Einar and Hirah go further down into the passageways, and suddenly dissappear, and the party follows suit.
The walls now are decorated with a summer motif that incorporates elements of abundance, fertility, and motherhood.
Ten mausoleum facades protrude from the walls around the perimeter of this cavern. Above each door is a keystone engraved with a name. Throughout the room stand ten life-sized statues of proud, matronly women. The women are all barefoot and similarly dressed, but they each have their own unique appearance. Some are wear feathered cloaks or bone necklaces, others clutch gnarled staves or carry brooms, and a few have a raven or an owl perched upon their shoulders.
The base of each statue is engraved with a name that coincides with one of the names engraved on the keystones above each of the mausoleum doors. Mr Whiskers identifies these names as those of past wardens of Artrosa.
The doors are carved with a symmetrical maze-like pattern surrounding an inlaid iron wheel.
No one has any clue what the symbol means.
Mr Whiskers is very sure anyone who starts defiling this resting place of the wardens(by opening anything other then the passageway out of this place) will be subject to a horrible curse.
Deciding that trying to loot the tombs of people that Baba Yaga deemed important enough to honour in this fashion is a terrible idea, Crummock heads for the exit.
Hirah agrees with Crummock and follows suit.
It takes Einar several tries to pick open the lock.
This grand chamber has the appearance of a dark temple. Intricately woven tapestries hang from the walls, depicting dark forests beneath crescent moons and filled with beasts and capering hags. Along the west wall stands a large stone hearth containing the charred remains of a balefire. On either side of the hearth hangs a large cauldron; one is iron, the other copper. To the left of the hearth, the wall is painted with the giant image of a fanged crone with raven’s wings and a donkey tail. A longspear hangs on the south wall of the room, pointing east, while a curved sword hangs on the north wall, pointing west. In the northeast corner stands a plain oaken table holding wooden panpipes, a polished copper bowl, and a silver punching dagger.
Hirah and Mr Whiskers recognizes the crone with ravens wings and a donkey tail as Mestama, the patroness of witches, hags, and vengeful widows.
Suddenly, an insubstantial specter of a beautiful young woman, bathed in sickly green flame appears 30 ft in the air and throws a green firebolt at Einar.
Einar glows with that same sickly green flame.
Hirah and Mr Whiskers both recognize it as a witchfire. It is incorporeal, and can throw firebolts that cause its victims to glow with green flames and is immune to fire.
Any creature damaged by the incorporeal touch or ranged bolt attacks of a witchfire must succeed on a DC 22 Will save or become engulfed in sickly green flames. While these eerie flames deal no additional damage, the affected creature glows as per faerie fire and becomes sickened. While under the effects of the witchflame, the victim gains vulnerability to fire and takes half again as much damage (+50%) from fire attacks of any sort. This effect persists for 10 minutes. The supernatural flames can only be extinguished before this duration expires by a break enchantment, miracle, remove curse, or wish spell—the effective caster level of the witchflame is equal to the witchfire’s HD (CL 10th for most witchfires). Any creature entering the same square as a witchfire or striking it with a melee attack must succeed on a DC 22 Will save or begin burning with witchflame, even if the attack would not otherwise harm the witchfire because of its incorporeal nature. A bolt of witchflame has a range of 60 feet with no range increment. The save DCs are Charisma-based.
It fires another bolt at Einar, catching him square in the chest.
"I am Silyzil. That's what happens to those who tresspass our temple." She states coldy as she blasts Einar down.
Surprised by the violence and speed of the attacks, Mr. Whiskers recovers enough to ask "May we take our fallen and leave? We were seeking the Maiden and aren't familiar with the areas."
"Close that door, get out, and never return." Silyzil gestures at Einar's prone form. "Unless you want to end up like him."
Mr. Whiskers scrambles to close the door.
Once it is closed he looks worriedly at Einar. "Is he still alive?"
Leading the team with Hirah, Einar walks into the crypt, inspecting the Mausoleums doors, ’If we closed them back up would she know?’ Einar shrugs and follows the team to brighter pastures.
’Blast, that took a lot longer than I thought it would, and I made a lot of racket in the process.’ Taking more time than intended, Einar shrugs opening the door.
Opening the door, Einars eye’s instantly locks on the spear hanging on the south wall. ’that will look good in my pack, hope they don’t mind raiding this…. he doesn’t see the specter until he is sick and burning with a green flame. The stench of his own skin cooking filling his nostrils ”Blasted witch. I’ll…” The fiery explosion pushes him into unconsciousness.
Leaving a charred bloody trail as his friends drag him from the room, Einar scorched mithril armor gouging the stone.
"We can come back tomorrow, with everyone covered by a Resist Energy. That should make things simpler."
Mr Whiskers shares his spectacles of understanding and Hirah realizes that the runes in the wall are in abyssal, being scribled in blood and other unknown fluids, and the writings are prayers to the demon lord Kostchtchie.
Looking to Crummock, Mr. Whiskers asks "Can you heal him?" as he points to Einar.
Returning back to base camp, Gurra Gurra is sharing her campfire with two ghostly tattooed dudes smoking pipes next to the fire. One of them is wearing an amulet. There is a longsword and a morningstar on the table. Gurra Gurra is surprised to see you return so quickly and her mouth drops open when she sees a blackened Einar being dragged back by the party.
"Here, let me try to help with that." The right head says.
She lays her left hand on Einar's chest and tries to bring him to consciousness.
"You ok, big guy?" The left head asks. "Yesterday you were not the right shade of blue, and today you're scorched and had to be dragged in."
"Oh ya." The right head mentions to the party. "These two dudes want to talk to you. They gave me quite a scare, appearing like a ghost."
The ghostly dude with the amulet speaks to the party, "Željeli bismo vam zahvaliti za ne prljaju kripti čuvara. U protivnom ćemo biti prisiljeni da te zaustavi. Molimo vas da je oružje na stolu kao oblik našeg hvala."
We would like to thank you for not defiling the crypt of the wardens. Otherwise we would be forced to stop you. Please take the weapons on the table as form of our thanks."
"Mi bi također žele da budu postavljene da se odmori. Besmrtnost je sve dobro i lijepo, ali to postaje dosadno nakon nekog vremena. Ako nam je ležao na odmor, mogli bi vam pomoći da dobijete jednu stavku po vašem izboru iz ovog mesta. Nema gdje ne možemo da ulaze i izlaze van, Na kraju krajeva." The other one says.
We would also want to be laid to rest. Immortality is all well and nice, but it gets boring after a while. If you could lay us to rest, we could help you get a single item of your choosing from this place. There's no where we can't get in and out off, afterall.
Laying them to rest is easy. All you need to do is to bury their remains outside Artosa, following the customs of their tribe.
"Yeah so as I was saying," The left head puts in. "When they walked through the walls, it scared the gibbers out of me, but then I realized they were pretty cool dudes, once they started talking."
Einar awakens with a start. 'Where is that blasted...oh, hi Gurra, I've felt better, never been burned that bad before." looking from the Gurra's to his friends. "Dragged in? Well at least I'm here, do you have any of the Sake left?" Seeing the ghostly dude Einar kept still. 'I hope we don't have to fight this thing, I'm as week as a kitten.
"Do you think its a good idea to give him Sake?"The left head asks the right head.
"Well, the last time we did, he passed out on the chair and we had to carry him to bed." The right head answers.
"I still think it's his freedom of choice to drink." The left head puts in.
"But not if we have to clean up after him!" The right head adds.
And they continue arguing along those lines. You're still without sake, Einar.
Crummock sighs.
"I'm just glad Einar got out o' this alive. Turns out Silyzil is an undead hag known as a 'witchfire'."
When the ghosts show up, and deliver their gifts, Crummock's eyes light up.
"Those will prove to be extremely useful!"
He then turns to the rest of the party.
"Look - we now know what we are facin' in there; if we rest-up for the day, I can heal Einar, and then in the mornin', I can make everyone Resistant to Fire. If Einar uses the Longsword, and Hirah the Morningstar, we should have a decent chance of takin' the witchfire out."
"Yeah...if Silyzil did that to Einar..." The left head gulps, and the right shoulder shudders. "Good thing we're nice students that listen to Jadrenka and don't go wandering around."
"It seems that even when you're dead down here, you don't get any rest." The right head mutters morosely.
"Hey Einar, if those burns are hurting you, I could get you a potion that would knock you out till next morning." The left head offers.
"But you'd better get some food, and more fluids in you before you take that potion."The right head admonishes.
'I would like another crack at the witch.' EInar smiles a fang filled smile when Crummock talks about going back after the witch. "That sounds like a plan Crummock!" Turning the Gurra's "Thanks, food and a potion would be fine. Instead of Sake do you have something lighter, I would love a pint of mead."
”Good thing I wasn’t on the receiving end of that firebolt, otherwise I don’t think there’d be anything left of me.” Greta shudders. ”Fire is all well and good, but ONLY to cook food.”
”Uh…I don’t think we should give you any mead in your current condition. The last thing you want is something that has a dehydrating effect.” The right head answers firmly.
Lunch consists of musk oxen curry and rice, stir fried greenbeans with sesame sauce and an miso soup with lots of seaweed in it. Gurra-Gurra cuts a large bowl of pears for the party for desert. She makes sure Einar drinks lots of water, then helps him to the pallet and gives him the green sleeping potion. He drinks the potion and soon passes out.
Dinner is Soba soup, accompanied by shrimp and vegetable tempura. Gurra Gurra passes the party a caramel pudding she made for desert. Unfortunately, Einar sleeps right through dinner and misses it. The night passes uneventfully, with Crummock, Greta and Hirah taking watch.
Breakfast this time, consists of rice, miso soup and a slice of teriyaki grilled salmon, baked tougan, some pickled vegetables and green tea.
The party returns to the crypt of the wardens with the two ghosties pointing out to the party the 2 urns that contain their remains, then the ghosts return to hang out with the Gurras. Crummock casts resist energy on the entire party, then they return for a rematch with the witchfire, Silyzil.
”You again? Didn’t I tell you to get lost and never return?” She curses. "And you're not dead afterall," She glares at Einar, "Should have finished you off properly the last time."
She rises 30 ft in the air, then blasts Einar with a bolt of fire.
Protected by Crummock's magic, Einar doesn't really feel it that much, though he starts glowing green like yesterday.
Crummock taps Einar with the Wand of Air Walk.
"Ewch yn cael y ast!"
Mr. Whiskers frowns when the others prepare to drag Einar back. Looking to Crummock, he asks "Why aren't you healing him? At least enough that he can walk on his own!"
"Like this, he is a burden. At least if he could walk, we wouldn't be down two people!"
Mr. Whiskers follows along, asking "Crummock, you have a wand. Can I use that on Einar?"
All the way back, he keeps trying to convince someone to heal his friend.
"We need a better plan than that! Come, what is your plan?"
"We know the opponent, how do you propose each of us start the battle? What spells are you planning each of us to use in preparation?"
"If Einar were awake, he may be able to help with the planning."
"Do we have Einar sneak up to the door, and is there any way to prevent her from detecting him unlocking it?"
"Is it worth it for me to unlock it with my magic?"
Crummock nods.
"Of course! I just wanted to drag him out of there, in case that hag got trigger-happy again."
Once Einar is conscious, Crummock helps him to his feet.
"Come on - let's get back to our Ettin acquaintance, and I can finish healin' ye."
Waking with a start outside of the door he just unlocked, Einar could smell the burning of his own flesh. ”Well that’s not pleasant.” Looking around at the others he nods toward Crummock. ”Thanks, I presume that didn’t go well. At least tell me we got enough information to come back tomorrow and send that witch back to the grave.” Einar slowly gets up and follows the others back to the Ettin’s cave.
Not understanding the language the Ghosts were speaking he watches carefully, relaxing more as their demeaner seemed peaceful. Seeing the weapons, ’Those will be helpful if they are ghost touched. smiling at himself ’I must have cooked my brain too, of course the weapons are ghost touched, how else would they have gotten them here. But nothing is free in this world, I wonder what they want/’ As the ghosts disappear, Einar walks up and picks up the sword. ”Nice, what do they want in return?”
Sitting down with the rest of the party, Einar’s appetite is voracious, seaming to attempt to feed the burn away. Eating large portions of the Musk ox Curry and green beans. Surprisingly it is the pears that he is drawn to; taking a large portion, then waiting till everyone has had some, he finishes the bowl, even drinking the juice that has accumulated at the bottom, smacking his lips. ”Pears, very good and even sweeter than Mead.”
During the meal, while they were talking about killing the ghost witch the nest day. Einar nods his head in agreement with Crumocks idea. ”I like the idea of using resistance to fire. Then walking right up to that blasted ghost, and hitting her with a ghost touched weapon seems fair, since she used fire on me. But I have a few questions. First,”
’We need a scout.’ Addressing this question more towards Mister Whiskers, ”When we go back, could we send a scout forward to see if she left the door open?” He then nods in the general direction of Nivean. ”I don’t’ want to rattle that doorknob for an eternity again.”
’She’s great in a fight but the way she calls up allies, is amazing’ Looking at Hirah, smiling his toothy smile. ”Since there are two weapons will you be joining me for a little walk? Oh and you called up a flying tiger before, could you invite something like that again?”
’these two are much smarter than I, there must be something other than beating the witch with sticks that they can do.’ Then looking from Crummock to Mister Whiskers ”What will you two be able to do while we bang on her with the sword and mace? Anything brilliant come to mind? What can hurt a ghost or interfere with her spell casting?”
Shaking his head a little ”This witch burned me good, I really want to end her! Our ghost friends have given us an edge lets not waste it.”
Once the planning is over Einar will goes with Crummock so the oracle can heal him. Afterwards he drinks the potion and sleeps like the dead.
"Thank you!" Mr. Whiskers says to Crummock when he finally heals him.
"I agree, it didn't go well." he responds to Einar. "At least she allowed us to close the door and leave."
"Could you please ask where their remains are? Best ask what customs they have at the same time."
"As for what they could bring us, shall we ask for the cookbook? That or information. Given our reception by Silyzil, knowing more of this place could be worth quite a bit more. Things like where the cookbook can be found, where and what Grishelmuk is, what is beyond those crone runes. That sort of thing."
In response to Einar's question, Mr. Whiskers says "Nivean could certainly sneak up to the door, but I'm not sure how she would check if it is locked or not."
"I'm thinking perhaps some defensive spells might be best. Since Crummock is going to provide the spells to protect against fire, I don't need to worry about that. Still there are things like blur which could cause the missiles to miss, heroism so people had a better chance to resist their power, those sorts of things."
Pausing a moment to think, he then points out "I could provide a protection from evil, but my most effective spell against that thing is my magic missiles. Do we want the additional protection, or more offense?"
"Also, let's split up the curative potions evenly amongst us."
That afternoon, Mr. Whiskers spends setting up his alchemy equipment and reduces the Nethys's Dagger into a fine powder.
He also thanks Gurra and Gurra for their continued hospitality.
The next morning, he is ready to attempt the attack again.
In addition to his normal casting of Mage Armor, he asks Crummock if he wants the protection. "It is an incorporeal being, the added protection may well be worth it."
He will protect Einar, Hirah and himself with blur. Unless Hirah offers to do it, he will also prepare and cast heroism on each. Those spells last long enough that he can do that far from the door. He will cast haste on the party the first round, as whoever gets elected opens the door.
That does it for buffing.
Crummock happily translates Mr Whiskers comments into Iobaran so that the ghosts can understand, and vice versa.
"Oh, our local customs? Scatter the remains of our urns over the sea." One of them answers.
"Don't know what a Grishelmuk is, dude. We don't go around talking to people. Since mostly they yell GHOST! And either faint or run away. Besides Gurra-Gurra, you know, I think you're the first lot who hasn't done that..."The one with the amulet answers. "We could get you the cookbook, if you want. And it's all chambers and rooms all around" He waves vaguely.
The ghosties walk off into the passageway and through the walls. 10 minutes later they return with the cookbook. "Our part is done, now it is your turn to do yours." Then they return to Gurra's campfire to start smoking their pipes.
The book itself is bound in dyed goatskin, and its coarse, thick pages are stained in a variety of colours and covered in wavering script; rough sketches and diagrams of mystic symbols and animal parts. Mr Whiskers examines the cookbook, but can barely understand the ritual to unbind Ratibor. He's pretty sure the cookbook has other properties, but can't determine what they are.
Einar misses the witchfire, hitting only empty air, but Hirah manages to deal it a vicious blow.
Mr. Whiskers casts haste on the group and then sneaks into the room.
Silyzil turns invisible - Einar can see her but not the rest of the party.
She then tries to move away.
Hirah does glow green.
Einar manages to cut into her as she retreats back, drawing a surprised gasp from her.
Einar does glow green too.
Hearing where she is, Mr. Whiskers casts Glitterdust there.
He then moves to cover behind the table on the north end of the room.
Silyzil is now glittery, but is not blinded.
Geist pounces forward.
Meanwhile, Crummock pulls out a Scroll of Remove Sickness, and casts it in Einar.
Geist pounces onto Silyzil, looking puzzled as as his master asks him to attack that insubstantial thing.
Geist glows green, and gets sickened, causing his attacks with his forepaws to miss. His attacks don't seem to be fully effective due to her insubstantial nature.