The man attacks with his dagger at Marigold as she shots her ray, but he fails miserably. The distraction is even not enough to make Marigold miss, and her prayer guides the sun beam into the man's breast. The burst, empowered by Marigold's prayer, brings down the man!
Maxim breaths up Kikinnin's heroism, whom with a set of powerful axe swings, sends the priestess to the floor after connecting a couple of them.
JJ then redirects his precise staff whirling attacks to the other man flanking Kikinnin, and leaves him unconscious.
The remaining man finally succeeds at braking Marigold's magic ties. He opens his eyes wide and brings his hand to a potion on his belt, but has no time for more "I! Surrender!"
AC = 27
HP = 124/124
Weapon Equipped = +5 Dwarven Greataxe
Condition(s) = Divine Bond, Prayer, Heroism
Kikinnin steps over Velasia's body to clear the far room, while talking over his shoulder. "Someone see to our prisoner. We should try and get some answers, before we take to other parts of the temple."
The black beard speaks out, should he find something or someone in Velasia's quarters.
JJ stalks over to the man. "How about you start talking. We came here to talk, not fight, but it seems everyone wants to kill us. So how about you tell us what is happening here and why the normal priest is abscent."
After a few seconds the initial burning of the poison in Marigold's veins finally seems to subside, though she's a bit stiffer in her movements for the experience.
"P-Poison...you really are a n-nasty lot, you know that?" she scowls at the one surrendered man. "T-tell us what's going on here and do not try to l-lie or we'll kn-know."
Kikinnin walks over Velasia's quarters and finds out a bed and a desktop. It seems she was writing something with a quill and ink. Next to the parchment there is a strange lens and a note.
"Thanks for searching for the dwarf. He is now caged. You will be rewarded for your loyal and efficient assistance."
The note is signed by Embril Aloustinai.
"The-the Cathedral is under construction..." is all his answer.
The man is laying.
The man suddenly steps back and picks up the potion from his belt. He nervously opens it with his teeth and quickly downs it.
The man disappears.
Inside the room there is a high ritual bed, and over it lays a dead body.
Kikinnin leaves the paperwork where it lies, hearing the remaining foe-fellow speak without conviction in his words. As he approaches the doorway, and not seeing anyone in the room, Kikinnin moves just past JJ, taking a position in the hallway, preventing anyone, visible or no, from passing by him.
"Where'd he go? He still in there?" Kikinnin moves his head towards the doorway, encouraging the boy to move in, and sniff around.
"Hey.... dead body...." notes JJ, pointing to the bed.
As the man vanishes, JJ remains very still, trying to locate where he may be. "Close that door behind me"
Then steps forward and delivers a solid whack with his staff.
While it looks like it might miss, all that time spent in the darkness of the ..underdark... seems to have heightened JJs sences. The lad has an almost supernatural feeling for where things are, even when he can't see them.
"Stop that, tell us what we need to know["
"H-hey!"
Marigold scowls angrily as the man vanishes from sight. "Th-there must be s-something big going on h-here if they'd all r-rather risk d-dying by our hand than sp-spilling the beans..."
"A-anyway, h-hold on...if he's st-still here we'll f-find him..."
She then begins casting.
______________
"If he's still in there skulking, he wants to live. At least long enough to notify others in the temple of our intentions. He didn't fall on his sword, he turned tail." Kikinnin shifts impatiently in the hallway.
JJ's training in the Darklands pays off and he beats the invisible man.
As Marigold finishes her spell and the hiding man is revealed, he seems to understand his possibilities to escape are ruined "Ei! Ok... ok... there is no need for anyone else to die..."
"The other priests were ordered to stay in the side buildings when the construction improvements began. A set of selected ones were chosen to guard the place" Marigold can see how he waves his hands in a sign of surrender and defense "My group completed its mission some days ago and we were resting and waiting for more. I don't know what else you want me to explain, but let me go and I will answer your questions"
He is so nervous and scared he wouldn't be able to say a lie right now. At least for now what he says seems truthful.
"Th-that's better," Marigold nods, though the man's words don't prevent her from pointing to his current position. "He's r-right there," she says as she moves to block the exit. "And th-this time I don't believe that he's l-lying."
"Wh-what are the construction improvements f-for? And d-don't tell us it's to m-make the temple look g-grander or anything like th-that."
"And what was your last mission?" adds in JJ.
"And for that matter, why the undead roaming the temple?"
Maxim stands and listens to the man bleating, instead retrieving the note and lens.
He casts a casual eye o'er the scribblings... as he does the gun-mage's furrowed brow deepens.
"Bror. Best read this..."
Maxim passes the note to the warrior, then casts a baleful gaze toward their prisoner;
"You answer our questions boy and then we might let you skedaddle in one piece."
He shoots a look to the others;
"Fir starters - that note mentions a dwarf and him being caged. Whose the dwur an' where's the cage?"
The man remains silent listening to your questions. Maxim's more offensive tone triggers his tongue to speak "The improvements... they wanted the Cathedral to get taller. I just don't know why... promise" the man kisses his fist, but only Marigold sees.
"We were sent into a secret mission leaded by Velasia. She was a jerk and rarely explained anything to us. But she leaded us through planes to recover an object named the 'Lens of the Blacksun'. That's when we met before" the man looks at JJ's staff and gurgles "Velasia and Calmus raised the zombies from dead people in the temple for the case of an assault. Velasia was resting before animating this other sack of bones" Marigold can see him pointing to a corpse over a strange altar bed in the room.
Now for the first time, you pay real attention to the new room you are in.
This long chamber is strikingly bare, its polished walls and floor a glossy black. Gilded sconces hang in each corner, and each holds a torch that glows with a silently flickering green flame. The austere room is divided by a thick velvet curtain about two thirds of the length of the room away, and the body of a young man lies on a long low table in the middle of the room. An elaborate holy symbol of Pharasma covers most of the floor.
A calmer inspection of the corpse reveals he is indeed Todd Vanderboren.
And finally answering Maxim "I know nothing about a cage. I promise"
Although you feel he is saying truth, you cought up he omitted talking about the dwarf.
"Bror. Best read this..."
Kikinnin takes the paper from Maxim, and his brow furrows low while the eyes beneath them scan the words.
"Thanks... for searching... for the dwarf. He is now... caged. You will be rewarded..." Kikinnin's eyes turn back on Velasia's body. He grunts in frustration. "Don't suppose we can pull any answers from her, like we did the assassin? I mean, we didn't get much..."
"Hey now. You know more. About the dwarf. Speak now. You've got each of our attention, so best tread carefully with your words. You're still standing on this side of the Veil, but you know this. You have two dwarves looking at you with grave interest."
Maxim too eyes the man, his patience clearly wearing thinner;
:
"Best loosen that tongue about the dwarf boy. Cage nor no, ye know something... or like my bror says face the reckonin'."
The gun-mage's finger taps the hammer of his pistol in agitation...
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Though she didn't have any particular fondness for Todd Vanderboren when he was alive, Marigold suddenly feels a little sick as she stares at the shell he left behind.
"I'm g-glad we got here when we d-did," she murmurs. "N-no one's body deserves the ind-d-dignity of undeath, n-not even T-Todd or any of the other St-Stormblades!"
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"We should take his body..." suggests JJ
"I'd hate to leave him here. Todd was annoying enough alive.. I don't fancy fighting him as an undead."
The man looks at you for a while and you listen his breath normalizing now that the combat has ended "There was a dwarf. We knew nothing about him until we got the Lens and Velasia used it to find certain corpse. The Lens guided us to the Darklands and there Velasia made us unearth the corpse of a dwarf. We brought him here, and holy Hell, that's all I know. I promise. Let me free now!"
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Kikinnin hears 'Darklands', and 'corpse', and looks at Maxim, before looking at both JJ and Marigold. "I asked Jenya several questions when we returned from the Darklands, and with her magic, she received answers from Abadar Himself. For our concern about those marked on the face with that symbol, it sounds like Zenith's unearthing has come to pass. By Velasia, no less." Kikinnin looks over the woman's body lying in the hallway.
"If we speak with the dead, she might yield more information of why they wanted marked Zenith, like they still might want Terrem and Marigold."
The black beard turns to the prisoner. "We won't kill you. But we can't let you free. Not until we've secured this temple. If you know who waits for us in other parts of Wee Jas, best tell us now. Otherwise, we're done talking. We'll tie you up, and leave you in one of the priests' quarters, then free you when we've finished our exploration."
Kikinnin takes a moment to address Todd's body, verifying it for himself. "I agree. We've gained the upper hand here, do we think the body will be safe here while we explore the rest of the temple? Or should we call on Ryan to take the body from here, while we continue?"
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"S-so Velasia and her g-goons found what they were l-looking for, this 'Lens'...that helps to locate c-corpses?"
Marigold quickly shakes her head. "We need to f-find it so it c-can't be put to anymore f-foul purposes. S-surely it's still here in the t-temple somewhere..."
She looks over at Kikinnin and the rest. "A-anything else we w-want to ask...? And I th-think we should be okay to l-leave Ryan to watch Todd's b-body, at least for a sh-short while."
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Maxim meets Kikinnin's look with his own grave stare;
"Makes sense. Rootin' up those already planted seems to be the way o' this kirk. Obtainin' somethin' that's akin to a diviner rod for the buried would be a boon to their business. What they need Zenith for is the question..."
When talk turns to Vanderboren he curls his whiskered lip;
"He was a pain in the arse whilst breathin' - darn sure he ain't doin' the same as a corpse. I say leave him. Let him rot I says."
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Kikinnin rubs the back of his neck. "Now, I'm not saying that I disagree with you, Bror, but there might be some wound healing for Annah, if we were to take a care with Todd's body. I'd be grateful to any of the Stormblades, were they to see after any of our corpses, given the evilness lurking about here. They want to bury him, and rot him that way, I'd have no concerns. But if we leave him, he might come back and haunt us, like JJ said. And then Ryan would have to explain it to Annah..."
Kikinnin continues to rub the back of his neck.
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"Are we sure they got Zenith?" asks JJ.
"I mean no disrespect, but there were a lot of dwarves that have died underground."
He gives Kikinnin a smile as the ratcatcher agrees with him.
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"If we're trying to connect the puzzle pieces, it would be good to remember that the false Dakved wanted us to retrieve Zenith for return to Cauldron, and now Velasia has returned to Cauldron with the corpse of a dwarf. One who wore the Mark. Seems likely that we're talking about the same dwarf."
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"Kikinnin's r-right, this c-can 't be coincid-d-dence," Marigold agrees. "And I th-think we should d-do what we can for T-Todd, or at least what's within our responsi-b-b-ility. The St-Stormblades have been awfully b-big jerks in the p-past, b-but..."
She struggles for a moment to find the right words.
"...I n-never wanted any of them to die, you kn-know?"
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Maxim eyes the inert corpse of Todd with a jaded eye;
"Ain't convinced the Stormers would afford us the same clemency Lil' Miss, but I admire the forgiveness that you and Surabar got in you, an' respect the collective wishes."
As they plan their next move the opportunistic gun-mage scours their fallen foes for any items of use
The man reappears as his potion effects come to an end. He looks at you from one to another trying to follow your conversation. As you wrap up he spits to the floor "Damn! Better tied up than dead" he offers his hands and you pick a chain in the room to bind his arms and legs.
+1 full plate
+1 spear
scroll x5
+1 dagger x4
+1 studded leather armor x4
potion of invisibility x2
normal daggers x16
poison x12
Meanwhile Maxim profits the time to inspect the "usefulness" of the unconscious and dead items in the corridor.
1x scroll of flame strike
1x scroll of cure serious wounds
1x scroll of speak with dead
1x scroll of dispel magic
Kikinnin realizes that one of them has yet to set eyes on the partition in Todd's Chamber, so he moves through the door, and takes a look. Once done, he moves back out of the Chamber, helps with securing the prisoner, preferably in the same room as Todd, so Ryan can keep an eye on the dead and the living at the same time.
"Alright, if everyone is set, I've still got some magics running through me, courtesy of Abadar and Maxim alike. I'd like to see what lies beyond the door we haven't opened yet."
Given the go-ahead, Kikinnin shuffles across the big hall, and checks the single door, waving Maxim over if it proves equally locked.
JJ pockets a magic dagger and a potion of invisibility. "Might be useful..." he notes.
At the other side of the curtain Kikinnin finds some ritual materials and including religious symbols, incense and oils.
Crossing the chamber to check on the tower door, you find out it is well locked. While some of you work on the lock, others walk to the street and open the door for Ryan. You find the cleric hidden behind a statue checking the street "No one has approached the Cathedral so far. How have you find things are in the interior? What were the half-orcs doing there? Did you manage to talk with Ike or Embril?"
Maxim scrutineers the recovered items with a professional eye;
:
:
:
:
:
:
Only one of the scrolls stymies him - its writings too complex for him to understand;
"This one's got me stumped... Words o' power beyond my knowledge. Lil' Miss might be, you have better luck..."
He passes the unidentified scroll to Marigold before continuing;
"The vials are Giant Wasp pizen. Likely have a use fir it myself. The other scrolls are Flame Strike, Dispel Magic, Cure o' Wounds most Serious an interestingly Speak With Dead... Might be we could have a word with one of the dispatched? Or Vanderboren hissel'?"
Marigold tries her hand at identifying the one mystery scroll but fares no better than Maxim. "It's beyond m-me, at least right n-now. M-maybe we'll have better luck l-later," she sighs as she passes it back to him.
Content to leave Maxim to work on the locked door Marigold pops outside to fetch Ryan, beckoning him to enter the temple. Once he does, she quickly pushes the door shut behind him.
"It's a m-mess, as you can s-see," she remarks, gesturing to the blood and bodies on the floor. "W-wicked p-priests with giant and half-orc l-lackeys! And we stumbled into the b-bunch that we met in Occipitus, the ones out on the F-Field of Cysts; they eventually f-found this 'Lens of the Blacksun' that they were l-looking for and used it to find the b-body of a particular d-dwarf."
"We...th-think it's Z-Zenith's body that they f-found," Marigold sighs. "They've also b-been reanimating b-bodies as z-zombies but we d-don't know why. And there's been no s-sign of Ike or Embril yet..."
"We need you to look over Todd's body, as well as a prisoner we took, who knew enough not to fight us. We're going to take the tower next, so we'll be separated again, but you should be safe in that wing of the temple, if we can find a key and lock you behind the iron door."
Kikinnin waits as Maxim looks through the loot. When he hears that there is magic in one of the scrolls that might facilitate them speaking with Velasia, he speaks up. "I would be interested to hear what she says, if she says anything useful from beyond the Veil. She knows more than Todd would of what's been going on here, I gather."
Ryan nods in understanding "Ok, I get the situation. Let me see if I can do something for Todd while I take an eye at our prisoner"
The cleric disappears through the hall doors while you work in the lock of the tower.
"I th-think it makes more s-sense to try sp-speaking with Velasia, even though she's going to f-fight the magic," Marigold responds after giving it a bit of thought. "T-Todd might not b-but he w-wouldn't know anything that's h-happened since his d-death. And I b-believe Anna was h-honest with us about what h-happened there."
"Are you sure you really want to try to speak with the dead... ion the house of the dead?" asks JJ who is still somewhat unnerved by the temple. "I mean, who knows, maybe it will work better here, the barriers between the realms being thinner and all."
He pauses, thinking about offering another story from his "novels", but the aura of the place keeps him somewhat quieter than normal.
Kikinnin looks down for a moment, thinking. When his head raises, he allows it to roll from one shoulder to the other, either stretching his neck muscles, or letting the thoughts in his head mix about in the tilts.
"First I thought I wanted to press Velasia into answering our questions. Now, I'm thinking we might have another 'Velasia' or two on our hands, when we move through the rest of Wee Jas. Maybe it's best we hold onto the scroll. Might have to decide between Velasia or... Ike."
Kikinnin steps aside for Maxim. "We've got time, Bror. Get us through this door, and let's have us a sit-down with Iverson."
Maxim nods as he tinkers with the lock;
"I'll take a bit o' time, but I'll crack it... As long as the spooks don't put me off my stride!"
He shoots a wry look at JJ before knuckling down with his picks...
It takes a while, but after Ryan catches up and he is set to protect the prisoner and Todd, Maxim has had already time enough to tinker the lock. The mechanism is enhanced with magic for extra protection, but it's just not enough for the arcane trickster, the pleasing sound of a 'click' is the success announcement for the door opening.
At the other side you find two new doors and a set of stairs that wind up around the tower. This area has no stained glass windows and its completely dark. The smell of recently burn incense fills the area.
After the compulsory check for traps, you find out one of the doors is also locked, while the other has no lock. Being the area silent you open that door.
This small storage chamber is packed with dozens of boxes and lined with shelves. A musty smell fills the air, mixed with hints of exotic incense.
This room stores extra ceremonial gear, robes, and other mundane supplies. You can quickly gather up some expensive reagents easily worth 200 gp.
"Whoo...I forgot h-how aromatic t-temples can be," Marigold gasps as the smell of must and incense hits her nose. "H-how can people even b-breathe when they're w-working in here?"
"Y-yuck...it all just looks l-like stinkweed to m-me!"
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While Marigold takes to the storage chamber, Kikinnin opens the remaining door on the ground floor of the tower. He eyes the staircase warily, as his mind starts coloring Wee Jas in black shadows.
"Stairs, leading up. We haven't found any that lead down, into the earth of Cauldron. They've been working the stone to spire up, makes me wonder if they've done anything to do the same below Cauldron. Like a tree's roots. Given the undead we've come across, they might use the incense to cover up the smell of the rot..."
For what the black beard finds behind the door, he gives the space a good looking-over, before moving back to the stairwell, closing the door behind him. He looks down on his Axe, still glowing bright.
"We need to be ready for more undead. Velasia showed us that the clerics here don't shun them. I wouldn't have thought Ike would traffic in this kind of ritual. I still can't quite... picture that... But I have come to the decision that if Ike and the undead are anywhere near each other when we find him, he's a dead man." Kikinnin looks towards JJ.
"You alright with that, JJ? You show reverence to Pharasma, are you going to show that same reverence to Her priests, now that we've killed two of them? This feels like a purge now. We have to assume that anyone we find here is an accomplice."
When it's clear that the ground floor is cleared, Kikinnin moves to the stairs leading up. If they encounter stairs leading downwards, he's predisposed to investigating the depths of the temple first, before heading up into the Spire.
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"I guess she will be the one to judge her dead priests.." says JJ, unenthusiastically.
"It just seems... out of character. I thought she despised the undead. Why would her priests raise them? Something is very wrong here."
"B-because they're probably not actually p-priests of Pharasma," Marigold points out as she steps back out of the storage room. "Or they b-belong to some offshoot c-cult. Even S-Sarenrae has...some sp-splits in the f-faith, like the C-cult of the D-Dawnflower. They're very m-militant and they've m-meddled quite a bit in national p-politics in other p-parts of the world."
Kikinnin turns to Marigold. "Would you be able to cleanse that altar? It's still radiating evil. I know it's not our priority, but once we're done in these halls, I'd rest better knowing we didn't leave something like that to fester in our city." He gives a nervous tug on his beard.
"Now that you've, uh, changed, can you see things differently back on this plane? Your control of Occipitus, has it strengthened you in ways we haven't seen yet? I mean no disrespect, but if you have a better sense of what evil is, it might help us when we face deeper foes."
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"N-no...I feel stronger, though. N-not really physically but in my m-magics. L-like they're a little more p-powerful than before, more effective. B-but my vision hasn't ch-changed. I c-can't read auras like you can, at least n-not that I've noticed."
She shrugs, at a bit of a loss. "I th-think if we were b-back on Occipitus that I could b-bring aspects of it to b-bear against anyone t-trying to invade or attack, but only th-there."
"And...m-maybe that's for the b-best. There's only so much p-power any one p-person should have," Marigold shivers.
"For the altar, I can t-try," she adds. "And if I c-can't then maybe Ryan c-can."
Kikinnin considers the shiver. "I respect your humility, miss Marigold. There are too many people with power they shouldn't have. Like Velasia and Calmus. They received their power from their goddess, eh? I guess we have to trust to our gods that we're given as much power as we're meant for. Sarenrae guided you to Occipitus, is my thinking. Small shoulders, but broad in the sense of the responsibility that comes with your growing power. I only encourage you to always accept those boons. There aren't enough people able to channel power for the good of the people."
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Maxim casts a mercantile eye o'er the storage chambers content...
:
... before shrugging in disinterested disappointment.
"Huh. Religious paraphernalia is all. Most likely has value to the prayer book thumpers an' those in fear o' their divine soul... As one whose neither reckon we move on til we find the real coffers..."
The gun-mage nods at Marigold's aromatic assessment;
"I hear ye Lil' Miss. Give me the scent o' tabac an' black powder any day o'er this..."
He breathes deep, then smiles wickedly;
"Never took the scent o' dying as one so perfumed. Beats the smell o' rot, and leaking dead like you say bror."
As talk turns to the task ahead and Marigold's powers, the gun-mage taps the handle of one of his pistols;
"Should we encounter the risen dead o' an incorporeal nature, then I kin plug 'em with my pistols enhanced like. Beyond that its the odd-spell here an' there, likewise on wands."
Maxim leans o'er to Marigold to add to Kikinnin's wisdom;
"'Sides Lil Miss. Ain't the power that's wielded. Its whose wieldin' it. You've proved yourself of better character that most o' us, so don't fret none on that score!"
While Maxim works on the lock of the other room, Kikinnin starts to walk up only to find the stairs wind up around a central column for many floors. At some point he spots a couple of doors ahead and walks down to inform the others.
Although he finds this lock is near the limit of his skills, Maxim's methodical approach finally pays off and by when his black bro comes back two minutes later, he has forced open the door. Despite not being the gold-full coffers the dwarf dreams off, the effort pays off after you discover what lays ahead.
This bedroom is immaculately clean and perfectly ordered. The thick carpet is embroidered with hundreds of small designs of skulls and bones and arcane runes. The room's furnishings include a large, well-made bed, two large armoires filled with rich clothes and ceremonial robes, and a large desk.
Papers cover the desk in orderly stacks, but they hold nothing but records of the Cathedral's day-to-day business for the last two months. Some of them are signed by Ike Iverson.
Two beautifully made wall hangings depicting Pharasma's Boneyard and Ike himself reveal this room is Iverson's personal chamber.
Some of the priest minor possessions are actually worth a good sum of coin. Three gilded sticks worth 50 gp each and the wall hangings are worth 150 gp each.
A small money pouch containing concealed below the pillow contains 102 platinum pieces.
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Maxim smiles wryly as the lock emits the sound he was looking for and the door is opened;
"Pays to be an honest criminal sometimes eh folks?"
The gun-mage takes in the elegantly macabre decor, eyes taking in the room's content for value and anything more...
:
"Huh. Bit odd I'd say. Too "deathy" fir sellin' on, more's the pity..."
:
The dwarf pauses as he checks under the pillow in a practiced fashion - retrieving a small pouch, his eyes glittering at its content and weight;
"Hell's Teeth! Clearly Ol' Iverson sleeps with a clear conscience... especially layin' his head upon over a hundred platinum coins by my reckoning!"