"For Carina? It's not just the stuff of stories, no, but I cannot call that kind of favor. I can preserve her corpse but not . . ." She trails off, going over to stab the female priest in a neck artery.
She looks up as blood spurts from the wound. "But I can't bring her back. I think druids can call on a similar power, though. Maybe at the Bronzewood Lodge? Who's the chief treehugger now?"
Astraden sits down next to Carina and Tanith and begins to pray. "Farrukh, Cuetzpalli, could you collect all the weapons and wands and armor and stuff and bring them to me? Oh, and make sure all the tieflings are dead."
She meditates for about fifteen minutes, reflecting on her strange laughter before, and then gets up, hands glowing.
Cuetzpalli helps to gather up the loot and search the rooms after Spiny is revived.
Golden holy symbol of Hextor (already on sheet, I think). 100 gp.
Broken blade of a silver, ceremonial dagger (already on sheet, I think). 50 gp.
Tiefling Kit: Chain shirt, masterwork greataxe, composite longbow (+2 Str bonus) with 20 arrows, skeleton key, 27 gp. There's a total of five "kits".
Silver idol of Hextor (already on sheet, I think). 300 gp.
Plain, silver ring inlaid with several small emeralds. 200 gp.
One extra composite longbow +2, a longsword, a bunch of longspears and daggers, six javelins, and four quivers of 20 arrows each.
9 potions of cure light wounds.
Wand of Cure Light Wounds. 49 charges.
Scroll of Sound Burst.
Scroll of Silence.
Wand of Enlarge Person.
2 masterwork heavy flails and 1 masterwork light flail.
2 suits of half-plate.
+1 full plate.
Masterwork buckler.
Jeweled bracer. 1,000 gp.
There is a secret panel behind the tapestry in the Chapel of Hextor. Farrukh is able to disable a dangerous negative energy trap on it and get it open. Inside: golden chalice worth 250 gp, two silver holy symbols of Hextor worth 50 gp each, a pearl of power (1st level), and a silvered dagger with a jeweled hilt worth 150 gp.
On Theldrick: Unidentified magic scroll, masterwork light crossbow, an unidentified magic ring, and the key to the chest in his chamber.
In the chest: A fist-sized gold bust of a dwarf wearing a gem-studded crown worth 2,400 gp.
The ruby set on the big statue's forehead can be pried out. It is worth 800 gp.
235 gp in cash.
At some point, Tanith snaps out of his despair long enough to drink the healing potion handed to him and carry Carina's body toward Theldrick's quarters. "Let's hold up in here", he says joylessly.
Astraden snags the daggers (including the silvered one) and the wand, then rushes through the loot explanations. "No idea what the scroll and ring are for. Anyone wanna try the ring on for a while and try to see what it does?"
After the loot stuff is resolved, Astraden summons some fresh water and washes a couple tunics from the cultists.
She tries to clean out the gashes from the skeleton, but mostly just ends up with a lot of wasted bandages.
"Last I heard, the leader of Bronzewood is still Nogwier. Never been up there, but if he hasn't keeled over by now he should be in charge. We should gather up all this treasure we can. If we CAN actually bring Carina back, it's probably be pretty expensive."
He takes off his glasses and looks at them.
"We can sell these if we need to, that should be worth a lot I think."
"But first, we need to rest, and then get out of this hell hole."
"Oh, and I can be the guinea pig if everybody else is nervous."
Whoever is searching Theldrick's chamber notices that a table full of scrolls is radiating a weak universal aura. The scrolls themselves appear blank, though.
Once everyone's inside, Tanith locks the door and covers Carina. The big Kordite glares at Farrukh again before stripping out of his armor and trying to get some rest.
"Druids like to believe they don't need money but yes, they'll gouge you all the same."
Astraden scrubs her face with a fresh damp cloth and follows Tanith inside. She gets up halfway through the second watch to prepare spells, then keeps Robin and Farrukh company until Tanith wakes.
At the shifting of the watches, she also holds Olidammara's mask up and attempts to assuage the party's wounds.
At the end of her watch with Tanith, Astraden says a short prayer over Carina, holding her mask. She then goes over to the table, passing a hand over her face and whispering an ancient Draconic riddle, and examines the scrolls.
Even though nothing had come for the party while they rested, the big man doesn’t sleep well. Imagined versions of Carina’s final moments haunted his thoughts. He’d told the girl he’d protect her – he’d told her mother that he’d protect her. And, in the end, it’d been Farrukh that had struck down her killer. Kord, am I strong enough to face these trials?
As his companions started to stir, Tanith climbs out of his bedroll and starts his morning routine. The tighter quarters make a full workout impossible but a good deal of the calisthenics were possible in the late priests’s quarters. The rote, smooth movement of his muscles, and the sensation of physical exertion help to clear the hulking Kordite’s head as it always had. One goal becomes clear - he had to get Carina and the others out of mines.
The night passes without incident.
Cuetzpalli is quiet through the night, adding the loss of Carina to the long list of tragedies he's endured in his relatively short time on Oearth. He snuggles up against Spiny's massive flank and sleeps there, glad for the comfort of a loyal beast. In the morning he joins Tanith. He runs through a few exercises with one of the greataxes and a bow. It's been a long time since he trained with such weapons, but they are better than what he had before. At least until he can get his fiend-horn spear they will be his new battle tools.
"Kordson, what should we do now?"
When Cuetzpalli joins him for his morning exercises, Tanith doesn't vocalize it but, he's happy for the company. Once it's done and his prayers have been said, the big Suel shares a glance with the Olman while retrieving the length of iron he bought before the party left for the damned mines.
"We're not done here but we need to get above ground. Carina deserves to see the sun one more time. Let's hope Kord shares the strength with us to see it done."
While he speaks, Tanith braces the length of metal against his forearm and flexes, trying to bend it into a new shape.
Though it's hard work, Tanith is able to bend the bar a good ways towards his ultimate goal.
"So, we ready to try and get out of this place?
Feeling better after his prayers, both physically and spiritually, Tanith stows the warped length of iron and looks to Theldrick's bloodstained armor. He hated the suit of worn scalemail he'd picked up a few months ago but it'd saved his life more than once. This pile of thick armored plates would likely be even better.
With several minutes of effort, the big Kordite manages to squeeze into the suit of plated mail. Much like his ill-fitting scale armor, the plate armor was several sizes too small, especially across the shoulders, chest and crotch. It would serve its purpose but it definitely chafed like a b@*!*.
"Let's get going", he says with another cold glance at Farrukh.
Cuetzpalli draws his new longbow and knocks an arrow, following at the rear of the group, with Spiny by his side.
The elevator slowly rises to the surface. And is surrounded by dwarves.
It must be nighttime up above, for the twelve humans have been replaced with their stockier counterparts. The dwarves have heavy picks drawn. Behind them, four "human" guards—each possessing a burn scar located right over where the tieflings from below generally had Hextorian tattoos—stand with longbows at the ready. In the darkness, their eyes have a curious crimson glint.
The chamber is very dark, lit only by the far-off torch and the dwarves' shining eyes.
One of the dwarves clears his throat. "We have sent for Ragnolin and the rest of our number. They will arrive in a minute or so." He frowns at Carina's body. "What in Moradin's name happened down there?"
"Priestess!" one of the human guards cries, eyes widening as he notices Astraden. "Have they taken you prisoner? What news from the temple?"
"Priestess? Temple?" The dwarf turns. "What the hell are you talking about, human?"
Feeling resplendent and stronger than ever, Tanith remains silent while Astraden works her deception.
Tanith does things and says stuff.
Astraden bares her teeth at the tiefling in a cruel approximation of a smile. "Smenk was paying them to kill us. We are paying them to kill him. That one -" she says, pointing to Carina's body, "- failed to understand her opportunity. Smenk will see her broken body and, when the fear is still strong, he will be punished."
Turning to the guards: "I know Ragnolin Dourstone holds no love for that monster. Smenk is evil, corrupt, and has snubbed your employer on more than one occasion. We will destroy him. But we must do it soon, because my master has given us powerful spells of a short duration. Should you let us pass NOW, my master will explain your helpfulness to Ragnolin."
With the full extent of Astraden's deception going over his head, Tanith just poses and looks menacing. He got the distinct impression she was threatening the guards.
Farrukh will size up the toughest looking guy who isn't Enthralled and make him his Favored Target.