Tilver grits his teeth as the poison continues its course. "Come on!" he yells, as much to himself as anyone else. The ex-gladiator steps opposite Silas and hacks at her again with his elven blade.
As Dain continues to whistle and call out in spirit-tongue, more spirits arrive to see what the excitement is. He finds a pair of life spirits willing to carry healing to Sauklas, then calls for the city spirits to strike once again.
Silas screams "Die!" and tries to behead the foul creature!
Sauklas body burns with the fire of the medusa's poison, but it does not harm him. Neither does he turn to stone. The medusa, however, savagely deflects the bolt he sent her way with a flick of her wrist.
The poison worsens in Tilver's veins, weakening him. Meanwhile, the horrid gaze of the Medusa begins to turn him to stone, slowing his movements. His attack glances off her well-made plate armor.
Dain's allied spirits bring a blessing of healing to Sauklas, but the medusa casually thrusts aside his attack with his spiritual weapon.
Silas hurls himself at her, slashing and hacking, and he does manage to cut her one time, though like some ancient engine of destruction, she seems barely to notice the blood running down her armor. Meanwhile, Silas feels himself beginning to slow, almost petrified now.
Nekh-Mutf fires another telekinetic projectile, hurling a piece of rubble that smashes into her knee with a painful-sounding crack!
Her hair snakes lash out, biting Tilver several times, including once on the face!
Grunting with fury, she turns her full gaze directly on Tilver, who sees the hideous face of eternal torment, a face he will never forget...if he lives.
Then, she stabs at Silas and focuses her gaze on him as well.
STATUS
Tilver - 31/96 hp and enfeebled 2 (1 round). Poison Stage 2, slowed 1 (1 minute)
HERRIAKADAL - 140 damage
Nekh-Mutf - 60/68 hp
Sauklas - 87/96 hp, slowed 1 (1 minute)
Dain - 72/96 hp
Silas - 76/124 hp, slowed 1 (1 minute)
Tilver's eyes go wide as the investigator realizes he has badly miscalculated his enemy. Her face is beautiful and he can't look away. But he pulls his resolve together to avoid the magic of her horrible gaze.
Seeing only red, Silas ignores her gaze.
Sauklas takes a few more strides away from the medusa, reloading his crossbow. His arms and legs feel a little stiff, almost like his muscles are sore from too much effort. Turning around, he raises his crossbow, aims, and pulls the trigger.
Sauklas fires his crossbow, but the bolt spangs! off her close-fitting armor.
STATUS
Tilver - 31/96 hp and enfeebled 2 (1 round). Poison Stage 2, slowed 1 (1 minute)
HERRIAKADAL - 140 damage
Nekh-Mutf - 60/68 hp
Sauklas - 87/96 hp, slowed 1 (1 minute)
Dain - 72/96 hp
Silas - 93/124 hp, slowed 1 (1 minute)
Dain continues his sing-song spirit-tongue chant, directing the city spirits to step up the attack.
Spiritual Weapon
Spiritual Weapon
Spiritual Weapon
Tilver realizes the precarious situation he is in, but tries to stay in the fight as long as possible to help Silas. Then he disengages and tries to get out of the aura before he turns to stone.
Silas strikes at the creature and then growls in rage as he focuses on staying up and in the fight.
Dain's spirits hurl themselves at the iron medusa, stabbing her one time in the shoulder. She is gravely injured.
Silas flings himself at her, hacking away with his big blade, but she bats it aside with ease. Then Tilver retreats rapidly as the poison lessens in his veins.
Tired of missing, Nekh-Mutf fires off three magic missiles that streak down the hall and slam into the medusa.
The medusa's hair lashes out at Silas, but the big litorian dodges out of the snakes' way. The medusa then steps away from Silas, turns and runs south, trailing blood and yelling "Heretics! Intruders! Alarm!"
STATUS
Tilver - 31/96 hp and enfeebled 1 (1 round). Poison Stage 1, slowed 1 (1 minute)
HERRIAKADAL - 167 damage
Nekh-Mutf - 60/68 hp
Sauklas - 87/96 hp, slowed 1 (1 minute)
Dain - 72/96 hp
Silas - 93/124 hp, slowed 1 (1 minute)
Sauklas doesn’t want their opponent to escape. His legs feel heavy as he hurries down the corridor. One more bolt, he thinks as he reloads his crossbow. The shot will be difficult. He estimates she is about 75 feet away, almost blocked by a wall. He focuses on her momentum, where she will be, and pulls the trigger.
Dain's chant takes on an urgent edge. The ghostly spears fades away, then rematerializes next to the medusa. It strikes at the cultist, trying to silence her.
Tilver pulls out a couples vials, pours them together and then shakes it violently. He guzzles the whole things down, hoping it helps to clear the snakes' poison. "If they hear her, we might have to run."
Silas starts after the creature but slows as he hears that the others are considering retreat.
The frenzied attacks of Dain's spirit allies brings the iron medusa down. She collapses to the ground and spits blood. "For the Galchutt..." she says, before she dies.
COMBAT OVER
Silas goes and picks up the medusa and says, "Lets fall back and check the unknown room. We can ditch her body there and see if anyone comes due to her screams."
Sauklas bends over slowly to recover a bolt. ”That’s prudent, Silas,” he says inspecting the bolt for damage. He puts it back on his bandolier. ”Do you want any help carrying her?”
He loads fresh bolts from his backpack to his bandolier. ”Her gaze...I could feel my body slowing. You and Tilver felt that too right?”
"And I just thought everyone else was getting faster..." Tilver shakes his head. "I say let's get back to the circular room. One way in and we have a back way out. Though, it would be nice to keep some sort of eye out into that larger room."
"She had some dark powers. If someone comes there are too many signs of a fight, but its possible that these fools fight among themselves often. Still, we should move quickly in case the warning did get out." Silas says as he moves back towards the unknown room.
Dain thanks the spirits and bids them farewell.
Catching up with his companions' conversation, he furrows his brow. "Isn't the unknown room full of...errr...tentacles? The circular tower is...ummm...defensible, and it's closer to the stairs out of here if we need to retreat."
As they move off towards their destination, Dain whistles up some life spirits and asks them to heal Tilver.
”I noticed my nephews took out my snare kit too,” Sauklas admits. ”Though I am out of practice...really out of practice.”
His eyes glance at the others and the way forward. ”Hmmm, I think the circular tower is the better way to go. You make a good point Dain.”
The team retreats to the circular tower as screams and stranger noises echo in the distance.
"I am not sure we have time to try for traps. We need to patch up whatever wounds we have quickly and then move on before the cultists complete their vile plans." Silas says.
"Then hold still while I try to tend to these battle wounds." Tilver tries to patch up Silas up quickly as the others keep watch.
”You’re right, Silas,” Sauklas nods. ”We need to move quickly. This healing will take some time, but may make all the difference later.”
”You need some more treatment Tilver,” the man says using bandages from Tilver’s healing kit.
After they reach the tower, Dain speaks to Magill. "Can you head back up the stairs we came down and make sure no cultists are up there? If we have to fall back, I don't want to suddenly find out that our retreat is cut off."
While people are having their wounds treated, Dain pulls out his healer's kit and tends to himself.
"So, if we haven't already called a...mmm...hoard of cultists down on us, should we go back the way we were headed to get to the K-Kaleidoscope Temple? Our, ummm, reluctant tour guide, suggested that was the heart of this operation."
Speed 25', Climb 25'
Stealth +12
Can communicate empathically with Dain within 1 mile.
"It might be best to go after the head now instead of exploring the other areas." Silas says.
”The Kaleidoscope Temple,” Sauklas says while checking the tightness of the bandages on Tilver. ”I guess we’re going counter-clockwise relative to the map she drew. So the next thing we should expect is the Chaos Chamber. Of course there could be surprises she didn’t know about.”
Magill returns, assuring Dain that no one remains upstairs in the tower.
After the healing is finished, Silas will start heading towards the Chaos Chamber.
"Well, I feel as if I had had enough," says Master Nekh-Mutf, who promptly buggers off, fleeing back to the city above, likely meeting up with Garwrick.
The diminished team marches into the passage to the north. A door stands on the left wall of the corridor. Beyond, the passage bends to the left, revealing a long hallway with a door halfway down on the right and one at the far end. A strange and distant howl can be heard from the far end of the corridor.
"We should quickly check both doors and then find out what is causing that howl." Silas suggests and begins moving towards the doors. He then looks over the door for any sign of traps.
As Silas examines the first door, Dain & Magill move past him to examine the second door.
”Good bye Nekh-Mutf,” Sauklas says. He shakes his head. ”We did have some memorable adventures.”
Once they start to hear the distant howl, Sauklas slows his pace slightly. He steps as if expecting to roll to the side suddenly.
”I doubt anything good is causing that howl.” He approaches the door on the right and sees Silas checking it for traps. Dain and Magill heading to the one farther down the corridor. ”Well, I’ll check the walls for secret passages and traps.”
Silas finds no traps, though the door is firmly shut. Does he want to open it?
Dain, meanwhile, finds his door is ajar. Peering in, he sees a veritable rat's nest of straw and strips of cloth and rags. Spread out around these piles are odd collections of things: string, shiny stones, teeth, bits of fur, a copper coin, and so on. A door on the east wall stands open.
”I didn’t find any,” Sauklas says. ”If they’re here, they’re well hidden. Do you want any help opening that door Silas?”
"Nothing h-howling in here," says Dain as he opens the door wider and peers inside. "It does look like some sort of nest or den though."
"There's another door, but it looks like it...mmm...goes the wrong way."
Magill inches into the room, sniffing. She delicately grabs a piece of string in her mouth and backs out of the room with her prize.
Silas will try and open the door.