"How bothersome." Etna says, examining the shrine "We will have to properly desecrate this shrine as soon as we can, and I'm not saying that just because I hate the idea of having a Mitran shrine this close to where I'll sleep."
"There is a strong evocation aura coming from the belt pouch of that statue." the ifrit says as she points to it "We will do well to handle it with care."
"With what they did to this floor, you would think that defacing murals is an important and respected Mitran tenet." Etna chuckles as she glances at the murals as they walk across the corridor.
"I did not know that the Horsemen had such a long history." she comments "I thought the cult originated in Talingrade, but I suppose it makes sense for them to come from the mainland. I could study their whole history, but I think that for the time being it will do good to us to study it from the summoning of Vetra-Kali onward: maybe we will gleam some useful informations."
"It is a nuisance, isn't it?"
Tatienne approaches the statue, and hesitantly puts her hands on it, closing her eyes, doing her best divine the carved pouch's nature.
Tatienne lingers in this room, walking slowly along the murals, her brow creased with concentration, a slight smile on her lips. "Fascinating! I shall have to learn Daemonic, I suppose. Do any of you have a way to send for a book or a tutor? I guess I could always spend a bit of each day chatting with Hexor and Vexor."
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When Tkaara arrives at the sanctified room, she feels as though she is hit with a hammer of good. It is almost overwhelming, even more so with the sacred etchings of Mitra carved in the walls. Without thinking, and almost reflexively, Tkaara whispers a prayer to the Pallid Princess, hoping to dispel this bastion of good from within the confines of the Horn.
Cast Dispel Magic
Caster Level:
Seeing the statue, and realizing that it is magic. Tkaara attempts to read what the magic might be.
Spell craft:
Seeing the tale, Tkaara simply stands, unmoving, and takes in all she can in an attempt to discern the meaning, and whether there is anything that might be of use, especially from the latter portion with the summoning of Vetra-Kali.
Knowledge(All not listed below):
--> 20 <-- planes & arcana
--> 22 <-- religion
Erevan can almost feel the consecrated altar before he sees it. 'A side-effect of my new state of being, I suppose,' he ponders off-handedly. Still, he cannot deny that the divine magic and its nature cause him what he can only describe as discomfort and a sense of trepidation. For this reason he is only too happy to let Tkaara dispel the effect or at the very least attempt to do so, all the while wondering if his own power could possibly contribute to that end.
2-18
Tkaara mutters something under her breath, and the shrine immediately blackens and falls, collapsing in on itself as the passage of 80 years' rot, mildew and woodworm takes its toll.
A solitary candle stub rolls across the floor, striking Tkaara's foot.
All is silence.
Hexor and Vexor look at you with a new respect, before bowing and vanishing away.
2-19
Also, there is another of those sweet, sweet emeralds, promising so much, oh so very very much, if you will just free it from the stone it's trapped in...
2-22
Fascinating. There appear to be some actual rituals here, although you are looking at a month (at least) of work and research to transcribe and activate them. Possibly also some help - the thing is complex.
Tatienne whistles, long and high-pitched, as the room settles into a respectably un-concecrated state. "I must say, that was impressive."
Gasping, Taty removes her hand from the statue, a smile gracing her lips. "He was a Son most likely, turned to stone. We have to turn him back to flesh! Not for the flesh itself, but for what lies within his pouch... Another Eye of Vetra-Kali!"
"I wouldn't discard the flesh, either: we just have found a sacrifice for Vetra-Kali. We were quite lucky" the fire-haired woman smiles pleased "We will have no problem to provide a scroll to turn him back."
"Hmmph. If you wish to sacrifice him, it may behoove you to put his head back on first. It was with those other statues we saw back there."
Felrin's unusually high spirits continue as the Ninth Knot continues to explore the Horn, and Tkaara's effectiveness at destroying the holy shrine does nothing to diminish them. "Nicely done, Tkaara. Looks like you're making a good impression on our new friends."
As he hears the results of Taty and Tkaara's study of the statue, he gives a low whistle, a quiet echo of Tatienne's more excited one of a few moments ago. "That is all manner of useful information," he remarks, nodding.
"Etna, I've no idea how to turn this statue back into the man he once was. Do you mean to say you know how to do that, or think you can puzzle it out?"
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Tkaara smiles, almost, as she feels the goodness and light crushed by the blasphemy of the Pallid Princess. When her companions begin to speak, she looks to them with her cold undead eyes.
The darkness shall flow through this place. This shall be the bastion from which the power and control of this pitiful land shall originate.
Tkaara walks around the headless statue.
Interesting. If this was indeed a disciple of the daemon lord, then we may have the sacrifice we need. It is much easier to find a disciple of the Sons of the Pale Horsemen when one is presented as a gift, then to hope to fine a disciple amongst the mass of light worshippers comprising the populace.
Tkaara will continue to research the murals in an attempt to decipher the rituals. With 222 days required for the main ritual, she should have plenty of time to review and research the murals.
"Well, a simple Flesh to Stone spell will do, but it is not something that I'm able to cast unfortunately. A scroll will do...even if there is the possibility that our Daemonic worshiper could die in the process." the ifrit furrows her brow "Still, at least we'd have the Eye."
Ottakar rolls his eyes. "Do try not to tax yourselves. I assume we do not wish to burden ourselves with a prisoner at this moment, but when it is time to restore the subject we already have the means at our disposal. Once we have secured a convenient place to store it, I will retreive the head and reverse the process myself so that we might have living sacrifice and artifact both."
Tatienne tries her hardest, but can't help but realize her eyes are rolling back - deep - into her head. I simply have to get that man enrolled in an etiquette class.
Taty goes to leave, giving the statue one last, lingering look. "You know, why shouldn't we reverse the statue now? If he comes back alive, we can keep the man in the Boggard's prison. That he comes back alive is debatable, I'd wager, unless we line up that head just perfect on the body, and the statue took a clean break."
"Certainly, the Eye would be safer in our possession. Last thing we need is some Boggard to get brave and come up here and decide to be a vandal. Or worse, Talingardian agents are onto us, and a servant of Mitra finds this statue and susses out what we have."
The Doctor shrugs, his bored face obviously indicating that he does not care in the slightest.
Having explored this level, the only way to go further is to re-enter the pillar in the throne room and continue up.
3-12
After another hundred feet or so, the narrow spiral staircase that has taken you all the way from the hidden chamber in the lower caverns (C5A) terminates in a landing. This room is empty and bare. There are two badly deteriorated skeletons inside broken worthless suits of what was once masterwork full-plate. The ruined armour is covered in symbols similar to those that adorn the Horn itself. These are all that remains of the guards who stood in the way of the Victor as he fought his way towards the sanctum.
On the far side of the wall is a door, half ajar. Opening it leads into
3-13
This is a large chamber, adorned with runes - which start to glow the moment you enter the room.
Instantly, there is a *pop* and Hexor and Vexor materialise into the centre of the room. They look around swiftly, claws raised, eyes glowing - then they realise that it is you. Hexor bows.
"Dumped, I should say. After all, we then have to make our own way back." Vexor pipes up.
"This is indeed true. But we have not been summoned here for some time, no indeed, not for many a year..."
"There was that elf."
"Oh, yes! Your memory is terribly good, old boy. I'd completely forgotten him. But then, we did scatter him rather swiftly, did we not?"
"That we did indeed."
Etna has barely the time to look around the room, trying to see if she recognized the symbols on the walls, when the Daemons appear. Listening to them, her hair light up a little when Hexor and Vexor mention the elf.
"It seems the Kyonyn elf of the Seventh Knot was here, with was being the important part: Hexor and Vexor made short work of him, but I've asked them if the elf had any journal or such on him, so that we may know what happened to the rest of the Knot." the Ifrit explains to the others.
Hexor grins and spreads his claws wide. Vexor doesn't bother with the grin.
"It was indeed, some months past. Honestly, 80 years go past with nothing and then-"
"I recall distinctly, we were in the middle of tea and this, this-"
"boor"
"-thank you, dear boy; yes, this boor stumbles up here and we must needs swoop in... so I confess that we were somewhat, somewhat..."
"Discontented."
"Displeased."
"We were rather short with him, in truth. We bisected-"
"trisected-"
"-and dissected him. And then we ate him."
"Not raw, of course. We're civilised, after all."
"So we are, indeed. We cooked him nicely. Then we ate him."
"Indeed we did. Now if you've no more questions, there is a pot of tea that has just boiled. Shall we, dear boy?"
"Rather, old thing."
With that, they bow and vanish.
Though Felrin has not yet learned the tongue spoken by Hexor and Vexor, he can't help but smile and chuckle quietly at their very obviously proper manners.
"I wonder," he muses aloud, "if there is an outer plane somewhere full of tea-drinking daemons, their claw-tipped pinkies lifted just so. Or did we get the only two?"
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Tkaara simply shakes her head at the comments by the Daemons, but files away the idea as the idea of tea after snacking on submissive servants sounds quite appealing. As the former barrister thinks about this, she hears her stomach rumble and hopes that the party finds something for a snack before too much longer.
Apparently the teachings of Mitra leave much to be said about the lower planes.
"I wonder," he muses aloud, "if there is an outer plane somewhere full of tea-drinking daemons, their claw-tipped pinkies lifted just so. Or did we get the only two?"
"Oh," Tatienne says, her maimed hand going unconsciously to her neck. "I certainly hope there's such a place!"
Tatienne had stayed up most of the evening reading a dog-eared and dated treatise on Daemonic, but suffice it to say, a night of study wasn't enough time to grasp the twisted tongue of pure, unrelenting hate. Still, Taty was fearless in her own way. She certainly wasn't going to let something as silly as practice stop her from, well, practice.
3-13
Perhaps thankfully for Tatienne, Hexor and Vexor have disappeared by the time she gets her words out. A few moments after their departure, the glowing runes on the walls flicker and fade (although they still give off a strong aura of abjuration and conjuration to those who are sensitive to such things).
Now that you have more time to focus, you can see that this rounded chamber has a high domed ceiling and is everywhere adorned with grisly bas relief depictions of the nightmare realm of Abaddon. A spiral staircase without railing rises at the western end of the room. A curved half-wall blocks direct access to the staircase.
Erevan, Felrin and Ottakar spot a hidden door in the western wall.
"Well, well, well," Erevan mutters as he approaches the western wall, albeit without getting too close. "There is a door here. Carefully made to look like a part of the wall, certainly, but here nevertheless."
"Felrin?" His addressing the tiefling has a clear enough meaning. When someone has gone to the trouble of building a hidden door, there may very well be traps involved as well.
Felrin joins Erevan as he approaches the hidden door, replying, "Makes sense to me." He studies the secret door a moment before nodding to Tkaara to see what lies on the other side. "Just because she can slip through and see what's there, doesn't mean the rest of us can ignore any traps, eh?"
Felrin doesn't find any traps.
Etna nods to Felrin, and waits for the door to be opened.
Sadly, I can only post exploration details from home, as that's where my notes are...
And I'm not at home right now.
3-4
Once the door is open, you find yourselves in an empty former guardroom, holding nothing of interest. There is a door in the opposite wall.
Opening it leads to
3-1
This is a long, wide hallway with five doors. The baroque decoration continues and everywhere is found bas relief carving showing the doings of daemons.
Six green ominous flickering continual flames (one beside each of the single doors and two beside the double doors at the end of the hall) light this hall.
There is a great deal of Daemonic script here as well.
with a grand archway that leads to a balcony. No stairs rise to this grand archway. Instead, to enter here you must either fly or climb. To climb is no simple feat. This entranceway rises more than two hundred feet above the cavernous entry (C1) far below. The easiest way is to climb from the entrance to level 2 . This still involves a ninety foot angled ascent. It is far easier to fly or levitate to the entrance. The landing platform is baroquely adorned with every surface decorated with countless daemons tormenting and triumphing over mortals foolish enough to oppose them.
Prominent among these decorations to the left of archway is a bas relief of Vetra-Kali sitting cross-legged.
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Tkaara, having reverted to material form, walks with the others looking a the different carvings and murals on the walls.
Most of this appears to be in a Daemonic tongue, unfortunately I cannot decipher what it means. The words themselves are understandable, but the tongue itself is confusing at best, especially when describing what appears to be some type of religious or historic event.
Knowledge(planes):
Looking up at the balcony, Tatienne whistles. "Who else besides myself and Tkaara can fly?"
"I have means to fly, too, and can provide them for you, too. Unfortunately, I do not know if I can muster the concentration to cast the spells twice for both me, Felrin, Erevan, and the Doctor." the ifrit says, as she tries to make sense of the convoluted script in demonic.
"Shall we first try to check the other doors on this floor, or try to fly up now? We may find others means to get on the upper floor from the inside, possibly."
"Before we go out on the balcony," Felrin warns, "you all should know about the trap - a rather cleverly concealed pit trap, right in the doorway out to the balcony." He squints his eyes a moment and studies the statue of Vetra-Kali carefully before concluding, "It appears that the three eyes in the statue are buttons that, if pressed simultaneously, deactivate the pit trap, sparing one a rather long fall."
Looking around the chamber, he says, "I suggest we leave the balcony and its trap be for a moment, and see where these other doors lead." He walks to the door on the far wall and gives it a look and listen, then turns to be sure the others are ready before opening it.
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Tkaara walks to the edge, raising her shadow penumbra shield if necessary.
Only a problem if you are foolish enough to fall. If we need to protect this place, we know where to guard. \
She looks over at the Doctor and then to Felrin.
I am sure you two can create some nasties to warn, probably via dismemberment, anyone foolish enough to climb this high.
"This place has already provided us with mineral acid, a potent tetrodotoxin, a pair of dapper daemons, and an almost complete alchemical golem. I am sure we will be able to think of something to keep out unwanted visitors."
"By all means Felrin," Erevan says simply as he waits for the tiefling to open the door, his spear never far from his grasp.
Opening the door leads to...
3-5
As ornate and baroque as the entryway hall is, it pales before this expansive and vaulted chamber. This is the Horn’s third temple - evidently reserved only for the most senior of the Sons of the Pale Horseman. The chamber is adorned with a riot of lurid color. Brilliant bas reliefs depict daemons of every sort engaged in countless acts of wanton evil, callous destruction and inhuman savagery.
Rows of pews allow a congregation of the chosen to gather. The podium is doubtless where foul sermons of Abaddon’s wisdom and bile were delivered to those gatherings. At the front of the chamber are four shrines : a white shrine decorated with bas relief depictions of open pits of the dead and lepers crying in anguish; a shrine of red stone decorated with cruel iron weaponry and scenes of slaughter; a shrine of black stone decorated with images of mortals wasting away from hunger and starvation; and a shrine of pale green stone adorned with a skull with two coins over its eyes and an inscription of jagged writing which reads “Behold a pale horse. Its rider is Death and all shall follow him.”
In the centre of it all is a large bas-relief image of Vetra-Kali sitting cross-legged holding his greatest work, his masterpiece, a vial of some sort. Below the vial is inscribed a name ‘The Tears of Achlys.’ Vetra-Kali also holds three blades and a strange jagged key.
The jagged key has an inscription in Daemonic. The three eyed daemon prince pays homage to the four shrines, but there is no doubt that this chamber is built primarily to honor him.
On all the other walls are litanies of the deeds of this monster. It was Vetra-Kali who crossed the great void and came to the prime material plane to establish the Sons of the Pale Horseman. It was he who oversaw the construction of the Horn of Abaddon and it is because of this that the Horn superficially resembles this horror from another world.