Absinthe kicks at the skeleton, which lurches to avoid the blow, but Segang follows through a moment later with his hammer, shattering the undead into numerous bony bits.
Melianthe hexes the derro, but he shakes it off. Cherias moves over to bless Absinthe. Seren uses his invisibility to sneak behind the derro, popping into view as he attacks. Unfortunately, his foot slips on something unmentionable, throwing his aim off wildly.
The derro screams, realizing he is trapped. He turns and tries to cast a spell defensively, but muffs the hand gestures and loses it.
Segang will 5' step to flank with Seren and attack with his hammer, power atticking and trying to drive the Derro into the ground. Enough! he bellows as he swings.
Absinthe similarly glides forward, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Segang as she aims a crushing blow at the Derro's windpipe.
"That fellow is awfully resistant to hexes," grumbles Melianthe.
She casts Daze at the necromancer, too far away to do much else.
Realizing that this derro is soon to die, Cherias pulls out his scrolls to prepare to heal up any remaining injuries.
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After Absinthe into the flank Segang simply picks up his longspear and stabs the Derro.
Absinthe closes in on the derro, punching at his throat. He ducks away, but Seren and Segang attacks hit a moment later. Pierced by spear and rapier, the necromancer gurgles dark blue blood as he finally falls.
Cherias looks at the wand and the ring.
Cherias scratches his head behind his ear, and shrugs. "I figure you're more likely to know about this stuff, Melianthe." He will cast Guidance on Melianthe as well to help her identify the items.
Melianthe comes around to examine the wand and ring carefully, frowning in concentration.
"I suspect with this one's demise, the threat in this warren is much reduced. We still need the body of the young man who was killed, though."
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"Can we be certain that we have not already encountered it?" Absinthe asks. "Or at least pieces of it?"
Cherias takes the armor, but asks if someone can carry his current suit of studded leather in their backpack or something.
Segang nods and adds the armor to his pack, seeming not to notice the extra weight. Could I use that ring for now? I seem to get attacked a lot. Segang asks.
"One would suggest you be the one to more closely investigate the undead," Absinthe says. "Was there not mention of a distinguishing tribal tattoo on the body of the young man we were sent to fetch? The corpse golem or the... thing... might have been made using parts of his anatomy."
"That wand is disgusting," says Melianthe. "It is not within my patron's beneficence for me to know such a spell, not that I would want to. We should sell it, though I'd rather just break it in two."
Melianthe walks over to the flesh golem, looking for tell tale marks.
"Cherias, perhaps you could help me look this over," she says after a moment.
Segang waits for someone to object then puts on the ring, for now.
Once searched for, the Shoanti markings are easy to identify along the golem's right arm. You appear to have found a part of Gaekhen's body.
Cherias nods with approval. "Gotta keep you safe, too, big guy," he adds with a grin at Segang.
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"We need to remove Gaekhen's remains from this golem, and trace back the rest of him, if we can find him," says Melianthe. "And we need to do it fast, as the parts will decay."
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"Let's keep looking, maybe this bastard had a workshop. "
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After recovering the arm from the stitched golem, you resume your search of the warrens. As you move, the place remains silent, and after some time you realize all of the inhabitants are dead or fled.
The room the golem was boarded in was once a pantry. It is now in shambles. Broken crates and shelves lie strewn about the place, with the foodstuffs, firewood, and other supplies they once contained scattered across the floor. The destruction appears recent, as if the golem trapped in here was berserk. You find nothing of value intact.
*
This foul-smelling cavern is boarded on three sides by ten-foot-deep pits. It is from these pits that the rancid smell of excrement and decay fills the air -- each pit contains a few heaps of moldy straw, a wooden trough of filthy water, a few rotting body parts, and a couple still-living prisoners. One woman and one man, both are malnourished and sickly. When you peer over the edge, they flinch reflexively in fear.
*
Two wide, freestanding bookshelves stand in this room, the shelves filled with row upon row of tomes and scrolls.
*
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 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, much like the stitched-together golem you faced earlier. This one, happily, is not animate. The golem's head is human, crowned with brown hair and bearing a distinctive scar upon the left cheek.
*
This chamber holds a large four-poster bed and simple writing desk, along with a full-length mirror propped up against one earthen wall.
*
This dry, well-kept chamber contains a narrow bed, a relatively empty shelf containing only a book and some bones and skulls. On a long bench lies a man's torso, the chest bearing numerous Shoanti tribal tattoos and with the right arm still attached. The arm periodically thrashes and clutches at the air as if it were alive.
The single book appears to be necromancer's spellbook, a small tome bound in blackened leather.
Absinthe's gorge rises when she sees the victims of the Derros' cruelty. She immediately brings out a coil of rope and drops one end into the pit after tying the other end to something solid enough to take the strain.
"Be unafraid!" she calls down. "The filthy grub-pallour creatures are dead or fled. You are free."
Absinthe quickly scans the shelves, taking note of the volumes present. You never know when one of these books might tickle her fancy.
"Here is another piece," the tiefling says, shrugging. "Mayhap we should find a large bag to put them all in. Or should we use this place to ah, reassemble them before returning the body to its survivors?"
"Repulsive," Absinthe says, her upper lip curling as she brings her silvered mace to bear. "What new foulness is this and how do we undo it?"
Segang follows the group, looking sadder and sadder with the discoveries. He is quick to help set free the prisoners and to try to calm them, offering them both food and clean water. I will protect you until we leave this place. You are safe. he assure them.
As Saphren considers the body of his fellow tribesman he ponders what to do.
A review of the shelves shows that the books and scrolls gathered are mostly on necromancy or the art of crafting golems, but there is also a surprising number of books about diseases and plagues.
Cherias's magical scanning turns up two arcane scrolls among the rest.
The prisoners are both human. The man seems the worse off of the two, and remains semi-catatonic, barely even registering Absinthe's rope of rescue. The woman is shaking with weariness even after the short climb. "Thank you, a thousand times thank you," she says in a hoarse voice. "I am Tiora."
"Segang, do you have room to carry some of those books on disease and contagion? I would like to read them, as mayhap would Cherias," says Melianthe.
Melianthe casts Read Magic on the scrolls to identify them.
"I wouldn't put animate and possibly pre-animate parts together, Absinthe. Might lead to something untoward happening in the bag..." She wanders into the Necromancer's Room
"Seren, foul as that book may be, you could learn some spells from it." She ponders the bits of former Shoanti. "I wish we could soak that arm in something that could drain the negative energy from it and keep it from wiggling so. Ah! Cherias, if you channel at it, it should drive it out."
Melianthe climbs down the rope to look at the man.
"Segang, be ready to haul him up if I can determined if he is safe to be moved," she calls up. "Tiora, you are safe now. What is your companion's name? We are here now," she says the last sentence in her clearest healer's voice to the nearly comatose man.
Cherias tries a cure spell first, casting it at a bit of a distance, then walking over and touching the wiggling arm carefully.
"I wonder if the Acadamae might want to buy the books on necromancy?"
Cherias creates water in a basin or bucket if he can find one for the woman, suspecting she might want to wash herself a bit, as well as filling up Segang's waterskin if she drinks from it.
"Where are you from, and how long have you been here?"
Seren will take 20 and search the library fully, his eyes lighting up
Seren holds the spellbook with two fingers away from him and sighs,"I guess you're right... maybe there's something worth while in here for a mage who isn't depraved."
Segang will carry what he can, generally being helpful. Books are loot. Course I'll carry them. He says helpfully.
As we are helping the prisoners out of the pits Segang privately asks Mel Is there a way can tell if these people are sick? I would hate to bring a disease back into the city and I would not put it past the Derro to try to infect them.
Segang wants to burn all the bodies as they leave except the parts from the Shoanti. Perhaps this surgical equipment could be salvaged and do some good in the town above?
Unless there is a need for urgency to save the lives of the prisoners we rescued Segang wants to search the bedroom well.
Segang sadly walks over the the torso and plans to pick it up unless someone stops him. He wants to take all the parts back to the stitchery and will ask for help re-assembly the man's body. He does not understand why the arm is animated but is not afraid of it. If it attacks him he will grapple it and pin.
The man reacts in a drugged manner to Melianthe's aid, staring at the floor and not meeting her eyes. Sluggishly, he climbs the rope and stands to the side.
After a drink of water, Tiora shakes her head at Melianthe's question. "I don't know him. I think he was here when I was taken." To Cherias, she adds, "A few days, or a week... I don't know. I live in Heights, south of the castle. The brute and a couple of the short ones assaulted me on the street when I was walking to the market... they never told us why. "
*
Seren's detailed perusal doesn't turn up any other information, but he generally appraises the value of the collection at about 400 gold.
*
A thorough search turns up nothing further.
*
As Cherias nears the corpse, it swings a fist blindly at him , but he sidesteps it easily. As soon as he touches it with positive energy, the necromantic energy animating it is dispersed and it lies still.
Absinthe surreptitously pays extra attention to the man rescued from the pit. Just in case...
"Spells for you, Seren."
"Thanks, Mel!" Seren replies. He looks at the second scroll for a moment before hastily wrapping it up with the others, "[/smaller]May sell this one, though" he mutters under his breath.
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"I think we've done all we can here. Let's get out of this horrid place, and let the Marshall know so she can detail someone to come in and destroy it."
"We could set a few fires on our way out," Absinthe suggests. "The necromantic do-it-yourself books would make fine kindling."