After a few moments everyone can see again.. Apparently the door was trapped by a Holy Word spell..
Inside you find:
The tarnished silver box is marked with the holy symbol of Sarenrae and contains three +1 holy bolts, a scroll of raise dead, a wand of cure moderate wounds with 20 charges, and 6 flasks of holy water. If cleaned up, the silver box itself is worth 250 gp.
"Ok, I can see and fail to find traps again. We're ready to move on. "
Hemket will head north (or at least towards the top of the math assuming f'ed up coordinates again).
.
Hadjii is pleased to have a wand of Cure Moderate Wounds again!
Once Sheeba enters, Hadjii becomes very busy restraining the big she-wolf from playing in the mud...
"I will cover the rearguard, as usual!"
Before yall move forwards something happens.. Once you come out of the secret place you notice the room to the south..
Although this chamber bears battle scars, it is in better condition than others in this area. Some effort has been made to clear the floor of debris, though dust still blankets much of the room. A silver holy symbol of Sarenrae, almost entirely obscured by tarnish, hangs on one wall. Beneath it, several rusted longswords lie in a fan, their blades pointed outward.
While inspecting the place all the sudden a translucent, almost ghostly figure appears before you. Muscular with long black hair, dressed in shining plate and wearing a fluttering tabard of Sarenrae that constantly furls and unfurls in an invisible wind. Before you all going into attack mode it speaks out..
"I commend you all for your actions in thie place. The defeat of Ninureset was a huge blessing. I am Lady Sophronia, Paladin of Sarenrae. Tell me, what brings you here?"
"Well there's a bunch of evil cultists who are up to something. I'm not sure I know exactly what it is they are up to, but I can't imagine it is any good. They certainly don't much mind killing people for kicks. "
Marius looks closely at the ghostly figure while still keeping his attack mode reasy just in case. "I have a question. Are you a ghost?"
The lady smiles at Marius.. "The answer would be yes, I am a ghost although not like the normal kind.."
After Hemket speaks of the cultist She flares in furious anger. Her apparition takes on a red tint and appears lit from behind as if by flames.
“My greatest fear has come to pass. This, then, is why I have remained here all this time. I always thought my talents would be needed again. The cult must not be allowed to rise. With your assistance, perhaps I can make another strike against this nest of vipers corrupting the land.”
She then goes on to volunteer to help yall defeat the cultists..
Logos eyes the ghost and his amulet, to see how it responds to the apparition...
"Alright, I'm always up for trusting honest people, so let's go make a few more people of this world un-alive." Marius immediately took a liking to this ghost since she admitted that she was different than a regular human. It made for a refreshing change from the lying snake man and lying demon man.
Logos's amulet does indeed glow, but the intelligence within does not attack the creature..
She appears to be honest Hadjii..
"Right, well lead they way and I'll do what I can to help.."
Arduino gives an odd look. Whenever a quiet moment presents itself, he mutters to Maris "We should be cautious in how closely we ally with this Paladin; as great a force for good as they can be, their rigors and protocols can cause honorable death where discretion would better take hold."
Logos looks from the amulet, to the paladin, then back again. He shrugs. "Amulet says it's a real ghost, also says it's not evil. Who'd a thunk. Guess it's fine then."
"Have any of you heard of her before?"
"Not my area of expertise. "
The paladin watches with a "wtf" look on her face as the group questions her motives outloud..
"Look if you all don't want my help than thats fine with me.. I'll go about what I was doing before.."
Heading north (top of map).
"Look, we're wiling to trust you. We've just been burned by deception before so we tend to be cautious. "
"To question a Paladin's trustworthiness is to question her integrity.. To even recieve an offer of my aid is a great respect paid. To have it thrown back in my face does not sit well with me. I will still help you, but you have greatly offended me.."
"Look, you have to admit that ghost paladins are not exactly run of the mill. We've never seen one before and usually ghosts are trouble. We've had quite a few issues with undead while pursuing these cultists. You're rather a nice surprise. "
"It is true what you say. I am quite unique.. For that I suppose I will forgive you. It has been a long time since I have communicated with anyone. Perhaps I am out of touch with proper mannerisms.."
As you open the door to the north(top of map) you see..
"Dust and fine sand cover the floor of this grand hall, as if decades, maybe even centuries, had passed since any living creature set foot here. Sconces carved into the stone walls hold the withered stems of ancient torches, their blackened heads cold and crumbling. Here and there, yellow bones molder among the drifts of sand. At the far end of the hall, a narrow staircase leads up to a raised platform. The front of the platform displays hideous images of lion-headed figures, ferocious sphinxes, and horned demons tearing screaming mortals apart. A white stone statue of a faceless demonic sphinx with six legs glares down from atop the dais. The sphinx’s wide dragon wings spread to either side, forming two flat altars stained with the blood of countless sacrifices. On the curved wall behind the sphinx, the fragmented remains of thirteen humanoid skeletons have been pinned upside-down against the wall with rusty metal spikes. A tarnished oval mirror hangs flat against the wall above the middle skeleton."
The dias represent Areshkagal.. All is quite in the room..
The paladin moves forawrds.. "This is where the final battle took place between my forces and those of the demon cult.."
"Nasty place. Did you win?"
he will start poking around for objects of interest
She moves further. "We were victorious, but at the cost of many lives.. Myselfs included. The area seems to be dormant."
Hemket notices nothing other than the description.
Logos snorts. "Was more of a question of if you were a Paladin, lady, not that a Paladin would lie. Plenty of people claim to be Paladins to get what they want. The amulet trusts you, that's good enough for me. Glad to hear you won, sorry you died. I've done that a couple of times, got better. Not fun."
"My lady, I for one am honored to be -- whoa Sheeba! --"
Sheeba bounds across the large room, almost making it up the steps before Hadjii manages to reign her in -- he's a little worried about her intentions for the statue...
"-- excuse me... I am honored to be in the presence of such a noble warrior!"
he'll glance around the room, taking in the details:
"I hope this doesn't sound negative, but it appears little cleanup has occurred since your great battle of old -- were these sacrificial victims meant to remain hanging so? Or perhaps your work was undone sometime after the battle?"
As the group moves into the room and starts looking around 4 nasties come through the floors to attack!
"This translucent, ghostly figure fades into view from the damp mist, its face distorted by wrath into a hideous mask."
They move to attack the living!!
Init Order:
Everyone but Ard and Logos
Nasties
Ard and Logos
"Round 1"
Most of the party up!!
Marius steps away from the creatures and quickly touches Kin to grant the bird some protection against these ghostly creatures.
Hemket will start volley firing arrows at the thingies.
study a target, start shooting
deadly aim, rapid for 3, megabless
"Hrm..." the roc lets loose a cry of gratitude at Marius' protective touch.
Seeing Marius' example, Hadjii will 5' step back and use a Mythic Point to cast the same spell, Death Ward, on himself -- then he'll use his Rod o' Lesser Quicken Spell to cast his prepared Carry Companion on Sheeba...
These things are Spectre's, advanced ones at that. They have standard Incorpreal defenses and have a nasty attack that drains the soul.. They have an Unatural Aura as well that unsettles animals within 30' of them.. They don't like direct sunlight.
Hemket puts 5 quick arrows into the one on him, assuming you 5' back, and despite its resistances it dies..
Marius and Hadjii do some casting..
The lady screams a ghostly war hoop and moves forward to attack the spectre on Hadjii.. As a swift she uses Channel Smite
all 3 hit
saves for 1/2
S1 -48
S2 -0
S3 -0
Still waiting on pet actions..
Hadjii turned Sheeba into a figurine, using the Carry Companion spell...
Sensing Kin's shifting uneasiness, Arduino strokes her neck-feathers with a spell. "Be free from your wildness, my friend." The roc shivers and quakes as her form suddenly grows far smaller, her skin scaly and sparkling grey, her tail long and her head crested. A forked tongue tastes the air as another movement drives her forwards to attack.
Ards bird morphs into a scalykind and lashes out at the Spectre.. It hits every attack but does less damge than expected..
The remaining spectres attack the living..
hit
hit
hit
plus nasty is absorbed by death ward.
plus Energy Drain 2 levels, thats -10 hp and –2 penalty on all ability checks, attack rolls, combat maneuver checks, combat maneuver defense, saving throws, and skill checks. Caster level is -2 as well.
plus nasty is abdorbed by death ward.
S1 -48
S2 +10
S3 -33
Init Order:
Everyone but Ard and Logos
Nasties
Ard and Logos
Logos is up..
Logos steps to the remaining creature and rages and attacks...
+ + +
+ + +
+ +
Next target to be serviced. (middle one)
deadly aim, rapid for 2 extra, etc/
As Logos acts his necklace also flares to life in a attempt to destory the undead.
but the spectre resists the effect..
Logos tears into the undead, but again does not do max damage.. Regardless it is barely holding together..
Everyone but Ard and Logos are up again..
Hemkets first arrow finishes the one on Logos.. 2 more arrows guns down the one on Kin. His last attack hits the one on Hadjii but it still reamins..
S1 -60
Marius was about to raise his holy symbol to channel energy to destroy the undead, but looking over at their ghostly ally Marius instead summons up some fire to try and destroy the undead.
Everyone but Ard and Logos are up again..
Step away from any threat and target the remaining thingy.
deadly aim, rapid for 2 extra, etc.