As he reads the journal, Ensu's expression goes through a wide array of emotions before he closes it and stares off in space a bit trying to process all of the information within. At Ventus's question, he comes back and attempts to summerize it. "This well is from the Thassilon Empire, and was presumed dead by it's keeper, Erylium, this quasit here who has been trapped here since the fall of said empire and eventually styled herself a priestess of Lamashtu. It's coming to life seems to coincide with the recent troubles above that culminated in the massive fire. Shortly after that, Erylium met a young girl named Nualia who not only embraced, but superceded Erylium's love of Lamashtu, and Nualia is apparently the one responsible for gathering the goblins together to attack the town. Apparently, this well is driven by wrath, and she hoped the death of so many wrathful creatures would restore it's power; also, she apparently intended the burning of the town to be a sacrifice to Lamashtu in an effort to cleanse her body of the beauty she views as a curse."
After stopping to take a breathe, "At least our immediate course is clear. We need to deactivate the well, clear the rest of this complex, and go to Thistletop to deal with Nualia. That won't remove the larger problem of what caused this well to reactivate in the first place, nor is is it likely to fully explain the connection between Lamashtu and the obvious Thassilon roots of this place, but it will buy us time to get some experts in here to start getting those answers."
Pirknok nods, though he doesn't follow a lot of what's been said. He sighs and picks up the bow and ranseur distastefully, explaining, "Ah guess we better not leave these here fer sumwun else..."
"What would it take to activate this well? We can run it down and find some way of damaging until we can get a specialist in."
Doran winces heavily when Eli claps him on the back, giving the alchemist a hard glare after the fact. "Oww," he deadpans. He turns back to the others, glaring into the waters of the well. "I definitely agree wit' destroyin' th' well, bu' 'ow?"
Pirknok looks around at the others, sighing deeply at the inexplicable forces of the universe. Reaching his axe forward carefully, he dips the eidolon-bloodied blade into the well, ready to slice anything that appears.
***
As Pirknok's blade dips into the pool he finds that it's impossibly deep and it swallows up the length of his weapon as far as the dwarf can reach without hitting the bottom.
A moment later, the pool sputters, sparks, and then bursts. When the smoke has cleared the vessel is empty, now just a smoothed out hole in the ground a foot or so deep with no liquid of any sort within it. In it's place are two of the spindly-armed horrors, awkwardly clamoring to get out and kill!
Pirknok steps back and swings his axe down at the evil icky monster.
"Keep 'em pinned in!" Ventus shouts at the creature's sudden appearance...
...and proceeds to fumble his weapons.
Ensu jabs his spear down into the pit as he drily comments, "I don't think we needed more than one at a time, but you figured out how to activate the well at least."
Ventus's attacks are sloppy but both hit their mark causing the creature to snarl in anger. Ensu's nicks it as well.
Ysme spits out something in Halfling as Pirknok impulsively empowers the pool. As the two new creatures coalesce, she swings the Halberd at the one closest to her.
Ysme's halberd bites deep into the creature's shoulder and it hisses defiantly.
Eli takes a deep breath and pitches an explosive into the pit.
The alchemist scores a direct hit blowing the injured monster into flaming bits of empty skin and fetid water. The other creature is burned by the blast.
The surviving monster, no longer impeded by its peer, drops his ranseur and lunges at the party with claw and fang.
Seeing Ysme go down, Pirknok roars and swings his axe again.
Ensu takes another jab at the creature with his longspear.
Eli groans in dismay as the evil water is consumed, stowing the one vial he was able to retrieve in a pouch. He recoils as the beast lunges out of the pit and fumbles for his own Longspear. He tries to stab the thing with a shout of alarm.
Eli's spear lands a meaty blow.
A burst of bright arterial blood jets from Ysme's wound as the beast steps back for another attack & she falls to the floor.
Doran levels his crossbow and takes a shot at the awkwardly positioned monsters.
And then again at the survivor.
The bolt second bolt flies through the creature's throat. It explodes in a spray of fetid water and its empty skin collapses to the ground.
"We still got one of those potions left?" Ventus says as he kneels by Ysme.
Pirknok approaches Ysme and Ventus carefully. After ascertaining that she's still breathing, he reaches into his pouch and pulls out the two remaining potions from Krojun. Muttering under his breath something about him getting himself killed, he tilts her head up and pours one of the potions in slowly. He winces when there's no response, and pours the other one in too.
Though initially distraught, Pirknok's breath catches as Ysme's eyes flutter & open while scabs form over her wounds with supernatural speed.
" time, may we please be certain everyone is prepared before trying something like that again?.." She rasps weakly.
The dwarf frowns down at the girl, then gets up and walks to the other end of the room. Save her from dyin', and first thing she goes right back to scolding. How's that fair? They were all saying that we needed to activate it, I was just the one to do it...
"Hey, grumpyface! Stop sulking & get back over here!..
Please." Ysme calls out to Pirknok as her awareness increases.
For saving me, I mean."
Pirknok turns and walks back over, his face hard. At Ysme's unexpected action, he jumps backward and blushes fiercely. After a moment, he nods and mumbles something in response before turning to Ensu. "She's still real hurt... kin you help her some more?"
"We have the potion from the quasit, that's all I have left. Let's just hope the rest of this place is empty." After a final scan with detect magic and simply looking around to ensure that everything in this room has been dealt with, Ensu moves to the door waiting for the others to move on.
Once Ysme is looking better, Ventus joins Ensu over by the door.
The party makes its way back to the unexplored door and passes through.
They find themselves an expansive room. This large chamber was obviously once a prison, as testified by the twenty cells that line the room’s perimeter. A rickety wooden platform overlooks the room, with two flights of stairs descending to the prison floor ten feet below. A five-foot-wide wooden walkway runs from the northern edge of the platform to a passageway to the east.
A search of most of these cells finds little of interest except for skeletons and scraps of cloth. The bones, though countless centuries old, are surprisingly well preserved. In one of the cells you find a rotted satchel containing some metal picks and files and a glass vial.
***
Heading further east the party enters a smaller chamber. This room contains several ancient relics of what appear to be torture implements, although their function and style seem strange and archaic. In one corner sits a spherical cage with spikes protruding inward from its iron bars. In another stands what appears to be a star-shaped wooden frame, its surface studded with hooks. And in the center of the room is a long table covered with leather straps and a number of cranks that seem designed to rotate and swivel.
The torture implements are too decayed to be of much use or value to anyone.
***
Moving further still, the party enters a massive room functioning as a warehouse. Crude wooden crates are stacked taller than a man and spaced throughout this chamber.
19 for goblinoids
Eli examines the thieve's tools. "I think I can make use of these. I've learned a thing or two about locks and mechanisms in my time."
The group makes their way around the edge of the room when, suddenly, the boxes nearest them get hurled at Ventus!
The crate shatters harmlessly on the ranger's shield scattering splinters and the container's contents (assorted goblin weapons) all over the floor.
Standing up from behind where the boxes once rested is an enormous goblin, many times bigger than any you've seen before and huge even by human standards. Its hulking frame ripples with muscle and a third equally powerful arm grows out from its ribcage.
It roars a challenge and attacks!