Allandír blinks in surprise as he opens the silk pouch to find several hundred silver coins. "That is a lot of money for a small mercenary band like this." He nods in agreement at Ervan's suggestion. "Let us take these four, ah, survivors back to town and hand them over to the Council to transfer up to Elidir."
His green eyes narrow. "Then we can see to this necromancer."
"If we leave now, a copper to a doughnut, Voz won't be here when we come back," Pril says, watching the cave. "We need to bring her out now. It's just a cave." She shrugs.
A thick sheet of mossy vines hangs along the side of the hilltop, which somewhat conceals the entrance to the caves. The vines are easy to push aside, however. This cavern has a layer of dirt strewn about its floor, soaked muddy in places by moisture and disturbed, it would appear, by the passage of feet. Two tunnels lead farther in—one to the north, and another to the south.
"Hey, Allandír," Pril calls out softly. "It looks like there are tracks here. Take a look and tell me what you see."
Ervan isn't entirely amused by the rampant smells of the wild that the cave presents to them. "Do you mind if I create some lights? I can magically enhance one item to shine bright and I can conjure forth a set of dancing lights that I can move about as I please, possibly into the tunnels to shine a light on what lies ahead."
"Go ahead," Pril says to Ervan. "No use walking around in the dark. I'm sure those are tracks so let's head that way."
Her heads lifts a little as they move southward, sniffing the air and keeping alert for threats.
With Ervan providing magical illumination, you move down the southern tunnel. A bedroll, a small fire, a stack of books and papers, and a curious array of equipment covered in a tarp mark this as a spot where someone has been camping for several days.
Two skeletons clad in chainmail stand guard here, wielding longswords and steel shields. Behind them stands a pale half-elf in robes and soft boots. This can only be Voz Lirayne. She clutches a dagger and sneers as you enter. "I won't let you stop me! Not when I'm this close to reaching Alseta's Ring! Minions! Attack!"
"I think you need to loosen the bun a bit, Lady," Pril says with a laugh as she dodges between the two skeletons to stand before the high-strung looking elf.
Ervan calls upon the static and unleashes it upon the undead. "Blast the skeletons to bits! Necromancers are no threat once their minions are gone!"
Nell moves forward and tries to slice and shove one of the skeletons, but she misses both times
Pril tumbles through the skeletons, but they slice at her as she rolls, leaving her badly wounded! She staggers up to Voz and manages to punch the half-elf once, the rest of her fists stopped by mage armor.
The skeletons seem unharmed by Ervan's lightning, resisting the spell completely. Likewise, they resist Lucius's healing, one of them only lightly damaged.
"You were a fool to confront me, gnome. Now, die!" Voz shouts. She casts a spell and reaches out to touch Pril, leeching her lifeblood from her body to empower herself! Then she scrambles up the wall, climbing like a spider to get out of reach.
Pril falls back, staggered by Voz's spell. "It looks like she's all yours, Allandír," she calls out.
The wizard tries to overload the necromancer's spell of spider climb, hoping he can break the spell.
Seeing Pril in danger, Allandír sends Bruynarth in to distract the skeletons and provide them with a different target. The young bear roars as he swipes a claw at the closest skeleton.
The tall elf focuses on the primary threat: the necromancer. One arrow skews wildly off-target (which Allandír puts down to faulty fletching on the arrow) but another strikes Voz directly in the eye (which he naturally puts down to sheer skill).
Bruynarth bumbles into the fight a Allandir's command. He claws at a skeleton, but the slashing attack doesn't seem to harm the undead creature much at all. Allandir strikes Voz's shoulder with an arrow, causing her to snarl in pain.
Gull Peeper dashes around behind one of the skeletons and chomps down on its leg bone. Their teeth dig furrows into the bone, but it still resists the piercing attack.
The skeletons turn on the goblin and attack. One scores a critical strike while the other slices the goblin twice, leaving them badly hurt. The skeletons raise their shields to ward off further blows.
Ervan attempts to counteract Voz's spider climb spell, and he just manages to do so! The half-elf drops to the ground, landing in a crouch.
Worried that the elf may have another nasty spell like the first one, Prill decides to let her defend herself against deadly arrows and moves to assist Gull Peeper - kicking and punching at the skeletons.
The damaged skeleton blocks Nell's first punch, but her second strike splinters bone. Pril darts back in and finishes off the undead, but her follow-up strikes miss the other skeleton. Lucius fires a bolt into the skeleton's skull, but even the critical strike doesn't seem to hurt the thing much.
Voz moves out of Allandir's line of sight and casts a spell, surrounding herself with a trio of illusory duplicates! They move and meld with one another, making it difficult to pinpoint the real necromancer.
Allandír swiftly moves so that he can see the half-elf once more, firing a pair of arrows at her.
Bruynarth prowls forward in search of warm meat rather than old bones, swiping a claw at the necromancer.
Gull Peeper attacks the skeleton but fails to hit it. The undead slices Bruynarth as the bear moves past to get to Voz. He swipes his claw, destroying a mirror image. Allandir follows his companion, and his first arrow goes through one mirror image and scores a glancing strike on the real Voz. The elf's follow-up arrow destroys the last mirror image.
The skeleton switches its focus back to Gull Peeper, cutting the goblin down with two slices of its blade and raising its shield again!
The wizard draws all the moisture from the cave towards his hands and then directs it to violently crash into the animated skeleton.
Pril continues her assault of blows on the remaining skeleton. However, her style of combat is really geared towards someone with flesh as well as bones.
Nell scores one hit on the skeleton, but it blocks part of the blow with its shield. Pril lands a light blow as well, then Ervan pushes the undead back with a torrent of water, badly damaging it. Lucius heals Gull Peeper.
Voz casts two quick spells, raising a shield of force and then trying to paralyze Allandir!
Gull Peeper stands back up and bites the skeleton twice, though it doesn't hurt the undead much!
Success The target is stunned 1.
Failure The target is paralyzed for 1 round.
Critical Failure The target is paralyzed for 4 rounds. At the end of each of its turns, it can attempt a new Will save to reduce the remaining duration by 1 round, or end it entirely on a critical success.
As Allandir seizes up, the skeleton lashes out at Pril but fails to hit!
Pril shifts down, lowering her stance and growls deep down in her throat. She sweeps around with her leg, catching the skeleton across the lower legs.
Pril's strike shatters the skeleton into pieces!
Arcane runes appear out of nowhere and circle around the wizard's wrists as he draws an earth mephit from its plane to his plane. While the spell gestures do not seem all that intricate, sweat does perch on top of Ervan's brows.
"Gnaw on his bones, my elemental companion!"
With the skeleton already destroyed, Ervan's summoned mephit batters Voz's shield, causing the spell to wink out. Lucius's sound burst causes the half-elf to clap her hands over her ears and yelp in pain! Nell moves up to the necromancer and yanks her over her outstretched leg, tripping the half-elf! The fighter then moves behind her to cut off her retreat.
Voz gets to her feet, blood dripping from her ears. She brandishes her dagger, draining the arcane focus to recover her paralyze spell and tries to cast it on Nell. The fighter resists with a supreme effort, becoming only momentarily stunned!
"The odds of you overcoming us are so slim that there's only one conclusion possible: we've won, you've lost. Now, surrender, necromancer." The wizard doesn't wait for the woman to drop her dagger. You can't trust a necromancer, after all. Whether it is because of a lack of morality or having a deplorable mind, one does not go about digging up corpses and reanimating them when you are sound of mind.
Fortunately so, Ervan knows a spell that might just help convince the woman to drop her dagger.
"WHAT?!?" Voz shouts, unable to hear Ervan's words. But his actions speak for themselves as he electrocutes the necromancer and the mephit follows up with two heavy blows that batter Voz. Badly wounded, the half-elf drops her weapon and raises her hands over her head. "ENOUGH! I SURRENDER!"
In addition to Voz’s gear, she also carries a knapsack containing her journal and papers—which includes her correspondence with an organization called the Scarlet Triad. The correspondence doesn’t make it clear exactly what sort of organization the Scarlet Triad is, but the group promises to sponsor Voz’s plans to found an assassination guild and necromancy laboratory in the basement of Citadel Altaerein. Before they’ll initiate this patronage and provide her support, though, the Scarlet Triad correspondent tells Voz that she must first confirm the existence of Alseta’s Ring, find a way to secure it, and then activate as many of the portals as possible. Once she proves to this shadowy group that she’s done this, the Scarlet Triad has promised hefty compensation, more than enough for her to get started setting up her guild and laboratory under Hellknight Hill. Voz signs all of her letters "By Norgorber’s hand."
Voz's journal is written in Necril. You will have to find a translator to learn its contents.
"Holy blueberry pudding!" Pril says as the contents of the papers are explained to her. "An assassin's guild?"
She turns on the necromancer.
"You've got a lot of explaining to do, Sister! The council will want to hear all about this. Did you ever find this 'gate' you were looking for?"
"I was close. So frustratingly close!" Voz snarls. "I've spent the past few days clearing out these caves to try to get to Alseta's Ring. I've expended numerous undead minions slaying an infestation of giant centipedes, spiders, and other foul vermin. I'd just finished recovering from my latest foray and preparing to venture back down there when you had to show up and ruin everything!"
Pril's eyes open wider. "The gate is here?" she asks, her eyes looking around the cave as if expecting to see a magical gate appear at any moment. "Where?"
Voz rolls her eyes. "Not here, here. Down that tunnel." She gestures to the southern passage. "It's about a six-and-a-half mile trek to the caves under Hellknight Hill. You won't have to deal with all the nasties that once dwelled along the way. You're welcome.
"I finally made it to the caves on my last sortie, but I was stymied by a strange woman who seemed to be able to manipulate spiders as easily as I command my undead minions. I killed a few spiders before I was forced to retreat. So, good luck with that."
"You're just a joyous ray of sunshine, aren't you?" Pril asks with a roll of her eyes.
The gnome turns to the others.
"We need to take her back to town and hand her over to the authorities. Hopefully we can get a translator for her journal as well. Once we've done that, we can come back here and find out how much truth there is to this story of the ..." she glances at Allandír, "aiudara?"
|
Lucius examines the parchments for a long time, ignoring much of Voz's ramblings as he does so. Eventually he folds up the papers and speaks in measured tones.
"Her guilt is clear and admitted without coercion. We must return her to the town at once and offer her up to justice. I suggest we do so at once, before there are any other... complications. The tunnels have waited many years - we can take another day to see justice done as it ought to be."
Gull Peeper hacks up chunks of bone and leans against the cave wall. "Anything else in here with you, lady?" they ask.
Voz gestures to the north tunnel. "There's an aberration that dwells in that cave. A tixitog that calls itself Balka. We've come to an agreement, of sorts. I don't bother her, she doesn't bother me. She may not extend the same courtesy to you should you disturb her."
Allandír gives Voz a thin smile, clearly not best pleased at having been taken out of the fight so easily. "Well, that is, ah, easily remedied. You will accompany us and talk us past Balka."
He sights along his bow, pointing an arrow directly at her. "To avoid any, ah, misunderstandings, that is not a request."
Voz shrugs. "It's a dead-end cave. Nothing there but Balka's lair and larder. You needn't even encounter her if you so choose."
The elf looks at the necromancer keenly, trying to discern whether she is lying or not.
He raises one eyebrow at the rest of the group, a question: "Bring her with us, or take her back to town?"
Allandir gets the sense that Voz isn't being deliberately deceptive.