Seeing people in needs, Ananta tries to help some villagers with his healing skills.
After passing hours with the villagers, helping them in the best of his abilities he comes back to the small camp that his comrades and their guide organize near the village.
But something bother him, as the villagers seems to want to tell him something...
May be that's what save you from a night attack from the villagers. Dozen of them trying to kill you in the middle of the night.
Victory was yours but most of the attacking villagers lies dead.
With bantu's help, you are able to interrogate the few surviving attackers. They reveal that they’re fervent worshipers of Dhalavei and would die before betraying the cult.
Talking with non-cultist villagers, initially hostile because of their fears of retaliation from the rest of the village, uncovers the following information:
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Quarr looks to the others. "But...but they were so nice....."
He thinks for a moment. "As much as I would like to dress in their neat cloaks we can't wait three more weeks for a group to come down. The only logical choice is to have these guys show us the secret trail and follow it in." Quarr grabs Drax's arm.
"You hear that! SECRET TRAIL!" He giggles with excitement at the prospect of something new and exciting.
The villagers don't know exactly.
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Drax has to be restrained by cooler, more fair heads from trying to rain down vengeance for the ambush on all the village. With a snarl, he wipes his kukris clean on some of the fallen.
"Then let us go and find out how many there are when we kill them! We will count their corpses! Then you will know the number of them, Ananta!"
The big half-orc paces impatiently, eyeing the temple path and shaking Quarr's grasping hand loose. "I am tired of cowards who strike in the dark. We will take the fight to them and maybe they shall experience being stabbed while they are trying to sleep! They won't like it!"
The ever-literal Drax grimly prepares to hike into the hills.
"Lastwall knight! We should go fight in Belkzen after this. The war-bands do not make you walk all over like this to kill them."
Recovering from a night of battle, you stay one day to prepare for -you hope- your last fight against the cult.
Thanks to the villager's help, it's easy to find the path that lead to the Temple. As you head into the hills, the path becomes narrower and more twisted, slowing you greatly.
Bala offers to stay here with the elephants, partly because the elephants have to squeeze through rocky gaps in the terrain, slowing down the group, but mostly because he’s afraid of the cult and don't want to go further.
As the narrow path descends into a steep valley, the sickly smell of carrion overwhelms the stagnant air. A hauntingly dense ground mist floats over the thick undergrowth. In the dim light, through shadows cast by the high peaks surrounding the ravine and copious tree cover, the grisly form of a mass grave comes into view.
Many bodies are piled among the trees here. Some are partially buried in the clay soil, but most have simply been dumped here to rot. There are victims of all ages, races, and genders, though most seem to be middle-aged human men. They have one thing in common: their throats and jaws eaten away by acid. A few are recent, but judging by the festering decomposition of most of the bodies and the putrefying stench of decay, the majority of the corpses have been here for at least weeks if not months. There are just over 100 corpses in this mass grave, all victims of the cult.
The pathfinders knows that they must go through to get to the temple.
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Drax is willing enough to leave the elephants behind, finding his seating atop them always somewhat precarious. But the scent of the decomp has him making a retching noise as they come up on the mass grave.
"How has nobody destroyed this cult already?" he says after spitting into the rocks. "They have killed many! Are the families of all these dead so spineless? Faugh. I do not wish to go down into the middle of those rotting corpses... even if they do not get up!"
Drax scans the ravine walls, studying if perhaps it's possible for a group to scale along the sides of the ravine rather than walk in the middle of the pile of festering bodies, bloated with the jungle heat.
As Drax looks around he understand there is certainly other route toward the temple, but none as easy as the one through this valley of the dead.
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Quarr hovers above the bodies as his wings beat slowly, just enough to keep him aloft. Though he is usually cheerful and sees the positive side of things in a dark world, his face is furrowed in anger and sadness at the sight of the grave. With a solemn voice he softly says. "Let's get past this and take care of this cult."
He lands, grabs some rope and ties it to a rock on either end after he makes sure it is knotted together. As the others shimmy and cross the rope he hovers overhead to make sure nothing crawls out of the pool of the dead.
After of few minutes of works, Quarr is able to ties several ropes together and do some sort of bridge of ropes to go over the valley of the dead.
As Quarr's comrades begins their climb, he is able to see a translucent figure raising from the corpse as many of them begin to raise !
Drax was the first to go throuhg the rope bridge and the closest to the creature.
The creature looks at him, her disfigured visage a vision of pure horror.
Drax resist to the creature's corrupting gaze !
The makeshift rope bridge is 100ft. long and rises 30ft. above ground. Drax is currently in the middle of it (acrobatics or climb to stay on it DC10 with two hands to help, DC15 with one, DC20 without) to move half speed (DC+5 to move full speed it's not possible to do 5ft. step).
For now, I consider that Ananta and Konrad are not on the bridge (so 50ft. away from Drax). Quarr is 60ft. away from Drax in the air.
A lot of Zombies are just under Drax, ready to bite him !
The translucide creature is just above ground, 20ft. from Drax.
Quarr has made a rope bridge of 100ft. It starts from the entrance of the valley and stops to a roc platform where it's easy to descend to. The bridge stands 30ft. above ground
Both Ananta and Konrad are near the start of the rope bridge, waiting for Drax to cross.
Drax is in the middle of the bridge (50ft. away from you) when the creature emerges from the ground and when several zombies rise with it.
You have the choice :
- to move on the bridge, in this case you must make an acrobatics or climb check to move half speed on it (DC10 with two hands to help, DC15 with one, DC20 without, DC+5 to move full speed and it's not possible to do 5ft. step).
- to move on the ground (first 20ft are normal terrain, next 30ft. are difficult terrain because of the number of corpses laying around)
Quarr it the creature but the bolt don't seems to be that efficient on it while Drax moves away from the creature, drawing one of his kukri he hopes to be best against the creature.
Ananta moves forward, hoping to destroy the undead monstruosities on the ground.
All the zombies in Ananta's area are destroyed by the Holy energy.
The translucide creature moves toward Drax and touches him with his ghostly hand.
But too eager to take Drax's life, she miss miserably !
The other zombies moves toward Ananta.
Konrad's mind gives him the ability to fly and he moves toward Drax, hoping to help him fight the strange thing.
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"Watch where you are throwing those things!" Drax shouts, turning his head to glare at Quarr, partly because a lot of fire, partly because he still does not like how this thing makes him feel.
Clinging one-armed to the rope, he hacks at the creature with his kukri, snarling with rage.
Though his swings are surprisingly in the right place, it's hard to be very accurate while hanging onto a rope.
As Drax hit only once with his weapon, Ananta channel the holy energy of his god, half of the zombies seems to take all the damages from it but half of the other don't as well as the creature flying who takes damages as if a creature of the unlife.
All the zombies moves toward Ananta trying to bite and slam him !
One of them is able to do it, while the others surround him
The translucent creature attacks again Drax
This time, it is able to reach Drax's heart and he suffers a quite deal of pain and the creature get away going up.
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Drax snarls his hatred of the creature's ability to touch him effortlessly and wither his bones, but he is able to throw off the worst of it.
"GET BACK HERE!" Drax roars at his opponent. "WE ARE NOT FINISHED! I WILL KILL YOU AGAIN!"
He is too angry now to keep looking away. He tries to swing at the creature, but if it's just out of his arm's reach, he waits to stab it when it comes close.
Both Quarr's bombs hit the creature , angering it ! While Drax is ready to attack the creature.
And Ananta continues to destroy the zombies around him.
Konrad's earthbreaker hit the creature incorporeal flesh and when both cames to contact the creature dissipate in the aether !
After the creature is deal it takes a few time before the zombies fells to Konrad and Ananta's weapons.
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"I do not know, little one," Drax says as he finishes hauling himself over, panting from the strange pains the ghost left on him. "But now they are all dead. LASTWALL KNIGHT: you took my kill."
Drax glowers at Konrad a moment, then grins fiercely. "It was a mighty strike! Gorum was pleased to see it. Drax shall remember this, and fight harder, to outdo you!"
Poking at his chest where the ghost reached in to chill him, Drax makes an uncomfortable face. "Ananta, does your tonglen heal this too?"
When they are ready to continue, Drax brandishes his kukris once more. "Let us go find these cowards who hide behind the dead and the not dead! Ha!"
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"Tonglen heals wounds of the flessssh, mo matter how deep" affirms Ananta as he walks on through towards the other side. "Allow me to take on your burden, and I will make myssssself whole."
Ananta brings forth the radiance of Irori twice, presenting his birthmark to the open sky before going forth to Drax and engaging in Tonglen, a process he will repeat with Konrad and Quarr.
"Another fight may prove to be the limit, for I am unable to call forth the Massster of Massster's soothing radiance many more time today."
After healing and resting a few minutes, the Pathfinders continues to follows the hidden path.
It finally leads after several minutes to a steeply sloping cliff face on the western side of one of the tall mountains. The cliff face is 900 feet high and while the entrance itself isn’t visible from the bottom of the cliff, a ledge -just over halfway up- is the only place on the cliff that could contain a tunnel entrance.
Without too much difficulties you reach a barren ledge set into the jagged stone of the cliff face. It provides a magnificent view out across the rocky foothills. At the rear of the cavity, two basalt pillars guard the entrance to a dark, narrow opening that leads inward into the depths of the mountain. The pillars and the lintel of the entrance both have twisted runes carved into them.
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Drax himself feels fairly invigorated by the climb, and stands flexing and catching his breath a bit on the ledge.
"Then we should finish this quickly so you do not have to heal us anymore!" Drax says to Ananta with a heavy clap to the Iroran's scaled shoulder.
He scratches his jaw at Quarr's words. "Hmf. The usual cult stuff! All words, no action! We will bring action to them. And death. And annihilation, haha, yes! Then there will be nothing that is unknown because it will be very plain, when I cut their throats. That is very obvious. You always understand what is going on, when someone cuts a throat."
Drax nods sagely at his dispensed wisdom. "So. Let's go in. --eh, do you others have a way to check for magic? Maybe all this cult talk is really to hide a trap. They seem like cowards like that."
Quarr lights the entrance of the tunnel and see that the natural caverns seems to turn and go deeper into the mountain.
Drax sees no traps.