"Piece of cake," agrees Caroliss. "A very greasy cake."
"That looked like it would be much harder than it was." Sapher says suspiciously. "We have to wait until Mok's magical grease disappears, so eat while you can." the dwarf says while eyeing the ugly corpses bunched up in the hallway. Reaching into her bag, under her chicken, she'll pull out a honey biscuit wrapped in cloth, left over from breakfast. Then proceeds to eat and share nibbles with her fluffy bird. Not good to deny a celestial of its snacks.
After the grease dissipates there is still the option of three paths to take; continues east toward the stairs leading down or try one of the other two doors to the south or west.
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Definitely not good idea to deny celestial blooded creatures their snacks.
Slipping her pack off her shoulder, she opens it up and rummages around for some bread she packed away from the kitchen this morning. Truth be told, after the “incident” in the dining hall this morning she hadn’t gotten even half of her food into her stomach. She turns away from the group to eat, slipping her glove back over her hands and arms.
Once she’s finished with her snack, she shoulders her pack and looks to the door to the south. She looks it over for signs of trouble before opening it up. ”Let’s go this way! I’m not ready to go down any stair quite yet.”
Nodding to herself she adds ”Pathfinders clear floors before delving to new levels.”
Opening the southern door Es is faced with another set of stairs leading down.
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”Seriously! How many stairwells are there in this place!” she exclaims, frustrated by yet again more stairs.
Grimacing, she turns towards the other door. ”I meant this way.”.
Searching the door for problems and finding none (hopefully), she nudges it open with her hip. ”Okay Sapher, time to put the magical chicken away. We’ve got some work to do!”
Opening the western door it leads into a long hallway. Making your way down the hall you eventual see it opens into a larger room. A thirty-foot-diameter, softly glowing circle of runes shimmers on the floor of the room ahead What appears to be a flickering flame burns with no apparent source of fuel in the middle of the room at the center of the runes.
Caroliss admires the flickering flame and glowing runes. "Fascinating, these magical runes may have been sitting here undisturbed for ages! Anyone know what they might be?"
She's tempted to take a rock and throw it into the circle to see what happens, but decides to wait for her companions to investigate.
”I have no idea,” Veltariel adds as she steps in and moves along the periphery against the wall.
Drask frowns. "Magic fire." He says flatly, clearly not enthused about the fire with no fuel source.
"What tipped you off, the lack of anything actually burning?"
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Mokhasi peers at the flame and the circle, then detects magic.
Mokhasi adds ”That makes sense, Esrisi. The circle appears to have once served as a conduit to summon a creature from the elemental plane of fire, a powerful one. It has decayed, though, and perhaps is not functioning correctly, as binding portals tend to do over time,” he intones, quietly to the party. Kiir has settled into a slightly blue color.
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”Thank you Mokhasi.” she says with genuine appreciation.
Esrisi leans into Drask and answers, ”No, I used my brain from when I was taught things. Like not being a smart ass all the time when someone is trying to help save your life.”
Leaning back up, she quietly reflects on the continued nitpicking she is taking from her allies. Perhaps she should be seeking to confide in her new found friend instead?
”No, I used my brain from when I was taught things.”
"Mhmm, should try doing that more often."
Sapher shuffles after the others, after shoving the rest of the biscuit in her mouth. "Mahmmff…" she swallows with a big gulp. "What do we do about it?"
"Maybe we come back later after memorizing a lot of ice magic? If that flame is alive and we have to fight it, better to do so prepared."
"So either we try and fight it. Living flame does not sound like an easy battle. Or we go down one of the stairs and wait until one of our magical types figure out a way to banish it." she'll look to the others "Anyone have a firm opinion?"
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”For my part, I do not have much in my repertoire that would be especially debilitating to a fire creature, nor can I ‘banish’ it with my current level of ability. If we would like to defeat the creature, we would likely have to follow the standard method of ‘hitting it a lot’.” Mokhasi seems to believe that the fighting types are generally up to the challenge, though he’d prefer to identify the creature before he said for sure.
”I say leave it be. It’s been here how long?” Veltariel suggests with a shrug.
"I like the idea of leaving the things that are not trying to kill us alone. Other than embodiments of Sin locked in jail cells, of course."
"So, down the stairs then, how about the set to the east?" If no one disagrees Sapher will head in that direction.
"As good a direction as any," agrees Caroliss.
Taking the eastern set of stairs they definitely do not descend as much as many of the other stair cases you have used so far. It leads down to a hallway which branches off in many directions. Continuing to the first intersection the hallway continues to the south to another staircase leading down, with another branch of the southern route heading west. It also continues east into a small empty room with another closed door on the eastern wall. You see the eastern branch also has a route heading south off of it as well.
Heading to the east you pass by the southern hall which continues south before opening to a larger room and then continuing on as a hallway. The small room to the east is empty save for the door in the eastern wall. Not finding any threats of magic or noticing any apparent traps on the door you open the door. The smell of the sea is strong in this room, and salt encrusts the floor in a trail leading from the closed south door. There is another closed door set in the eastern wall. Inside are several more of those nupperibos. However, these ones seem to have more musculature on them and aren't quite as scrawny as the previous ones.
Drask prepares to form a wall again.
Vel fires a pair of silver arrows at these vile things before taking a step back for Drask to step up and do his thing.
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Esrisi decides to bless the party again. She raises her hand and starts to mutter the spell when two arrows whistle past her head and eliminate the creatures at the other end of the hallway. Watching them fall, she stops casting and turns around to Veltariel and says "Nice shot!"
Hearing nothing about what should be done and deciding the save her magical resources, she remembers how easily they went down moments ago and again when Veltariel struck them. She struts into the room with confident and kicks at the far creature on the right.
Sapher shuffles quickly next to Drask, waiting to wack something that gets close.
Swearing something vile, Sapher runs after the blonde, "Where are you going?!?" she snaps as she reaches the mess of naked things and swings her hammer at the one between them.
"Pass. Maybe if you get the snot beat out of you, you'll learn to listen to tactics."
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Esrisi's eyes go wide when she hears Drask will not be entering the room. She looks back over her should to see if he's bluffing or not, but sees no sign of him advancing. "Unbelievable." she mutters as she prepares to handle these creatures without the green-faced moron who clearly has been hit in the head too many times.
Through clenched teeth she clenches her fist and mutters "Fine."
Vel launches two arrows in rapid succession and drops two of the creatures with an arrow each. Es rushes into the room punches another one in the head so hard its head snaps back with a sickening crack and it falls limply to the ground. Mok moves in with Sapher trying to help her by distracting the enemy but with Sapher in the way he can't seem to get the creatures attention. Sapher joins the others in the fight but just barely misses with her swing. Drask moves up to the door and stands there securing it while the others ignore his tactical advice.
The two remaining devils strike out at Sapher and Es with their spears.
They both miss, only because the magic Mok had cast on her protected her from the attack.
Drask leans against the wall, letting his axe slide through his palm to rest on the ground and drawing his dagger, using it pick underneath his thick nails.
Veltariel’s jaw drops at Drask’s thick-headedness. She slips past him and lets a silver arrow fly eerily close over Sapher’s shoulder and through the right eye socket of the last one standing.
She then turns and gives the big half-orc a shove. ”What the hell!?!?” she snaps as she gets in his face, comically looking up at the burly warrior as menacingly as she can. ”A real warrior knows that battle plans change and adapt. But, I’m not surprised that you’d not understand that,” she adds. She turns and heads towards Esrisi, adding over her shoulder ”Some bodyguard,”
She steps over to Esrisi and says ”You alright?”
Drask glances up from his nails (although still looking down to meet Vel's gaze), then turns his gaze to the fight where over half of their enemies are already lying on the ground. "Low risk fight, but still enough of a fight to prove a point." He says quietly.
Es and Vel finish off the last of the remaining devils.
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As soon as the last devil drops, Esrisi spins on her heels and marches up to Drask defiantly. The tall woman looks up at the even taller half-orc and grows red in the face. She wants to push him in the chest, but resists the urge and just screams at him instead.
"What the hell was that! I DEMAND to know why you would just leave me up there facing those devils without your assistance because you want to have your way? UNBELIEVABLE! How can I trust that you are going to have my back when you won't even join the fight?!"
Infuriated, she folds her arms in front of him and waits for a response.
"Mhmm." Drask nods, continuing to pick at his nails while Esrisi screams at him. When she's done and staring, expecting a reply, he continues to pick at his nails.
After a few moments he raises a brow. "Oh, are you wanting my opinion? Based on what you just did I thought you didn't give a s!@~ about it. But don't worry, it turned out fine, so clearly you did nothing wrong." He tucks away the dagger, grabbing his axe and stepping into the next room. "Never mind that against the spiders I did follow you into the room despite you breaking ranks. No, you're right, I'm sure that we'll never run into a fight that actually threatens us." He chops into the dropped enemies, making sure they're dead. Probably with a little too much vigor. "We'll just ignore the seasoned warriors and start following the lead of the spoiled brat who's been throwing punches for less than a week. That's never gotten anybody killed."
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Esrisi is still mad, but she knows Drask has some legitimate remarks in his response. This doesn’t mean that she needs to agree with them verbally however, ”Wha-You- Why-“ she says as she keeps cutting herself off.
She folds her arms across her chest and glowers at Drask. One simply did not engage half-orcs in conversation without getting irritated it seems. Finally she blurts our ”You are not a very good teacher!”
"Right you are." Drask chops into another body, ripping his axe free with a spray of blood. "But you're a s+**ty student."
"Vel is right, no battle plan survives long once blood is drawn." He turns to face her, planting his axe on the ground and leaning on it. "You're standing where our vanguard was when we came here. Now tell me, what's in that corner of the room?" He says, pointing to the southwest corner that can clearly not be seen from her position. "What about traps, did anybody check this room before you rushed in?" He pauses again while staring at her with his brows raised. "And that hallway behind us, are we sure it's clear? What happens if we rush in here and something comes up behind us, and the first thing they run into is Caroliss and Mok? You think they're going to fend well in melee? Against something that can stand toe-to-toe with me or Sapher?" He pauses a third time and levels a stare at her.
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Esrisi follows his directions and looks to the corner of the room and then to Caroliss. When he turns to stare at her, she can't keep Drasks's stare for long. After only a second she looks away, suddenly finding the ground extremely interesting.
For the first time she dials her volume back from a ten to about a two. While staring at the floor she squeaks "No." timidly.
Sapher listens without comment to Drask trying to drill past Esrisi's wild recklessness. She might agree with the lecture but staying out of the fight to prove it...
She keeps her thoughts to herself, knotted like steel in her chest, as she moves around and makes sure there are no more threats. She raises her eyes from time from her search to keep an eye on Vel's.