Autumn relaxes a bit and shrugs as the door remains closed. “Maybe it just wants to be left alone?” she suggests in a low voice. So far it has shown no interest in pursuing them outside the room. She watches the elf retreat down the hall and then nods at the dwarf. “This might be a good time to patch ourselves up,” she quietly whispers while listening and maintaining her defensive position by the door.
"I figure it's probably going to unleash another nasty glob of burning oil on us as soon as the door opens, or something like that," Morga grumbles, stowing the wand of heal. She quickly patches up Autumn's wounds before retreating down the hallway after San, gesturing to Vildran to move back with her.
She worries about leaving Autumn to hold the door despite the sorceress being much farther from dropping than she and San are. She has to remind herself that she can only heal the others if she's alive.
Watching the other retreat he turns to Autumn.
Close the door and follow quickly!
He presumes she won't be left alone at the door for lonbg.
I wonder if it thinks us beneath it and doesn't want to bother, or perceives us as a threat and just wants us to go away. That said, I can't imagine it's down here doing anything innocuous.
With the door closed you listen carefully and start planning. Morga patches Autumn up while Vildran shields himself against any incidental harm. The door remains closed for the next few seconds and Autumn doesn't hear anything from the other side. Perhaps the demon really does just want to be left alone, because it doesn't open the door to chase you down and finish you off.
|||| INIT ||||
Morga (36 dmg, bless)
Autumn
Vildran (10 dmg, sustaining wards)
San (36 dmg, sickened 1)
Brimorak (35 dmg)
With still no noticeable action from the demon, Autumn follows the others. She gives Morga a grateful smile for the healing, then continues past into a room with a door they can close if needed for some privacy and security. “It’s not coming out,” she informs them in a quiet voice. “Let’s regroup and rest here for a bit.” She takes out a healing kit, ready to help Morga in tending their wounds—particularly San’s. She shakes her head as she looks over the elf’s scorched skin and burning blisters. “You look horrible.”
Unsure, Vildran squeezes that last ounce of protection out of his warding glyphs.
He eyes the door suspiciously.
Or maybe it's protecting something it doesn't want us to find and is simply relieved right now. Still, resting is a good choice right now.
He puts the wand back at his belt
and maintains the arcane force shield in front of him a little longer.
"Right. San, stay out here so you can shoot it if it comes out that door." Morga quickly stows her stuff, whips out her own healer's tools, and begins treating the worst of the party's wounds. She's ready to stop at a moment's notice if that thing comes after them.
San stands guard, bow at the ready, in case the demon follows. He also tries to get the stench from that smoke out of his system.
Fortunately, there seems to be ample time for treating wounds. Even so, Morga works as swiftly as possible.
After half an hour, everyone's fully patched up, though Morga's forehead is still creased with concern. "I don't like the idea of leaving that goblin stuck there overnight while we rest. We need a good plan to take that demon down. What are the odds that it can fireball us again? Should San and I go in there with our hammers and focus on pounding it down? What do you think?"
Fireball...
The odds are quite good if we wait until tomorrow.
He reflexively brushes at his robe, as if it will remove any of the scorch marks. He then correctly cleans it with a tried-and-true prestidigitation, and offers the same to the others until they feel like new.
Rushing in to pound it down... That's definitely one approach. I could create an illusory door to match the real one, to trick its eyes as you open up the real door? Alternatively I could make one of you invisible.
Tomorrow I can make both of you invisible and cast the illusion. Autumn can do this as well.
He continues thinking. I can bog the creature down with webbing after you rush in. With more time to prepare I could make us somewhat resistant to fire.
“Thanks,” Autumn smiles at the wizard after he cleans her clothes of all the accumulated grime. “If it could have fireballed us again, it would have. So if you want to kill it, we should do it now while it’s still hurt and low on magic. Tomorrow it’ll be healthy and have all its spells back.”
She shrugs her shoulders at Morga’s suggestion of rushing in like a barbarian and viciously beating it to a pulp—it’s definitely not something she would do, but if the cleric feels more comfortable going toe to toe with a demon, more power to her—but she shakes her head at Vildran’s suggested spells. “It seemed happy to stay put, so webbing won’t bother it much. And it’ll be just as hard for us to see through an illusory door too,” she adds, remembering how some of her companions strained to see through her illusory wall.
“There’s no point being invisible if you’re just going to attack—the magic would end instantly. It’s a funny spell that way. Though … that gives me an idea.” She focuses inward for a minute, drawing power from her blood for a spell she’s never tried before.
Finally the sorceress shrugs her shoulders again, agreeing with Morga’s blunt approach since she doesn’t seem to want to continue the slow cat-and-mouse open-and-shut-the-door strategy . “An all-out assault might be the way to go. Maybe that’ll end it before it can really hurt us.” She winks at Vildran. “But this time you get to stand next to the door.”
---
|||| INIT ||||
Morga (36 dmg)
Brimorak (35 dmg)
Autumn
Vildran (10 dmg)
San (36 dmg)
"Well crap." Morga drops her healer's tools, grabs her shield, and raises it. Almost as an afterthought, she raises up her holy symbol as well.
"Well crap." Morga drops her healer's tools, grabs her shield, and raises it. Almost as an afterthought, she raises up her holy symbol as well.
|||| INIT ||||
Morga (36 dmg)
Autumn
Vildran (10 dmg)
San (46 dmg, prone, dying 2)
Brimorak (35 dmg)
“San!” Autumn gasps as the elf’s body thumps lifelessly to the ground in a crimson pool of blood and flame. She is astounded and concerned by the deadly efficiency of the demon’s strike. The only consolation is that the demon’s hit-and-run tactic must mean that it’s severely wounded itself—otherwise it surely would have stayed to attack the dwarf too.
“Get him up and out of there!” she shouts at Morga. Following her own advice, she immediately flees—after all, there’s nothing to attack, and it would be foolish to chase the demon back into its smoky den. Besides, Morga would surely bring the fighter back from the brink of death and help him to retreat to a safe place. And yet … an irksome niggle in the back of her mind berates her for abandoning her companions. With a frustrated scowl she halts her run south and turns, circling around through another room to see Vildran’s backside. There she leans in against the wall to stay hidden while she monitors the situation from afar.
"More crap!" Morga exclaims. "We need to retreat enough that it can't get back into the smoke after attacking us!" Not bothering to heal San yet, she grabs his ankle and starts dragging him after Autumn.
Once she gets through the door, she realizes she can't see Autumn anywhere. Where'd she go? She pulls out the wand of heal as she whisper-shouts: "Autumn?
Seeing the direction that San is dragged, Vildran darts around the corner and into the room. The moments he runs in view of the demon's open doorway leaves him feeling incredibly anxious and vulnerable. He's so focused on it that his shoulder clips the corner that he rounds.
How's he doing Morga?
For good measure he continues past them to make room for Autumn in case she chooses to double back.
-
The brimorak hisses in Chthonian "It has been so very long since I enjoyed this. Burning those goblins was over too quickly." Despite the bold words, there's a strange quaver to its voice.
|||| INIT ||||
Morga (48 dmg)
Autumn
Vildran (10 dmg)
San (46 dmg, prone, dying 1)
Brimorak (35 dmg)
The only thing Autumn sees is Vildran clumsily bumping into the corner as he dashes to join Morga, followed by the demon in hot pursuit; San is nowhere to be found, though his shortbow remains, drenched in a puddle of blood. She hears the muddled sound of battle, but it’s hard to figure out what’s going on: the demon’s quaking voice and the dwarf’s audible gasp of pain suggest opposite results. The one thing she does hear clearly is Morga’s cry to stop the brimorak from retreating back into the smoke. Obviously Autumn isn’t going to circle around and cut off the demon’s escape by herself, but there is another way.
With a reluctant sigh, the sorceress takes the valuable opal serpent out of her pocket, looks at it covetously, then carefully places it on the ground, just around the corner. San better be right that it can’t be destroyed while it’s animated. As she releases the statue she whispers its secret name, causing it to suddenly ripple and grow into a large, coiled python.
The sudden searing pain shocks Morga so much that she completely forgets to cast a spell she'd prepared for just this sort of situation. Disgusted at the lost opportunity, she resolves to cast it if she gets another chance. She slams the door in the demon's face and casts Heal on herself. Fingers crossed!
Vildran looks on with fright at Morga's wounds just before they close up in healing light. He jogs up next to her.
Noting the smell of singed flesh, he closes his eyes and focuses on his staff
before laying a hand on her shoulder.
You can now withstand a degree of fire, if it opens the door and comes at you again.
-
The demon, not to be so easily dissuaded, kicks open the door and then slashes twice at Morga. Both swings carve burning gashes across her, though Vildran's spell keeps the flames from taking their toll . In her last breath before collapsing she utters a retributive curse that breaks open the demon's skin. It starts weeping blood.
|||| INIT ||||
Morga (50 dmg, resist fire 5, prone, dying 1)
Autumn
Vildran (10 dmg)
San (46 dmg, prone, stable)
Elite Python minion
Brimorak (36 dmg, bleed 1d6)
With light, anxious steps Autumn quietly creeps forward, hugging the wall as she advances to see what is going on. As soon as she clears the corner she spots the brimorak; instinctively, she scurries past and calls the python to follow and act as a bulwark between her and the demon. Only then does she notice San, still lying prone on the ground, but fortunately no longer actively bleeding out; her other companions are nowhere to be seen. “Morga?” she calls out unknowingly. “Why haven’t you healed him?”
All-too familiar blackness envelopes Morga's consciousness. She knew it would happen. Her only hope is that the demon bleeds to death before it kills Autumn and Vildran.
Vildran kneels down and starts frantically going through Morga's pack.
San continues to not be awake, visions of fire and ash tormenting him.
Gasping an unsteady breath, Morga grabs her shield, interposes it between herself and the demon, and staggers to her feet. "All this time you've waited, and for what?"
-
The brimorak's wound bleeds a little more before it manages to recover.
|||| INIT ||||
Morga (36 dmg, resist fire 5)
Autumn
Vildran (10 dmg)
San (46 dmg, prone, stable)
Elite Python minion
Brimorak (42 dmg)
At the edge of her vision Autumn glimpses movement, seeing and hearing the dwarf’s defiant stand against the demon’s frenzied assault. Bolstered by Morga’s resolute defense, and by the brimorak’s subsequent retreat, the sorceress commands the python to press their advantage. The great snake coils and lunges, snapping its jaws repeatedly at the goat-headed beast, but to no avail.
In the meantime Autumn summons her magic, projecting a soothing memory into the fallen elf’s mind and rousing him to consciousness. “SAN!” she shouts urgently, knowing that their window of opportunity is limited. “This thing so needs to die. Now!”
Vildran wheels around behind Morga hoping to get a glimpse of the demon...
The fire and ash in his barely conscious state are washed away by a cool gentle rain heralding the end of summer as Autumn's spell takes hold. Realizing that it's not just a nice sensation but that it's vitality returning to his limbs, San's eyes flutter open to see the demon menacing in the doorway. Dragging himself to his feet, San retrieves the hammer and clumsily retreats for a better counterstrike position.
"Good to see you standing." Morga grunts as San moves back to safety. She's not in much better shape, but what can she do? The thing has to die before *any* of them will be safe. She casts Divine Lance at the Brimorak, then raises her trusty shield.
-
The demon, wide-eyed with Autumn blocking the path back to the room it came from, seems in a frenzy to return. It spews a line of burning oil across her and the snake before delivering a powerful overhead swing upon the snake.
Both Autumn and the python are quick though, ending up only lightly burned. The python takes a direct hit but doesn't go down .
|||| INIT ||||
Morga (36 dmg, resist fire 5)
Autumn (9 dmg)
Vildran (10 dmg)
San (34 dmg)
Elite Python minion (25 dmg)
Brimorak (42 dmg)
“Really?!” Autumn exclaims in exasperation when San comes back to life, thanks to her spell, and then promptly abandons her. At least her other companions are trying to help, and she now knows not to waste any more healing on him in the future. Provided she survives to the future, that is. The demon might be worried that its retreat is cut off, but Autumn realizes to her horror that she is equally trapped.
She instinctively throws herself against the wall to avoid the worst of the burning oil, then glares daggers at the brimorak as smoke literally rises off her body. With flight removed as an option, she orders the gleaming serpent to continue attacking, even as her fingers weave a vengeful spell, plunging phantom tendrils into the demon’s brain to tear it apart from the inside.
With the demon kept busy with Autumn, Vildran tries to form the orb of frost around it again.
before shielding himself with the arcane disc.
Having gathered his nerve, San dashes back out to confront the demon, perhaps for the last time, one way or another. He swings his hammer with precision despite the cramped quarters.
Knowing she's one hit away from death, Morga stays where she is and tries again to cast Divine Lance at the Brimorak.
x2 for 10
Then she raises her shield again. "Come on! Die already!"
-
Its blade's flames fade and you see the weapon has turned to little more than a twisted hunk of metal. As for the body of the demon, it lies still and doesn't fade away, suggesting the creature was bound to the material plane rather than its abyssal origin.
|||| STATUS ||||
Morga (36 dmg, resist fire 5)
Autumn (9 dmg)
Vildran (10 dmg)
San (34 dmg)
Elite Python minion (25 dmg)
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"Whew!" Breathing heavily, Morga sags to the ground, then crawls over to grab her healer's tools. "San. C'mere." Too exhausted for more words, she begins the laborious process of patching up her party.
"All right, San. You wanna go see if that goblin is still alive? I...feel horrible that we didn't go straight to them. If they need healing I'll patch them right up." Morga urges as she turns to heal the others.
Autumn slumps with relief when the demon finally dies, though she looks quizzically at the corpse. “I guess this one’s like that mirror demon in Rusthenge—some mage must have bound it here. Which means that somebody like Meitremar was around.” But she’s too tired to hunt down some unknown cultist; instead, she spends the next few minutes on more material pursuits. She carefully searches the demon’s body for anything of value, then—assuming the smoke has cleared from the brimorak’s room—searches that room as well, with the python slithering alongside her like a protective bodyguard.
None of us came out unscathed. Vildran remarks as he stretches and brushes his robes off.
As Morga sets to treating the party he sits down and flips through his spellbook.
After, he joins Autumn in the room the brimorak originally emerged from.
He particularly hopes it has some spell scrolls or the like. Or perhaps it claimed Thassilonian relics for itself.
Once you're healed you head back into the brimorak's room, magical senses probing around in Vildran's case. Autumn's carefully attuned nose for treasure steers her away from a worthless demon corpse but picks up that the bowl she'd taken as a ritual object is made of fine silver and worth 5 gold. The knife sitting atop it is made instead of cold iron and bears some sort of demonic rune on its hilt. Within the bowl are six smooth garnet beads, one worth 2 gp, two worth 5 gp, and three worth 10 gp each. None are magical. Looking around, you push open the door to the ancient closet to the south. Almost all of the robes that once sat on the pegs inside have now decayed away, all except for one. This remaining gaudy robe of green and orange seems magical to Vildran's senses.
Autumn hears a faint sobbing from a narrow crack in the room's eastern wall.
Morga's shield is up as she approaches and enters the formerly smoky room. Once they're reasonably certain there isn't *another* deadly demon hiding in ambush, Morga calls out to the goblin who's hopefully still alive: "Hello? Goblin? We killed the fire demon. We're the ones who talked to you before. It's safe to come out now." She holds her breath, hoping it's not too late.
"Why would a demon be using a cold iron knife? Here, let me take a look at that rune. I might as well investigate these robes as well." San takes the dagger and focuses on reading the magic from the rune first before moving to the robes.
Not surprisingly, Autumn takes the fine silver bowl and the garnets within as compensation for what they’ve endured. It’s a decent haul, though she was greedily hoping for another wondrously valuable figurine like the python that has reverted back to its opal statue form. She ignores the goblin, leaving the sobbing creature to their cleric while she carefully inspects the opal serpent for any chips or cracks that might mar its function (or value).
Vildran helps San identify the robes
before following Morga to help coax out the goblin. He doesn't say anything yet, but he doesn't want her to get caught off guard alone.