Otoro pushes water at the cultist.
Otoro keeps a little bit for himself and heals with Ocean's Balm.
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In her frenzied state, the cultist is too slow to react, taking the full brunt of Otoro's attack head-on. As the spray subsides, she lays motionless on the ground!
Examining the mechanism on the wall, Puddins, Bireli, and Henry are able to work out that it controls some sort of mechanism in the room on the other side of the northern door; they think they could lock the mechanism from here if they wanted, to disable whatever it is on the other side of the wall.
Looking around the workshop, you find a set of sterling artisan tools that seem specially designed for crafting talismans. You also find someone's project-in-progress: a partially-constructed eyepiece for examining intricate mechanisms.
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"Let's see what is on the other side of this wall that this mechanism controls." Henry moves to the door.
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Opening the door to the north, Henry finds a relatively small room with a pair of wide racks against the eastern and southern walls. Each has three segments, left, right, and center. Small divots in the racks hold clusters of ten-foot-long iron rods coated with large splotches of rust. Flaked-off pieces of rust litter the floor.
Following the cable from the other room, you see a rusty cage embedded in the ceiling, ready to drop down on the unwary. Seeing this, you can see how the mechanism in the last room could be used to either prevent it from dropping, or to retrieve it once it has done so.
"I wonder if we should set it off, and see who comes? If they think we're in the cage they might not be ready for us."
Otoro worries "What if too many come, or they release some ferocious beast? Maybe best to just leave it alone."
"I say let them try us and find out what happens to their beasts or warriors. All the same, if you would rather not test them, let's disable that cage and go through the door to the West. My Pa always said when you are bringing in the wheat, keep always to the left and you will get an even cut. So let's go left until we run out of lefts."
"Yeah, let's keep checking the doors. Left sounds good!"
Henry follow Demonica to the door eager to find any sign that his Mother is still alive.
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You disable the trap and continue on. The door to the left opens up into the middle of a short hallway with additional doors at either end. You stick with Puddins' "keep going left" plan, heading toward the southern end of the hall.
As you approach, you see that the door has been previously forced open, and hangs loose on damaged hinges. The chamber beyond has a dozen large, cracked-open geodes leaning against the walls. Each on features hundreds of tiny, pale green crystals, some of which have been broken off and scattered across the floor. Two cages built into the south wall of the room have similar large geodes, and the bars have been bent apart a few feet from the ground.
As Bireli leads the way into the room , you hear a ragged croaking as the shambling remains of a humanoid frog staggers out from behind a barrel. On the other side of the room, what looks like a large, bright blue cat with a mane of tendrils squeezes through the bars and prowls toward you!
The strange blue cat is quick to react, pouncing forward and snapping at Bireli before just as quickly retreating back behind a barrel.
Bireli's raised shield saves him, however, as he is just able to turn away the creature's jaws .
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Blue cat thing
?
Henry rushes into the room to help protect Bireli. "You okay. That cat looks mean!" His dagger;s blade splits apart and bursts into the cat.
HP 24/24
AC 16
Spells: 1st 2/4
Focus: 0/1
Demonica similarly moves to attack the cat.
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The cat just manages to swat aside Henry's incoming darts before leaping safely out of the way of Demonica's sword. Before anyone else can react, the rotting, shambling boggard hops forward, perhaps faster than what you might expect from stories of undead creatures, and attempts to lash onto Demonica with it's tendril-like tongue.
Unable to connect, it lets out a terrifying, ragged CROAK that reverberates through the room.
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Blue cat thing
Demonica
Henry
Undead boggard
Otoro hold his stuff together. moves in and slams into the green frog with a blast of cold.
Puddins strides into the room and attacks the green frog (if it is still standing).
and again
"Hold on! I've got this!" Bireli says with more confidence than his expression carries as he moves in and swings his wooden sword.
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Puddins clambers up onto the cage next to the cat creature, but the strange feline is just able to dodge her blow.
Finding itself cornered, the blue cat lashes out at...
...Bireli!
Its fury gets the best of it, however, and it misses Bireli entirely!
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Blue cat thing
Otoro fires off another cold blast from back here.
Having trouble keeping up Otoro fires off another, more miniscule blast.
Puddins activates weapon surge and swings twice at the cat.
Henry firest off another round of needles darts at the strange cat. "This is going much easier than expected." His determination to find his Mother not breaking.
HP 24/24
AC 16
Spells: 1st 2/4
Focus: 1/1
Bireli swings his wooden sword at the alien, blue lion. "Take that!" he shouts. "We will send this demon cat back to the abyss!"
+
Demonica swings twice at the cat, then focuses internally to reclaim her magic, feeling a little refreshed.
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Looking around this room, you see lots of small crystals, formed from what look like large eggshells . You think with 8 hours of cumulative work , you could collect enough of them to sell as trinkets.
No time for collecting trinkets now, though! There's an Elder to rescue! Opening the door at the northern end of the short hallway reveals a longer hallway that winds around, leading all the way back to the big chamber in one direction. Doors open up at several points along the way on both sides of the hall.
Sticking to your left-hand rule, you open the door at the far west end of the hallway. Inside, three different forges stand, one in each of the east, west, and southern ends of the room. Each is accompanied by an anvil of a different size, with a hammer sitting atop the largest anvil. All three forges burn hot, filling the room with a dry heat. Large, shaped plates of iron litter the room, leaning against various walls.
As you step into the room, two fiendish figures hearing thick leather gloves turn from one of the forges where they seemed to be messing around with something. they shout "Theiltemar is dead! You can't make us work!" before advancing on you with twisted hunks of red-hot iron!
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?
Otoro moves up and tries to cool them off with winter's clutch.
Puddins moves forward and casts a spell. The edges of her greatsword separate and hover in the air for moment before flying toward #2.
Her sword then reforms into its regular shape.
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Neither of the fiendish figures is prepared for Otoro's sudden blast of cold, shivering and crying out as ice crystals form on their skin before melting away . Puddins, meanwhile, sends magical blades skewering into one of the fiends, further bloodying them!
Enraged, both fiends rush toward Puddins, glowing red mace held aloft ready to strike!
The first fiend misses, but the second one is particularly furious over Puddins' spell, bashing her twice with its red-hot mace!
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#1
#2
"These ruins are filled with fiends!" Bireli says as he rushes past to attack from opposite Puddins.
"Come on, Sissa! Let's send these demons back!" he shouts.
+
Otoro heals Puddins with his life giving water before blasting #2 with more cold.
Weapon Surge!
Puddins swings twice at the flanked enemy.
Crit!
Henry points his dagger at the fiend near Puddins. "Still not a sign of her." He grows angry and fires the dagger off at the fiend.
HP 24/24
AC 16
Spells: 1st 2/4
Focus: 1/1
Demonica moves in to attack the enemy flanked by her brother and her bestie.
plus aid from Bireli
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Bireli onfidently batters one of the demons with his sword, nimbly maneuvering to set up Demonica to follow. Otoro, meanwhile, bathes Puddins in healing waters before blasting the other fiend backwards.
Puddins brings her sword around a little too enthusiastically, nearly hitting Bireli wither her first blow. The demon gets caught laughing at Bireli's reaction, though, and is totally unprepared for her second blow which neatly removes its head from its body!
Henry fires off a spell at the remaining fiend, but his worry for his mother throws off his aim. Demonica's aim is no better, missing twice with her own sword .
The remaining fiend feebly swings its mace at the approaching Demonica, then cowers back trying to make itself look small.
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#2
"That's alright, Sissa! We've got them on the run!" Bireli shouts as he leaps into the half-melted snow drift. He swings his wooden sword at the demon as it flails at his sister.
+
Henry runs to the back wall to get a better shot of his dagger and fires it off at the fiend. "They won't get far."
HP 24/24
AC 16
Spells: 1st 2/4
Focus: 1/1
Demonica brings her sword down, hard.
She then neatly brings her sword back around, capturing the residual magic.
Puddins will treat wounds on herself.
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Once Puddins' wounds are healed, you continue northward. A short hallway ends in another door, which opens into a large chamber with 15-foot ceilings. A pair of massive columns of rusted metal loom in large alcoves to the east and south, each fitted with complex hinged armatures and drooping lengths of wire that connect them to one of two large metallic worktables. Gears grind slowly and glowing crystals periodically pulse from these worktables. A stone well ten feet in diameter stands in the center of the room between the two strange worktables, capped with a stone slab engraved with a singular broad rune with three downward spikes. Bookshelves line the northern wall, though most of their contents have fallen to ruin--save for one faded red tome near the center of the northern wall.
Looking up from the workbenches as you open the door are four cultists in rust-covered robes! They quickly grab for weapons and make ready to rush you!
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?
"Why can't you jerks take care of your stuff? It offends Gorum to let it rust!"
She moves into the room, taking a wide path to avoid any opportunity attacks, and attacks Cultist A.
She then cast Shield on herself and prepares to use it to block the first hit against her.
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"Heh" the cultist says, staggering a bit under Puddins' blow. "Gee, that's too bad. It pleases our lord so to see it rust!" She sneers a wild look in her eye as she draws her dagger and launches herself at Puddins.
The other cultist at the same table draws his own dagger and rushes to her aid.
Both blades are turned aside by Puddins armor, however.
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Puddins (shield raised)
A (-14hp, frenzy)
2
?
Otoro
?
Bireli
"Careful Demonica!" Henry realizes she is quickly getting surrounded and sends his dagger pieces hurtling into the cultist.
HP 24/24
AC 16
Spells: 1st 2/4
Focus: 1/1
Demonica moves in next to her Sword Sister and strikes a blow!
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Demonica rushes to Puddins' aid, smashing the frenzied cultist beside her into the ground!
A look of panic crossing her eyes, one of the cultists beside the other table grabs a purple crystal mounted to it, jerking it to the side. A crackle of energy races down one of the wires to the stone cover over the well, which splits with a loud CRACK!. She then picks up her dagger and moves forward.
Puddins
Henry
Demonica
?
B
1
Bireli