Aisling describes the room beyond to the rest of the group.
River frowns at the description. Her usual poise is slowly being replaced by obvious twitches, she's swaying rather hypnotically from foot to foot and once Aisling is finished nods quickly.
"Help, yes. Then get out!"
Benedetto echoes River's frown. "I really don't know what to make of that," he comments. "We'll just have to find out what the real situation is when we open the door. Be ready for anything."
"If you have ways to protect us from possession, now would be a good time." he tells Benedetto before busying himself with the doors lock.
Aisling opens the door and calls inside "We're here to help!"
The lock snicks easily under your control. Inside, the elen looks at you, and starts screaming. "GET OUT! GET OUT!" He clutches his hands about his head a dirty greenish hair.
"Sorry, not gonna happen. Let us help." Aisling checks the part of the room he couldn't see earlier by moving a bit in and to the side, opening the space for the rest of the group.
A wail of anguished suffering arises from the undine, seeming larger than the elen making the sound; it echoes off the walls, amplifying it to an ear-piercing degree. Shadowy limbs and glowing hands begin to reach from the walls...
**
More ghostly hands and black limbs arise from the floor while the elen cowers in the corner. Some of the tentacles wrap around his legs, and he slaps at them, whining in disgust.
The rest of the wraithly appendages blindly grope about the air and floor, as if hunting for you solely by touch.
Aisling rushes inside, dancing between grappling appendages, going through the tangle like the air moving through the branches of the tree.
He gets to the panicked elem and gives him a full body hug.
"It is alright. We're not your jailors and we're not some frightened commoners. Come with me, we have a paladin here. Come, help me!"
He pulls the distraught man back toward the door.
Benedetto grunts in surprised pain as the ghostly limbs sieze him. He fights to break free.
It's a testament to just how horrible River is finding this whole experience that she is caught utterly by surprise and can't do anything better than blast the grasping hands with jet after jet of water.
Aisling, he responds to your calming tone. The demons of his mind seem to recede a small bit.
Benedetto manages to break free. Seeing that River seems to be doing *something* to the hands, he decides to try some holy power.
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"We can bring peace. Let me help. Come with me."
Aisling coos to the elem. As he pulls him toward the exit, he surreptitiously prepares holy water just in case. But the primary concern right now is to bring him to Benedetto to be protected from evil.
- if this is not undead, but planar then it's +3 to the roll
River and Benedetto keep the hands at bay, slashing and blasting frantically to keep an area of light within the encroaching darkness.
Aisling manages to calmly walk the elen toward the exit. You are now in a cluster right beside the door. The hands seem to realize what you are doing, and they all clench a fist and start crackling with black energy.
"Run!" Aisling pushes the elen in front of him past Benedetto.
He splashes the ready holy water behind him with a skill of an alchemist. Rushing the elen forward, he calls to Benedetto
"Some kind of negative spirit, undead! Blast away! But from outside! Run!" he repeats
+3 due to Chemist archetype
Benedetto backs away, trying to position himself between the fist and the rest of the group. "Whatever happens, keep moving!" he says as he keeps his sword in a guard position.
River takes the newly rescued elen's hand and leads him up the corridor, leaving the other two to deal with this threat that she's been spectacularly bad at dealing with.
River runs off at a stunning speed, practically dragging the fellow undine behind her. When he is about to trip, she summons a small geyser under his foot to steady him.
**
Just as the array of fists and black energy are about to strike, Aisling disrupts with a holy water spray. Benedetto steps forward and, sword suddenly blazing with bright orange like bonfire-phoenix feathers, strikes into the heart of the congealing blackness, battering away the assault.
The room rumbles, and the hands all melt into one huge face that fills the entire doorway. The face is terrible to look upon - smoke and ash, bone and void, are all you can see.
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Aisling follows River and beleaguered elen. "Come, paladin, this is not the room we're looking for! Slam the door!"
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River throws out blasts of water instinctively as the torches turn to threatening shades of black.
"I was planning on it!" Bennedetto shouts as he kicks the door shut and runs after the rest of the group.
The door is blown off its hinges as a wave of black energies fill the hallway. You can feel the death-cold radiating even from so far away, sapping the warmth off your ears and fingertips.
The hands seem like a giant millipede, skittering down the hall and slowly gaining on you. Desperately, you shut your eyes and use your rope to bypass the strange illusory hallway, nearly tripping at one point but supporting each other and keeping your forward momentum.
Breathing hard, you reach the stairwell. You doubt the hand-bug-demon will be deterred by needing to climb upward, but all this running is starting to tire out the half-starved sylph and the armored ifrit. You wonder if your fastest will be good enough.
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Letting River and the elen go by, Aisling restores the rune on the skull trap, waiting for Benedetto to pass him before closing the last line.
In silence, he follows the ifrit.
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"Keep going." River says softly as the sylph stumbles. "You can do this. Follow me. The wind is close now."
She hurries onwards, keeping his frail hand in her own cold one and setting a pace just short of what she thinks he can manage.
You hear a deep groaning sound from below, like the felling of a mighty tree, or the death throes of a giant. You hear a liquid-gushing sound, then silence.
"Go! Go!" Benedetto shouts at the others as he runs, making certain to bring up the rear.
He almost hauls Aisling away when he stops for a moment until he sees what he's doing. Instead he waits until the sylph is finished then follows right on his heels.
Benedetto glances back when the trap triggers. "I don't trust that to have stopped it. We need to make sure to gather those we left behind, though."
You stop to gather, but you see he has left a hastily scribbled note.
Felt evil coming. We are safe, taking oread out of here
The arcane explosion from the trap below has shaken the foundations of the Hall, and you find your original path blocked by rubble. There is a narrow, dusty passage that seems to trail slightly downward, but it is the only way that is clear.
Benedetto relaxes just a bit when he finds Drook's note. "Well, at least they got of out of here..." he murmurs.
He looks at the rubble blocking the way out. "Well unless we're feeling like we have a chance against whatever that was, it looks like we have to go this way," he states, pointing towards the clear passage.
You see the light before you see Samen. Rounding the corner, he is anything but subtle, with brownish shimmering skin, round glasses, and unfurled feathery wings spread wide, wreathed in a light purer and brighter than that of volcano. It glows warmly, not painful to the eyes, and comforting to the soul. Contrasting the peaceful aura of his presence is the dour expression on his face as he sees you.
Unarmed, but with terrible violence in his gaze, he glares at you with piercing eyes, as if a look and a whim is all it would take to end you.
"You don't look like Cauldron cultists, and you don't smell like Gems. However, Dove said nothing of innocents this deep in. Convince me you're not a threat and we'll let you leave by the way we came in. Lie, and I will know it."
Practically prowling just beyond the angelic being is an el fairly short of stature. He's completely wrapped in a robe of Oread make hiding most of his features. Like his companion, he also carries no weapons. The shadows cast from his companion seem to pull toward him slightly no matter which way he moves. Standing stock still he takes in all the details of this unexpected group even in the gloom. When he stares directly at you, you see a dull gleam in the hood. Where there would be eyes is an inky blackness.
Gabe lets Samen do the taking as he tends to get them into conflict rather than avoid them when trying his hand at diplomacy.
Aisling fades into the haze almost as if he's part of the airy cloud. He was just behind River and the elen and in front of Benedetto, but encountering anyone not an enemy here is beyond belief.
Thus, when the light showed, he kept to the side and witnessed the pair almost threatening his group.
Watching them carefully for signs they detected him somehow, he waits for Rivers diplomatic response or Benedetto direct speech. Or charge. He's ready for whatever comes.
He is reluctant to attack, seemingly angelic being. But needs must. And his stealthy companion may be the cultist controlling it somehow. He quickly scans the elen for vulnerabilities and keeps his daggers ready.
An ifrit in armor made of lacquered strips of layered leather leads his small group, a rapier blazing with flames in one hand as he watches for threats.
Which he's not sure if he's found one or not.
"I don't know who this Dove is, but we're no friends of Dark or Cauldron cultists sacrificing innocents," Benedetto states warily, "But back the way we came is either a collapsed ceiling or *whatever* that monstrosity in the basement was, depending on which way you go. The three of us alone couldn't face it, and hopefully that trap got it, but we weren't exactly planning on checking when just getting touched was draining the life out of us. At the very least we wanted to get this poor elen out of here before trying anything that dangerous again." He waves at a rather sickly-looking elen leaning on an undine.
A very strange...elen(?) that seems to be made from a pile moldy bubbles squishes into view. "Does sick blue person need cookie? Qizz has some stashed, not even eaten yet!"
"This temple was built on, by, and for monstrosities. We were on our way to put an end to -"
Samen cuts off, deciding the more he shares, the worse off things could go.
"We have business to attend to. If you have skill in bypassing traps, the way we came in should be a safe egress for you. We disabled most of them, but a few may still be active. Try not to look like outsiders to the elens you meet outside. Stay compassionate; it may be your only anchor to hold onto yourselves."
With that, he warily but peacefully moves around the other group, not wanting to waste time or resources dealing with a distraction.
"Nothing good can come from separating again. I am new to this group, they saved me from rotting in a cell, but already we passed several challenges together. And this place is dangerous. Whatever your mission is, it can only benefit from removing the cause of this danger."
A voice comes from just behind Gabriel as both newcomers started moving.
"I am Aisling Catalys. A...security specialist came here with the mission to remove the artefact causing the dark to spill here. That is the working assumption, we actually don't know for sure."
You see behind you a sylph, gaunt, filthy, but with eyes lively and active now that he has new purpose. His clothes are of fine made and armor is very well camouflages against the stones which probably explains how you missed him.
His hair is light blue, waving as if there is a breeze going, two daggers in his hands look sharp.
As the new creature appears he looks in horror, eyes wide.
"I think the way you came from is good, whatever there is."
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Despite trying to maintain a cool exterior, Gabe is startled at the voice coming from behind. He could have attacked if he was going to... The show of trust inspires Gabriel to put aside some of the apprehension. "That pattern on your armor is impressive as well as your skill in making the most of it. I'm Gabriel Izalith, well, once upon a time at least. You can call me Gabe if you wish. I wonder if this artifact you're after if related to this corruption we're after. It would make sense that there would be an external power source to channel magic that widespread...
He does get a bit more protective at the reaction to Qizzlvutz and steps between Aisling and Quzz. "This is a friend. He and his people rescued us from a dire situation." Speaking to nothing in particular, "Kalik, be nice."
"Nice to meet you." Aisling nods still looking at the monster
"So, we shouldn't assume that all monsters are monsters or that all elem are elem." He looks with new distrust toward the 'saved' undine and their new friends.
"Let's take this one step at a time. Behind us there was outpouring of foul power, we saved this one from that monstrosity, but we're not sure we managed to stop it."
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Samen reevaluates the situation based on Aisling's demonstration and the newly shared information. "Anyone else lurking unseen in here?"
He scans around, groping for minds, candles in the dark.
"Don't mind Qizz, he's the best amongst us."
He looks between the Sylph, Undine, and Ifrit, considering them as potential allies instead of threats or civilians. "The foes we're hunting, cultists, are expected to be using fire and mind control magic. How strong are you against enchantments? If they kill you with fire, that doesn't hurt our mission, but if they take your minds, you will be a liability. Are you sure you're up for this?"
Despite Samen's glowing, you notice that Gabe does not cast a shadow on the ground and walls. As the tone has shifted, Gabe lowers his hood to engender the exchange of information. Despite the Ifrit name, Gabe's skin is a pale pinkish hue instead of the expected red or grey. You also see that the darkness in his eyes was not a trick of the light or his hood. His eye appear inky black like shadow has manifested itself in them. There is a slightly puckered white line running from his left brow down his face and neck and into the collar of his robe reminiscent of a long healed scar.