Jaithe will try to identify the flasks.
Zerryd sets the money pouch and the 4 red flasks near the scrolls on the desk for Jaithe to identify. He says to the wizard, "Maybe also check out these scrolls too?" And seeing Takemiryu's new bauble sparkling in the light, Zerryd adds, "Maybe the ruby that our curious kitsune is also magical." He stows his thieves' tools and continues looking around.
Spotting a bedroll in the south corner of the room, Zerryd draws his rapier and approaches it warily.
After examining the bedroll, the strix joins Takemiryu at the ice-covered chest and has a look.
Kellsi follows the others into the room. She sighs at the mounted heads and quietly crosses the floor to bless them and try to release any souls that may still be bound into them.
Only then does the little kobold check the room for any further presence of magic.
"That does look good with your fur!" she agrees.
"I wonder why they kept a bedroll here when there are, presumably, guest rooms?"
Jaithe spends the next hour trying to identify the items.
As Jaithe begins to study the items, Zerryd asks, "I'm not sure how much time we have till the real Auldegrund returns, but I'm guessing we don't have an hour." He considers and adds, "Perhaps you don't need to spend time ID'ing each of the four flasks, since they look similar." Zerryd shrugs and continues looking about.
The scroll is not magical, it is just a lot of writing in Infernal. It would take a few hours to read through all of the notes.
Jaithe can not identify 2 of the flask. But the other two will restore health. She guesses the other two are the same as well.
The ruby ring gives off abjuration magic that when worn will protect you against fire.
Once Jaithe confirms that these items are magic, Kellsti sends out another pulse to search for more magic.
Kellsti detects one more magic item in the room.
Kellsti sighs. "We could spend a while trying to find that last item, ut it may just be that pentagram..."
Having a bright idea, she backs up until 35' from the pentagram, making sure the door is open, and then tries again. Then, if there is no magic found, steps forward to try again with the pentagram in range.
After investigating the bedroll, Zerryd examines the ice-covered chest with Takemiryu.
When Takemiryu hears that his new ring protects him a little against fire, he does a quick jig of excitement. "How perfect is that? Fire's my thing after all." he flicks his center tail and a small ball of fire shoots out from it and flies harmlessly out the door and into the arena. "Cool eh? Not always. Being the owner of a perpetually smoldering tail has its blistery downside. I'm hoping this ring will help with that." He admires the ring with a newfound excitement.
When Kellsti says that the flasks are healing potions of some sort, Takemiryu says, "good enough for me," and pockets one of them.
When he sees Takemiryu help himself to one of the potions, Zerryd shrugs his strix wing shoulders and says, "Just in case ..." and stows one in his bandolier.
Kellsti attempts her experiment and finds that she does detect magic when she is within 30 feet of the pentagram.
Zerryd investigates the bedroll further and feels something hard wrapped up inside of it. Unwrapping it they find an ivory and darkwood hip flask bearing the religious symbol of Alocer encrusted with semi-precious stones and fragments of obsidian. While the whiskey in the hip flask is nothing noteworthy, the flask itself is worth 90 gp.
"So we have a magic pentagram... which may or may not contain a nasty devil. A nasty devil who we would rather like to contain within the pentagram but is AWOL... several rooms we have not yet explored and a hunter wanting to come to dinner." summarises the priestess.
"Well, if the devil is captive, he is no concern for us at the moment, but we may want to think of a plan to try and lure him back to within the pentagram. Aside from that, I think those rooms should be searched. We may find further clues in them. And we need to think about turning the tables on our hunter. Setting up some traps for him in his own abode sounds... appropriate."
Just as Kellsti mention the hunter. They hear the front door in the dining open.
He stops just short of the door and looks down, noticing the snare, and points it out to his allies. "Well fellas, looks like they were trying to hunt us instead." The man calls out a bit louder. "Nice try, but you are no match for Hunters of Alocer."
He then jumps over the snare with ease. Two more men follow suit.
The cultists are all humans, still clad in their hunting armor and wearing black and red sashes on their bow arms to show their affiliation with Alocer, the Pack Lord. As befits those who spend much of their time in the wilderness, the three are scruffy, calloused, and overall uncouth in appearance.
Hearing the entrance of the hunting party, Takemiryu moves to the still intact southern peephole and looks out into the main hall. He whispers "Looks like my snares were not as welcoming as I'd hoped. There are three of them. I don't think Auldegrund is among them. Should we engage them in the main hall or try to find a more advantageous position from which to attack?" He pauses as he goes over the map of the lodge in his mind. "We may do better if we try to catch them in the short hallway leading from the main hall to the room with the bear trap. Too bad we didn't lock some of those doors behind us to slow them down."
Jaithe takes one of the healing potions (well, she hopes it's a healing potion). Turning to her newfound friends, "We might have the advantage -- since they don't know where we are... I think it's best we engage them separately, assuming we can separate them."
As Takemiryu and Jaithe are whispering plans, Zerryd has an idea and whispers, "This ring of mine ... I can use it to throw my voice. I believe I can lead them into that narrow corridor. Then with a couple of them inside, we can jump out and attack while they're bottled up." Assuming no objections, he twists the Ventriloquist's Ring on his finger.
Zerryd has his voice project from the L-shaped corridor near the cave. "Shhh...Stay quiet." And from 5' further away, "Stop pushing! He eagerly watches with the others through the peepholes to see if they follow the voices.
Kellsti, a little anxious, hurries along with the rest of the group.
I'm glad I'm with them. They are much more capable in this type of thing than me..
"Nice try, we can hear you and your feeble attempts to fool us." Whelp, guess you are gonna make us come to you. One of the men stoop down to pick up the discarded false wolf head. "So you found the peep holes."
When Takemiryu hears one of the hunters mention the now wide open peep hole, Takemiryu whispers, "Uh oh. I forgot they can see in here now. We better leave this room and follow Zerryd so they don't know exactly where we are. Probably best not to split up anyway." And without waiting for any replies, he heads out the door after Zerryd.
Zerryd waits for the others in the first cave room, with his rapier drawn and ready.
Jaithe follows her companions.
"hm, no one in here."
The Cultists head through the doors leading back to the caves. Red opens the door to see an ambush waiting for them.
Like a true ambush. The entire party is up.
When the door flies open, Zerryd nods to his companions. Knowing the importance of keeping the enemies bottled up in the corridor, he announces, "Get any ranged shots in now, before I block the entrance." He waits for his allies to attack before moving to the doorway.
After his allies have acted, Zerryd quickly lathers some Black Adder Venom on his rapier. He then steps in front of the doorway to block the entrance, and stabs the enemy in front, with surprise.
"You will pay for your wicked ways!" cries out Kellsti.
"Your art is nothing compared to mine!"
A sudden burst of brilliant colour cloaks the front two enemies
◆ Stride
◆◆ Cast focus spell Splash of Art.
Kellsti casts a spell, coating the cultists red.
Jaithe and Takemiryu may act
Takemiryu waits with trident at the ready for the hunters to come through the door. As soon as the door opens and the first is about to enter, he takes a deep breath and prepares an almighty roar to shake the man in his boots...
...but all that comes out is a high-pitched squeek, followed by a coughing fit as the ranger tries to dislodge his own tongue from his throat. Still coughing slightly, he tries to cover his embarrasement by throwing his trident repeatedly at the hunter .
Jaithe will delay until they actually enter the room.
Jaithe will delay until they actually enter the room. Grim Tendrils would be perfect but Zerryd's in the way
Jaithe steps and unleashes a line of darkness at the oncoming hostiles.
+1 Persistent Bleed
They laugh as Takemiryu tries to intimidate them. However, they stop laugh as the trident hits red twice.
Jaithe moves in front of the door and unleashes tendrils.
Zerryd moves in and stabs the cultist in front.
Red casts a pair of spells and then attempts to punch Zerryd with a spiked gauntlet.
Yellow casts a few spells as well and then fires and arrow at Zerryd.
Green pulls out an arrow and touches a rune on it. It glows blue, he then fires it.
Round 2-Everyone may act
Red: 28/45
Yellow: 39/45
Green: 39/45, 1 persistent bleed
"Bad, bad men!" says Kellsti.
She fires another ray of holy goodness at the bad men (tm). "Perhaps you would prefer this to my other pretty colours."
She then readies her bow for additional martial interactions.
◆ ◆ Cast a spell (divine lance)
◆ Interact (draw bow)
Zerryd dodges, ducks, dips, dives, and dodges to avoid the arrows aimed in his direction. Willing to risk life and limb a little longer, he remains in the doorway one more round, blocking the way in. He smiles and says, "Nice shooting. Oh dear ... I hope Auldegrund isn't too disappointed." Then with a glance and a flourish, he suddenly feigns surprise, "And look who just showed up! You're in for it now." He feints and attacks the nearest one.
Kellsti launches a ray of good and misses.
Zerryd manages to deceive the one in front. His first strike fails, but second finds the mark. The cultist drops.
Jaithe and Takemiryu may act
With the first cultist down, Takemiryu can barely see the next one down the hallway for a clean shot. The next cultist is also a little further away than he would like . He shrugs and sprinting past his friends, plunges into the hallway screaming like a banshee to deal with the miscreant more directly.
Jaithe snarls at Green and launches a sharp rock at them.
She scowls at the rock striking the wall behind the baddies. She then cases shield.
Jaithe misses.
Takemiryu fails to demoralize yellow, but delivers a decent hit to red.
Yellow retreats back down the hall way.
Green fires an arrow at Takemiryu.
He then follow yellow back down the hallway.
Everyone may act
Yellow: 23/45
Green: 38/45
"I guess they didn't like being turned into the prey for a change." sighs Kellsti. "But I doubt they have learned their lesson."
Zerryd grins at Kellsti's remark. Then, turning to watch the enemies run away, he shakes his head, "Fleeing? Auldegrund must be proud of such help. A valiant effort, but you'll not outrun a strix." The rogue chases them . When he catches up, he feints to the left and right, before jabbing with his rapier.
Feint: Success=>Target flatfoot to next attack. Crit-Success=>Target flatfoot till end of next turn.
Distracting Feint: Target also has -2 Perception and Reflex Saves for same duration.
An arrow flies right by Zerryd's head as he turns the corner.
He continues and ducks left and strikes with his right. It connects.
Kellsti, Jaithe, and Takemiryu mak act
Yellow: 3/45
Green: 38/45
Jaithe hurries to catch up. She grabs up another rock and hurls it at Yellow.
Kellsti jogs down the corridor. Once at the corner, she has a clear shot at the hunter in the yellow shirt, and takes it.
Takemiryu fails to demoralize yellow, but delivers a decent hit to red.
Takemiryu watches as the cultist he'd just attacked makes a run for it rather than face him in combat. "How disappointing. Not quite the brave hunters we'd been led to believe." When the other cultist shoots at him, the kitsune is ready and moves his head slightly to let the arrow fly harmlessly past him. "Now that's more like it. Hold on! Where are you going? The dance has only just begun." He chases after the fleeing cultists. With Zerryd in the way, he stops at the door. It is enough; he can clearly see both cultists and launches his trident at them.
Jaithe's rock misses.
Kellsti moves in and fires her trusty bow. She drops the cultist in yellow.
Takemiryu enters the room and tosses his trident twice at the green. He is hit twice but still stands defiantly.
"Alacer will welcome us at his table" The man yells back before casting a spell.
A magical arrow appears next to Zerryd and moves toward him.
Zerryd is hit hard by the force arrow.
The cultist casts another spell and a magical barrier floats in front of him.
Everyone may go
Zerryd reels from the blow of the cultist's magic weapon. He says, "Time for you to join your misguided friends." He lathers some Simple Injury Poison on his rapier and moves in for the kill, careful to avoid Takemiryu's snare.
He remains on the far side of the enemy, encouraging anyone to take advantage of a flanking opportunity.
Kellsi dashes forward. Seeing the success she had with the bow, she tries to snap off another shot at the last cultist.
Then, catching her breath, tries her luck with a second one...
But the stress of the whole show seems to be getting to her. The shot goes far and wide.
"Are you okay Zerryd ?"
Jaithe runs in and sticks close to the wall, also avoiding Takemiryu's snare. She grabs a fork from what remains of dinner and hurls it at Green.
The final cultist goes down.
On the bodies are standard gear, leather armor, composite short bows, and holy symbols of Alocer. There are also 8 unique arrows with runes on them, all the same.
After the last cultist goes down, Takemiryu enters the main room and wipes off his trident on the fur of one of the stuffed bears. "That went rather well I thought. If Zerryd had managed to avoid that magical arrow we would've had a clean sweep. Let's have a look at that wound, though I'm not sure how long we have before Auldegrund shows up. I assume he isn't far behind this lot."
After a quick look at the wound, he steps back and pats his pockets. "I doubt we have time to treat that properly. Here!" Takemiryu pulls out one of the the healing potions they'd found in the back room and hands it to Zerryd. "It's probably best if you drink this so we don't waste time."