Pakuzzo:
Sendi:
Metronicus Crady:
Titus Enfeld:
Philacris:
===================================
As Sendi approaches, she can see to the Northwest stairs leading further down to a hallway. The creature frowns at the words before speaking. "I'm sorry, but it seems you intend to press on. Unfortunately for you, I must fight you now. Again, I am sorry for this."
With lightning speed, the creature cast a spell.
It cast Protection from Chaos
Before Sendi can close the distance completely, two long ribbons shoot out of the creature. She manages to sidestep the first, but the second is too quick and collides with her forehead. She can feel the magics prying at her mind.
Yilliv
Pakuzzo/Vinz
Philacris
Titus
Sendi
Crady
Just as the outsider attacked, so too did Sendi. She raised her claws...and leapt out of the way. It was fast! A long ribbon flashed out, narrowly missing her. She rolled to her feet just in time to be hit by the second. She froze, as she felt her mind numb. Years of studying history, genealogy, religion...it was all being sucked out of her head. All of the knowledge which she had accumulated as a monk of Irori was being taken away. It was a horrifying experience.
She clawed at the ribbon on her, seeking to tear it off. She knew that her gloves hands often hid the fact that she was armed, and this was one of those times which it came in handy.
With fear in her voice she yelled out ”Don’t let it touch you! Quick, get around it! Flank it while it is on me.”
Suddenly a scroll appears attached to the creature. Words rapidly scrawl their way across the pages depicting a multitude of genealogical, historical, and religious information. In bold on the top, the word *SENDI* stands out clearly.
With a smile, the creature sighs. "Mmmmm so much better than the last one...."
"You're protecting yourself from chaotic beings?" Phila asks half as an incredulous statement and half to inform her teammates, before suddenly the creature attacks! "Damn you! You really don't have to do this! We could have worked something-" But its clear her protests are falling on deaf ears !
"Ah, Sendi! It stole..!" Alarmed by the creature's powers, but having no clue about their true extent, Phila draws her crossbow and quickly loads it.
So shocked as she, that Sendi almost didn’t recognize her own name. It took her a horrified moment to realize what was happening...her frantic slashing and clawing increased as the proof of her stolen knowledge took physical form.
Pakuzzo notices the scroll attached to the creature.
"...Nasty trick."
Drawing upon his connection to nature, he wills the reflexes of a great cat into his and the giant raven's bodies.
"Vinz! FLANK it!"
Vinz takes flight at Pakuzzo's direction, taking a sharp left turn to wind up behind the scrivener.
Unfortunately the cramped quarters throw off his aim, and he winds up sailing toward a wall. He manages to drop his speed in enough time to flutter harmlessly to the ground, but he's too far away from the outsider to flank it.
Unable to carry out the order, the bird caws loudly in frustration as he begins to right himself.
"*Tch!*" Pakuzzo hisses sharply as he watches Vinz sail past. "Alright, plan B!"
Dashing diagonally across the room, he chants something unintelligible and weaves his hands over his shortbow. The weapon glows blue momentarily and then apparently returns to normal.
As much as Crady hated having to injure a creature of pure knowledge, the urban druid advances forward hesitantly to help his friends.
Taking on an aspect of the great cats, Vinz tries to swoop around behind the foe. The close quarters causing him issue however, Pakuzzo casts a spell, beefing up his potential damage.
Recognizing the arcane skills of the opponent, Philacris slams a bolt into her crossbow. Watching in horror, she begins to have an intimate understanding of Sendi's past...as if it were words on a page.
Noting the long reach of the creature, Titus begins to make his way around behind it. Though he manages to avoid attracting it's attention, he doesn't quite make it to a flank for Sendi.
Feeling the unpleasantness of knowledge being drained from her skull, Sendi cautiously hops into range. Lashing out at the opponent, her first and last swipe fail to connect. Thankfully her second soundly collides with the paper beast. Though it does less than she'd hoped, a gash appears in the papers.
Carefully Crady picks his way across the battlefield, hoping to find a way to assist his endangered companions.
"Oh my!" exclaims the extraplanar being. "You are a tasty one!" Lashing out for a second taste of the woman's intellect, it fails to connect. The first strike in haste shoots past her new location, while she easily avoids the second attempt.
Yilliv
Pakuzzo/Vinz
Philacris
Titus
Sendi
Crady
Titus utters a quick prayer to Milani, asking her for her divinity to imbue his weapon with power. He then moves to stand opposite to Sendi, on the other side of the creature.
Sendi tumbled as she dodged the ribbons, slashing defensively as she did so. The last thing she wanted was for the creature to continue emptying her mind of everything that made her who she was. That made taking the offensive quite difficult.
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With Sendi's powerful claws proving far less effective than normal, Philacris hesitates. She looks down at the crossbow she barely knows how to fire and contemplates the futility of trying to use it against this bizarre creature.
'What we need is fire. Why did I skip all those parts of the spellbooks again? Oh, right, I didn't think I'd ever need to kill freakish talking book spirits.'
"Hey!" She calls out, hoping to distract the creature. "The only one who's going to be stopped here is you! Give poor Sendi back her page!"
Pakuzzo takes a couple steps to the left, moving closer to the creature while maintaining his distance.
He pays extra attention to see if the attack is effective. Sometimes summoned beings require special ammunition.
Moving toward the rear of the creature, Vinz stabs at his heel(?) with his beak, attempting to hobble the being.
"Please stop this!" Crady pleads with the creature of knowledge. "Don't make me harm you!"
The urban druid sadly casts vine strike at Yilliv.
While Pakuzzo's arrow strikes true, he notes it makes a much smaller tear than expected. His keen eyes see some kind of...translucent shielding seems to protect the creature.
Vinz manages to just miss with his pointed beak.
Trying to determine how to proceed with this creature, Philacris finds herself doubting the crossbow's usefulness. A candle flickering over her head, she tries to stand tall and give it a piece of her mind. Her doubts though ring loud and clear through her tone. The book spirit simply smiles. "I think you may be even more tasty...just wait your turn young miss."
Forgetting this things reach, Titus whispers a prayer to his god....finding a ribbon flying towards him as he drops his guard for a mere second. Though he catches the paper trail square in the face, his force of will pushes through as he finishes his prayer. A crimson rose suddenly appears on the weapons hilt as he hops into position.
Again, Sendi connects one out of three attempts and....again her claw seems to do far less than she'd anticipated. She continues to press the beast's defenses.
Casting a spell, Crady is pleased to see the creature doesn't lash out at him. Pleading for it to see reason, his cries fall on deaf ears.
Snarling as it finds itself surrounded, the bookish foe cautiously slides away from his opponents, around Sendi. "Now now, there's no need to delay the inevitable here. I did give you the option of leaving and you insisted you wanted to die. Just remember....you chose this" advises Ylliv.
Quick as a whip, it vies Sendi a 1, 2 slap about the face, leaving small papercuts as it assaults her mind.
Yilliv
Pakuzzo/Vinz
Philacris
Titus
Sendi
Crady
Infuriated that Yilliv will not listen to his pleas and Sendi's health seems to be failing underneath the outsider's onslaught, a primal rage of helplessness overcomes the urban druid as his vine strike form leaps on Yilliv, trying to drag it to the floor.
Sendi felt the tendrils tear at her skin, but that was nothing compared to what it was doing to her mind. Fear gripped her as hard won knowledge was torn away. With a snarl, she leapt headlong at the creature. Being defensive wasn't working. She had to end this!
"Really? I distinctly remember you wanting to stop and kill us even after we offered to find a loophole in your contract." Philacris shakes her head. What was she even doing responding to it?
She loads and fires her crossbow at the creature, hoping to somehow get a lucky shot in and skewer that book-face it has.
Having whiffed it the last time, this time the dwarf-sized raven lands five feet away and the darts toward the outsider, going for whatever part looks most vulnerable on the strange being.
Pakuzzo scoots backwards as the creature takes the melee with Sendi closer to him. He reaches into his quiver and this time selects one of his cold iron-tipped arrows, just to see if it makes a difference. At this distance, he doubt he'd miss, so it was a good opportunity to experiment.
Titus shrugs off the mental attack with ease as you swarm the creature. Vinz gets into position as the creature just manages to step over Crady's vine in time.
Cackling, sure it's won this as Pakuzzo's arrow whizzes past, it turns back to Sendi...just in time to get ripped to shreds...and drop to the ground. Just as the creature vanishes, it calls out "Sorry for the fight....I wish you luck..." The final word echoing around the vast room.
A single book remains where the creature once stood. The bewildered face of Sendi is emblazoned on the cover.
You know if someone were to read the book to the victim, it would slowly regain the intellegence damage. (1 int per 30 minutes of 'study')
The reader can be the victim if they are conscious. Otherwise, they can heal it back naturally or through magical means
Taking a closer look around the shelves, you notice numerous minor tomes that could be sold...though they would be quite cumbersome.
You also find a locked chest sitting behind a secret panel
Sendi stumbles over to the book with shreds of parchment falling around her. Oblivious to the outside world she reached out and picked up her own book. It felt like her mind was clouded, the kind of feeling that came from a lack of sleep. Quietly she flipped through the pages. They were filled with information that felt familiar, but that she could not place. She put the book in her pack, deciding that now was not a safe enough time to explore this mystery.
Philacris, despite the fact that the book creature tried to kill them, feels a bit of regret over the destruction of the thing . "Other than the way it was trying to kill us, I think that creature was quite reasonable. We might've been able to learn even more from it about Thrune's agents if we'd kept stalling it..."
She shrugs, frustrated at the loss. "From the way it was talking, this place is crawling with more of Thrune's cronies. Nine redactors and Nox herself. You've dealt with the redactors easily enough before Sendi, Pakuzzo. But Nox? She sounds dangerous. What do you think, are we going into that?"
As Phila speaks, she does a quick search of the room in case there is anything the redactors that came through left behind.
"Nox is dangerous, but we've got to deal with her eventually," Pakuzzo answers as he scans the room, "And personally I'd rather do it when all she has on her side is some redactor flunkies. Maybe we can move room to room, take them out a few at a time before they're able to get their bearings and group up...?"
As he speaks the tengu stops walking as he seems to have noticed something. He raps his knuckles against a section of the wall, listens carefully, then starts to feel around. Something pops, and he turns around to point at a locked chest sitting in an alcove.
"Hey, look what I found! Seems to be locked, though."
The outsider left nothing behind worth eating, so Vinz occupies himself by preening his ruffles feathers back in place while the group converses.
"I suppose you're right about Nox Pakuzzo. I was hoping eventually wasn't going to be so soon." She wrinkles her nose. When he points out the locked chest, she adds "Unfortunately I'm not at all skilled at dealing with locks. Nor have I ever thought to study the magic that does it for you." She shakes her head. "I'm realizing now that there's a lot of things I haven't studied, despite my years."
The comment about 'years' stands in sharp contrast to Philacris' young appearance.
"If no one knows how to do so, we can take the chest with us when we leave. Little Rex might have a contact."
Stashing the locked chest, you head deeper into the facility. Concerned about an ambush, everyone keeps their eyes peeled for danger as you cautiously search each room in turn.
Each of these rooms are simple 10 foot by 10 foot squares containing a bed, a trunk and a desk. The appear to have seen recent use, but lack any personal touch.
This larger room contains a desk, and bed with a washroom and workspace across the hall. While investigating the room Sendi, Crady, and Pakuzzo almost simultaneously notice there's a breeze...through the wall.
Less than happy, with the situation at hand, Sendi saw the secret door and said seriously ”It looks like we’ve found our route. Is everyone ready?”
Dropping her voice, Phila says "Since we're not sure what's on the other side, how about I wrap the person in the lead in an illusion? Sendi or Pakuzzo, which of you wants to get in first?"
”I’ll go. I’d rather he, and his bow, have my back.”
”I’ll go. I’d rather he, and his bow, have my back.”
"Are you sure you wouldn't want to sit this one out, Sendi", asked the concerned urban druid to the monk. "That Yilliv did a real number on you."
Sendi’s eyes softened as she answered Crady. She responded, feeling touched: ”It did.” She could feel the weight of her book, dragging her spirit down. ”But we are here so that others need not. We have all accepted the risks. The only thing worse that what has happened is it happening to someone else because of my innaction. Come now, let’s keep going.”
With Pakuzzo not speaking up, Philacris nods at Sendi's suggestion. "Ok, hold still for a moment there Sendi." She raises her hands and goes through a short incantation. As she finishes it, Sendi's outline at first wavers, then blurs, then abruptly, she vanishes entirely!
Whispering, Philacris relays "Three minutes before it runs out, but unless we hear an emergency, we'll follow in only two!"
Titus nods solemnly, agreeing with Sendi's noble cause. I'll follow behind; I've much of Milani's grace to grant today. We will succeed.
Having no issue with this plan, Pakuzzo only speaks after Philacris casts her spell over Sendi.
"If you can, try to keep some space open for me to fire from the rear. Once we've got more room to maneuver, I can reposition myself. Until then, the bird and I'll hand back with Philacris and let you tougher types do your thing."
”Understood.”
Slipping through the secret passage, Sendi catches just a glimpse of a robed figure move out of sight at the far end of the hall. Seeing several rooms lining the way, she peeks one and spies the same setup as the room she'd just left. There is something quite different with this one though. A small portrait catches her eyes...a young Rexus and a middle-aged couple smile at her from the table.
Glancing in the two rooms across the hall, she confirms its a workshop and a bathing station. Just as she dismisses both, another secret passage catches her eye. Making a mental note, Sendi moves to inspect the large room where the robed figure was.
The overwhelming stench of rotting flesh fills this wide, table-strewn chamber. A web of barbed chains strangles its way throughout the room, supporting the decayed corpse of a man in drab robes. At the center of the web, suspended above the flagstones by its black iron tendrils, rests a fistsized, twelve-sided box fashioned from wood and bronze. Wooden cases along the southwestern wall have been smashed and overturned. Small pieces of paper covered with notes are scattered throughout the room, as if someone’s been studying the strange tableau for days.
Four robed figures watch the large hallway to the northwest, their anticipation quite clear.
Sendi finished her scouting, and then made her way back to the group to report what she had found.
"...and that is where I found the four of them. I believe that, being invisible, I can sneak up to them to begin our attack."
Phila shoos Sendi forwards, whispering "Good! We'll be right behind you. But go before the illusion wears off!"
"Right, I'm on it. I'll attack once Titus gets their attention." Sendi figured that there was no way that Titus was going to sneak up on the foes, but he could at least draw their attention away. She hurried, hoping to get in position before the inevitable conflict began.
Crady nods in agreement.
Pakuzzo creeps forward near Philacris, motioning Vinz to keep quiet.
Vinz sees Pakuzzo wave his hand, but simply looks blankly at him. Whatever meaning the gesture has is lost on the bird, but he continues to follow his partner.
Titus nods and heaves a heavy sigh, feeling the rough edges and weight of his armor as he moves into position. Well then...time for me to ring the bells I imagine. May Milani's grace guide your hands. With that, he steps out to the west, into the corridor, and begins to head to the south, not wasting any energy trying to remain quiet.
Sendi:
Metronicus Crady:
Titus Enfeld:
Philacris:
==================================
As Titus moves down the hallway, the redactors react. All except the one wearing the green ascot move forward, as green tries a hammerfist against the religious man's head. Unfortunately for him, the asmodean misjudged his foes height and slams his fist into the mans breastplate. "OW! Wasn't ready for metal!"
Philacris
Sendi
Pakuzzo
Crady
Redactors
Philacris
Sendi
Pakuzzo
Titus
Crady
Philacris holds her crossbow at the ready, but doesn't move forward, trusting that Sendi will swing things in the party's favor.
Sendi moves up behind the Thrunian in yellow. She silently held a claw out, ready to attack once the man began casting a spell, or if he drew a weapon to attack.
