"Is that guy turning into one of those weird sin monsters?" Tamm asks.
"The shrine! Zeldana called out as she pointed it out. "He's under some sort of spell from it! Help me get him off of this and away from the shrine, and maybe even try and destroy the shrine!" She told the group as she tried to pick Karsen.
Tamm grabs a leg and starts pulling the man away from the shrine.
The raccoon on his shoulder sways and digs in his claws as he bends over to secure the man.
Tamm looks over at him from the corner of his eye and says:
"Hold on, buddy."
”I... “ Loxley stares in horror as the mans body contorts itself in inhuman ways, unable to speak for a moment.
”What by the gods?” She whispers in a gasp.
Sazzat grabs the man’s leg to move him, Loxley scrambles to help with the guard by grabbing under his arms.
”Careful of the other leg. Maybe if we get him far enough away...” She says, her mind grasping for anything she thinks might help.
”Zel.” Loxley calls over in desperation. ”Check for active runes or anything that could be damaged to stop this.”
Zeldana nodded as she let Loxley and Sazzat handle the poor bastard they were trying to help. She knelt at the shire and began to look over it for symbols and signs, anything that might be useful.
Dragging the body off the stairs, karsen doesnt respond to being moved. If anything, he seems to grow worse as more bones snap.
.
"It's a shrine to Lamashtu! And there is a basin that is empty, search him, he might of taken something! Also look around it might have fallen from his grasp as well!"
Tamm drops the leg and gives the poor sod a quick search.
Yeda watches as her teammates try to move the wretched man's body off of the shrine.
His... bones don't sound good. He might be beyond repair. Corrin, Loxley, Zel, do any of you detect evil magic directly on the shrine?
She points the blade of her sword down at the ground and leans forward on it.
He watched in horror at the things happening to the man even if he was a bad person. He wasnt sure by just the sound if the man was going to survive. With the pool empty something had to be causing the issue He scanned the area to see if he could see anything at all.... including the air above them in case there was another evil flappy monster.
With Sazzat checking Karsen for something he may have taken, and the others searching the altar and room, Loxley focused on the guard.
Loxley’s eyes dart quickly over the man’s twisted form. Quickly making up her mind, she opens herself up to the warm light that begins to fill her being. The positive energies flow through her burning away some of the magical reserves that she normally draws on to fuel her spells. It’s a small sacrifice she believes to be able to call on the healing magics that more pious magic wielders can normally. Placing her hands on the guard Loxley channels the healing magic into Karsen.
"The basin held some kind of liquid! He might have drank it!" Zeldana called out as she returned to the group as a whole, looking over Karsen. "We need to get whatever it was out of him. [b]"Good idea Loxley! Mitigate the damage, and we need to get the liquid out of him! Make him vomit if need be!" Zeldana told the group as she drew two cards, The Survivor and The Desert. The cards glowed before the spirits in The Survivor card vanished and began to tend to Karsen and the sands from The Desert tried to make Karsen comfortable, cradling his body.
"Make him vomit?"
He began with a frown of distaste. He moved closer to the man and knelt beside him. He half pulled him across a knee and makeing a face shoved two fingers into her throat.
"If he drank it then his stomach needs to be purged. I just hope it hasn't gone past that because if so nothing we will do can help. Save, just trying to see him through it!" Zeldana pointed out.
Loxley steps up and lays a hand on the guy, allowong primal magics to restore the strength to this guy. Zeldana, seeing the same, kneels down and impregnates this guard with her witches hex, a d as the apells take hold, the body begins to heal. Slowly at first, but growing in speed it movea, healing...
Corrin kneels down to the guy, With fingers shoved down his throat, the man begins to hurl...
His whole body seizes up...and his back splits wide open, rib bones shiny and clean. Blood sprays out, covering corrin and loxley. The mans legs twist and knot, the recently healed bones resnapping and twisting in place.
Four bones grow out from his broken back, long, slender, dripping a black mucous. His head turns and looks at zeldana, and shees anabhorrid grin set upon the face. Eyes bulging out, filled with yellow pus and strangel wriggly worm things, one bores out his eye and seems tonsmell the air. His mouth hangs wide. Where teeth once were, are now tusks and fangs, sharp. He lifts his hands, and wjere there was humanoid hands are now sick, black claws.
Yeda recoils at the sight.
Dammit folks! Can't you tell he was only getting worse? Now we have to destroy this.... thing he's become. I'd say he's clearly beyond saving now.
By the end of it she's yelling and holding her sword in a more tense posture, looking for a sudden attadck.
Cursing in several languages Loxley stumbles back.
Wiping at the splattered gore, she can only stare in shock and horror as the man, no, the thing that was once the guard named Karsen writhes and morphs.
I'd say he's clearly beyond saving now.
”I can’t argue with that.”
As she backs away, Loxley quickly stoops and picks up the sword she had dropped while trying to help the guard. Bringing the blade up to a ready position she tries to switch to an analytical frame of mind.
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Can we stab it before it gets up?
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The creature...thing turns its head, allowing a large glob of pus mucus to flow from its head and onto the floor, fixating it's gaze upon Sazzat. It opens its hideous mouth and speaks in a strange, spine chilling language that grates upon the soul.
The raccoon upon Sazzat's shoulder suddenly begins to growl and snarl
There were a hundred things wrong with this moment, the fact it began spouting a headache inducing evil sounding language was just one of them. With a primal roar demanding the creatures attention he struck with his spear.
"Okay, I'm not too proud to admit that I can do no more." Zeldana said with a nod, though obviously upset at the fact they were too late. "He obviously isn't human... anymore..." She sighed as got her quarterstaff ready.
Your master suffers from his over ambition. He is, even now, agonizing at the hands of Maliphviston! You are fated to share in his damnation, rogue.
Loxley grits her teeth at the guttural, demonic language that spews from the abomination.
"Maliphviston?" She wonders out loud. "Zel, do you recognize the name?" She asks, acknowledging the witch knows more about the Thassilonian threats the group seems to have tangled itself up with.She grips her sword as her eyes try to comprehend the new creature's questionable anatomy, trying to guess at possible threats. The claws are obvious, but it could have any number of unseen dangers.
Loxley decides to fall back a little more, sheathing her sword and pulling off her bow.
Yeda takes a stunned expression at the sudden Abyssal utterance.
Did anybody get that? It sounded threatening.
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The thing rotates its head and looks at Corrin, watching corrin with fascination at Corrins yell. It's eyes never leave Corrin's as corrin strikes first with his spear, piercing the mutated creature deep into it's shoulder.
Zeldana moves second, striking the creature upon it's back, but failing to do much to it, aside from making her quaterstaff slick with the pus mucus.
Yeda moves forward and hacks the creature upon it's torso, cleaving a great gash into it's side. More of the pus and mucus explode out from the body, splashing upon everyone as the thing falls limp to the floor, the fire within it's eyes dying.
"Gahhhhh!" Tamms stammers out.
"What just happened?"
"We killed the monster Karsen became."
He began matter of factly... then stabbed the corpse five more times in a row...clearly just to make sure it was dead dead.
"We killed the monster Karsen became."
He began matter of factly... then stabbed the corpse five more times in a row...clearly just to make sure it was dead dead.
Zeldana breathed heavy and set her staff down, she'd have to clean it thoroughly. "That... Was a demon known as a Maliphviston. Don't touch it. We'll likely have to burn it here." She told them, a little sad at the fact they failed to save the man. Even with what crimes he had committed, no one deserves this. "Let's go see if the Sheriff is here yet. We need to let him know what become of his man."
"Maybe drag it up so folk understand this is not someplace to seek riches?"
He asked the witch, his tone clear he considered her the subject expert. He glared at it some more it was clear even a slight twitch would earn the dead creature another stab or two.
"I'd rather not have anyone touch it." Zeldana began. "It was a liquid that did this to him, and we've no idea if it could spread to others through fluids. We'd endanger all we pass if so. I also suggest cleaning your weapons thoroughly."
Bow in hand now Loxley steps closer to the body and leaned in to look closer at it. She was already splattered in blood and gore so she had given up any sense of cleanliness.
"That... Was a demon known as a Maliphviston. Don't touch it. We'll likely have to burn it here."
"I think this was more likely simply an aspect, or just a vessel he filled to... I don't know. Deliver a warning. A threat."
She shakes her head and steps back."Whatever the reason, if it really is Maliphviston, I think things may be more... complicated then we could have predicted."
Loxley looks over at Zeldana with a frown.
"It could have been lying. Just a entity trying to scare us."
She says in a obvioulys hopeful tone then bites her lower lip.
"Of course if it just wanted to scare us, it could have chosen a more well known demon lord."
Stepping back away from the creature Loxley looks down at herself and sighs.
"I really should have anticipated something like this."
Opening her eyes she exhales the breath she had been holding. Whispering a few arcane words she makes a quick hand gesture.
She follows this with hand motions like she would make to wipe something off her tunic.
Tamm takes a quick step back when Zel mentions the possibility of contagion.
"Wait .... you think it's catching?"
"This isn't like the well." Zeldana tried to explain. "While the well can summon sin spawn, those are not demons. That," She pointed at the remains before them, "is a demon. They do not come from the same place. The shrine, which is one to Lamashtu, who is a demon in her own right and a this is what happened when he either touched or drank the liquid that was in that basin. Either way the fluids from him could also hold the same thing that turned him into this."
Yeda looks back at forth between the broken man and the shrine.
So, avoid that water, and make sure the townspeople avoid him. We really need to leave a warning marker here at the water and burn this body. People may not understand demons, but they do fear them as a general idea. I think with this we can easily convince the sheriff to keep folks out of here...
She begins wiping her blade on the nearest corner or surface vigorously.
"There is no water left in the basin." Zeldana said. "Which is why I said was. It is just keeping people away from what became of him." Zeldana once again tried to clarify. "But yes burning the body is a very good idea." She said no a nod.
As she speaks, zeldana looks over at the empty basin, and sees that a small bit has been replenished.
"I lied." Zeldana said as she pointed to the basin. "I believe it to be refilling itself."
Tamm steps away from the corpse and reaches up to smooth the raccoon's fur absently.
"We need to finish exploring and then tell the sheriff they need to brick this place up and keep people out of here."