Carson's wooden spear drops the final tiefling, the woman brandishes her Glaive and moves towards Khaz slight but stays behind the table edge.
Seeing the threat, Khaz brandished his axe and ran towards her.
Carson will hold his wand, ready to send another spear.
Yield! We don't have to do it this way! Just drop your weapon and leave your hands up and we can talk.
The woman ignores Carson and slashes in to Khaz
"Why bother? We're supposed to clear the basement, so let's do that. If someone isn't trying to kill us, we can talk to them.", Lorena says to nobody in particular as she moves in position to strike at the caster.
Firinn ignores the discussion on morality - someone is trying to kill them, end of story. To that end he fires again, doing a better job this time as his charging companions briefly open a firing lane.
The woman with the glaive brought the weapon down onto Khaz's shoulder. Luckily, his armor held. Even more fortunate, his companions were close behind, and they peppered the woman with spear and arrow.
Khaz had to agree with Lorena. The woman was trying to kill them, and had attacked with murderous intent without warning, and certainly without good cause. His new wound was proof that in situations like these, survival was a priority.
Lorena's attack just misses as the table blocks the woman's lower half. , Firinn's arrow thuds into the woman, fletching quivering, The woman dances out of Khaz's axe way avoiding a brutally hard hit.
Carson sighs as she goes to stab Khaz again, activating his readied action from last round to sling another spear.
If we're just going to kill all our problems in the name of 'good,' what makes us any better than those crusaders?
to hit
damage, bleed, etc,
If that doesn't do it, he'll try again on his turn this round.
to hit
damage, bleed, etc,
Carson's first spear hits the woman, his second hits the table with a solid Thud.
"Baphomet guide my blade and slay this filthy Dwarf!" The woman cries, the bleeding stops on the woman as some minor wounds close.
Khaz parried the blow, and then roared back ”Angradd!” His axe glowed with golden light as he swung it at her. It was infused with divine energy, which contained the promise of a quick end...should it land.
Firinn ignores the shouting - it's all just noise really, and fires again.
Seeing the table restricting her angles of attack, Lorena scoots around to the other side of the dwarf as he lands a giant blow, then stabs again just to be safe.
Khaz lands a heavy blow on the woman, Firinn's arrow skitters off the table harmlessly, Lorena cannot get a solid angle of attack with her companion in the way.
"Baphoment will Preserve me!" The woman cries as she slides away from Khaz and stabs him again.
The light in Khaz’s axe faded, though as it did his wounds began to close. Her attacks were tearing large chunks out of the table. Khaz knew that he wouldn’t survive too many more blows. It was time to end this. He lunged forward...
Khaz's final blow drops the woman with a large gash down her chest, her glaive clatters to the floor and the room falls to silence.
Carson renews the lights before glancing into the room, trying to figure out why they were down there.
Khaz leaned against the table, putting a hand to his still bleeding wound. "Why is it?" He said, through gritted teeth. "That everyone we meet tries to kill us? The day just started and already I've got nay healing left in me!" Still grumbling, he bent down to examine the body. "Lets see if there are any clues as to who this was?"
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As Khaz leans down, Lorena lays a hand on his shoulder, and positive energy washes over his wounds. Not mentioning the spell at all, Lorena adds, "She was talking about...Baphomet, I think it was? Demon lord...I think I had a run-in with cultists of his before. Of course, they thought I was one of them." She shakes her head in annoyance.
Khaz immediately stood up straight, a smile on his face. "And obviously they were wrong about ye, ye've proven that several times over. That feels *much* better. Thank ye, lass."
Firinn goes one step further than Carson, carrying out a thorough search of this, Horgus's underground lair.
"What were these people doing down here?" He wonders aloud - "And does Horgus know about this..."
The tiefling shrugs as she turns away and looks around, examining the contents of the nearby table.
Firinn finds a case that is tucked away under the table the woman was standing by. The case is locked at present, the room contains some supplies, there is a book on the table that is a ledge for Horgus' holdings in the city and else where around the country side.
”This really is odd. These weren’t just looters, these were cultists. And it strikes me that they were here for a reason. Can we get that case open? I’d like to know what their purpose was before we report back to Horgus. I’ve also got a feeling that he won’t be receptive to any of our questions.”
"We could try and break it open..." Firinn offers. "I'm not much of one for lockpicking, but this might be the time for me to practise."
what are you doing now?
”Right, to the surface. Let’s see if our lass with the hurt leg can open this. And...let’s tell Horgus the good news. I expect an argument though when he sees this case. But we need to know what’s in it; if cultists are after it.”
The Group heads back upstairs, Horgus and Aniva await a report on what happened.
A blood covered Khaz emerged first, with axe in one hand and suitcase in the other.
”Cultists down there! Devotees to the demon god of Minotaurs no less. It seemed like they were looking for this when we fatally interrupted their search. Either of ye can get this open, see what they were going for?”
”Lord Horgus!” Drazh said with a smile. ”Your home is safe. Have you a way to open this. For safety concerns I’d like to make sure there is nothing in here that would attract more cultists to your land.”
"Well, some of it is safe, at least. I don't think we've looked over the entire basement yet." Lorena gently corrects Khaz. "Although we didn't hear anyone or anything else, so hopefully the cultists were it."
Carson remains on guard as they disengage from the basement, keeping the lights on as well.
Horgus pratically beams at the title Khaz gives him, behind him Anvia looks as if she is going to be sick.
"The case I have never seen before, maybe this petty thie.... young lady here can use her special skills to open it for you. You said there were cultists in my basement? Did you see any of my house attendants? Up here it looks as if someone has made off with many of my valuables."
Aniva sets her stuff down and eases herself into a chair, "Set the case here and I can try to open it for you."
Aniva opens the case, inside is a longsword, the blade looks to be made out of gold.
The sword is made of Cold Iron just magically infused to look like it is made of gold
This is a Cold Iron Long Sword +1
Nice sword," Aniva says "Irabeth would like it." Aniva pulls out a note and reads it out loud, her face falls as she finishes
”Thank ye, Aniva. Well done.” Khaz said. He gently reache down to pull the longsword out of it’s resting case. ”A beautiful sword, to be sure. It’s nay a hammer or axe, but it’s a mighty fine weapon none-the-less. Lord Horgus, can ye tell us anything about this blade or...” He stopped as Aniva read the letter, frozen in the act of handing the blade to the nobleman.
Firinn's face darkens and one hand climbs up his arm to scratch underneath the feathers of his other arm.
"Not good. We'll need to get to Irabeth and any other knights quickly to tell them about this. The cultists of the Dark Gods can corrupt almost anyone." His face twists for a moment. "We need to warn people, and quickly."
Lorena replies to Horgus, "No, we didn't see anyone other than the cultists. We could go back down and check again, though. They might have been hiding somewhere."
Then, as Aniva reads out the note: "Well...that doesn't sound good. Do any of you know who wrote this?"
"S.V. would more than likely be Staunton Vhane, he was once the commander of a Mercenary group but then turned against the Crusade, he even sold out Drezen." Aniva says
”Staunton Vhane? Name sounds familiar.”
Khaz turned his attention back to the golden sword. He held it up to the light to see the sun glint off of the gold. The dwarf in him appreciated the worksmanship, and the gold that made it. The paladin in him appreciated how well balanced it felt. He turned to Horgus.
”Lord Horgus, it would appear to be fate that led ye to join us. If ye didn’t fall into that hole, we wouldn’t have made it here in time to stop these cultists. I don’t know why they want this blade, but I am glad that we stopped them. Now how did ye come by this blade?And who else knows of it? These cultists attacked your manor in search of it. When they realize that their effort failed, I wouldn’t be surprised if they came back to get it.”
"I have a safe room, I will be safe in there."
Horgus leads you down the basement, he hurries a head of you and opens a door that you didn't even know was there before .
Inside you see some food stuffs and what looks like his vault, Horgus gets a bag and puts some coins in it handing it to you.
"Now if you don't mind I wish to sleep in safety, you can stay upstairs if you wish and please clear out the bodies and their gear from my Manor."
What are you doing now>?
"The blade is not mine, I have never seen the blade or that box before, take it if you want, could be cursed." As Khaz carries the weapon around it slowly changes to a heavy mace.
As Horgus spoke, the sword shifted and changed. Eyes wide, Khaz stared at the weapon as the gold flowed like living liquid. Within moments the sword was gone, replaced by a beautiful golden mace. The mace itself was shaped like a falcon, it’s wings curled. At it’s feet was an immaculate bejeweled ring, which marked the end of the mace’s head and the beginning of the shaft. The shaft was covered in dwarven runes. Breathlessly he read them, noting that they were all prayers. Prayers of the importance of hearth, home, love and family.
This was a sign from the gods if he had ever seen one. After a long pause, Khaz finally said:
”Fate. That is what this is. I...resented...how the priestesses of Bolka said that my birth had special meaning. I was always afraid of failure, of not living up to their expectations. But by all accounts, the fall today should have killed us. If we all did not survive that fall, then we would not have had the strength to make it to the surface. If we did not stay together, we would not have survived the battle at the library. And ye, Horgus. If not for ye and your instance that we come here immediately, then we would have arrived too late to stop the cultists from finding this weapon. This weapon, which is a sign from the gods. The falcon is Bolka’s sacred animal. The ring is he symbol. And these prayers tell us what we fight for. Our families, our loved ones, our home. All that has happened is fate.”
He looked around at everyone. ”Firinn is right. We need to get to Irabeth. We are on the right path, I can feel it. But I don’t know where to go from here. I pray that she does.”