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"Sounds like we will have some new... friends on the boat back with us. Yippee."
Seline is gruff but not without compassion. She sees that the cannibals were simply starving.
"If the captain will have you, you can take the boat back with us. If he is against it, we'll try to persuade him. That's the best we can promise, but it's better than starving here."
As an afterthought, she adds "Bury your dead.. no eating them. If you want to come with us, you've got to be civilized."
Hungryyy. The prospect of burying the dead, rather than eating them, doesn't sit too well with the cannibals, but they seem to comply. For the moment.
Good food. Meat. Meat good.
That already helps quite a bit. The cannibals are content to let the adventurers explore the spire.
No eat people. Just rats. the cannibals docilely make their way to the ship.
Scare Crow detect magic from the cannibal medium, but it's no more magic than a normal spell caster would radiate.
Just north of here, where the branch to the camp meets the main trail, skewered by a crudely carved post, is a gruesome scarecrow constructed of tree branches, jungle vines, and bloodstained human bones. The skull-headed effigy accusingly points a bony arm down the trail leading west.
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"Wait" Scare says before hunching over. He sways back and forth for a few moments his limp arms dragging across the ground. As he is doing this a small ball of goop starts to form on the back of his neck. It starts growing and growing eventually forming into what looks like a head and shoulders. The half orc continues his trance like state as the ectoplasm continues to grow. Adding a torso and arms and eventually legs. As this strange phantom steps down from Scare's neck it takes one the visage of a beautiful young woman. She takes in her surroundings and lets out a girl like giggle.
The half orc returns to his usual hunch backed posture and says "Ready."
The path leads further west, until it reacheds a junction. onto south side, there is a clearing. In the center of the clearing stands a large standing stone, about five feet in diameter and twelve feet tall. Carved into the dark stone are dozens of leering one-eyed humanoid faces, their mouths agape as if preparing to appease some unspeakable hunger.
On the north side, the ground is uneven. A crack in the earth splits the ground here, most of it covered by thick weeds and the roots of a huge strangler fig tree. There are several gaps between the roots through which an adventurer might squeeze. Below the tangled roots is a deep shaft that descends into the gloom.
The grass on the forest floor ripples as if blown by some unfelt wind.
The stone radiate a faint aura of necromancy.
Roots cover most of the entrance to a 30 foot shaft. At the bottom, Scare sees only mud, though the shaft itself contains some niches. It's hard to see from here what is in them.
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"Wow. I mean, cool. I mean. Hi." Cirri hasn't seen a...whatever she should call it...pop out of a half-orc before, but she eventually gets get wits together.
"What is up with this place?" Cirri looks down at the uneven ground and wonders if anything natural could have caused this.
"Does anyone want to climb down there and take a look? I would, but that bite still smarts."
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Orophin looks on as everyone uses their wands.
"I also can heal. Especially after a battle, when many are carrying wounds, my healing can be ...quite effective."
He offers, remidning the group he has skills other than missing in combat.
Taking out a rope he secures it to a nearby tree, allowing an easier access to the shaft (and easier exit, later on).
Kerastes has to squeeze through the root to end up in the shaft, but the rope makes descending quit easy. The first half, the shaft is smooth, but further down there are quite a few niches in the column. They make for excellent footholds, though two-third of them are filled with strange idols.
Cirri climbs down soon after.
The idols are completely mundane - no magic radiates from the figurines.
Kerastes, being the first to descend, takes a close look at the idols and finds they are part of a mechanical trap. Moving an idol would cause several above it to tip over and fall down, potentially hurting anyone below it.
The figurines are all made form heavy stone, and have the form of twisted animalistic creatures, monkeys, bears, lions, and weirder creatures. From the corner of his eye, Kerastes could swear he saw one of them blink.
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Kerastes shouts back to topside "Wait! Can someone disable traps?"
Yes: Kerastes climbs back up, and let's the disabler do his/her thing
No: Kerastes climbs back to the topmost idol and tries to drop that one, he then continues down and tries to throw every idol down. After that he climbs down and moves away from underneath the opening.
Kerastes triggers the mechanical device by pulling out an idol. This one, and a couple further down, tip over and crash into the mud below. After that, it's safe to climb down. The idols splash into the mud. As they do, the light seemed to get dimmer for a moment.
At the bottom of the shaft, there is only mud and broken idols. A door leads to the south.
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"Well that's one way to do it," Cacumattus comments as he climbs down after the others. "Did anyone else see the light flicker just now?" He attempts to sense any magical effect that could have caused it.
"At least the way forward seems obvious." Cacumattus attempts to silently open the door and peer through.
Comatose carefully open the door. As soon as he opens as much as a slit of the door, a sickly rotten smell permeates the room. Behind the door is a perfectly square, low-ceilinged chamber. The east wall features a large bas-relief carving portraying a wide-eyed hag devouring her own hands.
With an icy glare, the eyes of the hag suddenly lock onto Cacumattus.
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"Ew. What's that stench?" As she reaches the bottom and heads to the door Cirri is taken aback by the smell. Her disgust gives way to intrigue as soon as she notices the bust of the hag.
Which kind of hag does this depict? Would she eat her own hands? Why is she staring at Cacumattus? Do Hags have trouble with stereoscopic vision, since they have one eye?I'd find out a lot more if I could find a Hag who wasn't trying to kill me.
Cirri keeps her eyes peeled for anything else in the room.
As Cirri moves closer, the hag suddenly fixed it eyes on her. Cirri feels a strange compulsion to sink her teeth into the nearest flesh she can find.
When the spell hits Cirri, everyone else around her turns drowsy...
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Cirri walks up to the bust of the hag to take a look. It soon locks its gaze onto her. Cirri mumbles "Wow, I'm hungry." and starts looking around at the sleeping bags of food in front of her.
"Itchy.
Tasty."
Cirri turns to lunge at Kerastes, before squawking like a chicken and shaking her head. "B-k B-k B'kaw! That's stupid, why would I eat you guys?"
Cirri proceeds to poke the Hag's eye with her staff.
The confusion gone, and everybody either awake or shaken awake, there is a door to the south. Cirri feels a tingling sensation, as if a thousand spiders were crawling over her.