"Harrumph. Unless you all think that is goblin treasure or bat treasure, this must be Drakthar's lair. His coffin must be nearby."
Dyrant will descend the ladder. Move to K32.
We're so close to getting this bugger.
Heh. "Bugger". Get it, Angel? Bugbear=bugger.
Shuddap. And watch for more bats.
EDIT: "Thank you, Finn." Dyrant smiles at Finn's healing touch.
Apparently the divine have little standards as to who gets access to their magicks.
The Doctor follows after Dyrant. From the way the Cuthbertine's head is cocking back and forth, Toffitt wonders whether he might have voices in his head. Haunted by his own demons. I don't know anyone like that...
The party crosses the gap safely and finds the auras coming from the treasure itself including:
An arrow quiver: an aura of moderate conjuration,
In total there are:
- 17,200 CP
- 3,500 GP
- Composite longbow (+3)
- masterwork rapier
- masterwork spear with silver head
- breastplate
- mithral shirt
- heavy darkwood shield
And a locked wooden chest
Also in the locked chest:
A modest looking string necklace of red wood beads: aura of moderate evocation
A large feather: an aura of strong conjuration
On the ground can be seen a stone cover, apparently to a storage area as found way back in room 7. That one contained (which I don't think I ever covered):
- 4 alchemist's fire,
- 4 thunderstones
- a tanglefoot bag,
- a healer's kit,
- masterwork artisan't tools,
- masterwork thieve's tools.
Dyrant tries to stay focused on the prize despite the glittery goodness in front of him.
"Glim, can you sense the presence of evil? Or can Cog sniff out our prey?"
* * *
After the chest is opened...
Dyrant will align all the items with magical auras together. When he is done with that he will pull out a scroll of Identify and begin to categorize and mark the magical auras on each item.
Spellcraft: Quiver
"Ah! A most useful item for holding many many arrows or magic wands. Not sure it fits our party, but this is highly prized by those who arch." Dyrant moves on the next item.
Spellcraft: Necklace
"Intriguing...now this necklace has the ability to unleash damaging balls of fire upon many foes at once." Dyrant looks over the rest of the party. "However, it should not be used foolishly lest it hurt comrades and enemy alike. Great care and intelligence should be taken with this item." Dyrant smiles as he begins to affix the necklace around his neck. "Maybe I should hold onto this."
This is far too dangerous for others. Atol would probably eat it, Finn would smash them to see what would happen, Glim would use them to play fetch with Cog...the Doctor could handle it, but maybe I'll keep it.
Spellcraft: Feather
Dyrant sighs as his attempt to identify this item fails.
"I'll try on this again tomorrow."
"As surely as Garl's witty banter!" Glimmil agrees and begins to scan the room for the presence of evil.
"And Cog's nose is always at work, isn't it boy?"
His canine companion continues to lick Atol - whether in thanks for the healing, or in search of stray food remnants on the cleric is unclear.
Status:
Cog 21/21HP
Glimmil: 31/32HP (1 non-lethal); AC26 (touch 14)
Cog scratches at the stone cover on the floor.
No evil detected.
Dr. Toffitt oggles the treasure a bit but searches instead for a coffin or secret passage.
...but is too distracted by the pretty metal shirt to care.
Finneas shrugs, sheathes his morningstar and shield, and begins lifting the stone that Cog is scratching at.
After a brief grunt, Finneas looks back at the group.
"Anybody have a crowbar?"
Male voice: In your pack genius.
"Oh here's one."
With that Finneas pulls the crowbar out and begins heaving at the cover.
Dyrant looks at the stone slab that Cog indicates.
"Maybe we should work together to open this slab. Doctor and Glim on that side, Atol and Finn on this one. Let's try to get it open."
Dyrant stands back to watch.
Dyrant wonders how much Atol will be able to help but maybe if Dyrant tells Atol to imagine the stone is a ham sammich, it will be lifted with ease.
The party shifts the foot thick stone away and it reveals nothing but dirt and Drakthar resting in the dirt. He does not move at all.
"We found him!! OK, who has the holy water?"
Atol will fill his pack with the gear others do not cherry-pick trusting to his enhanced strength to carry the load.
Those muleback cords were a bargain!
Dr. Toffitt approaches Drakthar with his blade drawn, wary of any sudden movements. "Any objections to my decapitating him?"
The doctor sets to work and decapitates Drakthar.
"Does someone have a stake?" Dyrant searches his pockets for one, before remembering something.
"A wooden stake, Atol," he finishes before Atol starts tossing meat slabs at him.
"Oh, yes, I suppose we should have staked him first. Hopefully it won't matter too much if we've taken his head off first." The doctor takes out his hammer in case someone has a stake to offer.
"I... er..."
Atol rummages through the sack, occasionally holding up a crowbar, rope, a grapple hook, and a sunrod.
"I don't have a stake."
He takes out his cudgel.
"I can get another cudgel, cut this down to size and use it. Don't we still need holy water though? What time is it - daylight will kill him too won't it?"
Atol fidgets nervously.
It's my job to have this stuff damnit! Mine! I carry the pack.
He looks crestfallen.
Dr. Toffitt smiles at Atol's adorable effforts to be helpful. "Glimmil, Finneas, I seem to recall one of you buying a stake. If not, there's always fire. In any case, I suggest we expose his body to sunlight, for good measure..."
Dyrant offers his cudgel to the Doctor.
"I have cudgeled enough for one day, Doctor. Might you use this to stake the creature?"
Good ol' Clubby, I'll miss him, Dyrant thinks of his cudgel.
"I have five stakes in my pack, if you can't manage it by then we can use Dyrant's club."
"I suspect your hand will drive it most true, Finn. Though Glimmil is handy with a hammer." Not that I'm bad with them either, if I do say so...
"Ok, I'll set him up and Glimmil can hammer him. Do we have to take him out of the dirt first? We probably should."
I hope I don't get glitter on me when he dies.
Female voice: What?
Male voice: Huh?
Toffitt looks up from his new errand: taking out garlic from his back and stuffing it in whatever orifice he can find in the vampire's head. "Hrm. Why do you say? Did you want to keep the dirt clean?"
Glimmil watches hopefully, awaiting the wisdom of the two holy men, the practically holy Kordite, and the good doctor - master of anatomy and the body.
Pray Garl, they know how to deal with this unholy creature.
Glimmil watches as Toffitt stuffs garlic into his mouth and hears mention of dirt, hammering, daylight, holy water, stakes, cudgels and decapitation.
"You guys... ummm..."
Glimmil fidgets a bit.
"... know what you're doing, don't you?"
Finneas looks up from his work.
"I'm not worried about the dirt, but if he needs the dirt to heal..."
He's usually so smart...
"Don't worry Glimmil, we know what we're doing. Now, for this next part we'll need a young priest and an old priest."
Dyrant looks around for an old priest. Seeing none, he hopes he can fill in for one.
"Excellent. Let us see about next steps, shall we?" Dyrant looks over everything.
"Head? Check. Body? Check. Dirt? Uhm...sure."
"Glim, can you see about opening that chest...you know, the one that you can brag about discovering to your lady gnome friend? What was her name again? Skype? Star? Tripe? Pie?"
It seems like forever since I last saw her...but probably was a few days ago.
"I think we're supposed to put a stake in the chest, not open it."
Glimmil sets to using his spoonery on the chest in question.
Disable Device:
"Take your time, Glimmil. Opening the vampire's chest will take a while."
Dyrant leads the gnome to the wooden chest in need of opening.
"Try again, Glim. Take your time."
Where would they be without me?
Dyrant imagines Glim being crushed by a sliding door in Jzadirune, a spoon being driven through his throat. Finn dropping his sword repeatedly while enemies approach, all the while arguing with voices unseen. Dr. Toffitt never getting out of the pit. And Atol getting lost and so hungry that he begins to eat himself.
Heh.
"Tripe pie sounds good right now. Say, are we supposed to stuff the chest with garlic?"
Glimmil goes through a few different spoons before he finds the right one to open the chest and scoop out its contents. Meanwhile it looks like Drakthar's head is ready for baking with all the garlic.
"Where do we go from here?" Dyrant says as he helps stuff Atol full of loot.
"I think we are done here. Time to get back to the surface. Maybe we go directly back to the Church wherein we can buy more holy water...unless the sun is shining."
Dyrant looks at Drakthar's headless corpse.
"Glim, do you think Cog could bring the body back as well? We should leave it in the sunlight. If it arises again somehow, we're going to have a hard time decapitating it if it already has no head."
"We might run into more trouble on our way out and I think we're all a little wounded. Everyone tighten up, I'm going to channel the power of St. Cuthbert for a last round of healing."
"Perhaps I should carry the body so Glimmil is free to fight anything that tries to keep us from the surface. If I remember correctly we came down in the evening so it's still dark out there. We should rush to the church to make sure we keep this vampire down."
Atol shifts his pack around and prepares to carry the headless corpse.
The forty-some odd pounds of weight that is Glimmil lifts the vampire body from the coffin somewhat awkwardly and begins to work at setting it upon the ninety-some odd pounds of weight that is Cog.
It bears a striking resemblance to an ant hauling a crust of bread four times it size to an ant-hole.
The gnome sweats profusely before looking up at the near-two-hundred-pounds that is Atol and proclaiming thanks in his assistance.
As the Cauldron S... Five... prepare their departure, Glimmil pipes up.
"Hey guys, shouldn't we check these last couple of corners and rooms? Maybe Drak' has some super bad guy stuff tucked away that we should root out?"
The gnome clears his throat.
"Y'know... to protect Cauldron?"
"The vampire must be our first concern. Once he is truly destroyed we can return and finish what we started."
Atol lifts the body and hoists him over one shoulder.
Ugh. Even with the muleback cords this is going to be heavy work.
"I think we are done here. Let us return to the surface and see if the sun still rises," Dyrant says, almost knowingly.
"I suppose it's late. Hiwever,I fancy that the goblins will return and ransack the place, once they discover their thrall master has been slain. I would hate to leave them resources to continue their crimes, but perhaps that's better than pressing our luck."
"If we're leaving I can carry the vampire Atol. Otherwise we can just drag him with us and throw him at the enemy."
We should find out where that tunnel goes.
"If this tunnel goes somewhere shouldn't we find out? After all, it leads all the way into Cauldron itself so far."
Dyrant, while he awaits actual directions of where to go, slowly inches towards the exit...a direction he knows they should go.
"Come Atol, let us get the body to your church."
I wish I had the divine spark. Then it could be my church too.
Dyrant leads the party out and back to Cauldron.
At the temple of St. C, Dyrant wait outside.
Atol doggedly follows Dyrant up the slope and up the stairs. At the church he takes out his pouch and buys holy water to finish off the vampire.
I wonder why Dyrant never comes in?
"Perhaps we ought to also show the proprietor of the shop what was controlling him..."
The party emerges from the caverns into Orak's bathhouse with a couple town guards still posted at the entrance. They begin to inquire about your success when they notice the decapitated Drathkar. Orak is no where to be seen. A guard informs you that he was taken to the jail for his own protection and until the proper authorities could review the matter in the morning.
The party makes it to the Church of St. Cuthbert without incident and Jenya gladly crawls out of bed to retrieve holy water from the church's stores.
"I don't know if this has anything to do with the mysterious creature that brought back Terrem or even the assaults and thefts, but his destruction is a blessing for the city."
"Thank you so much High Priestess for helping us out. Here's the payment for two vials - in case we find another of these fell beasts!"
Atol hands over 50gold to cover the cost of two vials.
He visibly sighs and wipes the sleep from his eyes.
"There, I feel much better. Now, let's go back down there now and finish the job - or do we want to wait a day for fresh spells and healing? I think I'd rather not wait, I sense we have them on the run, but we are awfully close to the bottom of the barrel."