Watching Vox slip away, she curses and screams "What the f&!&, Vox! I swear to the Gods if you leave Peaches to die I'll slit your throat myself!"
"I got her!" Roz shouts. She uses her faerie magic to turn invisible before giving Nicoleta a bad touch.
"F&*$ me!" Nicoleta groans out as her eyes snap open from the pain of the healing. "Anyone see who was driving that wagon?" She concentrates for a moment, letting her body heal itself in its own way before slowly climbing to her feet.
Vox lands another hit that doesn't hurt the sphinx much at all, but the fiend finally falls prey to Aurelia's magic. It stabs itself with its own kukri!
"Self-abuse is usually done in a different fashion," Nicoleta says as she circles the creature a bit to try to get a better angle. "But I can understand that with paws like that it can be hard to reach anything worthwhile."
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"FINALLY!" Aurelia says exasperated. "Now if only Vox would take mote and shoot herself like that, the day would be complete."
She raises her crossbow and takes a shot at the sphinx before reloading it, silently hoping she hits Vox.
Three arrows whistle down the hallway from behind Aurelia, one shaving a lock of hair and leaving a very thin trail of blood across the top of her ear as they fly towards the sphinx.
Roz's faeries grab handfuls of tiger fur from the heads on the floor and pull it over the sphinx's eyes, temporarily blinding her. This gives you the extra advantage! Vox scores two hits, Aurelia shoots the sphinx in the chest, and Nicoleta lands a few blows strong enough to overcome the wounded creature's damage resistance. With the final strike, the fiend goes down hard!
"Yes! Well struck, ladies!" Vencarlo applauds.
Vox tosses the kukri's to Vencarlo, throws the wands at Aurelia rather faster and then starts looking around for the way onwards.
The alcove with the lever that the sphinx arrived in is still at the end of the hall. Pulling the lever causes the alcove to rotate clockwise, lining it up with the initial entry alcove. The dungeon now seems to be in the configuration it was in when you pulled the first lever.
Pulling that first lever again will allow you to rotate it into a new configuration, and based on experience, pulling it three times will point you back towards the labyrinth's entrance/exit.
Aurelia focuses on catching the first wand and so she doesn't see the second one coming as it smacks into her chest and she drops both. "A#~*&$%." she grumbles under her breath, bending over to scoop up both of them.
As they advance, she moves over beside Nicoleta and asks "Are you okay?"
Aurelia continues to pull the lever until they finally find their freedom. "It's about time. Are we are ready to go kill Glorio now? Do you need a rest first, Roz?"
"I'm fine," the dhampir answers. "Notice how Vencarlo didn't strike a single blow in that battle? Either he's really not the gentleman he was before or that's not really him."
She watches as Vox throws him a weapon.
"Aw, f%@!. And now he's armed." She shakes her head and pats Aurelia on the bottom. "Watch your back around him."
"Nah, I'm good to keep going. All for giving that Glorio jerk what's coming to him," Roz says. "Remember, we gotta find Sensechal Kalepopolis still. Glorio said he's somewhere in the Labyrinth, too. Unless he was lying. Wouldn't put it past him."
"Oh right. Thanks for the reminder. I suppose we could back in then again." she says with a sigh.
"Then let's spin the wheel," Nicoleta says, pulling the lever a single time. "I always put my silver on red."
"If it's red or Vox, I'd go with red too." Aurelia whispers to Roz.
”I really think Glorio should be our priority, but I will bow to your decisions,” Vencarlo says.
The dungeon spins around until your alcove faces a short hallway. A single door is at the far end.
"Vox?" Nicoleta calls out curtly as she begins looking for traps herself.
Vox takes her time, preferring caution to dying.
Vox’s patience is rewarded by the discovery of another magic symbol inscribed on the floor ahead!
"Roz? There's a symbol here. Can you tell me what it is without setting it off?" Vox asks quietly.
Aurelia looks over at the symbol to see if she recognizes it, only speaking up if she does.
Aurelia doesn't recognize the symbol.
"Helpful." The drow comments when Aurelia's blank look gives her the answer she needs. "Right then, don't step on it and try not to look at it either."
Suiting actions to words Vox goes first, edging carefully around the symbol as best she can.
Unfortunately, just passing by the symbol causes it to glow and activate. Fortunately, the symbol has no effect on Vox. Everybody else, though, starts to feel very sleepy...
Roz resists the symbol's effects.
Whether because of the anger within her or her tainted blood, Nicoleta shrugs off the the drowsiness without even a second thought.
Aurelia looks at it to spite Vox "I looked at it. I'm fine."
Aurelia issues a large yawn and stretches, but she's able to shake off the feeling of wanting to fall asleep. She shakes her head and looks around and sees neither Vox, Nicoleta and Roz are acting differently, so it must have just been her.
Vox turns back and is really hoping that Aurelia falls asleep so that she has an excuse to slap her when the mesmerist manages to throw off the magic. Slightly disappointed Vox blends into the shadows and scouts ahead.
Vox slips through the door into the next room. A great green throne sits atop a dais in the northern end of the room. To either side stand statues of a tiger-headed man—each holds aloft a pair of chains from which manacles dangle. Dried blood spatters the walls, the floor, and even the throne and statues, filling the room with its stale reek.
Hanging from one set of manacles, dressed in tattered rags, his body a display of bruises and partially healed cuts and scrapes, is... Vencarlo Orisini? He appears to be unconscious...
"Vencarlo, what's name of your other half?" Vox hisses, slapping the man in the face to wake him. "Quickly man!"
Vox pulls a potion from her bag, tilts 'Vencarlo's' head back and pours it slowly down his throat. Once the man comes to she snaps her fingers a few times in front of his face.
"Vencarlo, if I open the secret panel in your study what will I find?"
Vencarlo groans as his eyelids flutter open. Seeing Vox, he manages a smile. ”It is truly a delight to see you. There’s a key to these manacles hidden under the throne’s seat cushion.”
He looks blankly at Vox when she asks the question. ”Secret panel? Whatever do you mean?”
"I've been in your home. I know who you are." Vox lets herself change, just for a moment and then back again. "Answer the question."
Vencarlo grows serious. "Okay. Looks like you caught me. Well done. I’m Blackjack. But we don’t have time to talk about this. Let’s rescue Neolandus and get the hell out of Korvosa first. We’ll have plenty of time to talk this over later, I assure you."
"Once I've killed the creature pretending to be you outside." Vox replies. She grabs the key Vencarlo saw and unlocks one hand, leaving him another potion and a dagger.
"I'll be back in a minute." She promises and heads back out of the door as stealthily as she came in.
Then, once she has clear line of sight, she shoots the other Vencarlo in the head.
Even as Vox is creeping back towards the others, the Vencarlo in the original group sighs. ”It would seem the game is at an end,” he declares, brandishing his kukri.
Vencarlo casts a spell, scorching Roz with two rays of flame!
"Sonuvofa-" Aurelia snarls, turning to fake-Vencarlo. "I gave you a hug!" she snaps, pointing her finger at her accusingly. "This make me sad and it will make you feel worse!"
"I knew we shouldn't have given you a weapon!" Nicoleta snaps as she leaps forward to attack the imposter.
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Vox opens fire, startling Not!Vencarlo with her sudden appearance. One arrow stabs into his chest, but it doesn't seem to hurt him nearly as much as it should have!
Roz cries out in pain, badly burned. She blesses the party with fervor before flickering out of sight.
Aurelia's magic falters against the impostor. Nicoleta lands a good hit that doesn't hurt him at all, and he proves quite adept at dodging her attempt to sweep his leg!
"I truly had hoped it wouldn't come to this. You should be focused on the real villain here--Glorio!" Not!Vencarlo declares. Despite his words, he lashes out with the kukri in a flurry of strikes! Fortunately, Nicoleta is able to dodge and parry all of his blows.
Aurelia growls in frustration when her spell is resisted. She tries to cast a spell to give the creature a bit of bad luck, but once more she fails to penetrate its resistance.
Vox keeps distance and shoots Vencarlo, quite a lot.
Nicoleta feels the rage inside her building up as the man avoids her punches and kicks. And even when she did hit him it did nothing. Knowing that, invariably, she makes bad decisions when she's angry, she decides to do the opposite of what she would normally do. She takes a step back.
Remaining in a defensive position, she talks.
"So who the f#+% are you if you see Glorio as the enemy?" she asks. "Because you're damn sure not Vencarlo."
Not!Vencarlo dodges and deflects Vox’s arrows even as Aurelia’s magic fizzles again. He steps back in a mirror of Nicoleta’s maneuver and smirks. ”Somebody with a vested interest in taking him down. I know the monster he truly is. Do you?”
Since he's distracted and having a chat Vox moves back into the shadows, ready to resume combat at a moment's notice.
"Let me guess; Some sort of tiger-demon ... thing?" Nicoleta responds, slowly circling the man. "And if that's the case, what are you?"
”A rakshasa,” the man says, not turning to follow but keeping his eyes firmly on Vox, preventing her from hiding. ”Sins embodied in fiendish flesh. What I am is a potential ally, one who wishes to remove him power and remove the yoke he has around your city. If you work with me to defeat him, you have nothing to fear from me. If you refuse, I will be forced to kill you now that I have tipped my hand. Choose wisely.”
"I believe you," Nicoleta responds. "And yet you've evaded my question entirely. You've told us what role you intend to play, but not who you are."
The dhampir stops her circling.
"You might be able to kill us, you might not. But obviously you want our help or you would have already done so. So in exchange for your help, we want to know who. You. Are."
”Very well.” The man’s form shifts before your eyes, growing feminine curves as he shrinks in height. In the span of a few seconds, he has changed into a beautiful Vudran woman. ”You may call me Meliya. I am Glorio’s sister.”
Nicoleta looks the woman up and down, but her eyes narrow.
"Very pretty," she says. "But if you're Glorio's sister and he's a rakaska - one of those tiger-fiends - then doesn't that make you one as well?"
The woman seems pretty proud of her leap in logic.
”Perhaps,” the woman purrs. ”Does it really matter? My brother and I have been at odds for a long time. He sent me down here to slaughter you, but more likely, he wished for me to die at your hands. After seeing you take down the darksphinx, I believe you might be capable of the task. But instead, I ask that you help me turn the tables on Glorio. He has no intentions of letting you walk out of here alive. Help me kill him, and I will allow you to leave without incident. I will even tell you where to find your missing seneschal—he’s not in this Labyrinth.”