The wooden stage is painted black and currently decorated to look like a jungle underworld, with fake plants, vines, and a backdrop of jungle scenery. An orchestra pit separates the stage from the main opera house and a thick, red velvet curtain conceals the main doors to the back stage area.
The backstage area is crowded with the various and sundried clutter of the theater. The floors are painted black and the walls are covered in dozens of painted handbills and posters of previous operas performed here. Dozens of costume racks and painted backdrops are set up here to be wheeled out on stage for the proper scenes. There are doors that lead to actor's dressing rooms on either side as well as spiral staircases that descend beneath the Opera House.
Taking your cue, you take the stairway down to the basement level below.
Used primarily to store larger set pieces no longer used, this musty basement is now the home to a dig project that extends into the bedrock east of the room. This room is well lit by standing lamps.
Glistening with water, the slick walls and floor of these tunnels were recently carved from the thick bedrock beneath Oppara. Well lit by standing lamps, the tunnels stretch into an adjacent chamber, seemingly carved from the bedrock as well. However, the adjacent chamber is made of smooth walls, covered in strange glyphs, and also lit by the same standing lamps. At the center of that chamber stands a tall stone dais. In the middle of the dais is a huge boulder which, by all appearances, fell a great distance before crashing here. The boulder glows with an eerie green light.
The path travels through slippery, winding passages before it joins with another and then opens into the finished chamber ahead. The stealthier members of the party move slowly and carefully forward and as the light shifts, you notice a guard on the steps and a pale, gaunt man standing just beside the great rock. His eyes flicker your way as some subtle sound has attracted his attention.
Round 1
---------------------------------
Ukou Xaio
Enemy
Caladin
_and Serene
Zoge
_and Sieshin
Phineas
Aznive
Round 1
---------------------------------
Ukou Xaio
Enemy
Caladin
_and Serene
Zoge
_and Sieshin
Phineas
Aznive
Ukou gets up the stairs, to the astonishment of the guard, who immediately responds!
Attack
Damage
The strange man drinks a potion!
A nasty looking zombie shuffles in at Ukou!
Aznive breaks cover unseen by the zombie.
But her swing goes wide!
Zoge manages to tag the leader with an arrow!
Red = 3
R1
Caladin
_and Serene
Zoge - Arrows!
_and Sieshin
Phineas
Aznive -attacks
R2
Ukou
Phineas rushes in, sword in hand!
Attack
To no avail!
Referee whistle
Referee whistle
Play ball!
Ukou fails to disarm the potion, but what happens is almost hard to watch - this wasn't a fight, this was just butchery.
The Zombis is still up, but the guard has lost the will to fight at this point, taking a defensive footing and looking for an exit.
|
Aznive is taken aback by the brutality of Ukou's attack, but recovers quickly. We've seen this much violence already. Better it be a quick kill... "That was ... efficient, Ukou. It seems you have stopped their plan once and for all."
Standing next to Phineas, Aznive tries to deal with the zombie, making an awkard slice at it with her dagger.
She glares at the shaken guard, making it clear that he shouldn't go anyway. At least he'll be able to talk, hopefully we can make some sense of their twisted plan.
The guard gets the message, he accepts defeat and surrenders.
The Zombie stands little chance against the full might of a Pathfinder adventuring group and is quickly over run.
The party having cleared out the threats returns to the Opparan nobles trapped in the theatre and finishes seeing to their rescue.
The Zyphus Stone is a terrible artifact and as Pathfinders you immediately know that its acquisition could be both a boon and a terrible burden for the Society.
It is a choice between taking the time and effort necessary to destroy the stone, thus ridding the world of its potent necromantic magic, or returning the stone either to the Grand Lodge in Absalom or to the Pathfinder Lodge in Oppara for safe-keeping. A choice you leave to wiser and cooler minds, and ones informed by the wagging tongue of a captured fellow who might reveal some information...
As a party you extensively search the House of the Immortal Son for Wuthers, and find his zombie corpse among the dead theatre foyer. In his belt pouch is a draft of the final letter he wrote to Venture-Captain Eliza Petulengro, wherein he details the final stages of the dig and the strange character of his companion—noted as “cleric of Irori” but clearly Bustani the gaunt fanatic. His pouch also contains a personal journal, a shorthand record of his many adventures as a Pathfinder.
Surprisingly, more than half of the theatergoers survived the zombie onslaught by gathering together and fighting off the undead menace. Because your mighty party dealt with Quint’s roving band bent on stamping out resistance as well as defeating Bustrani himself, the wealthy socialites and nobility of Oppara now have several dinner parties’ worth of sordid zombie stories with which to frighten
and awe their friends.