Nadiya's examination of the sarcophagus confirms Miruna's hypothesis. It remains unclear whether the protection laid upon the late priest's burial was the work of his successor or their goddess herself, but the effect remains the same: undead beware!
However, Nadiya also discovers something akin to a magical lock and key built into this protection. Casting a divine spell upon the sarcophagus will cause the lid to slide open.
"Oh my, how interesting." Nadiya keeps her eyes fixed upon the fixture. "Miruna is, unsurprisingly, correct. The sarcophagus is protected from undead invasion--should anything driven by negative energy touch this coffin, they shall likely perish. But there are other enchantments as well. If I am reading the patterns of the auras right, if someone casts a divine spell on the sarcophagus, the lid will open."
"Hmmm." Leta moves back a few feet, in case this positive energy stuff starts happening again, should her allies decide to trigger the sarcophagus into opening.
Miruna steps up to the sarcophagus, a conflicted expression on her face, and she turns back to the others.
"'Let only the Blessed seek his aid in times of crisis,'" she says, running a hand over the inscription. "I'm not eager to disturb the resting dead, but it seems clear that they intended for whatever was sealed in with Melsha to be used to protect the living. It's too late for Clover's Crossing, but this sure seems like a crisis to me."
"Thank you, Father Melsha. We'll take it from here."
Miruna's light takes root, and the stone glows with a soft, golden radiance. The sound of grinding stone heralds the movement of the sarcophagus lid as it recedes into the adjoining wall. Even if the simple town of Clover's Crossing had the means to assemble such a mechanism, you cannot see evidence of such artifice - thus, you can only attribute this further to the divine blessings laid upon this deceased holy man.
His remains are immaculate, as though he were interred only yesterday. His white burial robe, fringed with deep blue, remains untouched by dirt or mold. Perched upon his open palms, as though held in offering, is the priest's starknife. A ring of pearls surrounds the center handle like a corona of stars, and the blades are etched with images of butterflies. Despite these embellishments, it is clear that this weapon was made for practical use rather than simply decoration.
After a few seconds of hesitation from her teammates, Leta blurts out:
"Well, are we supposed to grab that thing or what?" She makes no effort to do this herself, remains in her position furthest from the sarcophagus of anyone in the party.
”Not my goddess,” Bashuk says softly, her tone reverential.
"I cannot speak for any of the gods, but I doubt the kindly goddess of travelers and fate would want well-meaning adventurers to leave behind what could be used to protect others. While any of you consider taking what might be useful, I'll see what enchantments lie in the coffin in the name of caution."
Nadiya examines the coffin with detect magic for aura, particularly focusing on the starknife and the shroud/robe.
Reverently, Valeska approaches... looking over the priest's body and blade. Well, if you put it that way... I suppose it does make sense to use it in our current plight.
The Countess takes one of her own starknives and gently starts to swap it for the one offered by the deceased priest and Desna.
Thank you Desna for this sign, in our time of need. Though a poor substitute, I will not leave your beloved devotee unarmed on his journey.
Having acquired the starknife, Valeska tests it in her hand, feeling its weight and balance.
The recovered starknife feels light and well balanced, and its blades appear especially sharp. Indeed, as Nadiya examines the magic laid upon the weapon, she discovers that it has been enchanted to be especially sharp.
There is no reaction from the interred priest when Valeska offers her own weapon in trade. However, once her hands are clear of the sarcophagus, the lid begins to grind back into place to seal is occupant away again in his peaceful rest. It is safe to assume that your exchange has been accepted.
When you return to your exploration of the catacombs, you follow the rest of the last passage to its end. This hallway once led to a staircase descending down to the next level, but much like the path that led your new companions here, these stairs collapsed some time ago. The ragged stone walls of the shaft have been scored by many claws, likely from the coming and goings of ghouls climbing along its length.
The chunks of rock, remnants of the shattered stairs, provide plentiful hand and footholds in order to climb down.
"I am not fond of climbing, but I suppose needs must," says Nadiya. She sends some of her dancing lights down the passage to better light what might be further ahead. If the party climbs down she will follow carefully.
"How deep does this go?" Grimacing when she spies the broken stairway, Bashuk steps up to the edge, and off, again catching herself with sudden jets of flame right before she lands.
Warily, the half-orc glances around the new room she finds herself in.
Leta takes off her backpack and pulls out her grappling hook and rope. Climbing can be dangerous and she's not messing around. Securing the hook, she drops the rope and begins to descend.
Leta secures the rope at the top of the collapsed stairwell, and the landed Bashuk secures it below.
"Bad air," Bashuk murmurs to the first of her companions to reach the bottom. "Breathing might be difficult in places. Perfect for ghouls though."
Nadiya frowns. "I know a spell that can put a bubble of air around one's head, but I didn't think to prepare it today, and it takes rest and some time to prepare. At the same time, I am aware if we wait any ghouls who remain may continue to do harm." She looks down at her cat, who has has hopped out of its basket and is sniffing with a look of distaste at the edge of the chasm. "Mishka, being small, would be affected by poor air before we would. I am not happy to think of using my friend like a miner's canary, but we share a deep bond, and I would know if he was beginning to feel the effects before any great harm was done, and then we could retreat." She pauses and adds. "But I would be relieved if we had another plan."
Valeska seems to stretch her physical capabilities and makes it down successfully.
Hard to breathe... That's not good. But, I don't know that we have a choice at the moment. Some will succumb, others won't... We stick together.
"Stick together it is. I have a bear's endurance spell if someone is at risk of flagging, and do my best to stay on the alert for these pockets."
If Leta will allow her, Nadiya uses the aid of the rope to climb down.
As they move forward she tries to stay alert as possible for this bad air.
If Leta will allow her, Nadiya uses the aid of the rope to climb down.
Leta looks around and covers the area with her bow as people make their way down. Her rope and grappling hook will stay there; hopefully we won't have further need of them.
Bashuk takes up her spot behind Kane and the Countess, hands aflame to generate light for the humans. As they march into the darkness the half-orc's head stays on a swivel, peering this way and that for any sign of danger.
Bashuk keeps watch at the bottom of the collapsed stairwell, standing atop a chunk of stone that gives her a good vantage point of the next level of the catacombs, spreading out before her. She takes stock of the surroundings as the rest of the party shimmies down the rope behind her.
The former staircase opens upon a wide chamber, perhaps once used for burial ceremonies or consecrations.
Passages branch off to the north, west, and south.
Sniffing the air, Bashuk gestures toward the western passage. "There's fresher air that way, and movement. Probably opens out into the sinkhole so the bad air isn't likely to be near there. Also gives us a refence point in this little rat-maze."
Slipping into the room, the half-orc cautiously approaches the doorway to the north. "Let's not leave any rooms uncleared as we investigate..."
Leta moves, without a word, out into the room to cover the Northern hallway with her bow as Bashuk investigates.
Perception, looking down the hallway:
Nadiya takes a couple steps forward as she looks around. She taps her basket and her cat jumps back into it. "Do give a meow if you smell anything coming, Mishka," she advises her cat.
Nadiya's lights bob along the roof of this catacombs chamber, which rises to an oblong dome. They reveal the thick cobwebs that haunt the edges of the room, draped over thick layers of dust. However, a path leading from the collapsed staircase and down the hallway to the west has been cleared through the dust by numerous creatures passing through here.
However, you can also see something glinting from beneath a blanket of burial wraps and dust, tucked into a niche within the wall on the far side.
With illumination, quite literally, out of her hands... Valeska silently readies her newly acquired starknife in case of danger.
Numerous creatures... Dammit!
"There's something shiny in the nook back there, under some dust and stuff. I think all the rats and such are dead."
While her eyes might fail her in the darkness, Miruna reaches out with her magical senses, searching for the presence of evil itself.
"If the rats and bats are recently dead, then whatever killed them may be hiding within. So we might clear the pile before retrieving whatever it is that's shiny. I've some alchemists fire or liquid ice..."
"That's what I'm for," Bashuk snorts, stepping into the chamber for a closer look at the cleared stretch of collapsed stairwell.
Miruna spots no auras of malice lurking in the chamber or around the many corners branching off.
Bashuk braves the northern hallway and picks her way towards the next large chamber. As she progresses, she passes two side antechambers lined with small, narrow burial niches. Rather than full bodies, only skulls are interred in these cubby-like niches, staring vacantly at the kineticist as she walks.
As she steps into the arched entranceway into the corner chamber, Bashuk is struck by the dull tang upon the air. Slightly toxic air haunts this chamber, emitted from cracks and fissures in the stonework of the opposite wall. She has encountered such foul tastes and smells back home, both in Valorforge and elsewhere in the Belkzen - perhaps explaining why she is able to shrug off its effects, at least for now.
Unlike the antechambers, the burial niches here are full sized and cradle entire sets of remains. While most of the contents are nothing but bones and rotted burial shrouds, Bashuk sees that the shiny object spotted by Leta is a golden chess piece, tucked among the finger bones of one of the interred skeletons.
Bashuk grimaces as the taste of bad air tickles the back of her throat. "Careful, dead air here. Not safe." Head still on a swivel, the half-orc steps over and brushes detritus away from the shiny object Leta had pointed out.
"Find anything interesting?" Miruna calls back, her attention on her detection spells.
Bashuk retrieves the shiny object. She finds that it is a game piece about two inches tall and made of gold, although the crown-like top of the piece is adorned with diamond chip.
Although not enchanted, the piece is likely worth quite a bit of money.
"Huh," Bashuk flips the game piece to Leta. "Good spot, maybe the other pieces are around here somewhere, ha."
"Hmm. Someone wealthy liked games." Nadiya gazes warily toward the west. "Based on the tracks here, I suppose we better move on and see what we can find."
Nadiya keeps an eye--or perhaps nose--out for signs of when they are about to enter a poorly ventilated area.
Leta puts the expensive collectible into a pouch, fully planning to sell it and split the total fairly among her compatriots. Well, more or less fairly.
Leta will move to glance through the south doorway.
The southern doorway leads to another, larger burial chamber. The walls are lined with a mix of full-sized niches as well as smaller cubbies where skulls are enshrined. One distinct feature, however, is an ablution fountain mounted against the far, southern wall of the chamber. Water still flows from the fonts, but cracks in the basins keep too much of it from remaining pooled.
Nadiya cautions Leta from straying too far forward. While this fountain room is relatively safe, she recognizes that an adjacent chamber to the west is filled with more bad air. Perhaps the flowing water or some other ventilation helps keep the fountain room more purified.
Bashuk peers a short days down the half-collapsed stairwell, then shrugs and returns. "The air is foul, but there is a path down. Let us clear this level first to ensure nothing lurks at our backs."
As Nadiya warns Leta of the bad air, Bashuk nods. "Let me," she offers, stepping into the room and checking all about the room, cautiously.
Miruna nods in agreement, then follows Bashuk at a safe distance.
Most of the niches in the fountain room have been scavenged by the ghouls; even the oldest bones show signs of being gnawed upon by the undead, desperate for anything to sate their unholy hunger.
The niches nearest to the ablution fountain are the exceptions. They remain untouched, as though the ghouls were kept at bay by the flowing water.
Bashuk rounds the corner and braves the denser toxic air to survey the adjoining room. She finds another burial chamber, likewise scavenged by the ghouls. A corner of the room has collapsed, from whence the bad air rises from below. Numerous claw marks scar the stone work around the collapse, indicating that the ghouls have climbed up from this fissure. The space is too narrow to allow most human-sized beings to squeeze through; only ghouls, with their preternatural limberness and loose joints, would be able to pass through.
Otherwise, this room is a dead end, which may be a blessing in disguise, for the foul air is so thick that Bashuk wonders whether her other companions could endure its embrace for very long.
Returning to the others, Bashuk just shakes her head. "The ghouls picked that area clean, save for a fountain that might be consecrated. There's a fissure up to the surface, maybe, but the bad air is thick and heavy and there's no path through. Save enough to ignore for now I think."
"I don't want to be disrespectful, but again I think taking what we can in our fight against those that have desecrated this tomb might be helpful as well as in line with the faith of those who built the place. Do you all think it might be a good idea to collect some water from this fountain, if it is indeed sacred? I think I have something to hold it..."
Miruna chews her lip in thought for a moment before shaking her head.
"It would be helpful, no doubt, but I worry that whoever gathers the water may be overcome by the poisonous air."
Bashuk, would you be able to gather some?
Bashuk looks like she wants to argue, but just nods. "Yes, Countess."
Nadiya produces vials from her haversack and hands them to Bashuk, holding her breath at the threshold of the area as Mishka empathically understands to do the same.
She'll cast detect magic on the vials to confirm the water still has some properties once it is removed from the fountain.
After this she is ready to move on.