Nilfyr performs another tripping combo, sending the automaton to the ground and cutting through its chassis! Sparks start shooting out from the automaton!
Artemus, seeing Thunderstealer and Nilfyr more than capable of finishing off the foe, pulls out a wand and starts charging it.
A spark flies onto Thunderstealer, painfully burning some chest hair.
The automaton now tries to swipe at Nilfyr from the ground!
With calculating aim, the swing goes upward and causes a telling wound to the Desnan!
Init order (bold = up)
Automaton (26 damage, prone)
Thunderstealer (18 damage)
Belcher (other side)
Faeros (other side)
Artemus (other side)
Nilfyr (19 damage)
Thunderstealer pushes the black lever up , causing both gates blocking Artemus, Belcher, and Faeros to rise.
Belcher closes in and attacks!
for
for
for
Between Nilfyr, Faeros, and Belcher, the party finishes off the automaton!
Thunderstealer opens the east door... and finds a hallway that ends abruptly with a round end and black markings.
Thunderstealer pushes the black lever up, rotating the blocked hallway so it now goes south. Quickly scouting the new passage, they find a wide staircase that descends into darkness. A panel with another set of red and black handled levers are located against one wall, while a destroyed automaton lies in pieces near the stairs.
Thunderstealer then decides to push the black lever down all the way, creating a new passage!
It rotates to a double-wooden door, although there is sound coming from the other side, like the occasional snarl, however everything seemingly goes quiet, as if whatever was inside the room is now aware of your presence on the other side of the door.
Opening the door, the party finds clouds of steam form from a fountain in the middle of this hall. Four heavy stone columns support the high ceiling, and a single red lever is mounted in a panel on the eastern wall. Rusty remnants of two human-sized automatons lie on the floor.
Adjacent to those remnants are a pair of large red and black-furred cats, scarlet glowing out of their eyes and horned ridges lining the skull. Between them and behind a pillar is a hooded form of roughly humanoid shape, although it seems to have cloven feet.
These are fiendish leopards; the fiendish taint gives them resistance to fire and cold and they can smite good. Finally, they have a weak, but noteworthy bit of spell resistance. Being leopards, they are aggressive on a charge, attacking with all of their claws as well as their bite.
The other creature is an aghash, a type of div that embody the evil eye, spreading doom with their gazes. They can summon sandstorms, even temporary ones, and their gaze can confuse, shake, stun, or harm those it stares at with its single large, fanged eye.
Besides the gaze, aghashes have a number of spell-like abilities, including summoning doru divs, cursing foes at will, making dimensional jaunts, and making a suggestion. They have moderate resistance to magic and require cold iron or good weapons to harm them fully. They also resist acid and electricity and are outright immune to fire and poisons.
Init Order (bold = up)
Faeros
Artemus
Cat Blue
Hooded thing
Cat Red
Thunderstealer/Belcher
Nilfyr
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When Thunderstealer grows claws, Faeros casts bless. And asks whether Artemis is able to cast haste.
Faeros studies the div and tries to discern information about it.
Anybody know what this thing is?
Faeros fires 1 normal arrows at the creature. (Edited - forgot study target was a move and tried to make a full attack)
()
If haste, then add 1 to the above attack roll.
Artemus nods at Faeros' request and quickens the party's actions.
Artemus tries a new trick and summons a holy badger to combat the fiendish cats!
Between Faeros' arrow and Artemus' badger, the two liepards disappear!
The figure behind the column tries to cast a spell... but fails it!
Init Order (bold = up)
Group buffs: haste, prot vs evil
Faeros
Artemus
Badger
Hooded thing
Thunderstealer (feral)
Belcher
Nilfyr (divine favor)
Nilfyr moves into position after Faeros, Thunderstealer, and Belcher rip into the strange outsider. The Desnan's combo is still effective and hooded figure goes down and is nearly defeated by the attack, but the badger finishes it off with a flurry of claws and teeth!
Looking over the alien being, a handful of yellow topazes are found.
Each topaz is worth about 200gp.
The party, making quick work of the enemy here, goes to the next door.
The sound of someone chipping away rock can be heard.
The party, still buffed from everything but the haste, opens the door!
Parts of this chamber look like they were recently excavated. To the southeast, a curving cylinder of green crystal—part of the Emerald Spire—fills a quarter of the room.
A small creature, with a bulbous head takes a pick to the back of the room, chipping away at the stone. Next to it are a pair of sacks. Although the sound of the door opening is audible enough that it should have heard you, if it did, it seems to ignore your entrance.
This is a pech, an earthen fey. They have light blindness, and like other fey, require cold iron to harm them. They have some resistance to magic, but like earth elementals, fight foes better on earth. They are surprisingly strong for their small size, and can work with stone innately, shaping it or even communing with the earth itself.
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Faeros examines the creature as he steps into the room (studied target)
This is a Pech. They are a fey from the Terran realm. Be careful of its surprising strength and ability to manipulate the earth. Use cold iron to damage it. Artemis can you speak with it in its elemental language?
Faeros knocks an arrow and prepares to fire should negotiations take a bad turn.
"I can speak your tongue, but I am busy.", speaks the pech, busy chipping away at the stone.
"Gundrun must harvest crystals for the gold-faced man."
"But Gundrun's work is not finished!", Gundrun shocked at the news. She pauses for a second, then continues chipping away. "Gundrun finish what Gundrun started. Another servant of the Great Master in the Deep will want them."
Figuring Gundrun is harmless if left alone, the party realizes that they have taken care of the threats on this floor. At least, having a minotaur not want to kill you is a bit of a sobering thought. But what were those outsiders that ripped apart the other emerald automatons? And what of the troglodyte threat that Klarkosh mentioned in his notes. We'll find out next time, on Emerald Spire: Z!
The party takes a few days to rest, giving Nilfyr time to fully recover from his death experience. Likewise, Jharun is making a speedy recovery himself and is grateful for the Hellknight presence for once.
Unlike other times, there is no missive or directive to see one of the Hellknight leaders.
Stronger and more experienced, the party prepares and makes their way back down to the Spire. This time, with four spire transport tokens in the party's possession and the rune for level 6 at hand, it is a far quicker journey to prepare for the next floor.
Some simple lever presses leaves brings the party back to the path to the next floor. Curiously, the pech is still chipping away in the unfinished room, a small pile of crystals at her feet. Leaving her be, the party begins their descent...
Signs of battle—most commonly dried blood, scorch marks, and smashed bones—appear along the stairway down.
The stairs end in the northeast corner of a small, brightly lit room with a door on the west wall. In the center of the room are two large iron racks holding numerous burning candles. The iron candleholders are crafted so that each candle appears to be held in the jaws of a serpent. A phrase is written on each rack in Undercommon.
The phrase on the racks read, Offer prayer to Kro'akoth the Awaker, scaled brethren, and be welcome here.
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It appears that Artemus has recruited a new member for the party. When you next see the arcanist his owl is gone and in its customary place is a tiny but beautiful woman who greets each of you with an encouraging word and an small but bright smile. She wears a gossamer gown and carries an extremely tiny harp in one hand and holds a normal sized wand in the other.
Both Art and Lyr call forth Dancing Lights and Lyr enjoys darting her lgihts about the hall and around any other light sources. As the party descends Art begins to cast some buff spells at the first signs of battle (mage armor on himself, Lyr, Thunderstealer and his animal companion.) This does not bode well. he comments as he completes his castings and puts his wand away. As the group advances into the room Art notes the writing and tries to read it.
After a moment he offers Hmm. It seems to say "Offer prayer to Kro'akoth the Awaker, scaled brethren, and be welcome here."
Kro'akoth, the Awaker, is a nascent demon lord also known as the Fire Serpent. He was a fierce general in the armies of the Abyss, but turned into a mild deific power after seeing her gnoll followers charge towards certain death in the name of Lamashtu. First worshiped by the troglodyte legions under his command, he has since south out forgotten mortal cults and those who lost or never had gods in the first place. He reigns over a network of such cults with few of them ever realizing that their particular worship is all going to the same demon lord.
His domains are Chaos, Evil, Fire, and Trickery, favored weapon is the falchion, alignment CE, and his unholy symbol is the flaming head of a serpent, usually made out of copper or red clay.
Artemus looks over the display, of 6 candle racks each with 11 candles, noting what he can about the name on the plate.