Vuhazk growls in agreement.
"Yeesssssss." He starts to pace about anew, clenching his blood-drenched claws. "They have struck at my people with impunity for too long. Now, they are certain to be reeling."
He looks over the party. "You are all on a different mission, and this is a Lake Claw matter. We will deal with the Sun-Eaters ourselves. But first, there's the matter of the deal we struck..."
The lizardfolk warchief looks at Saersha. "Have you spoken with Ucutzi about your protective charms?"
Saersha shook her head and said, "We haven't had the chance yet since she's been rather busy helping treat the afflicted. I was going to make that a priority today." Saersha saw Ucutzi directing the gathering of the fallen Sun-Eaters and said, "Let me go speak with her now, if you'll excuse me."
Saersha rose and asked, "Embyr, are you coming with me or would you rather stay with the others?" Once her maid had made her decision Saersha headed towards Ucutzi.
As she walked Saersha saw the carnage and thought about what Ucutzi had said about eating the dead Sun-Eater and blanched slightly at the thought. She made a mental note to not eat any strange meats later and approached the shaman with her her usual swishing gait. "Ucutzi? I believe we need to work on those protections, are you ready?"
Ada will continue to tend to the injured while Saersha talks to Ucutzi. She just bandages up scratches, and stops minor bleeding with mundane methods.
Embyr steps next to Saersha and wordlessly takes her hand.
Ucutzi nods at the lust mage. "Yes. Follow me."
---------------
Ucutzi leads you down a side passage to what looks like a storage cavern filled with all manner of strange reagents. Oddly-coloured leaves and fungi poke out of overflowing wicker baskets while the corpses of small game animals hang from the ceiling.
"What must be done to create these protective wards?" The lorekeeper asks.
Saersha took Embyr's hand and squeezed it gently as they followed Ucutzi to what seemed to be her lab and she looked around at what was available to work with. She went through some of the herbs but herbalism wasn't her thing really and so she looked at Ucutzai and said, "The first thing we need is some find of fabric or leather and whatever you use to sew with. We need to make a badge or pendant of some kind with a specific rune on it to counter that enchanted fog. While the talisman is being made magic must be channeled into it to empower the effect and a drop of blood used to help bind the magic in place."
Ucutzi nods and walks over to another wicker basket, pulling out a thin strip of what looks like a recently skinned animal hide.
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Ryn gathers up the weapons and gear carried by the fallen Sun-Eaters. "Care to give this a look-over, see if anything would be useful, Love?" she asks Azura. "And maybe a quick pass with the magic cleaning." she says making a face at the armor.
Saersha spent the next few hours teaching Ucutzi how to make the rune needed to repel the mists effect and how to do add magic to it while she did. The process wasn't all that hard really, not once you knew how, and by the time she had made a few examples Ucutzi was able to make them herself.
With the shaman having completed one of them Saersha examined it and said, "Well done. With practice you can make them more rapidly but I wouldn't concern yourself with speed for now." One of the lovely mage's eyebrows rose questioningly as she asked, "Do you think you can train your apprentices how to make this?"
"Yes." Ucutzi nods. "Thank you, Saersha."
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After Saersha returns, Warchief Vuhazk approaches the party once more. "You have honoured your end of the bargain, warm-bloods, and now I shall honour mine."
He turns and lets out a quick hiss. In response, Arthak steps up to him.
"Arthak. You will lead these warm-bloods through the Forbidden Tunnels. Take them to the wound in the earth, guarded by effigies of the Ancient One. See that they do not come to harm." The warchief instructs, pointing down a nearby tunnel.
Arthak pauses, glances at Saersha and nods. "I shall." He turns to the party and gestures for them to follow him before moving down the tunnel the chief pointed at.
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The tunnel goes deep beneath the earth, going down and down to a point where no luminescent fungi grow. Arthak slides what looks like a tree branch with a crystal stuck to one end and strikes it against the wall--in response, the stick starts to shed a bright yellow light.
"We are not far now. Be wary--our best hunters have taken this path before, and returned with nothing to show but scars and fear." Arthak says just before the party reaches a large stone disk with several runes etched into it. "A warning sign, for those who stray too far."
"Are you prepared?"
Ada draws her sword, and nods ready to go into the cavern.
Saersha smiled at Arshak and nodded her thanks for guiding them and followed the lizardman with Embyr at her side. It was a bit of a hike and when they found the runes she stopped to look at them. As she did she said, "Make sure the item I gave each of you for protection is visible, I hope that it will help convince any guardians that we have business here. Now," she focused on the runes again, "let me see if these will be of any use."
Ulfr nods near the back of the group. He'd taken up rear-guard voluntarily and kept a watchful eye as the party descended into darkness.
"The runes seem to be part of some kind of warding to keep the effects of Lady's Light contained. This one seems intact but I bet the Greymaidens busted the one they went past, that's probably the source of the mist." Her examination complete Saersha looked to Arthak and said, "Thank you for guiding us here Arthak, you have done your clan proud."
Saersha stepped closer to the lizardman and rose on her tiptoes to kiss his muzzle before stepping back and saying, "You are free to return to your people if you wish." She watched the reptilian man carefully to see what he would do next.
Arthak lets out a little growl and flicks Saersha's lips with his tongue.
"...I promised to see you to the wounded earth. I must keep it." He says before turning back to the stone disk and resting his hand on it.
The wards on the disk flare brightly before dimming, and he easily rolls the disk into the earthen wall. Beyond the stone disk, the air becomes decidedly damp and cold, and a pale mist drifts across the floor. The tunnel levels out beyond the disk, continuing onward for at least thirty more feet before opening up into what looks like a crossroads of four tunnels--one to the northeast (where the party is), one to the southeast, one to the southwest and the last to the northwest.
The intersection of four tunnels is a chamber with a ceiling that rises to twenty feet in height, with the pale mist drifting from the northwestern most cavern tunnel. The surrounding earthen walls are damp with moisture, and the roots of several trees can be seen poking through the ceiling.
Arthak points down the northwestern tunnel. "That way."
Something approaches, it's skittering... Ulfr turns to face the south-west tunnel.
Skittering into view is what appears to be a giant, jet-black spider, bloated and covered in short, spiny fur. Its many eyes glitter with a strange intelligence, and what appears to be some sort of glowing green rune is emblazoned on its belly. It abruptly stops when it enters the central chamber, its many eyes taking in the party--and Saersha in particular.
Its mandibles click twice, and then it starts to mumble something in the ragged voice of a female...
"...new supplicants?" She finally asks in Common.
Arthak tenses up and he starts to bare his claws.
Ada tenses, but doesn't respond.
Ryn subtly shifts into a fighting stance, moving to step in front of Azura. "Saersha....any idea what she's talking about?"
Ulfr remembers all to clearly the last time he faced talking spider-like monsters. He holds his ground and grips his club so tight his knuckles turn white.
Saersha met the spider's eyes and listened as it spoke and recognized it for what it was. When her companions began to shift to a more aggressive posture in case it attacked Saersha held her hand up slowly to indicate they needed to wait a moment. She didn't want to antagonize it and she suspected it's words were the answer to bypassing it.
Bypassing this guardian is likely as simple as extolling the virtues of the Runelord of Lust.
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Saersha thought she knew the appropriate response and spoke tot he Aranea in the same language.
The aranea shudders in response to Saersha before replying in the ancient language.
The spider-person points a leg in the direction of the northwest tunnel. "Enter, supplicants."
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The north-west tunnel stretches for what feels like forever, with the pale mist growing thicker and thicker until it becomes nigh-impossible to see your own feet. The tunnel then curves southward before opening up.
At the end of the tunnel, the rough cave walls give way to a chamber of worked stone, with walls made of blue-veined white marble. The ceiling is supported by columns masterfully sculpted to depict nude, voluptuous warrior-women wielding two-headed guisarmes, with each column unique and strikingly detailed. At the centre of the room is a ten-foot square shaft that descends into the darkness below, with the pale mist spilling out of its edges.
Arthak comes to a stop. "Here. The wound in the earth, where the mists crawl free."
Azura stays behind Ryn once the gladiatrix moves in front of her - after taking that nasty blow to the belly earlier, she has no desire for a repeat.
Peeking out from behind Ryn's arm she looks up and down the sculptures and the cave walls.
"So much white marble," she whispers.
"You think we have to... go spelunking?"
She snickers for a second and says, "Sorry, I can't help it. Sorshen made it so you have to enter her hole. Hoo. Well."
Arthak nods in agreement. "Indeed. But beware the statues... they do not take kindly to intruders."
Ryn can't help but chuckle. "Not big on subtlety, that's for sure., I'm going to end up having to stick my arm in somewhere aren't I?" the gladiatrix only half-jokes.
Saersha took in the statues carefully as she considered how to proceed. She listened to Arthak's warning and nodded as she said, "I will remember Arthak." Saersha's hand grasped Embyr's and gave her a reassuring squeeze as she rolled her eyes and Azura's humor and said, "It wouldn't surprise me Azura."
"Let me go first, I will try to talk us past the statues if I can but we may not have a choice but to destroy them." Saersha's gaze drifted back to the statues adn she squared her shoulders before approaching them openly. When she stood before them, the rune of lust that she wore prominently displayed, as she went.
Saersha stopped when the statues command her to and spoke.
The four statues beyond the square shaft twitch in response to Saersha's approach, and the grinding of stone fills the air as their heads turn to stare at the lust mage. They start to raise their guisarmes, but upon hearing her speak and seeing the rune of lust so prominently displayed, they lower their weapons and stand at attention.
It appears they are not inclined to attack.
"That seemed to work." Ada carefully approaches to stand next to Saearsha to see what happens.
The statues do not respond to Ada's advances.
Saersha looked to her companions and said, "Come on, they will let us through now." With that she walked past the statues heading deeper inside.
Ulfr takes up rear guard again, keeping at least one eye on the statues the whole time.
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Once a rope has been secured around a nearby statue (and really, if they were flesh and bone, they'd probably be into it), the party starts making their way down the mist-shrouded hole. Arthak gives them a nod and leaves them to venture inside.
The interior of the hole is pitch-black, and a detect magic spell reveals that there are several powerful magical auras filling it--among them deeper darkness, silence and feather fall. Indeed, as the party descends, they find themselves making no noise whatsoever, and the only indications of there being anything other than a featureless black void to cling to are the feeling of cold stone and the roughness of the rope they're climbing down.
After a few minutes of careful descent, the darkness and silence finally give way to a grand hall made of polished grey marble, its ceiling rising to a height of 25 feet. The ceiling is supported ornate columns whose central eight-foot sections have been carved to resemble beautiful naked women. A ten-foot square platform sits in a wide alcove in the north wall, atop which lies a white marble sarcophagus with a painted lid. The sound of gently running water echoes from the hallway to the west.
The party has taken their first steps into the long-unexplored domain of one of the most powerful Runelords in history.
Saersha went down the whole with the rest of her companions and marveled at what she saw around them after they reached the bottom. The sculptures were incredibly life like and she wondered if they would be more columns like the ones above. Saersha quickly cast a spell to see auras and began to analyze what she saw around her.
Above all the other things they saw Saersha's gaze was drawn to the sarcophagus. She didn't understand why but she felt she had to see it. She watched for more auras as she approached the raised area so she could peer within what was on it.
You identify both spells--the first is a phantasmal killer trap. The second is a clone.
"I'm glad we didn't have to fight the statues, they're all so pretty and well made." Zev thinks aloud as he follows behind Saersha as they progress into the temple or workshop. It was a very beauitful place whatever it was.
"I don't think any of these are the type to move though, just works of art."
"There is a lot of magic around this sarcophagus, I can see two spells, one is on the outside of the sarcophagus and looks to be phantasmal killer, a spell that kills you with fear by a vicious illusion. The other is necromantic," Saersha said. She looked more closely and gasped as she realized what it was. Saersha approached the sarcophagus closer, careful not to touch it, and looked inside as she said, "I think it's a clone spell. Who's clone could it be though?"
”Wait, so is someone in there? Alive?” Zev asked, confused and concerned.
"Yeah, I have to say, the columns and sculptures her are absolutely beautiful!" Ryn says taking it all in, while still remaining on guard.
Saersha nodded as she said, "Yeah, it's something like that. A clone spell makes a duplicate of the target's body. You can then put it under a spell to preserve it and if the original dies their mind and abilities all transfer into the clone body." Saersha considered how to simplify the explanation and then said simply, "It's like a get out of death free card for wizards."
Saersha began examining the sarcophagus for a means to open it without triggering the lethal spell placed on it. She hoped there was a means of doing so but she wasn't expecting much.
There isn't a way to open the sarcophagus without triggering the killer spell on it.
Ember comes up to Saersha and taps her on the shoulder. "Maybe I should take a look at it, Mistress?"