Fluff hides in Helena's hair at the sight of the chapel beyond. Gwyn wishes she could do the same, and does her best not to look too closely at the carvings as she looks around for secret doors, traps, and anyone hiding in the nooks and crannies of the massive chamber.
Shortly after coming into the chapel, there's a stifled sneeze and a little sniff. Anyone looking for the source of the noise finds that it was Gwyn, who's starting to look miserable for another reason besides the decor.
"Great, she uses the same incense they used at the Acadamae," she grumbles as her voice gets slightly more nasally.
As Orik turns back to the doors, a small white hand rests on his shoulder. "Nobody should have to witness such things," the girl murmurs, before turning aside. She pulls the smellig salts from her belt pouch and offers them to Gwyn with a shrug. "They don't smell great, but it should help," she mutters, smiling apologetically.
As has become the norm for her, she tries not to focus on the temple, instead inspecting her own hands as she waits just outside the door.
"Sabe 'em," Gwyn says with a wave, "I'll libe."
Orik steels himself against the memory of the sacrifice he witnessed in this unholy chapel, and follows Cerinnibert into the room.
Arsith and Shalelu remain outside the temple to guard the doors, as the rest of the party cautiously enters the eerily-lit temple. Cerin easily identifies the idol on the far wall as a statue of Lamashtu, Mother of Monsters. The statue appears to be carved from gray stone; the two blades held by the idol are glowing from some magical effect.
Everyone has the sneaking suspicion that you are being watched... and then Kyrian happens to look up at the ceiling. Hiding in the flickering shadows while standing on the ceiling are two evil-looking doglike creatures! He shouts in alarm, as everyone other than Orik looks up; Orik had been staring in morbid fascination at a particularly lurid carving.
Surprise Round
Result:
Arcana - 26
Dungeoneering - 25
Local - 25
Nature - 25
Planes - 25
Religion - 25
Gwyn's mind races as she spots the hounds, something about them and the incense triggering something in the back of her mind. her hands fumble for her bow and an arrow as her heart begins to race.
"H-helena! Find cover!"
"Those are Yeth hounds. Legends say they can only be harmed by cold iron or blessed blades, and they can fly," she adds in a near panic, "they strike terror into the hearts of mortals with just a howl!"
...miss
...fails
Shalelu panicked for rounds
Monster status:
Yeth hound 1: 25/30
Yeth hound 2: 30/30; -2 AC until its next action
You don't know any lore about these creatures other than what Gwyn just said.
-----
Gwyn fumbles for her bow while Cerin readies for one of beasts charging him. Kyrian raises his bow and fires an arrow at the yeth hound standing on the ceiling north of the altar.
Kyrian's arrow hits the monster, which then lets out an indescribably horrifying bay... as if ten thousand souls of the damned all cried out in anguish and terror.
The other demonic hound flies through the air, hurtling straight at Kyrian, snapping at his legs with its foul-looking jaws. The young half-elf, however, manages to side-step the hound's bite, as it flies past.
Shalelu screams in terror at the sound of the creature's howl, drops her bow, and runs down the corridor leading south.
"Wait for me!", Orik screams, dropping his blade in terror as he follows the elf down the hall.
Gwyn doesn't even get the arrow nocked, fumbly fingers drop the bow as the elfin mage runs in a blind panic.
She follows Shalelu, sprinting to catch up with the other elf. Eerily, she doesn't scream, the only sound coming from her being the scuffing of her boots as she runs.
"Gwyn? GWYN!" Helena cries, panic gripping her as her friend goes charging back the way she came. Quickly rationalizing that the elf will be safer than Cerin, she steps forward, gripping her spear uncertainly as she moves up behind the gnome.
Round 1
...Kyrian wins
...Kyrian wins!
...hit
...fail
...miss
...hit
...success!
As the hound snaps at him, Cerin slashes his flaming blade across the beast's face, striking it solidly. Strangely, the blade itself barely scratches the beast, but its bare purplish skin certainly sears from the heat. At that, the other hound lets loose its horrific bay; while it's easily one of the five most terrifying sounds Cerin has ever heard, the druid swallows his fear and stands his ground.
Steeling himself at the horrific sound, Kyrian points at the ceiling shouting, "Look at that!" and then ducks behind one of the pillars. He then slinks through the shadows to try to take a better shot at the hounds. The hounds seem not to notice his disappearance.
The bay of the yeth hounds strikes panic into Gywn's heart. She drops her bow and flees out of the room, following Shalelu down the southern passage.
Helena takes the baying as her cue to charge into the temple, her clouded eyes struggling to find enemies in the eerie reddish light. She is surprised to see Shalelu and Gwyn both run the other way, but shrugs and lets their guide run.
The terrifying bay snaps Orik out of his morbid curiosity of the gruesome carvings, fillimg him with a sense of panic, and he runs out of the room as well, just as Helena enters.
The hound that had just bayed flies through the air at Helena, catching her leg with its terrible jaws. With a powerful toss of its head, the hound attempts to knock Helena off-balance, but she manages to keep her footing. The the beast's ferocity strikes more fear into her: Can we possibly defeat such abominations from the Abyss??
As the beast rushes past Cerin to attack Helena, Cerin takes an opportunistic slash, but misses. The one already fighting him finds an opening and grabs Cerin's left ankle, biting hard. Its fangs crunch through Cerin's greaves, tearing flesh and sinew. With a powerful pull, the beast yanks Cerin's leg forward, causing Cerin to drop to the floor! On the ground, with a terrible beast from the Nether World ready to tear out your throat, a new wave of fear washes over you.
Yeth hound #1: hp 25/30
Yeth hound #2: hp 26/30
Orik continues running, fleeing back the way the party came.
Gwyn can still hear the howls. Those terrifying howls of beasts born of shadow. She can't scream, she can't speak, she can only whimper as she and Shalelu find a dead end. She can't go back. She can't! Going back would take her closer to those terrible howls.
She clings to Shalelu as if her very life depended on it and whimpers as she tries to make the both of them as small as possible in one of the corners.
...hit!
...hit!
...hit
...hit
...hit
rounds.
Monster status
Hound 1 hp 23/30
Hound 2 hp 10/30
Round 2
With no thoughts other than getting as far away from the demon-dogs as possible, Orik, Gwyn, and Shalelu run down the southern corridor and throw open the door. They find themselves in a rectangular room, lit by a single lantern hanging from a rusty peg in a wall. An open passage in the north wall leads to a stone staircase heading up. Thee different wooden doors are on the south wall, and other doors are on the east and west walls. A pile of discarded dog pelts lie in the northeastern corner. Seeing the stairs, Gwyn and Orik dash for it and scramble up. Shalelu pauses, turns on her heel and heads back toward the temple, picking up her dropped bow on the way.
Helena's fear causes her hands to tremble as she faces the terrifying dog-like outsider. Yet, her aim is true, and she impales the beast with her spear... or so she thought. The wound in the beast seems far less deep that it felt. It returns the attack with a savage bite of its own.
Knocked onto the floor, Cerin scrambles from the snapping jaws of the yeth hound as he tries to get back onto his feet. While the gnome manages to avoid a full-on bite, the beast's teeth do scratch his arms. At that moment, Kyrian leans around a pillar and fires from the shadows, catching the beast unsees. The hound yelps and looks behind it at the now-visible Kyrian, and Cerin takes that opportunity to slash savagely at the beast with his flaming scimitar. The hound seems truly wounded. At that, Kyrian slinks back into the shadows, moving forward, and hiding behind a different pillar.
Turning its attention back to Cerin, blind rage flashes through the beast's eyes, and it clamps its jaws on Cerin's arm, attempting to throw him to the ground again. Cerin manages to keep his feet, but feels his vision start to tunnel out!
|
Cerin staggers back, his vision narrowing to a dark tunnel. He fumbles at his pouch, grasping for a vial and his hand comes out with a few clutched tightly in his fist. As his legs start to shake he looks at the blurry potions and pulls out the stopper of one filled with golden fluid with his teeth before guzzling it down.
Still shaken, but back in control, Gwyn runs back after Orik.
Bleeding profusely and shaken with fear, Helena staggers backwards and presses a hand to her hip, breathlessly whispering a few words.
Orik stops as he turns the corner climbing the stairs as the panic finally begins to subside. There's a part of him that wants to keep running, abandon these fools to their fate...
...but a different part remembers what that fate is. And no one should die like that.
"Dammit. DAMMITDAMMITDAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT."
And with that, he starts running back, drawing his warhammer as he goes.
Hound #1: hp (-6)/30
Hound #2: hp 20/30
Round 3
Sword raised defensively, Cerin backs away from the hell-beast's snapping jaws, pulls out a potion from his satchel, pulls the stopper with his teeth, and downs the magical liquid. The elixir restores lost vitality, and Cerin feels more confident.
Likewise, Helena guardedly retreats and calls to the spirits of life. Waves of faintly-glowing yellow-green energy radiate up from the earth, healing her.
Slipping through the shadows, Kyrian creeps from behind a pillar and fires a well-aimed arrow at the yeth hound fighting Cerin. The beast seems to be fully concentrating on the flaming sword-weilding gnome, and is completely surprised by an arrow striking it in its right eye! The shaft of the arrow embeds a good six inches into the beasts skull, and it yowls in pain disturbingly as it thrashes its head around. With a gurgle, it collapses to the floor, its paws twitching.
At that, Shalelu appears in the doorway of the temple, bow in hand. She also lets loose an arrow at the other hound, but the beast was expecting this shot. Although the arrow seems to strike true, it half-bounces off the beast's leathery hide, barely scratching it.
Ignoring the elf, the remaining demon-dog turns to see what killed its companion, and its glowing red eyes fix an Kyrian! It lunges at the young half-elf, grabbing the man's bow arm in its jaws while shaking its powerful head violently. Its teeth cut into Kyrian's arm, but he manages to remain on his feet despite the beast's efforts to knock him off-balance.
Orik and Helena, finding themselves near the entrance to Thistletop, feel some of their fear ebb. Nodding at each other, they swallow their remaining fear and run back down the stairs into harm's way.
Gwyn continues to hustle, pulling her longknife free as she comes back to the chapel. Rolling as she gets into position to block it from moving while Orik gets ready to join the fray.
...miss
...hit
Monster Status
Hound #1: hp (-6)/30
Hound #2: hp 8/30
Round 4
In desperation, Kyrian fends off the beast with his bow and draws his shortsword, stabbing at the beast, but its thick hide deflects the strike.
Gwyn closes to attack the beast, skillfully tumbling past its jaws... but her blade unexpectedly catches one of the pillars on her backswing, throwing off her timing.
Cerin runs around to flank the creature while it's distracted by Kyrian and Gwyn, and managed to cut a nasty gash at its haunches!
Helena moves beside Gwyn and attempts to stab the beast with her longspear, but between the cover provided by the pillars and her allies, she can't land a blow.
Shalelu also fires at the beast, and her arrow hits the beast squarely in the haunches...but seems unable to penetrate its hide, and bounces off harmlessly.
Panting with exertion in his armor, Orik is now only about 20 feet from the doors to the evil temple.
Finding that the tide of battle has turned against it, the beast lets loose a terrible howl, sounding very much like its fallen companion. It then rises into the air and attempts to flee past you all, flying out of the temple and down the hallways from which you came.
Gwyn for the second time in less than a minute drops her weapon and flees.
Orik hears the howl of the yeth hound and sees Gwyn turn and run again. It almost triggers his own flight response, but he finds enough resolve to hold his ground. He gives chase to the hound, shouting at it. "Hey! Ugly! Get back here!"
If not, Will save: 1d20+6
Waiting on AoO to see if he is affected or not.
Throwing caution to the wind, Helena drops her spear and runs in terror.
...fail
...Crit Threat!
...no
...hit
Cerin, Gwyn, Helena, and Shalelu all drop their weapons and turn to flee from the terrifying sound of the yeth hound.
As it leaps into the air to flee the temple, Kyrian stabs it in the neck! Red-purple ichor pours from the wound, and the thing is obviously severely wounded. Despite its wounds, it flies with supernatural speed into the hallway... and is confronted by Orik.
Orik slashes with his bastard sword reflexively as the Abyssal beast flies past, connecting with the thing's neck exactly where Kyrian had stabbed it! Nearly decapitated, the thing crashes into the floor, where it lies still.
With the death of the thing that caused it, everyone's supernatural fear subsides nearly immediately.
Orik swears as the yeth hound attempts to barrel past him, and strikes at the unnatural creature with his warhammer purely out of reflex. With a staggering amount of luck, he connects, dropping it to the floor.
He doesn't relent, though. He leaps upon the demonic hound, sending several vicious blows into its skull until it cracks, making sure it can never get back up again. When he's done, the front of his armor and face is covered with splatters of gore. Panting, he stands again, heading back into the temple to retrieve his sword.
"Well," he says, picking his blade off the ground. "That could have gone better."
|
|
Lowering his sword, Cerin gives Orik a shaky smile. "I guess by the sudden disappearance of the miasma of fear that you made short work of the other one. I hope that was the last of them!"
After sheathing his blade, he pulls the wand from his pouch and looks around. "Is everyone all right? Helena, Kyrian, both of you took pretty solid hits from that thing, let me take a look. You look like you have a few bruises as well, Orik." He takes care of everyone else's wounds before seeing to his own.
Is everyone else OK, or would you all like to be maxed out on HP before we go further?
Gwyn doesn't return after the fight, but it's not hard to find her. Quiet sobs come from where she has curled up in the corner.
|
|
A small hand falls on Gwyn's shoulder. "It's all right." Cerin says in a gentle voice. "We all got hit pretty hard by those things, but they're dead now. You are okay, we are all okay. Whatever you need, we are here for you." He lets her take her time and offers her a kind smile when she finally looks up.
Gwyn flinches, curling tighter around herself for a moment before slowly looking up, her eyes bright with tears.
"P-p-please," she begs the druid quietly, "p-please m-make th-the howling s-s-s-stop."
it takes a few more minutes for Gwyn to regain enough composure to speak somewhat normally.
"I-- I only told my master this. I don't think even Helena knows about it, but when I was a 'student' at the Acadamae, they had us face these great shadowy hounds. They had this wicked look in their eyes, like they knew I wasn't cruel or ambitious," she says softly from her seat on the floor, "it was the same kind of look the more senior students and instructors gave me. They wore their wickedness like a cloak, but that wasn't the worst of it. The worst of it was the howls. They-- They--" Gwyn buries her head into her arms and begins sobbing again.