Eponine will calm herself to examine the situation. She'll look for anything she can use to dump the stone over with leverage on hand.
Knowledge Engineering
If that doesn't work, she'll break out her ink and inkpen and start with some graffiti. You know, symbols of Sarenrae, phrases from her holy texts, etc. Probably petty and ineffective, but better than nothing.
Eponine kneels down and starts to mark the edge of the pool with holy symbols and good moral messages.
"I do not suppose any of you have any sort of knowledge about demons who spawn creatures from pools and how to destroy such things, do you?" He looks to them all.
Wren also searches her mind for any clues about the basin and how to disrupt its evil power.
Know. Arcana
Know. History
Know. Planes
Looking about the cathedral you are sure that the markings on the wall are connected to the goddess Lamashtu, the mother of beasts. You have read some very ancient texts that indicate that devotes of the evil deity often used powerful shrines to communicate with each other and create evil monstrosities.
Kern watches Eponine as she starts to mark up the pool with symbols. "I could just try smashing the thing," he suggests, brandishing his flail. "It might take a while though."
"I do not suppose any of you have any sort of knowledge about demons who spawn creatures from pools and how to destroy such things, do you?" He looks to them all.
"I've read that followers of Lamashtu can create horrible monstrosities, but I never thought I'd see it happen," Sophy replies. "She's not summoning the things from anywhere; she's creating them afresh. It takes her blood ... but I don't know what the other element is." She shakes her head, helplessly. "The only way I know of to stop her is to keep her from bleeding into the pool, and if we can't find her, I don't know how to do that, either." She stares at the water and pulpit, lost in contemplation.
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Kern watches Eponine as she starts to mark up the pool with symbols. "I could just try smashing the thing," he suggests, brandishing his flail. "It might take a while though."
Perhaps he didn't hear me? Belril thought to himself in irritation. He didn't like it when the taller folk seemed to be ignoring him.
That was my suggestion yes... We don't seem to be in any particular hurry. I'll guard the doorway while you work.
"If smashing it doesn't work, I have a spell that might burn this thing down," Wren suggested.
"We cannot find her; which means she will be back; which means she will bleed all over the pool and create hundreds of these blasted things and destroy us all." He says as a matter of fact as he looks around at such a desolate place. "I wonder how long she has been down here? And why she is here? What is this demon queen's story? To torment those who just happen to come drop on by? Why not travel to the surface with her army of demon spawn?" He shakes his head unable to figure any of this out. "None of this makes any sense to me at all. That is what happens, I guess, when your knowledge of demons is non-existant." Another thought then crosses his mind. "You know, since it is a demon spawning pool, maybe holy water will work? Maybe that will counteract the demon water and in essence...kill it? Hm?" He offers, shrugging.
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There are obviously severe limits on her powers if all she could marshall to her defence were those two scum. Nay, your making this worse than it is sir. Lets just see if Kern can smash it apart first before trying anything radical shall we. We have taken her territory now, so if she wants to create more she will have to come back here anyway.
Listening to the halfling, Victor ponders that a moment, then shrugs, "Fair enough." Then coming to the realization he doesn't even know the halfling's name, "I do not believe we have met. My name is Victor Montoya." He nods his head in greeting.
Responding just as Belril's turning to leave, "Yes, forgive me. That is what I meant. I remember seeing you in the cathedral earlier, speaking to Wren at one point and counting your ammunition on another occasion. For some reason I never got your name. Good to meet you, Belril." Nodding again.
"Right," Kern says, hefting his flail. "Stand back. I don't want any stray bits flying out and hitting someone." Once everyone is a safe distance away, he brings his flail down onto the side of the pool as hard as he can. And then again...and again.
You watch as Eponine defaces the small edges around the sunken pool and Sophy peers at the pool her eyes seeing beyond the normal spectrum.
As you stand next to the sunken pool on the podium you hear Belril's irritated comments as he and Victor converse. With each of the halfling's irritated comments you think you see the glow of the pools liquid brighten some.
You continue to mark on the floor and on the small edge of the sunken pool with your ink.
Sophy puts out her hand. "Wait, Kern! It's not the stone; it's the liquid that's spawning the creatures." Finally breaking off her stare at the pedestal, she blushes to realize she had addressed him so familiarly.
Kern stops hitting the stone and steps back. He takes a moment to catch his breath. "That's all right, Sophy. I wasn't getting anywhere, anyway. There was something odd though..."
He looks over to Belril by the door, then back at the pool. "Uh, Beddil, little guy, could you say something again? I want to check something." He watches the pool carefully and waits for Belril to respond.
Victor rolls his eyes at Kern's sloppiness over the halfling's name. "It is Belril, Kern." Pathetic. I guess some people truly never change.
Sophy's comments are enough to finally snap Eponine out of her obsessive state.
What are you saying, Sophy? Its... like a potion?
Sophy's comments are enough to finally snap Eponine out of her obsessive state.
What are you saying, Sophy? Its... like a potion?
"More like ... part of a recipe?" Sophy struggles to explain. "By itself, it doesn't do anything, but when she drips her blood into it, the blood and the liquid and the ... the magic make the creature. Maybe we could scoop out the liquid? But she probably knows how to make more. The only way to stop her from making more of those things is to destroy her. But we can't even find her."
Huh. Interesting. Well...
Eponine dumps the rest of her ink into the liquid, letting the bottle drop in after. Then the inkpen. After that, she stands and starts pondering ways to get the liquid out, or destroyed.
Wren, do you have any spells that might evaporate the liquid?
As Eponine tosses the ink bottle into the bubling liquid it splashes out. The elf moves her hand back quickly, but is hit by a bit of the spray felling it's icy burn on her fingers.
"I've got a new spell I have been working on that should burn a great deal of it. Not sure if it will get all of it though. If we can't figure anything else out, I'll give it a try."
The font has stumped Sophy. She leaves it to Eponine and Wren. "Victor," she asks shyly, "do you think we should try that door?" She points to the door in the southwestern wall.
Caught up in examing the weapons the mutant goblin was using, Victor looks up when his name is called. "Huh?" Turning to look at the door that Sophy is pointing to, he stands while picking up his longspear. Turning back to Sophy, "It could not hurt. Who knows, maybe somewhere in this place there are instructions on how to destroy this thing." He says shrugging. As he starts that way, he suddenly remembers Kern calling for Belril. Turning and noticing Belril intent on keeping watch, Victor decides to help out the muscley jerk. "I do not think Belril heard you, Kern. Do not worry, I will let him know you are in need of his assistance." I would not hear you either, if you could not get my name right. Moving through the doors, "Belril, Kern is hailing you. Something about wanting you to say something else, or something. I am not really sure." He shrugs.
He then moves over to the door Sophy spoke about and checks to see if it is locked.
With a start, Eponine jerks back from the pool. Be careful not to touch the liquid. A drop of it just touched me in a splash, and it chilled me and enveloped me with rage for a moment. You know, I thought I saw the glow dim for an instant when it happened, too.
Kern looks at Eponine. "Now that's interesting. I noticed it glowed brighter when Belril was getting irritated at Victor. And yes, Victor, I know his name's Belril. I confess I did that on purpose to make him angry to test if I was right, but it seems my attempt to make him angry didn't work." He calls over to the halfling, "Sorry about that, Belril." He turns back to Eponine again. "Do you think this thing's powered by anger or something? Maybe we just need to be really nice to each other to make it weaker."
Victor laughs at the irony of that last statement by Kern. "That is quite funny! I believe I just heard you say the phrase, 'nice to each other'? But no, it could not be, silly me. I guess my hearing is going as well." He shrugs.
Kern looks a little confused. "No, nothing wrong with your hearing, Victor, but I wasn't trying to make a joke. This thing seems to be infected by anger and to impart anger on others. I was seriously suggesting just being really, really nice to each other. Of course, I'm no expert on magical demonic pools of...erm...whatever this is a pool of, so maybe I'm way off base. What do you think, Wren?"
Belril stayed at the door ignoring the others, fuming at the forgetfulness of their nature and providing a not so friendly hand gesture when Victor tried to hail him as well. Kern is unsure if the angry halfling's response had any effect on the pool, but he too noticed that it seem to dim slightly when Eponine was splashed by the liquid.
Victor took a moment to gather up the weapons of the mutant goblin. He first notices that they are definitely not of goblin make. The longsword is finely crafted and a swirly rune is etched into the edge of the blade just above the hilt. The axe is also of superior quality and the dagger is forged from silver. Other than the three blades, the goblin has no armor or personal possessions.
Sophy and Victor open the door to the Southwest and find a closet. Tattered shreds of what where probably once vestments hang from a row of rusted hooks.
Outside the Cathedral room, Belril stares at the alter in the shrine and the foul basin of water upon it.
"I think Sophy is right on, Kern. I remember something about the use of pools to harness magical power and transform power into other things. It is definitely possible that this pool might harness emotions and combine them with some sort of physical elements that can then be used to spawn a new life form that is a manifestation of that emotion. I have no idea of how to destroy it, though."
"It is nothing." Victor steps away from the tattered closet, then is about to ask about the rune on the longsword before he recalls that Sophy uses a dagger. Well, she mostly just carries it around with her. "Excuse me, Sophy, but would you be interested in this dagger?" He holds it out for her to examine. "It looks to be made of silver, which automatically makes it far better than the one you have now. At least in my book." He shrugs. "What say you?"
She blinks at the proffered gift. "It's ... prettier," she admits. "And it might be handy when someone 'borrows' my weapon and forgets to give it back," she smiles up at him teasingly.
Turning her attention to Wren, she replies, "I don't think we can destroy it, not in some way Erylium can't put right quickly. This whole place is evil -- dedicated to Lamashtu." She gives a little shiver as she looks around the shrine. "Father Zantus might be able to consecrate it and take away the taint, but there's nothing we can do about it. And the longer we stand here looking at it, the more time Erylium or someone else has to do something awful to Ameiko. We've got to keep moving and find her. We've lost too much time already. If we meet Erylium again in the process, well, maybe she's already done her worst to us and we'll be able to finish her off. That's our best hope of stopping her from spawning her armies."
You stare at the goblin, the name Koruvus is what the demon called her. Koruvus....you hear the voice of the elven ranger Shalelu in the back of your mind,
"Koruvus was a champion of the Seven Tooth tribe, who was as well known for his short temper as he was for his prized possession. A magic longsword sized for a human that the goblin stubbornly kept as his own. Koruvus vanished several months ago after he supposedly discovered a 'secret hideout' in a cave along the cliffs, but the Seven Tooth goblins remain convinced that he's out there still, a ghost or worse, waiting to murder any goblin who tries to discover his hideout."
You can not think of any arcane magic that would have caused the grotesque deformities the goblin has, but you are confident some sort of transformation happened to him. You are in the halls of the goddess of monsters, perhaps there is some unholy answer to his mutations. Something in these catacombs, if the goblin is indeed the one Shalelu told you about.
"Victor, stop! That longsword! Wren, can you tell if it's magical?" Sophy's voice is urgent.
"Yes, I can tell if any of the loot is magical. Put everything together for me, and I will examine them." Wren casts her cantrip and looks at the weapon.
You look at the mark, but it is not recognizable as the Draconic nor the rare Thassilonian scripts.
She blinks at the proffered gift. "It's ... prettier," she admits. "And it might be handy when someone 'borrows' my weapon and forgets to give it back," she smiles up at him teasingly.
"Uhhh, hehe." He nervously laughs, as his face turns a tinge of red at his terrible forgetfulness. Handing the dagger to her, he pulls out the longsword and is about to ask...
"Victor, stop! That longsword! Wren, can you tell if it's magical?" Sophy's voice is urgent.
Victor nearly jumps out of his pants at Sophy's outburst. "What, what is it?" He then listens to Wren's instructions and does as she asks, placing the hand axe and the longsword in a pile.
"That goblin ... what was left of it," she explains quietly as she waits for Wren to do her thing. "Shalelu told us about him. Do you remember? Erylium called him Korovus; I thought it sounded familiar. He was a champion of the Seven Tooth tribe and had a longsword that was his most prized possession. Then he disappeared several months ago, only I assume he still looked like a goblin then: smaller and only two arms. Something ... changed him." She looks up at Victor apologetically. "I thought ... maybe the sword. There are stories about magical items that make their owners obsessed with them and end up doing horrible things to them. I'm probably wrong."
Victor shakes his head as if acknowledging the fact he does remember then responds, "No. I fear I do not remember that. But, whether you are wrong or not, it is better to be safe than sorry. If you are wrong then no harm done. But if you are right, then you have saved me from who knows what. I fear I have enough problems without having to add something such as that to my list. Thank you for alerting me, Sophy." He nods in appreciation.
"That sword is definitely magical. It's got a bit of Transmutation magic on it. I can't tell you its exact properties, but it is magical."
"That sword is definitely magical. It's got a bit of Transmutation magic on it. I can't tell you its exact properties, but it is magical."
"Transmutation?" Sophy asks fearfully. "Doesn't that have to do with ... changing things?" She looks at the hideously mutated goblin corpse and shudders. "What's that rune on it, Wren? Is it magical writing? I don't recognize it. Or maybe you do, Eponine?"
Kern looks at the mutated goblin and grimaces slightly. "Changing things kind of makes sense," he says, "given what happened to that thing. Good thing Sophy warned you in time, Victor. I'd hate to see you turn into something like that."
Captivated by the magic aura of the sword, Wren had ignored the rune on it. She looked closely to see if she could identify it.
Snapping out of her obsessive focus by Sophy's question, Eponine puts her attention on the sword, drawing on her long ago lessons to see if she can help.
Languages: Common, Elven, Thassilonian, Varisian, Giant, Goblin.
Skills:
Arcana
Planes
Religion
Linguistics
Perception
Spellcraft
The mark resembles elven script but you are unsure what it means.
You recognize the mark as the signature stamp of a legendary elven smith, El'daierothia. It is said she has no arcane talents of her own, but that she makes the finest magical blades in all of Varisia.