With the adherer dead, you are able to get a better look around the undershrine.
Melech holds his sword up and tries to look down the dark hallway. He turns back to his companions. "I think perhaps this is a task for tomorrow. Yes?"
Ulysses looks down at his nearly empty bandoliers and belt hooks, then nods. "Yes, I think that was quite enough excitement for the day."
Melech begins walking back up the steps to the surface. As they begin walking back to the inn, he walks beside Nevai. "Nevai, are you capable of blessing water? I have been working on an idea that could help us send the souls of the undead to the Boneyard where they belong, but I am going to need holy water. A lot of holy water."
Nevai nods. "I can. It is not cheap, however. Every vial I create needs five pounds of silver. It gets destroyed in the casting, but it is necessary to purify the water on a quintessential level. If you can find the powdered silver, it's a relatively quick matter to perform the necessary ritual." His brow furrows as the party walks out of the estate and back toward the entrance of the Dead City. "Why? What did you have in mind?"
"Five pounds? That's about... twenty-five gold? Most temples sell vials of holy water for twenty-five. Interesting. No need for you to go to all that work then." He walks in silent contemplation for a bit, then notices Nevai looking at him expectantly. "Oh. I have been practicing applying thin liquids like water to my weapons. I am finally able to do it fast enough to hit an enemy before it evaporates. I haven't tried it yet, but I think it will work. Imagine it! I cannot afford a holy weapon but this... this I can do." The normally stoic man has a look of excitement and anticipation Nevai hasn't seen before.
Nevai gives the slayer a mild look and nods, doing his best to hide his grin. "It will be quite spectacular, I am sure."
You arrive at the gates out of the Dead City with no issues. The Voices on duty are the same as when you left. They look very pointedly at anything but you.
A small crowd of locals have gathered, yelling angrily at the Voices, who do their best to ignore them, as well. Further evidence that not everyone is pleased about the Grand Mausoleum's choice to cave to the Ruby Prince's demands.
.
The shopping actually takes a good chunk of the afternoon (4 hours, in fact) because apparently, the heavy influx of wares from the adventuring parties have driven down sell prices. Most vendors are only paying 40% of market value instead of 50%, so it takes you quite some time to find a seller willing to give you the appropriate price. Based on the rumblings among the vendors, it's only going to get harder to sell loot from here on out.
Most of the items you manage to procure, but you can only gather half a dozen holy waters. Since this morning, adventurers have been picking them up in increasing numbers.
Apparently the increase in activity inside the necropolis has stirred up a trio of ghoul nests. Ghoul attacks have actually been rare in Wati, mostly because the ghouls almost never travel above-ground and never travel outside the walls of the necropolis. However, one of the nests was apparently disturbed by an adventuring group; three of their number died outright and the fourth barely escaped with his life.
Since that incident, ghoul attacks have been increasing inside the Dead City, leading to an influx of purchases for holy water. Even the material components have become scarce.
At the temple, Melech asks about the holy water shortage. Afterwards, he tells the others what he discovered. "Apparently someone disturbed a ghoul nest. I got some holy water but not much. We're going to need to be extra careful."
He leads everyone back to the inn.
"Remember," Nevai says as they head to the Tooth and Hookah, "Horus protects us as well. We will be fine."
At the inn, the tone is more muted than the past few days. Falto raises a glass with his usual cocky grin, but other tables are not so festive. The woman dressed all in black is now by herself; the Marrn brothers appear to have lost another of their number (but at least he hasn't lost any more dogs); and several other groups you recognize by face appear to be short numbers as well. Tales of a wide variety of monsters abound, though surprisingly few of them are undead. Aside from the occasional ghoul attack, animals seem to be the biggest culprit, followed closely by elementals of different flavors.
At one table, the group from the other day sit chatting quietly, led once again by the woman in the large purple hat. More than one adventurer is giving her table the stink-eye.
Sigrun sits at a table nearby, down to one twin and herself. She is definitely not her usual boisterous self. She waves the party over as soon as she sees you, ordering everyone a round. "Hell of a day," she says morosely. "Farah and I are pulling out of the exploration. Talia and Miah are dead. Ant-lion, of all things. It's just us now. Thought about hooking up with another broken group, but..." She shakes her head. "It's time for me to go home. I thought the Linnorm Kingdoms were rough. Now there's talk of gangs in the Dead City jumping adventuring parties."
She glares at the table with the Taldan woman in purple before glancing back to you. "To top it all off, the Scorched Hand has been whining all day about their second site not being that thing they're looking for. Some kind of temple to Nethys, I guess. The Eye-something-or-other. Said she'd pay for information about it." Sigrun snorts. "I bet. Probably the one jumping people in the city, she's douchey enough for it."
She sighs and takes a long swig of beer. "Sorry. I'm whining. How did you do?"
"What is an ant-lion doing in the city? Fascinating!"
"Ulysses," Melech hisses.
"Huh?" Ulysses looks up at Melech, confused, then follows the big man's eyes. "Oh. Right." He clears his throat. "Um. Ter... terribly sorry for your loss, Sigrun."
Melech nods solemnly. "Yes. May The Lady guide their souls." He takes a drink in honor of those lost. "We encountered a couple of haunts, restless and tormented souls. We put one to rest but will need to deal with the other. We have found nothing of any historical significance but we are returning tomorrow."
They drink in silence for some time. Melech picks up the second round. He studies Sigrun, impressed by the woman's presence. "It saddens me to see you go, Sigrun. If you change your mind, we would be honored to have you join us."
Sigrun raises an eyebrow at Ulysses. "Ain't my loss so much as Farah's." She nods toward the woman next to her, whose face is still covered in veils. Now, though, they are all black, and the piercing brown eyes beneath them are red and sunken. She says nothing, simply stares intently at the gnome.
Sigrun smiles sadly at Melech's words. "Kind of you, but I don't think so. Farah was thinking of finding a new group to join up with, but I think there was some kind of by-law about group sizes. She'll probably find a group that's suffered losses too. Shared trauma and all that." She glances at Farah with an unreadable expression. Farah returns it with that same intense stare before returning to her cups.
Filibus clears his throat uncomfortably. "I think I'm gonna go say hi to Falto and then hit the hay." He leaves the table in as swift a fashion as possible.
Nevai frowns, then nods. "Rest sounds like a good idea. We still have much of the site to cover tomorrow." He stands up from the cushion, towering imposingly over the squat table, and bows to Farah, never taking his eyes off her. "You have my condolences for your loss. Anubis will guide her safely to Pharasma's spire."
He considers for a moment, then pulls something out of a pocket and sets it in front of Farah. "Do you know what this is?"
Farah picks it up. It appears to be a small disc the size of a silver piece, made of dull gray metal. Carved on one side is the outline of a tall tower. On the other, the spiral comet symbol of Pharasma. Her eyes well up, and she nods at the cleric.
He nods, and removes a second, identical disc, setting it in front of her. He glances at those at the table looking confused. Melech, however, is likely quite familiar with the coins and their meaning. For the others, Nevai says, "In some Pharasmin cults, it is believed the boatman that ferries souls down the river to Pharasma's domain demands a toll; those who cannot pay must swim the river themselves, and it steals their memories. So these cults began pressing special coins to lay over the eyes of the recently departed, to pay the ferryman. But what many do not know, is that twins are not required to pay two coins. Each twin pays one coin, because they share one soul. You will see your sister again, when it is time. Until then, one coin for each of you. Peace to you, Miss Farah."
He nods to Melech and Ulysses, and leaves.
Farah still doesn't speak, but she clutches the coins tightly in her hand. A faint sniffle occasionally drifts out from her dark veils.
Melech understands wishing for death. He had been there more times than he can count. He approaches Farah cautiously. "May I sit?"
"I do not pretend to understand your pain, and I am no counselor. But if you wish to speak, I will happily listen for as long as you need. If you wish to sit silently and drink, I will do that with you. If you wish to be alone, I will leave you alone." He takes a long drink from his ale.
"Very well." Then he will bow respectfully and head up for bed.
Farah doesn't respond to his question, nor to his statement. She doesn't seem to even recognize he's there. She simply stares at the pair of coins in her hand, or past them, perhaps, to some internal horror.
When she doesn't respond to any of his words, Sigrun gives him a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "I don't think she recognizes we're here, anymore. Best leave her to her cups. I'm going to bed, too. Night, fellas."
Filibus is still up, in furtive conversation with Falto. Falto is saying something emphatically, and Filibus looks incredulous. Seems like the rake is at one of his old stories again.
Melech heads to bed.
Ulysses is suddenly left drinking alone. He shrugs and orders another drink.
Ulysses spends a rather uninteresting ten minutes drinking. He waits for some excitement to distract him, but all that happens is a couple people start looking slightly more attractive. Perhaps it's time to head to bed.
***
The next morning, the party goes through its regular routine; Nevai arrives just after dawn, the party has breakfast and coffee, and then heads back to the site. Dealing with the low wall blocking Vizier Hill is a breeze the third time around, and soon enough the party is back inside the walls of the House of Pentheru's crypts; the party takes care not to enter the main foyer of the house, as they know now that it has reset.
Soon enough, you're back at the Undershrine and ready to continue.
Ulysses drinks his ant haul extract at the entrance to the crypt, then follows the others down. He examines the stairs.
Melech holds his lit sword close to the ground, searching for any hazards on the stairs.
With utmost confidence, Melech descends the stairs and then looks at the chamber below.
Ulysses follows Melech down the stairs, then looks around the room.
It seems the fate of this party to be horrifically murdered by a trap. Despite Ulysses' best efforts, he always misses them. The fact is driven home, in this case, by a horrific amalgam of spears that launch out of the walls of the stairwell as Melech steps on the bottom step. A subtle drop in his height, followed by a click!, then almost a dozen spears of varying sizes and angles launch out of the walls at the party. Everyone gets skewered.
Nobody can move, thanks to armor, clothing, and most importantly, body parts pinned in place by the impalement of the spears. After several long, painful moments, the spears slowly retract, pulling out of flesh and clothing to return to cleverly-hidden holes in the walls.
Upon closer inspection, Ulysses realizes the mechanism is quite clever. The trap is triggered by not one, but two pressure plates: the one on the top stair "arms" the trap, and the one on the bottom stair triggers it. He's fairly certain he can disable it now that he sees how it works.
"Owwwwwwww." Ulysses shakes his head as the spears release him to the ground. "How do I miss those every time? Sorry everyone." The gnome doesn't often look contrite. It is a weird look on him.
"The good news is that I now know how to disable it. One minute." He removes his tools from his pack and goes to work.
The task done, he nods, stows his tools, and asks Melech to lead the way into the chamber beyond.
Nevai groans as he holds the bleeding laceration on his bicep. He looks like he wants to say something rude to the gnome but thinks better of it. Instead he raises his holy symbol and channels energy to heal them.
In the next room, the air is cool. The walls and ceilings are tiled with stone, but the floor is hard-packed earth, giving the area an unfinished quality. A long stone table rests against the western wall, flanked by two large brass urns. Two passages lead north and east out of this room.
This crypt was likely begun not long before the Plague of Madness struck, and as the situation in Wati rapidly worsened, labor and resources probably became harder to find, and eventually impossible. A family as wealthy as the Pentherus would likely have eventually carved out quite the family mausoleum down here, had circumstances been different.
Melech looks at the table and urns.
Neither Melech nor Ulysses find anything of interest in the room. The doorway to the north appears to enter into a hallway leading a short ways west before ending in a collapsed, unfinished tunnel, and east toward the same room as the eastern doorway.
Second verse, same as the first .
blahblahblahpleasepost
Melech and Ulysses step into the next room, a large chamber filled with an earthy scent. The ceiling and walls are tiled with stone, but the ground is bare earth. Stone benches are set against the east and west walls, and torch holders are mounted in the corners and on either side of the wide doorway you entered through. The beginnings of several shallow, rough passages have started along the eastern wall and in the southwest corner, but the excavations are incomplete, ending in earth and rubble after only a few feet. At the south end of the room, a short, wide flight of steps descends to a set of stone double doors.
As soon as the light from Melech's falchion hits the far wall, a tiny shadow scurries out from under a bench. In the light, Melech can see it is a cat. This cat, however, is utterly hairless and gaunt. It takes a moment for him to realize what he's seeing: not just gaunt, but skeletal, the withered, desiccated flesh clinging to its bones with almost no meat to hold it; the empty, vacant eye sockets; and tattered remnants of old bandages still clinging to its neck, part of its torso, and one hind leg. It is a mummified cat, an ubashki, and it is staring curiously at Melech's glowing sword.
Another ubashki pokes its head out from a nearby bench, slinking to join its mate with an unsteady, gamboling gait that makes it far more clear than any of its mummified features that this cat has long since left the mortal coil.
A third cat peaks out from a shelf with an urn set into the unfinished wall. It opens its mouth to mewl, but no sound escapes its dry, withered throat. It slips down to the ground to join the others.
A fourth comes out of the shadows. Then a fifth. A sixth. Seventh....
... and more, and more, and more.
A practical swarm of ubashki pour out of every dark crevice of this unfinished room and roil over each other as they move like a horrid wave toward Ulysses.
[color=green]
Filibus (0 dmg)
Melech (37/37 hp)
Ubashki Swarm (0 dmg)
Ulysses (24/24 hp)
Nevai (27/27 hp)
[/color]
Filibus curses under his breath, having forgotten to pull out his crossbow, and loads it.
Melech pulls a vial of holy water out of his bandolier and applies it to his weapon . Then he steps forward while studying the pig cat swarm . Then he aims for a vital spot .
The horrid pile of dried cat corpses rolls over Melech and Ulysses in a swarm of teeth and claws, tearing into both of them.
Despite the horrifying nature of the onslaught, both Melech and Ulysses manage to stave off the worst of it, taking much of their attacks on their armor, and cooler heads prevail.
[color=green]
Filibus (0 dmg)
Melech (34/35 hp)
Ubashki Swarm (0 dmg)
Ulysses (23/24 hp)
Nevai (27/27 hp)
[/color]
"Melech, move!"
Ulysses steps out of the swarm and waits for Melech to clear ground zero, then tosses a bomb.
Nevai blasts the undead cats with a wave of positive energy.
The volley of attacks--even Nevai's paltry, feeble, easily-resisted stupid channel--devastates the swarm, and several ubashki explode into dust, but the swarm keeps coming. Filibus fires off a shot, but somehow manages to not hit a single cat. He's shooting fish in a barrel and hit the dirt underneath instead.
[color=green]
Filibus (0 dmg)
Melech (34/35 hp)
Ubashki Swarm (21 dmg)
Ulysses (23/24 hp)
Nevai (27/27 hp)
[/color]
Melech steps away from the cats and attacks with his sword again.
With a final bellowing swing, Melech bifurcates almost a dozen ubashki in one swing of his falchion, and the remaining ubashki scatter frantically back into the darkness.
COMBAT OVER!
A set of double doors sit in the south wall, and a rough-hewn passage to the north that bends left and out of sight, presumably returning to the room you just exited.
Melech takes a look around the room.
You find a whole lot of dirt, as well as a set of closed double doors. They are unlocked and untrapped.