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The party spends a little while backtracking through the labryinth and finds some treasure. In one of the chests, after the trap is disabled are three potions of cure serious wounds, three potions of lesser restoration, and a bloodstone worth 500 gold pieces.
The other are trapped but Aru can disable them with some ease.
There are about a dozen more traps of varying danger, but Aru’s fastidious care prevents the party from being hurt. The most dangerous had a a significant chance of killing someone, being much stronger than the symbol spells. A ten-foot-wide, two-foot-tall well rises from the center of this circular room. Inky water fills the well nearly to its rim, obscuring its depths. A stone statue of a rearing snake rises from the center of the well. Along the length of the serpent’s body, dozens of carved arms cross over the creature’s belly—each arm grips a long curved blade. The statue’s serpentine head rises ten feet above the surface of the water, gazing down coolly to the northeast with amethyst eyes.
The two amethyst eyes worth 500 gp each.
In one of the hallways, set off from the main labyrinth has an unsettling effect. The walls of this oddly shaped hallway are decorated in a complex mural depicting a hot, steaming jungle brimming with hungry life. Predators of every sort stalk and maim and feed on dozens of hapless people. In the canopy above, monkeys, snakes, and birds seem to chatter and mock the victims below. Those who examine these murals swiftly find themselves among the victims represented.
Sivit herself has a wand of magic missile at CL 9 with 18 charges, two large +1 kukris, large +1 armor. Her wand of dimension door Sivit used to move aroundis nowhere to be seen
The upasunda had a masterwork kukri, spear, and longsword.
Lastly, the party finds a meditation stone. A six-inch-tall bronze dais on the floor in the middle of this otherwise empty room supports a polished column of black marble. The black stone seems to be vibrating softly, filling the air with a faint hum.
Vimanda sighs and explains how it works before the party is able to examine it. ”This stone will refresh two of you somewhat, should you wish for it.” ”Please, ready and refresh yourself. We have the matter of Glorio to attend to. He likely has some sense of what has transpired, and the manor will be on high alert.” She has a look of disgust on her face, and mentions, ”there is a rakshasha in a temple on the way back upstairs which you may wish to kill as well - he is loyal to Glorio and may attack us from behind if we do not deal with him first.”
So. Many. Traps. Some people say the best way to deal with trauma is facing it, which wasn't false, but the fact was that it wasn't something easy to do. By the time he finished disarming the deadly contraption with the many swords, his hands were visibly shaking. He had also shut up, which wasn't usual as well.
"We deal with the rakshasha in the temple first. No need to leave our backs open for an ambush." Marcus says definitively.
The party returns to the large natural cave, and heads towards the western bridge. Vimanda waits on top of the bridge and points down at the double doors. "There. But we will likely also need to get past the giant reefclaw in the water, on the return trip."
While Mags doesn't trust the bad cat lady, she does still have that nagging exhaustion from the cloud. After listening to the stone for a moment (a constant self encouragement about moving itself, which it has been trying to do for a century or more), she presses her palm on it, more to encourage it than to feel better.
Just so happens it does both.
"Very well. Let's deal with this rakshasa." Yaziyah hefts her hammer. "Was that the whole of the labyrinth, Vimanda?" The woman had been rather forthcoming so far, but still Yaziyah cannot bring herself to trust her.
"A reefclaw? What would that be? A beast perhaps?" He asks the rakshasa, musing for options.
"If it is hungry, we could perhaps throw the darksphinx's body in the water to buy us enough time escape."
Vimanda waves her hand, ”it is not such a foolish beast. Avidexu, the Rakshasa in the temple, charmed it many years ago, but now it guards the pier of its own accord. It is loyal to the Avidexu - it would not normally attack me, though at this point…” She seems to be trying to consider something.
”I could try to get it to leave. If this does not work, it will attack… so if you wish me to attempt this, one of you must come down with me - I will not attempt this alone.” She folds her hands in front of herself, as if she were providing some sort of ‘final offer.’
"I'll go" Mags offers, feeling something called as Reefclaw cannot be all bad.
The Gray Maiden steps forward quickly; her expression hidden behind her helmet, but her voice is firm and resolute. "No. I will go instead. Magda, stay here with the others. If its claws seek blood, let it find my steel instead. If you must come, stay behind me."
"Be careful Maiden... you seem very sinkable."
"Full offense, most of you can't swim." He cocks a brow at the Gray Maiden. She wore her armor well and he knew most maidens could swim at least decently. "Any reason we don't simply all go?" He asks Vimanda.
The Vudran woman raises an eyebrow, ”my plan was to try and deceive it with the ruse that I needed it to guard the entrance of the cave, and that I wanted privacy with a single prisoner. I think this is easier to believe than if there are a half-dozen strangers.” She hesitates, and then adds ” I will not wish to go alone, as if the ruse fails, I will be alone and have no guarantee that you will aid me. I have no inclination to kill the reefclaw - it has been loyal to my family, and would be useful when I take over from Glorio, but I will if it attacks us.”
"I can swim" Madga says, remembering swimming into the spider's boat to save them from torture. Of course it was while using a raft for floating.
She cocks her head to the bad cat lady "She says it isn't dumb, so blood isn't the only answer, even from walls or grays."
"Be careful Maiden... you seem very sinkable."
"It is a fair obveration. While I can swim well enough, I'm ill-equipped for underwater combat. This is a truth statement."
"Full offense, most of you can't swim." He cocks a brow at the Gray Maiden. She wore her armor well and he knew most maidens could swim at least decently. "Any reason we don't simply all go?" He asks Vimanda.
"I had considered the full group going but assumed Vimanda was suggesting a larger group might scare the creature. I admit I would feel more comfortable with more companions and unless she comes up with a clear reason not to, I do concur with Marcus's suggestion that a larger contingent should go. Safety in numbers."
Marcus nods in an understanding manner; he was not questioning her motives, just wanting to understand the plan. "I should go. I'm the strongest swimmer if things go poorly. The rest will stay close to run in to aid, but out of sight to aid the ruse."
Mags thinks the Wall will be bitten and shaken underwater like a chewy for one of those large lizards in the sewers. The expression on her face says as much.
"That thing that let the huge cat lady step through doors that are not there. It went missing when we went to check on old guy." she looks at bad little cat lady "You got it, I hear it whispering 'help', and we can use that to get past the claw?"
She frowns, "yes, I took the wand. It seemed only fair - we all helped defeat Sivit. But there is not enough power within to get us all into the temple and out."
She turns to Marcus, and Vimanda nods, trying to shoo the others back towards the tunnel, "one of you - the city witch, you should keep watch to see I am as good as my word. You are... very competent. You are likely blend into the stone best." She's pointing at Magda, not unkindly.
She looks over Marcus, "you can leave your weapon with me," and she retrieves a pair of manacles from somewhere . She holds them up, and presses a cleverly concealed latch, "false manacles." She gives them to Marcus, and then looks him over. With a gesture, the towering man seems to be covered with bruises and blood. "there, now you look like a prisoner."
She looks over at the others, "if this plan is not acceptable, again, we can just fight it."
Vencarlo has been quiet, but he speaks up, "Marcus - if you'd like, I'm more than happy to be prisoner. I swim quite well, and there's fight in these old bones yet."
"If it is intelligent, I'd rather not kill it unless it gives us no other choice. There's been enough bloodshed already and I presume there will be more." Yaziyah glances at Vimanda. "If you can trick it, you have my aid in that. One moment." She inclines her head, closing her eyes as she whispers. A slight breeze moves past everyone, surprisingly warm in the damp chill of the cavern. The Shoanti extends a hand to touch Vimanda lightly on the upper arm.
Marcus hands his falchion to her, but hands the rest of his pile of obvious weaponry over to Yazi. He keeps a dagger hidden on him, assuming he's not going to be searched. He clasps the manacles and nods, ready. He doesn't really have to do much except look ugly and beaten, so he slouches his posture a little and adds a slight limp; hardly difficult given all the times he's actually had one.
The woman nods, and clips the manacles on. Once everyone is out of sight, Vimanda heads down, pushing Marcus roughly, and she has a wicked look on her face. She has him in front, of her, and she approaches the dock. Grabbing a small rock, she throws it into the water and calls out, ”you there. Reefclaw. Come out.”
After a very short time, a creature that Marcus has seen before - a reefclaw, sort of a cross between a lobster and eel - comes to the surface. It happens to be much, much larger than a typical reefclaw, its body extending a good distance down in the water. The creature soggily snaps its claws in Vimanda’s direction. Vimanda continued, ”good. We have word that someone may attack, trying to rescue this one. Head out to the cave entrance and intercept any boat that comes close for the next hour.”
The creature waits for a long few moments, staring at the pair on the shore, and then descends below the surface again - and Marcus watches as the shadow under the water disappears through the watery cave entrance.
Vimanda nods once it’s gone, and turns to Marcus. With alacrity, she retrieves Marcus’ weapon and the Manacles, giving the weapon to the fighter hilt first, and retrieving the false manacles - all in one motion. ”Come, get your friends. Avidexu awaits.”
That was easy. Marcus's trust of Vimanda goes up a small notch as he retrieves his weapon. He glances to make sure the reefclaw is well out of earshot. "Alright, let's keep moving." He says back to the others.
Mags slips out from a shadow, her spear ready to do spear things. "aw, it was cute" she says to no one in particular, then follows the wall.
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Yaziyah cannot help but smile at Magda's reaction - the girl's taste in what she found 'cute' was definitely an outlier, but that was part of her charm. "I am glad we didn't have to kill it. Let's go."
The party moves over to the temple door, and with a few seconds of prayer remaining, Vera hastes the party and Marcus kicks the heavy doors open.
Four lit braziers illuminate this vast chamber, a cathedrallike space made all the more immense by its lack of benches or other concessions to comfort. The floor is polished tan marble, with the walls rising up to form a domed ceiling sixty feet above. Alcoves line these walls, six in all, inside of which stand human-sized statues of a tiger-headed man.
To the south, a few steps lead up to a pulpit-like area with three more statues of the same figure—the central one being twice as tall and holding out before him two lances from which hang flags. The left is the flag of Korvosa, while the right bears the Arkona coat of arms.
The party sees a humanoid tiger-headed being at the far southern end of the chamber. It appears that he is in the middle of devouring the shed skin of one of two snakes that are close by his side. He drops what he's doing, and hisses when he sees Vimanda,
Smugly, the rakshasa extends his hand and a torrent of icy frost crashes down on the entire party.
The young half orc remembers the cold. Times where the numbness crept in so slowly the pain lasted too long before the blessed nothing. Then you'd do something stupid like stub it right when enough feeling came back and NEEDLES erupted up your leg.
As she ran through the falling ice, she pushes that memory at the angry cat man.
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If Yaziyah could understand Vudrani, she would have no doubt taken umbrage at the idea that she was a friend to this manipulative, traitorous, shapeshifting creature that was Vimanda. As it is, she is blissfully ignorant of the insult, and instead focuses on bolstering herself and the others before carefully advancing.
Marcus launches himself forward, magically propelled by Vera, forcing himself through the cold and leaping up to crash into the feline-headed monstrosity at full force!
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Nasty spell, mostly because Aru never really liked cold weather. His hand was a bit shaky as Goro takes a golden ring from his finger and starts to spin it, causing red lines of a foreign language to appear on its inside.
Inside the temple, a portal emerges and from within two soldiers emerge in immaculate armor, both with canine faces.
"Zortak is here to serve." One speaks and barks at the closest snake. "To honor our deal, I, Grumor, lend my blade as well."
Both of them then step towards the snakes to attack with the fury of Heaven.
The Gray Maiden moves out of the ice storm and tries to attack Avidexu as well. but she can't find purchase, and the Rakshasa dodges out of the way.
Vera scrambles, "guys - get out of the storm!" and the Seneschal and the Fencing Master dutifully scramble to follow the teen fortune teller's instructions. She knows the enemy's weaknesses and strengths, and doesn't bother using her magic missle wand, instead moving herself out of the way as well.
Vimanda can't get to Avidexu, even with haste or blessing of fervor, so she moves up to the injured snake to attack. and the green snake is further injured.
The two snakes bite at their enemies, seemingly at Avidexu's direction, ignoring the archons, , , and attacking the humanoids.
Both snakes miss.
Avidexu snarls, and steps back and summons a number of images of his form to confuse and distract his enemies,
However he catches nothing but air, managing to only destroy a single image.
He fails his save against Magda’s magic.
As the sudden memory of pain distracts him from swinging blades, Magda starts weaving in misfortunes, the last bun sold to the person in front of you in a long line, the seeping itch from soaked socks from an unseen pot hole, gnawing hungry of an alley cat fueling its song while you try and sleep.
The blessing of the ancestors quickening her pace, Yaziyah strides out of the blizzard to attack one of the snakes, sparing a curious glance to the creature that Aru had summoned.
"What are these, then?"
With one of the snakes dead, one archon rushes towards the rakshasa while the other keeps fighting the brown snake.
Aru rushes inside to get away from the icy area and since he can't reach Marcus yet, he at least tries to mess with the enemy.
Avidexu avoids the misfortune effect.
TGM steps up and enters into the sisterhood style, granting herself some resilience, and Marcus some shield defense if he gets a shield
Realizing that a brutal hit was the most important thing, she tries to hit as hard as possible
Vimanda walks past Marcus to flank with the shadowy hound archon, seemingly not caring about being attacked by Avidexu. But he misses. She smirks at him.
Surprisingly, Vimanda is not able to connect past the Rakshasa's defenses.
The snake near Yazi just tries to attack her.
The snake also fails. Avidexu mutters something to himself, trying to concentrate.
The icy blast of the storm is much more dangerous this time, as he summons yet another column of freezing rock. The snake is also hit, but is surprisingly still up.
Avidexu salivates, and says in Taldan, "All alone, your friends are weak. One more ice blast and I will kill them and feast on their corpses. Give up, and I will tell Glorio it's been a misunderstanding. Vimanda is breathing heavily, angrily, but ignores the rhetorical jab.
Seeing the compromised position the storm has put them in, Marcus leaves the one safe opening to the gray maiden, attacking with more cautious swings to get rid of the magical images.
The archon wounded by the icy storm goes after the snake, but gets brutally bitten instead. The other keeps his focus on the rakshasa, but knowing he is not a match, instead he tries to help Marcus.
Pretty wounded, Aru retreats to the corner of the room and hearing about the rakshasa's plan of freezing them again, he readies himself to foil it.
Magda moves through the ice as quickly as her booted can, which is quick thanks to her friend's spell. Her strange litany of toe related calamities continues.
Chilled to her core, Yaziyah tries to deal with the snake quickly and then go deal with Avidexu before he freezes them all too death.
Yazi takes out the last snake and moves up.
TGM steps up and enters into the sisterhood style, granting herself some resilience, and Marcus some shield defense if he gets a shield
Realizing that a brutal hit was the most important thing, she tries to hit as hard as possible
Vimanda flurries with a series of deadly attacks.
This time Vimanda is much more successful.
Avidexu lashes out recklessly, failing to deflect the blows, and tries to concentrate on a spell.
But he fails, and falters, unable to avoid losing it.
Mags keeps up her reducing nimbleness with her cursing hex, shifts slightly to get within range and aids the shadows in stabbing.
Grumor, the hound archon, gets his blade stuck on the throne as he tries to help Yaziah. Perhaps he is missing his companion to much. Perhaps he just wasn't one of the most skilled fellows among his kind.
Still very wounded and worried, Aru stays put. Goro rummages Aru's pack for a healing draught while Aru keeps his focus on the enemy. Spells were nasty stuff.
Stepping next to Magda, Yaziyah strikes at the rakshasa currently trying to turn them all into popsicles. And once again makes a note of Vimanda's formidable battle prowess.
Marcus hits but Yazi misses.
Realizing that a brutal hit was the most important thing, she tries to hit as hard as possible
Vimanda flurries with a series of deadly attacks.
Vimanda is successful again.
Avidexu tries to cast a spell.
He succeeds, but the dispel magic counters it. He roars in anger!
Magpie jabs with her spear as she continues to comment on the woes of proper foot protection.
The hound keeps hampering the rakshasa, trying to give Marcus an upper hand.
Meanwhile, Aru tries to reach Yaziah, moving through the snow, while keeping an eye on the enemy in case he tries another spell.