three more non-lifes as he looks around for any sign of the more formidable foes they faced upstairs.
With the wand still out Nicolai uses it again, this time on Jolon.
"Not necessary, but thank you," Jolon says, holding out his holy symbol and speaking a single word: "BURN."
With Jolon declining the spell, Nicolai returns the wand to it's sheath and kicks back to watch the others work.
Jolon's holy fire burns through most of the zombies, obliterates the last skeleton, and allows Gamon to step lightly into the gap and finish off all but one. Aloysia moves in and gives it a final slash, dropping it where it stands.
With all the enemies defeated you are able to take a better look at the room you are in. Behind thick panes of glass, fragments and even whole bodies of the living dead line the walls and floor of this chamber. Their rotting faces sneer and broken fingers claw at each other as the shattered forms twitch in vain, their splintered appendages grasping hopelessly. Yet rather than some massive, nightmarish grave, this horror show seems instead to be a stomach-churning attempt at art.
Nicolai stomach churns as he looks on the horrifying tableau "Welcome to the Pallid Princess' parlor." he says. "See, that shit right there is going to give me nightmares.
"Yeah, this is a little twisted even for me..."
Visibly repulsed, Gamon looks around as if seeking something normal to set his gaze upon. It's already giving me nightmares and I'm not even asleep yet. Let's move on so we can get out of here as fast as we can.
Jolon glowers, but doesn't seem as grossed out as the others.
"And I thought that elf and Rolth's desecrations were disgusting. Bishop D'Bear will want to cleanse this place, with fire if need be."
He nods to Aloysia to lead the way.
[ooc]Works for me![/dice]
Aloysia drops into her muscle memory scouting stance and slides towards the double doors to investigate for locks, traps, and sounds...
"Wait a second, Aloysia" Nicolai says, holding up a hand. "I've got a new spell I've waiting to try out." He begins casting his spell and calls out as he finishes with a flourish. Once he's done he explains "I've created a magic "eye" if you will, which will allow me to see what's in all these rooms before we enter" So saying he'll send the sensor under the double doors to see what's behind it.
"Impressive," Jolon says as he follows Nicolai.
Nicolai's eye sees something disturbing. An enormous amount of people waiting on the other side of the doors. They appear to know you're coming and have set themselves up to take advantage of that fact. There are five Physicians scattered about the ground floor of the room, interspersed between enormous bubbling vats. Among them are four others in robes and breastplates wielding scythes. Two more scythe wielders are on the catwalks above the vats, flanking a gray and greasy man covered in leather robes with pockets full of surgical and mortician's tools. He bears a striking resemblance to Gaedren Lamm, even under all the pockmarks and scarring.
Nicolai relays the information coming in from his "eye" to the group. "and there is someone there who looks like a younger version of Lamm. Does anyone know if he had any children or other relatives?"
"I have a plan, but it will take some time to set up."
"Rolth," Jolon says, his grip on his sword tightening. "The very desecrator whose work we've been cleaning up throughout the city...it is not surprising to find him at the heart of this conspiracy."
With everyone's agreement, Nicolai begins casting his spells. First on himself then on the others. He waits until either Gamon or Jolon open the doors before casting the greater invisibility on Aloysia.
Nicolai calls out for Gamon to wait.
Ncolai casts his spell he calls out as he finishes. Suddenly everyone around him finds themselves moving faster than before.
After waiting for Nicolai to cast his final spell, Gamon bursts into the room, an unnaturally fast colossus ready to wreak destruction on the first person he sees. Upon finding a cultist directly in front of him, he sizes them up and strikes out at once.
If the cultist is still upright after his monstrous blow, Gamon stares them down, as if daring him to respond in kind.
Jolon casts protection from evil while Nicolai casts his spells, then joins the others as they crash into the room.
he bellows, pointing his sword.
The shouting and clamor that come when Gamon crashes through the doors is immense. The cultists and physicians bellow cries to the Pallid Princess with weapons raised while Rolth sneers down from the catwalk. When he realizes Gamon and Jolon are nearly eye to eye with him he splutters, but manages to maintain his composure. "Oh good," his voice is disturbingly crisp and refined for a mass murderer and necromancer. "I was hoping to add more servants to my collection."
The Queen's Physicians all flow forth, working to contain Gamon before he really gets going.
Rolth points a pockmarked hand at Gamon, firing off a ray of coruscating energy from it.