Seems like we'll need this, Morga muses as she begins casting Bless, hoping the cultist right in front of her is too focused on San to stab her while she does so. Quickly she pulls her shield back up to protect herself.
San retreats past Morga and aims his bow at the cultists that tried to surround him, firing two more arrows.
-
-
The blue and yellow cultists whip themselves into a frenzy, shouting "For Xar-Azmak! For Meitremar!" Red and blue rush forward to surround Vildran, slashing and stabbing at the wizard. He's caught off-guard by the viciousness of their assault. One dagger catches him in the shoulder while the other plunges into his back . Yellow strikes at Morga, but can't breach her defenses.
The Brass Belimarius casts another spell, seemingly on itself, then reaches back and draws a long, gleaming brass halberd from what seems to be a compartment along its spine. It stays in cover.
|||| INIT ||||
Morga
Vildran (24 dmg, prone, dying 2)
Autumn (Rust Creep Stg1)
San (12 dmg)
Blue Cultist (15 dmg, frenzied)
Red Cultist (frightened 1)
Yellow Cultist (14 dmg, frenzied)
Brass Belimarius (20 dmg, mystic armor, ???)
Whatever safety Autumn had felt when San acted as a bulwark collapses, just like the surrounded wizard. Instinctively she thrusts another phase bolt at the cultist in front of her, then summons a faintly glowing shield for protection.
Meanwhile, Vildran’s crumpled form lies motionless in a slowly expanding pool of blood, though the flow is only a trickle now.
Keeping her shield up, Morga casts Stabilize on Vildran. It seems like a waste of a good healing spell to raise him from the dead when he's surrounded and will be cut down again in a flash. She's worried about Autumn on the stairs, though. At least only one of them can get at her at a time, she internally grumbles, worrying like an old hen.
The red cultist steps over Vildran's limp form to rush after Autumn on the stairs. He swings his dagger wildly, getting past her defenses once, though she uses her magical barrier to ablate almost all of the stab . To the other side, the frenzied yellow cultist gets a slash in toward a gap in Morga's armor, but she interposes her shield at the last moment and blocks.
Over to the west, the Brass Belimarius finally advances. It casts a spell, pointing at Autumn, who feels a bubble of fear well up within her.
Her resolve falters as she becomes frightened .
|||| INIT ||||
Morga (3 dmg)
Vildran (24 dmg, prone, unconscious)
Autumn (1 dmg, frightened 2, Rust Creep Stg1)
San (12 dmg) x2
Red Cultist
Yellow Cultist (14 dmg, frenzied)
Brass Belimarius (20 dmg, mystic armor, ???)
Setting his feet, San takes aim at the cultist he can see.
Hoping to distract the golem thing from the rest of the group, San dashes out from the alcove. Getting away, he fires back at the cultist threatening Autumn.
Autumn’s shimmering force shield cracks and splinters, disappearing as an orange leaf falls and fades from her tree tattoo. A trickle of blood runs down from where the dagger pierced her arm. But far worse is the sudden fear that seizes her. She trembles—her body, her mind, her soul—as visions and memories flicker in her mind. The sinspawn had trapped her on these very stairs, and now it seems as if every single foe is focused on her.
But seeing San run past the animated statue, trying to draw its attention away from her, the sorceress snaps out of her quaking paralysis. A dark aura surrounds her as one eye seems to melt into oozing midnight, and with a silent curse she hexes the cultist before her. But she’s not done yet—unsated malice quivers around her like an ominous cloak as she unleashes a phase bolt into the man’s chest.
Keeping her shield raised, Morga growls at the yellow-robed cultist: "You smell like daisies, pretty boy." Hoping that odd comment confuses him for a second, she grabs her hammer and smashes his kneecap.
-
The cultist gasps "You'll never- you won't stop Mei- Meitremar. Our time- is finally here-" as he slashes at Autumn. His first slash lands, delivering a painful cut but he never gets to make a second as a retributive mental blast from Autumn takes him out.
You're left facing only the brass figure. It hesitates a moment as it selects between threats, then creakily strides toward San with halberd at the ready. It swings the traditional Runelord weapon in great arcs. San ducks under the first swing, but the second cuts across his torso, revealing that the brass creature has just as much strength as it has magical proficiency.
|||| INIT ||||
Morga (3 dmg)
Vildran (24 dmg, prone, unconscious)
Autumn (8 dmg, frightened 1, Rust Creep Stg1)
San (27 dmg)
Brass Belimarius (20 dmg, mystic armor, ???)
“So sad,” Autumn scoffs at the dying cultist and his desperate words, even as she grimaces at the bloody gash on her leg. There is something so reassuringly right about his own attack striking him down through magical retaliation.
Unfortunately the animated statue lives (?) in an entirely different realm from the cultists. Is it a construct like the clockwork serpents? How does it know magic? Out of range, and with no idea what it is, she appeals to the only one who might know. Focusing on her arcane tattoo, she reaches into the wizard’s mind and coaxes him back to consciousness.
“Vildran!” She points urgently at the brass creature menacing San. “Do something! Now!” she commands, trying to spur the elf to immediate action. “How do we stop it?”
To Morga on the other side, she quickly adds “Use your dart spell,” worried that the dwarf would charge into melee and ruin the whole point of San’s maneuver to protect them. “I’ll distract it.”
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Vildran’s eyes flutter open. For a moment he lies in a daze, trying to regain his bearings, but Autumn’s imperative whips him into decisive action. Seeing his fellow elf threatened by the brass statue, he quickly conjures an orb of freezing cold around the creature, hoping to weaken and crack the metal being.
Then he tries to figure out the best way to fight this thing.
To Morga on the other side, she quickly adds “Use your dart spell,” worried that the dwarf would charge into melee and ruin the whole point of San’s maneuver to protect them. “I’ll distract it.”
◆Cast Message as part of an attempt to aid Morga. Her goal is to distract the creature (along the lines of Create a Diversion)
Why *that* spell? Morga wonders incredulously, as it's obvious from San's arrows that poking it won't do much. Instead, she slips through the door to get close enough to cast Haunting Hymn on the metal "man".
Only then does she see how bad San's wound is. Oh. *That's* why Autumn wanted that spell. I'd stay farther back. ... Oops.
Seeing the thing doesn't react as l he dashed by the first time, San does it again to get back to his teammates. Taking careful aim, he loses Another arrow before taking a deep breath and reaching for the long hammer.
-
In turn the Brass Belimarius strides forward, halberd twirling as it does. Morga is caught in its path and suffers for it. One end of the halberd smashes into her gut while the other carves a gash across her upper torso.
|||| INIT ||||
Morga (35 dmg)
Vildran (15 dmg, prone)
Autumn (8 dmg, Rust Creep Stg1)
San (27 dmg)
Brass Belimarius (32 dmg, mystic armor, ???)
Thinking he's actually on to something, Vildran stands with confidence.
The familiar freezing orb manifests around the construct again.
San finishes his motion, taking the warhammer to hand and stowing his bow. Striding over to try to flank the thing, he strikes out and with his momentum, he tries to trip the thing up.
Nearly dead, Morga heals herself, then tries to smash the Brass Belimarius's kneecap with her hammer.
Autumn suppresses a worried gulp as she watches the brass Belimarius tear Morga apart with two vicious slashes—it’s a wonder the dwarf is still standing. But the cleric remains on her feet, with several wounds miraculously healed, and with two allies occupying the statue’s attention, the sorceress risks sneaking closer—although the stairway is her lifeline to a hasty exit, there’s absolutely no room to maneuver, and she doesn’t like the feeling of being trapped. Once she feels the bolstering reassurance of Morga’s aura, she thrusts a phase bolt at the metal construct.
-
The Brass Belimarius stabs out with its halberd at San and he just barely manages to turn aside in time. It follows by casting a wave of dizzying color out at Vildran and Autumn. The moment it takes to cast the spell serves to give San an opening, but he isn't able to solidly connect.
Vildran entirely shrugs the spell off, but Autumn becomes momentarily dizzy .
|||| INIT ||||
Morga (16 dmg)
Vildran (15 dmg)
Autumn (8 dmg, dazzled 1rd, Rust Creep Stg1)
San (27 dmg)
Brass Belimarius (32 dmg, mystic armor, ???)
Foiled by the construct’s impenetrable metal armor, and unable to clearly see it through the colored spots dancing in her vision, Autumn quickly changes tactics. Rather than conjuring a concentrated phase bolt that judders through space and time, she allows the vibrations to spread outward, forming an inaudible cone of powerful, jarring static.
Then, while trying to blink away the dancing motes in her eyes, she targets San with the occult guidance of her pendant, hoping to improve the accuracy of his attack.
Vildran instinctively tries to shield his eyes with the draping arm of his robe. It seems to work...
An arc of lightning leaps from leaps from Vildran to Brass Belimarius.
He then manifests an arcane force shield on the same robed forearm.
Knowing that last miss was luck more than skill, San desperately swings at the construct with a combo of moves.
Morga tries to take advantage of San's punishing blows with a couple of swings from her own light hammer. Of course, they're more like little taps compared to the powerful swings of San's longhammer.
She then snaps her shield up in the hopes of surviving this construct's retaliation.
The Brass Belimarius doesn't rise again.
Combat Over! You each gain 120 XP.
"All right, let's get heal up before grabbing that gem, Autumn, just in case it explodes when you're next to it."
"Okay, now you can go." Morga shoos Autumn and Vildran away, then casts a spell to top off San and herself.
“All right, let's get heal up before grabbing that gem, Autumn, just in case it explodes when you're next to it."
Autumn looks down at the dwarf with a cool, disinterested expression, as if she has no idea what Morga is talking about. The garnet is certainly attractive, but the rod it’s attached to isn’t—and she does remember the exploding clockwork snakes, so she initially keeps a respectful distance from the statue’s remains. Instead she spends her time carefully examining the other statue—the one that’s twenty feet high, with glowing red gems for eyes. She makes a mental note to climb up and pry them out later. For now, she searches for any signs of traps or the secret passage behind the statue.
“So, do you sense any magic around here?” she asks Vildran, with a glance up at the glowing gemstone eyes.
Though he's being shooed away, he certainly takes Morga's warning to heart.
Yeah... it could explode.
Then hearing Autumn's question, he mutters back under his current concentration Not sure just yet...
San is on guard as Morga heals the injured. You never know when something terrible might jump out at you down here...
After her ministrations, he looks around the rest of the room to see if he can at least find the mechanism to reveal the secret passage behind the statue. Chalk in hand, he's ready to mark any mechanism that may be found.
Healing finished, Morga joins the team in searching the area. First she cautiously inspects each of the fallen foes, hoping to find keys, notes, or anything that might help them know what other horrors to expect down here. Then, as there doesn't seem to be an obvious door anywhere, she begins searching for a hidden one. As she does, her stomach squirms uncomfortably. Where could Meitremar be? Where is the ritual being cast? We're running out of time!
None of you find any further traps, and both San and Autumn easily locate the secret door directly behind the statue - a stone panel that can be pushed aside to reveal a short passage that quickly enters a set of winding stairs leading even further down. If the abrikandilu's words are to be believed, these stairs head down into the Darklands, or an underground territory close to them at least.
Unfortunately there are no notes or keys on any of the cultists here. Clearly they know their role well enough not to need written guidance. You do of course find their gear, though its of limited interest. Now that you're not under immediate attack, you can see the columns in this chamber are decorated by elaborate carvings of what you take to be various demons, all of which are contorted in fierce poses. One that seems to have particular prominence in the display is some six-armed insectile monstrosity.
San takes a few minutes to try to identify what the magic auras of the rod and weapon are followed by the statue. "So what do you think all this art means here? And that insectioid thing looks particularly fierce."
Once the secret door is found, Morga turns her attention to identifying what she can of the images and statue.
Having answered her question about detecting magic, Autumn leaves it to the elves to identify the particulars.
On San's remark, she approaches the statue of the insectoid monstrosity with disgusted fascination.
This had better be a historical depiction...
Vildran will faint and die if we actually encounter this thing.
Vildran ignores the insect statue at first, choosing to focus on
the large statue of the demon,
the gem-tipped rod that came out of the Brass Belimarius,
and the clockwork's halberd.
Such a mixture of dark arts and lost technology... there's a hint of glee and wonder in his voice as his love of ancient civilizations, Thassilon in particular, is stoked.
He takes his time with each of this, as he picks them up and scrutinizes them at agonizing length his antennae mimic the direction of his eyes as they jump from detail to detail.
--------------------
Finally he does force himself to approach the statue of the insectoid monstrosity after the others have moved on from it. He strokes his beard thoughtfully.
Vildran, you should pass out lights before we head down... she states, snapping him back to attention from his historical reveries.
-
Vildran isn't sure what kind of magic lies within them massive demonic statue, though he senses that some power seems to run through it. He's more sure about the gem-tipped rod, which he identified as a Wand of Fear (1st). The halberd is clearly a powerful magical item, but he's not able to determine its specific properties.
I cannot quite figure out the statue. Perhaps it was powered by the device above that we disrupted? Perhaps it is a storage device for that gathered energy? I cannot be certain.
Stashing the wand of fear in his belt, he casts light on his own staff and on any weapons requested by his friends.
San, Morga, hold onto that halberd. We can get a better read on what it does later but don't be shy about swinging it in the meantime.
Gesturing towards the passageway, he asks shall we?
Morga declines a light and gestures to San. "I can't use the halberd with my shield. You want it?"
Once everyone is ready, Morga hoists up her shield and heads through the secret door.
San replaces the mundane halberd with the magic one even if he doesn't know what it does. Magic is always better right?
New weapon in hand, he nods to the others. "Ready when you are!" Despite the trouble with the golem and the sinspawn, San is determined as they face the darkness of the stairs.
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Oh... I didn't hand him an intelligent, cursed halberd, did I?! Surely not... It wasn't talking to me!
With lights in hand, you gather up and descend down the stairway to the west. The stairs descend down and down, spiraling for floor after floor, leaving the light of the room above far behind. The masonry walls of the stairway shaft gradually grow rougher before transitioning to unevenly hewn stone. And then those walls fall away, the stone stairs hanging freely as you descend the final few steps into a dark and damp cavern.
Though the cavern has many open tunnels and passageways branching from it, the most impressive and eyecatching feature is the remnant of an ancient bridge that once crossed a vast chasm to the north. The chasm fluctuates between thirty and forty feet across, growing larger to the west and narrower to the east. Three passages exit this chamber to the east, west, and south. A curious ring of stones has been placed at the entrance to the southern passage. The eastern passage is quiet and unremarkable. The western passage seems to have some dim glow to it, though it's hard to tell in the light of your magical light sources.
The long, ominous descent heightens nerves, anticipation, and adrenaline, especially when the stairs spiral down away from the walls.
"Heinous," Autumn murmurs as she cautiously edges closer to the chasm and inspects the remains of the bridge.
"The demon said the ritual chamber lies across the chasm," she whispers, "so unless Meitremar and his cultists learned how to fly, there must be another way across. Probably that way." She points eastward, where the chasm narrows somewhat.
Taking in the rest of their surroundings, she warily eyes the circle of stones. "Magic?" she questions the wizard, then squints at the western passage. "And is that light over there?" She moves east, so that her magical light doesn't interfere, and looks questioningly at the light-less dwarf with darkvision to confirm the presence of light to the west.
"It was mentioned this place is near the darklands. Maybe the stones are a warding to keep other unsavory visitors from investigating. West seems a good way to start if there's light that way. Darklands denizens wouldn't need it. We might be able to gather more information before we go chasing after Meitremar."
"Aye." Morga solemnly agrees, cautiously moving toward the western passage, all senses alert for sights, sounds, and smells. With more intel, we might not all die. She's keenly aware of the fact that Meitremar's minions have nearly completely killed her and her teammates multiple times and is eager for any edge that could increase their odds of survival and success.
Vildran eyes the chasm.
Here's hoping one of the passages lets us circumvent that. But for now, West it is.
Vildran does detect some magic nearby, and after some experimentation notices that its emitting from the circle of stones to the south-east.
----