"F%**, f%!#, f#!&ity-f!#$," Farrina sing-songs as the words to a spell slip from her lips and she vanishes from sight.
Seraphina looks at Farrina, turning her head to the side confused. If we can talk in our heads for all to understand, why is it you speak aloud so I cannot understand you? What did you say, Farrina?
Oh. she says, as The Fabuluous disappears.
The changeling gasps as Adolina stabs her. She grimaces as she pulls out a wand and activates it, trying to paralyze the cavalier! At the same time, you hear chanting coming from the three other lit rooms as more changelings poke their heads out to see what the commotion is about.
Once she sees there are more foes inbound, she waits for them to get close enough and then uses bane on them.
Tanjona doesn't get distracted; he focuses on the changeling in front of him with the wand.
The Invisible One remains so and readies a spell for when the rest of the attendees arrive at the party.
Tanjona stabs the changeling, and she groans as she crumples to the floor. The other three changelings remain at a distance, leveling similar wands as they try to paralyze you!
Seraphina freezes in place, unable to move. She says in her head to her companions "HELP! I can't move!!!"
Tanjona, too, suddenly ceases moving.
{"Freeze, Adolina,"} Farrina says through the telepathic link. {"Play bait like the others. Let them all come out where I can see them."}
Adolina's blade is turned aside by a shimmering shield of faith around the changeling. She steps back into her room, takes a moment to conjure an illusory duplicate of herself, then points to Adolina and commands her to "Drop!"
The other two changelings emerge into the main hall, hurling nets at the cavalier! One snags her and weighs her down!
As the others step out into the hall, Farrina appears as she recites the words to a spell. An instant later and a swath of colors envelopes the changelings.
"{"I can't move! HELP!"} she repeats again through their telepathic link.
Tanjona remains frozen in place until after Farrina's trap goes off.
Both changelings resist Farrina's color spray! Adolina scores a hit on the changeling she is fighting, striking the real one instead of her illusory double. Groaning in pain, she steps back into the room to heal herself.
The other two try to paralyze Farrina with their wands!
"Nice try, amateurs," Farrina snarks back as the magic fails to take hold on her. "How about we try it again?"
Gasping loudly for real reason other than to be broadcast she's free of this spell, Aurelia mumbles incoherently as she stumbles forward a few steps. Finally free to move, she uses her want to heal some of her wounds.
Adolina destroys her foe's mirror image while Farrina succesfully stuns both of the other changelings!
Tanjona stabs the wounded changeling, and she falls! You are able to swiftly subdue the stunned enemies.
"Of course there's a cult. There's always a f&%~ing cult ... or temple ... or secret society," Farrina snaps adjusting her hair and looking over the wands. "Or otyughs." She shudders. "That's what you find when you start digging around under a city. And that's why I prefer to stay at street level. In a nice tavern, if I had to be specific."
"Well, that was quite strange. Is everyone feeling alright?" she asks, checking to make sure everyone's health is in order before continuing on.
"Just ducky," Farrina snarls.
"Duh-ducky?" Seraphina repeats, confused. It sounds like she was in pain, snarling like that.
She moves to Farrina and begins to check her over and asks "I'm not familiar with that? What is wrong? What hurts?"
"Oh. Right. Sorry, Farrina." she says sheepishly, moving out of the way and following Adolina into the next room.
"I'm fine," says Tanjona as he continues to idly stab fallen changelings with his trident to make sure they're really dead.
Farrina chuckles at Tanjona's comment and gives him a friendly shoulder shove, her foul mood vanishing in a moment. "Don't sell yourself short. Maybe she's just got a thing for ..." She reaches up and pulls a strand of her ever-changing hair into view for a quick glance. "... brunettes." She shrugs and with a shimmy, she follows after the others.
Tanjona pulls the trident free with a schlick and says, "Sure. Shark must keep swimming."
Going through the double doors, you come to a door to the west. Floor-to-ceiling shelving lines the walls of this storage space, although little beyond cobwebs and dust-covered fragments remain on the shelves. A large nest of filthy rags, soiled clothing, and moldy pillows lies in a heap to the west.
An examination of the nest reveals that much of the clothing is in relatively good shape, barring its filthy condition. Among the clothing is a fully functional (if grime-encrusted) cloak of the manta ray!
Continuing down the hall to the east, you see a ten-foot-wide pit yawns in the center of this room, leaving a five-foot-wide walkway surrounding it. No railing guards the edges of the pit, which are decorated with shards of jagged glass and metal. A door is set in the wall south of the pit, while two pairs of double doors are on its east side.
"This is too obvious," says Tanjona. "I could jump across, but ehhh... I bet it's more complicated than that."
As suspected, there is more here than meets the eye. The ledges surrounding the pit are hinged such that after a few seconds of delay they swing suddenly downward to hurl intruders into the depths below. Fortunately, Adolina is able to find a hidden switch on the wall that can activate and deactivate the trap. She flips the switch, making it safe to proceed.
A pair of immense iron doors stands closed here. A short message has been written onto the doors in precise script, along with a symbol of an armored fish.
The script, written in Infernal, reads, “These doors sealed by the Order of the Torrent; all holdings within awaiting arbitration. Lady of Graves, have mercy on the souls of those who perished within, and may the Guildmasters of the Gray Spiders burn for their sins.”
The doors remain sturdy today. They are sealed with both a regular lock and an arcane lock spell.
The ceiling of this long chamber rises to a height of twenty feet overhead, the shallow vaulting supported by stone pillars. Significant sections of the walls and floors have been inscribed with etchings of tiny letters, while statue-filled alcoves stand guard along the walls. Each of these statues is made of stone and depicts a feminine figure, although the details seem more like they were formed in clay that was allowed to harden rather than carved directly from rock. The westernmost statues depict the woman as a beautiful winged figure, while the easternmost depict her as skeletal, with the middle statues depicting a transition between the two forms. To the east, a stage supports a stone altar presided over by a seventh statue of the same feminine form, her right half skeletal and her left half beautiful.
Two changeling cultists are here, etching more prayers into the walls and floor with tiny stone carving tools. They look up in surprise as you enter the room!
Adolina skewers the changeling! She gasps and steps back, conjuring an illusory duplicate before healing herself. The other one likewise conjures a copycat and protects herself with a shield of faith. "High Priestess! We are under attack!" she calls.
Using one of the wands acquired from the previous changelings, Farrina directs it at the one that shouted out.
"That's enough out of you," she barks.
Seraphina sees combat is inevitable and casts bless to help keep her allies with the upper hand.