Allie opens with a round of Boneshaker on one of the Shadow Giants.
Ulrich takes out his metamagic rod of bouncing spell, and targets a different giant with a Blood Boil spell.
Smiting one, Amnayel's holy blade flashes as she buries it into it repeatedly.
"Bloody hell," Gabbi grumbles to herself as she draws her bow and invokes a judgement.
Ulrich bounce his spell between two giants, but neither one succumbs to it. Gabbi takes down one giant with her opening salvo. The next giant resists Allies boneshaker spell as Allie protects the party.
The gnome beats on his drum faster, and the giants speed up! They rush in to attack Amnayel, but she blocks their attacks!
"Rock on Amny!" Allie whispers, infusing the paladin in divine favor.
Narrowing her eyes at the gnome, Gabbi turns her barbed attention to him.
Ulrich launches a ray of exhaustion on the last tomb giant.
With her first two shots, Gabbi silences the gnome, her arrows serving their deadly purpose! Bolstered by Allie's magic, Amnayel smites one of the giants, then Gabbi finishes it off with the rest of her shots! Ulrich's spell exhausts the last giant. He struggles to lift his scythe to attack Amnayel, and she is able to parry the strikes.
The last giant falls to your combined arms in short order.
Ulrich kind of likes the boneworking tools, but it isn't his specialty. He takes a look at the giant's deeds, just in case there might be something interesting there. The rest he has no interest in.
Nosoi looks at the headband of charisma, and decides to awkwardly slip it on with some dexterous talon maneuvering.
The rooms west of the entrance serve as the keep's larders. They also served as an office for keeping inventory, as ledgers on one shelf attest. Bags of flour, potatoes, and onions set out to prepare the day’s food rations are badly charred but still edible. The beverages have all begun leaking out of disintegrating barrels, whereas the dairy products are curdled and the meat has a metallic taste.
"Lovely." Allie says, popping the ioun stone into orbit around Rascal's head. The wolf snaps it the stone a couple of times and then seems to lose interest.
"Shall we push on?" She asks.
Gabbi gives a nod towards her sister. "Yes, let's," she says.
The first few rooms you come across are abandoned storerooms, apartments, and a cesspit for the garderobe of the keep above. Past this is a hallway whose ceiling is a mere 4-1/2 feet high. You can hear faint voices muttering in Dwarven coming from somewhere down this hall...
Allie ducks down to follow Rascal who is more or less the perfect height to fit into a smaller room like that.
"Hello? We're here to help." She calls.
This entire passage is host to a series of benign haunts that project seconds-long glimpses of Glerhadring’s construction and brief occupation— breaking ground, swearing to take back Koldukar, and later leaving the site. However, the vision of the lead dwarf mason setting down his tools to leave triggers a much more powerful effect: accusations of failure and oath-breaking in Dwarven appear inscribed in the walls, cursing Allie!
As the haunt expends its power, a ghostly dwarf appears. A cloud of translucent humanoid spirits whirls around the desiccated spirit. With a howl of fury, she attacks!
Any power in the universe that tries to seperate Allie and Gabbi is doomed to fail and Allie hurls the curse away as every voice in her head screams out in unison against it.
"She wanted me to forget you!" She tells Gabbi. "I want that b!#%+ dead... er!"
"As you wish," Gabbi replies, her lip curling up into a smile as she draws her bow. Before firing, though, she casts a single spell.
Ignoring Gabbi’s spell, the spirit raises a wall of force to cut off Allie and Rascal from the rest of the party! It sends a screaming spirit through the air to strike Allie!
Allie fights off the magic and closes in to punch the ghost with a fistful of positive energy!
Rascal circles and tries to trip the ghost, to no great effect.
Gabbi snarls in rage when the magical wall appears between her and her twin. Directing her ire at the inanimate wall, she fires arrow after arrow at it. "Ulrich!" she cries out. "Can you bypass the wall?!"
"Dispel Magic isn't powerful enough for this, and I do not have disintegrate prepared, but I have a better idea."
Ulrich casts Dimension door to get the rest of the party on the other side.
Once on the other side, Amanayel begins to swing her longsword at the spirit dwarf!
The spirit just manages to resist Allie's heal spell, reducing the damage it takes. Gabbi only hits with her first shot, while Amnayel hits just once as well.
The dwarven ghost reaches out to drain Amnayel while simultaneously sending another screaming spirit at Allie, carrying the touch of death.
Groaning at the drain on her life, Amnayel quickly does what she can to try and heal it.
She then continues to try and destroy this spirit.
Ulrich tries to identify what this undead is, is it merely a powerful ghost? Or something more?
With the wall bypassed, Gabbi focuses on delivering as much damage as possible to the phantom that would attempt to separate her from her sister.
Ulrich identifies the spirit as a nemhain.
While most nemhain aspirants are evil to begin with—such individuals are often members of cults worshiping deities of lost or forbidden secrets— occasionally a goodly creature considers protecting a site worthy of a corrupted, tortured existence. Such an act, however well intentioned, is destined to damn her for all eternity.
All nemhains are tied to a ritual object used in their creation. This object is typically a large statue, pillar, or monolith. Until this object is destroyed, a destroyed nemhain automatically rejuvenates back to full hit points 1d4 days after she is destroyed, always appearing adjacent to her ritual object.
Amnayel slices the spirit a few times, then Gabbi hits with all of her attacks. The dwarven spirit shrieks as her form wavers and fades away!
Ulrich relays what he knows of the Nemhain eagerly, as he's excited about the concept of forgotten undead lore. Still, he's perfectly fine with locating the ritual object and destroying it. Perhaps it is further down the hall.
You continue down the hall. Here, the tunnel opens into a larger chamber decorated with relief carvings that honor the dwarven pantheon centered around Torag, the god of the forge: Angradd the Forge-Fire, Bolka the Golden Gift, Dranngvit the Debt Minder, Folgrit the Watchful Mother, Grundinnar the Peacemaker, Kols the Oathkeeper, Magrim the Taskmaster, and Trudd the Mighty. The disgraced god Droskar is not among those represented. The friezes not only depict some of the pantheon’s myths (such as one variation of how Trudd lost his beard) and the dwarven Quest for Sky, but also the loss of a towering citadel proudly standing in a rocky valley. This last carving immortalizes the fall of Koldukar to orcs in –3708 AR, and the the sculptor incorporated a lizard atop one peak holding a scroll that reads, in Dwarven, “We shall remember and reclaim.” The lizard and scroll are the holy symbol of Kols, god of duty, honor, and promises.
Past this hall is a shrine. Behind this room’s stone altar towers the statue of a stoic male dwarf. One hand is raised as if he were swearing an oath, while his other beckons toward the altar, where rest a warhammer, a stylus, a drinking horn, and a string of metal beads. Inscribed sentences in Dwarven script line the room’s floor and walls, though most are gouged by lines through the text.
This shrine’s floor and walls are inscribed with over a hundred promises and signatures in Dwarven, each left by a different dwarf committed to the site’s mission. Many reference secondary reasons, such as “To honor my slain sister” or “That I might honor Torag by felling his enemies.” The most unique of these entries reads, “I shall remain where others abandoned, to honor your name and remain true to their forgotten oaths—Tanhild Harskordottir.”
The religious among you can ascertain that the shrine’s divine connection is weak, as though it were no longer consecrated or had been cursed in some way. You can piece together the basic ritual: a creature addresses the statue, wihch depicts the god Kols, asks him to witness an oath, uses the stylus to trace the oath’s words on the altar, fills the drinking horn, takes a drink, and then pours a quantity of the beverage over the traced words. The words then fade, reappearing inscribed on one of the walls.
Swearing and fulfilling oaths in this way is key to tapping into the shrine’s diminished power, though only significant oaths make an impression.
The warhammer on the altar is an oathhammer, a +2 warhammer that has the magical properties of an oathbow, including the ability to swear to slay an enemy in order to increase the hammer’s enhancement bonus, damage, and critical hit multiplier. The oathhammer’s utterances must be in Dwarven rather than Elven. If the wielder breaks a promise, the oathhammer turns into a cursed –2 warhammer for 24 hours. The metal beads are durable but don’t radiate any magical auras to effects like detect magic. They are strung along a tight chain of fine steel links, and the strand is worth 100 gp.
Allie once again resists the spirits magic and then embraces her sister tightly.
Rascal bounces over to Amny and nudges her with his large wet nose. He seems more pleased to see the paladin than Gabbi!
Having already noticed the dilemma, Ulrich says "I have no qualms either way. Desecrate the temple or let the oathbound linger, it matters not to me."
"I've got nothing against the dwarf gods but that thing was nasty!" Allie says. She picks up the hammer and sets to work smashing the shrine. She may scream once or twice in the process... but by the time she's done she seems much calmer and put the hammer carefully back down where she got it from.
"Better." She says with a smile.
"With his own weapon. You sure know how to desecrate." Ulrich grins as he starts walking back the way they came. He leads the group south of area C13.
This large room is supported by four narrow columns. The masonry walls are smoothed and inscribed with life-size illustrations of orc opponents, complete with lines indicating common weak points in their stances and anatomy. A dozen broad, straw-filled mats are grouped in the center of the area.
Three tomb giants are at rest here, including one who towers above his fellows and wears armor seemingly constructed from fused dinosaur bones. He looks at you with narrowed eyes. ”Do you serve the Tyrant?” he asks warily.
"I had hoped we could gain you as temporary allies to fight amongst yourselves, but I do not believe that will happen now. No.
We serve only those who agree with us. We are here to destroy you, and wipe this fortress clean with your blood." Ulrich answers
"To answer your question," Gabbi says with a sideways glance at Ulrich, "We do not serve the Tyrant. We shall destroy him."
”If you oppose him, then we will slay you first!” the giant declares, though his voice quavers with uncertainty. His allies ready their weapons.
"You will try and you will fail," Gabbi says with confidence as she draws her bow. "I would recommend switching sides while you still have a chance."
The giant holds up his hand to stop his allies from attacking. ”Perhaps you are right. Truth be told, we are not very loyal to the Tyrant. We will leave if you allow us.”
Allie makes a show of standing aside, well aware that her sister's experiments with mental control don't always last very long.
True to their word, the giants depart without further incident.
The last several rooms in the cellar served a variety of purposes for the dwarves, ranging from additional apartments to food cellars. Hammer Rock’s engineers broke down several walls and replaced them with iron bars to convert this space into a dungeon to house Lastwall’s prisoners. The doors to several cells have been torn open, showing where the Whispering Tyrant’s followers recovered prisoners’ crumbling bodies for reanimation.
The floor of one cell has been demolished, revealing the long stone staircase that connects Glerhadring to Fallowdeep below. Due to the Whispering Tyrant’s inexact excavation, the topmost stairs have been disintegrated, and there is a 10-foot drop to reach the upper steps.
As you prepare to descend, you feel stronger and better able to take on the challenges to come.
"If your resources are depleted, it might be wise to rest before proceeding," Ianthras suggests.
Ulrich proceeds to light a small bonfire in the demolished cell. He lays out his bedroll to sit upon, and as he stokes the fire, ponders aloud.
"I wonder where they decided to go, those giants."
"Amnayel. Do you wish to return to your Aasimar form?"
Amnayel blinks at the question, unsure how to handle it. Through her mask she tries to discern if he's telling the truth or not, but this was never truly an area of strength for her and she's not quite sure what to make of it.
Likely is that he is yet again messing with you.
"Are you wishing yet another joke at my expense, Ulrich? You seemingly cannot be satisfied through any other exercise other than to rib me. Why would you even ask that question."
"Because I now have the ability to change you back." Ulrich replies as he pulls out the giant diamond. "It is an extremely powerful and expensive spell, capable of bending the very fabric of reality. The mighty power of genies, the blending of all variations of magic. I can return you to your original Aasimar form."
"Is that what you want, Amnayel?" Gabbi asks, stepping up and putting a hand on her arm. "Ulrich wouldn't joke about this."