Meriui says a few words over Thora's body and helps Sarkast handle her gear. HOrgus meanwhile starts setting out the equipment from the cultists. The cultists carried:
- potions of cure light wounds
- two divine scrolls - cause fear and comprehend languages (only usable by Rowena)
- two masterwork chain shirts
- a masterwork glaive
- a masterwork scythe
- unholy symbols to Deskari and Baphomet
- spell component pouch
- 15 gold
Thora has the following on her:
scale mail, greataxe, fighter's kit (bedroll, pouch, flint & steel, pot, mess kit, rope, soap, 10 torches, 14 days rations, waterskin), explorer's outfit, dagger, tooth on a leather necklace.
She has the following masterwork/magical gear:
cloak of lesser resistance +1, 2 potions cure light wounds, 1 potion lesser restoration, masterwork backpack, potion of invisibility
As the group sorts through the items on the cultists and Thora's own gear, Sarkast remarks, "We should disturb her possessions as little as necessary, so they can be returned to her clan."
Rowena glances at the divine scrolls and stuff them into her pack before looking at Thora. "She will be at peace...her soul is with Pharasma..."
The group manage to set Thora's body right and leave the mongrel untied. Meriui does most of the work with moving her along with the group.
There is a ladder in the north of the trophy hall leading upwards, and a door leading to the east. Where do you go?
"We should go east first. Maybe we're meet more...friends." Rowena scowls. "We can always head upwards later."
Sarkast nods, and checks the door the cultists had been guarding.
The roar of water is immediately heard as Sarkast listens to the door, and checks it over. Finding no traps, he opens it to discover a hallway. Near the eastern end, the worked stone gives way to natural cave walls, just before the hall ends at an open shaft; the source of the roaring water. Hanging over the edge of the shaft is a knotted rope - the other end tied to an iron spike driven into the ground.
Peering down the shaft is what appears to be an underground river.
"I am not going that way," says Aravashnial as Anevia quietly explains the area to him. The battered, blinded mage leans heavily on his staff, wearied and irritable from the long journey.
Anevia just looks at the ladder in confusion.
"The ladder just leads straight down into the river, and I don't think the mongrels breathe water or anything. Why one earth would that be there?"
Sarkast inspects the spike and rope for safety, then peers into the cavern below.
"The cultists were guarding this for a reason, I think we should investigate. Anevia, Aravashnial and Horgus maybe stay up here and the rest of us can investigate."
Horgus laughs as he looks down at the water.
"Don't have to ask me twice. It's your death wish."
Sarkast gives the rope a very thorough once-over. It is extremely secure and it descends to just above the surface of the water, which thankfully does not move very swiftly. It is difficult to tell how deep it is.
Sarkast sets his pack down, and ties one end of his own rope around his waist. He hands the slack to Meriui, saying "I can descend just enough to get a better look around the cavern. Just in case something goes wrong, you can use this to pull me out."
Anevia touches one of Sarkast's spears, which causes a glowing light to fill the cavern. The acrobatic rogue nimbly scales down the rope ladder, hooks his feet into the ladder, and hangs freely while he inspects the cavern.
As Sarkast hangs upside-down he notices two things. One, there are horrible fish-monsters lurking in the water, at least seven feet long with huge, nasty-looking teeth. Two, there is the outline of a door on the eastern wall, barely perceptible and it does not look like it has been touched in a long time. Three, the water is not too deep. Around five feet.
The horrible fish monsters are known as gar, seven-foot long, toothy creatures that resemble a cross between a crocodile and a barracuda.
"What do you see down there? Does it look like a means out of here?"
"It looks like there is a door in the distance that has not seen use in some time. The water is not terribly deep, but it seems to be inhabited by giant fish with equally giant teeth."
"With light down here, an archer might be able to shoot the creatures. Or ... "
The rogue considers the fish for a moment.
"Archer?" Rowena grabs her masterwork bow. "I can do that...how many monsters are there? I only have so many arrows, here..."Rowena furrows her brow, looking for other solutions.
"would it be possible to poison the water some way and kill 2...fish with one stone?"
Rowena peers down the hole. The fish-things would have partial cover reducing her chance to hit, but it'd be worth a shot. As for poison, it's a fairly large pool of running water, the poison would just move off downstream.
"I also have a bow. Perhaps together we can take care of these fish."
Sarkast moves out of the way to allow the archers a better view of the monstrous fish below.
Rowena and Ayesha both lean over the edge of the hole and aim their bows. Fire when ready.
Rowena fires into the stream.
Sarkast flings himself from the ladder to cling to the wall as Rowena's arrow slams into one of the fish before it can react.
Ayesha also draws an arrow to her bow and fires at the same fish as Rowena.
Ayesha and Rowena both fire down into the water. Two arrows slam into the fish, which struggles violently, and then goes still, slowly turning over.
The other fish immediately lunges at its compatriot, wasting no time as it attempts to devour the body.
Rowena stares at the fish in horror. "This is...something new, isn't it?" She aims again for the fish.
With the other fish savaging its once-companion, Rowena is clear to take a direct shot. This one slams into the fish.
Ayesha tried to get another shot in, but she rushed it and her aim was off.
"Move aside, let me try!"
Anevia moves in and fires an arrow of her own.
After Rowena's arrow strikes and Ayesha's splashes the water beside it, the large fish tries to dive out of the way. However, the final arrow from Anevia slams into the base of its head, killing it instantly. The fish struggles and goes still.
End of Combat
From what Sarkast could tell, the water has a current but is not too deep. It should be fairly easy to swim to the secret door.
Sarkast smiles and nods. "Well done. Keep arrows nocked while I investigate further."
Leaving his supply pack with the others, Sarkast keeps his spears on him as he climbs back down.
Sarkast makes his way carefully toward the other end of the room, and listens at the door, checking it carefully for signs of traps.
Sarkast listens at the door and hears silence. It's very hard to make out, but after some poking and prodding he realizes that the door just pushes in, and slides to the side.
Within is a small chamber that sites a foot above water level. A thick layer of dust coats the rest of the cavern. Near the fall wall sits an old wooden chest covered in dust and cobwebs.
"Well? Is it a way out?" Horgus pushes his way to the front.
"I appreciate your need for a bath, Sarkast, but we're in a hurry!"
Although clearly upset by Thora's death, Horgus is still very much on edge about something else. Which previously he was exhausted and complained all the time, he seems positively nervous now.
Keeping his eyes on the room, Sarkast calls back, "Horgus, why don't you just come out and say what's on your mind? If you know something the rest of us don't, you may get more of us killed. And I promise you that if that happens, you will be among them, one way or another."
"This appears to be a vault of some kind. Give me a moment to confirm it is safe.
Sarkast spends a full minute carefully scrutinizing the room from the door.
Ayesha put her bow away as she watched Sarkast climb down into the water. She turned to look at the others just as Horgus spoke. Something in his voice or manner just didn't sit right, and her doubts were confirmed by Sarkast's words coming up out of the hole.
"You know we are pledged to return all of you safely to the surface but, as Sarkast just said, it might be a whole lot more difficult - and dangerous - is you know or suspect something that you aren't sharing with us. Please, I ask that you share your knowledge with the group, so that we may be better prepared to leave this place."
Horgus' eyes go wide as Sarkast snaps at him, he starts sweating and babbling incoherently.
"Look! Look I'm sorry! I... I know Kandro Nyserian, the man who runs Nyserian Manor. I'm just surprised. He-he borrowed a lot of money from me to buy a sword!"
Horgus scrambles away from the edge of the hole and presses against the wall, shaking with fear.
"Hey! I... look, Horgus is difficult but no threats! We have an army of demons to face and I don't want to have to--"
Anevia's eyes go wide as Horgus speaks. She cuts off Aravashnial.
"You... you bankrolled Kandro Nyserian to buy Irabeth's sword?! That.. I don't know if that's a good thing or not!" She leans against the wall, mute. "I don't know whether to hit you or thank you."
With the discussion going on up above, Sarkast perches on the edge of the doorway and inspects the room.
Sure enough, the rogue's clever eyes spot a pit trap directly in front of the chest. He avoids it, and opens the chest.
Within are a beautiful wooden shield, a small gold ring, two scrolls, and two jet-black potions. There is also a pouch containing 250 gold.
Sarkast retrieves the items from the chest and brings them to the rope. He climbs back up and shows the items to the others. "Can one of you identify the magic here?"
He looks at Anevia. "Who are these people you speak of? Nyserian and Irabeth?"
Rowena squints at the scrolls.
Sarkast emerges with the loot which Ayesha sets to work identifying. She discovers:
- the wooden shield has a minor magical enchantment, and remain unidentifed
- ring of climbing (constant +5 to all climb checks)
- scroll of identify (arcane)
- scroll of magic fang (arcane)
- 2 potions of darkvision
Unfortunately Rowena cannot use the scrolls. Magic fang and identify are both summoner spells, so Ronan can use the scrolls.
"Irabeth is my wife, I've mentioned her before," says Anevia unhappily. "She sold her family sword to Kandro Nyserian, a noble like Horgus to help me. She tried very hard not to tell me but I put together and now Nyserian may be in league with these cultists! Ugh! Are we done here, can we continue?"
"Without me!" says Horgus forcefully, some of his courage returned.
"I... I am not safe with you animals! I promised you a great deal of money to help me and I receive death threats in return. Well damn your eyes, I'm going my own way."
With that, the fat nobleman turns and does his best to stalk away from the group.
"Hold, please, Master Gwerm! There is no need for hasty actions here. We are surely near our goal, and you have seen the dangers of this underground realm firsthand. I regret that you feel threatened, but surely you can see that we all have a better chance of making it to the surface safely if we stay together."
Horgus shouts "Pah!" over his shoulder and stomps off angrily to the west.