Grog’s scream echoes along a corridor that, if followed to its end, loops back into the main hall where the group had met Yoril and her vermleks.
The westernmost wall and the northern section of the corridor are lined up with identical wooden doors. A particularly foul odour emanates from one of them .
On the eastern wall of this corridor, instead, there are two doors: the first , right after the dining hall, is old and is secured with a heavy and intricate; the second is a double swinging door, the ground beneath it smoothed over many years and visitors.
Pandir moves up to the first door, the brown one. The smell is quite repugnant, but it may be full of moss. Yummy, nutritional moss!
Grog moves to push open the brown door with his shield hand (electing to drop the shield it if obstructs his efforts).
Grog opens the door, prepared to face a demon coming straight from the cloaca of the abyss. Instead, as the light from the corridor slowly seeps into the room, the group sees a few holes dug on the ground and directly into the rock. Above the holes, bunches of dried lavender and rosemary failed to cover the odour of what were in all likelihood clogged pit toilets. An almost empty bucket of extremely dirty water with vinegar sat on a corner, a pair of stick with glued sponges inside.
The Wayward Wonders had discovered the hermitage’s privies.
Finch snorts. "Anyone need to heed the call o' nature afore we go on?"
Katala glances in then backs away from the stench. "Smells like a stink demon! Pass!"
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The clown smirks. "Well, it figures you'd prefer a litter-box."
"A lot of fertilizer for the fungus. But not enough sunlight." Pandir looks with curiosity.
"I would call nature, but we are trying to remain quiet, yes?"
Pandir prepares to move ahead to the Red door.
Grog blushes dark green, and says in a low voice, "I'z got's to uz' da cloakroom."
He goes in, closes the door behind him, and heeds the call of nature. From the outside, the party heard a heavy plunk and a long trickle.
Grog emerges after a while, hafting his pick, and looking somewhat relieved.
He heads to the next door, and kicks it down with renewed vigor, shields up.
After a few minutes of silence only broken by Grog’s bowel movements, the group continues exploring the corrupted Hermitage of the Blessed Lightning.
They trace back their steps to the first door in the corridor leading from the dining hall. Grog’s scenic kick barely budges it and a quick inspection makes Finch whistle: the mechanism is more complex than she would have expected in a place like this.
When Grog leaves, the door takes an uncomfortable amount of time to close behind him.
Pandir tries her best to understand the lock, but at some point she turns to Miss Rosefinch.
Finch digs out her tools and works on the lock for a brief while, ultimately getting nowhere.
She turns around shrugs. "It's not impossible, but it'd take me a while to figure this one out. Might be quicker if Grog just bulls it down..."
Grog nods, readying his huge shoulder, and pushing off the opposite wall to smash.
Having failed at her attempt, Katala gets out of the way for Grog. Seeing him strain and the door starting to give way she adds her little strength to his....
With Katala’s help, Grog brings down the door with a loud crash.
This small cell looks like many of the others in the hermitage, but it is remarkable for the bloody corpse that stretches across the small single bed. The figure, a human male, is dressed in the grey robes of the other hermits, and also wears a gold sash decorated with a badge depicting an open book. A stack of books sits on a small bed stand, and an imposing mural of Gozreh that depicts the deity as a raging elemental looks down from the southern wall.
Grog skids to a halt, pausing at the corpse. Why was this priest kept in here locked up?
"Good priest?" he asks.
So confusing. Perhaps the Worms who Wear Skin did not like to wear him.
Pandir takes a look around the room - why was it locked? Why did They not wear him? How did he die?
Katala looks around the room. Maybe it's a trap? But locking the door on a trap doesn't make sense. "Maybe the body was blessed and the demons couldn't use it?"
The group examines the corpse first. There are grievous wounds on the man’s torso that could have been caused by a spear or a similar weapon. Someone, perhaps the man himself, tried to dress the wounds, but their efforts were clearly not enough. On his robe’s pockets they find a small prayer book and a pearl partially covered in engraved gold. The images, exquisitely crafted in rough but expressive lines, seem to show a key among typical Gozreian motifs.
The blood trail leads to and stops at the northern wall, something initially looks like a dead end. Katala is the one who, after careful examination, finds a well-disguised switch. Once pressed, it opens a secret door into what looks like the hermitage’s library.
The Worms that Wear Skin did not try to wear him. Probably for the best. Sister Venus said you do not have to recycle everything, there are societal norms to be honored. Pandir still doesn't get it.
And now, Friend Katala reveals a room full of dead tree pulp and ink. More societal norms to observe. Pandir enters and looks for any sources of danger.
Glad to find the hidden door, Katala wonders if who, or whatever left the blood trail is still alive.
Grog follows cautiously.
This library must once have been magnificent. Tall wooden bookcases still line the room’s walls, but many have been pulled over, spilling books of all types and sizes over the carpeted floor. Statuary busts decorate a few cases that remain standing, but others have toppled and shattered. Shredded paper and torn parchment cover the ground. Tables where hermits must once have studied ancient lore are flipped on their sides or upside down, their legs broken off. Archways to the north and south lead to reading rooms that have so far been spared from the damage to the library.
Two creatures, their faces a mess of wrong angles and tumors, are sitting in the middle of the room. One, with long and greasy white hair, holds a book from which it meticulously rips and shreds a page at time. The other, completely hairless, bashes two statuettes against the ground, apparently trying to grind them into dust. They do not seem to have noticed the Wayward Wonders.
Grog's eyes flare into fury, and he gives a terrible roar, emerging from the secret exit to fall upon the foes, striking a the greasy-haired monster with his warpick.
Not roaring her rage at seeing the destruction, Katala steps into the room and aside to be out of the way of Pandir. She quickly calls out the words of her cantrip and calls an arc of electrical energy to strike the two monsters.
Grog runs inside the room full speed, but even before he begins roaring, the demons are on their feet.
One of them stands in place and stares at Grog with its frightful visage then throws a chunk of a statue against the orc and hits him square on the chest. Grog takes 11 B dmg and must make a will save vs fear DC 20
The other leaves leaves its books on the ground and meets Grog halfway. It grabs the orc with one claw, sinking the talons deep within the orc’s flesh, then takes a bite from his shoulder.
Grog, suddenly blood drenched, sinks his pick on the creature’s neck and hears a sizzling sound from the wound as it reacts with cold iron.
Katala’s bolt runs through both monsters, hitting them in full.
2. Demon (green) -8HP
3. Katala
4. Grog -38HP / fort save DC 21 / will save DC 20
5. Pandir
6. Finch
[/smaller]
With a burst of wind, Pandir uses >Ki Rush< to flank with Grog.
Then she focuses on a Flurry of Blows against the Red tinted Bookeater.
Grog staggers when the statue smashes into his ill-fitting dwarf-plate, the resulting cloud of dust blinding him against the demonic slash.
Grothog focuses on a mix of offense and defense, raising his shield and striking the same demon in a series of precise rage-fueled strikes.
Pandir’s blows hit the demon’s deformed face twice. The impact, interestingly, neither improves nor worsens the creature’s comeliness.
Finch, meanwhile, sneaks in and slashes at the same demon—a humble but worthy contribution.
The demon moves its focus onto Pandir and ravenously slashes at her with its claws. It matters little that she moved in a fast blur: the leshy is helpless at the brute’s savagery.
Its friend remains in its place, first eyeing Katala in frightful manner , then throwing another chunk of a statue at her. The stone hits the witch on the leg, almost forcing her to buckle.
One of Grog’s enraged strikes hits the red demon, painting a few destroyed tomes in dark, acidic blood.
2. Demon (green) -8HP
3. Katala -11HP / will save DC 20
4. Grog
5. Pandir -40HP
6. Finch
Pandir is too slow and the Bookeater is too fast.
She takes a Step to flank with Miss Rosefinch.
She maintains her composure and swings once more.
"Hurry, friends..."
Finch keeps stabbing relentlessly at the demon, hurling insults all the while.
Katala casts Scorching Ray at the remaining creature focusing on the spell to increase the burning power of the spell.
Pandir’s desperate blows hit the demon with exacting precision: one on the jaw, the other on the neck. The creature falls with a dry and papery gurgle.
Seeing the fallen monster, Katala turns her attention to the next foe. Her spell hits it in full, singeing its greasy hair and filling the room with a nauseous smell.
Finch uses the distraction to rush at the creature and stabs it to her heart’s contentment.
The hideous demon turns to the halfling and tries to bite her. When it misses, Finch cannot help but blow raspberries and make a rude gesture—which proves to be a mistake, in hindsight. She only notices the monster’s claws when they already digging inside her flesh.
2. Demon (green) -40HP
3. Katala -11HP / frightened 1
4. Grog
5. Pandir -40HP
6. Finch
Katala still feels the fear from the demon, but the smell of it burning helps to steady her hands. With it still standing she focuses on her last remaining non-cantrip spell, taking time for it to build to full power then unleashing 3 streaking darts of force energy.
One down. Now, the Facefiend.
Pandir hustles as quickly as she can, up to the demon. So many leaves, dangling by a thread. She summons her courage, almost falls over, just enough to find a sensitive region to strike!
Grog marches up and hits the demon twice.
Katala continues her magical onslaught, her barrage of darts each coming at the monster from different sides. Pandir and Grog come together in a joint storm of blows and make quick work of the demon.
2. Demon (green) -40HP
3. Katala -11HP / frightened 1
4. Grog -27HP
5. Pandir -40HP
6. Finch -20HP
Just as Katala felt her mind release the fear that she was feeling the last demon fell. She paused for a moment, assessing her friends and her own wounds.
"OK, Somebody watch while I work to bind wounds. We can't just press on while Pandir there is almost six feet under!"
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"Six feet... oh, but if I were buried, would I sprout?" Pandir wonders about the riddle Friend Katala presented. Eventually she responds with a "Oh! Sister Venus said it will not work in such a way. And it would take too long to help you."
With all of this free time, Pandir searches the dead tree pulp room for more clues.
Grog, once his wounds are bandaged, rises up. He took a lot of punishment today, but was sure (once observing the demons) that it was not over yet.
He looks around the library for clues.
If he sees anything interesting in the upper shelves, he cautiously climbs the bookcases to reach them.