Jhen rushes forward and yells as he joins the fray, "Down with the Devils." His fencing form is perfect as he thrusts his rapier at the Lemure. With a lopsided smile plastered on his face he returns to the on guard position.
Jhen stabs the devil too, but only adds a scratch. The second lemure comes to face the intruders. It also runs into Sauls spear, but to no great effect.
Fhingle sees the devils coming, his demenor changes and he gets serious.
Fhingle starts talking but the sounds coming out of his mouth are not what anyone else heard before.
"This power will help you strike truer and resist fear of these devils."
Saul adds another scratch to the devil leaving it staggered. Together with the blood loss, this drops the devil.Which doesn't look much. It just lowers a foot and then the wobbling mass slowly 'floats' out of the center as it topples over.
At the top of the stairs you see a grimple appear.
"I have a few more, but do not keep expecting them to hit..." Salonius replies, flinging another crude spear into the fray and blinking in astonishment as it hits home guided by Fhingle's bless and Meliandri's stirring words.
"They normally are not this accurate, not complaining, not complaining." He adds stepping back.
The devil is punctured in many places by the magical spear and visibly wounded.
Meliandri decides, after a moment, that the Lemures are in hand. She looks over her shoulder at Fhingle, and then at the grimple behind him. "Be'ind you!" She pushes past the halfling and falls into a defensive stance, readying a thrust for the next grimple foolish enough to come in range!
It seems as if the grimples have just waited for that opportunity. The one in the wall sticks it's head out, and avoiding the blade, it pukes in a line at Meliandri and Fhingle. The one at the top of the stairs pukes down at Meliandri. Meliandri looks worse than after her wildest party nights and the sour smell of vomit fills the air. Fhingle also yearns for fresh clothes.
"They are in the walls, we have to take them out quickly as well!"
"Wha...What?" Meliandri blinks and rubs a hand across her chest. Her hand pulls strings of pukey goo off her armor, and she struggles to hold herself together.
Jhen stabs at the resilient devil.
Jhen adds another scratch to the devil. The devil then starts clawing relentlessly at Jhen.
Another Grimple appears at the stairs and works some magic. And suddenly Meliandri and Fhingle find themself on a slippery patch of grease.
Fhingle falls to the floor, all himself spilling out on the greasy floor.
While Fhingle and Saul provide slapstick entertainment the grimples plan the next steps.
Meliandri feels a heat rising inside of her, and her head starts to swim as she breaks out in a sudden sweat. She shakily crosses the grease pool. For a moment, it looks like she's going to slip as she steps down the stairs and over Saul, but keeps her feet. The moment she's behind him, though, she lets loose a stream of vomit that's not as impressive as the grimples', but still quite prodigious. She takes a knee, gloved hand and lambskin breeches down in her breakfast.
Salonius raises a hand and chants as he rubs a piece of tattered fleece between his fingertips and suddenly a metal wall covered in sharp cold iron spikes surges up to wall off the grimples!
"Finish of the Lemur! Hopefully my wall can hold off the Grimples for a bit!"
Effect visual figment that cannot extend beyond four 10-ft. cubes + one 10-ft. cube/level (S)
Duration concentration
Saving Throw Will disbelief (if interacted with); Spell Resistance no
DESCRIPTION
This spell creates the visual illusion of an object, creature, or force, as visualized by you. The illusion does not create sound, smell, texture, or temperature. You can move the image within the limits of the size of the effect.
Jhen leans back as he avoids the devil's claws and he quickly rocks forward using his momentum to drive his rapier towards the Lemur.
With a final stab Jhen dispatches the devil. And as both devils are bleeding they will not recover from that defeat.
"Good job Jhen! Just let me know when you are all ready and I will remove the wall!" Salonius calls, aiming to keep his voice low enough that his companions can hear, but any linguistically gifted Grimples cannot.
Peeko hops onto his master's head and fluffs himself up to get comfortable.
The grimple in the wall moves through a tunnel to the other side of the imaginary wall. looking out it shouts something in a strange language.
As you stand there and wait, nothing happens. After a while you hear the sound of a flute again from deeper inside the basement.
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Saul pulls himself to his feat, embarrassed at his poor performance. "Impressive craftsmanship, S, to conjure a wall out of thin air. That could come in really handy, really handy indeed. And it already has!"
" Meliandri, recognize that tune? I wonder what is playing it. Based on what we have seen so far, it won't be friendly."
Saul examines the room full of mud (Or is it sh*t?), and takes in the strange infernal symbols on the wall. "What in the bloody balls of hell? Is this a place a mix of between a sewer and a cultist lair? Fhingle, S, what do you two make of those symbols?"
Saul closely watches their examination of the symbols, trying to learn something.
Saul examines the room as well, in particular keeping an eye out for anything of value.
Fhingle swims/crawls his way out of the grease. Since combat has ended His speech returns to normal. "Why did we attack them all at the same time?"
Still concentrating on his wall Salonius shrugs, "I am afraid it is entirely outside my area of expertise without access to a library. Ummm, if we have a moment devil's blood is pretty useful... I am going to do something pretty gross."
"Does anyone have a container I can borrow, well probably buy, a waterskin perhaps?"
Leaving the wall up for another thirty seconds or so he empties the container and fills it with devil blood. This process involves a pale face, a great deal of retching, and a great deal of prestidigitation afterwards.
Finding, where to do the bloodletting with that kind of devil is no fun. It's like diving into a file of fleshy goo. Hanging it from the rail with one of the hooks upstairs would have made it easier. But dragging the devil up to where the grimples are has its drawbacks too, and no butcher joined the group so far to help here with professional experience.
This old reservoir from the city’s founding was capped long ago when the city council opted to raise the street level to control flooding, turning many of the old streets into sewers and original first-floor shops into basements. Today, what was once an open fountain is filled with tainted water that seeps slowly away into the river.
Moving further, following the sound leads to These rooms that have fallen mostly into disrepair. Chunks of plaster hang from the walls, exposing rough stonework beyond. Scattered furnishings that once outfitted bunkrooms, a kitchen, and even an armory lie scattered about in states of complete disrepair, and doors hang from hinges in the crumbling archways that lie between the chambers.
"Oh, oh dear, Peeks do you recall these runes from the research we did the other day?" Salonius asks, his mouth going dry as his eyes widen studying the symbols.
"Peeko remembers! They are the same! Peeko remembers!"
"Mmmmm, this is an attempt to open a portal to hell... I am certain. Surely the Silver Ravens would not be party to such a thing?"
"Hell," Jhen asked confused. He automatically assumes the worst, "Wild goose chase."
Salonius cuts through the layers of fat like a professional, going for the aorta of the creature. One might wonder that it has a heart at all. It is a bloody mess, but it is effective in getting the devil to do a last - and probably first - good deed by donating.
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"S...the ways and means of a mage are beyond me, but what you are doing... that is just nasty." Saul curls his lips in disgust.
Saul starts poking around in the rooms beyond the sewer overflow, happy to get away from the smell. Seem quiet... too quiet. Except that blasted flute. Where is it coming from? Saul listens carefully, trying to pinpoint its source.
Mels retches, gags, and coughs, staying down for a bit. With the fighting seemingly over, there's no reason to push herself. After a solid two minutes, she stands up. "Venustas!" She desperately waves her hand over her parade armor, breeches, gloves, and cloak. "Venustas! Venustas!" Finally, the worst of the stains are finished, but though Mels is free of the odor of vomit, she's still sweating from her ordeal.
"Goddess..." She takes a deep breath, looks around, and notices that the party is moving on. As she hurries to catch up, she takes a look at the chamber's floor to see if there's anything worth seeing. "Grimples are gross. Someone give me some water to rinse my mouth."
The sound leads Saul into the deepest end of the basement. And just there the sound stops. Looking around he finds a small nest in the northeast corner that seems to have been used by a small humanoid creature—perhaps another grimple gremlin—but not enough material remains in the nest to reveal more.
There are also three small crates in the northeast corner of the ruined chambers. The first crate contains a suit of leather armor, a composite shortbow (+1 Str), a finely made hand crossbow, a masterfully crafted silver morningstar, a special looking cloak, and a pouch of a dozen pearls. The second crate contains a locked, watertight iron coffer. The third crate contains what looks at first like ancient straw, but even a cursory examination reveals its actual contents — six silver raven figurines.
Fhingle follows behind Saul to make sure that he is ok and to not watch the Devil after death be butchered.
"Quite a find, I wonder if there are more hidden treasures in all the basements. What was living here though? I don't see any grimples."
"Maybe we should open that later? Rexus might want to take a look at its contents as well." Mels points at the locked coffer. "The other things 'ere seem to be ours. Finders keepers, right?"
Saul unlocks the coffer. It contains a small stack of documents and scrolls. These documents number hundreds of pages in all, many of which are written in a cipher that mixes different languages.
Fhingle looks past peopels hips at the papers.
"That one I can read" Pointing to the paper in Celestial
"And I can read both of the others, so we ought to be able to work together to translate everything. It is a fascinating trove! I wonder what the poor fellow guarding it was, let me see if I can recognise him..." Salonius says, examining the nest, but failing to find enough evidence to draw any conclusion as to the creatures identity.
"Hmmm, so it is small and plays a flute, not sure if it was protecting or hoarding the Silver Raven paraphernalia... Does anything ring a bell Peeko?"
"Okay, wonderful, we can read the papers. Now can we go before the grimples decide to try their luck again?" Meliandri shivers. "Let's take the papers and the weapons and armor, and the other things, and get back to Laria's."
Not wanting to get vomited on Jhen advises, "Stop that foolishness Saul and lets get moving."
As there is nothing else to be found in the basement and a set of silver ravens hints that you found what you came for, you decide to leave this hostile place. You run into another ambush from the grimples who again douse Meliandri and everyone who stands in the way in vomit. But as disgusting as they are, they're not worth the hassle. And so you drag yourself and your hurt dignity up the ladder and through the trap door. Nothing a good and thorough prestidigitation can't fix.