Byron follows closer to the back of the group, looking around warily for any signs of the deadly enchantment that had once protected this place.
Fiordelise keeps one hand on the hilt of her sword, ready to draw. Regardless of the presence of spirits, this place feel haunted.
"You have spent far too long in the temple district if you think such luxuries stay with the weak for long. It is not envy that drives a child to steal in front of a guard and an Inquisitor, Osric, it is desperation."
Rather than keep a hand on his weapon, Odebie draws it and takes comfort in its weight.
Approaching the statue again, you are all enveloped in a sudden heat, like putting your hand too close to a boiling cauldron. Though very uncomfortable, the sensation is not painful - you can feel your various protections holding the full force of the heat at bay.
As before, the curse abates as you push closer to the statue. The strange marble skull at the feet of the statue--it is impossible to tell which race it is supposed to represent--seems to grin up at you. Inquisitor Ky La grins back for a moment before setting down the stairs.
The mild smell of mildew in the stairwell is now nearly overwhelming. A few of you involuntarily gag as the smell hits you the first time. Traveling quickly but cautiously, you are surprised to see that most of the efreet sculptures adorning the walls are crumbling, as if years have gone by rather than days.
At the bottom of the stairwell, you see no sign of the elementals. The torch that the original elemental was playing with has gone out. The odor of smoke fills the air and stings your eyes. Fist-sized chunks of the stone walls litter the floor of the hallway.
The gold-and-bronze double-doors hang open, in the same position as you left them. Both of them, however, appear to have been partially melted by extreme heat. The fine gold script has been ruined, and the doors sag like drunkards.
Inside, you can see what remains of v'Manco's body: dried blood and charred plate armor. The smiling golden mask that covered his face is now a frowning blob of metal with drooping eyes. Karina's chamber-pot is scorched and blackened, and the charcoal remains of her waste still hold a whiff of malodor. In the back left corner of the chamber--where the tables and banners went up in flames--the roof is partially collapsed; you can see two large rafters from the ceiling buried by a pile of stones. There is a large, black hole far above in the place those stones previously occupied.
Only three things remain even somewhat whole in the room: the gold-and-silver throne, the perverse statues, and the altar.
Byron frowns thoughtfully as he looks things over. "The state of decay is much greater than is natural or perhaps it was the earlier preservation of this site that was unnatural regardless the elementals that were here earlier seem to have vanished."
While his more academically-minded companions examine the room, Odebie steps to the corner and tries to use his hammer to probe the hole above him.
Osric heads to the altar and investigates it. Ideally, he's trying to figure out who built it, whether or not there is still magic emanating from it, and how it was intended to be used.
Osric, as you approach, you notice a semi-circle of bright blue ash surrounding the altar. You and Byron can easily tell the granular ash is much newer than the rest of the decaying surroundings. Your instinct tells you that getting too close to this altar may not be a good idea. Ky La stands behind you, his eyes keen with interest.
Odebie, the hole seems hollow - that is, rather than stone or dirt (like you would expect in an underground room), this appears to be a small hidden chamber or cache. If you stood on your tiptoes, you could just barely stretch your fingers to touch the bottom of the hole.
Leaping up and trying for a good grip, Odebie braces a knee against the adjacent wall and muscles his way up and into the hole.
Fi watches Odebie, but keeps glancing around the room, if anything was waiting to attack now would be an opportune moment...
Fiordelise reacts a little too slowly to avoid the mist, instead breathing it in as she opens her mouth to call a warning to the others.
An impossibly high note erupts from Fi's mouth, causing you all to involuntarily cover your ears. The red mist shoots out, as if riding the sound of the scream, hurtling toward the altar.
The blue ash that Osric, Byron, and Ky La were investigating vibrates violently. Three ghostly arms, wreathed in cold blue flame, arise from the ashes and hungrily grab for the unsuspecting elens' legs.
Surprise Round Over. Roll initiative and declare actions.
Gasping for breath Fi chases after the mist, swinging her heavy blade through it and hoping it's new enchantments allow it purchase on the elusive mist.
"That would be the unfinished business. You okay, Fi?"
Assuming I got out, I'll use my move action to give Byron +4 on his check to break the grapple.
Byron twists, trying to break free of the frigid grasp of the dead.
Osric and Ky La break free of the grasping hands.
Byron however, is not so lucky and remains within their grip.
Odebie uses his move action to jump down from the hole in the wall, then his remaining action to move most of the way across the room.
Fi, your sword finds purchase within the mist, and you see drops of dark red blood raining down onto the floor.
The red mist gives a thunderclap growl. Three claw-like appendages coalesce from its form and swipe viciously at Fi.
The ghostly blue hands, denied two of their victims, all converge on Byron.
"Well, at least hitting it does something." Fi calls, but she can see the others have their own problems. She calls on the spirits of rage to aid her and her allies instead.
"Spirits come aid me,
'gainst this red blight,
will regret that that it flayed me,
as you feed on its spite."
Inspired Rage: +2 morale bonus to Str & Con & +2 morale bonus to Will saves. -1 AC. Allies (other than self) cannot use Cha/Dex/Int skills (excl. Acrobatics, Fly, Intimidate & Ride) Classes with Rage abilities can use their own bonuses (only) instead if preferred.
Osric pauses for a moment to study the thing, looking for a weak spot. Then he unleashes a quick strike with his blade.
Byron swiftly mixes one of his bombs and throws it down at the hands grabbing him, trusting his fire resistance to protect him from it.
Odebie rushes to impose himself between the fog and the alter, thinking that it can only be bad if the two touch. Once there, he sets his feet and slams his hammer into it.
Quick AoO, in the event it tries to move past me:
Odebie plants his feet firmly on the ground, taking a mighty swing at the efreet-mist.
As the cloud barely dodges Odebie's attack, Osric makes a nimble thrust at just the right moment, skewering the entity as it moves. Osric feels a jolt of flame go down his arm, but it is absorbed by his resistance spell.
Byron abandons subtlety and drops a fire bomb directly onto the glowing blue hands that hold him. With a shriek, all the appendages shatter in a cloud of icy shards, stinging Byron as he is freed from their grasp
Fi begins singing. Several of the torches, which are still burning, flare brightly in response. Sharp teeth made of charred wood jut from the tiny motes of fire, and they slowly begin to float toward Fi, quietly crackling and popping as they do so.
Ky La arches an eyebrow toward the altar. He appears to agree with the others that the mist should not reach the altar: raising his symbol of Volcano high into the air, he begins chanting in High Ifrit. Immediately, a corona of white-hot flame shimmers around the inquisitor, effectively blocking the mist from its goal.
The efreet-mist moves closer and attempts to touch the aura, but screams in agony as the tip of one of its claws is blackened and burned.
Unable to attack Ky La, the mist turns its claws toward the investigator who wounded it.
"What an intriguing creature. You represent a lost history and unknown bounties of knowledge. A pity we must destroy you."
Osric will get into flanking position with Odebie, re-enter studied combat mode, try to hit thing, and aid Odebie's attack with a swift action (+6 total, counting the flank).
Byron eyes the floating torches with uncertainty. He can feel the weight of his injuries, mostly due to cold, and if those things start attacking he might well be targeted again. Without a good angle to throw a bomb at the main problem, he decides the best course of action is to drink a healing extract and then get out his crossbow.
Seeing that the Inquisitor and Odebie have engaged the mist, Fi moves to intercept the new flankers.
Move south along the statues try and engage the two torches, strike one with sword the other with spirit (if possible).
Again, Odebie tries to hammer the mist.
Osric thrusts with his sword-cane, but misjudges his timing.
Byron drinks a healing extract, staying out of range of the efreet-mist.
Fi misses one torch, but her spirit hits another. The torch sputters and falls to the floor
Ky La maintains his aura around himself and the altar.
Still enraged at Osric, the mist claws at the investigator.
Odebie changes his grip, and swings down hard while the mist tears into Osric. He connects with something solid within the cloud.
There is a squish sound as it splatters to the ground. The mist still clings to whatever is inside, but the claws are gone and it is no longer moving.
The two torches adjacent to Fi reach out with charred claws. As they sink into your flesh, you feel a greedy sucking upon your life energy.
"Auuughhh!"
Osric falls backward and starts bleeding.
The cloud-thing apparently vanquished, Odebie whirls and steps to plant a hand on Osric's chest. A bright, pearlescent glow emanates from his wounds for a brief second before they fill with new, silver-white flesh.
;
Fi calls out to Osric as he begins to drop, but Odebie already has the matter in hand.
She tries again to strike down the 'torches'.
While he does not trust the cloud to be truly 'dead', Byron focuses for now on the torches attacking Fi, firing his crossbow at one.
Osric comes to and manages to rasp out his appreciation. "Thank you, Odebie. Did we get it?"
Odebie heals Osric.
Byron misses with his crossbow, instead shattering the face of one of the perverse statues in the throne room.
Fi and her spirit take down two more torches.
Gaining speed, as if eager to reach Fi, two more torches reach her and attack.
Ky La lowers his aura and strolls over to the slowly clearing mist. Within, there is a mass of reddish-pink tissue. Prodding this with his longsword, Ky La yelps in surprise as the blob of tissue envelopes his arm up to the elbow and begins crawling up to his shoulder
"Dark's breath! What is this thing?"
Standard action is to drink a CLW.
Move action is to try to peel back the thing on Ky La. (+4 to escape grapple)
Not trusting his aim to fire into the mess around Ky La, Byron fires again on one of the torches.
Fi feeds on her rage and song to overcome the fatigue from whatever was in the torches, while continuing to swat at them
If they've both dropped after that she'll move back towards Ky La
"Please, be holding still." With a grunt, Odebie lifts and then slams his hammer down.
Osric helps Ky La escape the thing's clutches. The inquisitor's eyes are wide with shock and a hint of fear as he backs away.
The red cloud has completely disappeared now. The abomination before you resembles a failed autopsy; fleshy bags of fluid pulse and writhe on all sides of the amorphous red 'body', which is roughly the size of an elen torso. Arteries, or intestines, or some other tube-like structures flail about. There is nothing resembling eyes, a mouth, or a face.
Byron and Fi each hit and extinguish one more torch each
The two remaining torches slowly float toward v'Manco's decayed and charred body, and hover there.
Byron, there are often conversations going on in your quick-paced mind. Such a voice pops into your head now: "A fire bomb would be just the thing for those pesky torches over there. Your alchemy is surely strong enough to overcome them."
Odebie smashes one of the appendages into paste, splattering dark red ichor on the floor.