Romon is guiltily grateful to Kaliciel and Marak for dealing with the pitiable undead. It was a job that had to be done, but he didn't have the stomach for it. He is also curious.
"Marak, why would anyone do something like this?" Romon waves a hand indicating the pits. "Keeping undead. Is it a shrine to Urgathoa?"
Kallie smiled weakly at the strange gnomes words; they genuinely did comfort her a bit, as did everyone's reactions in general. I suppose they're all alright after all. It should be safe to try and heal them then. "Thank you." she said softly to Ali before turning to the others. "Who is still hurt? I can offer a bit of healing so that Marak can conserve his god's gifts, but it only works once every day for each person, I believe."
Romon's pondering on why the zombies were kept there and Inikai's theory made her shiver, and she fought to reclaim her cool facade, if only to cope with the horrors they were coming face to face with. "Whatever their reasons we should see that this place is cleansed and sanctified by the right people. None of this can be allowed to linger under our town any longer."
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"I am unsure. Given the presence of the shrine to Lamashtu we found earlier, I doubt it. It's conceivable that this place is so tainted by corrupt forces that the bodies of prisoners abandoned here simply became undead on their own. Any evil capable of creating such deliberately would also be able to control them, and have no need to put them in cages."
He shrugs, kicking over the last of the open hatches, to block the sight of the remains interred within. "But I am certainly no expert on such things. There may have indeed been some reasoning to these creatures being placed here, which we may never know."
It's not hard to see that Marak seems notably less distressed by the presence of undead than he was in the room with the torture implements...
Looking up after Kallie's words about cleansing the place, he nods. "Yes, I had already intended to return here later and conduct a proper burial for the remains we found in the prison area. These poor souls as well deserve better than to be left in the pits where they most likely died unremembered."
"But that will have to wait for another day. We must focus on the needs of the living first."
He will wait to see what effect Kallie's healing flames have on Muchorak's wounds before expending any of his own curing magics.
Muchorak reveals his bloody clothes, "I've stopped the flow and treated the wound, though for it to fully heal I need rest, unless you possess shamanic magics to increase the healing."
Muchorak reveals his bloody clothes, "I've stopped the flow and treated the wound, though for it to fully heal I need rest, unless you possess shamanic magics to increase the healing."
"It's not that exactly..." Kallie stopped herself before she started in on her routine. Remembering the glare Muchorak had given her and suspecting the Shoanti were suspicious in general, she thought it would be best to explain matters before she did anything. "It's the same fire I've been using on those creatures, but it only harms evil things. I think. But it actually heals people too. Some people." She opted not to mention the criteria she suspected it required to heal someone. Best not to start making judgments of these people in front of their faces...
She slowly reached out and nearly touched the Shoanti man's shoulder, looking at him questioningly to make sure he really wanted her to try. White flame leapt from the tip of her finger and flowed over Muchorak's body, doing no visible harm to him or his clothing.
Muchorak is hesitant about Kalie's magic, and certainly after he hears her own hesitance in her voice. Knowing he must trust in his new 'hunting' companions and confident that if anything goes wrong the Shaman can heal his wounds. Muchorak stands tall and proud showing no weakness and preparing himself for any pain that may commense.
Feeling the softness and his wound healing he visible relaxes. Muchorak quickly reaches out and grabs hold of Kalie's hand before she can pull it away and in as soft a voice he can muster, "Believe in the strength of your magics." And he quickly releases and returns to a stoic pose as if nothing happened.
... Muchorak stands tall and proud showing no weakness and preparing himself for any pain that may commense.
Feeling the softness and his wound healing he visible relaxes. Muchorak quickly reaches out and grabs hold of Kalie's hand before she can pull it away and in as soft a voice he can muster, "Believe in the strength of your magics." And he quickly releases and returns to a stoic pose as if nothing happened.
Romon looks on vaguely jealous of the attention Kali is paying the barbarian. He interprets the big man's stance as theater of bravado, the sort of thing Romon's city friends pretended to, rather than genuine stoicism. Noticing the quick hand-grasp, he thinks, Calistria's charms! He's smooth when he wants to be.
Kallies fire burns green when she uses it on Muchorak....he feels no heat instead it spreads across him like a cooling balm healing his wounds instantly.
what next oh brave adventurers
what next oh brave adventurers
"Let's try the passage to the south. I took a look before. It was pretty shadowy, but there might have been a door at the far end." Romon waits for the normal marching order to queue up ahead of him.
Kallie was startled by Muchorak's gesture, but his words put her at ease even as they confused her further. She had absolutely no idea what to make of the man and his manner. Are they all so straightforward on the Plateau? But still...I know he must be a good person at least. She smiled awkwardly back at him, unused to doing so in front of strangers. She felt a bit guilty for thinking he was some sort of brute back at the inn.
As she thought over his words further she realized she had relaxed a bit compared to the earlier anxiety and frustration she had been feeling earlier. He's right! I haven't even begun to use my magic down here yet! And nothing has stopped us yet! We can burn this evil out of here ourselves right here, right now! Her grin widened and her eyes had an eager glint in them as she answered Romon's suggestion. "Yeah, let's not leave anything unchecked."
what next oh brave adventurers
"Let's try the passage to the south. I took a look before. It was pretty shadowy, but there might have been a door at the far end." Romon waits for the normal marching order to queue up ahead of him.
"I agree, let's take the passage and root our whatever we can find."
Ali, nods and, flowing back to wolf form, pads silently and carefully down the new passage
You make your way down the passage a small side alcove leading to another blocked stairwell where,again,it would be almost impossible to shift the rock without great effort from a large number of workers.
The ensd of the passage is indeed blocked by a door Romon checks, clears and opens it and you find yourselves ilooking at a strange sight
This strange room consists of a fifteen-foot-diameter sphere.Several objects float in the room, spinning lazily in space—a ragged book, a scroll, a bottle of wine, a dead raven surrounded by a halo of floating and writhing maggots, and a twisted iron wand with a forked tip. Yet perhaps the most unnerving aspect of the room is the walls, for they are plated in sheets of strange red metal that ripple every once in a while with silent black electricity that seems to coalesce into strange runes or even words far too often for the effect to be chance.
"What is this room?" Muchorak looks at the floating debri then the others, "Anyone have a net?"
"The book, wand, scroll and raven make me think a sorceror met his end here. They are all things associated with spellcasters. The maggots around the raven suggest that it died within the last few days; otherwise they would be flies by now."
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Marak activates his detect magic ability, attempting to determine what sort of magic is present, since he's already sure that there is some magic here.
He is also very interested in the words and runes appearing and disappearing, and will spend the two rounds that it takes his detect magic to reach the intensity necessary for school identification looking for some sort of meaning or pattern.
17 on Knowledge (arcana) roll to tell what sort of magic is present.
Kallie also tried to detect what magic was present and discern exactly what it was. "That poor raven..." she said before guiltily adding, "That poor man..." She quickly barreled past her faux pas, mostly to keep her nerve in such strange surroundings. "This place just gets stranger and stranger. Inikai, do you know of any sorcerers that have gone missing lately? If this man hasn't been here that long..." She wracked her own brain, trying to remember any such recent news in Sandpoint.
"This place just gets stranger and stranger. Inikai, do you know of any sorcerers that have gone missing lately? If this man hasn't been here that long..." She wracked her own brain, trying to remember any such recent news in Sandpoint.
"I was wondering the same thing" Knowledge (local) 20
After opening the door , Romon gazes briefly at the strange room before relinquishing his spot at the doorway to others more suited to plumb the rooms mysteries.
Inakai
Marak
Kallie
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Using Hand of the Acolyte, Marak reaches magically out across the distance and summons the floating book towards himself.
"Some sort of transformative magics occupy this room, although they seem surprisingly feeble for the effects we are seeing. I would advise against stepping foot into the room, in any event."
"I concur." Kallie piped in. "We may want to hold off on sticking anything else in there while we're touching it too." she said to Muchorak as she took an apple from her basket and prepared to toss it into the room; knowing what a powerful corrupting influence the shrine apparently had was making her nervous about touching anything down here.
She looked back to Marak and Inikai to see if there were any objectjions.
She looked back to Marak and Inikai to see if there were any objectjions.
Kallie lobs the apple into the room and you watch in astonishment as it is lifted up by an unseen force to join the dance of objects.
Now at the back of the crowd, Romon strains to see Kalie's trick. He thinks, That's incredible. I could fly in there. As long as I had a rope and some friends to pull me out...
Kallie watched in wonder at how the room's magic seemed to work. She resisted the urge to throw something else in simply to see it again. "I wonder if that man wound up trapped in there, floating and unable to walk out... Do you still want to try and fish him out?"
Ali's companions are treated to the rare and comidic sight of a wolf standing with jaw agape in amazement. Finally, her wonder overwhelms her and she morphs back into Gnome form so she can speak "What do this be?! What do this be? "
Mostly out of curiosity rather than any notion that she'll be able to figure it out, the petite Wild Druid focus for a minute on the trick she's learned to 'see' magic. (detects magic)
Filled with excitement and wonder she almost takes a step forward before turning back to Big Bear and the others with the question "Ali go for swim in sky! Good good! Yes yes?"
"I concur." Kallie piped in. "We may want to hold off on sticking anything else in there while we're touching it too." she said to Muchorak as she took an apple from her basket and prepared to toss it into the room; knowing what a powerful corrupting influence the shrine apparently had was making her nervous about touching anything down here.
She looked back to Marak and Inikai to see if there were any objectjions.
"Somehow an apple seems to be a uniquely unsuitable fruit for testing whether something will fall to the ground."
"Ali,Muchorak are there any signs that people walked here recently?"
Kallie tried to hide her confusion at Inikai's remark. Probably some academic in-joke or something...don't ask, it'll just make you look like a dullard. Shrugging it off with a faint laugh, she said, "We could still try rope by itself though, can't we? If everything in there is floating, you could just tie a noose and...sort of...'fish' things out of there. Maybe?"
It was hard to deny Ali's curiosity, but the raven's corpse... "Wait. Those maggots are still alive! If there was any magic in there that killed that raven, it should have killed the maggots as well, shouldn't it?"
Ali's companions are treated to the rare and comidic sight of a wolf standing with jaw agape in amazement. Finally, her wonder overwhelms her and she morphs back into Gnome form so she can speak "What do this be?! What do this be? "
Mostly out of curiosity rather than any notion that she'll be able to figure it out, the petite Wild Druid focus for a minute on the trick she's learned to 'see' magic. (detects magic)
Filled with excitement and wonder she almost takes a step forward before turning back to Big Bear and the others with the question "Ali go for swim in sky! Good good! Yes yes?"
Muchurok looks at Wolf Spirit, "No, I would think it not safe, this place is befouled with vileness and dark magics." Turning to Inikai, "There are no tracks about but ours, with our travel to this room and about the door way the only tracks we may find will be our own."
"I suggest we gather what we can with Marak's magics, then return the double doors we came upon earlier."
Ali's companions are treated to the rare and comidic sight of a wolf standing with jaw agape in amazement. Finally, her wonder overwhelms her and she morphs back into Gnome form so she can speak "What do this be?! What do this be? "
Mostly out of curiosity rather than any notion that she'll be able to figure it out, the petite Wild Druid focus for a minute on the trick she's learned to 'see' magic. (detects magic)
Filled with excitement and wonder she almost takes a step forward before turning back to Big Bear and the others with the question "Ali go for swim in sky! Good good! Yes yes?"
Looking at Wolf Spirit, "I would think not Wolf Spirit, this place is befouled with dark magics and vileness, I would not trust any magics remaining behind from past times."
Turning to Inikai, "Tracks would be impossible to find, we have all traversed this hall too much, especially with getting to the door way to examine the room. I suggest once Marak has finished gathering anything of interest from this room we move back to the double doors we came upon earlier. It is time to find this demon and finish this task."
..Those with detect magic can easily see that the scroll and wand both radiate Magic.
Once Marak has gathered in all the items worth retrieving you can analyse the wand and scan the scroll..its an arcane scroll of Burning hands.
Kallie
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Marak summons the scroll as well with his power, as Kallie seems to have the wand well in hand. He'll then gesture and summon the apple back, leaving the raven floating there alone, with it's entourage of maggots.
Brushing the apple against his tunic to make sure that it is clean (and doesn't have any maggots attached to it), he'll sniff it once and if nothing smells amiss, will take a bite.
"CRUNCH!!"
Mmmhhh tasty apple.
"Muchorak is right. We should return to the double doors and confront whatever is behind them."
Although she looks a bit disappointed at first that she will not get to 'fly', the small but viscous Gnome does perk up a bit at the idea of finally finding and destroying those they came down here to hunt. Squinting her eyes and looking around, seemingly ready to bite something right now, Ali says "Yes yes, we go find'um big bad one. Ali want kill'um quick and go back in outside. We be too long in dark place now"
Once everyone seems ready, Ali naturally flows back to four leg form and pads down the passageways leading to the double-doors.
Welcome to level three ladies and gents...new feat time...spontaneous casters gain new spells immediately..Marak will unfortunately have to wait till he prays.
Stunned by Marak's bravery in matters of fresh fruit, Kallie forgot to mention what she had just noticed until it seemed they were about to move.
"Oh, um...Muchorak." She coughed. "I'm not certainly exactly how, but that blade you took of that..." she motioned towards the body of the deformed creature. "It seems to be ensorcelled with magicks just beyond my ken." She was falling back into old habits quickly...
She wasn't entirely certain why, but she was feeling more energetic. She felt a certain tingle that couldn't just be nerves.
Muchorak turns to Kali, "I assure you I have no intent of using the blade until its magicks are deemed safe for us."
Romon eyes the "flying room". I've got to come back and try this. , he thinks.
Then he falls into his usual place in the company.
As Ali pads along to what may be their final encounter in these evil halls, her mind begins to review her experiences of the past few days. It seems as if a voice from outside herself yet also within her, one she well recognizes by now, begins speaking to her. Slowly at first, then faster and faster until with a mental flash, she suddenly realizes that she understands... more, that she Is more. Feeling more powerful and confidant than ever, the small wolf continues padding along.
You make your way back to to the shrine meeting nothing on your way..you have now been down here perhaps 3 or 4 hours.
Please make any final preparations you wish before you open the doors and we will get on
Kallie looked over the scrolls she had been given, burning the purpose and the proper time to use each one to memory so that she didn't waste any of them in a moment of panic. She had already expended most of her power already. "So, nothing left behind us. All we have is to move forward, right?" There was a bit of nervous excitement in her eyes now. She had been dwelling on these doors for too long now.
As they reach the doors, Ali flows back to her small Gnome form. Putting her hand up in a stop motion she says with her version of a stern look of command "Wait, wait, Ali need do some magic! Watch this! Ali learn something New!"
Scrunching up her face in concentration the Wild Druid first casts 3 spells, one on Big Bear, one on 'Icki', and one on herself. As she gently touches her friends they feel their bodies grow and swell with fierce power as seemingly does Ali herself . She then casts a final spell on herself and the more observant of her companions swear they see a glint of something on her teeth and nails for a moment. Looking relieved, happy and a bit surprised, she nods once contentedly and says "Ok, we can go kill'um now". Without another word she flows back into wolf form and looks to big bear or one of the others to open the doors.
OOC
-Casts Animalistic Power (+2 to STR, DEX & CON for 3 min) on herself and the other two
-Casts Magic Fang on herself
You make your way back to to the shrine meeting nothing on your way..you have now been down here perhaps 3 or 4 hours.
Please make any final preparations you wish before you open the doors and we will get on
Romon shakes out his arms and legs. "Did anyone bring some food or water along? I had no idea we'd be down here so long."
He is unconvinced that what lies behind these doors will be much different from the rest of the underground complex. More to fit in with the others than for any other reason, he checks that his sword slides easily from its scabbard and lays his bow and an arrow beside the door where he will be able to quickly grab it after opening the door.
Romon shakes out his arms and legs. "Did anyone bring some food or water along? I had no idea we'd be down here so long."
"Here, I have a full waterskin."