Kori, arriving on the scene and unslinging her broadsword, swings a heavy slash at the creature on Apollo. The creature is cleft in twain, spraying its heavy load of blood all over Apollo and Kori, and the ground. Apollo then raises his fist and pummels the other creature, hard. He knocks the thing out, and it slumps to the ground.
Dmitri and Angmar arrive just after this happens to see the pair of figures coated in blood and three ruined batlike creatures on the ground around them.
Kori looks at the blood all over the place, and all over her and Lizard-friend. "I don't mind getting the blood of my enemies all over me, but when their blood is what they just drank from a fellow warrior, it just seems wrong."
She looks the place they are at, before adding, "Well, since you were so set on coming this way, we might as well look at it while we're here. You bled for it, hope this is worth it." Kori proceeds to have a look over the eight-sided chamber to see if anything in it indeed was worth so much blood.
I guess we'll find out in a sec!
I completely destroyed the first one, but the pesky creatures were relentless in their hold on me.
Apollo picks up his hammer.
Thanks for the help. I would have taken them all out eventually, but your arrival prevented further wounds and for that, I'm grateful. So now the question is, what makes this area so important? I felt drawn to it for some reason.
Apollo looks around for anything interesting, but can't see for the mixture of his own and the Stirge's blood dripping from his eyes.
Angmar looks at the frighteningly pale Apollo then to the blood all over the floor and Kori then to the bloodsuckers and concern is clear on his face.
Are you alright boy? Ye looks like adventurin is the last thing ye should be doin? Lemme examine those wounds...
With that Angmar grabs Apollo's arms to exmine the wounds.
Heal
I'll be alright, friend. A bit of the blood comes with the title of Adventurer, haha.
The man laughs, stretches and composes himself once more and slowly lifts his Hammer onto his shoulder, hand slightly shaking from the shock of losing about half of the blood within his body.
I'll have time to rest when this place has been cleared out, but in the meantime we've got a task to accomplish, and I don't intend to let that pretty lady down.
Almah....heh. Nice name. Unusual around these parts.
Kori's search through the octagonal prayer room, amongst the piles of trash, turns up a few items of note.
Scattered around the room are 43 gold pieces in loose change. In addition, she finds a very fine silver bowl, completely intact and inlaid with Sarenraeic designs, resting underneath a bit of filth. Lying in the center of the room is a fine mithril chime, slightly cracked and about one foot long. When you put the device's open end to your ear, it has a high and constant ring to it.
As Dmitri rounds the corner to look at the situation, his heart almost falls through the floor. The first thing he sees is a koritylija covered entirely in blood. Whether it's hers, Apollo's, or the bugs on the floor's he's not sure.
A quick moment of looking around, and considering that the creatures were obviously blood suckers makes it a little better to conceive, but, he's still remarkably worried. He collects himself, after realizing that she's obviously not hurt.
"Exactly what happened in here a moment ago?" He asks while Kori searches the room.
Angmar studies the silver bowl intently.
"Me thinks this might belong in Saernrae's hands. Ye knows the statue ye was fiddlin around with earlier?"
Kori tosses all the stuff she finds into the silver bowl, before handing it to the dwarf. She shrugs and decides the room really wasn't worth it after all. Answering Pain-lover she has little to say, "Well, a big bug was sucking on him, and I killed it. All this mess is his... well maybe there's some bug blood in there too. I think we're done in here." She prepares to leave the room and look over the next closest one.
Dmitri laughs a bit at the incident. All of this was Apollo's? Dmitri had certainly shed more of his own before in various rituals, but, this was enough to make anyone drowsy. Still, he didn't much care for the health of him, as he still seemed to be moving. He did admire the blood-soaked Kori, however, who seemed to work well with the crimson.
Retrieving a handkerchief from his person on the inside of his coat, Dmitri offers the woman it, hoping she would accept it. Can't fight with blood in the eyes, after all.
"As much as I admire the look, I'm afraid we can't have you with blood in your eyes, can we?" Dmitri wasn't exactly flirting at the moment. He was obviously still upset about his scythe, so, if anything, it was just his usual speech pattern with women coming through. His look was a bit stern, and he meant what he'd said earlier about killing these damned creatures.
Kori simply turns down the proferred rag, using the corner of her cloak instead. "I see just fine. I found all that junk didn't I?" she points at the bowl of stuff she left with Red-beard. She inclines her head toward Lizard-friend, "Let him use your cloth. He squished the other two, so he's messier than I am."
Angmar examines the remaining treasure and just out of curiosity gives the mithral whistle a short toot.
Ye know these here be rather precious. It's made of Mithral. One of the finest metal's in Gollarion. Maybe it's got some purpose besides bein pretty...
"Very well. Shall we return to our previous point of interest?"
One of the primary charms that Dmitri got out of Kori was her surprising ruggedness. Most Drow that Dmitri had met in his time were decadant, lavished, and spoiled by their peers. Kori wasn't... Then again, Dmitri had only ever met the Drow from the nearby caverns, and couldn't make an assumption based on the handful he had seen. They had obvious reasons for coming to the church anyway.
There was something special about Kori, but Dmitri couldn't quite get a bead on it.
With intensely less enthusiasm, Dmitri offers the handkerchief to Apollo, though doesn't audibly ask him if he wishes to use it. He just sort of holds it out in his general direction, whether he's looking at him or not.
Glancing at Dmitri briefly, Apollo shakes his head slightly before sliding the back of his hand across his face, flicking a large amount of blood onto the floor.
I'll join you in a mo. One second!
Apollo takes his hammer and smashes it down on top of the unconscious Strige that he had previously knocked out.
Ready he proclaimed, as more of his and the creatures blood splattered the walls around him.
As the Stirges blood splats his boots Angmar gives Apollo a stern look.
Well that was unnecessary boy! he then grabs the handkerchief from Dmitri and begins to wipe the blood off. When he's down he rises again and suggests.
So if ye'd like to join us Apollo we were about to break in some doors. Prolly the kind o thing you an yer hammer would find amusing eye?
All I care about is exacting my revenge on the Gnoll's who killed my family. Though thanks to these things, I need to be a little more cautious in my approach until I'm in a slightly better condition.
Apollo with his now pale complexion just smirks.
Nothing but death itself can stop me, and I'm not planning on dying any time soon. I'll fight by your side Angmar. Perhaps we'll find the Carrion King together!
Doubt the Carrion King's hidden behind them doors boy. Doubt he'll be overly scared should ye come knockin wit yer hammer either. If a couple o' bloodsuckers can do ye in messin wit the Carrion king likely ain't such a good idear fer now!
Witht hat the stout Dwarf beigns to waddle back to the sealed doors.
Apollo just laughs with a short and abrupt Heh at Angmar's comment before marching fourth to walk alongside the Dwarven man.
Angmar's detect magic does turn up a magical aura on the tube, and a moderately powerful transmutation one at that. It does look, however, like the thing has faded in power somewhat.
With some clipped conversation, the group takes their bowl of goodies and heads back to the hallway with all of the doors. The hallway has five doors in it, three to the right of the Sarenrae statue, and two to the left. The center door to the right is the one that's slightly ajar.
Sounds like we've got some company guys, and I know the sounds of these creatures a little too well. Baboons! says the pale man with little excitement in his voice.
Dmitri cocks his head to the side. He hadn't heard of any creature before by that name.
Listening closer he heard the noises as well, and they sounded like mammals. Weird mammals, but, mammals none the less.
"These... Baboons. What do they look like? Rather, what are they? They sound... rambunctious."
Kori looks up and down the hallway, still wanting to open the closest door. If the noise is coming from the already opened one, maybe it's worth it to go and get rid of these pesky baboon things. "Well, let's see what they are all excited about." As she moves toward the sound with her sword drawn.
Suddenly, the braying stops, and after a moment the ajar door flies open to reveal a screaming baboon. Two more follow it out of the door, and the three baboons charge at you territorialy.
Dmitri watches as the creatures jump out of the room and come after them with territorial glee. He smiles, happy to have something to alleviate his frustrations. He grips his tattered scythe, rather happy with the turn of events.
Initative
Angmar still has his axe in hand and meets the baboons head on intent on making quick work of the creatures.
Seeing the Baboons fast approaching, and noting Kori's actions to move up towards them, Apollo tries to get around the other side and behind them.
Kori follows Pain-lover to the fight, eager for something a little bigger than gnoll-imps or bugs to fight. Sadly, these are the only thing bigger they've come across, but they will have to do for now. Gripping her blade with both hands, she moves to the beasts and swings.
Ancient Dwarven Proverb
Crouching down and bolting forward, Dmitri easily manages 20 feet to get near the first baboon, turning on the corner as much as he could. It wasn't enough to charge in, but it was plenty to hit something.
Dmitri, unfortunately, wasn't used to his scythes new weight, or whimsical attempts to veer off course with it's new shrapnel.This, of course, made Dmitri angry once again, as it reminded him of the pugwampi's previous blasphemy.
Kori-19
Apollo-16
Baboons-11
Angmar-10
The baboons hoot at the intruders, while Dmitri charges forward angrily and hit one, but the blade veers off course, unbalanced. Kori runs forward as well, and with a little bit more luck. Her broadsword hits one of the baboons square in the belly, carving out intestines as it falls, unconscious. Apollo repositions himself, moving slowly because of his injuries. The remaining baboon moves to attack Kori, reaching towards her with dirty jaws. The second baboon retaliates at Dmitri. Both baboons' teeth scrape along the adventurers' armor. Angmar's axe hits the ground heavily as well, missing the baboon in front of Dmitri.
Rather infuriated at his lack of accuracy, Dmitri follows through with his scythe's erratic swing. With great force, he leaves himself a bit open, but effectively trips the creature to leave it at his allies, and his, mercy.
"Staskere!*"
The baboons jaws snap shut uselessly, neck craning towards Dmitri, as it topples to the ground.
Apollo moves around the pillar and takes a swing at the monkey , but in his weakened condition, he fails to swing his mighty hammer with enough strength, missing the target as he falls off balance slightly.
Ever aware of his young Lizard friend, Apollo watches Nom from the corner of his eye, turning briefly to the creature, mid combat.Keep behind Kori, Dmitri and Angmar little buddy. I don't want you getting hurt as well.
Kori swings at the other standing animal, leaving the prone one to Apollo or Angmar, whoever gets to it first.
Angmar moves to confront the baboons and brings his massive axe to bear in close combat.
But his swing goes dangerously wide...
Kori-19
Apollo-16
Baboons-11
Angmar-10
Dmitri swings his scythe, catching one of the baboons in the legs and toppling it to the ground. It attempts to bite him, but the bite doesnt even connect with his body. Kori slices through the remaining upright baboon, and its guts spill out onto the floor. Apollo's hammer goes up, and comes down hard on the last remaining baboon, the one that Dmitri tripped. His huge hammer crushes the thing's head, and its dead for sure.
Well I'm surprised that hit! I thought I had missed for sure, though gotta admit, that ain't pretty.
Turning to those he travels with, Apollo airs his thoughts.
Well, the little monkeys climbed out of this room, so we may as well check what's inside.
This room, about 15 by 30 feet, contains five austere beds, each with a dented chest at the foot of the bed. A simple red and orange glass mosiac is on the wall. Grime and filth, in layers, coats the room and the room is filled with baboon hair and redolent of the smell of old animals and manure.
The chests are all empty.
Bah, it doesn't look like the monkeys were protecting much. I guess we woke them from their slumber with that whistle.
Thinking on it, bed sounds pretty good right about now.
Dmitri scoffs, obviously upset with his low-use in battle as of late. His lack of a weapon appauled him, but the only thing that firmly irritated him the most wasn't the lack of the weapon itself, but the desecration and lack of a holy symbol.
Every weapon that he drew blood with needed the symbol, and nothing short of fine worksmanship would count. He staved off the frustration till later, however.
"It would seem that way... What of the other rooms?"
Kori is disappointed by the brevity of the combat. She has yet to feel like they've come across any threats. "Hrrm! So we come ahead and remove all the wild animals from the place. Seems more like a job for a animal wranglers. I'm going back to that door I keep getting interrupted on. I want to know what's in there." She walks purposefully to the first door she tried to open before.
Angmar is right on Kori's heels "Lady ye forgets those wit short legs around ye would appreciate ye walked just a little bit slower ye knows!"
Dmitri follows behind Kori as well.
"I believe we're all in a hurry to purge whatever's left in this place. It's been nothing but a nuisance so far."
I can't complain. We're getting the job done, and that's all that matters. Soon we'll have our base, and hopefully get to smash a few Gnoll skulls along the way!
The man chuckles, regardless of his weakened state, appearing unphased by it all.
Even if I'm bleeding out with an arm missing, nothing will stop me from killing the Carrion King. He'll pay dearly for what he did to those I grew up with and loved.