Looking over her pile of rubble, she sees Deregar and Tyr take slashing blades across their flesh. Ignoring her own wounds again, she pours more healing (the tender carress kind) to the summoner.
Tyr and Deregar take the full force of the blaes, but Tandri manages to restore their vitality.
The duo attack Darivan together, then Deregar brings up a shield of force while Tyr attempts another shot with his claws.
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Darivan dodges Floare's vine and narrowly sidesteps Sariana's flurry. Only Tyr manages to land a hit with his jaws, but the cult leader regenerates the damage done!
"Die already!" Darivan growls, casting a healing spell on himself and once more conjuring a storm of falchions.
Another peak over the rock, Tandri sees the unbleeding wounds of her mistress and sends her harmful healing her way.
Deregar and Tyr continue the onslaught of attacks.
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Floare's frustration builds and the ever-present hunger urges her to take more direct action, but she holds back. Loose strands of her honey-colored hair rise in a nimbus around her as she raises her hands to send a snapping, sizzling arc of searing blue energy at their foe.
Darivan so that he is only partially shocked by the lightning bolt. Sariana lands a good hit, as do Tyr and Deregar, the summoner's cold iron spear forestalling the half-orc's regeneration.
Clearly believing in sticking to a strategy, Darivan once more heals himself and conjures a weapon storm!
No one is about to fall over, other than herself, Tandri notes, though she worries her lower lip at whether or not to go ahead and heal more or to try and help.
Her poor lip is tortured by her teeth for several seconds before she decides. She summons a poltergeist of a long-dead spiteful love lost (not hers) and suggests the invisible ghostly woman take out all her frustrations on That Man.
Tyr and Deregar fall in the blade storm!
Floare pales as Deregar and his dragon are shredded by the magical blades. Ignoring the splashes of crimson that blanket the scene, she summons the single spell of healing that she has and sends positive energy in the summoner's direction. The searing pain she feels at her fingertips is unexpected but manageable.
Deregar gasps himself awake and springs to his feet. He springs to his feet and conjures a horrifying vision in front of the half-orc.
Darivan is wounded by Sariana's blow and the poltergeist Tandri conjures, but he ignores Deregar's phantasmal killer spell. The half-orc regenerates one more time before the energies fade away. With only foe within his reach, the half-orc adjusts his grip on his falchion so he is holding it with two hands. "Bleed for Lamashtu!" he shouts as he slices at Deregar, scoring a critical hit! As the summoner crumples to the floor again, Darivan casts his last heal spell on himself.
"Dante!" Floare snaps out, her instructions instinctively understood by her familiar. The wolf rushes forward, grabs the unmoving Deregar by the shoulder, and proceeds to drag him back towards the witch.
Hoping that her mistress will keep the stubborn half-orc busy, Floare casts another spell, sending some of her own life-force into the summoner.
Tandri was too focused on hurting and missed the need for healing. Floare's scream draws her back into the moment, and she sees Deregar on the ground. "no no no no" she chants with pure worry.
Her poltergeist continues her ripping and biting.
"I'm back!" Deregar staggers to his feet, blood spilling from his multiple wounds. He snatches his spear from the ground and swings away.
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Sariana and the poltergeist wound Darivan again. Growling in frustration, he slices into the vampire monk with his falchion!
[dice=Heal (5th)]5d8
Deregar circles the half-orc and attempts to stab him in the back.
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With the brunt of her offensive magic expended, Floare returns to the reliability of fire.
Tandir focuses her harming on the mistress since her well of positivity is drained dry now. Her poltergeist keeps frantically attempting to claw out his eyes.
Sariana lands another hit, and this time, the poltergeist proves super effective! The negative energy courses through Darivan's body, and with a groan, the half-orc cult leader goes down!
In addition to Darivan’s magical gear, Darivan’s collected books and folios (mostly prayer books devoted to the worship of Lamashtu) lie on tables within the explorer’s yurt. Here, you can uncover the full details of Darivan’s plan to transform the Stolen Lands into a haven for Lamashtu’s monstrous minions. These notes mention how he first learned of the caverns via a vision showing his success at creating the monstrous bloom ritual at a breach scar located in this cave complex. First World breach scars occur when the barriers between the Material Plane and the First World are worn thin by overuse of powerful conjuration magic, a malfunctioning portal between the two planes, magical “erosion” in the underlying structure of reality, a disruptive convergence of shifting ley lines, or another unusual magical effect. Despite the wide range of features that can cause breach scars, they remain incredibly rare events, and the fact that the First World itself works to heal these scars over time means that even when a breach scar does form, it almost never persists for more than a few years.
The breach scar in these caves is an exception to this rule, for before it could heal properly, it became “infected” by a taint from the Abyss. The notes conclude with his theory that the bloom of Lamashtu that “quickened within the body of a most unusual chimera my Goddess saw fit to provide” drew its power directly from the corruption in the breach scar, effectively transferring the site’s magical energy into the creature itself. Darivan spends time gloating that “now the chimeric host sees me as its master, and when I speak to it in the Mother’s tongue, it obeys without question.”
The notes also mention his fear that “should the bloom host be destroyed, all my work will have been for naught,” concluding with tentative plans for relocating the “chimeric host” to somewhere more secure so the curse can spread through the Stolen Lands with ease.
Deregar thanks the team profusely, "My life flashed before my eyes, there. Lamashtu had certainly juiced up her champion."
After looking around, he comments, "We'll need to find that chimera. Curious that we haven't heard of it until now. I wonder how they are keeping it fed? It must be well-hidden."
Tandri comes out of her cover, brused and battered, but alive. "I am happy you are alive as well." she tells the summoner. The dwarf holds up needle and thread, gesturing for him to sit while she works on him.
She is careful to touch him as little as possible, both due to her mistress's passions and her own passion-inducing touch thanks to her demonic blood. She gives an apologetic smile to her friend that is taking longer than normal.
Then she finally starts to work on her own wounds, holding the thread in her sharp teeth, while she stitches.
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Thanks to her Sweetling, Sariana ends the battle just as healthy as when she began it and she uses that energy to mutilate the half-orc so thoroughly that even Lamashtu herself would have trouble resurrecting him in one piece. She also keeps Floare away from both Tyr and Deregar - better not to test her still-tenuous control with a friends sanguine essence.
Once the findings in the yurt are explained to her Sari frowns.
"The chimera must die. That is clear, but you are in no state to fight again my friend. Either we lure it somewhere too small for it to fight or we return another day. Perhaps Amiri would enjoy the fight with a monster like that. I'd prefer not to wait so long though."
Considerately for her she doesn't order Deregar straight back into battle but looks to both him and Sweetling to establish how healthy he is (or isn't).
Floare understands Sariana keeping her from Deragar's side, but it still pains her somewhat.
"But I could help," she half-heartedly protests. However, Sariana can see the hunger in her eyes as she gazes over at where Tandri tends to the man's injuries. "I think I'm strong enough." Her tongue slips out and traces over the points of her teeth.
At her mistress's look, Tandri nods a yes he is okay for battle, but the nervous twitching of her tail tells Sari that there is another problem. With an arched brow, Tadri cracks open. "I used almost all my goddess's gifts for the day." she explains she has no healing spells and only a single powerful vampiric healing spell.
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"Then we take no risks." Sari decides. "We fall back and take the bodies with us. We'll return once you are both fully prepared."
She does the heavy lifting - literally, and it's an amusing sight to see the diminutive vampire carrying two corpses on each shoulder. Dead limbs drag along the ground but Sari seems undeterred and the corpses are removed from the caves and are then dismembered and buried in a deep pit which the vampire digs without comment or great effort.
Later that night, when she and Floare are the only ones awake, Sari pulls her Little One into her embrace. "No risks." She says, gently trailing a finger down Floare's flawless cheeks. "There was no need to test yourself here and I don't want to risk my Sweetling, or Deregar. You are just as capable as ever Little One, but months are not long enough. Not yet." A single finger turns to longer caresses - while vampires do not feed on each other, there are other hungers, ones which they can satisfy.
After resting and recovering throughout the day, you return to the caves the next night and coninue onward. The caverns seem to come to an end a short distance past Darivan's chamber, but a close inspection of one of the walls reveals it is a magical creation, not a natural cave wall.
As you approach this wall, a flickering, nearly completely transparent image of an old gnome man missing an arm. He eagerly beckons with his remaining arm for you to follow him before disappearing back into the wall. Tandri recognizes his attire as being that of the druidic order of the Green Faith.
Tandri sees her mistress looks to her, so quickly moves forward to follow through the wall In gnomish, she greets him as she hurries after"May the moss grow up to be felt under the foot. Are you well?"
Following the spirit requires knocking a hole in the wall, but Sariana and Tyr are up to the task. Once through, you find yourselves in another cave. The air in this cave is much cooler and drier than that of the caverns leading up to it, with not a spot of mold or vegetation growing on its floors or walls, which are entirely free of the shine of condensation. Very little of interest lies within this empty, dry cavern, save for the skeletal remains of a gnome slumped against the southwestern wall, one of its arms missing beyond a fragmented stump of bone.
The spirit of the gnome floats above the remains. "Alas, I am far from well," he says acerbically. "But there is something far more concerning at work here than my own unfortunate demise. I beg of you, cut out the sickness within the breach, banish the jackal’s breath from these caverns, and heal the scar. The bloom of Lamashtu has grown within and feeds on the scar itself. It drew in the corruption to grow strong, but that gives us the key to finally cleanse these caves: Defeat the bloom, and the scar will heal itself!"
Tandri colors and frowns equally at the dead gnome's tone, wanting to snap back that she didn't know he was dead when she asked, but deciding that would just make her look more foolish.
She translates the rest of the gnome's words (if he was speaking gnomish), "Is there anything you can tell us about this Bloom that will help us defeat it?"
"The bloom festers within a mutated beast, a monstrous chimera that dwells in the scar. The jackals sealed it there with a wall much like the one that blocked the entrance to this cavern, but you have proven such obstacles mean little to you. Slay the chimera, and the bloom dies with it."
Tandri translates "Kill the beast, save the kingdom." She summarizes at the end.
She would ask the gnome about last rites to lay his body to rest, but her hackles being raised at his tone makes her want him to remain trapped one-armed in a cave for a few decades before returning to lay him to rest. So she doesn't ask.
But she does thank him for the information.
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Sariana waits with her arms crossed. She doesn't like the gnome's tone, but she's sensible enough to know that this is not a fight to pick right now. So she waits, lets her Sweetling do the talking and wonders if she can get some gloves that would let her punch ghosts.
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"So he had nothing helpful to add." She concludes once they've left the gnome's ghost behind. "So, if it's blocked away we open a small gap and kill it with spells. I want it dead, I don't care how."
And fair fights are for idiots who don't know better.
Once you are ready, you knock a hole in the other magically created wall to prepare to face the chimera. It’s difficult to discern the exact dimensions of this vast, sprawling cavern due to the riot of strange vegetation and fungus that grows within. Clouds of mist roiling twenty feet above obscure both the cave roof and the tops of the strange trees, oversized ferns, and enormous mushrooms that grow within. The ground below is a moist tangle of roots, moss, soil, and decaying plant matter, and the air is uncomfortably warm, humid, and thick with the stink of decay. Somewhere above, a sickly yellow light sifts through the mist to light the entire cavern below, almost as if there were no roof to the chamber and sunlight were drifting down through the vapors.
A ferocious triple roar comes from the center of the room as an enormous, mutant chimera emerges from the vegetation! Its three heads are those of a vulture in the center, a rattlesnake on the left, and a centipede on the right. It has feathered wings, a lion’s body, and a tail that ends in a rattlesnake’s rattle. A foul stink of rotting vegetation wafts from the creature, although in this room, that unpleasant smell is hard to tell apart from the rest of the chamber’s odor.
The sickeningly sweet smell of rot overcomes Tandri for a moment, making her want to stop breathing immediately. Unfortunately, she prays for her magic and her only use to her mistress is with her magic.
So she breathes. "My stomach... vicious Lady Sting... please give Lady Nightsong the... strength to claim vengeance for my... stomach"
She'll then give in to the desire to retch, which is neither pretty nor effective.
The chimera shakes the rattle at the end of its tail in a frightening display as its snake mouth opens and spews forth a line of venom at Sariana!
After a quick sample of the malodorous odor (and Tandri's dry retching in response), Floare is thankful for her new state. Quick words of magic cause some of the vile flora to turn upon the unnatural beast.
Though shaking with fright, Deregar empowers Tyr, who charges in and attacks in a frenzy.
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Terror fills Tandri's mind as nausea fills her stomach. Only the fear of losing those she loves keeps her from running from the place. Instead, she calls to the remnants of the chimera's meals to claim vengeance. Claws, hands, and talons all swarm over the creature.
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Sariana shakes off the rattling effect without issue but leading the way through the wall means that she takes the full force of the poisonous blast and can't even afford to dodge. Being a vampire offers some measure of protection against such things, but not much.
Still, bolstered by her Sweetling's magics she darts forwards at the beast. Feinting to draw attention she goes for kicks, swinging upwards from beneath the three heads eyelines.
Deregar tears at the chimera's flank with his teeth. Sariana scores a critical hit, and Floare manages to wrap the beast up in a vine as Tandri's conjured skeletons claw at it.
The chimera flexes its muscles, bursting free of the vine! It then snaps at Sariana with its snake head and slashes with a claw! The monk avoids both attacks!
Tandri maintains the bones that cry out for revenge while weaving a quick harming spell into her mistress.
Deregar throws a quick spell at the creature, hoping to shake its defenses. Tyr continues to attack.
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Floare also directs her efforts at their mistress.
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With her girls bolstering her efforts Sari blurs into a whirl of motion. The chimera is not a normal opponent - as evidenced when the vampire lands another massive kick out of precisely the same blind spot, although its thick coat and impressive natural armor prevent her from landing any follow-up blows.