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next door. Peldur, you should eat some greens.
Bibi opens the next door. Shelves line the walls of this room, each filled with tools used for cleaning or repair work. A silver-headed cane lies amid a tangle of mops, brooms, and buckets. The tools all seem to be clean and well cared for, not old and decrepit. They're all also precariously stacked together without thought of organization.
Huh. Seeing a nice piece like that cane out in the open makes me think there may be some treasures hidden in here...
She begins to make a lookabout at the goodies, hoping to find more treasure, or secrets. Or secret treasures.
Bibi thinks the cane is far and away the stand out item here, but it'll take some careful and steady hands to extricate it without causes a crash of everything else.
<--ummmm...
Bibi slides the cane out, but at the last second the hook catches and everything comes crashing down in a cacophony, announcing the party's presence...
Nothing comes from the south door, but a buzzing and loud shouting in a fiendish language begin from the North
Ah, crap.
"I'm not sure what magic they contain. But I'm sure it's underwhelming."
"Is that why you are giving them to me? Do you think Desna is going to need to give me lots of luck for these to hit their target?"
"I don't see you using my style. You're too kind-hearted to fight dirty like me. Maybe you should concentrate on throwing that knife. Tal might give you some good advice. But my point was, sometimes you need to heal YOURSELF in a fight!"
"So, you are worried about my safety?! That is most kind of you to think about me. I suppose in the heat of battle, I am just concerned about keeping all of you alive and thought that it would be best to be close to all of you up front. I figure that Desna will watch over me. But if it makes you feel better, I'll be careful next time."
Set up out in the hallway and flank them? Or come into here & stop them at the door? Decide quick!!
"Close the door, come back, and be quiet," Elena whispers to Bibi. "It's possible they won't realize it was us, as tangled messes are often precarious and prone to collapse.
As the party discusses, the voice in the other room switches to a crackling and staccato Taldane, "Wait! Get back here and free me! Free me!"
OK, that's weird...
Bibi exits & quietly shuts the door.
What do y'all make of that?? Smells like a trap to me.
”What if this is somebody who needs our help? Hopefully not every creature who lives here means us harm.”
With the door closed, the party discusses a plan. As Carrufikus ponders, the door behind Bibi is opened quickly. The thing on the other side is horrible. It's some kind of childlike blasphemy conjoins the features of a plump human infant and a gigantic, gore-fattened fly. "Finally! something better to do than clean! Zozzlarin brings your DOOM!"
Round 1:
Carrufikus: Go
Bibi: Go
Zozzlarin: TBD
Peldur: TBD
Talborel: TBD
Noroc: TBD
Elena: TBD
Initiative assumes Talborel is Scouting
Avoid Notice (T)
Detect Magic (A: +1 (U), N: +8 (T), O: +1 (U) , R: +8 (T))
Investigate (A: +8 (T), C: +8 (T) M: +1 (U) N: +5 (T), O: +7 (T) , R: +5 (T), S: +8 (T))
Search (E)
Avoid Notice (E)
Scout
"No thank you. I don't want to meet my doom!". Carrufikus cries back.
As he glances at the creature he nearly throws up with repulsion!"Ewwww! That thing is hideous!". The gnonme pilgrim quickly follows up by casting Divine Lance on the creature.
Carrufikus makes a quick decision and it pays off. The lance of pure good is nearly a perfect shot. It clearly hurts the hideous thing!
Round 1:
Carrufikus: Lance
Bibi: Go
Zozzlarin: TBD
Peldur: TBD
Talborel: TBD
Noroc: TBD
Elena: TBD
Zozzlarin: 11
Having pressed herself against the wall, the beastie hasn't noticed her yet. She gulps, steps up to give her friends room to join in, and draws her rapier. She foregoes her usual banter and just stabs the thing.
HERO POINT!!
Bib's thrust is powerful indeed! But the horrible creature avoids the stab!
The creature snarls! "We need not fight! I'll give you a delicious memory if you let me live!" Not wanting to wait to see though, it takes a bite out of Bibi:
for and
It then casts a quick spell and appears next to Carrufikus!
Round 1:
Carrufikus: Lance
Bibi: Miss
Zozzlarin: ATK
Peldur: Go
Talborel: Go
Noroc: Go
Elena: Go
Zozzlarin: 11
round 1, retcon
since I didn't move, I could take a 2nd stab
<--forking shirtballs
Noroc steps up protectively of Carrufikus and responds. You call for our doom, and then bite our friends? Yeah, I'm pretty sure we DO "need fight", buddy. The time for debate is over.
While he waves his "walking stick" about menacingly, he's well aware of the toll the moonbeam spell took on him and lets fly with a divine lance of his own, after seeing the success his gnome friend had with it.
Bibi's redoublement falls short, but Noroc gets lucky with his heroics! the lance is agonizing. The creature shouts, "STOP! STOP! I will give you a memory treasure for my life!"
Round 1:
Carrufikus: Lance
Bibi: Miss
Zozzlarin: ATK
Peldur: Go
Talborel: Go
Noroc: Hit
Elena: Go
Zozzlarin: 23
Peldur squats down into a familiar crouch and springs forward to flank the creature with Noroc.
You have my pity, you disgusting putrescence. That someone would mate with a giant fly and bring you into this world is beyond cruel. Your pain and suffering is no price to pay for whatever pleasure your parent enjoyed in that horrid, disgusting, vomitous act of carnality. We will end your agony. May the gods have mercy on your soul.
Peldur punches it in the face repeatedly.
The creature dodges Peldur's swings, "STOP! It's WORTH IT!"
Round 1:
Carrufikus: Lance
Bibi: Miss
Zozzlarin: ATK
Peldur: Miss
Talborel: Go
Noroc: Hit
Elena: Go
Zozzlarin: 23
Tal answers with his bow.
Damage on hit:
Damage on hit:
Hunt prey
Action 1: Recall Knowledge (w/Dubious Knowledge)
Action 2-3: TBD
Elena takes a moment to study Zozzlarin...
Tal's arrows answer the question, but they do not end the threat. Elena struggles with figuring out the situation here. Either this thing is an accuser devil who can project exact recreations of past events as proof, or is a lesser contract devil who will exact a promise only to twist it later...
Round 1:
Carrufikus: Lance
Bibi: Miss
Zozzlarin: ATK
Peldur: Miss
Talborel: Miss
Noroc: Hit
Elena: 2 Actions
Zozzlarin: 23
Action 2: Sense Motive
Action 3: Request
Uncertain about the specific identity but certain that they have a devil before them, Elena takes a second to consider its words.
Choosing her words carefully, she speaks. "Devil, for I know you are a devil, you have seconds before we destroy you. If you know what you say you know, show us the past event you think we will care about. If you do not, then we will know your lie and this will end now."
Fiends are inscrutable... but Elena seeks the information regardless, "I can show you a vision of the human who felled Belcorra!"
Round 2:
Carrufikus: Go
Bibi: Go
Zozzlarin: TBD
Peldur: TBD
Talborel: TBD
Noroc: TBD
Elena: TBD
Zozzlarin: 23
Carrufikus waits to hear what Elena wants him to do.
Bibi stops her next thrust short at hearing the devil's suggestion.
delay.
Zozzlarin pulls up, not attacking. There's a moment...
The horrid fiend pulls back, "I need only touch a person to grant them the vision. The value, I think, is in who plays a role in this vision. May I suggest a volunteer who is knowledgeable in people of merit and doers of deeds?"
"So what exactly is this vision do you want to give? It better not be something disgusting. And what is going to happen to somebody who gets this vision?"
Unable to resist the pull of knowledge, Elena steps forward. "Let it be me. I've read more books than most, and hopefully I can put that lost time to good use."
Society is +8
Noroc opens his mouth to object, but silences himself almost at once. Elena is correct, she's read far more than most — certainly more than he had; and she volunteered besides.
He waits in antici...pation.
Bibi keeps her rapier out. If you injure her in any way, devil, you will not live long enough to regret it.
<--+ perception is net 23
Elena volunteers as neither Bibi nor Noroc think this is a trick...
As soon as the fiend touches Elena, her eyes turn completely black! The touch only lasts a second, and when it ends, so to do the strange eyes. She seems to be none the worse for wear.
The vision is perfect, as if you saw it with your own eyes. It's a man, wounded, running. He's looking over his shoulder. You see his face. He is thin with a well-groomed mustache and goatee. He is terrified. He runs down the hall and dives into the room with the bath; the one with the message on the wall. He darts out not long after, heading in the same direction as the green light. He rounds the corner out of your vision. The vision from the fiend ends...
"And that was the last time I saw a surface worlder. This is good enough for my life, yes?"
Elena thinks about who she saw. It's on the tip of her tongue. It was either Otari Ilvashti himself or it was a Pathfinder. Given the cut of his clothes, and you think you saw their famed symbol of the "Open Road" on the clasp of his cloak.
"When was this? Was it Otari Ilvashti or someone else? Zozzlarin, I know you have knowledge. Reveal your secrets," Elena says, hoping to extract more from the devil.
"Hmmm.... Time's a bit tricky. I can't leave. It's been a few years.... I don't know 500 years? I haven't seen a human since."
Bibi gasps and her eyes wide. You *saw* Otari?!?!
"Wait, you cannot leave? How are you bound here?"
"I am.... bound to this level of her mistress's realm as an eternal..... janitor." The words are practicely spit out. "I am contractually required to spend 18 hours each day in myroom, and I've done my best to paint the walls to remind me of home. For the other 6 hours each day, I'm compelled to buzz out into the surrounding complex to clean and dust. Thanks to Belcorra’s "sense of humor", I'm required to spend at least 3 of those hours cleaning the dusty walls and floors of the dungeon with my tongue."
"Uggg! How do you manage it, Zozzlarin? Can you ever fulfill your obligation and go home to where you came from? What kind of deal binds you here?"
"If HER spirit is laid to rest, then the terms of my contract are fulfilled!"
"Interesting. And just where is Belcorra's spirit? I would say we're of a mind to send you home."
"Bah! Who knows! It's certainly NOT on this floor."
Noroc can't help but giggle to himself quietly at the cleverness of forcing this fiend to clean with its tongue. Exceedingly cunning, he thinks to himself. Were the Chelaxians so skilled, history might have been rewritten...
"Well, if we laid her to rest, would you agree to go home and leave this realm forever?"