Hastos wanders over to the pulpit and discovers a set of books.
”Helllllooooo.” He says slyly. He starts to reach for the books, then waves his hand over them in a side to side motion. (Detect Magic).
He looks up when Ororana suggests he try on the pendant. “Maybe we should hold off on trying anything on until we know what this stuff is.”
Ororona continues moving towards you. "Oh ho, ho, I think I know what this does. It's kind of similar to what my axe does, but way stronger. I can feel myself getting more vibrant when I wear it." But she respects your decision not to try it on, shrugs, and then slips it back around her own neck, then stretches her limbs and bounces up and down on the balls of her feet, testing out her improved constitution. "Takin' this baby with me..." she mutters to herself. She turns back as she hears weird giggling coming from the hallway on the other side of the previous chamber. "What the hell was that?!" The childlike giggling has a malicious undertone to it, and her arms are covered in goosebumps from the eerieness of it.
Sera:
The first Goon Balloon deflates instantly, letting out a sickly spray of foul-smelling gas from an orifice on its underside. The second Goon Balloon barely has time to giggle before it too, is struck and emits its own deathly fog.
Larskolstad Sera has the Poisoned Condition for 1 minute. You may attempt the save again on your turn.
Round 1:
Goon Balloon Green turns all its eyes on you at once and squeals like a happy toddler. Then kaleidoscopic light shoots from its foremost eye dazzling you with colors and shapes.
Larskolstad please roll a WIS save DC 12. 2 Psychic Damage on fail. 1 Psychic Damage on success.
As if playing a silly game, the creature toddles away from you on its little chicken legs, giggling wildly. Then it calls out in a deep, burbling tone as it turns a sharp left into a dark chamber, kicking the door shut behind it. The door rebounds off the door jam so hard that it doesn't fully shut and creaks open just a crack...
The first orb deflates with a wet POP, releasing a cloud of thick, foul-smelling gas. Sera staggered back, eyes watering instantly. The second deflated almost in sync, the stench doubling. It hit her like a physical blow—rot, bile, and something worse.
She gagged, nearly dropped to one knee, and clenched her jaw tight to stop herself from vomiting.
"By Paladine’s shining codpiece..." she wheezed, blinking through tears. Her stomach lurched, her ribs throbbed, and she wanted nothing more than to scrape her tongue clean with her dagger.
But the third one wasn’t waiting. It deloverd a bad headache ray. Adding to her misery. ( make the save get 1 psycic dam). It then panicked? . It made a giggling noise and turned toward a doir.
SLAM!
It slam the doir shut so hard it bounced partky open again.
Sera didn’t even stop to breathe.
"Not… getting away, you stinky puffball," she growled, sprinting after it, still swallowing back bile. Her boots hit the stones hard. She slammed through the doorframe just as the creature tried to regain its balance.
She struck.
( ac 17 with disadvantage. 4 piercing dam)
The dagger punched forward with a savage thrust—straight into the eye of the last orb.
SPLUTCH.
She waits for the explosion.
“…I am going to need a very long bath,” she croaked, . No… several baths. With soap. Holy soap."
She was aware of herself—slimed, gashed, bruised, and absolutely reeking.
“…Paladine, give me strength. And a laundry service.”
Hastos surveys the room as he holds his hand out. “There’s a lot of magic objects in here. Where did all this come fro- ?”
Hastos stops mid word, his face grows serious. He pulls his hand back close to his chest. He looks intensely at Merkas as he gesture discreetly to something above and behind him. “Hey Merkas, you think you could do that dazzle thing? It’s a blindly good trick.”
She turns back as she hears weird giggling coming from the hallway on the other side of the previous chamber. "What the hell was that?!" The childlike giggling has a malicious undertone to it, and her arms are covered in goosebumps from the eeriness of it.
”Helllllooooo.” He says slyly. He starts to reach for the books, then waves his hand over them in a side to side motion. (Detect Magic).
He looks up when Ororana suggests he try on the pendant. “Maybe we should hold off on trying anything on until we know what this stuff is.”
Humming to himself as he wanders around the room digging through different piles. Now and then an open sentence is heard "Hmm nice ring, Like the brain motif..." he slides a ring on his finger completely missing Hastos' warning, "Oh hey a bag this is great, this can go in there and this..." Merkas produces multiple items from his person, despite having left his backpack at the Dancing Dwarf, and drops them casually in the bag as well as few that are lying around in the room before moving over to the pulpit next to Hastos.
Ororana's question has Merkas say distractedly "Maybe it's Sera and the Magus, y'know they could be having a lot of fun and we're missing it all. Haven't heard Sera laugh much, kinda figured it would be more womanly, with a strong undertone not like my uncle when he was teasing us cousins...Ooh! A yellow sapphire, I don't have one of them yet" And the kender is distracted again until Hastos asks where the items came from.
Hastos surveys the room as he holds his hand out. “There’s a lot of magic objects in here. Where did all this come fro- ?”
Hastos stops mid word, his face grows serious. He pulls his hand back close to his chest. He looks intensely at Merkas as he gesture discreetly to something above and behind him. “Hey Merkas, you think you could do that dazzle thing? It’s a blindly good trick.”
"Oh they are probably offerings made to their god guy, what's his name, Saggyass? Y'know it's a cult..." Merkas speaks in a deep ominous voice "'Give up all your earthly treasure to be truly accepted into the crevasse of destiny, Only the high priest can resist the temptations of wealth so it is best that he has it all'" Giggling to himself he starts looking through the library on the pulpit. When Hastos' is distracted Merkas drops one of the books in his new bag. After it drops in he looks into the bag confused. "Y'know I put a lot of stuff in here and it doesn't seem any heavier...."
The tone of Hastos' voice arrests the kenders merry collecting, Silver necklace in hand, the pause has him notice a presence in the room that he had been ambivalent to until the elf mention attacking it "I could Haz, but so far it ain't harming us so I guess we leave it be? We're just some cult guys doing some spring cleaning, right?"
You feel an extra blessing as you chase down the Goon Balloon. A bit of luck on your side...
Larskolstad you gain Heroic Inspiration in service to your god.
When you charge in through the room, you discover it is a pitch black corridor about 15 feet long, that opens up into a torchlit chamber. The first thing you feel is a twinge on your ankle, then a sharp bite in your neck! Your hand plucks free a dart sticking out of it. As if you didn't feel woozy enough.
You take 6 damage (poison).
Your next step isn't much luckier... you hit another tripwire, getting nailed by another dart to the shoulder. The poison spreads fast, causing your arm to tingle, and sickness to boil in your stomach. The taunting giggling from the chamber beyond echoes in your ears.
You take 5 damage (poison)
But at least the traps are predictable... drunk and dizzy from the venom coursing through your veins, you surge towards the Goon Balloon and stab. Though your vision is blurry you can make out what appears to be some kind of main chamber: a holy room adorned with torchlight, tapestries, gold and silver relics, a small army of cult members, and a chortling and babbling Goon Balloon that's bobbing up and down in the air. It lets out a horrifying low burbling sound as you strike it, and it rebounds off the strike, floating back a foot, and spinning end over end in the air.
Goon Balloon takes 8 damage (piercing) Goon Balloon is Bloodied.
"They're here!" The cultists appear to be carrying sacks hastily stuffed with evidence of their appearance. But their startled voice soon turns silent as the cult member at the end of the chamber raises her hand. "One?! You couldn't slay one single meddler? Where was this army of powerful infidels you spoke of?!"
The obviously leader seems quite upset at Cult Fanatic Blue, who shrinks visibly under her scolding. She turns her head back towards you. "Capture and bind her. When we reopen the labyrinth, she'll make a fine sacrifice. AND PUT OUR THINGS DOWN!"
Uniformely, the cult members drop their sacks and approach you with measured steps... obviously uncertain about the power of a single adventurer who could fight through hordes of zombies relatively unscathed.
The Goon Balloon Floats away, clearly heavily damaged by your knife, flashes another wild eruption of colors and shapes at you, but you're prepared this time, and shield your eyes from the annoyance. But it's tactics seem to be diversionary in nature, as it floats up to the ceiling to get out of range of your vicious stabs.
Goon Balloon is 10 feet above you and 5 feet in front of you. I've moved it to the side, to allow for other characters to occupy the space. Larskolstad, Sera is up, then chaos is unleashed. To simplify things, the pillars in the room emit a holy aura, that grants the bearers of the mark of Sargonnas +2 to AC if they are standing within 5' of the pillar. The crocodile statues in the room are ancient statues from the previous design, and have not been altered from their original aesthetic. They serve as altars now, that hold torches, candles, and gift offerings to Sargonnas. As with most ancient structures in this region, they have latent magic poisoning. If their magic is tapped into, it can have highly chaotic effects. Feel free to try it, if you're feeling desperate. Any amount of magic directed at one of the statues will do the trick. So, a cantrip is enough. Using a high level attack spell to destroy may destroy it, but could cause a magical backlash of unpredictable proportions. The mouth of the crocodile behind the Cult Leader is a tunnel.
Because images aren't loading correctly, I'm adding a link to the map, so you can see what's going on.
Hastos looks at Merkas incredulously. Then takes a deep breath. He hasn’t lived this long by letting other thing strike first, but he opts to listen to the kinder, although not before narrowing his eyes at Merkas, displaying his disapproval at the course of action. “Fine.” He says hesitantly.
He grabs the book with the cultists names in them and slips it into his pack, doing his best to hide the action from the entity above him.
“Speaking of Sera, can you get in contact with her? Make sure they’re ok?”
“Oh, good point if we can hear her giggling then she’s close enough to get a message to her” Merkas moves over to the door of the room where the giggling was coming from and points towards the general direction Sera would be based on the slamming door and giggling sounds. Trying to gauge the distance so he’s not to far away (move up the hall past Ororana to get within 120’) “We might as well leave this all here for now,”He says placing the necklace in the bag he found “Can always come back later for it”He scoops a few more coins from a pile as he heads back west. “Not like it’s going anywhere, most of these things normally can’t walk on their own”
(Cast Message) “Hey Sera we found a room with a bunch of stuff in it, but not our runner, you happen to find them yet? I think you can think an answer to me so noone can hear you if you are being stealthy and stuff, or just shout, we heard you laughing and the door slam so we’re pretty close to you now”
He then moves a little further to peer around the next corner carefully, trying to see the door that was so loudly closed and opened again
Sera yanked the poison darts from her side with a hiss, staggering as the venom pulsed through her veins. Her body ached from the traps, the stink cloud still clinging to her armor, and the sting of whatever that gibbering balloon-thing had hit her with earlier.
"Shit eating abyssal goat****ers..…" she muttered, chest heaving.
She pressed on, refusing to fall now. But when she stumbled through the next door—she froze.
An entire chamber full of robed cultists turned toward her, their crimson symbols of Sargonnas glowing faintly in the torchlight. At the center stood their high priest, staff raised, voice cold and triumphant:
“..caoture her.....she make a great sacrifice...”
Her heart pounded. Alone. Injured. Outnumbered.
Then—Merkas’ voice rang in her mind.
“We found bunch of stuff.. but not our runner...”
Sera didn’t answer with words. She sent back a mental image: her vision filled with red-robed fanatics bearing down on her, blades drawn, a bossy cultist leader surrounded by apprentices and hovering gibbering orb full of eyes twitching in the air above them.
Then she stepped back into the corridor, using the narrow walls as a chokepoint, and yanked her holy symbol from her belt.
“Paladine,” she whispered, “cleanse this poison from your battered servant…”
( cast cure lightvwounds reagains 11 hp)
A golden glow bloomed through her ribs, and the pain dulled. Her strength returned.
( con save 12. Poisioned condition removed)
She glanced down at the gibbering balloon-thing still hovering, and without hesitation, flung her dagger—it spun and sank into its side with a wet thunk.
( use channel divinity to get extra attack. As bonus action. hits ac 10. Give 5 piercing dam)
As more cultists approached her she drew the hilt of her sunblade—but did not ignite it. Not yet.
"Okay," she muttered grimly.
"Let's dance. But next time—maybe get real guards. Not balloons you.must admit they are just annoying...""
Her back was to the wall. Her jaw was set. She was ready.
The Goon Balloon's tittering ends with its eyes widening in surprise as the dagger pierces its gas pocket! A low, burbling tone escapes its oriface as it deflates and slowly sinks to the ground, wafting back and forth as it does like a feather in a gentle breeze... if that breeze smelled like the rotten insides of a dead cow. When it lands on the tile in front of you, the tile sinks a half-inch and a thick wooden pole swings out from the wall, wafting the stick towards you as it rebounds off the wall's face. The trap, which is designed to attack the square the Goon Balloon was hovering over, misses you completely, and the wooden pole vibrates from the force of the impact with the stone. The cultists look visibly disappointed that you didn't fall for their best trap.
Due to the fact that it's just you right now, I'm not going to bother to roll initiative for all those cult members. I'll roll if another party member joins the fight, because right now, it's just your turn, then my turn.
Cult Leader seems disinterested in dirtying her hands with this battle. Instead, she decides to watch the fun.
Cult Leader Delays Initiative.
Cult Fanatic Pink creeps along the side of the chamber, and pulls out a small bit of parchment with a sigil on it. "Sargonnas protect me." Their body shimmers briefly with barely discernable blue light before it's absorbed into them.
Cult Fanatic Pink moves, then casts Shield of Faith.
"Do not underestimate her!" Cult Fanatic Blue calls out ominously, trying to regain some of his credibility. "She's stronger than you think, and I believe she is not alone. Lord of Wastes, protect your servant!" He calls out as a scrap of paper is crushed in his hand, and he points to Cultist Teal. Cultist Teal starts to shimmer with a similar aura.
Cult Fanatic Blue casts Shield of Faith on Cultist Teal.
Emboldened by the AC enhancement, Cultist Teal charges up to Sera, seemingly unbothered by the poisonous gas, and strikes hard with their sickle, which scrapes your shield angrily... like nails on a chalkboard!
Cultists Green and Red take up posts at the edge of the entrance, ready to charge in if Cultist Teal falls.
Cultist Black scoffs. "Cowards," they remark as they charge into the bottleneck.
Cultist Black moves and Readies Action.
The two cult members standing next to the cult leader appear to be wearing masks similar to the first cultist you ever fought in Santekh. They appear to be crackling with magical energy as they approach the northernmost pillars and hold their hands high.
Masked Cultist Gray and Black move and ready spells.
Team HOM:
Ororona continues moving towards you. "Oh ho, ho, I think I know what this does. It's kind of similar to what my axe does, but way stronger. I can feel myself getting more vibrant when I wear it." But she respects your decision not to try it on, shrugs, and then slips it back around her own neck, then stretches her limbs and bounces up and down on the balls of her feet, testing out her improved constitution. "Takin' this baby with me..." she mutters to herself. She turns back as she hears weird giggling coming from the hallway on the other side of the previous chamber. "What the hell was that?!" The childlike giggling has a malicious undertone to it, and her arms are covered in goosebumps from the eerieness of it.
Sera:
The first Goon Balloon deflates instantly, letting out a sickly spray of foul-smelling gas from an orifice on its underside. The second Goon Balloon barely has time to giggle before it too, is struck and emits its own deathly fog.
Larskolstad Sera has the Poisoned Condition for 1 minute. You may attempt the save again on your turn.
Round 1:
Goon Balloon Green turns all its eyes on you at once and squeals like a happy toddler. Then kaleidoscopic light shoots from its foremost eye dazzling you with colors and shapes.
Larskolstad please roll a WIS save DC 12. 2 Psychic Damage on fail. 1 Psychic Damage on success.
As if playing a silly game, the creature toddles away from you on its little chicken legs, giggling wildly. Then it calls out in a deep, burbling tone as it turns a sharp left into a dark chamber, kicking the door shut behind it. The door rebounds off the door jam so hard that it doesn't fully shut and creaks open just a crack...
You are still in initiative.
My DM Registry
My Campaigns:
Ibahalii Vriwhulth, the Reaper of Glory v2: IC Thread (PbP); Secrets of the Island (On Discord); Lost Mine of Phendelver (tabletop)
My Characters:
Krik-tul, Thri-kreen monk; Mme Cragmaw, Goblin Artificer; River Kuthraeann, Wood Elf Paladin
The first orb deflates with a wet POP, releasing a cloud of thick, foul-smelling gas. Sera staggered back, eyes watering instantly. The second deflated almost in sync, the stench doubling. It hit her like a physical blow—rot, bile, and something worse.
She gagged, nearly dropped to one knee, and clenched her jaw tight to stop herself from vomiting.
"By Paladine’s shining codpiece..." she wheezed, blinking through tears. Her stomach lurched, her ribs throbbed, and she wanted nothing more than to scrape her tongue clean with her dagger.
But the third one wasn’t waiting. It deloverd a bad headache ray. Adding to her misery. ( make the save get 1 psycic dam). It then panicked? . It made a giggling noise and turned toward a doir.
SLAM!
It slam the doir shut so hard it bounced partky open again.
Sera didn’t even stop to breathe.
"Not… getting away, you stinky puffball," she growled, sprinting after it, still swallowing back bile. Her boots hit the stones hard. She slammed through the doorframe just as the creature tried to regain its balance.
She struck.
( ac 17 with disadvantage. 4 piercing dam)
The dagger punched forward with a savage thrust—straight into the eye of the last orb.
SPLUTCH.
She waits for the explosion.
“…I am going to need a very long bath,” she croaked, . No… several baths. With soap. Holy soap."
She was aware of herself—slimed, gashed, bruised, and absolutely reeking.
“…Paladine, give me strength. And a laundry service.”
Hastos surveys the room as he holds his hand out. “There’s a lot of magic objects in here. Where did all this come fro- ?”
Hastos stops mid word, his face grows serious. He pulls his hand back close to his chest. He looks intensely at Merkas as he gesture discreetly to something above and behind him. “Hey Merkas, you think you could do that dazzle thing? It’s a blindly good trick.”
Character: Hastos, Ibahalii Vriwhulth, the Reaper of Glory v2: IC Thread
Humming to himself as he wanders around the room digging through different piles. Now and then an open sentence is heard "Hmm nice ring, Like the brain motif..." he slides a ring on his finger completely missing Hastos' warning, "Oh hey a bag this is great, this can go in there and this..." Merkas produces multiple items from his person, despite having left his backpack at the Dancing Dwarf, and drops them casually in the bag as well as few that are lying around in the room before moving over to the pulpit next to Hastos.
Ororana's question has Merkas say distractedly "Maybe it's Sera and the Magus, y'know they could be having a lot of fun and we're missing it all. Haven't heard Sera laugh much, kinda figured it would be more womanly, with a strong undertone not like my uncle when he was teasing us cousins...Ooh! A yellow sapphire, I don't have one of them yet" And the kender is distracted again until Hastos asks where the items came from.
"Oh they are probably offerings made to their god guy, what's his name, Saggyass? Y'know it's a cult..." Merkas speaks in a deep ominous voice "'Give up all your earthly treasure to be truly accepted into the crevasse of destiny, Only the high priest can resist the temptations of wealth so it is best that he has it all'" Giggling to himself he starts looking through the library on the pulpit. When Hastos' is distracted Merkas drops one of the books in his new bag. After it drops in he looks into the bag confused. "Y'know I put a lot of stuff in here and it doesn't seem any heavier...."
The tone of Hastos' voice arrests the kenders merry collecting, Silver necklace in hand, the pause has him notice a presence in the room that he had been ambivalent to until the elf mention attacking it "I could Haz, but so far it ain't harming us so I guess we leave it be? We're just some cult guys doing some spring cleaning, right?"
Loyalty Begets Honour
Sera:
You feel an extra blessing as you chase down the Goon Balloon. A bit of luck on your side...
Larskolstad you gain Heroic Inspiration in service to your god.
When you charge in through the room, you discover it is a pitch black corridor about 15 feet long, that opens up into a torchlit chamber. The first thing you feel is a twinge on your ankle, then a sharp bite in your neck! Your hand plucks free a dart sticking out of it. As if you didn't feel woozy enough.
You take 6 damage (poison).
Your next step isn't much luckier... you hit another tripwire, getting nailed by another dart to the shoulder. The poison spreads fast, causing your arm to tingle, and sickness to boil in your stomach. The taunting giggling from the chamber beyond echoes in your ears.
You take 5 damage (poison)
But at least the traps are predictable... drunk and dizzy from the venom coursing through your veins, you surge towards the Goon Balloon and stab. Though your vision is blurry you can make out what appears to be some kind of main chamber: a holy room adorned with torchlight, tapestries, gold and silver relics, a small army of cult members, and a chortling and babbling Goon Balloon that's bobbing up and down in the air. It lets out a horrifying low burbling sound as you strike it, and it rebounds off the strike, floating back a foot, and spinning end over end in the air.
Goon Balloon takes 8 damage (piercing)
Goon Balloon is Bloodied.
"They're here!" The cultists appear to be carrying sacks hastily stuffed with evidence of their appearance. But their startled voice soon turns silent as the cult member at the end of the chamber raises her hand. "One?! You couldn't slay one single meddler? Where was this army of powerful infidels you spoke of?!"
The obviously leader seems quite upset at Cult Fanatic Blue, who shrinks visibly under her scolding. She turns her head back towards you. "Capture and bind her. When we reopen the labyrinth, she'll make a fine sacrifice. AND PUT OUR THINGS DOWN!"
Uniformely, the cult members drop their sacks and approach you with measured steps... obviously uncertain about the power of a single adventurer who could fight through hordes of zombies relatively unscathed.
The Goon Balloon Floats away, clearly heavily damaged by your knife, flashes another wild eruption of colors and shapes at you, but you're prepared this time, and shield your eyes from the annoyance. But it's tactics seem to be diversionary in nature, as it floats up to the ceiling to get out of range of your vicious stabs.
Goon Balloon is 10 feet above you and 5 feet in front of you. I've moved it to the side, to allow for other characters to occupy the space.
Larskolstad, Sera is up, then chaos is unleashed.
To simplify things, the pillars in the room emit a holy aura, that grants the bearers of the mark of Sargonnas +2 to AC if they are standing within 5' of the pillar. The crocodile statues in the room are ancient statues from the previous design, and have not been altered from their original aesthetic. They serve as altars now, that hold torches, candles, and gift offerings to Sargonnas. As with most ancient structures in this region, they have latent magic poisoning. If their magic is tapped into, it can have highly chaotic effects. Feel free to try it, if you're feeling desperate. Any amount of magic directed at one of the statues will do the trick. So, a cantrip is enough. Using a high level attack spell to destroy may destroy it, but could cause a magical backlash of unpredictable proportions. The mouth of the crocodile behind the Cult Leader is a tunnel.
Because images aren't loading correctly, I'm adding a link to the map, so you can see what's going on.
Map image... just in case...
My DM Registry
My Campaigns:
Ibahalii Vriwhulth, the Reaper of Glory v2: IC Thread (PbP); Secrets of the Island (On Discord); Lost Mine of Phendelver (tabletop)
My Characters:
Krik-tul, Thri-kreen monk; Mme Cragmaw, Goblin Artificer; River Kuthraeann, Wood Elf Paladin
Hastos looks at Merkas incredulously. Then takes a deep breath. He hasn’t lived this long by letting other thing strike first, but he opts to listen to the kinder, although not before narrowing his eyes at Merkas, displaying his disapproval at the course of action.
“Fine.” He says hesitantly.
He grabs the book with the cultists names in them and slips it into his pack, doing his best to hide the action from the entity above him.
“Speaking of Sera, can you get in contact with her? Make sure they’re ok?”
Character: Hastos, Ibahalii Vriwhulth, the Reaper of Glory v2: IC Thread
“Oh, good point if we can hear her giggling then she’s close enough to get a message to her” Merkas moves over to the door of the room where the giggling was coming from and points towards the general direction Sera would be based on the slamming door and giggling sounds. Trying to gauge the distance so he’s not to far away (move up the hall past Ororana to get within 120’) “We might as well leave this all here for now,” He says placing the necklace in the bag he found “Can always come back later for it” He scoops a few more coins from a pile as he heads back west. “Not like it’s going anywhere, most of these things normally can’t walk on their own”
(Cast Message) “Hey Sera we found a room with a bunch of stuff in it, but not our runner, you happen to find them yet? I think you can think an answer to me so noone can hear you if you are being stealthy and stuff, or just shout, we heard you laughing and the door slam so we’re pretty close to you now”
He then moves a little further to peer around the next corner carefully, trying to see the door that was so loudly closed and opened again
Loyalty Begets Honour
Sera yanked the poison darts from her side with a hiss, staggering as the venom pulsed through her veins. Her body ached from the traps, the stink cloud still clinging to her armor, and the sting of whatever that gibbering balloon-thing had hit her with earlier.
"Shit eating abyssal goat****ers..…" she muttered, chest heaving.
She pressed on, refusing to fall now. But when she stumbled through the next door—she froze.
An entire chamber full of robed cultists turned toward her, their crimson symbols of Sargonnas glowing faintly in the torchlight. At the center stood their high priest, staff raised, voice cold and triumphant:
“..caoture her.....she make a great sacrifice...”
Her heart pounded. Alone. Injured. Outnumbered.
Then—Merkas’ voice rang in her mind.
“We found bunch of stuff.. but not our runner...”
Sera didn’t answer with words. She sent back a mental image: her vision filled with red-robed fanatics bearing down on her, blades drawn, a bossy cultist leader surrounded by apprentices and hovering gibbering orb full of eyes twitching in the air above them.
Then she stepped back into the corridor, using the narrow walls as a chokepoint, and yanked her holy symbol from her belt.
“Paladine,” she whispered, “cleanse this poison from your battered servant…”
( cast cure lightvwounds reagains 11 hp)
A golden glow bloomed through her ribs, and the pain dulled. Her strength returned.
( con save 12. Poisioned condition removed)
She glanced down at the gibbering balloon-thing still hovering, and without hesitation, flung her dagger—it spun and sank into its side with a wet thunk.
( use channel divinity to get extra attack. As bonus action. hits ac 10. Give 5 piercing dam)
As more cultists approached her she drew the hilt of her sunblade—but did not ignite it. Not yet.
"Okay," she muttered grimly.
"Let's dance. But next time—maybe get real guards. Not balloons you.must admit they are just annoying...""
Her back was to the wall. Her jaw was set. She was ready.
Team HOM:
Awaiting information before I post...
Sera:
The Goon Balloon's tittering ends with its eyes widening in surprise as the dagger pierces its gas pocket! A low, burbling tone escapes its oriface as it deflates and slowly sinks to the ground, wafting back and forth as it does like a feather in a gentle breeze... if that breeze smelled like the rotten insides of a dead cow. When it lands on the tile in front of you, the tile sinks a half-inch and a thick wooden pole swings out from the wall, wafting the stick towards you as it rebounds off the wall's face. The trap, which is designed to attack the square the Goon Balloon was hovering over, misses you completely, and the wooden pole vibrates from the force of the impact with the stone. The cultists look visibly disappointed that you didn't fall for their best trap.
Due to the fact that it's just you right now, I'm not going to bother to roll initiative for all those cult members. I'll roll if another party member joins the fight, because right now, it's just your turn, then my turn.
Cult Leader seems disinterested in dirtying her hands with this battle. Instead, she decides to watch the fun.
Cult Leader Delays Initiative.
Cult Fanatic Pink creeps along the side of the chamber, and pulls out a small bit of parchment with a sigil on it. "Sargonnas protect me." Their body shimmers briefly with barely discernable blue light before it's absorbed into them.
Cult Fanatic Pink moves, then casts Shield of Faith.
"Do not underestimate her!" Cult Fanatic Blue calls out ominously, trying to regain some of his credibility. "She's stronger than you think, and I believe she is not alone. Lord of Wastes, protect your servant!" He calls out as a scrap of paper is crushed in his hand, and he points to Cultist Teal. Cultist Teal starts to shimmer with a similar aura.
Cult Fanatic Blue casts Shield of Faith on Cultist Teal.
Emboldened by the AC enhancement, Cultist Teal charges up to Sera, seemingly unbothered by the poisonous gas, and strikes hard with their sickle, which scrapes your shield angrily... like nails on a chalkboard!
Cultists Green and Red take up posts at the edge of the entrance, ready to charge in if Cultist Teal falls.
Cultist Black scoffs. "Cowards," they remark as they charge into the bottleneck.
Cultist Black moves and Readies Action.
The two cult members standing next to the cult leader appear to be wearing masks similar to the first cultist you ever fought in Santekh. They appear to be crackling with magical energy as they approach the northernmost pillars and hold their hands high.
Masked Cultist Gray and Black move and ready spells.
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My DM Registry
My Campaigns:
Ibahalii Vriwhulth, the Reaper of Glory v2: IC Thread (PbP); Secrets of the Island (On Discord); Lost Mine of Phendelver (tabletop)
My Characters:
Krik-tul, Thri-kreen monk; Mme Cragmaw, Goblin Artificer; River Kuthraeann, Wood Elf Paladin