Given the golemancy is for the moment thwarted by available materials and time, Errisaigh seeks out Jack and provides support.
Nate continues to listlessly laze about in the main room while Aurex grumbles unhelpfully in the cramped quarters.
The Horn - Raaven's Walkabout
The invisible demon stalks the halls, following the sound of the croaking. You pass a hall to your right that heads north and three doors on the southern wall as the croaking is coming from straight ahead.
Finally, in the distance you see a large courtyard with a forty foot tall dome. Above a candelabra of three continual flame spells burn an undying eerie green at the apex of the dome.
The largest feature of the courtyard is a fountain. The fountain’s centerpiece is carved in the form of a trio of exultant hydrodaemons that vomit forth the water into the basin below. Sitting about the fountain is a group of creatures you have never seen before. Bulbous eyes glare atop the creature’s decidedly toad-like head. A multitude of warts and bumps decorate their greenish skin. They speak a strange croaking language which you do not understand, at least not without the aid of magic. There are seven in all and al are armed. They drink from the fountain and speak in their odd language to one another.
The Horn - Grumble's Bored...
Havelyn guards the hall so Grumble heads in the other direction north past where Raaven had gone. 1-29. Errisaigh and Brian head in that direction with Brian lagging behind. The door leads to a small chamber that is off of a larger open chamber. 1-27 This massive open hall with its vaulted ceilings dominates the first level. At the west wall, a single open archway feeds from the lower courtyard into this place which was once a place of gathering and worship. Six huge columns support the place. Upon every surface are carved baroque scenes of daemons and their humanoid allies marching together to conquer in the name of the daemon prince Vetra-Kali. Grumble can feel the evil that once permeated here though its energies have long faded.
Upon the dais 1-27A sits a large stone throne decorated with scenes of daemonic victory over angels.
"Within the Horn. A silver seal. Vetra-Kali. The Tears of Achlys." Errisaigh mumbles, musing as he considers the carvings. He looks at the throne.
"Death cult needs a throne? Mebbe Vetra-Kali, prince that he is, needs to rest now and then. Only thing is, thrones tend to topple." the direlock smiles grimly.
"Still, we don't know where the seal is. Can Raaven sniff it out you think Jack?"
The Horn - The Temple
Errisaigh finds small script on the base of the throne, the word is "Yah". Perhaps this is some sort of trigger word?
.
Alice confirms that indeed the Temple does depict Vetra-Kali and his allies, daemns and humanoids alike, defeating their enemies. It is not clear if this is a depiction of a dream or something that actually happened in the past. Perhaps, if the Knot is successful, this will be the future!
Vetra is a powerful and ancient leukodaemon, a harbringer of pestilence and a high servant of the Pale Horseman.
There is an open doorway to the west and a door to the north of the throne yet to explore.
You hear no sounds coming from the west. Perhaps this level is completely abandoned?
Errisaigh points out the word to the others, but does not utter it.
"Perhaps a command word, but for what? What would the cult have the throne do?"
Jack shrugged in response to Errisaigh's question. "Dunno. Maybe."
Then he looked around the daemonic fresco and smiled. "I like this place."
He took his time wandering eastward toward the back of the large chamber.
Humanoid frog-creatures. Raaven relayed to Jack. Gathered around a fountain. I will continue to observe.
"Raaven found some kinda frog-men upstairs," Jack said to no one in particular.
Alice shrugs. "That could be just about any creature from that description. Toad demons. Or fey. Or just plain old nasty Boggards. Either way, they are generally bad news."
Alice studies the throne with detect magic.
Nate suddenly perks up. "Squatters, do we need to clean them out?" He asks eagerly.
The Horn - The Temple
Alice detects that the Throne is indeed magical, Conjuration magic, quite potent.
Nate wanders in as the group discusses the "interlopers" upstairs. Grumble, as Grumble is wont to do, moves towards the doorway to explore further.
As he steps through the open doorway, he looks south and sees Havelyn draw his weapon. He pauses once he realizes he is looking at Grumble. Havelyn calls out, "It seems that we have secured this entire level eh?"
Grumble finds himself in a large courtyard [1-16] dominated by a fountain that still spouts water which erupts from the skeletal figure making it appear to bleed water like blood into the basin below. In fact, upon closer inspection, fountain’s centerpiece is carved in the form of Charon on his skiff. Around the courtyard are several doors, ten to be exact.
Aurex would no doubt be more comfortable in this large courtyard than in the hallway.
---
The Horn - Raaven
Around the fountain upstairs, the creatures continue to sit around and drink water, filling skins and sharpening weapons.
Jack started opening doors and looking into the rooms ringing the fountain courtyard. "Place seems empty. Raaven says the frogs upstairs ain't doin' nothin'."
The Horn - The Courtyard - Grumble's Open Doors Policy
Grumble begins to open doors his patience at and end or perhaps he does it to end his boredom.
He begins systematically from the north-east and making his way counter clockwise to the south-east opening all doors that lead to the courtyard, there are some rooms still which can be explored...
[1-13] These quarters are as ransacked and abandoned as anywhere else in the complex.
[1-12] The door reveals yet another wrecked room that was once quarters for the residents here. The furniture here is splintered beyond use.
[1-11] Grumble grimaces as he opens the door to yet another room packed with bunk beds. These at least are still serviceable.
[1-10 & 1-9] This was once a tavern which is is fair shape compared to the rest of this place. It appears that no fighting took place here as there is not a single piece of broken furniture. There is also a fireplace located here. An open archway leads to a second bar and a grill for cooking meats.
[1-8] After the joy of finding a room that is not a wreck, Grumble finds yet another room that has been destroyed in the fighting. Here the bunk beds are not serviceable and the rest of the furniture is only good for firewood.
[1-5] This room is the largest set of quarters that Grumble has found yet. There seems to be little rhyme or reason for why bunks are destroyed in one location versus another. Half the bunks here are solid, the other half destroyed. Did the followers of the Victor slay men in their own beds perhaps? It amuses Grumble to think of Paladins killing sleeping men.
From this room, another door leads to the south and another door leads to the west.
[1-7] These quarters are also tossed (the theme of this place) into disarray and left to thick cobwebs.
[1-15] Yet another ransacked set of quarters.
[1-14] This room is identical, though a bit larger, than the one across the courtyard.
The amount of followers housed here was impressive. This floor alone could have housed at least 50 if not more with the bunk beds, acolytes, guards, and supportive allies. The army the Victor marched in here must have been large or substantially skilled in combat to fight through and slay so many.
"Empty," Jack said as he opened the last door. "Nothin' but busted old beds and a trashed tavern."
"Conjuration magic on the throne. Better be carefull with it!"
Errisaigh follows Jack, taking no time to search furniture or actively nor to look for hidden objects. The direlock inspects the tavern/bar areas looking for rare wines or spirits, and takes the time to look up into the fireplace to see if it does indeed let out onto the sky.
”Sometimes folk board them up.” he shrugs by way of explanation.
He then moves on with Jack’s search.
The Horn - Grumble's Further Push
Grumble searches the last few rooms as Alice inspects the Throne and Errisaigh searches the Tavern.
---
Grumble searches the last few rooms of this level.
[1-6] There is nothing here but ash, blast marks and few burned bits of refuse. Only barely identifiable shards of bone and ash remain in this blasted room to mark the demise of those who met their fate here. The chamber feels particularly cold vis a vis the rest of the place explored thus far.
[1-3] This is another empty guardroom adorned only by an L-shaped stone bench in the southwestern corner. From here there are a few murder holes cleverly hidden from view in the hall through the use of illusion magic.
[1-4] This place appeared to once house provisions based on the empty shelves and barrels that adorn all of the walls. In the middle of the room is of all things a fully preserved Minotaur! It looks as if it was slain just this morning, still pinned to the floor by a spear. He bears upon his arm a tattoo of a white horse skull with three burning green eyes. This is the symbol of the servants of Vetra-Kali as Alice identified in the Temple.
---
Errisaigh's search of the Tavern reveals nothing as the place was picked clean of anything of value.
---
Alice inspects the Throne more closely and ascertains that the magic specifically keyed to the throne is Teleportation.
The Horn - Raaven
The humanoids slowly begin to gather and move towards Raaven's position, looks like they are done resting and plan to move about the complex further.
"What the... somethin' killed this guy not too long ago," Jack said, announcing the dead minotaur's presence to the group. "Maybe the frog people upstairs?"
Speaking of, they are on the move. I will follow. Raaven reported.
Alice calls from the throne room.
"The throne does teleportation magic! We should be carefull with it."
Errisaigh frowns in slight disappointment.
Not a drop!
He hears Alice call, and wanders back to her position, idly musing about Brian and his chances for surviving the next 24 hours. Then again, without the healer their own chances diminished markedly.
Nate lazily meanders his way over to Alice, managing to gather a little interest about the throne. "How does it work, and where does it go?" He seems like he'd go along, if anything just to get him to do something.
"It might be a way into the lower levels. Or it might teleport you into an acid lake. There is no way to know unless we try. Altough maybe Raaven would be up for trying. At least he can fly."
"Neat." Nate starts prodding at the throne and tries to pronounce the word on it, doing his best to stumble upon how to activate it by dumb luck.
"Wanna tellyport into an acid lake?" Jack asked Raaven.
He spoke out loud even though he didn't have to.
"...fine." Raaven mentally rolled his eyes. "Where?"
"The big chair, right there," Jack pointed.
"Right wh- You.... you're pointing, aren't you?" Raaven had no hands with which to facepalm.
"Can your experiments with this chair wait until after I have reconnoitered these amphibians, or is sending me to an acid lake imminently important?"
"Dunno. Nate might be the one going to the acid lake. Hold on," Jack shrugged.
He walked back into the throne room to get a better look at what Nate was doing and stopped next to Alice. "What's a nam-fib-ian?"
The Horn - Level 1
Nate speaks the "command word" Yah out loud while standing near the throne but nothing happens.
Aurex remains in the Courtyard where he can lay out and wait for the humanoids to do something. At least now he can spread his wings. Havelyn stands in the doorway of the hall which leads to the courtyard in case someone happens to, however unlikely, wander in.
---
Raaven watches the amphibians move past him and take the northern hallway. They appear to be wandering but for now, avoid opening any doors.
Alice motions nate. "Maybe you need to sit on it. Its a chair after all."
Nate takes a seat, slumping down and trying some more command words randomly. "Come on, do something!"
The Horn - Level 1
Unfortunately, even seated on the throne, its magic does not activate.
The Horn - Level 2
Raaven follows the humanoids around the corner too a long hall filled with murals. They look about in wonder at the art. You sense they are exploring this place for the first time...
Alice is both relieved and sad that the throne doesnt activate.
"Bummer. Maybe it needs more then a command word, and those stupid knights broke it."
Errisaigh raises an eyebrow in estimation.”The whole place is broken. It makes sense. However, I have a hunch it still works, but something is either missing or we are not operating it successfully. Either way, the result is the same. It’s not working.” he adds somewhat unhelpfully.
”Brian? Any idea about this profane seat?” the direlock quizzes their healer.
The Horn - Level 1
Brian shrugs, "You've probably got the right of it Errisaigh.
I wonder who would have killed that Minotaur that Grumble found? These creatures upstairs?
Should we move on or rest here...?"
Alice looks around the room. "We should probably do something about the frog creatures. Depending on what they really are, they might be recruited as allies. If not, I rather not have them roaming around."
"Raaven says it looks like they're just poking around" Jack said.
"Doesn't look like they've been here before."
The Horn - Level 1
Havelyn approaches, "If we are to go to this next level, how do we get there?"
"Maybe these teleporty thrones can get us around? Or maybe we just make a new entrance?" Nate says, grinning and looking to Aurex.