Yanda peers into the vat and sees that the pasty, pink substance in the vat is freshly ground meat of an indeterminate nature. Slaagh scoops some out and eats it with what appears to be great delight, murmuring thanks to the Godbox. However, when Yanda tries some, even cooked, it is quite nauseating.
Fortunately, the firewarden is made of stern stuff and she is able to choke down the meal without vomiting everywhere.
Slaagh watches her efforts to cook the holy grub with bemused puzzlement. "Holy grub already perfect. Why you fire it?"
Regardless of her answer, he asks the others if they also wish to try some holy grub. After everyone who wants to has partaken, he inquires, "You want tour of Godhome now? Or straight to Godbox to make offerings?"
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Hold on there troggy one. Yanda did not ever intend to actually eat it. The cooking exercise was all part of a devious plan to use her sleight of hand skill to dupe them into believing she ate it.
"Yum, yum. It's got a unique nutty flavor, doesn't it! Roasting things bring out the flavor. You should try it!"
for dramatic effect she left a little bit of the 'food' on her cheek to help trick them into believing she ate some, but the smell is so god-awful that she is forced to wipe it off after a few seconds.
All three autofail the Perception check to see Yanda's sleight of hand.
If Slaagh notices Yanda's subterfuge he doesn't show it. He beams with delight when Yanda comments about its deliciousness. "Yes, yes. Holy grub so delishtastic! God take good care of us."
Slaagh opens the door and enters the next room. "Come, Godbox awaits you! So joyful!"
Through the open doorway, you see a hexagonal, metallic structure about ten feet wide and almost twenty-five feet tall looms in the center of this high-ceilinged room, emanating a greenish-white light. All kinds of gears and armaments are stuck to its silvery sides, including dozens of weapons, shields, and pieces of armor, as well as lanterns, buckles, and tools. In the center of each face of the hexagonal object is a vertical slot about three inches wide and close to seven feet tall.
To the north and south of the object stand two large stone statues, each depicting a troglodyte with its arms upraised in adulation.
Four copper-colored metal doors lead out of this chamber, one from each corner of the room.
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Yanda is holding way back, keeping the corridor wall between her and the pull so taht she has something to brace against if things get out of control. She asks Slaagh, "What are the slots for? Do you put things in them? Have you ever seen what happens to someone who enters the room with metal armor on?"
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Dasus is completely oblivious to the pull on his metal equipment, despite the large amount of it. "I don't feel anything," he says in reply to the talk of gravity or pulling.
Of course, the smart thing to do would be to listen to his friends and stay back. Instead, he walks right into the room, looking at the object in the middle of the room with curiosity that at least momentarily overpowers his queasiness. Even as he's stepping into the room, he says, "Interesting! Are all those metal items on the box offerings, or decorative?"
Slaagh answers Yanda, "This is Godbox. Home of God. God in box. Box have slots. Oh joy, praise to God, giver of holy grub, all hail to the Godbox!"
He seems slightly puzzled about her next question but then answers, "All who enter the Godhome make offerings and sacrifice to the Godbox. All hail the Godbox!"
Slaagh replies to Dasus, "These are offerings of course! You make offerings? God be so happy!"
Indeed, as this conversation is taking place, and Dasus is walking into the room, he feels the invisible tug upon him growing stronger.
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As Dasus 'daringly' trundles into the room and out of sight, Yanda has a moment of panic. "Dasus be careful! You could end up getting stuck to the godbox with all that armor you are wearing and never get it back."
Considering alternate ways of presenting an offering besides getting stuck forever to a worshipped box, Yanda asks,
"Is it OK to throw your offering into the room or do you need to walk into the room to present it? Can you make multiple offerings or should it be just one big offering? Does anything happen after you make your offering?"
Though she doesn't expect much. This Slaagh fellow seems particularly dim.
Slaagh answers the ever-inquisitive Yanda: "Of course you should present yourself before God to make your offerings! How else will God bless you? And yes, make many offerings if you can! What happens after you make your offering?" He seems puzzled by this last question. "Why, God is happy, of course."
Romulus enters the room, and as he does so, he feels an invisible tugging upon the metal around his body.
The tugging is stronger than he is, and he feels his chain shirt moving him closer to the Godbox.
The tugging on Romulus continues and he soon finds himself stuck to the side of the godbox. Or, perhaps more accurately, he finds that his +1 chain shirt is stuck to the side of the godbox, and he is stuck inside the shirt.
[ooc]Aside from your chain shirt, do you have any other metal objects? I looked at your character sheet and didn't notice any but just double-checking.
Looking up and around him, Romulus can now see more clearly all the various and sundry objects that are stuck to the sides of the structure. There are easily more than a hundred items, including: weapons, suits of armor, crowbars, grappling hooks, mirrors, pitons, belt buckles, lanterns, and a variety of other metal objects.
Slaagh claps his hands with delight. "See, see, you blessed by God! O lucky day!"
Slaagh looks puzzled at Yanda's question. "Why your friend will die? Your friend want to stay with his offering?"
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Oh. Now who looks like the stupid one.
"I, uh, just figured the pull would make that infeasible. But now that you mention it..."
Yanda is not going to make her offering while Romulus is there, fearing the big pot will smack him.
"I wonder if I could toss something into one of those slots! That might produce interesting results."
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Dasus almost steps forward, but hesitates, "I better not risk it, I might crush you if it pulls me in as well. Give me a moment and I'll help pull you off." He edges back out into the hall, and starts to remove his armour.
To Slaagh, he adds, "I will bring my donation in with me, but most of this I need to keep. I need to keep it in order to serve my own god."
The wall sconces in this room are noticeably brighter than those in the antechamber where the party first met Slaagh.
It takes Romulus two rounds to wriggle himself out of his armor, but he is able to do so with nothing more than - perhaps - wounded pride. He once again stands freely on his own two feet, gazing up at his +1 chain shirt, which is firmly affixed to the Godbox, along with many other "offerings" that it has accumulated since who-knows-when. There are well over 150 items stuck to the box, including weapons, suits of armor, and miscellaneous objects.
An eerie hum begins to build deep within the Godbox, and somewhere off to the northeast of the complex you hear two distant metallic clicks.
Slaagh claps with delight and bounces up and down. "Godbox has accepted your offering!" If he notices Altovin's suggestion that the offering might possibly be rescinded, he shows no indication of it.
Meanwhile, Dasus begins to back out of the room, but before he can do so he feels the same tugging as before, and this time it pulls him - or, more precisely, it pulls his armor - 5' closer to the Godbox!
Slaagh reacts with glee. "Yes, yes, the Godbox senses your devotion! Make your offerings and you shall have all the holy grub your heart could desire!"
Yanda is able to leave her metal armor and other metal items outside and when she moves into the room she does not feel any force tugging upon her. However, when she tries throwing a coin into one of the slots on the Godbox, its path veers through the air, leaving the coin firmly affixed to the surface of the Godbox, along with Romulus' armor.
Yanda approaches the godbox with a coin in hand but before she has a chance to put it into the slot, the powerful force exerted by the godbox pulls the coin from her hand. It too joins the other "offerings" stuck to the side of the massive structure.
She returns to her gear, retrieves her cooking pot, and finds that it too is soon sacrificed to the godbox. Slaagh croons approvingly, "Yes, yesss!"
As Yanda attempts to put the coin into the slot, those who are in the room note that the slots are quite large. Each is about seven feet tall, but only about 3 inches wide. There are six of these slots, one on each of the six faces of the structure, and they appear uniform in design and shape.
Meanwhile, Dasus feels the godbox continuing to pull his armor towards itself. The powerful half-orc is able to resist the force of its tugging, but his steel shield strains to sacrifice itself to the God, breaking the leather straps holding it on Dasus' arm. With a loud clang, the shield affixes itself to the box, joining Romulus' armor. Dasus himself is not (yet) stuck to the structure, but he is also not able to freely move away, as he feels it continue to exert powerful pressure upon his armor.
With help, Dasus manages to pull himself away from the box, though his shield remains stuck there.
Slaagh claps with delight and looks admiringly at Romulus' armor and Dasus' shield. "God is pleased with your offerings! You are blessed!" He pauses for a moment before continuing, perhaps a bit shyly, "Now you leave? I show you the way..."
Slaagh shows the group the way to the northeastern room of the complex. Along the way, they pass other chambers, clearly living quarters, where more members of the troglodyte tribe live. None of these other troglodytes show any more interest in the group than the ones seen earlier. There is also another large chamber, mirroring the dining hall of 'holy grub', that contains a seemingly endless, or endlessly replenishing, supply of drinking water.
At the northeastern end of the complex, the pathfinders enter an antechamber. This room is illuminated by two light-sticks mounted in wall sconces. To the north is a large door of strange copper alloy, which glows much like the light-sticks. The walls and ceiling are covered with indecipherable troglodyte scrawling and paintings. In the northeast corner stands a tall cylindrical bell, made from the same alloy as the door.
Slaagh leads you through the door. A tall troglodyte statue stands in the center of this otherwise featureless square room, its arms outstretched. Light-sticks are mounted on the east and west walls, providing dim green illumination, augmenting the stronger glow from the door. In the northeast corner, a section of the stone floor is cut away perfectly, revealing a stairway that descends into darkness. Slaagh points to it and observes, "The God is pleased with your offerings. Now the path to the beneath is opened to you." The stairs reach down until they meet a winding, ramplike passageway that descends 100 feet over a half-mile walk before reaching the next level of the Emerald Spire.
Before venturing there, however, the pathfinders recall that the Paralictor will certainly be awaiting their reports regarding Godhome, in quadruplicate, no doubt, and they return to Fort Inevitable to fill out paperwork and rest and resupply. At their parting, Slaagh waves them a cheerful goodbye. As they ascend from the Godhome, almost immediately, the noxious stench of the troglodytes is lifted and the pathfinders once again can smell the sweet, perhaps somewhat charred, air of a normal dungeon crawl.
The return to Fort Inevitable is uneventful and this time the Paralictor is busy attending reporting compliance meetings and thus the pathfinders are able to simply pass off their reports to a bored-looking functionary who files them unread.
The group bids farewell to Otto Boulderspine, who is called away to some important pathfindering business, but at the tavern, they meet Shabah Al'Quna.
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Once again the trip from Fort Inevitable back to the Spire passes easily and the group's descent back into the depths is uneventful. Slaagh cheerfully greets everyone and does not appear to notice that Otto has been replaced by Shabah (it's possible that non-troglodytes all look alike to him). The passage down is still open and, eager to get away from the stench, the group quickly takes their leave, though Slaagh does press you to take some holy grub with you, "just in case you get hungry..."
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The ramp winding down from the level above ends in a flight of stairs leading to a dank, low-ceilinged room. The curved surface of the Emerald Spire takes up the northwest corner, and to the east is a broad stairway leading down to a dark passage from which the soft sound of lapping of water emanates. A small, closed door stands in the south wall. Several toad-sized crabs skitter about.
A blue-skinned, blue-haired humanoid clad in silvery mail stands at the top of the stairs, accompanied by a hideous, four-legged orange crab-like creature and a small, blue creature with thin, leathery wings, small horns, and a mischievous smile sitting on its back. He looks up as you enter and speaks in a harsh tone.
"Outlanders! Begone! Your presence is neither desired nor acceptable."