"Devil's blood works wonders on cuts and bruises of all kinds," Mordecai says smiling, grips Asmodeus' unholy symbol so firmly it cuts his hand, and rubs the bloodied pentagram on Gertrart's wounds.
There's only 1 item of real value on any of the boggards, the chief has a MW Greatsword.
"thanks be given Asmodeaus," says the half-orc. He casts an appreciative blacksmith's eye on the chief's blade. "what can the imps tell us about what's next?
Bog 1 - 18
Bog 2 - 18
Bog 3 - 18
Bog 4 – 18
Fail
Fail
Success
Fail
Bog 1 - 31 (-9)
Bog 2 - 24 (-2)
Bog 3 - 31 (-9)
Bog 4 – 31 (-9)
Stabilization Checks
Boggard 1
Stabilized
Boggard 2
Stabilized
Boggard 3
Stabilized
Boggard 4
Stabilized
Tearal casts levitate on the barbarian's body and pushes him forward to the next boggard chamber. Before entering the chamber, he once more casts vanish on himself and moves the corpse in.
The summons has a powerful affect on the boggards, they emerge from their tents at the sound, and at its height roughly 20 of them are gathered, of various ages and genders.
The boggards cry out when the crescendo happens and the body falls to the ground. From the back of the crowd comes an older boggard, not old, just older. His vision is clearly bad though, for he appears to not understand what the crowd is cooing about until he gets to within 10 yards of the body. At that time, he moves forward much quicker to check out the body of the slain chief.
He looks up and spying Taeral he says in broken common, "it is you, who I have seen and foretold, come to deliver us from the madness of Kumanda Slays-Nine-Men, and to make the Horn a great place of Dagon once again! I am Zikomo Hears-the-Father."
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Who or what is this Dagon? Yet another from this strange pantheon?
"Zikomo Hears-the-Father, Kumanda Slays-Nine-Men is no more. Father Dagon will send emissaries and champions to end the madness and restore the tribe of the Horn to their former glory. Are you the tribe of the Horn that we seek. If so, follow my commands. Know that Dagon speaks though his messenger as was foretold."
"I knew you would come. Kumanda Slays-Nine-Men did not believe, but you have slain him and shown he was wrong. We are the chosen of Dagoth. How can we help to make Dagoth supreme again in the Horn?"
Dagon is a demon-lord worshipped by man, including the boggards apparently. (from above).
"Ask them What other forces exist in the horn that could prohibit Dagoth's supremecy. What does the rest of the horn look like?" Gertart lets the smooth talkers ask the questions, but these are his questions.
He responds to you, "there are many dangerous things up there. We do not go there, because those things will kill us, but we will aid you. Feed you. Protect you. Help you to protect the horn if needed."
"Zikomo Hears-the-Father, tells us what you know of this level of the Horn. What threatens the Chosen of Dagon here? How do we go higher in the Horn? Tells us and show us what you know of the Horn."
Gertart licks the blood crossing his nose and jaw like a cat. "Taeral," he whispers, "ask them if they have any healers." Then the half-orc tightens a sinch on one of his other wounds.
"Zikomo Hears-the-Father, what poultices and balms do you have for your allies wounds. Father Dagon will not be pleased with the tribe if his new allies succumb to their wounds."
I'll get you a key to the various rooms. There are several you might want to check some things out.
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"Zikomo Hears-the-Father, what poultices and balms do you have for your allies wounds. Father Dagon will not be pleased with the tribe if his new allies succumb to their wounds."
Zikomo hears your request, "poultices and balms? Those are for the non-believers and those with no true power. Zikomo is a loyal servant of Dagon, and more than able to provide healing to the allies of Dagon. Are there those among you who need Dagon's touch?"
C1 – Entrance – You’ve been here already
C1a – where the boggard sentries were
C2 – a large pool of acid (this can be collected and use for various things)
C3 – Empty caverns. Very wet with a murky pool filled with blind cave fish.
C4 – The large cave where you were ambushed
C5 – Empty Cavern
C5a – this passage is very narrow. Medium creatures count it as difficult terrain, nothing large or larger can pass through.
C6 – Empty Cavern – solid rock floor
C7 – Empty cavern – solid rock floor, large perch at the back of the cave
C8 – Mud pits – across the mpits on a natural shelf is an old mud-splattered chest which lies open and empty.
C9 – Boggard village, A-F are boggard homes. G was Kumanda’s lair. His two consorts live here. Having defeated him, you have rights to them. You also have rights to two large chunks of flawed but valuable amethyst worth 150gp and 220 gp respectively. A fossilized mammoth tusk worth 500gp, and a helm
C10 – Empty cavern
C11 – This cavern has a pool with strange fish in it.
C12 – This cavern has a pretty harmless blue slime in it.
C13 – Did you succeed the perception check in C12?
C14 – Empty Cavern
C15 – Large wet cavern. Difficult terrain (except to boggards).
C15A – Some very large and particularly beautiful crystals. These could be useful, but maybe we don’t know how yet.
C16 – Fungus farm – the boggards eat these.
C17 – Boggard breeding pool
C17A - A crude stone statue of a great bloated tentacle boggard watches the pool. This is of course a statue of Father as the bane-wogs perceive him.
C18 – A large pit of bones. Any necromancers around?
C19 – Zikomo warns against going up to this room saying ”Ice, cold, danger. We do not go there.”
C20 – Empty cavern
C21 – Same as C16
C22 – Holding pen, with no current inhabitants
The temple itself is a single room almost thirty feet across. Inside, countless bones from those who have died upon Dagon’s altar decorate the place. A crude stone block is encrusted with old dried blood. Above the block, drawn in vibrant luminescent paint distilled from rare marsh plants, is the mad spiral rune of Dagon himself surrounded by countless scribbles of daemonic iconography copied from the Horn’s exterior. A fire pit burns in the center of the temple.
Zikomo Hears-the-Father lives here. He spends most of his time meditating, lost in a haze of vision juice. Most of the boggards live in awe and terror of their mad shaman and so rarely visit. There are no guards here. It is widely believed in the village that Zikomo takes care of himself well enough.
If visited, Zikomo is in a trance when our villains arrive. He emerges from his trance long enough to stare at them glass-eyed and pronounce, “The cave of the blue slime conceals your future. Learns its secret or fail at ye master’s charge.” Suddenly the drug induced fatique seems to lift from him in one manic burst of energy. He leaps to his feat and starts dancing and screaming his terrifying croaks about blue slime and the fury of the master. The fire that burns at the center of the temple changes color to blue in response to his frenzied abyssborn prayer. Zikomo laughs like a mad fiend.
C3 - Check made, will share info with group
C5 -
C11 -
C12/C13 -
C17A - Check made, will share info with group
C17A - Check made, will share info with group
C3:
C5:
C11:
C12:
C17A
About the fish in the cavern (C 11) Gertrart says, "Their spines can be used to harvest a powerful paralytic poison." Gertart will try and collect some of this if it is only a matter of a few hours. This will be at the end of the day when we rest or if it will take days, he will come back later.
"thanks be given Asmodeaus," says the half-orc. He casts an appreciative blacksmith's eye on the chief's blade. "what can the imps tell us about what's next?
& I will update the quick stats...
"There's a small tunnel leading from the base of the wall. Far too small for me. Bapho, go investigate the tunnel!"
"Aye, aye, boss!" the imp sighs, not sounding very enthusiastic. But nonetheless the small devil flies to the cave, and peers inside. And then, shielded by its invisibility, it enters the tunnel.
"Hold up. Xixik! Go help him, we don't want to send our own alone." he orders. He grumbles a bit but follows non the less
"Hold up! Baphxik, go with the others! " Gertrart motions and points after the imps. His own imp, boggart in face, appears on his shoulder then flies off to join the other two as they disappear down the tunnel.
"Should we check out the freezer too?" He asks (c19).
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Xeram beholds it in silence, his viper showing its head from his sleeve, flickering its forked tongue.
The imps back then were properly armed, why send unarmed minions?
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@Gertrart – the poison is relatively easy to harvest if you know it is in the spines, and use a net. Don’t just go grabbing at the fish with your bare hands, that is a great way to get stung. You can harvest 4 doses per month, no skill check required.
Type poison, injury; Save Fortitude DC 15
Frequency 1/round for 2 rounds
Initial Effect 1d3 Con damage; Secondary Effect unconsciousness for 1d3 hours; Cure 1 save
Cost: 150 gp/dose.
@Mordecai – Yes Zikomo has healing enough for today.
The three imps are able to move up the narrow passage from C12 to C13.
The Chamber
A lime encrusted human skeleton leans against the south wall clutching a heavy leather bound book. This is perhaps the last surviving copy of “The Dirges of Apollyon” upon this mortal plane. It details the long history of the “Sons of the Pale Horseman” and recounts their efforts to transform this world into a daemon’s playground. This rarest of tomes is made utterly unique by the last page of text within. This book makes plain the ritual necessary to call Vetra-Kali back to the mortal realms (the ritual is detailed below). And besides that, still glittering amongst the muck, is a large jewel.
The Eye of Vigilance (the First Eye of Vetra-Kali)]
Aura strong divination (evil); CL 15th
Slot none; Weight –
DESCRIPTION
This jewel at first appears to be nothing more than an exquisite emerald worth at least 20,000 gp. Only if the jewel is steeped
in the blood of a sentient creature does it reveal its true nature. The Eye of Vigilance was the magical focus used to create the Horn of Abaddon in the first place and so it is connected to every square inch of the structure. The bearer of this jewel may scry the Horn of Abaddon just as if he possessed a crystal ball. The Eye is also a critical component of the ritual to destroy the Silver Seal and return Vetra-Kali to the prime material
plane.
If all three of the Eyes of Vetra-Kali are united in the statue of Vetra-Kali in the Sanctum, then the Eye of Vigilance functions as a crystal ball with true seeing again limited to the confines of the Horn itself.
I’m just going to cut and paste the Ritual here:
The gruesome ritual to break the Silver Seal and call forth Vetra-Kali is simple but exacting. Three times per day for 222 days, a prayer must be made. The first prayer is recited at midnight – The Supplication to Darkness . This prayer begs forgiveness that mortals have failed the daemon-prince and allowed his sanctum to be overthrown. The second prayer is recited at dawn – The Cursing of the Light . This prayer curses those who made the seal and begs for the dark powers to lessen its might. The third prayer is made at dusk – The Call Across the Void . This prayer calls to the daemon-prince and guides his spirit through the astral ever closer to the prime material plane. These three prayers are found as songs. When you strip away all the grim trappings, the “Dirges” is, at heart, a hymnal.
A prayer must be intoned carefully and precisely. This takes ten uninterrupted full-round actions. At the end of the prayer, the Silver Seal is doused in unholy water which sizzles and boils across the face of the divine artifact.
Each prayer must be repeated 222 times to break the seal and end Vetra-Kali’s banishment. If even a single prayer is missed, the entire ritual must be restarted. The prayers must be performed within the hour of the specified event and if interrupted may be tried again. For example, the midnight prayer must be done before one a.m.
Further, three humanoid sacrifices must be made during the course of the ritual. At the first Supplication to Darkness, one of death priests who failed Vetra-Kali (or one of their descendants) must be sacrificed upon the sealed altar. At the 111th Cursing of the Light a true follower of Mitra must die upon the altar. And finally at the last Call Across the Void one of the Victor’s blood must be sacrificed. Then and only then will the seal be shattered and will Vetra-Kali be once more manifest.
The Dirges specifies exactly how a sacrifice must be made to Vetra-Kali. The victim must be placed upon his altar and there have their heart cut out while still alive . The heart is then placed in one of the three bowls that the statue of Vetra-Kali holds.
To perform the ritual the villains need eight components:
1) “The Dirges of Apollyon” -- This is the holy book that details the ritual.
2) 666 doses of unholy water
3) The Eye of Vigilance -- this jewel, restored to the statue, lets our villains scry (as the spell scrying ) the entire Horn of Abaddon.
4) The Eye of Hatred
5) The Withering Eye
6) A death priest or descendant
7) A devout follower of Mitra
8) The bloodline of the Victor
You will note that 222 days is a long time, and thus, as promised, plenty of "down time" between significant events to be crafting and such.
Once you have accumulated what you need to start the rituals, I will not require that you guys tell me 666 times that "we do the ritual."
I'll post more about how we'll play out the next section, but we do still have some adventuring to do for you guys to clear out and claim the Horn.
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You need to make the Spellcraft roll.
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Taeral will attempt to discern the magic of the gem, but it is beyond his abilities. This this knowledge he focuses his support on the individual most likely to succeed.
Xeram tries to figure out the foreign magic pattern.
"Spell craft? No, never heard of such.."
On the plus side, you can Spellcraft again every day, so eventually someone will roll high enough.
"Alas," the rogue says outside of the boggards hearing, "I am not really a mage. I could attempt to trick it into working, but magic of the caliber we seek deserves more respect."
Cold room? Or head to the next level? If the boggards told us, I don't remember what is up there.