"Eastwards, towards the rising sun? I wouldn't mind something that isn't grimness and desecration in this place..." suggests Damian, "But we should be prepared for the worst, just in case."
”I like the way you think, Damian. Good a reason as any.” Marya begins heading off to the east corridor.
Giving the strange item a wide berth, the party moves past it to the east corridor and takes the first door on the southern side. After Coral clears the door, Vlad opens it up and finds a map room within.
Two L-shaped mahogany tables stand between the northern and southern exits of this rectangular room. Atlases lie open on the tables next to rolls of parchment. Several cloth maps hang on the walls, showing the surrounding area, the whole of Lastwall, the southern border of Ustalav, and the southeastern border of the Hold of Belkzen. Many of the maps have tiny flags pinned to them. Most of the maps bear thin films of dust; only the map showing the area around Roslar’s Coffer is clean.
Two half-elven women are here. The pair look nearly identical, tall with red hair and freckles, and they both wear matching dark robes with a skeletal motif. Only one wears a pair of small, round spectacles.
"Ah! So, you're the new recruits, are you?" one asks, adjusting her spectacles. The other adds "Come on, then, let's have a look at you."
Marya has little interest—or skill for that matter—in lying, so she steps forward, looping the thumb of her sword hand around the necklace she keeps her Iomedaean holy symbol on. ”You get a lot of Iomedaean recruits, eh?”
Damian's grip on his bow tightens slightly as he watches the women warily.
"What exactly are you recruiting for?" He doubts he would get a useful answer, but it never hurt to ask.
Lola has a similar skull motif and while she doesn’t stop anyone from saying anything, she does add, ”bueno. A good joke, Morra, that Iomedaen we killed earlier had much treasure. What a fool to try to fight us. Of course we are new recruits; how could we be here otherwise?” She bows deeply, ”as you can see, I am well-versed in death.”
”I am Luna, and these are my companions - clever and stalwart enemies of kindness and generosity and such. Chicos malos, K’aas. Please tell us more about the organization and what we are supposed to do.”
Coral looks on quietly as Lola attempts to trick the cultists.
It is true, that we Iomedans would be more successful if we weren't so averse to subtle approaches. But I don't have Lola's skill with words, and I could make things worse by trying to help.
The one in the glasses tilts her head acknowledgement of the party, "Welcome Luna and companions. I am Oradi and this is my sister Savenna."
Turning to Marya, she responds "A lot? No. We do not fault you for your poor choice in Goddess, however. We are only human."
She pushes up the glasses further on her nose and says to Demian, "The Whispering Way, of course. That is why you are here, is it not?"
The other one, Savenna, chimes in. "Tell us. How did you ever manage to cross through the dome of poisonous fog?"
Lola narrows her eyes, ”if I tell you, will you try to escape? Fine. There are old ways, old things, that the Whispering Way missed it seems, that lead all over the place. Unexpected places even - but if you travel carefully there’s no poison there. When you emerge you’re within Roslar’s coffer.”
She puts her hands on her hips, ”well? How are we to aid the Whispering Way? We are good at fighting, sneaking, and have some magic, and many of my companions look like ‘goody two shoes’ or whathave you. This would be useful to trick more good guys, who are notoriously dumb, into letting us approach, giving us an advantage and allowing us to sneak attack, yes?” She looks around, ”though this poison gas is perhaps too hard for those cabrónes to cross; there may not be any of them left in this town. We are at your disposal.”
At Lola's mention of "escape", the cultist does her best to hide a knowing smile, as if the thought of escaping is funny to her somehow.
The smile quickly fades as she listens to "Luna's" response, perking up at the mention of Roslar's coffer. "Oh. Roslar's Coffer." she repeats, intrigued. "Did we now. Yes, I suppose so. Very clever. "
The other sister chimes in, clearly intrigued. "Tell us. What did you find down in Rosler's coffer?"
The first one cuts her sister off and says "Have you noticed the resemblance, dear sister? It makes perfect sense why he chose them." She takes a moment to point to each of party members slowly before ending on "Luna". "All of them except that one. Luna, is it? Tell us Luna, how did you come to be here today? You were not with your companions previously, isn't that correct? Hmmm?"
Damian tries to mask his growing concern as the two women point at each of them and mentions 'he' choosing them, whoever that was.
I doubt Lola will fool them for long, these two seem rather crafty.
He feels along the spiritual connections he had established earlier, their subtle thrum reassuring.
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Lola’s hackles raise slightly, but she swings her guitar around, ”it depends on how you define things, but perhaps you would enjoy the explanation to a little music?” Without asking, she grips the neck of the guitar and pressing the strings, strums a quiet chord, then raises an eyebrow at the pair, grinning. She sings quietly as she picks at the guitar, a slow, mournful ballad,
”It is a tale of sacrifice, of life and death and life”
”Corazon y muerte, and subsequent strife,”
”A lost soul , condemned to roam, more dead than alive,”
”Near today, but always shackled, for freedom do I strive,”
”You’ll find few answers from me, for I have none to give,”
”But to join the whispering way we strive, for better us to live,”
”We have no hope, for we despair, we know the winning side,”
”Táak k unit le tirano, we want to stay alive,”
Still playing her guitar, she whispers melodically, ”What role can we play in this glory, dama? And please tell us your parts - hold nothing back - we only want to help, you can trust me.”
The two women listen to Lola's ballad and when it ends, one is scowling and the other is chatting.
"We're the overseers of the Way, managing the cultists while Valthazar leads the way. We have no true use for you. We-"
"That is enough!"The scowling woman strides up to the chatting one and smacks the glasses off her face. "Don't you see what she's doing? Kill them!"
"Good try, Lola. But the jig is up."
Coral switches her short sword to her buckler hand (which I think is a free action?). She moves into the room next to Vlad while drawing a dagger and throws it over the table at the nearest sister.
She will use Bodyguard on Vlad if he is physically attacked, and provides a +2 Shake it Off bonus to his saves (as well as Feena giving another +1).
Coral's aim is true and the dagger sails over the counter and embeds itself into the closest woman's chest. With blood gushing out of her wound, the woman decides to protect herself and casts a spell on herself. The other woman in the rear does the same and there is an audible pop in the air around both of them as they do so.
Damian wedges himself into a corner of the room, releasing an arrow at the most distant cultist sister.
Marya blasts the cultists with a blinding burst of holy light to cover her entrance to the room.
Lola blinks, and sighs, and dances into the room with a queretaro, hoping to inspire Damian and everyone else.
La Guitarra remains out, and ready to lay down some beats as necessary.
Feena couldn't lie to save her life so she let the others deal with the two women and simply stayed silent. Eventually it turned into a fight regardless of their best efforts and Feena moved to the doorway to better see their enemies. She then wasted no time in sending a pair of beams of concentrated heat lancing out at the further woman.
Coral's weapon flies into the cultist chest, causing her to cry out in pain.
As Vlad's weapon closes in on the cultist, it hits some protective shield around her and misses. Realizing he's going to need more than what he puts into his first strike, he swings again with more strength and pierces the barrier.
Damian's arrow is true and finds it's way into the far cultist's left shoulder.
Marya's radiance fills the room, clearly blinding the closest sister who calls out "I can't see!"
The second sister calls out "Hold on Oradi, I'm going to warn Kalamuk!"
"What?! Don't leave me!" she cries out incredulously. "Fine!" she concludes, reaching on her robe and ripping off a patch and throwing it on the ground next to her.
The patch quickly transform in a creature which explodes in size, shattering the desk adjacent to her as it continues to grow and grow until a ten foot tall ogre stands beside her.
This creature is not a normal ogre however, it's clearly undead as its body is torn and full of vile purple fluids which drip from its corpse. Looking towards its master she shouts a command "KILL THEM!!!"
The creature swings wildly at Marya, but misses, still disoriented from just appearing.
Behind all of this the far cultist turns to go and awkwardly bumps into the table, then the wall, but eventually finds her way out of the room, disappearing around a corner to the east.
Round 1: Coral moves and throws a dagger before the enemies can act (hits AC 22 for 10 damage with Sneak Attack).
Round 2: Unable to get onto or underneath the table, Coral instead moves around to block Savenna's exit from the ring of tables. (Double Move)
Savenna will need a DC 31 Acrobatics check to move through Coral's square, or else a CMB check against DC 21 to Overrun (and Coral will take an AOO against her on that).
Round 3: Coral stabs at Savenna (standard) and then shuts the door leading out of the room (move, does not provoke).
Cora chooses to block her opponent's path.
The determined cultist makes it past Coral, despite her best attempts to prevent the escape.
With everyone and the ogre between himself and the fleeing sister, there is not much that Damian can do, so he shifts his aim to the undead creature. In the cramped quarters, it is a little difficult to pull back on the bowstring, but with it so close it doesn't really matter.
The sudden appearance of the ogre nearly drew a scream of terror from Falina but she managed to choke it back. Instead she chanted and gestured and sent a pair of heat rays lancing out at the giant thing.
The ogre's time here on this plane is short lived as Damian and Feena combine to take it down. Vlad's scythe cuts down the first sister in the room leaving it empty.
Lola scurries up and looks into the hall, trying to figure out to where the woman fled. She does not rush out alone, seemingly trying to avoid another death.
Marya casts a Discovery Torch in preparation for looking over the papers on the desks.
Lola moves south to where the cultist exit, looking down both ends of the hallway and seeing nothing. The corridor to the east is the direction you saw her head towards, but it dead-ends 30' ahead of you and turns north.
Marya prepares to dig into the numerous papers and information in the room when Feena calls out that she saw the cultist fleeing north at the far end of the hallway, running past their corridor for a brief moment.
Ignoring the map room for now, the group moves out in search of the fleeing cultist.
Quickly moving after the cultist, you catching sight of her fleeing down the steps back to the floor you just came from. With Lola's triple time, everyone is able to quickly close in around her and bring her down without much effort and return to the map room. The overseers’ notes are particularly extensive, although they are scattered untidily across the tables.
Coral flips through the papers.
"It seems we were dead.
Well, we knew that.
But the bodies we have now do not seem to be those we had before. Look at this - this corpse they describe is just like Vlad. This one is a dead ringer (sorry) for Feena. And here's me.
It's rather beyond me, the process by which we returned from the Boneyard. Beings of such power could no doubt make new bodies for us. Especially useful if our old bodies were 'collected for examination' by this 'VQ.'"
Coral is more curious than alarmed by this information. She has already accepted that she was dead, and regards her soul and sentience to be 'her' moreso than her physical body.
Damian glances at the map, but the implications of what Coral reveals overwhelm him for a moment.
"I... have so many questions. But most of them can wait. For now, who would this VQ be?"
Lola glances at the notes, ”the maps themselves are relatively accurate, but the position of the flags means they were working with information that is badly out of date.”
She exhales, ”I am glad that this character did not get my body. It is uncomfortable the idea of someone poking you, even if it is your departed form.”
As they looked through the map room Feena listened to what everyone pieced together and shuddered at the thought of waking in her own ruined and "examined" body when they came back. The thought of what that might be like was almost impossible to imagine and still she could feel the horror of the idea.
Feena thought the issue of their bodies over and then finally thought she had an idea of what might have happened. She wasn't sure of course but the idea seemed to fit. She looked up at the others and said, "I think the way returned would be more like a calling spell than if we came back in 'real bodies'. The act of calling is similar to summoning magic. Summoning magic brings forth a copy of a creature from another plane. It might be the same creature each time but when it is destroyed it can be brought back again. Calling is different. When a creature is called they are actually brought across and they are truly here. What happens they die I cannot say but I do not believe they just 'reform' on their home plane. I am afraid I do not know enough about planar beings to know more than that."
Damian looks even more confused. "But... this is our home plane. Isn't it? And that sounds like powerful magic, who would be able to use such to call us from Pharasma's realm? And why?"
The former paladin shakes his head abruptly. "No matter. For later. Let's find this VQ, and perhaps answers will present themselves."
"One of those Amulets of Natural Armor might be helpful for me."
"The cultists spoke of a leader named Valthazar... as did Gerdish, who had a deal with him. That must be this VG. Let us prepare ourselves and then try to find them."
Damian sends out a quick burst of divine energy to restore the entire group.