Borgol shakes his head, "Hard to attack from prone. Trust me, I know," he says before starting to bring his weapons to bear once again.
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Flik continues to perform and casts ear-piercing scream on the creature.
Borgol dispatches the fallen fiend with two critical strikes of his sword. Flik, Fergus, and Remy all gang up on the final foe, and within a few moments, it lies dead at their feet as well.
Borgol quickly takes a step away from the creatures and cocks his head, listening for any sign of alarm within.
You don't hear any shouts or alarms coming from deeper in the complex. It seems your presence here has not been noticed yet. When you are ready, you proceed through the door.
The walls of this room are lined with over a dozen cells, each a bare five-foot-square chamber with stone walls and a set of iron manacles. Skeletons still dangle by the wrists in three of these cells, a softly glowing sigil shimmering pale blue on their skulls. You recognize the sigil as the holy symbol of Pharasma. A raised platform on the eastern side of the room overlooks all the cells.
Borgol pauses a moment, "Was this place ever sacred to Pharasma? Does anyone know? It just seems so... different... than the Peacock Spirit."
"Well, it makes me feel better about the possibility of being attacked by undead." Flik walks down the room, heading for the platform.
"If it were sacred to Pharasma, I don't think they'd be keeping Pharasmins as prisoners," Remy muses.
As you proceed down the cell block, you hear a voice calling from across the room. ”Hey! Hey, over here!” Turning to look, you can see the face of a birdlike humanoid creature pressed up against the bars of a large cell. Flik recognizes the being as an avoral agathion.
”By Hobbin’s wings, Hobbin must be hallucinating! Is Hobbin hallucinating? Are you real? Are you here to set Hobbin free?”
"Ah, we're real as dirt! What's a celestial doing down in this bleak place?" Flik readies his lock picks, but waits for the more savvy teammates to give him the go-ahead on freeing the agathion.
Fergus, a little suspicious, will detect evil on Hobbin.
Borgol says, "Wouldn't surprise me to learn they planned to corrupt, turn, taint or bind it for part of some Peacock Spirit ritual."
He says, "I am Borgol, Vindicator of Erastil. And, yes, I am real."
Fergus does not detect an evil aura emanating from the avoral.
"Hobbin is just a simple traveler who poked his beak into the wrong places and found himself locked away. Hobbin came to this world to seek out and spread knowledge, but it seems like some of you humans don’t much care for that!”
A tinge of sadness cuts through the outsider’s excitement. “Hobbin has been here forever, it seems. Hobbin has lost so much track of time, Hobbin has even forgotten the moment the concept of time became foreign to him. But Hobbin does know a thing or two about the man who rules this place. Hobbin will tell you a secret about the Peacock Spirit if you set him free! It’s the secret that got him put in here in the first place!”
"A secret? That is intriguing. We'd be happy to free you." Flik gets to work while he chats with the celestial.
Once the cell is open, Hobbin steps out and sighs. ”Ah, it is good to stretch Hobbin’s wings again! Now Hobbin will share his secret: Hobbin suspects Runelord Xanderghul and the Peacock Spirit are one and the same! Hobbin has no actual proof of this belief, but the fiends kept him imprisoned this long for fear of what he knows becoming widespread knowledge. This is all the proof Hobbin needs! It must be the truth!”
"Well, it wouldn't hold up in a Korvosa court, but it's good enough for me. And, that would explain some of the behavior of those strange cultists. I wonder if they know who their Peacock Spirit is?" Flik points down the room toward the platform. "Any idea what's down there?"
Hobbin shakes his head. "Sorry. Hobbin did not get very far before being captured! More asuras and other nasty fiends, Hobbin would wager."
Borgol whistles, "If they do, I'm surprised we got as far as we did.... Then again, if they assumed we didn't, maybe that's why they were so ... insistent... on their ritual."
So...what is next for you Hobbin? Are you going to leave now, wait here for us to return or will you accompany us? Fergus asks.
Borgol says, "That means, though, we're going to have to face the clergy we met and Xanderghul. That's... less than ideal."
"Hobbin would like to return to his home in Nirvana, but he does not have the means to do so," the celestial laments. "So he will remain here for the time being. He is no match for the fiends that dwell here!"
Understandable, and once we defeat the fiends here, we will help Hobbin return to Nirvana! Fergus says with a nod.
"That would certainly be an interesting trip, Fergus!" Flik smiles at the thought of being somewhere that isn't horrifying.
Hobbin finds a safe place to hide as you continue down the hall. The center of the next room is occupied by a raised dais, on which stands a brass statue of a bull. A large brazier has been installed under the statue’s belly. You can easily see that the large bull statue has a 4-foot-wide hatch built into the side.
"That's a nasty piece of business. The bull is a torture device--you could use it to roast someone alive!"
Borgol shakes his head, "All in the name of the beautiful Peacock Spirit, no doubt. Confess, convert, or die." He sighs, "I don't know why I'm surprised to find more signs of evil here, considering everything else we've seen."
"That would certainly be an interesting trip, Fergus!" Flik smiles at the thought of being somewhere that isn't horrifying.
Yes, it would be good to help one in the pursuit of something good!
Borgol shakes his head, "All in the name of the beautiful Peacock Spirit, no doubt. Confess, convert, or die." He sighs, "I don't know why I'm surprised to find more signs of evil here, considering everything else we've seen."
Yes, this is an evil, vile place! Fergus says with a nod of his head.
If the brazen bull was disturbing, the next room is not much better. A total of eight iron sarcophagi stand on display in this room. Of the eight, five are wide open, revealing dozens of cruel spikes lining their interiors. A door is set in the north wall, while the fiery line continues to the east.
Borgol shakes his head again, "Can we just burn this place to the ground?"
The sooner we are done with this place, the better! Fergus says as he continues to the door in the north wall.
Borgol nods, taking a moment to look around, ensuring there's no immediate danger... or better way to proceed.
Borgol doesn't notice anything nearby.
An acrid smell hangs thick in the air of the drab room beyond the north door, emanating from a pool of clear but slightly fuming liquid in the center of the room. A five-foot-wide polished stone walkway surrounds the pool, with a glass display case containing a peacock statue standing on the ledge across the pool opposite the room’s entrance. This is one of the remaining peacock shrines that provide protections to the denizens of the valley. Disabling it will make the upcoming battles easier.
Flik spots a magical trap on the glass display case. Anybody trying to tamper with it might be telekinetically thrown into the acid pit!
Flik, Do you think you can disable it? Fergus asks.
Borgol stands back, "That.... seems dangerous. Anything I can do to help Flik?"
"The best thing to do...is stand back!"
Flik hums to himself calmly as possible and starts to tease apart the threads of the trap.
Unfortunately, Flik accidentally triggers the trap! A forceful thrust of telekinesis slams into the gnome!
Flik hunkers down as the wave of force blows over him. He grabs at his hat as it almost wizzes toward the ceiling.
"Well...that was close."
Borgol winces, "Should we tie something to you, Flik, just to ensure that you don't get thrown?"
Is it safe now? Fergus asks.
"I don't think that would be very dignified!" Flik settles in to try again.
Flik disarms the trap in the most gnomish way possible.
After several attempts ending in near disaster, Flik finally manages to disable the trap! He removes the rod from the peacock shrine, disabling its effects.
With that taken care of, you head to the next room to the east. Stretching racks festooned with chains and manacles adorn the northern portion of this chamber. An immense creature slithers here. It looks like a horned rattlesnake, save for its two muscular arms, each of which wields a scimitar. ”Die, intruders!” it shouts telepathically as it rushes towards you!
Maddie shimmers into visibility with blue light already gathering around her, changing first to teal and then to outright green, coalescing into a barrage of magical projectiles and unerringly homing in on the snake-kin... thing.
The serpentine monster grunts as Maddie's magic missiles slam into it. The creature slithers forward and makes a broad sweep with its scimitar. The blade slices into Fergus, but Borgol avoids the follow-through attack.
Fergus will strike at the serpent-man.
Borgol holds a moment, waiting for direction from Flik and his companion's attacks before he tries to end the threat, doubling in size and lashings out with his blade and shield.
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Flik does start dispensing advice on the creature.
He waves a hand at the creature and a cloud of dust rises around it, getting in its eyes.
Remy leaps into the fray with a flying kick, following up with a pair of solid punches.
Remy, Fergus, and Borgol all land a few good hits on the monstrous asura. Borgol doesn't quite hit it hard enough to shove it back! It resists Remy's stunning fist and avoids being blinded by Flik's glitterdust.
The monster retaliates against Remy, slicing her with its scimitars and sinking its fangs into her neck! The monk barely resists the creature's venom. She staggers on her feet, barely standing.
Flik keeps performing and moves up to support Remy.