"Valiant effort again Valgrim! Let's take the Marquis back to the spider guy."
Bubba examines the disc.
As Bubba takes the disc out of its sack, wisps of smoke are forming around it, soon enough coalescing into an angry Djinn, who with arms crossed demands that you let go of the disc.
Valgrim looks up in amazement at Friar, as he heals almost all of his wounds with one spell. "You are a truly blessed and powerful. Glad to call you my friend, Padre." With that, Valgrim stands and pats the human cleric on the back and gathers his weapons.
When the Djinn appears, Valgrim looks at his friends opting for a diplomatic solution but ready in case a more aggressive one is required.
Vug smiles at the angry djinn. "How do you do sir? Is this your necklace?"
Valgrim looks up in amazement at Friar, as he heals almost all of his wounds with one spell. "You are a truly blessed and powerful. Glad to call you my friend, Padre." With that, Valgrim stands and pats the human cleric on the back and gathers his weapons.
"The Dawnflower seems to find favor with both of us, since She keeps granting me increasingly powerful healing spells to keep up with your increasingly life-threatening wounds!" Feres chuckles in reply to Valgrim's comment.
When the angry djinn appears, Feres quickly imbues himself with a touch of the Dawnflower's glory as he addresses the genie after Vug. "Forgive us, mighty lord of Air, but we believe that disc was stolen from the tomb of the Wind Duke Icosiol by the ghoul we just defeated and his minions," Feres says, bowing respectfully to the djinn and indicating the corpses of the undead. "We seek to return the disc to its rightful resting place with the gread Icosiol. By your leave, may we have your permission to do so?"
Bubba hands him the disc.
"Please dear sir, we really need that disc. We made a bargain, and I am not one to go back on my word. Is there something we can give you in exchange for it?"
Vulcan slowly floats down to hover a few feet off of the ground, at eye level with the Djinn, portraying the serenity that often precedes a hurricane.
The djinn eyes Bubba suspiciously. "What kind of bargain? The Seal of Law belongs upstairs, with the guardian."
Roll for initiative.
"Why do they always want to do this the hard way?"
"But we wish to return it to Icosiol's tomb!" Feres protests.
Init:
Valgrim goes first, then the djinni.
Well, that's one djinn smoked.
A closer and more careful inspection of the disc reveals some interesting features. It is engraved with three runes; a symbol representing Pesh, the
Last Battlefield, the circular sign of the Wind Duke armies, and Icosiol’s personal rune. These runes are in ancient Vaati — translated, they mean “Pesh,” “Aaqa,” and “Icosiol.” The other side of the seal depicts a wind duke holding the Seal of Law up before a pair of massive black doors while standing on a floating disc of air about the same size as the seal itself.
Vug blinks as the djinn is quickly dismembered and disemboweled. "...goodbye, sir..."
Perception:
"I'd suggest speaking the names of those runes before picking it up, if I were you," Vug suggests.
Knowledge Arcana
Valgrim shakes his head, as the djinn dies, certainly forced to attack out of some magic compulsion. "Why don't they ever learn?"
Once somebody more magically inclined handles the seal, Valgrim says, "Let's go check out that secret door."
The secret door is not trapped, and yields to your touch, revealing a set of stairs leading up to another secret door (also not trapped). As it opens you see a cave beyound, about 30 feet wide and 20 feet deep.
The walls and floor of this cave have obviously been partially finished by stoneworkers. More impressive by far are the massive, fifty-foot-tall doors to the north. These dull black doors are carved with both gigantic
and tiny runes, some at eye level and others much larger. The metal of the door seems pristine and freshly forged.
You can feel an inexorable force emanating from the doors hindering you from proceeding further.
Will: , +2 vs. enchantment
Vug just barely forces her way through.
"There's a pic on the Seal of Law of a duke holding it up before some massive black doors and there's some huge black doors in front of us. Maybe one of you can present the Seal, so to speak."
Vulcan recites the words as Feres pronounces them before picking up the seal and presenting it before the doors.
As Vulcan raises the disc he feels a sense of weightlessness as several
words manifest in his mind. These words are “Aaqa” (the name of the Wind
Duke empire), “Icosiol” (the name of the Wind Duke entombed within), and
“Pesh,” the volcanic plain on which the Wandering Dukes defeated the army of Chaos. Incidentally they are the same words that you need to invoke to handle the Seal of Law.
As Vulcan speaks the words out loud the doors swing soundlessly open and reveal a large chamber beyond. The room is 30 feet wide and 60 feet deep.
This chamber contains seven stone columns, each slightly taller than the next, rising slowly from the entrance to a small platform at the far end of the room before a second set of enormous doors. No floor is
visible — in its place is a pit filled at a depth of eighty feet with glowing blue fog. Swirling patterns of wind and lightning dance and howl along the walls and ceiling of the chamber, filling the room with a tumultuous roar.
Each of the seven columns appears slightly different. The closest column’s top is level with the ground in the entrance room to the west. The next column is two feet higher. The third rises up to the ceiling
forty feet above. The fourth is three feet higher than the second one, but rotates slowly in place. The fifth column’s upper surface seems to be covered with a thick layer of what looks like tar, and is about one
foot higher than the last. The sixth column is two feet higher than the previous one but is made of a lighter colored stone. A larger column, nearly twice the diameter of the others, stands to the left of the main row.
Vulcan looks down at the swirling chaos below.
"I'm pretty sure this room is designed to kill anything that can't fly. Vug, can you whip up one of your potions to make everyone fly? The spell that allows me to do it, I can cast a couple more times today, but it would be at the expense of the power I'd need to protect us or fight."
"I could make two healing potions, and I can fly on my own. Don't you have flying magic, too?" Vug responds.
"If we don't have fly magic enough for all, I say we come back tomorrow."
"Ooh!" Vug blurts out, "I just had a brilliant idea f-for how I could improve my mutagen! Just a dash of black pudding goo ought to do it, I think. Of course, I'm not sure what it will do f-for the f-f-f-flavour. Why don't we head back and return in the morning?"
Vug hands out her morning elixirs:
Does anyone else have any requests? Vomit Swarm? Stoneskin?
Have a great trip, BT!
Vug warns Bub to keep his eyes open for more assassins before the rest of them return to the Cairn.
We head back into the Cairn and if we meet the spider on the way in, Bubba lets him know that the undead ghoul noble has been destroyed. He waits for Friar to buff him with his deity's presence, if offered.