"She's long gone. We're here to try and find out what she came here for. So south-east."
Douena dithers. "I don't know. Maybe we shouldn't have killed the cannibals quite so thoroughly. If we'd left one alive to question, we might have found out when Ieana left and how."
"I don't know," she tells Mahjik, "that she's not afraid of anything on the surface. If she hadn't wanted the poor Captain along for something, she could have killed him as soon as she got on shore. She brought him along for a reason: either to help protect her until she arrived at the village or...," she gestures at the gloomy caves around her, "as some kind of sacrifice that would allow her to achieve the next step in her plan, something to do with the Red Mountain."
"Either way," she goes on, "if this place is crawling with undead and we follow the tunnels most traveled...," she shakes her head, "we'll be walking right into more of those things." She points back toward the cavern where they fought the festrogs. "Or worse."
"If Ieana was ever down here," she concludes, "and we don't know that for sure, and if she knew where she was going -- which I think we have to assume, since she knew exactly how to get to the village -- she would know the safest way through the caverns, which wouldn't be through the undead, unless she had some way of making them not attack her. I vote east."
"Wise woman seeks the twin stars for guidance," Mahjik considers. "Worse is what I'd be worried about, the - festrogs? - they're not much of a problem, even Pezock managed to hit one."
"Though I guess a whole army of them could descend on us, and we'd have nowhere to run to really. But in terms of the tunnels... I don't think it matters which we take. I kinda think of these as prison pens that the cannibals used for excess people; and they wouldn't want to have escape tunnels built right into their prison - so from my perspective I don't think these tunnels go anywhere much."
Lorenz finds it odd to find himself nodding along with Douena so much. Perhaps they had more in common underground? Or maybe it was because he'd almost died.
"I think Douena's right. Whatever Ieana came down here for, she probably wouldn't have wanted to deal with the festrogs, especially by herself. I favor going east as well."
"Bah! Make up your minds!" Pezock says. "All you do is stand and debate. Now is the time for action, not talk! Wizard says go south. I agree with him because I like him. Little One says go east. I agree with her because I like her too. Talky says go east, Coward doesn't care, and Big Teeth here is silent as usual. That's three votes for east, two for south, and two abstain. We go east!"
Pezock makes his way up the sloping ledge again and heads for the east passage.
"That's too many votes Pezock. You, Wizard, Talky, Little One, Coward, and Big Teeth only add up to six votes, not the seven you just said."
Pezock stops at the entrance to the east corridor and glares back at Makoa. "I counted myself twice," he says. "Once for each direction. Somebody has to make a decision!"
"Fair enough. Lead on." Makoa replies.
"I'm not the only one who talks a lot," Lorenz mutters as he readies his bow and follows after Pezock and Makoa.
"Cheer up," Douena tells Lorenz, patting him on the elbow as she falls into the line. "At least he voted on your side." She tosses her lighted bone down the eastern passage ahead of the group.
Pezock sets off down the east hall as Douena tosses the light bone down the hall. As it comes to land, everyone except Lorenz hears a barely perceptible hiss. Makoa also picks up a strong scent of creatures down this way, creatures with the unmistakable stench of undeath. Pezock moves forward almost gleefully at the sound.
The bone lights up a portion of a very large chamber. Although you cannot yet see all of it, this chamber is clearly of worked stone. The walls are carved with images of serpents walking upright like humans. You can also make out a large stone pillar, carved like coiling snakes. From behind this pillar, three creatures emerge. They all are humanoid in shape with long, sharp teeth and pallid flesh stretched tight over their bones. They look similar to the festrogs, except these walk upright. One of them looks a great deal like Captain Kovack.
Order: Lorenz, Pezock, Mahjik, Douena, Urza, Makoa, Creatures.
Up First:
Lorenz looks up as Pezock hurries forward and sees another of those undead creatures, recognizing Captain Kovack right away.
"Oh no," he shouts and almost without thinking lifts his bow and fires over the heads of Pezock and Makoa.
Lorenz's arrow flies over the top of Pezock's and Makoa's heads, and also right over the top of Captain Kovack's head as well. It slams into the wall behind Kovack.
Pezock yells and rushes forward at Kovack .
Pezock swings his sabre in a wide arc and lops off Kovack's head. "Two more that way!" he yells, pointing north.
Next Up: Douena, Urza, Makoa, Creatures, Lorenz, Pezock.
Urza will move into the room and cast Disrupt Undead.
If he can get more than one of them without injuring one of his allies, he will instead cast, Burning Hands.
Getting into the room is the important thing. If he has to, he'll take a double move rather than casting a spell.
Burning Hands dc 14
Acid Splash: RTouch
to hit damage
Concentration
Mahjik squishes passed Lorenz and Makao, giving the brute a tap to galvanize him into action. He comes to a stop next to Pezock, closing the gap to the next foe north of the pillar. He punches hard, not wanting to give the creature a chance to respond first.
"He was a ghoul!" Douena calls out helpfully. "Don't let them scratch you; they'll paralyze you so they can eat you! Poor Captain."
Mahjik moves quickly into the room and strikes a hard blow at #2. It stumbles back a bit from the force, but doesn't fall.
As Douena calls out her warning, Urza moves into the room and positions himself just behind Mahjik . With a quick arcane word and gesture, billowing flames cone out from his hands, engulfing the two ghouls.
#2's dried flesh quickly ignites, burning away from the bone. The creature falls over without a sound, nothing but a burnt husk. #3 howls as its flesh burns away. Bare bone is revealed along its forehead, chin, an shoulders. However, it manages to remain standing.
Next Up: Ghoul, Lorenz, Pezock, Mahjik, Douena (subject to delay), Urza.
Makoa moves into the room and up to the remaining ghoul, swinging the mace in his hand.
The mace slams into the ghoul's forehead, smashing in its skull.
With the ghouls down, you are able to get a better look at the chamber. It has the feel of an ancient, hideous cathedral. The walls are carved with images of serpents walking upright like humans, snakes coiling around and eating hapless women and children, and stranger scenes. Four stone pillars carved like coiling snakes support the vaulted ceiling 30 feet above. Four small cells blocked by rusted bars sit in the walls to the east and west. To the north, an immense carving of a snake's head looms, an ash-caked door clenched in its jaws, while to the south rises a horrific mound of bones and partially decayed bodies (mostly animal bodies, but a few human) in an eight-foot-tall heap arranged almost as if to evoke the imagery of a coiled snake made of corpses.
There are several empty vials lying on the floor near the northern door.
"Good job, everyone," Douena says cheerily as she finally enters the cavern, "particularly you, Pezock. Captain Kovack couldn't have asked for a cleaner death ... undeath .. un-undeath." As she carries her light deeper into the cavern, however, her good mood evaporates. "This is it," she says, pointing to the the door in the snake's mouth. "This is the cavern in my dreams. I told you, Pezock." Even through her uneasiness, she can't resist pointing out the reliability of her dreams to a doubter. "Watch out for the pile of dead things," she warns. "In my dream, there were things moving in there. It might just have been warning me about the ghouls...."
Mahjik looks at the unexpected display of snake cultery, his mouth slightly agape. "This, I did not expect. The mound you say?" Mahjik moves cautiously towards it, "come Pezock, I need somebody brave to protect me, should there be more to this pile than meets the eye."
Keeping half an eye on Mahjik and Pezock, Douena moves over next to the mortal remains of Captain Kovack and looks them over, seeing if his corpse still carries anything he might have valued in life. "Urza, Makoa, do you know if the captain had any family anywhere?"
Pezock looks down at the remains of the captain. "This was your captain?" he says. "Not too tough, was he?"
Responding to Mahjik's call, he goes over to the mound of bodies and helps Mahjik poke through them.
Neither he nor Mahjik find anything.
"I think in the case of the captain, this was a re-death." Lorenz says sadly, focusing more on the destroyed creature Kovack had become rather than the ghastly scene around him.
Finally, after he reaches for his waterskin to take a quick swallow of water, Lorenz allows his gaze to take in the rest of the room. He pales and takes another swig of water and tries to fight the rising bile.
"This is a terrible place. Exactly the kind of place I'd expect a person as awful as Ieana to come. Does anyone know what any of this stuff means?"
"This is a terrible place. Exactly the kind of place I'd expect a person as awful as Ieana to come. Does anyone know what any of this stuff means?"
"Mean?" Pezock says. "Isn't it clear? It's all about snakes! Snakes killing everything else! Well, I'm not afraid of snakes. We'll kill them first!"
Pezock turns and strides towards the north end of the room. "What is through this door?" he says. "Somebody has clearly been here. Look at these vials and the whole thing is burnt!"
"Watch out!" Douena jumps as he approaches the snake-mouth door. "Whatever's through there, it's something bad. Why would they burn it, though?" She approaches more carefully than the tengu.
"No, Douena, I don't really know that much about Capt. Kovacs. He kept his distance from the crew." Urza does a circuit around the room as he inspects it.
Perception:
Pezock pauses as Douena approaches the door. The scorching on the door is also present on the edges of the snake mouth that forms the frame and a bit of the floor in front of it. Douena gets the impression that a trap was set off here, probably from opening or attempting to open the door. She cannot tell if that trap is still active, however.
Pezock points to the vials. "The vials aren't scorched," he says, "so they must have been put there after." Picking one up, he sniffs it carefully, then shrugs. "It's empty." He hands the vial to Douena, then points to the door. "I think it's safe now."
Lorenz hesitantly approaches the door where Pezock and Douena are looking around, careful to keep his distance. "Whoever built this place really had a thing for snakes, didn't they?" He shivers.
"No, Douena, I don't really know that much about Capt. Kovacs. He kept his distance from the crew." Urza does a circuit around the room as he inspects it.
Urza notes little else about the room. The bars blocking the alcoves look like they'd be easy to break through, given their rusted state. However, there does not appear to be anything behind them to get at.
"There's nothing else here. Let's see what's behind the door."
Pezock pauses as Douena approaches the door. The scorching on the door is also present on the edges of the snake mouth that forms the frame and a bit of the floor in front of it. Douena gets the impression that a trap was set off here, probably from opening or attempting to open the door. She cannot tell if that trap is still active, however.
Pezock points to the vials. "The vials aren't scorched," he says, "so they must have been put there after." Picking one up, he sniffs it carefully, then shrugs. "It's empty." He hands the vial to Douena, then points to the door. "I think it's safe now."
"So ... someone set off the trap," her gaze moves from the door to the vials, "and then drank a bunch of healing potions? Oh, I hope it was Ieana. I'd like to have seen her get blown up. Are you sure there's not an automatic reset?" she asks Pezock anxiously. "I really can't tell. Maybe we should let Urza go first. Fire doesn't seem to be as burny to him as it is to the rest of us."
Detect Magic
"I guess I can give it a try." Urza says timidly.
"Yes! The wizard is the best choice to open a door that is clearly ensorcelled," Pezock says and stands aside for Urza to approach.
Urza does not detect any magic coming from the door, not even a lingering aura.
The door opens easily enough to reveal a low stone altar, its sides carved like coiling snakes and its top carved to resemble a yawning viper's maw. It sits in the centre of this octagonal chamber. The walls of the chamber are carved with images of anthropomorphic serpents using strange, pointed megaliths of stone to work great feats of magic--transforming an army of humans into zombies, calling down flaming bolts of lightning from the stars, or parting the waters of the sea to dash human ships upon the exposed rocks of the seabed below. This final image seems to have been recently cleaned of dust, and several lines of text have been made more legible via the application of inks and perhaps blood. The language is not familiar to any of the party members, however.
"This is it. This is what Ieana wrecked our ship to find," Douena says, carefully approaching the final image and the unfamiliar text. "Let's see.... I'm pretty good with figuring out strange languages."
Mahjik looks at the imagery and makes the connection. "Look at that! The lightning crashes, and the cleaned up image there. I think that's what happened when we were killing the cannibals. Ieana must have found a way to use those monoliths! Go Little One! Figure it out!"
To command the Very Tides to Rise Up and Eschew What Lies Below:
Empower the Four Sentinel Runes with the Blood of a thinking Creature tempered by the Kiss of a Serpent's Tongue.
Anoint the Tide Stone with Waters brought from the Sea in a Vessel of purest Metal.
Invoke the Lord's Sacred Name to wrap His Coils around the Sea itself that He might lay bare what lies below and cast down your Enemies on the Waves above.
"Oh look. Another room filled with wholesome images of peace and cooperation between the races." Lorenz tries to focus on the images of the serpent people with the stones.
"I don't think this room is why Ieana wrecked the ship. I think she wrecked it for whatever those stones are for." His hand shakes a little as he points at the images in question.
"Oh," Douena says with trepidation, "this doesn't sound very good. Listen:
To command the Very Tides to Rise Up and Eschew What Lies Below:
Empower the Four Sentinel Runes with the Blood of a thinking Creature tempered by the Kiss of a Serpent's Tongue.
Anoint the Tide Stone with Waters brought from the Sea in a Vessel of purest Metal.
Invoke the Lord's Sacred Name to wrap His Coils around the Sea itself that He might lay bare what lies below and cast down your Enemies on the Waves above."
Lorenz frowns. "Is that how Ieana did...whatever she did? It doesn't sound that complicated to me. Blood, serpent's kiss...Do snake's kiss? Sea water...the only tricky thing is the bit about the name. What lord?"
"'The Lord's sacred name,'" Douena corrects him. "Some god or other, probably an old snakey one if he has coils. Let's see..."
"'The Lord's sacred name,'" Douena corrects him. "Some god or other, probably an old snakey one if he has coils. Let's see..."
The only "snakey" god Douena is aware of is Ydersius, although she doesn't know anything about him.
Mahjik grins, "Oh come on Talkie, you can just keep spouting names til we hit the right one by chance. Try to add lots of 'szz' sounds."
"Maybe Jask will know," Douena suggests. "Or Gelik," she adds grudgingly. "I don't think we do it here; it's probably over there on the Red Mountain where we saw the lightning yesterday. Didn't Aycenia say something about some ancient stones over there? I knew they had something to do with the snakes," she concludes, pleased with her own cleverness. "Do you suppose the rest of them have made it to the village yet? Or should we explore some of the rest of the tunnels? If they're full of undead, we need to re-kill them or put Mr. Frowny back over the top before we sleep here; that's for sure."
"I agree with her," Pezock says. "We need to destroy whatever else is down here. Then we will go after the snake woman."
"Does anyone have anything to write this down with?" Douena asks, indicating the text on the wall. "I think I can remember it."