Zeldrith blinks as Ano seems to stumble, stepping forward to help the catfolk to her feet. "You're having visions, too? Something bad happened here, for sure - two somethings bad, sounds like." He shrugs, nodding at the gruesome bas-reliefs that cover the walls of the Thassilonian complex. "Maybe the one's connected to the other? My mind's getting blasted full of my great-something grandfather and all the demon worshiping he did here; maybe your friend got a head full of that 'psykill' stuff, too? From what you say, it sounds like it gave her child demon blood or some such..." He shudders, shifting his weight from one hoof to the other as he glances around the sinister chamber. "All those evil thoughts floating around, passing through our world... can't be good for the mind, not at all." He pats his friend reassuringly on the shoulder. "Look, Ano, your friend's probably safe and sound in Desna's realm. We'll track down the source of this, clear her name, don't you worry about that."
Donimah inhales loudly through her nose, but doesn't say anything.
Ano shakes her head slowly, almost incomprehensible to what she heard. “No way. There’s no way she had a child, a demon child. She didn’t even have a lover! Father Tobyn would have never allowed it! Unless…” A realization spread across her face, and it made her blood run cold. She wasn’t certain of what was going on, but if Nualia really was down here…
Arrian pauses to see if Ano is okay to continue.
Ano shakes her head, looking grim. "Let's find out what else is down here, and leave. I don't want to be here anymore."
Arrian tries the door to see if it's unlocked.
"Demon... Child... uh... isn't that combination specific to one religion? Juriya says while checking for traps. She is... still as oblivious as ever.
"Demon... Child... uh... isn't that combination specific to one religion? Juriya says while checking for traps. She is... still as oblivious as ever.
[dice=Religion] d20 + 4
[dice=Perception] d20 + 3
"Um that's my foot Juriya."
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"Demon... Child... uh... isn't that combination specific to one religion?" Juriya says while checking for traps. She is... still as oblivious as ever.
Zeldrith shrugs. "Not necess..." He gives a pained yelp as Juriya steps on his tail, turning to glare at the kitsune. "Watch where you're stepping! Anyway, I don't think it's that specific - I'd probably count, and my family's been Desnan for generations."
Donimah tries very hard not to chuckle as she follows the others.
Juriya goes to check for traps, but instead opens it easily. It creaks as it opens. This huge room whose ceiling is 20ft above looks like nothing more than an immense underground cathedral. Stone doors stand to either side of the main entrance, but beyond this, the walls are carved with strange, spiky runes. In the center of the room is a large pool, with a ring of polished human skulls balanced on stone spikes arranged in a circle around the deeper midsection. At the far end of the room, a pair of stone stairways leads up to a pulpit on which sits a second pool, this one triangular and filled with churning, bubbling water that looks almost like translucent lava. Yet while wisps of what look like heat and steam rise from the strange orange liquid, the room itself is deathly cold.
Flying over the triangular pool, a very small creature looks at the group. Looking at its face, it is quite angry. She shouts at the group "How dare you intrude upon the Mother's sanctum."
Putting together the discussion over the pool in the last room and the mention of the word "Mother", you realize that the deity Lamashtu is closely related to this place.
Lamashtu is the chaotic evil goddess of monsters, usually worshiped by desperate pregnant women who have been shunned by the society they live in or wrathful creatures such as goblins.
"Mother? Who's-or-whose mother exactly? And who are you, exactly, might I ask," Juriya says, trying to make at least some good impression as she grips her two weapons -- in the shrinkingly likely chance that this is a misunderstanding.
The creature seems even more angry to be asked about "Mother", but ignores the question and only addresses the last one, saying "I am the queen here! And you will leave now or else!"
Juriya actually considers leaving, the creature was indeed polite enough to not attack on sight, despite the literal humanoid skulls, but decides to wait for the rest of the group's response before fleeing proper.
Arrian seems close to knowing but can't quite connect the dots.
Ano’s eyes widen at the thing, but she composes herself and says as friendly as she can, “Who are you? I never heard of Sandpoint’s queen! Now I’m willing to be the bigger person here and offer you a chance to go, if you value your life.”
Donimah scrutinizes the creature, her expression stony, finding the notion such a small creature could be a queen of anything laughable.
The creature shouts at Ano [larger]"Get out!"[/larger]
Arrian peers at the creature, trying to remember anything about it:
The creature shouts at Ano
Ano visibly flinches hard at the tiny being screaming at her. Her fur bristles and her spots start to glow. “Who do you think you are? How long have you been down here? You better not have hurt anyone in town or I swear to Desna above…”
Juriya takes the time between conversations to switch forms to her natural one, just in case things here go south and she needs to fight. Having a muzzle with such abysmal strength is only a slight benefit, but it is a benefit!
As the others peer at the bizarre creature, Zeldrith scowls, drawing his blade. "Queen or no, I don't think I like your tone. We've dealt with all the others down here easy enough - we don't fear you!"
This is a quasit. It's a type of demon. This means it must be CE in alignment. It is considered to be one of the least powerful demons, but this does not mean it is not somewhat respected. They're usually used as familiars to a spellcaster. Those that escape the life of servitude become free-willed and more dangerous.
Differently from most demons, a quasit is not formed from evil dead souls, but from living ones. When a spellcaster seeks out a quasit to serve them as a familiar, their soul brushes with the Abyss, forming the quasit, meaning that their bond is powerful.
Usually, when its master dies, the quasit follows its soul to the Abyss and gains possession of the master's soul in the form of a larvae, which the quasit can use to bargain into a more powerful form. Occasionally, the quasit chooses to instead remain behind in the Material plane, trying to entertain itself. This means that it usually stays in an urban settlement to torment the folk.
Arrian can ask 2 questions about it, while Juriya and Donimah can ask 1 each.
The creature is about to react to Ano when Zeldrith starts to threaten it. It does affect it, but instead of cowering, it flies into a rage, takes a shiny dagger from its belt and cuts its hand, dropping blood into the orange triangular pool. It bubbles intensely and from it, a sinspawn crawls out, but the pool shines significantly weaker now.
The creature looks at this loss of light from the pool with notorious worried.
The creature is slow to react after this impressive display of the pool's power.
Ano’s patience snapped when her question was ignored. Her spots flared blue and she charged at the newly created sinspawn with a shriek.
She once again screams at the demon, “”
Juriya fires one shot at the sinspawn, desperately trying to remember what weaknesses Quasits have. She then reloads, hoping to take out the sinspawn first.
"Quasit?! Why are you here?! Did someone summon you? Unless the small chance that you're redeemable has happened, you're going back to the Abyss!"
Has DR 5/cold iron or good.
Juriya hits the sinspawn straight in the jugular, drawing much blood. It looks like it can still fight, though.
"The quasit is worried about the light in the pool dimming."
DR 5/cold iron and good; Immune to electricity and poison; resist acid, cold and fire 10.
It has poison on its claw attacks. It also has some spell-like abilities, some detects, invisibility (self), cause fear and commune.
Ano will move a little closer , holding her rapier. She glares at the quasit and yells, “Answer me! Who are you?! And did you hurt anyone?!”
Arrian moves up the stairs and attempts to strike the sinspawn:
But misses.
Zeldrith bolts up the stairs after Arrian, taking a flanking position with the half-orc with his longsword at the ready.
As Arrian moves up the stairs towards the evil duo he shouts to the others, "The quasit has poison claws, invisibility, resistant to most energy and you need cold iron weapons that are enhanced with good-aligned energy to really hurt it."
Donimah snorts as she identifies the quasit.
"Seems even the least of demons have delusions of grandeur. Seems your 'queenship' ends when the light of that pool goes out, the power you were probably summoned here to guard spent. How long can you stand against us before that happens, eh?"
She punctuates the statement by raising her crossbow and taking a shot at the sinspawn.
Persephone casts a spell aimed at the Sinspawn.
The quasit yells "I am Erylium! And my queendom will come when my pool will be recharged again soon!"
She disappears before your eyes!
It seems Persephone's spell did something to the sinspawn. It just looks at the wall, without doing anything.
"She's gone invisible, watch your backs!" Donimah warns as she intones a protective spell on herself, the golden glow flowing out from her runic tattoos to suffuse her body.
Arrian attempts to strike the oddly-acting sinspawn after Zel moves into flanking:
Arrian's attack is clumsy but with the flanking it's enough to hit the sinspawn. It falls on the floor, dead.
The room falls silent except for the flapping sound of the quasit's wings.
Ano keeps herself as calm as she can, hoping her nose can pinpoint to where the quasit is.
Ano notices that there is demon scent coming from approximately Arrian's direction.
Ano’s eyes widen as she catches the scent. “Arrian! Get on your guard! It’s close to you!”
Juriya stiffens up, making sure the Demon xan't hurt her.
At Ano's shouted words, Zeldrith's eyes narrow, and he holds his sword in a defensive guard as he backs up against a wall.