Dakath returns, telling you all that he found a room upstairs, apparently unoccupied, with a bunch of beds, almost as if by request. The staircase also continues on upward.
Dakath comes down the stairs quietly "It appears your prayers have been answered...." Then spying Rhune and Asif "What happened here ?"
Rhune lies in a crumpled heap near Asif, face still puffy, lightly tanned skin looking very pallid at the moment as beads of sweat start to form on her forehead.
Arkady looks up at Dak with excitement. "Excellent! We must move them as quickly as possible that they might be comfortable. Arkady helps with the gear that needs to be carried up to the room.
Tolik looks around the group where only he and Ratlin are uninjured. "I guess we should move them up? It'll be safer up there, and we are in no condition to any more poking around today."
As a second thought, he adds, "If we take a break for today, we'll get some healing done and all our spells back, barring any more intrusions."
Ullar adds, "Pietro, do you think we can move their bodies to that room? I bet it will be much better for treating them, compared to staying here on the cold floor."
Pietro thinks for a minute, before answering Ullar. "Good idea, it is not really wise to move them, but keeping them warm is another really important thing. Please take them upstairs. I will try to clean things up around here. I'll move the spider bodies with my quarterstaff, and try to conceal our tracks a bit. Hopefully those goblins are not too smart and won't see that the dust is gone in a lot of places. After that I think it is wise for everybody to go upstairs." Pietro looks quite happy now, able to do something useful. There is potential in the young elf, and he is adapting to the situation at hand pretty fast.
When Pietro agrees, Ullar carries Asif upstairs, putting him in a bed.
Forte follows right behind Ullar, carrying the limp elf in his large arms.
When Forte picks up Rhune, he feels her getting hot as the beads of sweat start to make her silver hair slick and sticky.
Tolik looks at the spider bodies, then at the ashen bodies of his fallen companions, and he gets an idea. "Wait Pietro. What if, instead of just hiding these, we put them on the doors going up? That would buy us some time if the goblins show up. Who knows, maybe we'll get lucky. And if we just put it on the outside of the door and close it behind us, we probably won't have to deal with it, but anyone coming up will."
He feels rather proud of his scheme, but reluctant to move two poisonous corpses without some confirmation from the others.
No one says yeah or nay for the moment, so the bodies are left within the library. As the poison victims get settled into their beds, Pietro does his best to clean up the mess from the combat in both library and the bottom floor of the tower, but he can't clean up the terrible mess from the slain wolf. He does a better job in the library, but it is debatable how important that is, as any traffic almost certainly would come through the central chamber first.
After Pietro goes upstairs as well with all the others, he makes sure both of the poisoned are in bed under blankets. "Ok, I will tell you what is going to happen now. You will probably get a fever, I will try to keep you cool by applying water to your skin in three spots. Your head, and both your wrists. Once the fever will drop, we are going to make sure that you will start to sweat a lot to get rid of a lot of bad things in your body. Understand?" Pietro does not really wait for an answer, but starts to cool them down with water and pieces of cloth.
Asif stirs briefly for the first time since he was bitten. Through feverish lips he whispers: "One is ready to face this test, efendi........If die I must..... pray that you save the life of Rhune, please promise me that!" Asif's hand grasps desperately at Pietro shirt before it collapses once again lifeless upon the blankets.
Pietro gets Asif's hands, looking him deep into his eyes. "I will pray for the both of you. I cannot promise you anything, those are the choices of the gods. I will do everything in my power to prevent you two from dying, you have got my promise on that. Try this exercise, it might help a bit. Think of the love of your life, I guess that is not hard to do. After that, if another thought enters your head, think of your love again. Go through this routine all the time, concentrating on your love only. Try to ban all other thoughts from your head. In the end it will make you feel more relaxed, so you will be up and going before you know it. Lastly, think of this, how much would you like to get better to protect, marry and love her. Willpower is everything." After that Pietro puts Asif's hands back on his chest again.
With the last of his fading strength Asif squeezes the hand of Pietro as if to reply that all was understood, then falling back into the healing state of sleep.
"Dakath, can you check out where the staircase leading up ends up? I'd like to avoid being surprised by an attack from above." Ullar requests.
Dakath nods "But of course, I'll be back in a moment." He waits a moment before stripping off his armor and placing it on one of the beds. He rubs his hands together before drawing out his poisoned dagger and ascending the stairs, looking out for traps and hoping he doesn't bump into the Goblin Chieftain.
Dakath sees the staircase end in front of a door, though he is sure from his estimation outside that this is not the top of the tower. Listening at the door, Dakath hears nothing, but the door is very heavy. Checking for traps, he finds none, and the door is not locked.
Taking the chance, he opens the door and peers inside. As the door opens, he hears voices--one threatening, the other strangely familiar. But the room is completely empty, and the voices are coming out of thin air! Instantly, the conversation ceases, the door on the opposite side of the room opens, and a yellow-robed figure appears in the doorway as if from nowhere. Without pausing, it flees up the stairs beyond, slamming the door. "Look out!" cries the familiar voice, as a menacing bellow fills the air.
Not being one to risk too much danger, Dakath rushes downstairs to get some help. He hears loud steps clacking behind him, and a repeat of the noise from before.
Examining the room after Asif and Rhune have been placed on a bed, Ullar speaks up: "Ok, let's check out this room for anything useful. If nothing special is on top of us, I'd like to take some measures to defend this room."
There are eight beds in the room, six once the comatose members are seated. Other than the beds, there is a small locker at the foot of the largest and most comfortable bed (where Rhune rests right now). It is unlocked, and within it are a suit of leather armor, a long sword, and a short bow along with a quiver of arrows.
Ullar walks over to the locker in the room. He retrieves the armor and the weapons.
"Forte, is this anything fancy?" he asks, while showing Forte the leather armor "..and does anyone want a longsword or a shortbow with arrows? I can use them but I rather give them to someone trained in those weapons."
"Well, leather armor is not my specialty, but I'll take a look," Forte says as he reaches for the armor. He studies it carefully for a few minutes, looking for ripped seams, cracked leather, and any other signs of damage or poor workmanship.
The leather is nothing special, well-taken care of, but worn.
A little disappointed, Ullar checks the locker to see if there are any hidden components. "Drat.. "
Above each bed is a pair of shiny polished manacles. That strikes Ullar as vaguely familiar, but there are no other identifying marks about the room.
"Can anyone give me a hand moving this bed in front of the door? If we place another at the head site, and perhaps a third if that fits in the room, they are going to have a hard time opening it."
Forte helps Ullar position the beds, reinforcing the door. With a worried look at Asif and Rhune, Forte sits down on one of the empty beds, shaking his head. "Shit." He closes his eyes and rests for a moment, but soon sits up and looks at his poisoned friends with a sad face.
The two big men are able to push the beds toward the door, but wait to use them to barricade the door until Dakath returns.
Once everyone is settled into beds and under Pietro's ministration, Arkady works on making the room as defensible as possible. "Now that we are all secure, how our the patients Pietro??"
Pietro looks concerned for a moment, before replying. "I do not really know, but I think that they will live, even though they will probably have one of their worst nights of their life. I am not sure of the side effects, we will see what happens and act when the time comes to act."
Arkady mirrors Pietro's concern. "They will have a hell of a hangover, no? Now that we are somewhere safe we should get some rest. Ullar, I'll watch first. You rest that shoulder. I'll wake you in a few hours." Arkady stands by the door in the shadows alert and watchful, silmar blade ready in his hand. As he watches he ponders all the things that have happened over the last week and nods sadly as he realizes that he is still very far from discovering himself or the true nature of the world. But at least the voices still sleep.
Tolik looks around the room and sees they are all settled and secure. "Speaking of patients, I think perhaps we should look at some of these other injuries again if we're going to be stopping for a moment." Then the elf goes around the room, changing dressings and checking on injuries of the others, as most everyone is injured.
Just as Tolik begins checking the dressings of the injured, he hears running footsteps from the stairway, followed by a loud roar!
Dakath full of adrenaline rushes down the stairs, he moves to the side of door "Sorry to interrupt but we've got company." He grins nervously and draws his poisoned dagger.
As he emerges into the room, Forte and Ullar shove the beds in front of the door to defend themselves. Drawing their weapons, the party stands in the room, knowing with the door blocked there is no way out.
That doesn't last long, though, as a monstrous impact slams into the door, a visible crack appearing down the middle. Again you hear the door creak with a tremendous blow, and the beds are pushed back several feet from the door. Before the warriors get a chance to shove them forward once again, the door smashes into the room, sending pieces of wood everywhere.
A huge figure, much larger than even Forte, comes rushing in, it's hooved feet clattering on the floor, and it's huge bull's head emits another bellow. It has a long sword raised up in it's hand, and rushes toward Forte and Ullar.
"Well isn't this just great. Seems fate has taken a liking to killing us off." Tolik seems to have settles back into his cynical self at the appearance of the beast, giving up on optimism for the time being. He looks and tries to decide if he could risk a dagger toss at it. He figures he'd only succeed in hitting one of his allies, so he keeps his dagger sheathed and instead pulls out his first aid supplies, ready to take care of those that fall as they hit the ground.
Jaws clenched, Ullar tries to hide his emotions from the rest of the group. A legendary figure as a Minotaur only appeared in the stories he overheard within the temple of Mercury. Even in his time at the Arena, Ullar never saw anything which came close to the hugeness of this creature.
These thoughts are gone in a split second, as Ullar realizes that the party is tremendous danger. Having their only exit blocked nothing remains but to fight or to surrender. Considering the last no option facing a Minotaur, Ullar decides that fighting it is. Knowing that in their weak condition the party is probably no match for the Minotaur it is time for desperate actions.
With a leap, Ullar jumps forward towards the Minotaur. Man-to-man his chances are nearly zero percent, but one well-place strike of his great sword can change the odds in this battle. Aiming for the left kneecap of the Minotaur, Ullar swings his sword in a wide angle and puts all his strength in it, trying to cut in half the beasts leg.
As Ullar leaps forward, Forte grabs his mace and rushes in to strike at the fearsome beast.
Arkady jumps back as the door shatters. He crosses himself orthodox style and says a brief prayer for his forthcoming trip to the afterworld. Trying to stay put of Dakath's way, Arkady strikes the minotaur with all his might.
The giant beast moves out of the way of Ullar's massive stroke, though Forte is able to smash his magic mace into it's side. It's quite an impressive stroke, but the monster keeps coming. It smashes it's longsword into Ullar's armor, denting the plate covering his right thigh, but Ullar remains unhurt. Not for the first time, nor the last, he thanks Forte for his work.
Dakath moves to backstab the creature as it rushes towards Forte and Ullar.
Arkady manages to dodge another Herculean blow from the bullhead's sword, his return lunge skating off the beast's monstrous leather jerkin. Ullar's reply is more forceful, as he smashes the flat of his blade off the creature's skull, sending it reeling to the side, which makes Dakath's plunging rear attack miss. A fleck of green venom flies from the dagger and lands very near to Ullar's foot.
As Dakath enters the room, Pietro quickly grabs his quarterstaff and momentarily stands there looking at the rest. "Here goes for nothing!" After the backstab, Pietro moves to the side of the Minotaur with his quarterstaff, and tries to stick the end of the quarterstaff between the legs of the minotaur with the hope that he will be able to trip the Minotaur. Pietro does make sure though that he will not get into a wild swing from the longsword the Minotaur is swinging.
Arkady raises the silmar blade in his hand and strikes again. Realizing that his strike is off the mark, he is surprised and pleased to see the sword correct itself in mid-aim and force itself down into the monster's leg, wobbling it. Ullar comes down upon the other leg, this time hitting his stroke to the beast's kneecap, cutting it's leg totally in half.
The minotaur falls to the ground, grunts several times, then expires.
Forte wipes his mace on the minotaur's clothes. Then he starts searching his body for anything of value. "Anybody want a new sword?" he asks the group, gesturing toward the dead beast's weapon.
"I rather stick with yours.." says Ullar, greatly surprised at the ease of felling the creature.
Hearing Forte's comment about the minotaur's sword Arkady looks up. "Thanks but two longswords is enough for me today." He grins with mirth and begins making a temporary sheath for the silmar blade out of a blanket.
Tolik looks over at the man. "I think Rhune can use a long sword, but I'm not for sure. She's not really in any condition to ask at the moment."
"O.K. I'll hold it for her," Forte says, placing the long sword with the other one he has borrowed.
Dakath stops a moment "I can use a long sword, I'll take it." Forte shrugs and hands it to him, knowing that Rhune has no use for it at present.
"Forte, I owe you big time. This platemail you crafted to fit my body saved me for about the tenth time from getting killed. You got to get yourself one of those.. " Ullar adds with a smile.
Tolik watches Forte search the body, then suddenly speaks up. "Oh, oh, oh. I almost forgot. There are some gold ingots, six I think, down in the fountain. I meant to mention it earlier, but there was the spider, then that, almost forgot about them."
"We can get them on our way out. I think they will come in handy when we, someday, can restock our supplies!" says Ullar, with a thankful nod towards Tolik.
Arkady grins at this. "Supplies!! I almost forgot! Shall we roast this monkey now or do we want to eat the cow man here? I for one am famished."
Forte looks at the minotaur, then back to Arkady. "Six of one..." is all he can mutter.
"I'm not touching that monkey. I'll eat what I'm carrying, thank you very much." Tolik wrinkles his nose in disgust at eating the baboon.
Ullar's mouth is still open when Forte makes his comments, unsure whether Arkady is joking or not. Then, finally, Ullar judges the grin to it's value. Although shaking his head, he smiles in appreciation of Arkady's attempt in 'lighting up' the spirit.
"Well, if we are not leaving right away." Arkady moves to the back of the room and begins to build a small fire with the shards of the door. He plans to use the minotaur's longsword as a spit and roast the baboon carcass he has carried around with him.
Pietro looks to Arkady for a second, a strange look on his face. "There are stories that say Minotaurs are cursed humans, you want to go and try your luck on eating a cursed human? Mmm, isn't one curse enough for you?" Immediately though, a grin comes to Pietro's face. Guess we all have our own personal demons."
Arkady's grin disappears and for a brief second you can see a look of utter hatred and death, but it passes and Arkady stares down at the floor. "Da, Da Everyman must fight something." He walks to stand away from the group and struggles to compose himself as he weeps.
"What curse?" Ullar asks, looking in great surprise at Arkady and Pietro.
Pietro walks over to Arkady, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I am truly sorry Arkady, I didn't mean to hurt you. I can't sometimes keep from talking when listening is the best thing to do. Hopefully you will forgive me. If you want to talk, or need anything else, you just have to ask. I am not sure what the nature of your problem is, but maybe we can help you after we get out of this." Pietro then slowly walks away, a sad look in his eyes.
Arkady's thin body shakes beneath Pietro's hand. "Worry not my Friend. Your words are not the source of my pain. The inner demons are the hardest fight of all." Arkady stands and wrestles with said demons until Ullar's approach.
Tolik looks on in astonishment as his companions take the beast down without taking a single injury. "Looks like I don't need these at the moment," he says, putting his herbs away. "Nice job, but where did that thing come from Dakath?"
Ullar listens carefully as well, very interested in what lays ahead.
"Damn, there was a man in yellow robes who escaped up the tower. I'd forgotten about him." With that Dakath goes up the stairs again quickly and silently.
Unaware of the battle that raged around her, Rhune engages in her own battle....caught in huge spider webs with countless tiny spiders and one large one edging toward her......screaming in her mind....and struggling to free her wrists and ankles........all those who may look see is Rhune moaning and writhing on the bed.
Leaning against the bed Arkady breathes heavily and sighs in relief. He cleans the silmar blade and then with a gasp fumbles for his notebook and makes a sketch of the minotaur and as best he can of the spiders down below. "Before I forget!!