She whisper.. "We got company here.." She takes a total defense posture and moves up..
Halara moves closer to the door, and finds the statement to be weird. They are in an enemy place, but it seems the people inside were looking for the residents, so they should be allies. She pushes the door with her feet, and calls out. "Who's the responsible here?"
You hear the conversation go quiet and six men stand in the middle of the room looking at you. The room itself appears to bare of anything but there is a large sack in the middle of the group of men.
"We are all just members of the Ash Ravens, but with this city going to hell we thought that finding a building to stay in might the smart thing to do."
They aren't telling the whole truth about why they are in here.
Ophelia has always had some difficulty reading other people, but she has lived long enough to pick up a few trends about when truth and lies are told.
"They aren't telling us something," she whispers to Val and Halara.
Val pulls her blade and then speaks.. "We had have a very bad couple of days recently and our nerves are on the edge.. Tell us the truth or get to pulling steel!"
Halara eyes her fellows with fear that the situation might get out of control. The guys seemed good enough, but she could try it, anyway. "Calm down yall. I've got new material for the archives."
"Look we are just mercinaries who were going to be hired in the newest crusade, but with the demons just running around in the city we decided that we are going to leave. Since no one paid us we are just liberating some goods that we found and going. Stay out of our way and we will get out of yours."
Ophelia opts to let the others decide their course of action. She certainly has no problem avoiding a fight, and in all honesty, the wizard would prefer not coming to blows with anyone. Besides, these individuals did not seem to be cultists. If they were, then they probably would have been openly kicking puppies or something along those lines.
"Well why didn't you just say that over lying to us.. If you were willing to join the crusade than are you willing to help us find any remaining resistance? Im sure you will be well compensated for your efforts when we get through all this.."
rofl..
The men seem unconvinced to help you all out.
"I think we will just be going now. Good luck with surviving this city."
The men begin leaving and unless anyone says anything they pick up their bag and go out.
The rest of the shop is bare except for two cleared benches and a trapdoor in the back.
Halara stops them, getting in their way. "Please, wait. We do not mind if you take any valuables you found here, but we need information on this place, so can you take a look at the stuff you got to check for any information on the folks that were supposed to be here?"
The men shrug and looc through the items they found.
"There wasn't much up here besides some gold and other valuables. We didn't find anything special but we haven't been downstairs."
Ophelia nods, though she continues to stay quiet.
"I suppose we could look downstairs?" she offers once the mercenaries have left.
"I think they are lying, but let's go!"
"Just go ahead and take your treasure and get you cowards!" Val follows the others stilled pissed at the reluctance of people to help.
One of the men responds as they leave.
"We're mercenaries, we only fight when we're paid."
With that the mercenaries leave the building moving down the street. The inside of the trapdoor leads down into a dank and dark room. Even from up here you can smell something rotting down in the dark below.
The ground of the basement is covered in rotting plants and you can easily assume that is where the smell is coming from.
"Bunch of rotting plants down there.. Perhaps we should just move on."
"I've never seen plants rotting. They usually just dry out, so there's something definitely wrong. We need to check for clues!" When the others are ready she casts Light and moves down the ladder.
"Might as well take a look."
The Wizard casts Light as well and follows Halara.
The air in the basement is damp and musty-smelling. The walls and floor are packed earth, while dozens of gourds hang from the ceiling beams. A sludge of rotting plant matter covers the floor. Against one wall, a wooden table holds a strange apparatus that looks like a clockwork toy of a snake-bodied, six armed woman holding a sword in each hand. A tightly corked bottle, filled with what looks like water, sits before the statue. A wooden chest covered with engraved runes stands under the table, and a sinister image of a star surrounding a goat’s face is painted on the wall above the table.
Halara sees there's definitely something foul in this place. "Careful with the water, might be unholy!" She tries to identify what does this all mean, and is very careful on where to step.
Halara identifies the symbol as that of baphomet. Then the symbol begins to talk.
"I hope that some crusaders are down here because it would be a waste of you meeting Baphomet itself!"
With that the small state lunges forward and breaks the glass vial. A noxious gas comes out. Also some of the rotting plants begin to move.
Ophelia's eyes begin to glow red, and she finds that she can now see in the darkness.
Halara begins to have a persistent nosebleed, and she takes.
Avarshinal on the other hand finds electricity shocking her.
Then a small plant like creature in the shape of a small child rises up from one of the piles of rotting plants.
AC 17, touch 15, flat-footed 13
Val sidesteps Thorst to attack the plant thing.
Valkyire's scimitar slashes the plant across it's face as it screechs in pain.
Thorst rages and steps up to attack the plant thing.
Thorst'sa falchion slices across the things arm also drawing blood.
Ophelia quickly moves into the fight and hurls some acid at the planet entity. However, the shift in her vision throws her aim off. She hits the wall on the far side of the room instead of the enemy.
Halara moves in to fight the creature, and manages a good and strong swing at it.
!
Anemia tries to shoot the creature but misses. Avarshinal begins chanting and a summon begins forming. Halara finds her eyes also glowing, and Avarshinal takes even more damage from the gas.
The creature attacks Thorst for cutting it.
The creature bites and claws Thorst before latching onto him with its mouth.
AC 17, touch 15, flat-footed 13
She tries again to hurt it, but misses this time, probably due to the glowing eyes.
!
Val tries spell combat/spellstrike via arcane mark..
vs DC 15, nice crit waste..
She then attacks twice..
but is completely inept..
And by inept I truely mean so..
Ophelia quickly repositions herself to a safer location and throws another acid dart. Her aim is better than the previous shot but not by much. With a sigh, the elf begins thinking over better ways to contribute to the battle.
Thorst once again attacks the creature.
Thorst's blow severs the creature's head, and sends it flying across the room to bounce off the floor. Then Thorst helps Avarshinal get out of the gas. Anevia gets out of the gas on her turn.
Halara takes some lightning damage and Avarshinal takes some cold damage . Thorst and Valkyrie feel their nerves get jittery as the gas speeds up their perception of time. They feel like they start moving quicker, but they pay for it with uncontrollable trembling.
Combat over but you are still in the gas.
Val moves and grabs the chest before exiting the gas..
Halara helps.
With two stronger arms carrying the chest, Ophelia just scurries up the ladder.
All of you get outside of the room without too much more trouble. You can still smell some of the gas up here but it doesn't seem to be concentrated enough to have any effect.
Inside of the chest is five holy symbols of Iomedae stacked under a note that reads, “We don’t need these anymore, but figured if you survived our surprise, it would be just plain rude to leave behind an empty chest for your troubles!”
"Figures.."
You find that the gases in the lower hall has mostly escaped by now and it seems like you won't have to worry about it anymore.
"Are you freaking kidding me?" The woman does not find the thing funny, but makes a mental note to better scan the next people they find. "So, let's take a careful look downstairs?"
Halara also notices that the symbols to Iomedae are covered in a white paste.
"Careful not to touch that! There's a paste of some kind over it." She detects magic on it.
The paste is non magical.
"Any thoughts on the significance of these symbols?"