"Yes, they are Iomedae Symbols. Probably they were using them to pass for regular folks in the city."
The party takes 20 on the bottom level to investigate it, and also tries to identify the paste.
The only thing in the basement that you can find of value seems to be the small statue of the marilith that destroyed the glass bottle in the first place. The statue seems like it would be worth 250 gp to the right kind of collector.
"I dunno, but probably best not to linger.. Shall we move on to the next location?"
Opheila recognizes the paste as Malayse Root Paste. A poison that can sap someone's speed and agility if they come into contact with it.
"Oh!" Ophelia says as recognition flares in her mind. "Be careful! That is Malayse Root Paste. It is a poison that saps speed and agility upon physical contact. As for moving on, I agree that is our best option; I think that we have done everything that can be done here."
"I figured there would be something wrong in this... So let's make haste!" And thus the female party moves after the next safe house.
You travel along the ruin streets of Kenabres until you arrive at the Tower of Estrod. This sixty-foot-diameter gray stone tower is missing the bulk of its upper floors—some terrific force smashed its upper sections away, creating huge mound of rubble north of the building and leaving the tower now a mere stump with a jagged top. A stout wooden door can be seen as the only entrance to the tower.
Val will move up and take a listen at the door.
Valkyrie can hears two men whispering about how they hate being on guard duty, and wish they could just leave this place and get to where the real action is staring.
She whispers to her crew.. "Either their good guys guarding something or badguys in which case we handle it.."
Ophelia close to Val.
"Any reason not to just open the front door? We will learn soon enough if they are friendly."
Val opens the door and adopts a full defensive posture as she enters the room..
Halara uses their surprise card! "Hey, we've got new material for the archives."
As Val tries to open the door she finds that it is locked. The voices go silent until Halara speaks. You hear the door being unlocked and a man opens it for you.
"What's with you trying to open the door before saying the password?!? Geez, it's password then door. Try to remember that, the next guards might not be so forgiving."
The man stands back to let you into the room.
Halara remains serious, not being able to pretend a nice smile. Serious would do, anyway. "That's because we found the last Safe Houses in ruins and deserted. Do you know what happened?"
Ophelia holds her tongue and lets Halara do the talking.
One of the men shrugs.
"Probably a demon. They don't care what they destroy as long as they destroy it. Anyways, Faustin is waiting for your report in the back."
Halara uses the opportunity to try to obtain some more covert information from the helpful man. "Yeah. You should be careful, tough. We saw some paladins or whatever they are a few blocks from here. Is there enough security here?"
Halara looks at Ophelia and Valkyrie, winking for them.
The cultists shake their heads at Halara's words.
"Don't try and make yourself seem cooler new meat. We know there aren't any paladins nearby. Just go on back and speak to Faustin. Security is as good as it needs to be."
Val follows Halara to the back..
Traveling to the back you pass through a barracks set up for more cultists. In the back itself is a semicircular room with a tiefling in it. The semicircular room itself is empty except for a few bookshelves against the walls and a single desk and chair sit in one corner. A huge set of wood and metal double doors stands in the south wall. The tiefling is a red skinned man with four horns sprouting from his forehead. A tail swishes from behind him as he gazes at you all. A small scorpion also gazes at you from his shoulder.
"Ah, a reporting group good. Tell me everything you have seen and hand over everything you have found so far."
"Well, first it's important to report that the two other safe houses we were appointed to were in ruins, and second" - she takes her Fauchard in both hands - "we found these spear with an overwhelmingly aura of good, which may be an artifact! Here, take a look!" And with that she swings with all her strength at the enemy, aiming for the head!
!
Ophelia quickly Creates a Pit in an area that would hamper her enemies and help her allies the most.
Val enchants her weapon and tries to move into flank on the tiefling..
Thorst also moves up to attack the man.
But the man's natural armor seems to get in the way and Thorst's blade doesn't connect.
Two of the cultists fall into the pit, while the cultist leader steps back and casts a spell before disappearing. The other cultists pull out crossbows and fire at Ophelia and Thorst.
But neither of the bolts come even close to hitting the party.
He cast invisibility.
Aneiva takes a shot at a cultist and Avarshinal casts a summmoning spell.
But her arrow also goes wide.
Val follows and attacks the square the tiefling was in before disapperaing.
she attacks twice
With no other immediate threat in her sight and not entirely sure how to reveal an invisible foe without Glitterdust, Ophelia instead opts to take cover from the enemy crossbow fire.
Halara moves closer to the other cultists and strikes at one of them from reach, expecting they would move inside her threatened area!
!
Valkyrie doesn't feel any connection with her blade.
Thorst also moves up and gets ready to attack any man climbing out of the pit.
You hear someone walking away next to Valkyrie and Ophelia. It sounds like they are near Avarshinal.
You can clearly see that invisible man is right in front of Avarshinal.
The cultists continue to fire crossbow bolts as they two cultists in the pit try to climb out. the two cultists at the door come back and also fire from crossbows.
Neither cultists can seem to get out of the pit with their bulky armor weighing them down. The crossbow bolts from the cultists go wide except for one that hits Halara and leaves a painful wound in her side.
Anevia fires another shot while a bat suddenly appears near you all. Avarshinal speaks to the creature.
"Attack the cultists."
The bat flies into the pit and attacks one of the cultists down there.
Aneiva's shot goes wide while the bat fails to find purchase in the fallen cultist's armor.
Ophelia is too worried about getting hit by crossbows to notice anything. However, she know that her Pit is going to last roughly twelve more seconds, and she knows a spell that will keep her out of sight for eighteen. As such, the elf decides to cast that to get closer to the battle to assess the situation without being turned into a pincushion.
Halara takes a step back to protect the blind elf, in case someone show up there, and readies an action to strike if the enemy appear.
Val waits for any sign of the tiefling which she suddenly gets as the man reappears and fires a spell at Avarshinal which he manages to do even with a new wound being opened up in him by Halara.
Val then steps up and strikes at the wizard.
Which causes the tielfing to collapse.
Two of the cultists retreat after seeing their leader fall while the other two fire again at the half orc..
The two cultists in the pit attack the bat.
Anevia fires another shot at a cultists.
having her arrow score a blow against one of the cultists still wielding a crossbow while Avarshinal cries out in pain from the fire.
The bat continues to attack a cultist in the pit.
But it still fails to hurt the man.
Halara stores her Fauchard and draws a crossbow, positioning herlself beside Anevia to take a look at her injuries.
Ophelia continues to hide under the cover of her Vanish spell. She begins looking for a place to drop her second Pit.
Anieva doesn't appear very wounded except for the crossbow bolt in her side.
A cardinal on the other hand has some serious wounds from the cultist leader's attack.
Val move sup and prepares to attack after the pit spell is done.
The two cultists who aren't still in the pit begin to retreat leaving their comrades to die. The two men in the pit continue to fight on.
One of the men is able to score a blow against the bat causing it reel back before it attacks.
But it still cannot land a blow. Anevia advances to the edge of the pit and fires down into it at one of the remaining cultists.
But her archery once again fails her as her arrow misses.
"Ophelia, dimiss that pit so that we may be done with these fellows.."
Right on cue, the Pit vanishes, albeit of it's own accord rather than that of Ophelia.
Now seeing the men reappear in melee range as the bat is pushed to the ceiling Thorst and Halra move up to attack.
Under their combined attacks one of the cultists is brought down.