"How were we to know they were sentients you needed? We were here before you even were!" The ghoul gives out a weak protest before Howard rips him apart.
"Good." Sir Amrivast says savagely. "That's three less ghouls that will go around eating others."
Howard then crushes the Seeded Yithian with his long tail.
Howard finds a small stash containing an ampoule of false blood (aberration), a scroll of analyze dweomer and a scroll of eyebite.
On the Seeded Yithian's body, Howard finds an organic torc wrapped around its central head stalk, obscured by the feathery fungus that sprouts from its body which he identifies as a Yithian thought ring, keyed to minds exposed to Xhamen-Dor.
The moment the portable hole is opened and the Yithian body put in, Kalathath pops out of the hole and gives Howard an annoyed look.
"Do I have to share my living space with my former body that's been crushed, clawed and stabbed? That's disgusting. And yes, I would very much like to get my old body back, but not in THIS condition."
She also labourously clambers out of the hole, "The other Yithians - any of them did you see?"
"Destroy them, did you?" Kalathath demands.
"Yes he did." Sir Amrivast answers. "Including the one that tried to run away."
"The horror this is..." Kalathath looks sorrowfully among the ruined pods. "Check the pods for other survivors we should."Kalathath states. "Your help I require." Kalathath then directs Sir Amrivast to open the remaining pods, but there are no survivors, only decayed Yithian bodies.
"The ghouls, slain the guards they must have, then tampered with the stasis pods...these pods designed to last through centuries are...the last of the Yithians I am now..." Tears begin to stream down her face.
Howard finds four decayed Yithian bodies in the pods.
"Check with them if willing to come back they are, you should." Kalathath advises Howard. "Perhaps gone to their judgement they may have, unsure how long it has been since their deaths..."
The north eastern passage leads to another long, winding passageway, eventually ending in a chamber.
The walls of this 50-foot-tall chamber jut and pivot at jarring angles, and no inscriptions or furnishings remain to suggest what purpose this space once served. The floor is a riot of cracks and larger crevices, some wide enough to swallow a horse.
Most of the cracks along the floor are narrow enough that a creature can step across with little difficulty, descending fewer than 20 feet into the ground and leaving creatures unlikely to slide more than 5 feet down before the gap is too narrow to descend farther.
The largest fissure is an exception. It descends 60 feet to a small landing, then plummets into darkness.
3 cloud-like creature has dark hollows reminiscent of eyes and a mouth, and a howling wind whips it into ominous shapes dance to the whistling wind.
"Γεια σου, τι συντρίβεις στο κόμμα μας ;!" One of them snaps at Howard.
Hey you, what are you crashing our party for!
Howard recognizes them as Greater Air elementals. They have 10 DR/- and since they're dancing...probably they could be pacified with some singing or some wind instrument....
Sir Amrivast and Havigan joins Howard singing a trio of Hakuna Matata.
The air elementals begin dancing to the song of Hakuna Matata, deciding it's a problem free, philosophy.
As the party starts moving across to the other side of the chamber, one of the elementals says slightly wistfully, "Óloi, prépei na fýgete? Edó - párete aftó gia tin áristi apódosi!" It then picks up a bronze horn and throws it at Howard, who catches it with a claw.
Aww, you guys have to go? Here - take this for the most excellent performance!
Behind, Howard hears the elementals picking up the lines and continuing singing.
Howard examines the bronze horn inscribed with scenes of a hero leading warriors against an armor-clad titan. This is the Song of Peyhori-Han, a variant bronze horn of Valhalla that summons 2d4 4th-level human fighters equipped with masterwork chainmail, masterwork heavy steel shields, masterwork throwing axes, and +1 battleaxes.
"Hey, we did it! Maybe when all this is over we could go around Golarion performing as a live band!" Havigan beams happily.
"Yeah, I didn't know I had that in me either. Score for improvisation!"He lifts up a paw for a high five with Howard and Havigan.
The party finds that the two tunnels winds for about 100 feet before ending in dead ends or confusing twists that eventually loop back to this area.
Returning to the chamber, he still finds the elementals singing and dancing, "Thélo na értheis mazí mas?", one of the elementals offers.
Hey, wanna join us?
Howard shakes his head politely and the party continues on their way, and the elementals continue their song and dance.
They head to the passage where they found the broken Yithian stasis pods and head south.
The eight thin columns here seem insufficient to hold up the ceiling of this trapezoidal room. On one side are three alcoves in which stand statues of cone-bodied creatures with savage pincers. On the other, a set of battered two-foot-thick metal doors stands open at the top of a low dais.
The statues begin waving their fingers in warning as soon as the party enters the room.
Howard and Sir Amrivast recognize them as Lessons of Yith - the guardians Kalathath was talking about. They are constructs and have 5 DR/admantine and Spell resistance 22, and they treat any living yithian as a holy symbol.
Threefold Domains (Su) Each of the three Lessons of Yith represents a core Yithian value represented by a single divine domain. So long as a Lesson of Yith begins its turn within a 120-foot emanation of another active Lesson, it gains the benefits of that construct’s domain until the beginning of its next turn. The domains are artifice, travel and knowledge.
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"Amrivassst - thessse look like Guardian conssstructsss, created by Kalathath's people. We ssshould try not to dessstroy them. I can Dimension Door Havigan through the doorsss - if you Greater Invisssibility, you ssshould (hopefully) get through without usss having to fight them."
He then Dimension Doors Havigan and himself as far past the doors as he can.
"All righty-o. One Disappearing Lammasu coming up!" Sir Amrivast turns himself invisible then flies to the door at top speed, leaving off a bunch of puzzled constructs. Howard also manages to dimension door himself and Havigan past the doors.
8 minutes of traveling past the door down the passages later,the party sees a chamber ahead that is pitch black.
Sir Amrivast casts Daylight, tapping it on his armor.
Where the daylight illuminates, the party sees delicate, arching stone bridges and struts stretch between a network of large columns, creating a petrified web of nonsensical design. They also note spheres of darkness now rendered ineffective by Sir Amrivast's daylight spell.
A vast draconic serpent that has a pair of leathery wings that don’t appear to be strong enough to allow the creature to fly lurks in the darkness.
Howard recognizes it as an advance hunting horror, Sir Amrivast has no clue what it is.
"Howard, what the hell is that? It's enormous!"
Howard knows that an advanced hunting horror has 10 DR magic and slashing, has manipulate magic, and constricting coils.
Manipulate Magic (Sp) A hunting horror is gifted at manipulating magic to affect a wide range of spell-like abilities beyond those that it normally can access. In effect, this allows each hunting horror to use limited wish three times per day as a spell-like ability, but only to duplicate a sorcerer/wizard spell of 6th level or lower.
Squeezing Coils (Ex) A creature that takes damage from a hunting horror’s constrict ability after being struck by the hunting horror’s tail slap attack must succeed at a Fortitude saving throw or fall unconscious for 1d4 rounds.
The hunting horror flies forward, then begins to attack Sir Amrivast.
It does not manage to hit Sir Amrivast.
Havigan moves up, his punching dagger glowing red in the darkness, looks at the thing and says, "Oh Sh*t."
Sir Amrivast charges at the hunting horror smiting him in Ioemdae's name! "Begone, spawn of darkness!"
The hunting horror attempts to slap him with his tail as Sir Amrivast approaches, but he ducks out of the way.
The first claw misses, but as soon as his hindpaws hit, he comes into contact with a black cackling barrier.
Sir Amrivast is stunned at the end of his last wing slap, and falls to the depths below.
Howard manages to pull him up on the ledge with his long tail.
Seeing it is up against serious opposition, the hunting horror casts displacement defensively.
Havigan moves forward then tries to shank the Hunting horror, but does not have much success.
The creature slaps Howard as he approaches but bounces off his tough hide.
Howard manages to land a nasty bite and a claw and his tail slap, wounding the creature badly.
Sir Amrivast begins to fly close , then bites and wingbuffets the creature. He manages to avoid being stunned by the cackling shield.
He manages to land a claw on the creature, badly wounding it.
Seeing itself dying, the creature shifts lower tries a last ditch effort to take someone down to the abyss with it, pulling Havigan next to it, and crushing him with its coils, until he passes out, then savagely biting and slapping him with its wings.
The last wingbeat mercifully misses, and he lies unconscious in its coils.
Howard manages to rip the advanced hunting horror apart and as it dies, it releases hold of Havigan, who stays floating in midair. Its body then falls into the cavern below.
Sir Amrivast quickly stabilizes Havigan then moves up and grabs him, and drags and props him up against the cavern walls. "Howard, pass me that wand."
After Howard passes him the wand, he begins to heal Havigan.
"Oww...what the hell happened?" Havigan groans rubs his sore ribs, on the first tap of the wand.
"Phew. Welcome back." Sir Amrivast says, relieved as Havigan wakes up.
"The last thing I remember was that I was standing behind Howard...then that thing snaked its tail around me...I must have blacked out..."
"Good. I'm getting rather tired of waking up feeling like I've been run over by a wagon." Havigan says ruefully.
Howard finds that the cavern is 80 ft high from the ledge he stepped off, and 150 feet deep.
Sir Amrivast gulps as he notes the depth of the cavern. "Thanks for catching me before I fell off the ledge...it's a long way down."
At the bottom of the chasm, lies a tunnel going east.
"I prefer being alive too...though some of the stuff we've run into...yeah it's not that easy staying alive." Havigan answers.
"Hmm...I'm sure you'd manage. I know there's quite a bit of me, but as long as you're melded, you're quite strong, aren't you?" Sir Amrivast asks. "Actually I'm two minds about it now... much as I'd like to go to my just rewards should I perish...there's quite a lot of things to do, and I'm not sure how well you'd manage on your own."
"Yes, less dickering and more stuff gets done." Sir Amrivast follows Howard down the tunnel.
Following the tunnel down, the party arrives at an immense gallery.
Within this immense gallery, dozens of broad columns reverberate with a sickening chorus of whistling wind that echoes and clashes with itself. A gaping facture in the south descends to another large chamber.Two nauseating tapered tower of flesh, eyes, and tendrils coils through the air, surrounded by a strange vortex of sucking wind, which the party recognize as flying polyps float 30 feet in the air.
Sir Amrivast flies over Howard to another Polyp."These again...I swear there's a whole colony of them somewhere!" Sir Amrivast curses.
The polyps delay, and Havigan also moves up.
The red one unleashes its windblast on the entire party.
x10 ft
Howard and Havigan do not manage to get out of the way of the gale force winds, though Sir Amrivast gets partially out of the way. Sir Amrivast manages to maintain his position despite the winds, but Howard and Havigan is blown backwards by the tornado force winds.
x10 ft
Both Havigan and Howard are slammed hard, against the cavern walls.
The other flying polyp also uses its windblast.
x10
x10
x10 ft
Howard manages to dodge the blast and Sir Amrivast partially, but Havigan is less fortunate and is slammed against the cavern walls again, where his body is slammed hard against the cavern walls giving a sickening clack sound and he collapses unconscious.
Howard and Sir Amrivast are blown backwards by the winds and also slam against the wall.
Havigan's skin complexion is rather grey, as some blood dribbles out of his mouth.
"Howard! Havigan's down!"
The squeezing polyp tries to strike him with its tentacles but does not manage to hit.
Howard manages to shred the flying polyp in question.
Sir Amrivast pumps his strongest healing spell into Havigan. "Come on, you need to wake up and get out of here!"
Havigan's eyes snap open. "God, what happened?"Before he can say anything, more Sir Amrivast tells him urgently, "You need to get the hell out of here now. The unbordered polyp is about to blast again. I'll keep him busy."
He then squeezes between the pillars, using them for cover before flying next to the flying polyp, making a target of himself.
Havigan staggers to his feet and quickly heads in the direction the party came form.
The flying polyp blasts a windblast at both Howard and Sir Amrivast.
Howard gets out of the way, but Sir Amrivast takes the full force of the blast.
Havigan barely manages to get out of the way of the blast zone.
Howard also gets slammed against the wall.
The squeezing polyp tries to slap Howard with a tentacle as it comes close, but it bounces off Howard's reptilian hide.
Howard pounces on the squeezing polyp, and bites and claws at it, however, his tail slap misses.
Sir Amrivast claws and smacks the flying polyp with his wings, finally managing to kill it. "Ok Havigan, we've killed the flying polyps, you can come back now!" Sir Amrivast calls out.
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Howard breathes a sigh of relief, then, whilst the healing commences, picks up an earlier thread of conversation, with an irreverent grin.
"I might be ssstrong enough to lift you, but digging a large enough hole if you died would ssstill take a lot of effort... Let'sss just focusss on keeping you alive."
He then chews his lip thoughtfully.
"Ssso doesss that mean that if you die, you *do* want me to bring you back, asss long asss I can do it in a timely fassshion?"
He then moves over to peer down the crack in the floor.
"I take back everything I said about those flying polyps. And thanks for waking me up so I could get out of the third blast...don't think I'd have survived that." Havigan tells Sir Amrivast.
"No problem. I mean that's what team mates do, right? They look out for each other. And I'm glad you managed to get out of the way before it blasted..."Sir Amrivast states.
"Come on...be serious. You silly finger wavers would probably cheat about it...like summon earth elementals to do it for you." Sir Amrivast gives Howard lop-sided grin, as he flicks his tail. ”And yes, there’s a lot of evil butt-kicking to do!”
”Hmm…well I suppose should that unfortunate incident occur, yes please, bring me back in a timely fashion so I can keep an eye on you and keep YOU out of trouble.” Sir Amrivast replies good-naturedly. ”I think you need it.”
Howard looks into the crack into the ground, and sees it open to another larger chamber like this one and sees another dozen dozing flying polyps.
"Oh yeah, sure...how about those seeded lamia's that had an unholy attraction to you? I mean I don't know humans, but boy do you attract the wrong company." Sir Amrivast jibes back. "Not to mention the heresy devil that was too interested in your books..."
"And those juggernauts that came after us after you performed the ritual?" He adds. "No, Howard. You definitely need a Keeper."
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Howard grins.
"Actually, I think the Lamiasss were only going after me to get to you - Havigan did sssay that you reminded him of them, ssso you mussst have a lot in common... Regarding the juggernautsss, to be fair, the only reassson that I didn't ssstop the ritual, wasss becaussse I knew that you could handle it."
"No way, I wouldn't have such horrible taste to go after those fungus freaks, and even living, lamias usually go around desecrating holy sites, so no, they're definitely NOT my type." Sir Amrivast answers.
Kalathath explains to the party after careful examination of the surroundings, "Where the flying polyps were sealed, here is. Once resonated with the psychic enchantments of countless Yithians this hall did, but sesmic events , cracked the wards have. Yet all is not lost. The psychic wards strong enough still are, if the fissure here, sealed is. Collapse the cavern with earth magic, we can and seal the rift. Or if a Lightning gun you have found, use the lightning gun we can as well to melt the surrounding earth and seal the breach."
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"Heh. If you sssay ssso, Amrivassst; if you sssay ssso... I have met a number of goody-two-ssshoesss in my time who have had a thing for bad girlsss..."
Growing more serious once again, he listens to what Kalathath has to say.
"Fair enough. I choose option C - Do everything."
He then has everyone move back to a safe position, and does the following:
1) Stone Shape to cover the crack in a thin crust of stone.
2) Use the Lightning Gun to seal the breach.
3) Use the Scroll of Earthquake to collapse the cavern.
"Whhhaaat? Howard, I have never heard of that kind of thing!" Sir Amrivast protests indignantly. "I mean if they were trying to reform the girl in question that's a worthy cause, but well..if they started following her down dark paths, that would be just sad."
Howard uses stone shape and covers the crack with stone, while expands all the charges of the Lightning gun, fusing the stone together. Then Howard uses Earthquake and the whole cavern begins to rumble and shake, and everyone gets out before rocks fall and everyone dies.