Coldwater's Abomination Vaults

Game Master Quentin Coldwater

Kvit DC21 ref save: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (1) + 8 = 9
hero point! Last one I think.
Kvit DC21 ref save: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (12) + 8 = 20
barely not a crit fail still

Fuin yelps "What in the--?!" but the call is cut off as another spray of oil comes at him.

Reflex DC 21: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (16) + 11 = 27

Again, he ducks the worst of it, flinching in pain at the stinging oil that still manages to hit him.

"What in the Nine Hells are these things?!"

He steps into a flank to harry Red, keeping it distracted long enough for Kka to finish it off, and whips his meteor hammer at the many legs of Blue. He's unlikely to trip it but maybe he can knock it off-balance.

Thanks to the hammer's reach he flanks Red for Kka!

♦ Step.
♦♦ Knockdown vs. Blue: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (2) + 12 = 14 B Dmg: 2d8 + 3 ⇒ (2, 8) + 3 = 13

Yuck! Spending a hero point on that.

Reroll vs Blue: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (18) + 12 = 30

NICE!

Free Athletics to Trip Blue: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (3) + 9 = 12

Not nice! it was a long shot anyway. XD

Kvit turns away to dodge the oil, but the majority of it still clings to his fur. He takes 2d8 ⇒ (6, 8) = 14 poison damage. Fuìn has more luck, only taking 1d8 ⇒ 4 poison damage.

Fuìn then steps up and tries to knock down Blue. The hit connects, but the trip attempt fails.
That's a crit fail, even. You can either drop prone, or let go of your weapon, your choice.

Blue scalathrax is up after that, and it does not like being damaged. It decides to chomp on Fuìn.

Jaws: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (9) + 13 = 22
Piercing damage: 2d8 + 5 ⇒ (3, 8) + 5 = 16

Jaws: 1d20 + 13 - 5 ⇒ (17) + 13 - 5 = 25
Piercing damage: 2d8 + 5 ⇒ (6, 8) + 5 = 19

Jaws: 1d20 + 13 - 10 ⇒ (19) + 13 - 10 = 22
Piercing damage: 2d8 + 5 ⇒ (7, 1) + 5 = 13
Ouch, that's a lot of damage! But I think you're still standing, right?

As the jaws close around Fuìn's arm, he feels its fangs injecting venom as his muscles start relaxing. Please make three DC 21 Fortitude saves.

Kka
Blue, 37 damage
Kvit, 24 damage
Cherry Berry
Lough, 11 damage
Red 57 damage, heavily damaged
Fuìn, 58 damage, 3 DC 21 Fort saves

Kvit, Cherry Berry, and Lough are up!

Cherry quickly casts a healing spell on Fuin. Using a little bit of the excess energy to boost Fuin further

"Stay with us Fuin, we aren't done yet."

♦♦Heal, lvl 2: 2d10 + 16 ⇒ (3, 7) + 16 = 26
♦Guidance on Fuin.

Kvit tries to finish off the more heavily wounded Scalathrax with a more focused bolt of fire.

Produce flame v Red: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (6) + 10 = 16fire damage: 2d4 + 4 ⇒ (1, 1) + 4 = 6

"They're Scalathraxes. Nasty things, intelligent actually. Look like spiders but aren't. Aberrations, usually found in the darklands, but apparently here too..."

Then he creates a shimmering shield in front of him.

◆◆ produce flame ◆Shield

Fuin feels the heat rise in his cheeks as his weapon is yanked from his hands by the creature's legs. Then he feels the heat in his veins as something unpleasant starts pumping through him.

Fort DC 21: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (8) + 10 = 18

Fort DC 21: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (4) + 10 = 14

Fort DC 21: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (14) + 10 = 24

Yikes.

Slag Claw (Cold Iron): 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (8) + 13 = 212d6 + 4 ⇒ (4, 1) + 4 = 9
Slag Claw (Cold Iron) w/ MAP vs Flat-footed maybe: 1d20 + 13 - 5 ⇒ (14) + 13 - 5 = 222d6 + 4 ⇒ (6, 2) + 4 = 12

◆) Raise Shield (to AC 24)
◆◆) Snagging Strike x2
+
↺) Attack of Opportunity (Slag Claw +13 @ 2d6+4)
↺) Shield Block (if 14 damage or less)

Lough keeps it rippin’ green blood soaking into his slaggy nails!

Fuìn is ovwehelmed by the scalathrax attack and fails to resist the venom. His muscles loosen and his reactions slow down. Everything costs more effort, it's like you're wading through pudding. You're Clumsy 1 and Slowed 1.

Cherry Berry heals Fuìn's damage and gives him a little divine guidance. Kvit throws more fire at the scalathrax, but misses. Lough attacks twice, and both attacks connect. It's still standing, however.

Red turns around and starts to chow down on Kka. Only one attack hits

Jaws: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (7) + 13 = 20

Jaws: 1d20 + 13 - 5 ⇒ (13) + 13 - 5 = 21
Piercing damage: 2d8 + 5 ⇒ (1, 8) + 5 = 14

Jaws: 1d20 + 13 - 10 ⇒ (9) + 13 - 10 = 12

Kka, please make me a DC 21 Fortitude save versus poison.

Kka, 14 damage, DC 21 Fort save
Blue, 58 damage, nearly dead, flat-footed
Kvit, 24 damage
Cherry Berry
Lough, 11 damage
Red 57 damage, heavily damaged
Fuìn, 32 damage, stage 2 poison, round 1 (Clumsy 1, slowed 1)

Fuìn and Kka are up! Fuìn has Guidance. Both critters look like they'll keel over at any moment now.

Kka looks on in disbelief as her friends seem unable to finish off the heavily wounded Scalathrax right in front of her. Unsurprisingly, she sees the creature turn to face her with its slavering venomous jaws clicking away trying to rip her beak off. "Oh, thaat's just peachy."

Fortunately, the creature has a little trouble finding any flesh on Kka to bite into and only one of the attacks hits home. Unfortunately, the venom that accompanies the bite also tries to work its way into her...

Fortitude Save vs DC 21: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (16) + 7 = 23

Phew!

...but she manages to wipe it off before too much of it hits her bloodstream.

Looking back up at the horrid maws, Kka sighs. "I guess if you waant a job done right you haave to do it yourself."

As clumsy and slowed as he is, Fuìn's meteor hammer has reach and so he's still currently providing Kka with some flanking, right? I'll assume so and save myself a tumble through.

With little else to do, Kka unleashes a flurry of attacks with her shortsword before saying the words, "protect me," and popping up her shimmering a light pink magical shield.

Action 1 (◆): Strike (+1 Striking Shortsword) with Thief Racket and Sneak Attack vs Flat-Footed Red.

Shortsword Attack: 1d20 + 10 + 1 ⇒ (11) + 10 + 1 = 22 vs Flat-Footed
Shortsword Damage: 1d6 + 4 + 1d6 ⇒ (2) + 4 + (6) = 12 slashing damage
Sneak Attack Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 4 precision slashing damage

Action 2 (◆): Strike (+1 Striking Shortsword) with Thief Racket, Sneak Attack and MAP1 vs Flat-Footed Red.

Shortsword Attack: 1d20 + 10 + 1 ⇒ (19) + 10 + 1 = 30 vs Flat-Footed
Shortsword Damage: 1d6 + 4 + 1d6 ⇒ (1) + 4 + (2) = 7 slashing damage
Sneak Attack Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 6 precision slashing damage

Action 3 (◆): Activate an Item: Wayfinder & Aeon Stone: Dusty Rose Prism - Cast: Shield - AC 22 (Hardness 10)

If by some chance that first hit finally takes out Red, then instead of the Shield spell for Action 3, she will step forward into the space previously occupied by the now dead Red and use the second Strike against Blue.

Fuìn dropped his weapon, so he doesn't threaten anymore. Luckily, it's still a hit!

Kka stabs Red and it goes down with a horrible screech. She then moves over and does the same to Blue, who also goes down.

Venom courses through Fuìn's veins for a few more seconds, but it seems to be the muscle-relaxing variant, not actually hurting the subject.

For those who are sprayed with oil, your hands are slippery for a while and it's tough to wield weapons, but after a minute the oil evaporates and you're fine.

Two tunnels lead from this room to the north and east. From this side, it's easy to spot the secret doors.

You also remember that if done properly, you can harvest the oil from these creatures and sell it. It's often used in magical reagents or as a basis for alchemist fire. That'd be a DC 21 Crafting check for each critter.

Also, a Hero Point to everyone at 1 point or below!

Pieces of it’s skin draped messily around his slaggen claw, Lough wipes the entrails on his rope necklace, cleaning the sharp fingernails sparkling.

”You going to harvest the oil? Need a hand?” he asks Kvit.

I totally missed that Fuìn dropped his hammer. I would have totally done a tumble through if I knew that Kka didn't have flanking. Also, I'm totally okay with passing my ignorance onto Kka and accepting the way things went down. :)

Kka stands over the two Scalathrax corpses and her mind blanks for a moment as what just happened sinks in. Even after cutting down the two creatures so efficiently, only one thing sticks in her mind. She looks over at the still clumsy Fuìn and in a exasperated tone, says, "Whaat the frig, Fuìn. Why the heck did you drop your haammer? I thought you had my baack there." She then notices the fighters precarious state of affairs and her tone softens slightly. "Never mind. I see you haad a haard time of it." She looks around and sees that she got off relatively easy compared to some of the others. "How about I paatch everyone up while Kvit tries to pull out these guys' oil sacs. Let's hope he doesn't botch it like last time. We caan always use the caash."

She then pulls out her healing supplies and gets to work. She keeps an eye on Fuìn to see how the poison progresses and whether any serious intervention would be needed to keep the fighter alive.

Is the Scalathrax poison something we need to worry about? Will Fuìn be dead soon if we don't do anything about it?

I said so in my previous post. It's a nondamaging venom that causes people to be clumsy and slowed. It'll wear off soon and Fuìn will be fine. There's no ticking clock for a sudden burst of damage or anything.

Kvit glares at Kka's back but retrieves his alchemy tools to try and extract the oil directly.

crafting harvest red: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (4) + 12 = 16
crafting harvest blue: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (5) + 12 = 17

His fingers are more numb than he realizes and slips in the oil awkwardly. A string of curses in Aklo turn the air around Kvit slightly hazy for a moment.

wow. Nice. Reeaallll nice.

Kka sighs audibly and rolls her eyes as Kvit messes up the delicate operation not once, but twice! With a voice dripping with sarcasm, she says, "Wow, Kvit. Nice job. Remind me again why we brought you along?"

I think as long as you don't crit fail, you can try again. I'll limit it to three tries, though (per creature). After that, you futzed enough with it to ruin the venom sac.

Kvit has been struggling recently, failing to hit his mark with spells and now this, and now Kka is giving him an extra hard time.

He discretely casts guidance on himself before attempting it again.

harvest red dc21: 1d20 + 12 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 12 + 1 = 18
harvest blue dc21: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (5) + 12 = 17

harvest red dc21: 1d20 + 12 + 1 ⇒ (11) + 12 + 1 = 24
harvest blue dc21: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (19) + 12 = 31

first try! Technically only guidance on the first roll, accidentally left it copy pasted in the third roll, still a success though.

He stands up and grumpily stores the vials away.

.

Sneakers clings to Kvit's robes to avoid the oil. "Yeah, Kvit, let's just go back to town. Let the one bird army do it herself."

Kvit tries to retrieve the venom sac from the red scalathrax, but it's slippery and doesn't want to come out. Eventually he punctures it and the oil spills out. Luckily, he knows what not to do on the blue scalathrax now and easily lifts the venom sac out.

That's 20 gp for the party.

Actually it looks like Kvit succeeded with both sacs. He alternated his rolls between red and blue and succeeded on the 3rd try for both. In fact, he critted the blue attempt.

Kka keeps one of her beady red eyes on Kvit as he continues his attempts to extract the poison sacs from the corpses. When he finally succeeds, Kka says, "See? I knew you could do it. My faith in your abilities was unwavering."

Ah whoops, missed that. Let's say a crit is 10 gp extra, so 50 gp total.

Actually the idea of "threatening" doesn't really exist in 2e anymore, since most creatures don't have Attack of Opportunity. The official ruling explains it better than I can. However, it didn't matter because without the reach of the meteor hammer I still wasn't flanking. :S

Despite Kka's attempts to soften her stinging words, Fuin still looks a little miffed at the rogue's comment. "It was either drop the hammer or drop to my ass. I made an executive decision." He picks up the meteor hammer, feeling his fingers tremble in a way that has nothing to do with adrenaline, and nearly drops the chain by accident before he finally feels the heat in his veins begin to fade.

"Whatever those things are, I officially do not like them."

He waits for Kvit to finish his grisly work, then looks around. "Where to next?"

"Where to next?" The words echo in Kka's head. She had been considering just that for a few moments already. She explores the two other tunnels leading out of the cave and finds that they terminate in rather suspicious dead ends. She does a careful search of the flat ends of the tunnels looking for secret doors like the one they came through.

Activity: Search with (Perception +10) - SECRET

Assuming that she finds the secret doors, or that they aren't so secret from this side of them...

"There are a couple of other doors leading into the cave. How about we see where they lead?" She heads down the longer twisty little passage to the north.

Two tunnels lead from this room to the north and east. From this side, it's easy to spot the secret doors.

"Does anyone else need any healing?" Cherry asks before the group moves on.

Assuming Kka did a flawless job at medicine, so she isn't a hypocrite for giving Kvit a hard time on his skill checks, Kvit should be fully healed or close to.

"No, I think om alright. Is there a catch to open the door from.thia side?"

.

Sneakers chimes in. "What's behind door number one? Err, well. I guess if we're on the inside of the secret door, then we're what's behind door number one. So uh, what's in front of door number one? Nah, sounds dumb. Nevermind."

moved everyone up on the map

Three five‑foot‑square iron cages, the bars lined with spikes on the inside, hang from chains in the middle of this room. Blood‑crusted manacles dangle from chains on the west wall. A stout wooden table with more manacles anchored to it stands in the southwest corner, and on it sits a whip made of blood‑red leather with a silver handle.

A blue-skinned woman completely covered in iron chains leans against the wall and looks up as Lough opens the door. "Please leave this room and never return," she says with a sigh. "I am ordered to torture anyone who enters this room, but right now I simply don't have the energy to do so. Or, if you're the helpful kind, hop into one of these cages and I'll get to you eventually."

She sighs again. "I just can't be bothered anymore, but I guess I'll start enjoying it again once I start shoving hot needles under people's nails again. That always used to be my favourite..."

Kka, being some distance from the door and with two of her companions between her and the muffled voice, has trouble hearing what's being said. "Who is it? Whaat did she say?" Frustrated, she pushes her way past Fuìn and Lough and steps into the room. "Ah, that's a lot better." Spotting the blue-skinned woman covered in chains, she pauses in surprise. "Well, that's a new one." "I'm sorry, but I couldn't hear you earlier. Could you repeat what you just said?"

Spotting the chains on the woman, Fuin freezes in place. Is she--? No. No! They couldn't have found me here!

... Could they?

He forces himself to take a slow, calming breath. If she was with... them, she probably wouldn't be alone. And he doesn't see any allies with her.

"Uh, yeah. We're... not gonna do that. I mean, sorry about your whole, erm. Ennui. Thing. But nobody's dumb enough to walk into a cage and wait to be tortured."

He pauses. "On second thought, I worked with a couple guys in Absalom a while back that were probably dumb enough to do that. Okay, I retract my statement. But we're not that dumb. So, uh. No."

He realizes he's babbling, and snaps his mouth shut. He always runs his mouth when he's nervous, dammit. And this thing... he suspects he knows what she is--or at least, the kind of being she is--but he was never much of a scholar. While his dad was trying to instruct him in religious pursuits (including the nature of beings like this woman) he was too busy playing swords with the other kids. Especially Veryna. Gods, that girl could sting like a dire hornet--

And now he's drifting. Where the heck is his brain today? He forces himself back to the problem at hand. He doesn't raise the hammer threateningly, but he does give it a few casual spins in his hand. Not a threat. Just... letting her know it's there.

Not actually trying to use Intimidation. For a fighter, Fuin is shockingly bad at that. Mainly just roleplaying his lack of diplomatic graces. XD

Based on where he grew up, Fuin has probably seen these things before, at least if she is what I think she is, but I figure the in-game reason he doesn't know anything about them is because he wasn't much of a student as a kid.

Fuìn: I allow background knowledge to count. You've seen these things before. You might not know their exact abilities, but you know their general deal.

The woman pushes herself off the wall and makes eye contact with Kka. "I said I am supposed to torture you if you remain in this room. I'm not in a torturing mood right now, but I'm sure it'll come back to me eventually..."

She seems somewhat more animated now. You think you don't have long before she makes up her mind.

The chains hanging from the ceiling start rattling as the woman slowly steps closer...

Kvit sets Sneakers down and nudges him forward down the crowded hallway. "See what's going on up there."

.

Sneakers scurries forward between multiple pairs of feet. "Yeah sure, let me scout the danger while you stay back here." He takes a few moments to enter the chamber, witness the torture device filled room, the scary lady covered in chains, as well as the chains covering the ceiling, then nopes out of there. "Yeah, not going back in there boss. Scary blue lady covered in chains, lots of dangerous equipment in there. Though Kka is handling the uh, situation just fine."

.

Kvit wonders what it could be based on Sneakers' detailed description. RK Occultism+11 or Society+10

Lough interposes between Kka and the Blue-Chained Ghost.

"No. You can torture me. I can take it" he raises his mechanical arm to demonstrate, but also to block.

Create a Diversion (Deception, Trained) vs Blue Chained Ghost (Will): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (20) + 7 = 27

As soon as her attention is diverted, he clocks her with that same silver fist!

Moved everyone a little bit.

Lough walks up the the chain-lady and tries to catch her off-guard, then bonks her on the head with his metal arm. Chain-lady does not respond well to that, naturally.

Cherry Berry: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (12) + 10 = 22
Fuìn: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (10) + 8 = 18
Kka: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (13) + 12 = 25
Kvit: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (9) + 7 = 16
Lady: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (9) + 13 = 22
I've used Lough's Deception as initiative.

Lough
Kka
Lady
Cherry Berry
Fuìn
Kvit

Lough and Kka may act!
Lough, since you deceived her, you make make one Strike (such as Snagging Strike, as long as it's a single action) before combat starts. MAP will not apply. She's flat-footed to that attack.

Power Driver (Silver) vs Flat-footed: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (19) + 13 = 322d6 + 4 ⇒ (4, 3) + 4 = 11

◆) Snagging Strike
+
◆) Raise Shield (to AC 24)
◆◆) Snagging Strike x2
+
↺) Attack of Opportunity (Slag Claw +13 @ 2d6+4)
↺) Shield Block (if 14 damage or less)

Power Driver (Silver) vs Flat-footed: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (14) + 13 = 272d6 + 4 ⇒ (4, 5) + 4 = 13
Power Driver (Silver) w/ MAP vs Flat-footed: 1d20 + 13 - 5 ⇒ (14) + 13 - 5 = 222d6 + 4 ⇒ (4, 5) + 4 = 13

Lough tricks the ghost, earning it’s trust, before absolutely pummeling it with his silver fist, repeatedly beating down over and over again, finally clenching with tensile strength metallic phalanges, his grip choking and brutal.

Lough strikes the lady with his mechanical arm, and her skin sizzles upon making contact. Seems like whatever Lough's arm is made out of is extra painful to the lady. He then hits twice more, leaving the lady very angry, and also very injured.
First is a crit because of flat-footed!
Also, I think you apply weaknesses after crits, right? Just checking.

Lough
Kka
Lady 63 damage, flat-footed, bloodied
Cherry Berry
Fuìn
Kvit

Also, I think you apply weaknesses after crits, right? Just checking.

I believe that is correct. According to the Damage rules it looks like apply the target’s immunities, weaknesses, and resistances to the damage, is the last thing done before applying the remaining damage to the target's hit points.

Kka listens as the chain lady repeats what she said. "Ah, I see. Pretty much everything we've run into down here wants to kill us, so limiting yourself to mere torture is almost like a breath of fresh air really. Don't you think, Lough" She turns to face her colleague, but apparently the changeling has already decided to take things into his own hands... though in Lough's case, "hands" is perhaps stretching the term to the breaking point.

Going to assume here that the hanging cages are high enough off the ground not to interfere with movement or targeting.

"Wait up big maan. I'm right there with you." She dashes after Lough and tries to get her licks in before the lady can react.

Action 1 (◆): Stride (35 feet)

Action 2 (◆): Strike (+1 Striking Shortsword) with Thief Racket and Surprise/Sneak Attack vs Flat-Footed Lady.

Shortsword Attack: 1d20 + 10 + 1 ⇒ (19) + 10 + 1 = 30 vs Flat-Footed
Shortsword Damage: 1d6 + 4 + 1d6 ⇒ (6) + 4 + (2) = 12 slashing damage
Sneak Attack Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 3 precision slashing damage

Action 3 (◆): Strike (+1 Striking Shortsword) with Thief Racket, Surprise/Sneak Attack and MAP1 vs Flat-Footed Lady.

Shortsword Attack: 1d20 + 10 + 1 - 4 ⇒ (13) + 10 + 1 - 4 = 20 vs Flat-Footed
Shortsword Damage: 1d6 + 4 + 1d6 ⇒ (2) + 4 + (3) = 9 slashing damage
Sneak Attack Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 1 precision slashing damage

The cages occupy the squares at ground level.

Kka jumps in after Lough and joins in beating up the lady who doesn't want to fight. Her first attack hits, her second attack sadly doesn't.

The lady's skin bubbles where Lough struck her, clearly reacting to Lough's arm.

"GRAAAAAHHH! You absolute a*$*~$%s! You had your chance to leave, but now I'm gonna enjoy tearing the flesh from your skins!"

The chains overhead start to clink with rage along with the lady. Her eyes light up as well, activating some kind of gaze attack.

The lady looks Lough straight in the eyes. Lough sees the faces of dead family members pleading for help in the woman's pupils.
Lough, please make me a DC 21 Will save or be Frightened 2 (3 on a crit fail).

She then starts to twirl a spiked chain overhead, then lashes out at Lough with it.

Chain vs Lough: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (11) + 17 = 28
Piercing damage: 2d8 + 7 ⇒ (6, 3) + 7 = 16
That's more than 14, so I think Lough just takes it.

Chain vs Lough: 1d20 + 17 - 5 ⇒ (3) + 17 - 5 = 15

The spiked chain leaves nasty puncture marks behind which bleed profusely. Luckily, the second attack misses.

Lough, 16 damage, 1d6 persistent bleed, DC 21 Will save or be Frightened 2
Kka
Lady 78 damage, flat-footed, bloodied
Cherry Berry
Fuìn
Kvit

Everyone may act! If you end your turn within 30 feet of the lady, please make a DC 21 Will save or be Frightened 2.

If you end your turn within 30 feet of the lady, please make a DC 21 Will save or be Frightened 2.

Is this fear emanation something that she just turned on during her turn, or is this a permanent aspect of the lady? I'll assume it's permanent and that Kka is affected since she ended her last turn adjacent to the lady.

After her semi-successful attack on the lady, Kka gets an up-close-and-personal look at her and...

Will Save vs DC 21: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (5) + 10 = 15

... really doesn't like what she sees. A shiver runs down her avian spine...

Ugh! At least it finally gives me an opportunity to use a Hero Point.

Will Save vs DC 21: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (17) + 10 = 27

... but she ruffles her feather and shakes off the sense of dread she felt rising within her.

When the chain lady then turns on Lough, Kka breathes a sigh of relief. "About time the bad guys picked on someone other than me." Kka then tries to discombobulate the lady with a loud squawk, before slashing twice more.

"Kkrraaaaaww!"

Action 1 (◆): Demoralize with Intimidating Glare and Demon Mask vs Lady

Intimidation (Demoralize): 1d20 + 10 + 1 ⇒ (18) + 10 + 1 = 29 vs Lady Will DC

Action 2 (◆): Strike (+1 Striking Shortsword) with Thief Racket and Sneak Attack vs Flat-Footed Lady.

Shortsword Attack: 1d20 + 10 + 1 ⇒ (18) + 10 + 1 = 29 vs Flat-Footed
Shortsword Damage: 1d6 + 4 + 1d6 ⇒ (2) + 4 + (2) = 8 slashing damage
Sneak Attack Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 2 precision slashing damage

Action 3 (◆): Strike (+1 Striking Shortsword) with Thief Racket, Surprise/Sneak Attack and MAP1 vs Flat-Footed Lady.

Shortsword Attack: 1d20 + 10 + 1 - 4 ⇒ (16) + 10 + 1 - 4 = 23 vs Flat-Footed
Shortsword Damage: 1d6 + 4 + 1d6 ⇒ (5) + 4 + (1) = 10 slashing damage
Sneak Attack Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 6 precision slashing damage

PS. I just noticed that the lady was already flat-footed from Lough's attack, so tweaked my turn to replace the Tumble Through I originally had as the first action and converted it to a Demoralize. If that's not kosher, then assume that Action 1 was a no-op Tumble Through.

The way I rule auras is that enemies need to "turn on" their auras (as a free action). This prevents friendly fire in situations where there's no combat. If it hasn't been their turn yet, their auras are still off.
In short, you don't need to spend your Hero Point.

Kka is unnerved by the lady, but still presses on. She yells a battle cry, then slashes twice. Both attacks connect, and the lady falls lifeless to the floor. The chains overhead stop clanging as well.

You have enough time to staunch Lough's bleeding.

Well, that's a quick combat. She's potentially tough with 10 regeneration, but Lough's silver arm stopped that, and his opening turn reduced her HP by two-thirds.

The northernmost cage has silver runes inlaid in its floor, and you deduce that it's another teleport circle.

The whip is a +1 ghost touch whip (with a silver handle, which doesn't have any special effects).

Kvit hears the shouts and clangs and assumes the creature has started to attack. He rushes into the room and tries to recall what is is while drawing the wand of Magic Missiles.

◆Stride ◆Recall Knowledge Occultism+11 or Society+10 ◆Draw wand

But arrives in time to see it collapse.

"Seems like you two handled it fine. Anyone hurt? Besides whoever that was."

He spends a few minutes checking out the caged teleport circle.

Lough goes to high five Kka, then remembers every part of his body capable of making contact is, well, freaky. Then, he looks down as his body gushes blood "Oh!" he exclaims, cracking his neck, and opening his mouth...

...out of which crawls a spider who knits his wounds together with silvery thread...

◆) Life Boost

...swallowing the spider once more, Lough lets the magic do the work:

Persistent Bleed (Flat DC 15): 1d6 ⇒ 11d20 ⇒ 14
Persistent Bleed (Flat DC 15): 1d6 ⇒ 21d20 ⇒ 8
Persistent Bleed (Flat DC 15): 1d6 ⇒ 61d20 ⇒ 18

The bleeding clots into ugly wounds, leaving a (9 damage) chain-scraped scar!

Kka and Fuìn regonise this woman as an Evangelist velstrac. They're creatures from the Shadow Plane, and their whole deal is inflicting pain and terror on themselves and others. They make for excellent torturers. Evangelists in particular have an affinity with chains, and can make chains attack anyone within 20 feet of themselves. Anyone critically hit by a chain is impaled by it and held in place until you free yourself (taking bleed damage all the while).

You're glad you caught her unawares. If you hadn't, things could've gone south quickly.

Kka looks down at the corpse of what she now recognizes as an Evangelist Velstrac. "She talked pretty big for going down so quickly. Good thing we got the drop on her, eh, Lough?" She looks over at her friend and notices him bleeding out. "Uh, Lough? You've got a couple of holes in you there we might want to take care of." Once Lough's bleeding is stanched, Kka patches his other wounds until he's fit and fiddle again.

Kka then picks up the whip and examines it. "Not really my style, but the runes might come in haandy." She packs it with the rest of the loot.

Looking over at Kvit examining the runes inside the cage, she says, "Good thing you didn't get around to activating any of those teleportation thingies yet or we might haave ended up stuck in there being bored to tears by little miss Chaatty Caathy before she tortured us to death."

"I almost feel sorry for her." Cherry says. "Not the torture things, that's bad, but like all the creatures we've run into here, most of them really aren't happy being here."

”I don’t” Lough chimes in at Cherry’s comment ”It’s either us or them”

Fuin froze when combat started, and didn't even have enough time to react before Lough and Kka turned her into a grease stain.

He takes several deep, slow breaths to try and calm his racing heart. The normally chipper kayal looks at Cherry Berry, then Lough, then back to Cherry and says grimly, "He's right. Trust me, these creatures deserve no pity. They're monsters."

His mind flashes to one of the many public religious ceremonies of his childhood, mandatorily attended, watching a pair of Evangelists drag two of their de-limbed victims behind them on litters like hunters showing off trophy bucks.

"Monsters," he spits again, and stalks out of the room. He leans his back against the wall a short distance back, and slides down to the floor. He hasn't seen a Velstrac or any of their ilk in years. Even with the incident back in Absalom, he'd genuinely thought he at least wouldn't see one of those again. Clearly, that was just stupid wishful thinking.

Kvit muses that this teleport circle must link up to the one in the dining area. "An easy way to get rid of an unwanted guest..."

"Even if they deserve it, if they are prisoners here or just don't want to be here, we can find a way to use that to our advantage. Based on Belcorra's journal and well, everyone we've met so far, no one was particularly happy living or working here."

He indicates the caged teleportation circle, "If we don't think we need this, I could probably scrape the silver and try to get the ground level chamber working?"

Hero Point to Fuìn for a cool character moment!

Completely unawares to the nuances of Fuin’s childhood trauma being rekindled by the brief encounter with the blue ghost, our paranoid hero, Lough, registers only that the kayal simply agreed with him before taking a moment to himself.

After a beat, with his curious companion seeming tardy, it is with comical ignorance but genuine concern that he approaches and asks, upon observing a facial expression ”You okay Fu?” before adding nonchalant ”We should sneak up on more of these things. Play dead, you know. Then: WHAM!!!” punching the air with steampunk thrust.

He waits patiently in either case for recovery, spacing out into his own disturbed thoughts in short time, and lingering awkward, indefinite - or at least until Kka comes over and starts running her smart beak...