Risbeth grins and her eyes glitter in the diffuse light of the clearing. "There is a time for peace, and a time for blood... Tonight is a time of blood..." She agrees, showing rather prominent canines of her own. "We would be honored to run with your pack this night, and spill the blood of the guilty, those who would foment chaos for their own glory." She rears her head back and lets out a respectable howl of her own, an offer to assist in the hunt, and a request to join, all in one.
The morning after, when everyone is ready to go, Augustus will first take 10 minutes to conjure six large, quasi-real, horselike creature. These phantom steeds have a black head and body, gray mane and tail, and smoke-colored, insubstantial hooves that make no sound. It has what seems to be a saddle, bit, and bridle.
Pretty happy of his prowess, the prof steps back and turns towards the party. "Pretty interesting, isn't it?" he says with a shy smile.
As you get your things together the next morning, Duristan comes out, dressed for a hunt. "I understand you're heading to the Stairs of the Moon. I know where it is, I could guide you."
Having no good directions, you follow the howling dash of the wolves into the woods. The Stairs of the Moon lie only a few hours from Ascanor Lodge. The temple is essentially two buildings in one—a wedge-shaped, f lat-roofed, trapezoidal edifice attached to an immense tower of stacked f lat stones rising to a dizzying height. Also constructed from large stones, the wedge shaped building stands about 25 feet tall, though it contains only a single story. A series of arches in the north wall permits access to the interior of the building’s ground floor, while a pair of ascending ramps carved into stairs climbs to meet the spiraling stair that wraps around the tower. Along the south wall of the temple, the first ramp climbs from the forest f loor in a straight path until it reaches the roof of the low building at its western end, 25 feet above the ground. Along its north wall, the opposing ramp doubles back, climbing another 25 feet to connect with the tower and join the staircase spiraling around it. The tower forms a tapering column of solid rock that rises nearly 150 feet above the forest floor, capped with an open-air observatory at the top. At one time, the tower’s apex stood above the trees, but over the passing years the trees have surpassed its height, hiding the temple from view.
At some point the wolves outpaced you and you're not entirely sure where they went, though you can hear movement from inside.
"Well well, let's all be careful..." Risbeth says, looking around, letting her honed eyes look into shadowy corners and crevices.
Looking around Caesare checks also for any.. surprises.
"There may be creatures other than wolves here as well, like we faced in the lodge. They may come from any direction. Let's move in."
"Let's go, then!" says the prof.
Hearing noises above, you head up the stairs. The archways open into a cavernous, pillar-lined amphitheater of crumbling stone with high ceilings and a rough dirt floor strewn with bones. The skeletons of deer and other larger game animals hang from several of the columns, all of which are painted with crude symbols and marred with scratch marks. The southern portion of the room contains an elevated dais, connected to the earthen floor of the amphitheater by short stairs on either side. To the rear of the dais, an open archway leads deeper into the ruins.
Crouching over the bones is a ghostly pale form, the vilkacis. It turns its eyes to you and there is a cascade of emotions there: pain, anger, hurt, despair, rage. But it does not immediately attack you.
Seeing that it sees them, and doesn't attack, Risbeth takes a half-step forward, and bows.
"Your spirit is troubled, forced to stay on the mortal plain after it's death, and directed by a human who is without honor, wolf. Tell me of your death, so that we may attempt to put it right and return your spirit to it's natural path."
"If it's bones are here we may be able to put it to rest. Otherwise we'll have to put it down."
"What did he say? He growls like he wants to kill us..." says the prof, cowering.
Risbeth bows and then hitches her head sideways. She makes a sushing sound at the Professor. "He said shut the hell up and sneak past before the mangy diseased thing that has his talisman realizes we are here and compells him to rip us limb from limb. If we smash the talisman, it will be freed and it's spirit can flee this world." She whispers to the group, giving a lopsided grin. Then she moves stealthfully as possible past the creature, giving it a wide berth for now.
"Let's go then. We don't have to kill it to lay it to rest and we can take care of any other problems we run into."
"Oh uh. Very good, then." says Augustus, rather confused by the turn of events.
You move onward, before the spirit can change its mind. Down a short hallway you can see two doors, one on either side.
On the left: The small iron portcullis that once blocked the entrance to
this room has been bent to the side, allowing access to what lies beyond. The chamber might once have been some sort of private quarters, though no furnishings remain. Dirt and dust across lie tracked across the floor, and the pungent stench of rot ebbs from the room.
On the right: This room may once have served as some sort of private quarters. Only a few pieces of rusted metal furniture remain, the rest having long rotted away. The dirt has been swept clear from most of the floor, exposing the flagstones beneath.
Risbeth places a finger to her lips, and looks in both doors. Seeing that the room on the right has been used recently, while the one on the left seems to have something rotting in it, she looks at the others. "Rot may be the body of the missing were, or her heart. Clean room more likely to have our wayward human." She whispers softly. "I'm quieter, I suggest we deal with the human first..." She raises an eyebrow, ready to step into the well used room first.
Taking care of his surroundings Caesare moves deftly forward.
Just as Caesare is about to step into the room he suddenly freezes. Looking down he sees an arcane symbol etched into the floor, a symbol of pain! However, looking over his shoulder, Risbeth notices several of the stones in the NE corner of the room look out of place, as if they could be depressed. Perhaps a secret door?
Risbeth will tape Caesare on the shoulder, and nod at the stones, before moving over to them and carefully depressing them.
Risbeth looks at the symbol, and then at the Professor and Caesare. "Is it safe to enter the room? If not, does the symbol have to be in one piece to work?" She whispers...
Looking at the symbol he didn't see earlier, the prof wonders if he knows anything about it.
"Yes, yes. Indeed! Don't enter the room, my dear. It will activate the moment you step inside!"
Risbeth smiles, and puts one palm on each of the Professor's cheeks, looking him directly in the eyes from 3 inches away. "Yes, but does it have to be in one piece to work?" She repeats her question in a whisper.
The Professor knows that destroying the surface upon which a symbol is drawn with destroy it, but also cause it to trigger. It can be dispelled, as with dispel magic or it can be disarmed by a canny sort of person.
"Oh, uh, well... I could dispel it. But I didn't memorize that spell today..." says the prof, embarrassed. "Maybe Caesare can disable it?"
"Someone give me a weapon, a long weapon preferrably..." She says softly, once she has the professor's answer. She tweaks his nose playfully before turning around and examining the stone it's on...
Caesare looks at the symbol and draws his tools... "You might want to go back a bit.
It takes a couple minutes, but Caesare manages to disable the symbol and it de-powers with a soft WHOOSH.
Risbeth watches, and shrugs. "That works too..." Her whisper seems somewhat disappointed that she didn't get to crack the stones and disable the thing herself. She seems to like smashing things that people assume aren't smashable.
Risbeth moves quietly over to the secret door and examines it before raising an eyebrow at Caesare, seeing if he finds anything odd about it...
As the trap is deactivated by Caesare's expert hands, the prof sighs. "I knew I could count on you. I should memorize more often this spell..."
He then follows his dhampir friend as silently as he can.
The secret door is well-concealed, but seems untrapped.
With the silent smile of an expert just having done some excellent work Caesare stands up again and puts his tools back in his pouch.
"If you think it is safe, pray open!"
Risbeth smirks. "If I was unsure, I'd punch my way through. In my experience, sneaky trap builders assume you are going to open it, rather than step through the center." She whispers, then manipulates the door and tries to open it as quietly as possible.
A partition of iron bars divides this chamber. To one side, rows of shelves lined with bottles and beakers filled with strange fluids and jars containing powdered reagents and herbs surround a long stone surgical table. Another shelf holds a selection of tarnished surgical tools. On the far side of the bars, a 10-foot-deep pit sits in the floor of a crudely chiseled cave. Rusted manacles lie scattered about the floor near the edge of the pit.
Crouching in this room, in a state of madness, is Estovion, the Lodge Warden. His clothes are torn and bloodied and he has a wicked bite mark on his forearm. His eyes are wild and he springs up as soon as the door opens!
Round 1
Professor, Risbeth, Sonny
Estovion
Caesare
Risbeth sees the man and races forward, putting her momentum into a spinning kick that continues, letting her get in a spinning back hand and then a final back kick!
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Augustus conjures small particles that cling to Estovion's skin and eyes.
Sonny sees the wild man and then looks at the professor, "Sorry for this, you might want to back up." He then makes a few gestures and prays for silence and the room gets quiet.
Risbeth explodes into the room, her limbs flying. Her fist smashes the amulet around Estovion's neck and in seeming slow motion, she sees the thing fly off into the pit, breaking into dust as it goes. The dust lands upon an ancient skeleton half buried at the bottom and a sudden spectral sigh fills her ears. As if time stops, she sees the form of the vilcakis appear, hovering above the skeleton. It slowly morphs into a young man, his eyes older than they ought to be. He looks down at the skeleton, nods once and dissolves into moondust.
Estovion, still in slow motion, howls as the trinket is destroyed. Risbeth, now back to normal time, smashes him across the jaw as he spits teeths from a now ruined jaw! As he rocks back, a flash of glitter erupts over the wizard-lodge master! Estovion's closed eyes save him from being blinded, but just a second later, the world goes silent all around!
Bereft of spells, Estovion draws a fine looking longsword and awkwardly slashes at Risbeth! Risbeth easily dodges the swipe!