She's stable.
Stepp away from the evil cleric Cadas asks Rogar. What do you plan for that one? She is fully given to the Mother of Monsters and is becoming a monster herself. Her belly may hold an abomination as well. It is a kindness to all to end her life now. That is my council at least.
"I understand Cadas, and I vill let you give her justices soon, but first I am vondering vhat drove her to the madness, and vhat might she know. I'm unsure if ve have the means to break her, but I vould like to question her before ve hang her."
Nodding to Rogar Cadas takes some time to remove any possible holy symbol and material component from the evil woman. What if she can use her hand as a holy symbol to channel negative energy or to cast evil spells upon us? We much bind and gag her. Cadas will proceed to do so.
Cadas successfully binds the unconscious Nualia.
Its provides a good resistance boost and the extra health on demand once a day is right nice. Plus while you wear it its nice to know that if you are killed you cannot become an undead. The enchantments there will prevent it.
Rogar sneers at the pendant.
"Vhat vile power does this represent?"
Cadas does not want to deceive the dwarven ranger so she explains it as plainly as she can. It represents these Thasalonian wizards somehow. But these run e wizards had both good and bad sides. I do not think they were all evil. It does hree things as best understand it. It provides a permanent boost to resistances much like my spell of the same name. This is abjuration magic and is not vile in any way. There other two magics are from the school of necromancy but are not evil in any way. One lets you bolster your health and vitality for a few hours once a day and can let you take another hit in a fight before you go down. The last lets you preserve a dead body for a few days so that it does not decay. This can be useful if we wish to have a body raised or presented to a grieving family, sparing them the normal stench and decay. It has the added benefit of preventing a body from rising from the dead if slain by certain undead or ensorcelled by evil priests. So, necromancy yes, but vile, no.
The door to the south is not trapped, and nothing can be heard from the other side. Opening up the door, Robin is a bit surprised to see nothing more than a 10' passage with another door on the south wall. Shrugging he proceeds to the inner door, which also appears safe.
He opens the inner door, and finds a large L-shaped room. The southern wing ends in a pair of stone doors which are carved to depict two skeletons reaching out to clutch a skull between them. To the east, the hall narrows to a frame a circular carving of what appears to be an immense stack of gold coins which rises from the floor to the ceiling, blocking any progress past it. The edges of the coins are carved with unusual spiky ruins.
The builders of this complex were far and away more ancient and arcane than anything Robin knows about. He doesn't recognize any of this. The golden pillar, however, does radiate as magical, a single moderate aura.
Cadas also casts detect magic, but reads nothing from the spell other than the magic. She then examine the area closely, taking 20.
Cadas' painstaking efforts to search the room are rewarded. She finds, along the either side of the gold pillar, tiny, almost invisible, coin-sized slots. It is also apparent from her search that there is a hollow space of some kind behind the pillar.
Malcolm studies the magical auras and shakes his head sadly. "I fear the magic here is beyond my simple means to understand." he says in a most frustrated voice.
Robin, ever curious, pulls two gold coins out and slides one in each slot. At first nothing happens, and the halfling is about to make a snide comment, but a heartbeat later, a loud grinding sound begins, and the large gold pillar noisily sinks into the chamber floor, revealing more of the hallway beyond.
Here the hallway splits in three, with a set of stone double doors at the end of each branch.
I'll post later this morning, sorry had a huge client review last week
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Past the point of the sinking gold column, it appears nothing has disturbed this area for centuries. The dust is thick on the floor, and no footprints can be seen in it (except your own).
All the stone doors look basically the same, inscribed with various spiky runes, most that you don't recognize. The doors to the south are also made of stone but bear no handles. An indented outline of a seven-pointed star, its shape covered by hollows and slits, graces the spot where handles should be.
The doors to the north and east have normal handles and do not appear to be locked.
Cadas hangs back, allowing the Bard to scout and look for traps and clues.
There don't appear to be any traps on the eastern door, so Robin give it a pull. For as heavy and old as it is, the door swings open easily and noiselessly.
The room contains three low tables, their tops covered with a strange and chilling selection of tools, saws, long-bladed knives, and objects whose purpose is not readily apparent. A strange collection of bones lies near the southern table -- too many to be one skeleton, but too few to be two.
Nothing magical is detected in this room. The bones appear to be the skeleton of a two-headed man. It appears a smaller man was growing from the back of a larger man before both unfortunates died here. As you touch the bones, they crumble to dust.
Cadas will make a point to close all doors behind her. She is mindful that the half demon woman was trying to summon or free something down here.
The tools on the table do appear to surgical tools and are exquisitely made, perhaps even valuable to the right buyer, but don't seem to be like any surgical tools you've seen before. Whether to cause pain or cure it remains in question as you look at the shapes of some of those devices.
While pondering the use of a particular nasty device, you see another item on the table top that doesn't look like a surgical tool at all. Rather, this item appears to a silver-and-gold seven pointed star, one surface covered with nodules and blades, and the other a thin, curved handle. This object is just about the right size to fit in the seven pointed star shaped indentation on the door to the south...
[b[Wait.[/b] Cadas says. We are not at full strength. If we are to try to handle whatever might be locked away in there, should we not rest and regain our full might?
This barren room contains an upraised dais on which sits a marble throne. To either side stand statues of a man clutching a book and a glaive. A ghostly figure seems to be seated in the throne, an image of the same man who appears in the statues. He seems to be addressing an audience as he moves his hands about, fingers decorated with hooked rings, but the words issuing form his phantom mouth are difficult to make out and in a strange language.
None of you have heard the name Alaznist, or seen the man in the image before, but you get the sense that they may be important to you in teh grand scheme of things. Perhaps remembering them to ask others about might be a wise idea.
"Little fool, the vorryvart is right to be nervous. Vhat is beyond those doors may not abide by your notions of average lifespan."
Cadas stands ready.
This room is lit by a ten-foot-wide pit of flickering fire that fills the room with a strange humid heat and the smell of burning hair. In the northern corners of the room, wooden risers each hold several dozen golden candles that burn without melting, while to the south the wall bears an immense carving of a seven-pointed star.
Some large predator hidden from our sight prowls there. Cadas warns as she casts Shield of Faith upon herself.
Rogar listens intently.
He grimaces at his inability to detect the creature and pulls a javelin out.
"Vhat on earth could it be??
Malfeshnekor - Round 1
16 Rogar
15 Cadas
14 Malfeshnekor
7 Malcolm
6 Robin
6 Korvek