The Dark is Rising - WotW Part I (COMPLETED) (Inactive)

Game Master Darkness Rising

Once he's able to see the other undead, and how close it has gotten to the shrieker, Felrin takes a quick breath and commits to what he's about to do. Nothing for it but to try to get by quietly and hold off any more of these shambling things. He creeps closer to the shrieker, hoping that very quiet movement will not cause the thing to begin making its infamous noise.

As the undead appears behind him, Felrin gives Erevan a quick look, then points at the zombie that has appeared behind them. You take that one, I'll get the other. He continues moving quietly past the giant mushroom, reaching the zombie and tackling it.

Etna gets a glimpse of the creature shambling in the darkness. After a brief calculation in her head, the ifrit curses under her breath when she notices that the spell wouldn't hit the creature directly. Nonetheless, she starts chanting, filling the nearby air with a faint smell of sulfur, and covers the ground between the mushroom and the undead with the same sticky substance from before.

As soon as she finishes chanting the spell, the woman hears the other zombie rise from the ground. Swiftly turning around, she tries to hurl an orb of energy toward the creature, taking a step back.

Stupid Paizo locked up when I posted this the first time.

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Seeing that Felrin has disappeared and unsure of what the others may do, Tkaara raises her mace and moves to stop the most recently arrived undead thing.

She wants to call to the others for aid, but is unsure of what might the shrieker might do if she were to shout.

Grumbling to himself quietly, the Doctor slowly moves forward in the utter darkness toward the sounds of Etna's incantations, using the wall on his left to guide him.

With a soft sigh Erevan lets his longobow fall to the floor and almost in the same moment a dagger made of cold iron seems to appear in his hand. Having seen both his spear and his bow have little effect, the hooded man holds the small blade in a manner that will allow him to more effectively slash rather than stab with it as he keeps his eyes on the shambling creature.

Etna's acid splash misses the undead thing; Erevan holds position and waits, biding his time for it to come to him, which it does. His dagger cuts through the dead flesh, inflicting significant damage. Instead of blood, cold brine pours from the wound, over Erevan's hand (no game effect, apart from ick). The undead thing's jaws gape open in a soundless snarl as it slams itself into the slayer, dropping him to the floor with a crack and thump of broken flesh and sinew.

The other undead thing continues its slow approach toward the middle of the room, until it reaches the puddle of grease on the floor; caught unaware, it falls - heavily. Felrin reaches it moments later and holds it fast.

Tkaara approaches behind the thing that just downed Erevan; her mace pounds heavily into it, but it is still standing.

You hear the wet splintering as yet another coffin disgorges its occupant, somewhere in a far corner of the room, beyond the range of everyone's darkvision except Felrin's.

Seeing the next creature appear from its coffin, Felrin decides he doesn't want to be hugging his current foe when the new one approaches. He releases the prone undead creature, ripping into it with his claws in hopes of finishing it off before the other reaches him.

Etna winces when the Undead slams into Erevan, unconsciously averting her gaze. When the ifrit looks again at the golden eyed man, she sees him on the ground, with the unholy creature still standing next to him. With an huff, Etna grabs the man by the shoulders and drags him away from the zombie, hoping for Tkaara to fell the creature.

"Doctor! Keep walking along the wall to your left!" the ifrit gestures to Ottakar, as she draws her dagger.
Not that he can see me...

Hearing the continuing sounds of combat, Ottakar moves forward cautiously, using his staff to prod the ground in front of him as he goes. When it slips in the grease, he tilts his head for a moment before changing direction toward the noise. Soon he smiles, being able to smell Tkaara's sweat nearby, under the deep stench of pickled flesh...

Round 5
Seeing Erevan go down, Tkaara continues to pound at the creature hoping that she avoids its obviously deadly blows.

Quietly (for combat) so that the shrieker cannot hear.
Etna, anything you have would help now.

Etna grabs the fallen man and drags him away from the undead thing; it moves away from Tkaara, who swipes at it as it leaves, landing a glancing blow.

Tkaara - I'm going to rule that your attack was the AoO as it left your threatened area; you get another attack this round.

The other undead scrabbles around in the grease, but fails to get up; as Felrin releases it, it crawls away from him and onto the path. Felrin's claw slashes the thing as it moves away from him.

Felrin - I'm going to rule that your (successful) attack was the AoO as it left your threatened area; you get another attack this round. If you fail to kill it, it ends up in proximity to the shrieker... (no pressure!)

The other undead moves into range of Etna's darkvision.

Erevan continues to bleed, his pulse rate erratic but falling steadily.

As a small mercy, there are no further sounds of splintered coffins; it appears that no additional undead are on their way.

Etna's eyes darts to the right, spotting the other undead inching closer to the Shrieker. With sweat forming on her brow, the ifrit chants to summon yet another pool of grease, her voice trembling.
We have to finish this as soon as we can...I can't go on for much.

Round 5 - part b
Feeling her mace connect again, although without much impact, Tkaara moves to follow the creature, swinging once more in the hope of stopping it from reaching the strange mushroom.

Feeling the mace connect solidly, she is hopeful that the blow is enough to stop to monster.

The undead thing collapses in a pile of waterlogged flesh and mushy bone as Tkaara's mace effectively flays it apart.

That WAS an opportune critical!

Felrin lashes out at the crawling undead in a desperate attempt to stop its movement toward the shrieker. ripping into its rotting flesh again.

...And the third undead thing is torn apart, gushing black brine from its many wounds.

Round 6 is GO!

Tkaara, having seen Felrin take down the foe he was facing, and unsure of what else the darkness might hold - 30' dark vision - moves over to make sure that Erevan is still alive after the brutal blow he took a few moments earlier.

As Etna has seen in the past, as Tkaara bends down to attempt some lawyerly medical care, Tkaara's eyes roll back in her head and a swarm of tiny stars appear about her head. As Tkaara touches Erevan, the stars jump from her hand, circle him for a moment and then coalesce about his injuries, healing them somewhat.

As the stars disappear into Erevan and her eyes revert to normal, Tkaara has a strange look about her. She looks up to Etna.
What healed him? Please don't say it was me again.

Okay, retconning previous post.
The ifrit breaths a sigh of relief when Tkaara downs one of the creatures and heals Erevan.
"I'm afraid, and fairly sure, that it was you, yes." Etna replies with ragged breath, before moving closer to the last zombie, hugging the wall like Felrin did half a minute before. With a swift incantation, the fire-haired woman creates yet another puddle of grease, hoping that the undead she was targeting was the last.

Erevan continues to bleed onto the paved path; Etna somehow finds the reserves to conjure up yet another pool of slick oil - possibly this effort is too much for her, since it seems to have no effect on the undead, who shambles through it unimpeded.

Tkaara manages to rouse Erevan back to consciousness; the slayer is still prone on the ground, but awake; if perhaps regretting that fact slightly.

Waiting on Felrin (and - theoretically, at least - Ottakar)

Felrin steps onto the central walkway and reaches for the remaining undead, attempting to grab hold of it and stop it moving toward the shrieker.

Ottakar continues to inch his way forward, ready to strike out should he sense a nearby foe. When he smells Tkaara directly ahead, he changes course slightly to keep from walking into her.

Felrin's grab is easily fended off by the undead thing; its swipe at him however is off, and the fiend-spawn is hit only by a couple of fronds of clammy seaweed.

Round 7 is GO! Thanks for your patience

This presumes the undead does not reach the shrieker this round to set it off.

Taking advantage of the easier movement on the center walkway, Felrin moves after the lumbering undead and tries once again to grab hold of it.

Round 6
Seeing that Erevan is still alive, and appears to be breathing, Tkaara reaches her cold hand out and takes the Doctor's hand.
Follow me, I don't think the shrieker can detect us if we move slowly by the wall.

She will then lead the Doctor, if he is willing, forward next to the wall.

With a mixture of fatigue and exasperation, Etna throws a glob of greenish acid to the still-standing undead, hoping that it was going to be the last.
If this was a lesson devised to test our patience, they have done a really good job in making it as difficult as possible!

Nodding impatiently, he takes Tkaara's hand and follows along, moving more quickly now that he no longer has to prod ahead of him as he goes. His medical training cannot help but notice, even in this chaotic scene, how cold her flesh seems; must be poor circulation.

Once again brought back from unconsciousness thanks to Tkaara's healing abilities, abilities she seems to know nothing about he notes, the hooded man moves to follow her and the doctor, holding his sides -ribs are bound to have been broken, he is willing to wager- and limping. Still he tries to move as quietly as possible so as not to upset the strange toadstool.

Standing up, Erevan moves well out of danger, back towards the wall. Etna's aim is again awry as the acid splash completely misses its target.

The undead shambles forward, constrained by the difficult terrain and the manacles around its legs; Felrin slashes at it, opening terrible wounds in its back, but the thing doesn't seem to notice. Perhaps lulled by this false sense of security, Felrin leaves himself slightly too open when he grapples with it - an arm slams with terrific force into his midriff, hard enough to break bones, rupture organs and cause internal bleeding.

With the air knocked out of his lungs, Felrin's grapple attempt fails.

Round 8 is GO!

Round 8
Tkaara turns her head and whispers to the Doctor.
Keep following the wall. I need to help Felrin with one more zombie.

Tkaara then carefully moves across the grease so that she is adjacent to the zombie.

Felrin clutches his smashed-in gut in agony, barely keeping his feet. I won’t survive another hit like that…time to put this thing down, no more cuddling with it.

He lashes at it desperately with both claws, hoping to damage it enough that it can’t move any closer to the shrieker.

If Felrin doesn't kill the undead...
"Felrin!" Etna gasps when the creature almost crushes the tiefling's torso. Seeing the undead inching closer and closer to the shrieker despite it's wounds, the ifrit breathes deeply and starts casting a spell.
A second later, tall, jagged rocks erupts from the terrain around the giant mushroom, blocking passage: the only hole in the barrier is a small gap in the northwest, barely enough for a normal human to squeeze trough.
"I hope this works..." the ifrit manages to say trough the effort to maintain the illusion.
All of these walking corpses have gone straight to the plant, ignoring any hazard in the way: hopefully the undead will realize that it can't get trough a wall, and let itself vulnerable for the others to strike it...

Etna carefully waits to see what happens, biding her time. The undead thing moves away from Felrin, which is the last mistake it will ever make. The fiendling strikes it down, without a moment's hesitation despite the pain he is clearly in from his own wounds.

By the time Tkaara has made her way across the room, the thing has stopped twitching; a few fronds of seaweed spasm mindlessly, then go still.

The magic that had risen up at Etna's command in readiness dissipates, unused.

Silence falls. You look wearily at one another. Surely this ordeal must soon be over? What did the Cardinal say again, all those hours ago...?

"There you will find nine chambers each more dangerous than the last. Somewhere hidden within these chambers is a pendant of silver and sapphire. Recover the pendant and bring it to me. Let nothing and no one stand in your way.”

All who have stood in your way thus far have fallen. What well-planned peril awaits you at the last?

The path ahead is empty; the door is waiting. More pertinently to your immediate fate, so is Tiadora. She is not patient[/understatement]. Somewhere behind you is Timeon, still - at least in theory - waiting trustingly for your return. Decisions, decisions.

Legs shaking, Etna moves away from the shriker, slumping to the wall. Putting an hand on her chest, the ifrit closes her eyes and tries to catch her breath: in the heat of battle, the fire-haired woman hand't realized how much her hearth was thumping.
Eh, was I scared? I really need to work on that...
"Tkaara...Felrin needs help." Etna says, trying to control her trembling voice. "I propose we move to the next corridor, and we go fetch Timeon and ask him to wait in the room before this. Probably me or Tkaara, and Felrin or Erevan. If he panics, we risk for him to rush in here and activate this mushroom."

Tkaara is in the process of raising her mace to strike down the final undead creature when Felrin instead rips its lifeless flesh to pieces, leaving nothing but quivering undead flesh on the ground. Before she can even lower her mace, her hand moves sideways as her eyes once more roll in on themselves causing the now common stars to appear about the tiefling before sinking into his flesh. A moment later, Erevan arrives leading the doctor, and as with Felrin, Tkaara's hand presses into his chest causing the same strange stars to delve into his wound.

As before, the strange magic has concluded before Tkaara's eyes return to normal.

As she lowers her mace, the twinkling of stars now gone from her eyes, she looks at Erevan and Felrin.
I thought the creature had struck you harder. Good thing as we will no doubt require you both for whatever awaits in the final rooms.

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Tkaara next looks to Etna:
I shall go and speak with Timeon. He seems to have taken a liking to me. I shall ask him to remain in the prior room. I will tell him that the shrieker yet remains in here as we did not wish to destroy it lest it alert anything else in the dungeon. I will tell him that we think we are almost finished, and that he should only have to wait a short bit more.

Tkaara then carefully makes her way around the mushroom and heads back to find the boy. I assume someone else will go with her. Once back with Timeon:

Ah, there you are. Glad you stayed. We have met with several horrid creatures. A cloud that literally sucked the life force and blood from one of us, and a room full of undead zombies. The zombies were in the same room as the aforementioned shrieker. We believe that we have destroyed all the zombies, but there is not guaranty that others yet await in their strange subterranean graveyard.

Tkaara then leads the boy to the room with the fake jewelry and the staircase.
Wait here. We do not know what is up the stairs, but I doubt it is someone friendly. We are going to proceed to the next room after the zombies. They beat up my companions pretty good, but we all yet survive. Once we have taken care of whatever is past the zombies, I shall return to bring you forward.

She then takes some rations out of her backpack and hands them to the boy.
Something for you to eat while you wait here wondering why no search party was sent to find you. Don't worry, you will get out of here.

Etna is about to comment again on Tkaara's supernatural powers, but decides to stay silent.
We'll have plenty of opportunities to talk about it in the future. Now I'd prefer to catch my breath just a little longer...
"Fair enough. We will wait for you here: if the lessons were supposed to be nine, we are almost finished. We'll best prepare in the meantime." the ifrit nods to the absolutely-not-unnatural barrister.

Regaining her usual composure, Etna moves near to Winston, who had been sitting in the darkness for most of the fight.
Shortly after Tkaara leaves to fetch the young squire, the ifrit takes a moment to pet the dog and smile weakly to herself: after that, she joins the other near the door to the next (and last, hopefully) corridor.

Felrin breathes a huge sigh of relief as Tkaara’s healing energy surges through him, though his injured hand still pains him. Still feeling pain from the undead’s powerful attack, he lays a hand on himself and calls upon Asmodeus to heal him further. When Tkaara goes back to fetch Timeon, Felrin pauses to catch his breath a moment, then begins a careful search of the coffin-strewn dirt in the room, just in case the designers of their test thought it would be fun to hide their quarry somewhere truly unexpected.

Timeon looks vaguely crestfallen when it is Tkaara, rather than Etna, who emerges from the darkness to speak with him; Etna is by far the prettiest of the ladies he has ever seen, much less met (being a squire to the Knights of Alerion does nothing for your social life). Blinking in the darkness, he nevertheless dutifully takes Tkaara's hand and follows her back to the room with the fake jewelery and the staircase - doubtless he would be horrified to see the carved face of Asmodeus and the altar in this room, but in the darkness the secret is preserved.

He gratefully accepts the food, muttering a grateful "Thank you, L- Mistress Tkaara" Even with his limited experience of the opposite sex, it is apparent to him that there is something slightly less than ladylike about the barrister.

Etna spends some time communing with Winston; there is a spark of arcane connection between them, and she can sense his unease with where they are - and his revulsion at the smells in this room. In time, is it possible that they will be able to communicate more fully?

Felrin's search leaves him covered in dirt - and worse - and he uncovers a number of similarly-drowned corpses in various states of decay; but none of them is animate. He finds nothing of value.

"I for one will be glad when this test is over and we can rest and heal," Erevan says, leaning on his spear. He is breathing a little more easily, but he is still far from healthy. Still, the final part of this trial is close, a part that he is planning to face from a somewhat safe distance and with bow in hand.

"Yes, I don't like it here either. Don't worry, we'll be out soon enough." Etna says to Winston when the others can't hear her.

After stationing Timeon in the room with the staircase and the attractive Asmodean face, Tkaara returns back to the others.

So, are we all rested and prepared to see what malevolent spirit the Cardinal has for us in the last room?

In preparation, she checks her mace and makes sure that her shield is in place.

In doing so, she notices that Felrin is covered in dirt and mud:
I assume you got attacked by a mud monster while I was gone? For future reference, you appear to have lost.

"If we are quite finished with this tomfoolery," the Doctor remarks to the party, "I would prefer to move to an area where I might once again see the ground beneath my feet."

I assume Felrin will check the next door for traps, and then we will proceed into the next passage/room. (I would think it would be a passage as there has been a passage between each chamber so far.

Felrin snarls at Tkaara, his blood still up from the brutal fight with the undead, "It seemed worthwhile to be sure that we didn't miss anything of worth in this room, as the tests so far have had their share of clever twists. As for the mud, if you're not willing to get your hands dirty, you may not make it far on the path we've set ourselves upon."

With that, he approaches the door at the far end of the room and inspects it, giving it a listen as well, before opening it.

It takes Felrin quite some time to search the room - there's several hundred square feet, and a large number of coffins. It's OK though, it's not like you're on a tight schedule or anything.

Eventually he finishes, and finds that the door out - in common with all the doors you've tried - is not trapped. Opening it reveals a wide (10 feet) corridor lined with torches, which spontaneously burst into light as the door opens (this is far enough away that the shrieker is undisturbed).

The corridor is around 50 feet long, and leads to a stairway upwards. At the foot of the stairs, in ornately sculpted gilt and red enamel armour, stands a tall woman with long dark hair and hawk-like, predatory, features. Her arms are leaning on the pommel of a ridiculously oversize greatsword, whose point is resting on the flagstones. The woman is clearly aware of you, but makes no effort to acknowledge your presence (any more than a guard on parade would pay attention to an earthworm).

About halfway along the corridor, on the right hand side, is a door. This door is not like any of the other doors you have seen; it makes the one to Timeon's room look like the entrance to a child's playpen. This door is solid steel, with adamantine hinges. It has no keyhole, no locks, no handles. It is simply shut. Closed.

On it, in Infernal, is written:

On the wall beside the door, sealed closed with wax, is a small wooden cabinet.

"Finally, some light," Ottakar says, moving into the corridor. He eyes the guard suspiciously, but, seeing her lack of reaction, ignores her. Instead he reads the inscription, then sets to examining the cabinet, all the while absentmindedly downing the contents of a flask from his bandolier.

The cabinet is the sort of thing you store scrolls in: a series of pigeonholes with a drop-down cover. The cover is closed with a simple latch; the wax seal will break if the cabinet is opened. The seal itself shows an Asmodean pentagram surrounded by a semicircle of thorns.

Assuming someone tells Tkaara what this message says, she takes out some parchment upon which she has been taking notes.

What are the Nine Lessons?

The first was deception. Deception is a too and self deception is death. Deceive your enemy, but never yourself.

The second and third were together, unless I missed something. One lesson was to make our own paths and not follow the herd for they are fools. The other lesson was that the only fear we should have is fear of the Dark Lord himself.

The fourth lesson was that cruelty is a tool, not a pastime, reward the faithful and punish those who fail. Tkaara pauses. Someone should make sure that Tiadora understands that lesson.

The fifth lesson is that the Chosen are revealed by their might and the weak shall suffer without remorse.

The sixth was that fools deserve not to live for stupidity is a cardinal sin to the Dark Lord.

The seventh. Again Tkaara pauses. I may have missed the inception of this one. But, the command was to punish those who seek to rise at your expense. In other words, no punishment is too great for any who might seek to usurp our power.

And, finally, the eighth lesson was that secrecy is our ally and that exposing ourself at the wrong time shall lead to naught but death.

She carefully refolds the parchment and places it back in her pouch.
So, what does this teach us for this next room? I would assume we must not consider this door to be aught but a door, and we should use what stealth we can muster to deal with whoever, or whatever, awaits within.

While that guard there worries me, at least she isn't Tiadora. I suppose we must pass trough there after we've retrieved the pendant in the next room.
"I think that the eight lesson was the one in the previous room, Tkaara. To be fair, tough, it was the only room in which we weren't informed that the lesson had ended." the ifrit pauses for a moment, eying the door and cabinet. "Even if the door opens by saying the Nine Lessons, I suppose that we're to say them in Infernal. That, and we're still missing the last one. Maybe the cabinet has something to do with it?" the fire-haired woman wonders.
If the other agree, she opens the cabinet, but not after having scanned it for harmful magic.