Evesk recognizes the pool as a minor runewell : every time a creature with an evil soul dies within a mile of a minor runewell, it gains "Wrath". Each time the well’s waters are drawn upon (for example, to create sinspawn), Wrath is expended. If enough Wrath is expended to put its total at 0 or negative Wrath, the well deactivates and its waters fade away. Any living creature that enters the runewell experiences freezing cold and rage. Once a minor runewell is deactivated, it can be destroyed forever by filling it with holy water and performing a ritual that sets the well to boil for 24 hours.
Jzero finds no indications of any specific rituals performed here.
Johhann's arrow is still intact. You can pull it from Erylium body.
Johhann finds on the body :
Tiny cold iron dagger (useable only by Size -2 creatures or smaller)
Tiara (50 GP)
She wears a piece of obsidian as a necklace with a symbol on it.
Evesk - make another Occult roll.
"Ah, it sounds like we do not have the means to destroy this. Perhaps talk to any clerics back in town when we get back?"
Otherwise, looks like we're headed to B3 on the map. I think we'd stay in the worked hallway area to get there...
Crastor nods and will ready his weapon before starting down the next hallway to a new unexplored area.
Gathering up the items from the body of the evil fey, Johhann follows the others heading down the hallway.
You come to an intersection . There's a corridor to the left, a corridor straight ahead, and to the right the corridor opens to a 12' by 18' area with a statue in it, which depicts a strikingly beautiful but, at the same time, monstrously enraged human woman, her stony expression twisted in fury. The woman wears flowing robes, and her long hair is held back from her face by an intricate headdress of hooks and blades. In her left hand she carries a large book, the face of which is inscribed with a seven-pointed star. All of this is in red marble. Her right hand holds a glittering metal-and-ivory ranseur.
The chamber narrows to another corridor continuing off to the right.
Which way?
Velrek looks the statue up and down. "Well, she seems angry. Who is she?"
"No idea, but wearing a bunch of hooks and blades seems like it would make me mad. I wonder if that ranseur comes free?" Crastor says as he gives it an appraising look.
Jzero shakes his head at the statue. "Some kind of evil cult has been using area. I know nothing about such religions here but I doubt it matters if they are evil."
Does anyone want to try to do anything with the statue?
Votes for which way?
"What do you know of this cult? I think we should take the Ranseur, but I have no idea if it is cursed. Was the cult know for cursing their foes? We could also try and take it when we are finished down here." Crastor asks as he considers the valuable looking item.
Evesk informs the others about the pool and says, "We will need to destory this thing as soon as possible but that can wait until we clear this place of its evil residents."
He then follows the others out of the room but pauses at the evil thing that dispenses water and takes his warhammer and does his best to break it in order to destroy its magic which he assumes it has due to its evil aura.
He then goes back to following the others as before.
Upon reaching the statue, he scrutinizes it and then asks Ceri, "Is that thing", indicating the statue, "magical in anyway?"
Evesk - you can make an Occult roll at -2 to determine if you know how to destroy the pool. I'm assuming you're attacking the basin in room B12 - if that's the case, you can eventually shatter the rock it's made of. It might take up to a minute to hit it hard enough, however.
The statue is not inherently evil itself.
Ceri pauses a few moments and says "I can't detect anything magical about it".
Crastor has to tug on it a bit, but the weapon finally comes free from the statue's grasp. Nothing else happens.
ALL - votes for which way to go???
Evesk takes the time needed to shatter the basin .
At the statue Evesk waits to see which direction those leading plan to go while he keeps watch for any potential threats.
When the group gets to the B3 area Velrek will look into the cave type passage to see if it connects to where they were before.. (as his player thinks) and look at the other two options.
"Always go right and down (?) stirs or keep straight to check out the e rest of this level?"
If there is no decisive vote he'll go for finishing out the 'current level'
"Let's finish off this level before descending into the unknown!"
The halfling keeps his bow at the ready as he scans the room for any clues.
Survival (looking for tracks):
Wild:
"I agree that we should make sure nothing is left behind us." Crastor says as he straps the ranseur to his pack and then moves up to the door leading north and looks around for any traps.
Jzero moves so the torchlight illuminates the area Velrek checks out. He otherwise is happy to let others decide where to go next.
Johhann - I'm assuming "the room" is the alcove with the statue in it - if so, you see no obvious tracks.
Crastor - there's no sounds coming from behind the door, and no traps you can see.
It opens into a room about 18' by 18', whose floor is made of wood, with exits to the left, right, and straight ahead. Walking in a little, you can see that the left and right exits have stairs going a short ways down to stone floors. The straight ahead exit is also made of wood, and quickly turns to the right.
Which way?
Velrek looks at the three choices, mumbles something about needing to pay attention better and turns to the left (towards the side map edge) to see where those stairs head.
Jzero moves with the group, focusing on possible threats.
Johhann sniffs and follows Craster as he heads to the door.
"I could detect no other tracks here...but that accounts for little"
"I don't see anything that looks dangerous." Crastor says as he opens the door to see what lies beyond.
ALL - which way : left (down a short flight of stairs), right (ditto), straight ahead?
Everyone can see past the edge of the wooden platform that the walls of the large room are lined with cells. The torchlight just barely reaches the walls, dimly illuminating the cells. There is nothing living in them, just dusty bones of long-dead prisoners.
The only exit is to stay on the platform, and take the northern walkway which quickly turns east into descending stairs that merge with a corridor.
The only way to go is the upper-left corridor. If anyone wants to explore this room in more detail, say what you're doing within the next day.
Velrek will take a walk around the cells to be sure no one is still in any of them, and to see if a cell was maybe sued for storage. He doesn't expect to find anything. He will then continue to follow the wooden walkway around to new areas.
Jzero goes with Velrek as backup should something prove not dead, or undead.
Crastor goes to stand on the wooden platform to keep an eye on the area as the others check for prisoners.
Johhann takes his place on the walkway above and covers the others with his bow.
Evesk walks up to a railing looking down upon the other two but being confident in their abilities and simply waits for them to return from their current scouting mission but ready to race down and help them should something unexpected occur.
After checking the room, everyone heads down the wooden ramp to the corridor in the northeast part of the room.
After just a few steps, you come to a room which contains several ancient torture implements, though their function and style seem strange and archaic. In one corner sits a spherical cage with spikes protruding inward from its iron bars. In another stands what appears to be a star-shaped wooden frame, its surface studded with hooks. A long table covered with decaying leather straps and a number of cranks designed to rotate and swivel sits at the center of the room. All of the torture devices here seem to have seen plenty of use a long time ago, but are far too decayed or rusted to be of any use today.
There's a door on the east wall and a door on the south wall.
Which way?
Crastor will head over to the southern door and search it.
Velrek waits, watching a master at his work and then, when all signal ready, he opens the door Crastor was checking.
(assuming no trap... if trapped, he'll wait!)
Crastor finds nothing suspicious.
Velrek opens the door, and sees the crumbling remnants of several chairs and a long table clutter the floor of this room. There are fragments of countless books and scrolls with bits of spiky writing in a strange language all over them in the rubble. To the south stand three stone doors, each bearing a strange symbol that resembles a seven-pointed star.
Hearing no sounds coming from behind the doors, Velrek opens them. They are prison cells. Within each is a single skeleton of a badly deformed humanoid; one has three brittle arms, another has an enormous misshapen skull, and the third has a rib cage that goes all the way down to its pelvis—a pelvis with stunted leg bones strewn below its strangely flat girth.
The only way to go now is thru the door at the east end of the hallway. Hearing no sounds and finding no traps, Velrek (I assume) opens it.
There's a short series of steps down, leading to a large room. The ceiling of this strangely cold chamber arches to a vaulted height of twenty feet. The floor contains eleven wooden lids strewn haphazardly over eleven six-foot-wide pits in the ground which echo up strange shuffling sounds and, every so often, a low moan.
There's only one exit to the room to the south, an opening into a corridor. If anyone wants to do anything in either of these last two rooms, before going that way, post it now...
Crastor moves up to one of the wooden lids and points down. He gives everyone a chance to prepare as he gets read to shift the cover to see what lies below.
Johhann moves into range with his bow at the ready and nods to Crastor to tell him that he is ready.
In the previous room, Velrek checks out the books and odd scrolls full of writing he most assuredly can't read.
"Can anyone read this?"
If no one can, "Odd. We should take some back to show to a scholar or something."
He'll grab a bunch of the papers and a book or two that is only 'mostly dead.'
He'll look at the symbols on the door, "Anyone know what these are?""
Finally he will look at the bones and just shrug.
" I got nothing. These poor wretches.."
In the current room Velrek will walk up opposite of Crastor, raise his sword and nod.
Evesk takes a moment to look at the items that Velrek has turned up to ascertain if they are in a language that he can read.
When Crastor moves to get ready to move a cover Evesk gets into a position to help defend him should something come up out of the pit.
Jzero observes what he can in each room. He is no scholar and assumes that once the complex is proven to have no threats remaining, those with expertise in languages and religion can study the contents of the rooms for clues as to the things that might have taken place there and who might have used it. The decayed torture implements suggest to him that whoever used it is likely long gone, although someone associated with the goblin plot might well have been here more recently, perhaps looking for something or perhaps finding something that led to the plots.
He breathes steadily as the lid of one of the pits is lifted, ready to fight something hostile or aid a prisoner.
As Crastor lifts the wooden lid, he notices that it's quite thin and rotten, stepping on one would probably break it. Below the lid there is a 20 foot deep hole. If Jzero holds the torch directly above the hole, you can make out a human form with rotten flesh just barely sticking to its bones. Yet it is moving around, and reacts with a load moan of pain to the bright light.
A few seconds later, you hear a high-pitched scream coming from the south corridor, and in bursts a goblin. Well, you think it's a goblin, but it's horribly disfigured. It is hunchbacked, making it look even smaller than usual, but most notably it has a third arm coming out of its right shoulder. Each hand holds a weapon - a red-hot sword, a gleaming dagger, and a handaxe. Its eyes literally glow with a menacing red light.
It screams "How dare you harm my pets! Koruvus kill you all!"
Initiative
Crastor - JOKER! +2 to all rolls, everyone gets a Bennie!
Jzero - KS
Ceri - KC
Evesk - QD
Johhann - 10S
Koruvus – 5D
Velrek - 4H
Everyone except Velrek is up, in order of posting! Even if someone before you seems to do a lot of damage, say (and roll) what you want to do anyway.
Crastor steps up and cries out "Yarrrggh!" as he brings his warhammer down on the mutated goblin.
Velrek involuntarily winces as that warhammer hits...
Momentarily appalled and the aberration in front of him, he quickly recovers as Crastor lays into the thing and joins him in destroying this abmonition.
But Crastor's hit caused the creature to shift its position slightly and his blade cleanly misses its target.
Not actually surprised by the sudden appearance of the creature, Johhann takes aim at the creature...making sure that he does not hit Crastor.