"Oh, no, no more of you..." Ohrmizd puffs as the human slaves decide again to face the group.
Ignoring the men with clubs altogether, he moves around the first row of them and calls their attention "Shatter your chains and follow us or burn in the fire of the Sun!"
Casting blistering invective.
The slaves catch fire and scream in agony. One rolls on the floor trying to put out the flames.
Roryx shakes his head as the slaves are set on fire - "So the plan now is simply to kill everything we come across?" - he grunts, drawing his protective wand with a flick of the wrist, magically enahcing his defenses, then moving forward.
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Heshan shrugs in response. "That was not my idea of subduing the prisoners either."
This time around, he focuses his fire on the one responsible for it all.
The guy on the throne gets covered in glitter. The next slave rolls himself on the ground to extinguish the flames, but fails and continues to burn.
Omari slips past Manuun into the room and takes a snapshot at the man on the throne. Meanwhile, Khedron bugles, then twists through the doorway and attacks...
+3 bab +3 dex +1 enhancement(weapon)+1 PBS + Precise shot: No penalty for firing into melee, Deadeye Bowman can ignore 1 person worth of cover
+2 str +1 enhancement(weapon)+1 pbs
+3 bab +1 str +1 amulet
+1 str +1 enhancement
Khedron puts the slave out of his burning misery. He keeps smoldering on the ground. Omari pierces the guy on the throne. Irritated he gets up and charges towards Ohrmizd, with his raised large greatclub, but with his deformed club foot he isn't the fastest.
Another slave giving in to blunt trauma and fire.
"It seems your souls have been judged evil" Ohrmizd states seeing the slaves catching on fire.
The Keleshite moves forward to engage the would-be-king with a swing of his scimitar "Who are you? The Mad King?"
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Ohrmizd wounds the mad king while the not burning slave tries to flee.
Heshan delicately steps over the charred bodies of the two slaves before lining himself up for a shot.
His discomfort over the smell of death throws his aim well off.
Ohrmizd observes the slave running unknowingly to the burning webs room "Their souls are definitely judged evil"
Another one of the 'evil' slaves burns to death.
Omari takes a step forward and unleashes a couple of rapid shots at 'the mad king'. He commands Khedron: "Flank"; hurdling the burned bodies of the slaves, Khedron moves forward to support Ohrmizd.
+3 bab +3 dex +1 enhancement(weapon) -2 rapid shot + Precise shot: No penalty for firing into melee, Deadeye Bowman can ignore 1 person worth of cover
+2 str +1 enhancement(weapon)
+3 bab +1 str +1 amulet +2 flanking
+1 str +1 enhancement
Khedron hits the mad king, Omari does not.
The mad king finally gets to smash someone and brings his club down on Ohrmizd.
The slave still rattles at the door. As it still doesn't open, he breaks down in tears.
The offer comes too late. The mad king topples over.
"Ouch!" the smash breaks Ohrmizd jaw that starts bleeding profusely.
Seeing Khedron well placed, Ohrmizd profits the opportunity to precise strike the king "You are alone now, surrender and talk. Why are you working with the gnolls?"
The slave cowers in front of the door. "We don't work with the gnolls! Lazrul killed two gnolls, and then we fled. But we didn't dare to flee to the outside as we would run into more gnolls there. And then Lazrul got full of himself and treated us worse than the gnolls. And now you! Kill me already, so I'm over it."
Omari has no time for Orhmizd's nonsense "I know you can conjure water, put them out, starting with that one", pointing . He continues: "We have lives to save while we can!
Roryx can talk to the guy for now."
Omari uses his stabilize cantrip on any of the slaves who's unconscious and not on fire. If all of the unconscious slaves are on fire, he picks one and tries to put him out, using the roll over technique.
After stabilizing all those who can be saved (and making sure Lazrul is dead dead), Omari will channel healing, hopefully saving some of the slaves.
Omari manages the quenching of flames by ordering everyone to take action and snatches all of the slaves from the jaws of death with Erastil's divine magic. Some still look badly burned but at least all are alive.
Heshan breathed a sigh of relief as Omari confirmed that they were alive. After which he knelt down towards one of them.
"You will have to excuse my friends here. Sometimes they can get... overzealous in action."
With that out of the way, he continued. "Just what happened to the man? It seemed as if his isolation changed him more than just his attitude."
"He was a half-ogre." one of the slaves explains.
"What do you know of the surrounding areas?" - Roryx added - "Any clue is welcome as we go through the complex"
The gay looks at Roryx dumbfounded. "There are caves and they made us dig. And there are gnolls everywhere. And those huge hyenas."
"Why were they having you dig?"
"First the large area, the one boarded off. Then at the far end where it goes far down." the slave explains pointing roughly into the direction.
"At the end where it goes down , does it open up into another complex like this one, with lots of passages and interconnected rooms, or is it a tunnel?"
"It broke through to a cave system, but after that Rokova stopped the digging there."
"This Rokova, tell us about him?" Ohrmizd asks "What was he expecting to find there?"
"Is he searching for something? He talks about expanding the temple."
"Can you elaborate a bit more on it? Is he a priest or something and that is why he wants to expand the temple?" asks Ohrmizd trying to get more information "Is he human or gnoll? Does he move around often? Does he do it alone or with others? Does he treat you fairly or badly? Has he had behavior changes recently?"
"He is a gnoll. I guess he's the priest as he is involved in this temple stuff. But I don't know. He doesn't treat us at all. He only talks to the other gnolls. But like all gnolls, he doesn't give a s~*& about us."
"What lies beyond these double doors here?" - Roryx inquires, moving further into the room - "Do you know?"
"No, never been there, and they don't open anyway.
A closer inspection of the door shows that it is warm and the smell of smoke seeps through it.
"Whatever was there is probably dead by now" Ohrmizd points out, then looks back at the slaves "Ok, you are free now, you can leave. Or if you prefer you can follow us and fight the gnolls. As you prefer"
"So, if we discard going back to the guarded entrance , there is just a couple ways forward as I see it. We either explore the caverns going down or we open this door to the south and check what remains "
"Given we can smell the smoke through the door and it's warm to the touch, let's not go through this door . I suspect the caverns are how the other slaves escaped; if I have not lost my sense of direction down here, there is no other way they could have exited where they did . But why are we not contemplating the main entrance ? I have a blessing from Erastil that should allow us to open the boarded up section without being heard . I think we have retained the element of surprise and will be attacking from an unexpected direction..."
"Well, I was under the impression we wanted to go down to find the King, not to get out of the temple through the main door were the gnolls are waiting for us because we triggered the alarm just yesterday" Ohrmizd smiles back at Omari, clearly still resented for the clerics attempt to give him orders just a few seconds ago.
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"I am also believing, that that area holds the temple entrance so exactly the areas we have been trying to avoid. But I understand that you want to take kehdrin with you, so alernatively we could just spend another night and hope the fire has died down until then."
"I think you've both misunderstood what my tactical objectives are. I want to have an advantage if I can take it. I don't like frontal assaults on prepared positions. A surprise attack from the rear is much more to my liking... "
"To come back to finding this gnoll king, where do you think he is? I don't believe he is down the rickety ladder in to those caves . All reports say he is a giant gnoll, and is making more giant gnolls. That ladder can't handle a 600 lb giant gnoll, it just can't. So if he's down there, he got there by some other way. Still, I'm willing to check it out if you guys think it's worth doing."
"Well, why do you think he is not down there? It seems more probable he is well down the structure, protected by his best gnolls and this Rokova" Ohrmizd points to the entrance "It is really doubtful he is in the entrance of the temple. And why to waste our time and resources fighting a well guarded entrance when we are already inside the temple and unnoticed?"
After a lot of discussion the group moves to the cave and down the ladder. The slaves are still afraid of leaving. But they hope that the gnolls won't come for them. As the gnolls don't know that Lazrul is dead and that big crazy gnoll is dead, they hope they are safe for now. Also Khedron stays there to guard them, as he can't climb ladders. Omari throws in a create food and water to make sure the slaves don't get funny ideas in regards to Khedron.
The ladder in the cave leads 200 feet down and ends in a tunnel that leads northward. After a minute of walking in that tunnel you get the feeling this could take a while.
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Sensing that there was a bit of tension happening, Heshan made sure to butt in. "We still have a bit of time to explore the place before the gnolls wisen up on our approach," Heshan replies. "Let's check the cave and if it doesn't lead anywhere, we can go to Omari's plan."
It turns out it was a longer trip than he thought. He made a bit of his time keeping a small rock afloat with air .
"With how long this tunnel goes, I bet the gnolls never had to worry about exercise," he quipped.
Ohrmizd smiles at Heshan "Certainly, they are probably using another route. But probably that just makes this path more likely to keep us away from their eyes and ears"
The Keleshite makes his own scimitar shine with a light spell while he walks forward the tunnel trying to make sure they do not jump until some other danger inadvertently.
The tunnel ends after about half a mile in northern direction in a rough alcove. A halfling skeleton lies there. Along with his bones remain a masterwork owlbear pelt cloak worth 40 gp, a quiver containing 15 +1 arrows, and a single sleep arrow wrapped in vellum. A broken masterwork composite shortbow lies near the corpse. All of the halfling’s other equipment is shredded or missing.
From there it's a rugged natural ladder with jagged ledges and crumbling handholds leading further down . As the path gets easier again, the narrow passage slopes slowly downward.
"Yeah, let's pick up his stuff, those arrows seem they will make better use on one of you than in him" once they reach the ledge at the end of the tunnel, Ohrmizd lends his ring of feather fall for someone less able to climb down, and descends his own way, very carefully after casting guidance on everyone who wants it including himself.
Heshan takes the ring and nods in thanks before attempting the climb himself.
And is thankful that he received that ring as his feet touch the ground instead of a nasty fall.
Omari pulls 50 ft of string out of his handy haversack, and runs half the coil down to Heshan, "Tie the ring on here, and we'll all get down safe, one after another". When Heshan ties the ring of Featherfall onto the string, Omari pulls it back up and puts it on. He hands the spool of string to Roryx, and jumps down (Featherfall). He takes off the ring and lets Roryx pull it back up (with the string) saying "Your turn".