Dante stands aside so the ever growing Kien can take point. He holds a hand to his blade as he speaks arcane words of power. The length of the blade crackles with electricity waiting to be unleashed.
The group prepares for battle while the loathsome creatures take their time to process the arrival.
End Surprise Round, Begin Combat Round 1
Luca
Tyrus
Fluffy
Dante
Kien
Maggot 1
Maggot 2
With her main spell cast and away, Luca's eyes glazed over in the common symptom of her summoning ritual. So help - for some definition of the term - was apparently on its way. Her Eidolon, on the other hand, was continuing to guard her.
Feeling guilty he couldn't help more, Tyrus continued to channel his power into Kien; this time in addition to the spell he used to use in place of a stepladder he added his patent jar-opening charm.
Kien blasts into the room full tilt, delivering a brutal jumping overhand smash!
Dante sidles up next to Kien and momentarily charges his blade with even more magical power. He then unleashes his held spell through the black blade.
Haste: Stuff
Arcane Pool: +1 to black Blade
Shield: +4 AC
Wasting no time on the attack, Kien and Dante enter the room and assault one of the monsters. The otherwordly-hide offers some resistance, but not enough to stop the Black Blade from easily penetrating it.
Kien's blow seems to have some of its potency robbed by the spongy, boneless nature of he creature's strange hide.
Acting an any thoughtless beast might, the maggots rear up and counterattack, one at each of the warriors.
The enormous feeding-parts of the maggots make contact, a wet thwack of flesh accompanied by the ripping of barbed boney hooks.
End Combat Round 1
Begin Combat Round 2
Luca
Tyrus
Fluffy
Dante (12 damage)
Kien (8 damage)
Maggot 1 (39 damage)
Maggot 2
Luca and Fluffy moved forward, though they remained in the hall - and Luca far enough back to try and remain out of danger. As she finished her chant, what looked like a head with crab-like legs appeared on the ground and scuttled around the grouping of maggots, aiming to catch it between its own body and Dante before it bit forth with a vicious snap of its stony jaws.
As soon as it was in position, the creature bit out at the maggots from its flanking spot. The maggots may have been interested in food, but apparently, they weren't the only ones...
for
Tyrus stepped forward to boost Dante's dexterity
Kien shrugs of the attack and growls, switching over his wrists to stab into the creature with the spikes on his cestus.
Dante unleashes another devastating arcane attack as the maggots take an immense amount of punishment fro the enlarged Kien and Luca's toothy summon. Kien changes tactics and begins ripping into the foe with the spikes on his cestus, tearing long jagged rents and unleashing a cascade of gore. His attempt to take it to the ground is confounded by the maggots enormous bulk and lack of legs, making it impervious to such tactics.
Despite the enormous wounds, Kien and Dante can see the flesh knitting back together with preternatural speed, repairing the few pulsating internal organs to keep the maggot living and feeding.
Despite being seemingly outmatched, the enemy has not the intelligence to retreat or alter tactics. It seems destined to be a slugging match to the death.
Kien
Dante
The first creature, enraged by its pain, throws itself once again at Kien - both feeding tentacles wrap around him, tearing at his skin. It advances, using its weight and brute strength to hold him tight. Its fellow only manages to land a single blow on Dante.
End Combat Round 2
Begin Combat Round 3
Luca/Dossenus
Tyrus
Fluffy
Dante (23 damage)
Kien (27 damage)
Maggot A (117 damage)
Maggot B
Kien roars and spits at the creature grappling him and starting tearing at it. The others already knew him to be a bit of a brutal pugilist, but he comes off as an animal as he rapidly jabs the creature on him, eyes wide with rage.
The strange, mostly-mouth creature Luca had summoned didn't waste any time as it continued to bite and tear at the mound of maggots, taking full advantage of its positioning to rip at them as fast as it could.
for
For her part, Luca muttered something under her breath... then a burst of Grease flew out of her hand to splatter over Kien's body and make him much harder for the enemy to hold on to. Not the most comfortable stuff, but hey, it worked. ...A lot of Luca's magic was like that, really.
Tyrus skipped to the side, Luca's spell giving his feet wings they hadn't had even when he was a young man. His hands fairly blurred through a simple firestarting evocation, repeating the moves again and again.
Tyrus, deftly judging the distance needed, bathes the remaining maggot in flames - but they barely manage to singe the monsters, leading the wizard to surmise that their diet of demon-flesh and blood had in fact imparted a hefty resistance to heat and fire.
Dante switches targets to focus on the creature which is attacking him.
As Luca's dossenus tears at its flank, Kien's hand-to-hand expertise come in handy as he is enveloped by the maggot's tendrils and crushed under its bulk. He continues to tear into it, his cestus reaching deep into the creature's savaged undercarriage to eviscerate internal organs. It finally convulses and becomes still, allowing the newly greased-up half-elf to push its corpse off of himself.
The remaining foe continues its attacks heedlessly even as its flesh knits itself back together.
It manages to lash Dante for a grievous blow, but his magical defense prevent it from pulling him in as the other maggot had Kien.
End Combat Round 3
Begin Combat Round 4
Luca/Dossenus
Tyrus
Fluffy
Dante (34 damage)
Kien (27 damage)
Maggot A (Dead)
Maggot B (20 damage)
As Luca did what she did best - hiding - the Dossenus rolled forward to strike at the other maggot with its gaping jaw.
for
"C-come on... just die already!" Luca whispered under her breath as she watched the melee.
With the creature off him Kien looks considerably calmer, but still breathing heavy as he lays into the next creature.
"Don't use fire!" cautions Tyrus.
Swallowing hard, the old mage throws caution to the winds and tries out his new 'combat spell', learned from the plundered journal. 'Hopefully they might be more amenable to acid'
Spell cast he circles around to help augment his young companions.
Near to fainting from blood loss, Dante ducks back from the front line of combat. He takes the healing potion from his belt and downs it.
Kien and Luca's summoned help continue their attacks as well, but Tyrus - perhaps thrown off by attempting to move so quickly - manages to miss the maggot and splash his acid arrow harmlessly into the far wall, eroding some of the inscriptions carved there. Kien in turn finds his attempts to throw the maggot to the ground entirely confounded by the monster's bulk.
The second maggot in turn turns to the other nearby target and manages to rear up and begin to smother Kien under itself just as its fellow had, one feeding tendril wrapped full around the bulky half-elf's throat.
End Combat Round 4
Begin Combat Round 5
Luca/Dossenus
Tyrus
Fluffy
Dante (29 damage)
Kien (58 damage)
Maggot A (Dead)
Maggot B (58 damage)
Kien reels, on the edge of death. But the edge means he's not over yet.
The Hasted power was wearing off now - Luca could only keep it going for 24 seconds or so - but things looked like they were progressing enough that she didn't need to save it. Instead, she focused on the link maintaining the Dossenus in this realm, urging it to help finish off the maggots.
for
Cursing himself for his choice of spells, and terrified as the two frontmen of his group are devestated by maggots, Tyrus prepares to buy time so Dante can get back to the fight. The spell he used against the goblins comes easily to his lips, and his hand starts to glow with the dark energy of necromancy. With a last muttered curse that has nothing to do with the spell he throws himself against the maggot's rear.
Slightly further from icey grip of death (the feel of which he already knows intimately well), Dante lifts his blade in weary hands and charges back in, expending the last of his magical reserves to empower it once more.
Between Dante's blade, Kien's slashing cestus, Tyrus's magic, and Luca's summoned set of jaws, the maggot's ability to regenerate is overwhelmed. With one final reedy scream, it collapses and is still.
Combat Over
Luca/Dossenus
Tyrus
Fluffy
Dante (29 damage)
Kien (58 damage)
As the seconds ticked by, Luca's summoned... mouth... melted into the floor and vanished, its time done and its presence no longer necessary. She gulped in air a moment later, slumping down slightly. "I-is everyone alright?" she squeaked out, looking at the heavy injuries her companions had sustained over a few minutes of doing things.
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'I.. I did it?' Tyrus wondered in shock as the Maggot writhed and fell - only to see Dante, sword still ichored - on the other side. 'I helped.' he clarified to himself.
"I'm fine. The boys don't look so good. Alright - no time to waste. The ichor in these things is worth it's weight in silver to the right alchemist. Luca, Dante; help me gather it." Tyrus left out the massive Kien, wondering that the young man was still upright. "Er, Kien, could you keep an eye out for intruders. I'll be with you in a moment."
Luca looked at her Eidolon. It just looked back, then yawned and sat down with a thump on the floor. Wincing, Luca turned to the piles, then began following the directions given to... obtain... the ichor.
Ew ew ew ew ew!
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With the rush of combat through, you are able to study the room more closely.
The Devil's Corpse looks both ancient and somehow newly dead, the enormous rents that the maggots had torn in it still seeping a thin, fiery-red blood.
The Skeleton In the Corner, wedged between the two cabinets or altars that line the wall, is wearing the remnants of ornate clothing. The glint of gold shines from parts of its belt, and in a circlet on its skeletal brow. It is clutching some manner of object, cradled in its arms.
The Makon Writing that lines the walls is everywhere, covering every possible surface save the floor itself. There is, however, a sizable portion high up on one wall marked by a large series of pictographs, seeming to indicate the 'beginning.'
What a strange time you've had of it. You've been in no shortage of scrapes in your life - many of them life or death - but enormous maggots and acid-blood creatures were never on the menu before. For a brief moment you consider the possibility that coming with these folks was a mistake...
Nah. You put the enemy on the ground in the end, right? You're standing and they're not (even if only just barely). This trip has been all right.
Every time you stray close to another source of power, the Void leans in. Learns. Grows. You feel a surge of it inside you, the familiar feeling of falling backward through an inky nothingness, and then suddenly you are yourself again.
The Void has learned much through you. To what end?
Temples, cities, sacrificial pits, all built for one person, this Priest-King. Enchantments the likes of which you've never seen woven for his benefit and protection. He had commanded more than respect. He had commanded fear.
He had commanded an entire nation, by force of his arcane might alone.
After they squeezed out a bit of ichor, Luca shut her eyes and began whispering rapidly under her breath in the odd tongue she often dropped into when casting or talking to the things she summoned.
<I've had quite enough of you... you're forcing me to stay alive no matter who you have to hurt in the process, but that's not going to work if my other defenders get killed. Maybe I can't make you explain anything, but if you don't at least help me protect others better, I will fight you at every turn. This is my body, and I won't let you control it.>
Slowly, the pressure in her mind began to increase... and she grit her teeth as she threw her will against it.
The pressure paused at that, then withdrew. In its place came a sensation against her eyes, and for a moment, the vision in her right eye changed. Most of the world went black, but the edges of everything she saw were highlighted in bright blue. As her hand rose up of its own accord, her vision focused on it, and various magic symbols began to appear. Somehow, her sight grabbed them, spinning them into a circle and etching the change into her. Her vision returned a moment later... and she felt a slap in her mind as knowledge on how to use whatever had just been done flooded into her without care for how she felt.
"Um. I. Um. S-sorry, this may feel weird." Luca said, wincing as she put a hand on the heavily-injured Kienyach.
for
Kien has goosebumps run down his spine as the healing sets in, but barely standing and weaving like a drunk man barely able to stand makes him not complain too much about what little healing he can get.
While his vial filled with ichor, Tyrus looked around.
As a boy Tertius had dreamed about such places; pyramid tombs of ancient wizard-kings. Fantasised that one day he might create his own.
As a young man, of course, he had given up on dreams of becoming some wizard-king raising arcane monuments. He'd studied archaeology in the hope that one day he might be the first to stand in such a place since it was sealed.
As a new father the last gasp of his dream - of one day being part of a team that might visit such a site - finally died. He accepted his place, as just another low level scholar making peace with the mundane reality of everyday life.
Then had come the end of everything. The death of Tertius, and the birth of Tyrus.
Now he stood in the sort of place young Tertius had dreamed of. An ancient tomb of a Makon wizard-king. Wrought upon the walls were secrets, secrets the rest of the world had forgotten.
The dream flickered back into life - or unlife. Perhaps one day Tyrus Regulus Veneficus might be such a king. In a few short months he had all but equalled his wife's years of study. The path of necromancy had taken him from Neophyte to true Wizard. Perhaps he only had months ahead of him - but how far might a determined man travel in such a time?
At Luca's words he turned from his contemplation to see the injured Kienyach healed by Luca. Occult power from another place - or another time - seemed not so much to heal the injury as reverse the damage. Somewhere deep inside Tertius quails at the idea of what this might mean for his charge Luca, but Tyrus strangles the doubt with his newfound strength.
"Well done, Luca. Astounding! A day's healing in a moment! Might you do the same for Dante?"
Like a child given a minute in a candy store to eat his fill, Tyrus rushes almost comically from one wonder to the next.
First he quickly checked for runes, symbols and magical wirtings with his inner eye, then allowed his mind to take in some of the words he saw. Not yet taking the time to decode everything, just looking to see if from here he could make sense of the writing that covered the room - and the temple.
Careful to touch nothing he peers over the skeleton in the corner. 'No fitting resting place for a king. Killed by the devil in the room?' he wonders, and looks at the cracks in the bone to deduce what brought this man - or woman - low.
He notes the glint of gold on belt and circlet. Greed rises as he remembers stories of magical circlets of the mind, and belts of health. Yet it is the cradled object that draws the most attention, and he unleashes his inner eye first on that.
Finally he comes to the devil's corpse. Carefully he checks to ensure the wounds do not still heal; stories of such beings returning from the dead are as apocalyptic as they are apocryphal. Next he attempts to use his memory of Grasyon's Taxonomy of Fiends to place the crature in the hierarchy of the hells. Finally he tries to determine what brought such a creature low in the first place.
Deep in her trance, Luca just nodded slightly as another flow of energy sunk into Kienyach's body to repair the wounds he'd suffered. It was... well, 'safe' didn't seem the right word to use because she could feel the aggressiveness of the ability, but maybe 'effective' would do?
Finally, she sat back with a sigh. "Y-you should be fine now." she said, looking him over. He was clearly still hurt, but he was far from the edge of death now, and that was the important thing. Blinking, she looked around, and she watched for a few moments as Tyrus studied the various bits in the room. Eventually, her gaze passed over the writing-
-and she paused. "Maybe I can figure this out." she said, scooting over to take a closer look. Her Eidolon came with her, and Luca did a double-take as she saw it again. "...When did you get bigger?" she asked. It sneezed, but gave no other answer, and Luca shook her head - a little worried - before she continued examining the writing.
As you open your 'inner eye' the first thing you realize is the entire room is soaked in the twisted, violent auras of blood sacrifice. Hundreds of lives were spent over a period of dozens of years to further the ends of the Priest-King.
The writing itself is not magical, but the auras have a strange interplay with the pictographs that takes you a moment to figure out. Then it clicks - while the writing is not magical, something about the writing was a part of whatever ritual first summoned the devil. You aren't able to decipher enough of the writing quickly to figure out why, though.
This, surely, was once the Priest-King, the Devil-Eater himself (and now it seems more obvious how he came by that name). It does not seem as if he came by his end through any manner of trauma - the skeleton is in pristine condition. You surmise that, if he had been driven down here by an uprising or attack of some kind on the complex, he may have simply died of thirst or starvation. If the devil itself had been able to help stave that off, the king may have been down here for a very long time for him to exhaust that avenue of 'nourishment.' It is difficult to say what the exact case is, though.
Your inner sight easily discerns the object clutched within its arms - a thonged lash, bright with protective enchantments. This is clearly the 'key' you had been seeking.
To your disappointment, none of the king's garments seem to have any enchantment other than the preservation charm which affects so many things here. They are, however, ornate and finely made of precious materials. In raw materials alone they would be valuable, but their historical significance makes them worth a very great deal indeed - to the right buyer.
[ooc]Devil's Corpse
This is most certainly the corpse of a devil in the literal sense, a creature from the plane of Law and Evil known as the Hells. Whether or not the fiend's spiritual being was destroyed, this particular vessel is no longer fit for habitation, and will not pose any immediate threat.
The devil itself is odd. Even with the rents and eating of the maggots you can tell it was once quite enormous - but most of its bulk was stomach. It also appears to have been... a child? Some manner of youth? It has the enlarged facial features indicative of infancy in most earthly creatures, so it is a reasonable guess - but it is hard to say of a creature such as a devil.
The cause of its death is plain enough. It has a massive amount of saggy skin, the result of a carcass that once once wrapped around much more volume. This devil starved to death long ago. Only its otherworldly nature allow any of its potency to remain for the maggots to feast on.
Now quite versed with getting quick translations of the Makon script, you are able to skim the massive amount of writing to get a summary.
What is set down in this room is the true account of the Priest-King's life, with every lie, deceit, and monstrous act recorded as accurately as he could recall. Unlike other official accounts kept by his government which were heavily edited and propagandized, this record is the closest to the abject truth as he could get. It tells of acts such as his murder of his own father, his succession from his birth kingdom to found his own nation, taking of other noble's wives as his own, and even the sacrifice of his own son to serve as vessel for the devil that further empowered him.
These transgressions against the customs and mores of his own people in pursuit of power are laid bare on the walls around you, in a private confession to the very devil he had summoned (or perhaps, to some yet greater devil - it is unclear without more study) and as part of his bargain in exchange for power. It is a quite voluminous history.
"Um... i-if we can stay here for awhile, I can write this down." Luca said, gesturing to the writing on the walls. "I think the, um, it translates something like 'Priest-King' wrote this himself, trying to describe his life as accurately as he could. I think it will provide a better record of this site than anything else, a-and it's what most people sending expeditions here probably want to find."
"I believe this was the Devil-Eater himself. He carries his lash - which I suspect is the key we have been seeking. If he still carries it then there is a good chance the warded areas are still untouched. His garments are surprisingly well preserved; while worth perhaps 25 gold in materials, if we could get them to the right supplier - Horl would know - then we might get as much as seventy gold for them."
"It is a devil." Tyrus decides. "Appears to have starved to death."
"Please, forgive my enthusiasm Dante - and Kien. It seems there is no obvious threat. I'll dress your wounds now."
Tyrus's attention wanders during the next four hours, surrounded as he is by the mysteries of the Makon and the fulfilment of his boyhood dreams.
Tyrus pauses, needle in one hand and Dante's scalded arm in the other and considers. "We know the orcs are gathered outside. The last time we dealt with Jungle Orcs master Forgelight said that if driven off they would wait to attack until they had overwhelming numbers. I suspect that if we leave this Temple we will be ambushed by an orc band with far greater numbers than last time. They will wait until we are tired, and we will be loaded with our spoils." He looked around "Potentially we could gather food from the garden and 'camp out' in the Temple proper. I'm sure after a while they'll assume we perished. It must be hard for them to keep a large band on guard duty - though the secret would be that when we leave we need to leave quickly."
Nodding slightly, Luca helped Tyrus with some of the efforts to heal up the rest of the group. The rest of the time, she busied herself with an exacting translation (and copy of the original writing) from the walls. She wasn't sure how much it was worth, but it ought to be something, right? It was a good chance to practice her calligraphy, too.
"So. Kien." Tyrus commented as he worked on the half-elf's wounds. "We've found treasure enough to last a good long while. More than a few crowns each - what do you plan to do when we get back to civilisation?"
While interested in the reply, his eye drifted to the roof, where the sacrificial channels would have fed blood down. Right... about... there.
The walls reminded him of the outputs where they'd fought poor Kelsa. His eyes narrowed at the memory, and he reconsidered the idea Kelsa had taken Planestone to the ruins. Perhaps - just perhaps - she had found it there.
"So. Kien." Tyrus commented as he worked on the half-elf's wounds. "We've found treasure enough to last a good long while. More than a few crowns each - what do you plan to do when we get back to civilisation?"
"Treat myself like one of the masters. Go to a good inn, buy so much food and spirits that I make myself sick eating it, and pass out in the arms of a woman." He shrugs. "After that probably find more work. Need something to do I suppose."
Tyrus stops, looks over to Luca, and then looks back. He grins wryly "As your doctor, I suggest three different events, then. No long term plans, I take it?" the grin fades "Nothing with these 'masters'?"
Luca simply blinked at Kienyach's words, then tilted her head a little to the side. "Um, I don't know much about medicine, but I think Mister Tyrus is right." she said, turning back to the inscriptions and continuing to copy them down.
The more you consider the plan to simply wait until the orcs get bored, the more you realize it has a potentially different end-game. You do not know the specific reason the orcs seem reluctant to enter the temple grounds, out of reverence, or fear, or something else. If it's fear, then they may gather enough warriors to come inside after you in time. It seems likely that waiting will result in either them getting bored and giving up, or entering the temple in pursuit - a potentially lethal gamble.
Acid burns, lacerations, torn flesh and at least one dislocated elbow. Kien is not in good shape - but with careful care and a large stock of unguents, he'll recover.
Makon ritual sacrifice is fairly well-documented in the few histories you've read of the people, and for the most part - in the rest of the culture - it is not unwilling. The majority of human sacrifices were willing, insofar as they saw it as an honor to be so offered. While less well-recorded, there is evidence to believe that the civilization largely believed that spirit sacrificed to powerful entities in some way 'ascended' to become a part of that power.
From what you saw in the temple, this particular offshoot of the civilization had broken that taboo. However, rather than risking the involvement of ruinous powers, the Priest-King skipped the middleman, so to speak: he was dealing directly with the Hells, and the blood sacrifices he offered were part of his end of the bargain. Worship of demons, devils, and daemons was rare among the Makon, who were skilled and knowledgeable summoners and understood the dangers of consorting with them.
From what you can see, the sacrifices went to feeding the devil whose remains lie before you. From the nickname (Devil-Eater) of this particular priest-king, it seems likely that the sacrifices fueled the devil and the devil in tun imparted a part of this power back to the Priest-King.
You would need to translate more of the writing to know the full story, but it seems that in his ambition the so-called Devil-Eater had entered directly into a bargain with a devil or devils, offering up blood, souls, and perversions in exchange for power. It is telling that the devil was locked into this very difficult-to-access pyramid - possibly the Priest-King was not being honest with his people about the source of his powers.
As to the specifics of what the Devil-Eater was after, or what larger plans he might have had, you would need to investigate further.
You see no specific evidence that Emerine or Kelsa had been in this complex, and in fact the overall feel of the two locations is somewhat different. The Makon were a far-flung civilization and worshiped pretty much any kind of extra-planar power they could find, and their shrines and temples are popular destinations for researches and magicians of all stripes. While there may indeed have been investigators to the complex before your own group, it is unlikely that Kelsa or Emerine were among them.
"On reflection, without knowing the Orcs' motivation for avoiding the temple, I'm not sure 'waiting them out' is a good plan. On one hand if they believe the temple slew us they might leave us along. On the other, they might simply keep calling in more Orcs until they believe they have enough to survive the complex themselves." Tyrus looked into the distance "In fact, given it is only midday I am tempted to push on today. Try to open the temple doors, even if we immediately slam them shut."
"Luca - your miraculous healing. Do you believe you have any more within you? Enough to return Dante and Kien to fighting form? Or return one, at least." He turns to the door outside "If you think you can, then I suggest we risk it. If not, then we will need to rest for the night before we try. In that case I suggest we set about salvaging what we can in preparation to flee this place, lest tonight be the night the orcs find their courage."