The key slips into the lock, turning easily.
The doors slide open and reveal a destroyed apiary. Dull, waxy, hives line the walls of this chamber, spilling honey into filthy, insect-laden pools on the floor. Cobwebs fill the space between hives, and a stairway to the west leads up toward the howl of intense winds somewhere beyond.
Alset shakes his head with sadness at the loss of so many bees and their honey. "Daruthek will pay for this atrocity!"
Alset looks around for artifacts, traps, and any other signs that may be useful.
"Let's go and shut this thing off! We've only got one more storm seed and then, we finish Daruthek. It is long past time for the bane of the people of the Korir River Delta to come to a sudden end."
Stonewall walks in and looks apprehensively at all of the cobwebs, ”I don’t like this room, let’s get going as quickly as possible” in a low voice.
As the party walks in, you hear a scuttling from above. Three giant spiders descend from their cobweb nests in the crevices of rock above you. They shoot three silky coccons at Alset, Achahut, and Stonewall.
Surprise Round
Round 1, AC 14, hp 16/16
Stonewall and Achahut are up.
Mud raises his flag.
Round 1 | HP 43/43 | +1 CMD
Stonewall delivers a huge overhand chop to the spider identified by Mud.
At the appropriate time Alset will attempt to escape the web.
Round 1
"AH."
Ood stumbles and strikes-
"Good moves there Achahut!"
Stonewall kills a spider, and Achahut breaks free. The remaining two spiders attempt to bite Alset in his cocoon.
Round 2, AC 14, HP 16
Party is up.
Alset breaks free, and Ood kills a second spider. One more remains.
Round 2
HP: 58/58
"This might sting a bit"
Round 2 | HP 43/43 | Arrows 14/40
Alset whips out his longsword and swings at the remaining spider, surprised that Achahut missed.
The sword hits home.
Round 2 | HP 43/43
Stonewall slices the last spider in half.
”Yech, spiders, does it he any worse than that?”
Stonewall searches the room/hallway for anything of use.
Stonewall peels back one of the leaky, waxen walls and finds three sealed jars of giant royal jelly (100 gp each) and a pearl of power (3rd level).
The sound of howling winds grows louder the further you go into the room, coming from the west. You catch hints of music in the winds, as if the air itself were blowing through some haunting, massive instrument.
With his Goz mask firmly attached to his face and an arrow at the ready, Alset leads the way forward. "Let's take out the last seed, my friends!"
Ood whispers, "onward, but maybe quietly"
Whispering, "Good idea."
Achahut also moves in but is not nearly as quiet as the others.
The howling of cyclonic winds fills every corner of this high-ceilinged chamber. A circle of bronze posts stretches up to the roof, forming a cage in the southern end of the chamber. Visible blasts of air move from the cell and south into a series of branching tunnels and strangely fluted walls.
Three lizardfolk guard this area, one wearing more ornamental priestess dress than the other two. They are occupied performing a ritual with the storm seed encased in the cage, and with the howling of the winds do not hear you enter either.
Stonewall waits back to hear something from the others, leaning against the wall assuming that they will come back and report so they can all go together. Stonewall jerks to attention and runs in when he hears the sound of combat.
Alset detects evil on the three lizard folk.
If they are evil, he will immediately surprise attack with his arrow.
Alset finds that they are indeed evil.
Surprise Round | HP 43/43 | Arrows 14/40 | Smite Evil 2/2 | LoH 1/5
Alset feels the evil in the room and whispers to the stealthy Ood, "Let's surprise these evil lizardfolk. I'll take out the priest. You get one of the others." Alset rapidly releases two arrows at the one wearing the priestly garments.
Alset's two arrows strike the cultist leader.
Round SURPRISE
HP: 58/58
Achahut runs around the corner and attacks the closest one.
"Thow down your weapons and give up NOW!"
Achahut misses, but her fearsome call for the priests to surrender frightens the two lesser cultists. Their leader, with two arrows in her chest, is unfazed.
Mud does his thing.
Round 1; Uurgu AC 20, DR 1/magic; hp 25/47
Cultists AC 18; 20/20 hp; frightened
Round 1 | HP 43/43 | Arrows 12/40 | LoH 1/5 | SE 2/2
Alset unleashes another arrow attack at Uurgu.
Alset's arrows hit Ubuntu.
The third and fourth arrow rock Uurgu to her knees. She gasps as the shafts, rasping out her last words.
"I still... have... so many... spells... left... to cast..."
She dies.
"Throw down your weapons or die like Uurgu."
Round 1
HP: 58/58
"I gave you your chance!" Achahut screams as she attacks the nearest one.
She bellows at the remaining foe.
"On your knees!"
Round 1 | HP 43/43 |+1 CMD
Stonewall runs in and charges at the last one.
The last two lizardfolk do not surrender. They are swiftly eliminated by Achahut and Stonewall.
The high priestess has a potion of cure moderate wounds, potion of darkvision, salve of slipperiness, masterwork studded leather, a masterwork quarterstaff, cloak of resistance +1, manacles, and a golden holy symbol of Hshursha worth 60 gp. The fellow acolytes have nothing of value.
The single remaining storm seed floats in the cage.
"Someone smash that storm seed. We've got Durathek to deal with.
Alset collects any undamaged arrows from the body of Ubuntu.
Ood approches the seed and strikes
Stonewall grabs Ood's shoulder as he is about to strike and says, "Lets give deactivating it a shot shall we since we took the time to read up on it. Alset, why don't you give it a shot?"
Alset listens to Stony and attempts to deactivate the seed.
"I'm not feeling this. Can one of you aid me on this?"
Mud lends a hand.
Well maybe not.
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”If you put your hands just so, you should be able to direct the energies more effectively.”
Achahut readies herself to smash the seed if this attempt goes poorly.
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Through the help of the whole party, the storm seed is disabled. The howling wind dies down. The crackle of lightning fades off through the corridors. Your ears hear something new that you have not heard since you first descended into the Storm Engine... silence.
All that remains is the final confrontation in the center of the engine with Daruthek and whatever cultists remain.
Mud clears his throat. "Fellow Muddy Mariners, it has been many weeks since I was rescued by your hands from these lizardfolk invaders," he says, casting an eye at Achahut. "Though not all of the reptiles are evil, I am proud to have joined your crew to fight against this new threat to the Korir River Delta. I remember when we protected Pridon's Hearth from the onslaught of a supernatural storm, how we ratted out the roots of this evil from a heretical cult of Gozreh, and faced the same lizardfolk that were threatened by the madlizard Daruthek."
He lowers his voice and scans each of you in turn. "But more than our victories, I remember our defeats. Crouching, alone, going mad in a hole in Fort Breakthrough, wondering if starvation or the knife in my hand would be what kills me first. The fear of wandering with four strangers through a town I had never seen, surrounded by foreigners I could not understand. I remember the drowning humidity of marching through the jungle, the stench of fire and sting of smoke from the burning lumbermill, the jittery paranoia of the trap-filled quarry."
"I remember the sight of my fellow Chashil halflings slain before me. The sounds of fear from townsfolk locked in their homes against the coming storm at Pridon's Hearth. I remember when Stonewall's shield melted before the betrayal of the treasurer Hamsa Gadd. When Ood slipped on the wet precipices below the ruined temple of Erastil. When Alset missed, again, and again, and again."
"But most of all, Mariners, I remember Odiferous Rossco." Mud wipes a tear from his eye. "I remember Odie's bravery. Odie's raw physical power. Odie's acute and frankly baffling affection for pigs. But greatest of all of Odie's strengths was his straightforwardness. His willingness to rush in, head first, to whatever terrors or evils were before us, rejecting all thoughts of consequences."
Mud raises his flag. "Let us go and do likewise. We shall bear his memory as I bear this flag. Bravely, and without hesitation!"
Alset says proudly, "Let's roll!" and prepares an arrow while beginning to jog toward the showdown with Daruthek. He leaves the frightening Goz Mask on and decides not to worry about being stealthy. As the others join him, he will quicken the pace ready to fight and perhaps miss a few shots in Odie's memory.
Stonewall tears up as Mud speaks, nodding and shaking his head at the sights they’ve seen. When Mud gets to Odie, he bangs his axe on his shield and murmurs, ”I wasn’t strong enough!”. When Mud gets to the end of his speech, he says, ”I’ll go first.” and when everyone is prepared, he charges into the central chamber to confront Daruthek.
Achahut follows stoically, attempting to maintain her composure.
Ood lets loose a single tear for the fallen, and follows, fists ready to strike.
The four of you return to the center of the Storm Engine. Stopping on the plinth you see that the cascading wall of lightning has disappeared. In the center of the room is a circular column, with Daruthek floating fifteen feet in the air in the center, flanked by four lizardfolk priests and two wispy elementals.
The bodies of four small lizardfolk (not pictured) lie atop altars set in the cardinal directions of this massive, gear-shaped platform that rises from the water. Lines of strange script mark the floors, which are otherwise polished to a mirrorlike sheen.
"I am the chosen servant of two elemental lords! Who are you to delay my ritual purification of this land in an eternal storm?"
Mud raises his flag and specifies the closest priest for the additional +1 attack/damage. "Let's take out these lesser priests "
Daruthek AC 25
Acolytes AC 18, 20/20 HP
Air wysps AC 16, 19/19 HP
Round 1 | HP 43/43 | +1 CMD
Stonewall yells, "You will pay for the sorrow you have brought upon us!", and charges across the gap into the midst of the acolytes .
Once he has everyone's attention, he targets the priest specified by Mud and swings is axe in a huge arc at the grievously injuring the Lizardfolk
The most awaited Round 1 | HP 43/43 | Arrows 14/40 | SE 2/2 | LoH 1/5
Alset calls on Iomedae to smite the evil Daruthek. "Oh, mighty and pure Iomedae, Bring down this evil creature and help us restore this land. But only after we take out the lesser priests."
Alset releases the arrows at the acolyte.
"Missed! Those were for Odie! It must've been the tears in my eyes."
Round 1
HP: 58/58
Achahut rushes in and attacks the closest priest that Mud did not point out.
With the ferocity of her attack, she attempts to intimidate.