Harsk is pretty sure the half-orc was locked in the coffin and likely died of thirst in only a few days. His body has been rotting in here for at least a couple weeks.
Alice leads the way past the statues in the hallway and finds that the hallway ends in a spiral staircase that goes both up and down and a door. The door seems safe and the party heads through to find a space which apparently served as the monastery's kitchen. It appears to have been used recently, though the strange stains and smells don't seem like they were created by preparing food. A cauldron of bubbling fluid sits atop a small fire burning in one of the fireplaces.
This concoction is unknown to me... too foul.
Unsure what to do next, Kurth will follow Alice on a second search of the chambers, looking for clues.
Nothing happens to the sticky when Alice dips it into the cauldron. Nothing else is found in the room.
The party heads through the secret door to find a strange hidden vault....
A recessed mesh of iron gridwork crisscrosses the northn end of this room. Hundreds of tiny blue runes have been painted inside of each of the small squares formed by the grid pattern. A long=dead figure lies slumped against the wall to the northeast.
Trapped inside the room is a strange creature with dull, red eyes, grasping claws, and leathery wings which give a demonic aspect to this creature's smoky form.
The arcane writing on the grid are runes to bolster conjuration magic. Be aware!
This is an evil outsider known as a belker. If it turns into smoke, do not breathe its air and its claws can still harm you!
Harsk immediately turns to Kurth and lays a hand on the fighter's shoulder. "Torag, protect this brave from all evil."
"I guess we're killing this thing?" Kurth asks, before carefully stepping across the wards to hack at the cloud creature with his flaming sword.
Harsk protects Kurth from evil! The creature moves up to bite at Harsk!
Kurth then hits it but finds his blade does not cut as deep against this strange outsider.
16 dmg
Milloy steps back but not before he casts Protection from Evil on Alice!
Harsk panics, holding his shield with both hands in a protective stance.
Milloy steps back and protects Alice from the evil of the room. Harsk takes a defensive stance.
16 dmg
Alice puts an arrow in the belker's side but it snaps at her in the process!
Maffei shoots a shadowy missile at the creature but it only has a small effect. The belker retaliates!
23 dmg
Milloy reads a spell from one of his scrolls!
Harsk reaches over to try and give Kurth another blessing, being careful not to provide the belker with an opportunity to attack.
Unfortunately, Harsk's concentration is ruined and he is unable to cast the spell.
"Smoke, meet fire," Kurth says, continuing to hack away with his sword as he shifts to the south to try to flank the creature.
The demonic-looking creature leaps out of the way of Milloy's sphere. One of the Alice's arrows cuts into its flesh. Harsk tries to cast a spell but is distracted and Kurth has trouble cutting through its tough hide.
Maffei then hits it with another shadowy missile!
The belker attacks again!
34 dmg
Milloy continues to try and burn the creature and sends a its way from his wand!
"Oh, just die already," Kurth says, his supply of witty battle cries depleted.
The creature leaps out of the way of Milloy's fireball only to get hit by a missile. Alice puts a pair of arrows in it but Kurth's swing hits only air.
49 dmg
Harsk misses but Maffei slams it with another shadowy missile that certainly puts Miso's missiles to shame!
The belker then attacks!
With a poof! the creature then turns into a cloud of smoke, its outline still visible in the cloud!
54 dmg
Milloy will again try to burn the creature and then hit it with another
Reduced to frustrated growling, Kurth chops at the demonic cloud again.
Harsk holds his breath and backs away from the smoke.
With a flurry of attacks, the party poofs the cloud of smoke into nothing!
There is a withered and rent body to the northeast that was clearly one of the monastery's clerics. The priest's robes are rotten but a pouch at her side still contains some scrolls.
If I were a conjurer, I might, but I'm not. I don't generally dabble in that field. However, one of these scroll might be useful later on.
"All that for some magic paper? Why can't monks collect gold, or ale?" Kurth laments. "Reckon we ought to head up those stairs, see if there's any damsels in the tower need rescuing? My luck, it'll be an old lonely ogre or troll looking for someone to keep it warm at night. I'm telling you now, if that happens I'm handing over Milloy."
Once everyone is ready, Kurth will follow Alice up the stairs.
The party heads up the western staircase to find a library:
Tall bookcases fill this impressive chamber. The elaborate fresco on the ceiling depicts devotees of Irori in meditation. Wisps of incense wind through the scene like a fanciful ribbon of smoke.
Finding nothing of interest in the library, the party follows a corridor leading around its perimeter until reaching an iron door covered in complex sigils and runes painting in delicate black lacquer-a message repeated over and over in several languages, including Common: Beware! Dark Oblivion Lies Within!
A drone, like the sound of a vast wind, fills the room beyond, yet the air is cold and still. A fifteen-foot square of arcane symbols is inscribed on the floor. Two five-foot-square areas of similar writing sit to the northeast and southeast of the larger one.
Above the larger square hovers what appears to be a vertical hole in reality-a window that looks out into a night sky in which only a few tiny stars are visible. The window itself is fifteen feet square, running from the north and south points of the symbol below. It's suspended a foot off the ground, and comes within three feet of the ceiling above.
A few seconds after you step into the room, a six-eyed horror that looks something like a dead tree with claws, tentacles, spidery legs, and a mouth bulging with tentacles suddenly pops into the room before you!
Milloy gives the group a quick rundown of the features of its enemies (see spoiler).
He then reads from one of his scrolls! for
Milloy's firey ray burns a hold in one of the tentacles! Alice follows this up by putting an arrow deep into its eye!
65 dmg
"Torag, Bless us in our struggle!" Harsk prays to his god and everyone feels a heavenly hand guiding their attacks.
-Posted with Wayfinder
-Posted with Wayfinder
Harsk blesses the party and Maffei takes the long way around the room to get on the side of the beast, hoping for a flank!
The creature lets out a psychic burst among the party!
65 dmg
"I don't feel so good ... but you're gonna feel worse, whatever you are! Kurth screams as he moves into a flanking position with Maffei.