Zhi grasps her wife's hand in her own. She debates it internally for a moment or two before moving in to join Melodie.
After recovering overnight, Alzem and Imaro remain in the safe house while Taldaris ferries you back to Lost Silhouette's prison cell block via dimension door. The place appears to be unguarded, though Melodie catches a glimpse of a tiny eyeball that darts back into a narrow pipe a few moments after you arrive. You're fairly certain the Secret Shade is going to know you have returned rather quickly. "Let us make haste," Taldaris implores.
Following a rogue's logic that anything worth stealing is usually hidden, Zhi leads the group to one of the secret doors that has been pointed out to them. She keeps an eye out for any new traps along the way.
Once she reaches the first of the doors, she preps with some defensive spells before opening it.
Zhi does indeed find a few new shadow tether traps, but she easily disables them as she heads to the secret door. It opens on a long, narrow corridor which ends at yet another secret door. This one opens onto a cramped space that is empty but for pages of notes and sketches. A pair of tweezers sits atop one of the drawings.
The tweezers are enchanted with the ghost touch property and are worth 1,000 gp. The documents are fragmentary, but collectively they suggest that the Secret Shade was once a wanted man in the cities of Vyre and Absalom. Underneath one of the pages sits a tiny, crank-driven music box that only plays part of a long-forgotten ode.
Zhi curses at finding neither weapon nor expected foe. She leads the group back out and to the other secret door.
This secret door opens up onto a long tunnel leading away from Lost Silhouette. It opens up several hundred feet away in the sewers. It seems that this, then, is an escape tunnel or back entrance to the complex.
Zhi curses again, getting more frustrated. "Who doesn't hide a prisoner's magic weapon behind a secret door," she grouses.
"Let's try the double doors, then," she says with a sigh.
"This must be where the Shade spends its time." Melodie concludes, pocketing the tweezers. "Perhaps this is their past... We'd best be careful though - I don't think they'll be happy about us being here."
"Ghost touch... tweezers? So either the Secret Shade needs them for fine manipulation, or they're used to manipulate some kind of ghost parchment?"
"Maybe he uses them for delicate stamps?" Zhi offers with a shrug. "Collectors are a strange bunch."
"He wouldn't be able to touch anything corporeal without them." Melodie points out, injecting unwanted reality into the joking. She then catches on, but the joke has been killed already...
"He wouldn't be able to touch anything corporeal without them." Melodie points out, injecting unwanted reality into the joking. She then catches on, but the joke has been killed already...
"You're cute when you try," Zhi says, stretching up on her toes to briefly touch her lips to Melodies as she exits the room. "So keep trying."
Illuminated by red- amed candles that cast dim light, this room contains several plush rugs, a well-stocked sideboard, and a large padded chair. Near the ceiling along each wall are several tiny pipes. A heavy curtain conceals the hall to the south.
Melodie can see the invisible creature lurking here. This bloated creature’s eyes protrude from between the fleshy fat rolls of its neckless, hulking form.
Even as Melodie shouts a warning, the creature appears as it sends shards of ice hurting towards Zhi and Maria, followed by a blast of sound!
Zhi spots a poison dart trap just inside the doorway!
Once the creature shows off its icy entrance, Zileska zips around and blesses the team with communal protection from energy (cold).
Zhi raises a hand and begins to call out a warning, but doesn't get beyond, "Ware ..." before the blast of cold ice slams into her full force.
She sputters and coughs, but still attempts to disarm the trap.
With the creature revealing itself Melodie sets herself and glowers at the creature. She starts to sing, a rapidly ascending scale which cuts off so abruptly that it leaves a palpable sense of loss and blankness behind.
Before the team set off, Maria made sure to drink her Greater False Life Extract.
Cursing as the cold hit her, Maria drank another greater invisibility extract and readied herself to move forward once Zhi indicated the trap being cleared.
"Eugh," grimaces Sara, not quite willing to go into a room with that thing.
Nonetheless, she steels her nerves and enters in, staring at each of its many eyes in turn.
"That is Hamal Kai, the spymaster!" Taldaris declares, glaring at the many-eyed monstrosity.
As Zileska wards you against cold, Maria turns invisible. Zhi disarms the trap and Sara cautiously approaches the monster.
Melodie uses her magic to drain the creature's intellect! It wails pitiably, its mental capacities almost nonexistent.
Taldaris attempts to paralyze the creature but it resists his spell.
Safina scores one good hit, her crossbow bolt burying itself among Hamal Kai's folds of flesh.
The monster lashes out at Sara, striking her with open palms. The blow sends vibrations quivering through the brawler's body, and as Hamal Kai closes its fist, a jolt ripples through Sara's heart!
Seeing nothing else to fight, and with the creature apparently unimpaired by her spell Melodie casts another spell on herself and watches, waiting for the Shade to re-emerge and harrass them.
Having disarmed the trap, Zhi shakes off the rest of the ice from her shoulders and moves into the room to attempt to flank with Sara. She then stabs at the creature with her narrow blade.
Sara barely notices the stunning blow, ducking under and taking advantage of Zhi's stunning blow to further debilitate the creature, kicking it twice where she imagines its nethers to be.
Zhi slips around behind Hamal Kai as Sara steps up and unleashes a devastating flurry of kicks! The strange monster doubles over, sickened and nauseated, as brawler and rogue proceed to drive deep puncture wounds all over its bloated body. It retches and reels, unable to fight back, and after only a few more moments it collapses to the floor, its lifeblood staining the floor red from its fatal injuries!
Maria rushed in after Sara, having taken a moment to stow the empty flask that her invisibility extract had been (not knowing when they'd be getting back somewhere with supplies, she was wanting to re-use what she could). Although even that delay was enough for the massive creature to be thoroughly perforated.
"Sometimes I forget how efficient you two can be at brutal murder."
"We have our moments," Zhi says with a smirk as she whips her blade through the air, clearing the blood from the edge. "But I like to think of being a stabby, murdery b+$&@ as more of a ... side job."
She turns her attention to Taldaris. "So that's one goal down. Correct, Your Grace?" she asks. "Your weapon and the shadow are left."
She looks around the room before shaking her head. "Lot's of places still left to look. How about we check near the cells?"
Taldaris nods. "Correct. One more villain to bring to justice, and my prized possession to reclaim."
The door opens onto a room that has numerous masonry partitions that turn the space into a maze. Slow-reacting smoke sticks fill the entire area with a haze of acrid cinders. Moving carefully, Zhi spots numerous traps in these halls--glyphs of warding and halls of razors. The gauntlet seems designed to debilitate any prisoners who might try to escape from their cells.
"How sweet," Zhi comments. "A maze within a maze." She shakes her head. "Let's try the doors out of the 'information' room before we had over to the other side of the complex."
Several catwalks crisscross a deep pit in this frigid room. Along the walls are six vertical grooves, each fitted with a looped chain and each one controlled by a different nearby pulley mechanism. Dangling from these chains are columns of living bodies, some emaciated and others painfully bloated. Dozens of voices cry out in numerous languages. They promise anything in exchange for their freedom, from atoning for their crimes to the secret of where to find buried treasure.
Wyssilka shudders. "This is where I was held while they were torturing me, strung up among the damned. Nothing good will come of this place."
Zhi considers responding with something spiteful, but shakes her head. She moves to the chains attempting to understand the workings with the intent to release the prisoners. "Give me a hand, would you, Sara?" she asks.
Sara pulls one of her adamantine corset stays and offers it to Zhi. "We could just snap all these chains," she suggests limply.
Each of the looped chains functions like a curtain rope, allowing a creature to slowly lower or raise the bodies hanging from that chain. Sara's corset stays work wonders in snapping the chains and releasing the nearly three dozen petitioners. The liberated souls pander and fawn over you, thanking you profusely and whispering their alleged secrets before trying to scurry to safety. Most of their offers seem like lies or scams, but a few have some useful tidbits--notably, numerous karumzeks occupy this facility, spidery outsiders who serve Norgorber's alchemical interests. One also mentions that the Secret Shade was enraged by the prison break yesterday and is reaching out to Norgorber directly for assistance.
Zhi seems quite pleased to have upset the Secret Shade that much. However, the idea that they're petitioning for assistance is unsettling.
Once the prisoners have made their way out and the group is alone again, she moves to the other single door in the 'information' room.
"We'll check this one and then move on to the other hall," she says.
Wall-mounted metal shelves support several dozen miniature potted trees, behind each of which hangs a different picture portraying some urban landscape. A spiral staircase descends through the floor, though it is choked with thick, flowering vines.
A strange spidery outsider is here, laden with potions and bombs--one of the karumzeks the petitioners mention. It snarls angrily, and at the same time, the vines choking the stairs animates! Large tendrils ending in tiny claws unfurl from the central stalk of this plant, which rises like a serpent ready to strike.
At the sight of the spider-creature, Zhi pauses for only a moment. Only Mel would probably notice the slight tremor visible in her hands. She steels herself and invokes her spell of speed before dashing forward to take up a flanking position.
"Kill it dead, Sara. Spiders don't deserve to exist," she calls out in a firm voice.
The karumzek skitters a few feet away from Zhi, downing an extract. The plant assaults the rogue, destroying some of her duplicates. It releases a transparent cloud of pollen that spreads into the room!
Melodie covers the spider-like creature in glitter and will defend the tactical value of the move to anyone who dares question it! The fact that it (hopefully) helps her wife not feel so scared is an 'inadvertent' bonus.
The karumzek manages to resist being blinded!
Zileska similarly stands outside the room and just lobs an awful invective at the creature.
One would think the amount of fungus, spores, and pollen she's worked with over the years would inure her to some of their effects. But apparently there are more powerful stuff in the other planes than she's experienced.
Borrowing some of Melodie's nerve, Sara resists the effects of the spores and rushes into valiantly fight the spider.
Attempting to convince herself that the sparkling spider is nothing to be afraid of, Zhi moves to flank with Sara.
She then stabs at the glittering horror.
Maria and Safina approach the vine in a stupor. Sara and Zhi wound the karumzek and Zileska curses the vine.
The karumzek hurls bombs at Zhi. Guided by true strike, the first one explodes on the rogue, while the other two miss.
The viper vine attacks Zhi again, destroying a mirror image before landing a lucky hit. It grabs and squeezes her!
A shadow rises up from the floor, coalescing into the form of the Secret Shade! It plunges a shadowy dagger into Sara's back, draining her strength.
As Zhi feels the heat of the bomb, she activates the protective ability of Koriana's blade to avoid the fire damage.
Spitting out an arcane phrase, the rogue seems to meld into the shadows and vanishes from the vine's grasp, stepping out of another shadow behind the Shade. Although, she looks quite the worse for the wear.
"No you don't!" Melodie spits viciously, hammering the Shade with the power of her mind.