The ghost glares. "Hey! Stop talking about me like I'm not here!"
Tanith beams and turns that goofy grin the boy's way. "I'm just playing with you kid. How can we help you?"
"Do you know any way to shut the balls off?"
Carina puts away her explosive vial as her extract wears off. Her eyes widen at the sight of Tanith carving the grick to pieces.
Okay, definitely don't make him mad.
She cries out in surprise as Alastor manifests and tries to possess Tanith. She pulls out another explosive vial and drops down from the beam to avoid having any more balls launched at her.
She keeps an eye on Alastor as the party converses with him.
Hmph. This one has no life to eat.
"Do you know any way to shut the balls off?"
Alastor rolls his eyes. "Ugh. You're asking the wrong question, priest. The balls stop firing when there's nobody on the beam."
Sure enough, the balls stop firing in a few seconds.
"But that's not your problem." Alastor gestures to the door beyond. "I've seen people like you come and go. Most of them get brained, but others just leave humiliated, unable to work out that door."
He leans against the wall, partially sinking through as he speaks. "I can't get out of here because of my curse, but I can push through the door. There's a catch on the other side that opens it without a problem."
"So, we need to get through the door on the other side. And you want something in return, right?" Carina says, not exactly amused by Alastor's attitude. She still maintains control of her temper.
"So if we promise to end your curse, you'll open the door to the rest of the tomb for us? That sounds like a fair deal... how would we go about doing so, Alastor?" She asks.
"We have a winner."
Alastor grows serious. "Thirty years ago, I ran away from home. It was a...a stupid idea. My family needed my help. As punishment for my self-interest, I wasn't allowed to move on. And I never will move on until I'm able to go home."
Carina nods, her irritation at the boy's snarkiness giving way to sympathy. Thoughts of her mother come to mind; they cause her to sniffle a bit.
I wonder how Mom's doing right now... she must be worried sick about me. Sure, he's due for a spanking or two, but... well...
"Alastor, I know this is going to sound like a silly question, but can you lead us to where you... um... died?" She asks, her tail going slack.
"How can you go home?"
He does, however, fully believe that you have no way to get past without his help.
Alastor walks over to the far end of the pit, where the adventurers notice a small skeleton. "I almost made it," he mutters. "That last ball came out of nowhere."
Carina follows Alastor over to his skeleton.
She winces. "Oh my..."
Hey, at least it was a better death than by beetles. Acid beetles.
She bites her lip again. "We'll get you home, Alastor. Don't worry."
Alastor's expression lights up. "Really? Oh, finally!"
Tanith scoops up the small remains, bundles them, and then tucks them away in his pack.
"You seem like a decent kid. We'll make this right but when we come back, you'd better have that door open", the big man chides.
Carina watches as Tanith gathers up Alastor's remains with a sad look on her face.
"We also need to... bury Erip." Her breath hitches briefly in her throat. She blinks a couple of times.
Tanith mirrors the tiefling's sad expression. "Aye, now's a good time to bury her too."
"So, you bring my body back to my home and bury it with my family. If you do that, I'll get the door open. Deal?"
Carina steps forward, a hand outstretched for a handshake.
"Deal."
"We'll need directions to your family's place."
"And is there anything else we should know? No one intentionally raised you, right?"
Carina steps forward, a hand outstretched for a handshake.
"Deal."
Alastor reaches out and takes her hand, grinning ear to ear. "Great!"
When his hand touches hers, however, Carina feels a chill. Everyone else sees the tiefling seem to age, just a little.
But she sees Alastor how he must have looked in life—a young, corporeal boy, now looking extremely sheepish.
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Carina screams.
Loudly.
She pulls her hand back, staggering away.
She looks like she's barely standing.
She looks up at Alastor, panting.
"...let's go."
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! OH GODS, THAT WAS HILARIOUS! HAHAHAHAHA--Shut up, you.
Carina's vision returns to normal.
Alastor looks sheepish. "Sorry. I always forget I can do that. Those wrinkles will wear out in a day or so, I think."
Tanith glares at the ghost-boy again and then wraps a brawny arm around Carina's shoulders in support. "Let's get out of here."
Carina starts mixing up a potion... it appears to be a light blue liquid mixture of stuff.
She knocks it back once she's done.
It doesn't appear to have helped much, but it's done a little.
"Oh! One more thing!" Alastor perks up, as if the previous incident didn't happen. "I found a journal on one of those dead guys. Couldn't make head or tails of it, but maybe you can. It's in my bag."
Robin watches carefully with his bow drawn. "Not entirely sure I'm comfortable with this..." He mutters to nobody in particular.
Carina picks up the journal before the party makes the trip out of the cairn.
"Alastor, I was sent here to find your body and to bury it with the proper blessings of the Cudgel. It is my destiny. Along the way I have found more friends and adventure than I though possible. As these others have said, we will take you home."
Carina is quiet as Erip's body is given over for a proper funeral. Her tail slowly moves about, but never too far from herself.
She eventually buries her face in the shoulder of the first party member to comfort her.
-----------------
Carina spends most of her time in a quiet spot, studying her formula book. The memory of the ghouls in the water still sticks out for her...
...so if I break this mixture down to its basic components, I can start trying to balance both sides...
By the time the party is ready to move on, she's come up with a new formula to put in her book.
Carina is quiet as Erip's body is given over for a proper funeral. Her tail slowly moves about, but never too far from herself.
She eventually buries her face in the shoulder of the first party member to comfort her.
Tanith wraps a brawny arm around Carina's shoulders. "She was a good friend. I hope she's happy wherever she is."
Back in town, the adventurers notice the trio from earlier moping at the entrance to the Emporium. All three are covered in stirge bites.
As much as Tanith wanted to poke fun at their stirge-bitten rivals, being outside only served to remind the big Kordite what they'd sacrificed to come as far as they had. Instead he remains uncharacteristically quiet, silently thanking the Brawler for the strength and the courage he'd had an opportunity to show the past few days. When the group arrives at Diamond Lake's resident mage's tower and Erip's remains are surrendered, he wraps a brawny arm around Carina's shoulder to offer some comfort.
Allustan's "tower" is a charming red and deep blue house on one of the rare stretches of healthy grass in all of Diamond Lake. A small meditation garden abuts the face of the house, incorporating vertical stones and small pools of concentric circles. This is where the group finds Erip's master.
Allustan takes the news quietly, leaning heavily upon his staff. "I knew Erip thirty years..." he murmurs, "...and I saw him grow. I saw how I was growing faster. I always...worried how Erip would handle my eventual passing. I'd never dreamed of this."
"She was a brave and true friend. Let's remember her that way."
"Does she have any family in Diamond Lake we should visit?"
Allustan scowls. "I will send a missive to the Greysmere Covenant. They can do whatever they want with the information—it doesn't matter to me, and it wouldn't have mattered to Erip."
Tanith has no clue who the mage is talking about but nods in feigned understanding.
"We found some trinkets in the cairn would have loved to study... We're not sure what to do with them now that she's gone."
Allustan frowns at Carina. "Aren't you that alchemist who kept Erip running all these years? Are you telling me you didn't bother to learn Identify?"
He groans. "Alright, three items. No more. I'll take a look at them during tea."
He invites the adventurers to join him (though his attitude towards Cuetzpalli and Astraden is somewhat less welcoming). The tea is good, though Allustan isn't in the mood for chit-chat.
At the door of Allustan's house, Astraden tries to show her sympathy for the others' mourning. She never knew the dwarf, and doesn't much care about her death, but she knows it is hard to lose a friend like that. She pats Tanith's shoulder, then ducks out.
At Venelle's, hood pulled up and faking a Greyhawk accent, she stacks the three masterwork leather suits on the counter. "Will you buy these? And -" she says, pulling out a moldy leathern shirt, "Is there anything that can be done with this?"
"Huh!" Venelle, a lanky young woman with brown hair done up in a ponytail, examines the armor keenly. She completely ignores the moldy shirt. "Nice workmanship! Pity about the mark, of course. Damn shame. Seekers put people on real edge, and they don't like folks wearing their symbols. I can cover it, though. Hm..."
She straightens. "Yeah, okay. One sec!"
Venelle starts rummaging around in her extremely messy shop, carelessly knocking aside quivers full of masterwork arrows. She finds a piece of paper and starts scribbling down calculations. "Got any interest in anything here? I've got some special arrows in the back, if you've got any talent for archery."
Farrukh finally feels a new wave of sadness hit him as they return Erip to Allustan.
"He was a good friend. I'm sorry we didn't have more time to spend with one another. We were always so excited to finally explore the Cairn...I hate that his journey into it had to end this way."
He sips his tea, and then waits for a moment he thinks it would be polite to leave.
"We have some preparations to make, I think. Supplies to buy. I'm going into town for a little while."
He heads off into town to do some shopping.
"Never picked it up, I'm afraid. I have a friend who's good with a bow, though; what sort do you have?" She squeezes the mildewed leather back into her pack. "And could I get some coppers in that? I need lodging for the night."
Venelle looks excited. "Man, I thought I'd never find someone who could afford them. It—"
She pauses. Her eyes turn suspicious. "Hang on. Where'd you get this armor, anyways? 'Cause if you stole it from that Seeker who's been about town, I'll have you know I'm not touching it with a ten-foot pole."
"A Seeker? Around here? No, no, look at how old these are. I found these in a cave up along the eastern road."
"So, how much?"
Venelle frowns. "You mean one of the old cairns? There's still stuff out there? And folks fool enough to look?"
"Yeah, I guess it must have been a cairn. Not much in it besides these, though."
"Huh. Well, okay. None of my business."
Venelle scampers behind her counter and pulls out a small ornately-carved box. She opens it, revealing four arrows: Three with yellow-and-black fletching and the symbol of Heironeous on the heads, and one blue-shafted arrow with an exceptionally sleek point. "Three of these will discharge a deadly electric shock. The fourth is an icy burst arrow." She sounds proud. "It'll freeze whatever it hits, especially if you hit a vital area. I'll give you two hundred gold for the armors, or you can trade them in for two hundred and fifty's worth of stuff here."
Cuetzpalli actually waits outside Allustan's house. He's suspicious of arcane spell casters and he doesn't want to leave Spiny alone if he doesn't have to. Once they get near Diamond Lake he breaks off and heads to the old Land farmstead with Alastor's remains. He buries him and says what he knows of the appropriate rites from St. Cuthbert's church. Then he heads back into town to report the deed done to Wierus. "Master, I found the boy's remains and buried them at his family's old home. His curse is lifted, and he can rest in peace now."
"I better check with my friend. Can you hold onto these for now?"
Astraden returns to Allustan's house and waits outside for the main group. She tells Cuetzpalli about the offer. "Do you think it's worth it? It's going to be hard to get rid of that armor, with those marks."