Vorin shakes his head as if to clear the intrusive thoughts, and says, "Yep. The stupid thing was trying to make me think bad stuff. But they weren't me." He starts casting a spell, and instead of a simple glowing hand, his whole body swirls with white light. He really cannot cast a spell subtly.
Vorin grins again, and says, flexing his now healed shoulder, "Yep, just fine!"
James smiles broadly "Hey! Neat trick!"
"So, well, uhm. Does anyone have any idea what was that?" inquires Ameiko. "I was expecting goblin tunnels, not otherworldly horrors."
Vorin looks up to Ameiko and then back down at the charred and smashed body, spending a few moments looking it over. "I don't have any idea." But, he again seems delighted by the mystery as he says, "I wonder what it is? Are there more of them? Why didn't he come up when the tunnels opened?"
He then steps forward to look around the room where the creature came from, curiously, as if there might be some clue inside.
“Should we take it to the surface for identification?” Isaac offered, though after the damage done to the creature, identification might be a tall order.
"Now?" James asks, outraged "That means stopping when we just started! It's just some weirdo thing, right? Probably a wizard did it."
Inside James' head his tutor's voice droned on about 'alternate evolutionary trees' - but he did his best to avoid it.
"We can come back for it, right? Or just take the..." he trails off as his own words hit "...head"
Isaac looked down at what remained after he had finished dispatching the monster, “We would need a bucket and probably a sponge to collect the head.”
It turns out that the late monster was standing guard in a now empty opening in the side of the corridor. Further on, the path splits into another branch to the right, and another going forward.
"It does look like something cobbled together by magic." agrees Ameiko. "But I just don't get what it was doing here. So, here I would scout one of the paths, but it's best if we don't split, soooo... how do you feel about taking a right?"
Vorin steps forward, peering down into the darkness of the tunnel on the right. Not that he can see far, with his limited ioun torch. Then, he nods quickly. "Yeah, let's go that way."
"Sure!" James agrees quickly, with a telltale glance at the remains of the monster.
The passageway leads to a stone room full of rubble, smashed pottery and dust. To the north, a door opens into corridors. As you move cautiously through the path, you find yourself at another bifurcation. Further ahead, you make out the faint light of candles, and a tall, red figure, standing motionless. The corridor going eastwards turns to the right at its end.
Vorin stops as he sees the tall figure, watching it for a moment. Glancing back to the others, he whispers, "Is that a statue, or a person?" Then, he grins, and whispers, "I know how to test it." Without any of his usual obviousness when casting a spell, Vorin just points forward and what looks like four will-o'-wisps appear around the head of the figure and start zipping around it.
James grins - in amusement and shock - as Vorin's spell takes hold.
The tall figure reflects the light in soft spots. It appears to be a sculpture made of red marble, and it carries a weapon.
"That sounds like a good starting point, I guess." says Ameiko, listening for any creature who may have been alerted by the lights. "Maybe it will shed light -pun not intended- on who built this place."
Empheria snorts with laughter. "Why didn't you intend that pun? It was a good one! Anyway, maybe there's an inscription or something on the statue?" She moves forward to check.
Vorin waits for just a couple of seconds to make sure no monsters are approaching, before stepping forward to take a look at the statue. "They only last a minute, so let's check!" He starts to look over the statue, though it's quite obvious he doesn't have any clue where on the statue to look for an inscription. Or maybe what the word means.
A red marble statue of a strikingly beautiful but, at the same time, monstrously enraged human woman stands in the middle of this 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. Carved on the pedestal is the word "Alaznist".
Stairs descend from this room eastward, ending in a closed door, and another door is on the north side.
Alaznist: this name tells you something. It's rather obscure lore, probably you remember it from a conversation with the local Thassilonian expert Brodert Quink. Alaznist was a Runelord, one of seven incredibly powerful wizard who ruled over the ancient realm of Thassilon, today split into Varisia, the Hold of Belkzen, and the Lands of the Linnorm Kings.
"She looks angry," Isaac said as he moved around to the front of the statue and studied its face sternly. "That is becoming a theme here."
James reaches out hesitantly to touch the polearm. "Looks real, doesn't it? What is a laznist?" At Isaac's words he looks thoughtful "Yeah." he does his best to climb up, and sights past the lady's head "Is she being angry at something?"
The weapon is real, and while it's ornate and decorated, it looks sharp enough to be used to deadly effect. It's set in the statue's hands so that it can be removed quite easily.
Ameiko scratches her head. "I've no clue who she is. But this alphabet's the one we use for Varisian, so I'd bet a gold coin against a copper that these are Thassilonian ruins. Well, not ruins, they are maintained, which is creepy enough. We should get Ilsoari and maybe old Quink to take a look."
Vorin looks away for the statue to look up to Ameiko, and says, "They were the ones who made the thing that made Min go crazy. I heard Ilsoari talking about that. Maybe it came from down here?"
Still, there was more exploring to do! Once the lights go out, and all that is left is his ioun torch and whatever the others are carrying, he moves to the door to the North.
As sneakily as he can, he tries to open it and peek through as soon as the others are ready.
"We should check for other monsters before we fetch help. If there is something else down here that notices one of their number rendered inert, they may follow us back up to the town."
"Plus, you know..." James looks shifty "If they know wer'e doing it, they'll say 'no'. Let's go!"
Scrambling down he steals the ranseur, then pauses and does his best to grab the book.
The ranseur comes off with a bit of effort, but the book is nothing but solid marble.
"Yes, good thoughts the both of you."
Beyond the door to the north is a rickety walkway descending into a room, its walls covered in what are unmistakably holding cells.
"Is someone trying to capture prisoners?" Empheria gasps. "If I weren't a professional-in-training, I would run away as fast as possible!"
She tries to see if anyone is in the room, or kept in the cells.
Vorin looks around at the holding cells, looking thoughtful. "Isn't this place really old? Maybe they haven't used these in a while." He does, in fact, look a little creeped out, but follows after Empheria to help search for any remaining prisoners anyway.
"Hey! Careful with the walkway!" calls John, noting the decrepit look of the walkway, and with a sidelong glance at Isaac.
Despite his words John advances carefully, planning to tap on the bars and look for an unlocked door he can test swing on.
As you move through the wooden walkway you notice that the wood is not, indeed, as damaged as you would expect from such an old structure. In the absence of the expected creaking sound, you manage to notice a suppressed, gurgling breath that is the telltale sign of the foes you met earlier. In the same instant, everyone of you is aware of the presence of the enemy, but as the disgusting creatures pounce out of their hiding place below the rafters, only Empheria is quick enough to react.
Empheria begins the battle with a bang, firing an enormous explosion which fills the area occupied by both of the guards.
"Em! Run!" James calls - but not before the room explodes, figuratively and literally.
One of the two monstrosities catches the full force of Empheria's blast, while the other shields itself with its companion. As the one that was hit with the most force tries in vain to extinguish the flames eating at him, the other takes a step forward and stabs at Vorin, hissing in an eldritch, gurgling language. The menace of the creature is somehow undercut as the polearm is deflected by the young dark elf.
Vorin grins as he deflects the huge weapon, and he steps in under it. Being careful to keep his guard up, he starts to cast a spell, but rather than his hand crackling with electricity like before, it's his sword now.
Isaac steps in to support Vorin as much as possible, immediately moving to lay hands on the new monstrosity.
Pack laden James hops from foot to foot.
"'Scuse me Miss!" he calls urgently, unwilling to risk pushing Ameiko from the walkway.
After a second James draws his bow, and calls orders to the others "Together! Keep them confused!"
Move: to draw bow
Standard: to initiate tactics (Aggresive flanking)
Isaac's blow knocks his target to the ground, unconscious but not dead. The one on fire rolls on the ground, fruitlessly trying to extinguish the flames that are eating at its flesh.
Still yelling advice James crouches, turns his bow sideways, and shoots.
'Took a lot of practice to learn to shoot with the bow sideways without the arrow falling off the string. Time to see if it means I can actually shoot while lower to the ground, or it just looks cool.'
James' arrow is enough to put the creature out of its misery, leaving only a burning corpse.
Vorin hesitates, just for a moment, on seeing the burning creature. It's as if he can't figure out what to do, between saving the creature or killing it quickly.
James makes a decision for them, and he relaxes a little. He looks to the other one, and then around to the others and says, "Did anybody understand what they said when they attacked us?"
Empheria shakes her head. "I dunno what he said, but if I had to guess, I would say it was something like 'Go away!'" she proposes. "But then again, he might have been saying 'Yummy, cooked gnome for dinner!' In any case, I'm sure it wasn't 'Nice to meet you!'"
"Is everyone okay?" James asks, concern evident in his voice.
He looks around suspiciously, bow still drawn "There anything else down there?"
Most of the cells only contain skeletons in threadbare rags. The walkway proceeds to the east into a corridor, and you can't find anything of interest in the room.
"I guess this prison doesn't take in new arrivals since several years ago. Ah, I knew I should've learned that spell to speak other languages. Now, the only thing we can do with this... creature is to give it a swift death."
Isaac walked over to the last creature and, with his usual economy of motion, applied a heel to its head until it finally stopped.
"I wonder how they have been sustaining themselves," he observed flatly.
Vorin looks around for a few moments, and says, "Yeah, this place is empty. Let's keep going." Stepping back up onto the walkway, he asks, indicating the corridor to the east, "How about that way?"
Empheria bounds ahead to the east, then remembers that she is supposed to be behind everyone else, and gets back into the formation that had just begun to try to keep up with her.
James, coming down the walkway, stops to stare at Isaac. He draws breath, holds it, then slumps a little.
The creature's head is thoroughly crushed, splattering Isaac's boot with ichor, and it stops moving a few moments afterwards.
"Either with magic, or I don't want to know it." Ameiko answers Isaac, prodding the corpse with her rapier.
The room immediately to the east appears to have been a torture chamber of sorts, although the implements seem strange and archaic. In one corner sits a spherical cage with spikes protruding inward from its iron bars. In another stands what appears to be a star-shaped wooden frame, its surface studded with hooks. And in the center of the room is a long table covered with leather straps and a number of cranks that seem designed to rotate and swivel.
"Now, that's something I don't care for. I swear, some of the guys who have dungeons build torture devices just for the aesthetic. Although, from what we saw, these ones saw some use..."
A closed door leads further to the east, and you see a ruined study through a halfway-opened door to the south. The floor is covered in rubble and litter, and three doors line the southern wall, each marked with a seven-pointed star.
"That seven-pointed star, do you think that is important?" Isaac asked, pointing at the symbol scattered throughout the room.
Vorin looks distinctly creeped out as he looks around at all the torture devices, and says to Ameiko, "Yeah, they know how to make them look scary!"
He looks to the stars, without stepping in the room, and looks back to James, perhaps to ask what he thinks about the stars. But, he seems in order something and how the older boy is walking. "Are you hurt?"
James talks quietly with Vorin "Nah. Just... Like, I've killed stuff before. Isaac, though..." he trails off.
"Check for tracks in the dust." he suggests, more loudly. "Maybe we can see which way those things came from."