Leothar can't seem to get past Staunton's plate armor nor his glaive to do any damage to him. Dadna tries hitting the woman but even with her mythic abilities barely misses her. She tries again and manages to hit her but she seems somewhat resistant to her damage.
Round 1
Ardriel and Enos Up
S 0
J 33
Enos steps in behind Leothar, blades flashing at the woman attacking Dadna.
"Goddess, your aid would be appreciated."
With everyone focused on the woman, Ardriel decides to turn his efforts in that direction, as well.
Enos whirlwind of attacks penetrate the woman's defenses even though she shrugged off the first. Ardriel tries to put some arrows into her but fails.
Staunton scoffs and yells "The barren w**re is too scared to fight me! Kill this one instead!" He then asks Deskari to help him kill to kill Leothar and attacks him. Only one slice manages to get through Leothar's defenses.
Round 2
Party Up
S 0
J 69
Dadna broke out with a laugh. ”Ha! The corpse is funny.” She said, as her weapon connected solidly into the side of the woman’s head. She felt the all too familiar resistance as the momentum suddenly stopped, along with the *crunch* of broken bones. ”Don’t worry, it’s yer turn next.”
Watching the combat unfold, Ian keeps his sword raised, this time moving it in a Dazzling Display, attempting to intimidate their foes.
Dadna swings at the woman again and hits her square in the chest. Her eyes go wide and blood leaks from the edges of her armor on her chest. She then drops to the floor and blood pours out quickly and ceases all movement. Buoyed by one of his opponents dropping Ian raises his sword to try and demoralize Staunton.
Round 2
Ardriel, Enos, Leothar Up
S 0
J 159
With the woman down, Ardriel turned his attention back to Staunton and said, "Fall, demon worshiper!" He then loosed two arrows at the dwarf.
Leothar steps up and tries to knock the glaive from Staunton's hands.
Leothar knocks the glaive out of Staunton's hand and bends over and picks it up.
Enos attempts to maneuver around behind Staunton. He also makes the dwarf the target of his smite.
”It would appear, sir, that rumors of your passing were somewhat exaggerated. I think we are just the group to help you with that inconvenience.”
Ardriel manages to put an arrow in Staunton. Enos then moves behind him but dosn't hurt him.
Staunton swears upon losing his glaive and says "You'll pay for that!" He draws his dagger and Leothar's eyes are drawn to it. Staunton then calls upon Deskari to burn Leothar's Soul and his hand is surrouded by a sickly black purple glow and he shoves it into Leothar's chest. Leothar staggers under the assault and feels his strength leaving him . Staunton then calls on his accuresed mythic powers and slams Leothar in the chest again.
Round 3
Party Up
S 14
J 159
Leothar resists the fatiguing effect, but is badly wounded.
He Withdraws, then drops the glaive (free action), and heals himself a bit (swift action).
Staunton Vhane proved again why he had risen so far up the ranks of the unholy by savaging Leothar, despite having been disarmed. But in doing so, he left himself wide open to Dadna.
She came in swinging, her weapon glowing with divine power.
Magrim will judge ye.” She said, with finality, invoking the name of the Lord of the Cloister.
A couple more arrows came Staunton Vhane's way, as Ardriel unleashed a barrage of power, drawing on the imbued mythic connection to fire another.
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His eyes widening, Ian watches as Leothar disarms the evil dwarf. Realizing he'd waited to long to use his defensive measures, Ian cannot help Leothar as he is slashed viciously with a knife. As Dadna steps forwards swinging her Dorn Dergar and Ardriel fires again, Ian moves besides Dadna, calling on his Bastion of Good to protect his friends from the dwarf. Lifting his own blade, he tells the dwarf, "You will not defeat us!" As thrusts the Ladies Gift at the heretic, but nearly hits the wall instead.
Leothar pulls back and gets rid of the glaive and heals himself. He sees a blackish purplish hand print on his armor. Dadna moves in and strikes Staunton hard twice. Ardriel can't seem to get a clean shot at Staunton and his arrows miss. Ian tries to end the dwarf but can't get through his defenses.
Round 3
Enos Up
S 94
J 159
Enos attacks with both hands, his tiny blades flashing again and again.
Enos manages to slice Staunon twice but he still stands.
Staunton smiles evily at Dadna and says "You're next wh@re!" and slams his hand into her chest leaving a mark like on Leothar's chest and then repeats it with another slam on her chest.
Round 4
Party Up
S 128
J 159
Teeth gritted in pain, Dadna considered trying to reply with a snappy one liner. But she didn’t see the point. The heretic simply had to die. She reached out and grabbed Staunton’s arm, holding him in place. With a wordless battlecry, she used her other arm to bring her weapon around and into the dwarf. She held nothing back, for there was no reason to hesitate. She had killed him once and she would do so again.
Jerking the tip of his blade out of the wall Ian frowns as he sees Staunton slap Dadna twice. Insulted for his friend, he calls out as he lifts his blade, "She's not a wh@re!" Lifting the 'Ladies Gift' he chops at the evil dwarf repeatedly.
Enos keeps attacking, well aware that he's just a gnat to this dwarf's armor, but as long as he's ignoring the gnat, the gnat's going to keep stinging him.
Dadna reels under the attack and her first swing misses Staunton. With her mythic power behind her she smashes him with a second attack and he falls to the floor. The rest of the group makes sure he is dead.
”Make sure they are both dead.” Dadna said, laying a hand on Ian’s shoulder. She gave him a weary smile, thankful to him for standing up for her honor. The insults of a heretic meant nothing to her, but the support of a friend meant everything.
While the healing is being addressed, Enos searches the room for unwanted surprises.
Finding nothing, he searches the bodies after carefully and methodically making sure they are on their way to Pharasma's judgement.
Nodding his head in agreement with Dadna, Ian silently does as she asks. Wanting the 'blow of mercy' to be as quick as possible, he braces his shield against the unconscious dwarf's throat to help stead his blade. Thrusting the tip of the 'Ladies gift' into Staunton neck, severing the head from the body.
Breathing a sigh, he does the same to the woman barbarian.
An array of maps depicting the Worldwound and its border nations adorn the walls of this large chamber. Enos searches the woman's body and finds a potion hide armor, adamantine greatsword and 385 gp. Staunton has on plate armor, a dagger and a holy symbol.
"These will be useful!" Dadna said, gathering the maps. "Maybe we can find clues for their plans within. But that is for later. If everyone is ready, let's push further in. With their champions dead...again, we can finally achieve our goals here." She said, brimming with confidence.
Moving his arm and shoulder, Ian nods to his friend, "Thanks for the healing Dadna." He gestures towards the door on the left. "Let's finish checking Staunton's rooms before we head to the dungeon." As he moves towards the door, Ian shifts his shoulder, then says a quick prayer to finish healing it up. As he reaches the door he opens it.
Ardriel nodded in agreement. "Let's make sure we gather everything we can from here."
After healing up the party checks the next room and sees rich appointments of fine furniture and plush carpet decorate this oddly shaped chamber. A mahogany desk with several bookshelves occupies the southeast corner, while expansive liquor cabinets follow the curving northern wall. Three doors lead south and west.
Leothar starts looking through the bookshelves in the southeast corner of the room.
Leothar looks through the bookshelves but finds nothing interesting.
As Leothar inspects the books, Ian moves to the first of the southern doors, quickly opening it up.
Ardriel also looks through the bookshelves. He wondered if they'd find anything in particular.
Ardriel joins Leothar at the bookshelves and finds there is nothing of interest there as well. Ian opens one of the southern doors and finds a bedroom with nothing interesting in it, possibly abandoned even. He tries the next door as well and it looks like the first.
Turning towards the others, Ian informs them, "Just abandoned bedrooms."
Having opened the first and second doors on the southern wall, Ian moves towards the western wall and opens the remaining door there.
Ian opens the door and sees a spacious bedroom that is immaculate to the point of spotlessness. The bed sheets are tight against the mattress, and no splinters mar the floor near the well-used sparring dummy in one corner, despite its obvious heavy use. An inkwell, a blotter, and a black quill sit atop an otherwise bare desk, with a three-legged stool pushed out of the way underneath. A single large chest sits at the foot of the bed with a large hole in the lid.
Turning to the others he calls back, "Hey, there is a large chest in here." As he speaks, he walks into the room and peers down through the hole in the chests lid, relying on his halo to illuminate the space for him.
Ian looks into the chest but it is hard to discern what is in there due to the shear number of coins in there.
Leothar takes a look at the hole in the lid.
"Why is there a hole here? Makes the trunk rather ineffective at keeping goods safe."
He tries the keys that the party found on Staunton after killing him the first time.
It looks like someone broke into the chest through the top. Leothar inserts the key into the chest and unlocks it. Able to better dig through it Leothar finds thousands of coins, nine gems, a pearl,
a rod, a scroll, a set of stone-carved dwarven figurines, an
expensive pair of vases, a silver coffer, two potions, a wand and a journal.
”Lock it. We can come back for it later, aye? Our mission is more important.” Dadna said, though the look in her eyes clearly betrayed her fascination with the contents of the chest.
"The coins don't matter much now, but any magic items might.
And these potions.
And this journal, of course. Any information in here could help our mission."
Leothar tries to identify the potions (the one on the woman and the two in the chest).
Then he starts skimming through the journal.
"I'll Keep watch until were ready to go." As Leothar thumbed through the journal Ian moved back towards the door on the outer room, keeping watch to make sure the chief wasn't disturbed.
Leothar tries to identify the potions but is unable to figure any of them out. Leothar opens the journal and sees that it is Staunton's journal.
"We aren't in a rush, are we? No active spells running down, are there?"
"Let's take our time. His journal could have information about the Sword of Valor or the areas where Joran wasn't allowed to go.
Of course, anybody who is a faster reader than me is welcome to take over."
This journal, in Dwarven, records events from Staunton’s life, recited from his childhood in the Five Kings Mountains to his time spent in the First Mendevian Crusade searching for the lost Sky Citadel of Jormurdun, on to his betrayal of Drezen and his time spent serving Deskari and Baphomet alike.
• A list of dozens of sacred and holy weapons and armor he and his brother have successfully tainted through the use of the corruption forge.
• A description of the Sword of Valor, including Staunton’s frustration over Aponavicius’s desire to keep it as a mere trophy and not to attempt the banner’s corruption.
• Several detailed pages of how he hopes to someday torture Irabeth for “ruining nearly everything” when she confronted him almost a year ago in Kenabres.
• Notes on the shadow demon Eustoyriax, an unusually powerful shadow demon who came to Drezen a few weeks after Staunton fled here from Kenabres. The shadow demon arrived in the possessed body of a crusader named Maranse (a man the diary records as now being long dead after having been turned over to the succubus Kiranda), and bore gifts from a place called the Ivory Sanctum—five elixirs of distilled power brewed from powdered Nahyndrian crystal. The notes explain how Staunton volunteered to take one of the elixirs to test its strength before Aponavicius used one, and of the powers the elixir unlocked in him. The notes go on to describe the grisly deaths the elixirs inflicted on the dragon and xacarba servants Aponavicius tested them on, and that only the chimera Soltengrebbe survived the transformation. The notes conclude by revealing that the shadow demon Eustoyriax remains here in a chamber below the citadel, where Aponavicius has placed him in charge of protecting the Sword of Valor.
• The Ivory Sanctum is the central stronghold of the Templars of the Ivory Labyrinth in the Worldwound, a fortress led by a man named Xanthir Vang who also happens to be the regional leader of the Blackf lame Adepts. Staunton records his sole meeting with Xanthir Vang, and indicates he would rather not meet him again—apparently something about the man particularly revolted the antipaladin.
• Finally, Staunton mentions a special prisoner who’s been kept in the Drezen dungeons—a succubus by the name of Aureshalae who was captured by Aponavicius. Staunton knows the succubus is some sort of Abyssal heretic and that the marilith wanted her kept prisoner until a special oubliette in the Rasping Rifts on the Abyss was ready for her. The fact that the succubus escaped not long after Aponavicius left Drezen in Staunton’s hands is a major point of worry for the dwarf. He’s sent several minions out into the Worldwound to track her, noting that her loss of certain demonic abilities is the one saving grace and hoping her inability to teleport or become ethereal will allow his agents to find her and return her to Drezen before Aponavicius finds out she’s managed to f lee into the wilds of the Wounded Lands. The final note in the diary talks of how he hired an annis hag cultist of Sifkesh to track her down as well, and that if this final attempt fails, he intends to seek out Arueshalae himself once “this matter with the so-called heroes of Kenabres is settled.”
It takes about two hours to read the journal.