Zhu says, "A mirror is a good idea. Unfortunately, I do not carry one." He looks around and says, "These doors are bolted. Should we not leave them locked rather than risk another battle that might leave us weakened for the greater battle ahead?"
Arma looks to Zhu and then to the doors. Finally as her gaze returns to the hall ahead and the stair at its end she speaks aloud through her visor in a respectful tone.
"I also have no mirror. But I too Sir Zhu question if we should speed past with all haste to the Princess Valeria's rescue. Ignoring all but what danger presents itself or is needed to be found in our safe but sure advance. It would surely be faster."
She pauses as if to think but speaks again in a more unsure tone that resounds through her helm.
"But do we then leave enemies behind as we do? I then know I will worry as they may emerge to strike at my friends behind as I watch for danger from the front?"
Her tone however sounds more sure though still questioning after another short pause.
"But are these cries of prisoners and or allies that might aid us or tell us of our enemies? If rescued do we tell them to flee alone or follow us into a danger they perhaps hoped rescue from?"
Confidence is returned to her voice again as she speaks with a look toward the others.
"I cannot know which we will find but to leave these doors behind closed or open them now are both a risk. I would open them if we can safely. But let us all decide for time does not favor us or the Princess. If anyone has a mirror please volunteer it. But even if not let us decide for we must advance."
I think each door must be dealt with, no matter what it contains. I would not leave a mount to starve, and even a wild beast that will fight us should be put down rather than left here for some torturous fate. Kyrax pads up to each door and listens.
After listening to each he concludes, indicating the third door Someone in here is in need of rescue and should not pose a threat, unless it is a good ruse. But someone here may be being tortured. he says indicating the first door.
"We should not always believe what we hear behind a door, since I know that certain spells create or silence sound.
I remember asking one of my aunts about how some of the shows were done when a festival came, and explained that magic can be used to trick teh eye and the ear."
"Fripperies, for those who can't deal with reality. Either there is a torture victim or someone who wishes to conceal themselves behind that sound. In the first case, it is someone who may have information we need, and in the second it is someone we don't want to have at our backs. I say open the door."
"Which one as there are 4 doors"
"That would be the one that Kyrax said he heard someone being tortured behind. To start with, in any case."
"Let me have a listen."
At Door 1
"Sounds like torturer and victim."
At Door 2
"OK then, let's not open this door......."
At Door 3
"Possibly a long held prisoner or victim."
At Door 4
"A brush, ... and something else...."
As Noya listens Kyrax checks Door 1 for traps and, if finding none, will open said door.
"Very well," Zhu says simply. While the others focus on the door they're about to open, Zhu carefully watches the stairwell before them, just in case anything sinister is attracted by the noise.
Arma listens and watches some as the others examine the doors and listen to them. She takes special note of the door that Noya says they will not open.
She turns her head to Zhu as he comes near her and nods speaking so that only he can hear.
"Wait a moment", Robert says.
Rummaging through his pack in search of something, he does find a mirror at the bottom.
"I thought I had one of these", he muses.
He angles the mirror below each door, trying to see something of what goes inside.
Robert, get the door open. Someone is being tortured.
"Well, we don't know that for sure, but ok... sorry."
Robert pockets the mirror, takes his lock picks and goes about his work.
Or he can take 20, for a total of 29, if that's what it takes.
When Arma closer and speaks softly to Zhu, the Tien man offers a slight smile.
After a few tries (or after taking his time), Robert manages to pick the lock. The door swings open on an odd and revolting tableau.
Beyond the door lies a circular room, loops of runes running along the upper edge of the walls where they adjoin the ceiling, and along the lower edge where they adjoin the floor. The whole room is suffused by a soft, greenish light that seems to issue from the runes, and casts strange and horrible shadows. Set out in the centre of the room is an... apparatus. You do not have a better word for it just now.
The apparatus has a sturdy, wooden frame, suspended from the ceiling by thick cables. The frama consists of various modules that can be adjusted to fit a wide variety of bodies. There are manacles attached at several points along the frame, and chains run from one module to the next. You need a moment to puzzle out what the chains are for -- and then you feel nauseated. Each chain is attached to one of a series of wheels, which are attached to a big, heavu table in front of the apparatus. Turn a wheel, and you can move a module -- and whatever is in it, quite independently of all the other modules. A body put inside this thing can be torn apart or twisted into a pretzel just by turning what looks like a series of toys...!
Set further away is a table with a large, lovingly tended rack full of more ordinary instruments of torture, all sparkling clean and lovingly sharpened; knives, hooks, needles... drills? There are big ones, small ones, some so delicate that you can't imagine they could be used without breaking in the victim's body -- and then you need to drive that nightmare from your minds as well! There are also a series of jars on that table, their labels indicating they contain various salts, acids, irritants, and other chemical horrors.
On a second, smaller table is a rack of little bottles, their contents dark and syrupy-looking.
All of this might pale in comparison with what hangs suspended in the middle of the apparatus, though. Someone has spun silver wire through the modules, which are tangled around a small creature. The wires have been wound around the cables, and now the little wheels allow for the torture of what is easily recognizable as an Imp! The wires are slicing into its flesh at various angles even as they restrain the little devil, and its wings are already in tatters. Black, tarry liquid drips constantly from its injuries as the Imp struggles. Someone has stuffed a wad of cloth into its mouth and tied a leather strap around it so that it cannot speak, but its bulging eyes and the contortions of its body indicate hideous pain. Wild-eyed, the Imp looks at you and starts making desperate sounds.
"" an urbane, cultured voice speaks out of empty air. "?"
Before the door is opened.
Arma raises her visor as she replies to the man glancing over from watching ahead with a slight smile of her own that shows admiration thought her face is still looking for danger.
Having heard Kyrax rush Robert, Arma looks back with a cautious look. "Be quick but cautious Sir Robert! No need for apology!" Her voice however is confident of Roberts ability. Still the urgency sounds reasonable to her so she turns back to her duty and leaving her visor raised as she guards ahead next to Zhu. A determined look on her face.
After the door is opened
Arma from her post ahead sees none of this but upon hearing the voice does move back to try and look within and guard the others still. When she does catch sight of the creature being so tortured she lowers her visor but her look by then is that of a cold intensity as the metal plate covers it. She says nothing however but waits for the others to decide their course in dealing with the vile scene.
Pontia sneers. "Torturing an imp. How droll. What do you hope to gain from this little exercise?"
"," the avuncular voice says, chuckling indulgently. "?"
Mirandix looks into the room, shaking his head at the needless pain the creature is suffering. Though he has no love for devils, he also has no love for torture that serves no purpose. The stated goals of the bodiless voice do not, in his mind, add up to reason good enough for torture. Seeing Arma's visor drop, Mirandix readies his blade.
Robert feels very ambiguously towards the whole situation. He is not fond of torture of living beings, but this is a devil, and he has no love at all for these supernatural creatures. Reasoning that devils are not part of the natural order, he stands back without taking the initiative either way.
He thinks of his father who probably would have advanced to end the torture of this creature. But maybe because of that, he also keeps away from the action.
Raina shifts her position so she is able to see what is happening in the room. Upon seeing what is inside the room her eyes go wide with horror of the scene.
She steps away so she is no longer in sight of the foul creature and the even more foul means being used in such a manner.
"Regardless of the creature such acts are performed on, that mindset is evil. I will not partake of it." She says while visibly shaking in anger.
Outraged by what he sees Kyrax moves it and slashes at the Imp to end its suffering. he does not bother responding to the voice.
At seeing Kyrax action Arma will move into the room to stand beside him ready to defend him and respond to any attack against him with her shield should it come to such.
She does not speak but keeps her head moving about as if to look for any such threat.
Zhu also steps over once the door is opened. While the look of the room doesn't seem to bother him much, he is repulsed by the casual sadism in the unseen torturer's voice. "Show yourself," he says sternly.
__________________________________
As soon as the rest of the group takes their stance, Robert assumes a defensive position. His aim is not to release the imp, but to defend his companions and support them in the group's objectives.
Pontia steps into the room. "Do you think to alter its essence so that it will not return to its source when that body is slain?"
Mirandix steps partway into the room, standing in the doorway with a goal of defending his allies method of egress. He will be trying to make sure the door cannot close and that no other creature comes to block the doorway.
"Well, if we can no longer treat the devil patient," a voice speaks out of the darkness, "then we are just going to have to find a new specimen to work with. You, sir, you have a rather contradictory physique! We shall start with you."
Kyrax feels pain flare in his swordarm and his blood goes flying, splattering in his own face!
"The first incision is a success!" the voice exults. "I taste blood! "
"No fair, no fair!" a second voice giggles. "Me next, me next!"
"No, me! Me!" a voice shrieks -- from behind you!
Robert can feel something part his hair in the darkness, but his reflexes save him a wound!
The three voices join in a hellish chorus as they move around in the utter darkness:
"We'll make you better, yes, we will,
We'll cut out flaws with utmost skill.
If you have something that we do need,
You won't need it more as it makes you bleed.
Living blood's the tonic we love best,
The taste of sanguine beats the test!
Lie you still or scream in chains,
It matters not, 'tis all in vain,
Till all imperfection's cut away
In the Utterdark with you we'll have our way!"
The darkness falls, but your sight adapts at once -- and you might feel some slight need to curse it. Just after Kyrax' sleeve and the flesh beneath it rip open, seemingly of their own accord, you see two spheres attain visibility. But such spheres! They are tiny orbs of armour plating, with sharp-edged blades jutting out at irregular intervals -- blades stained with old gore. A single, organic eye peeks out from between the plates, eyeing Kyrax' bleeding wound with a hideous lust!
The third voice issues from a third orb, which is what must have thrown the door closed behind you, and is now rocketing around the ceiling with its two cronies!
The door slams shut in your faces, and you hear the heavy thunk of a bar thrown down. Dimly, you can hear three strange voices start to sing a song on the other side of the door:
"We'll make you better, yes, we will,
We'll cut out flaws with utmost skill.
If you have something that we do need,
You won't need it more as it makes you bleed.
Living blood's the tonic we love best,
The taste of sanguine beats the test!
Lie you still or scream in chains,
It matters not, 'tis all in vain,
Till all imperfection's cut away
In the Utterdark with you we'll have our way!"
Behind you, the first door shudders as something heavy hits it from the other side, and you hear a guttural, roaring sort of noise.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Gunther attack: for plus bleed.
Slish attack: for plus bleed.
Slash attack: for plus bleed.
Her other actions are to ready her standard action to strike with her scimitar should any of them come into her threatened area and preparing her immediate action to protect the first of any adjacent allies attacked by the creatures by granting them a +2 to AC with her shield. Should Kyrax move she moves to stay adjacent to him using her move action if she is able to do so.
Arma seeing the strange creatures sets herself to act as they strike past her blocking shield and hit Kyrax. The sudden sound of the doors movement is noticed but her attention stays with their attackers and her allies. She glances about to see who had made it into the room before the attack took place but watches mostly the moves of the creatures above.
"They are three and they move above and around us in flight. Move to avoid easy flanks by standing adjacent to each other in a square formation until we might reach the door. If someone has some kind of light then use it." Her voice while loud still is confident in tone yet also speaks of intense nearly cold concentration. She stays near to Kyrax and waits for the others she hopes to move into position. While it will not stop all flanks it will allow them the best defense should the creatures attempt such.