Cwm taps Tykent and Eldon and points to the gate again, "magic?"
”Wouldn’t be surprised,” Tykent murmurs back as he studies the gate - though he is rather distracted by the strange voice on the other side. Whatever is kept down in a place like this, it’s probably not something nice, he thinks to himself. And probably wants to use us right back.
Tykent detects magic everywhere. The gate is blocking their that is emitting light detects as magic. Additionally, two other auras coming from some items sitting on a table inside of the room detect as magic.
Yngvilda relaxes hearing that it's not actually a devil, and puts her axe away so she has a hand free to open the gate if necessary.
She looks around to her more wise and learned allies as if asking someone to stop her talking, but she continues.
"I'm sorry for the case of mistaken identity. What manner of creature are you? You called us mortals so that makes you ... immortal?"
She clears her throat.
"I'm a simple warrior, but even girls who neglected their studies to train with axe and hammer know that sometimes things that are locked away in the dark places of the world should stay there. Why do you deserve to be freed? Why did he lock you up here? This is your only chance to convince us, we won't return if your words are false"
Cwm sees Tykent's eyes go wide at the volume of magical auras. He steps back and waves Yngvilda forward, "I'd rather not touch that gate but it should be unlocked now."
"Simple warrior girls also should have heard tales of evil wizards who lock away beings who do not deserve to be locked away in the hopes that they can make them more powerful and serve their devious ways, do they not?"
She clears her throat and continues "My name is Maffei. I was originally summoned here by Hunclay to aid in his research. When I told him he was an idiot he became enraged and imprisoned me here to punish me for mocking him."
"If you are no ally of Hunclay, set me free from this prison by extinguishing that wall of light. I am severely injured from it and I cannot approach any closer until it is gone." She continues in a bitter tone "Hunclay used to torment me by telling that the wall of light was so simple to extinguish, one simply had to hurl a handful of enhanced magical dust through it. He even told me he had a hidden supply of this dusy in some secret cave outside of Belhaim. He tormented me by telling me it was so simple..."
With a sigh she finishes "Free me and I promise to aid you in the future."
Ignoring the voice, Eldon carefully makes his way around the room. Examining the writing and magical symbols but unable to make anything of them. Spotting the items on the table he goes over to examine them.
Yngvilda steps back from the door and addresses her stalwart allies in hushed tones.
"What do you think? It won't tell us what kind of creature it is, and Hunclay wrote that he'd bound an accuser devil, so it's probably a devil right? I'd be inclined to leave it to rot, but we need to make this place safe for Hunclay's family, and so I think we'll have to face it"
She looks to each ally in turn to gauge their reaction.
"Has anybody heard of these accuser devils? I'm guessing silver should do the job. How about the wards. Eldon, Tykent?"
Eldon recognizes the items on the table as two magical weapons, a +1 scimitar and a +1 short sword. But both are on the other side of the wall which the party cannot pass.
This wall is an immobile, blinding curtain of white light that blocks line entry into this room. As you are all discussing how to proceed, a female voice calls out from the corridor behind you. Stepping into a sight, a tall, silver haired and dark skinned elf approaches with a tiny firedragon familiar perched on her shoulder.
In an arrogant voice she declares "I thought you all were supposed to be cataloging the contents of the estate, not playing with high-level arcane spells like Wall of Light? Oh well, I guess that is why the Baroness sent me to look after you."
Looking to the wall of light she remarks, "You best not get any closer if you like your eyesight, it will blind you as you near it. Clearly you didn't know that."
When the elf appears, Cwms hands drop to grab his daggers, "who are you? How did you get in here?"
Yngvilda steps back from the wall warily.
"Catalogue the estate and deal with any monstrous guardians were our instructions, would you like to move into a house with a devil in the basement?"
Though when Cwm addresses the newcomer she remembers to be suspicious.
"I hope you negotiated your own pay with her at least, we've done most of the cataloguing and cutting our pay into a new share hardly seems fair"
Grumpily she digs out one of the mithral daggers from her pack and conspiratorially gives it to Cwm, unsure of this new arrival. She whispers to him.
"Here Cwm take this. It should be good against devils I think, that's what Galandram said anyway and he seemed to know his stuff"
Cwm barely nods as he accepts Yngvilda's dagger, giving it a quick spin in his hand to get a feel for it.
"Most of the cataloging? Is that so. From what I could hear as I approached, you were playing with dolls, and attempting to set off every sonic trap you can find while in here. Now I could hear your discussions with our even newer friend down below as i approached. I think maybe it is him you should second guess, and not I."
Penny can tell from overhearing the discussion with the pit-bound creature that they do not appear to be lying. Or at least, she believes as much.
Penny looks around with a confident tone, assuring to keep her head up above the others.
"Yes yes. Luckily I am here to help guide you in the ways of magic. Unfortunately that means that this creature is not wrong. We do need special magic dust, and if he/she/it knows where to go get it, we should take note of their advice. Is there more to catalog here before we depart? How much of this place do you have left?"
"It might be in our best interest to inform the Baroness of this new finding before we go spelunking to find magic dust"
She winks at them before finally responding "Shall we get a move on then, or did you plan to dawdle here for the rest of the evening?"
"There was one more door I think, let's check it out."
Yngvilda is clearly fuming, but she's not about to turn down skilled help. She leads the way to the northern door, shield and axe drawn. She draws herself up to her full height and tries to look as imposing as possible.
Cwm raises an eyebrow and waves his hand to indicate the new lady should lead the way.
Penny looks up at the runes and mutters to herself, not quite loud enough for everyone to hear. "what.... is this.."
She pulls out her inkpen and paper, and begins to transcribe what she sees on the walls.
She then takes her time, and casts "detect" magic on the runes, in an attempt to uncover, anything, if possible, focusing her concentration on it for quite some time.
She whispers to the group.
"This could be the accuser devil mentioned in the notes. Do you know anything about those?"
The runes do not detect as magic and there is no magic detected in the room.
"I am sure I have seen this before. One moment, I will fill you all in on what this says"
Penny studies the large word on the north wall and decides that it reads in Abyssal: CTHEPALTANGOULGI. But then again, she doesn't speak the language so how sure is she?
Yngvilda laughs out loud when Penny "tranlates" it.
"Of course you can read it dear, that makes perfect sense."
Chuckling away, she tries the gate to see if it's open, and if not, invites Cwm to take a look.
Cwm says a quick prayer to Torag and tries to open the gate.
"The pronunciation was spot on. The meaning however it .. seems to..." she continues talking lower and quieter to the point where no one can hear her anymore, then pauses for a brief moment before shouting back once again. "Well, now thats out of the way, let me just write this one down" pulling out her ink and paper, she transcribes what she sees for later.
She then looks around a bit watching Cwm mess with the gate, taking his precious time. She holds her hand to her hip, and brushes back her hair. "Now look who has impressed us all with his level of intellect far beyond anything I've yet to master. Tell me Cwm, how much schooling was required to learn how to open a gate. Are the additional courses required to learn how to walk through?" She looks at Cwm impatiently awaiting him to proceed.
Cwm bristles at the newcomers taunt and stands back, arms in the air, "by all means, after you." He moves over to stand by the others, muttering, "I think I disabled it. Maybe I should go find one of those traps so I don't have to listen to her anymore." Cwm waits to see what happens.
”Easy there, friend,” Tykent chides gently. ”The lad’s taken on the brunt of the wizard’s defenses pretty much on his own. Or would you be so impatient if you were sitting at the bottom of that pit in the entryway?” He smiles as his own familiar swoops and dives above the newcomer pair. ”Now then, I think Hope wants to play with... What did you say her name was again?”
While Penny introduces herself to Tykent, Cwm picks the lock on the gate and swings it open.
Cwm crosses his arm and waits for Penny to lead the way. He resists tapping his foot but does move back from the entryway just in case.
Yngvilda will go first, axe and shield held high. She'd like to poke her head over the edge of the pit if possible to look down.
"HIS name is Taylor, and if by play you mean spit fire on your familiar, then sure, lets have them play. But perhaps we should focus on the pressing matter at hand. Very nice Yngvilda. I'm right behind you."
Penny follows Yngvilda through the doorway, casting her own detect magic once they enter the room.
As Yngvilda leads the group through the gate, the creature ahead quickly scrambles up out of the 10' pit and is staring at the Ulfen woman across the room. Seeing an opportunity to escape, it charges her in a powerful blind rage and gores her body badly.
Tykent is startled by the sudden newcomer, but quickly gets his wits back together. ”Whoa there, let’s not be doing that again,” he commands, giving the creature a stern look.
Yngvilda lets out a howl of part agony and part warcry, and unleashes a swift pair of attacks with axe and shield.
She then steps to give Cwm a slightly better opening
Cwm glares back at Penny, "hiding already?" before turning to step up to the pit thing and wave his dagger in its face.
"It's called tactical positioning. I see you and Yng have that under control. Lets spice things up shall we?" And with that Penny stomps her foot causing a crash of thunder as a wave of energy ripples towards the creature.
Penny casts thumder stomp
You stomp your foot or strike your weapon against the ground or floor, creating a ripple of power that you can use to trip a creature. Attempt the combat maneuver check to trip the target, but instead of your base attack bonus you can use your caster level, and instead of your Strength modifier you can use your spellcasting ability score modifier (Intelligence for magi and wizards; Wisdom for druids and rangers; Charisma for bloodragers and sorcerers). This does not provoke an attack of opportunity. This spell has no effect if you cannot reach the ground or floor, or if your target is not in contact with the ground or floor.
"Blasted, Now see you have gone and distracted me!"
Eldon moves from behind the others to get a clear shot on the creature and sends a line of electricity toward the creature. But his aim is off and the ray goes wide.
Tykent gets a good look at this demon now that it is out of the pit. He instantly recognizes this tall, muscular humanoid with the head and hooves of a demonic goat as a schir. It's ragged hide covers patches of its body around its forearms and lower legs, with a crestlike patch running down from the creature’s crown to the nape of its neck. Standing over seven feet tall and weighing around 300 pounds, it is slightly intimidating.
They are among the most violent and vile-tempered inhabitants of the Abyss, though they are not especially intelligent, they are cunning warriors. He knows they are resistant to most weapons not made of cold iron and have particular abilities to resist spells.
Eldon's ray, Yngvilda's axe and Cwm's dagger both fall short, perhaps because of their poor "tactical positioning" in the room.
The schir tries to gore Yngvilda again with its wicked black teeth, but Yngvilda snaps her shield in place and manages to stick it in the demons mouth instead of letting it stick its teeth in her neck.
Cwm waits until the demon tries to eat Yng's shield and moves to slash it's back. He realizes the mitril dagger won't help here and drops it, grabbing another cold iron one instead.
Tykent maintains his stare, chanting ominously about demons that shouldn’t be on this plane of existence.
Eldon tries again to hit the creature with a ray of electricity.
[dive=Electricity Damage]1d6 + 1[/dice]
Yngvilda also heeds Tykent's advice and drops her handaxe, draws her cold-iron dagger and strikes
"Well, what a sight for sure. Lets see if we cant push the odds more in our favor" and with that Penny raises her right hand as a ray of dark energy blasts towards the creature.
Penny curses "You fool's keep getting in the way!"