Startled by the idea that the demon is able to attack the gate, Zuriel quickly brings his sword to bear with a series of quick feints and strikes.
August charges up and then is battered by a swipe of the halberd
On failure you feel a sickening feeling as the blade hits you, but no mechanical or actual effect.
The demon then bats away August’s attempt to attack it, but Zuriel manages to swiftly get up behind it and sinks his blade in the creatures back causing it to howl in pain as he strikes a deadly blow!
Jenise seeing the demon slaps a cold iron bolt in her crossbow and shoots at the demon trying to hurt it as soon as possible!
The bolt goes wide and clatters against the stone; missing the demon.
Init Order: left to go this turn! Ethylfel, Gavia
Gavia tries to stab the demon with her spear. The attempt is useless, but at least she doesn't get in anyone's way and muddle things up.
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“Oh, sh!t…” Ethulfel mutters as the demon proves his theory false. Suspecting that his skills as a healer will be required very soon, he quickly chants a minor blessing over the slow-witted paladin before the demon strikes.
The Schir turns towards Zuriel and throws its horn at him before stepping away from the flank and dropping its halberd on him.
The gore is easy to dodge but focusing on the beats head Zuriel doesn’t see the halberd coming overhead. Without any warning is slams into him and would have decapitated him if not for his last second reaction!
On failure you feel a sickening feeling as the blade hits you, but no mechanical or actual effect.
It cackles in glee as he slumps to the ground and turns to look at August.
Init Order; Jenise August, Gavia, Ethulfel
The Schir turns towards Zuriel and throws its horn at him before stepping away from the flank and dropping its halberd on him.
"ZURIEL, NOOOOOOOOO!!!!" Like in slow-motion, August sees the halberd cutting down on the elf. He tries to reach to block it, but is too late - and in a spray of blood his friend falls down. August turns his momentum into an attack, striking hard with anger and sorrow.
Only then, he remembers himself wounded too, and almost instinctively the divine powers heal him up.
Filled with righteous fury August slices at the Schir, his blade trailing holy motes of light. The creature is. It down in a moment and it slumps to the floor, slowly bleeding out. Ethulfel manages to stabilize the elf with a quick spell and you all are safe for the moment.
As the demon slumps to the floor, August leaps over it and hurries to help the fallen elf. He takes the healing wand from his belt and starts applying the magic first on Zuriel, and finally on himself.
"Are you better now, Zuriel?"
Ethulfel’s heal staunched the excessive blood flow that had been spilling out of the Zuriel’s shoulder cavity, but the elf's condition was obviously bad. The demon’s weapon severed his left shoulder blade and drove deep into his chest. A blow that should have killed him instantly. Luck alone, keep him hanging on by a thread. A thread just long enough to allow Ethulfel to work his life saving magic. Although his wound had closed substantially, Zuriel still laid motionless in a pool of his own blood after the healing.
The power of the wand finally brought Zuriel back to the living world. His eyes opened in an extremely groggy state, leaving little doubt that he was unsure about his surroundings. “What happened?” He asked while lifting himself slightly off the ground. The wand had done its job, closing the deep gash, but Zuriel seemed almost oblivious to how close to death he just came.
"Well..." Ethulfel mutters as he wipes the elf's blood from his hand, "that could have gone better."
"Glad you're still with us, Zuriel." The gentlemen quickly scans the room for any sign of other dangers before adding, "I suppose a brief respite is in order and then we can return to searching once everyone's ready?"
"Demon hit you bad, Zuriel. But now it's dead, and you're ok." August summarizes the latest events, and puts away the healing wand.
"Ah think the wizard was no good, keeping demons in the house." he says his thoughts out loud, poking the demon's corpse with his sword.
Zuriel pulls himself up off the floor and regains his feet while noting the large gash in his armor. “Must have been one hell of a hit. I can’t remember anything beyond sinking my blade deep into the demon. Past that, it’s all a blur.”
After taking a moment to regain his senses, Zuriel begins searching the demon and the area.
You look around besides the rather unique marks around the room there is nothing in the room. The demon has little on it besides rags festering with grime. The weapon it had remains, a glaive that looks to be well made by whatever otherworldly forces forged it; though it does smell foul.
Gavia stares at the others like they're all psychopaths. They had just been attacked by a real life demon, which almost murdered the elf. Now they're talking about the whole experience so casually that the incident sounds as significant a thing as bumping into someone on the street.
When she finds her voice at all, she asks "so now we call it a day right? Take some time to recover and calm down before we get back to cataloging?"
"so now we call it a day right?"
"You would think, right?" Zuriel replies as he continues to glance around.
After concluding that the room contains no further threats, he heads down below to inspect the remaining unexplored door.
"Ah think we should search this whole place. We've opened the door, and there could be some robbers coming in during the night. And we need to do our work first." August beckons Gavia to follow Zuriel.
”Well we also have heard from the next of kin from Hunclay, it seems his cousin doesn’t wish to claim any of his property and requested it be auctioned off and the proceeds sent to her. This leaves us with the problem of trying to discern the safety of his home considering it’s likely trapped after seeing the smoldering kobold on the doorstep. I’d like to ask you to help us, you will be compensated, and can participate in the auction should you choose to find any items you may want. I was also hoping you could possibly discern why he was in the old stone tower as well, maybe he had a reason to be there.”
The items are unfortunately all to be sold but the payment will be 5,000 gold pieces. Which I think should more than cover doing the task.
Very well once you’ve made your way through and made sure it’s safe just come find me. I’ll be around town for the foreseeable future.”
"Oh" Gavia replies with obvious disappointment.
"Don't the rest of you find this to be very nerve-racking?"
Looking at Zuriel specifically she adds "I mean a couple of minutes ago you were essentially dead. Doesn't that bother you a little?"
Zuriel stops inspecting the door and looks over at Gavia with furrowed brows. "What do you mean almost dead?" He asks while taking a second look at the blood-soaked gash in his armor's shoulder piece.
"I mean laying on the floor bleeding out uncontrollably because you'd been almost split in half down the middle."
"It was a bit of a nasty gash, I'm afraid," Ethulfel confirms with far less apparent concern than Gavia seems to be hoping for.
"What's this other door?" he then asks moving to examine it.
After considering Gavia's words, Zuriel steps back and waits patiently as Ethulfel examines the door. In fact, he takes a couple steps back, putting about ten feet between himself and the door.
The door is seemingly safe and not trapped, opening it you see six stone slabs sit on the floor of this chamber. Heaped upon each are metal tools, gears, springs, and other parts for the construction of mechanical creations.
You see as you work around the wall has what looks to be a secret door as well barely open but enough to easily see through the trick.
Zuriel takes a second look at the door after Ethulfel opens it. After glancing over the door, he steps into the room and immediately begins searching for traps or hazards.
After clearing the room, he inspects the secret door for traps. During the process, it becomes clear that Gavia's words weigh heavily on the rogue. His normal self-confident posture gives way to uncertainty as his hand slightly trembles during his inspection.
Gavia follows what has become her usual protocol by now, letting a couple of the others go on into the room before entering it herself.
But as you inspect the room besides the strange items you find no traps in the room or at the secret door. You see beyond the door another corridor extends beyond looping around.
After ensuring the secret door is clear, Zuriel begins slowly making his way down the corridor. “Could someone check and see if any of the oddities in this room is magical?” He asks just before entering through the secret door.
"Ah can't" August offers helpfully.
He gives a shrug at the strange items, and follows Zuriel through the secret door.
"No, that's not something I can do" replies Gavia.
Jenise detects magic around the room and finds nothing magical. Continuing on into the corridor you open the “hidden” door. The hinges squeak loudly but you are free to continue on. After snaking around it opens up and you see a fork. On side continues southward while the other leads to a dead end. An iron gate to this small chamber hangs ajar. The room within is bare, except for a conjuration circle of silvery metal inlaid in the stone floor and a small, rickety table on which sits a thin journal.
Zuriel looks over at Gavia with a look of fear in his eyes. Then he looks over to August. "Would you be willing to see if there is any more of those demons in there." He asks in a tone that is riddled with self-doubt.
"Sure, Zuriel. Ah'll be happy to." August replies with confident smile. Chin up and sword ready he steps further into the room to investigate.
"No sign of demons here!"
Gavia looks back at Zuriel with fear as well. It feels better to have someone else in her corner though.
She also looks into the room for good measure.
"Don't like that circle on the floor one bit..."
Moving forward none of you see anything, you do hear however as you enter a voice. “Pleaee! Help me, break the circle. I’ve been stuck here for so long.” as this is said a figure appear in the air, disgustingly part human infant and part massive fly.
Gavia looks at the pitiful thing, trying to figure out what it might be.
Zuriel begins to enter the room after August indicates its clear of demons. As soon as the voice presents itself, he bolts out of the room. "Demons! Run!" He announces during the process of fleeing.
Gavia you would recognize this as an Accuser Devil or a Zebub. Infernal spy’s everything they see can be relayed to others, though their work with mortals is rather limited considering their horrifying visage and lack of real power.
The creature watches Zuriel sprint away and seemingly whines in protest. “No, don’t leave. I’ve been here for so long thanks to that mean old man. Just break the circle and I’ll be gone poof, back to the Hells.”
Zuriel silently declines while observing the process from outside the room. he makes sure there is a fairly large gap between himself and the demon.
Gavia looks at August.
"Is he alright?" she asks with a nod toward Zuriel.
She ignores the Zebub while they sort things out.
"Ah don't know..." August replies to Gavia, looking at Zuriel. "He is not usually like that."
The paladin then turns his attention towards the Zebub. He doesn't know what to think about it - as it looks very pitiful and disgusting at the same time. He turns on his detect evil to study what manner of creature is there inside the circle.
When August turns his attention to the devil, Gavia related what she knows about the particular type to him.
"Could be worse. Of course he needs to stay right where he is."
He in fact does detect as evil with a moderate aura. The creature cries, in a fashion, and complains. “but if I’m back in Hell I’m less of a problem.”
Zuriel observes from a distance and is skeptical of anything this creature has to say. "August, do you think you can destroy that horrible monster? If we leave it here, it might eat the people who come to clear out the place. If we break the circle, does it go back to hell? Or is it set free and released here? Frigon wizards and their stooped obsession with demons!"
"Ya, Ah can do that." August declares, draws his sword and steps closer to the captive demon. But then he hesitates. Evil, by it's very nature, yes. But so very pitiful. And helpless.
What did the code say..? 'Strike only if there can be no doubt of my enemy’s malice.'
Infernal spy’s everything they see can be relayed to others