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With the trap sprung and the floor searched, the group proceeds further into the depths of the prison with only the found note to intrigue them.
The second level of the Fair, like the area just searched above it, is stripped of nearly everything metal, leaving what was once a tangle of dank, solitary confinement cages transformed into a tumbled mess of furniture and prisoner odds and ends. A collection of broken furniture in the southeast corner suggests a struggle, evidenced by a splattering of blood on the floor in front of the door in the southeast corner of the room.
But the primary interest in the cramped and foreboding room is the sound of loose chains scraping against the flagstone floor. A solitary figure paces slowly, facing the southern wall in front of him.
Stretching across the length of the plastered wall is a large mural depicting two large snakes carrying a bell into Cassomir’s sewers. Following on their heels are clearly several figures: an armored man with longsword brandished, a bardiche-carrying snake-woman, a white-haired gnome, another gnome riding high upon wolf, and a half-elf bathed in a mist of ice.
He reaches up with outstretched arm and adds a splash of color where only he would and speaks without acknowledging your entrance. “For you, my master, always for you!”
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"We meet again, Painter," Durant calls from near the base of the stairs. "I see your art still reflects your Master's ill intent, even when people such as ourselves stand to oppose it and succeed time and time again. Indeed, it seems our fates are bound together so long as these horrid events continue to plague this city and its people. Tell me, what became of the people abducted by the derros earlier today? Will your paintings reveal that as they did last time we met?"
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Embracing his new, calmer demeanor, the Crazed Painter stops in front of the illustration of the lot of you and ponders for a moment. “Groetus told me... told me you would come, and he demands that you rid his shrine of the filthy derros. But I warn you, do not interfere with his shrine or the Master's anger will be swift.”
At this point, he points to the door in the southeast corner of the room and says, “Down, down, deeper, and down... follow my map to the undergroun'.”
Without turning from his artwork, you catch the hint of a smile on the Painter's face.
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The painter slowly walks towards Altorin and holds out his paint brush as if to color-blot the kineticist's nose, but instead grins again.
"The snakes have already found you."
Picking up some of his renewed fervor from several weeks ago, he spins around and raises his arms outstretched to the glorious mural.
"They have such plans for it! But do not get flustered by what has happened, what may happen, or what may never happen... Only the Master knows for sure... No! You! You have been bidden by him to hunt out the nasty derros. They interfere with my lord’s plans and he wants them dead. So why do you delay when given an order by the mighty Groetus? The map, the map ... you need!"
With that, he rips at the shoulders of his paltry tunic and it shreds into two halves. As the front half falls to his front, he rips at it even further, until he creates a roughly square section of dingy cloth and hands it to Sir Durant.
Opening it up, you spy dozens of paint strokes and splotches upon it forming an unintelligible garble of scrawls and pictures “Understand the map and you find the grotto.”
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The painter mimics Qiroyo's words as he casts (with elaborate hand gestures thrown in for fun), but neither he nor the gnome is successful in detecting any magic on the other.
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Moving over to the door in the corner of the level, it opens up into a non-descript (though frequently used, from the smell of it) lavatory. The commode platform is raised up, however, revealing a metal ladder solidly affixed to the wall that descends into the darkness below. Testing the hinges of the trap-door, you can see that although from below it is obvious where it is and how to open it, when closed it is almost impossible to recognize it as a path downward. Clever gnome engineering at its finest.
The ladder extends nearly thirty feet down and ends in an walk-able portion of Cassomir's sewers. Refuse rushes by in a stream of garbage carried swiftly through the sewer proper. A five-foot-wide dry ledge sits a foot above the refuse and provides a walkway on both the east and west sides of the sewer. On the west wall, a massive iron door blocks passage beyond. An image carved into the door is of a dispassionate figure holding a gibbous moon.
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"Remember the Duerger like to extinguish light. We may be fighting blind before we are through here. It sure looks like we have to go through that door."
Just to verify, here is a tracking roll to find out where they went.
Hmmm. Lots of wet is about all Cyclic can tell.
"Whaddaya say, Mange? Can you hop this thing?"
Mange gives her a look that obviously says no.
"Looks like we are going to swim this thing unless someone has a better idea."
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Before heading down the toilet (Eww. Grosss.), Eka lights her sunrod and tucks it into her belt. Once reaching the bottom she remarks: "What a wonderful ssmell we have disscovered."
By the light of the sunrod, she notes the rockfall and begins to pick her way across the fetid liquid.
Her foot slips on a sludge-slimed rock! In a moment of panic, she tries to use the shaft of her bardiche as a staff to prop herself up.
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Cyclic tosses over her grappling hook attached to a nice silk rope after someone makes it over. Then she will attempt to balance her way over using the rocks (at least it looks like there are rocks in on the map) after bundling her armor and stuff separately for a separate journey over, dangling over the rope.
Mange, not having any hands, has to just jump for it but does an excellent job once his armor is removed too.
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Sir Durant stows his sword and shield for the moment, then pulls out and lights a torch. Holding the torch up over the water, he looks down into the stream of sewage.
Moving toward the west end of the rock fall, he grabs the far end of Cyclic's rope and helps hold it taut for the others to cross over.
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Unafraid of the putrid conditions, Durant tests the depths, and is able to make his way across the bottom with his head barely above the surface.
After giving everyone divine guidance, Qiroyo easily hops the rocks and is followed by Mange and Cyclic, who benefit from the rope tied off by Durant.
Eka just manages to keep her balance going across, slipping once but steadying on the rope and her outstretched polearm. Altorin breathes a sigh of relief and crosses easily.
Once everyone has gathered again, they move to the incongruous iron door. It is clearly locked, and looks very difficult, though not impossible, to breach.
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"It iss not trapped? Well, then, let uss desstroy thiss lock!" Eka pulls out her morning star, not wanting to dull the edge of her bardiche's blade, and begins to whack at the lock. The heavy Pang! sound of metal beating on metal reverberates in the stone tunnel, only slightly dampened by the foul mess running down the center channel.
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Durant joins in breaking the lock off of the door, then stands ready to enter with his companions. "We've given them all the waring they'll need to know we're coming," he says bluntly. "Let's make sure it doesn't matter how prepared they are!"
The knight turns to his fellow paladin as he leans his shoulder to the door, "On three? One...two...THREE!" With that, Durant opens the door!
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The door creaks and gives way to Durant's assault, smacking against the stone wall with a reverberating clatter. Another iron door lies partially open in the cramped alcove. The weak sounds of the injured issue forth from within the hallway beyond.
Opening the next door fully, a purple radiance washes over this cold chamber from a variety of lichens and fungi that grow on the walls and ceiling creating an otherworldly sheen. Straw-filled cages line the north and south walls and are filled with humans barely clinging to life. In the room’s center, a strange pedestal, carved in the likeness of dozens of grasping tentacles, sits fixed into the stone floor.
The overwhelming stench of death assails your nostrils as a bizarre creature with a hideous lolling tongue steps forth from the deepened shadows and blocks Durant's way with a hiss. "Come to die today?"
Sir Durant <Do need Fort Save or be sickened>
Creature
Altorin <One action>
Qiroyo <One action>
Cyclic
Mange
Eka
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Sir Durant
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Altorin and Qiroyo cross beyond the door, preparing for the fight ahead. Sir Durant lowers his head, praising Iomedae to bolster his strength, and slices out at the foul undead, but his imbued longsword harmlessly skips off its polished leather cuirass.
With eyes widened in rage, the ghast tears into the tempered champion, blood and gore filling up the narrow corridor.
Creature
Altorin
Qiroyo -4 damage
Cyclic
Mange
Eka
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Sir Durant -20 damage