With Lyraesel leading the way, you return to the caravan in it's hiding spot. Sandru sits outside his wagon, staring out into the darkness. As you approach he heaves a sigh and comes to meet you "I'm afraid there's been no change in Ameiko's condition. She sleeps, but fitfully. She keeps muttering in her sleep as she tosses and turns. Mother Koya and a "friend" from the village are with her."
Aiko casts her naginata to one side and takes to her knees next to Ameiko. She leans down over the murmuring, near-comatose bard and whispers in Tien.
She lets out a sigh and slowly stands up, then brushes herself off.
"We should get some rest and then prepare for our final push."
Byron nods and will look to find some food to eat before resting.
Lyraesel watches in silence, witnessing Aiko's anguish and determination. Nodding as the others disperse to rest, she heads off to find Shalelu, before getting something to eat and settling in.
Aiko casts her naginata to one side and takes to her knees next to Ameiko. She leans down over the murmuring, near-comatose bard and whispers in Tien.
** spoiler omitted **
She lets out a sigh and slowly stands up, then brushes herself off.
"We should get some rest and then prepare for our final push."
Adrian closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, taking in the news the best he could. He offers a hand to bring Aiko back to her feet before nodding in agreement.
We'll bring you back soon, Ameiko, he thought.
Aiko fluidly rises with Adrian's help, and grips his hand a bit longer than she should. With a conflicted look, she finally breaks away and then moves into the overgrown gardens to sit on one of the stone benches.
Zaraleva sees Aiko's pain and vows to do something, anything, to help alleviate it. But there is no heal check for this pain and Z hasn't exactly mastered her bedside manner. She will eat and rest and pray. Everything will surely be better tomorrow.
As Aiko and Adrian watch Ameiko restless sleep, she begins to thrash and turn wildly, muttering to no one in particular “A key you seek lies in the grip of the ten-handed one—his fear is your greatest ally...”. Mother Koya places he hand on Ameiko's forehead, whispering nothings as she tries to soothe her patient. As Ameiko stills Koya looks up "She's been like this since this whole thing started. She lays there calmly, and then suddenly she begins to get agitated and begins saying something. Sometimes it's nonsense, sometimes it feels like, I don't know, some kind of portent."
Lyraesel finds Shalelu pacing back and forth by one of the wagons, clearly wanting to get out and explore but just not willing to leave just yet. As you approach she stops her pacing and smiles "What can I do for you, wolf-sister?"
Once fully healed with the help of Koya and Spivey and with a hot meal in your bellies everyone settles in for the night.
On the morning everyone wakes refreshed and ready to make a, what you hope, final push into the ruins of Brinewall.
"Shall we just go face the big threat we know of? It seems like wasting energy on more random bird people will only wear us down before we face the flying creature." Byron says as he readies his new bow and arrows.
Zaraleva flinches a bit at the thought but agrees with Byron as she rummages through the caravan for more crossbow bolts.
"Do you want me to prepare a Silence spell? That might stop him from casting and we wouldn't have to listen to his obnoxious taunting."
Lyraesel finds Shalelu pacing back and forth by one of the wagons, clearly wanting to get out and explore but just not willing to leave just yet. As you approach she stops her pacing and smiles "What can I do for you, wolf-sister?"
"Not really...just getting some air, and a quiet moment away from the crowd." she replies quietly with a smile of her own. "They're quite a group...bicker a lot...but definitely a pack."
"How have things been here?"
--------------------------------------
"Yes, better to fight the demon creature when we are strongest." Lyraesel replies.
Adrian shrugs his shoulders. I still don't know what exactly is going on... but I'm beginning to see why her ancestors didn't want her here. And I think those people in that castle are the ones after her. They may even be the same group her ancestors warned her about." He thought of what to do before continuing. "I think we may need to bring her in with us... but we'll need to clear the area of whoever's left in that castle first."
"That demon can fly, so there's the chance he could escape the spell. It may be better to try the spell on him directlyand hope it works."
Winsome considers what he remembers about the previous encounter. "I d-d-don't think it's a d-d-demon-- I'd guess it's some kind of ab-b-berration. It had ten-ten-tentacles, by Torag's beard!" He stops himself, thinking hard. "Ameiko said s-s-something about 'the ten-handed one'. I wonder if that m-m-means the creature? 'His fear is your greatest ally'. What would he be af-af-afraid of?"
Aiko shakes her head wearily. "I was thinking about that too. How are we supposed to know what a flying tentacle demon is afraid of? I know that flying tentacle demons are one of the few things that I'm afraid of."
"I doubt that tentacles would be confused with hands. I think whoever this ten-handed one is, we have yet to encounter it. Lets go and do this. If you do not have a ranged weapon, grab one of the extra heavy crossbows now. This thing may try and flee out of your spell ranges as well." Byron suggests as he starts back towards the castle.
Do we have the other half of the copper piece?
Zaraleva unrolls the map and points at U14.
Everybody ready? She wishes Good Morning! to Spivey and heads up to the gate, head on a swivel.
"Do we ever have a choice in that regard? He signed, but nevertheless had his bolt loaded onto his crossbow. It was time for round two.
Following Zaraleva's lead you make your way back to Brinewall Castle. The halls are eerily deserted and quiet as you climb the stairs to the second floor. This wing of the castle contains several chambers once used as bedrooms and guest quarters—most of these rooms are in relatively good repair, as the dire corbies nested in them while the castle’s master bedroom , was reserved for Kikonu himself. A casual search of these quarters reveal nothing of any note or value.
Lyraesel gives the rooms a more thorough search, especially the chamber that was Kikonou's, in the event that anything of value or importance was left there.
Zaraleva scans the area with Detect Magic before moving on to U15.
Both Lyraesel and Zaraleva search the rooms for objects mundane and magical but come up empty.
Moving to the double doors you enter what appears to have been a shrine to Desna but it has since been horribly defaced. Dozens of paintings of a towering humanoid figure with four wings, a bird’s head, and a scorpion’s tail decorate the walls of this room, seemingly painted in blood.
Old pews sit in a line facing the eastern wall, where a hideously defaced statue of a winged woman stands. The statue, once of Desna herself, has taken the brunt of the damage as her butterfly wings have been separated into four distinct wings and the head has been removed and replaced with skeletal bird's head and a long tail of dried nettles has been attached to the statue's posterior in, what you can only assume is, a rough representation of the demon lord Pazuzu.
A single door to the north leads to what have must once been the cell of the former shrines attendant, which remains relatively untouched, while another set of double doors lead to a walkway and then to the castle's battlements.
Searching the former priest's room you find a footlocker stashed underneath the bed. Opening the unlocked chest you find six black shafted arrows adorned with blue and white fletching, three scroll cases, and a phylactery, all of which radiate magic
Byron moves in and searches around. He pulls out a footlocker from beneath the bed and opens it to find the items in side. "These arrows may be useful. Can anyone tell what they do?" he asks the more magically minded in the group. He lays the arrows, three scroll cases and phylactery on the bed for people to examine.
Winsome activates his own detect magic spell and takes a look at the items.
You figure out the arrows are six +2 evil outsider bane arrows, the scrolls are a scroll of cure moderate wounds (CL:3), a scroll of remove disease (CL:5), and a scroll of restoration (CL:7), the phylactery is a Phylactery of Faithfulness.
"It looks like we're in luck," Adrian said with a small smile. "Who wants to use the arrows on that monster?"
Not I, but I'll cast Silence on one before we walk up and Byron shoots it into the monster's eye.
"Byron is a better archer than I," says Aiko.
"Don't use a bow." Lyraesel replies.
"These will come in handy. Shall we continue on?" he asks as he adds them to his quiver.
"Absolutely!"
With a nod. Lyraesel presses forward.
Let's go through all of the a's and b's of U14 next. Searching every room thoroughly since we don't have any spells running yet.
"I think we're ready to go down to the dungeon now. Let's hope it goes better this time." With a deep breath, he went down the stairs in order to confront the monster.
"Adrian, wait. Let's clean up what they did to Desna first and then check the solarium on this level."
Zaraleva pulls off the feathers and whatever else doesn't belong and then casts Create Water several times to wash off what she can.
After about a half hour of creating water and scrubbing you finally remove the blood and other graffiti from the walls, but the statue is another problem as it will take magic to restore it to it's former glory.
After setting the shrine right you make your way to the catacombs where you encountered the fiend before. The floor of this vast cavern descends in two twenty-foot drops into a large, eerie grotto. The walls drip with moisture and bear strange and disturbing cave paintings of towering four-winged humanoid shapes. Tiny motes of glowing light drift and bob in the air, giving the place an almost nauseating feeling, as if the cavern is viewed through an almost dreamlike haze.
Hackles raised by the eerie feeling of the cavern, Lyraesel utters an incantation in druidic, protective bark spreading over her to cover every inch of her skin in preparation for violence.
[ooc] Cast Barkskin (30 mins)
Hackles raised by the eerie feeling of the cavern, Lyraesel utters an incantation in druidic, protective bark spreading over her to cover every inch of her skin in preparation for violence.
Byron draws the bow and stores his spear as they move into the area.
Winsome sighs, wishing they could put off the encounter longer, but casts a pair of spells on himself in preparation .
"I'm going to cast silence on Byron's first arrow when we get close, but have not yet opened the door. That way, shouldn't hear us coming or opening the door. Once I cast it, Lyr, Win, and I won't be able to cast anything else until the arrow is 20 feet away from us, so make sure, one way or another Byron, you get it away from us. Preferably by putting its eye out."
Zaraleva loads her crossbow and points it at the floor, then prepares her holy symbol, casts protection from evil, and takes one of the black arrows.
"Last chance to cast or make confession, everyone."
I don't have anything else to say." Adrian was keeping his lips tight this time round. Hopefully it would mean they can hit this abomination.
Winsome casts another spell.
Drawing Ironfang, Lyraesel rolls her shoulders, instinctively slipping into a predatory crouch in anticipation of the coming hunt.
[Dice=Initiative]1d20+2[/?dice]