Chapter 6: Crown of Fangs! (Inactive)

Game Master James Martin

You do recall that the dragon did not need to be killed, merely dispelled of its evil bonds. Perhaps this is the same?

"Ruperat, I know this is an icky thought, but do you think you and Sial could communicate with this thing, and perhaps see if we can find a way to free it from its bindings? To accomplish our goals, we need to deal with this someway, and I don't think violence is going to get it done, like our large dragon friend from earlier."

Ruperta shudders.
"If it is as strong as you say maybe is better we return later, when all of Desna's blessing are still in my reach..."
Sounds like a fight we can better prepare for... maybe get the sword first?

Either way, you don't see a way out of this room... At least you don't see one.

By the way we came? How many "anchors" have we disposed of?

Well, other than the way you came in... :)

Slumper looks at Pai skeptically before picking up the vibe from the group and slowly backs up.

"I'm trained in sword use if it comes to it, I'm not as handy as with my rapier... but from your tone I don't think I want to do that today..."

"I will put the longsword to good use when the time comes."

"I am with Pai, maybe freeing the thing would better serve the world and be easier to accomplish."

Is there any other place we need to check, or is this the last one?

Sial steps up to the wall, laying his hand on it and tilting his head. "There is something beyond this wall. Something powerful, something holy."

Ruperta gets near the wall and put her hand on top of the spot Sial mentions.
"Let me see..."
She uses her Door Sight domain power.
Door Sight (Su) [PFAPG 90]: You can lay your hand upon any surface and see what is on the other side, as if using clairvoyance. Using this power takes 1 minute, during which time you must be touching the surface you want to see through. You can keep looking for as long as 10 minutes with each use of this power, but must touch the surface and take no other action the entire time. The surface cannot be thicker than 6 inches plus 1 inch per cleric level you possess. You can use this power a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier.

Ruperta looks through the wall and sees that the walls and floor of this chamber have a strange organic texture, appearing almost like black decaying flesh streaked with glistening swaths of blood. Four pillars carved to look like coils of entwined arteries and spinal cords support the ceiling—nails and surgical tools are embedded in these pillars at key and painful-looking positions. At the base of the stairs is a ten-foot-diameter open shaft filled with thick bluish mist. The shaft looks to go straight downward into the ground.

How far from this room?

I'm not sure I understand what you're asking.

Ruperta "sensed" a room next to the one she is in... that other room, how far is it from this one? She plans to teleport all of them there.

It's a foot away through the stone, except...

Sial steps toward the wall where you stand. "Why don't we simply use this door?" He gestures toward a blank section of wall.

"What are those nails and surgical items doing poked there in the pillars? Is is possible those might be causing some sort of pain or hurt to anything in this place? This is so strange and confusing."

"I hate this place... at least in the city the good looks like good and the evil looks like evil... halflings that are witches, treasure skulls that are evil entities.. and dancing Ghosts... now a holy place that looks like that..."

Sial stares at you with a look of utter bewilderment. "This is a temple to my Lord, Zon-Kuthon. His Holy word is given through the blessing of pain, which purifies the heart and makes weak flesh strong in his benevolence. I ask again, why don't we simply use the door?" As he steps forward toward the wall and disappears through it. He does not return.

"Desna bless us..."
Ruperta follows Sial.

"Let's do it, I suppose," Pai gulps as she pops through the dor as well.

Despite the apparent lack of a door, Ruperta steps forward. And disappears! Pai follows and both end up in the seemingly doorless room.

Sial stands in the center of the room, an enormous shadowy bat-like creature hovering above him, its eyes mere red stars in the shadowy form.

"Um Sial, mind introducing us to your friend there? I assume he's your friend. I hope he's your friend," she drones on, looking up at the creature.

Ruperta gasps and prepares to cast defensibly if needed.

Sial turns, a look of absolute ecstasy on his face. A telepathic voice resounds in your heads. "I am Ildervok, servant of the Midnight Lord and protector of the Curate of this temple. I have offered Shadowcount Sial the opportunity to become the new Curate; the old one died several years ago due to the treacherous violence of Kazavon. This temple predates the construction of this castle by millenia, serving as a seal to the Rough Beast Rovagug's prison and a holy place of Zon-Kuthon. Kazavon, whose demise and control of the Queen of Korvosa you seek to end, unwittingly allowed the servants of Rovagug to gain a foothold beneath this tower. It is there that your holy sword rests, held by these servants. Step into the shaft and you shall be transported below. As for the Count, should he agree to the eternal honor of becoming Curate, I will transport him to the shadowy realms of our Lord, where he shall be remade into a being in our Lord's own image. The Curate is the living soul of this Star Tower. The Curate lives until the End Times, or until violence necessitates a replacement, and watches over the Star Tower. The Curate is the Star Tower. It is an honor to even be considered for the role, and to be selected and reject it is to spit in the Midnight Lord’s eye.”

Ok, I want to be clear before we go further. We had some soul pillars I think they were called that we had to defeat/unplug before we were going to be able to have a realistic shot at getting the weapon and facing the big bad here. Best I know, we've only freed the dragon, so that's one. The demilich is another one. And there are at least a couple others. I think we need to make sure all those things are taken care of before we accept the teleport below. Am I right on that summary, DM?

"Congratulations to you, Sial. If you will help defend against Rovagug, I'm all for you taking on that honor. He's a real baddie. Could you write me a note asking the rest of your people to try and raise Laori to life, however? I miss her."

Just about correct, Pai. Not to mention that Laori's and Zellara's souls have been absorbed by the castle and will be destroyed unless you can retrieve them from the Chained Spirit before a week passes. You're on day 3. However, you could retrieve the sword as it is separate from the Chained Spirit, and it could be very useful in your quest to destroy the Chained Spirit.

Sial nods with a beatific smile. "My beloved Asyra will return to the sanctuary and arrange things. I will have no need of you until I return, my dear. Please see to the raising of the smiling harlot elf." Asyra grins and nods to Sial.

Ruperta seems taken aback, pale, and shaking slightly....
"But you.. made on Zon-Kuthon image... forever in pain..."
She gets near Sial, and hugs him.
"That would be a terrible, and worthy, sacrifice. I beg you forgive me if I once think bad of you, or if I insulted in any way. I am honored to have meet you. If there is anything I can do for you, you need only to ask it for me."

Sial smiles. "I cannot ask anything more than the honor I am given today. Goodbye. May the Midnight Lord smile upon your quest."

With a rush of shadows, Sial and the shadowy form are gone. Asyra sighs deeply. "I will retrieve Laori's corpse and return to the sanctum to await her soul's freedom. The Kuthonites will see to her resurrection when her soul is free." She bows slightly and passes through the wall where you were, leaving you all alone in the Star Tower.

"I have learned that even other way of thinking, thinks that are alien to me, can do sacrifices and good and great things. May Desna bless Sial."

"Sial was brave, no doubt. I think we need to try and go get that sword. It might help us defeat the rest of the baddies in this place. I'm sure there won't be any danger down there though. But we have to do it though. We have souls to save," she says with a knowing smile.

Stepping up to the shaft Slumper says "What are we waiting for?"

Paxs sighs and steps up to the shaft as well with Thrak following behind.

Ruperta kiss the butterfly pendant on her chest, grab Vindicator (her repeating crossbow) and follows them.

The shaft seems to catch you as you step inside, and you find yourself floating gently downward, as if on a breeze. You find yourself 1500 feet below ground, in the base of star tower. The air in this empty chamber is cold and still. The jagged walls of the tower are broken to the northeast by a single stone door, and the floor is polished to a reflective sheen. Thirty feet above, the ceiling is completely obscured by a roiling bank of
glowing blue mist.

You check the door, but detect no trouble. The door opens onto a series of tunnels, which slope gently downward. The walls of this cave look moist, yet are strangely dry to the touch, covered with a sheen of glittering mineral deposits. The ceiling averages fifteen feet in height.

You turn one corridor to find this corridor ends at a fifteen-foot-wide shaft that plummets into the darkness. A faint warm breeze flows up from the pit, carrying with it strange mineral scents. What appear to be a series of three-foot-wide handholds run down along the closest side of the shaft—a crude, primative ladder, perhaps, but judging by the length between holds, one sized for a creature almost three times the size of a man.

This tunnel leads deep into the Golarion underdark. We won't be visiting there today...

You follow another fork and discover the smell of water. The rank odor of decay, filth, and wet fur clings to this cool chamber with a palpable tenacity. The chamber itself is an immense, twenty-foot-high cavern that fades into the dark to the north. A wide rocky shelf sits in the southern portion of the cavern, and upon this shelf are four crude, domed hovels, each nearly twenty feet tall and built from crude stone blocks mortared together with a nasty mix of mud, hair, and other assorted debris. Each stone igloo has a large arched opening into its darkened interior. To the north, a silent lake of black waters stretches into the distance. Very few ripples disturb its surface, giving it the appearance at times of a massive sheet of polished obsidian. Far out in the water to the northwest, a single point of light glows just above the surface, a bright star whose radiance illuminates a few stony islands about seventy feet out in the lake, though the source of the glow is not discernible from shore.

Four creatures crouch among the stone igloos. This towering menace has a horrible, vertically aligned mouth and arms that split at the elbows into twin clawed hands. They converse in low hooting voices, in a strange tongue. Does anyone speak Undercommon?

Not here...

It would be great if I had a scroll of Comprehend Languages or Tongues, but alas, I do not.

This is what you see...

Yuck!

Pai points out the awful looking monsters and hating to start with violence, waits for her friends to see how this would play out.

Iä! Iä! Cthulhu Fthang!
Got one of Comprehend Languages, and it lets us understand, but not talk... Do we use it?

I say you give it the old college try, Ruperta.

Ruperta moves her hand to her Handy Haversack, and without any effort retrieves the scroll she is looking for.
She reads the ancient magical language written there, and starts to understand the creatures words...

only common here

The creatures mutter in their foreign tongue, but to Ruperta's ears it suddenly changes into Common!

There is the sound of shuffling in the huts and footsteps begin to shuffle toward you.

Ruperta quickly tells his friends in a low voice...
"They are evil and looking for sacrifices for something in the water. Quickly, go back and set up an ambush, I will lead them there!"
She gives them some 20 seconds to go back, first casting prayer on them all, then hangs Vindicator (her crossbow) from her belt, casts resistance and shield of faith on herself and starts walking towards the creatures.
At some prudent distance (some 50') she call to them, in Common.
"Hello, can you help me? I got lost!"

Forgot to switch over the players' view on Roll20. The correct map is now up!

I think the others can set up the ambush at the tunnel bifurcation we already passed, and Ruperta can call the creatures from the mouth of the tunnel, running after they come after her...

First time on a character i can remember making in years that doesnt speak it :P

Thrak prepares himself to jump on a creature in the ambush.

Pai pulls her Staff of Necromancy and moves as Ruperta directs, and prepares to use it to cast Waves of Fatigue when the creatures enter the 30' cone area of the spell.