Torra hurls a earthen projectile over her allies' heads, just barely missing Yuto, but it strikes home nonetheless, sending the creature flailing back. It hisses in a language that scrapes over the party's mortal ears, squirming unpleasantly into their minds.
Yuto throws out his challenge even as he hurls a vial of holy water at the creature. The flying decapus flutters its wings and flicks its tentacles out of the way of the flask, which crashes to the ground some distance below. A horrid burbling that might be laughter emerges from its fanged maw.
Teruko rushes to Riftun's side, calling on her healing magic to get him conscious - and stable - for the time being.
Wincing from the damage and seeing Riftun go down in one single cast, Andy shakes his head at Teruko's suggestion. "Take care of Riftun! I'll try to buy us some time!" he calls back, and stomps into the room, aiming an attack on the flying foe as he does.
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Riftun's eyes widen just as his pupils narrow in horror as the unholy energy rips through his body. His breath is sucked out of his body as all he can feel is this horrible cold emptiness. The light dims from the world as he falls back into unconsciousness collapsing in a heap on the floor.
That is until his dreamless slumber is interrupted by a budding warmth. A light returning to his lifeless body. With a sudden gasp Riftun awakens to see Teruko's face above him and he instinctively clutches her arm. A moment later he loosens his grip and and shivers. "T-Teruko... n-now that I think of it... it may also have some ranged capabilities." He gives a half-hearted and shaky chuckle as he makes his way to his feet. With a nod of thanks to his friend the bard immediately begins doing his best to help his friends again.
"Good work everyone! Torra you're our best hope keep up the pressure so it can't do that awful magic again, please!"
Conscious again, Riftun resumes his guidance, offering advice to Torra specifically. He begins getting to his feet, his weakened muscles a bit too slow to get him fully there.
Andochtuir refuses Teruko's offer, rushing instead through the crypt and out into the cavern. The drop is swift, but not too painful - he only gets a little bruised, and that does little to deter him from attacking. It does, however, make his attack fairly easy for the creature to dodge.
The creature laughs and says something in a dozen voices that speak in odd, unnerving harmony. It flaps back out over the even deeper part of the cave
One of its fluttering tentacles come up, pointing a small wand at Yuto. It speaks a word in its strangely harmonized voices, and a white-hot ray of fire erupts from the wand's tip. The flash of heat strikes home on the young samurai's armor, which sears with heat, scorching his flesh and bone beneath it.
Teruko shakes her head, confused. From her angle she can't really see what hit Yuto, but it was clearly bad. "Ranged capabilities indeed. Andochtuir, I hope you don't mind me using your scroll anyway, but I think we need options right now."
"I'll heal you soon Yuto, I promise." She touches the longbow on his back and reads the scroll aloud. "But now you can attack it, flying or no."
"Nonononono, stop that!" shouts Torra as she rips another chunk of stone from the cavern wall to hurl it at the tentacled creature. "Stop! Hurting! My! Friends!"
Yuto is too surprised to dodge the ray of flames. Clenching his teeth as the burns pain him, he feels Teruko's hand touching his bow "O-ok Teruko Sama!"
Feeling reassured that she knows what to do, he takes the bow and an arrow from the quiver and shots believing he will be able to harm it now.
Torra unleashes another powerful blast at the flying decapus, smashing into it again. It hisses, resonant voices infuriated, as blood oozes from its battered head.
Yuto holds off, readying his bow in response to Teruko's offer. She enchants it using the scroll, and he looses a shot in the general direction of the creature... which casually bats the arrow out of the air with a tentacle.
Grimacing, knowing he had no way to reach the thing and that the team wasnt doing very well, Andy throws an enlarged yet nonmagical javelin at it!
Riftun gasps out and reaches toward Yuto as he is struck by the searing flame of the winged creature. At least Torra was doing well against it but everyone else was likely to struggle against an opponent that could harm them from such a distance.
Forcing himself back up onto his feet he urges his allies forward. "Torra you're doing so well! Keep up the pressure we can't let up now! Teruko, I-I think Yuto could use some of your healing magics as well!"
Riftun gets to his feet, continuing to offer his support to the others, while Andochtuir takes inspiration from his bardic ally's insight and hurls a javelin that tears through the creature's flesh. It hisses, its voices growing dissonant, but seems less injured than might otherwise be expected.
One of the demonic decapus' tentacles grows dark, and it swoops down towards Andochtuir. It darts through his guard, dodging around his fauchard's attempts to ward it away, and slaps out with said tentacle. The half-elf is ready, however, and dodges out of the way of whatever nasty surprise it has for him.
Yuto steps to the side, for a better angle and to avoid giving cover to Torra. Aiming with the bow against the column to use it for his benefit, he nocks another arrow, making it magical per Teruko's spell "C'mon it is like in the books, hold the aim, visualize the target..."
The pressure, yes, it was on her to defeat this monster! Taking a few steps forward for a better view, Torra strains and grunts as she gathers more loose rocks to her and projects them forward in a deadly torrent.
"Leave him alone! Go away!"
Teruko nods, unsure whether Riftun can see it or not. Her hands glow as she calls upon her magic to heal the worst of Yuto's injuries. "Of course."
Once Yuto is healed, she moves off to one side. Depending on which spells the half-fiend knows, it might be best to not all be clumped together as a group.
Torra blasts the decapus unerringly, her earthen projectile smashing into the creature's side again, and sending it spinning. It quickly levels out, hissing, but more blood wells up from its head-body than ever.
Teruko quickly heals Yuto, cleaning up some of the wounds the fires caused, and relieving some of the searing agony. However, despite his best efforts and the help of his enchanted bow, the arrow flies slightly wide as he avoids shooting at Andochtuir - who provides some significant cover for the decapus, at his size.
Falling back into an alcove of the save of sorts, Andochtuir swings his now massive Fauchard in an attempt to hit this Demon!
"Now!" He calls out, after moving back or aside.
Riftun looks around in awe as his companions work so methodically to take this creature down. In a way, it was like clockwork. Precise, everyone knowing their part. It was enough to inspire the young bard that he must play his role as well.
"That's brilliant Torra! Pressure molds some into diamonds and you're brilliant right now! Let him have it! Andy don't let that thing grab you! It'll crush you something awful! Yuto once Andy's clear fire!" He calls out to his friends and allies.
Riftun offers some more insight into fighting the half-fiend decapus, only for Andochtuir to step back and slash the thing in two with a final, swift strike of his pole arm. Though its flesh is resistant to the attack, he tears through, and the creature falls, bleeding out. It wails something in its now-dissonant voices - only one word is clear, however. "Pazuzu."
The bleeding half-fiend collapses to the ground, its wand clattering as it splats against the stone floor.
Teruko can hardly believe it. The creature, so menacing a moment before, fell to one blow from Andochtuir's fauchard. "Check the body! We know it could cast illusions." Following her own advice, she casts Detect Magic as she looks at where the corpse fell.
(Does she think the decapus is playing dead? No. Is she willing to take the chance? Also no.)
Teruko can hardly believe it. The creature, so menacing a moment before, fell to one blow from Andochtuir's fauchard.
Breathing heavily, sounds which in his enlarged state echoed through the cave below, Andy glances back at Teruko and gives her a nod. He makes a sweeping motion with his fauchard in the direct area in front of him, just in case something was invisible there, then cleaves the demon's upper half again in case it was an illusion.
Should he encounter nothing out of the ordinary, he takes a couple of strides back to the cliff he had to jump down and reaches up with his enlarged free arm. "Quick. I can carry you all down so you don't have to climb, or jump."
As said, he picks up and safely and gently lowers each teammate into the cave. That was, those who wishes to be lowered such, before his potion of Enlarge Person runs out.
Only when everyone is down and healing taken care of does he start searching the body and the room.
"So-sorry Teruko, I could not do your magic worth. I-it is clear I have to train with the bow, kn-knowing the theory is just not enough" Yuto looks down ashamed collecting the bow back to his shoulder and picking up his scimitar.
The Tian's demeanor changes though as he looks at the fallen creature "Y-you gave it a great fight Sir Andochtuir and Torra San. M-might this devil be behind all the curse befallen to th-this place?"
Yuto accepts Andochtuir's hand offer and descends to the next level, helping him to register the body of the fallen fiend and the rest of the cave.
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The body appears to be real, once they investigate. It's still twitching - alive, if dying - but it doesn't seem to be an illusion. It does, however, have its devastating wand lying nearby... and a couple of its tentacles end in what can only be described as claws. These are somewhat like a crab's, only with four digits instead of two.
Other than that, it doesn't appear to have anything of true use... unless one was inclined towards anatomical (or perhaps taxonomical) scholarship, in which case its body itself is a treasure trove of new knowledge.
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Nobody had called Torra a diamond before, or brilliant, and the dwarf just stands there for a moment, a little dazed as she stares unfocusedly at the creature's corpse. At last, she shakes herself out of it, accepting Big Andochtuir's help in descending to the lower floor, where she crouches to examine the tentacled monstrosity.
"Just how many monsters are in this place?! My parents kept telling me that the stories in books, of brave knights slaying countless hordes were exaggerations, but now I see they're not?! What are they even eating down here? Rocks and dirt?"
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Riftun stands relieved when the beast is brought to heel by that final strike from Big Andochtuir. Teruko's warning about the fact that this might just be another clever illusion does put him on edge though, especially since he rather embarrassingly fell for the original deception so completely.
Soon, it is confirmed that the creature is, in fact, dying. If not dead, and Riftun can truly begin to relax.
As Big Andochtuir helps him down the bard looks haggard, the earlier magic clearly having had a rather demonstrable effect on the poor boy even after Teruko's timely healing. Still, he pats Yuto on the shoulder as he passes on his way towards the wand. "Don't be so hard on yourself Yuto. You stood your ground firmly and allowed Andochtuir and Torra to do what needed to be done. You're an invaluable part of this team Gentle Blade." The young man smiles weakly and examines the wand and the creature which once held it.
"This decapus is still among the living... h-have we any need to try and interrogate it before moving on?" Riftun asks wearily.
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Teruko also accepts Andochtuir's help in getting down to the lower level of the cave. Suppressing her natural disgust, she moves close enough to the decapus to pick up the wand and examine it. A few seconds later she shakes her head. "I still have no idea what type of spell this casts, other than a powerful one. Riftun, do you have any insights? Either way we should hang onto it for now."
With the wand secured Teruko turns her attention to helping Andochtuir heal everyone. They could go back to Spivey, but she would much rather finish exploring this part of the castle as quickly as possible.
"You were indeed brilliant Torra. Without your aptitude for stone I don't think we could have won. As for you, Yuto, no need to apologize. If anyone should it's me, for using Andochtuir's scroll without asking."
The wand is, in fact, a wand of scorching ray, which would explain exactly why it was so devastating.
Yuto smiles reassured by Riftun words and Teruko's healing. "Th-the creature is dangerous. We-we cannot risk to let it recover. The world w-will be better without it." the Tian makes what is needed to protect his liege's legacy making sure with his katana that the devil is no more.
Then he descends the ledge, arms his shield once more and looks forward with the light on his blade "He-here north, it seems the-there is more..."
To the north, the tunnels crawl outwards, before splitting apart. Further, thanks to the odd glow of the motes of light, Yuto also sees that there is another tunnel to the south, which opens into some sort of cavern... he thinks.
"The-there is a tunnel going north..." Yuto turns and steps to the southern cave "I-I can see a cave t-to the south too..."
The Tian walks to the south to check there before they explore the tunnel complex.
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The cave to the south is utterly strange. Weirdly moist, pulsing leather-like objects are scattered over the ground, with the motes of light clustering around them. It looks like it might've once been a sphere that split.
There is also a significant pile of what can only be described as a treasure hoard. Scattered across a massive pile of gold pieces and a whole lot of jewelry, is a masterfully crafted shield with the heraldry of Brinewally proudly emblazoned upon it, a starknife with abstract runes sketched onto it, a strange looking compass, a lantern, and a darkwood & silver disk with the image of Brinewall castle under the moon. Under a spell of detect magic, another treasure reveals itself - a ring sculpted with the head of a ram.
Finally, there is a disturbing stone statuette carved in the image of Pazuzu himself.
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Teruko shivers as she sees the pulsing objects. "Remnants of the egg from which the decapus spawned. There's still a...taint, for lack of a better word, present in the shards. A demonologist would no doubt find them interesting." She shivers again. "Personally however I can't imagine touching them."
Her attention goes to the treasure hoard, and as usual is first captured by the jewelry. She picks up a particularly vibrant beaded necklace and studies it carefully. "My mother had some pieces like this. Quite valuable, although a bit old-fashioned. The stones would need to be reset before anyone today would wear them."
Eventually she turns away from the jewelry to the items radiating magical auras. Many of them she's not experienced enough to identify, but she pulls out a few. "A wayfinder, a lantern of hidden light, and..." Her brow furrows as she pulls a small disc out of the pile. "Another disc with a tranmutation aura. Other than the design being of a moon rather than a sun, it's identical to the one Kikonu held. We'll have to bring them to Koya's attention later. Perhaps she can puzzle out their intended use."
"An egg? That thing came from an egg?" Torra pokes around in the treasure hoard without much enthusiasm, something that would probably make her dwarven parents disown her. "Oh, a wayfinder, you said? Can I look at it?"
She spends a few moments toying with the device - she knows nothing of magical artifacts, but to her the wayfinder is a symbol of travel and adventure.
"You were indeed brilliant Torra. Without your aptitude for stone I don't think we could have won. As for you, Yuto, no need to apologize. If anyone should it's me, for using Andochtuir's scroll without asking."
"It was a dangerous situation. Using it was entirely justified, Teruko Kaijitsu. If I am entirely honest, I merely landed pair of lucky strikes myself. It was a hard spear toss, and it approached me at exactly the right angle for the glaive. Torra might still have gotten it soon if I hadn't, but a scroll is much more easily replaced than the loss of someone's life," Andochtuir reasons, throwing a proud glance at Torra for her accomplishments and then helping Teruko wand the group back to mostly full health. Well, as soon as he shrunk back to normal health that was, and clapping Yuto on the shoulder encouragingly.
He glances at the body of the demon after he and Yuto both give a couple of finishing strokes. Once he is convinced it is dead, he kneels down properly to study the strange anatomy. "This might be an odd request. However, I am curious if something might be learned of the anatomy of this fiend. If only to find a way to kill them better, should we encounter them in the future. Does any of you object to me undertaking such an endeavor later?" he asks.
When the group starts investigating the items slightly later, he tries to assist.
He looks at the more complicated items and eventually sighs. "These are rather complex magical items. Unfortunately beyong a simply physician such as myself. If only I could read aura's like symptoms..." Glancing at Riftun, he adds: "Do you have an idea, perhaps? You seem very knowledgable regarding a wide array of topics, young friend."
Yuto gulps as Teruko explains what the egg is "I-I do not like that thing... I am not sure about bringing it with us, what if so-something bad gets out of it..."
"W-we should burn it now and here" he proclaims looking at the foul thing.
For the rest, he let's the magically taught ones to examine the treasure here, but the young man helps carry the loot placing them on his backpack and other bags "I-is this the Kaijitsu legacy w-we came here to fi-find?"
Again looking back at the egg an idea springs on Yuto's mind "Pe-perhaps now that the decapus is dead the curse has fa-fallen and Ameiko Sama is re-recovered..."
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Riftun examines the wand and thoughtfully responds to Teruko, "I-I believe I know the spell this wand casts... it summons forth scorching rays of heat a-as we all have witnessed... I'm not sure who could make good use of it though... certainly not me!"
The light of Teruko's healing magic is a welcome one indeed to Riftun as she brings him back into 'fighting' shape. "Th-Thank you for that Teruko, without your healing we'd all be long dead I suspect." He chuckles nervously. "Ameiko will be so proud of you when she hears."
He looks away as Yuto and Andochtuir finish the creature, still coming to terms with the idea of killing a living being that has been rendered harmless but understanding the feeling behind it. The young man shivers at Andochtuir's request to dissect the creature later finding the idea ghoulish but he nods slowly even as he clutches his shoulders in a self-hug to still himself. "I-I'm not a fan of it myself b-but I'm well aware of the benefits such dissection may have in fully understanding a creature. Y-You wont have me stopping you I just... would prefer not to be around when you actually do it, i-if that's alright."
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The bard quivers at the sight of the disturbing remains of the decapus egg. The whole thing was so slimy and disgusting that it completely stole the show from the rest of the mass of treasure before him. So much so that he almost doesn't even notice it until Andochtuir draws his attention to the items.
"O-Oh! Right if you give me a moment I-I'm sure I can puzzle these out. He responds blushing and averting his eyes from the half-elf, bashful at the sudden compliment.
After a time he sighs dejectedly and hands the items back. "I'm afraid I won't be of much help for the ring or the starknife... though I can tell you the later is a weapon favorite by the faithful of my goddess... The statuette however... If I'm reading the spell right it wont be of any use to us... The spell enhances the confidence and passion of a worshiper of Pazuzu that carries it... I-I can't think of any among us who fit that description."
Riftun tries not to think of Zaiobe back at the caravan... whether she was a worshiper of Pazuzu or not was still up in the air and even if she was... well, he worried that giving her this object would be sending her the wrong message.
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"If you think it might provide some useful knowledge, I have no objection to you studying the remnants of the egg. Just be wary; demonic corruption can be very subtle." Teruko gives the statue of Pazuzu a disdainful look. "As demonstrated by that statue. Any artifact that only assists the worshipers of a demon is not one that deserves to exist in this world. We should destroy it before we move on."
While examining it Teruko picks up the statue, only to freeze and immediately set it down. "It's...heavy. Very heavy." She slowly moves forward a few steps but seems to be struggling. "I still feel like I'm carrying it. Like it's pushing me down into the ground. We should definitely destroy it. Or, if we cannot, then I will carry it to Spivey so she can destroy it. No one else should touch it. It might be cursed."
When she lifts the statue up, Teruko feels a sudden surge of pressure, a heavy weight pressing down upon her. Her legs feel leaden, unable to move her at more than a gentle walk. The air itself seems to refuse her any movement upwards.
Riftun moves forward to approach Teruko with an arm stretched out in concern as she is evidently struggling the the statue. "T-Teruko? Are you alright?" He carefully keeps step away from the statuette when Teruko announces its harsh effect on her.
"Oh, oh no! A curse perhaps?! I'm so sorry Teruko I should have seen it... L-Lets get you back to Spivey a-as quickly as possible. I'm sure a devotee of the Starsong will be able to free you from your bonds."
Andochtuir just smiles, slightly confused at Riftun's apparent nerves. It was pretty clear that the girlish boy was quite shy and somewhat lacking in confidence, rather like Yuto, come to think of it, but why was a bit beyond him. The both of them were quite gifted in their respective areas. Then again, he was technically almost twice their age and had seen the same needlessly self-depreciating pattern in others over and over.
He was about to respond to the Bard's analysis and take the statue from the Kaijitsu heiress when Teruko suddenly feels unwell. He looks sharply at the orb and symbol of Pazuzu worship. "Agreed. It has to be destroyed! Teruko, can you still walk? Do you want Yuto or I to carry you?" he offers. "There's still a bend north left we could search here, but if you start feeling any worse, we should perhaps withdraw."
When the party settles on a way to move the orb without touches it - his suggestion is indirectly placing it in a bag within a bag - and concocts the plan, he frowns. "Say... about this pressure feeling Teruko is feeling now, did Ameiko complain about similar things before she fell asleep?"
Torra looks alarmed at the suggestion of Teruko being cursed. "Oh no! Could it be the same thing that afflicted Ameiko? If we destroy the statue it may free you both!"
"Why would Pazuzu curse Ameiko, however, and by which means? It couldn't be the same statue as we just found it. Correct?" Andy ponders, deep in thought.
Smashing the statue is fairly easy, and the heroes are able to break it in very little time at all. It doesn't seem to change anything in how heavy Teruko feels, however, and she can move no faster for it.
Yuto is very alarmed when the curse falls over Teruko "Oh no! What are we going to do now?!"
Looking for answers, he helps to smash the statuette and when it does not help, he draws whispering shrike. Not understanding how the magic works, he tries to use its magic to share Teruko's burden "Let me help Teruko Sama, let me hold part of th-this weight for you"
Ultimately the young man tries to hold up Teruko "Le-let's explore this northern cavern qui-quickly. The fastest we are done the soo-ooner we can make it to find help"
Teruko waits eagerly for the statue to be destroyed, only to be disappointed when the strange weight still lingers. "I don't recall Ameiko saying anything about this type of pressure, nor was she moving any slower than usual before she passed out. Whatever curse this is, I don't think it has anything to do with her condition." She grimaces. "I can walk, but I'll be slow."
Heading northwards is a slow process - though not too painful, as it seems there aren't any threats, and the faint motes of light continue to provide some measure of illumination other than the heroes' enspelled items.
The caverns wind and twist - there's evidence of some recent collapses on one of the walls, as though there had once been a passage that was no longer open. At the end of the tunnel, they find a small ladder to another secret door - no doubt the one that Kelda had mentioned entering. It opens up into a hatch hidden in the forest, where the sunshine casts a greenish-orange glow through the autumnal leaves. This does make it easier to get to Spivey's graveyard, at least.
Teruko slowly walks out of the tunnel, looking pained. "At least now we know. It's strange that we haven't found any signs of any vaults yet, let alone a secret third one. I would have expected those to be in the basement." She bites her lip. "There's still much of the castle we haven't explored. Perhaps the vaults are on the first floor, or the second. For now I would like to see if we can remove this weight, and maybe check if Ameiko's condition changed when we killed the decapus."
Even the fairly stoic Andochtuir can't quite suppress a sigh of remorse over not finding the legacy here, too. "On the bright side, we did find quite a lot of valuable items. I just hope that either Spivey or the clerics can remove this... condition of yours, Teruko. I wish I could do it myself, or that I touched it prior to you, but I have no knowledge of any such potions and I was too preoccupied when I shouldn't have been," he adds, the regret in his voice obvious.
"I think this castle is cursed," chimes in Torra. "Every time we try to find this legacy we get sidetracked and get into fights with very dangerous creatures."
The dwarf gives Teruko a worried look. "How are you feeling, other than the weight?"