Initiative
Aberration 21
Group 1 (Darius, Garland, Cica) 18
Dolls 17
Yarzoth 12
Group 2 (Ilistra, Placidus) 11
Cica misses the priestess.
Despite the poison weakening him, Darius manages to deftly slide both his blades past the snake woman's defenses. She hisses in pain as the steel slides home.
Garland sinks his scythe into the creature, but finds it less effective than normal. Luna also rips a chunk from the beast with her teeth.
The doll attacks Placidus.
The priestess tucks into a roll, and tumbles acrobatically past Cica and Darius. She reaches out a bloody hand to touch the lips of the statue of Zura, and her form dissipates into a cloud of mist!
PLacidus decides to ignore the doll. This time a burst of fire accompanies his acrobatic kicks and twirls as he attacks the aberration.
The aberration releases Luna, and then attacks her once again!
It manages to get ahold of the wolf again with one of its maws.
Darius slices through the misty form of the snake woman, hoping to prove somewhat effective...
Garland once more waited to see if Luna could turn the tables against her attacker!
When a resigned sigh at the lack of tripping, the masked legionnaire quickly moved to attack the aberration!
Cica follows the snake woman, cursing in frustration, and takes another swing.
Darius tries to strike the blurry mist-priestess, but he can't find anything solid to cut.
Luna and Garland struggle with the gibbering mouther, but the masked hero is unable to hit it for fear of damaging poor Luna, who is caught firmly in its mouths.
Cica swings her sword once again, but the snakewoman nimbly dodges out of the way of her unwieldy large blade.
The doll tries to stab Placidus again.
It can't manage to pierce his armor.
The snake woman's misty form floats up past Darius and Cica into a hole in the ceiling. Both lash out as she passes...
Cica feels her blade catch on something not completely substantial as she slashes the priestess. It feels like she just cut into a bowl of jelly, but whatever she hit must have hurt because the cloud hisses as it disappears into the hole.
Initiative
Aberration 21
Group 1 (Darius, Garland, Cica) 18
Dolls 17
Yarzoth 12
Group 2 (Ilistra, Placidus) 11
Placidus tries to help Luna, but he can't land a blow on the amorphous blob eating her without hurting the animal too.
"Venom!" he curses
Ilistra finally claws the remaining goop out of her eyes.
The mouther keeps trying to eat the wolf.
Darius, cursing something about whores venom, takes a circuitous route to get to the far side of the mouthful monstrosity.
Cica spits at the retreating snakewoman, and then hustles over to try to take down whatever gibbering thing is chewing on Luna.
With his allies ready to focus their collective might on the amorphous blob, Garland decided to change tactics. He quickly but carefully moved to heal Luna, who continued to viciously attack her enemy.
Cica spits at the retreating snakewoman, and then hustles over to try to take down whatever gibbering thing is chewing on Luna.
[dice=Greatsword+bear+bless+flank]1d20+8+1+1+2
[dice=Damage]2d6+6
Cica's blade cuts into the gooey beast, but it is less effective against the sticky creature's body than she had hoped.
The doll tries to stab Placidus again.
Placidus throws another lightning swift kick at the goo eating his companion.
Her eyes red and puffy with tears and snot streaming down her face, Ilistra's sight finally returns to her. Seeing that the battle is still ongoing, she takes a step behind Garland to get a better shot at the doll creature.
She gathers a corona of fire around her and then channels it in one burst of flame toward the undead.
Placidus's foot slams into the aberration, while Ilistra's fireball misses the doll.
================================
Initiative
Aberration 21
Group 1 (Darius, Garland, Cica) 18
Dolls 17
Yarzoth 12
Group 2 (Ilistra, Placidus) 11
The mouther turns and bites Cica, who just sliced it open.
Six of the thing's mouths bite down hard on her. The amorphous blob grabs on to Cica, partially engulfing her as it chews on her flesh.
"Gaaaaaa!!!" Feeling six mouths bite into her leg and arm, Cica shoves the aberration with her free shoulder, and tries to back away as her blood leaks from six jagged bites.
With another ally in danger, Garland quickly rushed back to his old position, albeit taking care to stay out of enemy range. Meanwhile, now free from her foe's grasp, Luna hopped into a better spot and once more tried to trip her opponent. Once his trusted companion finished, Garland grasped his awesome scythe with both hands and swung with almost all his might!
With another ally in danger, Garland quickly rushed back to his old position, albeit taking care to stay out of enemy range. Meanwhile, now free from her foe's grasp, Luna hopped into a better spot and once more tried to trip her opponent. Once his trusted companion finished, Garland grasped his awesome scythe with both hands and swung with almost all his might!
[dice=Luna Bite (Bless, Flank)]1d20+4+1+2
[dice=Damage]1d6+3[dice=Luna's Free Trip (Bless, Flank)]1d20+4+1+2
[dice=Garland +1 Cold Iron Scythe (PA, Bless, Flank)]1d20+8-1+1+2
[dice=Damage (PA)]2d4+7+3
Luna's efforts yield nothing, but Garland's mighty scythe cuts down the beast. The mouther melts away into a puddle of teeth and rotting goop as the masked hero's blade splits it in twain.
The doll tries to stab Placidus again.
Placidus turns and kicks it.
Ilistra flings another flame at the doll to finish it!
The doll explodes in a huge burst of red hot fire. Placidus shrinks back, throwing Ilistra a look of respect.
"Great Tudi's Crystal Blade!" Cica shouts with fear and relief, as she manages to break free.
Hyperventilating--and limping a bit, due to the many wounds on her right leg--Cica collects her bow.
"Is everyone OK? Who else is injured? Garland, do you have the ability to heal more today?
"I've lost a bit of blood...but if I stay to the back there might be others who need healing more."
"I believe I have enough energy left for a single spell. Let us hope it is a good one!"
"...That was a good spell!"
< Phew! > Cica pats her leg, noting with wonder how the wound knitted closed, and drawing her finger over the cut in her leather lamellar.
"Thanks, bud! I'm going to have to stitch up my armor later...but for now let's see if we can learn anything more in here before those water levels rise again.
"What a battle!"
"What happened to the snake woman?"
With the fight over, the adrenaline keeping Darius up begins to subside. He finds a column and leans against it, slumping to the ground as beads of sweat pop up on his brow, his skin looking very pale.
Cica spits again at the mention of the snake woman.
"It seems like she turned to smoke and floated through that grate there." She points. "I suppose assuming she's gone for good is too good to be true, eh? Let's see if we can figure out what she was trying to do in here."
"I couldn't see," Ilistra says, her eyes still burning. She rubs her face again with hands still coated in fire.
She also regards the black and rotted spots on her skin where the undead doll touched her. "This is a bad wound. Do we have more healing magic?"
Placidus approaches Ilistra to view her wound. "May I?" he asks, holding out his hands at a short distance from her body, unwilling to touch without permission.
Ilistra nods wordlessly as she turns the wound towards the light so he can see it best. She barely wanted to look at it herself, but stayed aware of it through its dull throb of pain.
Placidus says a prayer to the gods before lightly laying his hands on Ilistra's wounds. She feels a slight discomfort as her flesh knits itself togather four times. When he is finished a slight sheen slicks Placidus' forehead. "That should take care of the worst of it. I think I should conserve the rest of my energy, just in case."
A slight tightening of her jaw is the only sign that Ilistra gives that she was experiencing discomfort. When Placidus finishes, she tests the skin and sees that it's still raw but much better than before. She meets his eyes briefly, her face a mix of uncertain expressions, before she lowers her eyes.
"Thank you," she says softly, the words unfamiliar to her tongue since she'd never had much experience saying them with real meaning behind them.
She steps back, staying away from the rest of the group as they work to figure out the serpent's purpose for being in this place.
While the others caught their breath, Garland and Luna carefully searched the room for anything of note...
With Garland's guidance, Cica searches the room as well--particularly looking for clues as to the snake-woman's activities.
Darius feebly tries to stand up, fumbling as he does so. ”I’m...I’m fine...Don’t...don’t mind me...” he mumbles as he tries to slowly step away one of his curved daggers, dropping it with a clatter in the process. He meekly reaches to pick it up, but his arm holding him up gives way and he falls back to the floor with a thud.
Judging from this cathedral-like chamber’s decor, this area must have once been a significant temple dedicated to some vile god. To the west, a few steps lead up to a shrine presided over by a ten-foot-high statue of a beautiful, fanged woman, save that instead of arms she possesses two upraised bat-like wings and instead of feet her legs end in talons. She looms over a glistening altar of blood-red stone that seems to weep blood into a trough below; this trough of blood runs the length of the room before disappearing to the east through a set of bronze bars in front of a wide opening in the wall that drops away into darkness. Stone pillars support the roof twenty five feet above.
The blood weeping from the altar and filling the trough is real and at body temperature.
The three large alcoves in this room appear to have once served as meditation chambers. It looks like the cultists would enter one, then pull a curtain for privacy. The walls of the alcoves are covered in carved Atlantean writings. Below the carvings on the floor of the alcoves, there are dozens of sheets of parchment covered in notes written in the squiggling script of the serpentspawn.
Placidus turns to Darius, "Your wounds don't look that bad...What's wrong, Darius? Are you really okay?"
Cica scratches her head. "There's something familiar here, but I'm not quite placing it. This remind yall of anything?
"Darius, quit being a drama queen and take a look at this."