| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
As Audria starts to swing, the corpse twitches and lifts into the air. With astounding speed, the pallid flesh swells and stretches; one arm lengthens, hardens, curves into a scythe-like claw. Horns grow all over the body, the hair writhes and the legs fuse into an ectoplasmic mass roiling with darkness. Howling with an inhuman voice, the nightmarish creature is lifted higher, until she is level with the head of the statue.
In a voice layered with otherworldly moans and growls, she shouts
She then plummets, dropping to one knee in front of the statue with an impact that shakes the entire chamber.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Shane gapes, fear spreading through him, he'd heard of this in his studies but never thought he'd see it, he calls out "She's become a Daughter of Urgathoa! I thought it was a myth but the Pallid Princess raises them from her most zealous and accomplished priestesses. Their scythe-like claw can spread terrible and virulent diseases to those they hurt, and the Daughters are resistant to channeled energy that would normally hurt undead!"
He is glad he wears one of the masks and hopes it protects him should he get clawed. "Our one advantage, and this is conjecture, the protective spells she had going should have ended when she died, she maybe, MAYBE easier to hit. I wouldn't consider it a given though."
On reflex, Shrike stabs downward as the pale formerly human flesh of the corpse begins to stretch and swell.
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
"I pity you," Audria says as holy fire once again flares to life around her. "You aren't half as terrifying as Gaedren Lamm was."
Then she strikes.
[ooc]+5 for 22 if the first attack misses.[ooc]
Appalled but somehow unsurprised, Shrike darts forward after the new abomination, hot on Audria's heels. She brings her feet together and leaps onto the edge of the statue's pool, twisting her body to the side in a comma-shaped curve to avoid the newly-grown horns of the monstrosity and stabbing for its eye as she passes by. Landing, she stabs out again.
"Glory." The complete lack of affect in just two syllables is somehow more witheringly contemptuous than an insult.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Andaisin's new form seems taken aback by Audria's statement, to the extent that she is a little too slow in parrying or dodging - which allows the paladin to slash her twice with her glaive. The monstruous undead is less slow as Shrike flies past, but not quite fast enough to catch the vigilante before she sinks Thorn deep into her side.
Oozing a thick, dark fluid from her already numerous wounds, she staggers a step sideways, then brings her great scythe-shaped claw to bear against Shrike.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Empty threats. It is you that will be destroyed. Tell your goddess that Korvosa is not her playground!" Elric says to the hideously transformed priestess as he calmly sends arrow after arrow into her twisted body.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Pava lays into the undead horror with a grim smile affixed to their face, bone weariness blunting their fear.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Between the rain of arrows and the onslaught of reckless fists, this second form of the Urgathoan priestess Andaisin collapses to the stone floor, devoid of life and unlife.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Shane ... laughs, a titter that is just two steps short of hysterical but also full of relief, "I swear, if it weren't the height of boorishness and beneath me, I'd micturate on the remains of this mass murderer. I wish her a miserable afterlife." he takes a swig of a mild healing potion and then says to the others staring at them in wonder "You people, my friends, my allies, are amazing. You just took down a high priestess in favor of the Pallid Princess not once, but twice. She knew we were coming and you all still beat her. I'm not sure how I stand with any god or goddess, but I think I've found faith in the lot of you. You're amazing."
THen a second glance at them, less sentimental and more... pragmatic, "You also look horrible, all of us do I'm sure. We need to heal up before we return to the vampire. If he backs up on his deal, as impressed as I am with you all, I don't think we'd hold up to that as we are."
The horrific claws close on Shrike with a sound more like a slate rooftile snapping than blades sinking into flesh. She stands her ground and stays on her feet.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The first thing Shrike does when the massive abomination falls is stand poised over it for several long seconds, ready to strike again if Urgathoa should see fit to raise her chosen once more. Only when she is convinced that the pile of pallid flesh is truly inert does she end her tensed posture and take a breath. Immediately, a hacking, dry cough sounds from behind the mask, and she plants the end of her spear on the ground, gripping it tightly as she leans a bit on the haft for support to remain upright. "Yaru."
The second thing she does is clean her spear carefully of both Andaisin's heart's blood and her monstrous form's black ichor. Shrike drops the weapon rag when she is done without looking to see if it falls on the abomination's body, and retrieves her bow and curving sword as well, cleaning and replacing them in their usual resting positions with equal care.
As she performs this meditative task, in the silence of the stinking chamber buried under the streets of the city like an infected cyst under skin, tiny fragments of whisper are audible as she prays subvocally. Thank you, Hunter, for this lesson. And for blessing these, my allies in the hunt, with foresight, cunning and stubbornness. Few here are your people. Korvosa will not know of your protection or give you praise. But I will remember, and I will serve you until my dying breath.
She coughs again, the same familiar wet wheeze of the blood veil victim. Which might be closer than I thought. Raising a hand, she sees the telltale red spots of the same disease starting to appear faintly under the gray hue of stone, far faster than the disease normally progresses. "Don't approach me. She gave me a parting gift."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Pava gives a ragged smile at Shane's words. "Don't sell yourself short, that veil you put on me worked a trick, and-" They see Shrike sicken. "Hells. Hang on a drip, Murder Bird. We'll get you sorted." Pava shoots a glare at Shane and Kandru. "Acadamae? Mme. Lostling? It got in her through the mask, will ours let us help her?"
Audria slumps in relief as Andaisin goes down for good this time. Hearing Shrike's warning, she sets down her glaive to do what she can for her friend.
"I can't tell how bad it is," she says quietly after spending a few moments looking Shrike over. "We can't just stay here forever, though. We still need to rescue Ruan."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Pava shoots a glare at Shane and Kandru. "Acadamae? Mme. Lostling? It got in her through the mask, will ours let us help her?"
"Not sure..." Shane admits.
"Kandru, I think it falls to you if you can."
His eyes fall on the large idol of the Pallid Princess in the room "I wonder if we could destroy that before we leave. It ..." He casts detect magic and then.. blinks "Interesting. I think I found some magic items at the base of it, at least, some variance of magic."
"I can't tell how bad it is," she says quietly after spending a few moments looking Shrike over. "We can't just stay here forever, though. We still need to rescue Ruan."
"Wasn't planning to. Just a warning to the others. Not you, I guess. Since the Maiden protects you. We three should all get patched up though. Then we grab what we can and go talk with the leech." Shrike indicates both Audria and Pava with a small movement of her head. To avoid possibly contaminating anything, she does not collect the scythe or the other no doubt powerful items that Andaisin's first corpse left behind like the shed skin of a snake when it transformed. For now, while Shane investigates the statue, she fishes in the haversack for the potion from Davaulus's office that the wizard had said would cure diseases, uncorks it and pushes up the mask slightly to drink it.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Breathing a sigh of quiet relief as Andaisin's twisted remains seem truly destroyed, Elric moves forward to aid his injured allies.
He pulls a vial of holy water from his pack, using it to rinse the bloody ichor off the plague cleric's weapons and equipment, offering to to the same for his friends.
"Someone make sure to keep a careful eye on the passage leading down here. I don't trust that vampire not to take advantage of our situation. He must know how tough of a fight Andaisin would put up."
Looking around in the unholy sanctuary, he suppresses a shudder at the thought of the death and suffering contained within the basins lining the walls.
"This place must be cleansed, both of disease and Urgathoa's influence. We must keep it under guard while we evacuate the wounded, then elicit help from the different faiths to ensure that no harmful presence lingers. "
When Shrike coughs, he turns sharply to examine her with a trained look, now painfully familiar with the different stages of Blood veil.
"I'm not a physician, but it seems the disease somehow bypassed the masks protection and became instantly symptomatic. Being struck directly by the chosen of the Pallid Princess will do that, I suppose." he says wryly.
After pausing to get Shrike's silent permission, he lifts her mask slightly and examines the spreading rash on her face
"The strain of blood veil currently infecting Shrike seems to be the "regular" kind, and thus it should be fairly safe to treat her while wearing the physicians' masks and gloves. We found several curative potions in this place, I suggest you drink one as fast as possible."
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Pava doesn't comment on the news that Shrike isn't infecting them, but their shoulders relax in unspoken relief. "Trusting you on that, Soldier Boy. Maybe we take a mage-bath before dragging any bleeding wounds near the leech as well," Pava adds drily.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"I'm not a physician, but it seems the disease somehow bypassed the mask's protection and became instantly symptomatic. Being struck directly by the chosen of the Pallid Princess will do that, I suppose," he says wryly.
After pausing to get Shrike's silent permission, he lifts her mask slightly and examines the spreading rash on her face.
Shrike takes a sharp step back when Elric approaches her and makes as though to touch her mask with his bare hands. "Your ears stop working? Don't risk it."
But after a moment of hesitation or perhaps internal struggle, still keeping a few feet between them, she tilts her head slightly and lifts the sharp-beaked disguise, with its unsettling black eyes and dark tear tracks, away from her face by an inch or two. It is enough for Elric to see that the red rash covers the entirety of the stone-smooth cheek and nose, and has spread to the visible part of her neck. The small red hives are unsightly, but have not yet swelled to the poxlike blisters or caused the swollen neck glands that mark the more alarming middle stages of the disease.
Her right eye looks sideways and meets his for a beat — ice-pale iris, onyx-black pupil — before she closes it and swiftly replaces the mask. With one hand she pushes up the opposite sleeve of her dark overshirt, the mithril chain shirt, and her undershirt to the elbow, showing that the rash is present on her limbs as well. It looks exactly like the normal progression of the illness one would expect from a day or two after the first symptoms of the disease begin to show: nothing special at all.
She nods acceptance of Elric's assessment and begins with Davaulus's potion.
"Trusting you on that, Soldier Boy. Maybe we take a mage-bath before dragging any bleeding wounds near the leech as well," Pava adds drily.
"Or we don't. See if he's as civilized as he pretends." The low croak makes clear which outcome Shrike would prefer, even injured and weakened as she is.
Satisfied that the treatment of Shirke's illness is handled, Elric turns his attention to the other injuries.
He looks sharply at Pava when she mentions that the sight of several open wounds might be too much temptation for the otherwise restrained vampire.
"Yeah...thanks for that mental image. Let's get those wounds patched up sooner rather than later."
His gaze drifts to the death's head coffer they reluctantly promised to the undead scientist.
"So...are we just handing that thing over? We're not exactly in peak condition for another fight, but the thought of it being used to spread another plague grinds on my conscience. Then again, sometime you got to accept that not all problems are yours to solve..." he says quietly, doubt underlining his words.
"The leech claimed the coffer wouldn't lead to more bloodshed," Pava says with doubt in their voice. "We could just run for it though, if we didn't want to fight. His minions are dead, and it's a lot of legwork to kill us in our beds. Could threaten to break the coffer if he doesn't do a better job explaining what he'll use it for. Or just one of us could go in and do that..." Their voice is quicker, more uncertain as Pava goes through a list they clearly don't love.
"We run for it, and Ruan dies. That contraption was very nasty. We betray the vampire, and Ruan dies first I suspect. Now, if we're willing for Ruan to die, we can just take this and run and avoid Arkminos but then what? His experiments continue here? He takes over for his mistress and plagues our city more with improved illness for study? I know saying that taking care of our own city first seems shallow, but one might say charity begins at home and Ustalav has its own champions." He admits "We are battered, bruised, and some of us nearly out of spells. Even with our new resources," He continues looking over the corpse of their fallen foe and the secret compartment under the base of the statue, sorting things out "Even with these, it does not seem to me we can win. Of course, I just gave a speech how amazing you all are but ... I think we've expended a lot of our amazing right now. I don't even know what kind of vampire Arkminos is but if he can memorize he might even turn us against each other. I'm good, very good, but I'm not sure Arkminos would fall for an illusion of his prize. The smartest thing in my opinion is to give him what he wants, tell him in exchange never return to our city, and that Ruan goes with us. I know that won't sit well with some of you."
When he finds the death's head coffer, he tries to analyze it.