"Agreed, and for some reason the howl both seems to give me the creeps, and yet feels familiar."
You have explored the whole area and there seems to be no way to locate the source of the howling...for now.
Looks like your best option is to retreat for now and question Ameiko's crazed, murderous half-brother.
After spending several hours searching for a path towards the howling noise, Cilyanka finally admits she is unable to find a path forward and heads back towards Sandpoint with her companions.
What are we going to tell Ameiko?
"We tell her the truth of what we found down here."
"Great job everyone. We gave evil a bloody nose today. Let us head back and celebrate. I still wish I was able to buy that island. Maybe I'll settle for buying an inn with extra large and extra strong furniture and rooms."
"I agree, there is no need for subterfuge. Maybe we should go see what we can learn from our captive."
@Kaddoc: She seemed to use her own blood to summon -or perhaps- create, it.
@Alkaid: You're not sure. Perhaps the church might have an idea.
"I wonder if the summoning magic in the pool itself . Let me just try something before we go,"
Kaddoc wanders over to the edge of the pool and taking his weapon, he makes a small cut on his hand and dribbles a few drops of blood into the pool.
Watching Kaddoc, Cilyanka shakes her head slowly in disbelief.
You trying to raise another demon Kaddoc?
As Kaddoc's blood drips in, the odd liquid once more starts to bubble and yet another of those creatures bursts out.
Init:
Alkaid
Brindolfin
Cilyanka
Kaddoc
Sparrow
monster of the day
Alkaid=1, Brin=2, Cil=3, Sparrow=4
The creature stares briefly at Kaddoc, as if for instruction, then turns from him and lunges to attack Brin.
AC 14, touch 12, flat-footed 12 (+1 Dex, +1 dodge, +2 natural)
hp 19 (3d8+6)
Fort +3, Ref +2, Will +4
Melee: bite –2 (1d6 plus sinful bite) or bite +3 (1d6+1 plus sinful bite), 2 claws +3 (1d4+1)
+ Fort 12 if hit.
Alkaid yells
"What the."
after a few moments adds
"Is that thing a spawning pool?"
Round 1: init 6
Kaddoc's smile of satisfaction at puzzling out the pool quickly disappears as the creature bursts out and starts attacking his companions. In his surprise, can't quite connect with his weapon.
Brin takes a hit from the summoned creature.
and calls on Chaldira for help.
Brin concentrates and expends a huge effort of mental will and begins an amazingly fast but off target retaliatory strike.
The giant is unlucky and ineffective.
Seeing the creature rise from the pool and attack Brindolfin, Cilyanka lashes out, her rhoka screaming for blood.
Unfortunately, the demon lunges to one side, evading her blade.
Round 1
HP 24/36
AC 17 T17 FF14 CMD16
F/R/W 4/6/4
Prescience 3/7
Arcane Bond 1/1
Spells Remaining
0th - Detect Magic, Light, Prestidigitation, Ray of Frost, Mending
1st - Grease, Comprehend Languages, Burning Hands
2nd -
Effects
Mage Armor
Sparrow takes aim and fires off 2 shot at the creature.
Alkaid attacks the creature that came from the well/pool
Brin: You are sickened for minutes.
AC 14, touch 12, flat-footed 12 (+1 Dex, +1 dodge, +2 natural)
hp 19-3=16-6=10
Fort +3, Ref +2, Will +4
bite –2 (1d6 plus sinful bite)
bite +3 (1d6+1 plus sinful bite), 2 claws +3 (1d4+1)
Round 2:
creature
Sparrow
Brin
Cyl
Alkaid
Kaddoc
Alkaid=1, Brin=2, Cil=3, Kaddoc=4, Sparrow=5
The creature, startled by the attack from what it seemed to think was it's master, turns on Kaddoc with a full attack!
plus DC12 fort or sickened for minutes.
for
for
HP 24/36
AC 17 T17 FF14 CMD16
F/R/W 4/6/4
Prescience 3/7
Arcane Bond 1/1
Spells Remaining
0th - Detect Magic, Light, Prestidigitation, Ray of Frost, Mending
1st - Grease, Comprehend Languages, Burning Hands
2nd -
Effects
Mage Armor
Sparrow unleashes another set of shots at the creature.
Seeing the demon swerve towards Kraddoc, Cilyanka takes another swing at it.
As the demon falls to the ground, Cilyanka slaps Kraddoc on the back of the head.
@!#& idiot. Next time why don't you just cut your wrist of the @$!!ing pool.
Alkaid attacks the sinspawn
Kaddoc growls as the creature's claw rakes him, but he shrugs off the minor wound.
"Ware your word. A few minor wounds is worth the knowledge that there is a monster spawning pool beneath this town. We should disable it if we can."
Kaddoc studies the pool, looking to see if anything has changed due to the monster's summoning.
I forgot to mention I picked up War Sight (Su): (Whenever you roll for initiative, you can roll twice and take either result. ), as my 3rd level oracle revelation, so in the future Kaddoc gets 2 init rolls. Thanks.
@kaddoc: The glow has lessened, just like it did when the quasit summoned a creature from here.
"Wait till my nausea passes before you do it again."
"Hmmm.. It seems like the magic of the pool has lessened. I say we continue summoning the beasts until the magic is spent. I would hate to leave it here when we have a chance to end the threat to the town. If we gather around the pool and strike out as soon as summoning is complete, we may be able to kill it without anyone being in danger."
"What do you think?"
Alkaid adds
"Even though the pool has lessened, and using it is dangerous, I have to agree Kaddoc. If someone with evil intent uses it, it'll be trouble."
Couldn't you just bless it?
What if its powers recharge over time?
Alkaid replies
"Since I don't know the source that fills it, it could take days or even hundreds of Millenia to refill.
Or it could take certain types of events to fill it."
Brin shrugs as he concentrates.
"Kaddock's solution is not a bad one. Squeeze in some more blood. We are fighting them one at a time on our terms."
This time Brin has a psychic shield up.
Sparrow turns to Brin, "Wait, you want to do what?" She finds a place to sit for a moment. "You know, you might be all happy killing who knows whats, but I think I'd rather leave it undisturbed for now. Before you take a direct approach, look around for a moment. The construction of the walls, the chamber, it looks like the ruins up in Magnimar. I suppose a little bit more of what mother taught me still stickin' with me. There's a guy named Quink in town, heard he's on expert on these things. Let's try asking him first before we go and bleed Kaddoc dry, ok?"
Kaddoc gives the pool a wistful side-long glance "Well, I got blood to spare and I'm more of a smash first ask questions later kind of guy, but I guess that couldn't hurt."
He bends down to pick up the corpse of one of the weird monsters. "Alright, let go find a man with some books."
Brin looks at Sparrow and speaks defensively:
"I only suggested the direct approach because I didn't know about any Magic Man and Magic Ruins and Magnimar Magic mumbo jumbo. If you had spoken up first, I would have agreed to visit this sage or prophet or wise man. You can't keep the smarts to yourself and then belittle our best guesses on limited information."
He looks at Kaddoc and smiles, "I would have offered some blood. I have a lot more."
Brin gives Kaddoc a 'friendly' punch in the shoulder.
Sparrow raises her hands, "Whoa, hold on Brin. Wasn't meaning anything by it, seriously. Just started to panic a bit when you said start summoning more of those little critters. Made me start thinking harder. So really, it's your fault for not threatening more work sooner. Yup, yours." Sparrow smiles as she stands and starts heading for the exit.
If this scholar is in Magnimar, we've got quite a journey ahead of us. We should head back to town. I'll need to make sure the cart is loaded with supplies.
Returning to the town and asking around leads you to Brodert Quink at his usual haunt, The Curious Goblin (the local bookstore). He's a balding, aged human noted for being quick to anger and difficult to interact with, mainly due to his (possibly accurate) opinion that he's smarter than most of the locals. He's particularly noted for his belief that the local ruins known as the Old Light are not the remains of an ancient lighthouse, but instead those of a powerful ancient weapon.
Heading over towards The Curios Goblin, Cilyanka greets the shopkeeper as she enters the store.
Hey Mr. Quink, how's it been going the past few weeks. I know I've not been stopping by lately, but I've not had time for much reading.
Speaking of being short on time, it seems I've gotten mixed up with some particularly nasty business. That group of strangers I got mixed up with found demons in some of the old ruins outside of town. You've always been curious about that stuff. Anything I could convince you to tell me?
Brin is on his best behavior. It is one of the few times you see his sword of force is not in his hands. Brin seems to look down in disappointment at that fact.
"Yes, we would appreciate what you can tell us. Sparrow tells us you are the smartest man in town and then some."
Kaddoc flops the dead monster on the floor.
"Your town is riddled with ruins and lousy with these things. Any idea what it is?"
"This area was once part of the border between two Thassilonian states. They got along about as well as you might expect, which is to say, not at all. I'm not surprised to find the place fortified, there had to have been support for the weapon now known as the Old Light. Demons, you say? What kind? Wait, you found more ruins? Can you take me there? Let me get my equipment!"
He charges out the door of the bookstore, heading to his home.
Quink will run home and busily start gathering equipment and notepaper, all the while firing questions about what you found to any who follow him and speculation aloud but seemingly to himself about such unfamiliar terms as sinspawn, Thassilon, Alznast, and Karzog.
Slow down Quink. What is a Sinspawn?
"Sinspawn? Oh, yes...sorry...the so-called Runelords ruled the ancient empire of Thassilon, which controlled much of western Avistan millenia ago. Each of the seven Runelords represented a specific 'sin'. This portion was under Karzog, the Runelord of Greed and bordered (along the western coast) the realm of Wrath. His major rival among the other Runelords (not that any of them got along that well) was Alznast the Runelord (they apparently didn't change the title for a female; no references to Runeladies) of Wrath. Each Runelord could create something called a runewell, powered by energy from their particular sin. The ancient records acutally charge Alznast with developing the first sinspawn, though once the technique (now lost) to create them was known, all of the Runelords started to use them. Sinspawn were somehow created by the runewells, and were shocktroops used to fight - each other, mostly."
It looks like he will continue to prattle on if you let him.
"Well, grab your stuff and we can talk on the way. I want you to see this pool of badness."
Kaddoc tags along to see that the summoning pool is dealt with.