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Weary but unbroken after a grueling fight, the party moves on. In the next room is a series of broken stone shelves and half-open cabinets. Most of the stuff there is just, but Annalise and Vyr put their heads together and identify a candle of truth, worth 2,500 gp and a modified incense of meditation. Unlike a normal block of such incense, this one works with arcane spells (4,900 gp).
In the next room, the north wall is lined with burial niches. A single boot, sized for a halfling lies on the floor. Inside it is a dark blue rhomboid ioun stone worth 10,000 gp.
You get an eerie feeling being in this room, as it is the very room where you each woke up in the Boneyard. An effigy of the person interred in each sarcophagi is carved above it. The resemblance to each of you is not exact, but it is unnerving.
In the next room to the south, there are a number of coffins, each bearing an inscription which indicates that one of Roslar's retainers is buried within. Beyond that room is a vast marble hall. Several tons of stone block off the eastern portion of this room.
Archways to the west and south lead to further rooms. On each is an inscription. To the west, apparently leading to a stately burial chamber are the words "din at his Well". The southern arch reads "Support Thy Master," while the archway under which you've just passed says, "Peace For Years."
Willard takes a whiff of the incense with a conaissure's nose, "Ah...that's the good stuff." He hands the block over to Ananalise. "This might come in handy if we know there's a fight brewing."
Willard scratches his head as he looks at the inscriptions. "I never could understand stonemasons. [b]'Let's hit this one with a chisel! I know, I'll spend hours putting a riddle in a tomb! Tut, tut--make sure the bathroom and the broom closet are symmetrical.'[/i] And they won't let you in their secret societies! Well, Mr. Beans and I would never lower ourselves, I say."
Vyr listens for the voice of the sword, asking if it as been here before.
As for which alcove to explore next, he looks to Red to lead the way.
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The sword is silent, though Vyr gets the sense that it is displeased at being brought here.
In the room to the west, a dais stands empty before sumptuous carvings of drapery. Only a few scattered stones cover the dais, which seems to have been meant for a sarcophagus that never arrived. Among the stones you find a tile carved with a stylish depiction of a rapier. This tile is the same shape and size as the one you found upstairs. (That one bore the image of a feather.) They both remind you of the floor tile puzzle you solved in the Boneyard.
The southern chamber has been carved to resemble a stable, along with a frieze depicting a horse, though the head has shattered. Above it are the words "No Greater Friend".
A large hole gapes in the ceiling.
"Mayhaps that hole is our way out? Willard or Annalise can you send some lights up there?"
Assuming that's is possible Vyr and Red will move forward to look up and see what they are working with.
Willard wiggles his fingers and a trio of bright baubles floats up into the hole.
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Willard's light reveals another chamber of dressed stone above you, consistent with the overall design of the temple. This is likely a way back to the ground floor.
Standing beneath the opening, something very small drops down and lands at your feet. Then another, and another. Upon closer inspection, they are hideous, wriggling maggots of some kind.
"Willard, you seem to know about mud and dirt and creepy crawlies. Any insights?"
Vyr has learned to get out of Annalise's way when she's flinging fire about, so he gladly obliges.
"Bit dark in here anyway," Willard mutters as he makes some esoteric passes. He coughs, and a glowing orb of light blinks into existence in the midst of the grubby hole.
"Hey Clancy. Could you check out that room for us? Bit of an infestation."
In response, the lantern archon chimes like a bell.
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You hear the tell-tale sound of archon laser beams and your noses fill with the acrid smell of incinerated rot grubs.
Climbing up through the hole in the ceiling is easy enough, though Mr. Beans lets his displeasure at being hoisted known.
Unusual circular sigils are carved into the walls of this chamber. A four-foot-high pillar lies toppled in the center of the room, cracked into several pieces. Near the fallen pillar is a human skeleton. A small stone door exits to the north.
The room to the north is crumbling. You can surmise that its partial collapse is what blocked your path earlier in your exploration. A marble altar, marked with the symbol of a fiery winged sword, is set a few feet from the eastern wall. The floor to the immediate west of the altar is divided into a three-by-three grid of tiles, though many of these tiles are broken and a few appear to be missing.
You recall that the winged sword is the sigil of Arazni when she was the herald of Aroden, and also that Roslar had an unhealthy obsession with her.
You've found a few of the missing tiles and Annalise remembers that in the Boneyard version of this tomb, solving the puzzle opened a secret door to a treasure cache. Placing the tile in the correct place here opens a secret door which lets onto a tunnel that stretches away into darkness.
This must be the passage that the cultists mentioned, which leads underground and past the poison fog which isolates the town of Roslar's Coffer.
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The passage is long, and though the air is dank, you feel it's likely a safe place to rest and recover. The wisdom of resting impresses itself upon you as you recall that the Whispering Way's hideout is at the other end of the tunnel. The mook you interrogated mentioned that the hideout was in a desecrated cathedral to Sarenrae, called the Bastion of Light.
Vyr lost at cards to a Pathfinder who was in town shortly after his unit arrived, and boy did he tell a crazy story about a Red Reaver . . .
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...According to the Pathfinder, the Bastion of Light was once the headquarters of a Sarenrite sect, which was so severe its members never told even a little white lie. Unfortunately, their faith did not save them from The Broken Nail tribe of orcs, who overran the sanctuary.
The orcs did not stay long, and in their absence, a terrifying simian beast called the Red Reaver moved in. It resisted all attempts to oust it, and hunted in the surrounding woods for many a moon before the Pathfinders finally slayed it.
According to the scuttlebutt Vyr heard at the card table, the Sarenrites had begun work on reclaiming the Bastion. That was on the eve of the blast that destroyed the town, though. Given that the Whispering Way has moved in, it can't have gone that well.
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Rested and restored after a night spent camping in the tunnel, you move forward with your heart in your mouth. If there is a den of cultists up ahead, it's the last place you want to be going. However, there doesn't seem to be anyway out of Roslar's Coffer other than this.
The tunnel ends in a cool, dry cellar, with a spiral staircase ascending. Golden light filters down from whatever is above.
"Perhaps we use some of Willard's magic to make Red invisible and send him forward to scout out the situation?"
"That's nice idea! I usually just tumble into a situation and see where the winds of fate take me."
Willard would be happy to waggle his fingers in Red's direction.
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The ceiling in this wide chamber is supported by two rows of sturdy stone pillars and slopes downward from the south to the north. A sun depicted over the large stone double door to the south emits rays along the ceiling to a raised wooden dais at the north end of the chamber.
Many of the walls have been painted with murals made to resemble stained-glass windows, each depicting a different armored knight aiding the downtrodden and slaying foul undead in the service of Sarenrae. A few of these depictions have been grotesquely defaced, with skulls painted over the figure’s heads and terrifying creatures swooping down from above. Rows of broken wooden pews occupy the center of the chamber, with many heaped into a jumble in the middle of the chamber, creating a large empty space. Simple wooden doors exit this room in every direction.
In the room, Red finds four figures milling about. Two guys look like the cultists you fought in the jewelry shop. A third wears the robes of a mage, though her skin is a deathly pallor. The fourth and most concerning from Red's perspective is a massive simian simian undead with stunted bat wings. None of them seem to notice him.
Vyr will back up a bit to cast shield and then go kick the door open, wielding his ectoplasmic longsword in two hands as the ethereal shield floats in front.
Vyr communes with his blade to gain whatever blessing the warrior within allows.
Vyr calls forth pale green flames on his sword , then will move to anchor his position against a pillar, telling Willard and Annalise to stay behind him. Finally, he’ll cast blur on himself as well.