"G'nock shot the ones in the back, Ai'Sha and I will deal with the others." Aliva shouts, while advancing and swinging her Morning Star at the man a head of her.
Aliva pummels the man in the chest, almost knocking the air out of him. He coughs and tightens his grip looking for an opening to counterattack. He shouts out something to the others in Kelish.
They drop their bows, each pulling out a khopesh, and move up to assist their ally with Aliva.
However, switching to melee seems to have thrown them off a bit as none are able to land a blow against Aliva, even with their superior positioning.
Irakelesh tries again to disentangle himself from the net and is successful. Leaving the net on the ground behind him, he moves up to G'nock and Ai'sha. "So, is this where the party is?"
Giving up on the net, Fitliss simply brings it along with him as he starts stumbling awkwardly towards the fight.
Irakelesh finally manages to get out from under the net and moves up to the rest of the group just. Fitliss slow moves up as well, deciding the leave the net as it is for the time being and assist his friends. Ai'sha circles around to flank one of the thugs with Aliva and strikes out with her scimitar.
She slices into the man's chest as he winces in pain. G'nock lets loose another arrow that pierces the man's thigh. All in all the thugs are beginning to look quite a bit worse for wear.
However, this doesn't slow their assault as the one trapper slices at Aliva.
The scimitar cuts into Aliva, splashing blood onto the warm desert sand.
Aliva slides back out of the flank, swinging again at the man in yellow.
Aliva slams her morning star into the mans head with a sickening crunch as blood flows down the side of his face. He drops his blade grabbing the wound and drops the floor "I surrender, please... spare me."
The other men hesitate a moment at the sight, but decide the fight isn't over yet, one of them makes an obviously spiteful remark to the one on his knees, in Kelish. The other two move down to continue their attack on Aliva.
Obviously distracted with their one companions surrender, their hearts don't seem to be in the fight as much as before. Neither one of the men are able to land a solid blow on Aliva.
Irakelesh drops his bow and moves forward to the thugs. He draws his morningstar as he moves. "Well Aliva, that seemed to work for you. Maybe I'll be just as lucky." He swings a hefty swing at the thug in front of him.
"I still do not really get what is going on," Fitliss declares as he takes another stab at the one Irakelesh is engaging.
Ai'sha steps closer to the fight and swings again.
Irakelesh smash the nearest one with his morning star as the man falls to the ground no longer moving. G'nock takes shot but still being entangled in the goo of the tanglefoot bag hampers his shot as it flies off into the distance. Fitliss stabs with his spear, but the net hampers him as well and he isn't able to connect. Ai'sha steps up and slices into the thug, leaving a deep gash across his chest.
Seeing things begin to turn for the worse the remaining trapper turns to run leaving the two injured thugs to fend for themselves.
"Shoot him down, I will deal with these two." Aliva says, pulling out her manacles and chaining up one of the men.
On the man Aliva is putting the manacles on .
Aliva pulls out her manacles and begins to shackle the one man, as the other bolts off following his companion.
Fitliss watches them go, leaning on his spear. ”Does anybody need healing?” he asks, glancing around at them. The gnome seems to have forgotten about the net entirely at this point.
As the last of the thugs runs off Irakelesh raises his morning star and shakes it. "That's right, run away. And don't come back." He turns back to his friends. There's a smile on his face but it is strained. "I don't understand why they attacked us. Maybe we were just a target of opportunity."
Seeing Fitliss still wrapped in the net he moves over to help him get out of it.
After the trapper and remaining thug run off Aliva finishes binding the severely injured one kneeling on the ground. Hearing Irakeleh's musings he pipes up "I can tell you... if you let me go, I will tell you whatever I can."
"What can you tell us? Why did you attack us?" Aliva asks, pulling out her water flask and taking a drink, she offers the man a sip.
Ai'sha gives the running thug one last slice before turning to the group.
"I could use some, ugh, healing...", Ai'sha says, ripping off one of the arrows that hit her.
The man promptly answers your question "We were hired to ambush anyone approaching some old temple down the way and stop interlopers from entering the site." He shrugs "We weren't given a reason, just a job. The reason didn't matter really since we were getting paid, but obviously we weren't expecting such resistance."
Thinking a moment he adds "We never got the name of the woman who hired us but I can at least tell you about her." He takes a moment to describe the woman and from his description it seems very likely Valriana Hypaxes, the leader of the Scorched Hand group you meet a couple nights back.
Holding out his hands to be freed he continues "That's all I know, I swear. Now you'll let me go?"
Irakelesh tries to determine if the thug is telling the truth and if he's said everything.
"Well now. That makes sense. Well kind of. It was Valriana, you say? Huh. I guess we'll have to talk to her when we get back."
He turns to the group. "Now what? I say that we let this guy go and then continue to the Sanctum of the Erudite Eye, whatever that is."
"We should turn him over to the guard and they can deal with him." Aliva says standing the man up
”That was a mean thing to do! You should really...” Fitliss starts to chastise the bandit’s ear off, hobbling along beside him as they head back to town.
As far as anyone can tell the man is being straightforward. At mention of the guard he shakes his head "What? No, the deal was you let me go and I tell you everything I know..."
Deciding to take the thug back into the city proper you head in that direction.
You make it back, after a bit of a walk and find a group of guards. Relating to them what the thug told you they ask "Do you have any proof of what this petty criminal claims or just the hearsay of this untrustworthy pile of dung?"
Unable to provide any hard evidence the guards take note of the accusation but make it clear that without more definitive proof there is little they can do, aside from arresting your actual assailant of course. The thug curses at you as you hand him over to the guards calling you liars and oath breakers.
After handing off the thug, and having no other pressing matters to attend to in town, you make your way back into the necropolis and toward your next site. With your sketched map, you easily find the Sanctum of the Erudite Eye. Although the Sanctum's central nave is symmetrical, the rest of the structure does not conform to traditional architecture, with wings and extensions on both sides that, except for the uniformity of the stonework, appear to have been haphazard additions. A large dome over the apse tops the roof at the north end of the temple. The Sanctum is windowless, and the temple's exterior walls are carved with celestial figures.
No doors block the grand entrance to this building. A wide flight of steps leads directly up into the temple’s interior. Two humanoid statues flank the stairs, wearing black-and-white masks and holding quarterstaves. Light filters into the entrance from outside, but otherwise it appears dark inside. Just inside the entry, two rows of columns lead toward an archway in the north wall. Two smaller passages open to the east and west.
"Wow, impressive buildings." Irakelesh eyes the structures with a curious eye. He points at one of the two statues. "Of course, you all recognized these as Nethys." He side steps around the statue on the right to get a closer look at the bricks making up the statue's base. After a close inspection he raises his gaze to take in the entire structure. "You know, these bricks, these buildings actually, are in much better condition that I would expect..."
He steps back away from the wall. "I wonder... Nethys, magic, good condition... I bet that this whole structure is magically preserved."
"A temple to Nethys is this common in the dead city? I didn't know he was worshiped here like this." Aliva says staying on point.
"Ooooh! A magically preserved temple of Nethys?! Thisisgoingtobesocool!"
Ai'sha's face turns red as she hears the thug say he was hired by Valriana.
"That b$%&! If I find her I'll...I'll...Do something bad! ARGH!"
As they reach the site, Ai'sha says.
"I hope magically preserved also means magically storing a magical amount of magical treasure too...Hopefully its not magically protected with magical traps, just a nice walk into an abandoned temple full of nic- who am I kidding, right?"
Aliva leads the group up the stairs and into the temple. As you near the center of the room you suddenly see several sets of beady red eyes stare at you from behind the pillars as previously un-moving, what appear to be dead dog like creatures, stir to life.
"Oh nice! Skeletal jackals. I mean, you would think that human skeletons are bad enough. But now we have these... Remember, smash them with smashing weapons." Irakelesh grabs his morningstar with both hands and moves towards the first skeleton on the left. He smashes down with the morningstar on its head.
Ai'sha steps up to the jackal and strikes.
"...Why do they all have to be slashing-resistant?"
Irakelesh knocks the skull clear off of the skeletal jackal he attacks as the rest of the body collapses to the floor. Ai'sha slashes across another, but the blade skips off the bones and doesn't appear to do any actual damage. The remaining skeletons rush forward toward the closest targets, two move to Irakelesh while the remaining ones close in around Ai'sha.
Most of the skeletal jackals miss but two manage to bite. One each on Irakelesh and Ai'sha. They take a bit on their legs drawing a fresh flow of blood.
"Oh, yeah. That's right," Fitliss says, wincing. "I forgot about that."
"Oh, right. That," Fitliss says, wincing as he absorbs Irakelesh's injuries. "I kind of forgot to heal myself again! One moment!
Aliva swing her Morning Star at the dead skeletal dog a head of her.
"Who doesn't have a smashing weapon?" Aliva asks.
"Well I don't..."
Ai'sha changes her stance and slashes at the jackal.
"Because I don't need it, ha!"
"I just punch skeletons, remember?" Fitliss adds, momentarily ignoring the fight in favor of emphasizing his statement with a fist pump.
Irakelesh swings his morningstar down on the jackal in front of him again. "Looks like there are plenty of these things for all of us."
Aliva Smashes her morning start at the closest Undead beast again.
Aliva swings at the skeleton in front of her but it dodges out of the way avoiding the blow. Fitliss heals himself from the wounds that have been mystically appearing as others were injured, looking in a bit better shape than before. G'nock moves up and takes advantage of the skeleton being distracted with Aliva to bring his morningstar down in the middle of it's back, cracking the undead's spine and dropping it to the ground.
Irakelesh once again smashes into one of the skeletal jackles crushing it beneath his mighty morningstar. Ai'sha dealing with the other pack manages to slice into one of the skeltons that had attacked her slicing it in two as falls to the ground.
Undeterred and uncaring of their fallen allies the remaining undead continue to assault Ai'sha.
While Ai'sha avoids the first bite, she leans right into the second as the skeletal jackal bites her and tears at her leg.