"Can we beat it if we free it?" Jeni asks as quietly as she can.
Nadja surreptitiously puts a hand around the hilt of the ghost-touch shortsword they found earlier. "Now you have doubts?"
"We didn't know was IT was before." Jeni points out "not that we actually know what IT is now either, I guess" she sighs, and starts to limber up a bit, bouncing on her toes, stretching out her shoulders.
Zen as always is a little worried, ”maybe… who knows what we’re getting into.”
He scratches his chin and is contemplative for a moment.
"We have heard about it from the Remnant. If our intelligence is correct, it is almost certainly an invidiak - a dangerous foe, but one that can be defeated. Do be sure to use your new shortsword though, Gnat."
With Kaz's confidence and Zen's maybe, Jeni's doubt is reduced "Okay. Everyone get ready, and I'll break the stone without touching it, just in case."
"There is no need for violence. Indeed, I believe we can all come to a mutually beneficial arrangement. I can great you great power. All you need to do is touch the stone..." the voice purrs in your minds.
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Jeni laughs sharply "No" she says simply before her long hafted water hammer slams into the voices home.
The stone shatters under the heavy blow! With a howl, the fiend that had been trapped inside emerges into the room. Only this shadowy bat-winged demon's teeth and claws have any sense of physicality to them—the rest is lost in darkness.
"Ah, freedom at last! Allow me to thank you properly!" the demon cackles as it moves to attack!
"You were freed only so we can end you." Jeni tells the spirit coldly.
Her hammer morphs into a staff, which she tries to ram up into the creature's teeth.
Nadja begins her dance while moving into flanking position with Jeni, then her ghost touch shortsword jabs at the demon.
Kaz has no particular preparations for the demon, so first they begin by trying to unpick the fiend's mind.
The demon seems unbothered by Kaz's spell. It dodges Jeni's attack and ignores her taunts, but snarls with fury as Nadja lands a critical hit! Whirling on her, the fiend attacks, savaging the swashbuckler with its icy touch!
Nadja shrieks in pain as the demon claws her again and again. She fights back against the deathly cold and numbness desperately, jabbing at the vile shadow again and again. On her last strike, she finishes her dance in a desperate closing thrust.
Zen grumbles and raises his hand, gesturing at the creepy foe, and tries to punish them for harming Nadja,
He then swings at the ghostly monster with his magical striking, vitalizing, fauchard.
With his last action, he tries to protect himself with a glass shield.
At her friend's shriek of pain, Jeni sends her waters to wrap around the frozen gaping wounds.
Then sends to jump kicks to the shadow's head.
"Fine. Brute force then."
Kaz joins Zenobius in battling the shadow with weaponry and hunkering down behind a shield. Only magic, and farther away.
Zenobius rails against the demon's wrath as he slashes it with his polearm. Kaz batters it with a projectile while Jeni kicks the fiend in its shadowy head.
Then Nadja proves just how deadly of a combatant she can be. She stabs the demon with her ghost touch blade--once! Twice! And then, with a confident thrust, she delivers the coup de grace, the blade puncturing the shadow demon's neck! With a gurgling shriek, the demon's essence evaporates, dissipating into wisps of shadowstuff before dissolving completely.
"Whoa. That hurt," Nadja says, clutching the frozen spots where the demon struck, trying to get warmth flowing again.
She flicks the sword in a habitual motion, then frowns when she realizes there's no blood on the blade. "Stain is gone, right? This thing isn't coming back?"
"Well, according to Von Meinkopt's quintessential theorems, its essence cannot truly be destroyed, but for millennially practical purposes, yes. What's left is trapped in the Abyss in any case."
"Once we report back, I must confess that I'm finding myself rather peaked, and I would certainly rather supper at the Rusty Dragon than near the cow pit."
Nadja stows the short sword since she'll likely rely upon her sabres if they have another fight.
"Report back? Oh, yeah. The voice in our heads who doesn't like stains. You want to go back to Sandpoint after we talk to it? What about Master Munt and the guy we threw into a bedroom? Gonna just leave them?" She pauses as she plays the likely scenario of Munt coming back to see all of his cultists dead except for the one who surrendered. She giggles.
"Oh, well Master Munt travels much farther afield than Sandpoint. I have no idea of when he'll next return."
You retrace your steps to the far side of the Pit, returning to the caligni. They welcome you back and escort you to the shadowy Remnant Insiroul. The enigmatic being is pleased, and Nithiss translates his telepathic words.
"Ah! I could sense your victory the moment it was achieved. The Stain has been cleansed, and now our work here is done. The caligni can go home. You have done well, and I shall reward you."
Remnant Insiroul reaches into his chest and pulls a length of darkness from his body. He hands it to Nadja, whereupon it solidifies into a gloom blade.
With that, the being turns his back on you and begins a lengthy incantation to return to its home plane of existence. Nithiss gives you a nod before moving to organize her people for their journey back to whence they came.
Jeni lets out a light laugh and bumps Gant's shoulder "How many swords are you going to carry." says the girl how only attack people with water.
Nadja holds the length of solidified darkness in her hand with wonder, giving it a couple test swings. Jeni's question sparks an irritated look. "How many kind of jobs are there? I'll use the sabres when things just need killing, the rapier when only cold iron will do, the ghost touch sword when ghosts need touched in a bad way, and now this blade when I gotta stab someone in the dark."
She smirks. "Why? You volunteering to be my caddy?"
"A spell for every purpose makes better sense to me, but do as you will I suppose," Kaz allows with a grin.
"So, clear out one last nest of cultists and then back up to Sandpoint? Curd-stuffed artichoke hearts on me."
Jeni creates water version of every sword her friend names, near perfect if not for their translucence. All for a simple amused teasing "Oh, no. You need them, you carry them. But we might need to invest in one of those bags of holding... do they make sheathes of holding!?!"
Her brown eyes roll back a little at the mention of artichoke hearts. "Cultists first, then yes."
Since they have been talking a bit, Jeni can heal Nadja more again. "Ready?" she checks with her, before summoning the clear healing waters and drenches her friend again. Head to toe, dripping from every part, then sucking all the water out again and leaving her dry and healed.
Nadja stands still while getting her healing bath, and even chooses not to sputter noisily since it means Jeni will be more likely to dry her off.
"Right. More cultists, then food." She admired the shadow sword and few more moments before swapping it out for her sabres. "I'll need to get some more darkvision elixirs, otherwise I'm just swinging blind."
Still, she can't help but grin when she imagines putting the gloom blade to use.
Once you are ready, you return to the foyer of the cultists' chambers and proceed through the southern double doors. The rough walls of this hallway are adorned with a long mural that begins with a depiction of Devil’s Platter near the northeast end of the hall. As one travels west and south, the mural slowly changes along both sides of the wall, first depicting lower forested lands before finally portraying buildings in the town of Sandpoint when the hall opens into a larger room. Along both sides, recurring scenes of a bat-winged, wolf-fanged, dragon-tailed horse trampling and eating and burning screaming humans are rendered in grisly but loving detail. Furthest to the west, the hall ends at a pair of large wooden doors painted to resemble the leering face of the wolf-fanged monster.
Fortunately, there is no sign of a "big cultist" here at the moment. Apart from the double doors, a natural tunnel exits to the south.
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Jeni leans into the mural fasinated "Is that Titus Scarnetti being crushed by a hoof?" she looks around amazed "Someone Really hates our town."
Nadja giggles at the image Jeni pointed out. "We ought to figure out a way to take this with us back to Sandpoint. Gift it to the city, courtesy of the Scarnettis."
She looks around for more cultists. Not seeing any, she gives her sabres a spin and asks, "Tunnel first? Then the double doors?"
Zen stares at both. "can you check how far the tunnel extends before we go too far? I don't want to get surprised, if something creeps out of the door."
"Sure!" Nadja chirps.
She pads lightly down the hallway so long as the light lasts to get a sense of how far it extends.
The tunnel extends about 40 feet before opening into a large cavern. The far reaches of the cavern are lost in darkness, but Nadja can see several piles of rubble to the north and pillars of rock supporting the high ceiling. From somewhere to the south, Nadja can hear the sound of something very large snoring loudly!
Nadja tiptoes back to the group. "Big cavern that way. Dark. Something big was snoring loudly but I didn't get a look at it. Maybe our devil? Seems odd that a bear would be down here, but that's another guess."
"Well then, let's get a closer look."
You quietly creep south and peer around a corner. You can see a large bed which consists of several large deer and elk hides heaped over a mound of dead leaves. Sleeping on the bed is a hulking ogre! The giant lays on his back and snores loudly, drool spilling from his wide mouth, his prodigious gut rising and falling with each breath. A wickedly sharp oversized hook lies within his arm’s reach.
Jeni looks to the others, makes hand motions that probably mean stab stab while sleep sleep, and then raises her eyebrows to ask, Yes?
Nadja gives Jeni a tight shake of her head. She holds up one finger crooked into the shape of a hook, then in the number one position.
She slips in the room to first move the hook out of reach.
If that's done without rousing the ogre, she gives the team a thumbs up.
Jeni looks confused, but then nods quickly as Nadja gets the hook out of the way. Then she looks to Zen, since she has been friends with him a LONG time and knows her plan to end the threat quickly will not work with his morality.
She cocks her head and gives him a wave, Go On.
Nadja quietly creep up on the sleeping ogre and moves his hook far away from him. Once that's done, the rest of you begin to quietly approach. The ogre starts to stir in his sleep...
Before they engage, Zen says, ”I don’t know - it doesn’t seem very fair. This guy is just… sleeping. We should see if they’ve been involved with any villainy before we fight. I’m sure we can defeat or arrest them if they have.”
When the hook is taken away, Zen tenses with his weapon, hoping the ogre doesn’t attack them.
Nadja considers giving the gloom blade its first trial. She spots what looks like a vital spot on the sleeping ogre and gives it a solid strike!
Nadja stabs the ogre with her blade! He awakens with a howl of pain, instinctively rolling to avoid her follow up attacks. ”OW! Why little girl stab Gorlak! You make Gorlak mad!” he bellows.
The giant heaves his bulk onto his feet, looking around for his hook. Not finding it, he yells again. ”Meanie! Gorlak crush you!” He proceeds to pummel Nadja with his meaty fists!
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"Oof - Gnat you simply have to dodge those."
Kaz stays back, impelling a spare knife into the ogre's hide and sheltering behind their shield.
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"You wanna come up here and see how easy that is?!?" Nadja hisses though a jaw clenched because of the pain.
She begins her dance before darting in to stab at the ogre again.
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Zen sighs and mumbles to the ogre, ”sorry…” and pats Najda on the shoulder, healing her
He then says to the ogre, ”just stop - lay down your weapon and maybe we can talk this out.” To enforce that, he gestures and tries to punish the ogre for fighting more.
Then he summons his glass shield, ”trust me - it isn’t worth it.” He raises the magical device cautiously and hopes the ogre listens to reason.
Jeni was looking to Zen, waiting until he talks to the enemy, then offers up to heavy hammers of water to help him make up his mind.
Gorlak resists Zenobius' litany, ignoring his pleas to stand down. Kaz impales the ogre with a knife, while Jeni moves to flank with Nadja, battering the giant with her water hammer. Nadja begins her deadly dance, scoring a single hit.
"ARGH! Stop poking Gorlak!" the ogre bellows. He shifts his focus to Jeni, trying to pummel her with his fists. He lands one hit, and Zenobius to lessen the impact.
Zen's powers lessen the massive meat fist but Jeni still throws up a swirling water shield at the last moment.
Trigger You would take acid, bludgeoning, fire, or slashing damage from an enemy’s attack, spell, or other hostile effect.
Requirements You’re aware of the hostile effect, and you aren’t off-guard against it.
A cascade of water blunts or disperses the incoming attack. You gain resistance to damage from the triggering effect equal to your level if it’s bludgeoning or slashing, or double your level if it’s acid or fire damage. If the effect deals more than one applicable type of damage, apply the highest resistance, but apply it only once.
"Last chance." the fighter offers, twisting from his fist to slam a water bo staff into the back of his hand, then dipping in, the staff changing to a water dagger to slice up his forearm. "Or you be dead and we'll melt your precious hook down to scrap..." she darts a raised eyebrow around the bulk of the enemy to ask "Unless, Nadja, you are going to start carrying it around too?"
Zen cries out, ”just stop attacking and we can!” Though he looks a little ashamed, knowing that it was them who started the fight.
He swings his fauchard at the ogre with the flat of the blade, trying to knock them out.