Indeed, she fights to the death. The assault from Ferrun overwhelms her. Once she falls, the party retreats out of the offal-filled room to recover.
"Well, I'm glad we took care of that fiend. I am surprised that our fanatical friend didn't want to make a deal with us. It's not like he has nine lives or anything. Now his life is over and he is going to regret his decision making."
Ferrun takes some time to investigate the room and see if he finds something of interest. He will also take ten minutes to refocus and restore a focus point.
hp: 52/92
Heyou! begins to fiddle with the door, and almost instantly he hears a plaintive voice from the other side in the language of the Mwangi followed by a heavily accented Taldane, "Hello! Is someone out there! Please! I'm in here!"
He quickly opens the door. The west side of the room contains a low table with a scattering of gems on it and doors leading west and north. The east side of the room contains a large bed, although the mattress has been pulled onto the floor and the bedframe turned upright and covered with a sheet to create a large impromptu canopy over the mattress.
Within is a long-haired Mwangi woman with large green eyes, sitting cross-legged on the mattress and studying a few ancient, rune-carved silver platters.
"Thank goodness!" She seems incredibly relieved at your arrival.
"Well met, my lady. I am Ferrun Munkustrap at your service. What brings such a lovely lady into a place surrounded by such evil? How may we help you?"
"I was kidnapped for my translation skills. My name is Ademe. I don't suppose any of you can read Requian? Or maybe translation magic?"
"These seem like useful skills to have, but your employer seems to lack courtesy apart from perhaps giving you such a nice place to stay. I am not very useful as a translator, but I am curious what sort of material they had you translating. What exactly where you doing for them?"
"These SHOULD be information about the ruins here, but I don't know my way around the language. They've promised that if I translate them I can go. I prefer that to violence. Can any of you translate?"
She snaps, "Then you're useless to me!" The change in demeanor is swift and surprising. She then calms down, "Sorry. I'm just anxious with my predicament."
"Relax, my dear. We are happy to let you go, if that is something you want. We do believe in freedom in every sense. We also plan to vanquish any of these evil doers and make sure that they will bring no further harm to you."
"Good good. If I can leave then. I shall!" She packs up the platters and some scrolls before moving to depart.
Pazúr casts a skeptical eye around the woman's "prison" before asking, "If you were being held prisoner, why wasn't the door locked? And what crime do I have to commit to get put in such a posh cell?"
While the whole thing is strange, no one really gets a feel that she's lying or the like, "It need not be locked since it was guarded!" The woman starts to get agitated, and physically starts trying to leave.
(T, LLV)
(T, LLV)
(T, DV)
(+2 if INIT, T, LLV)
(T, DV)
"Leave them be!" She swats at Heyou! but he nabs one of the scrolls without her seeing!
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"Well, Ademe. I suppose you are free to go. However, before you go, may I offer to let you travel with us until we have cleared this place and made it safe. I certainly wouldn't want you to get hurt. Please let me know your wishes."
"Thank you but no. I've had enough of the dangerous parts of these ruins, and I'd rather be done with them now thank you."
At this point, she so frustrated that it's obvious someone will have to physically grab her to stop her....
The woman finally leaves, her pace quickening as she gets towards the entrance.
The party takes in their surroundings a bit more. You're here to find a statue to help break the Slithering Curse, not to make friends...
Heyou! sees that it's a Scroll of Fear . An odd item for a captured translator to have.
When Heyou! explains what's on the scroll, Pazúr shakes his head and says, "I think we may have just let someone go that we should not have. I guess there's nothing for it to see what else is here."
He moves to the small door on the west side of the room where the "translator" was "imprisoned" and waits for his companions to join him before opening it.
Pazúr returns to a task he has control over, and opens the door. It leads outside. Everyone notices that that front of the door is defaced with slashes, as if someone had attacked it with a blunt pick. Next to the door is a pile of wicker baskets, each stained an ominous red color.
"I think we may have just let someone go that we should not have. I guess there's nothing for it to see what else is here."
"She may not have been the most charming, but I saw no reason to keep her here. In fact, if I was held here against my will, you would probably call me grumpy kitty. Come to think of it, I think you already do."
Ferrun looks around at the red baskets, trying to determine if the red is blood.
Ferrun finds the baskets are stained with rotten fruit. Ferrun finds a strange item that radiates magic. It's a repulsive, hairy glob with a cord that looks like it affixes to a weapon...
"It looks like somebody coughed up a hair ball here. Is this yours, Pazur?"
Thankfully it does nothing at the moment...
Pazúr laughs at Ferrun's barb and responids with a sharp-toothed grin, "Come on now, Grumpy Kitty, you know my fur is finer-looking than that, even in a hairball. But I am curious what that nasty thing is, since it looks like it's meant to attach to a weapon."
Looking around, he continues, "I'm also curious - like all good cats are - where we should go next. Explore outside a bit here, or finish checking out this building?"
Not wanting to get lost in an alley, Sixclaw brings the party back to building. He leads the way to one of the rooms beyond the fountain. The door seems safe enough, so he opens it.
This room has doors to the north, east (yours), and an open passage south. The wall to the west has several displays bearing mummified hands, with a small plaque next to each.
"Does anybody here need a hand?" The cat asks with dry humor. He then proceeds to check out the small plaques on the western wall and read what they say.
The little goblin rushes to the hands. They seem to be here as a place of honor, like a hall of busts in Oparra... But one of the hands is hollowed out, and the plague has a LOT more writing on it... unfortunately it's in the local language of the MWangi Expanse.
Pazúr lets out a very brief chuckle at Ferrun's joke, then joins Heyou! in taking a closer look at the wall of hands, particularly the one that is hollowed out. "Oh, interesting," he remarks, "this is in Mwangi, it says..."
Pazúr confirms that the hands are all past cult leaders, but the one that's different is quite interesting, the hand is hollowed out and contains a singular vial. The plaque says it's something called "[urlhttps://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=791]sixfingers elixir[/url]", and that it was a stolen from a rival cult of Angazhan decades ago. the plaque contains directions for its use.
Everyone stares at the goblin as he takes the vial.
"Let's go through this door and take a right."
Ferrun leads the others west through the door and north through the door. First he checks the door for traps or hazards.
A small metal altar stands against the room’s south wall. The chipped and worn shrine is shaped like a bent, muscled humanoid dinosaur with its broad back serving as the altar’s surface. The entire structure seems to exude an ancient and oppressive malice. A double door leads east.
Completely absorbed in meditative prayer are a pair of cultists. One is a young man, the other a woman. Tiny horns, bat-like wings, and a sinuous tail betray the demonic nature of this alluring woman though.
They don't seem to notice you!