As the fight turns out to be embarassingly one sided Vox keeps working. Nicoleta gets in the way, but that's nothing she can't deal with.
The final devil quickly falls to your attacks. Roz uses her magic to patch up Nicoleta's puncture wounds.
You continue to explore the castle's second floor. One of the rooms is a scriptorium. This room contains two well-equipped writing desks with comfortable armchairs and matching lecterns. A large map of Korvosa hangs on one wall over a wooden box full of rolled parchments, and in the south corner, stairs ascend.
The map in the showcase is marked with red ink in several areas to record the queen’s ambitious building plans, including the creation of her four statues throughout the city. The rolled parchments are all highly detailed maps of Korvosa and Varisia (worth a total value of 400 gp). One of the maps is of the eastern Mushfens and provides an accurate marking of the Sunken Queen’s position. The map indicates a path named “Trail of the Frog” that leads to the Sunken Queen from a coastal site named “Greenrust Reef.”
You find yourselves outside of the seneschal's apartments. It's possible that the bloatmage Togomor will be present, if you are ready to confront him...
Vox tests her bow string and then positions herself to vanish into the shadows once the door is opened. Then she gives Nicoleta a short nod.
The dhampir grimaces and curses under her breath as she pulls a vicious looking barb from her forearm. Her mood doesn't improve much at Roz's 'Healing' - the negative energy hurting just as much as the devil's stabs.
She looks over the maps curiously, but shrugs, unsure of their relevance. "We should probably take this stuff with us when we go," she says.
"Sweet Cheeks?" Nicoleta says quietly. "Can you look over the door just to make sure there aren't any nasty protective magics waiting to bite me in the arse when I open it?"
Once assured that there's nothing of the sort, she attempts to open the door quietly.
Nicoleta is less than stealthy as she shoves the door open. This room contains a canopied bed, a desk, a trunk, and a large cupboard. Colorful woolen tapestries hang from the walls, while exotic carpets decorate the floor. To the northeast, three narrow barred windows have been covered with additional tapestries. A standing lamp in a corner looks like a strange swamp plant with wrought-iron leaves and a single, oversized fruit of amber-colored glass. The stink of discarded food—bread crusts, chunks of moldy cheese, and bones with tattered remnants of meat—competes with the stale smell of body odor and sweat that fills this room.
A huge, bloated man who must be Togomor is here, sitting on the sagging bed amid a collection of chicken carcases, loaves of bread, wheels of cheese, and a few large bottles of wine. He cries out in alarm as he reaches for his spell components!
"Not here!" he shouts defiantly, casting a spell and teleporting away before you can attack!
Searching the room, you find a pouch containing 70 pp, a scroll of greater teleport, and all of Togomor's spellbooks. The spellbooks contain additional notes on topics such as hemotheurgy, the creation of several constructs (including the process of creating an akaruzug, a fiendish construct powered by a soul in torment), rejuvenating blood baths, and other ways to achieve immortality as a construct, an undead, or an outsider. These last notes indicate that Ileosa has some sort of plans to use blood as an element to aid in immortality, but to date, she has not revealed to Togomor how she intends to achieve this goal, despite his intense curiosity. Finally, Togomor’s books contain scores of unfinished drawings of wormlike monsters with three faces at one end and a fanged mouth at the other. These pictures seem to depict a fiend known as a belier devil.
With a snarl Nicoleta kicks a small stool to send it crashing into the wall. "We are now truly f%$&ed!" she snaps. "He's going to sound the alarm. Good luck catching anyone else napping now."
"So ... Gray Maidens, Mantis Assassins, or a missing priest?" she continues, calming herself and ticking them off on her fingers. "I say we see if we can find where the assassins are holed up. In my opinion they're the biggest threat."
Sighing with frustration, she comments "That didn't go well at all. "
Crossing her arms on her chest, she suggests "I agree, let's work on the assassins."
"Burn the books." Vox says firmly. "That stops him getting any more magic. And it'll enrage him so we have a better chance of him making mistakes."
She suits action to words and swiftly sets the small pile of valuable books alight, watching closely to make sure that the spellbooks in particular are consumed before moving on.
Aurelia scolds the archer, "You we could have sold those, Vox. Don't burn what we can sell."
"And what's the price of your blood?" Vox counters. "You have more coin than most of this city Aurelia. You can forego some more for safety."
Sabina told you that the Red Mantis assassins are largely in control of the castle's fourth floor. You take the main spiral stairs up past the third floor and emerge into a grand salon on the fourth floor.
The wooden floor, walls, and ceiling of this large hall present a rich and harmonic scheme of decorations. The twenty-five-foot-high ceiling is supported by pillars inlaid with ivory and partially hidden by a hanging forest of silk draperies in the colors of autumn. Near the walls, these draperies reach down to the floor in cascades of deep red and yellowish-orange silk. Circular crimson couches sit around the base of the pillars, with matching stuffed stools and low ebony tea tables with stained-glass tops. In the middle of the hall are an empty space that serves as a dance floor and a balustrade opening to the stage hall below.
You spot five Red Mantis assassins lurking among the draperies near the ceiling, preparing to drop down to attack!
Subtly indicating the hidden foes, Nicoleta gestures towards the hanging draperies. "They might be vicious, cold-hearted bastards, but you really have to admire their decorating taste," she says casually.
With a wink, she dashes towards where the nearest is dropping to ready a waiting fist.
Vox, who appreciates the brash monk in a way that Nicoleta probably doesn't want to be appreciated, uses her to provide distractions while mercilessly shooting the assassins out of the ceiling.
Vox picks off two of the assassins before they can even hit the ground, sending them spiraling to the floor below where they impact with a sickening crunch. Aurelia tries to make an assassin laugh, but she resists the spell. Nicoleta runs up to punch one in the face, staggering him!
The three remaining assassins cluster around Nicoleta to try to hit the monk, but none of them come close!
Aurelia targets another assassin with the laughter spell, hoping the second one is less willful. .
The dhampir focuses on the staggered assassin, raining blows upon him.
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Vox fires at the one attacking Nicoleta, since they should be too busy to dodge properly.
Aurelia incapicates an assassin with laughter while Nicoleta and Vox quickly take down the two other active enemies. A few swift strikes and the laughing foe lies still as well.
However, it seems these five assassins were just the warm-up to the main event. A blood-red giant mantis suddenly appears beside Nicoleta, lunging at her with its claws! It catches her flat-footed, hitting her despite the mirror images Aurelia conjures.
Vox sighs and disappears from view. Now invisible she circles the edge of the room, trying to locate the summoner.
"Where the f*!@ did you come from?!" the dhampir snarls as the claws tear through her flesh.
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Aurelia scans for the caster as well.
If she finds it, she cast Glitterdust in the general area of it. Otherwise, she will cast Hold Monster on the mantis. .
There doesn't seem to be any invisible creatures nearby, so Aurelia focuses her stare on the mantis and casts a powerful spell. The mantis seizes up, paralyzed, allowing Nicoleta to go to town on it. With a flurry of heavy blows, she shatters chitin and spills ichor all over the floor. The mantis remains rigid throughout the beating, and with a final twist, Nicoleta snaps its neck. As it falls, its body twists and changes into that of a dark-haired woman in Red Mantis armor, its claws reverting into saw-toothed sabres. It would seem that you have taken out the new leader of the Red Mantis in Korvosa!
As Nicoleta shakes the ichor off her hands, she frowns in annoyance. "That was so very not satisfying," she grumbles. She grabs a cloak from one of the other assassins to wipe off the remainder.
"Gray Maidens next?" she questions, looking at the others with a raised eyebrow.
"Aren't the Red Mantis meant to be dangerous?" Vox asks in a distinctly ironic tone. "Let's see if the girls in tin cans are any more of a challenge."
Most of the other rooms on the castle's fourth floor hold little of interest. However, the game room catches your attention. This polygonal room is illuminated by three windows set in deep, tall niches. To either side of each niche are two white marble statues on high pedestals. Each of the six three-foot-tall statues depicts a woman in the same pose, hands high above her head and clutching an object. The statue on the left of the northwest niche grasps a large key, while the one to the right holds an open book. Proceeding clockwise through the room, the statues near to the northeast niche hold a shield and a star, and the ones near the southeast niche hold a hammer and a crown. In the middle of the room is a round table with six chairs. A small wooden case sits on the table.
The statues symbolize the suits of a harrow deck. And indee, inside the wooden case is a simple and well-worn deck. When the case is opened, though, a sudden wind blows through the room, causing the cards to fly into a vortex near the ceiling in the north corner of the room for a moment before they flutter to the floor. All of the cards land face down except for the Midwife card, which lands up on the ceiling in strange violation of gravity until it is plucked away from its resting spot.
Searching that spot, you can see that the ceiling has a different texture than the rest of it. It seems somebody has used a stone shape spell to close off an opening in the ceiling...
"Thanks, Zellara," Nicoleta says with a grin. "Anyone got an easy way to get up there?" she asks the others.
"Not unless you can undo that kind of magic..." Vox replies. "Anyone got one of those short range teleport tricks?"
"I can get us up there," Roz says. "Hold hands."
The oracle lays a hand on Aurelia's shoulder and closes her eyes. You find yourselves shifting through space as you appear with a flash in the sealed-off attic.
This room is dusty and has been abandoned for a while, but it shows an unexpected level of comfort. A large bed sits in a corner, and there are a nice table with two chairs, a desk with a stuffed armchair, a lamp, and a stove. On the northwest wall is a glass showcase full of rare decks of cards. Within the showcase are at least fifty different decks, all displayed with care and competence, usually with several pieces laid face up and with a matching leather, ivory, or wooden case. What looks like a partially melted stone trap door sits in the floor in the northern corner, and a chamber pot sits behind a partially folded screen to the south.
A few moments after you arrive, you can hear a furtive scratching sound coming from behind one of the walls...
Vox disappears from sight once more and moves swiftly to the wall opposite where sounds are coming from. She remains silent, trusting that the others will make enough noise.
Nicoleta's eyes widen and she steps closer to the case, one hand unconsciously reaching up and touching the glass as she looks over the display of cards. The spell is broken at the sound of the scratching, though. She turns and settles into a combat stance before quietly moving towards the origin of the sound.
Searching the wall where the sound is coming from, Nicoleta discovers a hidden door. The dusty room beyond contains a bed, a large armchair, a one-legged table, and a silver lantern. On the table, near the lantern, sits a dusty harrow deck in an elegant redwood case.
As you enter the hidden room, the temperature drops by several degrees. A few moments later, a strange, roiling mist rises from the cards in the case, causing them to flutter and dance on the table as if in a small breeze. The mist takes on a vaguely humanoid form—that of an older man with horns on his brow.
As he spies you, he reaches out to you and whispers in a gravelly voice, "Bring me my bones... they rot so far below... bring me my bones... I can help you if you bring me my bones..."
The strain of speaking seems to be too much for the man, and he swiftly fades away once more.
"Ok, what is it with haunted Harrow decks?" Nicoleta snaps before stepping back out of the room. Her eyes pass over the treasures in the case before settling back on the other ladies.
Later.
"I say we continue our search for the armored a*+!#+%+s. We can look for the ghost's bones once we've dealt with them. Does anyone know who this guy actually was?"
"Maybe..." Vox's disembodied voice replies. "I know there was something about the king locking someone away in a tower... who was it...?"
For years, rumors have persisted that King Eodred had a deformed brother who died at birth. The deformed baby was allegedly kept in the castle attic, preserved in a jar of alcohol. While that part is obviously false, it is quite possible that this man may have been related to the former king...
"He's supposed to have had a brother." Vox continues. "Some sort of monster. There are rumors that the brother was locked up in the castle, alive, dead or undead in a jar depending on who you believed. But it looks like the rumors were at least basically true..."
"That's a pretty f$$*ed up way to deal with a brother you don't like," Nicoleta says with a shake of her head. "After we deal with the 'Maidens', we'll try to find our wayward priest and then we'll take a quick look for dead brother's bones."
You make your way back down to the second floor of the castle, defeating the Gray Maidens barracked there in a series of quick and brutal fights. After dealing with a few more Maidens on patrols, you climb up to the third floor to mop up the remaining resistance and see if you can deal with Queen Ileosa directly.
The stairs open onto a large hall. The ceiling of this hall is open, revealing the polished balustrade of a balcony thirty feet above and the interior of a lantern dome an additional thirty feet above the
balcony. A colonnade along the room’s perimeter supports the balcony and casts a deep shadow on the walls of this hall. Along the southwest side of the room is a theatrical stage built atop a wooden platform.
Standing on the stage is the castle's seneschal, the bloatmage Togomor, who teleported away during your last confrontration. Protecting him is a hulking horned devil, whirling its spiked chain menacingly. "Your insurrection ends now!" Togomor declares. "You will not leave this place alive!"
As they enter the hall Nicoleta wipes again at her nose. The last maiden's blade had come too close to slashing her eyes for her liking. Instead, it had opened a bleeding gash on the bridge of her nose. Roz had healed the damage, but there was still a lot of blood and the dhampir's worry was that there would be visible scar.
When Togomor strikes an arrogant pose and pronounces their doom, Nicoleta leans closer to Aurelia. "Isn't that our line?" she questions.
Vox who is, naturally, invisible smiles a shark-like grin and sets to work on the bloatmage.
After ensuring that their respective tricks are refreshed and ready to go, she follows Nicoleta into the room, standing in front of Roz.
When Togomor makes an appearance, again, the mesmerist grins and responds "Ah! I had been wondering when we would be graced by your presence again."
Twirling her hands, she focuses on his protector and mutters the words to the spell to hold the devil still for a short while.
Aurelia's spell just manages to overcome the horned devil's will, paralyzing it! Aurelia fires an arrow, but her shot passes through Togomor's body harmlessly. It seems he is just a projected illusion! Scowling, the elf shifts her aim to the paralyzed devil, making quick work of the fiend before it can break free of Aurelia's spell.
Even as the devil falls, though, the image of Togomor casts a powerful spell, unleashing a prismatic spray!
Aurelia is hit with a green beam, Nicoleta a blue one, Roz indigo, and Vox orange!
Aurelia falls to her knees, screaming in agony. She fights through the pain though, not allowing the poison to take her.
Trying to locate where Togomor is, Aurelia casts a spell trying to pinpoint him.
Nicoleta looks as if she's going to say something sarcastic, but freezes in place as her body turns to stone.
Vox is thoroughly unamused and runs straight through the image, using the opportunity to vanish from mortal sight!
Aurelia changes tactics and decides to get dispel the magic rather than wait out locating the real Togomor.
Roz succumbs to the spell, but has a moment of clarity before the madness takes over utterly. "No! I deny it!" she shouts, casting a powerful healing spell to eliminate her insanity.
Aurelia is unable to dispel the projected image, but she notices the bloatmage's hiding spot behind a nearby tapestry, pointing it out to Vox, who vanishes from sight.
Togomor's image fires a beam of disintegration at Aurelia, but she activates her mesmeric mirror, causing him to only strike one of her duplicates.
Aurelia breathes a sigh of relief as deadly attacks continue to be shot in her direction second after second.
She casts glitterdust in the area of the tapestry, hoping to cover and blind the other caster.
With a target Vox grins and sets to lethal work.