Ceceka lands a hit on the undead and Telvir blasts it with magic missiles. Mithralline grabs hold and sinks her fangs into the creature's neck, draining its stagnant blood. The monster roars as it fends off Smoke's and Aily's attacks. It grabs Mithralline off of its neck and throws her to the ground, then steps over her unmoving form to get to Ceceka, punching the fighter as well!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Mithralline" Ally says as her lady falls. Not a cry of worry, but more like a growl of annoyance. She steps over the tiny broken form to dig her dagger into its side.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Now that Mithralline the Snitch is down, Caraid tries to help by unleashing a concentrated beam of positive energy at the creature.
Power continues to flood through Telvir as he attempts to tear the creature apart with his mind.
and
"Get him, Smoke." The dog steps up and tries to hamstring the creature.
for
After commanding the dog, Telvir gets a splitting headache from the exertion.
Ceceka lands a powerful blow, then Aily and Smoke score hits on the undead, finally finishing it off! It falls to the floor and lies still.
Investigating the corpse near the iron slab, you can tell that it was a male human who was pummeled to death. The severe beating made his facial features indiscernible. He wore a red cloak with the Three-Fingered Hand gang symbol, like the ones you discovered at Old Ergagh’s Farm. Furthermore, the pool of blood stops where the stone meets the iron slab, though there does not appear to be even the slightest gap between the two.
When someone in possession of the bank key touches the iron slab, it sinks a few inches and swivels open, revealing stone stairs leading to the bank's basement.
"Well, that's ominous. Though perhaps we can succeed here where the gang failed." Telvir give Smoke a good pet and lets him lick up as much of the coagulated blood as he likes.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Mithralline lies victorious on the ground.
Aily looks disdainfully down at her mistress "Does anyone have anything to wake her up?" her dark eyes look reluctantly hopeful at Caraid and Telvir.
It's a good thing Aily didn't look at Ceceka for he'd have shaken his head from side to side. He sits down and embraces the moment of respite to see to his wounds, have a drink, and empty his mind for the beating of the man's heart reverberates through every thought. The ghastly sight of the pummelled gang member is a stark reminder of how this could've ended.
"I say we fall back to the mansion to recuperate. We are not in fighting shape, so if more gang members come by, we can't stop them, and if there is more resistance to be found within the vault, we can't deal with that."
With no help for her mistress offered, which she could blame anyone for, she rummages for the oil of unlife from their spoils. "wake up, lady Cort, you almost died" she says after application, adding Again to get statement in her mind.
"We are in a difficult spot. We've removed the vault's guardian and opened its door. I'd hate to have this place plundered after all that trouble, but we don't want anyone destroyed in the process of pushing ourselves."
Telvir purses his thin lips.
"Perhaps someone could stealthily take a peak downstairs. If it is a single chamber, we could take what we need and retreat before exploring the remainder of the building."
Demonstratively, Ceceka looks at his companions. Whoever might answer Telvir's call, it surely won't be Ceceka.
Mithralline wakes up and promptly takes the oil of unlife she bought for herself. Shaking her head as she recovers, she looks pointedly at the dog.
"Send Smoke," she orders.
HP 5/28
AC 18 (20 with shield raised)
Fort +7, Ref +5, Will +7
Hero points: 2
Effects: broken shield
TElvir casts a significant glance at Mithralline, then at Aily, then back. With a sigh, he directs Smoke to investigate the stairway. "...And come right back if you see or smell anything unusual."
Smoke barks and descends the stairs. The hound is gone for a few minutes, then returns and sits at Telvir's feet. "Woof," Smoke says. The length of time the dog was gone suggests the vault below is large, but Smoke doesn't seem concerned by what he found down below, so there seems to be no immediate or obvious dangers.
"Right, very good boy."
Telvir pats the dog on the head.
"Come, let's get you patched up and we'll run down to the vault."
"Do stop squirming, Lady Cort. It's much easier to do this on inert flesh."
Mithralline smiles at Telvir. The fact that it shows him her fangs is likely just coincidental.
While he's working on patching her up, she hands her shield to Asmith to fix it.
HP 9/28
AC 18 (20 with shield raised)
Fort +7, Ref +5, Will +7
Hero points: 2
Effects: broken shield
Aily nods respectfully as Telvir looks at her, knowing what her mistress was asking for him to endanger his servant. Aily owes this man a debt, well, her mistress does, but Aily knows the sprite doesn't see it that way.
"Clever," Ceceka says to Mithralline. He then gets up and stifles a groan as his wounds remind him once again of his mortality. The warrior falls in with the others, his thoughts drifting away to what they might find inside the vault.
"Come, let's explore the vault." Now that Smoke has investigated, Telvir walks down the stairs with confidence.
The stairs lead down into a twenty-foot-square chamber. A single iron door stands in the southern end of the east wall. Beyond the door, the corpse of a human in a red cloak lies in a pool of dried blood in the northwest corner of this plain stone room. Mangled scrap metal dangles from the ceiling, a broken blade at its end.
The corpse belonged to a member of the Three-Fingered Hand, as evidenced by the usual insignia stitched into her cloak. The cause of the gang member’s death is obvious: a sickle blade trap, was built into the ceiling just above the checkpoint’s west door; it sliced her nearly in half. The trap has since been destroyed, and the woman's body looted.
The door here exits into an intersection of unadorned stone passages. Multiple heavy iron doors line the walls. Doors along the east-west corridor are twice as wide as the other doors. A pair of humongous skulls made of black granite stand at opposite ends of the east-west corridor. A black granite vulture squats on each of these skulls. A large amount of shredded netting lies in tatters in the corridor intersection.
Trying to keep quiet, Mithralline sniffs around for blood, hoping to determine which way their quarry went.
There are a few patches of blood around the netting in the intersection, and the doors near the eastern skull stand open.
However, as you step into the intersection to follow the trail, the granite vultures squawk and flap their wings! "More robbers come to plunder the vaults!" one shrieks. "These ones look particularly tasty!" the other one snickers.
The vultures act quickly, flying towards you and attacking Ceceka and Mithralline. Ceceka's foe scores a particularly devastating strike against the fighter!
HP 21/28
AC 18 (20 with shield raised)
Fort +7, Ref +5, Will +7
Hero points: 2
Effects:
Mithralline hisses as she raises her shield and leaps onto the vulture, slashing with her scythe.
Telvir gestures at the dead body and its skeleton shakes itself loose, rising to attack one of the vultures.
for
Aily frowns as she looks at the glossy granite of the birds. While she does find the glossy dark of their feathers appealing, the thought of her poor blade blunting its edge against them is not appealing.
But once again she moves to the other side of her mistress, flanking it if she can, and lashes out with her poor knife, promising it some extra attention later.
Caraid sighs slightly and fires off more divine energy, more in hope than expectation. He'll need to fix Cecka up later too.
Overwhelmed by the vultures, Ceceka disappears underneath the beasts. When their wings carry them up again, the fighter is standing albeit barely. Hastily, Ceceka strikes with a mighty swing and he then wisely backs away.
Caraid strikes one of the vultures with a beam of chaotic energy, which wreaks havoc on the guardian. Ceecka delivers a powerful strike to the same creature before falling back to Caraid's side.
Meanwhile, Aily moves to flank the vulture attacking Mithralline. She scores two sneak attacks against the thing, then Mithralline delivers a critical hit, slicing off its stone head! The statue falls to the floor, inert, and a spectral form is hurled from the debris into one of the skulls at the end of the hall. The skull's eyes glow faintly. "Ugh! Great, now I'm stuck here!" comes a telepathic voice in your minds.
Telvir animates a skeleton to attack the remaining vulture. Its blade scrapes against the stone, dealing some damage. The vulture retaliates against the skeleton, but its sharp beak proves ineffective against the undead.
Telivr directs the skeleton to keep attacking, then tries to figure out what might be going on with the body-hopping spirit.
for
for
HP 21/28
AC 18 (20 with shield raised)
Fort +7, Ref +5, Will +7
Hero points: 2
Effects:
Seeing that the minions have the remaining vulture well in hand, Mithralline flies toward the skull.
"Who are you, and how dare you attack me?!" she rants at it.
"In the future you could start by using your mouth for conversation instead of ramming it into people's flesh. It is generally considered more polite." Aily tries to instruct the talking skull in etiquette as she moves toward the remaining stone bird, flanking with Mr. Stanton's skeleton. Her mind momentarily remember other mouth usage on flesh that caused her first slice to go wildly wrong.
Caraid shoots Aily a rather amused look which she doesn't see, before pressing one hand onto Cecka's back and whispering words of power.
Ceceka give Caraid a nod of appreciation before diving back into the fray. He utilizes the reach of the polearm to stay out of immediate danger, however.
Ceceka and Aily strike the remaining vulture statue. It crumbles to rubble, sending the spirit inside back into the other skull."Damn you!" it snarls.
"We're not telling you anything, so go away," the other spirit pouts.
"So Telvir, do you have any experience binding spirits?" Caraid asks casually. "I can exorcise them if needed but if we need their co-operation it might be useful to inflict a little more... you know." His smile is less than mirthful. "I suppose the Blood Lord could do something suitably convincing if we asked her. I don't think she'd be happy to have to come and deal with such a minor matter. Can you imagine what it would be like to be bound into a zombies farming implement? I don't imagine even a spirit would enjoy it..."
"I typically deal with only corporeal matter." Telvir replies.
He addresses the skulls, "Come now. We have a key and we aren't bandits. We were sent by one of the Blood Lords. What is going on down here?"
"Could we remove the skulls and bring them with us? They could adorn the posts at the end of our front path." Aily picks the stone with her knife before putting it away in her hidden sheath.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"No need for any of that!" one of the spirits says hastily as Aily scratches the stone. "It's only that we are unused to anybody actually trying to talk to us. We have been guarding the vaults for our whole existence, which spans several centuries. Our only pleasure is to taste corpses that have aged for varying periods of time. We cannot ingest food, but we like to chew and savor flavors."
"Yes, some have been quite tasty," the other spirit says. "I wonder what you might taste like? I can see some... choice bits on some of you.
"Not now! Focus!" the first spirit chides. "You asked what has been happening down here. Well, the bank had been quiet for quite some time. The most recent bank manager came here alone many times, always rambling to herself about the complex relationships between taxes, celebrations, and builders, none of which sounded especially appetizing."
"She has a secret vault to the south; there’s a lever in the wall. Maybe she hides tasty things in it?"
"Yes, maybe. Anyway, other people came here recently. They wore red cloaks and did not stay long. A few of them trapped our vulture forms in nets while the others took several boxes from the vaults. Neither the visitors nor the boxes smelled good. The people smelled heavily of yeast. They referred to what they came to steal as 'the ingredient.' It was for someone called 'the poisoner,' who was apparently worried the ingredient might have spoiled after so much time in the bank."
"Oh, and there's something in the northeast vault that likes to hiss and snarl a lot! A robber went in there and didn’t come out. Maybe you should go in there. Whatever it is probably isn’t hungry anymore."
The spirits do not know anything else useful. Searching the skulls themselves reveals several coins in the granite eye sockets. You retrieve a total of 4 gp, 18 sp, and 20 cp.
"The secret vault then." Caraid proposes. "That's the most likely place to find the banks records anyway, then we might be able to find exactly what they took."
Aily pats both heads in thanks for their outpouring of information "The invitation is still open if you desire to change your circumstances. Bodies are one thing we usually have in abundance."
As Cariad suggests the secret vault she nods and moves forward, searching for traps.
Aily discovers the secret door the spirits indicated. A small, concealed lever causes a door-shaped portion of the wall to lower into the floor, revealing a hall with doors to the west and the east.
The west door opens into a vault packed with bones. Buried among the bones is a small, unlocked chest. The chest’s opening is lined with real teeth, and red velvet lines the interior. It contains a low-grade cold iron morningstar forged in the shape of a spiked human skull, as well as 50 sp. The chest itself is worth 10 gp.
The east room resembles a disheveled combination of office and living space more than a bank vault. An ornate bed sits in one corner, and dusty shelves and tables line the walls. Scrolls and journals cover most of these surfaces and much of the floor. Glass jars, metal flasks, ink vials, and a collection of belt pouches are mixed with the other detritus scattered about.
Aily doesn't spot any traps, so you begin to search around the room. However, about a minute after you enter the chamber, a trapdoor in the ceiling opens, depositing a construct resembling a skeletal snake into the room! The construct rears up and prepares to attack!
The construct sways, its serpentine form undulating and clattering in a hypnotic rhythm. Then it lunges at Telvir, sinking envenomed fangs into the elf!
Success: The creature is unnerved by the swaying and becomes flat-footed until the end of the necrophidius's next turn.
Failure: The creature is distracted by the swaying, becoming stunned 1. After it recovers, it is flat-footed until the end of the necrophidius's next turn.
Critical Failure: As failure, but stunned 3.
Mere chance saves Telvir from being in a very bad situation.
He sneers his lips at the construct and countless hands of force grab at the snake, trying to haul it away.
"Smoke, snake!" The pup rushes to attack.
for
Caraid tears his eyes away from the unnerving snake and curses softly at the lack of useful bodies in the area. With nothing better to do he fires off more chaotic energy and retreats.
HP 28/28
AC 18 (20 with shield raised)
Fort +7, Ref +5, Will +7
Hero points: 2
Effects:
Mithralline launches herself at the snake, shield raised and scimitar flashing!
Aily tenses ready to strike, but something about its swaying makes her straighten, tilting her head to the side in bafflement.