Demitri will activate and swing again at the good doctor.
The wererat screams in surprise and pain as Demitri's silvered blade slices past his guard and cuts a swath of blood across his chest. His reddened eyes fall on Demitri and he starts stabbing at him!
His rapier gets past Demitri's shield and goes through his ribs, glowing red as it finds its mark. He then lunges forward, biting at the man's face!
The bite is little more than a cut across his brow.
"These doctors are the plague killing the Old Dame, not the balm," the dwarf says, pulling a bit of moss from his pouch. "We are the cure, and in this moment, She shall aid us!" He casts the moss into the air, and it settles upon the shoulders of his friends, guiding their blades.
Karri shouts for the dogs to kill the doctors and the steel women. They bay and run from the room intent on tasting more fresh meat.
for and
for and
for and
for and
As the dogs barrel into the fray in the 'experiments' room, Karri turns her anger back to the Doctor that started all of this. With a short curse another volley of abyssal power thumps into the man-rat.
Nalun continues attacking the good doctor...
Ugh stupid dicebot.
Can't find my way past his guard! Nalun growls
The wererat doctor manages to skewer one of Karri's hounds in the flank as it runs to engage a plague doctor. The beast bites down hard on the man's leg, but he manages to keep his footing.
The second dog bites another doctor, but also fails to bring him down to the floor.
The remaining dogs leap upon the nearest Grey Maiden, but her armour proves too thick for their jaws.
The doctors & Maidens retaliate with club and blade!
The clash proves to be quite intense. One doctor almost finishes off Karri's first hound, but the second doctor's strike narrowly misses the second hound as it ducks underneath one of the beds. One Grey Maiden is caught off-guard by the influx of Abyss-born dogs and swings wildly, knocking over the censer containing the anaesthetic incense with a loud *CLANG!*
The second Maiden scores a minor cut in the dog's hide.
Where Nalun's blade fails to find purchase, Karri's bolts find their mark. The wererat drops to one knee in pain!
Lyla grabs the doorframe and sticks her head out into the room. Face to face with one of the doctors, she opens her mouth wide, and a burst of flames springs forth engulfing the physicians.
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Demitri slashes at the good doctor again.
The first doctor sees what Lyla's doing in time to throw himself aside, but the second one isn't so lucky. His coat catches fire and he crumples to the ground, rolling around in vain to extinguish it before finally expiring.
The Grey Maiden manages to duck under the worst of the incoming flames. Some of the patients have roused from their drugged stupor and are now cowering against the far wall.
Demitri's strike comes down on the wererat doctor's head, who simply closes his eyes.
"...Achaekek be praised."
*SCHKK*
The wererat crumples under the strike as his flesh sizzles from the power in the inquisitor's blade.
With the Dr. Davaulus' death, Ortik relaxes slightly, but only just - there's still an entire building full of the Queen's guards and chosen healers to go through. He lays a hand upon his bleeding brow, and says a few words in the secret language that the Old Dame speaks to him in, and the wound quickly closes.
Nalun rushes to the doorway
I've got the door! Find us a way out! he calls out
The dogs continue their bloody assault against the doctors and the Grey Maidens. Meanwhile, Karri struggles to control Legion, and she clamps her hands to her head, howling in pain.
for and
for and
for and
for and
Karri's hounds continue biting and barking. The remaining doctor manages to escape the first hound's jaws, but one of the Grey Maidens isn't so lucky. With three hounds dog-piling on her, she falls to the floor with a resounding *CRASH* under the weight of the dogs and her own armour, with the dogs bloodily ending her existence.
The remaining hound bites a chunk out of another Maiden's shield without managing to harm her.
Two more Grey Maidens burst into the room as the rest fight back...
The doctor finishes off the first hound with a blow to its skull.
One Maiden manages to slice a shallow wound across a hound's flank while another stabs one through its back.
Opening her mouth once again, Lyla spits ou the flames burning in her throat, and then rushes into the other room to allow the rest of the team to pass and fight the iron maidens.
Demitri rushes to the doorway, letting out a vicious tirade. "You should all be ashamed of yourselves! What you're all doing to the poor is wrong!"
The physician dodges Lyla's exhaled flames with ease... but no one else in the room is able to ignore Demitri's enraged words.
In fact, his words are so powerful that the physician and two of his Grey Maiden cronies burst into flames!
"I've wasted enough time," Ortik says, reaching for his warhammer. "Time to join the fray." He pushes past Demitri, entering the room, hoping to clear a path for his friends to continue their escape. His blow swings wide, however, and he spits in frustration.
The flaming physician flails wildly about in perhaps the first instance of sheer panic that the party has witnessed.
Nalun delays, hoping this logjam will clear itself out soon.
Karri's hounds surge around the next of the Grey Maidens, though her flesh and armor are aflame, they tear at her with no mercy, and no fear.
Karri struggles with Legion and finally is pushed back enough that her demons walk her right into the fray. Her eyes a baleful green her voice an echo of a hundred voices she curse at the doctors and Maidens, التعود على النيران والديدان! وسوف تخدم الفيلق أيضا! Once in the melee she turns to the last doctor and by force of will, Legion sends bolts of power slamming into him.
for and
for and
for and
Nalun moves into the room and stabs at the first enemy he can find
Karri's missiles blast the doctor to the floor, where he twitches once before finally expiring. His corpse continues to burn...
The Legion's hounds leap and bite at one of the Maidens, their jaws biting through her armour, dragging her down to the floor, and gleefully ripping her into pieces.
The remaining two Maidens in the room keep up the attack, one of them still burning in her armour from Demitri's spell.
One manages to gut the most wounded of Karri's summoned hounds, causing it to disappear in a puff of greasy black smoke...
...and the other scores a shallow cut on the other dog's muzzle.
Nalun races into the room to engage the Maidens, moving up to one and preparing to strike.
Not seeing much space, Demitri casts a spell healing himself.
Ortik circles around the room, looking directly at the two Gray Maidens. "I know you are the Queen's hands here," he says to them, his voice loud enough to be heard above the fray. "But these men are not working to stop the plague! The Queen is Korvosa, so aiding the city is aiding her! Please, join us in striking down these false physicians, or at least do not hinder us!" As he moves, he drops his warhammer and casts a minor spell on one of the bleeding Maidens, in order to show that the Marshall's chosen have mercy.
The mauled Maiden takes a sudden gasp of air as Ortik's magic holds her from death's door. The other Maidens don't seem to react to the druid's words...
Perhaps it's because they're fending off abyss-spawned beasts while one of them is cooking alive in her own armour.
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Realizing the mess they got themselves into, Lyla jumps in on Ortik's attempt to defuse the situation. Instead of preparing explosives, this time she combines specially prepared reagents that expand and turn sticky when mixed together and exposed to the air. She throws their container over Nalun's head at the Iron Maiden standing in front of him. Standing up on top of one of the now vacant beds, she asks "Is it too late to call 'parley'?"
[dice=Tanglefoot bomb - Ranged touch attack]1d20+9[/dice]
Lyla's bomb bounces off of the Grey Maiden's shield and explodes in the room outside, coating the floor in rapidly-hardening goo.
The Grey Maidens look at the party, and their glares can be felt through their faceless helmets. "The time for talk has passed. Our orders are CLEAR." The one that's currently not burning says.
The other one just shrieks in pain and flails about some more.
Karri moves in towards the remaining Maidens, her hands outstretched as Legion calls forth the crashing wave of color to slam into the armored warriors.
The maidens are caught off-guard by the sudden burst of colour from Karri's hands, dropping them to the floor with garish colours staining their once expertly-polished armour.
The party can hear a commotion coming from downstairs...
The Grey Maiden was carrying:
--1 mwk longsword
--1 suit of mwk full plate armour, sized for a Medium female
--1 heavy steel shield
--1 composite longbow (+3) with 20 arrows
The doctors were carrying:
--5 suits of leather armour
--5 mwk clubs
--5 Healer's kits
--5 plague doctor's masks
Cardin Davaulus was carrying:
--A black flask labeled "Elixir of True Healing"
--A flask of green liquid
--A skillfully-crafted rapier with a praying mantis motif in the pommel
--A chain shirt made of mithral
--An amulet in the shape of a mantis' head
--A ring of keys
--An oddly-shaped key with a fly on one end
--A black, leather-bound journal
The dogs lunge towards the helpless Maidens. Like breaking thunder Karri's voice rings out, She claps her hands and the remaining hounds wink out of existence with a howl and *pop* of the aether closing in on where they were. Out of breath and looking well wrung out Karri gasps, "We...may have...started...something...big."
"Indeed." Demitri will start putting out the burning bodies before letting the patients free. "You can go free. Tell no one of what you saw here." He then turns to the party. "This is going to be hard to explain. We need to go somewhere now. I think the Citadel would be best."
"Wait. There are other guards downstairs. These people can't leave yet."
"Damnit. You're right. We need to clear the way first."
Nalun keeps his rapier drawn and moves to the top of the Stairwell
I can hold em here for a little while...is there a window we can use to get outta here?
While Demitri puts out the flames on the remaining Gray Maidens, Ortik uses his magics to make certain no more of the Queen's Hands die this day. "Not sure I even saw any. This place is more a stronghold than Lamm's old place. Dammit, we should have been more attentive! Now we're having to cut our way through assassins and the Queen's chosen warriors. This is not good, not good at all."
"No it isn't. We also need to bring Davaulus' body with us as proof."
Karri sneers at Ortik's concern. "If this is who Ileona has chosen, then we are doing Korvosa a service by removing them." The scarred girl then goes back into the office and begins searching the good doctor's desk.
Karri's search of the wererat doctor's desk turns up several sheafs of papers, most of them concerning the various stages of the plague the party has seen. A quick glance through them reveals a name for this plague--blood veil.
Perhaps, upon closer inspection, these notes can provide some clues as to how to cure the plague permanently. For now, they seem incomplete...
The keyhole appears to be in the shape of the fly-key you picked off of the wererat's corpse...
Lyla shakes her head, worried. "This is bad. We just offed Sabina Merrin's handpicked elite warriors. Even if she and the Queen were fooled by Davaulus themselves, it's still pretty serious. I'm guessing we're operating outside the law, now?", she asks looking at Demitri. The girl then shrugs her shoulders. "I'll give you guys some tips about that life. First, we're gonna need some stuff."
With these words, Lyla starts hurriedly collecting the loot from their fallen adversaries and placing them over a piece of cloth removed from one of the beds. When she is done, she folds the vloth over the pile of objects and ties a knot. After seeing Karri sifting through some papers, she goes into Davaulus' office and takes a better look. Maybe he is hiding something in here.
Hey! Might have something here! Bring that key, this might be our exit! Nalun calls out, watching the stairs for angry Grey Maidens.