Feena considered what was said about the animal behind the door and considered as she said, "I do not know what kind of animal it is but if we can't calm it I might be able to incapacitate it with a spray of color. As long as it is not too strong that could knock it out entirely if it charges without hurting it." She took a place slightly back from Damian so she would have a clear line to send dazzling light into the creature's face without hitting her friends if it became necessary.
Lola inclines her head, and moves her guitar in front of her, ”bueno, I will start playing. This will not work until they can see me - let them see if it works before you attack.” She pauses, ”unless it is undead.” She looks down and tunes it and then strums, then singing quietly:
”Ya no estas mas a mi lado corazón”
”En el alma sólo tengo soledad”
”Y si ya no puedo verte”
”Por qué Dios me hizo quererte”
”Para hacerme sufrir mas”
She nods to open the door, continuing to play the same melody.
With a moments of work, the bar from the door is removed. As Lola starts with her guitar, the door is opened and the room beyond is revealed.
A low, L-shaped bookcase occupies the western corner of this room, and a small end table next to the room’s only door bears a broken clay sundial. An oaken desk occupies the southern portion of the chamber, with a high-backed chair behind it and two cushioned chairs in front. The desk is covered in claw marks and the stuffing has been ripped out of the cushioned chairs.
But the occupant of the room is what draws all of your attention, a large, mutated dire bear. As the door opens, it whirls towards you, knocking over a bookshelf. Ferocious, ravenous and deadly are all locked in your direction.
Lola keeps playing, hoping to calm it down before it attacks.
”Siempre fuiste la razón de mi existir”
”Adorarte, para mí, fue religión ”
”Y en tus besos yo encontraba el calor que me bridaba ”
”El amor y la pasión ”
Vlad readies his weapon, but stays out of sight with the hopes that Lola's song will fascinate the bear.
Unfortunately the dire bear is unphased by the bard's song.
Feena's eyes widened at the sight of the gigantic bear and she was terrified. That thing would break her in half without even trying to and she knew it! She did the only thing she could think of to help for now and cast a spell to speed up their reactions.
Seeing that the fascination attempt isn't going to fly, Vlad readies his attack for when the bear moves forward. Raising up on its hind legs, it opens its large mouth and snarls loudly at you, showing you the vicious jaws it intends to clamp down upon you with.
As the bear moves to within range, Vlad buries his scythe into the bear's chest. As soon as Vlad' pulls his weapon from the bear, a small portion of the bear's wounds seem to close and heal on their own.
Furious, the large creature swipes at him with his claws but can't seem to close within range to hit Vlad. Instead, it throws its body repeatedly into the door frame, trying to either squeeze through, or break it down.
The door frame rattles and shakes, but seemingly holds, for now.
"Let's get out of here and leave it a different way to go."
If the SW door in the room that the party is currently in (the door going to the big cathedral room) is closed, then Coral will move there and open it.
If that door is already open, then Coral will just withdraw into the room that is due west of us, planning to shut the door once the party is through.
"How on earth did it get in there if it cannot get out?" wonders Damian for a moment while he reassesses his options. Trying to calm the creature was not going to work now, not after Vlad had slashed it with his scythe. He back up a few steps, readying his bow.
"Or maybe just close the door again and leave it in there. I wish we could help it, but it's too hungry and we look too much like snacks."
Marya throws her sword up high, inspiring her comrades in the face of this bear creature.
Deciding to leave the trapped bear alone for now, the group reverses course and travels west across the long rectangular room south of the fountain and opens the western door. The room beyond mirrors the shape of the room you were just standing in adjacent to the bear. There are two doors leading south and southeast.
Tattered priestly vestments hang in a series of wardrobe-sized cubicles on the northern wall of this room. Most of the floor space is occupied by several rumpled pallets. Scraps of food have been tossed into a wooden crate in the corner of the room, which buzzes with flies.
With nothing special to be found in here, you move through the west vestry and open the door south.
Scriptorium Shelves for dozens of scrolls stand against the western and southeastern walls of this irregularly shaped room, but they are empty. Two sturdy wooden tables stand between them, each with a high-backed wooden chair. Each table holds several dry inkpots, broken quills, and torn scraps
of vellum.
Although the shelves in the room contain none of their original scrolls, you find a large black velvet cloth wrapped around a blood-stained wooden
plate and a copy of Serving Your Hunger, Urgathoa’s horrid holy text and cookbook.
Lola's mouth is a thin line after they leave the bear. "Hmmm, yes, I agree. Perhaps we can find a way to help it, later."
She looks idly at the various items on the shelf and simply observes quietly.
Marya takes the proffered scroll from Vlad and immediately casts Read Magic. ”Neutralize poison! A useful one to have on-hand. I’ll hold onto it for the time being, if that’s alright.” She holds her hand up to cover her mouth and nose as she looks at the food scraps. ”Would just need a good purification orison and we could probably eat this if we are low on food. I would need to prepare it tomorrow though, unless one of you others happens to have it. Also, we might want to check to make sure the meat isn’t from anything sapient, knowing damned Urgathoans.”
LEaving the bear Feena felt foolish for wasting her spell on the group but decided it was ultimately a good thing since they got away quicker to continue their explorations. Better to cast it and not need it, she thought to herself.
As they continued their explorations Feena considered what Marya said about purifying the church and she considered the problem. After a moment she said, "The best way to purify this temple would be with fire. Once we have finished exploring we can come back and I can set several fires as wee leave and let them do the rest. Phoenix' are holy creature of Sarenrae and their fire purifies evil. I am as close as we have to a phoenix right now."
Coral is somewhat dubious about the Sarenite solution of "Light it on fire!"
But this is a Sarenite holy site, so Feena would know best.
As long as we have a way out and don't get trapped in here with the smoke.
Moving north you check the door southeast and as expected, it leads back into the main cathedral where your battle with reaver zombie, cultist and undead took place.
Moving back north to the fountain, you continue west past another staircase that leads to the upper level and head south into a storage room where two large cabinets stand against the western and eastern walls in opposite corners of this room. Doors exit to the north and south.
Lola slinks to the room, her cloak flowing behind her, and stands behind Vlad, her spear ready for foes, eyes unblinking behind her mask. She nods at the barbarian.
Damian steps forward as Marya mentions purifying the food. "I can do that, but you are right that we should avoid eating any meat while in here."
Feena's suggestion of setting the place on fire has him shaking his head, although not necessarily in a denial. "This was my home for several years, I would like to try other things before we set it on fire. We do have more important things to worry about right now though." His tone is sad, the terrible desecration of what was once a place of goodness is clearly affecting him.
"I agree, Vlad. Let's keep going South and explore this level."
Continuing south, you enter a rectangular room is devoid of any furnishings or decorations, but the stone floor, walls, and ceiling have been recently scrubbed clean except for a small smear of dirt on the floor in front of the southern door. Other doors exit to the north and east.
This room mainly looks like a passageway and with nothing of interest catching your eye, you continue south.
A thin layer of dirt covers the floor here, giving this room a musty, earthy smell. Square wooden cabinets lie on their backs atop the dirt in the northeast and southwest corners.
There are multiple things moving about inside of the cabinets in this room.
”Hey! I think I found something.” She pulls what looks to be a black rag out of a bucket, revealing to actually be a cloak with a web pattern. ”Cloak of Arachnida. Not bad. Any of you want it?”
Having just found something and feeling at momentary ease, Marya’s thoughts are wandering again, thinking about old friends and lovers, and she has difficulty concentrating.
Can Coral tell the approximate size of the creatures by the sound of the movement? Mostly trying to ascertain if it is a swarm.
Coral doesn't hear hundreds or thousands of creatures stirring in the cabinets, just medium sized ones.
Lola nods, ”sí, if they are undead - we return them to rest. If not, we aid them or keep them locked in - like the bear. Whomever wishes to open the door - the rest of us should ensure we are backed away and safe from anything which may explode out, though, I believe.”
Coral will stand next to Vlad, doing her usual Bodyguard role.
She has Combat Reflexes so can take these AOOs even when flat-footed, of course.
+4 AC to Vlad against the first 5 attacks.
Vlad yanks open one cabinet and quickly reaches for the other, flinging it open as well. Inside you find confirmation to Lola's suspicions, two creatures with shreds of leathery flesh that cling their skeletal figure’s body, while twin motes of fiery light glow deep in their eye sockets.
They must have heard Vlad approaching because they are ready the moment they are exposed, lashing out at him with their claws. The first skeleton slashes twice and would have raked the barbarian had Coral not been at his side to assist him in dodging both strikes.
While they are occupied with the first one however, the second manages to critically strike Vlad and follow that up with a second claw.
Lola taps her feet and begins a simple Malambo, to ensure that Damian can benefit from her inspire courage, but stays back from the fight, merely humming to herself.
She hums, ”Mierda - they may try to teleport us out of the room. Try to get back here if they do! ¡Ten valor y fortaleza! They aren’t tough - focus on one and kill it!”
Lola quickly identifies the undead creatures as crypt things, knowing more or less all there is to know about them.
[oocI did forget to mention that Coral and Vlad are within the fear aura range of the undead and need DC16 Will or be frightened for 1d4 rounds.[/ooc]
Coral powers through her fear and attacks the undead. While they might be scary, nothing is as terrifying as when she stood as bait before the undead husk that had once been her best friend.
Damian takes a step closer to the fray, his presence alone fortifying the spirits of his allies.
Then he nocks an arrow, trying to bring down the undead creature that Vlad and Coral have engaged.
Marya moves closer and casts a blessing that washes over the whole group.
Feena moved in a bit closer tot he fighting so that she could see the enemies a bit better and quickly decided that she was happier not knowing what they looked like. Wanting to immolate the monstrosity Feena quickly cast a spell and sent a pair of fiery rays of scorching heat at the crypt thing she could see.
Coral reacts quickly, shaking off the aura from the undead and slashing her shortsword into one of the crypt things, critically striking it. The undead creatures natural resistance ignores some of her strike, but she definately puts a beating on it.
Damian's first two shots miss, but his third barely nicks his target.
Marya moves up and supports the party with a blessing.
Feena's first scorching ray misses, but her second one burns one of the thing at far side of the room.
Vlad lands his first strike, whittling away at the undead creature after fighting through it's toughened body.
The very wounded enemy slashes out at Vlad again with both of it's claws.
The further one targets Vlad, Coral, Feena and Marya with a teleport spell. Snarling, it raises its hand and washes it over in your general direction.
Coral disappears.
Damian gasps as Coral disappears - was that a new trick of hers? If so, it was his duty to distract the undead creature for as long as possible so that she could enact her plan.
"Over here, you hideous abomination!" he shouts as he looses a few more arrows at it.
Marya takes a step forward and begins inspiring her comrades.
Lola watches as Coral disappears, and mutters an annoyed grunt, then steps behind Vlad, hoping to provide an aura of comforting teamwork help to Vlad and disrupt the necromantic energy holding together the monster.
With the initial threat dealt with but another in the offing Feena moved closer tot eh doorway. When the sound of the skeletons coming together to attack Feena was in a position to do something. Chanting and gesturing she sent a jolt of electricity sipping out towards the skeleton they were fighting.