As the cultist are being easily cut down Innis keeps her involvement to a minimum. Simply letting her presence in the room and her protective spells be all she commits to such a banal melee. She crosses her arms and leans against a wall in an open display of contempt for Maramaga amidst her cultists deathwails.
Lililinda leans back into the corner, casually flicking at the minds of the cultists.
Boros and Cassandra each help killing off another of the unarmored cultists leaving three cultists to battle. Lillinda attempts to daze one of the cultists but his resolve is strong and he fights off the spell's effect.
Two of the remaining three attack Merelda but the inquisitor has no problem avoiding the attacks. While the last cultist attacks Boros however the snake's skin is hard to penetrate.
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Amigail takes another poor swing at the nearest cultist and decides that the mithral armor must be cursed.
for
On the closest attacker...
Innis waits out the inevitable conclusion of the battle.
Lililinda narrows her eyes, stands up straight, and hits him again.
Boros continues to bite and crush the unarmoured cultists. Amigail, Merelda and Cassandra end the slaughter. Looking about the room you can only see the massacre you have just participated in. It is a chilling prologue of what is likely to come.
Amidst the the blood the stone floor is covered with straw mats. To the south is a small stone-lined fire pit filled with smoldering coals, around which sit a dozen empty crates and flat-topped rocks used as chairs. The smoke from the fire pit drifts up through a 10-foot square hole in the ceiling.
To the north are three dozen bedrolls, all rolled up and piled against the wall.
"That was quite the spectacle." Innis remarks once the killing is done.
She will quickly check the room for anything of use and test the floor for any potential hidden stash.
When she is done conducting her search she mobilizes the team to final enter the main building.
Ami follows Innis's orders like the good little soldier she is, looking around for new foes to put to the sword.
Covered in splashed blood, Merelda turns back to the door to retrieve Cinder and get him comfortable on her shoulder again.
Little can be found in these barracks. There is some change of clothing near the bedrolls and on the west wall hanging from the posts and wooden armor stands are nine suits of iron lamellar armor. Finding nothing of real worth you move out and head to the main building. Cinder comes to rest gently upon Merelda's shoulder.
Reaching the main building you see a rather long hallway that stretches into the darkness. Both walls are covered with bas relief carvings depicting a long line of hooded skeletal humanoids clutching wickedly curved sickles with both hands. The length of the hall stretches well beyond Innis and Kirzon's darkvision.
Innis peers into the darkness as Amigail opens the door for her. She will pause the warrior and seek a cheater's insight by calling upon her Augury wand to assess threats.
Innis uses her wand to the fullest of abilities...
Weal
Nothing
Woe
Nothing
Woe
"Alright, enemies ahead prepare yourselves." Innis instructs Amigail to proceed followed by Cassandra.
Merelda will trail the group in the rear, but will be ready to charge as soon as an enemy, and an opening, appears.
Kirzon checks the wall and finds no structural damage a testament to the ancient dwarven workmanship. With Amigail and Cassandra leading the way Kirzon lights Amigail's shield to provide some light.
Moving down the hall the long procession of skeletal reapers do not end almost seeming to be leading you all to the very underworld Kirzon reassures you that the passage while long does not actually slope down.
You have traveled for a hundred feet with no end to the passage in sight when you hear a CLICK. Before you realize what is happening a mass of sickle blades spring from the wall and sweep down the hall. Only Merelda who is at the very back is spared!
The blood Innis bleeds is black and strictly speaking mostly not her own. Her wounds close almost immediately after the assault of blades.
She scans the area trying to get lucky in spotting any potential for additional hazards or if the trap can be somehow reset inspiring a sense of urgency.
Innis calls for Kirzon to take the lead as his perceptiveness is especially keen and the group needs to be wary of danger. The team presses on cautiously while Innis works her magics to repair most of the trap's damage.
Innis tries to organize her team in a defesive formation and the continue down the hall.
Merelda shakes her head.
"Maybe I should go first and scout a bit ahead? With Cinder's help I might notice or sense something most of you might not."
She then strokes the wasp's head gently with a free hand while looking expectantly at the others.
Innis shakes her head "You are over eager Sister. To spread thin would risk an ambush i wouldn't trust the stonework as we've already been made painfully aware. We will stick together for now and Kirzon is more than suited for this. It's fitting that our dwarf companion should be leading us through these halls at any rate. This is the handy work of your people isn't it?"
Once given the go ahead, Merelda pads forward trying to ascertain the area ahead...
Merelda and Cass will be granted invisibility and given a moment to take the advance when there is some indication the end of this long hall is in sight.
After the scythe blade trap the hall is eerily quiet. Except of the team's uncertain footsteps and Innis' spellweaving chanting.
The ancient skeletal reapers remain a dispassionate audience to the incursion of intruders to this accursed temple.
Taking precautions to moving following the sweeping scythe trap Merelda takes off scouting ahead with Cassandra following behind both cloaked by Innis' invisibility.
The tunnel eventually opens into great open hall with a polished floor of black and gray tiles. Eight towering black granite columns, carved to resemble huge moss-draped oak trees, support the ceiling high above.
Obviously a shrine of some kind, a great stone altar is visible at the far end of the chamber, standing before a huge statue depicting
a three-headed female figure.
The ceiling here is 30 feet high along the walls and gradually extends to 50 feet high near the center of the chamber.
Waiting in this room you see that a large group of cultists are expecting your party. By the altar also stand two massive ogres peering down the hall.
Heading back, Merelda informs the others of what she saw.
"They are waiting for us. They have ogres. What is the evil magical artifact we are looking for supposed to look like?"
Hesitating for only a moment, Merelda looks back at the group again seemingly desperate.
"Could we charm the ogres to help us or something? They're usually quite stupid and vulnerable to such things. Assuming they are not already charmed. Plenty of room to fly if any of us could fly."
Innis listens to the invisible Merelda's whisper on the wind.
"We are looking for our man Azrenar. Doubtless he will be in possession of an Artifact of Power that is the origin of our current woes."
"If they are not in chains and rags like the giant outside i wouldn't gamble on it in a battle. They are prepared for war then I say we give them one." Innis lays out her battle without delay stuck by some fiendish inspiration. She seems more excited than concerned about the battle ahead. Innis herself seems to feel she has accounted for the measure and worth of each of her teammates.
"I for one would like to skip all the nonsense and get right to the one responsible for this." Lililinda says, "I believe we are crafty enough to sneak past."
Innis' aura of menace flairs washing over the group as an almost tangible force as the team hesitates in what she seems to think would be a simple and one-sided fight...of course they would be doing most of the actual fighting as was their lot in life.
It seems like a life time ago Innis was a tavern dwelling songstress and the team's harmless trickster. Whatever she has evolved into now for better or worse was something much more.
She master's her darkness. As it is suggested she come up with a plan more in her natural element she conjures one with astounding speed and seemingly little effort. Merelda and Cass are given time to make best use of their invisibility, as Innis makes her preparations...
The Changeling assumes the hag-like form Ferista and borrows Hazrakul from Merelda for what she only describes to the team as show-and-tell...
Innis The Grand Deceiver and her team make their approach unhurried towards the temple's main room.
Ferista-Innis announces her presence projecting well enough to be heard in the large room. Hold your steel! I am Ferista of House Varsa. Sister to Azrenar, The Heir and your High Priest. I seek an audience with my brother for I have news of the city above and at great pains come bearing a gift. The vengeful weapon Hazrakul a trophy from Lord Dhurne himself never to turn the blade against the Scythe Mother again." Ferista-Innis hobbles forward awkwardly using the legendary axe for leverage.
Carefully creeping by Innis and the group waiting at the entrance, Merelda heads for the right hand wall around the corner, looking for a good place to observe and hold up for a second.
Amigail stands fairly close to Innis-In-Disguise, trying to look kinda dumb, like maybe she's been charmed or something.
Ferista-Innis lifts her double-chin, short in stature but still somehow managing to look down at the congregation of Maramaga worshippers. Resting her hands on the pummel of the downward pointed axe before her she let's the stunned silence linger before speaking up once again. "My dearest brother, where is he?"
The cultists look surprised as you Innis now guised as Ferista presents herself to them. One of the cultists her heaf shaved like all the others points to the ogres standing before the altar.
Feeling confidant that the charade is working you move up to where the ogres stand before you. Atop a three-step dais that allows access to a raised area about 5 feet higher than the rest of the temple stands a large altar made of pale violet marble, on which lies the bloody corpse of a human male with its chest cavity open. Behind the altar stands a towering stone stat-ue of a three-headed woman wielding a golden sickle in one hand and a skull wreathed in green flames in the other.
One of the ogres you see is a towering male at least 11 feet tall with sickly gray-green skin, mullet-cut black hjair, coal black pupil-less eyes, and an over-sized maw filled with crooked gold-capped teeth. He wears metal plated armor under a patchwork cloak of animal and humanoid skins and wields an over-sized sickle.
The other ogre is a shorter, grotesquely obese female ogre around 9 feet tall, with boil-covered pale gray skin, a waist-long tangle of thick blue-black hair, tiny sunken holes for eyes, and a constantly drooling toothless mouth. She wears an ill-fitting suit of sweat-stained studded leather armor and wields a pair of over-sized sickles. It is her who speaks to you, "You sister of Azrenar. You been blest with touch of Scythe Mother. You survive. Good the Scythe Mother reaps weak keeps strong. Who are they?"
"My retinue." Ferista-Innis waves dismissively.
"I had need for as you say stronger companions. My apprentice Elleste was lacking in that quality."
Ferista-Innis observers the room and the statue in particular. "My brother told me how to seek him out when I was ready. Admittedly the journey was more harrowing than expected. But I am here nonetheless, a proper reunion has been long in the making. What he does....he does for family. She shakes her head regretfully.
"We may have had our disagreements but blood is thick. We will stand side by side as Cassomir is finally reaped and our due is delivered."
She turns to Amigail "You there, girl. Hand me our invitation." Amigail dutifully complies placing the unholy symbol of Maramaga into Ferista-Innis's outstretched hand for their audience to see.
"Now then enough about my family history. There are still urgent matters to discuss... She hesitates fidgeting uncomfortably unsure if she can trust the orge with her sensitive information.
"There are rumblings of a saviour, a rival high priestess. She shakes her head. "I can say no more."
"For Maramaga's will to be done I must speak with my brother no doubt he is still below."
Using Detect Magic, Merelda will scan the room as much as she can from her hiding spot.
She also keeps one eye out for Innis in case she runs into trouble!
Lililinda waits beside and a step behind "Ferista", doing her best to act the part of an unremarkable servant girl.
With her enemies attention and her allies focused on her every whim Innis feels like some grand actress with all the world as her stage.
~I could get used to this~ she thinks to herself.
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Seeing Innis getting into character, Merelda smirks at the woman's audacity and natural cunning.
"What a ham."
The large ogress looks down at Innis guised as Ferista. "Yur rentow stay. You may go to see Azrenar. Whatever rival priestess you speak about the Scythe-Mother has chosen yur brother. We fear none. We are with her chosen one in her temple."
Quietly stepping five feet to the entrance of the nearest alcove, Merelda will attempt to get a better look at the magic emanating there.
Ferista-Innis looks up at the ogre "They have done their job when I safely lay eyes upon my brother. Until then we are quite attached. I can vouch for their loyalty. Your brethren, sister-ogre I have not yet come to know. You after all you greet me with swords when I come bearing gifts. No I don't think be going alone. My secrets are valuable and warrant protection. You are fearless as you say. Myself I am...just tired. Azrenar did not ask you to delay did he? If not we shall be going."
The ogress looks on annoyed at Innis-Ferista stepping forward, "The high priest tell nothing of your coming here. You live only because you are his sister. The others are fodder. They do not come under high priest request. I am part of circle you are NOT. Choose as you wish go but others stay." Even as the ogress shouts this at Innis-Ferista the tension in the chamber begins to feel tense. The faithful of Scythe Mother having now blocked the entrance from where you came.
basin from a brass pipe several feet above the fountain. The font is radiating the magic.
Hearing things are not going well now, Merelda will sidle towards the back of the alter and try to see quickly what there is to see there before things get nasty.