Istevan and Mirinde miss again, but Zathra impales the second flying skull, destroying it! You are safe for the time being...
Roscoe flies about the area appearing as if he's looking for an opening... but probably really staying out of the way.
"Good Riddance. Those things really creeped me out. What do we do now"?
"We...rest...here." Mirinde replies to the halfling in a tone that brooks no disobedience here. "Unless you wish to press your luck further..."
Thanking Zathra, and assuring himself that Degan will be okay, Istevan moves to the door at the other end of the corridor, muttering something about hoping all this is worth it.
Istevan will make sure the door is securely closed against the creatures in the cages, looking to see if there's a way to prevent it from being opened while the party rests.
Fortunately, the door appears to be rather secure, especially against creatures without opposable thumbs! You rotate shifts keeping watch, but nothing emerges to disturb you as you rest and recover from the harrowing ordeal.
Reassured that nothing is likely to get through the door, Istevan sinks to the floor, pulling a canteen and a snack from his bag.
"Well, that could have gone better. Looks like we have burning beams from creatures back there or a skull in there," gesturing to either side. "Personally, I'd rather move forward, if we can -- maybe if we kill the enchanter, the other problems solve themselves. But, how do we get past the skull? Slash out its eyes? Just run for it?"
"Hmm..." Istevan leans over and pokes at one of the formerly flying skulls. "I don't suppose, Mirinde, there's anything you can learn from this thing that would help us with the larger version in front of us?"
"We should have destroyed those flying skulls earlier...but they did unintentionally show us we are on the right path." Mirinde responds, "I am too badly wounded to move from here, but I do have time to study these skulls further..." She then takes out her grimoire and quill while carefully gathering the shattered fragments and comparing them to one another.
"Okay. Wake me when you're ready to go on". Roscoe curls up in a corner and is quickly fast asleep.
By the time Clancy is finished healing Degan, the battle is over - much to his relief. Still, now they are trapped between the hammer and the anvil. But at least it doesn't appear that either one is able to open the doors to get at them. "Rest sounds good, though we must remain wary. Here, let me tend to everyone's wounds, if Justicia will grant me the power to do so."
for Mirinde
for Istevan = Failure! - Disapproval rises to 2!
for Istevan (again)
for Degan
for Clancy
He feels his power falter as he treats Istevan, but the cleric only takes a deep breath and press onward, certainly aware that he might be testing the patience of Justicia. Or perhaps she is only testing his faith - even as a devout worshipper he can never be sure of what the gods are thinking, even his own. After treating his own wounds, he looks over the others once again, to see if anyone is in need of further healing.
Mirinde nods weakly in thanks for the proffered healing to Clancy. "Thanks for your divine healing Clancy. I shall remember this."
Seeing Clancy struggle to reach his deity, Istevan claps his shoulder good-naturedly: "You channel a mighty power from Justicia, priest. I think maybe your mistress just doesn't like me that much." He says it with a wink and a smile, but Clancy persists in his praying, and Istevan's wounds do close in the end. "Hoho! Maybe I was wrong! Convey my thanks to your goddess."
Degan slowly regains movement. A horrific burn scars his chest, and even Clancy's miraculous healing cannot fully repair it.
"We don't have anything we can use, do we?
If we could remove a door from its hinges, we could have a mantlet against the giant skull's eye-beams. But both doors are keeping out enemies."
He sighs. "I don't know."
Clancy chuckles at Mirinde's words when he sees only a very few of her wounds fade. He doesn't think she meant to be ironic, but it was sometimes difficult to tell with elves. "Allow me to try again, you are still greatly injured."
When his second attempt is nearly as sad as his first, the cleric flushes a bit and gives the elf a chagrined look. "Once more. Or... you know, maybe a few times..." He mumbles the last to himself and tries to channel Justicia's magic once again.
for Mirinde
Clancy watches as the healing takes effect - and though the elf looks a bit stronger the cleric is concerned about the injuries she still has. He takes a deep breath and channels Justicia's power again...
for Mirinde
And again...
for Mirinde
Hoping he's not being rude, Istevan falls asleep after about the third round of prayers for Mirinde's good health.
Roscoe continues to snooze contentedly dreaming of hot cross buns.
After a lengthy bout of healing, you settle down to rest. Luckily, once more your slumber goes undisturbed. You make your morning preparations as you prepare to brave the room with the giant skull once again.
Mirinde yawns and stretches here after a relatively uncomfortable night of sleep. "I can attempt to summon a swarm of bats to distract the giant skull while we run past it. The disadvantage of that plan is we will not have an easy escape route, should we need to flee."
Istevan grumbles: "I'm still holding out hope that all of these weird magical effects go away once we've dealt with the sorcerer..."
Then, more clearly: "That's a good plan, Mirinde. Running past seems like the best idea right now. It's either that or we try to put out the eyes on that skull, and I don't fancy trying that while it's blasting us."
"I intend to keep one of our stalwart warriors between me and the giant skull," Degan adds.
"I may need to pick a lock to get us through the next door, so keep me alive as long as you can."
"I certainly don't want to fight it and I'm afraid the door shield might be to high for me... and my little legs don't run fast. Maybe if Mirinde can distract it..."
Clancy is in agreement with the plan - to a certain extent. "If we can keep Degan alive long enough to open the door at the far end, we can use it as a quick escape if we cannot defeat the skull. But I would hate to burst through into the next chamber and find us facing a hammer and anvil situation. In the meantime, before we head in, I will as Justicia to aid us."
Before Degan gets too far into the room, he discovers several pressure plates on the floor! There is a trap set to cause bars to drop from the ceiling behind anybody who steps on them, trapping them inside the room.
Avoiding the trap, the thief continues his search. He discovers a lose stone in the wall. When depressed, it causes a secret door next to the giant skull carving to click open.
Unfortunately, at the same time, the giant skull animates! Its red eyes begin to glow with energy as its teeth chomp and gnash! Meanwhile, the eye sockets of the two flying emerald skulls that have been following you this whole time start to glow red as well...
Otherwise, if you want to attack the skull, Istevan will go along with that plan -- it just wouldn't be his first choice :)
Degan will do as asked, and disarm the pressure-plate trap.
"I think I've got it..."
With a bit of luck, Degan is able to disarm the pressure plate in the room with the skulls. When you are ready, you open the secret door again. Once more, the giant skull carving springs to life as its eye sockets glow with angry red light!
Mirinde again calls forth a hideous swarm of red-eyed bats to (hopefully) distract the flaming skull eyes
Mirinde casts her spell, and a swarm of fluttering bats appears before the skull. It gets the carving's attention, and it begins to fire beams of burning energy at the fluttering mammals! You take advantage of the distraction and hustle through the secret door, closing it behind you once everybody has made it through safely!
This open hallway is clean and spare. Two doors are set along the length of the hall. A heavy iron grate is set into the floor along one corner of the wall, chained shut. At the far end of the hall, a twisting staircase descends into a lower level of the complex.
Istevan points toward the grate with his sword: "Well, that seems worrisome... As much as I'd like to rush through to find the enchanter, I suppose we should we have a quick look through these doors before continuing down."
"There is also the grate. I could try to pick the lock on this chain and see what is under the grate.
But let's try the doors first."
Degan checks both doors for traps.
"Sure..." Istevan looks extremely doubtful. "Maybe we see what's in there before opening it, though?"
He glances over his shoulder at the grate several times as Degan checks the doors, imagining tentacled monsters with scorching eye beams.
With a sigh, he mutters: "I suppose there could be prisoners down there..."
Neither door appears to be trapped. The first door opens into a laboratory. This room is a jumbled mess of tables, vials, beakers, powders, hoses, shelves, and mechanical contraptions.
Despite the mess, your eyes are drawn to something you cannot look away from. In the center of the room, a charcoal pentagram is drawn upon the floor, and within it, a horrid hissing protoplasmic creature is strapped to the floor. Barbs, spines, scorpion tails, and weird tentacles emerge from the corpulent mass. Brass tubes rise from its veins up to the ceiling, where they arc off to empty into several vials.
"Hold! Do not approach it!" Mirinde barks, "That must not be freed!" Being a curious sort she decides to patiently study the spawn of Chaos further to glean any insights here...
Having had experience in the Court of Chaos, Mirinde recognizes the creature as a type of least demon from the lowest pits of the underworld, where creatures like it form the base matter from which Chaos Lords craft new varieties of deviltry. Its primal composition provides many building blocks for experimentations of all kinds.
It looks like the tubes are designed to siphon off valuable elements from the creature's essence. Careful examination reveals that the complex system of pipes and valves in this room rises through several apertures in the ceiling, evidently going off to feed something above.
The vials contain potions with labels on them. These include a potion of strength (CL 5), a potion of levitate (CL 5), and a potion of spider climb (CL 5). There are many other mundane potions as well (e.g., to cure warts or induce hair growth).
Mirinde knows that the demon can be freed by spells of the appropriate kind or by simply rubbing a gap in the charcoal pentagram.
"So... probably not the sort of thing we want as an ally. Should we at least disconnect it so the enchanter stops using to power their experiments?"
Degan heads back into the hall, unwilling to spend much time in the presence of such an abomination.
"Let me know if you really need me to sabotage the pipes."
Mirinde nods in agreement, "Yes the demon would take out its rage on being imprisoned upon its liberators. Pity I do not have the knowledge to banish it whence it came...or control it further." She sighs in frustration. "The potions should be safe to take, feel free to help yourselves. As for those pipes..." she stares up at the pipes intently, "I would not be opposed to breaking those pipes...IF I knew where those pipes lead!"
Clancy's eyes fix upon the demon trapped in the pentagram, and his hand reaches up to clutch his holy symbol in a reflexive gesture. "Abomination." He growls under his breath. He tears his gaze from the beast and glances at the pipes, then looks at Mirinde questioningly. "So those pipes are drawing power from the demon and... feeding it somewhere? Perhaps to further the wizard's evil work? Destroying the pipes seems like a fine idea if so, unless it would serve to free the beast in doing so. We should check the other room before doing anything rash. And maybe the chained grate as well."
Istevan shrugs: "Sounds fine to me -- I have no idea how any of this is supposed to work..."
"Let's go check the second room, then. I have examined the door and believe it to be free of traps."
Degan will unlock the door if it is locked, but he won't be the one to open it and go in first.