Daehalya shakes her head at Ailis' concerns.
"I was hardly any more use than he was, I'm afraid," she says. "My magic is ... more to help against the Nidalese, I'm afraid. I work with the shadows, but that doesn't help against those made of such things or undead or constructs. I'm sorry ... "
She looks around at the wounded before recovering her arrow that managed to hit nothing at all apparently.
"Are we going to be able to push on? I don't think we have time to wait... I have some curative potions if they're needed."
Looking at the terribly weakened party members, Bastian says:
If anyone else have any restorative potions or other magic left, now's the time to share. We can't have Ailis and Lesska barely able to lift their armor, let alone swing their weapons. They must regain their strength.
He winces and puts a hand on his injured abdomen. Come to think of it, I could also use a dab or two from that wand of healing. One of those critters took a bite of me before we smashed it.
When Bastian asks, Ailis obliges and runs the wand over his wounds. The energy pours out of the wand and into Bastian, and the bite wound from the monstrous undead spiders seals shut.
Ailis waits for Zyler's reply.
Suetonius shakes his head, sadly.
"I am afraid that I have already used up my ability to heal that sort of damage today; but in the morning, I can prepare Restorations, if Black Butterfly is willing..."
"It nearly was the death of us, Zyler. What would you have done if we had died, run?" she asks, irate at the cowardly dark dancer.
Zyler's mouth opens and shuts, seemingly at a loss for words. Then, Daehalya speaks up and he nods along with her.
"I was hardly any more use than he was, I'm afraid," she says. "My magic is...more to help against the Nidalese, I'm afraid. I work with the shadows, but that doesn't help against those made of such things or undead or constructs. I'm sorry..."
"As am I..." Zyler finally adds, "I...really...didn't know how to help against such things. I imagine even the Reborn would have been hard pressed to handle them. Truthfully, I was surprised you attacked them head on rather than run. It's what many of my own people would have done...and I guess that's what years of living in the Darklands does to you? Demented drow, duergar slavers, and ancient serpentfolk alike...when they show up in overpowering numbers, we run. To do otherwise is to court death...or worse."
"Are we going to be able to push on? I don't think we have time to wait...I have some curative potions if they're needed."
"Almost a third of us are poisoned..." Aiyana observes, "Wounds can be mended, but do we have enough restoratives to keep us going? I fear we haven't encountered the worst this tomb has to offer. And we haven't yet found the Reborn. Who knows what danger they may pose...especially if they have the Cradle of Night. We should probably be at our best if we're to successfully deal with them..."
The caligni peers sidelong at Zyler. "And perhaps we should rest while we ask this one a few more questions about what we can expect when we find them?"
Lydia nods. "I believe resting would be the wisest course of action. Pressing on in our current state would be courting disaster."
Ailis looks quizzically at the people who are suggesting that they give up. "I wasn't under the impression that we had time to wait or rest or delay, whether we are weakened or not," she says. "What happens if we rest, selfishly putting our own well-being over the potential enrapturing of an entire city, and we fail in our quest while we sleep?"
We can heal our wounds easily enough. The main thing is the weakness from the poison. Let’s see how bad we’re off after using our available potions, and then we can decide.
"If we rest, I can try to pick spells that might help us more, but ... I still don't know how effective they'll be," Daehalya says. "But I agree, we may not have time."
Ailis looks quizzically at the people who are suggesting that they give up. "I wasn't under the impression that we had time to wait or rest or delay, whether we are weakened or not," she says. "What happens if we rest, selfishly putting our own well-being over the potential enrapturing of an entire city, and we fail in our quest while we sleep?"
"That's why I asked if we have enough restoratives to carry on," Aiyana explains, "If we don't, I'm not above resting a few hours to regain our strength. There's only one entrance/exit to this tomb...granted, that we know of. We've already found Zyler...so we know the Reborn were here, but we don't know if they're still here. Even if they are, presumably, they'd have to return the same way they entered. As long as one of us keeps watch, we'll still be able to confront them if they do."
"Regardless," she assures everyone, "I defer to your good judgment. Gioret assured me that all of you have a great deal of experience in matters such as this...so, if all of you feel we can continue, and you're willing to take the additional risk, I'm okay with pressing on. But, if you think it's wiser to rest a bit and recover by using some of our resources, I'm willing to wait. But no longer than that, of course."
Ailis shakes her head. She feels weak, but she knows that they must fight on. "That's all discounting the possibility that they have some other magical way to escape from here, like teleport or shadow walk or meld into stone. It's also discounting the possibility that, even if they were to come back out, they couldn't sneak by while we slept."
"Additionally, if they ambushed us while we slept, we would be no better off in terms of rest, spells, or our wounds, but we would be unarmed, unarmored, lying on the floor asleep." She can't believe that this group lacks the resolve to want to continue on. Weren't there peoples' lives at stake? "Don't you want to be the heroes of the story?" she asks.
Lesska kindly rejects Bastian's offer of a potion to neutralise the poison, finding her own in her pack. Her eyes shoot lances at Zyler, her proud Kellid blood unable to entertain the notion that he could find no way to hep them in their plight, her own wounds teastament yo the severity of the battle.
She mutters something about a general lack of flame or fire to nobody in particular before concentrating on the back and forth of how to proceed. The trouble in the group distresses her, and she places a cautioning arm on her headstrong friend.
"Ailis... sister of a shared road and battle-bonded. We will be no heroes if we fail. And fail we may if we are not at least restored - this is all they argue. I admit I am close to spent by these several battle with foes I have never before faced. But we can press on, if needs be. I have two potions that will restore us from this nadir."
Suetonius nods, impressed with Lesska's stoicism.
"Regardless of whether or not we push on, in the morning, I will fully restore your strength. That said, I am happy to push on, as long as the rest of you are. I may not be a mighty barbarian," he says with a soft grin, "but I will do my best to aid you."
Lesska sits down against a wall, bloodied, weakened and poisoned. She unstoppers a potion and drinks it, feeling the poison dissipate from her body. Another potions restores some of her lost strength, while a third knits flesh and mends torn muscles. She smacks her lips in appreciation, and stares up at the middle distance toward the ceiling, assessing the effect of the last potion. She shrugs and downs another.
Seeing Ailis weakened yet refuse the potion hardens Lesska's resolve that they carry on. She drinks deep, breathes out heavily as the magic restores some of her strength, then stows the now empty vessels before readying to move on, longspear gripped tight.
"Well then..." Aiyana looks around in the dark chamber filled with once-again dead spiders. "Where to now? Shall we look around here...assuming it's safe? Do we press on...in that direction?" She points to the west where the tomb's man-made walls appear more intact than those that have caved in among the spider's den. "Or do we go back the way we came?"
"If that area's safe now, I think we look and see what else is there. We know the Reborn are in here, but we don't know where. They may be having as much trouble as us finding the Cradle of Night. Whoever designed this tomb ... I think there may be more secrets here and hopefully not all of them will try to kill us," Daehalya says.
Checking to make sure the others are ready, she heads back into the room to carefully look around and see if there's anything of us. Something must have caused those undead monstrosities in here, and it could well have been the Cradle.
Ailis nods. "We should try to go on for now. We still have plenty of magic left today."
Ailis follows Daehalya for now.
Bastian also follows Daehalya, guarding her as she examines the room and aiding her efforts.
Searching the spider's den, it becomes evident that this chamber only has two other exits aside from the secret door you used to enter it. One leads west into the familiar stone-lined walls of the tomb you've been exploring. The other appears to be a mud-lined burrow in the ceiling of one of the web-filled niches that leads ever upward until it ventures beyond the range of your light.
DC 15 Knowledge (nature) check:
Aside from that, the rest of room lies in ruins. There are a handful of digging tools and other items used for construction purposes scattered about the chamber floor. They seem old enough that they likely were used by the tomb's original builders, but none are serviceable now.
DC 25 Knowledge (arcana) or Knowledge (planes) check:
After favoring Zyler with some Kellid-grim side-eye, Lesska accompanies those moving forward. Her face screws up in distaste upon viewing the webby burrows.
"I hope they went that way!" she points to the western, stone-lined passage.
Daehalya shares what she realizes about how the chamber itself collected the shadow energy.
" ... and it looks like the shadow energy emanated as an insubstantial 'burst' from somewhere further below ground," she finishes. "Which probably means the Cradle itself was below ground. Which probably means we want to go back into the worked section of the tomb."
She looks to see if there's any way to determine how recently the spiders became undead . If it was more recent, that might mean the Reborn have already found the Cradle. If it was some time ago, they may still have some time themselves.
"Yes, I agree. Away from here..." Lesska adds hurriedly.
"These mud-lined burrows were likely created by the giant spiders when they were still alive. Even in the Darklands, we know of many species which use such spaces to lay their eggs. So, I imagine it's much the same here on the surface lands. All those small spiders that were inside the husks likely hatched from those eggs...but only after whatever necromancy killed their mothers and reanimated their bodies. But, how long ago that happened? I really can't say."
The caligni points towards the western hall and the worked stone archway venturing back into Haramil's tomb. "Regardless, I think that's the only true way out of here...unless we want to go back to the room with the guardian statues. The muddy burrow in the ceiling probably just emerges somewhere on the hillside above the cairn. It's how the spiders probably dug their way in here...only to die when...well...when whatever happened to them."
"So...which way now, adventurers?" she asks aloud, her voice echoing slightly off the natural stone walls. "Back the way we came? Or to the west?"
West
Suetonius nods in agreement, Arha nuzzling his right ear for comfort.
"Agreed. Let's avoid the statue room if we can."
"It is better to explore all avenues of a single path before moving on to a second," agrees Ailis. "To do otherwise is akin to completing only half of a task before moving on to a second."
The western passage begins with an archway of manufactured stone blocks, but they don't appear to have aged very well. Some of them are cracked and their composite pieces hang precariously balanced against one another in sizable chunks that might do serious harm if they were to fall upon someone's head. With her stonecunning ancestry, Ailis takes a good look at the crumbling structure and recommends using a certain side of the archway rather than moving directly beneath it...just to be safe. As a result, everyone passes thru the western exit without any further difficulty and enters the worked stone hallway beyond.
As the party moves past the arch and leaves the spider's den behind, your light sources flare a bit brighter...but only marginally so, as some kind of extraplanar 'interference' continues to dim them. They're certainly brighter than the prior room, though, and Daehalya recognizes the effect is probably tied to the shadow energy that killed the spiders and collected in their burrow...which means it might be the same energy associated with the Cradle of Night, assuming her suspicions about the energy's origin are correct.
The hallway itself runs only a short distance before it emerges within a familiar cylindrical chamber with a high-vaulted ceiling. Inscribed runes create a circle in the center of room upon the cracked stone floor...the same one you examined when you first entered Haramil's tomb. Looking to the south, you can see the double-doors that lead outside where you encountered the planar rift and the army of shadows. To the north are the other double-doors that sealed behind you when you encountered the trapped hallway, only now, you're back on the other side where you first entered. And, further to the west is another tunnel with a short flight of stairs leading down into a sunken chamber, which Bastian recalls held some kind of tables and recessed alcoves...but none of which you chose to explore the last time you were here.
Aiyana mutters something in her native tongue. None of you understand the language, but in your experience, it seems tonally consistent with a frustrated curse of some kind.
"Well, great!" she finally adds, "We've come full circle! And we're no closer to the Cradle than when we first began!"
"Maybe we should look in that sunken chamber?" Daehalya suggests. "If they wanted to hide the Cradle, maybe that makes sense. Have the way to it not seem to be the obvious part of the tomb..."
She begins to make her way to that area, looking around for more of the seemingly omnipresent threats.
With no discernible threats to Daehalya's elven eyes, she descends the short stairway into a low chamber where eight stone tables stand between several shallow alcoves. Each table bears ancient, dusty relics such as scrolls, mismatched pieces of armor, carved figurines, and jewelry. All of the objects appear to be in various stages of disrepair...frayed, dented, cracked, or broken.
Aside from these items, everyone's eyes are also naturally drawn to the alcoves between each table, where you can barely discern detailed carvings upon the stone surfaces within them. Each depiction portrays a furious man engaged in battle, clad in chainmail and armed with either a sword or a lance. His enemies and allies alike seem to fear his presence, and in many scenes it's hard to tell friend from foe as the man hews through them all with fearsome rage.
In one image, he stands alone against a vast array of pike-wielding foot-soldiers. In another, he rides upon a horse with the heads of many enemies skewered by a terrible lance. Even more show him fighting an array of mythical beasts...a wyvern, a manticore, and a hydra. And one more image has him standing with a pile of skeletal figures lying all around him. In every scene, the warrior clutches a small black sphere in one hand that shrouds him in coils of shadow.
DC 20 Knowledge (history):
"Well," Suetonius notes dryly, "we seem to be getting warmer... although by the state of the room, I dare say the ones that we are after made quite a mess..."
He then looks around.
As Suetonius looks around more closely, he notices that each item on the various tables is obviously flawed in some fundamental way. There's a flimsy, lopsided helmet, a ring that contains an obvious fake gem within its setting, and a figurine of a horselord with comical and unflattering exaggerations. The scrolls also seem tattered and quite fragile. The ancient lettering on them is barely readable now...
Hallit:
"You destroyed everything that was good and beautiful in our lives."
"Leave us and bother us no more!"
"We fought and died for your endless rage. It lasted the lifetimes of my father, my father's father, and his father before him. But no more! We're finally free of your reign!"
"May the darkness you embraced finally take you!"
"You sowed fear in our enemies, but also in us."
"No more of my children will I be forced to give to you."
"The slayer of monsters is finally slain, and now none are afraid to name you the greatest monster of all."
"Perhaps some sort of magical lock and key ... " Daehalya murmurs, unsure what else the items might be. She checks with a cantrip to see if the items have any magical power, glancing at the murals to see if there's any connection.
"They're not magic," Daehalya reports. "But there must be something else here. Ailis, can you find any more secret passages?"
Happy to be away from certain, esoteric and sorcerous death Lesska peers with grim regard at the works on show.
"Strange - the Nidalese would often leave objects as remembrances to their departed, but these are mockeries and flaw'd on purpose, as if they attempt to bring Haramil's memory down..."
Lesska reads out the Hallit inscriptions for her friends, her already low tone made more guttural and harsh as she slips into a more Hallit accent:
""May nature itself reject your dark soul. And your ashes endure forever as your spirit is denied rest. Just as you also denied us rest."
"You destroyed everything that was good and beautiful in our lives."
"Leave us and bother us no more!"
"We fought and died for your endless rage. It lasted the lifetimes of my father, my father's father, and his father before him. But no more! We're finally free of your reign!"
"May the darkness you embraced finally take you!"
"You sowed fear in our enemies, but also in us."
"No more of my children will I be forced to give to you."
"The slayer of monsters is finally slain, and now none are afraid to name you the greatest monster of all." "
She sniffs.
"Cold comfort to finally be free, but their ancestors suffered mightily for generations it seems. Fools."
then seems to think of something.
"But who wrote it and who for? Are they buried here too? Are they in the alcoves?"
Lesska begins to whack the alcoves with the butt of her longspear, at least until some wiser person tells her not to...
Seems like Haramil was loathed by all he left behind. He has certainly been given a villains funeral. I assume those nasty words are left for him.
Bastian looks the small chamber over, keeping guard while the others search.
If we find no hidden doors, we should move back to some of the other chambers. Perhaps we should examine the sarcophagus with the lance after all?
A thorough search of the chamber fails to reveal any additional concealed or secret doors. Even Lesska's attempt to abuse the alcoves fails to reveal anything further.
"It would seem we've reached a dead end..." Aiyana announces, "But, perhaps this place gives us a better understanding of Haramil...as well as the depths his dark soul descended once he came into possession of the Cradle. I shudder to think what it might to do to my own people should the Reborn lay claim to it. Surely, it would usher in an age of unspeakable evil. And I doubt the Darklands would contain it."
Let us backtrack through the spider cave and Gozreh shrine to the sarcophagus room then.
"I agree. Let us go," nods Ailis.
Lesska looks crestfallen as her ministrations identify no hidden portals.
"Gioret was clear - the burial objects were not to be disturbed."
The Kellid appears to become a little wistful
"However, that curs'd lance is just lying there...not...stabbing anyone. Seems...a waste of a good....weapon. Or maybe an unholy one...Cromm!" she finishes with vehemence, clearly torn between wisdom and greed.