Grimaldus presses the attack one last time, aided by his fellows, and his greatsword cleaves through the Earth Elemental, which crumbles into dust and inert chunks of rock and soil.
Looking over the rubble, you notice odd blue crystals among the usual rock and earth.
This crystalline mineral appears to be Lazurite. You believe you see a suitable specimen, should you have the desire to collect a sample.
You move through the doors the elemental was guarding and discover another wrecked area. Broken furniture litters the room: parts of a stool, a modest writing table battered in twain, and several smashed chairs sprawl across the keep’s wooden floor.
Two sets of stairs, one in the northeast corner and one in the northwest corner, lead to a cellar beneath the prison dubbed Stavian’s Fair by the Swift’s residents.
|
Logain puts his hammer back over his shoulder and grabs hold of his black blade.
"Yes yes I am holding you again, happy now?" He says to the blade.
He looks through the rubble halfheartedly but still finds a little gem in there.
"Hmm looks to be some Lazurite in there. I'll bring it with. It might be worth a penny or two."
After the rest and recovery Logain is ready again for whatever they find next. Holding his black blade at the ready to avoid it annoying him to be held.
Grimaldus finds the door too small for his massive form, but Tresca simply dismisses the spell so he can proceed.
The first level of Stavian’s Fair contains four large solitary confinement pens reserved for political dissidents. These cells are wooden and oddly intact, unlike the iron bars. In the southwest cell, Odo locates a diary, and its last passage details the horrific abduction. Several pages beyond the last entry have been torn out.
Oronia observes the path further down with keen eyes. She notices something the others missed, something different about the stone floor at the landing below. Further investigation reveals a pressure sensitive trigger device, likely for a trap of some manner. She stops the groups progress and gets out her tools and sets to work. The mechanism is tricky and she must place himself in harms way to disarm it, but perseverance wins out and with a click and a strange hiss, the mechanism releases and she is confident he has disabled the trap.
The second level of the Fair is stripped of nearly everything metal, leaving what was once a tangle of dank, solitary confinement cages transformed into a tumbled mess of furniture and prisoner odds and ends.
A collection of broken furniture in the corner suggests a struggle, and Oronia and Grimaldus find a splattering of blood on the floor in front of the door in the northeast corner of the room.
This room is not devoid of life as the previous rooms have been. On the far side of the room stands a man dressed in torn beggar’s rags splashed all over with paint. He doesn't notice your approach as he is engrossed in his work painting a large mural on the wall, so you take a moment to observe his artistry. The mural depicts two large snakes carrying a bell into Cassomir’s sewers and portrays in great detail what is clearly your party chasing after the snakes. Several of you recognize this man as the Crazed Painter, the unnamed man who you have met before who professed himself a prophet of Groetus.
|
Grim remembers the crazed painter, but has no local knowledge that would help identify the location the mural depicts. He does look at the snakes, and wonder what type they may be and if the have greater intelligence. He also investigates the cell where they found blood spatter for any additional clues.
|
|
Odo approaches the painter, remarking on the new work.
"Well, at least we're in pursuit of the snakes and not being swallowed alive by them. I'll consider that at least a tentative vote of confidence."
As Odo watches the painter, he gets a close look at the painting, looking for portents as there were in his other 3 paintings.
Filled with foreboding, Tanselle says "I will go check on the bell!" and she rushes back up the two flights of stairs as swiftly as she can manage, back over the rubble of the broken elementals and into the chapel room.
___________________________________________________________________________ _
Examining the mural, you find the images of the snakes look more stylized than realistic. Disturbingly, upon close scrutiny, Grimaldus notices they have human eyes which seem wickedly amused.
Oronia recalls the Aspis Consortium features the form of the snake upon their standard. The style depicted here is a fair match to the symbol as you have seen it rendered.
The painter startles at first when spoken to, raising his arms defensively. You notice as he does this he has a number of superficial wounds. As he focuses on what Tresca says to him, you see the light of recognition come into his eyes and the painter relaxes considerably and placidly smiles at your group.
He addresses Tresca's question. "I paint what I see, I paint what I must. These snakes are charmers, but you should not trust! Has this scene come to pass yet? I know not, but your friend seems to fret!" He laughs abruptly, the broken cackle reverberating off the walls of the small room.
He then bows his head reverently, apparently pleased to offer his aid and awaiting more questions if you have them.
Grimaldus moves through the room, and opens the only obvious door here in the northeast corner of this room. He finds an open trap door and a ladder that descends into darkness.
The painter turns to Odo, bowing his head in gratitude for the healing before a scowl creases his features and he shakes his fist as he answers his question.
"Damnable Derro!
They drove us down, down, deeper and down
into the depths of the underground.
They have no vision! They do not see!
They put their hands to blasphemy!
This is His vessle, so I bade them 'Cease!'
They shut their ears and thus released
my bonds and drove me away!
I came back for you, lest you go astray."
Grim peers into the darkness, but can see little in the dark depths, though the rank smell and the sound of rushing water suggest a familiar setting, the Sewers beneath Cassomir.
___________________________________________________________________________
Once your business is concluded with the painter, your party descends the ladder into the dark, dank sewers below the Swift with only their own light sources to guide them. Refuse rushes by in a stream of garbage carried swiftly through the sewer proper. A five-foot-wide dry ledge sits a foot above the refuse and provides a walkway on both sides of the sewer. On the far wall, a massive iron door blocks passage beyond. An image carved into the door is of a dispassionate figure holding a gibbous moon.
You see no nearby crossings, only some rock fall that lay like irregular stepping stones.
|
|
"Seriously, though, if one of you can make it over with a rope and another hold it here, perhaps that would be enough to aid me. I don't relish having to clean that muck out of this armor. If we have time I could take it off and carry it across, but it seems we're in a bit of a rush..." He will pull out his silk rope and tie one of his waterskins to one end. Once someone is across, he will toss the waterskin with the rope trailing behind over, and have it secured to something on the other end. Each person could use the rope to help them across...
|
|
Logain looks at the looks at his companion taking a plunge and starts jumping across them
getting to the other side just fine.
"Didn't seem that hard. I'll get the rope."
Once on the other side he casts mage hand on the waterskin floating it and the rope to his side. He then ties it around a heavy rock.
|
|
"Ugggh... This brings back bad memories..." Tresca shudders as she recalls the last time she went in to the sewers. "Oronia, I'm decent at this sort of thing. I can take your pack for you if it would help you cross easier" she offers. Once her companion decides whether to let the half elf take her things, Tresca grabs the rope that Logain secured and makes her way across carefully.
Tresca wobbles slightly under the weight of her heavy pack, but makes it across without incident. Wincing at Grim's fall into the water, she comments to him, "Aren't you glad Kurse isn't here to comment on the water this time?"
Odo acts as the anchor, stabilizing the rope as the others make it across and then carefully navigates his own way, unafraid of the disease ridden waters.
Once the whole of the party has made it across, you investigate the great door. There is no light here beyond what your party have with them. The iron door looks well built and when tested, is found to be firmly locked as well.
|
|
Setting her pack down beside the door, tresca digs around for a moment before pulling out her thieves' tools. "Let's save the loud way for plan 'B', eh Grim?" she comments as she unrolls the tools' case, glances appraisingly at the lock and selects her first tool.
Reaching back into her bag, the alchemist pulls out a sunrod, and lightly strikes it against the ground to light it before tucking it through her belt. She would be happy for the light on this tricky looking lock. Briefly, she presses an ear to the door to check if anything nasty waited on the other side, then sets to work.
|
|
Odo reaches into his pouch and pulls out his wayfinder. "Light? That is easy. It may not be the enlightening power of Sarenrae, but it will do."
He gets a look around.
"Odd that door being here in the sewers, though. Sometimes I wonder at the way this city has been designed. There are secrets everywhere and few of them good."
Oronia shakes her head as she watches Tresca fumble with the lock and lends her aid. Between the two of them, they soon hear the soft click of the tumblers falling away. You hear a soft groan beyond the door in response to the scrapes and clicks of their picks.
|
|
Knowing that the considerably taller Grimaldus can probably see over him with ease, Odo resolves to pass the portal first - holding his lit wayfinder in front of him (to give both of us sufficient light). His scimitar is held loosely in his shield hand, not exactly ready for an attack, but not far from it either.
Odo takes point and opens the door and finds himself looking through a narrow entryway and another doorway ahead. He steps up, peering into the narrow room. You hear a soft groan in the chamber beyond and a foul stench hangs in the air. A purple radiance washes over this cold chamber from a variety of lichens and fungi that grow on the walls and ceiling creating an otherworldly sheen. Straw-filled cages line the north and south walls. In the room’s center, a strange pedestal, carved in the likeness of dozens of grasping tentacles, sits fixed into the stone floor.
Odo notices the prone forms of six men sealed in the cages and starts to step into the room to determine if they yet live. But he notices a furtive movement ahead and pauses, coughing as he is met with a foul aura of the stench of death and decay.
The source of the foul stench immediately becomes clear as a pallid creature appears out of the gloom, snapping ravenously with a maw of long vicious teeth and menacing with terrible claws.
Initiative Order - Surprise
-------------------------------------
Odo
Enemy
-------------------------------------Round 1
Logain
Odo
Tresca
Enemy
Grimaldus
Oronia
|
|
Odo grits his teeth. "The stench of your rotting body fits your unholy appetite, monster! But with the blessing of Sarenrae we will put this right. Beware, comrades! The ghast spreads a foul disease."
Taking a gamble, Odo makes a quick move past the creature, risking his own hide to make room for his friends. As he does so, he shifts hands, switching his wayfinder with his scimitar.
Initiative Order - Surprise
-------------------------------------
Logain - moves in, sickened for minutes
Odo
Enemy
_
_
-------------------------------------Round 1
Logain
Odo
Tresca
Enemy
Grimaldus
Oronia
Logain moves in, choking and gagging on the creature's stench, he looks distinctly unwell.
Odo moves in as well, the undead thing awaiting him in a crouch. It snaps it's maw of wicked teeth down on his wrist as he moves past, slavering and snarling in a rage of bloodlust.
Seemingly pleased with the taste of halfling, the ghast snaps at the paladin again, only just missing him.
|
|
Between coughs Logain sees that the creature plans to stay put. He drops his scimitar (and hears it crying for shame of not being used again!), pulls out his lucerne hammer and casts a spell on it so that lightning covers the head.
With a swing he tries to land the blow on the undead creature.
But his eyes burn and his aim is off. The hammer continues to cackle with energy, ready for another strike if Logain get's the chance.
|
|
Tresca's hand immediately goes for her wand of enlarge person as she hears the sounds of fighting. As she rounds the corner, she realizes that the wand will do no good and instead goes for her alchemy kit. She had no good shot at the enemy for the moment, so she steels herself and tries to run past without getting bitten.
Initiative Order - Surprise
-------------------------------------
Logain - moves in, sickened for 7 minutes
Odo - moves, invoking AoO
Enemy - bites Odo for 10 damage
-------------------------------------Round 1
Logain - swings and misses
Odo - swings defensively and misses
Tresca - moves in, sickened for 7 minutes
Enemy
Grimaldus
Oronia
-------------------------------------Round 2
Logain
Odo
Tresca
Enemy
Grimaldus
Oronia
Logain and Odo press the assault but fail to connect with the wily undead. Tresca moves into the room and is sickened by the creature's stench for minutes. She takes a nasty bite from the creature as she goes by, unable to avoid the hungry snapping jaws.
But thankfully Odo's defensive strategy keeps the creature from finding another tasty halfling or half-elf morsel.