Ri fires another blast at the monster, but put too much force into this one and it flies off harmlessly overhead. Kalak slashes at the minotaur with her kama in rapid succession. Her first swing fails to penetrate his thick hide, but her return swing slices into his thigh. Kuukuruu fires his bow and the arrow flies true, plunging into the minotaur's shoulder. He is looking really badly wounded now.
Meanwhile, Natalia leaps across the river but lands splat on her front. Thankfully, her companions are intent on the enemy and is not paying attention her. At least as far as she can tell.
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Despite the confusion of melee going on around the minotaur, Nerias aims above Grey's head and fires his crossbow. As if his words carried power, the bolt plunges into the neck of the minotaur! The beast gurgles as blood bubbles from its mouth before it topples with a loud crash!
Meanwhile nearby, blood continues to pour out of Janira's still form.
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Kuukuruu, like Natalia, jumps and lands rather ungraciously. By now though, everyone's attention is on Janira and thankfully no one notices.
Grey whips out Janira's wand, quickly approaches her and starts healing her. The horrific wounds on her start closing and gradually her eyelashes start fluttering. Suddenly, her eyes snap wide open and she sits up. [b"Ouch! That horn hurts!"[/b] However, she looks around and sees you, and in examining herself, realises that she's not that wounded. Behind you, she sees the died minotaur and she pieces everything together.
First, she leaps at Grey and gives him a tight hug! "You came for me! You saved me! And you took out that horrid monster!" She looks at everyone in the party. "You'll make great Pathfinders, that's for sure!"
Eventually, even Janira's energy dies down somewhat. She looks at you and asks, "So you finished exploring the caves? What have you found? Did you meet the gillmen?"
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Janira looks entranced and excited at the same time. "You met a gillman? That's amazing! They are very reclusive and seldom come to the surface world. You are going back to meet him? Yes, please let's go!"
The party retraces its steps back through the caves, to the chamber of the chapel of Aroden. Uori is still at the edge of the pool, but is gathering his belongings when you enter. He looks up when he notices your party, noting the new addition to your party.
"I see that you have found your mentor," Uori smiles gently at Janira, and gives her a bow. "Good day. My name is Uori. You have a team of rather impressive disciples. They uncovered much of the mystery of this room," gesturing to the Absalom. Janira bounces over to shake the gillman's hand, introduces herself and starts to pepper him with questions about gillmen society. Uori patiently replies to her, but he keeps looking expectantly at the party. Eventually, during a break in Janira's questions, he looks to you and asks, "Apologies for interrupting, but did you manage to find anything of my predecessors?"
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Kalak looks back at Grey with a startled expression, but since he's avoiding her eyes and Natalia seems just as nervous as she his, she takes a deep breath to try and steady her voice, turns to Uori and speaks up in a small voice that is barely more than a whisper.
"I... I'm sorry, Uori. It seems your brethren were the victims of a necromancer. I hope you'll understand we had to keep them from wreaking havoc. If it's any consolation, they did get some vengeance on the necromancer as they escaped his control... He's dead, too."
As she speaks, Kalak's face tilts forward more and more, as if turning her face to the floor could make her disappear and give the gillman some space. She shuffles her feet and wrings her hand, a deep frown creasing her brow as she attempts to make a fleeting eye contact with Uori from beneath her lashes, without straightening up.
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Uori initially looks shocked at Kalak's revelation, but later smiles in appreciation. "No, child, please do not apologise. In fact, I have much to thank you for! I am shocked that someone could perform acts as vile as creating unlife, especially in a place as holy as these caverns. But I am grateful to you for freeing their souls from such a unholy existence, that their souls may eventually find their way back to the sea." He sighs poignantly. "Could you be so kind as to point me the way to their remains? I would as least like to inter them back to the sea, and it is a long overland walk from here to the coast."
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Uori silently follows with the party back to the room of undeads, mumbling under his breath, perhaps a prayer to release their souls. When he reaches the chamber, he looks sorrowfully at the remains. He pulls out a large leather sheet and carefully places the pieces of bones onto it. When he finally completes his arduous task, he folds the corners together to form a crude bag.
"Is this the only problem that has been plaguing the gillmen? Is there anything else that the Society can do to help?"
"No, no, young lady. You have already done us an incredible service. You have uncovered the reason why some of our pilgrims have gone missing. We have always known that the long overland trek to these caves were dangerous but never suspected that this necromancer has been praying on our devotion," Uori smiles gently in reply.
Janira has been keeping quiet all this while, recognising the solemnity of the procession. At this point, however, she pipes up. "Perhaps there is one more thing we can help you with. I know gillmen are not comfortable for long periods of time out of water, and trekking across the Kortos Isle to these caverns from the sea must not be easy for you. But my initiates have found a deep flowing river at the rear of these caverns, and by my account, should flow directly to the sea."
Uori looks up at wonder at this. "Yes, please show me this waterway."
Once again, the party traces it steps through the hidden passage, past where it fought the oozes and finally exiting the caves. By now, the sun is just about rising, throwing golden light on the dancing river surface. Some carrion have dragged away the minotaur's body, which is perhaps for the better.
Uori only has eyes for the river, however. He paces quickly forward, and lays his hand on the surface, closing his eyes for some communion for a few moments. He then looks up with a wide smile. "Yes, you're right! This would lead right to the sea! Not directly to our homes, or we would have traced it long ago, but it would make a tedious journey a much simpler one." He turns to each of the Pathfinders, giving each a deep bow with his arms across his chest. "It has been the blessing of the gods for my people that brought you to cross my path today. Perhaps even that of Aroden's, who oversees this caverns. If that is the case, that is perhaps his way of atonement for abandoning his people to the aboleth all these years ago. Words cannot express my gratitude for me and my people." He withdraws the cloak that Kuukuruu handed to him earlier and returns to him. "Please keep this a token of our thanks. And if there's any way I can return the favour, just leave word with the embassy on Escadar and they would pass it on to me. Thank you."
Turning back to the river, with the precious items in his hand, Uori disppears quietly into the river and disappears.
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With no objections from the rest, the party once again retraces their steps back to the chamber of the altar. Janira gamely follows along at the rear, although she is clearly exhausted. "This pool looks peaceful here. Let me rest here for a while. I would like to get a good look at the altar, too!"
Promising to return shortly, the party moves down the western passage this time. This passage varies from 3 to 6 feet wide and is coated with the omnipresent bioluminescent fungi. Though you encounter several points where the tunnel branches off in different directions, all of those paths either narrow beyond your abilities to traverse, lead back to the main trail, or are blocked by a cave-ins. You trek through the twisting passages for approximately 20 minutes when the tunnel opens up to a large cavern.
The persistent glow of the bluish fungi dimly lights the way deeper below the Kortos Mounts. The tunnels broaden to reveal a shallow river that bisects an immense tunnel stretching to the north and south. To the east a small passage exits the chamber at a steep incline.
Within the cavern, the dim light fades into darkness to the north and the south. The cavern stretches nearly 100 feet in each direction, but is otherwise unremarkable save for the inlet and outlet of the ancient river responsible for creating this chamber and most of the surrounding tunnels over the centuries. The river through this part of the cavern ranges from 10 to 15 feet wide but is only 1 foot deep, and it flows languidly at an almost imperceptibly slow speed.
What grabs your attention as you exit from the tunnel, however, is a group of 3 small humanoids and a giant creepy crawly on the other side of the river. They babble in some strange language amongst themselves, but clearly do not look pleased to see you, making ready to attack!
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Kuukuruu has gotten into a tangle with mites before, and recalls that they magically repel some damage taken from weapons, unless they are made by cold iron.
Both Kuukuruu and Natalia fires at the enemies, but perhaps they were too much in a rush and in their haste, both arrows fall into the river instead.
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Kalak splashes her way across the river, closing onto the enemies. Nerias fires his bow at the giant centipede, puncturing a small hole in its side. Ri completes the attack by charring the vermin into ashes.
The blue mites start chittering agitatedly amongst themselves, upset that you have destroyed their pet. Almost in unison, the three of them start chanting in their guttural language, which culminates in crescendo as they point their fingers at the 3 nearest of the party, Kalak, Ri and Kuukuruu.
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Grey moves up to the water edge, and calls upon his access to divine magic to strengthen his weapons. Natalia also moves up and fires her bow. Her arrows grazes one of the mites, but the wound closes almost immediately. Nerias similarly fires his bolt at the mite. The bolt flies with deadly accuracy, plunging into the neck of the blue-skinned humanoid. It gurgles its last breath and collapses dead on the cavern floor. Kuukuruu tries to do the same, firing his arrow at one of the remaining mites, but the small creature is dextrous enough to dodge the arrow. Kalak rushes up to the remaining mites and swings at it with her kama, but again, the mite dodges out of the way.
Despite half their party laid low, the two mites still stand their ground for whatever reason. Both mites in coordination steps around Kalak to flank her, and both attempt to stab her with their daggers. Immediately, Ri fires her fire blast at the nearer mite and before his dagger can land, he is consumed by the fires. The other takes a gallant stab at Kalak, but she easily steps out of the way.
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With the entire caverns explored and secured, the party returns to the cavern with the altar to find Janira still examining the altar with great fascination, swearing to return to study it more closely. You manage to tear her away from the structure and she leads the expedition back to Absalom without further incident.
Once safely back in the Grand Lodge, the Master of Scrolls Kreighton Shaine summons the party and Janira to his study and inquires excitedly about what you have found. ”Show me your notes! We need to compile them for the records!”
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Grey quickly looks around while as others are handing over their notes, The hunter than spends several awkward moments going thru his pouches and pack, muttering various curses and exclamations of dismay.
Abruptly Grey stops and turns to Lucy "How many times do I have to tell you to stay out of pack! You know paper gives you gas, you useless slab of bacon."
Grey turns to the rest of the group and shrugs apologetically.
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Lucy watched her big monkey get agitated and flail is arms in some weird ritual she could only assume was meant to scare small rodents. She knew, from past experience, that there was not much you could do when your monkey became agitated. The best strategy here was for her to just let him tire himself out.
Maybe she will share her tree scribbles she took from his pack earlier, if she could only remember were she hid it. Tree scribbles are the best snack.
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"I have some, but I think you will want this as well" Kalak says as she presents the necromancer's journal. She then rummages in her bag and brings out a crude map and some drawings of the petroglyphs and altar. The drawings clearly show her lack of artistic talent, but are clear enough to make out what it is.
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Kreighton looks at the notes in silence, with one eyebrow raised. "Hmm, alright, alright, good effort. Taking good notes is important for all Pathfinders, to take down ideas and observations while the thoughts are fresh. Why, it is difficult enough to remember what one had for breakfast! Well, I do!” Kreighton shares. He then turns to Janira, ”And you, young lady, do not disappoint me. You have done an amazing job your first time as a guide and mentor. I look forward to your promising future.” Janira is beaming with delight, and blushes. ”They are the ones to praise. I would not have made it back alive if not for them!”
Three days later, the Masters of the Society confirms each of you as full Pathfinder field agents. As part of the ceremony, that you are also gifted a personalized wayfinder, reminding you that this is not only the symbol of the Pathfinder’s trade but also a reminder of the three principle duties: explore, report, and cooperate.