The east door reveals a collapsed passageway that looks like it has resisted attempts to clear it for centuries. So that mostly leaves Up the spiral staircase.
Heading upwards, you find yourself first at a dead-end, but then quickly realize that the staircase you are on is behind a secret door, and the whole section of wall swings aside. Now you are in a wine cellar of some kind, with mostly empty racks but a few intact bottles and three casks on the floor.
(On new map)
Ziranu thoroughly searches the mostly empty racks and examines the remaining casks...
, +2 more if dealing with undead or dragons; +4 more if dealing with evil outsiders; +6 more if dealing with humans; and +7 more if trapfinding is applicable.
Ziranu spies three bottles of a rare vintage, "Cayden's Gab", which are worth a pretty penny.
More importantly, he hears voices past the southern door. Feminine sounding, around five or six of them. He doesn't speak the languages, but Tronar and Thurrios, once the sound is pointed out to them, recognize it as Infernal.
Difficult to make out from this distance and through the thickness of the door, they get the impression that the speakers are bored and frustrated, not having had anyone to "play" with for some days, and complaining that had they been allowed to accompany Zarmangarof (the dragon you faced with Sabina), things would have gone differently.
Should I kick in the door and give them ladies some excitement before they go meet their demon-lord? Searok asks hopefully.
Ziranu looks sharply over towards Searok at the dwarf's words, which for a second, to the Ranger, sounded as though they came from the voice of another...
Still, seeing the raging barbarian there beside him, he dismisses the errant thought, and considers the situation...
"Any creatures speaking Infernal are likely my kind of prey, feminine or ozherwise; I share your sense of excitement, Searok. Tronar, Zhurrios - what more can you tell us of zhese zhreats, if anyzhing?"
Erinyes devils. Sabina mentioned that some were in the castle's employ now.
Pretty vicious warriors who battle with sword and bow, and entangle enemies with magic ropes. Flying, but that will be of limited use to them indoors. What will be of limited use to you is your common tactic of Invisibility, they can peer right through such illusions.
"Evil female things usually run in threes, right? There be no time like the present, let's do this. Ziranu and Tronar to the rear, Searok and me up front, Thurrios in the middle, yes?"
Ziranu smiles grimly at the prospect of fighting devils, as he suspected them to be from their use of the Infernal tongue.
"Yes, Shaeda, let us do zhis. Zheir entangling capabilities concern me; I'll cast Freedom of Movement upon myself right before entering. Do you want to bless our weapons?"
Shaeda looks to Thurrios, "you said you would be handling that, right?"
Thurrios smiles, "so I did!" He casts bless on the group, and freedom of movement on himself. "As long as I can move, I have ways of freeing all of you, should you become entangled," he explains.
Shaeda looks to Searok, confirms to him she is ready, and says "open it up there big guy!"
When he hears Shaeda, Searok will open the door!
Revealed more map, feel free to arrange yourselves at the entrance how you like.
This spacious guardroom contains a large fireplace, a central table, and numerous armor and weapon racks (all of which are empty).
Six fiendish women in armor are lounging around bored, but leap to their feet as the door opens, ready to fight.
Roll initiative!
so as Tronar listens to the party droning on, he casts Wand Haste when he sees someone reaching for the door to open up.
"It seems I was right, only there are two 'threes' of evil female things here."
Thurrios laughs, "yes, yes, you're very smart."
Turn order will be:
Erinyes
Erinyes
Searok
Erinyes
Erinyes
Ziranu
Erinyes
Thurrios
Shaeda
Erinyes
Tronar
First one will throw her rope at Searok; it lands at his feet and then immediately leaps up as if alive and tries to wrap itself around his legs.
The second will move closer for a clear shot through the door and fire an arrow at Ziranu.
plus fire.
She misses and the arrow embeds itself in the doorframe, smoldering.
Searok's up.
Ye missed me! Searok says as the rope lands at his feet.
What in the nine hells? Searok says as the rope comes alive!
It "hits" but because it acts as an Animate Rope spell, it doesn't do any damage. And the save DC was 22, so Searok successfully avoids it.
My AOO to protect Searok...
vs DC 10 to give +7 Dodge to AC
Searok will move into the room and attack!
+
"I'm coming buddy! Hold the line, and I'll be there as soon as I can!"
Searok lands a solid blow on the devil.
One of them moves to line up a shot on Ziranu and fires.
plus fire.
Looks like a hit.
Another 5 ft steps to the northeast to full attack Searok.
She misses both times.
Ziranu is up.
Ziranu immediately unleashes an onslaught of emerald arrows in response, targeting the erinyes to Searok's immediate southwest. The Ranger leverages both his Improved Precise Shot feat to eliminate any cover bonus, and his Clustered Shots feat to limit any DR to but a single instance...
Post-Attack Strikes Analysis:
Against AC 35 or higher: 52+32+28 = 112 points of damage this round
Against AC 23 or higher: 52+32+26+28 = 138 points of damage this round
Damage reduction(s) should count only once against this damage total...
Corrected Post-Attack Strikes Analysis:
Against AC 31 or higher: 52+32+28+32 = 144 points of damage this round
Against AC 24 or higher: 52+32+26+28+32 = 170 points of damage this round
Damage reduction(s) should count only once against this damage total...
4 hits and 1 miss (AC 25)
Ziranu's first two arrows take out the wounded devil, the third misses, and the fourth and fifth strike the next fiend, injuring her.
Another Erinyes jumps on top of the table and throws her rope toward Ziranu (Cover applies, but it's against Touch AC)
Looks like with the +4 Ziranu's Touch AC is 23, so that's a hit.
The rope springs up and tries to immobilize the deadly archer.
Reflex save, DC 22.
Thurrios is up, followed by Shaeda.
Thurrios sees that Ziranu is still mobile, so he delays to let Shaeda move ahead of him.
Shaeda will use a swift action to add +2 Light Fortification to her armor. Her AC is now 40.
She moves through the crowd and gets ahead of Searok, ready to support him as he moves further into the battlefield. This movement might trigger an AOO from the Easternmos erinyes.
Shaeda attacks the erinyes to her East...
Thurrios follows Shaeda into the room, and sets himself up to Searok's West. This movement might provoke, but probably Shaeda already soaked that AOO.
Thurrios then gamely attacks the erinyes to his West...
19-20/x2 P/S
AOO on Shaeda:
Shaeda lands a hit on the devil, which is somewhat resistant to the whip, but not to the electricity.
Thurrios misses.
An erinyes takes aim and fires at Thurrios.
plus fire.
Tronar's up.
Now that he sees them, Tronar will move closer to the door and discern weaknesses, immunities, and special abilities.
He only sees two from his location but he knows more stick slingers are in the room based on the conversation. He will stay where he is and ready to cast Chain Lightning on the group if another Devil moves into sight. (trigger is seeing 3 from the cover location he is looking at)
Tronar zaps three of the devils, killing the one who was about to strike at Shaeda.
Searok's up, I know he's out for a bit after this week, but not sure if he's gone yet, so I'll give him a chance and if he doesn't respond would someone like to bot him or should I?
Searok will continue to pound away at the one in front of him!
+
+
+
Searok finishes off the erinyes.
One of them rushes up to Thurrios and strikes at him.
And the one after that just died, so Ziranu's turn.
Ziranu's Freedom of Movement spell cast before combat enables him to easily slip through the menacing coils of the erinyes' rope, and the Ranger turns his onslaught to the devil immediately southwest of Shaeda, again leveraging both his Improved Precise Shot feat to eliminate any cover bonus, and his Clustered Shots feat to limit any DR to but a single instance.
Should that erinyes fall during the arrow-storm, the erinyes in the southwest corner of the room becomes his next prey ()()...
A banner round! Tracking five hits against an AC of 33 or higher, with one also a potential critical hit...
Critical Hit confirmed! Post-Attack Strikes Analysis:
Against AC 33 or higher: 61+33+27+26+29+48 = 224 points of damage this round!
Damage reduction(s) should count only once against this damage total for the first erinyes...
As noted, the remaining arrows after the first devil falls will target the one near the far southwest corner of the room, which also does not possess complete cover from Ziranu, and thus remains vulnerable to his Improved Precise Shot targeting, but with a -1 to each of the Ranger's attack and damage results outside of point-blank range. Thanks!
Ziranu's first two arrows pierce and fell the devil next to Shaeda, and his next three strike and severely injure the farthest one.
Thurrios is up, followed by Shaeda.