Isabella hacks at it as the creature stands!
She then moves south to flank with Chrysa again and swipes at it twice more.
The werewolf falls again with a crack of Orri’s whip. The warrior women set in on him with their swords, opening wounds but finding his hide unnaturally strong.
The werewolf snarls and his eyes go frenzied! He snaps out with his jaws at Isabella’s ankle, catching it and wrenching her down to the ground with him before he begins assailing her with his blades! She avoids all but the initial slash, and resulting in her taking a deep cut to the arm to pair with the torn flesh on her ankle!
__________
Annalla slips past Orri to touch Isabella with a healing hand.
Orri glares at the werewolf as it brings his sister down to the ground with it and starts attacking her. He calls out to the thing trying to draw its attention away from her.
"Come on you stupid mutt! I'll just keep knocking you on your ass unless you come over here and fight me! Come and get me instead!"
He then moves to try and create some more space for the werewolf to come after him.
Chrysa hacks and stabs and batters.
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Sophie gently scolds, Bella, "training, my dear, your training. Don't let him hit you - it's dangerous for your little one too."
Sophiel tries to say this gently, "use my words to incite your anger to help dodge." She says, "pretend the werewolf is me - lecturing you, and pummel his face in."
Sophie flies over to Sootscale and blesses him with a minor benefit.
Not wanting to risk hitting his allies with an explosion, Sootscale draws and throws another net at the prone wolf!
He almost entangles Bella with the net anyway!
Isabella hears the words of Sophie and curses herself for letting it get the better position on her. She shouts "Face me and me alone, wolf! I shall be the end of you! Try to bite me again, I dare you!"
Isabella whirls her shield and blade around, declares a challenge to the wolf and then takes a full defense posture and stands, taking her feet again.
The werewolf turns his eyes at Orri and snarls, before jumping up and running towards him on all fours!
Following the dog as it desperately tries to gut her friend, she slashes and...
Orri smirks for a moment as the werewolf bounds for him, knowing he helped to get it away from Bella, but immediately starts to regret his decision as the beast closes in on him.
Orri tumbles away from the creature to get some space before brandishing his whip and trying to trip it once again.
His slight panic of having the beast chase him down though is obviously apparent when he completely misses with his whip.
Sophiel steps north slightly, to provide someone with a flank, and readies to distract the brute with her shield bash, aiding her friend's next attack.
She continues her oratory, "take him down, someone, before he eviscerates us all!"
Sootscale claws at the werewolf as he runs by!
;
Taking a step back, he tries a third net!
Annalla sends another set of four blue motes to strike at the raging creature.
Only one of Chrysa’s attacks land before it moves away, then Ipmeek wraps it up in a net as Isabella moves up and plunges her blade into it as well. But the beast still stands and continues glaring at Orri. It cuts the net off with its blade before lunging at him! It buried a dagger into Orri’s shoulder, causing the man to cry out in pain before it’s teeth sink into his other arm! The werewolf shakes violently back and forth, throwing him to the ground before howling and looming over him preparing to end the fight!
Isabella spins and attacks too quickly, swiping over her head. She focuses herself and times her next strike perfectly, thrusting her blade through the creatures chest.
Sophiel moves quickly to the werewolf and tries to stabilize it.
Sophiel breathes a sigh of relief, and ends her oratory, "Good, well done all." She looks over at Orri, "we'll have to look at that while you have me here. It may get infected... especially these fellows, the disease can sometimes be quite persistent."
"So - clearly this poor fellow was cursed somehow, too. It's quite sad that we couldn't speak to him, and help him" She looks sadly at the dead werewolf.
Orri pushes the werewolf off of him after it falls over on him when Bella finishes it. He holds onto the open wound just laying there for a moment, but his natural regeneration begins to kick in and slowly heals things back up.
After making sure the wolf is not coming back alive, she fiddles with the gear, seeing what is what. Cocking her head to the side, she considers the cloak and decides it might help for the time being. "For a bit, I'll borrow this." looking up she sees wounds closing all around her, getting a bit of a relieved but worried frown.
"Onward. Same strategy." she moves to the door, looking it over and then sneaking in, not that many things would have missed the screaming, howling, bloodbath in this room.
Sophie peels inside, using her spirit sense, ”I sense nothing. May I come in with you to aid your search?” Sophiel looks to Chrysa for affirmation.
Moving onward to the southern chamber, Sophiel scans the door and Chrysa studies it as well. Neither detect anything untoward at the moment. With a nod once everyone is ready, the door is opened and you begin to move in.
Beyond you see a pristine sitting area. Elegant silk banners hang on the walls, and paintings of hunting scenes hung between them. Two lavish, fluffy chairs sit facing a roaring fireplace, above which is a family portrait of a regal looking couple and their two children, a boy about the age of 7 and an infant girl.
The sounds of mournful sobbing can be heard coming from one of the chairs, but the source cannot be seen due to the high back of the chair.
”Stay back - all of you!” Sophiel snaps quickly. She gestures to Chrysa, whispering ”Want to check out the sobbing, or want me to?”
"last one was a werewolf, first one was haunts, if there is a pattern it will be a haunt." Chrysa thinks, knowing patterns are unlikely, but a true killer wouldn't be just sobbing. The horned woman nods to Sophie to look.
Sophiel nods, takes a breath, and casts a minor blessing of guidance before going around to the other side of the chair to look at what’s crying.
Chrysa stands ready with her swords, to run across the room and slash apart whatever attaches itself onto Soph's face.
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When Sophiel rounds the chair enough to see the chair’s occupant, she sees a woman sitting in the chair, not moving, cradling an infant girl in her arms. The child is blue and lifeless. The woman, despite her sobbing, is making no actual physical movements. Her face is like a mask, unblinking, an unnaturally large smile spread across her face.
Then, with sharp, jerky movements, her head turns to face Sophiel and she stands in a fast, erratic manner. She speaks, but her face and mouth doesn’t move as she says ”They killed her! The little beasts killed her! Drowned her in her own crib!” as she approaches. Despite her voice being laden with sorrow, her strange, unnatural smile never goes away.
Sophiel grasps at her throat, and choking, tries to keep herself breathing, expunging from her throat as she gasps, but she grits her teeth and closes her eyes, tears coming to the rim.
”We... want... to ... help ... you...!” She gasps, her breathing labored. The party notices that when Sophiel recovers, there’s a brief flash of light, as if a triangular halo is above her head. It seems divine providence has saved the druid from a potentially grisly fate.
When the others try to approach, she releases her throat and holds them back with her delicate hand. Closing her eyes, then looking up at the woman, ”tell ... us... who did this. We will make them pay.”
Chrysa itches to charge the thing and gut it for hurting her friend, but she trusts Sophie to wave her ahead when she is needed.
The moment Sophiel starts choking, water spilling from her throat as she speaks, the entire room shimmers and changes. The elegant furnishings all are now torn, destroyed, and decayed. The tapestries are ripped and ruined, as are the paintings. The fireplace, previously roaring and warm, now sits cold and desolate of activity. No sign of the woman or the dead infant remain.
Chrysa runs to Sophie, sheathing her swords to rub the other woman's back. "That was... bad. Maybe we should just burn this tower down?" she says softly as she looks around in worry.
"I think it is safe!" she calls to the others.
Sophie shakes her head, recovering, and smiles, holding her hands on her knees and breathing deeply. ”See? That would have killed most of us. Come on. We need to find the f~++ers who did this to these people.” Sophiel looks determined and upset, and straightens up, and she looks around, but not before smiling at Chrysa in appreciation.
Isabella moves quickly into the room when a declaration of safe is made. "What was it? What happened?" she asks, looking around for the threat but finding none. "Find who did what to who? What are you talking about?"
"The ghost had a baby." Chrysa tells Bella softly, fighting her own anger in her voice "She said they drown her in her own crib."
Sophiel nods, "a spirit, or something like it, said 'They killed her! The little beasts killed her! Drowned her in her own crib!'" Then she shudders, "then something tried to use a drowning spell on me, and disappeared. I'm alright, though. Our plan is still working."
Orri just shakes his head "I wonder if the wisp's are the ones that caused all of this horror or if there is something else going on here..."
He follows along with the others as they head upstairs then asks "So, we just clear the rooms in the same order as we move up?
Sophiel nods, "yes, seems to be that everyone is still alive - so it seems that our plan is working well enough. Chrysa is still leading the way." She nods and sighs, wiping away water from her mouth, and with a gesture, cleaning and drying herself off.
"To be clear, whatever these spirits are, I don't believe they're permanently gone - so we must practice mindfulness on our descent."
Orri nods "Well, I don't see a lot of reason to go back in the rooms as we go down, so I would imagine we will be ok, though at some point we'll need to figure out how to cleanse this place once we have hopefully driven off or destroyed whatever evil has made this place like this."
At the next door, Sophiel holds up a hand, and concentrates, looking towards the door. "Spirits - undead in fact, in there, six, and at least one is of moderate strength." She lowers her hand, and says "I cannot tell if they are incorporeal."
She draws her bow and readies the ten arrows with the holy weapon balm. "I recommend, in anticipation that they are incorporeal, we all ready what we have to fight incorporeal creatures." She especially points at Sootscale, "remember King, your holy water throws are especially good." She nods at Annalla, "would you enchant my bow please?" she asks the sorceress, respecfully, holding out her nonmagical bow.
Annalla looks at the bow and then at Sophiel in confusion. "But I don't ..." Comprehension then sinks in. "The scrolls," she exclaims. "The spells on the scrolls. I'd forgotten about them."
She fumbles in her small back for a moment before producing one of the scrolls Sophiel had given her earlier. "I've never done this before," she says as she looks over the magical writing. Words begin to flow from her lips and in a moment Sophiel's longbow glows brightly. The glow quickly fades, but Annalla nods in satisfaction. "That'll only last for a few minutes, but that should be long enough to deal with whatever is in that room."
"The ghost had a baby." Chrysa tells Bella softly, fighting her own anger in her voice "She said they drown her in her own crib."
"Oh." she says in a quiet, somber tone. "That's terrible."
"The ghost had a baby." Chrysa tells Bella softly, fighting her own anger in her voice "She said they drown her in her own crib.""Oh." she says in a quiet, somber tone. "That'sterribleexactly what Sophiel wants to do with my wolf pup."
King Sootscale looks around suspiciously, worried about more ghosts and spirits popping out suddenly. "Ipmeek not sure group should stay here. Group already fight werewolf and evil spirits. And next evil undead!" He starts fingering the holy water Sophiel gave him in case he needed it.
Chrysa will look over the door for traps and locks, touch herself with her shield wand, wait until everyone is ready, and then open it.
Stepping into the room, you find a dusty but otherwise undamaged altar. Abadar’s golden key is on prominent display, but it has been defiled and desecrated. The pews and pillows are otherwise intact, the altar and its offering trays musty from disuse.
Then, from all around you, dark humanoid forms emerge from the ceilings, floors, and walls. Pinpoints of yellow light for eyes are the only feature of the forms. The one nearest the altar calls out in a wispy voice ”Weeeee are the faaaallen. Weeee are bound to seeeerrrrve.”
In a chorus, the others add ”To seeeerve and to sssslaaaaaay.”
Sophiel gulps and looks afraid, ”Shadows - they can kill us almost easily with their strength drain. Fight hard and fast, now and focus our fire as much as we can. I cannot stress this enough!” She looks extremely worried, but the sound of her voice inspires the party (other than Annalla) to help dodge the shadows.
The creatures fly into action, soaring at each of you and reaching out to attack! Only Annalla and Sophiel are unable to avoid the attacks, and feel the icy chill of their souls being ripped away!
Chrysa runs around to flank the shadow fighting Bella, trying to thin their numbers as quick as she can.
Setting up for Chrysa to take it down, she says "Chrysa, flank with me! Use that precise strike we practiced!"
"You stab, I stab, we all stab together." Chrysa sings (badly) as she stabs deeper.
Finding himself surrounded, Ipmeek quickly draws a flask of holy water and tries to pour it on one of the shadows, all the while protecting himself!
;
Annalla starts at the feeling a weakness that follows the thing's touch. She runs through the words of a spell of positive energy and reaches out to touch the thing back but misses. Her hand continues to pulse with the energy and she waits for another chance.