Apart from the normal magic she usually has on herself, and the magic itens, you sense no other magic at work, or any lingering effect.
Hiding what? And most importantly, how do we compell him to give it up?
Kitara keeps her giggling up, and clings to Nahia, her eyes a mix of ecstatic joy and pure terror.
"Erza knows how to enter the secret chamber, behind the door that radiates magic. He hides the third eye there, as well as other things. He..., wants to taste me. He teased me..., caressed me. Tried to entice me. The thrill, the cold..., Flames sissy it has been so long since I have felt true cold. I wanted to so badly..."
She shivers again at the thoughts, holding herself tight to Nahia, and leans into her embrace.
So we offer him some sacifices so he will open the chamber? Or we can attempt to enter ourselves.
She wants to feel the cold?... She certainly does feel cold...
Nahia glances down at the girl for a moment before reaching up to stroke her hair. "We need to deal with him now. And given his recent behavior, I am not very interested in giving him what he wants." she says with an unusual harshness.
Seren's eyes light up for a moment and a smirk comes over her face as a spark of black energy trickles around her fingers.
"If the rest of you can protect me... I might be able to bring him under my control long enough to get the information out of him... I can't be sure I can overpower him, but it is an option."
And maybe long enough to get some information of my own...
Then we will have a furious ghost once he slips the leash.
Kitara hugs herself to Nahia, shivering as she looks around to the others. "Something as strong as he..., he will cause us trouble later. If he cannot be controlled, then eliminated. Flame's sake, the chill is unending. I have not felt this cold..., since..., since..., the pyre. My pyre..."
Grumblejack had been watching the whole thing without saying anything or even doing anything.
Ever since his awakening, he found himself more prone to think before doing something, and while he still loved a good carnage, his instincts told him that such carefree attitude was something he wasn’t capable anymore.
The ogre had changed; bigger, stronger, clever.
He looks at everyone present.
There’s Elfy, my meal, later.
There’s Rotten un’, my teacher.
There’s Pompous un’, thought Grumblejack can never call her that.
There’s Puppy un’. Pompous un' plaything.
There’s Tiny un. Wait, is she a un’? Elfy said something about half-thingly.
And lastly, there’s the Nuts un’. Pompous un’ sister’s...
Agreed, we can try getting them from Farhold.
Kitara nods, and manages to her feet, leaning on Nahia as she does so. "He still seems to be able to command magic from his life. In addition to his abilities as a spook."
Rose, you said the Horn needs more security by way of traps and guards. Let us get in touch with The Baron and ask for craftsmen and also ask our cultist about possible fanatics for the cause. Or, we confine the guards to certain levels so they don't stumble upon the daemons or boggards.
Still crying, still not looking at you, Deanne asks ”Why are you troubling me so. What do you want from me?”
Rose was briefly worried by Kit's outburst, but when it was clear she was safe, the anger at what she had done started to creep up on her.
"Kit, i'm not going to tell you what you did was stupid. You already know that. I'm glad you're alright. You don't need that kind of cold. It's bad for you. No more visiting Ezra without someone there to watch out for you." Rose let out a long breath and rubbed her eyes. "That sounds good, Hound. Lets make it happen. And once we have the supplies, lets get rid of that wraith."
Hound and Rose dutifully make an appointment with the Baron and hire craftsmen to repair the pit trap doors, clear away any vegetation and inquires about mercenaries with flexible ethics who can help stand watch at the stairway chokepoints.
They also make sure the tavern has a good stock of food and ale that will only be indulged in off duty.
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Mysty will start to work out good locations for traps, and what type of traps.
Ideas Mysty puts forward.
-Acid pit traps (in the cavern area)
-repairing the big pit trap, and the cage below
-tanglefoot bag traps
-poison stake traps
-pit traps with a dangerous animal at the bottom.
-alarm traps
-deadfalls
Mysty raises these ideas at a meetingThe point of a trap is not to kill our opponents, although that is good if it happens, but to pin them in place so the defenders attack them with advantage, and to debilitate them. So the traps need to be at choke points that have defenders near. Traps should be inconvenient and painful. As such we need minions to back the traps up. Reliable ones. On that i don't trust those toad men. They folded too easily when we attacked, so their morale is fragile. But they know the area...we could task them as scouts, and maybe animal catchers for traps and such.
Mysty looks at the others. Remember we, of course, are the ultimate reserve in defending the horn.
She looks back at the map they have made of the horn and taps her chin with a pensive air.
Can we staff the horn with members of our organisation? Seems like better security. Wouldn't want a mercenary to get an attack of conscious...or greed. And better than toad men. she says.
But before any of this, we need to destroy our squatter, that wraith. We cannot effectively defend this place with that threat behind us, and we don't want him picking off minions either. And we need that third gem. Failure is not an option here, and overkill is no sin.
She will also go with hound and co to see the baron.
The pit trap and cage of course, plus alarms. The acid down in the caverns. Members from the organization is an excellent idea and we'll no doubt have to bring some of them inside sooner or later.
Rose taps her lips in thought. "What's the enemy of our enemy?"
"Lets prepare to take down the wraith. Lets wait to actually attack him though. We offer Ezra sacrifices, get him on our side, get into the secret room and ready for the ritual. If I'm right about what's going to happen when we mess with that seal, the solution to the Ezra problem might come marching to our door. Mitrans bring an awful lot of holy energy with them. It's just a matter of pitting them against each other and then taking out the survivors. In the mean time we add Ezra's formidable strength to our defenses."
She eyed her sister with a judgmental but amused eyebrow. "We just have to keep Kit out of Ezra's arms until then."
"Mysty, can you make traps the Boggards could trigger themselves, rather than relying on tripwires or pressure plates? That might seriously improve their effectiveness."
"I'm a big fan of bear traps. They're cheap, reusable and easy to hide. I have a couple we could use now, and more would be really easy to get."
Rose went to the corner where her gear was stowed and retrieved a set of saddlebags. She passed the whole thing to Mysty.
"There's four bear traps in there. I have pitons and iron spikes, some chain, a gallon of oil, and a bunch of little bells too. I don't even remember why I picked up some of this stuff. You can take as much of it as you want."
The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy. No more. No less.
Kitara, can you grow plants over the entrance to the cavern? I'll get the Boggards to guard it once the ritual starts. The firey mud room with the chest in the caverns can be used as bait. Place a trap, perhaps magical that can knock someone into the mud. The room with the 'diamonds' in the wall can make good bait for another trap.
The room with the pools and slick floor(c15) can be used for a trap to knock others into the pools. If it is magical That only reacts to non-boggards or orselves, all the better. Tell the boggards to flee through it if pursued and trap them inside.
- - - - -
Nahia, still holing Kitara, watches as her companions banter about traps and improvements. With a briefly confused face she shakes her head and interrupts. "Ok, I just want to point out: We have no idea what, if anything, keep Ezra from simply coming after us. And I don't know about you, but I really don't want my soul ripped out while I sleep. And I especially don't want to give him his own soldiers to assist him when he decides we are no longer helpful."
Correct, as far as we know, the only thing keeping him an ally is that we plan to complete a ritual to his daemon. After that? There is no guerentee, so we prepare weapons that can destroy him when that6 time comes.
"Incorporeal undead often have some kind of spiritual "tether" that keeps them within the proximity of a certain object or place. They also tend to be creatures of habit. Even the intelligent ones can get caught in a behavioral loop where they don't really think about things outside their pattern."
"It could be that he can't leave the room he's in. It could also be that it just hasn't occurred to him to do so."
"If he was going to leave, my guess is we would have seen him other places by now."
"Seren, what do you think? You know more about undead than any of us."
Hound purchases some basic but sturdy weapons for the Boggards and sets them to work digging in the caervn.
If there are intruders, lead them into this trap and then attack from above if they fall in. These weapons are for defending these caverns, lashes for lost or broken weapons if they are used for anything else.
Hound also purchases the supplies for the summoning of the Mudmen. As the oozing beings slither out from cracks in reality, he leads them to the mud pool.
This is your home, attack those who cross and open the chest. Do not attack the boggards, myself or these people who are with me.
With an appointment made to the Baron, a rather shady looking spellcaster is employed to write a glyph upon the chest. When triggered, a whirling creature from another plane will appear to drop intruders into the mud pit.
Seren glances back towards the hallway, her eyes on focusing for a moment."It's certainly possible that he is bound to that place... He does seem eager to guard it and it was probably a place of great importance to him in life... Again, I can't be sure without further study, but it wouldn't be at all surprising if that was the case."
Nahia continues to hold Kitara, her face unmoving.
Why am I the only one worried about all of the unknown, uncontrolled creatures roaming this place? After all the times WE have been the stealthy things killing off the unaware, now they want to feel so confident that we have nothing to worry about?
She lets out a heavy sigh and speaks to Kitara "Come, let's take some men into the woods and see if any of the local plant life will be helpful in our defenses. Maybe we can find some poisons for the doors or the traps."
Kitara sighs, still leaning on Nahia a bit, but mostly finding her feet now. "alright, that seems a good idea. I need to be away from this place anyway."
A very small amount of Kit's normal body heat is starting to return. She seems bothered by something, but doesn't say anything, she just starts to head for the exit to the tower.
Kitara looked at the now renovated tavern. The chairs wer mismatched but they didn't wobble to much and the tables were good enough for drinking at and playing cards. Good enough for thugs and mercenaries.
A few things that were quite new were the sturdy locks on the cabinets where the alcohol was kept, there was a strict ration of the stuff and each person had some beer chits with their pay that could be used. Once you used them up, no more booze until next paytime and once the ritual started, it would be enforced with vigor, since drunkeness amongst the ranks would not be tolerated.
She suspected that having her regulate the liquer was due to the fact she drank so little of it. Hound,Rose and Mysty loved a good mug and risked trying to 'mingle' with the minions and let it flow too much and she didn't know how Seren drank.
If cards,dice and whores wern't enough to keep the men in line, then they would serve in other ways, she was sure that any captured beasts would love fresh meat.
Nahaia's newly made wand came in handy when renovating the alchemical laboratory. Those glass coils and metal measurement tools were worth their weight in gold, very difficult to fabricate. With a couple of gestures they were made whole again.
Once the repairs were finished it was a simple matter of going through the various reagents. She labeled and re-bottled the ones that were still usable and replaced the ones that weren't. Some of the rarer ingredients would be difficult to find, but most of them took only a visit to her new friend.
It was a chance to go shopping, talk shop with a fellow professional, and entice someone further into her graces.
Clearly she was being rewarded for all her hard work.
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Hound soon became the nightmare of every sentry, seemingly always there when a guards was dropping off into a doze, or if someone had a drink on duty. With a warriors eye he positioned archers at the firing slits, and in every guard post, then hammered anyone slacking off both verbally and physically. If defied, he responses were...excessive. One mouthy type was thrown from the third level, and a boggard that gave him lip was impaled in to wall with his own spear in one, violent but economic action. leave him there! he commanded to stunned toad men. A reminder to you, a threat to intruders.
He gave much thought to positioning. He recognized that guards were like traps, to hurt and slow the enemy so the ninth could punch in to deliver the death blow. The longer those guards lasted, and the harder they hit, the better. Archers at the murder holes, warriors ready at ambush points. He trained his men till they dropped, teaching mutual support, always go for the flank, use their knowledge of where the traps are to their advantage. The men were armed with longspears, and axes, with stout studded leather and large shields. Archers used heavy crossbows, with loaders beside them so they would always have a loaded weapon. The boggards practiced with their new weapons; this was a new experience for them. before they used only simple weapons, or those they had stolen. Being given them was new.
Hound just grinned. And made a note that when all the boggards were dead, to collect the weapons. Waste not, want not.
This wasn't to say hound was all work and no play. In the tavern he out drank and out partied all, but was always back on task, spreading, as he said it Joy and cheer to all who meet me.
Those under him feared him, and respected him.
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Hound soon became the nightmare of every sentry, seemingly always there when a guards was dropping off into a doze, or if someone had a drink on duty. With a warriors eye he positioned archers at the firing slits, and in every guard post, then hammered anyone slacking off both verbally and physically. If defied, he responses were...excessive. One mouthy type was thrown from the third level, and a boggard that gave him lip was impaled in to wall with his own spear in one, violent but economic action. leave him there! he commanded to stunned toad men. A reminder to you, a threat to intruders.
He gave much thought to positioning. He recognized that guards were like traps, to hurt and slow the enemy so the ninth could punch in to deliver the death blow. The longer those guards lasted, and the harder they hit, the better. Archers at the murder holes, warriors ready at ambush points. He trained his men till they dropped, teaching mutual support, always go for the flank, use their knowledge of where the traps are to their advantage. The men were armed with longspears, and axes, with stout studded leather and large shields. Archers used heavy crossbows, with loaders beside them so they would always have a loaded weapon. The boggards practiced with their new weapons; this was a new experience for them. before they used only simple weapons, or those they had stolen. Being given them was new.
Hound just grinned. And made a note that when all the boggards were dead, to collect the weapons. Waste not, want not.
This wasn't to say hound was all work and no play. In the tavern he out drank and out partied all, but was always back on task, spreading, as he said it Joy and cheer to all who meet me.
Those under him feared him, and respected him.
Rose seemed to take great pleasure in desecrating and purging the horn of the shrine. Be it the showering of blood, the burning of unholy flame, or other degenerate acts, the true cruelty that was the daughter of Thorn was on full display.
After consulting with Nahia, Rose took painstaking steps to try and replenish the library with the needed knowledge and tomes that embodied the ideals written on the walls. Knowledge and works were slow, and much aligned more with the vision of Asmodeus than with the Daemon, but slowly over time Rose is able to refill the library with tomes, scrolls and papers for the Knot to research with.
Her true pride and joy though was the brothel room. Having only seen the murals, faded as they were, Rose took to this task with great desire. Soon, the room was filled with beds, pillows, cushions, toys, implements and all the hardware needed for a full on harem brothel. Not to mention Rose's penchant for being in control, much like her sister, manifested in a certain leaning towards the bondage gear and other related items that seemed to permeate the atmosphere of the room. A place to relax and enjoy one's life after a hard day of oppressing the Mitrans.
Hound also buys ten bags of caltrops for the boggards to cast behind them when fleeing any intruders, luring them into areas liek the slick passage(C-15) would be very useful for pinning them down.
Mysty checked the rope from which she hung one more time before bringing her tools out. She closely examined the ancient mechanism embedded in the wall next to her, frowning at the toll the rust had taken on the iron.
Hmm, a simple design. You would think that keeping it simple would make it easy to repair, but things designed simply DO NOT necessarily mean designed well.
She sighed and reached into the gearbox, pulling out a holding arm that had been half rusted through and letting it drop down below. She had thought about shouting a warning first to the boggards, but they'd figure it out soon enough. And the sound of pained croaking that accompanied the echoing clang was soon joined by the faint sound of her giggling.
Well, it doesn't have to be perfect, and I can rig up some better stuff from the old bars we had to tear out below. At least they made THOSE to last...
She pulled out a few more pieces and let them tumble below, though no more croaks followed. Then, she lowered herself back down. She glanced at the poles of steel that the frogmen had torn out and noticed a few particularly long and pointed shards. With a grin she gathered them up and went down the hall, shouting behind her "Keep working while I'm gone!" She knew they didn't understand her, but that wasn't the point. Like animals, they knew how to respond to tone as well as any language.
She made her way back to the partially renovated torture chamber. Her hounds were lazing on the cloth and leathers that had been dropped off here. She scratched one behind the ears before dropping the shards of metal into a bowl near the fireplace, the metal bits joining an assortment of other odds and ends that gave off images of varied sharpness, pointyness, and general malice.
Not quite ready to haul herself back up that shaft, she instead took to installing some of the new restraints and fixtures. She had made sure to get restraints of both metal and leather, knowing that while metal was stronger, the leather would better protect the arteries from any heat or flames, helping to ensure their guests didn't expire early than desired.
And once the restraints were in place, Mysty figured that she deserved a brief rest. After all, the holding cell had a new lock, the torture would be completed well before they had a guest to torture (and even if that wasn't true, the holding cell would make them patient), and the pit trap needed some more basic reconstruction before much more could be done with it.
Laying back on one of the hounds, and enjoying their quite warm skin, she held her hands up for a moment and let some flame trickle from her finger tips, her eyes watching the dance of it before it went out.
Soon... soon we can get this show on the road... and what fun this is going to be... I wonder how many Mitrans will show up? How many of them will I get to burn? I hope I get a couple in here... after all, I worked so hard on it, it would be a shame to see it go to waste.
Hound hears Kitara and Rose talking about finding a beast during one of their meetings on fixing up the horn.
I can help you track, just what is it you wish to find out there? Plus where will it be kept and fed?
Hound also purchases 3 Ghost Salt weapon blanches and will reat hisa greatsword, lucerne hammer and cesti when it comes time to confront the wraith and they decide to fight it.
Hound hears Kitara and Rose talking about finding a beast during one of their meetings on fixing up the horn.
I can help you track, just what is it you wish to find out there? Plus where will it be kept and fed?
"Well, I don't know what's out there. Training animals is pretty different from catching them." Rose said with a shrug. "When we first got here and were gathering information, didn't we hear something about some big critter everyone's afraid of in these woods?
Does Kitara have magic that can ensnare any creature? I doubt we have time for any significant training.
"That all depends darling. If I have a good idea of what we are trying to catch, it makes things much easier. As far as just general woodland creatures, I do have some skills with them, but magic simply is an augment, it doesn't do the catching most of the time."
Well the important question is when do we do this? We need to start this ritual and supposedly the wraith knows something and as said, we either need to compell or destroy it if it hinders us.
If the others want to start the hunt now, Hound will get several boggards to go with him and start checking the surrounding area and will question them on what sort of predators inhabit the area. His nose leads the way as he checks for spoor, reamins of prey and other signs.