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Nala pulls out the labeled healing wand and pokes Azrail with it to judge the effectiveness.
She hands the scrolls and other wand over to Astingaire and Desynthia with a comment, "Between a cleric and uh... you, you all should be able to figure out if these are useful."
Looking at the rest of the stuff, "Probably just prepared for anything, maybe there is a lesson there for us? I guess we are learning more than we expected. Anyone want to carry this other stuff? Otherwise, we should carry on."
As you proceed further into the cave, you notice petroglyphs carved into the walls--only a few at first, but growing in density the further you go. They are mostly stylized depictions of marine animals, with occasional simple spiral shapes. The phosphorescent fungi clinging to the walls seems to prefer the rough surface of the carvings, growing more densely (and glowing more brightly) there.
After an indeterminate amount of time--it's hard to judge the duration with neither sun nor moon to indicate it--Erica catches a glimpse of a brighter light up ahead. It looks like the tunnel broadens into a larger space.
The only sound, apart from the party, is the dripping of water. Erica leads the party towards the open space, a large cavern. What must once have been beautifully carved reliefs and inscriptions have since weathered heavily...an oddity, considering the lack of weather in the cave system. Enough remains of the carvings that you can tell they are of a radically different style than the petroglyphs in the tunnel. There are four areas that have not deteriorated as badly as the rest.
On the far side of the cavern, a tunnel lined with blue-burning torches leads south.
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Nala looks around, trying to figure out a pattern.
She looks at Astingaire, "Priest, come take a look at this please."
After moving on she waves him along, "And this one too. I'm sensing a pattern."
But at the third stop she just shrugs, "That doesn't seem to fit."
And lastly the corners of her mouth twitch upwards a bit, "Ah, okay. That makes sense again."
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She looks at Astingaire, "Priest, come take a look at this please."
Astingaire looks around for a moment, as if unsure at first as to who Keynala is addressing. After a few quick moments, however, he says, "Why, yes. Of course."
"Ah, I see what prompted your scrutiny." Astingaire declares. "Some of these, at least, seem to be works dedicated to the Living God. The Soldier and the Beggar, in particular, each being quite evident."
He then adds, "Since you clearly have an eye for matters of faith, tell me, what do you make of the others?"
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She nods, "Well I don't know about an eye for it, but I did go to school and we read about all the major deities. The second one here appears to also be of Aroden, but this one is the Artist."
"Yes, my thought exactly. All three are numbered among the Twelve Guises of Aroden" Astingaire replies quickly. "Have you ever considered a life of dedication to Aroden?"
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The half-elf seems a bit put-off by the suggestion and holds up the golden painted wooden seagull hanging around her neck, "Oh no, I owe my entire existence to Ylimancha, I'm definitely not interested. But uh... thank you for the offer."
She returns to her note taking, writing down the four guises of Aroden pictured here.
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Eyeing the symbols and iconography, Azrail grunts. "All druidic to me."
"Aroden? Didn't he..." trailing off, Azrail considers if this is the right time to remind his companion the god is dead... Reconsidering, he smiles. "Zon-Kuthon is the leader of my destiny. I suppose we all have our own preferences though for our souls."
Drawing his bow, he nods to the next room. "Shall we? I suspect not all the rooms will be as...uh...simple as this one."
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Out of curiosity, Erica tries to make sense of the pictograms, but she doesn't discern any of the religious symbols that her teammates are describing. She flinches when Azrail reveals that he is a follower of Zon-Kuthon, but now is neither the time or place to start a debate.
She waits until her teammates are done copying the drawings before moving on.
The party forms up and heads for the only exit, a tunnel leading south. The more observant members note that the torches shed no heat, a hallmark of everburning torches--items rather common at the Grand Lodge. The flickering light they shed mixes with the soft light of the surrounding fungus to reveal a truly grand chamber. A large pool of water along the chamber’s southern edge reflects the blue and green radiance to illuminate the massive stalactites that cling to the ceiling some twenty feet overhead. Two other tunnels branch off from this area, leading to the east and west.
Rising up from the pool is a column of rock with steeply sloped sides and a flat top, as if someone had sawn off the top of a massive stalagmite. A miniature city carved from this same stone occupies nearly the entire surface. It appears that a number of small, reflective items are scattered throughout the diorama, and pale cave frogs clamber atop it. The smooth cavern floor is covered in gravel and pebbles along the edge of the pool, and several foot-long centipedes prowl among the gravel in their search for prey.
A few feet from the edge of the pool, a lone humanoid figure kneels in the water, fingers barely touching the surface. It faces away from the party.
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Desynthia gets a closer look at the miniature city, her hair becoming even whiter to reflect the light of the everburning torches
Wow… this is truly impressive.. I'm not an historian by trade, but I'm pretty sure this is Absalom. Look, this is the Starstone Cathedral , right here!
From the corner of her eye, she finally spots the lone humanoid nearby, and utters a shrill, high perched scream of surprise, her hair taking a deep shade of red
… Sorry, you scared me, taking me red-haired, I mean red-handed like that!
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"Now that you say it..." Erica answers, squinting to see the Starstone Cathedral Desynthia is pointing at. She's certainly seen more accurate representations.
She notices the humanoid roughly at the same time as the sorcerer, though she isn't quick enough to prevent her screaming.
"Calm down," she says to either Desynthia, the stranger, or possibly both. She keeps her eyes on the humanoid, hoping it won't attack or run away. "We mean you no harm."
Unfortunately, she's not used to be seen as harmless and comforting -and it shows.
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Nala has her trident out, ready for anything when she notices the figure standing there. She levels it at them and is about to issue a challenge when her allies beat her to it. She releases her breath slowly and spins the trident back into a resting position.
”Yes, there will be no harm given if none received.”
The figure does not visibly register your presence. Now that you're closer, you can tell that it's a male gillman with graying hair. He's wearing a cloak that looks similar to the one you found in the pit.
The gillman starts as Nala moves into his line of sight, and he looks over at her. Seeing that she's not actively threatening, he nods in greeting.
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Perplexed by the humanoid's non-threatening behavior, Erica lowers her guard a little. She had been expecting a fight since they first went into the cave, and is rather destabilized by the peacefulness of the gillman. She waits to see if Astingaire's attempt to interact with the gillman is successful.
The gillman shakes his head and replies in Common. "No, this place is holy to me for other reasons." There is something odd about his pronunciation, but he's intelligible enough.
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Nala's brow furrows and then she pipes up, "Oh! Well we are pathfinders and were tasked with investigating the cave and such. Would you be willing to share the reasons this place is holy to you? Also, do you know anything about the other tunnels? We came in through one with a pit and found a cloak that you might recognize. Want to see it?"
Nala, when Astingaire starts to speak you notice that the gillman doesn't initially react until you glance over at the bard. At that point the gillman turns to look at Astingaire, and makes his reply.
When Nala answers him, he quickly turns back in her direction, peering closely at her face while she speaks. "Pathfinders, are you? Well, you've found a path to a place holy to my people. The waters of this spring are pure, a sign from the Powers that They have blessed it. So I, like many others before me, have made pilgrimage to this cave, to commune with the sacred waters. When I'm done, I'll carve my mark into the wall of the tunnel and return to the sea."
When Nala mentions the cloak, his interest is piqued. "Yes, I would like to see the cloak. I came that way, but did not look into the pit. " When he sees the cloak, his face falls. "I think that something must have happened to one of the earlier pilgrims...they would not have left it."
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Desynthia asks a bunch of questions with genuine interest
It's really a nice place. Do you come here often, or is it the "one in a lifetime" kind of pilgrimage, if you don't mind me asking? Do you know of others gillmen would could come here, or is the place reserved for some selected few?? Do you happen to know who build the mini-Absalom? Or was it already there when you first came in? Do these Powers have a name we might know or are they specific to your kin?
The cloak is not mine to give, you understand, but I have no inclination to keep it either iif it has some historical or religious importance for you.
By now the gillman has turned to face the party, and you can tell that he looks intently at everyone who talks to him. He gives Desynthia a tolerant smile and replies, "I have never been here before, but may return at some time...I'm old, though, and travel gets harder every year. Every mark you passed in the tunnel you took was left by a pilgrim...and each of us only leaves one at a time. The city...that, and the carvings out there--" He indicates the way you came from. "--are left over from when this place was holy to Aroden. I am told that his followers would enact rituals with the model, to gain the god's blessing. Gillmen do no such thing here, though. The Powers?" He shrugs. "They are more than mortal, perhaps less than gods. They speak to gillmen...through the waters. They are a mystery, and perhaps a priest could tell you more of them. I am...only a pilgrim." At Desynthia's offer he brightens. "I would like to have the cloak back, to return it to the family of the pilgrim who left it here. If you find any trace of other gillmen in your pathfinding, I would very much like to know about that...as well."
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Nala takes a deep breath and releases it slowly, "Yes, we do need to push on and complete the mission." She smoothly cuts through the water and emerges dripping upon the shore. She hands the cloak over to the Gillmen.
Pulling her trident and equipping her shield she looks at their two options, "Which way did you come in anyway?"
"Through there." He points back the way you came from. "I crossed the pit, then pulled the plank over to this side. I had seen the tracks of some large beast in the forest, and I feared it would follow me into the cave if it found my trail."