Cinnabar, now warded against the mummies fearfulness, circles the mummy and strikes at it from behind.
"That'll be enough of that s~#&," the dhampir growls, punching at the mummy's throat.
Aurelia tries to intimidate the mummy while she uses her ill omen spell on it, hoping to buy the girls some more time.
Cinnabar misses the mummy but Nicoleta hits it in the throat, hampering its spellcasting ability. Laori calls down a column of flame on it, damaging the mummy, though it seems resistant to the fire.
The mummy raises its arms, surrounding itself with a swirling blast of superheated sand!
Aurelia tries to fire a bolt into the mummy, but grumbles about sticking to magic.
The spell catches Nicoleta offguard, the heated sand blasting across her skin. She rallies right back, though, kicking and punching at the dried-up undead.
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Cinnabar leaps through the sand seemingly without a care in the world and sets to serious work.
Nicoleta and Cinnabar pummel and slice the mummy, and at last, it falls!
Cinnabar pokes through the gear but finds nothing that interests her and turns away, ready to deal with the inevitable next threat.
"Was that the fourth chain?" She asks, having not paid all that much attention to the strange magical implications at the moment.
"I doubt it," Nicoleta replies. She looks to the others for confirmation before moving on to the next chamber.
”Nope! We still haven’t found it yet, but it’s somewhere nearby!” Laori assures you.
Sial remains silent and brooding, sharing a glance with his eidolon.
Stairs nearby lead down into a vast chamber. This vast chamber is floored in gray slate and supported by thick pillars of obsidian. Torches mounted on the pillars burn, yet their flames are strangely dim, barely lighting the cathedral-like space. White pinpoints of light seem to dance in the eye sockets of each skull that decorates the pillars. To the northwest, a tall statue of a skull-headed man dressed in dark robes stands behind a black marble altar, on which lies heaped mounds of ashes, bits of bone, and a single skull, its teeth and eye sockets set with glittering gemstones. Jagged, barbed chains dangle from the statue’s eye sockets. Thick black curtains hang from the chamber’s walls.
”There! That’s the anchor!” Laori says, pointing to the skull.
"Just a note ..." Nicoleta says, leaning in close to whisper to Aurelia. "Whoever decorated this place? Don't use them to do our flat, ok?"
Her ears perk up when Laori points at the skull.
"So we just destroy the skull? Sure. How hard could that be?" she questions with a shrug of her shoulders. She cracks her neck in one direction and then the other before approaching the gem encrusted bones intending to give it a swift kick.
Cinnabar mutters a spell, causing Nicoleta to move much faster. The assassin for some reason keeps looking at Sial...
Aurelia scoffs at Nicoleta's remark, "A bit too dark for me, I think."
"You're good at smashing skulls, Peaches. Get it done so we can get out of here!!"
"Wait!" she says, placing her hand on Nicoleta's shoulder. "Take this." She waves her hand and mutters a few words as she casts a spell on the dhampir. "Alright. Go get it done."
Before Nicoleta can try to smash the skull, Laori reaches out to hold her back. "Wait a minute! I read about this before. I think that the skull is a really powerful kinda undead called a demilich! It's what happens when a lich gets really old and pulls away from the world so much that its body just falls apart, leaving only a skull. If the stories are true, it won't do anything until you disturb it, but then it will rise up and try to suck out your soul!"
"Oh," is Nicoleta's surprised response. She looks again at the skull and then back at Aurelia. "No sucking today then. Is there any other way to release the magic binding the guardian?"
She moves closer to the remains, looking them over carefully, but being very careful not to disturb them.
"Theoretically, a succesful casting of dispel evil or dispel law, or any antimagic effect, would remove the spirit anchor," Sial says pedantically. "But I do not believe anybody here is capable of casting any of those spells."
The dhampir turns to look back at Sial. She pulls out the top of her robes to look down her cleavage. "Nope no dispel evil, dispel law, or any other antimagic effects," she says with a roll of her eyes. "Just a pair of perfect t$%&."
Shaking her head in annoyance, she turns back to the skull.
"Do we do this the old fashioned way, then?" she asks, taking an attacking stance.
Once you are ready, Nicoleta starts things off with a kick to the skull. It resists much of the damage, only a tiny bit chipping off of it. But the skull then begins to float in the air, the ashes and bone fragments scattering as if caught in a vortex around the altar.
Cinnabar attacks with a whirlwind of her own - wreathed with steel.
Nicoleta focuses a little more and then throws everything she has into punching and kicking the rising bones - discarding grace for power.
Aurelia tries to hold the demilch in place with her mind.
Cinnabar slashes and slices while Nicoleta punches and pummels for all she is worth. Fortunately, that proves to be worth quite a lot, as she hammers on a weak point in the demilich's skull to bypass its impressive damage reduction. Before the undead can even fully react, it lies shattered in pieces across the temple! Its gemstones clatter out of the broken skull, and with an echoing sound of breaking chains, you feel the final spiritual anchor dissolving. You can now face the chained spirit and try to lift the curse on Castle Scarwall!
Aurelia is quick to pluck out its eyes, ogling over the shinies. "Nice work ladies!"
Nicoleta grunts in satisfaction and half-heartedly kicks one of the bone splinters across the room just because.
She eyes the gems that Aurelia is holding and grins. Stepping close, she takes one in her hand and examines it closely. "This would make for a good pendent," she says. She holds the stone up to the top of her wife's cleavage. "I can see it dangling right ... here." An instant later and the cold stone drops down into the depths of Aurelia's top.
"Whoops," Nicoleta says with a grin. "Keep it safe and warm, Sweet Cheeks. I'll get it later."
She turns to the others. "Let's go get us a sword."
You return to the great hall where the chained spirit lurks. This time, you see there are no chains binding it to the spot. Until it can establish new spirit anchors, it is vulnerable to permanent destruction!
The spirit knows this, of course, and it turns to face you, sensing the presence of those that rendered it so vulnerable. It shrieks in rage, and four other specters who were attending it echo the shriek as they rush to attack!
Nicoleta twists and twirls, avoiding the spirits’ attacks!
In her spins and twirls Nicoleta strikes out at the previously-chained spirit.
Cinnabar attacks one of the specters surrounding Nicoleta.
Aurelia groans as she has to wiggle the gem out of her breasts. "Oh. I'm going to get you back for that one later!" she teases.
When the spirits begin to attack, Aurelia leaps to action by bestowing back luck on it.
Roz unleashes a burst of positive energy, healing her allies of and damaging the spirits. Cinnabar slices one of the specters while Aurelia curses the chained spirit with an ill omen. Nicoleta pummels the lead spirit with her enchanted fists.
Once more, Nicoleta proves hard to catch, spinning and dodging away from all of the undead!
Cinnabar continues her grim work in silence.
After intimidating it, Aurelia tries to make the spirit bored of this engagement.
Reveling in the dance of battle, Nicoleta laughs at the incorporeal figures that fail to touch her. She continues to strike at the leader.
Roz unleashes another powerful burst of healing energy, and combined with Cinnabar's and Nicoleta's deadly strikes, the chained spirit and the spectres are destroyed! The spirit wails and shrieks as he is defeated, and then his body twists and spirals as if caught in a vortex. A heartbeat later, he is gone. After a few moments, the walls of the castle begin to shimmer and brighten as the shadows that cling to every inch of the cursed structure fade. The sound of countless sighs whisper in the ear, and the oppressive sense of menace overlying the structure fades.
A few moments later, a small luminescence forms before you. It rapidly increases in brightness until a figure manifests before you, being that of a confused looking human man in early adulthood. He wears finely cut, if long-out-of-style, clothing and is clearly a noble of some sort.
As the figure looks around and notices yous, his ghostly flesh strips away, revealing raw muscle and bone below as if he’s being flayed by invisible knives. However, after being reduced in this horrible fashion, his skin reappears, only for the process to start all over again. The ghost seems to hardly notice his continuing mutilation, with only the occasional flinch as a particularly tender bit of skin is tugged away.
When he speaks, his accent is distinctly Ustalavic and archaic, yet his words are clear, manifesting as sounds as much as they do telepathic thoughts.
“You have done a great thing today. You have accomplished the conclusion of a legend. What has festered in Scarwall is no more, and in saving us all, you have returned honor to Tamrivena after these long years of shame—a shame I created, and a shame I was unable to lift. I sent Kazavon into Belkzen so many ages ago. Eventually, when even my coward’s soul could no longer bear to hear tell of his cruelties, I came here to Scarwall to attempt to undo what I had done in asking for the Midnight Lord’s aid in defending Tamrivena. Yet again I failed. My general, Kazavon, had me skinned alive and ate the strips raw before my dying gaze. And when I did die, my soul remained trapped here as surely as any prisoner.
“There came a time soon thereafter when Kazavon was finally slain, along with many of his cruel minions, by a powerful blade borne by a hero named Mandraivus. His blade Serithtial brought an end to Kazavon’s rule, yet could not quench his spirit, for Kazavon was one of the Midnight Lord’s chosen. Mandraivus wisely ordered the dragon’s relics taken away, then remained behind to watch over the castle. His faith, his strength of will, and most of all, Serithtial kept the spirits of the dead quiet, yet these did nothing to protect him from a baser threat. The orcs came down from the mountains and murdered him. As he fell, his soul became trapped in these cursed walls. Without his presence, the light of Serithtial went dark, and the spirits of Kazavon’s legacy took hold. This is the blasphemy you have righted today, and now Scarwall will be left to crumble to dust as the ages march on.
“Yet I sense that your quest is only partially complete. I have dwelled in Kazavon’s echo for too long not to feel his strength, his influence, take root in your queen, so far away. Strange names that I do not know are in my head. Korvosa. Ileosa. Sabina. Your own. Kazavon quickens in your home, and you must recover Serithtial if you are to cast him down as surely as you have cast down his presence here. Yet a fallen agent of the Midnight Lord still subdues the threat Serithtial poses to Kazavon. While the sacred blade cannot be destroyed so readily, nor even taken far from this place without invoking the wrath of Iomedae... it can remain hidden.
“I can still feel a presence in this place, a power linked to the Midnight Lord. It lurks deep below, in a vault accessible via the Star Tower, Kazavon’s inner sanctum. I see that here, in the deepest heart of Scarwall, your goal awaits in the foulest of places. A fragment of Scarwall’s curse lingers there, lodged and stubborn. When the curse held sway, Serithtial’s power was blocked to you. But seek out the blade’s crypt, and it shall lead you to your goal. Now, with my time here at an end, your time shall at last begin.”
The end of his speech coincides with the completion of one of his ghostly mutilations, except this time his form does not rejuvenate. Instead it crumples and slowly fades from view.
"What a f!&~ing horrible way to die," Nicoleta says with a shake of her head. "Not that there's really a good way to die, but ..." She shakes out her hands and then cracks her neck first to the left and then to the right. "So are we doing this or do we need to rest first?"
Cinnabar shrugs. "I'm fine." Is all she says. The entire conversation - the undead, spirits and dragons is of little interest to her. "I will continue when you wish."
Aurelia makes the iffy motion. "I've got a little bit left in me, but not a lot. Roz. How are you holding up?"
”I’ve used up all of my biggest spells. Wouldn’t mind a rest to go in at full capacity.”
Nodding, she turns back to Cinnabar and Aurelia [b]"We need a break. Besides, I've had the urge to sink my teeth into something for an hour now and I can barely hold it back any longer."['/b]
Nicoleta nods. "Then a rest it is," she says. Turning a knowing grin towards her wife, she sashays over to the mesmerist and slides an arm around her to pull her close. "Works for me because I've got some energy I'm ready to burn off," she says, giving an extra squeeze. "Oh, and a ruby to find," she adds, pulling Aurelia's top slightly away from her chest and peering inside.
Cinnabar nods silently and takes watch, partly because she isn't injured and partly because she doesn't trust the Kuthonites not to sneak away or try to murder them in their sleep.
After a quiet night of rest, you return to the castle's donjon and the strange structure adjoining it, that the ghost refereed to as the Star Tower. A single stone building with no obvious entrance sits atop this towering star-shaped rooftop. The marble of both the building and the surrounding tower show no seams and are polished to a sheen, almost as if the entire structure were carved from a single immense shaft of stone. Only on the southeastern wall of the small stone building atop this tower is the smooth polish marred. Here, a carving of a ten-foot-wide skull with spiked chains dangling from its eye sockets looks out over the castle below.
Laori reaches out to touch the skull, and a phase door opens, allowing you entrance. The chamber inside is empty, save for a curving, 5-foot-wide flight of stairs that leads down.
The walls and floor of the chamber below have a strange organic texture, appearing almost like black mummified flesh streaked with glistening swaths of ancient blood. Four pillars carved to look like coils of entwined arteries and spinal cords support the ceiling, with nails and surgical tools embedded in these pillars at key and painful-looking positions. At the base of the stairs is a ten-foot-diameter open shaft, entirely filled with thick bluish mist.
A telepathic voice speaks in your minds. "Welcome, mortals, to the Star Tower. Which among you wishes to take on the honor and glory of becoming this sacred site's new curate?"
"Welcome, mortals, to the Star Tower. Which among you wishes to take on the honor and glory of becoming this sacred site's new curate?"
"And what if none of us wish to have that job?" Nicoleta questions out loud. She glances around at her companions, particularly the two that follow the Dark Prince.
”The curate is the living soul of this Star Tower. The curate watches over the Star Tower and lives until the End Times—or until violence necessitates a replacement. The curate is the Star Tower. To become the curate is to abandon all other goals, ambitions, and pleasures. It is an honor even to be considered for the role, and to be selected and reject it is to spit in the Midnight Lord’s eye.”
Laori makes a face and sticks out her tongue. ”Yuck. That sounds like no fun at all!”
Shadowcount Sial scowls angrily. ”Laori Vaus, I tire of your cavalier attitude! You have drifted from the faith of Zon-Kuthon. Agreeing to serve in this role of curate is the only way to atone for straying from the Midnight Lord’s side”
Laori bristles. ”Me? I’m the only one who has actually been helping these ladies fight the monsters here in Scarwall! You’re the one who’s constantly obstructing our overall goal of seeing the fangs of Kazavon returned to Nidal! What, you’re jealous that you didn’t get invited to their kickass wedding?”
”I am not jealous!” Sial insists. ”I am devoted to the Brotherhood first, not these so-called ‘friends’ of yours!”
Sial’s eidolon bares her teeth and loosens her spiked chain. It seems Laori and Sial are about to come to blows...
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Nicoleta says, stepping between the two with her hands held out. She turns to Sial. "Hold you're roll there dickmeat. If this is such a f&*$ing honor, how come you're not taking the tower spirit up on it? Are you all talk and no action?"
Cinnabar's hands drift to the hilts of her sabres as she watches and hopes for violence to break out...
Aurelia steps up and says Shadowcount Sial, "You are going to volunteer to become the curate."
”I will not! This is Laori’s place, not mine!” Sial insists, power gathering at his fingertips.
"F*!%ing hypocrite!" Nicoleta snarls as she kicks and punches the annoying priest.
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