Byron staggers away under the barrage of attacks and looks for a way to escape. As he goes he yells, "We need to get away!"
Aiko purses her lips grimly. While her training tells her not to leave a fight, she can only think of how severe Ameiko's condition is. Ameiko will not recover if everyone falls here.
"Go! There's nothing to be gained by dying!"
Adrian pants frantically as he slams the door shut. "What in the nine hells was that thing!?"
When Aiko mentioned their strategy, he nodded in agreemen. "I guess that means we're going the other way."
"We need to find a secure place to seek shelter." Byron says as the damage from the strange rays throb.
Assuming you all flee and shut the door behind you, the creature does not pursue. But it does call out in the strange voice, that sounds like a chorus of people.
“Hahaha, Pazuzu grants me victory this day! My defeat is impossible!”
As you all push back further Into the kitchen from where you came through. The room is unchanged besides for your fresh prints in the dust and dirt. The trips going in two directions toward the north and south.
With a growl, Lyraesel joins the others at they retreat, memorizing the voice, before studying the area. "Not sure what would be 'safe' in this place."
"It's not like we're searching this place to feel safe," Adrain sighed. "But we still need to check the place."
Winsome trembles and pants from exertion. "That... that creature c-c-cast a really powerful spell! I've never s-s-seen magic as great as that, easily beyond anything we have available to us. If you d-d-don't mind, I'm just g-g-going to stay in a little b-b-ball here and think about my life choices. Is it t-t-too late to go b-b-back to Sandpoint?"
Aiko says in an icy tone, "If we leave now, Ameiko may never awaken. She may die in a cursed coma. We have to do something to investigate this, and I bet that... creature... is in the middle of it somehow."
"Based on what our newest ally told us, this castle is full of other creatures, so perhaps we can... 'liberate' some bows from them."
"The map showed a room directly west of us that has only one door. We should hole up there and heal. Winsome and I are both badly wounded." Byron says pointing to the eastern door.
Kelda follows weapon and sword still at the ready a large burn mark on her armor. “I don’t know how many you fought when working your way in, but we haven’t seen any of the creatures in here yet. As for that thing…. I did see one of the bird creatures walk through the cell block. It might go to see it, I don’t know if it’s the thing in charge or not. A tengu acted all high and mighty when I was captured.” She looks around as she says this then to Aiko. “Almost all the bird things use claws. Bows may be hard to come by.”
Winsome holds his head in his hands. "The creature is probably r-r-resistant to normal arrows, anyway." he mumbles sadly. "I hit it with one of my m-m-magic coins and it d-d-didn't even scratch the skin."
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Lyraesel looks at Winsome with an expression of disgust. "Then we need to hunt the weaker ones first, find a way to hurt that creature and deal with flying. I can hit him while he flies."
"Any of you have means of healing?" she asks, looking at the other members of the group.
"Yeah... that would be nice right about now." Adrian winced, trying to work out the soreness affecting his entire body. "We can heal first, then hopefully deal with as much as we can before returning to camp."
"Any of you have means of healing?" she asks, looking at the other members of the group.
"I do. Am I the only one? Everyone come within thirty feet of me."
She looks around as some of the wounds close and breathing returns to normal.
Byron sighs as some of the strange laser burns heal and says, "I sadly lack the ability to close wounds. But I do seem to be collecting them."
"Thanks," Adrian nods, before deciding to start with the room further to the south.
"I thought we were returning to camp." Byron says to Adrian when he starts going to check out new areas.
As Adrian speaks Byron slips the door open just a little. It’s not completely open but from inside weapon racks and armor racks are inside. Nothing happens as the door opens, no sounds come from within. The suspense begins to dissipate but your all left a little on edge.
"Maybe something of use inside." Lyraesel whispers, peering through the open door from a crouches position.
Pearling into the gloom this room appears to be an armory, yet the majority of the armor stands, weapons racks, and shelves stand empty. Though a quick look over reveals a few items inside:
A suit of half-plate armor, a masterwork heavy steel shield, four heavy crossbows, 40 crossbow bolts, and a case labeled with Tien writing and a skull on it.
Aiko squints at the case with Tien writing.
"What... is that."
"These crossbows may come in handy when we return to face that monstrosity." Byron says as he moves over to check out the shelf with the writing and skull before reading the writing.
You find no traps, but looking at the writing it reads in Tien “Fire bottles” and with a quick open you find 10 bottles of alchemists fire.
Adrian picks up a bottle and when Aiko explained what it was he pursed his lips. "I think this might help a lot in our fight against that thing once we're more prepared."
"Is there any way we could avoid that thing?" Winsome whines. "If we give it time to rest and recover its spells, it will probably hit us all with another unholy blight, or whatever that magic was! I'm not sure we can weather that again, even if we rest!"
"So your solution is what? To run, hide?"
Lyraesel shakes her head before turning away from the frightened one, looking askance of Aiko, how he had even come with Ameiko's journey, given the risk. "Weapons to hurt the flying one, and fire. If we fight smart, pick off the weaker ones, separate them...they will fall."
Winsome quails a bit at Lyraesel's scorn. "Hey, I'm just saying we m-m-maybe don't pick a fight with such a powerful creature if we don't h-h-have to. You weren't on the f-f-frontline with us when it attacked, so maybe you didn't s-s-see how dangerous it was?" He shudders to himself, reliving the moment he came face to face with it. He looks to the rest of the group.
"Nothing says that creature will not opt to hunt us down later. We should at least plan on how to deal with it incase there is no option." Byron suggests as he picks up one of the crossbows and checks to see if the crank is still in good condition.
"I hate going back there... but it did use up some of its spells already," Adrian shrugged. "If we healed up some more, now may be our best chance against it." The monk opted for carrying the heavy crossbow on his back as well as 5 bolts and 2 alchemist fire bottles. "At least all of us now have a chance to hit that thing."
"Do we have that much healing left? I thought we had agreed to return to camp and rest? Who knows how many of those spells it can cast in a day. Assuming, it even has a limit." Byron says.
"The reality is that we do not know what kind of powers that creature still has," says Aiko. "At some point no doubt we will need to confront it, but doing so will be extremely risky."
She waves around the room and says, "The very existence of this room full of weapons indicates that there are still things left behind in this castle, that when these monsters took over, not everything was destroyed or lost. We may be able to find better weapons and armor, perhaps even more allies, if we proceed carefully."
"I think that re-engaging that creature right now would be rather foolish, and while I'm not afraid of dying in battle, I am afraid of what will happen to Ameiko if we are not around to help her through her curse."
Lyraesel nods.
"We leave now, they find the dead ogre people. This place will be much better defended when we come back."
"Then we better get prepared with more weapons and allies," Adrian agreed with a nod. "Maybe some of the others in the caravan can help us out."
"If we drag the bodies out I can call a wolf or a small pack of jackals briefly, to tear at the bodies, make it look like they came a cross predators if they are found." the druidess suggests, seeing that the group had settled upon retreat for now.
"I should do a little more healing first, in case we stir up something."
"That should help a little..."
Byron smiles and says, "Thank you Zaraleva."
As you all talk Kelda looks over the armor and other gear, but doesn’t take any. She looks too you all quietly waiting: eventually she does interject “I haven’t seen much of anyone enter into the cells since I came down. We may have some time before they notice his death. I haven’t seen him leave here at all. As for any others you killed maybe they might not check on them for some time… hopefully.”
Byron nods, "They do not seem to be really organized."
"Hmm... so do you think we can just keep the body in the cell for the time being?" he asked. "It'll be easier to move it there than all the way outside."
She shrugs, “It may work a day or so, but eventually they’ll know, if he’s gone or if he’s dead something will be different. As for organized the tengu seemed the only one with sense, though he also seemed crazy…”
"Might be better to see what others can be taken down now, before they know anyone is here." Lyraesel suggests.
Kelda holds her sword with a ready grip and nods looking for anyway else that may agree.
Byron looks over at Zaraleva, "I think it is more important to not push beyond our means. You are the healer Zaraleva, do you have enough blessings from the gods for us to push on?"
Byron looks over at Zaraleva, "I think it is more important to not push beyond our means. You are the healer Zaraleva, do you have enough blessings from the gods for us to push on?"
"For a minor scuffle with one Tengu? Sure. For an all-out brawl, when two of us are still wounded? Doubtful."
Zaraleva frowns, having never been in this situation before.
"It seems like we're not ready for a fight just yet," Adrian agreed. "We can head back the next day and hopefully finish the job."
With a growing condense that pushing purebred will test their luck a bit more than feels safe the group turns and begins to work their way toward the secret tunnel. You pass by the kitchen and eventually find the secret door. Heading outwards you make your way in the dark of night along the road to where you camped finding a small fire burning barely illuminating camp. Sandru sits awake knife out whittling a stick. He quickly turns eyes wide but seeing you all he smiles.
“Ah you are back, how did things go? Did you learn anything at the town? Before you ask, Ameiko is ok. She’s just how you left her, fortunately… I think.” He says the final part with a bit of skepticism, unsure if it’s good news or bad news.
"We found a captive," says Aiko, motioning to the Ulfen woman. "And we encountered several monsters. Seems that the castle is overrun. Not sure yet where to find something to help Ameiko... but it must be in there; she only fell into this state when we got close to the caste."
"It seems likely that we will have to carve our way through the monsters of the castle until we can find some clue as to what is causing this."
"We managed to make some progress, but ran into a flying monster. It turns out we weren't prepared for something like that," he admitted. "Hopefully we'll have better luck tomorrow. I was also wondering if you've seen a tiny woman with a starknife. Maybe she can join us in clearing the area."