Severus flourishes his Ranseur in a small motion of victory.
Vors lays a hand on one of Avian's wounds. "Erastil, bestow your favor upon this brave soul."
|
Chuckling to himself Marcoul holds forth his inverted pentagram. In the larger cities one would have been required to swear fealty to the Dark Lord before receiving his blessing. Marcoul in truth had always found that a rather droll idea. It is better when the first blessing is free. The evangelist thought himself. Let them come to depend upon it, to need it. Then let them earn it. Yes, that was a far superior method then those ham handed hacks did. True conversion was a single step at a time. The path was slower, but it yielded far better results.
Walking up to Avian, Maroul rested a hand on the wounded Tengu's shoulder. [b]Let me see if I might be of use. The noble intoned a small smile upon his face.
Avian sighs in relief as Vors' and Marcoul's healing energies knit the wound in his chest back together. He removes his hand gingerly, but no need; it doesn't hurt at all. The wound has scabbed over and shrunk to a mere superficial scrape which should heal completely in a night or two of rest.
Thanks, my friends. he gasps, wiping the blood from his arm and chest with a spare bit of cloth in his backpack. After composing himself, he looks around the room for anything of interest.
Severus also looks around the room, careful to spot any potential dangers.
He also thanks Marcoul for his nondemanding share of positive energy, though as with the other healings, he felt quite Adequate in treating the wounds himself with the right medical equipment.
To Avian, "I shall be honest with you, friend, I think your eyes are more liable to find anything of interest than mine. The haze in this room is a little too much to look at."
Pavro nods grimly in thanks to the vanished earth elemental and exhales,
"Well that little oik was tougher than expected. I'd best get Aressa back and see what that spell caster did to her..."
He takes the minutes needed to resummon the eidolon, who is no longer laughing, but swishing her tail and scowling furiously. She surveys the scene as Pavro mentally fills her in and can be heard muttering, "Not funny, grrr."
"What do we do with the gecko thing, it seems harmless enough? Anyone want a pet?" Pavro asks, eying the creature dubiously.
"No bugs I know of back home that are big enough to feed the thing. I'll pass, thanks. Doesn't seem hostile, so maybe we just let it go its own way."
The room contains a fair bit of what you would expect from a goblin throne room. The guards all have somewhat better than average studded leather armor, though the stench is deep enough that it would take some serious cleaning to remove it. The caster has a coin pouch with 20 grubby gold coins in it and has a well used wand of silent image (7 charges remaining), but none of his other equipment is particularly notable. The chief, however, is a different story. Not only is his breastplate masterwork and his shortsword magical (+1), the crown on his head is worth about 20 gp, even with the dents in it, and he has three potions on him (barkskin +2, and 2 cure moderate wounds). He also has a large key ring hanging from his belt.
"The shortsword is magical!" Severus exclaims, though no one knows exactly how he knew that. He shrugs in explanation: "Magic apparently can affect the senses even when it is not trying to."
Thandion nods to Marcoul"Thank you for the healing, I feel much better." turning to Parvo "We should keep moving, with all the noise we've made they know we are coming and might try something foolish like summoning a demon."
Vors looks wistfully at the breastplate, wishing it wasn't goblin-sized."Keys should get us through faster, unless they start barricading the doors. Thandion, you want to take that sword? If they do summon a demon, your sap likely won't do much but make it angry."
"Perhaps behind anything that might be a storage room, or perhaps a ritual room. But let me look at the doors before we open them; they might have been tampered with."
Can a hold a sword safely? Will everyone else be safe if I don't."Thank you Vors, don't think I'd have a way of holding a captured one even if we caught it." Thandion say and then smiles at Marcould who seems to be doing what he wanted even if he felt the need to deride him for first.
The rest of this floor is pretty mundane. You find another stairs going down, a latrine behind which the goblins hid their treasure horde in a secret room, the chief's bedroom, the armory, a very basic meeting room, and a few more basic storage rooms for dry goods. Almost all of the stuff in the armory is of very poor quality, save one single masterwork dogslicer, small of course. The chief's bedroom yields one or two valuable art objects and the key to the chest found behind the latrine, which even with the key is still a dangerous chest to open. The chest contains lots and lots of coins, gems, and jewelry/fancy clothing, a medium sized chain shirt, a medium sized masterwork scimitar, and a pair of masterwork manacles.
Severus glances through the gems for any of exceptional quality.
None of the gems appear to of great value individually, but are of some worth as a collection.
Unable to decide, he grabs up the whole lot, or at least as much as he thinks he can carry.
You decide to first deal with the remaining door, and after a brief encounter with a crazed, starved warhorse, your hauling concerns vanish. The next floor down is probably where the bulk of the tribe lived, but it clearly has been taken over of late by a group of 5 larger folk. Based on the evidence you find in one of the 5 bedrooms, one of them was Tsuto, and therefore, not someone you need to worry about. You catch a bugbear returning to his quarters, who promptly curses you (especially Thandion, who he singles out immediately), and flees down some stairs going down even further, which are interesting in and of themselves. The human merc is less lucky as you find him asleep in his quarters, and he is promptly dumped in one of the prison cells you find in the prison area. Other areas of interest include a very disturbing chapel dedicated to Lamashtu, clearly of recent origin (on the altar you find a slightly singed holy symbol of Desna amidst some remains of bones and ash), a secondary entrance via the sea, and a small complex of rooms containing a war room (this contains plans detailing the recent raid on Sandpoint, and an even bigger raid intended for the near future; you also find references to the "beast below" that Nualia is trying to free), and a work room containing a lot of digging equipment, and a not so hidden door at this point due to all the recent activity of traffic going up and down the stairs leading farther down. Lighting is not a problem in any area of this floor save the secondary cave entrance where the human party did not seem to spend any time.
"We should talk to our prisoner and find out what he knows. That bugbear will have warned those below and they'll be ready for us. Wise thing is to do is suss out who and what is down there and be ready for them as well."
The interrogation is fairly quick, as the man is willing enough to talk about what little he knows. His name is Orik, and he's a hired merc. The leader of their group is Nualia; Bruthazmus, the bugbear you saw disappear down the stairs, has a special penchant for hating elves, something you already suspected based on the information you got from Shalelu; Tsuto, the annoying half-elf, was sent to Sandpoint on business there; the last party member, a female wizard/scholar, is currently in Magnimar on business. Waiting down below is Nualia, Bruthazmus, 2 strange hound like creatures given to Nualia from Lamashtu, and depending on if Nualia has succeeded in opening the prison door, some creature named Malfeshnekor.
Thandion nods then pulls out manicals from the sack he has been carrying around and locks him up. "Your cooperation will be relayed to the judge in your trial."
"Doesn't sound so bad, unless that Malfeshnekor is out. Plans on how to proceed?"
Severus considers what type of hounds might have originated from Lamashtu, and tries to recall if he has ever heard the name Malfeshnekor.
Nothing immediately comes to mind to Severus as the party heads downstairs. This second level is clearly far more ancient than the structure above, and damage is visible almost everywhere you look. Debris lies everywhere as you first walk into a room lined with time worn and battered statues that Severus thinks might be depictions of Karzoug, one of the ancient Thassillion Runelords. You quickly find yourself at the entrance to a large common room, and hear the sound of chanting coming from within.
Thandion pulls out a pearl out a pouch and concentrates on it for a moment. He then moves quietly towards the common room to get a better view.
Severus holds his ranseur at the ready.
Vors nocks an arrow and keeps an eye on the door, waiting for his companions to signal their readiness.
Moving forward, you soon find yourself in what was probably once the main gathering space for those who built this level. Once probably filled with tables and benches, debris now fills the room, though it has been cleaned up enough that it doesn't hinder your movement. To the west is a raised dais with stairs on either end, and you can see the bugbear in a defensive position behind a larger piece of debris watching the scene to the north. On the north wall there is an alcove with a set of double doors. In this alcove, you can see wide stone ledges of red marble, covered with old books, scrolls, teeth, bones, scrimshaw artwork, jars of deformed creatures soaking in brine, taxidermied animals and limbs, and other strange objects. In the center of this space, a large round fountain filled with frothy blue water fills the room with the gentle sound of bubbling. Two burning skulls sit on either side of a large set of plain double stone doors, where a amazing beautiful, and yet somewhat deformed, female aasimar seems to be chanting something. Guarding over her are two hound like creatures. There is also an opening to a hallway on the south wall. None of the individuals seem to notice you when you first appear as the aasimar finishes chanting, and you see a change come over the stone doors, which have carvings starting to appear on them. The aasimar turns and sees you, smiling as she speaks in a beautiful, and chilling, voice, "Ah good, you are just in time to give our friend a bit of practice before we let him loose on Sandpoint."
Severus attempts to identify what the aasimar is chanting.
She seems to be trying to undo some kind of very old lock spell, and appears to have succeeded in doing so at least partially.
"Don't allow her to finish her chanting. She's opening that door.... something ancient." Severus hurriedly whispers to those at the front of the line.
At Severus' word, Vors steps into the room and takes aim at the aasimar. "I can't let you do that," he declares, "By the Horns of Erastil, you've caused the town enough pain. It ends now." With that, he lets the arrow fly.
|
|
Careful friends, we know not her powers. Pointing with a finger at the group, Marcoul closes his eyes and calls upon the fire, damming power of Asmodeus.
Lord, I call upon you as a humble servant. Protect us from the machinations of the whore mother of monsters. Let her know your fiery wrath and decisive power.
Pavro casts grease under Nualia, who manages to stay standing, as Aressa moves forward to engage the hound like creatures. Vors' arrow manages to bury itself in Nualia's skin, which seems to irritate her even if it doesn't give a mortal wound.
Nualia just smiles a grim smile at Severus' words. "You are too late to stop me; soon I shall have another ally, and Sandpoint shall meet it's end." She quickly casts another spell as she watches you with her cold smile, and the entire alcove fills with cloud. Meanwhile, the bugbear tracks the elf with an evil grin, though his arrow to hit the elf still misses easily. The hound on Aressa tries to bite her back, but misses.
Severus remains surprisingly calm as he continues to figure out what the corrupt aasimar is doing.
"Beware the spell of mist. It blocks sight so who knows what she is summoning forward."
Severus takes a 5 foot step following Vors into the room.
Vors growls as his target is lost in the mists. "Can any of you do anything about that mist? Or we'll have to go in after her."
With only one target in sight, Vors steps in for a clear shot and lets fly at the bugbear.
Thandion grumbles under his breath "Just 'cause I said we should hurry incase she is summoning a demon didn't mean I thought she would be." as he move forward he draws the magic the magical short sword. As he does so the sword seems to glow slightly brighter.
The bugbear is likely to search me out and it would better not to get involved with multiple foes until he is out. He moves into towards the bugbear that looked at him evilly before and strikes.
|
|
Whore Mother! Rutter with Beast! Marcoul howls, pointing with his mace towards Nualia as the fog rolls out around her. You have foolishly chosen the wrong god to serve! The fires of hell wait for your thrice-damned soul. You will reside forever in the eternal torment of my lords realm. Your time is at hand!
________________________
Severus moves forward to aid Thandion.
to grant him an AC bonus.
Thandion finds that the height advantage of the terrace along with the table that the bugbear is hiding behind to be too much of a hindrance to land a clean shot. The bugbear responds by shouting a taunt in goblin before backing off and firing an arrow in Marcoul's direction, though it goes over the priest's head. Pavro's attempt to daze the bugbear falls short as the bugbear shakes it off with an angry snarl; Avian's shot is equally unsuccessful. Vors moves up behind the just barely swhishing tail of Aressa, unsure of moving in, but wanting to be close enough to deal with anything that might come out. Out of the fog, you hear a loud yowl of pain and some mumblings in a female voice, probably a spell being cast, but between the fog and the angry yowling, what spell is not immediately clear.
As the party continues to exchange potshots with the bugbear, with no success on either side to inflict damage, you hear a heavy stone door open within the fog and a manic female scream.
[/ooc]
Round 2: Thandion thrust again at the bugbear.
Round 3: Thandion continues to thrust the magical short sword at the bugbear.
Round 2: Thandion thrusts again at the bugbear.
Round 3: Thandion continues to thrust the magical short sword at the bugbear.