The burning sensation of the quasit's venom overwhelms Tasha senses and she feels the floor approaching.
Grelda calls upon her occult powers to soothe Tasha's injuries, then grants her guidance.
Alainn watches as Tasha falls down again and mentally makes a note to check the woman for balance issues - if they survive this fight.
Ruinë has no words for Tasha collapsing, again. She moves to her side and once more goes to work to revive her. "Seriously. This is just rude you know. You try to die on me every time some Tom, Dick or Harry looks at you wrongly!"
Tom frowns when he hears his name.
"Men and women SWOON when I look at them wrongly, sora. Perhaps she's only dying because she'd rather it be her than you?"
Tom stabs the demon he is flanking in the back of the skull, slaying it! He hurls two daggers at the other fiend but fails to hit. Ruine and Alainn miss the quasit as well. Grelda gets Tasha back on her feet, and the tiefling stands up and stabs at the demon.
The quasit tries to bring Tasha down again, but only manages to slash her once.
Tom {A}Strides around to flank with Tasha once more, and tries to put an end to the fiend.
"This cramped temple is starting to get to me... I can't aim without feeling dizzy."
Grelda hurls the fallen cleaver at the quasit, slicing through one of its wings!
Alainn pauses, studies the creature and fires twice.
The quasit falls to Alainn’s arrows!
Tom wanders around the room picking up gore covered throwing knives, looking around the chamber
Aside from the woman’s trident and wooden shield and the food preparation supplies, there is nothing of interest in this room.
"Are you flirting with her?" Tasha says, looking at Tom with narrowed eyes. She doesn't wait for an answer before moving to the western door. She looks around at the others to make sure that they're prepared before opening it.
"Ah-Ah." Ruinë says, reaching out to put her hand firmly on Tasha's shoulder as she goes to pull away. "Just where do you think you are going like that? Seriously Tasha, at least let me try to patch you up first."
"Now. Take a seat right here and show me those claw wounds please. We're not moving on until I've at least had the opportunity to cover and clean them."
The door opens onto a hall with many doors. Each of the rooms along the west wall contains a wooden bunk bed with simple, straw-filled mattresses and chests for storing clothes and personal belongings. These lodgings are the same for both priests and retainers, although rooms for priests usually have two wooden writing desks, and rooms for retainers have space to store work gear. Each room has been personalized by its inhabitants, including manuscripts in progress or art that honors Gozreh (usually dramatic landscapes). As the hermits fell into demon-worship and violence, they began to neglect Gozreh and their scholarship and revel in sin. Paintings are torn or defaced, books are torn or scribbled in, and some chambers are stained with blood.
The first door on the east side of the hall is locked. The next door has been torn from its hinges and lies in the hallway. You can hear the sound of destruction coming from beyond the open doorway.
"Are you worried? Little sora isn't on my list. Tom says with a wink. "I have a special relationship with the Flamboni sisters... and their husbands. Well, I will.
Tasha turns to Tom. "Of course I'm not worried, she's ... I'm ... Nevermind." She turns back to Ruinë with a huff, but not before Tom notices her face turning a little more purple than lavender.
~~~~~
At the sounds of destruction, she gestures for the others to pause and then moves up quietly to peek in to see what's making the noise.
This library must once have been magnificent. Tall wooden bookcases still line the room’s walls, but many have been pulled over, spilling books of all types and sizes over the carpeted floor. Statuary busts decorate a few cases that remain standing, but others have toppled and shattered. Shredded paper and torn parchment cover the ground. Tables where hermits must once have studied ancient lore are flipped on their sides or upside down, their legs broken off. Archways to the north and south lead to reading rooms that have so far been spared from the damage to the library.
Two horrible horned wrecker demons, like the one that disfigured Tasha in the church of Abadar, are in the midst of trashing the library. They haven't noticed Tasha peeking in on them yet.
Tom sees Tasha sneak off, and hears the distant crashing.
"Prepare an ambush."
Then Tom hides around the corner with a throwing knife in each hand.
Ruinë watches first Tasha then Tom sneak off. She turns to Grelda and Alainn and says "Wait. Why is everyone sneaking away? What's going on?!"
She does her best to be quiet and sneaks after them.
You creep into position, taking the demons by surprise as you launch your attack!
Tom throws a fan of throwing knives!
"This is Gozrahn holy ground, demons! His holy might will burn you down where you stand!" Tasha shouts out at one of the demons as she moves forward to stab at it with her blade.
Alainn uses the few moments to study the demons and then send arrows flying towards the demon's head.
Fearing she'll light the whole place ablaze, the cleric tries a different approach from her fire ray and fires a bolt ahead. Unfortunately however, she's not very good at it.
Tasha's bravado leaves the demon shaken, but the tiefling is unable to capitalize on its fear, missing wit her rapier. Alainn lodges an arrow into its bulging gut, while Ruine grazes it with a crossbow bolt. Tom just manages to land a hit, one dagger piercing fiendish flesh.
Grelda targets the other demon with hideous laughter, and it begins to cackle madly, slowing it down.
The demoralized demon tries to wreck Tasha while the laughing one stumbles over and bites at Tom. Tasha sidesteps its gnashing teeth, though one claw rakes her side. Tom narrowly avoids the laughing demon's bite.
Tom grabs a loose chair leg and throws it in the direction of Tasha's demon, trying to distract it!
Then he hurls 2 knives! One at the distracted demon
And one at the demon in front of him!
Tasha continues dodging and weaving against the demon in front of her as she stabs at it with her blade. Having Ruinë behind her, however, seems a distraction as other than her first strike, she spends too much time looking back over her shoulder to perform at her best.
Ruinë fires a third time with the crossbow, trying to put the bolt into the demon without hitting Tasha. This task proves more difficult then she imagined and she pulls her shot wide to avoid hitting the swashbuckler.
"Darn!" she grunts loudly, frustrated. She reloads it and moves up behind Tasha, taking cover from the creature behind her as much as possible.
"Don't rush." Alainn calls. "Take your time."
Projectiles fly at the demon, but all of them fail to hit! Only Tasha lands a single strike with her rapier. Grelda cackles to sustain her hideous laughter spell.
The demons attack! Tasha once more sidesteps a bite but gets clawed for her efforts. The laughing demon bites and claws Tom, badly wounding him!
Ruinë watches Tasha get hit. Again. "Tasha!" she calls out.
She is about to move ahead to help her when she notices Tom get hit rather bad himself. She looks back and forth between the two and calls "Oh, Tom! Do you need assistance?"
That looks terrible! He's going to be so upset!
"Tend to Tom!" Tasha shouts out as she stabs at the demon in front of her.
Trying to keep him guessing, she then rolls past him to end up behind the evil creature.
"I've got this thing right where I want him!" she continues as she partially ducks behind one of the bookshelves.
Ruinë nods and moves to Tom, trying to patch him up and make sure he doesn't lose any more guts. As she is trying to hold pressure on his wound, she nearly presses a little too hard on a sensitive area. She focuses out all thoughts of Tasha's injuries and everything else however, channeling guidance of Sarenrae to keep her nerves steady.
When she's done, Tom guts have been restored to the best of her ability.
Alainn continues to fire off arrows like its going out of fashion...
One hits, although not to great effect.
Tom looks dizzy from the everything that's happened in the last few seconds.
"KEEP GOING?!"
Alainn shoots the wounded demon, then Tasha stabs it before rolling away and taking cover. Tom hurls two daggers into its back, one scoring a critical hit, and the fiend falls! Grelda tries to hurl a book at the other demon but misses.
Ruine patches up Tom's wounds just in time for the still-laughing demon to attack him again. Its jaws rip at his flesh, but the rogue dodges its claw.
"You're next, Fatso!" Tasha calls out as she moves around the bookshelves to reach the remaining demon.
The half-elf throws her hands towards the demon in an attempt to blast it with divine magic, but she isn't able focus properly and the blast scatters all over the floor in front of the demon instead.
Tom tries to tumble around the monster to flank with Tasha but the blood dripping into his eyes makes him unsure of his footing.
Since she isn't being assaulted by fireballs Alainn can take her time to aim properly.
The demon seems unimpressed by Tasha’s taunts and Tom’s failed tumble. The tiefling and half elf both land a hit, as do Alainn and Grelda. The laughing demon takes its wounds in stride as it rips into Tom, taking him down!
"Take it down!" Alainn orders. "I've got Tom."
She rushes forward, pulls a tight bandage around Tom's largest wound and slaps him firmly in the face.
"Not time for a nap!"
Trying to keep the thing distracted from Tom, Tasha taunts the thing by moving past it herself.
She then stabs at the thing again ...
... before slipping behind another shelf.
Tom's eyes snap open
Tom throws daggers at the looming beast from the floor.
"ALAINN!" Ruinë calls out, mouth hanging open. "That is not how we handle the wounded!"
Tasha’s riposte badly wounds the demon. It roars in pain as Ruine’s holy lance burns its impure flesh. Grelda’s projectile finishes it off, and with a groan, it falls and lies still.