Obviously affected by Elduin’s words, Akre stands silently for a moment. At a loss for a proper response, he finally opts for a formal military salute before hurrying after the twins out of the keep. He helps himself to a shield and longsword from one of the hobgoblins you cut down.
Moving back to the central chamber where Clayton’s duel took place, you move north up the large winding staircase. Ascending, you find yourself in the remains of what appears to be a library. Books and paper lie strewn all over the room and desks and bookcases are damaged.
South, you spot another open chamber with two large doors, one open and one closed.
"Someone wanna listen at that one? I cant imagine it's as easy as an open doorway."
Stochelo gestures at the closed door with the point of his sword.
Trying to avoid being spotted through the open door, Elduin makes his way to the closed one and puts his ear at it.
Clayton stands guard near the open door, leaning his heavy frame against the side of it.
Clayton does not hear anything. Through the door, he can see the end of a long, formal banquet table. Several chairs are knocked overe.
Elduin can hear the sound of movement through the closed door. Sounds like heavy boots, clinks of metal armor and someone muttering angrily.
Elduin gives signs to the group to get ready to enter the closed room. When all are in position, he opens the door.
Grumbles has his bow out and an arrow on the string...
Clayton closes the open door near him, if there was going to be an ambush he wanted to have a moment to figure it all out.
Afterwards he moves closer to the front giving a silent hand signal to the others, waiting on their marks.
As Clayton shuts the door, he notices that the room is deserted. A single door leads out to the east rampart. He does not find any way to lock or bar the door.
Elduin tries the door, but finds it locked. From inside, a boisterous voice roars: ”You’ll never take me alive, treacherous scum!”
"The door is locked. Someone wants to try to open it?"
That's me, Silas replies as he steps past the others and moves to the door, his tail slipping inside his satchel bag to remove his lock-picking tools as he goes. He gets to work immediately, sliding a pair of slender tools into the lock and manipulating them with some skill...
"I mean, that's one option. If you'd really prefer bleeding out on the floor to a pleasant conversation, that's up to you."
Clayton rolls his eyes, "You're outmatched and outnumbered. If you're thinking of doing something desperate now really isn't the time." He watches Silas work, "What evil have you brought up from the abyss here?"
He yells through the door, hoping to learn anything before a possible bloodbath.
Silas' deft lockpicking soon has the door unlocked. It swings open to reveal a large private chamber vaguely partitioned by beams that span the ceiling east to west.
The northern half of the room contains a double bed and easy chair, while a large wardrobe and table with chairs occupy the south. An enormous wool carpet lies in the center of the room. A sets of double doors to the west are decorated with carvings of oak leaves and acorns.
With his back to the bed stands a man you can only assume to be Pavo Vos. He's wearing a Molthune officer's tabard over his well-crafted half-plate armor and wields a heavy steel shield and a bastard sword.
His complexion is pale and sweaty and his stubbled chin reveals it's been a few days since his last shave. His face bears the troubled expression you would expect of a man who has made unforgivable sacrifices and spent years planning, only to see everything fall apart around him.
As he spots you, he raises sword and shield, obviously not intent on surrendering without a fight.
"Come on, then. Whether you're here to reclaim the keep for Nirmathas or fortune-hunters seeking treasure, you'll have to pay in blood for dominion of this keep."
Stochelo draws out a scroll and prepares to read it, almost like he is holding an official proclamation from a governor.
"You have chosen death and pain, and I can respect that choice. I suggest you reconsider, seeing as how we both outmatch and outnumber you. There is no need for you to lose what little you have now, simply sheathe your blade and tell us what is going on below."
Elduin stand in the back, bow drawn, and eyes the man thoroughly. "Are you mad, going against the four of us, who just cleared this camp of your hobgoblin army without a scratch?"
Clayton shakes his head. The man was clearly not in his right mind.
"Lay your arms down. I'm done with talking otherwise."
Seemingly unconvinced by your words, Pavo Vos maintains his defensive stance, carefully eyeing you for aggressive moves.
"So you managed to rout those treacherous hobgoblins...that shows what spineless mercenaries are worth." He spits in contempt.
"More reliable reinforcements are on their way, and I have no doubt I'll be able to hold my own against undisciplined rabble like yourself until they arrive."
UPDATED MAP (coming soon)
Silas: 21
Grumbles: 20
Elduin: 20
Stochelo: 14
Clayton: 13
Pavo Vos: 13
Silas shrugs. We will see about that. Perhaps you won't though, he states matter-of-factly in the common tongue before switching to a foul language...
The words, laced with magic, cause the soldier's eyes to begin to cloud over...
"For Erastil's sake. Why all that killing..."
Reluctantly, Elduin releases his arrow at the angry man, followed by another.
"Whelp, you're dumb. Stabbed and bleeding is your choice, I guess. "
Stochelo reads his scroll of shield and uses an arcane pool point to enhance his blade (+1)
Silas' dark spell takes hold of the Molthune commander. His howl of frustration is soon mixed with a sharp note of pain as the lack of vision prevents him from avoiding one of Elduin's arrows.
Adding insult to injury Grumbles shoots...
Longbow
with PBS
Clayton shrugs and charges in for a gutshot to knock him out.
Even blinded, Pavo Vos manages to bring up his shield to block Clayton's assault. But while the unarmed strikes fail to do physical damage, they appear to deliver the final blow to Vos' already badly shaken morale.
Blind, wounded, abandoned and surrounded, the once proud and arrogant Molthune officer sinks to his knees. "I yield...." he sighs in a voice echoing with unbearable fatigue and despair. His sword and shield fall to the floor as he bows his head to accept his fate at your hands.
"That's what I thought." Elduin quickly reacts and kicks away the man's sword, while getting some rope to tie him up.
"Well. I am glad he finally came to his senses. No sense in dying over some stupid haunted castle, right? Now, no trickery, mind you, or this blade will deliver a blazing stab the likes of which you've never seen."
Clayton wastes no time at all getting to the question that was floating in the room, "What did you and the she-devil find in the basement? What did you find?!"
Utterly defeated, Pavo Vos does not resist as you bind him securely.
He barely seems surprised when Clayton mentions his consort and the dungeons beneath the keep.
"We found death...", he hisses, then sighs deeply. "All right. I'll tell you everything, since you seem to have discovered much already.
As you probably know, Fangwood Keep has traded hands countless times in the persistent struggle between Nirmathas and Molthune. Ten years ago —the last time Molthune held the keep — I was stationed here. While searching through what remained of the keep’s library, I discovered a long-forgotten diary of an ancient elven wizard named Tessarael. Apparently, she built this tower sometimes during the middle years of the Age of Enthronement after being exiled from Kyonin. She was a powerful transmuter and commanded a small army of elves on the front lines against the demon lord Treerazer. Somehow, her mind got warped by Abyssal magic during the battle, and she turned against the elves.
Though badly weathered, the magically preserved pages of the diary revealed there had once been a great artifact under this tower, and I
decided to claim the rare item for himself. Before I could accomplish this, however, Fangwood Keep was besieged and taken by Nirmathas once again, and I was forced to return to Molthune. For ten years, I've done everything I could to rise through the ranks to command my own unit, so I could return, capture the keep and claim the hidden artifact for my own.
When the courage of my own men faltered, I hoped that the hobgoblin mercenary tribes that call these woods home would have the guts and fortitude to finish the job. But they were just as spineless...so here we are..."
An ancient artifact?
Clayton knew nothing of such things, but looked at the two who were more versed in magic. "You two ever heard of this Tessarael?" He begins looking around for the diary, "A monster from the Abyss... an Artifact... This seems way outside our pay grade fellas."
"Ive heard the name Treerazer in the past, but not this transmuter person. As far as an artifact, who knows? There's as many stories and fables about them as the real deal, I'd wager."
What does this artifact do? Does it have a name?
Both Silas and Stochelo have heard of the conflict between Treerazer and the elves of Kyonin. Treerazer is a hugely powerful nascent demon lord who was permanently banished to the Material Plane sometime during the Age of Darkness. He has twisted the land, creatures, and flora around his adopted home for hundreds of years.
In 2632 AR, the elves detected Treerazer's plan to obtain the Sovyrian Stone and turn it into a permanent portal to the Abyss. They returned to Golarion before Treerazer could put it in motion. In the ensuing centuries, they drove him away from the heart of Kyonin into a swamp known as Tanglebriar, but have been unable to destroy him. That twisted domain is far east, though, and the elves have the threat contained.
Neither of you have heard anything of Tessarael or the artifact.
Vos shakes his head "I don't know exactly what the artifact is or what it does...the diary was partly damaged, and she often used shorthand notes in her entries. It is both powerful and valuable, though. As far as I can tell, she was trying to use it's magical energy to manipulate dimensional space to allow travel to distant worlds."
"Okay. Great. Crazy demon lord of plague trees on one side, weird spellcaster lady with a hidden artifact on the other. So, tell us about this beaux of yours. What kind of magic does she do? Is she arrow-proof, or breath poison or something else stupid like that?"
Clayton just grins, "I'm sure, like everything we've fought here, she's going to be dangerous, overzealous, and completely willing to kill us." He waves a hand in the air, "Poison breath optional."
Turning to the others, "We have a job to do I suppose even if it has changed."
Perhaps the reason I have never heard of this Tessarael, or the artifact, is because she succeeded, and took the artifact with her. What makes you sure the artifact is still here?
Alternatively, play with dangerous things, win dangerous prizes...
Guess we will find out. The mission remains the same.
Where should we secure him while we search the lower levels? flicking a tail in Vos' direction. I'm sure a man of his rank could provide valuable insights if we return him to our commander.
Elduin nods at Clayton. "You're right. We're not finished yet."
"This place is as good as any. Just make sure he's properly secured and stripped of everything he could use."
Clayton begins tying him up and starts talking out loud, "You know Vos, this really is for your own good because just outside this fortress are some really angry hobgoblins and their commander..." He tightens it a little rougher than he needed to, "In fact, I recall one of them mentioning that you used her people as fodder."
He comes back around and squats, looking dead in his eyes, "I recall them mentioning something about flaying the yellow-bellied coward alive."
I'm not sure leaving him in the exact spot anyone coming looking for him would check first is a great idea. Might I suggest secreting him away in one of the hidden chambers we have encountered? The one that contained the animated armor for example?
Silas then puts his hand on Clayton's shoulder and bends down to whisper in his ear. I rendered him blind already. I'm sure he still got the message though. Giving the big man a playful slap on the shoulder, Silas grins wickedly from pointy ear to pointy ear as his stands tall once again.
Now let's see what goodies you have...
Silas eyes flash blue as he intones words of power and scans both Vos and the room.
Check for mundane valuables as well. I'm sure he has already looted the place.
Still making no effort to resist, Vos seems resigned to defeat.
"Elessia draws her power from her worship of Calistria. She can adapt her magic to suit the situation, but prefers to use charm and illusion to persuade others to fight for her, supporting them with necromantic energy and debilitating spells. I don't know for sure where she is or what she is doing right now. I assumed she had gone to recruit more allies, but she might also be below."
Vos' gear:
- Bastard sword (magical)
- Mwk halfplate
- Heavy steel shield
- 1x CMW potion
- Dagger
- Signal horn
- A single key
- 42 gp
"Blinded? See this is why folks don't trust that magic, how am I supposed to know that?" He feigns a huff and picks the man up and spirits him away to the secret passages before regrouping.
Coming back Clayton looks itching to fight, "I think we need to head on down and fast. If what he says was true regarding recruiting allies... Well I don't like the idea of what kinds of allies she'll be recruiting." He takes his handwraps off, the venom dripping through and replaces them, "... And if that wasn't clear I think it might be summoning."
He gives a grin to Silas, Okay maybe I might know a few big words.
"Anyone has use for a magic sword? Probably not. We should leave the heavy armors and get them on our way back." With no further comment, he gives everyone 10 coins and throws clayton the potion. Then he takes the key and puts it into his pocket. "We might need this," he mumbles.
The sword is a +1 bastard sword.
So dungeons it is now, right?
So dungeons it is now, right?
Someone should take the sword. Its magic might come in handy against some foes.
Seems the dundgeon is our next objective yes.