|
Pandora observes frustrated as the windwall appears between her and both enemies "You b!$!~... how could I have let you fool us this way..."
The woman let's her hand to her components pouch "I cannot dispel the wall anymore, I am run out of my most powerful spells. I can still cast feather fall on you though"
"Cam'on Takkit, you can finish that hound!" inspires Pandora as she keeps up her song.
|
As the wind begins to bellow Vaga loses control of the spell. The winds quickly die down and she loses her concentration on the spell.
Eladrian finishes off the hound with a second well placed arrow.
Chaul
Eladrian
-------------------------------------
Vaga ( -4; Tangleburn)
-------------------------------------
Takkit (57/59)
Pandora (-3 Str)
Torean (37/38)
|
|
Torean laughs at the prisoner as she imitates a floating, flaming pin cushion. "Hey, maybe your new name can be the 'Flaming Dartboard"!" He draws his sling and flings a stone at the Vega. He's too busy laughing though for the shot to go anywhere near the woman. A second shot goes truer.
"Go ahead, try me for one of your spells!"
|
|
Climbing down you find that the two children amid the pile of rags and tattered blankets are in fact not dead but rather in a sleep-induced state.
The rest of the people set up in various poses and positions in the pit are dead from what you can tell. their blood drained from their bodies and positioned just as rigor-mortis set in.
Scanning the room Chaul finds that the majority of the trinkets are quite mundane and only one radiates as magical. The jar full of floating eyeballs in a viscous fluid.
Searching through Vaga's belongings you find a potion of gaseous form, wand of misdirection, shadow essence (2), Glamored +2 leather armor, a dagger and boots of levitation.
|
|
Pandora sighs as Vaga fells, she then nods to Chaul "Thanks, I hope the spell effects will disappear soon. Let's see if we can still safe that family"
After descending to the bottom of the pit, Pandora examines the two bodies, her face mournful "I hope there was something we can do for them... can you save them Chaul? Do they need healing or is it something more?"
When presented the trinket, she casts detect magic to try identify the object.
"Mmmm... this is a Jar of eyeballs" explains the bugbear bard.
|
|
contains four eyeballs floating in
a viscous fluid. As long as the jar
contains at least three eyeballs,
the eyeball jar grants its wielder
all-around vision. Additionally, the
eyeball jar grants its wielder a +2
bonus on saving throws against gaze attacks. Any time the
jar’s wielder fails a save against a gaze attack, she may, as an
immediate action, expend one eyeball to absorb the effects
of the gaze attack. This negates the gaze attack’s effects as
if the wielder had made her save, but destroys the eyeball.
When the last eyeball in the jar is destroyed, the eyeball jar
shatters and becomes useless. A jar found with fewer than
four eyeballs is worth 25% less for each missing eyeball.
|
Takkit presents the items he found on Vaga to the group, and then promptly forgets about them as he helps with the children, placing makeshift cloth pillows under their heads and such to keep them comfortable as they wake up.
The small ones need help! Chaul, Torean, can you help them?
The kitsune is clearly happy as the healers do so, and keeps a watch on the entrances so nothing can sneak up on the group.
|
|
Eladrian watches in satisfaction as the demon-child falls from view, and then accompanies the rest of the party below. Seeing the children, he is immediately on guard again, worried that these are more like the last child.
"How do we know that these are not the same as that?" Eladrian asks the party, motioning towards the pincushion on the floor.
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Chaul steps up to help the small children, doing what he can to remove the poisons or other afflictions from them.
"Come with me little ones..." he says, trying to shield them from the macabre scene around them.
To Eladrian he answers "The price of being good is that sometimes you may be taken advantage of. In the morning I will check their auras for any signs of untoward influence. For the moment, let us try to minimize their trauma."
After getting them out of the pit he remembers.
"There are other rooms still to search. There may be still clues as to what happened here, or other dangers to clear before the society can use the building."
|
|
The children tell the horrific tale of their family’s journey from Kintargo to Egorian, and how they sought shelter in Ostergarde’s stable to wait out the storm. When howlers attacked the family, the Anderses fled into the manor itself, at which point the gargoyles chased them right into Vaga’s waiting hands.
Part way through their tale Tilly cuts out into horrific sobs as she screams and runs over to the table where an adult couple are posed as if sharing a meal.
MA! PA! The children scream as they fall to their knees and begin sobbing hysterically.
|
|
Pandora approaches the children and tries to sooth them "You are now cared, we will bring you to safety"
This is breaking my heart... thinks Pandora as she tries to asses if something can be done for the parents or they are off.
That all think about the gargoyle had me thinking if Tilly could had blood from the old Kastner family... now that has more sense... she thinks to herself not wanting to scare more the kids.
"Came'on, come with me, here my friends will treat your parents... Are you hungry? Cold?" Pandora tries to make them focus on other things while she pushes them the way out of the horror chamber.
|
|
Pandora can tell that the parents blood was completely drained from them. The method looked to be incredibly slow and painful.
Taking a moment Pandora is able to calm the children enough for Chaul to lift them out of the 20 foot pit using the boots of levitation.
Heading back to the main floor the children are finally able to speak once more but are still visibly shaken as Tilly says. I just want to leave.
Her brother replies We have family in Egorian that Pa was planning to stay with when we arrived from Kintargo.
|
|
"Hamaria requested us to clean all the rooms of the manor. I would not like to fail them because we left a demon alive in one of the rooms" states Pandora as she tries to sooth the children "We will be soon out of here"
Pandora helps search the yet unexplored rooms B3 and A6.
|
|
The group protects the two children as they make sure that the house is completely cleared.
A large kitchen with an attached sunken cold room holds slowly decaying foodstuffs. A stone oven squats in the southern half of the room. Near the oven, a dark well provides the manor’s fresh water. Wooden counters, tables, and barrels make up the rest of the kitchen’s contents
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Chaul does not see any traps around the door so Takkit begins work on the very complex lock.
Opening the door it looks as if this room was once the armory. All manner of weapons hang on racks ranging from cold-iron to silver.
Hanging on the wall is a rather unique weapon. A large heavy mace with the word's "Hell's Gavel" inscribed on the head.
With Ostergarde secured, you return to Absalom, where Ambrus Valsin greets you all with a warm smile. He immediately thanks you for a job well done and informs you that the Blakros family is pleased as well.
When Valsin learns of Tancred Desimire’s shocking plans, he seems unconcerned; despite his nonchalance, he immediately takes this information to the Decemvirate. What future plans the Ten will unleash to counteract Tancred’s grandiose schemes is not immediately revealed.