"Yeah, I guess that makes sense Sami." Tiyuvi helps her dispatch the zombies. By the time they are done he is snarling in disgust. "This is just messy business." He looks towards the exit. "I think we can move on now."
Vulpidin nods. "The question is, is whoever made these undead still here?" He asks as he cautiously moves towards the next doorway.
You destroy the undead and move on. This twisting flight of spiral stairs once led down to even deeper complexes below Sandpoint, but was
closed by an ancient cataclysm, filled with rubble.
Continuing to the end of the hall, this strange room is a fifteen-foot-diameter sphere. Several objects float in the room, spinning lazily in space. You see a ragged book, a scroll, a bottle of wine, a dead raven surrounded by a halo of floating and writhing maggots, and a twisted iron wand with a forked tip.
Yet perhaps the most unnerving aspect of the room is the walls, for they are plated in sheets of strange red metal that ripple every once in a while with silent black electricity that seems to coalesce into strange runes or even words far too often for the effect to be chance.
You catch words in this ancient language here and there in these shapes, words having to do with anger, wrath, and a need for revenge, but never anything close to a full thought.
Vulpidin frowns at the room, looking around warily. "Fragments of Thassilonian... nothing coherent, but always angry," he comments distractedly as he takes in the sight. "I little like this."
"Should we maybe poke them? My sword might reach. Shooting them would probably be foolish but it the only range thing I can do." She scratches her nose with her gun barrel "Or we could leave it along I guess."
The hair on the back of his neck stands up. Tiyuvi whistles quietly to himself. "What kind of strange thing is this?" He draws his rapier out of instinct. "Fragments of Thassilonian" Taking the lead from Sami, he reaches into the room with his rapier and tries to poke one of the floating objects.
No religious context of the room itself, but you would need a closer look at some of the objects. Nothing comes within reach from the edge of the room. However, Tiyuvi's rapier feels feather light now.
"Just a moment." Lucien says, stepping forward. Reaching out with his mind, Lucien envisions a ghostly hand grasping at the objects.
Once he can reach out and grasp the wand, he examines it closely.
This is an iron wand of shocking grasp (28 charges).
Using mage hand works just fine for retrieving everything.
The bottle of wine is half empty.
The scroll is a scroll of burning hands (CL 3rd).
The book is a magically preserved but still ancient prayer book.
"Well, I don't know what to make of all of this. And there doesn't seem to be a way out of this room. Maybe I can decipher some of this book though." Tiyuvi flips through the pages carefully.
Maybe with more time and research, the book will reveal it's secrets. But for now, it eludes you.
Vulpidin looks around one last time.
"I feel no winds going further here. There was one more passage we have not yet explored earlier in the complex, however."
As the items come out of the area Sami grabs the half bottle of wine.
"This is the darndest thing I have ever seen. It must have a reason."
Lucien shrugs. "Some significant magic, certainly. But much more uncanny things can be done with powerful magic. This is child's play compared to things done by the great wizards of the past; Nex, Geb, Aroden, surely any of the Runelords would find this sort of enchantment laughable easy."
The tunnel widens here into what appears to have once been a small shrine, for to the northeast,steps lead up to a platform of gray stone. Sitting the platform is an ancient altar, little more than a jagged
block of black marble with a shallow concavity on top of it.
This basin is filled with what appears to be filthy water.
"Well, this doesn't look good." Tiyuvi glides into the room, his rapier held at the ready, and he looks around. He stays near the wall away from the altar.
"What dark deity was this dedicated to?" Vulpidin asks no one in particular. He shudders slightly and adds, "I think it matters not. Let us search quickly and move on."
Not finding anything else of note, it seems you press on.
This huge room looks like nothing more than an immense underground cathedral. Stone doors stand to either side of the main entrance, but
beyond this, the walls are carved with strange, spiky runes. In the center of the room is a large pool, with a ring of polished human skulls balanced on stone spikes arranged in a circle around the deeper
midsection. At the far end of the room, a pair of stone stairways leads up to a pulpit on which sits a second pool, this one triangular and filled with churning, bubbling water that looks almost like translucent lava. Yet while wisps of what look like heat and steam rise from the strange orange liquid, the room itself is deathly cold.
The ceiling of this room is 20 feet high.
When you enter the room, a quasit flies into a rage. She shrieks, "How dare you intrude upon the Mother's sanctum!" and slashes her own wrist with her dagger, allowing some of her blood to drip into the bubbling pool. As she does, the pool's glow diminishes noticeably. A moment later, and a sinspawn emerges.
Sami quickly moves into the room but cannot get there and shoot. Instead she yells.
"What kind of mother would make this abomination. You are not mother, you are a monster."
Tiyuvi slides into the room, bringing his shortbow up as he moves. He draws an arrow and points it at the sinspawn. He shudders in disgust as he lets the arrow loose.
Lucien's eyes narrow. He thinks of a spike, driven suddenly into the little demon. At the same time, he focuses his thoughts into concentrated annoyance at the demon. A missile of force flies from him to strike inerrantly at the creature.
Tiyuvi catches the sinspawn unaware , and manages to put a small puncture in it's arm.
Lucien likewise smacks the small evil creature, making her spit in anger.
Vulpidin suspects this may be a more difficult fight, and so calls a blessing down on his companions to aid them in battle.
The quasit flies up 15' above the pool and casts a spell, targeting Tiyuvi.
The sinspawn moves much of the distance toward you.
Vulpidin moves away from the sinspawn and quickly fires a shot at it.
With the sinspawn coming towards her Sami simply needs to plant her feet, breath and try and blow the things head off.
She does not feel good about the shot but puts it out of her mind and reloads.
With another thought and surge of emotion, Lucien fires off another missile at the demon.
Sami misses and Vulpidin barely grazes the charging sinspawn, while Lucien again bruises the quasit flying above the pool.
Tiyuvi finds that his muscles refuse to obey his wishes, and is held fast.
The sinspawn charges Sami and swipes a nasty claw at her, which she easily ducks.
The quasit then starts chanting again, clearly another spell.
"Blasted ugly thing. Your picking the wrong paladin to mess with."
Stepping to the side she again levels her pistol and fires, almost before the bullet leaves the gun her fingers are moving to reload.
Lucien fires off another missile, trying to disrupt the Quasit's summoning. "Hit the demon now! It's summoning help!"
Vulpidin obediently turns his fire on the quasit.
"I ... can't ... move" Tiyuvi grunts and struggles against the magical bonds holding him. Strain is evident on his face and he fights an internal struggle against the arcane force and then, suddenly, something snaps. His arms fling up in the air and his whole body almost sags. "Ha! I'm free." He glares at the quasit. "This is not going to go well for you."
Sami makes an excellent shot, but fails to end the sinspawn. Lucien again causes a bit of pain to the flying demon, but the crossbow bolt that hits goes completely unnoticed (DR). Then the wound from the magic missle also seems to spontaneously heal as a new threat appears in front of Vulpidin.
The sinspawn attacks Sami.
The quasit flies (still 15' up in the air) closer to the group, and casts another spell.
Sami manages to shrug off whatever evil was in the attacks of the sinspawn but she is in rough shape.
"If I die I am taking you with me you pieCE OF FILTH!"
As she speaks she draws a bead in an attempt to put whatever is inside the creatures head on the outside.
BOOM!
Even with the great shot her fingers keep moving, load the gun yet again.
Sami blows the head clean off of the sinspawn, and this causes at least a small double-take look from the quasit...
The quasit floats out of reach for Tiyuvi but not before providing him with a horrifying image. Tiyuvi cringes in fear and then flees from the room.
Somehow, Vulpidin manages to shrug off all the attacks on his body and mind. Having seen how ineffective his attack on the quasit was, he instead fires on the viper, not wanting to find out what effect more of its venom might have.
Lucien feels he last of his powerful magic drain from him. Drat, I've got nothing but cantrips left. He frowns, not wanting to rely on the talents of his short-lived allies, but he realizes that h doesn't have a choice.
"Sami, I'm out of missiles. You're going to be the only one that can hit that thing now." he says, gesturing to the demon.
Tiyuvi runs out, but Vulpidin manages to kill the small snake, which disappears in a puff of smoke.
The quasit sees the blast take the head of of her creations, and emits a few foul words in the abyssal tongue.
The she looks at Lucien and says "Swim!"
Sami shrugs off whatever magic was attempted.
"Devil creature, your magic will not make me run like a child."
Thinking this needs to end quickly Sami invests a little more effort with this up close shot. She draws a bead on the creature and again fires.
Not sure whether or not it will help, Vulpidin spits a bolt of lightning at the little creature.
Lucien takes one step toward the pool, then shakes his head. "What? No." Taking a look round, Lucien tuns and attacks the sinspawn.