4th—black tentacles, charm monster, summon monster IV
3rd—gaseous form, lightning bolt, stinking cloud, summon monster III
2nd—darkvision, detect thoughts, dust of twilight*, scorching ray, web
1st—expeditious retreat, mage armor, magic missile,
obscuring mist, shield, acid arrow, dimension door, and four additional
spells of levels 1–4), 130 gp
Dust-covered skeletal remains lie at the bottom of the pit behind the bars.
The surgical tools in the room are all made of solid silver, and the entire collection is worth 3,000 gp. Also you discover a locked iron strongbox (DC 25 Disable Device check to open).
"He had quite a few things, I will take this spellbook, there might be a few things I could learn out of it. Here are keys to the lodge." Stam offers the keys up.
With Estaban delt with, we seemingly just have the werewolves. Will we continue here or bring the body back tot he lodge?
"We leave the body, we need to find Duristan and make sure that he is ok. I will look through the spell book when we get back but this wand might be helpful." Stam puts both into his pack.
Shouldn't we have it consecrated? Considering how things have bee going, he might come back as undead.
Grergof points at the stone as Stam starts to remove the items from Estovion.
That stone! He points at the canopic stone.
Shadows gather around that object as strong as the ones that shaded the worst places in the Harrowstone! We must not leave it behind. Either we take it with us, or destroy it.
Then in response to Spugnoir's question, he responds.
I think that would only hold him for a bit. We should just burn the body.
Umm, very well. How will we dispose of it?
"Hrmm...bury it? Should we destroy the stone?"
Perhaps something in Ericsson's journals or the lodge library can help? Couldn't hurt to check
Stam approached the body, pulling out a torch and lighting it. He then puts the torch under the shirt of the deceased man and walks away.
"I am sorry that seems rough but we have more pressing matters to attend to right now. Can you just smash the stone Grergof?" Stam asks
I can try...
Grergof puts the stone down in the middle of the room an then snashes down on it with his Adamantium Flail.
Going to get pretty smokey here real quick.
The torch does what torches do when put under cover. It suffocates.
The stone is sturdy, but it has no chance against Grergof's brute force. It breaks into countless pieces and it is as if a sigh escapes from it.
We have spent enough time here.
We should gather the stuff here and move on. We can deal with the body later. I worry about Duristan.
He starts to gather the surgical tools and other loot.
Dies someone want to open that?
He points at the lockbox.
Spugnoir examines
The lockbox doesn't seem to be trapped and unlocking it proves that to be true. Stashed inside are a wand of spider climb with 34 charges and three wooden scroll cases decorated with fragile, colorful moth wings, preserved with unguent of timelessness. One scroll case contains pages of faded notes taken from the Desnan priest’s ancient journals, which provide a harrowing account of the priest’s attempts to cure his son of lycanthropy.
The Stairs of the Moon was an ancient temple of Desna
constructed in the Shudderwood during the first half of
the Age of Enthronement. For over 800 years, the temple
administered to those of Desna’s faithful among the
settlers of the Shudderwood, until the Whispering Tyrant
came to Ustalav. At that time, the high priest of Desna at
the temple had a single son whom he loved dearly. During
the wars against the Whispering Tyrant, the priest’s son
served as a missionary, but when he returned home some
years later he had changed, for at some point he had
contracted a particularly virulent strain of lycanthropy.
The priest tried everything he could to save his son. He
imprisoned his son in a secret chamber beneath the temple
and conducted experiments upon him, desperate to reverse
the curse. When his research failed to yield positive results,
these experiments turned dark and terrible. The priest
developed a serum from his son’s blood that he used to
infect his congregation with lycanthropy in order to study
the disease’s effects.
The second case holds an ancient scroll containing a communion ritual that can be performed atop Highthrone to activate the Dusk Moth. The third and final scroll case holds a scroll of remove disease .
Oh dear,dear,dear. This journal is troubling and may tell us the source of the werecreatures in this forest. I wonder what this Dusk Moth is.
"A wand of spider climb, would have been useful at the counts home. A scroll of remove disease, that is powerful magic there." Stam hands the scroll over to Darius. Stam listens to Spugnoir talk out loud the scroll, "The name of a Prison maybe? Or something opposite to Desna's Butterfly symbol?>"
Darius takes the scroll from Stam and nods then puts it in the satchel at his side.
Grergof finishes gathering all the tools and puts his backback on again.
Well now we know why this place is sacred to the werewolves.
But in any case we should move on.
He leads the others out of the room.
(Is there another door or just the tunnel we came in?)
I seem to recall that there are some more reasonable werewolves, correct? I wonder if we can establish contact. Spugs follows Varsk
The Dusk Moth is a relic of the faith of Desna.
As you walk outside you find that you're alone there. The Vollensag stay in hiding in the forest at the fringe of the clearing. And all others are probably inside the tower. There is also no sign of Duristan.
There is a ramp up to the terrace of the temple. Everything beyond that leads up weather worn stairs where falling down would hurt a lot due to height. The ramp like stairs from the terrace to the tower are freestanding. And the stairs that spiral around the tower leading upstairs are uncomfortably narrow.
So should we confront these werewolves?
"Lets try talk first. I have no doubt that we are greatly outnumbered and werewolves aren't giant spiders, they are much harder to defeat." Darius says as he taps everyone on the shoulder.
Stam looks up then out at the woods.
"Well here goes nothing I guess." Taking a deep breath Stam projects his voice as loud as he can.
"Good Day, we come here not seeking revenge but to understand. One of your Ilk attacked us at the Lodge, we are not members of the Lodge not do we hunt for fun. We have come here to understand why you attacked, the Head of the lodge made a pack with . We hope to break that pact to keep things in this woods as they are because if not a war could break out."
First you see and hear no reaction. But then suddenly a flaming sphere appears in your proximity, which lights the area in which you stand, and the sphere rolls towards you.
Stam reels back as the controlled ball of fire gets into the group.
"We tried to be nice" Stam stops his hair from burning up.
32/45 HP
Spugs reaches into his pouches. Anyone want Ironskin or Barkskin extracts?
Darius's body shimmers subtlety as his own spell comes into effect and he draws his sword.
CASTING
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, DF
EFFECT
Range personal
Target you
Duration 1 minute
DESCRIPTION
Calling upon the strength and wisdom of a deity, you gain a +1 luck bonus on attack and weapon damage rolls for every three caster levels you have (at least +1, maximum +3). The bonus doesn’t apply to spell damage.
"Barkskin sounds good. Give Grergof the Iron. I need to heal up for this fight."
Can anyone get rid of that thing?Spugs points at the sphere while handing out the extracts
Barkskin +3 Nat AC
IronSkin You gain a +4 enhancement bonus to your existing natural armor bonus
After jumping out of the way of the flaming sphere, Grergof takes cover in the temple. and Turns to his companions.
If we just charge out there, we could be easy targets. If we went up the tower first then at least we could attack from above.
But no matter. As soon as one of you can point me to where the wizard is, I can smash him.
Darius rushes back to cover where Grergof is and casts Cure Moderate Wounds upon himself.
"Show my your weapons." Darius says and touches his own crossbow and sword as well as whatever weapons Grergof, Spugnoir and Stam show him and they all begin to glow a faint blue hue.
School transmutation; Level cleric/oracle 1, inquisitor 1, paladin 1
CASTING
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, DF
EFFECT
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Targets one weapon/level, no two of which can be more than 20 ft. apart
Duration 1 round/level
Saving Throw Fort negates (harmless, object); Spell Resistance yes (harmless, object)
DESCRIPTION
Each weapon this spell affects each shines with pale light that dimly illuminates a 5-foot square. These weapons also ignore the DR of evil creatures that have DR 5 or lower, as long as the damage reduction is not DR/epic.
Stam a big confused holds out some of his arrows for Darius to enchant.
Retreating back into the building with the other, "I didn't see where it came from. I really need a few days off to make myself some scrolls."
We could make a break for the lodge, but I am ready to get to the top of this tower.
"We must finish what we came to do, Duristan may still be in here and need our help." Stam moves further into the building looking for the stairs further up.
Not find the stairs inside, Stam goes back to the door they retreated behind.
"I can make us all invisible again and we can try to run up the stairs."
"Sounds like a plan Stam."
There is a ramp up to the terrace of the temple. Everything beyond that leads up weather worn stairs where falling down would hurt a lot due to height. The ramp like stairs from the terrace to the tower are freestanding. And the stairs that spiral around the tower leading upstairs are uncomfortably narrow.
Lets head up to the terrace and then maybe from there up the tower.
Grergof is ready to go as soon as everyone else it.
I am ready
Stam holds his quarter staff in 1 hand, invoking his magic he creates a circle of invisibility around the group.
"We have to do this quickly without dying." Stam half smiles but no one can see him
The group moves out and up the ramp.
As you hurry out of hiding and up onto the terrace you're followed by the flaming sphere. But you're faster and on the way the sphere vanishes. On top you only find the dead werewolves Stam burned earlier.
Search the Werewolves quickly then Grergof motions in the direction of the ramp up the tower.
Spugnoir is ready to head up as well, nervously fingering his bombs
As Darius moves up onto the terrace he ducks and draws out his heavy crossbow and loads it with a bolt.
As you stand there on the terrace you see clouds forming in the sky over the Stairs of the Moon with incredible speed. And seconds later lightning strikes Stam.