Once the source of the Unluck has been eliminated, Tariq quickly goes back again to the baboons. Coming out of the kitchen, he runs towards the closer one and attacks.
Aithaloessa and Tariq are unlucky, even without pugwampis around. Tariq misses the baboon by an inch with his blade, but Aith shoots some furniture at the other end of the room.
Ibhrim walks in and attacks one of the baboons with his scimitar.
With a new target in reach the baboon attack Ibhrim, while the other one stays with Yasmeena. But they both only bite into the protective gear.
With a grateful look at Ibhrim and Tariq, Yasmeena steps away towards Antarah, pale and obviously light-headed.
Cartridges. Definitely cartridges, Aithaloessa adjusts her mental shopping list as, disgusted with herself, she steps back, dropping her pistol and readying her bow once again the moment she sees a clear path open up for an arrow where Yasmeena staggers back out of the nearest baboon’s reach.
Quick as she can, the elf nocks, draws, sights, and… Goddesses damn it!
Once more, Tariq tries his luck, trying to survive in the face of these extraordinary foes... two baboons.
While almost everyone hides, is busy dying, or missing, Tariq ends another baboon. Ibhrim makes short work of the last one, ending the fight.
Tariq hurries to lend a hand to the wounded.
As she pauses to gather her things, Aithaloessa is grateful for Tariq’s zeal, even if it seems that Antarah’s bleeding is slowing on its own. Retrieving her healer’s kit, she quickly prepares some salve before getting some bandages ready.
As she finishes up, a frown briefly crosses the elf's face. Not her best work, but at least between her efforts and Tariq's, she can be less anxious for now that the mage's condition will deteriorate.
Into the quiet after the last of the pugwampis and apes have fallen, Aithaloessa suggests, "We should retreat to the chapel or wherever else we can set up some rough defenses, just in case. Once we're safer, I'll do what I can to tend to the worst of everyone's wounds."
Yasmeena nods, panting and wincing as her wounds pain her. "I think I can make it back to the chapel."
Looking around you find that the room the apes were in has five beds and a door. It's far from comfortable and it reeks of a##*%*$, but it is far easier to defend than the chapel. With the threats so far it would basically be locking the door and put something in front of it, just to make sure.
The elf guard hurries ahead to drag the last remains of soiled bedding off one of the beds, and helps the others settle the unconscious mage before doing what she can to tidy up the rest of the room. Unpleasant accommodations, but a bit more livable once the worst of the debris is swept to one corner.
Finally, Aithaloessa tries to gauge everyone’s condition and the state of her supplies. Antarah, Yasmeena, and herself seem to have taken the worst of it, no thanks to her unfortunate architectural intervention. Tariq seems to know a thing or two about healing, and Aith glances at him for an informed opinion. “Thoughts?”
This sleeping room is without windows, so it is dark with exception of what little light comes in under the door. There is an evening to dawdle away and a night to sleep through. With the thick stone walls and the closed door it is earily silent. And the room is warmer than expected. It's The northern wall that is warm to the touch. But as the night comes this is a comfortable warmth.
The typical chill that the night brings is felt through the breeze that blows in under the door every now and then. And as the morning approaches the room has cooled down sending a shiver through everyone who doesn't have a thick blanket.
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Antarah wakes in the middle of the night, startled. He gets up before realizing the others gently put him to rest and recover. Thankful, the large man opens the door to see the baboons and pugwampis have been dealt with. He makes sure his sword is in place. Not wanting to wake anyone else, he walks gently to the garden area and inspects it.
After casting a spell to produce magical light, the man looks into the garden before taking another look at the art gallery. The people that built this temple seem to be legendary people. A shame I haven't heard of them, he thinks. He spends some time trying to rebuild the narrative that the murals are trying to depict. One of the men seems to be have left behind to guard the temple, but he was eventually overrun.
Antarah shivers as the cool breeze passes by him. He decides it is not the time for thinking about this and there may still be dangers in the temple. He goes back to bed and quickly falls back asleep.
In any event, it’s not hard to see what sorts of things will be needed, so Aithaloessa makes some space and sets to work cutting, grinding, and mixing the necessary materials. As she works, her voice murmurs in Elven song, softly, to avoid disturbing the others. It spills through a chaotic tumble of herbal and spell-lore that presumably makes sense to her, at least.
It's tedious business, but Aithaloessa can tell from the especially sharp tang of the salve she's made up that she's got a particularly good batch this time, and she's optimistic as she helps to check tricky bruises, attach bandages, and recommend exercises that will keep stiffness from setting in without being too strenuous.
Tariq helps Aith with the wounded. When inquired, he nods, indicating he can give a try at treating them. "We'll have to make do." He examines the kit and nods again. "It'll be fine, let's get to it."
Tariq takes some time caring for the wounds.
Yasmeena tries to help as best she can.
While the others are busy tending to the wounded Ibhrim stays alert,. patrolling the immediate area. Somehow he'd been lucky and hadn't been severely hurt. Sure, the hammer hit hadn't been pleasant but it wasn't anything he couldn't recover from.
As such it was with some reluctance that he said down to receive some care of his own, but he did. After all, if he'd go down there wouldn't be anyone to protect the wounded.
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As everyone gets ready for the day, Antarah prepares a different spell to help clean and fix Sarenrae's holy book. With Tariq's supervision, he uses magic to mend it.
Afterwards he recommends continuing exploring the temple. "Do you think there are other dangers? I woke up during the night and didn't hear anything."
Aithaloessa is unable to help it. She meets the news that Antarah’s been prowling around in his condition with an ironical raised eyebrow, in her very best, princess-iest elven manner. Evidently, it’s not Almah that they need to worry about risking scaring up angry vultures or anything else that doesn’t want to be disturbed. She’s tactful enough not to actually say anything, of course.
“I hope not, but there’s only one way to find out. Might as well finish a circuit, widdershins and all.” She bundles up an alarmingly light healer’s kit. “We’ll have to be very careful. I’ve only enough woundwort for one more case as serious as some of us were in last afternoon.”
She makes sure her pistol’s loaded, and gets ready to quickly double back to where the last pugwampis came from before continuing around east and north.
Yasmeena steels herself for another day of hard labor, and suggests they inspect the damage the fire did the previous afternoon before cleaning and restoring as much of the temple as they can.
Beyond a doorless arch appears to be a large kitchen complete with walls lined in shelves and cupboards, a huge central table, and an enormous oven against the north wall. Several drawers and cupboard doors stand askew, and the floor here is a jagged field of broken glass, smashed pottery, bits of sharp stone, jagged bones, and discarded cutlery. After all the pugwampis were here.
Three long wooden tables and dozens of chairs that once lined this mess hall are in shambles, mostly rotted away with the passage of years. Light shines through several large holes in the ceiling, illuminating a closed door on the east wall.
Nothing of value or interest is found in either room.
The limits of the kitchen are hard to tell, as it depends on many things that are now clearly ruined, but the number of seats in the dining room gives an idea with 24 chairs.
At the sight of the kitchen, Tariq nods. Something good could be done here, though it'll need a lot of cleaning, of course. Seems repairing the temple will take a huge amount of time.
After checking there's no one around, he moves on to the next place.
Tariq checks where the apes came from. Five austere beds line the north wall of this humble office and living quarters. A dented metal chest rests at the foot of each bed, and a simple mosaic pattern of red and orange glass chips brings some color to the wall. A layer of grime and filth coats many of the surfaces in this small room, and the redolent stench of dirty fur hangs heavy in the air. The left overs of the baboon.
Antarah meanwhile checks another room. Ten bunk beds in various stages of disrepair fill this chamber, which must once have been a dormitory for students. The roof is mostly intact, and an open arch in the north wall leads to a large hallway. The east and west walls both bear sturdy wooden doors leading to other rooms, and an open arch in the southeast corner of the room leads into a darkened antechamber, perhaps a large closet.
As the dancing lights illuminate the room before him, a monstrous hunting spider the size of a wolf, plus the eight legs, crawls out form under a bed and jumps Antarah from behind.
Hearing some familiar sounds, indicating something not friendly was discovered, Tariq quickly moves and tries to help however he can.
Ibhrim hurries to come to Antarah's aid. He is too far away to end the spider immediately, but his threatening figure looms over the beast.
The spider doesn'T care and keeps attacking Antarah.
Not good, not good! Aithaloessa’s mind races as a huge spider rears up from the shadows and starts tearing at Antarah, but she levels her pistol as best she can and closes just enough to make sure she gets the most out of her weapon.
Yasmeena follows the party into the dormitory, and quickly draws her bow once she sees their enemy. She fires!
Aithaloessa shoots her pistol. With a flash of fire, a loud bang and a small cloud of smoke she sends a bullet into the body of the vermin, that rips an ugly hole. Yasmeena does the same, just without the loud and smelly side effects. Even though the yellow iccor is oozing out of the spider, it still stands with its mandibles threatening angrily.
Tariq enters the room and directs himself towards the spider. He r raises his scimitar and, when he's just within reach, he lets it drop on the spider's head.
Tariq misses the spider. Ibhrim also fails at the attempt to end the vermin.
The mandibles of the spider dig into the flesh of Tariq.
Yasmeena brandishes her bow with a flourish, and shoots again.
Another quick arrow from Yasmeena is too much for the spider to take. It drops down, all legs slowly pull close and finally it rolls over on its back.