Charlie speaks to the cat from Saturn.
"We'll find it," Charlie tells her. Then, more to say something and realizing just how awkward it was, follows it up with, "Stay here. We'll be right back."
It would truly make a wonderful portrait!
When you make eye contact with the Qephilim, even just through a mirror, you get a strong sense that your behavior seems deferential to her, and she's paying you respect in kind.
This Qephilim, as a star that fell from the sky, is ancient. She would have known the Incarnations, and the Maker, directly.
"Very well." The familiar says. "Follow me."
The Cat from Saturn barely glances back to make sure Charlie is following it before it leaves the room where the Qephilim is standing, and now muttering about her scepter.
The familiar walks past several burned out or otherwise destroyed doors leading into dark rooms. The silence is still only punctuated by the occasional sob or giggle of the Qephilim, the drips of water in the distance, and occasionally... something else. Like a snake slithering through the darkness.
It stops in front of the entrance to another room. Although no one can see inside it, there's a sense that the space is much larger than the last room you were in. And as you move to the east, the temperature in the crypt drops, too. It's becoming uncomfortably cold.
"Careful," Charlie warns. "I'm told there are traps around."
He holds his hands out, and the now-familiar starlight emanates from them, becoming a human being. When viewed from one angle, it looks like Alison Brie, but she's dressed like Macho Man Randy Savage. From another angle, it's Danny Pudi wearing a Malcolm X suit and glasses. The figure then walks into the room.
As the starlight resolves into another illusion, the walls are illuminated for just a moment, revealing them to be created of beaten bronze. There seems to be no one else in the room; nothing lurking to jump out.
Kari moves in working the fans until the luminescence glows with torchlight, defensive, but more curious than smart. Moving along the walls to illuminate them.
The walls of this chamber are of beaten bronze. A basin of clear fluid lies in the center of the room, surrounded by four basins in the sunken corners, accessible by short flights of stairs.
Anyone looking into the basins sees magically preserved blood, milk, wine, and oil.
Given how long this room has been here, the liquids look surprisingly clean, free of dust and debris. The walls are absent the demonic motif that lines the other walls your group has passed in the crypt.
Even for those of you who aren't at all religious, there's a sense of this space being sacred compared to the rest of the crypt.
Kari grins at the group from the far side of the room, "If the specter's scepter crown needs to be cleansed from the pool of death and doom, this totally feels like a place to do it." She bounces a little on her heels, clearly much more comfortable in this room than she had been in the rest of the crypt. She looks around, just in case something is hidden.
Kari doesn't see anything obvious about this room - no printed list of instructions, no paintings on the walls that give her a clue.
But of one thing she can be certain - the basins are tied together and there's something here to puzzle out.
Brian joins Kari in exploring the room.
Charlie looks around as well.
"All right, wine can represent blood. Blood is thicker than water. Oil and water memorably don't mix..."
There is no hint of what to do with the liquids in this room. The walls are copper with no reliefs or words etched in them, and there are no words on the basin.
"In a number of agrarian cultures, an animal's milk and blood is mixed together to make a more nutritious drink for the people with the herd." Kari says. "Human centrist, we also have two generally potable liquids and two that are not."
"Or from a stand point of what comes first, blood, milk, wine then oil. Since all creatures have blood, most need milk, wine fermented and oil is well... depends on if it is animal oil or plant oil."
Kari sniffs each of the liquids to see if she can get a clue as to the origin of the milk and oil.
which: Then, the next time you interact with that creature or object, the difficulty of the related task is reduced by one step. Action.
She shrugs, "We can always come back after we find the handle of the scepter." Heading back to the passage way for Saturn Scout to lead the way.
"Yeah, I think that's the best move. Let's explore this whole place and see if there aren't some clues."
"Yeah, I think that's the best move. Let's explore this whole place and see if there aren't some clues."
Brian nods, and continues to explore.
Under his breath, Brian can be heard to be humming some song.
Without delving into the Undercrypt, your group makes a circuit of the entire main level of the crypt. The qephilim is seen in various areas, or not at all, during your trip around the upstairs. She seems uninterested in staying in one place, and if no one speaks with her directly, she barely acknowledges your presence.
You still hear her crying, or laughing, when you can't see her. And something about the acoustics in the crypt cause her to sound very close when she isn't, or very far away when she's a room over.
Near the stairs that head down towards the Undercrypt, you find a series of minor vaults that used to have secure doors leading into them. The walls are carved with designs similar to those in the crypt foyer. Each of these vaults contain shattered urns and sarcophagi.
While in one of these vaults, the temperature seems to drop another ten degrees while you're investigating it. If the Cat of Saturn had hair, it would have risen along the shifting ridge of its back as it turns to hiss at the doorway.
Wrath approaches. It whispers, backing away from the door.
Only one spirit materializes before you.
The song Terri hums changes subtly until she is humming the same thing that Brian hums.
Terri whips out an arrow and shoots it.
Only after the arrow leaves the bow does it occur to Terri that this might be a "talk to it first" type spirit.
The arrival of the spirit causes several things to happen at once:
Kari jumps with a start, "We're just trying to get your home back in order, don't suppose you know where to find the handle that got lost?" Kari asks sincerely, if a bit squeakily.
Charlie's starlight coalesces to form an apparition of Mr. Rogers, his arms open for a hug, distracting the spirit momentarily from Kari's response.
Terri whips out an arrow and shoots it.
Tries to shoot it, anyway.
The spirit howls in rage and disappears into a fine mist. You feel another temperature drop in the room, but the spirit seems to have disappeared.
Brian, who seemed more focused on the art on the walls lining the room your group is in, finds something that looks relevant to your investigation.
It's a 5-piece art relief carved into the wall- a demon crouched over the shoulder of a pregnant woman, the demon reaching for a baby feeding at her breast, the demon clutching the shoulders of an adult man drinking from a glass, a demon reaching into what appears to be a casket, and, finally... a demon standing under four jugs tipped over with liquid pouring out of them. Although it's all a carving, the demon's rage is palpable in its face in the last scene.
Kari looks at the order of the fluids the demon explored, "The old monks must have seen..."
"So we can pour all four liquids over something to cleanse it, you think?" Kari asks, considering the last image. "Once we have the pieces of the scepter together?"
"Are you thinking the order is blood, milk, wine, oil, then? Why is there oil in a casket?"
Kari looks back at the imagery, "It was where my mind went." She thinks, clearly trying to figure out where her mind made the leaps, "A few religons anoint the dead with oil."
Charlie nods. "I always assumed that was in order to lubricate the journey to heaven."
"I figured it was to keep surface bacteria from degrading the body prior to refrigeration and to hide the smell of decomposition." Kari pauses, "But I like to think there is a reason behind ritual even if the function eventually gets ignored."
"I guess we need to go to the undercrypt to find the other part of the scepter first though?"
Terri looks at the bronze with a blank expression on her face. "How do you figure that out so fast?" she says with a touch of amazement, then remembers something.
"And also--" to Charlie "--bad how? Bad like it will follow me home or bad like feeding chocolate to a dog?"
"I guess we need to go to the undercrypt to find the other part of the scepter first though?"
Brian nods. "Yeah, I don't think we're going to get much traction without it."
"And also--" to Charlie "--bad how? Bad like it will follow me home or bad like feeding chocolate to a dog?"
"Sure," Charlie says. "But in this scenario, you're the dog."
"Sure," Charlie says. "But in this scenario, you're the dog."
Terri looks over at the cat. "Saturn, huh?"
"Saturn, huh?"
Charlie's familiar looks askance at Terri, legs appearing and disappearing in an almost hypnotic undulation.
These creatures seem to want to befriend me. I am not a cat - I am a messenger of the Deep Ones.
It sounds a little offended.
Once your group descends into the undercrypt, you notice yet another drop in temperature that has even the most hardy of you occasionally chattering your teeth together as you shiver.
The walls of these chambers are carved with designs similar to those in the crypt foyer. The wide stairs, flanked periodically by half-broken statues of dragons and other terrors, lead further down into a vast subterranean cavern lit by bioluminescent fungi.
There is much less order in this place - it would be easier to get lost in the undercrypt. You can still occasionally hear the qephilim crying in the distance, upstairs, but more frequently, you hear things skittering in the darkness.
Paying attention to your surroundings, you see drag marks in the dust leading into the undercrypt that might be tracks. It's safe to assume that this would explain how the scepter's rod might have ended up here.
Charlie speaks to the "cat" in R'lyehian.
"Drag marks," Charlie says, pointing to the dust .
The familiar makes a chuff sound as it sizes up the rest of the group.
"Maybe it's the colors. Humans love colorful, shiny objects, and are easily fooled by them."
The familiar seems to be moving a little more slowly.
Terri catches herself staring at the undulation of the cat's legs, and looks away.
In the undercrypt, Terri shivers, and rubs her arms. She not-so-surreptitiously looks around to see if she is the only one who's cold.
"We follow the marks?" it's only half-question.
"Follow the dragging but keep an eye out for the traps? Kari asked with lips that are turning blue from the chill in the crypt. Her fans dim as she uses her hands to friction heat her arms. She smiles, "I'd like to get back to the creepy part of the crypt."
The cavern you're in is littered with little shrines decorated in bones and occult symbols. Free standing crypts hang open - some with skeletons loosely leaning inside them, others empty, cleared out by looters.
Your exhaled breath thickens in the air - another temperature drop. The wail of anger that is uncomfortably familiar now, filling up the space, coming from all directions. Charlie's familiar hisses again, arching its ridged back.
This crypt is aptly named. The familiar whispers.
Action: Spin Encouragement Offense
Even chilled, Terri moves as quickly as possible.
You can't be sure if it's the same spirit you saw, and did not destroy, from upstairs... but it might as well be, and it's brought friends along!
Four spirits materialize in the curling fog of your exhalations and the strange mist pooling on the floor around your ankles.
Terri has the arrow out and nocked before she remembers that she's cold. Regardless, the arrow flies....
Brian extends his staff, and swings it at the nearest spirit.
"Don't let them drag anyone off, I really do not want to get lost down here." Kari says as her teeth chatter, reflexes dulled.
The starlight coalesces in front of Charlie to form...a wall. The wall is covered in flyers and photos (the flyers are gibberish and the photos are blurry, if anyone looks too close).
Charlie's wall briefly stops the four spirits from moving towards where he, Kari, and Brian are standing. As they turn towards the prey still standing in the open, she lifts her bow and closes one eye.
What's that, is that... is that We Are The Champions playing from the mirror in Terri's pocket?
But just as the spirits stop short of Charlie's wall, and with Kari's encouragement... Terri takes a real Hawkeye of a shot, the arrow perfectly timed to fly straight through the faces of all four spirits. At the same time, Brian steps around the illusory wall and swings his staff from the other side of the spirits.
What you all see is surely impossible; Brian couldn't have swung his staff to knock the arrow back through the spirits... could he?
The collective wails of rage as the spirits disappear shatters the illusion
And then silence falls over the cavern like a thick blanket.
There is a wince as the spiritual backlash washes over the room but Kari barely seems to notice as she watches the three others work in such a perfectly coordinated maneuver. "wow"
"That was... pure magic."
She just stands still for a long moment, until the cold of the crypt brings her body back to mind. "One that needs to be lauded and retold over a hot toddy." She can't help but notice just how many crypts there are to search for the qephilim mcguffin.
"To be honest, I wasn't sure that was going to work when I took the swing," says Brian. "But it was so beautifully placed, I just had to try."
Once you all absorb and process how cartoonishly awesome you were just moments before, you proceed into the depths of the undercrypt. Stone gives way to something more like a mushroom forest, with bio-luminescence lighting more of your way forward. Mushrooms rise around you, growing in heights upwards of eight or nine feet tall.
You still occasionally see drag marks or the footprints of someone shuffling through the dirt.
"Who are you walking so bravely through my kingdom?" A voice says from somewhere in the mushrooms nearby. The voice has the cracked edges of someone who hasn't spoken aloud in a long time.
"Terri," she says, immediately. "With an I."
She freezes in place, then shakes her entire body like a dog throwing off water.
"That's ... weird."
"Terri," she repeats, squinting into the mushroom patch. "And you are...?"
"Robin Hood, remember?" Kari says, with a familiar shoulder bummp.
Then loud enough to be heard by the hidden person with a rusty voice, "And I'm Kari. We're here to help fix some things that have gone all wonky wrong."
You hear the same slithery sound you heard earlier in the crypt, and a figure crawls to the top of a large mushroom that looms over your group.
Your Ardeyn bodies tell you it's a soulshorn. These are either human or qephilim descendants who used necromancy to expunge their souls out of their body without dying in the process, leaving behind a husk of a creature that can safely be considered undead.
It lays forward on the mushroom, long arms dangling above you, eyes glowing red in the low light of your torches and fans and the light of the mushrooms.
"You can call me Lord Gulizar. Or 'my Lord'." It turns its eyes to Kari. "What exactly is 'wonky wrong'? Other than that damned star fallen into my home and making such a racket." Its tone is one of silky indifference.
Terri pulls herself together and takes a half-step between Kari and the soulshorn.
"It's the star," Terri says. "We're looking for what it lost."
Kari doesn't move but she does go on tippy toes so she can keep eye contact with the soulless lord of the crypt. She nods in support of Terri's statement. "We just need to get the stick that was dragged down here, Lord Gulizar," motioning to the marks they've been following. "Then we can take care of the star problem and this place can go back to what you had it before the disturbance."
While Kari and Terri engage with the soulshorn, Brian keeps a few paces back. He keeps looking around in case there is more here than the soulshorn. He keeps loose in case of ambush.