"Otoro, it's okay! It's not that bad!"
Demonica moves in and attacks.
bludgeoning
"We've got this!" Bireli says encouragingly as he dashes around the hound. "We'll have to, if we want to know what that note says!"
He tries to skewer the hound's flank.
Henry covers his ears as he rushes into the room, glaring at the strange hound. Spotting the hidden folded paper he beelines for it and quickly grabs it before he forgets.
HP 35/35
AC 17
Spells: 1st 4/4 | 2nd 1/3
Focus: 0/1
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The howl is too much for Otoro, who dashes out of the room and well out of reach of the hound's chain.
Demonica and Bireli, however, ignore the sound as the siblings move forward and batter the hound with a series of blows.
The hound seems completely unaffected by Henry's glare as he darts into the room to retrieve the hidden note he spotted.
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Puddins feels the howl chill her to her bones:
Frightened 1.
She remembers her Papa's advice to face your fears had on. She raises her Greatsword and with a quick prayer to Gorum, strides forward and swings.
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Puddins joins the Zuller siblings in attacking the hound, but her fear gets the best of her as her massive sword slams into the ground beside it.
The creature, sensing Puddins' fear, growls and leaps at the Gorumite!
It's jaws locking down on Puddins' arm, it attempts to pull her down to the ground!
Perhaps it's the fear, but Puddins is completely unprepared for the attack, falling prone in a painful crash!
With Puddins on the ground, the creature moves closer to Bireli.
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Bireli makes a daring strike at the hound as it approaches. Then he tries to leap over the hound in order to stab it from behind.
+
Otoro continues to flee.
Frightened 1.
"You think I'm scared of you, you stinking rat!"
Puddins shaking voice counters her effort to sound brave.
She stands up and heals herself.
Demonica moves into a flank with her brother.
She lashes out once with her sword, then tries to channel her magical energies once more.
Seeing his glare have no effect on the hound Henry splits his dagger and sends it hurtling into the beast. "Hopefully its bark is worse than its bite."
HP 35/35
AC 17
Spells: 1st 4/4 | 2nd 1/3
Focus: 0/1
Otoro pops open a barrel, climbs inside and closes it.
Puddins heals Demonica, hoping this doesn't just make her a target again.
She then strides in to meet the enemy.
Demonica awakens, big mad.
She stands up and picks up her sword. She hits once with the creature in flank.
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Puddins heals Demonica, who quickly arises to get her furious revenge as her sword smashes the creature so hard into the floor the stone beneath it cracks!
With the threat dealt with, Henry has a moment to open and read the note he found, which he finds to be written with a shaky hand using what can only be blood. It reads:
Knurr has fallen to cult; warn Osprey Cove! I fear they'll soon take me below.
At the bottom, the familiar signature of Henry's mother.
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"Wait, where's Otoro gone?"
Heart beating swiftly, Bireli rushes over to his sister. "Don't do that, Sissa!" What exactly the it that she did is not entirely obvious, though it probably has to do with letting a hellhound savage her to within an inch of death.
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Otoro peeks out of his barrel, paralyzed with fear and embarrassment over abandoning his companions. For the moment he closes the lid again and sobs.
"Ugh. I'm fine, Bireli!" Demonica insists, though she seems a little paler than before.
Henry's hands shake as he finds a stream of tears flowing down his cheek. He wipes his eyes as he can't seem to control them. "Look it is from my Mother. She was here." He smiles as the letter crumples slighty in his grasp. "We need to find another way below."
Otoro wipes his tears away, grabs the top of the barrel to use as a makeshift shield and creeps back towards the party, fearing the worst.
"That's good!" Bireli says and slaps her on the shoulder with intentionally too much force though not enough to hurt her. Her mail stings his hand though. "Now we need to find Otoro and rescue Henry's mom!"
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Making his way back, Otoro wipes away his tears as he's relieved that everybody is okay, and takes a bit to offer healing to anybody who wants.
"You... you're all okay, well mostly, here Demonica."
"Lets... lets... go down a floor and explore there?" suggests Otoro nervously.
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Once you've taken a little while to get everyone healed up, you head downstairs to the next floor. At the base of the stairs, you find the huge door still open, revealing the massive statue within, the glowing red gemstones inset into its eyes seem to peer back at you. To the north, a smaller door remains closed. To the south, a jagged hole in the wall reveals a semi-collapsed hallway beyond.
"Let's check out this hall to the south."
Puddins peers down the hallway and when everyone is ready, we proceed.
"How many colors were still glowing in that cave?" Bireli asks as they turn away from the statue and toward the hole in the wall.
Henry has a small smile on his face as he was too preoccupied with new signs of his mother being here as he follows Puddins.
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A short and winding tunnel, ancient and artificial, leads south before bending east to a natural pocket in the stone. A large number of what appear to be ruined pieces of furniture lie in heaps along the northern side of the cave, and what appears to be a nest has been built in the middle of the mess.
An ugly, twisted humanoid figure eyes you as you arrive, cackling and muttering to themself, then speaks.
Demonica responds in Abyssal, though she says many of the words oddly, as though she learned them only from books.
"What abomination is this? What is he saying?"
"If Nica is talking to it and we don't understand, it can't be good," Bireli says with a nervous smile.
Henry shakes his head. "I don't know...but it can't be good." His voice shakes with a small bit of fear.
Demonica translates for her friends. "Their name is Droxur. They say that they'll give us information about the cult if we give them beautiful things to smash. One item from each of us."
"I'd prefer to smash this thing instead. But maybe we need to find out what it knows."
Otoro shrugs, "I don't... I don't know if I own anything beautiful."
"I don't know," Bireli says to Puddins. "We can take this cult on our own. We've done alright so far!"
Not wanting to kill the creature Henry lays out his items. "Not sure whatt is beautiful. I didn' bring much back with me."
Demonica says, "Sounds like we're not interested, then?"
Assuming the party agrees, she informs the creature.
"We're not interested. We'll keep our shinies and you can keep your information."
Puddins will scrutinize the creature.
Otoro's hands shake a little I won't do it again, I won't abandon my new friends.
Otoro charges recklessly into the chamber and unleashes a powerful melee blast at the fiend.
As Otoro's wave fades away, the creature is washed closer to the party, and away from it's rubble.
Puddins will cast Shield on herself, step into a flanking position and swings!
Reaction: Puddins will shield block the first time she is hit.
Demonica runs in and attacks!