”The way that lumpy brute was hollering makes likely that “Father” is within shouting distance. One way or the other, this will all be over soon. Stay sharp!” Elric says, pulling a vial from his bandolier and drinking it as he moves.
"We'll be back to get you out," Audria promises those still in the pits before heading to the other passage. She picks up her bow as she passes where she dropped it and shoulders it. With her halberd in both hands, she takes up the point position.
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As they turn the corner to the northern corridor, the party is met with a strange and menacing sight: a robed derro is floating near the ceiling, a wand clutched in his right hand. Behind him, through the open door, they can see part of the room beyond, which seems some manner of laboratory by the furnishings and equipment.
"Ahahaha! Stupid, stupid, to come here. More materials for our experiments, yesyesyessss!" He cackles gleefully.
Audira's eyes light up in a kaleidoscope of colors as celestial runes burn bright on her armor and the blade of her halberd. Her hood falls away as her hair shines white. She didn't need the sight she'd been blessed with to know the evil in this one's heart. She walks forward as Talanaliel flies to Shane's shoulder.
"Surrender or face the judgement of my goddess," she tells the derro in a cold, flat voice.
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Shrike goes very still and focused when the half-elf reveals her mutilation. The air around her fairly crackles with the electricity of violence deferred.
Her muscles tense with the urge to jump into the pit and boost Ivy up and out, but training wins. There are still hostile creatures here, perhaps only a room away. This is a distraction that will take too long and make them too vulnerable. None of the prisoners are dying right now. Her head lowers reluctantly and she takes back the elf-spear, reversing it to put it safely in her grip again. "Fine. They die first."
Shrike doesn't wait for the end of the sentence, but explodes into motion at the first cackling of the derro frogmaker, slipping forward to meet him spear-first.
A warm breeze, sweet with flowers instead of the death-stink of these warrens, whispers past her face and wraps around her arm, nudging her aim higher at the last second for the floating derro frogmaker.
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The derro wheezes with laughter at Audria's challenge. "My god would chew up your goddess and- GAH!" A sudden spear point in his leg interrupts whatever he was going to say.
Hissing in fury, he flies out of reach of the offending weapon and casts a spell.
Shane moves forward, and lets loose a blinding ray hoping to throw the flying enemy off even if only for a moment so the others might have an easier target.
Elric moves forward, drawing his bow as he goes. Then he holsters his hammer, to avoid having to drop the weapon.
"Flying won't save you. You'll learn that soon... he mutters to the mad spellcaster.
"I doubt it," Audria mutters as she gets under the derro and stabs up.
The flying derro narrowly avoids Shane's spell, and easily dodges Audria's upward strike.
Pava moves in, unlimbering a crossbow from their back and snapping off a quick shot at the flying derro.
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For a brief moment as the the frogmaker completes his chanting, Shrike's vision fades and everything goes dark. It feels like cold, oily fingers sinking into her temples. She shakes her head violently and the darkness clears into spots, then nothing.
"Tricks won't save you." The harsh croak twists into a snarl. Shrike advances to cut off the derro's retreat and lunges upward for his new position. The long spear point sails past him, but that wasn't the purpose. She twists to try to tangle one of the oddly-angled secondary blades with his clothes, and yanks, attempting to pull him to the ground.
But the spinning blades don't even contact the slippery creature, and she begins to fear the spell had actually worked, and somehow altered her vision so she can't see the true places of things. She shakes her head again, harder this time.
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Abella steps forward to encourage Elric.
The derro twists his face in an awful smirk at Shrike's attempt to snag him, but only managing to make a small tear in the hem of his robes. "Oh-o-hooo! What are you doing, trying to hasten your doom? Very well, I won't deny your wish!"
With his free hand, he reaches to a spot on his robes. A ripping sound can be heard, and he throws something on the floor. Within seconds, that something is a huge ogre that is quite obviously dead by the tinge of its skin and the accompanying awful smell. Still, it stands and it moves, clearly some manner of undead creature.
What is worse is that it seems to be under the command of the derro, who retreats a little as he lets his newly created minion distract his foes.
"Yes, my beauty! Rip them apart!"
The sight of the ogre zombie makes Elric spit out another sample of colorful sailor curses. He grabs an handful of arrows from his quiver and quickly coats them with holy weapon balm.
The ogre zombie raises enormous fists and brigs them down on Shrike. Close up, she sees the oozing pustules on its skin.
Shrike grunts as the huge fist comes down on her shoulder with a force that grinds the links of her chain shirt into the bone. She rolls her shoulder despite the burning pain, trying to get enough feeling back to use her hand. "Abella! Do something about this thing!" she shouts hoarsely. The mage is always boasting about her facility with undead. Now is the time to prove it. "Everyone else focus on the wizard!"
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Abella sighs. She was hoping to save this for later, but this zombie ogre is being quite annoying, and the others are not making as short work of it as she would like.
”You are lucky I was going to do this anyways, as I do not care for your tone.”
Pava looks up at the sudden wall of rotten flesh blocking them off from the tunnel, and shouts at where they think Shrike is behind it.
"Lovely plan, might have to carve my way through this great lunk before then though."
They fish a broadbladed dagger from their belt, and set to their work.
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"Oh it's SO much worse than we thought," He declares "Not only does this zombie thing infect you with terrible plague if strikes you, but when we finally DO destroy it, it's going to pop like a pox filled pimple and everyone around it will be exposed. And no, I'm not happy about the news either!"
With a look of displeasure, he works another of his more powerful spells he meant to reserve for the undead. Another summoning.
"Alioqui ventus" might be what he said, or it might not, arcane magic never seeming to let you recall the language if you hadn't worked for it, and even then, only on loan.
And a cloud-like being forms next to the flying enemy. It the hollows that give it semblance of a face makes it look quite pissed, and it whips at the Derro
Sadly, to no avail.
“Get clear if you can…Abella slowed it down and I’ll burst this bloated horror from a distance.”
“Get clear if you can…Abella slowed it down and I’ll burst this bloated horror from a distance.”
"A plan that keeps me healthy? LOVE IT! IF we can kill the damned maniac , I can perhaps keep the big guy busy with the air elemental after, buying us ALL time to get distance so you can make that happen."
"Wonderful," Audria grumbles as she steps back under the mage and stabs up.
"Not only does this zombie thing infect you with terrible plague if strikes you, but when we finally DO destroy it, it's going to pop like a pox filled pimple and everyone around it will be exposed. And no, I'm not happy about the news either!"
A sense of foreboding fills her. And it seems the ogre was unaffected by whatever Abella did. Shrike stabs at the floating derro fruitlessly and slides carefully into the space Audria left.
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Abella's spell would have been very effective, but the undead ogre seems to shake it off. Pava carves out a huge slash across the creature's flank, and the stench intensifies as its rotten insides are exposed. The derro deftly avoids all attacks against him, proving not only a nimble flyer but also protected by some kind of magic.
He swoops down to tap Audria with the wand he's clutching before retreating a little further into the laboratory. "Hee hee, stay still! Don't make my beauty chase you all over the place!"
The derro frowns, then shakes the wand. "What? Why is it not working properly?"
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Since the large plague-ridden zombie is still engaged in melee with Pava and Shrike, Elric opts for accuracy rather than a rapid rate of fire.
Taking a deep breath to steady himself, he aims and lets the balm-coated arrow fly. Unfortunately, the cramped and chaotic conditions impede his accuracy.
Audria feels the magic trying to hold her in place, but she proves tougher than the magic.
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Fortunately, the ogre is a very big target. Elric's arrow buries into its thick neck. It turn, trying to find the source of all this damage being done to its undead flesh.
Audria tries to land a blow on the wily necromancer, but the derro's attempt to hold her in place seems to have slowed her down enough to make dodging her strike trivially easy.
The elemental Shane summoned continues its assault on the Derro
Sadly, many of Shane's spells cannot reach the derro ,so he instead flicks a splash of acid at the Zombie
Pava whips their blade around in a vicious backhand across the ogre's tendons, trying to collapse it harmlessly to the ground.
Another hit like that would finish me. Hunter, strengthen my arm and turn fear into peace. If I fall, let my life freely given be enough to protect your children.
Spinning and ducking to confuse the slow and lumbering zombie ogre, Shrike pursues the derro with swift, vicious intent, darting further into the room and trying to press him from two sides along with Shane's summoned air-creature. She puts all her weight behind a lightning-fast stab with the spear, aiming for the big vein in the thigh while his attention is divided. "Your god's abandoned you. Your time's up."
Pava's klar cuts through the half-rotten flesh easily, cutting the ogre's leg to the bone. The creature shudders, its skin distending as it cracks and oozes repulsive fluids. The pustules burst one by one with wet popping sounds, releasing a horrific stench.
The elemental bounces harmlessly against whatever magic is protecting the derro, who laughs. "Your pet is useless. Mine almost killed two of you, and I have more where he came from!" As he reaches for another spot on his robe, he yelps as Thorn stabs deeply into his thigh. "STOP THAT! You don't know who you're messing with!"
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Abella moves past the doubly-deceased ogre and spies the derro. ”You are a very unpleasant little creature. Please cease your ranting.” She manipulates the ambient thanergy/negative energy to sap his defensive strength.
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The derromancer looks slightly unsettled for a moment as whatever magic is protecting him flickers out for a moment.
"Hah! Unpleasant! Surely you mean that I'm a menace!"
Instead of flying away, he moves closer to Shrike, swooping down to tap her with his wand.
Audria tries to box the derro in with Shrike.
Elric rushes into the lab to aid in taking down the derro necromancer.
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”Menace? You will be forgotten the second you die. So quite soon, I’m afraid.” She hexes the derro once again, this time debilitating the muscles in his hands with hairline veins of thanergy.
"He's got a damn protection spell," Shane curses, "My elemental is blocked, or so I suspect." He moves forward, and in rather sad attempt tries to flick a glob of acid at the derro, glad he was out of the 'plague burst'radius.
Nevertheless, the elemental attacks again
Shrike is not expecting the derro to actually fly at her rather than casting a spell from a distance, and before she quite realizes what he is about, the nasty little creature touches her arm with his wand where she is bringing her spear around in a defensive block. Immediately, a nauseating cold stiffness seems to radiate into her nerves and muscles from the place he touched. She recoils, dropping the spear and shaking the stiffness out of her arm, then reaches up for the hilt of the long, curving sword strapped across her back. Shrike brings it out of the sheath and down into a two-handed slash in a single motion.
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Those who had chased the derro into the laboratory take a few moments as they reassess their tactics and look around the room. The nauseating mixture of decay and strange chemicals fills the air here. Glinting saws, pliers, long stitching needles and other surgical equipment are organized on shelves and benches along the walls. A high, sturdy wooden table in the center of the room supports a large humanoid shape - a thing stitched together from a patchwork of dozens of different bodies. If it rose and stood upright it would be nearly seven feet tall. The head stitched to the body is strangely small for its massive frame - a head bearing distinctive face tattoos that Shrike and Pava recognize.
All attacks against the derro fall short and he smirks in satisfaction, only briefly wavering as Abella's thanergy saps his strength a little. "Stop that! You all are very persistent and vexing! Just wait until my master returns and I can present him with your fresh bodies, hee hee!"
Pava bursts through the collapsing zombie, letting their dagger and crossbow drop to the ground as they lunge for the diminutive derro, trying to keep him trapped in close quarters!
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Pava leaps and wraps their arms around the derro's legs, keeping him in place like a captive balloon.
"No hugging! I hate hugging! You people need to ask for CONSENT first!"
The derro seems incensed , and tries to hit Pava with his wand, fruitlessly.
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"Consent." Shrike's croak has never seemed flatter or more contemptuous. She waits for a moment when the struggling derro's throat is exposed, and brings the long curving sword around again in a slash so swift and deceptively graceful it's barely visible except as a flicker of silver light.
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"...gk!"
A choking sound escapes the derro, who drops his wand and grabs at his throat with both hands as blood fountains out. Th magic around him flickers and dissipates, his body thudding to the floor and spasming a few times before going still. His pale eyes stare glassily at the ceiling, an expression of final surprise etched on his features.
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"Thank Nethys! This confrontation was vexing and nightmarish in turns. Nice work on that grapple, Pava" He releases the elemental to return home. Then cautiously casts detect magic, the last has become a routine.
"Pretty sure at least one of you was infected.. we might want to get to a temple after this," A look of concern "After we get the survivors home."
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With the derro dead, the group is free to explore the rest of the catacombs without further interference. The doorway to the south-west leads to a library, row upon row of carefully arranged tomes and scrolls filling the two freestanding bookshelves. Most of them are treatises on necromancy or the art of crafting golems, but there's also a surprisingly large number of books about diseases and plagues here as well. Of more portable interest are two magic scrolls wedged between the pages of a thick picture book on humanoid anatomy.
To the north, a chamber holding a large four-poster bed and a writing desk along with a full-length mirror propped up against one wall seems to be the bedroom of the derro's 'master', likely Rolth Lamm. A broken dagger sits on the desk, a curious key-shaped blade snapped right beneath the hilt.
To the east of this bedroom is the derro necromancer's room, a dry, well-kept chamber that contains a narrow bed, a relatively empty shelf holding a few books and some bones and skulls, and a long bench. A man's torse, the chest bearing numerous Shoanti tattoos, lies on this bench. The right arm is still attached, and periodically thrashes and clutches at the air as if it were alive.