Nori drops down to the floor and looks at the key. She has a sudden realization, "Whatever we're going to do, we need to do it quickly...I have a feeling our time is running out."
Orn decides to let the bigger races get the key. Dahak knows, he wasn't going to be able to reach it. As the key falls, Orn reaches down to snatch it up, before trying the key on the remaining chest.
Yes, he knew some kind of magic was tied to it, but Nori was right - time was getting short. And sometimes, taking charge meant choosing the less slimy of two slurks.
Orn places the small golden key in the tiny lock on the steel chest and it opens with a click. Suddenly a flash of blue light nearly blinds you. When the sparkles clear,
Orn's scales and Nori's once light skin have turned a deep shade of blue.
Inside the chest is the map of the Salhar vaults beneath the city of Sothis you have been seeking and a wand with a clenched fist at its tip.
A set of runes appears on the chest lid.
"Now you have what you seek. The way out is already in your grasp. Time is running out."
Tick..tick...
Odryk will grab the wand and point it at the door, hoping his intuition is correct.
It takes a few tries but he finally manages to set it off.
After a few tries, the magic of the wand activates, sending a green ethereal hand towards the door. It knocks once and suddenly the ticking sound stops and you hear the unlocking of the latch mechanism. As the door opens, you see the servant standing there.
"Congratulations. Twenty two minutes and 32 seconds. I am impressed, as will Master Salhar be. You may leave the keys, but the map and wand is yours. As is this coffer here. Do not forget the generosity of your friends." He hands you the mahogany box and then leads you outside. You are left alone standing outside the front gate of Master Salhar's estate.
Orn blinks as his scales turn a deep shade of blue. "...oh no! I changed my lineage to a blue dragon!" he cried in dismay, before pausing. The heck just happened? Orn tried to recall his long list of knowledge, seeing if he recognized this change...
As Odryk managed to get the door opened, Orn stared back in bewilderment. They were being timed? This whole Pathfinder thing was getting really weird... and that's coming from someone who called a kobold tribe family! Taking the box, Orn studied it as they left the estate. "...so... do we head back, or...?"
Selggar pats him on the back Well, I did always think your personality was electric!
Sleggar looks over the chest pleased, these Osirion folk don't seem half bad.
I supposed that's a wrap, let's go make our report and then get a good night's rest.
Odryk sighs happily as the wand works and opens the door. He lets Orn take the box, to tired to even consider inspecting it at the moment, and heads outside as directed.
"Good job everyone. As Sleggar said, let's make our report, I could use a long sleep. It's been a long day. What's in the box Orn? Anything useful?"
The box that Amenopheus' servant gave you opens to reveal 4 distinct rows of coins, all of Osirian mint. Each row is the same, 7 platinum coins, 2 gold coins and 8 silver coins. As you are counting, you notice that Kelwin is no longer with you, in his place is a black mark on the ground in the shape of a pentagram.
Nori eyes the pentagram, a momentary dread passing over her. What power had removed their companion from their presence with such quiet efficiency?
The fear was fleeting and they had a mission to finish up, "Come, I'm eager to be done with these tests."
Oathday, 11 Lamashan, 4707, 4:47pm.
After counting up your money and pondering the loss of yet another companion, you resolve to finish what you started, even if it does just seem like a milk run. You head south out of the Wise Quarter along the main road. It takes you a bit to get into the main part of the Foreign Quarter because apparently there was a parade scheduled for today. Several merchants have banners and callers speaking about their wares and prices. The crowd of onlookers grows quickly by the minute. As the sun lowers in the western horizon, the shadows between buildings deepen and you finally see an opening in the crowd. Taking it, you start heading down an alleyway that should lead you straight to the Grand Lodge. Instead, it appears someone has something else in mind...
A fog suddenly starts forming in the middle of the alley and it begins to billow out to cover a large area.
Orn looks up as the fog billows around him and his companions through the ally. This... was bad. Drawing his talon, he quietly slinked closer to the wall on his right. Whatever conjured this fog, it had obviously never met a kobold - this was his element!
Odryk is mostly oblivious as the fog starts to surround him.
"Oh hell." He mumbles.
Nori strides down the alley, eager to get back to the Lodge and give their final report. As the fog rises, a creeping sense of danger slides up her spine, but she can't make anything out.
If the fog didn't tell you something was wrong, the sudden yell of an almost comical looking halfling, complete with wax-curled mustache and an axe a bit too big for his hands that comes running out of the fog directly at Sleggar certainly does. "AaaaaYeeeaaahhh!!", he screams swinging the blade in a wide arc, as if challenging the armored knight.
The fog obscures your view of anyone else behind the crazed halfling.
Orn ducked as a wild halfling came charging out of the fog cloud, challenging Sleggar to a battle. That was fine with Orn... no doubt, the crazed little brute was too thick to have conjured this fog.
Someone else was here, and Orn knew it.
Luckily, Orn's group had a little fellow who was more brains than brawn. Exhaling calmly, Orn surged magic through himself, fueling his weapon with arcane energy as he cast his readied spell. A small barrier of magical energy rose up around him as he moved into the fog himself. True, he couldn't see who he was facing, but this fog worked both ways, so they couldn't see him either!
Nori's instinct is to roll past the crazed halfling. She dives forward through the fog to dodge his attack and flank.
Sleggar brings down his whip hard on the Halfling for nonlethal damage.
No on challenges a hellknight unscathed
As the crazed halfling closes with Sleggar, Nori slips past him and before he even gets a chance to turn and look, a crack of the whip and he is momentarily dazed, but the rage in him shakes it off as continues his charge towards Sleggar.
Orn casts a spell on himself as he disappears into the fog, hoping to find the source of the magic. As he moves into the mist, he comes upon a blade snaking out at him. He barely manages to move out of the way.
As Nori prepares to ambush the little halfling, behind her she hears the approaching draw of a blade. Turning she sees through the misty fog a masked woman appear, her silver embroidered black dress swirling the fog around her. "Our first sacrifices. Kill them all," she says matter-of-factually, her red locks framing the dark mask as she stares through the eyelets at Nori.
Odryk brandishes his rapier and attacks the nearest foe.
"I've had more than enough of this day!"
With the Halfling focused on Sleggar, Odryk is able to sneak in a shot with his rapier at the right moment, momentarily distracting the raging little man, causing him to take an awkward swing at Odryk, who manages to move just out of the way of the deadly edge.
Sleggar once again lashes down hard on the Halfling trying to take it down.
"You guys handle the short stack. She's mine," Nori grins. She pulls her blade from its scabbard and with a wicked look in her reptilian eyes, draws the metal across her tongue. She steps forward, closing the distance to the masked red-head.
Orn's senses only barely tell him that the blade is coming for him, but his quick reflexes bend his body backwards, avoiding the blade. Orn quietly slid back into the fog and made his way to the alley wall. Bumping into it, he looked up, before an idea hatched in his head. Placing the chain of his talon in his mouth, Orn started to try clambering up the side for the roof. If he could get up the side, he might could slip around and either ambush the source of magic... or flank the enemy from behind.
Nori spies an almost knowing nod as the woman in black shifts the grip on her own blade, the two women starting to encircle each other, each one daring the other to strike first. Not wishing to wait any longer, the masked woman attacks Nori with a viciousness she's never seen, striking her hard. It is then Nori senses someone else nearby. "I've lost that little bugger in Halli's fog! Where are you!?"
Orn vanishes back into the fog and finds his way to the nearest building and starts climbing, but is not yet above the mist.
Sleggar's all powerful whip cracks again, but it doesn't seem to faze the halfling, who only grins in anticipation.
Odryk swings again at the smug halfling.
Orn continues to clamber up the side of the building, hoping to get to the roof tops as quickly as possible. Now that he wasn't being hounded by the other sword carrier, he did his best to put a bit more speed into it.
The halfling is surprised by the next stab that gets through his defenses, the blood trickling down his arm. Though he still has some fight in him, you can tell he's slowing down when he goes to move towards Sleggar and his steps are almost ponderous and the axe seems much heavier in his hands, even though it does hit the Hellknight. "Draw your blade!", he yells, "Fight me like a real man!"
Sleggar looks annoyed at the halfling and whips the whip at his ankles, trying to wrap them up and flip him on his arse.
I will fight you like a hellknight and not like a savage, thank you very much
Nori circles the masked woman, a deadly gleam in her eye. She pulls her blade back and slashes at the woman's torso.
Nori attempts a return slash of her own, but her weapon is easily parried by the black clothed woman, almost is if she knew where Nori was going to strike. She quickly counters with a stab of her own, but she is unable to compensate for the mists and misses the snake woman.
Sleggar steels his resolve and, though critically wounded, lashes out with his whip sending the halfling slamming to the ground.
As Odryk gets ready to put another hole in the halfling, he sees someone come skulking out of the cloud of fog and run towards him, rapier glittering in the setting sunlight. "That's hardly a fair fight, friend. Show me your skill!" With that he takes stab at Odryk who easily parries it.
Seeing the halfling determined to fight Sleggar despite the rapier at his back, Odryk leaves his armored companion to handle it and turns to his new foe.
Odryk ripostes the new attacker who flicks the blade away just barely. "Finally! A real challenge!" Odryk can tell it's going to take some work to get through this guy's defenses.
The fight not just out of him yet, the halfling on the ground swings his axe in a wide arc, attempting to bring it behind Sleggar's ankles and bring him down to the ground.
Sleggar will crack whip down on the Halfling in reaction to his axe stroke and again just for the hell of it
Orn continues to scamper up the side of the building.
Sleggar's whip snaps into the halfling over and over with a vengeance. The assault forces the little man to release his grip on the axe and stop moving.
Nori grips her wound with one hand. She considered switching to a defensive stance, but it would only delay her own death. She let out a hiss as she attacked, striking at the woman viciously.
...for which the wound punishes her dearly. She lets out a curse.
Nori's wounds seem to be slowing her down, the mist between the two women not helping either. Seeing the snake woman's weakness, the other woman cuts her down with her sword. "That's one for the Dark Master. Get the rest! Halli, drop your spell, we don't need it any more!"
The fog in the alley quickly subsides and you can see a blonde woman in a green dress gesturing with her hands away from the main battle. "We got one! We got one!", she laughs as she finishes dismissing the spell.
The other man takes advantage of the distraction and presses his attack against Odryk, striking a telling blow. Blood quickly soaks his clothes around the wound in his stomach.
Stubborn to a fault, Odryk attempts to muscle through his disabled condition and attack his new opponent but only hurts himself more in the long run. [dice=Attack]1d20+2-3[/dice
Odryk takes a desperate stab at the man facing him, but oversteps and ends up opening the wound he has further. The man simply shakes his head, lowering his blade and looking for another target. "You're out of your league Pathfinders. Give it up."
The woman and the man both look at Sleggar to see what his next move will be. The woman in the back is looking around...
Sleggar lets out a bellowing roar Enough Already!
He drops the whip You have brought me to use of lethal force, You have seen me make good use of the Whip, a weapon of peace...what do you think I will do to you with a mace, my weapon of war
He takes a step forward to support and get into flanking position with the still standing, but injured Odryk, using the only piece he still has left on the chessboard to his advantage
Where in blazes did that kobold go