The creature delivers another blow against the halfling, diverted at the last second by his shield.
”I’ll try to draw its attention,” Sir Rollynd grunts and dashes into the room.
Again, barely diverted by the shield. The halfling ducks between the thing’s legs and pops out the other side. He’s not able to attack, but he does provide a flanking buddy for anybody in the doorway, and he made a space so robe could move into. As for attacking from the doorway, there’s enough room for one person to do so at no penalty and a second person to attack around cover (+4 to AC to both that person and the creature).
You’re all up.
Edward moves up and takes the space that was vacated by the halfling paladin and attacks.
If it makes you feel any better, the creature has a 20 AC.
Conri makes use of one of his SLAs and flings a glob of acid at the creature.
He fails to hit the lumbering monstrosity, which takes a swing at the nimble halfling, still failing to hit.
Everybody’s up.
Edward continues his assault, hoping to accomplish something.
Darting around the corner during an opening between Edward's attacks...
...Ty's daggers bite the monstrosity with a squelching sound, but the young rogue can tell that cuts are too shallows to really have much effect.
"Come on, man!"
Conri scores a direct hit with a glob of magical acid that burns a new furrow in the creature. It swings again at Sir Rollynd, missing
Who returns the favour.
And we’re all up again.
Ty, missing again, blurts out "Screw this!" before doing a somersault past the creature's legs to come up on the other side of it.
Edward continues the assault, undeterred by his lack of success.
Conri flings more acid, causing a minor wound, then declares he’s out of that particular trick.
The creature tries to slam Ty as he zips by, misses the youth, and catches the halfling square in the face. The halfling crumpled to the ground and lies still.
The creature is very hurt ... if you all could just roll high enough to actually hit it.
Actually, you have a flank, bless, and guidance, so you hit and get through DR (barely).
"Sir Rollins!" Ty cries out in alarm before giving everything he's got.
Ty fails to faze the creature, which, when it turns to lay into Edward, gets a tiny dagger right on a seam, which pops open, revealing all sorts of nasty, rotten reagents all over the floor. The flesh golem tumbles and lies still.
You find Sir Rollynd unconscious but stable. A bit of healing with the wand should set him right.
With a moment now to look around, you guess you’re in the remains of a wizard’s lab, smashed to flinders some time ago. While the golem destroyed most things, it was unable to do more to an iron wall safe than rip it out of the wall and smash tables with it. The lock is smashed, so turning the handle is all that is required to open it. Inside are the remains of various glass vials (their potions long since spilled and spoiled), two wands (both labelled in the same handwriting as the journals downstairs, and both cracked requiring mending spells to repair, one of web with 29 charges and the other of detect thoughts with 18 charges remaining) and a spellbook containing the following spells (all cantrips, alarm, break, cause fear, corrosive touch, crafter’s fortune, enlarge person, floating disk, grease, identify, interrogation, mage armour, magic aura, ray of enfeeblement, restore corpse, sculpt corpse, unseen servant, vanish, acid arrow, bull’s strength, false life, make whole, and shatter). The spilled potions ruined the latter pages, which used to contain more powerful spells.
All that’s left on this floor is the Asmodeus door and the desecrated Aroden door.
Once the creature falls, Edward quickly moves over to the halfling paladin. "Sir Rollynd is still breathing. That is good. Use whatever you must of the wand to bring him back to health, good Richard. Once he is feels he is ready to proceed then we shall travel through the door of Aroden."
Sir Rollynd comes to under Richard’s ministrations and smiles wanly up at you. ”I hope you will forgive me for taking my ease when there’s work to be done. Now, has anyone seen my jawbone?”
You head to the south door, and find it both unlocked and untrapped, though barricaded by something heavy, requiring a good shove to move it. Unlike the lower levels, these west and south sections are combined into one room. In the northwest and southeast corners, marble altars stand against the wall, both with burning torches set in their tops. The northwest altar is draped in a blood-red cloth and an inverted pentagram fashioned from gold hangs on wires from the ceiling above it. The southeast altar is draped in a white, blood-stained cloth. Hunks of gold lie scattered about the altar: enough large pieces remain to identify it as once being an Eye of Aroden. Royal purple rugs lead to both altars: oak pews neatly flank the rug leading to the northwest altar, while matching pews have been hacked to pieces and piled as a barrier between the two sections of the room. Two heavy tables had been shoved up against the southern door you just opened.
"Jeez, your church will have to bring a team with a bucket and mop, next," Ty mumbles to Edward. He moves to search the area around the southern altar.
Around the southern altar, Ty finds chunks of gold worth around 200 gp. Behind the altar, he spots a book, bound with wood, but covered in soft leather and an embarrassing amount of gemstones, entitled The History and Future of Humanity. He estimates the gems alone to be worth around 500 gp. The book itself might have been worth more, but all of its pages have been torn out, and he doesn’t see them scattered anywhere. The two torches on either side of the altar are continual flame torches, and easily removed from their holders.
As the rest of you make your way inside, the door slams shut and an ornate silver key appears stuck to the wood of the door itself, and a high-pitched, almost infant voice calls out, ”Whom do you serve, mortals?”
a high-pitched, almost infant voice calls out
Eyes wide, Ty looks at the others with an expression that is decidedly not fear. He bites his lower lip to keep from snickering, but ones escapes anyway.
"SNRRRK! Could you, um, could you ask that again? I didn't SNRRRK hear you!"
”I said, whom do you serve?” the voice repeats, anger pushing its tone even higher.
"Jeez, your church will have to bring a team with a bucket and mop, next," Ty mumbles to Edward. He moves to search the area around the southern altar.
Edward can only shrug and nod in agreement, truly unable to argue with the rogue.
-------------------------------------------
Edward looks to Richard before looking back to the stranger. "He speaks truth and I am truly curious as to your response to his question," he says with absolute sincerity. "Why does it bear importance as to whom we serve?"
”Yeck! I recognize that symbol. Iomedae! Come to retrieve your pretties? You should try upstairs. Lord Braxton has quite a few on the fifth floor with him. If you came here looking for Aroden’s help, you’re much too late. There haven’t been any of them left for quite some time!” A second invisible voice starts to giggle.
”But we’re being rude. How can two servants of the Prince of Darkness help a group of minions of Aroden’s whore?”
"I think the more important question is what's wrong with your voices?!"
”We cannot. The tower is sealed, or we would have fled centuries ago!”
You hear some high-pitched whispering. ”What do you mean how did they get in?” the baby voice asks quietly. ”Right! How did you get in here? This is our Shrine and we’ll leave it when we feel like it.”
"Are you being sealed in here because of your baby voices?" Ty asks with wide eyes while trying to hold back laughter.
Above Ty’s head, a bizarre amalgamation of a human infant and fattened house fly appears. The creature glares down at the youth.
”You dare to mock me, mortal? Show some proper respect or we shall teleport away and leave you trapped in here behind that magically-sealed door. We shall see if you can feast on your own impudence!”
Ty holds his hands up in supplication.
"Okay, okay, you're right! I'm sorry! You can't help that you have a baby voice!
"Um, is there a reason we don't want you to teleport away?"
”Only that only I know the command word to release the sealing key, so if you don’t want to starve to death in here, you’ll agree to a contract of my choosing.”
Stepping forward, "The arrogance of youth, please ignore him. He does not know any better yet."
Drumming his fingers on his hips, "We came though the front door and did not know for certain this tower was inhabited. And if those items offend you we are happy to help remove them from your wonderous Shrine."
Richard sees the other altar is well cared for, it’s good pentagram polished to a shine, and an intact copy of The Asmodean Disciplines, as fine as the cover of the Arodenites text, sits on a side table. Behind the altar, it appears that the missing pages have been shredded and fashioned into two nests on the floor.
”I am Zagog. My companion is Bayel. The contract for your release will contain the following items: you will answer any and all questions we out to you concerning the current politics of the world, especially of Cheliax, Taldor, and Absalom, and what changes have been brought about by the return of Aroden—I may not know the exact year, but it must be at least 4606 by now. You will promise to complete a small though currently undetermined favour are some point in the future, and you will agree to slay Braxton Kreel, whose fault it is that we have been trapped here all these centuries! When the contract is signed, we will remove the magical key from the door and release you before we depart.”
Ty finally starts to listen to what the demons are saying instead of what they sound like.
"You keep saying that. Are we trapped here?"
He steps in and out of the room a few times as if to test.
Edward looks a bit confused. "Are you speaking of the magical door that is the actual entrance to this grand edifice?"
As the rest of you make your way inside, the door slams shut and an ornate silver key appears stuck to the wood of the door itself, and a high-pitched, almost infant voice calls out, ”Whom do you serve, mortals?”
Ty can’t. The door you came into the shrine by has been magically sealed by some sort of magical item.
While the others talk to the baby voices, Ty looks over at the key.
If it seems safe, he'll try and pull it out of the wood with his hands.
|
To the invisible voices, Richard replies
"To the first part of your contract, I will agree to answer any question of which I know the answer to. To the third part, it is clear that Braxton Kreel cannot be redeemed and as such his destruction is required by the will of the Dawnflower. To the second part, I cannot and will never agree to sign any contract with vague/unspecific verbiage. If you desire a favour to be included in the contract, you *must* specify its nature. Without this, I, Richard Wells IV will never sign this contract - up to and including my death by starvation. Know this, if we cannot agree to terms to allow us to leave this room, you will be considered my enemy and your complete and total destruction will be my sole remaining task in life."
”How are we supposed to know what kind of favour we will need before we need it? Hey, leave that alone!” Bayel yells at Ty.
The key is stuck fast to the door, though he can see no mechanism keeping it there. The door is also magically locked, though a glance tells him that the bolt in the door itself is not in the lock position.
”So what you’re saying is that your friends will have to kill you so they can sign the contract. Proceed. We’ll watch.”
Ignoring the voice as he squints at the key, Ty pulls out a hammer and one of his daggers. He tries to use the dagger as a chisel* along with the hammer to try and pry the key off of the door. If that doesn't work, he'll try to chip the wood surrounding the key away from the door.
Above Ty’s head, a bizarre amalgamation of a human infant and fattened house fly appears. The creature glares down at the youth.
One of the creatures has appeared, while the other is still invisible somewhere. Somewhere very close.
In his ear, Richard hears a different voice, small but not infantile, say, ”The answer to overcome him can be found in the Aroden book. You should reassemble the pages to find out how to defeat him.”
Richard needs to make a DC 15 Will save or feel compelled to spend the next few hours sifting through shredded papers.