Chana peeks her head out of the room she was just inspecting and catches a glimpse of the child. "From the way you were lookin at 'er Oliv, I'm gonna guess that weren't a 'ittle kid." She fishes a smokestick off one of the cultists. "Child Blade, or one 'a those uh, Fantio-wotsits? I figga whichever one, we could try 'an smoke 'er out?" She mimes tossing a smokestick through the cracked open doorway.
While she's at it, she'll also pick up an armful of potions off the bodies and distribute them to her party members with a "Jus' in case, 'right?"
"Augh, 'ell. Wait fer us Oliv!" Chana hurries after the overly enthusiastic paladin.
Amandine follows Olivia and Chana although she dearly wishes there was time for her to trade her leather for one of the chain shirts.
Olivia's pursuit leads the party down the curving hallway and through a door that hangs open. A long table occupies the center of this dining room, surrounded by chairs. Maps of Taldor's many prefectures cover the walls here.
The child cowers behind one of the chairs, peering between the slats.
"Please don't hurt me," she pleads. "I'm just trying to find my daddy. He was working upstairs when the bad men came."
Chana stows the smokestick and instead focuses her attention on the room, trying to spot any trap that the Fantionette is luring Olivia into before the paladin runs into it.
"Eyes up Oliv. This fing's tryin' 'ta lure us inta somefin. I'm sure."
If she gets a chance she'll also cast detect magic and scan the room.
Amandines eyes dart back and forth between Olivia and the girl.
Olivia seems very sure about this...
She uses the pause to down one of the curative potions she just found.
Furthermore, somewhat in passing, you note that whomever has been keeping these maps has annotated them with some kind of code or cypher, identifying particular locations throughout Taldor.
From the way that Olivia keeps her gripped sword held at the ready, it is clear to the rest of the party that her sight, divinely attuned to detect evil, identifies this supposed child as a source of wickedness. However, rather than being cowed by Olivia's intimidating words, the fear seems to retreat from her small, palely cherubic face.
"Why don't we play a game?" the child asks in a voice dripping with malice. Her thin lips curl into a predatory grin.
With a shriek, she extends her arm like a spear and splays her palm open, aimed towards the women entering the room. An explosion of glittering, silvery dust erupts between Olivia, Chana, and Amandine, threatening to blind and choke them. With uncanny agility, she leaps upon the table and directs a sneer, bordering upon a snarl, at the party.
Amandine flinches when the girl's arm starts to move, just in time.
That question's settled then!
Chana shields her face with her free hand, but it's too late for her eyes. With how sensitive they are to small changes in light, the glitterdust completely overwhelms them. She hisses in frustration and takes a defensive stance.
Greenly anxiously pushes her way through, not slowed in the least thanks to her narrow frame. Coming through the doorway, she sees the, uh, thing, draws her sword and closes the gap.
The child remains heedless of Greenly's approach and attempts to slip past her. However, she is not nimble enough, and the mercenary - taking Olivia's conviction as her own assurance - delivers a strong, opportunistic swing at the urchin as she moves past.
The child charges down the table, upsetting charts and cups upon its surface, and rushes for Chana. However, perhaps distracted by the curved blade's sting, her teeth only find empty air as her attempt to bite Chana fails.
Chana twitches her scimitar into position to defend herself bare moments before the Fantionette lashes out, though it's really little more than luck that lets her block the attack. She pauses, trying to establish the creature's position with her sensitive hearing. The moment she gets a sense of the thing's direction, she lashes out blindly with her scimitar.
As her attack misses dreadfully, Chana manages to recover from the glittery powder.
As Greenly steps forth to pursue, her ancestors once more surround her in their aprroving glow, apparently having deemed attacking a small child as worthy and honorable. She flanks with Olivia and strikes true!
A low moan of horror escapes Amandine as she sees the thing's true form. Still, she advances on it and thrusts with her rapier.
From her vantage point in the hall, Photinè sends a burst of bright light to explode in front of the fantionette.
Olivia's divinely guided blade leads the volley of swings and slices that cut at the wicked child's elegant clothes. Your blades also tear at her skin, but no blood falls to splatter the table or stain your weapons. Photinè's spell falls upon her, and the child reflexively thrashes her head to free herself from the Dazzling magic as though shaking water from her hair, but to no avail.
With preternatural agility, she hops back and invokes a spell of her own. A jet black dagger appears as though slicing through reality itself, hovering in your midst. The Spiritual Weapon lunges for Amandine, and though it cuts her, it is only a glancing wound.
"Litt'le fings creepy as 'ell and aw'ful sturdy, innit?" Chana grumps out as she gets a clear sight of it. She clambers onto the table to get a height advantage on the creature and stalks her way up towards it.
She slashes in at the Fantionette, aiming for one of its spidery limbs.
Amandine is concerned whether a floating jet black blade summoned by a demonic thing might do more to a person than physical damage, but she soldiers on with another attack.
A flurry of swordplay brings the wicked child to her knees. She seems to fade away, crumbling into dust and porcelain shards that vanishe as though carried into the aether by an unseen wind.
The tunnel carved into the exposed wall at the far end of the room, presumably, doubles back to the commons area. This half of the buried villa is clear, with no sign of any prisoners to be found. The only valuables within this meeting room are the charts and maps papering the walls and table, although some have been scattered during the recent skirmish. Without cracking the coded notations, however, it remains to be seen what secrets they hold.
The hallway running south from where you first entered this buried villa is the next, most promising avenue to explore...
Chana cocks an eyebrow as she looks down at her Scimitar "Good thing I'm no' alone 'ere. 'Cos that fing woulda minced me good wid 'ow bad I was fightin'" She grins at the rest of the team, then starts stalking forward to continue the search.
She approaches the door South from the common room once more and stops to listen in for any changes or action beyond.
Amandine takes advantage of the lull, switching from her leather armor to one of the chain shirts they've acquired.
She comments to Olivia "I'm hoping that thing was the outsider mentioned by the halfling you questioned? I mean surely there can't be anything worse than it here. Did you see its true form?"
"Didn't see that, but the spider porcelain stuff was more than plenty for me."
Chana whispers back to the rest of her team "Someone 'eard us comin', an is gettin' lost right now. Could be a trap, could be people scared shitless, not sure. " She checks if there's any little hole around the door that Snips could squeeze through to take a look. If there isn't she just pauses for the team to get ready and then eases the door open.
Photinè remains poised toward the back of the group, ready for whatever lies in wait beyond the door.
The door offers no hole or seam for Snips to slip through. As Chana eases the door open, she thankfully finds that no trap is sprung and now volley of arrows comes her way. All that awaits is some kind of training room. Three stuffed training dummies stand in the southern side of this stone room. Arrows and daggers protrude from the dummies, while weapon racks stand neatly along the northern wall.
On your right, another door hangs open. A cursory glance through the opening reveals a well-appointed bedroom and study. Directly ahead, to the west just beyond the training room, sits some kind of kitchen or lab; heady aromas waft from that direction.
Greenly grabs the coded papers for later reading. She's always had something of a knack for language and codes and could do with a challenge. That and there's been not much in the way of grabbables thus far.
The few weapons stored here are of common make, clearly meant purely for practice rather than for grace or prestige. There are a handful of daggers and throwing knives, a shortbow, a rapier, and a hand crossbow. A single quiver of arrows and a case of bolts also hang from the racks.
A closer inspection reveals that the next room is, in fact, an alchemy lab. Beakers and vials cover a table spanning the entire northern end of the room. Thankfully, all the containers are affixed with clear labels. Four shelves containing alchemical ingredients extend from the southern wall. The door on the opposite end of the room sits ajar.
Amandine goes to check the alchemy lab. She does it slowly and carefully, reading labels before she touches anything.
While everyone seems to be moving on to the west, Chana lingers around the Eastern end of the training room. She peeks her head into the bedroom and study, looks around for any traps, then steps in to inspect and loot the room for all it's worth.
Amandine discovers that someone has been conducting extensive research into poisons using this alchemy lab, as evidenced by the copious samples arrayed on the workbench. She finds 2 doses of Black Adder Venom, 2 doses of Medium Spider Venom, 2 doses of Oil of Taggit, 1 dose of Blue Whinnis, and 1 dose of Giant Wasp Poison. Furthermore, a number of medicines and potions are stored near at hand among the lab equipment, likely in case of "accidents." These include 6 vials of Antitoxin, a potion of Delay Poison, and even a potion of Neutralize Poison.
Finding no traps at the door, Chana discovers that the lavish bedroom is decorated with two large bookshelves, an elaborate L-shaped desk, and a well-dressed bed. However, this room seems as much given over to work as to rest. A variety of springs, gears, and small tools clutter the desk alongside pages of sketches and designs. A number of the components upon the desk are made of gold and are likely valuable. Additionally, Chana finds two more of Martella's brass chatterboxes - the same clockwork "insects" she used at the gala to muffle conversations - sitting on the corner of the desk.
However, Chana halts herself before picking through the components and equipment on the desk. She recognizes the partially assembled device taking up most of the desk space as some kind of gas bomb. In its unfinished state, it is likely very unstable, and disturbing it could produce unfortunate results.
Chana sticks her head back out into the Hall. "Ey, we go' ourselfs somefin that might be worth a look. But theres a bomb 'ere about ta blow if I touch anythin'. You lot want'ta take a look?"
"I figga they're tryin' ta work out 'ow Marcella's 'ittle bugs work."
Amandine holds on to the poisons and potions, but doles out a vial of antitoxin to everyone.
"It might be best to go ahead and take the antitoxin now. It will last for a while after it's consumed, but I'm not sure it works if it's taken after you've been poisoned."
She goes ahead and drinks hers.
Greenly pockets it, having no desire to drink this weird mystery fluid, even if Amandine thought it was a good idea. She squeezes a brass cricket and giggles. "Like, what the heck are these?"
"Aw Greens, I figga ya didn' see 'em in action, didja? Real clevah 'ittle bugs. Made our talkin' real private." Chana grins at the barbarian. "'Ow 'bout we bring 'em back to Martella when we find 'er?"
She also accepts the antitoxin, nods eagerly at Amandine's reasoning, and swigs the small vial. Feeling no different than normal, really, she shrugs and returns back to the search for Martella. She slinks to the the western door of the alchemy lab, eyes it warily for traps, then places her ear up against it to try to suss out if the creature she heard earlier is waiting on the other side.
The chatterbox's brass carapace squeaks softly as it is squeezed between Greenly's fingers.
The western door, the last within the buried villa, proves safe. However, Chana's ear can distinguish nothing from the space beyond.
Photinè graciously accepts the antitoxin and drinks it, pursing her lips in displeasure at the taste, and then glances around at her comrades. "Prepare yourselves, mademoiselles. No doubt there are more of those dreadful cultists beyond this door."
Chana thinks for a moment about Photine's comment before adding "Least one of 'em, prob'ly an 'ole gutter more." She prepares herself by stowing her scimitar and pulling her oaken-handled parasol from her pack. "This'll surprise 'em, I figga." She closes her eyes for a moment and chitters an incantation. The parasol in her hand becomes weighty and dangerous.
She continues chittering and looks down at her hand. Her brow furrows as she fumbles the spell out mostly through intuition. As it activates, a cloud of frost begins to form around her hand.
She grins. "Oliv, want ta lead the way?"