There's nothing else in this room to see, but Ebon can hear strange whispering noises coming from beyond the curtain...
As soon as Norine touches the chest with her dagger, the room is filled with a blaring, high-pitched alarm (although at least it's not nearly as painful as the strange shrieking plant upstairs). It's certainly hard to hear what comes from beyond the curtain with the alarm going.
Luckily(?), a strange voice, feminine for the most part but seemingly overlaid with a rasping echo, calls out from beyond. "The Eye is always vigilant!" The alarm immediately stops.
When Norine peeks behind the curtain, what she sees causes the gnome to open her eyes wide in surprise. The walls and ceiling of the chamber beyond bulge outward, continuing the grotesque architectural style of the antechamber, as if you were standing in the leviathan's stomach. Queer, glowing nodules protrude from the walls at seemingly random intervals, bathing the room in their sickly green glow.
A tall, free-standing, almost organic-looking archway carved from a strange, glowing, blue-green stone stands atop a low dais in a wide alcove at the far end of the chamber. A strange metal cylinder engraved with Ancient Osiriani hieroglyphics is attached to the arch at its very apex, and it glows with faint greenish light as well. The centre of the arch is empty, revealing the wall behind it, but the space occasionally flickers with curtains of starry darkness, as if somewhere else lies just beyond the portal. A susurrus of ghostly whispers seem to issue from the gate, their language and meaning unclear, but fraught with a sense of wrongness.
A woman you immediately recognise as Imrizade Blakros stands on the dais before the arch, connected to the portal by five disgusting, fleshy, fungoid umbilicals attached to her hips, shoulder, and the base of her skull. Her appearance matches the note given to you by Adril Hestram, except for one thing--her eyes are completely black, showing no iris or whites. In her left hand she holds a glittering black wand seemingly made out of scarab carapaces.
Imrizade immediately notices the shifting curtain, turning to Norine with a wide smile. "You are too late! And you shall die like the rest!" Once again, her voice seems inlaid with a rasping, husky echo. She gestures at the floor, and Norine finally manages to notice the bodies of five dead watchmen littering the floor around the dais. At Imrizade's command, a beam of green light shoots out from the canister, and one of the deceased shudders and springs to unlife with a groan.
Initiative:
Initiative: Imrizade | Muluk | Ebon | Mez | Todric | Norine | Targost
Status
Norine: 6 damage
"Protect me!" Imrizade demands of the zombie, and it sways in front of her, ready for oncoming enemies. With a flick of her wrist, she sends two ghostly missiles tinged with ectoplasmic goo at Norine, both unerringly hitting the gnome in the chest.
Muluk swings at the zombie just as it attempts to bash him over the head with a clobbering fist . To avoid that blow, he hurriedly ducks out of the way, but his scimitar slash goes completely awry.
Initiative: Imrizade | Muluk | Ebon | Mez | Todric | Norine | Targost
Status
Ebon: 15 damage
Muluk: 14 damage; disabled
Norine: 6 damage
All allies: +1 to hit (bless) - 9 roundsImrizade: 1 damage
The group moves into the room, readying themselves for action. Norine blesses the party with a charge from her wand, while Targost peppers Imrizade with tiny missiles of force. The Osiriani woman shows no sign of feeling any pain. Instead, almost immediately the five tentacle-like protrusions attaching her to the gate, as well as the cylinder in the centre, begin to glow as energy runs through them. The scorch marks from Targost's missiles almost completely disappear as a result.
Imrizade takes a step back, jolts of electricity dancing across her fingertips. Suddenly, her arms extend far longer than they should, almost as if they were made of putty, and grab Ebon around the neck. The mighty barbarian shudders as he feels the shock run through his entire body. She laughs, and in that same double-overlaid voice, says, "This is far beyond your power to stop, wild man! I will unlock what Ralzeros was never able to! And I will return!"
Despite Mez's warning, the zombie seems quite on the ball - it flails out wildly, bashing Muluk over the head not once but twice. The first sends Muluk reeling, and the second quite nearly to the ground.
Muluk's scimitar catches alight with the flames of Sarenrae, burning the undead abomination as he slices through its neck. The zombie collapses on the ground twitching as the smell of charred flesh wafts into his nostrils.
Not expecting the sudden charge, Imrizade has little defense against Todric's quick disarming technique as he expertly knocks the wand from her hand. That doesn't seem to faze her much however...
Initiative: Imrizade | Muluk | Ebon | Mez | Todric | Norine | Targost
Status
Ebon: 13 damage
Muluk: 12
Norine: 4 damage
All allies: +1 to hit (bless) - 8 roundsImrizade: 1 damage
Muluk ends the zombie, allowing the others to move in on Imrizade herself. Alas, only Targost has any luck at hitting her - but the damage dealt by the sizzling ray of acid almost immediately heals back up as the tentacle-like protrusions absorb energy from the gate and beyond.
The cylinder attached to the gate glows with brilliant energy, seemingly forcing more electricity down through the growths and into the Osiriani woman's hands. She reaches out to touch Todric, but he dodges the attack... for now. The electricity still dances between her fingertips, making her a dangerous threat indeed.
Initiative: Imrizade | Muluk | Ebon | Mez | Todric | Norine | Targost
Status
Ebon: 12 damage
Muluk: 2 damage
Norine: 3 damage
Todric: 8 damage
All allies: +1 to hit (bless) - 7 roundsImrizade: 4 damage
Muluk's fiery blade digs deep, but some arcane shield of force protects her at the last moment before the scimitar finds its way into her spleen; the sorcerer comes out of the affair with a nasty gash, but not a fatal one.
Ebon neatly slices off one of the fungoid umbilicals; greenish yellow motes of energy spew out of the flailing tentacle for a few moments before it becomes still. Meanwhile, Mez heals the worst of Muluk's zombie-inflicted wounds, filling him with Cayden's strength and bravery.
Tod lunges at Imrizade and manages to get a hold on her - it seems her considerable magical protections aren't enough to resist a grapple! Nevertheless, he feels the electricity flow through his body as the circuit between their two persons is created. Painful, but not life threatening at this point.
Norine heals a few scrapes and bruises, while Targost fires off another load of magic missiles, hoping to cut down the umbilicals. Alas, it seems that his magic isn't particularly effective against them, mostly bouncing off the squishy, spongy outside.
Imrizade squirms against Tod's grasp; she's surprisingly agile, and somehow manages to break free! With that same nimbleness she flips over Muluk's shoulder and lands on the other side of the men. The cylinder at the top of the arch glows, sending energy through the remaining four tentacle-like growths into Imrizade's body...
"Why do you struggle so much?" the two-layered voice asks again with a sandy rasp.
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Tod tightens his grip on Imrizade and tries to pin her to the ground.
"It is you who should cease your struggles! Keep cutting those things Ebon!"
Pin: You can give your opponent the pinned condition (see Conditions). Despite pinning your opponent, you still only have the grappled condition, but you lose your Dexterity bonus to AC.
Todric pins Imrizade to the floor, and despite her best struggles, she simply can't escape from his all-encompassing grasp. Soon enough, the four remaining tentacles are severed, and the energy constantly healing her wounds ceases to flow. She slumps over for a moment, her movements drawing to a stand-still, but a close look at her face reveals that her eyes are still possessed by that same dark tapestry.
"You will not have the girl," Imrizade says; her voice is still two-layered, but somehow, the feminine natural voice has disappeared to all but a whisper, leaving behind that sandy, scratchy voice that has plagued it all this time. "She is mine, and she will join me in death!"
The gate is still flickering from time to time - and, as time goes by, you think it's becoming increasingly frequent.
Norine fires a single adamantine bolt into the cylinder, shattering it at its core! There's a strange keening noise from the gate and Imrizade begins to wail: "NNNNNooonoONoonooonooooOOOoooOOO!"
Suddenly, the gate explodes in a riot of light and colours. The sound of crashing glass and arcane magic gone wrong quite nearly deafens you. The force of the blow knocks everyone back away from it, leaving you in a pile in the far corner of the cavern covered in dust and rubble; luckily, you receive little more than superficial bruises and cuts. After putting your light spells back up, you can see that the gate has collapsed in on itself, and all the glowing nodules of light around the room shattered.
Imrizade shifts in the rubble, struggling to lift her head from the bindings around her. When she looks up, you notice that her eyes are no longer tinged by darkness, and they have returned to a normal hazel shade. "What... ugh," she winces, feeling the wounds that you had inflicted on her earlier, "What is... where am I?"
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Tod moves over to the woman and unties the her.
"Apologies, milady. We were forced to restrain you. I think you were possessed..."
Tod looks into her hazel eyes and seems to consider her beauty for the first time. He quickly collects himself.
"Please, let me help you up. Are you quite alright? Nigel Aldain asked us to find you. What do you remember about your recent trip to Osirion?"
Imrizade takes Todric's hand to help her to her feet. She gazes around the underground cavern, seemingly dazed; but, quick as a flash, shakes her head and regains her confidence.
She's a Blakros daughter, after all.
"I discovered this strange metal cylinder inscribed with these odd hieroglyphs while I was exploring an ancient tomb," she explains, dusting off some of the debris that had caught on her hair and on her clothes. "When I picked it up, this incessant whispering took over my mind... whispers from someone by the name of Kubburum Ishme-dagan. I only have the most distant memories of what's been happening since then..."
She looks at what remains of the gate and shakes her head. "I was down here once before, as a child. I'd totally forgotten... but it seems Kubburum knew something more about this than I did. He took over. All I remember is his constant muttering about the Gate of Beyond, and Ralzeros the Overwatched..."
Imrizade looks down at her hands, and, with a frown of concentration, a small spark of electricity dances between her fingertips. "... I think a part of him has been left behind with me," she admits quietly. "I was never like this before..."
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Norine, along with Ebon, uses her remaining channeling power and her prepared spells to see that everyone is healed, though he is tempted to slap Todric on the back of the head. She leaves the two alone, though, and begins to map the cavern with her kit and seeing to the collection of pieces of the cylinder. "Once a bard always a bard" and "sparks will fly".