She continues to shake like a leaf in the wind as the others gather round her. "It...its just like the vision the other day..." she mutters barely above a whisper, her hand falling to her abdomen as if feeling for something. "The blood...the blood..."
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Nat hesitates a moment, then shrugs his bag off of his back. Pulling out his waterskin, he offers it to Valeria to drink from as he carefully moves her to lie back against the wall. He moves and kneels infront of her, blocking her view of the blood. "Valeria. Valeria. Easy, Valeria, easy. Focus on me. Just... just please. Focus on me." He looks pleadingly at her, a reassuring arm on her shoulder. He tilts a head back to Tik and Fidget. "Finish searching the room, then head upstairs. Give her some space."
Fidget shrugs her shoulders at Nat and backs away. Poor Valeria. She opens the note she found on the cleric's body. She scans it for a few minutes, at times furrowing her brows and scratching the side of her head. Her eyes start to glaze over, and, upon reaching the end of the note, promptly hands it over to Ruarc. "Sounds like trouble! Who's Yaniel?"
She passes the two potions and wand over to Tik. "What's all this?" she asks. As the witch inspects the items, Fidget pokes around the room, looking for a lockbox that fits the key she found.
She nervously takes some sips of water from the skin, turning her head away from the table. After a few moments, she nods to Nathaniel that she is okay, at least somewhat. She holds out a hand for him to help her up, and once standing, turns so that she doesn't face the table and says, "Let's get out of here..." and follows the others out of the room.
Old blood stains the floor of this small cavern. Barrels filled with scraps of fur and fat sit against one wall , emitting a foul stench. The two long stone slab tables are covered with
skinning tools and piles of freshly butchered meat. Two wooden racks hold drying animal skins.
It appears the mongrels use this chamber to process their food - normally giant rats, fish, giant vermin, and other cave creatures. But, Nathaniel notices numerous body parts of other mongrels and even a few human limbs in various stages of butchery.
On the southwestern slab, A masterwork dagger that's been used as a cleaver is wedged in between the ribs of a butchered dire rat.
A stone pedestal holds a copper brazier aloft in the center of this room. Against the western wall , an enormous pile of animal furs and thick quilts serves as a bed. Sheathed weapons and stone carvings adorn the walls. The eastern half of the room holds a wooden desk, beneath which stands a long, thin iron lockbox.
Nathaniel makes the obvious connection between the key on lockbox key they found on the cleric and the box, and opens it using the key. The lockbox holds a small leather pouch containing an assortment of semiprecious gemstones (three chips of lapis lazuli worth 10 gp each, two bloodstones worth 50 gp each, a citrine worth 50 gp, and a white pearl worth 10 0 gp) as well as two scrolls. The lock box also contains a long, thin darkwood sword case worth 200 gp.
As mentioned in the orders, the contents of the long darkwood case is the greatest treasure present. The case is not locked - inside lies a breathtaking longsword - a weapon of obviously superior craftsmanship with a razor-sharp blade that appears to be made of shining gold.
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Nat picks up the dagger, weighs it carefully then cleans it off against the priestess' robes before stowing it away. He leans against the wall for a moment, dry-heaving at the smell.
Discovering the sword, his breath stops for a moment as he examines it, amazed at the craftsmanship- with the smith's eye he learnt from his mother, he judges the grain of the metal, the balance of the weapon, the thinness and thickness of the hilt and blade... beautiful. Afraid to touch it any more, he snaps the case shut and delicately stows it away in his bag before joining the rest.
After checking on Valeria again, he turns to the rest, the note having been passed around. "I... I found the sword. It belongs to 'Yaniel'? Does the name have meaning to anyone here?"
The church was happy to see Yaniel go, and in the 2 years that followed, she was thought to have been slain. Yet when she returned to Kenabres in 4694 AR, leading a small army of crusaders she'd rescued, both Yaniel and her superiors had changed. For her part, Yaniel had shed her pride and insubordination, and had gained a new appreciation for the difficult decisions leaders are forced to make. And the church leaders had learned that sometimes the truth is exactly what you need to hear. Alas, Yaniel was assassinated before the year was out, slain by the lilitu demon Minagho only a week into her second personal crusade. Her followers managed to return to Kenabres with Radiance, but Yaniel's body had been taken. The sword had gone dark after Yaniel's death, its magical powers apparently lost, and so the crusaders elected to place it in the Gray Garrison on display.
Tik sniffs and examines the various potions, scrolls, wand, and sword to see what he can learn of them. While he does so, his familiar scuttles out of his sleeve and seems to whisper in the rat-man's ear.
When Fidget and Nat mentions Yaniel his ears twitch. "Yaniel. That's a name I've not heard in a long time.
"She was a paladin in the fourth crusade -- a real heroic type -- until he was knocked off by the demon Minagho. Her sword was called Radiance, though the tales say it's powers died with him. Last I heard it was in the Grey Garrison but it appears these cultists liberated it for their own purposes. May I take a look?"
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Potion of ???, potion of invisibility, wand of ???, scroll of bear's endurance, scroll of remove disease, the sword is magical but seems to be dormant.
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Nat nods thoughtfully. "Sword of a great paladin, that letter... this is getting far above our pay grade." He wipes some sweat from his brow and tries to concentrate before shrugging. "One more thing to consider when we make it topside."
He steals a glance at Valeria before turning to Ruarc- "The sword, do you wish to hold onto it until we leave?" and then the ladder- "If down here is cleared, let's head back up."
"I am no Iomedean, but I will carry the sword. It could prove useful later," Ruarc takes the blade, and carefully straps it to his back alongside Justice.
Fidget snatches up the scrolls that Tik identifies as Remove Disease and Bear's Endurance. "I think I'll hold onto those," she chirps.
Fidget stretches her arms over her head and yawns dramatically. "Where we headed?"
While waiting for an answer, Fidget's gaze wanders around the room until it settles on scary Ruarc with two swords strapped to his back. For no discernible reason, Fidget's simple mind becomes transfixed on Yaniel's sword. Touch it! says a voice in the back of her mind that strangely resembles her own. Touch it touch it! the voice urges her. NO! I don't like that man, he's scary! Maybe he'll have me for lunch!
C'mon, just take it! the voice continues, almost shouting now. Fidget frowns. This had better not be like that time Big Sister told me to steal Daddy's hammer and make "plate chips" out of Momma's mixing bowl. Overcoming her better senses, Fidget scurries up to Ruarc, jumps as high as she can, and just manages to poke the tip of the blade hanging off his back. "Uh oh!" she squeaks as the big man turns around.
As fidget touches Radiance, it begins to shed a golden glow, illuminating the room like a torch. It shrinks and morphs, changing into the shape of a scimitar sized perfectly for her. The metal itself shimmers dully. When she removes her finger it morphs back into a longsword.
Fidget's enormous brown eyes nearly pop out of her head in surprise and she leaps back several feet. "Whooooaaaaaaaaaa," she exclaims, then whistles in appreciation. "COOL!" She steps from one foot to the other excitedly, her hands clasped behind her back. She stares up at Ruarc, and timidly whispers, "Can I have that?"
"If you believe you can take pain to demons with it, then by all means little one," the dark knight says handing Radiance over to the gnome. As soon as it enters her grasp the blade resumes its form as a scimitar sized for her.
Fidget blinks at Ruarc several times and nods her head quickly, taking the magic blade. She looks like she may burst into tears, but instead a huge smile spreads across her face. She puts her new blade on her back and wraps her arms around Ruarc's knee in a big bear hug. "Thanks!" she says. She looks up at his face and, suddenly realizing what she has done, leaps back in fright from the tiefling. "You're real nice!" she croaks, forcing herself to smile again.
When Fidget's touch transforms the sword, Tik smiles. "Impressive, dearie!"
Then he says "Just a moment" and sniffs around outside of the little rubble-filled room, looking for any giveaway odors.
Aside from the overpowering stench of garbage, Tik can smell some other kind of organic scent - like from a critter of some sort. But he can't put his nose on what exactly it is.
Sniff! Sniff!
"There's something living in there, I'm pretty sure, under all that garbage." the ratman warns.
Nat clambers gingerly into the sloping chamber, but avoids a fall. As he pokes about, a giant amoeba emerges from the rubbish and flares back from his polearm. The thing is the size of a small dog, and looks like it will attack Nat if he doesn't back off.
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Nat swiftly backs off and closes the door shut, momentarily white-faced. He cleans off his polearm with the sole of his boot before turning to the rest.
"I... have no idea what foul demonkind spawned that thing, but I say we leave it to rot." He rubs his eyes. "Anyone who says otherwise is braver than I."
Valeria watches with wonder at the properties of the magical sword as it changes shape based on who is wielding it. I wonder if it could possibly turn into a bow... she ponders to herself, but makes no mention of it as it would likely be put to better use in another's hands.
She follows along behind the others as they continue to clear the complex, and nods silently at Nat's suggestion to leave whatever it was that frightened him in the other room. If it were a real threat, surely he would have wanted it killed. Probably some foul scavenger beast.
Tik chuckles. "Heh heh heh. That's the spirit, Nathaniel. We're not here to kill every last thing we see. Let's see how close we are to getting back to Kenabres.
"...Never would've thought I'd be in such a hurry to get back above the surface, but after reading this note I'm a touch anxious about just what we'll find when we get back up there."
Looking it over with more care now, he says "'Hosiila', I'll assume that's the cultist we just dispatched. The one with Radiance. The author of the note calls themself ‘S.V’ and claims to be about to take control of Drezen. Does that mean anything to any of you dearies?” He addresses his question to the citizens they are leading out as well as to his fellow would-be crusaders.
”And what about these safe houses? Nyserian Manor? Topaz Solutions? The Tower of Estrod? Businesses of Kenabres that seem to be harboring cultists, I presume?” He titters a bit, ”But if any of you know a bit about them...well that kind of knowledge would surely be a boon.”
Nat's dramatic description of the beast in the next room piques Fidget's curiosity. "What was it? What did it look like? Was it ugly?" If he doesn't want to fight it, it must be bad!
"Tikky, I've never heard of any of those places! But a lot of things seem to slip my mind..."
The worked stone walls of this large room hold a number of shelves, each of which display the preserved bodies of dire rats, bats, rock vipers, cave lizards, and other creatures that pose in eerie stillness. A pair of bedrolls have been laid out to the southeast. The tunnel to the north ends at a ladder that leads up. There is also the door to the east.
Nat opens the door to reveal a short tunnel. A muted roar echoes down the walls of this hallway. Near the eastern end, the worked stone gives way to natural cave walls, just before the hall ends at an open shaft. Hanging over the edge of the shaft is a knotted rope - the other end tied to an iron spike driven in to the ground.
Ruarc climbs down the rope. He calls up, "There is a pool below."
"It's a river. The river itself extends to the north and south, but the ceiling dips down below the water level in both directions."
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"Hrmm. I'll ask Bart to drop down, see where it goes. I can call him back if he runs out of breath."
Nat ducks into the other room and settles to the floor, calming as his the well-remembered movements of the ritual wash over him. After a moment, Bart appears, still panting from when he was dismissed, blood partially covering his paws. He grunts and cleans them off on the floor as Nat looks at him.
We have an underground river; see where it went, spirit?
Aye, mortal
Bart tosses his mane for a moment before nodding. He and Nat rejoin the rest wordlessly, Bart climbing down the rope and landing in the river, letting the current carry him away. He relaxes and holds his breath deeply as his keen eyes peer around.
"Yeah, I don't see anything down here," Ruarc says and then climbs back out of the hole. "Let's go up the ladder then?"
An old iron ladder , bolted into the wall and covered in rust, leads up a hole to the north, into a foul-smelling room. A pile of dirty shredded cloth lies in the NW corner of the room. As Nat climbs up, three pairs of beady red eyes emerge from the rags. Long snouts full of yellowed teeth follow squeaking and chirping. Three massive sore covered rats the size of pitbulls emerge from the rags, looking very angry.
Rats 14
Party 13.4
Mongrels 13
The rats swarm towards Nat, surrounding him. They all bite at him, screeching loudly. Two of the rats' sets of long dirty teeth sink into the summoner's flesh, tearing it painfully.
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