Turning to Rastislav, Elthaeron says "We were hired to hunt goblins, not...that!" He gestured at the mishapen corpse. "What was that thing?"
"Zhat iz great question. It looked like aberration often seen vith Thassalonians. Vich is strange because Thassalonian empire has been gone for very long time. Zhey are called sinspawn, and are formed from zhe dead souls of sinful men infused vith dark and powerful magic. Zhis is all I know about zhem."
"Intereting. And by interesting I mean we aren't being paid enough to deal with would-be Thassilonian mages. Fortunately I am now dying to know what is going on. Let's keep following the tunnel and see where it takes us."
Brentol: That is an empty, 60 foot long cavern.
The tunnel will lead past another off-shoot and come to another dead end.
Too clarify: there are two branches other than the one Brentol just checked before the dead end.
Rastislav removes his bifocals and pinches the bridge of his nose for several moments. Afterward he he gently replaces them and speaks up once more, "Zis is interesting development. Zhere is strange thing happening and I vould like to investigate further. Zhe Thasselonians vere, put lightly, tyrannical rulers. Zhese sinspawn are not good omen."
Your choices, as they stand, are to search the room Brentol just checked, take one of the two side passages, search the dead end, or head back, and report to the captain.
For time's sake I'll presume you guys will continue with that. There is little of value in the room, and nothing to gain from searching the dead end. So now, you have two corridors to chose from.
"To the left!"
As you enter this chamber, a red marble statue is what catches your eyes. it depicts a strikingly beautiful, yet enraged, human woman, as it stands in the center of the room. she is shown wearing flowing robes, and long hair which is held back by an intricate headdress of hooks and blades. in her left hand is a large book, inscribed with a seven pointed star. her right hand holds a glittering metal and ivory ranseur.
A knowledge history check may be made concerning the woman, but other than the statue there is nothing of interest in this room. The walls are no longer the rough tunnels you have previously seen though, they are old, but in remarkably good condition (a knowledge engineering, or some other stone-related check may be made concerning that) There are three directions to continue from. The first, is straight ahead, and the hallway seems to go down some stairs, and no further than 40 ft may be seen that way. The second direction is left, which goes five feet to a door, and the third direction is right, and that goes down 25 feet with two side corridors off of that one.
The statue is of the thassalonian ruler, runelord of wrath: Alaznist.
The walls are quite clearly at least as old as the statue, probably original even.
"Most interesting. Think of the value of this statue to a collector. If we survive more sinspawn. To the left! Always the left."
This door opens up into a large chamber, that was quite obviously once a prison. This is made certain by the cells which line the walls of this room. you walk out onto a rickety platform which overlooks this room, and which has a flight of stairs on either side (to you left, and to your right descending into it. Two more of those abominations are bickering to each other in their strange tongue over what appears to be a skull, as they stand near the bottom of the right hand flight of stairs.
Turn order is:
Soairse
Sinspawn
Rastislav
Elthaeron
Brentol
Damien
You all have a surprise round, as they are so busy arguing they don't notice you right away. Soairse will delay for the moment.
Rastislav will delay.
On the surprise round, Damien will charge the creature that Brentol did not.
Elthaeron looks over the situation, looks the creature to the right up and down, and fires an arrow. it sails true, and plants itself in the creatures right chest, which cause the creature to roar in pain. Soairse takes advantage of this and fires an arrow from her shortbow as well. a clumsy shot, from her haste, but in the creatures daze, in manages to glance across also dealing some damage, a hit that Soairse seems to be a little upset at.
The dwarf and half elf charge in after the arrows, and manage to both land solid blows.
The creatures are at:
Brentol's: -15
Damien's: -7
Rastislav has two days to use his delay, or may tell me to continue, at which point the creatures will go, and a new round will commence, with Elthaeron up first.
Rastislav will undelay to cast peacebond on damien's
Casting
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components S
Effect
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target one sheathed or slung weapon
Duration 1 minute/level
Saving Throw Will negates (object); Spell Resistance yes (object)
Description
You lock a weapon in place on its owner’s body, or within the weapon’s sheath or holster. Anyone who then tries to draw the weapon must spend a standard action and succeed at a Strength check (DC equal to the saving throw DC) to do so, provoking attacks of opportunity whether the attempt succeeds or fails.
The creature in front of Damien's arm freezes as it brandishes it's ransuer, both Damien and Brentol get an Attack of Opportunity on it. Both creatures are still recovering from the shock of the attack and are clearly off there game.
Damien thrust his spear at the creature
Drawing back his bow as far as he could, Elthaeron released a shot. It was a clumsy one, but if it landed it would hit with devastating effect.
As Brentol and Damien take advantage of the situation, Elthaeron lets lose another shot, (either creature he shoots at will be dead, thanks to both AoO hitting, so I'll say that he shot the one he had before) He let it lose, but was unsure of it's flight, till it caught the one in front of Brentol in the throat. It collapses, giving out a few kicks, before chocking on it's own blood. Soairse fires at the one next to Damien, hoping to take advantage of it's magical charley horse.
She catches it in the stomach, a painful, but rarely instantly fatal wound, but it has been beat enough, that it collapses from exaustion, Brentol and Damien make short work of it, finishing it before it has a chance to issue any sort of warning.
The room is still as described before, except now, there are two dead, soul-formed abominations lying at your feet.
The elf walks forward with a smile on his face. "And now things are getting fun! I haven't enjoyed myself this much since that one time a dwarven brewmaster experimented with making wine and gave away all of his 'failed experiments.' We must be getting close to something interesting indeed. Let us press on!"
Rastislav clears his throat and strokes his beard a bit uncomfortably, "Friends, I must varn you. Should ve continue I vill be of little assistance in any more tussles."
He then begins to search for any writings or runes around.
Other than what the creatures were holding, there is little of interest in this room. There are two ransuers, one from each creature, but other than that, the cells are all empty, other than a couple skeletons.
There is the door you came through, and a door to the right, also attached to the raised platform that you walked out onto.
Which direction?
A short, twenty-foot long hallway leads to an empty chamber with two other doors leading out. on directly in front of you, and one two the right.
however, this chamber contains several ancient relics of what appear to be torture implements, although their function and style seem strange and archaic. in one corner, there sits a spherical cage, with spike protruding inward, from it's iron bars. in another stands what appears to be a star shaped wooden frame, it's surface studded with hooks and in the center of the room is a long table covered with leather straps an a number of cranks that seem designed to rotate and swirl.
As stated, other than the items, this room is empty.
Rastislav surveys the room for any dangers before investigating.
After examining for a minute or two Rastislav looks to the others excitedly, "Zis are Thassalonian torture devices. Very expensive."
"Know any good buyers? Seems like we own them now."
Knowledge local would be the roll for that
It opens to reveal a small room with two cells. Their remains nothing except two odd looking skeletons, one in each cell.
Rastislav follows taking notes of architecture and symbols to research.
While there is a ton of stuff strewn about the room, the dwarf manages to find a scroll with magical runes transcribed on it. (spellcraft, or read magic)
Rastislav notes that the architecture is decidedly Thassalonian, but in a state of obvious dilapidation.