Nebbin keeps a close eye on the creatures, making sure the wormy parts don't keep moving.
Thom spins on the second demon only to see that it's already taken care of. He blinks in surprise, but recovers quickly. "Lucius, since you already look like them, will you take a look inside the door? Nebbin, will you make sure they're fully dead?"
He quickly rummages through his backpack and pulls out one of the healing wands, taking a few moments to touch himself, Nebbin, and Saoirse.
Happy with his work, Thom returns the wand and looks to the team. "Down the snake hole, right?"
"I think they're worms, Thom, not snakes. But they definitely look alike. Snakes, you can see their heads. Worms you can't usually tell."
As usual, he sounds completely sincere.
Lucius walks back the the ruin to recover his pack. Shouldering it, he peers at his hands, and decides to allow the illusion to persist. It could be handy, after all.
Returning to the slain demons, he explains, "Worm demons, more precisely. They use the bodies of the dead as fleshy armor, manipulating them like puppets. Lord Hulrun and Master Nyserian were fortunate enough to be dead before being used by these monstrosities. They were not traitors."
Peering into the now-open door, with the desecrated murals inside, he asks "Shall we?" and steps inside.
Thom nods and follows, keeping his morningstar in-hand.
Aero nods and heads in, morningstar in hand.
As he passes the destroyed bodies of the one-time local nobles, Thom pauses to search for anything useful.
Take 10 Perception = 19
The vermleks are unconscious, not dead, although the Nyserian vermlek looks to be very near death. The only thing of value on them seems to be the scythes they were carrying.
You don't hear anything coming from the inside of the door, and no alarm seems to have been raised.
Thom stands back up, wiping his gauntleted hands on his pants to hastily clear them from the gore from the men's bloated remains. Then, he unceremoniously slams his morningstar powerfully and deliberately in what he thinks is the head of each demon.
Then he does his best to sling any gore from his morningstar and follows Lucius into the building, shutting the door behind him.
"Grab those scythes, they're magical.
"Uh...." Thom says, looking at his own bulging pack, then looking over at Nebbin. "Can you strap those on?"
"I guess." Nebbin looks dubious.
Watching Guardians this morning...update later :)
Saoirse takes a moment to look over the bodies of Lord Hulrun and Lord Nyserian, "I don't like leaving their bodies here like this. Lord Hulrun at least deserves better than this but I guess we'll just have to hope nothing happens to them for now."
Checking her shield strap one more time, Saoirse steps into the mural room warily and checks over the room.
To the west, the faces of the portraits that hang on the walls of this room have been slashed. Two marble planters lie smashed in pieces
on the ground, and mud streaks across the white stone floor. You hear several voices coarsely laughing.
To the east, a bracket shows where a longsword once hung over a stylized
gold sunburst affixed to the south wall. Lines of strange runes are carved into the walls on both sides of the sunburst. Dried blood and excrement have been smeared across the sunburst and a short bench for kneeling that sits on the floor.
"Soairse, there is a shrine here. It is magical, and does not appear to have been desecrated like the rest of the accouterments in this room. I suspect it is activated by prayer. Would you like the honor? I hesitate to do so myself. From the Inheritor's point of view, I am a heretic."
Thom follows into the room as quietly as he can...
... which is to say he does a fair job of keeping his armor and gear's clanking and rustling to a minimum as he moves to guard the western-most door.
He seems content to stand quietly as the team enters and Lucius and Saoirse discuss the strange shrine.
Aero whispers "Strange, that's not the language of demons coming from ahead, but some other sinister speak"
Aero intones a silent prayer to Pulura and watches his step.
Nebbin moves as quietly as possible along with everyone else. He takes up position at the western entrance in case Thom's clanking alerts the people there.
Somehow, noone notices you from the next room, although from the sounds of it, drink could be a part of that. Nothing seems to happen when the prayer on the shrine is repeated in that room. It does seem odd that a shrine to Iomedae would have so carefully crafted of an optical illusion for no reason.
Thom's unease is apparent, his masked visage swinging from the noises through the open door back to Lucius and Saoirse at the strange shrine. "No pressure," he says in a whispered croak, "But let's not miss a chance to get the drop on these guys."
Standing up from her short prayer, Saoirse shakes her head "Either Iomedae has forsaken this place or it isn't meant for here... Either way, we should not linger here. Thom is right, lets attack the next room quickly while we still have surprise on our side."
Thom notices first that that raucous noises have died down somewhat from the western room. Chairs can be heard scraping and random bangings permeate the air. It could mean a changing of the guard.
Thom steps back from peeking around the corner, his black eyes full of fury and disgust behind the mask. It takes visible effort for him to keep his voice low, ”Two filthy demons using crusaders’ heads as play-things in here. And six cultists playing cards.” His gauntlet creaks as he squeezes the grip on his morningstar, ”They don’t know we’re here... yet.”
After a quick, whispered discussion of options , Thom looks at Aero, "See if you can get them to fall asleep like you did to Faxon's men." He looks to Nebbin and Saorise. "See if you two can take down the rat-demons. I don't know what they're capable of, so be careful. I'll see if I can get past them and block any exits they may have on the far side."
Thom slips his morningstar back onto its belt-hook, readies his shield, and whispers a few words of power. Then he nods his readiness to Aero.
As agreed, Nebbin charges forward as Aero casts his spell, his hammer catching the farthest cultist squarely in the chest, crushing ribs with the thunderous impact.
Aero peeks out, getting just enough of a view of his opponents to target them while also keeping himself as safe as possible.
Two of the tieflings standing central to the table lean against it and close their eyes. Their bodies slump to the floor, to the apparent chagrin of the demons playing with the severed heads. They growl in a guttural language.
The other four tieflings stand terrified, not sure whether to wake their comrades or dart out of the room.
Nebbin's mighty swing impacts in a bone shattering thud and the tiefling drops to the floor with a stunned look on his face.
Not having a charge lane himself, Thom draws his morningstar as he rounds the corner on Nebbin's heels.
Lucius darts into the room, crossbow at the ready.
Saoirse rushes into the room along with Nebbin, her shield held high as she steps around the large bulk of Nebbin, setting herself up to take care of the remaining cultists still standing.
The tiefling against the west wall screeches and touches the wall. Suddenly, inky darkness spreads throughout the room. You hear, "Quick, raise the alarm." yelled in the room.
Now that Lucius has had a chance to look at the demons for himself, he'll try to see if he knows anything else about them.
Then he'll try to put a cold-iron bolt into the likeliest-looking target. Probably one of the demons clustered by the back door.
And the bolt breaks against the wall.