|
Kazu pants deeply, pressing his claw against the massive bruise and broken bones in his chest where the elemental has smashed him earlier. But that is nothing compared to his paladin companion. He staggers over to the side of the nagaji and collapses to his knees. Holding on of his hand, Kazu closes his eyes in silent prayer to Tuskiyo to light Senach's path to the afterlife, not trusting his voice to say the prayers aloud.
|
|
Finally paying attention to the extent of his injuries, Kazu withdraws a gnarled stick from his pouch and after a few moments, manages to activate it twice on himself to gradually recover from his wounds.
"Come, it might not be too late to save Senach. Let us bring him to the clerics." Laying his cloak, he respectfully moves Senach's body onto it with the help of his teammates and wraps him up carefully.
Disregarding their mission for now, Kazu makes haste to the church with their precious cargo.
|
Though it takes some short time the group wraps up as much of Senach's corpse as they can. As time is of the essence in this sort of situation they carry him through the streets to a Temple of Shelyn. Several clerics come rushing from the building to help as they notice the situation and look of panic on his companions faces.
The clerics lay him on the table and grimace at the wound as clergy rush all around grabbing the required ingredients and sages. Nearly an hour passes as they begin a hymn and prayer to the gods.
Numerous tense moments pass as Senach's scales and flesh slowly binds itself together and his eyes slowly open in wonder and enlightenment.
|
It seems that Senach has just arrived in this peaceful place when all of a sudden, the voice speaks to him once more. "It seems that your friends still have need of you, Senach. Do you wish to pick up your burdens? Do you wish to return?"
Seanach bows his head in thought and in reverence to this voice he has come to know as Erastil.
"My place is to do your bidding, Old Deadeye. I will return if you have need of me still!" he replies dutifully. He feels a warm presence behind him, then a warm weight upon his shoulder. "Your deeds are not yet finished. Continue your service to me, and your reward shall come eventually.."
With a sudden shuddering breath, Senach's lifeless form sits upright upon the alter of Shelyn. At first, Senach is almost overcome by a wave of pain, but thankfully it dissipates quickly under the healing magic of the clerics. His body finishes knitting together, and he gives a shuddering breath as his lungs begin to work once more. He looks over to where his friends gather, and gives them a weak smile. "Thank you!" he exclaims, tears running down his face. "I owe you more than I can ever repay!"
When Vulpina lifter he paw and waggles her fingers, he laughs and replies quickly and correctly. "It would be my honor, Lady Vulpina!" He quickly settles with the priests, in no small part due to the donations of his friends. He quickly dons a set of cheap second hand armor and hefts a mace that has certainly seen better days before looking around at his friends. "I owe you all my life. You can bet that I will spend it at your need once more! Come! Let us finish the hunt!"
|
She chuckles at the paladin's sudden joie de vie. "Careful not to promise me anything you're not willing to follow through with, dear Senach," she smirks, re-cocking her pistol and putting a hand on the hilt of her sheathed blade. "Onward, then!" With that, she leads the group back to where they were when Senach died-- provided, of course, there are no interruptions along the way.
|
|
On shaky legs the group returns back to the Cathedral where the clump of stones still lies unmoving. Just as you pass one of the stones rolls from the top. It nearly makes Phoebee leap into the air as it clatters, breaking the silence.
Three more doors stand before you. One east. one west. And one north.
|
|
Senach grips his mace tightly, sweat pouring underneath his armor. Despite his vibrant words, he is cautious.. very much not wanting to fulfill his oath to his companions but willing to press forward. As he passes the tumble of rocks, he spits to the side.. Senach holds no animosity, but certainly no love for the creature. "I guess we are all just trying to fulfill our purposes.." he says thoughtfully, eyeing the large stain on the ground where he met his end. However, as the rock falls, he jumps just as badly as Phoebee does!
He stacks up behind Kazu, willing to allow the Tengu to lead the way as he raises his shield to just below his eyes and hefts his mace, getting a feel for the new weapon.
|
|
Broken furniture litters the room: parts of a stool, a modest writing table battered in twain, and several smashed chairs sprawl across the keep’s wooden floor. Two sets of stairs, one in the northeast corner and one in the northwest corner, lead to a cellar beneath the prison dubbed Stavian’s Fair by the Swift’s residents.
The first level of Stavian’s Fair contains four large solitary confinement pens reserved for political dissidents. Due to the wooden nature of these cells, the rust monster’s carnage did not affect this floor.
|
|
The second level of the Fair is stripped of nearly everything metal, leaving what was once a tangle of dank, solitary confinement cages transformed into a tumbled mess of furniture and prisoner odds and ends. A collection of broken furniture in the southeast corner suggests a struggle.
The Crazed Painter stands before the south wall contentedly painting a large mural. The mural depicts two large snakes carrying a bell into Cassomir’s sewers and portrays in great detail what is clearly your group chasing after the snakes.
|
|
Senach steps carefully around the rubble and approaches the Crazed Painter. "We meet again, my.. friend.." he begins, not liking the duplicity, but hoping to keep up the ruse from before.
In the hunt, you must sometimes disguise yourself.. he tries to convince himself.
"Tell me, why are you the only one left here?"
|
|
The crazed painted turns around and smiles as he claps his hands. “Groetus has grander plans for me. In fact, he has grand plans for you as well.”
“Groetus told me you would come, and he asks that you rid his shrine of the derros. But I warn you, do not interfere with his shrine or Groetus’s anger will be swift.”
|
|
Seeing Phoebee and Vulpina willing to take over, Senach fades back to allow them to take over. he bites his tongue hard as the insane creature invokes Groetus's wrath, but the only visible sign of his dislike is his fist clenching and unclenching on the haft of his mace. Instead, he looks where Phoebee pointed at the blood, and nudges her. "Ask where it came from if we can get him talking. He had to have seen it.." he whispers.
|
|
At this point, the Crazed Painter points to the door in the southeast corner of the room and says, “Down, down, deeper, and down, follow my map to the underground.”
He spins around and hands a map to Phoebee. Opening the map it is an unintelligible garble of scrawls and pictures on it and says, "Understand the map and you find the Grotto!"
|
|
Vulpina leans over Phoebee's shoulder. "I cannot help but feel you are not providing us with your best works, friend," she says with an understanding smile. "Still, I believe we can find our way from here." She strides toward the southeastern door, shape bending and elongating until she stands in her kitsune form once more. "Shall we?"
|
|
Finding the derros is actually a fairly simply matter of following their trail through the Ismacco tunnel system and then into the Darklands—they have a great deal of prisoners, including one who is leaving a trail of paper behind him, and are not trying to cover their retreat. Behind the door in the southeast corner of this room, the PCs find an open trap door and a ladder that descends into darkness.
|
|
Finding no immediate traps Lady Vulpina sends four orbs down into the darkness. With no immediate threat the group heads down.
Refuse rushes by in a stream of garbage carried swiftly through the sewer proper. A five-foot-wide dry ledge sits a foot above the refuse and provides a walkway on both the east and west sides of the sewer. On the west wall, a massive iron door blocks passage beyond. An image carved into the door is of a dispassionate figure holding a gibbous moon.