After Tarapen finishes his soliloquy, Lolygert passes him his freshly filled flagon, "Here, I dry up after saying just a few words...you must be parched!"
"I'm Lolygert!" he says simply, as if that explained everything.
He watches as , hopefully, Tarapen takes a pull, then asks, "You have your own flagon? I'd like to use mine again someday! I can fill yours up anytime!"
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Ippolit introduces himself, "I'm Ippolit Athanor. I used to be a cop. Decided to be a mercenary. Hired by these folks. Have learned that I'm a damn fool who is in over his head. If you ever need a damn fool who is in over his head, let me know. And if you don't see one when you're looking, pull out a healing potion and look on the floor. Thanks."
And so the party, augmented, rested, and more experienced in a way that relates directly to their overall strength, decides what to do. Everyone seems ready for someone to make a decision.
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Then we'll head back to the 'shroom cave where we left off.
I'm eager to try my new spell, arcane eye. He'll send it down past where we fought the various fungi. He gets seven minutes of the eye at 30' per round. He can scout out 2100' of tunnel. I trust you to pick routes to explore. He'll also cast darkvision on himself so he can explore dark tunnels with it. He'll narrate as he explores, so everyone knows everything he is seeing.
Tragershen's Eye quickly reaches a split in the tunnels beyond the fungi. One goes up, one goes down. Which do you take?
Well, we can really use a route out to rest when we need to, so let's try up first. If it deadends or hits something that the eye sensor can't go through, he'll backtrack and try the down route.
Tragershen's Arcane Eye winds up and up and up through the tunnel. It's a narrow passage, but eventually the eye sees the light. Well, the darkness. It's night on the surface. If Tragershen gives it the gas and shoots it towards the light of the stars and moon before turning around, he gets a bird's eye view of the forest at the edge of the graveyard. The tunnel is on the border of the two.
The eye winks out before too much longer...
"It looks like a way out! We should check it out to make sure."
Bedlam prepares all his Extracts for more spelunking in the morning. The dwarf seems in good spirits after cooking breakfast; consisting of rat steaks with mushroom gravy.
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The tunnel would be difficult for a Medium creature to travel--you'd have to crawl and even squeeze in some places. A Small creature could mostly navigate it without trouble, with a few places where they might have to crawl.
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Anzath appreciates the breakfast meal. Reminds her of slave meals of her childhood. She sings songs she remembers from that developmental period of her life to D’mitri as she gnaws on roasted rat and stuffs it into his witty-bitty mouth, sitting on the rigored corpse of the barbarian/wizard monstrosity she had a hand in killing.
After Trag’s report, Anzath turns to their new small sized companion and asks, "Soundz familiar, no?"
Tarapen nods along with Tragershen's description. "That sounds like my road, I think. Might need some excavating if you guys want to use it, though."
He turns a glance to the alchemist. "... do you do shrinking potions?"
As the party settles in for its breakfast, makeshift as it is, Aurora joins with her rations — sparing the jerky and a bit of dried fruit for Nicothoe to gobble down, startlingly messy for what fare it was. Aurora watches the chick hop around as she collects her crumbs off the ground.
"The Dungeon of Graves is a bit like an anthill, isn't it? So many tunnels and entrances..."
He turns a glance to the alchemist. "... do you do shrinking potions?"
"I do have a spell that can shrink an individual. I'll have to think about making it applicable to more than just one person..."
When they finish discussing the results of his arcane eye spell, Tragershen casts a couple more spells to prepare himself.
Casting mage armor and see invisibility.
Active effects: mage armor 7 hours, darkvision 6 hours 40 minutes, extended see invisibility 2 hours 20 minutes.
He also has light memorized now. He'll offer to cast it for Ippolit on a piece of his gear of his choice. He'll also get out the gem of brightness they found earlier, hold it in his off (buckler) hand and use it for a light source as well.
Bedlam belches.
Mee no got potions; just me Extracts, but I kin share dem. Me haven't found many new formulas recent though!
The dwarf winks at Parrot!
Ippolit nods gratefully. "Thanks, Trag, decent of you. Put it on this..." He rigs up an illuminated headband, which has the added benefit of keeping his quick-growing hair out of his eyes.
The party walks back out of the mushroom cave and opens the door to the south.
Anzath nods at the secret door on the east/left of the party. It is a little... chilly?
But the party's attention is grabbed not by the cold secret door--instead their eyes are drawn to the door a few feet farther down the passage.
This door is different than all the others so far seen in the dungeon. It is
finely crafted, made of ebony wood and bound with gold. The door has an
obvious internal lock, also of fine quality. Strange runes are rudely carved
in the door. Simply looking at them makes one uneasy.
/dabook
The runes appear to be Celestial. Tragershen (and possibly others, but definitely Trag) pushes forward to read the inscription. At first, he's bamboozled, muttering that the inscription is pure gibberish. Then, mumbling the syllables, he finds himself intoning the twisted phonetics of the Abyssal tongue--some dark joker has used the holy language to inscribe the demonic. He translates the passage:
Saracek, the blazing queen of light, came here to hurl the darkness down.
Snuffed, the little candle now waits to drag the bright into eternal shade.
And they whine that He doesn't have a sense of justice or humor!
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"Saracek." Tragershen pronounces carefully as he searches his memory for a glimmer of a fact about the name.
Knowledge (history) . If its not history, then he's got all of the knowledge skills to some degree or another.
"Lookz expensive."
If you can remove the door, it would certainly fetch a high price at a city market.
Anzath feels confident that there are no traps.
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While Anzath checks the door for mechanical menaces, Tragershen will peruse it for those of an arcane nature.
No magic, either! Do you turn the doorhandle?
Tragershen's history check dredges up:
Saracek was a chaotic good queen of a nation of nomadic horse-riders who swept over the mountains and down the valleys along the west coast several hundred years ago. She hurled down corrupt barons and evil lords, occasionally holding even half-decent ones to a higher standard than they could reasonably meet. Finally, someone convinced her that the ultimate adventure would be to defeat Orcus himself. She gathered her companions: strong barbarians, shamen and shawomen, and various support from her conquered realms.
And she was never seen again.
The nomads dispersed. The cities returned to their old ways.
Bedlam decidedly feels better about their chances now!
As Trag recalls his history lesson, Anzath can only think of one thing "Dere is vealth behind dis door."
Da door be gold!
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"Well, before we take it off of its hinges, let's make sure that certain doom doesn't lurk behind it. When we are ready to head back to civilization, I can prepare a spell that will make the door portable."
Okay, we'll give anyone who wants to a moment to do prep spells, potions or extracts, and then we'll open the door.
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Previously...
Talathel acknowledges Anzath's concerned look then turns to Tarapen.
"I am Talathel Rhuiren of Kyonin."
****************
Now
Feeling refreshed, reenergised, and ready, Talathel shifts his stance ever so slightly.
Talathel gives Tragershen an almost imperceptible nod to signal his readiness.
Aurora snickers at the idea of removing the door and shrinking it for transport to sell.
But it is a nice door.
Tarapen notices the party tense up before opening the door and groks that it's danger time. He casts an ablative barrier over himself, waves his arms to summon an unseen servant that his muttering seems to refer to as "Walter", twists his ring, and flickers from the sight of everyone who doesn't currently have a see invisibility effect active.
Active effects: Ablative Barrier 7 hours, Unseen Servant 7 hours, Invisibility until dismissed.
Bedlam gets drunk!
Obviously the door is locked. Anyone want to disable this device?
Talathel braces, just in case.
Bedlam takes out his fancy thieves tools...
Be un shame dat dese tools git da bad rap!
The dwarf approaches the beautiful gold door. He gives it a good looksee!
Blind to only the gold, he decides to give it a try!
The door's lock is incredibly well-made. It foils Bedlam's attempt.
Anzath cracks her knuckles and attempts to show the dwarf how it’s done.
Bedlam mutters under his beard about elven luck.
He smiles.
The lock clicks and the door swings open smoothly on its nails, erm, I mean its hinges.
Inside is an anteroom covered with more of the twisted Celestial script. You might feel a moment's disappointment when, instead of a monster, you see another door, the twin of the one Anzath just opened.
You may read the script, force the lock, or leave.
At this point, I'm considering the clock running on all those buffs you cast, so don't dawdle if you have something short-duration that you really need.
Bedlam rinses and repeats.
Bedlam pushes forward and picks the second lock swiftly and skillfully.
And yeah, the door is ebony with gold binding, very nice.
The second door open, Anzath draws her blades and peers inside.
The door swings open. Torches glare to light around the perimeter of the chamber, now illuminated by the gleam of blue balefires. A chorus of disembodied demonic voices whispers "saracek... saracek..."
A throne sits on a dias across the room. A figure sits upon the throne, staring into the darkness. The voices chant, louder, "Saracek... Saracek"
As the light splashes across the crowned helm of the ancient queen, you see that only shadows peer forth from beneath its gem-encrusted dome. Saracek is a skeleton.
The voices scream, "SARACEK! SARACEK! SARACEK!"
The skeleton raises a sword and the chanting voices fall suddenly silent, cut off as by a blade. She-it beckons you closer with the tip of the blade, asking in a raspy voice resonating through empty armor:
"Who disturbs Saracek the Fallen? Do you come to offer me homage, or do you bear a message from the depths, or do you come to die?"
Knowledge (religion) .
Tragershen knows that this is a powerful sentient undead, but not a lich. Saracek appears to be a strongly enhanced skeletal champion antipaladin. The disembodied voices are probably not disembodied undead--they sound more like a spell cast to flatter vanity than anything sentient.
To his allies, Tragershen murmurs "She's fallen. An anti-paladin degraded into a skeletal champion."
Louder, he says "We've come in opposition to Orcus and all those who muster to his banner. We may not have a quarrel if you stand free of such fealty."
Diplomacy
Trusting in her potion, Anzath begins moving into the room.
Bedlam frowns at the skeleton.
Be all bones! Nutt'n ta even eat!
Lolygert had watched the scene with the interesting door with great interest, waiting for the moment he could flex his muscles and rip it off of it's gilded hinges.
Disappointed that he didn't get the chance, his next opportunity was dashed when Bedlam opened the second door safely.
Resigned, her realized that no door-ripping was going to happen, so he waits for the talky-talky to get done....