Seal moves over to the other staircase while drawing out his cold iron dagger.
"Whoa, sorry there. I felt like my mind was away there for a moment."
Seal pulls out his cold iron dagger, hoping the quasit shows itself soon.
Instead, a giant frog appears in the room next to Rissi! It tries take a bite of the little wizard!
The quasit then appears out of invisibility flying near Kufieno as it uses a hex against the suli!
Kufieno fights off the hex and drops his spear. Drawing the cold iron short sword, he steps to the little creature and chops at it.
Lucian draws his morningstar and swings at the frog, hoping to make it drop the wizardess. "Leave her alone!"
"It's go time!"
Seal huffs his way up the stairs, barely making it to the quasit. With dagger in hand, he tries to stab the demon in the back, roguey style!
In response to Miana's quip, Seal returns the remark with a smirk.
"Yah, a moment. You know, in the geological sense. That's how us dwarves perceive time."
Rissi shrieks again.
Kufieno fights off the sleep and stabs at the quasit but it dodges out of the way!
Miana moves to assist Rissi but the frog proves a more difficult target than expected.
Lucian slices into the frog while Seal stabs at the quasit!
Rissi shrieks at the frog holding her.
---
The frog throws it head back and swallows Rissi!
---
The quasit casts a spell and shoots a ray at Seal!
Kufieno stabs at the quasit once more.
Rissi pulls a dagger and stabs at the inside of the frog.
Kufieno stabs but misses.
Rissi slices her way out of the frog and tumbles onto the floor next to its now-open stomach!
Miana then quickly kills the frog!
The necrotic ray splashes harmlessly off of Sealman's broad chest. He dwarf looks down where he was hit, then look up at the demon with a twitch in his neck.
"Running out of room there."
Seal steps up to Erylium so that he can see the business end of Seal's dagger once more.
Seeing that his wizard friend is saved, he steps towards Miana to provide her with divine guidance.
Luciana gives guidance to Miana while Seal stabs into the demon!
Erylium hisses in fury as Seal's blade sinks in. It uses a hex on Seal to put him to sleep!
SqueeeeEEEEAK
Lucian climbs the stairs quickly to reach Sealman and Kufieno.
Seal's eyes droop a little, but the dwarf then shakes his head violently to stay awake.
"Knock it off. This is not making me like you."
Seal then flips the handle and stabs downward into the quasit.
Rissi lets out a squeak that blows out the quasit's eardrums.
Lucian and Miana join the rest up top.
Seal then cuts into the quasit again with his dagger!
[ooc]Can't see map atm. Would like to flank with Seal if possible.
Kufieno stabs once more.
Kufieno cuts into the quasit and it falls from the air!
The small storerooms on either side of this chamber are empty save for worthless scraps.
Kufieno kicks at the fallen quasit with the toe of his boot. "Strange little creature." He says, trailing off as he looks to the party. "Yes, is everyone ok?"
Rissi coughs a little and wipes off some of the from muck.
"Yes, Miana, thank you. I could certainly *chhh* use a little soothing magic."
In the aftermath of the fight, Lucian takes a moment to catch his breath and heal his wounded companions before studying the location he's in. "What an outstanding place! It was indeed of Thassilonian origin before it was befouled with Lamashtu's influence. And these pools - what strange powers do they hold? Creating these sinspawn, obviously, but what else?"
"I think this Quasit was here on purpose and chose to remain in a site of raw power, perhaps. I can see very easily how this could interest Tsuto."
Seal looks over the tiny dagger with interest.
"Why would this bugger have a blade that could hurt his kin? Maybe he was just bullied and misunderstood?"
Seal curls up his lip and upper eyebrow. After a moment he just shrugs his shoulders.
"At least we'll get some good coin for the dagger. Hard to work cold iron in a forge. Because forges are hot . . . and the iron should be cold . . . hence the name . . . cold iron."
Seal then walks up to the pool and starts to sniff around like a dog.
"Why do you guys keep talking about Lamb-shyt. I can't see or smell anything."
"It is a demon goddess, one that takes *chhh* particular joy in the birth of monstrous and deformed progeny. I would *hiss* hazard most of her "children" have more in common with carnivores then ruminants."
Rissi stops and ponders. "If this place had some affiliation with producing monstrous spawn, that might *squeak* draw a disciple of Lamashtu here. The presence and subservience of the goblin supports such a theory. Clearly this place requires more study."
"Shall we go back to town with our new found wealth and blow it on beer? No, oh OK. Well how about we buy better adventuring items before going up those stairs? Yah!"
Seal leads the way up the stairs and opens the door at the top. Water ripples quietly in this circular stone pool, the rim of which is lined with skulls.
From the ceiling flies down a creatures with a blackened, bat-winged fiend's head. Tentacles dangle from its chin and scalp and its fanged mouth hangs agape.
Kufieno raises his crossbow and fires at the creature.
"A poisonous, shrieking Vargoille! Kill it quickly"
She splashes acid and skitters back.
Kufieno puts a crossbow through the foul beast! Rissi follows up with a splash of acid and Miana finishes it off with a chakram! The beast flutters to the ground, disappearing half-way through the descent to return to its home plane.
Finding nothing else of interest in this room, the company heads through the far door to find another pair of ascending stairs. Through another door the company finds a flight of spiral stairs winding up around a circular pillar into darkness above. Your progress, however is blocked by a collapse that leaves the rest of the stairs unusable.
Lucian sighs with relief as the last creature of this foul but exciting place falls. "I thought we'd never see the end of it. Time for me to head home and warn Mr. Quink about what we've discovered, if you don't mind. I think he could help us understand what the purpose of this place was, what these runes mean. Shall we meet tonight at the Rusty Dragon to talk things over and see what we will do next over a pint of honey mead?"
"Master Lucian, I would *chhh* join you, if I would not be intruding."
The Varisian young adult beams a charming smile. "Of course Miss Rissi, you'll be more than welcome!"
"Many thanks, Master Lucian."
While passing the statue, on the way out.
"Look... the statue has a ranseur in it! Help me get at it...
Several of the company decide to visit Brodert Quink, who is conveniently an expert on ancient Thassilon and is happy to give you all a history lesson:
Thassilon was founded more than 11,000 years ago by First King Xin who had been exiled from his homeland of Azlant for promoting heretical beliefs. As the empire grew beyond the bounds of Xin's ability to control, both militarily and administratively, he appointed powerful arcanists as governors to oversee his lands. The mightiest of these were the runelords, seven of the most skilled (and power-hungry) wizards in Thassilon, if not all of Golarion. Working secretly to secure power for themselves, the opportunity to fully escape servitude under First King Xin appeared when he, in his old age and after having ruled Thassilon for more than a century, destroyed himself and much of his palace in a mysterious magical event. The runelords seized the opportunity and subjugated those loyal to Xin - including his own son, who became a puppet emperor - while each plotted within his or her own lands to become ruler of all Thassilon.
The Virtues of Rule (generosity, love, humility, temperance, charity, kindness, and zeal), passed down from the goddess Lissala and First King Xin himself were seen as the benefits of power, and each of the runelords was drawn towards one of the seven. Over the course of time, the runelords corrupted these into what modern scholars understand to be the "great sins of the soul," abandoning the positive aspects of each and embracing the negative connotations of each (greed, lust, boastful pride, gluttony, envy, wrath, and sloth) as the rewards of rule. Each of the seven rulers specialized in a single school of rune magic and possessed a mighty weapon which not only served them in battle, but also became a symbol of their rule.
The runelords forged alliances with dragons and enslaved giants by using secrets of rune and glyph magic stolen from the aboleths in their efforts to increase their own power. With their enslaved giant armies, the wizards of Thassilon built massive tombs, enormous magical constructs, and staggering monuments that survive today, mute testimonies of a mysterious age long past.
Alaznist was the last Thassilonian Runelord of Wrath who ruled for many years over her realm of Bakrakhan. She is believed to have retreated from view along with the other runelords during Earthfall, and it is unknown whether she survived that cataclysm. She was a specialist in wrath magic, now called evocation, and was said to have been a puissant arcane knight.
As she has been gone for almost 10,000 years, no one can be sure of exactly what she looked like, although statues that have been found depict her as a beautiful, yet enraged human woman with long hair, flowing robes, and wielding a charred adamantine ranseur, on which the skull of the first Runelord of Wrath was impaled. She is said to have been impatient and impulsive, caring little for magical research, and preferred modifying her many troops by magical means such as fleshwarping and alchemy.
Alaznist is said to have been a worshiper of many kinds of demons, who shared her enthusiasm for violence and destruction. Most important to her, however, was the pure veneration of anger and wrath. In order to encourage these traits in her subjects, she built many runewells which could absorb the souls of wrathful mortals in order to further her power and create sinspawn.