Burnt Offerings

With Shalelu warning of noises coming from behind the party, the group follows Gerund's hasty whispered instructions and hides themselves in the side passages to await whatever is following them. Then Gerund and Sasha push open the carved stone doors to peek into the room beyond.

Stone fonts containing frothy dark water sit to either side of the doors, and twin banks of stone pillars run the length of the long chamber. At the western end, shallow stairs rise to a platform about two feet off the ground. The walls around this platform are lit by hanging braziers that emit glowing red smoke, giving the place an unnerving crimson light that throws the bas-relief carvings of countless monsters feasting on fleeing humans into lurid display. A black marble alter stone, its surface heaped with ashes and bone fragments, squats before a ten foot statue. The sculpture depicts a very pregnant but otherwise shapely naked woman who wields a curved blade in each taloned hand and has a long reptilian tail, bird-like taloned feet, and the snarling head of a three eyed jackal with a forked tongue. Its left blade flickers with fiery orange light while the right one glows with a cold blue radiance.

A warning hiss from from Yola from across the hall snaps Gerund's attention away from this heretical shrine to the Mother of Monsters. Flickering torch light can now clearly be seen coming from the corridor north of the party's position.

"Uh Gerund?" Sasha touches the paladin's should and draws his attention back to the shrine. She points up. In the shadows of the pillar tops, floating eerily, are a pair of huge black hounds. Lean and vicious looking, they hang in mid air, obscured by the shadows cast by the flickering crimson light, regarding Sasha and Gerund with cold curiosity. When looking back, Gerund's detect evil sense screams out at him.

Foes ahead and foes behind; what's a party to do? Did I get the characters positioned the way everybody wanted? Let me know if your character is not where you wanted them.