"Heh."
Elara pulls one of the errant javelins from her chest with a grunt, and casts it to the floor. She looks around. "The moss has been dealt with? Good."
Henar just shakes his head. "Caution would be much preferable from here on, please."
And with that, he takes his lights towards the way opened by the dead mold. "Poor mold..." the young man mutters.
"Such a mold could have interesting applications, I agree Henar, perhaps you should look into harvesting anything that remains of it for future applications..." Artorius said as he looked away from Elara and toward the Samsaran witch. The woman had paid the price for her impulsiveness and he was not going to add insult to the injury she had already received.
"Wencelas, open the door." Artorius instructed his bodyguard to advance toward and open the door now cleared of the mold. It was clearly the correct path.
Henar gets a small bag and scrapes several pieces of the mold into it, making sure to keep the mold away from his little scorpion.
El'la watches with distaste as the two scrape their cold molds into containers.
She moves towards the door Wencelas is heading toward, remaining back in case something untoward happens.
This door leads to another hallway. Above it is the inscription, "Thy hast made thy own path." This hallway is kind of U-Shaped. It goes West, then South, then East, then North-East, then East again. Eventually you arrive at a door, going to the east. On the door is inscribed: “Know your enemy. Shatter all that blinds you and then burn thy adversary to ashes.”
Of the mold, not much can be salvaged. It was pretty badly injured. There's enough to keep for later study, but not as much as one would hope.
Henar will stroke his chin, smiling at Cinders. "Burn to ashes? Sounds right up your alley."
"Ummm, yes. It does." She says with a malicious grin.
"I am a little worried about the shattering part, but we shall see what happens."
"Let us venture forward and discover what lays in wait for us this time. Clearly our benefactor has designed this elaborate test as a means of culling the weak or unworthy before allowing them to fully enter into the organization." Artorius said as he glanced over the writing. He certainly knew who his enemies were. With his Unholy symbol of Asmodeus and the Infernal Duke still shedding light, he instructed Wencelas to lead the way down the hallway.
He made a thorough attempt searching for any traps. It would serve them little if Wencelas triggered a trap which ended the test prematurely.
The samsaran first takes a look at the inscription, trying to determine the meaning of the inscription.
Henar keeps his eyes open, looking for any signs of "shatterable" things and for possible traps (both mechanical and living).
"Cover your eyes if you should go in."
Cyx approaches the door and feels the door with his hand
The burning may refer to us getting burned
"I do not think it will affect me that much. Fire flows through my veins."
The door handle doesn't feel hot at all. In fact, everything feels perfectly normal. There's no traps around here that can be spotted, so everything seems reasonably safe.
There's probably something in there that you can shatter. And maybe something in there that can burn. That seems the most obvious reading of the inscription.
"Let's go in then, eh... Get to some burning."
Kaythor nods to Cinders, "Absolutely" He then looks to Elara's javelin wound, "How is that treating you? I could fix you up if you want" Although at this point, Kaythor wasn't feeling like wasting healing on someone who fell for such an obvious trap.
Since Artorius had already checked the door for traps, El'la moves forward to carefully open it, ready to jump out of the doorway if something harmful should prevent itself.
Elara tilts a head back to look at Kaythor. "A patch could help should it come that you need me and my blade. No need to take care of it completely, the reminder would be of use."
Since Artorius had already checked the door for traps, El'la moves forward to carefully open it, ready to jump out of the doorway if something harmful should prevent itself.
He smiles and steeples his fingers. "Let's get inside there and work out the plan from there."
The room is completely, utterly dark. It's almost completely black, in fact. But nothing about it seems harmful. Well, not now, at least. Nothing's immediately dangerous about this room, except for perhaps the fact that it's perfectly, utterly dark. No mundane torch will light it up, in fact no mundane light source at all.
Darkvision:
As she looks into the darkened room, El'la's eyes take on a strange glow.
"If you have difficulty seeing in the dark, be careful of the grate on the floor. There is something lurking underneath it."
She proceeds to describe the room for any one who cannot see.
"I think we need to shatter the orb. It is made of obsidian. And then perhaps we have to burn the creature lurking underneath. Though I think this is the first time that our adversary has been an actual living adversary."
El'la steps into the darkness, looking around carefully for any other traps she might have missed.
Elara remains calm as her vision disappears. "Direct my blade if needed."
Artorius stands back, not entering into the chamber just yet. He was human and had little ability to penetrate the darkness with just his eyes. Though conjuring forth light would have been no difficulty, he did not believe that the Cardinal intended to test them in such a manner. Perhaps using magic to provide light would be the very thing that caused the burning that the inscription made reference to.
"Shattering this Orb sounds like a sound plan El'la." Artorius agreed and then gestured forward with his hand. "Wencelas, do give the lady a hand and shatter the Orb." At his worded command the silent servant marched forward intent on destroying the orb. Though he looked fully human, Wencelas seemed to need no light, penetrating the darkness with ease.
Wencelas marched obediantly forward and raised his battle-axe over his head. Both hands gripped the weapon as he swung it downward at the obsidian orb.
Kaythor takes a moment to make sure he has everyone in the group as part of his network. However, he leaves one open space for the lurker in the dark should the need arise. He looks to the floor, even though he can't actually see anything, "I will do my best to help you all, but this darkness has me at a disadvantage."
The orb shatters quite easily, as its only made of fragile, volcanic gas. However, the thing lurking below takes this quite badly. It moves quickly, trying to protect the orb, but the orb is already gone.
As the orb is shattered, the magical darkness vanishes, and all can see the room. The thing is revealed as a reddish, wet cloud, which attacks Wencelas. As it does, it somehow realizes precisely what it is, and that its attacks will be useless against the creature. It hisses and turns around, looking for new prey.
"What is this?"
"That's a good question!" Henar tries to pull on his vast knowledge of the weird creatures of the world to determine what in the Nine Hells this mist is.
With the attack of the red mist, El'la responds by releasing a jet of flame from her hands towards it.
It seemed that Wencelas was a good choice and that this mist somehow preyed on assets that only the living or thinking possessed. Fortunately Wencelas was but a shell, a puppet which was worked according to the wishes of Artorius Pavo and his Infernal patrons.
Artorius himself backed up further, allowing those who were in the front more room to move about. He studied the most, wondering whether it possessed enough intelligence to be reasoned with or if it just acting on instinct to attack anything that removed its darkness. If it was a member of the undead, then it would soon submit to its new master.
Thinking back to the riddle, he spoke aloud, though more to himself then to his companions. "Perhaps this is what must be burned...?"Yet he still held out hope that it was one of the undead, for indeed it could be a useful slave.
Kaythor tries to stay on guard. "I agree, I say we try to attack it with fire if we can. I assume Cinders here can be of assistance in this matter"
Cyx remains outside the room first due to the darkness he had no means to see what was in there. now he only sees himself in the way. He has no means to harm whatever it is at least to the best of his knowledge.
El'la nods to Kaythor. "As far as that goes, yes. Shouldn't be much of a problem at all."
Trying to recall information on this creature isn't very effective. It seems too bizarre and obscure to be easily remembered.
Group A:
Kaythor
Cyx
Cloud
Group B:
Artorius
Henar
Elara
El'la
Kaythor draws his longsword and decides to try and add the monster to his network. He reaches out to the mind of the creature, attempting to gain control over it.
Henar looks at the mist, taking a deep breath and bellowing at it, the sound a combination of glass shattering opera and a fog horn.
Will Save:
Fort Save:
By some luck, the creature manages to avoid both of the attempts against it. Hissing angrily, it flies back down into the grate at the bottom of the floor, ready to lash out at whoever comes near. It positions itself so that the bulk of its "body", so to speak, is down in the vent.
Elara keeps her blade grip fluid, moving it in slow circles.
"El'la, I will stay back to let your flame work... for now."
Artorius saw no reason to advance into the chamber and confront this creature of mist. It was clear from its earlier actions that it had no effective means of combating his servant and saw the deacon of Ruziel and Asmodeus waited. The bellow of Henar caused him to take a step backwards, lifting his hands to his ears. He wondered how the creature resisted the intensity of that scream, though perhaps it lacked the ability to hear as they do.
When the scream had subsided, he uttered words of his own. "Wencelas, remove the grate." If he could he would not give it a place to hide. Satisfied, he watched as his obediant puppet moved to either pull the grate out or destroy it with its battle axe.
With a moment of concentration, flames seem to pump down El'la's arms into her hands, and she holds them close without apparently releasing them in a deadly barrage.
She looks closely at the vents, if she is able to, uncertain if perhaps the vents released flame of their own.
Cyx can not identify any enemy under the current conditions yet he knows there is one present.
Cyx instead remains vigilant at the entry-way trying to spot the creature before its next attack and warn whoever it may be near.
The grate is easily removed, and the creature hisses as it is removed. It descends deeper into the floor, hiding in some hollow place beneath it, waiting. It seems as if it knows it would do poorly in an all-out assault, and is biding its time.
"Well El'la what are you waiting for? This is your opportunity. Burn the wretched thing out of there so we can move on. It is of no use to us and I would rather not have it following our progress." Artorius spoke after he gave Wencelas orders to remain on guard. Artorius himself had yet to even enter the room, massaging a cramp out of his right hand.
With the room illuminated and the grate removed, the majority of the obstacles this chamber presented to them were depleted. Once the creature of mist was destroyed they could continue onwards and perhaps finish this test.
El'la moves towards the grate the mist disappeared into, she raises her hands and lets the energy in her veins flow out rapidly into a fan of flames into the hole.
Burning Hands
(Reflex DC 16 to half damage)
Reflex
The mist emerges, clearly unhappy about the fire that seems to have badly damaged it. It lashes out at the person it sees responsible for the flames, El'la. A small lash of mist strikes out at her.
Touch Attack
Bleed
Con Damage
A thin trickle of blood emerges, to join the cloud.
Kaythor concentrates and attempts to once again ensnare the cloud in his mental trap, he focuses on reaching out to the primitive mind of the being.
Stepping to the side to give her allies a clear shot, Elara strikes out testingly at the cloud.