The gargoyle shrieks as Calendula's touch burns his skin. He retaliates, tearing into her with his natural weapons. His slam drains the life force from her!
Knowing that her healing touch may soon be required by those in the air, Nime stretches forth invisible wings and rises, unseen, into the air.
With nothing else she can do from the ground, and feeling Nime's magic strengthening her already, Shenuska simply hammers the gargoyle with more missiles!
Drawing on the flames once more, Theo lashed out with the one spell he had that wouldn't burn his friends nor require actual aim.
The gargoyle proves incredibly nimble, completely evading Theo's spell! He cannot dodge Shenuska's magic missiles, though, which strike the vampire unerringly!
Calendula floats back, her blood heating. Her hands stretch forth and again press into the gargoyle, before snapping back and tapping herself on the shoulder.
Rudrik grunts and keeps hammering away, not really expecting to do much but just keeping the damn thing busy so that he can hopefully draw its ire instead of letting it slap around the rest of the team.
Calendula sears the vampire's body with more holy energy, then Rudrik slips around back and delivers two powerful slices to its vulnerable spots! With a shriek, the gargoyle dissolves into a cloud of mist, which seeps down into the largest coffin in the room.
Opening it reveals the gargoyle's body, lying in repose with arms crossed. The smaller coffins contain the derro vampire spawn, all slowly beginning to regenerate.
The gargoyle's small but intriguing collection of oddities sits in a semicircular array just to the north of his coffin. This collection of treasures consists of the following strange items.
• A long smoking pipe decorated with a fine carving of a swan landing in a crocodile’s open mouth (worth 150 gp).
• A goblet made of black glass that enhances the flavor of any red wine or blood placed within it but that sours any other liquid placed in it as though affected by a putrefy food and drink spell (worth 250 gp).
• A lamp in the form of a bloated courtesan with three faces, each of which clutches a dead rat in the mouth. The lamp is worth 250 gp, but it rattles if shaken— inside is a key of lock jamming.
• A polished wood-and-iron coat stand carved to resemble three angels back to back, with their upraised wings forming the hooks (worth 500 gp); on one of these hooks hangs a black leather coat lined with red velvet (worth 100 gp), holding in one pocket a jar with a brass stopper containing a shriveled-up tarantula (gross and worthless).
• A small, beautifully made taxidermic “catbird”—a crow with a kitten’s head (worth 50 gp).
• A 2-foot-square magical painting that depicts a shadowy figure in an alley that seems to move about occasionally, but never when looked at. This is a minor and harmless (if unsettling) illusion worth 500 gp.
Nime reappears, hovering in the air. She slowly settles back to the ground.
Approaching Calendula, she prepares to invoke a prayer of healing, but smiles broadly when she sees that the woman has healed herself of the majority of her wounds. A blue hand reaches out and touches her under the chin. "The Inheritor's light burns brightly in you." She laughs lightly. "I'm not sure what you even need me for now."
A prayer follows and Calendula feels the warmth flow through Nime's hands.
The oracle leans close and whispers in her ear. "For old time's sake." A gentle kiss on the cheek follows. She then turns away to examine the treasures the gargoyle had been collecting.
Other than her carved bone amulet, the Undine doesn't seem interested in any of the other curiosities.
"So what do we do with them?" she asks finally, gesturing towards the slumbering vampires.
"We destroy them." Shenuska says calmly. "They are abominations in their own right and we have ample proof here that they have kidnapped, stolen and murdered across this city. They will be no loss. Fire or a stake through the heart will do the job."
She looks to Theo and Calendula to perform the honors. The 'curiosities' the vampire has collected get a quick glance and are then ignored with a shudder. "That thing had no taste..."
Nime's face saddens. "There's always loss when life is lost," she says quietly. "But sometimes it is unavoidable to prevent further loss." She looks down at the gargoyle in his reposed state. "You seemed like a unique individual. Aggravating and lacking good taste, but unique. Your actions leave us no choice, however."
She then wanders away to allow the more capable members of the group deal with what needs to be done.
Calendula prepares each stake with a prayer, and pushes each into the heart of a vampire with a grimace. When she comes to the gargoyle, she hacks and coughs, dribbling a thick strand of phlegm and bile onto his chin before hammering the stake into his heart.
Calendula ensures the vampires meet their final deaths with a stake through each of their hearts. You won't have to worry about them coming back any more.
A door exits this room on the east wall. Shenuska also discovers a secret door with a thorough search of the room.
"Shall we see what someone was trying to hide?" Nime asks, gesturing towards the secret door.
She avoids looking at the staked figures in their coffins.
The door opens onto an empty room. The northeastern corner of this room has collapsed, resulting in a jagged tunnel winding to the east.
Shenuska notices a hidden trapdoor in the ceiling to the southwest, as well as another secret door leading east.
"Give me a moment," the Undine says when Shenuska points out the trapdoor above. She tips her head and closes her eyes. A moment later she fades into mist and rises to slip around the cracks surrounding the hidden portal.
The trapdoor leads to a narrow passageway heading to the southwest. It ends at another trapdoor, which opens into a room. The walls of this room are fitted with rusty gears and cables attached to a series of five levers protruding from a panel in the middle of the floor. Most of the levers have seized up due to rust and neglect, but the central one still seems functional.
Nime returns to the group and re-solidifies. "That leads to the controls for the platforms out there," she says. "If we need to move them around then that's where we'll need to go. I don't think we need to move them, though. Do we?" She looks around for confirmation.
Nime shrugs.
"So then, the tunnel to the left or a door to the right. How about the tunnel?" she questions and then answers it herself as she makes her way towards the jagged tunnel; her glaive tapping against the stone floor.
Rudrik rubs his chin and says, "I have a kinda pathological need to see what happens if you pull the lever. But we can put that aside and just go down the tunnel if you prefer."
Nime looks thoughtful.
"I don't anything good ever came from pulling a lever," she says finally. "Is that a guy thing?" she asks with honest curiosity as she walks.
Rudrik shrugs, which makes an eerie metal-sliding-on-metal sound as the adamantine armor scrapes plate-over-plate. "I dunno. I just have this mental image of throwing the lever with a gleeful grin. Then of course lava comes pouring out of the ceiling, or spikes shoot out of the walls which close in and smash together, or the floor opens to a pool of acid or something. Probably nothing good. Just kinda... you wanna know, eh?"
The oracle thinks about it for another moment or so.
"All of those things sound bad," she says finally. "I don't think I'd like any of them. Cranberry muffins would be good, though." She smiles. "Pull a lever and cranberry muffins appear." A frown follows. "Although, I can't for the life of me think of why someone would make a cranberry muffin lever." She shrugs. "Another mystery, I guess."
Following the tunnel leads you into another room. The southern portion of this room has collapsed, leaving only the northeastern portion intact. The collapse has shattered and cracked the floor, breaking up several magical circles that had been carved into the floor. Only one circle, located in the room’s easternmost corner, remains intact, its runes still flickering and glowing.
Inside the glowing circle, a human-sized crablike creature scuttles on six stumpy legs. Each of its four arms sports a different method of inflicting pain. As the thing turns towards you, you her an imperious telepathic voice in your minds. "Mortals! I am Og-Zeugus. I demand you free me from this prison. Do so, and I promise to leave you alone and in peace."
Nime's eyes widen at the appearance of the outsider. Not recognizing it, she still seems happy to take it at face value.
"Speaking inside our heads seems rude without asking first," she castigates the creature. "Oh, unless that's the only way you can speak in which case it was rude of me to point that out."
She shakes her head.
"We are mortal, but addressing us as such could, by some, be seen as arrogent. Now since it sounds like you want something from us then that would be a poor method of negotiating, wouldn't it? I won't even address the fact that if you're imprisoned then promising not to harm us while demanding we free you seems ... misguided."
"So how about we start over? My name is Nime and these are my friends, Calendula, Shenuska, Theodric d'Ontalen, and Rudrik. Why have you been imprisoned? And what can we do to help?"
The creature bristles at Nime's chiding, legs clacking against the floor in agitation. "Very well. I have been trapped in this place for thousands of years! A wizard desired knowledge about the nature of my kind. He mercilessly tortured and tormented me until a great catastrophe struck and this complex fell into ruin. I languished here for untold ages until at last, a follower of my creator found me here. She has agreed to release me once her plot is complete, but I do not trust her to keep her word. To release me, you must simply damage the circle enough to deactivate its magic, or dispel its abjurations. Free me!"
"That sounds horrible," Nime responds with genuine emotion. "What kind of plot was this other woman planning?"
"Leptonia is her name. She sought my advice in crafting the perfect vector for our creator's gifts to this world--a polymorph plague, Yamasoth's namesake. She perfected it with the help of a necromancer named Erigantus, but the delivery method was too slow for a true contagion to spread. She requires the aid of an ally with absolute mastery of conjuration magic to make the plague airborne, so she decided to try to resurrect a recently slain Thassilonian Runelord. Krune, I believe his name was.
"She has taken her followers north to Riddleport to raid some crime lord's compound and steal his scrolls of true resurrection to restore Krune to life. They plan to attack 9 days from today.
"I have told you all I know. Now, free me!"
"Err...no." Shenuska replies bluntly before explaining to the rest of the group exactly what the creature is capable of. "I say we banish it." She says. "Leaving it here is not an option, and we are not freeing it. If we don't break the circle then it won't be able to strike back. Unless you want a fair fight?" She asks the fighting types.
"A fair fight is drastically overrated," Nime says with a nod. "How would we banish it?"
Banishing the qlippoth would require magic such as dismissal to send it back to its home plane. Of course, you could just try to kill it. Shenuska believes that so long as you don't physically enter the circle, there's not much the monster could do to fight back.
Once options are presented, Nime frowns. "So we don't have the means to banish it, then," she says, clearly annoyed. "I don't see that it's done anything to warrant an execution, but if we free it ..." She glances at the creature over her shoulder before turning her attention back to her friends. "I have a feeling that hostility will be the order of the day."
She blows a strand of blue hair out of her face in frustration.
"I think our only solution is to leave it there. I'm not happy about that, but I'd really rather not have to kill it. What does everyone else think?"
"We can't kill it Nime." Shenuska explains. "If we fight it here and destroy it's form then we banish it back to the Maelstrom. It's an outsider, born of the pure quintessence of the outer planes. It won't dice, it just won't be present in this reality any more. It's the best result because it can't be brought back for several years, maybe centuries if we're lucky."
"I know it won't really die, but it still seems so ... cold," the oracle responds. "If that's what everyone agrees on then I won't ... I can't be involved though. It's just too much."
She looks over at the creature again and frowns.
"And centuries really aren't as long as you think they are."
Nime looks around at the others as they prepare to assault the creature from range. She holds up a hand. "Wait," she says simply. Approaching the creature's prison, she takes a deep breath.
"I would like to apologize in advance for what's about to happen. It's not ... It's nothing personal. I'm sure you're a wonderful being and you're just cranky from being trapped for so long. Gods know, I would be." She looks back at the others. "But it's been decided that it's for the best." It's not completely clear whom she's trying to convince.
"Anyway... It was nice to meet you." She then turns and steps away. At first she looks away, but then shakes her head and forces herself to watch.
"No! Madness take you all!" the creature shrieks in your minds. Suddenly it seems to bulge outward in a bizarre and horrific manner, assaulting your minds! Nime, Rudrik, and Theo are temporarily driven mad!
Babble Incoherently ...
"I've said it before, that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the senses?" Nime offers.
"Urgh." Shenuska offers. Seeing Theo reeling she takes a risk and calls her magic to her fingertips, ready to stop him if the draconic scion starts behaving dangerously.
Babbling and cursing in draconic, Theo takes the metamagic rod in his hand and slams it into his own forehead. Somehow also switching to elven for a moment after the impact, despite him having never learnt the language (clearly evidenced by his horrific pronunciation).
Calendula pats Rudrik on the back, blessing him.
Rudrik says something indecipherable in Orc.
Calendula's spell snaps Rudrik out of his confusion. Nime and Theodric babble incoherently. The qlippoth crouches in the far corner of the magic circle, unable to do anything more to harm you than to appear horrific.
"Tag! You're it!" Nime says with a giggle as her long weapon taps against Rudrik's heavy armor.
Once more, the metamagic rod is put to an unorthodox use.
And now he's raving in what sounds like Dwarven with a bad Vudrani accent.