Carl continues to summon eldritch sparks and throw them at the devil.
The Lemure grunts in satisfaction at the Pack's worry then dodges their lance maneuver, but the Silver Shadow's electrical attack continues to fair well.
"Silver coming right up," Tossing her whip aside, Blue Thorn steps forward and draws her silver morningstar. She advances on the creature and strikes at it.
The Blue Thorn's swing has deadly force behind it, but misses wide as accuracy was sacrificed for power.
I have to do *something*. Swallowing his disgust, the Beast moves to the edge of the sludge pool and tries to tear into the devil with his fangs.
Darius readies to aid Blue Thorn with her strike.
Adun's frustration grows as the creature continues to survive the group's attacks. Wary of the damage it could cause he strikes again.
As the Lemure dodges the Beast's attack, the Pale Knight smacks it in the side, sending ripples through the devil's body.
The devil, feeling more cornered now, slips back a step and strikes at the Beast! Striking once with a fleshy SLAM.
Carl, becoming slightly nervous that they will be joined by others, tries to speed things up by firing two bolts.
"Die vile creature!" the Blue Thorn calls out as she swings her silvered morningstar again.
silver damage
The Silver Shadow's first bolt strikes true, burrowing into devil and causing it to colapse backwards with a slash. Luckily saving Blue Thorn the need to wade into the waist deep murky water in order to reach where the Lemure had been.
The cistern that you're currently catching your breath in seems void of much other than rumble and filth. Further down are open rooms that have also fallen mostly into disrepair. Chunks of plaster hang from the walls, exposing rough stonework beyond. From you current vantage you can see scattered furnishings that once would have outfitted bunkrooms, a kitchen, and even an armory. The doors are seen hanging from hinges in the crumbling archways that lie between the chambers.
Blue Thorn holds her silver weapon high for another half-minute before she tosses it over the side of the fountain. Climbing out of the muck, she takes out a rag and wipes her face.
"Bloody devils," she remarks as she digs in the satchel on her waist. From the pouch, she produced a handful of vials filled with a silvery liquid. "This should help if we run into more of those things."
"You're very well-prepared, Thorn. That will certainly help should we face more of these devils." The Fiend takes the vial from Blue Thorn's hand.
The Fiend looks around the room, and notices the furnishings, moving his light source closer to the living quarters.
"I think we've found the hideout we're looking for."
Carl shudders. "Could use a little industrious tidying up, first."
Adun wipes devil gunk off his cloak and the flicks it from his gauntlets. "I could use one of those for next time, thanks," he says to Blue Thorn, slipping one of the vials into his belt pouch.
"We could get this cleaned up and rebuilt pretty quickly," he states, standing with hands on hips, surveying the rooms.
Carl stands and listens carefully for sounds of other inhabitants.
"No way PK," Brianna laughs as she stows her morningstar and picks up her whip. "This place is far too creepy. Let's fall in, in case there's any more surprises. We'll do a sweep of the room together, starting with those boxes over there."
"Yes, something's nesting over there, it looks like."
"Over by those boxes?" Adun asks, moving over to look around the crates he'd spotted in the corner. He gauntlets are raised defensively as he checks the area for more infernal inhabitants.
"Yes, I saw some movement over there as well," the Fiend replies.
"One would hope it's just some mice, but that doesn't seem to be our luck today."
The Pale Knight cautiously clears the room and confirms to onlookers that it is as empty of inhabitants as it appears. The nest seems empty as well, though specific skills would be needed to glean more from it.
At last opening the crates, you find the first contains an exceptional suit of leather armor, a composite shortbow (+1 Str), a masterwork quality hand crossbow, a masterwork silver morningstar, a cloak, and a pouch of a dozen pearls.
The second crate contains a locked, watertight iron coffer.
The third contains what looks at first like ancient straw, but even a cursory examination reveals its actual contents—six silver raven figurines.
"Nesting?" says Carl. "As in birds' nests?" He looks at them and then peers with more care at the ceiling and rafters (if there are any). It seems unlikely to him that birds would live underground, but he knows they do build nests.
"I think we found what we were looking for," Blue Thorn remarks as she looks over the raven statues. "Gather all this up, and let's get back to Laika. And Rexus; if something's wrong out there, I don't think we could hear it from here."
"Birds, rats, lots of things make nests." the Beast says with a shrug. When he crates are opened, he picks up the morningstar. "This would've coming in mighty handy against those devils, wouldn't it?" And a sign from the goddess, too? he thinks, remembering how often Milani is depicted with a morningstar. Unless someone else makes a strong argument for it, he'll hook it to his belt.
"Agreed, let's get back upstairs and check on Rexus. We can bring him down here to make sure we haven't missed anything, now that we've cleared it out," Adun suggests.
"Sounds like a plan." The Pack agrees with the Pale Knight.
With the found items packed up, the group heads back the way it came and up the ladder. Getting Laika back upstairs is not easy but you are all able to awkwardly maneuver it together.
Back in the room that the ladder descended from the dogs can still be seen watching quietly through the gate you had closed. Once one of you sticks your head out, a solitary and deep WOOF fills the large adjacent room. Oddly enough, the blood that had begun weeping from the walls in here is now gone with no sign of its passing.
"I have an idea," Blue Thorn announces, stowing her whip-dagger and unfurling her normal whip. She lines up accross from the door. "Let me get a crack off at the closed door, then someone open it. If I can get them to back off, everyone can make a run for the front gate."
Blue Thorn readies to use her whip to Intimidate the dogs, if someone opens the door for her.
"The wall back here was damaged, Thorn. Perhaps we can break it down? We could avoid fighting the dogs. I see no reason to harm them or our selves."
The Fiend points the wall opposite the door that he had noticed was damaged when initially surveying the building.
"If that wall is safe to bring down, maybe we just should. That poor mama is just trying to defend her pups."
”Leaving it might be better. We can use this place for a hideout. The more entrances it has, the better the odds someone wanders in and discovers what’s down here.”
Agnes scrunces up her nose. "Ew. I dont want a hideout with a stinky pool of goop. Who knows that kind of diseases you get from that."
"We can clean out that pool of goop," Adun replies, "this place would serve as a great hideout. We can restore the livery to provide cover and use the cellars below."
He looks over at Blue Thorn. "Seems like a good plan. Let's go," he says, moving over towards the door.
Carl lingers a bit, looking dubiously at the dilapidated cellar. Perhaps there is potential here for something better, he thinks, and is struck by the feeling that it is an observer inside his head who is speaking, not his own musings. He shakes himself slightly and steps quickly to follow the others.
"Whatever we decide about this place, it's time to go," she wraps up her whip. "At least for now. If we can get that door open, then we should exit that way and avoid the dogs."
The large mastiff lies on its belly but appears prepared to pounce. The two smaller dogs are becoming excited and wander around the floor, yipping and looking back and forth between the larger mastiff and the gate.
"What do you think, Pale Knight?" Blue Thorn prods. "Can we get through the wall and avoid the dogs altogether?"
"Looks like it. The base of the wall is weak here," Adun says, pointing out where the masonry is crumbling, "probably due to previous damage and damp ingress. We could chip a crawlspace through and get it repaired without compromising the rest of the wall. Probably easier than taking on that angry dog again."
Blue Thorn takes her morningstar out it's holster and gets down on one knee. "Watch me up there, PK." Placing her hand on the butt of the handle, she begins pound out a crawlspace from the bottom, leaving plenty of time between strikes for the Pale Knight to warn her of collapse.
Carl keeps an eye out for trouble from other directions, nervously watching the other exits and the roof.
Blue Thorn is able to chip away the wall over the course of ten minutes. Slipping through the opening and around the building to where you left Rexus, you find him waiting anxiously.
"So how was it in there? Any sign of the Silver Ravens? Coast has been clear out here, only a little sound of hammering just a moment ago and a lot of periodic dog barking." the man rattles off quickly.
"Ow yes, there was a poor hungry mama dog with puppies in there. She was real scared of us, poor thing."
Agnes clearly has her own set of priorities for this mission.
As he makes his way out of the crawl space, Darius pats off any remaining dust before answering Rexus. "We managed to find some gear, and some abandoned living quarters. Most of note were some rather unsubtle silver raven figurines, though I don't know if they give us any more information on the Silver Ravens as a group."
"Huh, well that at least is in the right direction. I'm guessing you brought everything out with you? Alright, I've been itching to get off this street. With those dogs barking it's only time until some dottari wander through here. Follow me, I know a safe place where we can spend some time and figure things out." With nods of agreement Rexus heads off into the shadows.
Slinking through the street he leads you quietly along the river and again over the Bleakbridge, then up into Villegre. Despite still being dark, you can tell the night is beginning to draw to a close as early risers have started to get a hasnd on the day. Approaching the Long Roads Coffeehouse, Rexus lets down his hood and steps out into the street. Mingling with the sparse foot traffic, he opens the front door and ushers you all inside.
A halfling woman is busy arraigning pastries and pouring coffee as a handful of patrons quietly enjoy their early hours. On seeing you all, "Oh, it has been so long! Such a pleasure to have you all back here! My my, we have some catching up to do. Please, take this tray dear?" and she hands Rexus a simple tray of 8 cups and a carafe. "Make yourselves comfortable in the back room, I'll be there once I've seen to Ms. Jones." Rexus naturally rolls with it and continues on as she directed.
Bemused, Carl follows Rexus into the back room. I don't think I've ever been here before, he thinks. Then it dawns on him that she is covering for them, and his cheeks turn pink.