More kindling for the fires! Cyniq swings her dagger again.
+2 if she can get flanking, My turn, my turn, I want to hit it too!
Cyniq's tries her hand at attacking the manikin, but is unsuccessful. The manikin answers with an attack of it's own, but has equally bad luck.
"Leave my friends ALONE!" exclaims Zirt in frustration, stabbing her dagger wildly at the thing.
Starting to feel the aches of the day set in, Hiram swings again but much more clumsily this time.
"It worked once... by Iomedae's bountiful bosom be bested beast!" Dovak calls out as he steps to flank the last one.
;
The heros begin to gang up on the last manikin, but only Jaraim's attack proves true.
Cyniq delays and the final manikin strikes out at the adventurers.
It tries to swing at Hiram, but misses the agile Lore Warden.
Zirt stabs at the evil manikin again, but is much too distressed to help at all.
Cyniq takes a step up, I think my weapon is broken, it won't hit!
Just stand still, you over-grown pile of toothpicks!
Dovak takes a deep breath, concentrating his will into his strike. He swings his sword, not trying to destroy the puppet with strength alone, just trying to connect and let the blade to its work.
;
Cyniq stabs at the manikin and hits it, creating some wood shavings.
Hiram and Jaraim both manage to strike the final manikin and it falls to the ground in splinters.
"Well that was unpleasant but it seems we've found our man," Hiram says with a grimace.
"Well, that was unpleasant. I'm glad we made it through in one piece. What were those things?" Dovak asks while sheathing his sword.
"Some manner of animated servants, I'd expect. I'm familiar with the theories around them but their construction always varies from maker to maker. Now then, where did that fellow go?"
Search the room for clues!
Searching the room, Cyniq finds numerous pieces of alchemical equipment. Tucked under the worktable she finds a bottle of wine with the Cheliax standard on it. It looks to be old and expensive. Rummaging through the equipment she finds finds three flasks of alchemical fire, two flasks of acid, two flasks of holy water, and four vial-like flasks that appear to be potions.
Well look at this, our host has been kind enough to provide some recompense for the greeting we received.
Cyniq pulls the items out and takes a closer look while describing them to her companions.
Activating a detect magic spell, she takes another look around the room before studying the four bottles.
Cyniq examines the potions and find that they are two potions of CLW, a potion of Haste and the last is a potion of Mage Armor
"Impressive collection there. We should be ready to use those flasks as defoliants if the rumors about agressive plants prove to be true. Shall we move on?"
Zirt nods quickly, still looking with some horror at the fractured remains of the wooden manikins. "I do hope there aren't any more"—she shudders—"things like that! How perfectly horrid!"
"He doesn't seem quite right in the head. We should be wary." Dovak approaches the stairs with his lucerne hammer at the ready and looks at them.
"Looks safe, let's head on up." he says as he begins ascending.
Zirt follows the paladin, hoping that Mr. d'Aponte changes his mind and decides to be reasonable.
The party climbs the stairs and finds themselves in a laboratory. Alchemical equipment fills this laboratory. A ritual circle has been chalked on the floor in the center of the room. Within the circle stands a gaunt man in his early fifties. There is a collection of canopic jars at his feet. His clothes were once fine, but have faded and been repaired many times. Around him stand two young and frightened men. Their stained hands and bookish looks place them as students and initiates of the alchemical arts. The older man in the circle finishes quaffing from a bowl. The smell suggests it contains a concoction made from spices and wine. He then stares for a long moment. D'Aponte screams at you. How dare you interrupt my ritual! He turns to the two men. Get them!
"No!" cries Zirt shrilly, addressing the young men. "Don't! Listen to me... we're here on a peaceful mission, and your boss over there has done nothing but be rude to us ever since we got here! Do you know what happens to rude people? My mother says that rude people are like rotten apples! Do you want to be like a rotten apple?"
Taking a deep breath, she continues, exhorting her comrades. "Don't be afraid of this big meanie and his two maybe-rotten apples. Maybe they aren't rotten, but if not they'd better make up their minds fast. We don't want to hurt them, but..."
She trails off, but recommences her encouragement a moment later.
[ooc]Hello?[/ooc
Well that's no way to treat a lady!
Taking a look around, she tries to figure out what he is doing.
And she casts mage hand.
Zirt begins to inspire her comrades for the big confrontation.
Cyniq watches the crazy man closely, trying to discern what sort of magic is being used.
D'Aponte begins muttering arcane phrases, suddenly, a dog sized rat appears next to Dovak and attacks him. Luckily the rat-thing misses as Dovak dodges it's wicked looking teeth.
The two men move toward the back of the room and start lobbing flasks of flammable fluids. Both flasks hit their targets, exploding on impact, as Zirt's and Cyniq's clothes catch fire.
Cyniq pats the flames out, that was NOT nice!
Dovak draws his sword and slashes at the rat in front of him. "Iomedae guide me!" he cries as he swings.
;
Hiram recoils from the fire but then cautiously stalks toward d'Apointe with fury in his eyes.
Jaraim blesses the party.
Dovak swings his longsword and strike the rat down, it disappears into tendrils of mist.
Hiram stalks up to D'Aponte and opens a wide gash down the mans torso. D'Aponte looks as if he can barely stand after the grievous wound.
Zirt continues telling her story, but runs around the party in order to get a better angle from which to make sure the bad people hear it. Her words pierce them even as she continues to encourage her allies.
Zirt attempts to cast a spell, but the pain from being on fire causes her to falter and the spell fails.