Insidion looks eager at the thought of a fight, but stares at the relic curiously.
The relic was fake?
The two leaders shake their head and the woman answers, "If that is not the true relic then I am afraid we do not know where the real one lies. We have used that relic for many years."
From the description, Sihir is quite sure these beasts are ceustodaemons, ferocious extraplanar outsiders. It is difficult to wound them without silver or good-aligned weapons. They also can not be affected by acid, death effects, disease, mind-affecting effects, paralysis, poison, or polymorph effects, or sleep effects. Furthermore, the other elements besides acid are also less useful against them. They breathe electricity and have some spellcasting abilities.
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"How unfortunate - and now we've got these fiends of yours to fight! What you describe are called ceustodaemons, among other names; Vicious sparks ride their breath, and they have magical powers of course, but the worst of it with daemons, of course, is that as agents of all suffering and death, they're exempt from most mortal frailties, and if something can harm them, they likely still have little to fear from it. Friends, I hope some of you have silver weapons? That is one of their few weaknesses. High magic is another, as is the power of divine Goodness."
You take up positions near the stupa to watch over the dam and the path that leads to the village. The villagers have all locked themselves up in their homes for the night. Sure enough, just as midnight approaches you hear sounds coming from down the path and soon three large hairy daemons with sharp black horns mount the dam and start walking towards you....
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2) Enlarge person (5 minutes)
3) Bless (5 minutes)
4) Align weapon - good (5 minutes)
5) Weapon of Awe (5 minutes)
6) Shield of Faith (5 minutes)
7) Bless (5 minutes)
8) Align weapon communal - good (5 minutes to be shared)
9) Divine favor when they approach (1 minute)
Haste cast by Nixkamich
Current AC 26 vs evil
Deaglan takes a few steps forward and swings his dwarven longhammer
Thou shall not harm these people anymore!
Ru drinks down another extract to get ready for the battle. Nixkamich then steps out from behind the stupa and fires three arrows into the first daemon, taking it down before it can even approach the party!
Enlarged and hasted, Insidion rushes toward the demon with abandon. He swings in a vicious, accurate strike that pounds the enemy soundly.
Deaglan and Insidion rush forward and put a quick end to the second daemon as Sihir hits the other with a flash of light, although this does not blind it.
The daemon tries to halt Insidion's progress.
Nixkamich and Lore work together to bring down the last daemon! Although Lore's fireball does a bit of damage to the dam, luckily it is not enough to bring the dam down.
After you defeat the daemons, Arkar and Yuzana come out of hiding from the opposite side of the dam where they had been watching you. "Truly you are angels!" Yuzana calls out to you.
Arkar approaches and apologizes. "You are wonderful people and I must confess that I have been less than honest with you. Several years ago, I replaced the authentic cradle with a duplicate, aiming to prove to Yukaza that the relics of Malikeen hold no actual power. This was wrong of me. Come, I will show you where it is hidden."
Yuzana is clearly devastated and hurt by this news but she bites her tongue and follows along.
Beneath the dam is a small cave, little more than a crawlspace, in which a cradle is lodge in mud and sand. A protective talisman hangs from the cradle. Over time, it must have absorbed some of the cradle's psychic significance and has become magical, now functioning as a lesser talisman of freedom.
When you hold the candle of conveyance to this cradle, it flares blue within seconds. The flame turns blue, but moments later it begins to flare and sputter madly, coruscating through the spectrum until it settles on blood red. Within the frantic candle, images appear first, a jagged black pagoda, then the image of a blue-skinned woman, her hair like a black shroud. Her jaws distend and erupt with fangs. Bakten's face appears, his eyes wide with pain and terror. He falls from view and the candle's flame winks out.
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Nixkamich smiles gravely.
"I am just glad that we were able to put an end to their depredations. Hopefully, your village will be able to recover, although I acknowledge that this will undoubtedly be a slow process."
Nixkamich looks alarmed.
"That... did not look good. I wonder what, exactly, just happened...?"
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"Oh, poor Bakten. I hope he learned what he needed to know. I agree, we need to return to him as quickly as possible. I'm sorry about the damage to the dam, but I agree that if I damaged it, it should be repaired properly before anyone tries to move the cradle... I would stay to make sure it is done, but I fear we need to get to Bakten before this other entity takes hold of him. I can perhaps return afterwards to make sure the repair work gets done."
The two leaders nod in agreement. "As much as I would like to reinstall it in the shrine, you are right that digging beneath this dam is not wise right now," Yuzana says.
Arkar adds, "Thank you so much for your help. If your friend is in trouble you should hurry back to him. You have done more than we could ever repay."
Obliged to return to Amanandar to check on Bakten, you hurry away from the village the next morning. The trip takes over a week but upon arriving at Bakten's sanctuary, you find his pook servant aggrieved. She acts as a telepathic eyewitness and shows you the following mental images: Bakten meditating, Bakten horror stricken, and Bakten's body evaporating.
Tears streak the pooka's tiny face as she says, "{Bakten so gone. But gone-gone? Great Beyond. Show candle, yes?" When you bring out the candle, you recevie a shock: the extinguished candle re-ignites itself, burning with a small, pale flame. Twig's sorrow turns to joy. "Walk-lookers! Hope burns! New Bakten means new answers soon!"
Since the death of Venture-Captain Bakten Shengrah, New Oppara has been in mourning. The heavens echo the city’s grief, bestowing shrouds of inky storm clouds on the city, rolling down from the Zi Ha Mountains to the north. On orders from the Lantern Lodge, all local Pathfinders have cloistered themselves within the samsaran guru’s sanctuary, combing his libraries for clues that might explain the strange resuscitation of Bakten’s candle of conveyance, for none of the sages of Amanandar can explain how the candle still burns when Bakten’s soul has departed.
As the black clouds hurl blizzards from above, an unlikely source of aid appears at the sanctuary’s gates: an elderly elven noblewoman stumbles in, frostbitten and half-delirious. “I came to atone,” she cries, “Bakten was once Malash—a hero. But what was Malash next? That evil woman! I loathed her so. I thought she stole my love’s heart, and blamed her next life, Bakten, too! But if he knew nothing of his own veiled life?” Her ancient hands clutch a weather-beaten scroll case, as if it were a lifeline. “Tell me he is not dead, please!” She begs, “If Bakten is fallen, I fear the shrouded one may rise and doom us all!” You, of course, recognize Lady Ishigo Shiori from your time in Jinin.
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"Milady, please calm down! Sit and have a cup of tea before you tell us your story."
Deaglan waits a bit, until she has composed herself.
"Alas, we have to confirm your suspicion that Venture Captain Bakten has departed this world. Is this 'shrouded one' his veiled life? And how can that one rise again?"
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The burly dwarf stands quietly in the corner. For some reason, he had been drafted into this mission, placed with a group that had clearly spent a long time together previously. Who understands the damned Society higher ups anyway? Just give me a chance to engage and enemy in glorious battle and I'll be okay, he thinks with a wry grin.
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Be at ease, MiLady. Hopefully it is not as dire a situation as you paint, but if it does prove to be so, you are surrounded now by Pathfinders, and we will not let such a thing persist. It... she?... will be dealt with and hopefully Bakten's life threads will be rewoven to their original path. The tapestry will be restored."
"Alas, we have to confirm your suspicion that Venture Captain Bakten has departed this world. Is this 'shrouded one' his veiled life? And how can that one rise again?"
"Jujanil, the evil creature who stole my love's heart. I was certain that she was one of Bakten's past lives, a being of the same soul, but now I am not so sure. I made a terrible mistake, and now we may be doomed."
"After you Pathfinders visited Jinin, I realized if Bakten himself recalled nothing of the shrouded one, then perhaps she was a separate soul entirely. I sent one of my daughters to ransack Lord Ryuu's chambers. I had to know what creature had ensnared him centuries ago. She brought me this scroll."
Trembling, Shiori proffers a letter from Jujanil to Mata Ryuu:
My Precious Ryuu,
Construction of the Black Grave Tower nears completion. Just as you have promised me a throne from which to while away the centuries, so has the Lord of Envy promised life and might eternal, once my other soul’s cycle has concluded. Two lifetimes is hardly an eternity. Let the storms rage across Tian Xia, to herald an eon of night.
Your Love and Sovereign,
Jujanil
Shiori volunteers her own interpretation, "What if this 'other soul' she speaks of is Malash-and Bakten? What if Jujanil were somehow separated from her other incarnations and is waiting, now, for Bakten's soul to leave, before she can arise?"
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"Ah, the Lord of Envy. Fumeiyoshi, Lord of Envy, is one of the 20 prominent deities of Tian Xia. He was once known as the God of Night. However, he grew jealous of his brother Tsukiyo’s love for the goddess Shizuru. This envy led him to fratricide, and he became the patron of dishonor, envy, graves, and undead. Fumeiyoshi often manifests to his worshipers as a nearly skeletal crimson humanoid with three eyes, jagged tusks, and twisted claws. His unholy symbol is a red demonic face, and his sacred animal is a wolf, sometimes shown devouring a freshly killed hare, the sacred animal of his brother Tsukiyo. His favored weapon is the naginata. Envious of the living, Fumeiyoshi grants eternal unlife to his most devoted servants. Fumeiyoshi loathes samsarans, as their souls evade his clutches through reincarnation. An undead samsaran would be a favored follower of the dark god."
Nixkamich frowns.
"It certainly sounds like we should head for the Black Grave Tower..."