Draylan climbs up a tree and relays down a general lay of the land ahead. Ragnar's experience in the woods quickly lets him use the information to find likely areas for game trails and sure enough you are able to find a track which cuts down on the underbrush. You are able to move more quickly and begin to make up for the lost time.
The dense forest opens to a wide clearing at the base of a sheer cliff. Thick vines cover the surface of the cliff stretching 30 feet overhead. “Here! The cave entrance is behind those vines,”
Janira says with a broad smile as she walks to the cliff’s face. She pulls back several layers of vegetation to reveal a narrow crack in the cliff’s surface. “This is where I saw the gillmen enter.”
As she motions toward the aperture, the surrounding woods come alive with the sound of small animals fleeing some unseen danger and a large creature crashing through the undergrowth. The halfling worriedly remarks, “Quick, take cover before whatever it is spots us!” As if she’d summoned the creature with her words, a massive horned monstrosity emerges from the trees. Standing eight feet tall on a pair of cloven hooves and wielding a tremendous axe, the bull-headed creature roars with unbridled anger when it spots the group.
Wisely assessing that a minotaur is beyond her charges’ capabilities, Janira screams, “A minotaur! There’s little chance we can stand against it. Take this bag,” she continues, pulling off her backpack, “and head deeper into the caves. Finish your mission. I’ll lead it away from the caves, lose it in the forest, and join you as soon as I can. Now go! GO!” She heaves her backpack into the cave, casts a spell, and darts off toward the minotaur before turning to lure it away.
The narrow entrance lays before you.
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In her pack you find the following:
potion of barkskin, potions of cure light wounds (2), potion of feather step, potion of vanish, scroll of entangle, scroll of gust of wind, scroll of identify, scroll of mage armor (CL 6), scroll of obscuring mist, wand of burning hands (CL 3rd, 4 charges), wand of cure light wounds (CL 3rd,
8 charges), acid, alchemist’s fire (2), holy water, smokestick, tanglefoot bags (2), thunderstone
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"There's a wand of curing in there? Excellent. Now we have 2 if need be..." Ford replied, pulling out his own wand of CLW and showing it with a smirk. "I would be a poor future god if I couldn't heal my potential faithful. I will have this one on hand, and someone else can carry the other. Just be careful with how you use it, that one seems to have seen a good bit of use."
Returning the wand to it's spot, Ford nodded. With Janira gone, this lowered their numbers to a level he felt better with... now he could unleash his full divine wrath if needed, without harming his potential faithful. "Let's head inside. Time is of the essence." he stated, pulling back some more vines and bravely leading the way.
The narrow tunnel twists and turns for several hundred feet before slowly opening to a wider passage. A large hole spans the cave’s width and stretches ten feet down the path. At the bottom of the pit lies a small bundle of cloth.
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Looking about the group while examining the contents of Janira's bag, "Might as well put this all to good use. I can handle the two wands if people would like, offering healing and flame as needed. The warriors would do best with the potions of healing, able to keep themselves standing if necessary, or feed them to a fallen comrade. I'd also like to take the other tanglefoot bag, and the two alchemist's fire. Can put those to good use if no one else wants 'em. Kaneka, any interest?"
The pit is 10 feet deep. The tunnel in this area is 10 feet wide and the pit blocks the entire passage. Looking down you see sharpened stakes jutting out from the bottom of the pit.
This is isn't a recent construction. Probably created a year ago.
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"I suspect we're in the right cave. Someone has obviously gone through a decent bit of trouble to keep intruders like us out... wouldn't it be humorous if we found something like a Gillman nursery or safehouse, and all these precautions are just to protect it?"
Ford tapped his chin as he inspected the chasm. "Now... how are we gonna get across?"
Draylan hands his rope to Brayden and begins to climb down the side of the pit. He reaches the bottom and carefully steps around the wooden spikes to find the cloth is a rumpled cloak. Suddenly, Ragnar takes a running leap and dives over Draylan's head. He easily clears the pit in style!
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Brayden frowns at Ragnar's leap as he is holding the weight of the descending Draylan. "Sure, you can jump it, but can everyone else? As for the gillmen, perhaps they only come at the full moon because the tides rise so high that this whole chamber floods from beneath, allowing ease of movement for them. Of course, if that is the case, then we are about to get wet. Now, is anyone else going to leap, or do you all want to descend on this rope?"
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"Sorry Brayden, I just wanted to save some time and your energy, because you don't need to hold my weight." Ragnar says with a smile. "If everybody else is down in the pit you can toss me your end of the rope so I could hold it for everybody to climb up again."
Ragnar checks the surrounding for useful things to get across the pit.
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Ford opts not to jump the pit and instead descends carefully down the rope and weave through the spikes. "I appreciate your assistance, Lady Kaneka. You wouldn't happen to be a faithful of Irori, would you? He and I are... well acquainted. When I become a god myself, I can put in a good word for you with him." Ford offers, looking up at Kaneka as she explains her self-reliance. "So what was in the cloth? Anything of use?"
As the group makes it across the pit, Ragnar pokes around and finds a long plank several feet away. It clearly is enough to bridge the gap.
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The tunnels continue on, leading deeper beneath the Kortos Mounts until they eventually open into a large cavern. What must have once been beautifully carved reliefs and inscriptions have since weathered heavily, their features dulled and softened to the point that it is hard to distinguish what each once depicted. A wide tunnel exits the cavern on its far side, and blue-burning torches line the passageway’s walls.
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Many of the reliefs are so worn that you can't really make out much detail. However four of them seem to have survived in slightly better shape. Ford is able to make out the lines of a man hauling in fish from a net and realizes the image is of one of the priniciple parables of Aroden's 12 guises from the holy text History and the Future of Humanity. This one is portraying the Fisherman hauling in an enormous catch of small fish to take back to Absolom. It illustrates Aroden's declaration that a great host of creatures could accomplish a great task together.
As Ford moves along the wall, he recognizes two others as well. The Hunter, symbolizing taming the wilds and making them save for humanity, shows a man slaying a giant serpent and parading it through the city. The Soldier, symbolizing bringing light and vigilance to the darkest corners of the earth, shows a watchman bearing a lantern through the city streets.
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Ford squints at the etching for a bit, before going wide-eyed and jaw dropping a bit, trembling in place. "This place is... it's in honor to my... my precursor deity. The one I'm meant to replace. It's... these are guises of Aroden!" Ford's hands run gently across the etchings as he explained them all to the group. "The Fisherman, declaring the great accomplishments of teamwork. The Hunter, taming the wilds for humankind... and the Soldier, bringing light to the dark corners of the world."
Ford grew silent as he looked over the etchings, studying them. Suddenly, he turned around, looking grimly determined. "Where are the gillmen? I want to know what they are doing here, and why. This place is sacred, and as Aroden's successor, I cannot allow them to run unchecked here."
Ragnar has a keen eye and recognizes the last carving as the guise of the Thief. It shows a man stealing a gem from a ship while whispering a prayer. While stealing is illegal, Aroden teaches that it is also a from of praise as anything worth stealing is of great craftsmanship.
As you gaze on the carvings, all of you, even the less magically inclined feel something. It's a sense of serenity that resonates with each of you. Those of you with magical experience feel the lingering power of the carvings, like a wand which has a single charge left though both deeper and fainter.
As you move through the lit hallway, Brayden takes one of the blue torches and he's surprised to find that while it gives off light, it gives no heat.
The soft light of the surrounding fungus mixes with the flickering glow of the nearby torches to reveal a grand chamber. A large pool of water along the chamber’s southern edge reflects the blue and green radiance to illuminate the massive stalactites that cling to the ceiling overhead. Two other tunnels branch off from this area, leading to the east and west.
Rising up from the pool is a column of rock with steeply sloped sides and a flat top, as if someone had sawn off the top of a massive stalagmite. A miniature city carved from this same stone occupies nearly the entire surface. Tiny trinkets such as ancient coins, polished semi-precious stones, and ornately braided loops of string are scattered throughout the diorama, and pale cave frogs clamber atop it. The smooth cavern floor is covered in gravel and pebbles along the edge of the pool, and several foot-long centipedes prowl among the gravel in their search for prey.
Kneeling in the water is a gillman. He has his head bowed and he makes no movement as you approach.
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Ford, however, seems to have no reservations about approaching the gillman, spear set at the ready as he stands undeterred by the fellow's presence. Whether the gillman knows what he's saying, or he speaks Common, or is even dangerous, Ford doesn't seem to care much.
"You stand on Aroden's holy ground, my friend. As his successor, I have no qualms with your presence, should you seek safety or asylum. But if you have less honorable intentions, I must ask you cease them, leave... or face the consequences."
The gillman doesn't react to your words. He remains kneeling in the water with his head bowed.
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As the gillman has not responded to verbal contact Brayden looks to the others and whispers "Cover me". Moving around to the gillman's side Brayden steps in its peripheral vision, putting the torch down onthe shore and stepping gently into the water while holding up both his hands. Brayden nods his head as a greeting, then speaks, "Greetings good sir, I am sorry to disturb you. May my companions and I speak with you?"
As you come into the side view of the gillman, he looks up in surprise at your presence. He seems to squint at Brayden as he speaks and then a long silence passes between them. Slowly he nods and stands to face the whole group.
"Welcome, humans. I am called Uori. Forgive me for not noticing you sooner. You have entered a site of scared waters to the Low Azlanti. But please, you are welcome here. Have you come to worship your dead god?"