Pugwampis-25
Kori-17
Keth-11
Apollo-11
Angmar-10
Dmitri-9
Sabeen-9
Sabeen drops her ruined crossbow-it clatters to the ground woodenly as her face contorts again in another display of arcane power.
The creature closes its eyes and begins snoring, only to fall off of the rafter and onto the chapel floor below, nearest Dmitri in area H14.
The pugwampi in front of Apollo flips him off before making some gestures. The arcane magic lashes at his hammer, but the hammer doesn't budge even a little bit.
The remaining pugwampi in the rafters shrieks, clambers onto the nearest rafter, dashes to the northern balcony, and leaps out the broken window.
The pugwampi that landed on the ground stands in a daze, having just been woken by a bone-crushing fall.
umm 0 damage!
Apollo notices the creature eyeing up his hammer and comments; What's the deal? You got some strange love for my face breaker?, before shrugging and running at the creature with a hard and powerful kick, sending it flying over the edge!
Heads up Keth! Pugly incoming! Apollo shouts, as he boots the creature from the balcony.
Dmitri realized that if he wanted to hit this thing, then he was going to have to sober up from his unadulterated fury, so he began to scan the room again to see how the battle had progressed.
Apollo had climbed the rafters to knock another pugwampi to the ground from above, and all kinds of noises were invading his ears from on high. Sabeen's crossbow had been destroyed by these creature's wicked magic, and everyone else seemed to be doing moderately well. No one had taken any real blows.
He swung his weapon again, though more gentle, hoping that the blade would reach, but alas, he seemed to be fumbling all over himself.
Now that there are more targets on the ground, Kori decides to go after one of the buggers at her level. She saunters up to the one that just passed out and smacked into the floor, swinging at it casually, bored by how long the exchange has taken. She has a solid swing coming, but somehow just clips the end of the broken pew beside the thing, sending her strike just wide.
Keth looks up and shoots an acid dart at the nearest Pug
Why don't you make me
miss
Angmar looks around for the nearest foe and closes with the pesky critter to end it's feeble life now and here.
Every attack leveled against the pugwampis misses, and Sabeen's lost interest and focus, staring at a wall whilst whistling.
The pugwampis, dazed and injured, shriek and run away as fast as their little legs can carry them, dodging past attacks and swings and around feet as they run, making it out of the chapel before anyone can really do anything about it.
Curious as to what exactly was behind the cloth walls upstairs, Apollo climbs back down the ladder, looks up towards the ceiling, spotting more cloth instead of the beams he's been used to seeing.
Placing himself under the cloth ridden area, with all of his might he slings his Earth Breaker up towards the ceiling, ever so slightly forwards, so that it doesn't land on him on the way back down.
Head's up guys! Hammer in the air! he shouts, as he warns everyone so they have time to step aside.
The hammer flies up quickly, but fails to reach the necessary height and crashes to the ground near some pews.
Kori watches Lizard-friend hurl his overlarge hammer, is reminded of a joke about men obsessed with large weapons and realizes three of the men she's with each have one, then stares at the space he threw the thing at. She looks at the cloth space above, follows the rafters back to the other platform, then to the ladder he went up, then returned on.
Slowly, she eyes the connecting beams, the platforms and the ladder, before deciding on a course of action. She heads for the ladder and begins to climb up it.
We should find their hideout quickly and root em out while their scared... Angmar remarks as the Pugwampi's run away. Else they'll come back to haunt us...
Missed! I have a feeling Angmar that this may be it.
Apollo throws his hammer at the cloth once more, with more power than ever, in hope that it will smash a hole through the cloth, or at the very least cave it in, so anything above it will come falling to the ground.
]Dmitri watched as the creature fled, furious at the fact that it would even attempt such a thing after what it had done.
He gave chase for about 20 feet, but stopped realizing that it wouldn't be good to split up and leave his female allies behind. He looked at his scythe, and was rather teary eyed at it's destroyed visage. He turned to look at Keth, or Sabeen.
He held the weapon out to them, revealing the bristled bits.
"Might... Might either of you be able to fix this?
He mostly looked to Sabeen.
Sabeen quietly pads over to Dmitri, gives his scythe a quick glance, and then turns around to pad the other direction. "Perhaps...tomorrow...", she says.
Apollo's hammer flies far up into the rafters, ripping one of the cloths simply from force of impact, and then comes back down, colliding heavily with the ground. Nothing falls through, and only the ceiling, heavily rotted, is made visible by the tear.
Well that was disappointing. How about the next one?
Apollo throws his hammer one last time at the other segment of Cloth, in hope that treasure or something of worth drops down as the cloth tears.
Still a little tired from the last throw however, the hammer doesn't go far, and so Apollo picks up his hammer once more and shrugs.
Well guys. It seems there's nothing left here, so why don't we further explore this place? We can pick up the dropped items from our fallen foe here, when the Caravan arrives. No point lugging loot around that'll only weigh us down!
Walking over to Nom, Apollo pats him on the head, walks slightly ahead and beckons him over.
Come on Nom. You've eaten enough. If you're still hungry we can come back later!
The dark haired man smirks.
Seeing that the tear in the cloth was enough to get Lizard-friend to stop throwing his stupid hammer around, Kori stops climbing and returns to the group. "Do they even have anything worth taking?" she turns over one of the bodies with her toes, giving it a cursory once over.
As a suggestion she adds, "Pain-lover, why don't you take Camel-talker's blade. He doesn't seem to use it much. Yours looks like crap." She doesn't get the emotional attachment these men have with their weapons. She is reminded, though, and goes to see if she can recover the two javelins she threw. They might be useful again.
Elf woman! Ye don't understand that a man an his weapon haves a strong bond and commitment to one another! It's part of one's soul and ye ancestor's find they ways in the steel to guide your strikes!
Then the Dwarf shakes his head incredulously Elves... he mutters before speaking up to the groupThen let us venture on there's still much to explore here...
Kori shakes her head, not really understanding Red-beard's point, "It's a weapon. You kill with it. If it's no good, you grab another, and if that breaks, another. They're just tools. You worry about killing with just one, and you may not be killing at all." she sneers then adds, "They're like men. They only have one purpose, and if they can't do that, you replace them."
Kori's last remark makes Angmar chuckle heavily.
Well we Dwarves we value loyalty. Sometin you might not be familiar wit! But a weapon... it's not only for killin things... it's what makes ye a warrior!
Dmitri lowers his scythe as the conversation between Kori and the Dwarf take place. He hadn't gotten mad because of a loss of a weapon, he had been infuriated because something destroyed a very important holy symbol of his religion that his godmother had given him.
He turns, to look at Kori. "I do apologize for making a scene, but, I didn't become like that simply for a mere weapon. This sickle is... a very dear holy symbol of my religion. I would see these fickle creatures gutted... and strung from the rafters for merely denting it..." As his voice trails off at the thought, he almost begins to speak abyssal again, but staves it off.
He looks to Keth, noting his scythe. "Excuse me sir, but, would you perhaps allow me to borrow that sickle?
Apollo laughs at Kori's statement and is quick to add "It doesn't matter if you're attached to a weapon or not. What matters is whether you can hit anything, and it seemed I was the only one able to accomplish that."
All of this arguing over killing things is pointless. I travel with people who claim to be great at what they do, yet the only one who could make a real difference was me. Maybe they need training...
"You guys focus on hitting while I do the killing. Besides, these little guys aren't worth worrying about. If you need to hit something, aim for the bigger targets!"
Kori looks at Lizard-friend sideways, "Do your eyes not work, or were you hit on the head while you were throwing a hammer like you don't have a bow sitting across your back?" She points at the three that she killed, "I was the first to kill one, and took out two more. If you keep strutting around claiming success alone like you don't see anyone else, then you will make some gullible woman very happy someday." Kori is obviously irritated over Apollo's constant bluster, like she's supposed to be impressed by him when she herself has done just as much or more. She didn't see him almost single-handedly move an entire wagon, he was running around waving his arms at sheep.
The only one I saw you hit was the unconscious one. I killed two and kicked one off of a balcony, only missing once the entire time. I threw my hammer because that is all I fight with, and on my back, as you can see, I have bedroll and Canvas...
This woman! She's so damn irritating. Even when she misses hit after hit, she still defends herself. Still, I know why that is...
You're always so quick to defend yourself. I guess you must be overcompensating for something. That's fine by me, though you shouldn't go around claiming to be great when you miss more than you can hit!
Apollo chuckles cockily, as he marches past the group and searches the opposite end of the Church.
At the northern end of the chapel, around a ruined altar, are a jumble of old religious artifacts, gnoll skulls, and pugwampi waste.
Searching through the piles of gnoll skulls turns up a fairly nice-looking uncut garnet.
Scattered around the room are pages torn from The Birth of Light and Truth, Sarenrae's holy book. The pages are smeared with excrement.
Apollo picks up the Garnet and looks at it intently. Walking back past the group however, he stops and shouts to Dmitri.
Dmitri, catch! he says, as he throws the Garnet to him.
If your weapon meant so much to you, maybe this'll cover the cost of repairing it!
Apollo then walks off, Nom following, around to one of the side rooms.
Kori nods at the explanation of a holy symbol, knowing that religion is the cornerstone of her people, priestesses being the most important members in the community. She shrugs, "Okay, I can understand holy symbols, they are important to religious people. They also can't just be any one, or else your gods may smite you with their demonic handmaidens. If you were drow, you could almost be an acceptable mate."
Dmitri catches the garnet, eyeing it rather closely as he looks at his blade. He wasn't ever one to ignore free riches, and he certainly wasn't about to begin. Placing the garnet in a pouch on his side, he thought about the argument that he and Kori had been having.
After careful thought, he considered it more trivial argument than sacrilegious, and would worry about it later, as the argument seemed to have tapered off.
"My thanks." is all he says to Apollo, as he is rather poor at speaking to other men.
[i]Hearing that Kori understood religion was a welcome thing in and of itself. As for the mate bit, however, Dmitri sort of savored the thought, but dismissed it as this was no time for pleasantries. He did humor her, however.
"Oh, Koritylija, I can assure you that my Lilith would never smite me. I've done far too much to prove my worth to her and her laws..." He looked at his scythe, taking some sort of comfort in that thought, smiling just a little. He turned around to see Kori, having just retrieved her armaments.[i]
"As for being almost-acceptable, well... I can honestly say that that sounds better than my shoulder blade breaking again." [i]He said those words with an odd sense of pride and amusement.
[i]Turning to look out of the chapel, "Where should we investigate next?... I want to follow through with my previous threats.. I'd very much enjoy painting this church red before we move in."
Her only response to Apollo, considering she didn't quite get what he accused her of, but refused to ask what the word means "Then who killed the other three, or did they simply die from being so impressed by your power?"
-------------
At Dmitri's response about his god Kori laughs a quick short burst, oddly enough for what seems the first time, but cruel bark ofa laugh and not one of mirth. "Ha, I don't know your god, but she is woman. No matter what you have done, all it takes is one slip, and any woman with vengeance will put you back in your place. As soon as you think you can not fail her, you have failed. Now if your god is one of the weak caretakers of all," she points to the ruined temple of Sarenrae they're in, "then you don't even need to try and please them... they let you live anyways. Ha, the gods are so strange."
As she collects her javelins and stores them without bothering to wipe the mess off the one, she answers Dmitri's question in her own delightful way, "I don't care, pick a door, or a hallway. Whatever's closer. Let's just.... why would you paint it red? Head-woman didn't say we had to clean the place, just make it safe for her lackeys." the innuendo of where the red paint will come from seems to miss her.
She decides to slink her way towards the nearest opening they passed on their way in, her Nine-ring sword held firmly in her grasp. She keeps her eyes peeled for any threats completely passing the closed alcove Apollo turned into.
As Dmitri catches the gem, Apollo replies.
No worries, friend. A man without his weapon is a man without worth in these situations. I sure hope nothing happens to this Hammer of mine. At least...not until its accomplished its task.
The man looks down with a smile on his face.
As Kori speaks to him, his response is a little different.
That wouldn't be possible. If someone had such power, I don't feel it's any of us in this room, and I haven't heard of such a person if one exists. All I saw before heading up to the rafters was everyone missing their targets. If you killed them, then that puts us on even ground, defeating 3 of the little buggers each. I'd watch out as there are probably plenty more around, though I'm betting they won't be our biggest concern.
Apollo lets out a huge sigh as he walks towards the alcove .
The eastern alcove: A statue adorns the eastern wall of this chamber, in this case with the bearded figure appearing on a hilltop to a group of robed pilgrims. (That is to say, the bearded figure is the same as the bearded figure in the alcove across the nave, just more well-worn.) The being holds up his hands, palms out, in a sign of peace. Though many of the faces and limbs on the bas-relief have been worn down or cut away, the expressions of those range from beatific to horrified.
A crude stone stele that seems to have been erected more recently than the abandonment of the monastery stands here as well, between the statue's legs. Its graven inscription reads: “A ghost of unholy mien was purged from this place by Theodephus Estrovan, servant of Aroden, 4691 ar.”
Just beyond the alcove that Apollo is examining is an opening in the monastery wall into a hallway. This hallway's walls are adorned with many carvings featuring the bearded figure in the other room. They mostly feature him preaching to a variety of human clerics from throughout the long history of the monastery. The first image depicts the figure manifesting in a spiritual manner to a small group of pilgrims of Sarenrae. Another shows the figure conversing with a man in religious finery while the monastery itself is being constructed in the background. Thereafter follows a procession of similar poses, each depicting a visit by the bearded man and the leader of each era of the temple. The depictions of these clerics often also bear an identifying inscription, complete with dates that span the last several hundred years. The most recent carving is from thirty years ago, and while ample room remains for additional carvings on the west wall, the last thirty feet or so are completely blank.
The hallway also contains a doorway into a courtyard that is in the center of the monastery, and a perpendicular hallway extends to the opposite outside wall of the monastery before turning right.
Kori waits for the others to get closer before she slinks into the hallway, following the west wall up to where she can have a look at the courtyard.
Apollo waits for Keth to come over before moving into the opening for a closer look.
Insta-death moment here, as I don't know what's beyond! Though I'm not venturing too far out of the way.
Seeing the statues hands, an idea strikes Apollo. Leaving the alcove to find Dmitri, he calls upon the man once more.
Dmitri, I know I only just gave it to you, but I need to borrow that gemstone. I'm going for a long shot here and am not really expecting much to happen, but I'll give it straight back to you as soon as I'm done with it!
Apollo waits for Dmitri's response.
Dmitri follows shortly behind Kori, making sure to keep his eye out for the bastard-pugwampi he's sure are still in the area... waiting. He looks over to Apollo, who waves at him, wanting the gem he'd just given him. If he'd waited another day, Dmitri probably wouldn't have given it to him, but, first come, first serve.
He tossed the gem to Apollo.
"Next time I'm keeping it."
You can have it back in a second. It's yours, I gave it to you. Don't worry, I keep my word.
Apollo moves back around into the Alcove and places the gem into the statues hand.
Gemstones into the hands (and other random orifices and openings) triggers nothing but a small amount of feeling foolish on the part of Apollo.
Bah!
Was worth a try!
Walking back over to Dmitri, Apollo hands over the Gem.
I thought it could have possibly triggered something, but alas, nothing happened! Here's your gem!
Following curiosity, he then walks into the Courtyard and looks around.
As Lizard-friend returns with the gem, Kori scowls at him while holding her hand back to signify he shouldn't walk on ahead. She purses her lips, and simply says, "Shhhhhh." She continues on moving toward the courtyard until she can see inside.
Angmar with his short stumpy legs could not make it up the stairs again so swiftly.
When he makes his way into the courtyard he looks around for his companions but they're all over the place.
By Torag's beard! Kids ye lack patience. We gotta do this slow and methodically else we will just miss important details!
So now listens to me youngens. We got's to work together on this. Ye might not be used to doin that but if we goes step by step from chamber to chamber and leave no stone unturned will do better than if everyone goes runnin about doin they thing!