Someone else down there?
Nargun looks down the pit, trying to see or hear anyone.
The sound seems to be coming from the southwestern pit. Nothing seems visible in the pit from up top, but the whimpering sound comes again from down below. There are a few rocks in the corner piled together, not big enough for a man to be behind, but still it leaves a 3-4' blind space when viewed from above. Someone will have to scramble down into the pit to investigate further. The cries do not sound human.
Devan attaches Cabbagehead's leather armor, which is finely burnished and worked with a variety of designs and sigils into the surface. It is lacquered an almost red color in places, and retains a high polish. Odd for the foul-lookng and -smelling ogrekin to wear such a nice set, and keep it so fresh looking.
After securing the surprisingly well-cared for armor, Devan approached the side of the pit with Nargun. Keeping a look of exasperation off his face, he called out in Common, the Varisian dialect, Elven, and Shoanti (in succession), "Come out, friend. Your jailer is gone, and the way to freedom is clear."
Should the crier stay hidden, the musician thinks about suggesting that they didn't have time for this and that they should leave and continue, but a glance at the Erastilan had him second-guessing that approach. He could admit to himself that Mirela was more kind-hearted than he was, and although he didn't necessarily think he was wrong in this instance, he wasn't willing to make waves over this situation. Especially with Rolth gone from the cavern system.
Instead, he turned to Nargun and arched a brow. "After you." Should the dwarf make his way into the pit to investigate, the bard will follow closely behind and keep a wary eye out for any shenanigans.
Devan, I don’t think it can understand you...
She looks over at her hurt dwarven companion and impulsively slides down into the pit.
I’ll do it... the Dwarf do be ‘urt. she finishes as she reaches the bottom
She approaches the hidden area slowly and looks to see what is causing the sound.
Ain't but a scratch!
Not really offensed, Nargun descends into the pit, his axe ready
You won't have much space to shoot with your bow, Huntress. Let me be your bodyguard.
Mirela pulls out her morningstar.
Together then? she says with a small smile.
"It might be a scratch Nargun, but down here you could pick up some kind of infection. Let me tap you with the wand."
Twilight then goes to the edge of the pit "I've got your back Mirela" She doesn't go into the pit but casts mage hand to maneuver the sunrod down to light up the bottom better.
Twilight taps the curative wand on Nargun a pair of times before the dwarven barbarian and the Erastilian priestess descend into the pit. With the sunrod lowered into the cell, Mirela has no trouble seeing down below.
As she moves carefully to see behind the rocks, Nargun holds his axe at the ready. Mirela leans over to look, and sees a sad sight. A mangy dog, its fur matted with dirt, grime, and blood, lies in the tight space between the rocks and the wall of the pit. The dog's pink tongue lolls out and it pants heavily, whining softly. The canine shakes itself as Mirela approaches and tries to stand, but its clear that it cannot.
Closer inspection reveals the dog has bruises and raised welts all over its body. It appears that it has been the target of thrown rocks or other projectiles, and is seriously hurt. The dog is a good-size, with a thick grey-black coat, and large incisors that it bares half-heartedly at the newcomers.
Oh, poor thing! Shhh, it’s Ok, let me look at you.
Mirela tries to approach the dog to see if she can help it.
As she does this says quietly to the rest of the group: Its a ‘urt dog!! I do be trying to sooth it!
Mirela tries to soothe the dogs injuries using her skills as well as some water and dried meat from her rations.
Does anyone have a ‘ealers kit? I could use some bandages and peppermint compresses ‘ere!. She calls out to the group in general, planning to use the supplies on the hound if she can.
Mirela call out: Back away! Don’t ‘urt the poor thing unless it bites at you!
Never seen a dog like that. But you know better than me about animals, I guess, Huntress
Well, I’m assuming it’s a Wolfhound. They look like Wolves, and what would one of those be doing in the middle of the city?
Devan peered over the side of the pit anxiously as the duo descended, but when Mirela called out that the origin of the noise was a hurt canine the musician nodded his understanding and then turned about, helping Atticus to keep an eye on the entry to the cavern while Mirela coaxed the beast out of hiding and attempted to help it. So far they had about 10% of the Shoanti Tribesman accounted for, so Devan was sincerely hoping the rest of him was all in one piece.
As Mirela calls to the dog, it snarls at her with a malevolently feral light in its eyes, but the poor beast can't move, and is barely alive. As a result its snarls are more show than spite. When presented with water, it laps up the life-giving liquid with great intent. It also sniffs the salted meat of the trail rations, before gulping it down with one bite.
As Mirela gets closer and can really look at the dog, she realizes its not just a wolf-hound, but a full-blooded wolf. Perhaps an adolescent, based on its size, but a female wolf nonetheless.
It's clear that the wolf is too wounded to walk and may have a leg that needs setting. In addition to being near starved, it has been the victim of some serious rock throwing, likely from the former Cabbagehead. There are bruises and cuts and matted blood in her dirty fur. Unable to do much about it, she allows Mirela to aid her, including scooping her up and carrying her out of the pit with a snarl that turns to pained whine.
Twilight watches as Mirela coaxes out the animal. "Oh, it's just a stray. We might want to put it down before we go just to be humane. Wait, what is she... *sigh* I should have known the country girl in her would want to take care of it. As long as I don't have to deal with it she can do whatever she wants. I hope she doesn't start up a shelter once she realizes how many strays there are throughout the city.
Once the 'dog' has been liberated from the pit Twilight asks "What are you going to do with that while we search for the rest of the corps?"
We could feed her the jailor, but I wouldn't like her to enjoy the taste of humanoid flesh too much. Let her rest here, with food and water, then after we finish what we have to do we can pick her up, heal her wounds, and send her into the wilderness.
I was just thinking about that Twilight... I can’t carry ‘er as I need both arms to fight, and she’s too big to ride in my pack... Hmmm..
Mirela carries the wolf over to what seems like a dry corner of the cave.
Can one of you undo my cloak and fold it to make a bed for the poor girl?
And Professor, where there any clean bowls back in that lab? If you go get one so I can set her up with water... once she’s comfortable I’ll check your armor for any enchantments.
She looks back at the others.
I think I ‘ave the energy to ‘eal ‘er now, but I worry if I do she will bite at one of us, or run away and ‘urt ‘erself. So I think your suggestion is the best plan Dwarf.
Devan hurried forward to unclasp Mirela's cloak and fold it as instructed. He didn't speak a word, but he was glad the priestess had relented and agreed to leave the wolf here, for now. Something told the musician that they had not encountered the worst this complex had to offer, even with its main inhabitant missing, and looking after a wounded animal while doing battle would only complicate things.
The bard then hurried forth with Atticus to retrieve a clean-looking bowl or container of some kind and came back so the beast could have water while they left it. Once the wolf was made as comfortable as could be, Devan spoke, "Let's try that northern passage with the stairs leading up. Hopefully there isn't much more to this place..."
Mirela can sees to the injured wolf, making her as comfortable as possible. Atticus is able to find a relatively clean dish that can serve as a water bowl. The wolf still looks fearful and ready to snap, but its injured leg prevents it from bolting so she just accepts her fate, and lays in the cloak, lapping up more water.
Mirela determines that the leather armor from Cabbagehead does indeed have a magical dweomer to it.
Although she would have personally had the wounded beast put out of its misery, now that the decision to take care of it had been made she couldn't help but feel bad about the prospect of leaving it here alone in the dark.
She places the sunrod in a convenient location and casts detect magic as she investigates the armour. "Mind if I have a look at that?"
She studies the dweomer and then shakes her head "Sorry, I can't tell what enchantment has been placed on this. Unless someone else has a better idea I can have a closer look at it when we get back to the Juggler."
As she gets up and prepares to follow the group she casts a light spell on her holy symbol and quietly leaves the sunrod. Even if the dog is to be left alone, at least it doesn't have to be in the dark.
Twilight cannot determine the properties of the magical armor, so it stays clipped to Nargun's pack for later.
Following Devan's advice, the group moves up the stairs to the north. They follow the rough-hewn passage which has a few minor twists and turns to it. Surprisingly, the passage ends in a stout looking wooden door, which is closed. A foul smell, similar to the odor of the noxious carrion golem, seems to emanate from this room beyond the closed door.
Nargun listens and whispers
Shall we be polite and Knock?
As she gets close to the door Mirela scrunches up her nose. Uggg. It smells like another one of those stitched together zombie things, or lots of rotting bodies... Unless you plan to ask for tea, I say just kick it in. Mirela whispers as she readies her bow to cover Nargun as he opens the door.
Atticus takes a look at door, checking for traps and if it locked.
The door does not seem to be trapped, nor is it locked. There is no immediate sound coming from beyond the door, only the foul stench of decay and death.
Eventually opening the door, the nauseating mixture of decay and strange chemicals fills the air of this large room. Glinting saws, pliers, long stitching needles, and other surgical equipment are organized on the shelves and benches along the walls. A sturdy wooden table in the center of the room supports a large humanoid shape -- a thing stitched together from a patchwork of dozens of different bodies. The thing would stand nearly seven feet tall if it rose.
The head stitched to the body is strangely small for its massive frame-- a head crowned with brown hair and bearing a distinctive scar up on the left cheek. It is, of course, Gaekhen's head.
Besides the door you entered, there are two exits from this room. One to the southwest ends in a oaken door after about 10 feet. The other leads west then turns north.
With the overwhelming stench wafting from the room, Twilight decides its past time for a little caution. After seeing that there are no enemies in the room, she takes a moment to quaff an anti plague draught to protect herself from disease.
She looks at the sewn up corpses on the table and says ruefully "We are going to be lucky if the old shaman and his clan don't take offense to the condition of the corpse."
Leaving the task of extricating the head to others more suited to the task, Twilight has a look around the laboratory.
Twilight has finally had enough with the rotting corpses and foul smells, and she downs a vial of antiplague, hoping to strengthen her resistance to any of the number of virulent things that might be growing down here.
Her look around the room turns up nothing more of note.
Devan huffed in exasperation as the group determined that the head belonged to the missing Shoanti man they had been sent to recover. Deciding that if Nargun could carry the bits of the young man around, the least the musician could do was acquire the pieces, so he pulled out a knife and set to work, hoping the stitchwork was of sufficiently poor quality so as not to take long. When the gruesome task was done, the bard would drop the head in the sack containing the arm before closing it back and handing it to the dwarf with a shrug.
The Calistrian priestess had a valid point, concerning the condition of the body. "Maybe we can try and stitch him back together, once we have him all gathered up." Any kind of examination would reveal the crude fix, but maybe the thought would count. The party had to find the rest of him, first. Since the southern exit contained a rather solid-looking door, Devan pointed towards the northern tunnel. "Maybe we should go check out that area?"
Atticus looks at the foul creation and shakes his head.
"Well, that is beyond me to be honest. Is it alive?" HE slowly moves forward ready to jump back at the slightest movement from the "Thing".
Twilight watches the procedure "First Zellara and now this Shoanti. I hope collecting heads doesn't become a common occurrence."
With the grisly item recovered she says "The North tunnel looks as good a place as any to check out. Lead the way."
AS Devan start to cut the thing apart, Mirela quietly says:
Gods above... I can understand using necrotic magic to bring back a loved one. But to stitch random parts together for fun? She shudders in revulsion. First they feed others cut up people then this? We do be no better then the worst animals!
After the brief outbust she turns away from the task and watches the rest of the room for danger with a horrified expression on her face.
After the head is removed, however gruesomely, and placed in the sack that Nargun carries (which already includes an arm), the group moves out towards the more northerly passage. After a few feet of rough tunnel, the space opens up again into a chamber which holds a four-poster bed and simple writing desk, along with a full-length mirror propped against one earthen wall.
Sitting on the desk is a curious but broken knife with a key-shaped blade. It looks vaguely familiar.
Atticus inspects the knife, rembering the one they found with Lamb.
The key-knife is finely made, enough to be considered masterwork, but the blade is broken, with a large chip missing from it. What remains of
the blade is still quite sharp, however. It is exceedingly similar to the one found with Gaedren Lamm, the only difference being the key-tooth pattern may be slightly different, as if it fit a different lock.
Atticus carefully takes the weapon and shrugs."Maybe one of you can repair it."
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Trying not to retch as he completed the grisly task, Devan chuckled darkly at Twilight's comment, wholeheartedly in agreement that collecting severed heads wasn't exactly his idea of a good time. Still, it seemed as though progress was being made on the 'find the Shoanti man' front, even if it was piecemeal.
As Mirela vocalized about the depravity that could be found in human beings, the musician looked on helplessly as she retreated from the scene in horror. She was right, of course. Animals could be savage, but they were just following their instincts. Humans and the other cognizant races made the conscious effort to inflict pain, misery, and death upon their fellows.
The young man's face darkened slightly as they came into the new chamber, looking like a bedroom in the complex. Maybe Rolth's? His eyes drifted to the dagger on the desk, thinking that it was the same weapon they had found in Lamm's lair until Atticus pointed out the subtle differences. Another weapon of the Key-Lock Killer? Perhaps they should go procure the other one they had sold...surely it couldn't be a coincidence.
Devan helped to inspect the rest of the room, but thought that surely the necro-magician wouldn't keep body parts where he slept.
Twilight looked at the blade "Hmmm, you don't suppose Lamm, may his soul rot in the hells, was a minion of the necromancer? That there are more than one Lock Key Killer, each one working for the necromancer and gifted this special blade to do his bidding? But then why would the killings have stopped?"
Twilight looks pensive for a couple of more moments "Or the Necromancer is maybe interested in finding the Killer's body for some purpose and he acquired this during his investigation? But then why did Lamm have one as well. That can't be a coincidence. And since this blade is slightly different than the other one, are they actually keys to something? We might want to get the other one back if we can."
Still mulling this revelation over in her head, Twilight casts a cantrip and looks over the blade and the contents of the room for magical auras and then searches the chamber.
Her mind still whirling with question she goes through the motions but isn't actually paying attention to anything she is looking at.
Finding the key makes everyone's head spin a bit, and the group considers getting the one they sold back. The key was sold to the same merchant, Elmidge the gnome, who bought most of your valuables after being in Lamm's playground. It's possible he still has it...
While Twilight ponders on this she goes through the motions searching the room and casting her magical divination on the off-chance there is something more here than meets the eye. She is as surprised as anyone when the mirror propped against the stone wall glows faintly with magical dweomer.
As they look over the key dagger and she hears
Unless both of them do be working for something bigger... Some unknown master or a gang. It's possible that neither of them were actually the killer...
Mirela helps the group search the room and when she hears about the magic mirror goes over to help Twilight determine what is special about the mirror.
What's that mirror supposed to do? Can it help us?
Remembering certain details of the other dagger they had found in Lamm's possession when they had brought him justice, Devan looked upon the weapon to see if it offered a similar inscription that could help them piece together the Key-Lock puzzle. Or perhaps there was no puzzle at all, only coincidence and the human psyche wanting to place connections where none existed.
The bard listened to the ladies, and could only agree with their reasoning and suppositions. Perhaps the Killer had been multiple killers, each with a key blade. Or maybe copies had been made, to throw off the trail of the true murderer. Either way, procuring the other blade seemed prudent once they made their way through this cavern.
At Nargun's question, Devan looked to the more studious of the group to see if they had an answer. If none was forthcoming, he suggested, "Maybe we can pick it up on the way out, once we're done. Let's head to that little entryway to the east and see what branches off from the bedchamber."
There is no inscription on this key-dagger.
The mirror appears normal in every way to Mirela's closer attention.
Devan tries to marshal the troops to head towards the eastern passage.
Let's go. I Don't trust that mirror anyway.
"One moment" Twilight says as she peers at the mirror more intently, studying the magic on it.
Mirela also casts detect magic to see if she can help determine what the magic of the mirror is, and looks for inscriptions all around the frame of the mirror and on the back if she can get to that without knocking the mirror over....
She is going to be extra careful to make sure she does not break the mirror.
Devan nodded in agreement with Nargun. No tale that the bard knew of had a mirror that did anything nice and good-natured. Still, it made sense to try to figure out the nature of the mirror's magic, in case it could be used against them before they gathered it up on the way out. The musician kept a look out while the two ladies continued to examine the mirror, wary of being ambushed while they paused their search efforts.
Twilight studies the mirror, but Mirela takes a more active approach, picking up the framed glass and looking at the back. When she does she discovers a small niche behind the mirror.
Inside the niche, there a two items: a small black leather case with a metal clasp about the size of a small journal. Also a pearl and silve snuff box. It's actually snuffbox (or more properly, what's inside it) that is radiating the magical aura.
Inside the box is a single dose of a silvery-white powder and a small silver spoon. Both seem to be magical when tested.
The small leather case holds a set of masterwork thieves' tools. The mirror, it turns out, is mundane after all. The snuffbox itself is an artwork item, valuable in and of itself.
Twilight has a quick look at the items with magical auras, the men seemed to be a bit restless and ready to go so she didn't waste any time "We're probably fortunate that the mirror itself wasn't magical. Mirrors tend to be divination oriented and I would be worried that we were being spied upon, but lets see what we have here."
Twilight arched an eyebrow under her hat "Well, I don't know what the dust is, but if anyone is hungry enough, the spoon will whip you up some nutritious, if not particularly tasty gruel. The box looks expensive, we might want to have that valued before we let it go. I'll try again with the dust when we have some more time. Which way next?"
Wow, I do be impressed, Twilight. Did you learn about these at school? Because the magic auras on the dust and spoon are like nothing I was ever taught about in my training...
Mirela puts the mirror back and hurries back to cover the door ready protect the group as they go east.
The short passage to the east leads to a dry, well-kept chamber which contains a narrow bed, a relatively empty shelf holding only a few books, and some bones and skulls, and a long bench. A man's torso, the chest bearing numerous tribal tattoos, lies on this bench. The right arm is still attached, and periodically thrashes and clutches at the air as if alive.
Hovering over the bed is another derro, this one dressed in a black robe with white bones painted over it. He holds a dagger in one hand and points at you.
On the ground near the bed are a pair of shockingly familiar figures. The first is Yargin, the bomb-throwing jailor from Lamm's hideaway. He bears hideous axe wounds from Nargun's blade, wounds that would have killed a normal man. The second is a bigger shock, none other than Gaedren Lamm himself! The figure that used to be Lamm has a great bite, as if from a shark, out of his torso along with the death blows given to him by your group. Both the figures are quite dead, but seem to animated with unlife.
At the derro's direction, the zombies move to attack.
Vreeg's Chamber - Round 1
20 Atticus
19 Vreeg (flying 10' off ground)
18 Mirela
17 Nargun
10 Devan
4 Red Zombie (Yargin)
3 Twilight
1 Blue Zombie (Lamm)