Lover's Cult

It's a cold and miserable evening, the sky has let loose with unpleasant rain which falls from the black sky high above in sheets. It's drenched the world below it to the point where there's water in the streets, easy to splash up with the mud that comes along with it. Mud it seems is pervasive even in the parts of Alexandria where it doesn't belong.

You're huddled around one lone guardsman who is wearing a poncho against the rain. He stands there hunched over and looking at you as though he would rather be anywhere else but here. "Alright. Here it is." He motions to the little shop in question. It's tucked in between a few more prestigious establishments so that it looks a bit squashed, but it also has a surprisingly homey feel to it. It's welcoming actually, the tantalizing smell of something freshly baked wafts out of it.

"Demon cult, huh? What is it with people and demons? They're not interesting, sexy, or even all that bright in the stories," says Stena as she takes a sip from her mug of coffee. She seems to be ignoring the rain. It doesn't bother her any.

"Demons are pretty annoying," Nasrin agrees quietly. For her part, the crimson plate-clad Cleric of Kor has found an equally crimson poncho to cover her armor and hide her vibrant red hair. She is standing beside Sena for now, her expression one of deep thought as she studies the guardsman in question. Her eyes slowly shift to the shop and she pauses. "It smells... Nice. Why do evil lairs always smell so good?" Her tone is rueful, perhaps even longing. It's been awhile since lunch.

Toha makes a subtly ringing hiss as the deluge pings against her steel shell, equally ambivalent about the weather. She comments a thoughtful, "They should be destroyed." She props her Earthbreaker against her shoulder and looks to her companions and waits for some consensus on how to proceed.

Rain pours off the sides of Whuridred's basket shaped hat. Her features would be hidden by the soggy brim, if she didn't dwarf everyone else with her tall slender frame. A spidery digit taps against her chin as she examines the 'lair'. Her shoulders rise and fall in a shrug, and she motions with a broad palmed hand for the others to lead the way.

The guard shudders at your talk of demons and with a little bit of irritation motions for you to go into the shop. "It's still /open/." He points out th little sign that says 'closed'. "You can ignore the sign our source says that on this day every week the place is unlocked all night long. How they deal with thieves... Well I don't know, but if you're going the getting is good now." It seems that the faster you move the faster he can get to the nice warm guardstation.

Nasrin is going to nod to the guard and then continue toward the door, her expression a deep, abiding frown. "Maybe someone with more tact should go first. I am slowly learning I shouldnt just run into every situation with an axe raised. That's for if they cause any trouble." The redheaded Dranei woman offers the group a wolfish grin at that and stops beside the door. She'll push it open slowly. "After you." That is for anyone brave enough to go past her.

For her part, Stena seems to be in no hurry, but then Nasrin is opening the door. She's gonna storm right on through to the other side.

Fuck doors.

Toha nods and follows the Aesir in, considering her intriguing kinsman in passing the while, then returns her mind to business. The large hammer slides down her grip to her typical 'walking stick' posture and she step-taps her way on through the door.

Whuridred doesn't volunteer, but her hands flash and curve in elegant twists. To those familiar it is a handspeech common to mercenaries and the deaf. She follows behind the others, a tiny sprite escaping her sleeve to land on Stena's shoulder. She gives a nod of her head, and draws out a coil of netting. <handspeech>

GAME: Whuridred casts Guidance. Caster Level: 2 DC: 13
GAME: Toha rolls perception: (11)+6: 17
GAME: Whuridred rolls perception: (2)+9: 11
GAME: Shagara rolls perception: (15)+10: 25

Shagara was with them all along! She was just quiet.

GAME: Stena rolls Perception: (15)+0: 15

The shop has two immediate exits. One upstairs that looks like it might be the house above the shop, and a... trapdoor that some of you may notice behind the register. There's no sign of the owner of the shop nor anyone else. Those of you with particularly keen senses might even hear... something. Echoing from below. It sounds like a thrum.

GAME: Nasrin rolls Perception: (18)+3: 21

"...Do you hear that?" Nasrin cocks her head slightly to the left as she moves inside after everyone. She lowers the hood of her poncho and water runs off of it to the doorway. Her axe comes down from her back then, and she holds it in both hands. "If there's some kind of dark ritual it's somewhere beneath us..."

Shagara looks down quietly as she rubs her wrists. "I hear it. it's coming from below us."

Toha's hand jerks up sharply and briefly loosens it's grip, letting the hammer haft travel up to a proper grip in a gesture too smooth not to have practiced. She looks between the smaller members of her team, softly advising, "Someone quiet should check upstairs. We don't wanna get flanked once the ruckus starts."

Whuridred couldn't hear the noise, but would have to trust her companions. "I may be able to see what is happening." Grabbing a jar from her satchel, she reaches in and grabs a small moving blob. Placing it up to her face, she stares through its transparent green skin. Slowly the glove she wears seems to melt beneath the blob with a slight hiss. <handspeech>

GAME: Whuridred casts Detect Magic. Caster Level: 2 DC: 13

That finger wiggling gets a weird look from Stena. They might as well be talking about beagles or something for all she knows. She glances towards Toha, then to Nasrin. Shakes her head. She doesn't hear anything.

Shagara also looks at Whuridred with an odd look. Whatevers he's doing, she definitely doesn't understand it. She then looks for the trap door.

Whuridred lets out a long sigh, the sound of air not sounding entirely correct. She shuffles past the others to the counter. Picking up a tin of flour she pours it on the floor. "Look," she signs as she upturns the flour on the counter. She draws a picture of the blob, and a rudimentary image of a person wearing a big mushroom hat. Probably Whuridred. On the other side she draws little stars and swirls. "If you look through the slime, you see magic." She points upstairs and then draws an X. She points down, and then gives a thumbs up. "If there is anyone upstairs, they aren't using magic."

Toha glances at the antics of the other Golem and thinks about things for a moment, then points ceiling ward, cants her head a little bit, then shakes it, then makes a wax-off gesture with her hand. The off acoustics of the sound prompt questions for later, but she shrugs and pulls a small black rock from one of the hardened pouches dangling at her waist, "Think that means no one's up there."

Shagara says, "Possibly. So we go down." She says before looking to Whuridred. "Do you not speak trade?"

"...let's get closer to whatever it is you're hearing," says Stena, firmly, nodding. Whuridred is stared at. She has no idea what all the finger waggling is but seems to have an idea of something underneath the floor. "I can cut things open with my axe if we need to," she offers. Then she has a sip of her coffee before breaking out some muffins.

Whuridred nods and puts the blob away in its jar, and wipes her hand off on a rag on the counter. The jar disappears into the wriggling satchel on her back, and she motions with a hand to the way down. "I can understand it," she replies and then pauses. Instead she gives a thumbs up to indicate she understands what Toha was saying. In the flour she writes the letter A in tradespeak. Then in Khazdul, and then in something that look like a vine, or a leaf. Maybe Sylvan. <handspeech>

After staring at Whuridred for a second Nasrin nods a couple of times and then starts toward the stairs in question. That part she gets. Whuridred even garners a thumbs up and then the redhead in full plate is on her way. Clank, clank, clank.

You pull up the trap door... and head down. It doesn't take long for the rest of you to hear the thrumming. Now that you're climbing down the ladder into what seems to be a cellar it's quite obviously drumming. The sound of it hums through your bones. It gets louder as you find a little door in the room that the ladder brings you to. The door opens as you begin to think of opening it... And there's a man.

He's a little khazad man half-dressed in robes. He grins at you welcomingly, motioning you inside and barely even seeming at all concerned about your odd attire. "Playing an adventurer group are we? Very nice. Come in, come in. The master's servant /just/ arrived. You haven't missed anything yet."

He leads you into a large room filled with people, all dressed in ceremonial robes or... adventurer's gear?... They don't look much like adventurers but more like they're cosplaying them. Wooden swords and wire-thin steel plating. They're all facing expectantly a barely-dressed demon of indeterminable gender.

"Interesting." Shagara says, but mostly keeps quiet. She doesn't think there's a bad end to this. Not at all.

In an artificer lounge, a device explodes. It was marked 'Sarcasm Meter'.

That thwapping sound was Stena very unsubtly slapping her hand against her face.

Toha looks around at the group as they walk into a mask your aide party... or whatever the local term is. The little black rock is turned between her fingers while the earthbreaker returns to walking-stick grip, "Bets there'll be cake?" she asides softly.

"So... You don't look like real fighters," Nasrin observes, speaking very slowly. "I... Have no idea what is going on here. Do you people need help with... Something?"

Whuridred places a long hand on Nasrin's shoulder and gives a shake of her head. While most of her signs are complicated, the finger held up to her lips is universal for most races. Pointing towards the demonic presence, she then motions with two fingers to Nasrin's eyes, and then back to the demon. "Watch that one." <handspeech>

The man hushes you with a whisper and his hands. "The show's about to start!" He weaves his way quickly through the group of people to somewhere in the front. Once there he bows to the demon. "In the name of our master I release you! Defeat these mighty adventure's that we might worship you!"

With that he scrapes his foot over the spell-binding circle and the demon moves forward. The 'adventurer's' rise up and it looks at them each in turn. "Fight for my amusement." It hisses like hot water on coals, and the people... do. Then it slowly turns on you.

"...that's... that's an actual demon," says Stena. "You actually summoned an actual demon?" She points a finger at the demon. "OI! YOU! GUYS! LISTEN! THIS IS STUPID. THAT'S AN ACTUAL DEMON." She gestures at it. "WE ARE HERE TO, YOU KNOW, FIGHT THE DEMON AND WHAT NOT. LIKE ADVENTURERS. BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT WE DO?" Right guys? Her expression asks that last part.

GAME: Stena rolls will: (20)+0: 20 (CRITICAL SUCCESS)
GAME: Nasrin casts Burst of Radiance. Caster Level: 5 DC: 15
GAME: Stena rolls will: (17)+0: 17

Nasrin raises her axe and shoves her way into the mob of would be adventurers with a gauntleted hand. "Make way for Kor! Make way for... Oh, for the sake of all the Goddesses and their illicit love affairs. Fine!" She raises the axe and lets out a bellow that far belies her slight build. The redhead's weapon explodes in a malevolent crimson glow that instantly turns white hot, blinding any hapless foes nearby. Which is a lot of them, really.

The demon seems to realize the gig is up when the spell is cast, huddling back behind the Khazad man. It touches him and his muscles ripple, his biceps flex, he throws off his robe leaving himself only in pants and fexes! He's clearly worked out a few days in his life... or mayhap have been an adventurer himself at some distant point in the past. Meanwhile people are clapping and cheering, sort of blocking your way forward by simply being there. And then there's the blind ones. Milling about and bumping into one another.

GAME: Toha rolls ranged: (1)+5: 6 (EPIC FAIL)
GAME: Toha RAGES!, gaining +2 to melee attack/damage/Will saves and 6 temporary HP

The establishment of hostilities kills any snark and indecision on Toha, who, well, -intended- to ping the thunderstone off the demon's head, but perhaps a gremlin of disquiet makes her falter and the stone BOOMS at her feet. Shaking her head as the ringing starts, she dips into her rage and rushes forward to engage the paltry cultists, wisps of glowing silver mist wafting from her seams and a mote of ruby fire in her eyeslit.

GAME: Toha rolls fortitude: (1)+5: 6 (EPIC FAIL)
GAME: Shagara rolls Melee: (20)+7: 27 (THREAT)
GAME: Shagara rolls melee: (17)+7: 24

Shagara just groans as the demon starts to turn the 'adventurers' on the real ones. "Hiding behind them is only delaying the inevitable." Shagara then stomps her way forward, then skips a step and drives her heel into the face of one of the ones defending the demon. His nose CAVES in and he drops to the floor screaming in pain for a scant few seconds before he passes out. "We're not play-acting here."

GAME: Stena rolls 1d20+6: (3)+6: 9
GAME: Whuridred rolls ranged +2: (11)+4+2: 17
GAME: Whuridred rolls strength +2: (11)+3+2: 16
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+4: (5)+4: 9

Stena pauses for a moment, then nods in agreement. "Yes, of course," she says, "I understand now! For your honor, I will do the thing!" And then she turns and tries to tackle Nasrin.

Clearly, she is not feeling herself.

GAME: Nasrin casts Hold Person. Caster Level: 5 DC: 15
GAME: Stena rolls Will: (19)+0: 19

Nasrin squints at Stena for a second, confused. The nshe shakes her head and sighs. She raises her axe and places a hand against the flat, thwapping the Aesiran on the forehead. "Sleep it off!" She calls out. Nothing happens. She glares at her axe and shakes it. "I said... Sleep it off. Oh, damn it. This is why I just hit things..."

Whuridred brings a doily to a sword fight. She rotates in her hands, her fingers kneading the fibers of the net. With a sling she launches the net, its coiling embrace hugging dwarven muscles. Big muscley dorf. In fishnets. Uhn-tiss, uhn-tiss.

GAME: Aftershock rolls 2d6+2: (8)+2: 10
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+6: (2)+6: 8

The demon slices away at the net with it's clawed hands, severing the cloth with ease which releases the Khazad. He immediately throws himself at Whuridred, but stumbles on the rope she threw and only just manages to close the distance between them.

Around you people aren't clapping anymore, they're getting out of the way. Someone in the back yells. "Cheese it! It's real adventurers!" And people start to /run/ toward the exit.

GAME: Toha rolls melee: (10)+8: 18
GAME: Toha rolls 2d6+6: (8)+6: 14
GAME: Toha rolls melee: (16)+8: 24
GAME: Toha rolls 2d6+6: (5)+6: 11

Still engulfed in her 'Whitefire', Toha lashes out with a savage blow into the pelvis of the man she's facing as he tries to run. Things happen. Bad things. Then, before he's even begun to collapse to the floor, she rushes the demon and puts the hammer right into his ribs.

GAME: Shagara rolls melee: (2)+7: 9

Shagara turns as the rest of the group flee...now that they realize the danger is real. She shakes her head before looking to the and strides with a purpose towards her. Shagara's eyes begin to glow blue and crosses her hands in front of her....opening her fingers to show that her fingers seem to have glowing claws on them. She scratches out with her left hand, only to have Toha hit the demon the moment before, having Shagara miss.

GAME: Stena rolls 1d20+6: (9)+6: 15

...and that's when Nasrin gets Stena sailing at her again. "Ha! You think you can stop me? I can't even stop me!"

That... actually kinda makes a degree of sense with what's happening right now.

-TBC