Pezock turns to Urza. "I guess we go back down now." He wipes his hand in some of the blood on the floor and then across the carving's lips. Now mist, he heads down the hole.
Solidifying again in the room below, he turns to the other. "We must celebrate our victory!"
"But little one, what's the point of a secret club house, if there's nobody to hide it from?" Mahjik points out. "It's not like there's a sprawling city and a nation of people that can be in awe and jealous of your great secret place."
"There might be after a while, now that we've cleared away the cannibals," Douena responds. "Maybe people will come live here when they know the cannibals and monsters and plant-men are all gone. Aycenia might not like that, though." She turns her attention to Lorenz. "Well, the whole river of blood thing isn't very nice," she admits. "But if we wreck it all, there won't be any way to get up into my super-secret hidey-hole! We need the blood and old Zura here to turn misty," she gestures to the statue. "And it's not like it's dangerous anymore, now that we've killed the skeletons and the skritchy-dolls -- well, once we've taken care of whatever that thing was outside that made that awful noise."
Dammit! How did I overlook those? There hasn't been any pictures in this entire place. Urza returns to the blood room and studies the 'complex wall carvings'.
Dammit! How did I overlook those? There hasn't been any pictures in this entire place. Urza returns to the blood room and studies the 'complex wall carvings'.
The wall carvings are mostly writing interspersed with occasional drawings of serpentfolk, vampires, and a couple diagrams of a city. The writing is in a language Urza does not know. Neither does anyone else in the party, so you will have to wait for Douena to use magic to translate it.
"I read the thing about Zura in the skeleton room earlier," Douena responds with a dismissive glance at the carvings in the alcoves. "I can't read that until tomorrow." She brightens. "That means we get to do the snake-blood-ladle thing again!"
"We have to come back for more boring reading?" Pezock complains. "We should be content in our victory and celebrate! But first..." He marches over to the doors and reaches for the handle. "Should we check on the beast outside?"
"Wait!" Douena calls out. Having left her old light in the upstairs room, she fishes out another fragment of bone from her pocket and sets it to glowing, tossing it near the double doors for good visibility. Then she readies her staff, gripping it tightly in both hands with excitement. "Okay," she tells Pezock. "I'm ready."
"Do we still expect more action? I'd be good with some rest and - ahem - celebrations."
"Do we still expect more action? I'd be good with some rest and - ahem - celebrations."
Urza will hang back and lob Acid Splashes (though I think it's immune).
Pezock opens the first set of doors and then hurries to the second set. He opens those to reveal...nothing but the room beyond. "It's gone," he says, distinct disappointment in his voice. He suddenly perks up. "We must search for it!"
"Not now, Pezock. We nned to rest somewhere safe before thinking about another fight."
"How big was it?" Douena asks Pezock with interest, joining him in looking around the room with the pool of blood. "I didn't get a good look at it, only heard it. Could it have fit in the skritchy-doll tunnels?"
There is a thin trail of slime on the floor from the creature's movements. It appears to have entered the room and exited through one of the small holes, the same hole that Douena first found this room through. Given its size , it must be capable of squeezing itself quite tightly to get through.
"I don't want to meet it in there," Douena says grimly. "And it looks like the skritchy dolls weren't the only things waiting on anyone who falls into one of the pits."
You make your way back through the halls to the entry chamber, being careful of the pit traps along the way. The sea has not come back yet, so there is no difficulty proceeding out into the bay and back to the circle of stones. As you pass the shipwreck, once again its captain calls out to you to report. "What be the situation ye pathetic flea-ridden dogs?"
"Serpent-woman sorted, cap'n!" Douena calls back, performing an entirely unnecessary smart salute and heel-click since he can't see her from inside the ship. "Regret to inform you that the unusual tides will probably recur one more time. Have to recover the log."
"Well, that's better progress than last time," the Captain replies. "Good work, sailor! Keep it up!"
The remainder of the journey to the circle of stones is uneventful.
Mahjik wakes up trembling. His whole shakes with wracks of shivers. "W-wh-wh-y i-i-i-is-i-is i-it s-so-o-o co-oo-oo-oold." As he gets up it is evident that there's almost no physical resilience left in him. Weak and with terribly stiff shaking arms he looks at his hands, hands that are pale and cold to the touch.
URZA GIVES MAHJIK A POTION OF CURE DISEASE AND MAKES SURE HE DRINKS THE ENTIRE THING.
URZA GIVES MAHJIK A POTION OF LESSER RESTORATION AND MAKES SURE HE DRINKS THE WHOLE THING.
URZA GIVES MAKOA A POTION OF LESSER RESTORATION AND WAITS TO SEE IF HE DRINKS IT.
"W-wh-wh-y d-di-d-did-n y-ou s-s-sy-say so?" He looks to Douena, in case she feels Desna's luck shines more brightly this morning.
Identify items the next day
Nylithati ring
arrow
X room block of incense
Yarzoth potion
Yarzoth ring
Lorenz is quiet on the way back to cannibal village, still disturbed by the river of blood. He felt as though something should have been done to stop it but he had no idea just what they could have done.
The next morning when he sees Urza looking over the new items they'd recovered, he moves over to the sorcerer.
"Can you finish looking at this quiver and the arrows I found?"
Identify items the next day
arrow 1d20+7 -- fail
X room block of incense 1d20+7 -- fail
Yarzoth potion 1d20+7 -- fail
Yarzoth ring 1d20+7 -- ring of mind shielding
It's a bright, hot morning, as the sun peeks out from behind the clouds. Most of you awaken feeling refreshed, although Mahjik much less so. When Pezock rises, he spreads his arms wide and declares, "Ah, what a glorious day! We are the victors!"
With the new day and Pezock's strange crowing when he gets up, Makoa feels much better.
"Aye, we are the victors. Now, do we return to Aycenia or take care of that... thing?"
"We go after the beast!" Pezock says. "Then back to the village for celebrations!" He pauses a moment and looks at Douena. "Oh, and the Little One wants to do some boring reading in the blood chamber. I say we let her do that while the rest of us slay the beast!"
"I'd like to figure out a way to stop the blood," Lorenz says quietly. "I don't know about these things but is it possible that the altar is causing it? Could we destroy the altar or something like that? Or is there some sort of spell that someone can use?"
Pezock slaps Lorenz on the back. "You are right, Beast Slayer! That altar is an abomination! We must destroy it. The Little One can read while we smash it to pieces!"
Lorenz grins at Pezock's enthusiasm. "That's right! We'll destroy it with our weapons and if that doesn't work, we'll figure something else out!"
Douena is leaning over Mahjik's bedroll with Urza. "Something's wrong with Mahjik," she calls to the others. "I think it's from Ieana's bite. Maybe he's turning into a vampire-snake. Do you feel like a vampire, Mahjik? Does the sun hurt your eyes or make you want to dissolve into ashes?"
"You have me worried friend." Urza says to Mahjik. "Maybe we should get Jask or Aycenia in to help with your healing. You've gotten all the healing we have to give you out here. We can come back here at most any time to figure out what the snake-whore was after."
"Thanks, the potion of lesser restoration restored a good amount of Mahjik's agility. "It's not so bad as when I got up this morning. I can believe in my friends, and keep back in a fight. Pezock's been looking for an opportunity to plush up his feathers in combat. I think I'll be okay. I'll stick to the little one here, and make sure she stays out of trouble. That's good enough, right?"
He chuckles, a little worrying that - as usually he'd have a beaming grin on his face - and adds, "The sun is a little bright for me right now; but I feel absolutely no compulsion to feed on your blood."
Douena looks a little disappointed that Mahjik isn't feeling vampiric -- vampires are the most interesting of the undead, after all -- and insists on checking his teeth to see if they're any pointier than normal before grudgingly going back down the ledges to fill her tarnished ladle. "Have the snake ready to go when I get back," she calls over her shoulder.
Urza turns to Lorenz and motions in a manner as if to say, What? You don't have one already?.
Lorenz sighs and goes in search of a snake.
He comes back with a small handful of snakes and presents them to Douena as though they're a bouquet of writhing, hissing flowers. "Take your pick!"
"Not that one though." Makoa chimes in, pointing out one of the serpents. "It's bite will kill you in seconds. I'm surprised you haven't been bitten, Lorenz, they are usual cranky."
Lorenz did his part, so Urza gives blood.
He comes back with a small handful of snakes and presents them to Douena as though they're a bouquet of writhing, hissing flowers. "Take your pick!"
"Oh, they're fun! Let's keep them all!" After some consideration, Douena selects a small green serpent to perform the ritual with.
Startled, Lorenz starts to look more closely at the one Mahjik points out and then figures it out. "Ha! Very funny."
Holding the remaining snakes with one hand, he stuffs them into a bag. "I wonder if Sasha would like these? She could just feed them to Alton, I guess."
The ritual goes smoothly, although Lorenz and Mahjik find themselves deafened for rounds from the loudness of the lightning. Once again, the water rumbles and recedes from the bay, revealing the entrance to the temple once more. You descend down the cliff and make your way to the doors.
He looks to see if Douena is shouting again because last time at least that was funny.
Douena wrinkles her nose in disapproval. "He's very loud, isn't he? I hope he doesn't keep that up the whole time; that would get really annoying if he just kept shouting when he can't hear himself."
Mahjik's painful expression now includes the occasional head shaking and rubbing of the ears. "Okay, who-- "
Douena fills her pocket with fresh pebbles and bits of seashell from the uncovered sea floor and lights one up, holding it up toward Mahjik's face with a smile.