"Sane? Sane? Of course I'm sane, I SKOMBURZAL PASHI ISHUL," she says, her toothy babau grin twisted into a strangely sweet smile.
"Ser Jorsal turned on me when he realized I was on to his little operation. I was about to turn in what I knew to the Decemvirate when one of his SKOMBURZAL RATUL turned me in... he surprised me and knocked me unconscious."
"I awoke in one of the chambers below and made my way here. Ank krushi I huzg, ish bi boghil" she finishes in an entirely different voice - this one low and hissing.
Ehren involuntarily takes a step back when Valais appears, more out of surprise than out of revulsion - for sure, they had all beheld far viler things. The woman seemed far more demonic than any tiefling he had ever seen. She looks more like one of the underfolk, except her aura is... What is she?
"Ser Jorsal? A traitor?" Ehren repeats, Valais' claim mirroring his own suspicions. Needless to say, he did not want to believe it.
Valais nods, convulsing uncontrollably from time to time in between phrases. "Yes, Ser Jorsal is working with demons, and is trying to harness their powers in strange ways below. How exactly, I was not able to figure out, but it was clear that he had no moral boundaries in his research..." she says, dreamily, the understatement of the century.
"You know, I'm almost positive you're not sane," Val replies. "Because trailing off into violent Abyssal in an entirely different voice is almost universally a sign of something bad. Whatever happened to you definitely did something bad to your mind. Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean you're wrong..." She thinks back to their meetings with the Venture-Captain. He certainly never seemed anything but sincere, but she has to admit that she doesn't know the man that well.
"Hmmmmmmm? Abyssal? Silly, I don't speak Abyssal. Whatever do you mean?" Valais says, tilting her head to the side.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Isilme studies their new guest, attempting to ascertain the truthfulness of her statements. It wasn't inconceivable that Ser Jorsal had been hiding something of this nature... After all, no one had realized Staunton Vhane was an infiltrator until he was caught by Irabeth. On the other hand, she found it difficult to take the word of a stitched-together demonic monstrosity at face value.
"Is he below now?" she asks 'Valais', still scrutinizing her actions for some sign that she's lying.
"I haven't seen him for hmmm.... several days now, so I imagine he has fled," Valais answers.
"So you know her...?" Ehren asks Xanderghul, looking to the other Pathfinder with a sidelong glance. Not that he was beyond their scrutiny either. Worst case scenario, he and Valais had concocted this elaborate scheme to... kill them, or something. Even he was not sure whether this was conventional, cautionary wisdom in play, or just plain paranoia.
Xanderghul steps closer to Valais, even as everybody else steps away. His head tilts to the side, and he addresses the party he's searching with. "What a strange occurrence. Yes, I know her - this is Jorsal's assistant, Valais. She appears to have been stitched with different demon parts - babau and kalavakus."
He peers closely at her, leaning in.
"saib lat julderukavand alnej?", he asks.
He begins to circle around her "It would not be very difficult for somebody to disguise themselves as Jorsal. It would be the perfect defamation. Then again, it would not have been difficult to kill him and take his place, were one a demon." Xanderghul laughs. "Abyss willing, any or all of us could be demons! Wouldn't it be funny if all of us were demonic sleeper agents, concealing our identities from the other?"
"Of course, making jokes about being a demonic sleeper agent is exactly what a demonic sleeper agent would do, so I must reassure you that I am a true Crusader. Valais, however... she should be studied. What she is... is quite ambiguous."
He looks to the door that leads below. "We should also check out this... lab, below. Jorsal was no spellcaster, so I look forward to finding either intensely realistic masks or some very ridiculously terrible research implements."
Valais stares at Xanderghul with a spacey expression... until the kalavakus half of her face contorts with rage and she booms "I HAT PEL NU KEM BI SKISHUM HIRIRBUTUG DUGIl!!" The episode ends and she returns to her not-quite-there countenance.
"Hmmm, what are you talking about, Xanderghul? Anyway, let's go, I want to accompany you. I always thought Venture-Captains should take a more active role in missions. Also, I don't know much of what was happening in the lower levels, since I escaped pretty soon after I woke up. I've sat and waited ever since, waiting for the Decemvirate to send me some bul ratul," she concludes in a raspy, hissing voice.
"Ugh, this is some freaky stuff, boss. I don't recommend it."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Xanderghul sticks his limbs out awkwardly and totters about, pantomiming a large monster, and in a falsely guttural voice, he shouts back at her, "jiak kij avalkaumn abouav lat beaumn ij galin monukaver!"
He chuckles, resumes a normal standing pose, and looks to the party members. "Well? Seems like there's a weird, crazy dungeon underneath the Lodge. Do you all want to go check it out? Maybe there's somebody below with... I'm not sure, perhaps shadow demon parts stitched on! They would've had to use a pair of ghost needles with ghost thread!" When he says 'ghost', he uses an exaggerated, wavering ghoooooooost voice.
"Xan, I would advise not antagonizing the only source of information we have right now. Even if she seems to have developed a split personality or a second persona or something from having demons parts sewn on to her body. Which is creepy in every possible way."
She frowns. "It is possible that someone is imitating Ser Jorsal to try to frame him, but this seems too well established for it to be recent. Unless Jorsal has been replaced for quite a long time, then I don't think it's very likely. Given that this room is completely out of character for him, it's more likely that there's either someone controlling him somehow or he's possessed. Who's the third person that usually uses this lodge?"
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Ary flips through books, trying to gauge what's going on overall while the others do most of the talking. "So, what you're suggesting is, that the man we were asked to work for, who sent us into the Worldwound, into what would have very likely been a suicide mission, some five-times-over didn't do it out of incompetence? Do you recognize the name Cagriggar?" she asks, distracted by the book, a frown spreading slowly over her face.
Ehren looks back and forth between Valais and Xanderghul, left brow elevated. They were the very definition of an odd couple.
"I very much doubt that he sent us on that mission just to get us killed," he interjects, shaking his head. "Or out of incompetence, for that matter. But Cagriggar..." The druid frowns, recalling what Orlovski had said about the cultist being a Pathfinder agent. The Society had members of all kinds, it seemed.
"I think we should investigate. Before the inquisitors catch wind of this, preferably. That would just complicate matters." Or oversimplify them.
Xanderghul pouts, sticking his lip out. The inside of his lip is lined with glittering green veins. "But it's funny!"
"Listen, instead of postulating and guessing more, based off of the assertions of this strange amalgam creature, why don't we just go down there and see for ourselves what it is that's going on?" says Xanderghul, pointing towards the door that leads down. "In fact, I've been friends with the Ser for twenty-seven years. None of you are allowed to be more upset about this than I am. If he's a problem, I'll solve it. If not, pulling hair about it isn't worth it."
He moves towards the door that leads down and tries to pull it open, giving the rest of the group a face that says 'so?'
"That... is a good point. Whether it's Ser Jorsal or not, there's clearly something very wrong going on here and we need to go and take care of it. If it's him, we'll stop him. If it's not, we'll stop whoever it is and clear Ser Jorsal's name."
Valais spaces completely out while Xanderghul prances around the room making monster noises ... her eyes go unfocused as she wordlessly gapes for several minutes as the heroes discuss herself and Ser Jorsal amongst themselves. She suddenly comes to, acting as if nothing strange had happened.
"Pathfinders come and go... Caggrigar was a Pathfinder, yes. Never liked him. Very rude fellow."
"But the only consistent staff was myself and Jepheth, Ser Jorsal's squire...haven't seen him for awhile either...A good boy, shil ank gugarul"
Xanderghul eventually has enough and opens the hidden door, revealing a long, dark passageway, the way forwards illuminated by the golden light of Radiance. It leads to a large chamber that stretches ahead and to either side as far as the eye can see. Wall segments stretch from floor to ceiling, as much resembling overgrown stalactites as architectural features, and chunks of shattered masonry and other rubble litter the otherwise even floor. Long since expired torches rest in sconces fixed intermittently into the walls.
The heroes move forwards and find that they are inside none other than a maze...
Valais trails along next to Ary, glancing around nervously. "I feel like I'm being watched. Anyone else get that feeling?"
"Wait, what?! The Abyss worshipping thrishúshum who screwed over a mission that Ser Jorsal sent us on was a Pathfinder?!" Val breaks off into muttered Abyssal that even someone who doesn't speak the language can easily tell are curses. "Fine. So if Ser Jorsal isn't responsible for this, then Jepheth probably is." She sighs and draws her blades before they head into the next room. She steps to the front of the group, peering off into the darkness and rather thankful for her enhanced senses. "A maze... I guess we shouldn't be surprised considering it seems this is related to Baphomet but still..."
She looks back at Valais. "It's certainly creepy... say, do you think that you can lead us through this?"
Xanderghul pulls a crossbow off of a sling on his back and spends a moment cranking the winch before inserting a cold iron bolt. He holds the weapon warily while they traverse the maze, his ruby eyes glinting with the magic of his heightened awareness. "Trust me, Valais - all of us are watching you." says Xanderghul.
Ehren nods slowly at Valaria's remark, recalling the last "labyrinth" that they had traversed; Hosilla's shoddy little construction was positively miniscule compared to this. "Should we be expecting a minotaur?" he asks no one in particular, not at all enthused by his own thought.
Isilme finds Xanderghul's taunting of the abomination named Valais distasteful, wondering exactly what sort of fellow they were working with now.
She listens to the others debating the revelation that Valais knew Caggrigar, and chimes in after most have had their say. Somehow it came as little surprise that Valais was aware of Caggrigar and that he was a Pathfinder like Ser Jorsal. "Hmm...." she thinks aloud, "that would explain how Caggrigar managed to get to the book before we did. I would not be so quick to put Ser Jorsal beyond reproach. Staunton Vhane, after all, served the crusades for a long time undiscovered. There is no reason Jorsal could not have also been an infiltrator from the beginning," Isilme points out as she walks along behind Valaria. "But certainly our best bet for discovering the truth here is to investigate what lies further down."
Isilme takes a moment to refresh the message spell on the group, then continues speaking, at a whisper this time. "Hinagiku, could you remain on the lookout for any evil auras? It might be that there's more than one demonic aberration produced down here, and we might not be so lucky as to find another who prefers talk to murder," she says.
"If the minotaur fights as competently as Deradnu, I believe we will be alright, Ehren," she says to the druid with a chuckle after he expresses concern about the possibility of the maze coming equipped with an archetypal defender.
”Thank you. However, I will not need to send the letter through magic, it is not urgent. It simply needs to reach its destination. As for the weapon, pardon me, but I do not have any gold with me. However, I have this flask of holy water, would it be enough for the weapon and a few silver pieces to pay for the letters transport?” she asks, still bowing out of respect.
If the deal is accepted, Hinagiku will thank captain Dawei for taking time to speak with, take the weapon, and walk to the docks to send the letter by boat.
Upon seeing Valais, Hinagiku has to center herself to avoid taking a step back in disgust. Oni stitched to human, something wrong was going on. At least, it seemed as though the woman had not been tainted by the evil of the onis stitched to her.
”I do not detect the taint of the onis within her. She might be confused, but not utterly malevolent.” she whispers to the others from midway through the stairs.
When the others engage into the room, she waits for all of them to leave before following. As she walk, Hinagiku stays alert, maintaining herself attuned to the onis taint, trying to notice any lingering evil that might be present. She also takes this time to reflect on Xanderghul's antics. He was quite an odd... man? It was as if he was somewhat mad too, or childish? She wondered what events could have shaped his mind, until she noticed that Valais was following them.
”Miss Valais, you said that you had been waiting days for someone to come… did you spent all your time in the library? Did you eat?”
Once they reach the maze.
”A maze? Seems dangerous. More so since we did not fully check the lounge or the small library.”
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"I would almost welcome it..." Val mutters in response to Ehren's thought. "It would at least make sense right now..."
The Captain nods, agreeable to Hinagiku's trade. "One life, one encounter," he concludes, smiling warmly.
Valais stares at Xanderghul right back, her head cocked so far to the left that it's nearly sideways. "Ank I'rb hoshak i, ra buzg...bi demb nokul irk nali" she whispers.
She shrieks suddenly, jumping to the side. "What was that?! Wait, what? Hmm? Yes, I can help."
Valais sidles past the two mages to move to the front, with Valaria. The heroes find that the maze is mostly unfinished - there are huge missing segments of wall, making moving through it much easier than it initially appeared. Despite this, Valais hesitates at each line of of rubble - "It feels... wrong... somehow..." she mumbles, preferring to lead the group along clear corridors.
As they walk, Valais responds to Hinagiku's question - "Yes, I left the basement and hid in that library.... I knew crusaders would have to come eventually... Also, just in case Ser Jorsal returned, I wanted to be ready to bol krarb ish bi dol, bush bash krarb agakhi," she finishes in a low hiss.
You notice a pair of transparent horns peeking out of a wall before sinking back into the stone surface and vanishing.
Eventually the heroes reach the center... there stands a raised altar made of ivory-inlaid wood, its virtually pristine condition a sharp contrast to the shattered walls around it. At the center of the altar rests a statue of two figures locked in combat: a brass bull and an iron woman that grips the animal by a horn over its shoulder while holding a longsword aloft. Delicately incised words encircle the statue's base, reading, "In my name is the strength of my history, my tradition, and my faithful. Speak your name into my ear, and I shall judge your worth." It appears that the woman is winning.
;
Xanderghul peers at the spectacle ahead, ignoring the creepy thing that Valais had said just for a moment. His mind works, putting available pieces together. Unfortunately, the pieces don't really give any information that they already had. The holy symbol of Baphomet on the bull gave the shrine away as being holy to Baphomet, rather than Iomedae. The phrase that demon-Valais had spoken gave the demons that created her away as being Baphomet-worshipers. The pile of things underneath the rubble were probably... cast-away research supplies.
He narrows his brow. Was this it? Hmm. Somewhat disappointing, if so. "Does anybody have any new insights, other than the truly staggering amount of Baphomet iconography giving away that this is a shrine to Baphomet?"
"There's... some kind of mechanism built into the bull creature," Ehren observes carefully, his frown having not left his face. His eyes flick from part to part, unable to discern their function. When he looks back to the iron woman, his frown deepens as he realizes what the scene is truly depicting. "And contrary to how it appears, the bull seems to have the advantage in this scene... Perhaps there is a trap built into it? I don't know what might set it off, though."
Isilme keeps an eye out as they work their way through the maze until they finally come to the central open area. She moves up carefully, inspecting the altar at the center. "A gorgon fighting Iomedae?" she says as she works her way around. "It is carefully designed to make it look as if she is winning as well, but you're right Ehren, the poses of the statues suggest the Gorgon actually has the upper hand," she adds, pointing out the positioning of Iomedae's footing is all wrong for her to have the upper hand. Looking more closely at the gorgon she realizes it seems to have a symbol on its forehead. "It seems there is a symbol of Baphomet on his forehead as well, unsurprising given where we are..."
She gives the Gorgon a final look and just as she is turning away notices something. "Val, look..." she says, pointing at the cleverly disguised joints and gears in the Gorgon. "It appears to be trapped, do you want to have a go at disarming it?"
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Val frowns. "I see what you mean about the statue, but I'm more worried about the trap." She hadn't see it until Isilme had pointed it out to her. "I'll see if I can take care of that. We can worry about the implications of the statue once it's not likely to do something awful to us." She moves incredibly carefully to disable it, pulling out her tool set and getting to work. Her hands move skillfully, but she suddenly slips at a horrible moment and her tattoos flare, her hand moving out to catch a shifting gear with speed so fast it was almost as if she predicted it.
Valaria not only skillfully disables the trapped statue, but is able to manipulate the mechanism into twisting the statues around clockwise twice... they click into place and the statue moves aside to reveal a cage-like spiral staircase of rusting iron winding into the darkness below...
"This look familiar at all Valias?" Val asks, looking down into the staircase at ignoring the Horror if he's not going to say anything useful. "Because someone went to a lot of trouble to hide it."
"Blood... so much blood..." Valais mumbles, shuddering. "I came up those stairs... but why don't I remember? Why can't I remember?' She clutches her head in her hands - one furled, red claw, the other still human...
"I am feeling the void of good, the presence of an oni, but it keeps disappearing... it might be the bound horror, but I cannot be sure. " she whispers to warn the others.
While Valaria is looking at the trap, Hinagiku takes a step back, looking around to make sure nothing is trying to ambush them.
"Right... so down the creepy staircase it is..." She looks back at the group. "We should probably stick together if this is the right way. Because I'm sure whatever is responsible for this will be waiting for us somewhere in here."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Concerned about Valais, Hinagiku takes a step forward to gently whisper in her ear.
"There there, calm down. We are here, we won't let you get hurt. It will be safe if you stay with us. But your need to be strong, stray true to the type of venture captain you want to be." she says, he voice calm yet strong and supportive.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Seeing how dark it is down below, Ehren reaches up to place a hand over his eyes, invoking the aspect of deep earth. It takes a moment for him to realize that nothing is happening; he lowers his hand, looking down at it with puzzlement. Only then could he sense that something was missing. Could I have...?
"Yes, we should stick together," he says when he hears Valaria, nodding slowly. "We have Radiance's light to guide us."
"This once I agree. If there is a more powerful demon down there it might very well be able to ignore the darkness and see through illusions such as invisibility," Isilme says, concurring with Val and Ehren.
Xanderghul cocks his head. "I could scout. My invisibility is... particularly potent. If foreknowledge of what comes is what we need, I have enough confidence in my own abilities that I can assure you I would be able to return alive, with knowledge of whatever we face."
"On the other hand, if speed and silence are required more than a brilliant mind, I could always imbue another with the spell."
Going with 'screw it' for now. I can't read this. I can't get through all of this, it's just too much.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Ary follows along as everyone decides what to do, which halls to take, and begins to formulate a plan for how to move down into the pit.
She hadn't at all liked it when the random man they'd just met walked over to open a door that very well could have been trapped, constantly ushering them forward... then he offered to go into the hole instead of Valaria, even going so far as to suggest his magic was better than others' when it came to that. Ary didn't know much about magic, but most of the man didn't make sense at all.
Suffice to say, she'd spent most of her time watching him - the woman who kept speaking abyssal was less of a worry and perhaps more of a distraction. No, the extremely annoying man who was leading them into the center of the hornet's nest, while Hinagiku kept pinging 'evil' nearby was not at all a welcome sign.
"Daisy, does the evil show up when Valais seems to not be feeling as well?" she asks, before frowning and watching the woman begin to suffer for having been brought down here. She finally lets the woman distract her from Xanderghul, and nods in agreement with Daisy. "Maybe we shouldn't push you to go down with us..?"
Valais responds well to Hinagiku's reassurance - she stops shuddering and regains her composure... if she had any at all. She glances up at Ary and shakes her head. "No no no, I want to come. I can do this."
The heroes elect to stick together for the time being, not being sure if they can really trust Xanderghul or not just yet. The path forward is illuminated by the light of Radiance from the rear... Isilme and Valaria lead the way with Valais into a large, chamber, eerily lit by dim, pulsating green light. The light comes from two large glass vats that stand from floor to ceiling in the far corners, radiating both light and heat as byproducts of the chemical and arcane processes pulsing from within. Liquid fills each vat, and periodically a small burst of air bubbles aerates the contents. The thick glass is foggy and opaque so that only the vague shape of some creature can be seen within... revealing a few details like scaled hands, stretches of flesh stitched together with staples and wire... thankfully the bodies are still, either in stasis or dead. Chalk writing along the walls near each vat record various numerical data and formulae, but without context, it's difficult to discern what they mean.
Powdery rust mingled with horrific viscera coats much of the floor, with several lines of footprints crisscrossing the room, carelessly tracking blood as they go. There is a thriving population of mites, beetles, and other harmless arthropods that scatter from the heroes wherever they walk. Metal doors lead to the right and to the left. The right one is closed, the left one has been left cracked partially open.
Valais stands in the middle of it all, apparently dumbfounded. She clutches her head, mumbling incoherently to herself.
Hinagiku shakes her head in response to Ary's question about Valais being tainted. The woman, though confused by what had been done to her, seemed to at least have escaped to worst.
As they enter the room, Hinagiku starts surveying it, again concentrating on the corruption of the ब्रह्मा that the presence of evil causes . However, she keeps it short, solely making sure that the room is safe before walking over to Valais' side.
"Miss Valais, please come with me." she gently asks, holding the woman's human and directing her gaze away from the vats. "Have you been to the other rooms?"
Valais grasps Hinagiku's furred hand tightly, nodding. "I-I remember, I was in one of those vats... Ser Jorsal would come visit me many times and take measurements, writing on the wall..."
Val tries very, very hard not to react to the grisly scene around them. "Well... I guess this is the lab where our culprit did his... experiments," she says softly. She looks very pale and a little unwell. "I'm going to check that next room." She very carefully crosses to the cracked open door and peaks through as quietly as possible.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"So these were people...?" Ehren asks quietly, peering into the murky vats with barely contained disgust. Somehow, seeing them like this was even more disquieting than Valais herself. It was just wrong.
"Yes, Pathfinders... SKOMBURZAL PASHI GLISHIDA ROSHIRK.... you see, it's not really a big deal when someone doesn't come back from the Worldwound... no one mounts a search party or anything."
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Ehren wrinkles his brow when Valais alternates languages again. A memory resurfaces, of a friend's request for him to teach them Hallit. Perhaps they would be willing to teach him Abyssal in exchange; the tongue of his people, for that of the enemy. How fitting.
Xanderghul circles around the vat, peering in. He gets close and wipes his sleeve along the glass, using prestidigitation to clean his sleeve afterward. "Not that this isn't serious or anything, but I amm seriously impressed by whomever was doing this research. Such a hodgepodge of body parts would typically invite something akin to disdain, but somehow whomever this is is succeeding."
Xanderghul taps on the glass with a long, crystalline fingernail. "Kril gul izg kurz nu di ush bozg shaghi ugh bi bol kim ushi, gulish?"
The room they had found beneath the altar was something Isilme hadn't been expecting, although perhaps she should have with the state Valais was in. Still, while she considered herself to have seen and endured much in her years as a celestial, this managed to disturb her in a way little had before.
Some thing about stitching together parts of demons struck her as terribly wrong. In fact... it shouldn't have been possible at all. "These parts," she says to the others. "Demon parts cannot just exist on their own like this, this should not be possible. When an extraplanar being such as myself dies they cease to exist on the material plane. One cannot merely hack pieces off a demon and use them for this sort of experiment." She pauses for a moment, looking about the room again before continuing. "This lab, and the research here, should be destroyed as soon as possible," she adds, disgust evident in her voice, and none of the admiration Xanderghul was displaying for the research. "Anyway, we should continue to search this place to see if there is any evidence of what became of Ser Jorsal."
Isilme gestures over towards the door that's cracked open and looks at Valaria. "Shall we?"
The horror in the main room provides impetus for Isilme to turn her focus elsewhere, so she concentrates on listening and searching for anything out of the ordinary as she opens the door on the left and heads in moving past Val. Slowly working her way down the hall she peers down past the curve obscuring their vision from the door.