As they're descending the tunnel, Gabbi invokes another spell.
~~~~~
"We are far more than persistent," Gabbi replies as she rises from the ground on her winged boots. "We are undaunted and relentless. You are an abomination that cannot be allowed to exist and so we will take a third option; The only option. We will destroy you."
Aeonte casts a spell, waggling her entrails to fulfill the somatic components. A wall of stone rises up to seal the exit to the chamber behind you!
Moments later, the strange sea serpent makes a swift gesture and the water in the room swiftly rises ten feet, sweeping you up in it! Then it lunges at Gabbi, crushing her in its jaws! A moment later, it swallows the dhampir whole, sending her into its gullet which begins to digest the inquisitor!
Ulrich swims above the water and targets the serpent with one of his most powerful spells.
Ulrich commands the archons to harass the medusa
Gabbi sees the creature closing as the water rises, she attempts to fly out of its reach, but recognizing the inevitable, she curls up as the maw closes upon her.
"HOLD ON!" the paladin shouts, taking to the air and smites the creature, trying her best to free Gabbi.
Allie shakes off the creatures... whateverness and focuses on the medusa.
"Boom." She says through a mouthful of water.
The cetus succumbs to Ulrich’s curse. Amnayel smites it, then Gabbi stabs it over and over from the inside. The weakened dragon collapses into the water with a mighty splash, and Gabbi crawls out from its sundered stomach!
Aeonte grimaces in pain as the flame strike scorches her. She casts a spell to try to paralyze Allie as she swoops down to get you all in range of her gaze!
Gabbi is literally snarling when she finally manages to slash her way out of the belly of the beast. Ignoring the foulness dripping from every portion of her, she rises above the water with her winged boots, drawing and firing on the undead medusa. In her rage, she's incapable of looking away from the creature.
Allie meets the medusa's gaze head on and nearly succumbs before thoughts of her sister steel her resolve. She scrambles backwards to give herself room to drop another torrent of divine fire on the medusa.
The three archons yell out "En taro, Ragathiel!!" Before swimming over to the undead medusa head.
Using their greatswords, they each slash at the head, fighting to the death. "My life for Heaven!"
Ulrich averts his eyes from the medusa, opting instead to prepare a spell should any of his allies turn to stone.
Nosoi closes his eyes, using his spirit sense instead should he need it.
Amnayel flies up to meet the medusa head on, declaring "I will have your unholy head!"
Though the medusa dodges most of the flame strike and the archons attacks don't hit, Allie, Gabbi, and Amnayel all strike the undead menace. She shrieks with rage, angered that her gaze is proving ineffctive. She tries her best to attack Amanyel, biting with her teeth and her snakes while slamming with her horrid organs.
She misses with all of her attacks.
Having closed the distance, Amnayel does her best to make due on her threat and repeatedly aims for the medusa's head.
"I will rain down upon you the Gray Lady's wrath!"
Between Amnayel and Gabbi, Aeonte doesn't stand a chance. The disembodied medusa falls, organs ruptured and face festooned with arrows.
Aeonte maintains a collection of rare gems and dusts, the latter kept in dozens of crystalline vials. Among these are a ruby worth 1,100 gp, diamond dust worth 3,000 gp, and a star sapphire engraved with celestial symbols worth 3,500 gp.
The final chamber in the Petrified Halls is a storeroom for some of Aeonte's more extraordinary petrified specimen, including a wide array of magical beasts and aberrations such as a gug, a jotund troll, and purple worm. To better review and access the statues here, Aeonte has positioned them to hang from the ceiling and rise from the floor in undulating sections about 10 feet wide and 10 feet tall. This arrangement creates a labyrinthine series of trenches and shelves that leave about 15 feet of clearance between the two surfaces.
As you are making your way back out to the main hall, Gabbi spots a creature spying on you, trying to remain behind cover and stay out of sight. It appears to be a skeleton creature festooned with sheets of ice. It matches the description of the undead that allowed the ghost of Captain Trant to escape.
Alerted by her sister's body language Allie turns in the right direction. "We mean you no harm unless you seek to aid the Tyrant!" She calls out. "If you do not then we are allies. Why not come out and speak to us?"
The creature cringes. ”I am no friend to the Tyrant. But I know not if I can escape his grasp. You seek to defeat him, but what guarantees do I have that you do not seek my destruction as well?”
"You have my word. My sister and Amnayel will give theirs likewise." Allie replies, looking at each woman in turn. "The Tyrant is the foe beyond all foes. Your aid in defeating him would be proof enough of your intentions - for the time being at least. Besides," She adds with dark humor. "We aren't likely to survive the experience - so there's that in your favor."
The undead hesitates. ”You would sacrifice your lives to defeat the Tyrant?” The concept seems to boggle his mind.
Gabbi turns to raise an eyebrow at her sister.
Not wanting to contradict her, though, she presses her lips together and doesn't say anything.
The undead hesitates. ”You would sacrifice your lives to defeat the Tyrant?” The concept seems to boggle his mind.
"Absolutely," Gabbi replies without hesitation.
"It's mildly annoying but we have no other real choice." Allie says with a smile and a shrug. "It's a worthwhile sacrifice all in all. My sister is a lot more selfless about this." She adds with a smile.
Having already shed his own blood, Ulrich goes through with casting his spell. He has Nosoi deliver the spell to Gabriella.
The creature considers your words. Then he vigorously shakes his head. ”No, I don’t believe it! It must be another of the Tyrant’s tricks! I won’t fall for it again!” He rushes away at high speed, quickly disappearing from your line of sight!
"Should have destroyed him when we had the chance," Gabbi says with a shake of her head. "Do we need to check back in with our 'host'?" she asks the others.
"Well... we tried." Allie says with a shrug. "Let's move on. We should try to finish the lieutenants quickly. How about the alchemist next?"
"Sure." Ulrich says as he casts another spell.
- Greater False Life
- Extended Shield
- Mage Armour
- Dancing Lantern
- Veil of Heaven
- Protection from Evil
- Life Bubble
Crossing the main chamber past where Lyanthari is hosting her feast, you enter the Stitched Wing to the north. The door opens into a laboratory that holds several large stone blocks that serve as tables, and various bone saws, hooks, and large surgical blades hang from several wall-mounted racks. Hoses, spigots, and meat hooks extend from the ceiling. Threaded, reinforced glass pipes run along the walls.
A man crouches nervously behind one of the tables. He brandishes an oversized scalpel. "Ah! Stay back! Wait--you are not one of the undead? Who are you?" he asks.
Gabbi refreshes one of the spells upon her and follows after the others as well as invoking a prayer of healing for herself.
~~~~~
"We are those that have come to vanquish the Whispering Tyrant," Gabbi says, drawing an arrow to her bow. "Declare yourself!"
"My name is Torumard! I was guarding the keep when the undead attacked. There was a flash of light, momentary pain, and then dreams of hateful laughter. I think that I was being surgically tormented in this lab... When I regained my senses, I began exploring, but there are powerful undead creatures all around, so I hid here!"
Gabby senses that everything the man just said is a lie.
"Lies melt like ice in the sun before me," Gabbi replies and her bow creaks as she draws back the string. "You will get one more chance to speak truly before I send you to your final judgement."
"Boring conversation anyway!" the man growls, then his skin suddenly rips apart as a hulking creature emerges in a shower of gore! This brawny creature has had its skin completely flensed from its form, revealing the violent pulsing of its massive, exposed muscles.
Ecorches resist weapons that are not good and silver. They are immune to acid.
Gabbi shakes her head as the creature transforms in front of her. Allie's nearness allows her to ignore the horror of what she sees.
"Ecorche - Skin Stealer. They're immune to acid. Beware, it'll try to flay you alive."
"Well that doesn't sound like much fun." Allie says, managing a laconic drawl as a couple of the fragments of her mind gibber at the creatures appearance.
She taps her sister on the shoulder and then takes position a pace in front of her, levelling her spear.
"It can try." Amnayel says in response to Gabriella's comment, moving quickly to engage it.
Stepping up to it, she unleashes her blade upon it and tries to stop it from flensing any skin.
Ulrich takes out a sandwich and begins eating as he waits for his turn. He offers one to Amnayel, which happens to be an egg-salad sandwich. He asks if Amnayel happens to be vegetarian.
Ulrich takes out a sandwich and begins eating as he waits for his turn. He offers one to Amnayel, which happens to be an egg-salad sandwich. He asks if Amnayel happens to be vegetarian.
Bolstered by divine power, Gabbi easily cuts down the undead creature before it has a chance to attack! It collapses in a lifeless heap.
Among the room’s equipment are three healer’s kits, five adamantine wire saws, two sets of surgeon’s tools, three tins of unguent of timelessness, and 17 measures of embalming fluid. Beneath one of the tables is a wide, dirty basket in which are a set of dentures with 5 gold teeth (worth 80 gp total), a blood-stained Elysian shield, and a mantle of faith.
Doors exit to the north, northeast, and east.
"Wear this." Allie says, passing the mantle to her sister. "Amny, could you fight and use this?" She points to the tower shield. "It has some pretty hefty magic woven in!"
Gabbi looks over the garment sadly when she sees Pharasma's spiral woven into the pattern. "How did this come to be here, I wonder?" she questions before donning it over her armor.
"Let us continue in that direction," she says, pointing north when she's finished.
"Do you ever find it interesting that a God or Goddess can bless an item with holy power, but it doesn't matter who wears it? Such as that Ecorche with a Mantle of Pharasmin Faith." Ulrich ponders aloud.
"I've long ago given up questioning the motives and actions of the divine," Gabbi replies. "They're capricious, fickle, and without rationale. But they are what they are and we have to live in the world that they play with as a child with a toy."
This room’s thick doors seal to help maintain its chilly atmosphere and low-oxygen environment, which helps to preserve the tons of alchemically preserved cadavers stored in this 30-foot-tall chamber. An array of broad, four-tiered racks support a variety of corpses, through which it is difficult to see to the other side of the room beyond the racks. Much larger carcasses hang in tall alcoves along the northern wall of the room. A ceiling-mounted track supports a series of hanging meat hooks, allowing a hanging carcass to be pulled with relative ease from one end of the room to another, or even into one of the alcoves.
Roughly half of the bodies in here belong to humanoids and horses slain in the Whispering Tyrant’s recent campaign against Lastwall, whereas the other half consist of withered, centuries-old bodies from a variety of sources.
Three strange humanoids lurk here among the bodies, rushing out to attack when spotted! These hulking creatures have long, vulturelike necks ending in heads with a disgusting, one-eyed visage. Gabbi identifies them as gholes, foul denizens of the wilderness that feed upon rotten meat. Their ability to restore flesh to even the most ancient of skeletal remains allows them to harvest flesh from ruins long forgotten by the living.
Fortunately the trio doesn’t prove much of a challenge, and you dispatch them with minimal trouble.
"What a complete waste of time." Allie says with a sigh. "Shall we search in here or head back? It'd be strange to leave guardians with nothing to guard but they weren't exactly troublesome..."
"Someone else should do this." Allie suggests. "I'll keep watch."
Amnayel takes the shield and lifts it a few times, trying it out. "I've never used a shield this large before. I will try it out."
---
"Give me a moment to search. I agree that it seems unwise to leave before doing so."
Searching the larder doesn't turn up anything of value.
You pass through a cleanly swept hallway into a research lab. Carefully arranged glassware and organized books line the shelves along the walls of this meticulously clean laboratory. Two workbenches with an array of restraints for binding creatures of various sizes stand near the middle of the room, and three cabinets filled with an array of reagents stand against the north wall. The headless body of a winged woman is manacled to one of the tables.
A ghast is here, clad in leather armor and with an alchemist's apron adorned with several potions and elixirs. Two humanlike constructs stand by his side, along with an enormous necrocraft with four legs and two powerful arms. The ghast grins, his long tongue hanging from his mouth.
"Hold a moment! Might you be willing to parley?" he asks. "Perhaps we can reach a mutually beneficial arrangement without having to resort to combat."
"What do you have to offer that we can't gather off your corpse?" Ulrich asks plainly.
Amnayel tightens her grip on her sword and moves towards the creature, just in case negotiations go poorly.
Not loosening her grip on her bow, Gabbi glances at her sister.