Eben lets out a breath of relief, although he also makes a moue of disappointment. "Nice work, guys. Though now I'm curious if Astraden's con would have paid off..."With a wave, he dissolves his "wall" of illusion, then strides back towards Tanith and the Faceless One. "Yuck. A face even a mother would hate. He still breathin'?"
”He should be”, Tanith answers. ”I didn’t give him any worse than I’d give the boys at the Dog.”
”Is the Eye-Thing dead?”, see that’s the case the big Kordite beams. ”Nice work alright.”
Zalamandra pokes the Faceless One's head with her foot. Eugh... no wonder he wore a mask. Although I have to wonder if he'd have been open to working at the Emporium...
"Don't forget why else we're here--we need to find evidence of Smenk's involvement with the Triad." She says as Eben dismisses his illusory wall. She steps past them into the room with the eyeball golem, poking around for anything worthwhile.
Tanith binds the Faceless man tightly and slings him over his shoulder. ”If we can’t find anything else, this fool should be good enough evidence.”
Eben takes a moment to inspect Farrukh's sight situation. "Is that getting any better? Can you see light or shapes or anything? I don't know much about healing eyes, but I'm sure we can get you fixed up soon enough." He waves a hand in front of the warrior's face futilely.
Zalamandra finds nothing related to Smenk in the laboratory, though she does find:
A moth-eaten spellbook bound with a strange feathered-scaled sort of leather.
A masterwork dagger and a metal rod (shown in picture)
Beneath the Faceless One's green cloak, he wears bejeweled metal bracers on his wrists.
A masterwork heavy steel shield tucked in the corner near the pile of hands.
The cloak itself, which, despite being somewhat frayed, seems quite durable and might fetch a fine price.
The beakers, tubes, and other glassware are effectively a complete alchemist's lab. In addition, the liquids within them include two vials of acid, three vials of alchemist’s fire, and a vial of liquid ice.
Set upon the altar are a variety of offerings to Vecna. They include two golden goblets worth 100 gp each and a bronze sacrificial dagger set with blood red rubies worth 400 gp.
200 gp in coins and six onyx gems worth 50 gp each.
Finally, Zalamandra finds a collection of papers. Three of them seem to have been ripped from Dourstone's personal journal, and they confirm what the party had surmised: Dourstone accepted a bribe from a human mining company to sabotage his own clan's mine, causing the deaths of thirty-three dwarves in a tunnel collapse. Though he was never discovered, the shame drove him to flee Greysmere and start his own business in Diamond Lake.
One of the other papers appears to have been copied from Theldrick's journal, though the party never found such a tome in the Hextorian's lair.
The last of them seems to be a cipher. Upon closer inspection, Astraden can recognize it as the missing link needed to decode the papers found on Theldrick's desk.
”I might of hit him a little harder than the boys at the Dog…”
While the party is busy searching and looting the lab, the big Kordite tends to the wounded.
”Stand still Farrukh. You’re bleeding everywhere.”
Astraden touches Spiny, ready to heal him if it looks like the eyes had an effect. "If anyone's feeling sick from looking at that thing, I should be able to heal you."
"The book is made of couatl skin from the Isle of Dread. Supposedly couatls are some sort of angel, so this might be worth something extra to an evilly-minded buyer." Astraden explains what she knows of the other items.
Astraden reads over the cipher. "Yes . . . I think we can solve those scrolls on Theldrick's table, now. But first we should prepare to fight the Aspect."
Zalamandra looks over the letter and Theldrick's journal with the cipher, smirking. "Well, well, well... looks like Smenk outlived his usefulness to the Triad. I think Cubbin & Mayor Neff would be VERY interested in hearing this..."
She gathers up the items the party has uncovered and detects magic on them.
Zalamandra is able to identify the bracers as bracers of armor +1.
"Huh..." Zalamandra holds the bracers up. "These are enchanted to cover their wearer in a layer of magical force. It should help fend off blows." She glances at the Faceless One's body.
"Of course, it wasn't much help to him, all things considered..."
Cuetzpalli is quiet in the wake of the battle taking a few moments to rest and regain his mental footing after all the fighting. "Gods, wizards are annoying..." he mutters before walking back over to join the others. He waits for one of the more decisive members of the group to decide their next course of action.
Eben goes and combs over the bedroom and the dead cultists. He also gives a slightly more in-depth search of the storage room, seeing if there's anything potentially valuable aside from the ready amount of food, water, and mundane supplies.
On the acolytes, Eben finds:
Four potions marked "Arrowguard".
Three potions and one empty vial marked "Fox".
One potion and three empty vials marked "Watch and Snatch".
Four potions marked "Mistmorph".
Three scrolls marked "Stick".
There is nothing in the acolytes' bedroom, but the storage room does procure something interesting: The crates and boxes are all branded with an image, kept so it faces the wall, of a rampant rooster perched upon a large gold coin.
This is the sign of the trading company belonging to one "Balabar Smenk".
Eben swaggers happily back into the lab, his hands precariously loaded with potion bottles. "Okay, all these... and we can probably make some good guesses as to what they do, but Astraden can do her thing to be sure. Then these scrolls, which I'm guessing are more webs. And..." he points theatrically back the way he came. "You're looking for Smenk's greasy little fingerprints? Because there's a whole room full of them!"
Tanith helps sort and pack the loot. ”So what’s this about an Ebon Aspect. You sure it wasn’t that thing you guys just killed?”
"No. That was a creation of Vecnan cultists called the 'Eye'--named after their lord's missing one. This Ebon Aspect sounds like something else entirely..." Zalamandra trails off as Eben returns, announcing his find.
She promptly races over to the storeroom, where her eyes light up and a genuine cat smile appears on her face. "Eben, you magnificent bastard!"
The thief-cleric checks the potions Eben found.
Astraden is able to determine that "Stick" refers to web.
Just as Astraden is completing her investigation, the adventurers hear a cry. Turning, they see the unconscious Faceless One writhing in apparent agony. His beady black eyes shoot open as he releases a scream that turns less and less human as it continues, until it more resembles the shriek of a barn owl than that of any man.
The shadows around him seem to coalesce, holding him tightly as deep violet energy streaks from his chest. He keeps howling until it at last rips out of him with an audible tearing sound. The energy vanishes. The Faceless One goes limp.
A quick examination shows that he is dead.
Zalamandra pales.
"Uh oh."
She starts moving towards the exit from the labyrinth. "I think we need to go NOW."
Eben steps back a few feet from the form of the Faceless One, clapping his hands over his ears to try and dull the horrid screaming. "Maybe pummeling him to death would have been kinder. He must have deserved it- those eyes and hands didn't just harvest themselves- but that sounded like an awful way to go. And yeah. A really bad sign..." he gathers up his things, including any unbroken arrows he can spot, and makes to head back into the labyrinth with the others.
"Oh, boy. Whatever just happened to the Faceless One... Sounds like it set something else off. It's in the cathedral, whatever it is. And when I say 'whatever', I think we all know I mean 'scary thing that had been sleeping in the pool'."
Zalamandra keeps her ears open to help Eben as she moves.
"Isn't that coming from...?" Zalamandra trails off. The noise was definitely coming from ahead.
"Yeah, you're right. It's smashing the elevator!"
”Well let’s go kill the thing!” the Kordite laughs.
”It’s about time we show this little ‘triad’ that their kind isn’t wanted in Diamond Lake once and for all.”
Tanith prays to the Brawler for protection and leads the way out.
Zalamandra picks up the pace, drawing her crossbow and following Tanith out.
Farrukh follows behind them as best he can, becoming more accustomed to his blinded state.
"Hey maybe that saying about blind people getting better other senses to compensate is true!" he says, optimistically.
"Don't worry buddy, we'll get you cured as soon as we can," Cuetzpalli says to Farrukh. He and Spiny follow the others out towards the crashing noises, weapons ready.
Tanith opens the door and reenters the Dark Cathedral, the rest of the party close on his heels.
The room is silent. The torches have all been knocked aside and extinguished, but bright lights are flashing from the pitch-black pool—now shimmering with red, purple and amber lights swirling within.
And standing before Tanith and the others is the Ebon Aspect.
The creature is a bizarre amalgamation of the three deities it embodies. It is a ten-foot tall, powerfully built monster with six arms. It has smooth, dull gray skin and bulging muscles that pulse with arcane power. Three of its arms, two on its left and one on its right, are missing their hands. It has a gaunt, skeletal face and massive fangs. It growls like a feral monster, but its pale eyes glitter with foul intellect.
Beside it lie the mangled remains of the great metal elevator.
The Aspect, in the Dark Cathedral. Tieflings and drow not included. Some disassembly required.
Tanith's eyes grow wide at the sight of the monstrous beast. He levels his poleaxe but waits for his friends to make the first move.
Zalamandra's next words sum up the situation nicely.
"Oh, f**k me."
She promptly levels her crossbow at the beast and fires!
Between the wall and the creature's supernaturally tough hide, Zalamandra's arrow has no effect.
Immediately before entering the cathedral, Eben turns and casts heroism and vanish on Farrukh. "Maybe you can't see it, but it can't see you either." he says, with a completely pointless and unobserved wink.
Eben runs forward behind Tanith, his bow at the ready but not quite neccesary yet. He lines himself up for a shot that he'll take in a few seconds, but first, he has one thing to say:
"I believe in me!" he boldly proclaims, imbuing the words with magic.
As Eben moves by, the Aspect lunges, fastening its teeth onto the bard's arm and ripping away a bloody chunk.
With a roar, Tanith brings his poleaxe to bear.
Astraden awkwardly shifts the crossbow so she can reach the trigger, and fires at the beast. It's a one in a million shot, but it's all she can do right now. She then drops the apparatus and summons her duplicate, stepping forward behind Spiny.
Tanith hacks into the beast, inflicting a grievous wound. Oddly, though, the bardiche seems to be slightly less effective than it should be.
"What is it? Is it a spider?"
Farrukh moves up invisibly to about where Tanith is.
"Am I close enough yet?"
"A spider would be... better. It's big, on two legs, has six arms but only three hands, gray skin, lots of muscles, and big, big teeth."
Cuetzpalli moves to the fore of the group, stopping when he sees the size and ferocity of the Ebon Aspect up close. He raises his axe, and prepares himself to step up to it, waiting for an opening in its stance.
Spiny follows Cuet into the crowded hallway, but he doesn't make it far.
The Ebon Aspect unleashes a frenzied flurry of attacks, raking at Tanith with its three good claws and trying to bite him again. Only Tanith's protective magic manages to save him from being actually torn to pieces.