The sudden darkness actually did something rare... it angered the aasimar paladin.
The darkness will not hide your foul deeds!
He called out to the darkness concentrating for a moment causing the very head of his glaive to glow as if the day burned from it.
He tried slashing torwards its wing trying to foul up its flying.
Kavell's glaive burns away the darkness in the room, much to the surprise of the glamoured bird priestess.
Gergo was halfway through grumbling about the descending darkness that hid his enemies and surroundings, before it dispelled with a flash of light. With a renewed joviality possessing his countenance, Gergo swung at the bat, putting far more strength in the strength than those that came before it.
Her ears still ringing, Valeria tried her spell on Gergo again.
Valeria's magic starts to gather in the air once more as the priestess starts casting another spell...
The spell she casts appears to be second nature to her, as she's able to complete it with ease. She lays a taloned hand on her wounds...
...and most of her injuries heal over swiftly.
The bat ducks under Gergo's swing tries to bite him again.
Unfortunately for it, Kavell's daylight power seems to have disoriented it somewhat--its jaws don't even come close to connecting with Gergo's skin.
Haru continues singing as she lines up a shot on the large bat!
The bat shrieks in surprise as Haru's arrow flies true and pierces its wing!
For some odd reason, Friday's spear once again flies completely wide of its mark. Perhaps some fell force is working against it...
He stabbed at the creature face serene in its concentration.
Kavell's glaive carves a swath across the creature's nose! The bat recoils in pain, surprised that it's finally starting to take wounds!
With the spell ready and formed, Valeria let the energy flow out of her and into Gergo. As she did, she felt an unfamiliar resistance from the mercenary. She tried to shift the spell to move through the weaker parts of the resistance, hoping to bypass it if she couldn't just brute-force the spell through it.
Gergo's shield was pushed between himself and the bat, acting as a semi wall between himself and the larger creature. All his previous attacks drew no blood but Gergo's was nothing if not optimistic; once more he pulled his sword back before going for a high angled, horizontal swipe.
As Gergo swings his sword, he feels himself increase greatly in size! His blade rakes across the bat's chest and finally draws blood!
The priestess draws a wicked-looking longsword and steps forward...
...and keeps her feet with ease as she swings at Friday!
She manages to score a direct blow, carving a gash into his sword-arm.
The bat keens loudly before biting at the now-large berserker...
...and its fangs bite down on Gergo's shield and start shaking it around!
Friday steps back and stabs at the priestess.
Haru's arrow doesn't meet with the same success she had previously--it flies into the inside of Gergo's shield and gets stuck.
Friday finally manages to score another hit on the priestess...
...or so he thought. The priestess' double shatters under the force of his spear thrust.
Seeing the wicked cut the quiet painter recieved from the beast he moved quickly to close with him his already aglow with holy energy. His hand suddenly and quickly brushed his sword arm the wound all but disapearing, leaving but a tiny crust of blood where the gash had been.
You'll never harm another thing again foul spawn!
"Hahaha! You are acting just like Greedy when he nibbles at my finger!" Said Gergo, an amused smile on his face as he watched the bat bite at his shield "But you're not as cute" He added, without warning his sword screeching against the ground before ascending to meet the bat, kicking up a cloud of dust as it rose in the air.
Gergo's sword comes down hard on the bat's wing and slices through it like it's made of paper. The appendage is brutally sliced free, and the large bat crumples in a pool of its own blood, twitching.
"Hahaha! Already down?" He asked rhetorically, then turned his eyes towards the priestess "Your friend seems to still be in good spirits...and annoying my friends here, can't have that can we?"
Valeria retrieved her staff from where she'd dropped it. "Haru," she whispered to the bard, "I'm out of magic, all I've got left is that line of fire and it's getting a bit too crowded in there for that. I need a clear shot."
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The priestess recoils in surprise when the large bat is laid low, clutching at a holy symbol around her neck.
"...impressive. Nevakali will remember this, pinkskins." She pointedly glares at Friday as she intones another spell...
...and she lets out an evil cackle as her form becomes misty & insubstantial. She floats over to a pane of broken glass and moves through it, her laughter fading away to be replaced by the sound of raindrops coming down.
Everything turns quiet as the fighting ends.
Taking another look around the despoiled shrine, the party notices a small cell right next to Friday that appears to have been left untouched. The cell is unremarkable, with a small bed covered in dust being the most interesting thing about the room.
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The footlocker Friday finds contains:
--4 silver-tipped arrows fletched with golden feathers;
--3 scrolls, each tied shut with a different string. One green, one blue, one red;
--A palm-sized box containing scrolls with writing in a beautiful, flowing script.
Blue: Remove Disease.
Red: Restoration.
The small trove in the footlocker might be worthy of further study, but there was supposedly a captive somewhere still in the castle. Who knew perhaps that damnable preistess was even now making her way to the captive.
Someone hold on to those, there is still that prisoner about I fear, and we must keep our eyes open for that priestess.
He said worry clear in his voice. He moved to Gergo quickly placing his hand for just a moment on the man's head.
He took a slight backtrack towards the hallway they passed and stopped at the door throwing it open if he was able to. He felt like he was somehow pressed for time. Like that preistess escaping was the start of a great calamity.
Vanquishing foes and uncovering loot was all part of the experience of storming old castles...or so Gergo thought anyway. The mercenary had hoped to take down the priestess as well, but he wasn't fond of giving chase.
"I may grow to like this Valeria" He said as he looked at his larger stature "Hah! Grow! Oh that's a bad one, they'll love it at the tavern"
When the spells affects returned him to his original size Gergo followed after Kavell.
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Almost all of the rooms in this wing of the castle appear to be bedrooms of some sort. Quite a few of them are filthy and smelling of bird droppings, with the exception of the master bedroom--it's kept in meticulously clean condition. The large, four-poster bed with silk curtains dominating the room seems to have seen much recent use.
One of Kikonu's bird-men is cowering under the bed and doesn't seem inclined to come out.
U7: This appears to be a balcony overlooking an ancient ballroom. The railing running along its edge looks rather rickety.
U4: A locked set of double doors. They're easily opened.
U5: This chamber may have once had a beautiful roof of glass, but little remains today save for a few precariously leaning wooden timbers hanging above a swath of crumbled stone and ruined furniture. The roof covering the southern half of the room has been crudely repaired with thick sheets of canvas and furs that have been stretched and fastened over the frames, creating a dark, almost cavelike, nesting area.
U6: What appears to be a plain stone wall is actually a secret door that leads into the castle walls. A second secret door beyond that leads further inside to...
U16: This appears to have once been a guard post of some description. Stale blood and old gouges line the walls of this room--it appears to be the remnants of a particularly intense battle fought long ago.
U9: A surprisingly clean washroom.
U10: A room with a door that's stuck closed.
U11: A cramped room lined with several bunk beds.
U12: This room's door seems remarkably untouched, and stuck closed.
...
...is that a child sobbing behind the door?
"I knew if a lord had stayed here at one point the place would have fancy things. We'll get a fine price for these the next time we stop at town!" Gergo placed the silverware in his pack before moving onward, humming a tune as he walked.
"Sounds like a kid crying" He exclaimed to the party.
Both of his hands found grips on the door before he began pulling at it with all his might.
As Gergo yanks the door open, the crying abruptly stops.
The door opens into a storeroom of some sort. Although this storeroom may have once been well organized, the fallen crates and broken barrels that fill the room now present a tangle of debris.
Sitting amongst the rubble is a small, childlike creature, its skin a pale grey with an emaciated frame. Cobwebs and dust cling to its body as makeshift clothes, and its head is in the shape of a wolf's skull. It slowly turns to face Gergo with empty eye sockets...
...and its sobbing begins anew, and louder than before. It rises to its feet and starts wailing in despair, its cries seeping into the party's souls and making them feel its pain and anguish.
"It's an undead creature called an attic whisperer -- watch out for its bite, and it can steal your voice too!"
"Hate to tell you guys, but I'm out of magic," she said as she readied and loaded her crossbow, not sure what it would do against an attic whisperer.
Stay back miss Valeria make sure that preistess isnt waiting to surprise while we are distracted then.
He called out as he approache and slashed at the creature glad his glaive left room for Gergo or Friday to help put it down. Perhaps distracted by miss Valeria's words.
Kavell's glaive misses the undead child, weighted down as it is by sorrow.
In an instant Gergo moved to the side of the undead, trying to roll out of the way of its strikes.
Once in range, Gergo raised his sword but instead of bringing the blade down upon the grief inducing monster, he let the butt of the weapon crash into the eye socket of the beast, spun around and delivered a copy of that strike to the other eye.