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Frēodwēn smiles at his companions in spite of his attempts to be wary. "Mudk, my lady" he nods to each in turn "truly you are each a joy to my heart."
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As Xakon pries off the last iron band, the lid of the stone coffin slides off, revealing a rotten corpse dressed in the rags of finery. It looks at the group with two red pinpoints of light that seem to burn with hatred.
Initiative (Round 1)
Jirah <= Up
Frēodwēn <= Up
Xakon <= Up
Dead Guy
Sugar/Truffles
Mudk
Frēodwēn believes this creature is a wight. They are undead with the ability to drain away your spiritual energy if they hit you. If you are killed by a wight, you will become one yourself, under the control of the one who murdered you.
Xakon easily moves past the flat-footed undead and makes a sneak attack with his rapier, damaging it somewhat.
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"It's a wight! Don't let it touch you!" Frēodwēn shouts before moving to the East wall of the room and shooting an arrow at its flank.
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Frēodwēn fires an arrow into the center mass of the wight that appears to injure it further.
Swerving to the right as Jirah's glaive goes left, the wight avoids the elf's attack.
"Join me...in death!" The wight croaks out as it tries to slam Xakon, but the halfling rogue takes Frēodwēn's advice to heart and avoids being touched.
Sugarsnap casts a Guidance spell on Mudk while holding Truffles back from the fray.
Initiative (Round 2)
Jirah <= Up
Frēodwēn <= Up
Xakon <= Up
Wight
Sugar/Truffles
Mudk <= Up
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Frēodwēn rapidly nocks, aims, and releases two arrows at the wight.
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Mudk decisively destroys the wight with a powerful thrust with his ranseur.
Examining the corpse, you discover a golden pectoral worth 500 gp. None of the other crypts hold anything of interest besides the bones of the dead.
With another level of the Emerald Spire successfully explored, you return to your cabin headquarters flushed with success. Your liaison to the Pathfinder Society, Valandrel, is waiting for the group when you arrive and asks to be immediately briefed on your mission. As the story is recounted, he seems especially interested in the cult/thieves' guild you disrupted, showing a level excitement heretofore not seen, ”Excellent, we may be able to parlay this to our advantage with the local Hellknights. I look forward to reading your full reports!”
Unlike previous mission briefings, you've been asked to meet at the first level of the Emerald Spire itself. Perhaps surprisingly, the darkness that plagued the Tower Ruins appears to be neutralized, and someone has cleared out a neat space in one of the large halls in which meet.
Clearing his throat, Valandrel addresses the party, "Thanks to your recent success in putting an end to the brigand group known as the Splinters, we were able to come to a mutually beneficial agreement with the Hellknights of Fort Inevitable, allowing us to openly explore the site and actively trade with the town. As you can see, one of the first steps we undertook was neutralizing that horrid darkness effect, apparently the magic was stuck on the night setting."
"In any event, you've been tasked once more with exploring deeper into the Spire, this time to whatever lies below the Splinterden. If you find you need to exit before you finish, you may now camp here instead of marching back to the cabin. It should be safe enough now."
"If you have any brief questions, ask them. Be forewarned, however, that I do not know what you may face in depths. We may have been able to question some of the Splinters about it, but I'm afraid that the Hellknights have liquidated the rest of them quite ruthlessly."
Returning to the now abandoned Splinterden, you quickly find the staircase to the lower levels in the room containing the Emerald Spire. After traveling down 300 feet, an acrid, nauseating reek fills the air at the bottom of the stairs—a musky, reptilian stench.
Undeterred, the group continues and soon the stairs descend to a small chamber of smooth, hewn stone lit by a dim greenish light from two strange, torchlike devices on the walls. A metal door with a simple latch mechanism glows with a dim green light in the middle of the north wall. The walls and ceiling are decorated with drawings and writings in bright colors. The depictions are abstract but somehow alien and disturbing.
Written in a primitive style, the drawings continue to reference the word 'Godhome' in the Draconic language.
Apparently waiting for you in the room is a humanoid lizard-like creatures wearing a colorful leather garment and carrying a walking stick. "Hello, my name is Slaagh. We welcome you to Godhome. You wish to make sacrifice now, or visit? Take holy grub maybe?"
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Frēodwēn makes a low bow. "Indeed, we are here to visit. What kinds of sacrifices are accepted? Which god calls this place home?"
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As they descend and the smell gets stronger, Sugar merely looks at truffles, did you fart? waving her hand in front of her nose trying to get rid of the smell. but it really isn't helping much at all.
She practically runs right into Freo at the bottom of the stairs as she wasn't fully paying attention being preoccupied with the lingering odor.
what cha all stop .... she doesn't even finish the question when she sees the walking lizard in colorful clothes.
Her eyes go wide with excitement, wooooaaahhhhh, who is that? she asks and as if on Que he answers with his introduction. oh...
why does it smell down here? do you guys take baths? is this home of the God of smelly stuff?
ah ah ah....Snort-choooo
Slaagh appears pleased by Frēodwēn's interest in his home, "Give the god some iron-metal, and it will bless you and send you on your way! All good visitors make gifts of iron-metal to the god! Its name is Skraa-orm thagh, the god in the box. It is very powerful!"
On the hand, he seems embarrassed by Sugarsnap's questions, "You must understand, it smells fine to us! Some visitors are put off by our natural musk, I apologize if it offends you, but we can't help it."
"Okay! Now please follow, I take you to the place to make your sacrifice. After you offer gift to the Godbox, it will speed you on your way!" Slaagh says as a lull falls over the conversation, beckoning the group to the north as he begins walking in that direction.
Slaagh nods eagerly as he guides you north through a copper-colored metallic door that glows with a faint light and directly leads to an antechamber. Two light-sticks are mounted on the walls of this room, and every surface is adorned with crudely rendered paintings. Passages lead north and east. A short corridor in the north wall leads to a larger room. In the middle of the south wall, the door you entered from continues to glow with weak light.
Your troglodyte chaperone stops for a moment and points to the east, "That way is living areas, nothing exciting there."
Without further ado he proceeds to the north chamber. This room contains a large stone vat in the middle of the eastern wall. It seems to be filled with a pasty, pink substance. Just north of the tub, a tall door made of lustrous, coppery metal leads east, and passages exit the chamber to the north and south. Three torchlike devices in the wall glow with a soft green light, as does the metal door, albeit brighter than the previous door. Also in this chamber are two troglodytes who appear to touching up a wall painting. They look over at the group warily, but continue their work.
Slaagh pauses once again and points to the pink stuff in the vat with his walking stick, "Here is part of holy grub! Have some yum yums, the Godbox will make more!"
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As the processional continues, Sugar eventually fumbles through her stuff for something to put over her nose, unfortunately she finds nothing but an old piece of muffin.
She tosses the muffin to Truffles who gobbles it up.
as they get to the grub room Truffles trots over at the thought of food to give it a sniff.
Truffles finds the foodstuff smells a little spoiled.
Being the inquisitive boar, Truffles takes a taste of the "grub"
Truffles takes a bite of the unpalatable meat and his stomach turns a little.
Truffles takes a bite, then another, then another...
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Before following their guide, Frēodwēn casts Detect Magic and gives the doors and other objects a once-over as they pass them all by.
At the offer of the "grub" Frēodwēn says, "Uh, no thanks."
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Slaagh seems a bit bemused as Truffles begins to scarf down a large portion of the 'food,' but merely watches until Sugarsnap orders him to stop.
"Okay, please follow for the next part of the tour!"
He guides the group north, then east down a long 5' wide hallway. Fifty-five feet to the east, you past by an copper-colored metallic door in the south that shines with a bright light, although Slaagh points to the chamber to the north, and comments "More living areas, not exciting."
He continues to lead the group to the east until the hallway opens up to another antechamber.
This room is illuminated by two light-sticks mounted in wall sconces. To the north is a large door of strange copper alloy, which glows much like the light-sticks. The walls and ceiling are covered with indecipherable troglodyte scrawling and paintings. In the northeast corner stands a tall cylindrical bell, made from the same alloy as the door.
Slaagh now indicates the door to the north, "That way leads down and out, but you must make good sacrifice to the Godbox or it will not open!"