Ayako reels as she is flash fried and casts Heal on herself to remove her damage before moving 10 feet west (So many templates prevent me from clicking me)
The Griffin flanks the Hellhound next to Sebastion and attacks, divine energy bolstering it's attacks
Tyrandro is unsure whom to target. The queen is hard to hit and he is not sure wha tshe can or cannot do. But these fire breathing hounds lay waste to the party. Well, some of the party. Tyrandro manages to evade the fire completely, like most of the time. So he shoots these hellish beasts.
Laori takes the full blast of the fire. She casts a healing spell on herself.
Sebastian dodges the fire breath with no problem. He then ends the wounded hell hound's life with a quick thrust. He steps up to the next hound and pierces a lung.
Ayako gets badly burned but then heals herself and her skin looks as if it never happened. Ayako's summoned griffon appears and tears at the remaining hell hound but the hound's steel barding prevents the griffon's razor sharp claws from reaching its muscular flesh.
The last hell hound turns on the griffon to swat at it as if it is a mere annoyance. Its flaming jaws clamp down and nearly tear off the griffon's wing.
Queen Ileosa maintain's her inspire courage and casts slow targeting each of you. "Despite your brazen attack against the crown, I am not without mercy. Abandon your weapons, and you'll receive a swift death."
It takes Tyrandro's first two shots, but he takes down the last hell hound. He aims his last shots at the Queen and one manages to hit and something surprising happens. She suddenly becomes rigid and motionless. A moment later, her features run red as she melts swiftly into a pool of blood.
Vivana says, "It appears the gig is up. I see no reason for me to sacrifice my life as well." And she uses dimension door to move to a location out of sight, leaving the Gray Maidens to their fate.
The Gray Maidens are shocked at the sight of the false Ileosa's body melting and lose their actions for the round as they try to cope with what they've just seen. The blinded Maiden's sight is restored just in time to witness event.
Tyrandro ends the boots magic to save it for real enemies. But in the result he is really slow.
Laori shakes off the slow spell. She watches Tyrandro moving in slow motion and waits how Sebastian reacts to the spell.
Ayako babbles some insane words at a Maiden
Gift of Madness (Su): You tap into the unthinkable void between the stars and cause a single living creature within 30 feet to become confused for 1 round. A successful Will save negates the effect. This is a mind-affecting compulsion effect. At 7th level, the confusion lasts for a number of rounds equal to your oracle level. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier. 8/Day DC 19
Iolana avoids the breath of the hellhouds, and studies the queens form as it turns to blood.
"She was a simulacrum involving blood. I knew that had to be too easy. I wouldn't be waiting for people who had taken out my demons and allies just to walk into my throne room."
Iolana pulls out her wand of Magic Missile and uses it on the sparkly Grey Maiden that is still standing.
Seb moves very slowly and is unable to attack due to the spell that is on him.
You dispatch the remaining Gray Maidens.
"Can we leave now?" Tyrandro asks.
We still need to find Ishani Dhatri who is no doubt a captive here. Or at least try to find evidence of his death
"If I understood Iolana right, there is also the real queen to take care of. Doesn't mean we have to do that now. Or are you in the flow and don't want to break it?" Tyrandro inquires.
In the flow? I suppose we could search her quarters and I think we got a map from the Senscheal that had some clues
"Let's search her quarters, and then go and rest. I'm running low on my high powered spells. We should also study that map more."
Mushu wiggles out of Ayako's haversack and trots in front of the throne. Gazing upon it, he dismisses it as far too uncomfy and sits before it, oinking out his new porcine friendly laws for the city.
In order to get to the Royal Bedroom, you pass through two other rooms: The Stage Hall and the Royal Foyer.
Stage Hall: The ceiling of this hall is open, revealing the polished balustrade of a balcony thirty feet above and the interior of a lantern dome an additional thirty feet above the balcony. A colonnade along the room’s perimeter supports the balcony and casts a deep shadow on the walls of this hall. Along the southwest side of the room is a theatrical stage built atop a wooden platform.
The door to the Royal Foyer is made of strong wood and decorated with the Arabasti crest. It is locked with an arcane lock that Sabina would have mentioned that it can be bypassed with the passphrase "Long live the queen!"
Royal Foyer: This cozy foyer is furnished with tapestries, carpets, and a fine mahogany bench. A table near the bench displays three silver platters of cheeses, fruits, and small loaves of fresh bread. A crystal decanter of deep red wine sits next to the platters.
Royal Bedroom: The walls of this bedroom are paneled with darkwood planks and decorated with elaborate tapestries and hanging silks. A canopied bed looms to the northeast, while to the southwest stand a desk and a stuffed armchair. Stained-glass windows along the southwest wall depict complex patterns of swirling reds, fiery oranges, and bright yellows.
Reclining on the Queen's bed, instead of the Queen, is a disgusting devil. This amphisbaenic monstrosity has the body of a slug with a leech’s mouth at one end and a knot of three human heads at the other.
When it speaks, it speaks from all four mouths in unison (the three human heads, and the leech mouth at the other end).
"Welcome and well met. Congratulations on your victory over the false queen and my puppet Togomor. Have a seat. Relax. I will not be staying long. You may call me Sermignatto, the Leech Master. It was quite enjoyable meddling with these mortals behind the scenes but things have progressed to where the Queen no longer needs my guiding hand. The fate of Korvosa is now up to your and her actions. I return to Hell for a time until I can once again return to the Runelord Sorshen's side. Even now, my long time master stirs. It won't be long now. No, not long at all..."
"What kind of superfluous foreshadowing is that?" Tyrandro asks as he has no clue who this Sorshen is or was.
"Are you leaving now? Or was that just a figure of speech? Because we're mopping up behind the queen and it would be nice if the dirt she left behind would go by itself for a change."
I sense an upcoming event that will test the limits of a new generation of heroes. Ayako seems to have drifted off and is mumbling.
"That's interesting. Do you feel the queen might fail? Is that why you are leaving now instead of waiting to see what she might do? You don't happen to want to tell us where she is at the moment would you?"
"Are you leaving now? Or was that just a figure of speech?
"My, my, my, you humans are always in such a hurry. As you can see, I'm a little sluggish."
"That's interesting. Do you feel the queen might fail? Is that why you are leaving now instead of waiting to see what she might do? You don't happen to want to tell us where she is at the moment would you?"
"No, no, no, I don't think the queen will fail. I just want to make sure I have the best seat. Ileosa is already preparing her final ritual. There is nothing left for me to do but enjoy the show. And you don't need me to tell you where she is. You have all the pieces. Use those little brains of yours and figure it out."
We were told by a ghost and Torgomor's journal about a place called The Sunken Queen in the Mushfens as our next destination.
"Sunken Queen sounds like a good prophesy." Tyrandro comments.
"It's good to know that those heads of yours aren't completely empty. I would have loved to wrap my body around each of your necks, choke the life out of you one-by-one, and then feast on your brains while still in your crunchy skulls. It would have been a real shame if they were naught but shriveled fruits. But alas, such things must remain fantasy. It is unlikely that we will meet again...unless you end up visiting me in Hell. Have any of you been naughty, naughty children? I suppose we'll have to let Pharasma decide." says Sermignatto. "Corrupting mortals is such sweet nectar. I savored every moment of Togomor's downward spiral as I forced his dominated body to perform acts even a man as vile as he was before my possession abhorred. His mental screams as he watched through his eyes but was unable to control is body was a symphony to my ears. And then, when you killed him and he thought he was finally free only to find eternal torture in the afterlife, was pure euphoria." As he plane shifts out of the room, twenty foot tentacle-like tongues extend from his mouths and caress your faces leaving a streak of slime on your cheeks before he becomes insubstantial and vanishes completely. Incorporeal laughter echoes in the chamber trailing his departure.
"Ewww." Tyrandro voices his disgust. "But I guess it's still better than starting a fight with that - whatever it was."
Ayako vomits out a stream of toxic black sludge in an attempt at payback but it passes through the creature's body before sizzling the sheets.
Well we still need to find our missing cleric friend.
"Which one? I lost track of all the people we need to discover for one reason or the other." Tyrandro inquires.
Ishani Dhatri. Abadarian priest who we met before you joined our group was seen approaching the castle here. Let us keep searching.
Ayako points the way to the first level stairs
"I'm sure I've never heard that name." Tyrandro tells, but follows anyway.
You leave the Royal Bedroom and head to the large spiral staircase connected to the Stage Hall. Taking it down, you pass the 2nd floor (which you cleared) and end on the 1st floor. The stairs empty out into a laundry room.
Laundry: The air in this room smells of soap and lavender. A large washbasin dominates the southeastern part of the room, while elsewhere stand numerous racks for drying clothes, dress forms, stools, and tables strewn with sewing notions. A cold fireplace sits against the opposite wall.
Past the laundry is the lower guardroom.
Lower Guardroom: This spacious guardroom contains a large fireplace, a central table, and numerous armor and weapon racks (all of which are empty).
This room once held the pack of erinyes that guarded that castle, but you defeated them during your battle upstairs. The room is now empty.
North of here are two small rooms: cellar and wood storage.
Cellar: Mostly empty wine racks line the walls of this wine cellar, while three large kegs sit on the floor.
While most of the wine once stored here is long gone, a few samples of the finest Varisian and Chelish spirits remain here, including three bottles of 20-year-old “Cayden’s Gab” brandy. Each bottle is worth 200 gp.
Wood Storage: This storage room contains an orderly stack of firewood, a dozen small kegs of tallow, and numerous flasks of oil.
A secret door here connects to the hidden stairway that you previously found that leads to the dungeon.
To the west of the guardroom is a room Sabina called the Justice Chamber.
Justice Chamber: This large chamber smells of seasoned wood. It contains a long table with four wooden chairs on one side and a single stool on the other. Torture implements, including a rack, an iron maiden, and a complex pulley machine, are arranged near the walls, together with a wide range of crafty restraining devices.
A grim statue stands against the southestern wall. Sculpted in the shape of a grim, horned angel, gigantic wings and terrible, long clawed arms jut from a legless body that tapers into a blunt, blade-like trunk. The construct is motionless and appears to be little more than a grisly frame for Ishani Dhatri who is crucified on it.
"Hey guy - you're still alive?" Tyrandro calls out eying the thing he's nailed to carefully.
Blast it, how long has he suffered. Maybe Laori would like this thing for her house.
"That poor man. Is he really dead? Can we do anything about it? I feel terrible." She studies the construct carefully.
Ishani does not respond when you call out to him. However, once you start studying the construct more carefully, a wisp of spiritual energy escapes from Ishani's body and manifests as a ghostly representation of him in the center of the room. Unlike the Ishani you know, this image does not look friendly. At the same time, the statue rumbles and begins hovering in the air. (Only a couple inches off the floor, you can still reach it.)
Can we beat this thing without harming Ishani?
Iolana uses her Piercing meta magic rod and tries to Disintegrate the Akaruzug.
Tyrandro sighs and start shooting.
Iolana hits the statue with a disintegrating ray that is very effective. A large hole is carved through the center of the construct. To a living creature, such a wound would likely be letal, but as a construct with no vital organs, it is merely damage.
Tyrandro starts pelting the enemy with arrows. The creature is highly resistant to his attacks but his pinpoint targeting is a big help.
Ishani's spirit floats over to Tyrandro and strikes with a dagger made of force.
Then the akaruzug hovers into the center of the room and unleashes a blast of soul essence that seeks to flense the life force of all living creature around it.
Ayako feels her lifeforce drain and casts Blessing of Fervor on everyone to speed them up
Feeling the pull on his soul, Tyrandro considers getting his iron circlet out to protect himself. But seeing the state of the thing, he decides that it is probably faster and better for his companions if he finishes that thing.
Seb's strong Korvosan constitution saves him from taking any negative levels. He moves in and attacks the construct with the holy sword.
Iolana also manages to avoid the attack. Seeing that her spell worked well tried it again. She takes the Blessing that gives her better armor.
"That's a mean bugger. You better take it apart." Laori comments.
Only Ayako is affects by the akaruzug's soul steal ability. A bit of her essence escapes her body and when it reaches the construct, the hole blasted in it by Iolana begins to close.
Ouch. So that is -3 on my saves/skills/rolls to attack right?
The construct is also resistance to Sebastian's attack but he still hits hard with his artifact weapon.
Then Iolana hits the statue again and it crumbles to dust. Ishani's body is not disintegrated and crashed to the floor. Unfortunately, upon inspection, he is thoroughly dead and was dead likely for a week or more. The spiritual image of Ishani also vanishes upon the creature's defeat.
Mushu goes to a window and oinks loudly, summoning his brethren that the time to assume their rightful place as Korsova's rulers is now!
Ayako examine's Ishani's body. Blast. Far too late. We should return him to his temple.
"Who was he? Does he have money or rich friends? Last time I checked death is only an expensive inconvenience. Or is time an issue there?" Tyrandro asks.
He has been dead about w week. We met him when we were trying to stop the plague that hit the city and he gave us assistance.
"So we get him to the temple of Pharasma, and they bring him back? How long til you can do such magic?" Tyrandro asks Ayako.
"I think we should finish checking out the Domina's tower. Then I need to sleep. My higher level spells have almost been used up."