After the fight has ended, Lucian rushes to heal Sealman, realizing he's been hurt quite badly.
Sealman picks up the sinspawn's ranseur and notices how much of his blood has stained the weapon. He tries to determine if it is of high quality or not. In either case, he kicks the sinspawn one more time in a bit of a fit.
Once down with the dead body, Seal inspects the room to the right/east.
+2 stonework
Seeing that his dwarven companion is still badly injured, Lucian continues his efforts to heal him.
The sinspawn seems to have been camped out as a guard in the small cave to the right. There is nothing of value except for its ranseur.
Seal sallies forth to the next intersection and looks down the passages to the north and the east.
"Shall we go right?" randomly suggests Lucian, staying a couple steps behind Sealman.
"Yes, yes.... right is good." Rissi seems lost in thought. "Does it not *chhh* strike any of you as strange? That creature was neither demon nor *chhh* goblin. Where did it come from?"
Lucian directs the party down the passage to the right. The original purpose of this chamber is unclear, but large mounds of rubble lie strewn on its floor. It looks as though there used to be a wall blocking off the tunnel you just came through, and this was once an enclosed room.
Investigating the rubble you find that most of it consists of broken urns and other pottery contains that once held food stores, long since crumbled to dust.
"Looks like it's a dead end. Maybe this was the sinspawn's lair? I have no clue as why it was there, and how it managed to survive so long." wonders Lucian as he turns back.
"I have never seen or read about any creature like that.
Rissi waves her sleeved hands descriptively, forgoing any attempt at stealth. "Well, it is not *chhh* surprising. It is an aberration, an unnatural creature likely not of our world. Creatures like that are from *squeak* vaults deep beneath the earth, or the spaces between the stars. It is a strange ally for our foe to have; demons desire the souls of mortals and make bargains. Aberrations goals are *chit-chit* more mysterious, but rarely... pleasant."
Kufieno follows behind, reloading his crossbow, and peering warily in all directions. He stops quickly to look for his errant bolt as he follows.
"Somebody armed that thing. Hmmm."
If there is no door in the room full of debris, Seal will lead the group further up the northern passage.
No one finds any traps or anything else of note in the room except for the door. Besides the door the passage also continues to the north.
The party goes through the door to find a hallway that turns to the west. The hall turns back to the north. The tunnel opens out on a small chamber with a red marble statue of a strikingly beautiful but, at the same time, monstrously enraged human woman standing in the middle of the room, her stony expression twisted in fury. The woman wears flowing robes, and her long hair is held back from her face by an intricate headdress of hooks and blades. In her left hand she carries a large book, the face of which is inscribed with a seven-pointed star. Her right hand holds a glittering metal-and-ivory ranseur.
One hall leads to the east, stairs heading down lead to the east of the entrance chamber, and a door stands to the north of the chamber.
Rissi stares in fascination at the statue...
"By the god of Walls and Ditches, that is a statue of the *chhh* Runelord Alaznist! Are we looking at an ancient artifact?"
Kufieno nods and moves up to search the statue for hidden enclosures.
Looking around, he asks. "Which way?"
Rissi shakes her cowled head at Kufieno's indifference.
What a fascinating set of tunnels!
Rissi shakes her cowled head at Kufieno's indifference.
What a fascinating set of tunnels!
"The door?"
|
"Runelord? I am not familiar with that term.", Miana puzzled, and a touch worried about Rissi's revelation.
Looking over the statue and its weapon, Miana tries to compare it to the one found on the sinspawn.
"Miss Rissi, can you tell me anything about this Alaznist?", the paladin asking her diminutive companion while peering into the eastern chamber to make sure nothing else is lurking to attack them.
Beyond her name? The Runelords were the ancient rulers of the *squeek* Thassilonian Empire, eleven millenium ago. They were wizard-kings and *ch-ch* magical geniuses; many spells came from their experiments. Their empire ended at the beginning of the Age of Darkness, and most of their lore has been *chhhh* lost. Many come to these lands seeking that lore."
After discussing the implications of the statue, Kufieno leads the party through the northern door. This large chamber was obviously once a prison, as testified by the twenty cells that line the room's perimeter. A rickety wooden platform overlooks the room, with two flights of stairs descending to the prison floor ten feet below. A five-foot-wide wooden walkway runs from the northern edge of the platform to a passageway to the east.
Down below two more sinspawn carrying ranseurs bicker over some crumbling skulls. Seeing the party enter, however, they reach for their weapons.
Kufieno lifts and fires his crossbow at the eastern sinspawn.
Rissi hurls acid at Kufieno's target between her allies legs.
"Alaznist you say? Fasciating. I recognized a runelord, but his identification opens up a lot of conjectures and possibilities. Master Quink will be so excited about this discovery!"
"By the way Miana, remember the Old Light? It is my Master's belief that it is of Thassilonian origin as well, built by the Runelords' civilization approximately 10,000 years ago."
Kufieno puts a bolt in one of the sinspawn!
Rissi then hits it with acid.
Miana follows this up with a chakram.
---
The eastern sinspawn moves up and swings at Miana!
The other sinspawn moves around and moves up the stairs to stand in front of Seal.
Kufieno steps toward Miana and fires a frosty ray at the sinspawn near Seal!
Seal windmills his arm backwards as he winds up his punch. Then he swings with a wild haymaker at the sinspawn before him.
Lucian extends his hand and casts a guiding spell upon Sealman before grabbing his morningstar and taking a step forward.
Rissi fires at the spawn near Seal.
Kufieno shoots out a frosty ray and misses.
Seal punches the sinspawn!
Lucian gives Seal guidance.
Rissi throws another glob of acid but misses.
Miana puts down one of the sinspawn!
---
The other sinspawn drops its ranseur and goes after Seal!
Burn, burn, burn!
Seal dodges the spawn's dangerous bite, but he is raked by one of its claws.
Seal nods in approval at Lucian's blessing. He then takes a step back while twirling his pole arm. Once in position, he tries to stab the final sinspawn.
Lucian, in a fit of unexpected heroism, grasps his morningstar firmly and strikes the same sinspawn as Sealman. A rictus of pain is obvious on the young man's face, as his burns on his hands hurt badly and prevent him from landing a true blow.
Rissi burns some of its skin with her ball of acid. Seal then slices the creature in two and ends it.
Skeletons lie in most of the cells-prisoners who likely starved to death ages ago. Although the walkway above the room looks rickety, you have found it to be quite stable-likely the wood still retains some magical preservation. From the state of the bones, it seems they may host some of the same preservative magic, for they surely should have crumbled to dust by now.
"Perhaps you, Master Quink and I could meet and *ch-ch* cogitate over the Runelords sometime, Lucian"
Rissi will look about the room after the battle is done, fascinated by the magics in play.
She will also search the roomfor less obvious objects of interest.
Lucian nods and smile happily at the cowled figure despite the grim location they're at. "I'd love to Rissi. My Master has many theories he'd like to share with fellow scholars."
Studying the room carefully and taking notes, the Varisian boy seems enthusiastic. "This is grand! This whole ruin could be of Thassilonian origin, just what my master has been looking for his whole life! He'll be pleased, for sure!"
Rissi detects a lingering abjuration aura, which is likely the cause of the preservation in this room.
Rissi and Lucian find nothing else telling or of note in this chamber.
After killing the last sinspawn, Seal falls back into the discussion.
"So were these Runelords good leaders or bad leaders? And why aren't there any goblins around."
Seal will search the room and the last hallway he came down for tracks.
Miana finds no more evil in the room and Seal does not find any tracks on the stone floor or on the wooden walkway.