Tot lets out a howl of victory and delight as she sees that her handiwork is certainly having an effect on the monster. Now if it would only sit still long enough for her to really get into a rhythm.
Seeing Tot risk the wrath of the beast to give him a soft target, Rallos steps forward and stabs at the creatures in a flurry of deadly precision strikes.
Yasmin's icy magics dissipate on contact with the enemy. It seems she will need to trust in the abilities of her allies to destroy the foe.
Ea moves and strikes at the undead abomination, uttering a prayer to Pharasma with each blow
As Yasmin's magicks fade, Ea's attacks barely scratch the towering monster... it is fortunate then that Rallos, taking advantage of the distraction provided by Titania's flanking, is lethally accurate... his blade stabbing through the air with a near audible hum of steel. A look of surprise, even shock, seems to paint itself across the undead thing's visage before, without words, it crashes backwards and falls to the floor... barely missing the diminutive Titania as it collapses...
...and, just for a moment at least, a peaceful quiet returns to the ornamental gardens.
As Tot begins to calm down after making sure the monster wasn't about to get up again, she begins to giggle and before long, she's laughing so hard she needs to cling to Rallos to hold herself up.
"That...That was fun," she wheezes as the fit begins to wan, leaving her smiling as tears roll down her cheeks.
The tense and ever serious Ea answers to Tot gigglings
Fighting undead monstruosities is never fun.
She manages to smile, a little
But I can understand you're glad to be still alive. Stay close to me
Sister Zalinsel unleashes another wave of greyish energy, curing some of everyone's wounds
Yasmin offers some healing of her own.
Yasmin taps her allies with the Wand of Infernal Healing.
"Nice work, guys. Especially Rallos, you really tore that thing up!"
Yasmin detects magic and looks around this strange new room they've stumbled across. She sees if there is anything of value on the undead creature they have defeated.
Rallos lets out a deep sigh of relief as the beast drops. He helps Tot stand up straight after her fit of laughter. He nods at Yasmin.
It's easier when the soft parts are exposed and Tot here draws its attention. And your quickening spell helps too... . Rallos searches the room after a quick respite.
[ooc]+4more for traps[/poc]
"Aw, c'mon, Ea! You can't tell me that you don't feel a little smug after beating that thing!" Tot, having caught some of her breath, stands a little straighter and gives Ea a grin. It's almost odd seeing her happy like this.
The chamber with the large throne shows little sign of life now with the undead monstrosity already decaying to dust and the remnants of its armour visibly rusting to nothing... looking around in the deathly cold room, the group find three intriguing features - first, the door headed westwards beyond which there is absolute silence... and then there is the platform hovering within the shaft that leads inexorably down into the pitch black... and finally, the sword behind the throne - rimed with frost and giving off the gentlest of humming sounds, it is clearly powerful... and beyond ancient.
Tot shivers as she notices the chill in the air. It never hurt her, but it was still uncomfortable. The dust tickled her nose as it rose into the air. Before she could stop it, she let out a cute little sneeze.
"Gread, by dose is stobbed ub," she mumbles as she turns to the sword. She feels it humming, and before she can stop herself, she grasps the hilt of it and holds it in front her so she can inspect it.
Seemingly unperturbed by the cold, Yasmin tries to study the sword's properties.
Of course, she is completely taken aback as Tot seizes the sword! "Wait, don't touch . . . "
Smug? No. I'm merely thankful than no one was killed or worse. We deed a good deed, and won an hard battle. But in the Spire, one hard battle only leads to an harder battle. We have won that one, but Fate will tell if we will survive longer. I could ask Pharasma, but is anyone here ready to hear the answer?
Nope...Pharasma can hold her tongue about me for a little longer, thank you. I intend to stick around for a while...maybe even settle down after all is said and done...would be nice to have a home to call my own...a wife and maybe an anklebiter or two. now what did you find there, Tot? a rusty rib tickler? Hmm...does anyone else find this cold a bit refreshing? Might just be me...
Hearing Yasmin's cut off warning, and deciding that the mood could use some lifting after Ea's rather gloomy observations, she feigns a swoon before turning to Yasmin and wrapping her arms around her waist.
"Oh my darling sorceress! Never again shall we be apart," she cries before trying to lean her head against the mage's shoulder, only to realize she hadn't thought this plan through when instead she finds her face in Yasmin's bosom.
Still not the most compromising position I've been in. I just hope the painter didn't make copies before I burned the one he'd done when I was drunk.
Yasmin lets out a gasp, and seems to be frozen in place for an inordinately long time.
Finally, she manages to offer a rejoinder. "Er . . . I know it's cold but there are other ways to warm up your nose . . ." She looks around awkwardly at the others.
"I forgot how tall you were," Tot replies as she backs away, her face flushed with embarrassment.
Rallos looks over and blinks a few times in quick succession. Ummm...is there something going on I don't know about? Maybe Gray rubbed off on her....hard to say...
As Tot lets go, Yasmin is able to recover her composure. "Well, Tot does have strong arms!" she says, squeezing her arms. "Definitely good to have you by my side. Darling." She smiles back warmly at Tot.
Is everyone ready to go?
Ea casually reminds her companions that they are in a Dangerous place, unsuitable for flirting shenanigans
"I-I guess I deserved that," Tot admits after having her arms squeezed by Yasmin. Her blush deepens as she's called "darling," and only gets worse when Ea gently scolds them.
"I guess I am," she says, looking down at the sword she still carried. I wonder what manner of blade this is? It's magical, but what kindof magic powers it?
There is little else here other than the now vacated throne, the weapon exuding cold and layering the floor around it with a sheen of crystalline ice... and the exits. With a palpable sense of evil still hanging in the air, the chamber is hardly somewhere to linger - and the group have three options... the door to the west, retracing their steps into the gardens or the platform that hovers in the shaft heading further downwards...
"I'm sure I'll sort out what that sword is. Let's press on to the next door."
She checks for magic just in case, and as usual waits on one of the front liners to open the door.
Tot shrugs and hooks the scabbard to her belt. She could use it if they ran against something fiery. Then after the all clear, opens the door.
The scabbard that Titania ties to her belt is tattered and badly decayed by age... hanging together, almost by the congealed dust that had settled upon it over the millennia, it will surely not survive for much longer... but for now, it'll do...
Yasmin's divinations confirm that there are indeed magicks beyond the door to the west, indeed the entirety of these caverns with their subterranean gardens seem infused with ancient arcana, but there are no auras that seem particularly hazardous or worrisome... and so, with her friends at the ready, she pushes the door open.
The small cavern beyond the door is a museum of sorts. Five stone pedestals present various strange artifacts and curiosities. Among the displays are an ordinary black cat sleeping on a velvet cushion, a serrated tooth made from a pale green crystal-metal, a large brain about two feet across, an empty pedestal, and an odd leather helm with a big, round eye in the forehead ...as the door creaks open, the eye in the helm blinks and turns its gaze towards the group.
Beyond the pedestals, two short flights of natural stone steps lead down to the west and to the south - both, from the verdant glow beyond, would seem to lead back into the gardens.
"A giant brain and a living helm, charming. Do you folks think it's safe to go in?"
Yasmin chooses to study the objects from afar, at least for the moment. She casts See Invisibility because she is curious whether the empty pedestal is really empty.
"Safe compared to what," Tot asks with a raised eyebrow. "I can count the number of times it's been safe to enter the room on one hand and they were all in the baths above!"
Indeed, the empty pedestal appears to be exactly that... peering into the world of the unseen, Yasmin observes nothing more than what can already be seen to the naked eye. However, the other pedestals are intriguing... the cat radiates moderate illusion and faint necromancy, the brain radiates moderate transmutation, and the helm radiates faint divination.
...and all the time that Yasmin and Titania are looking into the chamber, the eye within the helmet watches them back - utterly impassive.
"Yasmin? I don't like the look of that eye," Tot mutters as she folds her arms over her chest and edges behind the sorceress, "I feel like I might as well be naked to it."
Rallos looks around, thinking there is more to this room than it appears. He scans the corners of the room from his spot.
Yasmin can't help but feel uncomfortable as well. "Screw it, let's just put a stop to that staring! Get ready." After using her Wand of Heightened Awareness , Yasmin summons a familiar aura of cold energy and launches it straight at the eye!
Have you seen Something Strange, Yasmin?
Ea seems genuinely surprised by the sudden arcane assault
Tot gives a yelp as Yasmin unleashes her spell. The sudden attack catches her completely by surprise and it takes her a moment to compose herself again.
"Well, I guess that's one way of taking care of peeping Toms," she says as she readies her greatsword.
That will create a chill in any future bargain, for sure.
Tot gives Ea a sharp look.
"D-did you just crack a joke?"
Yasmin's consideration of the Cyclopean eye yields, at the last moment, a sudden realisation... and as she struggles to contain the spell she unleashed, she satisfies herself that this is no threat... that the eye is a feature of an enchanted item...
...cautiously picking up the ice rimed thing, she determines that it is a bizarre helm - seemingly made from the husk of a cyclops’s shrunken head, it appears to have some power of foresight.
...and it is Rallos who notices it first, before Yasmin's consideration of the other items determines the truth; the large brain - having been motionless until the Cyclops Helm crashed to the floor - sprouts arachnid-like legs and, raising itself from its dormant position, suddenly disappears!!!
"Uh, can any of you see where that brain-thingy went?" Tot keeps her eyes peeled as she readies her sword and watches Yasmin's and Rallos' backs.
That might have been a joke. Who knows for sure? Maybe my Fate wasn't to be a serious priestess of Pharasma but a buffoon?
Lovely....I can't stab what I can't see...the rogue says as he looks around and listens for any movement.
.
If Yasmin does see the creature, she would coat it with Glitterdust if possible.
It is only Yasmin who can see it, although Ea and Rallos do at least hear the skittering of claw upon rock, the suddenly mobile brain slopping down from its pedestal and crawling upon foreshortened limbs towards the group... it is fortunate then that Yasmin has the arcana to create a burst of effervescent light and that, as the motes of light settle, the outline of the creature is picked out for all to see...
Intellect Devourers are quite resistant to magicks, to the effects of extreme temperatures and utterly resistant to mind-affecting intrusions... worse, they have the capability to affect the conscious thoughts of their prey.
...and suddenly Rallos feels a burning intrusion into his mind...
Rallos tries to concentrate and focus his mind.
An intellect devourer. They resist to magic and extreme temperatures, Yasmin, so your usual tricks might not work. I think the use of brute force will be our salvation here, so give it your best shot, Titania
Tot does what she does best and steps up to the glitterbug to try sticking a sword in it.
"Ea, I hope for your sake that you didn't just make a dumb fighters joke," she growls as she does so, not having missed what the priestess had called the monster and suggesting that she take the lead on this one.
"Oh, I still have some familiar tricks that'll help!" insists Yasmin. As is often the case, Yasmin quickens everyone's movements!
No. We just need efficiency more than finesse, and some things are better fought by blade than by spell. There is Nothing wrong with being efficient, and you're the most competent fighter of our group. I was just stating a fact. Besides, I've already did a joke this year.
As Rallos loses himself to the strange intrusions in his mind, the sharp jab of steel in his palm quickly bringing him around, Titania dashes in and crashes her steel down upon the glittering shape on the floor... steaming and smelling vile, the blood that splashes across the paved stone is visible enough!!!
...and watching as the iridescent shape slops backwards, it is Titania who feels her mind slow.
Seeing Rallos shake off his confusion, Yasmin hurries to him. "Focus, and take out that walking brain!"
Yasmin uses her magics to render Rallos invisible again, though this time she remains able to see her ally at work.