"It--" Pontia glances sidelong at Kyrax. "Horshaw is a mongrelman. They generally keep to themselves, as I recall, and are not known for aggressiveness. That makes them an excellent choice of victims for the likes of the kytons--for the kytons, torture is its own end and justification."
Arma looks into the room and hearing the discussion thinks on what she has heard about mongrelmen. She agrees with Pontia's description and the others logic.
"Let's give Horshaw some food and point him to his way out. I am certain he means no harm and we have to continue on with our mission. It is better if he was free and clear of this place."
Very well, Horsehaw, I will let you go. But one last question, if you can answer. Did the wizard, Xorshak, ever say what he was looking for? Or did he just want... any treasure?
Raina looks down on the poor mongrelman with a compassionate expression.
Kyrax leads the lizard mount out into the hall before mounting it. You are free. Do you know what lies beyond these other doors?
"We only had a few treasures," Horsehaw says, his voice sad as his eyes stare into the past.
"He didn't even look at most. We had our own well, and fungus on the walls that we could eat...! Those were great treasures. We had a steel knife of our own, and a copper pot with still two of the legs on and only a single hole that was all fixed up proper by a tinker."
The mongrelman shakes his head. "Such wonderful wealth we had... We even had some useless things, just to look at. A pouch of copper coins that we polished until they shone like the sun. We'd nearly worn the silly pictures off, so they were like small mirrors! And we had the black pearl with the silver letter inside, too. Mad Wizard! He took the pretty and scattered our shiny coins, then hurt us and kept asking 'Where are the rest? Where are the other pearls?' How would we know? We only had the one pretty, a thing to look at against the fire-light when it was dark. All the torturing balls of metal can't change what is, no matter how much they hurt you."
"I don't..." Horsehaw shudders. "The pain room is next to this one. I think there is something opposite here that the Wizard uses a lot, but I don't know for sure what it is."
The mongrelman shudders again, horrified. "Up the stairs... I don't know how far... The Orcs have a room there, them and the Ogre. It's where they bivouac. Where they cook their food. And where they slaughter it."
Horsehaw's mutilated leg twitches involuntarily and he closes his eyes, his face creasing in the memory of pain.
Pontia excuses herself briefly, having forgotten that the kytons were tormenting an imp and wishing to see if the creature is salvageable.
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.
[dice=Scimitar]1d20+4;1d6+4+1d6
[dice=Scimitar]1d20+4;1d6+4
Pontia's investigation does, indeed, show that there is nothing left of the Imp. Not on this plane, anyway...
Robert looks at Horsehaw, and says
"Thank you, Horsehaw. You're of a good kind, and I am sorry so much pain has been inflicted on you."
Turning to the rest of the party:
"Does someone have some healing ability that could help our friend here?"
Then he turns to Horsehaw again
"He is indeed a mad wizard, that oversaw so many nice things. If you like steel knives, I'll give you one of my daggers in thanks and to help you protect yourself.
But try to remember, if you can: do you know how you came by the Pretty thing? Do you know some tale about it?"
"We just... had it," Horsehaw says, helplessly. "The ones who came before us had it and passed it down to us. I think someone just dug it up."
Tears appear in the Mongrelman's eyes when Robert offers him a dagger.
"A steel dagger? All for me? Oh, wonderment...! I will be able to cut my food when cooking so nice..."
"I'll take... him... to the exit of the cave," Secunda suddenly speaks up, her face carefully neutral as she unlocks the cage -- there was a keyring hanging from a hook on this side of the prison door. "Come along. I'll cut you a walking-stick."
The Chelaxian noblewoman puts her shoulder under Horsehaw's arm and starts to guide him out.
"I'll catch you up once he's on the move out," she adds. "Keep going; we've wasted enough time here."
"All right," says Zhu. "Be safe." He doesn't know what to make of Secunda, but he's content to let her attend to the mongrelman.
"Let us proceed."
Returning from the torture room, Pontia murmurs an aside to the Chelaxian aristocrat.
Robert does not trust Secunda at all. Caught in a double mind, he tells Arma:
"Mylady, I regret to avow I do not trust Lady Secunda. I will follow her part of the way. My skills are not great in a fight, but if you don't move too fast, I hope to rejoin you soon."
Robert tries to go unseen. Does Lady Secunda ever seem hostile? Robert goes as fast as he can without making noise.
"The last door, then up." Staff raised, Pontia prepares to support the line of main combatants.
In reply to Robert
Zhu steps forward and opens the door.
Arma moves to join Zhu and enter before him.
The door opens, and once again you are hit by a thick stench -- the smell of an animal's cage or stable. The riding lizard startles and hisses, backing away from the door you have just opened.
Beyond the door, you do indeed see a stable, the floor covered in straw. At the far end, the stable opens into thin air, no wall or door in the way -- for reasons you can easily see.
With a deafening shriek, a rears up before you! You all vividly recall the winged beast Xorshak rode when he first interrupted your battle with the Red Debbulls...
Arma
Griffon
Kyrax
Mirandix
Noya
Pontia
Raina
Robert
Zhu
Pontia steps back. "Shut the door."
Arma braces by the door and is suitably shocked when the Griffon rears before her. At Pontia's word she backs out with her armored body still braced against the wooden door so as to open or hold it shut as needed.
"Should we leave such a beast ready to come to its masters call? I would hate to lose Lady Valeria or the wizard again if he escapes on the creature, and perhaps we might ride it ourselves?"
This beast will weaken us at best. It is not the enemy. Let us maintain our and conserve our resources.
OOC:
"Agreed, Kyrax. Let us continue."
You follow Secunda and Horsehaw down to the first Wizard-door and thence to the cave. At no time does the noblewoman do anything untoward to the mongrelman. She does not engage the wretched creature in discussion either, but she supports it gently enough.
You see Secunda lead Horsehaw to the cave entrance. Do you actually want to follow them outside or return to the others?
You hear the griffon screech again when the door slams shut, but it does not try to break out into the corridor. After a minute, the beast does not even screech anymore; it seems to be content to remain in its stable, because you can easily hear it moving around, clucking to itself and sweeping its tail across the floor - the brush-like sound you heard before!
As you pass up the stairs, you soon come to another Wizard-door, set in a stone frame that shows images of cavorting fiends of three distinct types.
Unlike the previous door, this one glitters and sparkles in the light of the torches. It appears to be wholly made of crystal, or -- glass? The lock, set dead center in the door, appears to have the shape of a humanoid heart. There appears to be some sort of liquid running through the door. Something thick... and viscous.
The 'trick' here may be that you need to cause a 'heart attack' by jamming the right part of the lock and preventing the flow of the liquid.
Pontia studies the doorframe, turns slightly green, then vomits. Regaining her composure, she casts a quick cantrip to clean herself up. "Now, then...I believe that the key must be used to stop liquid from flowing out of the lock."
Kyrax does not understand the images scribed on the door frame. He ponders the lock for a moment, scratches his head and then finally nods as Pontia explains its function.
We have the key from the Goblin, yes? I can give it a try. Just give me a moment to make sure there are no traps. He will take 20 checking the door for a trap, getting a 24 before continuing.
Arma cedes to the others and follows as they lead away from the door with the griffon.
She allows them to examine the strange door but does look at it through her visor. She doesn't speak up however until she is certain she has anything meaningful to add.
The others she imagines should have this well in hand. At least better than her she assumes. Especially as the imagery makes her somewhat uncomfortable and seems to add little to her understanding of the door except that she would rather not examine it further.
Arma's Various Rolls
Robert goes at most to the cave entrance, and peeps at what happens next. But he does not come out into the sunlight.
Then, if nothing strange happens, he hastens to the group who might be getting too great a lead on him.
Zhu looks at the imagery. He can't quite make out what's going on. A childhood as a slave in the rice fields didn't prepare him for that. "I have another piton," he offers, "as a way to block the flow.'
__________________________
As you creep up to the cave entrance, you hear a strangled whimper. You are just in time to see Horsehaw drop to the ground, his body limp.
Secunda stands over the pitiful Mongrelman, her back turned to you. She appears to just be looking down at the creature, her arms making small, precise movements -- and then she turns back to the cave entrance, her face smooth and impassive.
Kyrax' investigation shows a very delicate sort of trap. It becomes clear to him that if the lock is not opened in the right way -- which is to say, if the wrong 'artery' is blocked -- the whole lock will start to spew that viscous liquid into the stairwell. And there isn't exactly a lot of room in there to dodge.
The Goblin's glass key, however, neatly fits in a spot near the lower left chamber. Once the Bard jams the key into that spot, the liquid in the door immediately stops flowing...
Numbing pain shoots up your left arm! A cold feeling suddenly grips the left side of your body and you sway in the saddle of your riding lizard.
You all hear Kyrax groan in agony and watch him grip his left arm. His moans of suffering are drowned out, however, by a series of clicks and whirring noises from the crystal door. The lock is opening!
With a final series of clicks and grinding noises, the four chambers of the 'heart' snap apart and the door swings open.
The dark stairwell continues upwards. The riding lizard, seemingly unconcerned with the noises made by its rider, scuttles upwards, into the gloom, leading the rest of you onward. Just for a moment, a ghostly chuckle hangs on the air -- the same chuckle you heard as you opened the previous Wizard-door.
The riding lizard comes to a halt on the next floor of Xorshak's tower. Compared to the previous level, this one looks almost... homey. Or at least it looks more lived-in; there are rushes strewn along the floor, multiple torches cast an acceptable amount of light, a few crude wall-hangings are suspended from the wall, and a smell of woodsmoke, stale food and dirty laundry hangs on the air. There are six metal-bound doors along the hallway, and a seventh door at the far side of the corridor.
Life and feeling are slowly returning to the left side of Kyrax' body, and his colour is getting better. You may not immediately notice this, however, as your attention is taken by something else: Someone is singing. It's a coarse song, which - if the smell of beer is anything to go by - owes much of its energy to drink. There is also a smell of moderately palatable cookery on the air, the smell of new food gradually drowning out the stink of unwashed plates. The smell and the song are clearly coming from the door at the far end of the corridor, under which you can see the reflected light of dancing flames.
"I suppose we should examine that one first."
"Sir Kyrax! Are you okay?" Arma, looks over to her friend and worries at sudden groan and the other signs of his distress, as well as the oddly timed laugh that holds a menacing tone. She watches as the color returns to his cheeks slowly enough and she stands near him waiting for some answer, raising her visor to show a level of calm concern. There was little she could do to aid him herself and with Pontia's words she realizes they still need to move forward.
"If you need help Sir Kyrax simply say." She moves to his side placing her gauntlet clad hand on his shoulder to offer support should he want it. Her concern sounds earnest but also measured as if waiting for him to say if he truly needed her help at all.
Looking to Pontia she nods and glances to the others as well. "Take care. I question more and more each door we open in this place!"
"I suppose we should examine that one first."
Kyrax shakes off the effect from the door. I, I think so... He moves and rotates his arm, flexing it at the shoulder. Quite painful, but all seems to be working.
"I suppose we should examine that one first."
Quite painful, but all seems to be working.
"Good," says Zhu with a nod. "Let us know if you feel ill later -- I do not know what type of effect struck you."
He begins moving quietly toward the door at the far end of the corridor. He whispers, "I suggest some of you stay here, in case this is bait for a trap."
____________________
Mirandix falls in beside Zhu with a grim smile, his blade out and ready, "I will spring this trap with you, if trap it is."