"my guts.."
"You get used to it after a while," Tasha calls out to Tom on the other side of the trident wielding fanatic.
"You, on the other hand," she continues, directing her ire at the self-same man, "I'm going to fill with more holes than a amurrun whore," she snarls.
"Bother." Alainn says quietly, watching Tom getting kebab'ed. She moves closer to the action once again, trying to pick out the mans weaknesses as she does so.
OhGodsOhGods! is all she can think given her slip. Of course Tasha has to play on it and make it worse.
She sees Tom get wounded and his blood splatter all around him. "Tom!" She calls out, happy for a distraction even though she'd rather it not be her family getting injured. "Uhm, hold on, I'm coming!" she says, moving around and trying to helps stuff his guts back in.
Unfortunately, she's still so embarrassed she is overconfident in her abilities and just ends up getting her hands bloody. "Oh dear. Oh. I'm sorry!"
Grelda smashes the enemy with another hurled projectile. Taking advantage of her flanking position, Tasha delivers a deadly blow with a flourish, piercing the man's throat with her rapier and taking him down!
When you search the men, you find a can of silversheen on one of them!
"Okay, he's down now hold still. Tom." she says, trying to refocus on the task at hand. She takes a better look at the wounds once the threat has been eliminated and pulls some items from her pack as she goes to work. "He got really good, but I think you'll be alright."
She makes sure to avoid eye contact with everyone in the room while she works and when she's done she says "We're done here now, right? We can go leave now? Does anyone else have to die today?"
"We didn't get far into the hermitage, but it might be best if we fall back for now and return tomorrow at full strength," Grelda suggests.
Tasha nods at Grelda's words.
She offers her hand to Ruinë. "No, no one else needs to die today," she says. "Let us retreat to restore. We'll return tomorrow for another performance."
You retreat from the hermitage and make it back to Abberton by early evening. Mayor Abber returned to town safely, and the grateful man gives you 40 gp from his personal funds as a reward for his rescue. You have time to rest and recover before returning to the hermitage tomorrow.
Taking her hand, she finally gives in to her fatigue. "I'm so drained, I need a break. I'm sorry."
The tiefling drops the woman's hand and wraps an arm around her shoulders to pull her close. "You'll feel better tomorrow morning," she says, leaning in close to kiss her temple.
Alainn is glad to get home and spend some time with her new friend. Otherwise a quiet evening will be most welcome.
After resting at the circus camp, you return to the hermitage the next day. You make your way past the foyer and the guard post, which are now abandoned, though the bodies of those you defeated yesterday have been removed. You pass through the doors to the west.
This magnificent gallery glows with light from magical spheres set into eight twisting pillars that stretch from the floor to the ceiling twenty feet above. That ceiling depicts a cloudy, storm-tossed sky with remarkable realism. The floor is covered with mosaic tiles that portray the depths of the ocean, complete with coral reefs, seaweed beds, and schools of fish. Corridors lead away from the gallery to the north and south, and the hall ends in a massive bronze double door sculpted in a fantastic diorama of animals of all kinds: fish swimming in the sea, beasts walking the earth, and birds soaring in the sky.
A wild-eyed woman stands over the bodies of the dead guards, performing a foul ritual. Already, one of the dead men stands up, his body bloated and stretched. It appears that a worm demon has infested his corpse!
When they notice you, the woman raises her trident and orders the demon to attack!
The woman casts a spell, making her skin as hard as bark.
"I have about had it with you nature nutters," Tasha exclaims as the tip of her blade fwips through the air. She walks forward with long steps to stab at the woman.
Tom throws his last bottle of lightning at the worm thing, followed by two daggers.
[ooc]if it hits, it's flatfooted until the start of my next turn.
"Please take care." Ruinë says to her family as they move to engage these abominations. "Begone, you do not belong here!" she declares, firing a fire ray into the worm.
Alainn aims and shoots at the woman's eyes. "Why all the undead?" She asks, apparently unable to restrain her curiosity.
"That's because she can't find any real friends and has to make her own," Tasha quips, attempting to stab with her words better than she's doing with her blade.
Ruine scorches the body of the worm demon is occupying, and Grelda batters it with a projectile. Tom misses with his bottled lightning but hits with a dagger. Alainn scores a critical hit but narrowly misses her follow up attack. Tasha demoralizes the priestess before stabbing her. Her barkskin makes her more resilient against both piercing attacks, though.
”The ghouls were invaders! My minion here is not undead, as you are about to see!” the woman shrieks. Indeed, the worm demon gruesomely eats its way free of the corpse before attacking Tasha! The priestess conjures a flaming sphere near Alainn before falling back.
Tom keeps up his assault on the demon.
The tiefling cringes at the horrific display before continuing to stab at the crazy woman.
Alainn is taken utterly aback and badly charred by the fireball. She screams loudly and dashes away from the fireball before firing a single shot at the woman.
Remembering what happened last time the demon worm did this, she manages to avoid panicing and completely losing it. Though still frightened, she stays in control enough to fire another fire ray at it.
Though frightened by the demon’s emergence, Grelda grits her teeth and blasts it with magic missiles.
Ruine, Tom, and Grelda all assault the demon. It is badly wounded but still standing. Tasha pursues the cleric across the room, stabbing her twice while Alainn darts into the chamber and hits her with an arrow.
The demon follows Tasha across the room to attack her, landing a critical hit as its jaws close around her neck! The cleric rolls the flaming sphere into Alainn again before healing herself.
This time Alainn is ready for the flaming sphere and manages to avoid the worst of the damage. She scampers away again and keeps shooting the woman, hoping to put her down faster than she can heal herself.
To no avail...
"WHY WONT YOU DIE!"
Tom keeps up his assault:
Before {A}unfurling his whip.
"Demon, undead ... Does it really matter? Face it, you have no friends!" Tasha shouts out to the woman as she continues her attack.
Ruinë knew it would only be a matter of time before Tasha received her daily allottment of wounds. Fresh off burning the demon, she turns and moves to Tasha's side and does her best to stem the bleeding and keep her on her feet.
Tom hurls more daggers at the demon, both impaling the thing in the back of its neck. It shrieks and falls to the floor, lying still! Grelda batters the priestess with a hurled projectile and Tasha scores a light nick on her shoulder, but Alainn's shot doesn't hit. Ruine moves up and heals Tasha.
The cleric keeps the flaming sphere rolling in pursuit of Alainn as she resorts to attacking Tasha with her trident. Of course, it wouldn't be right if the crazed woman didn't score a critical hit on the tiefling! She then steps forward to confront Ruine, blood dripping from her trident's tines.
Tom {A}Strides up to the cultist lashing out with his whip!
When Tasha collapses at her feet, Ruinë instantly feels like she has failed her. "NO!" she cries out and throws her hand towards the ceiling as she prays for the Dawnflower's blessing. "Be healed!" she says, looking down at Tasha and ignoring the evil trident-holding cleric in front of her.
Once the light washes over the tiefling, she lifts her crossbow up and unleashes the bolt in the cleric's face!
Alainn, prepared now, dodged the fireball with ease and scampers around it to frustrate the cleric again.
Tom and Ruine hit the cleric, then Alainn take her down with a crossbow bolt to the throat!
As the corrupted priest falls, a thrum of power fills the air. The beasts depicted on the western door turn to look at you, and speak the following words in an unearthly chorus:
“Corruption has shut this door, but that cannot keep us out.
“Cleanse these halls of the corrupted that infest it, and we will open this door for you.
“Or, if you are one of the chosen of the Wind and Waves, then you may enter.”
After delivering this message, the beasts on the door return to their original positions and do not speak again.
Ruinë startles at the talking door before turns her attention back to Tasha. "Don't scare me like that! I thought you had been killed that time! We really need to get you some heavier armor or something. You are like a pin cushion! Every time we find something, they stick you!"
The tiefling flinches as Ruinë touches a particularly sore spot. "Haven't we already established that I'm doing this to get special attention from a pretty half-elf?" she asks with a grin.
Once she's back on her feet, Tasha tests her blade in the air and then indicates the southern passage with its tip. They'll begin with the first door to the east.
Each of the three rooms off the southern hallway has a large and very comfortable canopied bed, an armoire for clothes storage, a full-length mirror, and light provided by fist-sized glowing orbs mounted in ornate wall sconces. A folding screen in each room conceals a metal bathtub. In the two northern guest rooms, the bedclothes are neatly folded and tucked away in the armoire. Only the southern guest room shows evidence of recent habitation; its bed is made and its bathtub is filled with lukewarm water.
The door at the end of the hall opens onto a dining hall. The north wall of this long dining hall contains a stone oven, a cauldron, and several metal tables. Several long, wooden tables and benches are lined up against the south wall, providing accommodations for two dozen people to eat together. Doors lead east and west.
A brutish woman in hide armor prepares food here, chopping meat with a large cleaver. Her trident and shield lean against a nearby door. A trio of quasits assist her. The woman looks up as you open the door and cries out in surprise. "Hey! You're not supposed to be in here! Get 'em, demons!" She and the quasits prepare to attack!
"More demons!?"
Tom takes advantage of her surprise by throwing a fan of knives at her.
"I wonder how many of you we'll have to dispatch before you regret being in a cult?"
As Ruine fusses over Tasha, Alainn works calmly on her own injuries. There isn't much she can do for the burns apart from pour her canteen over them and rub in some salve, but it does help at least and by the time Tasha is ready to continue on the gnome looks much as normal, minus the burned hair of course.
Alainn sights on the woman and fires, mentally sighing at the sheer number of people who apparently want to kill them...
"I think you have that backward," Tasha states boldly. "This temple is for the corrupted and trafficking with demons certainly puts you in that category. But don't worry, well get this place free from intruders as quickly as possible."
She then steps forward taking measured strides with her long legs to stab at the manly woman.
Alainn strikes the woman with one of her arrows. Tasha strides forward and demoralizes the enemy, leaving her frightened, then nicks her with her rapier. Tom lodges a dagger in the woman's chest and a second in her throat, and she falls, gurgling.
Ruine scorches the nearest quasit with a ray of flame.
The wounded quasit shrieks angrily as it flies towards the cleric. Its form shifts as it polymorphs into a fiendish wolf and bites at the half-elf! The other two demons move to flank Tasha, lashing out with their poisonous claws. She nimbly dodges one attack, but the others all hit.
Tom {A} Strides over to flank with Tasha.
Daggers streak out, one at the quasit attacking Tasha, and the other at the one attacking Riune.
Ruinë tries to fire off another fire ray, but she only succeeds in warming her hands.
Being clawed at left and right, the tiefling turns her blade on the slashing and biting quasits.
Alainn aims at the wounded quasit/wolf and fires.
Grelda blasts the wolf-quasit with magic missiles, then Alainn takes it down with a pair of arrows! It transforms back into its demonic shape as it dies.
Ruine and Tom miss with their attacks. Tasha scores only a single hit on the demons.
The fiends continue to take advantage of their flanking position as they rip into Tasha with their claws. The tiefling takes two hits.
Tom unleashes his knives into the soft places in the fiend's skin.
Frustrated her fire didn't hit, she tries to use a magical burst of energy only to watch that fall short as well.