Jeevika heals her wounds before resting.
. . 7th—heal, particulate form, spell turning[D]
. . 6th—heal, heal, mislead[D] (DC 20), word of recall
. . 5th—
. . 4th—
. . 3rd—
. . 2nd—align weapon, augury[D],
. . 1st—divine favor, divine favor, divine favor,
. . 0 (at will)—create water, detect magic, resistance, stabilize
Right before they enter the Envy crypts again, Jeevika throws several buffs on herself and the other Rangers. She casts the spells with the shortest duration last.
Jeevika frowns upon seeing the sinister crystals.
"Based on what we observed yesterday, that black light is most likely more negative energy. Shall we destroy these crystals as we did with those sarcophagi? I am unsure why they exist, but they clearly cannot be meant for any good purpose."
"One moment please, madame. Allow me to examine the structure first." Eugeni casts detect magic and examines the structure closely.
"This thing is a portal to the negative energy plane. From what I can tell only negative energy itself can pass through, no creatures either living or undead. The portal could be destroyed by breaking one of the pylons...though I would not normally recommend touching one of the crystals. Our death wards should protect us, but with an effect this powerful I cannot be certain. Destroying the portal would most likely cause some kind of aftershock. I can not say exactly what would happen. It is my guess that these side chambers," Eugeni says motioning to the spheres of roiling blackness in the circular caverns to the left and right of the entrance, "were used by Azaven and his minions for healing or relaxation. The way we might sit in a hot spring or sauna. Now that all the undead have been destroyed I am uncertain whether destroying the portal is worth the potential backlash."
"What about the undead lurking in the walls?" Ryli asks, uneasy about being so close to so much unlife. "Do they still exist? If they're being 'fed' by this effect, wouldn't they begin to hunt for sustenance once this is gone? If that's the case, then this foul engine may be a blessing in disguise."
Zoli winces. "Hmmmm. I'm inclined to agree and move on.
"It's odd we haven't found the Quill yet...and disappointing that we haven't found very clear instructions on how to forge runeforge weapons, even though we do have many of the components we'll need when we do it.
"Before we move on--Jeevika--do you want to try to call on Shelyn to help you locate the Quill?"
"I am sure I can find a spell to help us locate the Quill in all of those tomes we left back in Wrath. Though if it is magically hidden, we may need a discern location spell, which is beyond my abilities. Perhaps Shelyn would grant it to Jeevika in time."
"That would be Shelyn," Jeevika corrects Eugeni with a kind smile, gesturing to the songbird with a rainbow tail on her armor,
"And in that case, I will leave the portal be. Before we leave, however, I would like to at least search the room while we have our Death Wards up."
Once the portal room is searched, Jeevika casts Locate Object and gets ready to search for the Quill.
After the search for the Quill, Jeevika casts her second Locate Object and searches for Setsuna's remains.
A secret niche in the westernmost alcove of this room is found by Jeevika. In the small area beyond is a tiny cache of books and magical supplies geared toward the process of infusing a complex with wraiths and negative energy. In addition, there are two scrolls of plane shift and a scroll of binding sitting near the back of the cache, held down by a slender wooden box and a miniature chest. Within this box rests a tuning fork attuned to Runeforge—the material component necessary to plane shift into this demiplane. The chest is of impeccable craftsmanship, but is otherwise empty.
"That should be useful..." Eugeni comments on seeing the tuning fork.
After exiting the dark portal room, Jeevika attempts to use Locate Object twice. Neither yields anything useful. However she intended to use them, the spells just seem to fail.
"In the first case, it must be my unfamiliarity with the Quill. I have never seen it before, and the spell is just not flexible enough to provide any good information. As for Setsuna, it appears that nothing truly is left of my..."
Jeevika's large monochrome eyes start to water. Like an anvil to the head, it seems that the reality of the situation is finally striking her full force.
"It's just Shion and me then. Vince, Attica, and Setsuna. They're all... gone. I... will never see them again... I..."
Jeevika slowly sinks to her knees and begins to sob uncontrollably.
Eugeni stares at Jeevika awkwardly, too unfamiliar with her to offer physical comfort, and uncertain what to say.
Ryli kneels down to offer Jeevika what comfort she can. Slowly, tenderly, she takes her in an embrace and holds her quietly.
After some time, she softly whispers, "I have outlived, well, outexisted more children, spouses, friends and lovers than I can possibly count. The grief can be overwhelming. But even though their souls have gone to the Boneyard to be judged while I remain living on this realm, I know they're still out there, somewhere."
Much like she did well over a century ago when she first experienced true loss, Jeevika fiercely clings to Ryli. Not in any state to continue, she eventually stumbles back to Wrath. She soon enters a calming meditative state and spends several hours that way before rejoining the others.
The Holy Vindicator tells anyone willing to listen the story of her family. How Bokrug took interest in her from a young age. Her various interactions with Rileon Kailani in his twilight years. How Vince escaped Galt as a young man thanks to the help of a lawyer named Atticus Velorryan. How she and Vince met and fell in love. How they struggled to raise and protect a daughter seemingly doomed to a dark destiny.
"We all just care too much. Vince ran afoul of those brutes in Galt because he gave food and medicine to innocent people caught in the crossfire. Attica... had her own struggles. Setsuna committed herself so deeply to this crusade because of the needless suffering caused by Karzoug's ambitions."
Jeevika briefly cries a few red tears.
"While she certainly died before her time, I am at least... relieved that you did not have to kill Setsu yourselves, and I would not have been angry if you had... permanently stopped her. I know that struggle very well. I understand that it would have most likely been necessary. While you all have strong convictions against the undead, if she had survived long enough, the sheer charisma of a vampiric Setsuna might have tested their limits. Perhaps she never would have been evil in the bane of Azaven or Karzoug, but the whole affair gives me vibes of... someone else I once faced: the most noble of intentions and character gone both horribly wrong and yet also somehow horribly right."
After resting a bit more and preparing new spells, Jeevika is ready to continue to Karzoug's wing.
Ryli smiles sadly but says nothing, letting Jeevika indulge her fantasy about keeping Setsuna around even as an undead. But the thought of her great-granddaughter being a thing of unlife, torn from both the Wheel and the Boneyard, was something that she couldn't bear.
"Perhaps," she says simply. Setsuna's complete departure from this world and Jeevika's fresh grief had rekindled much of her love for the half-elven granddaughter of a former life. It made her heart ache, but as usual she tempers it with the knowledge that her spirit was free.
That line of thought led her to recall her most recent time in the strange eddy of the Wheel caused by her death in this limited realm. Setsu's soul would have been strong enough to push through to the Boneyard, but there had been that other spark, young, barely formed. It had almost diffused entirely into the energies of the Wheel. She had reached out to it, protected it, and brought it with her.
She had brought it back...
Ryli shrieks suddenly. "Kallie Silversun! Kailani! Silva! By the Wheel!" She looks stunned, gasping for breath, rearing off the ground, hooves stomping.
Zoli--always happy for a good tale--listens raptly. "It's nice to hear more about Setsu's family...and what a great play it would make. Done well, it could rival Marlin's unfinished epic, A Song of Lice and Ire!"
When Ryli shrieks, Zoli says, "Wait wait wait! Are you saying that Kallie is Eugeni and Setsu's baby?!?"
"Eh?"
Jeevika has the same reaction as Eugeni.
Clapping Eugeni on the shoulder, Zoli grins, "Eugeni you sly old lizard you. You're the proud papa of a horse-girl.
"I mean, assuming Ryli's right...but it would explain how she was reincarnated preggo."
Turning to Ryli, she adds, "That's what you're saying, right? That you somehow caught the baby's soul while you and it were both riding the wheel? That's crazy!"
So much for no commitment relationship...
"Horse-girl? Wha....how.....I am not prepared to sire a filly?!"
Ryli's hands fly to her temple as she canters about. "I came back, she was in my arms. My foal, my-- but I didn't, she wasn't-- she must have been mine, right?"
She looks up, bewildered. "I have no memory of foaling her."
Turning to Zoli, she nods slowly. Her tail flicks back and forth as she turns her head to Eugeni. "I think... I think Zoli's right. But I feel like she's mine. Or, at least partly mine. This is unprecedented. I'd never come back with someone else before, as far as I can remember. I-- I didn't mean to burden you with this. It just hit me all of a sudden."
"What a strange family we will make...What kind of childhood will she have with Rangers for parents? We're not even the same species! I think I will need some time to process this. Does she...does she even look like me?"
"Well, she's a light buckskin, or maybe a golden bay. Her hair color will likely be close to her coat." Ryli explains, wringing her hands. "You're sort of... green. Or olive, perhaps."
She looks back at her own glossy black coat. "Yeah, it's hard to admit, but I've got quite a different coloration. A Mawari, it looks like."
Jeevika seems happy that her granddaughter survived.
"...This is truly amazing, Grandma. Atty would be trying to make a new family tree that accounts for this... particular occurrence."
"Does this mean that we are all related now? Well...if Ryli and I got married or something....dear gods, our lives are strange."
Ryli looks at Eugeni with a raised eyebrow. "Related? Actually, none of us are. Relations, like mothers, fathers, siblings, sons, and daughters are just biological. Right now, I have no relationship of that sort to anyone except Kallie, and now I'm not sure I'm more than a surrogate mother. We're ascribing a relationship to my past lives simply because I can recall being those past lives. But they're also dead. Dead and buried."
She shakes her head sadly. "I think Rilee got caught up in the belief she was continuing those relationships. She was... tempestuous."
"So, I have no family after all? If you're Jeevika's grandma, and I marry you then that makes me her grandpa. It also makes Kallie her aunt. Then weren't you Zoli's relative in another life?"
Ryli shakes her head. "I was. Past tense. I was Jeevika's grandfather. I was Zoli's mother." She gestures to herself, making a point to emphasize her equine lower half. "But clearly, I'm not an elf, nor a halfling. It's fine; my spirit moves on into different lives, so a part of them lives on in me. So you can consider me Sapphire's grandfather, or Zoli's Mamma, but I'm not in the body of their relatives."
She steps over to Eugeni and touches his cheek. "And you make your family with the people you care for. You're not alone."
"I suppose you are right. There's just been so much change lately. I thought I had finally found a chance for love with Setsuna, and now she's dead. But I guess part of her lives on in this centaur filly. I just feel inadequate to raise a girl by myself. There was an old Varisian phrase which said it took a a whole caravan to raise a child. I think it will take a whole team of Rangers to raise a Kallie."
A large iron door studded with dozens of colorful gemstones stands in the eastern wall at the end of this corridor. Although the door appears to have no latch, a depression in the center contains a keyhole.
. . 7th—heal, particulate form, spell turning[D]
. . 6th—heal, heal, mislead[D] (DC 20), word of recall
. . 5th—break enchantment[D],
. . 4th—death ward,
. . 3rd—
. . 2nd—align weapon, augury[D],
. . 1st—divine favor, divine favor, divine favor,
. . 0 (at will)—create water, detect magic, detect poison, stabilize
Jeevika buffs the Rangers like so:
1) Tears to Wine, Extended Beacon of Luck, and Good Hope for everyone.
2) Communal Air Walk and Freedom of Movement for herself and Zoli.
3) Shield of Faith for Zoli.
4) Greater Magic Weapon for the Holy Vindicator's own falcata.
5) Magic Vestment for the elf's own armor and shield.
6) Extended Bear's Endurance and Extended Shield of Faith for herself.
7) Bull's Strength for herself.
8) Drinking potions of Ward the Faithful and Barkskin.
9) Charging her shield with Vindicator's Shield.
10) Spell Resistance on herself.
"M- Zoli, would you mind inspecting that door? I seem to recall that you're our expert regarding locks and such."
Ryli casts her usual ant haul, barkskin and greater magic fang on Olympus, and barkskin on herself and Zoli (using her pearl of power. She waits until just before they enter to cast echolocation.
Zoli approaches the door with an excited curiosity. She gives it a look over and then bends her ear toward it.
Zoli notices the slightest air current through the wall to the left of the trapdoor. She also can hear a faint grinding of metal on metal from behind the iron door, like that of clockworks.
Lil Highlady motions for everyone else to step back.
Once they do she pulls out her masterwork picks and sets to work attempting to neutralize the trap.
The moment that Zoli’s Tools Touch the door, it slams across the hall into the far wall, revealing the clockworks and piston that drives the trap. She quickly spots a crucial cog in the mechanism, and manages to disable it! Then, she finds the flagstone that opens the hidden door just beyond.
A beautiful tunnel of polished wood inlaid with silver and gold runes stretches for at least a hundred feet before ending at a wall of greenish mist sparkling with silver motes of light.
"Oooh, yeah! Lil Highlady's still got it, eh?" Zoli crows.
Then--still going slow enough to keep an eye out for traps or other secret doors--Zoli starts to lead her companions down the corridor.
"It's actually quite pretty," Ryli states. She steps lightly along the corridor following the halfling, keeping her senses outstretched for signs of danger, both seen and unseen.
If nothing alerts them to danger before they reach the wall of mist, she closes her eyes and lets her echolocation do the work of seeing anything beyond the screen.
"In my many years of life, I have never seen an emerald green mist. Going by what Setsu told about your prior encounters with hazes..."
Jeevika carefully approaches the wall of emerald mist and activates Detect Magic to study it. If she... well, Detects Magic, the Herald Caller Holy Vindicator attempts to dispel it.
Eugeni watches Jeevika work, ready to step in if needed.
Jeevika senses that the mist is magic, and immediately dispels it. The cloud vanishes in an instant. Ahead, you can see a chamber containing a pool and fountain, and what appears to be multiple diminutive creatures splashing about in its waters.
Eugeni looks at the creatures to identify them.
"Those are water mephits. They are known to be tricksters, but are relatively harmless to those of our power level. Perhaps we could parlay with them? The creatures are not inherently evil."
Ryli shrugs. "I don't speak Water. But I could become a water elemental."
"Allow me. As you might recall, Aquan was the first tongue I ever spoke," Jeevika says to Ryli.
The Holy Vindicator tentatively approaches the mephits and hails them in Aquan.
"Greetings! We come in peace. Perhaps we could parlay with you?"
This chamber is paved with ivory tiles, each one engraved with a silver rune depicting what appears to be a claw gripping a gemstone. The walls and ceiling are of polished marble. A large silver basin in the center of the room contains an icy sculpture of a whale spraying crystal-clear water from its blowhole. The water cascades around it to keep the basin full, but never quite over flowing.
”Oh look! Another group of fleshies come to slobber in our pool!” one calls out as you enter. All in all there are three water mephits splashing about in the water.
”Slobber or piss!” another responds. ”You know elfs and halfies have no manners!”
A third pops it’s head from beneath the water. ”And they brought a horse in here! And a bird and rat and...a....uh...walrus! Blech!”
Eugeni floats into the chamber. "Another group? Have fleshies come through here before recently?"
”What’s it to ya, Snaggletooth!” one taunts, eliciting maniacal laughter from the other two.