The large dog closes the gap that the women created and lunges at her.
Apparently the dog felt it was funny as well.
"You're out of luck if you thought Tsuto was yours. He trying to do creepy things to his sister when we got him!"
She continues her shots at the madwoman.
Case's eye widen slightly when the name tsuto is mentioned.
...that was unexpected. So she is working with them. Oh well...time to put the b~$#% down. Still smiling Cade step towards the women. "Bad form Lady Akenja...bad form indeed. Hello my name is Cade Goodbarrel. I killed your Tsuto. Prepare to die." Cade laughs out loud as he misses his target. "Even I can not keep a straight face with that one. Tsuto was a b$~$% to say the least."
The large dog closes the gap that the women created and lunges at her. Apparently the dog felt it was funny as well.
Karu continues to stare at the woman as she calls upon magic, but the dwarf fails to comprehend what kind of magic Lyrie tried to work. But, as Talia's crossbow bolt strikes true, the dwarf shrugs off her doubts and rushes forward with Karjys at her side. As she strikes, however, the young dwarf finds her spear weighed down by questions. It seems she hasn't quite managed to shrug off all of her doubts. Questions such as, what has this woman done to deserve being stabbed to death? The dwarf's animal companion knows no such doubts and Karjys dives onto the wizard with reckless abandon. Lyrie cries out in pain as the bear's claws rake down her back.
Well, we know she was with Tsuto, at least. The flurry of melee activity ahead of her makes joining in unlikely, so Riori leaves the starknife on its hook and instead casts bless on the party. She moves to the edge of the wall, away from clustering up with the rest of the party.
"You're out of luck if you thought Tsuto was yours. He trying to do creepy things to his sister when we got him!" She continues her shots at the madwoman. Unfortunately, her crossbow bolt fails to strike this time, stopped by the magical armor she conjured.
Lyrie attempts to cast another spell, this time trying to evade your attacks as she does so, but there are so many pressed against her it breaks her concentration and the spell fizzles. She steps back again, her back pressed against the wall to prevent anyone from getting behind her.
Lyrie - 10/24
Cade continues to advance in order to keep her from getting away.
Your loyalty is misplace me lady. Tsuto was all about keeping it in the family and well that is just plain wrong...no matter how you view things. Even you know that he was messed up in the head. That shit is just...wrong.
Cade hopes to end her spell casting so he aims his blade for her hand in hopes of crippling her ability to work magic.
Bellum put her down...
The dog's low grow stops suddenly as he steps forward and leaps at the women.
Talia holds her shot now that the woman is in melee. She will shoot if the woman does try to step away and cast.
Karu only vaguely registers that there's plenty of bad blood between her companions and this wizardess. Her mind's too much in the rhythm of stepping along with Karjys and thrusting when he bites, jabbing when he claws, and rocking the back of the pole from left to right to confuse and confound the foe to aid Karjys.
Riori visibly flinches as she sees the bear tear into the woman. Just because, you know, bear.
Cade continues to advance in order to keep her from getting away.
"Your loyalty is misplace me lady. Tsuto was all about keeping it in the family and well that is just plain wrong...no matter how you view things. Even you know that he was messed up in the head. That s%@* is just...wrong." Cade hopes to end her spell casting so he aims his blade for her hand in hopes of crippling her ability to work magic.
Cade's rapier punches right through her hand, and Lyrie screams in pain, just as Bellum darts in and shreds her calf. She begins to collapse into unconsciousness from the pain, right into the arms of Karjys, who quite brutally finishes her off.
potion of cure light wounds
scroll case containing 5 scrolls
wand
dagger
cloak
silver comb (Appraise DC 20)
silk gown (Appraise DC 20)
everburning torch
small pouch containing hair, fingernail clippings, used handkerchiefs, and a pearl earring (Appraise DC 20 for the earring)
3 pp
278 gp
Spellbook
You recognize the earring as matching the one you took off of Tsuto when you captured him.
With Karjys's brutal mauling of Lyrie, the room goes quiet, save for the sound of your breathing.
Riori swallows her gorge at the carnage. "Well, so much for getting information from her. But perhaps her things and these books are safer sources."
Riori examines both the woman's remains and her gear, as well as searches the room for more information on Nualia, the runewell that Talia and Cade mentioned, and anything else relevant to the recent goings-on in Sandpoint.
She examines everything with magic.
Cade turns towards Riori..
we did get information...just you were not listening.
Still smiling at the cleric, he continues on with a voice that is friendly and non judgmental.
...we know her name...
he looks at her with a look of surprise and confusion.
...and...that she is working with someone or someones that is or are still alive. There is also the little tidbit that she know us...
He pauses and then continues...
I am not sure but I find it hard to believe that the two groups are not known to each other...so I would assume that they are working together.
HE continues to smile and remains friendly
They also feel that their operation was a secret and that we are not up to the task of defeating them...so we know there is more to this Goblin hideout then just Goblins.
Still smiling he waits for the words that were said to sink in.
We were not going to get any information from her as a prisoner. She was ready to fight all of us the moment we entered. Getting her angry was the only way I could see getting information from her....It worked and she slipped up. I could be wrong and you might want to say something like we will never know now...but I am a gambler and I read people for a living...well sometimes it is a living. Well maybe not sometimes but still she was going to fight us no matter what. She had options and she chose poorly. Best option for us is to move forward.
He continues without pausing as he turns slowly to Talia.
So who exactly was this Tsuto character...is he dead? She really must have had it hard for him. Those veins in her head were like ready to explode when I talked shit about him. I have never seen anyone that upset over words spoken of someone.
Riori completely ignores Cade and focuses upon her search.
She puts the cloak, wand, and scroll aside. "These are all magic, but I do not know what they do. A shame the sorcerer we met in town decided not to come with us."
The priestess then turns toward the books.
Turning as the cleric makes her findings known about the items.
Cade laughs as the cleric attempts to ignore him.
I guess my point is made and well taken...
and he laughs some more in a friendly manner.
You find that most of the notes in the room are about the various artifacts, which all appear to be Thassilonian. While none has much in the way of monetary value, they could prove valuable from a historic standpoint. Perhaps a Thassilonian scholar could tell you more. Nothing in here seems to indicate anything regarding any further plans against Sandpoint.
"This all stuff on ancient Thassilon. These artifacts too. I doubt it is irrelevant to Nualia's plans, given you said she's already uncovered ancient scary things beneath the town. We should take some with us to show some greybeards back in Sandpoint."
She looks down at Lyrie's mauled remains. "If you want to move on, I will attend to her remains. No time for burial, but I can at least gather her up and do some last rites. We don't need to be haunted by the ghost of an evil wizard later on."
Monsters, runewells, Goblins and now psychotic lovebirds! This affair just keeps getting more and more messy." Talia breathes, examining the earring and wondering just what the relationship was between Tsuto and this woman?
Talia's examination of the documents indicates that the notes are all in Lyrie's hand - she was apparently documenting where the artifacts were found, as well as speculating as to their purpose. Apparently, beyond the ajar secret door, there's a whole other level from which they've been finding things. The notes mention that they were trying to figure out how to open a "golden door" that they seem to have gotten stuck at.
The dwarf is taken back by the priest's reaction to the mauling Lyrie got. "Whoever this girl was, she sure had a lot of hate in her heart. Karjys would never do that to someone unless they deserve it, I swear! Anyway, he might be a little exasperated by the smell of goblins. Mayhap the goblins rubbed off on her ... anyway, I say we make sure there's no one and nothing in our backs before we head on down and find out what makes it worth it for a wizard to hole up in here with a bunch of degenerate goblins."
Riori shrugs. "I'm not so jaded to be able to look at a pile of blood and guts and not feel a little sick. Guess I'm the only one."
In spite of looking a little green, Riori is still dutifully, using bits of canvas from the archeological supplies to cover her hands, arranging Lyrie's body in some semblance of order, dropping a pile of viscera back into her torso with a *swkwush* as she speaks. "Why would I judge a bear for acting like a bear? Or a dog a dog for that matter? But personally, as a self-aware person, when I have time for the choice, I ain't keen on killing first and asking questions later. Maybe there's a time for that. But I fear I justify that sort of thing enough, then I just become like the evil people we are trying to stop."
She channels the tiniest bit of positive energy over the corpse (), and then pulls more canvas over the body to act as a makeshift shroud. "Go on then, I'll catch you up."
Riori prays over the body; though she is a priestess of Desna, she has studied many faiths, and utters a prayer she learned for its safe deliverance to Pharasma.
Cade shrugs but keeps smiling ignoring the clerics passive aggressive attitude. He looks from Karu to Talia
I agree, we should clear this floor first. What say you Talia?
Checking the other door out of the war room, you find only a short hallway ending in another door. On the other side of that door is a small room, the walls covered in pictures clearly drawn by goblins, based on both the height and the...artistic quality. The pictures are drawn in mud, blood and paint. Most of them feature goblins committing various acts of violence to humans, horses and dogs. One picture on the north wall, however, is three times the size and complexity of the other pictures. This image shows Thistletop from the side, The goblin stockade perched atop it like a crown. A cave has been drawn in the center of the image, and looming inside is what appears to be an immense, muscular goblin with snakelike eyes and a dogslicer in each taloned hand. If the scale compared to the rest of the drawings is to be believed, this goblin must be at least thirty feet tall.
Another door leads south out of the room.
When Riori catches up, she pauses at the picture. She wonders if she recognizes if this is a specific type goblin or goblin-related creature known in stories/history.
Cade nods towards the door to the south and starts to walk towards t
It.
shall we continue.
Riori doesn't think this is a specific type of goblin, but she has heard of some kinds of extraplanar creatures sharing an affinity with goblins. She tries to think of what they are...
Cade goes to the next door and opens it, revealing a 35' long hallway. The hallway appears to widen into some sort of antechamber after the first 10', with what looks like a turn to the left right at the point it widens. The antechamber appears to be 10' wide before the hallway again narrows to lead to another door.
Only one way to go. Nice and slow everyone.
Cade and Bellum starts to walk slowly down the hallway to the point where it starts to widen up.
Cade slowly advances down the hallway to the point where it widens out. Once there, he sees that the wider part leads to two large stone doors set in the western wall. Their faces are carved with images of horrific, deformed monsters clawing their way out of pregnant women of all races.
You recognize these carvings as those associated with the church of Lamashtu.
Riori stays a good few steps behind the group, being delayed from her ministrations as well as not wanting to wreck any efforts at stealth, which in her armor and swishy robes she is not an asset.
When she does catch up, she looks at the horrific carvings and grimaces. "Well, it's hard to mistake that awfulness for anything other than the handiwork of Lamashtu's worshippers. Goddess of monsters and malformed creatures. Suffice to say, let's be careful opening these."
I am not too fond about entering a temple to Lamashtu. If we have to then we go...
"Just be ready for any amount of horrible monsters. She is their mother after all." Talia tries to sound light hearted but her face is pale.
"Maybe no one happens to be home?" The dwarf tries to infuse her companions with some positivity as she moves forward and puts her ear to the ground right next to the door. She takes a moment to see if she can hear any footsteps or shuffling about on the other side before rising on to one knee. She cups a hand against the door and brings her ear to it, knowing she most likely won't hear a thing this way, and then presses her ear directly against the door.
Please don't bite, monsters, please don't!
"I think it's still best to see what's in there then leave some unknown horror behind us." She looks expectantly at Talia. "Are the doors trapped?"
"Oh, right." Talia moves as she realizes she's not doing her job.
Talia's very thorough search detects no traps on the massive stone doors. Karu attempts to listen through the doors, but the stone muffles sounds too thoroughly for her to hear anything.
If no one else does, Riori pushes the door slowly open.
Talia has her crossbow ready and follows the more martial types into the room.
"I think it's still best to see what's in there then leave some unknown horror behind us."
Cade looks from the doors to the temple to the other two hallways that lead to more unknown territories.
um...OK...sure...As Riori takes point.
No offense but you are not the best person to be on point but we are better suited for such tasks. If you are set on going first I will not stop you but I feel it is better this way.
His voice is calm as he indicates Karu, the bear and Bellum with a wave of his hand. He smiles brightly in hopes that she will not take yet more offense from this most benign gesture.
He nods to talia and steadies himself. Cade moves to the front and opens the door and walks in after making sure that those that should be in front are following.
or
He watches as Riori walks in before him.
Cade pushes open the door, revealing what can only be described as a cathedral. Stone fonts containing frothy dark water sit to the north and south of the eastern entrance to the room, and twin banks of stone pillars run the length of the long chamber. At the western end, shallow stairs rise to a platform about two feet off the ground. The walls surrounding this platform are lit by hanging braziers that emit glowing red smoke, giving the place an unnerving crimson lighting that throws the bas-relief carvings of countless monsters feasting on fleeing humans into lurid display. A black marble altar stone, its surface heaped with ashes and and bone fragments, squats before a ten-foot tall statue. The sculpture depicts a very pregnant but otherwise shapely naked woman who wields a kukri in each taloned hand and has a long reptilian tail, birdlike taloned feet, and the snarling head of a three-eyed jackal with a forked tongue. The left kukri flickers with a fiery orange light while the right one glows with a cool blue radiance.
The altar and statue are sacred to Lamashtu.
As you enter the room, Karjys turns to the left and growls. Talia and Riori see what the bear is growling at - some sort of hound hovering near the cieling. Talia notices one on the group's right, as well, Bellum growls at both creatures, head moving left and right.
These hairless, flying canines are a type of evil outsider known as a Yeth Hound. They delight in hunting intelligent prey, loping through the night skies, relentlessly pursuing their chosen quarry for miles, and harrying them with their frightful baying. They hunt only at night, fearing the sun, which they will never venture out in, even if their lives depended on it.
If no one else does, Riori pushes the door slowly open.
As Riori takes point.
No offense but you are not the best person to be on point but we are better suited for such tasks. If you are set on going first I will not stop you but I feel it is better this way.
As she had only reluctantly approached the door because no one else had, she shrugs and steps away from the door, allowing the halfling to pass before following. The priestess may be prone at times to taking things personally, but she has no death wish.
The objects in the room hold no particular significance to her.
The bear's warning growl and the floating giant hounds definitely do show a significance. And unlike last time, she has no expectation there is any chance of talking their way out of the situation.
Seeing Cade focused elsewhere, she hisses to him, "Look up!" as she unhooks one of her ordinary starknives and tosses it at the unearthly hound to the right.
But not exactly used to aiming at a levitating giant hound, the metal weapon ricochets harmlessly off the ceiling before clattering into a corner.
The bear's warning growl and the floating giant hounds definitely do show a significance. And unlike last time, she has no expectation there is any chance of talking their way out of the situation. Seeing Cade focused elsewhere, she hisses to him, "Look up!" as she unhooks one of her ordinary starknives and tosses it at the unearthly hound to the right. But not exactly used to aiming at a levitating giant hound, the metal weapon ricochets harmlessly off the ceiling before clattering into a corner.
The hound she tossed the starknife at takes a breath, and then howls.
The hound's howl fills Riori and Karjys with fear, panicking them and filling them with a desire to run away.
The other hound, noticed only by Talia and Bellum, also lets loose a howl.
Cade feels himself overcome by fear at this howl, and is filled with panick by it.
Cade - panicked
Riori - panicked
Karjys - panicked
Panicked: A panicked creature must drop anything it holds and flee at top speed from the source of its fear, as well as any other dangers it encounters, along a random path. It can’t take any other actions. In addition, the creature takes a –2 penalty on all saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks. If cornered, a panicked creature cowers and does not attack, typically using the total defense action in combat. A panicked creature can use special abilities, including spells, to flee; indeed, the creature must use such means if they are the only way to escape.
My interpretation of the Panicked condition is that you cannot cast a spell that does not assist you in fleeing. So, for instance, a Wizard could cast expeditious retreat or teleport, since that would help them flee, but remove fear does not help you flee, so it could not be cast.
The Yeth Hound's Bay ability does not specify that the panicked condition abates once the afflicted no longer has line of sight to the Yeth Hound, so it lasts for the full five rounds. Having read through a couple of Campaign Journals for the campaign, this is consistent with how other GMs have run the encounter, as well as how I ran the encounter with my face to face group.
I know it's incredibly frustrating to be forced to have your character do nothing but flee. Unfortunately, James Jacobs decided to have this encounter be a little dicey like that.