Gregor swings the battleaxe as she tries to get away.
"No! What?!" Shalissa's readied attack triggers.
The ant tries to hit her too, but her bite just goes through the gas, unharming.
Then she tries again to shot another spark "She is gas now! You will need magic against her!"
Gregors axe hits Yarzoths squarely in the chest and passes right through her.
Shalissa immediately recognizes the spell and warns the other before shooting another Lightning Arc at the Serpent woman. The arc quickly lights up her form, but the daage seems to be only minor.
Almost feeling his half-orc heritage rage, Davor slashes at the lady in her gaseous form. He doesn't know if his magical dagger will have any effect, but he has to try.... "Run while you can! We will follow you and you will die!"
When the Translucent from of Yarzoth flies passed Davor to the ceiling, he is able to stick his dagger once more into her, to his surprise he even notices a trickle of blood where the dager had struck.
Father Kerndrew strikes out instinctively as the priestess changes form and flees upward. He drops his longsword to the ground with a clatter, retrieving a starknife and throwing it upwards with all the might Iomedae has granted him.
Seeing the unholy Magic of the Vampire God invoked, Father Kerndrew calls upon Iomedeas might to adi him and strikes the Priestess with his sword just as she starts to fly away. The sword cuts cleanly through the magic and into Yarzoths chest, dropping her to the feet of the statue.
In the area of the ceiling where Yarzoth was flying to there are multiple cracks in the ceiling..
When the unholy priestess flops to the ground, Father Kerndrew begins doing the same, leaning on his sword--the point uncharacteristically supporting him as the poison continues to work its damage throughout the paladin's system.
"Some help here..." he murmers as his legs begin to waver. "Oh no..." he mutters as his sword clatters to the floor right before he falls on top of it, unconscious.
"Yes!" Shalissa exclaims excitedly "You made it!"
"I wonder what she was heading for there... there are many crack openings at that area of the ceiling, maybe we should check it"
Seeing Kerndrew fainting, the elf rushes to try help him "Where did it bite you?" she kneels and tries to cut the wound to extract the poison by bleeding.
Contained, the elf comes to Gregor and brings the gods blessing to remove the bruises caused by Kerndrew's blade.
Not skilled at healing Davor moves to the body of the snake-lady. Dagger ready he makes certail that she is dead and doesn't have any more poisonous creatures on her body. He removes anything that looks like a weapon or of any value. Since she was here studying the walls, he searches for any notes that she might have made.
"I've got a Cure Light Wounds ready too. Once you're done with Gregor and the Father, maybe you could come and detect magic on this creature and her stuff. And be sure I didn't miss anything of value?"
upon the battle being won, Gregor moves to Father Kerndrew and pulls out an vial of Antitoxin handing it to him.
After everybody is sure, that Father Kerndrew will not succumb to the poison you turn to healing yourselves and Checking out the body of the Priestess.
Judging from this cathedral-like chamber’s decor, this area must have once been a significant temple dedicated to some vile god. To the west, a few steps lead up to a shrine presided over by a ten-foot-high statue of a beautiful, fanged woman, save that instead of arms she possesses two upraised bat-like wings and instead of feet her legs end in talons. She looms over a glistening altar of blood-red stone that seems to weep blood into a trough below; this trough of blood runs the length of the room before disappearing to the east through a set of bronze bars in front of a wide opening in the wall that drops away into darkness. Stone pillars support the roof 25 feet above, and two dry fountains sit opposite each other against the walls in the middle of the room. Three large alcoves, one to the south and two to the north, contain complex wall carvings. The entire chamber feels unnaturally cold, and now and then strange disembodied whispers slither through the air.
"I think he is getting better" Shalissa takes Kerndrew pulse with a hand softly touching his wrist "He is still very week though" and turning to Gregor "That antitoxin you gave him was very effective, you probably saved his life. Thanks Gregor"
Observing the remaining injuries in all the party, Shalissa raises the leaf symbol on her neck and channels the last of her energies.
"I will reserve my remaining healing spell for a case of emergency" Shalissa explains "The hit you took from Kerndrew is more a commotion than a real injury and it shall slowly recover by itself. Do not blame him Gregor, I think he was under the control of the priestess as Captain Alizandru Kovack was before"
When she has time, she will start inspecting the items and the room.
"This cathedral is awful. We have to do something to stop this blood flowing" Shalissa also observes the strange statue "What did you found in the carvings Davor?"
This chamber and the altar was the center of worship for the Zura cult, and although the worshipers are long dead, the potent divine power infused in this area still lingers strongly, keeping the blood flowing and the undead guardians from decaying.
Father Kerndrew gathers himself, his strength finally settling in at a stable place. Able to stand on his own, he sheathes his sword and tries to make sense of what just happened.
"Gregor..." he starts, shame as bright on his face as the river of blood still flowing through this chamber. "I... I don't know what to say. It wasn't me--it was her who struck you, using me--but I should be strong enough to resist such things." His eyes glance towards--and beyond--the chamber's ceiling. "I'll need time to meditate on this... but we have more pressing things to deal with now."
First, he retrieves a potion, and drinks it down, restoring some small bit of his strength.
He then moves to the altar. He communes internally for a moment--no, she hasn't left me, not entirely--before placing his hands on the altar. He discharges multiple bursts of Iomedae's healing energy into the structure, trying to break its bond to its evil source of power.
By the time Father Kerndrew has finished his work you notice the flow of blood coming much less regularly, sometimes stopping almost completely.
With the possibly useful items pulled from the body Davor stands and looks around, wondering about the room.
"The carvings? Ah... I was under some spell while I was cleaning the wall. And I didn't really try to analyze them."
"She had blood on her hand and touched the statue, then turned into gas. I think she intended to escape through the cracks there. Maybe we could try the same? I mean, I don't want to be cursed by some evil magic, but there might be something important...."
Gregor looked at Father Kerndrew and smiled. Dont!. It wasnt you. It was her. I know you. I know you didnt want to nor intend to. Lets be thankful we were victorious. Now lets get down to figuring this mystery out.
"I thought you were truthfully interested in those carvings" Shalissa laughs lightly while looking on Kerndrew working in the altar.
"Look, it seems the blood starts to recede!" excited, the elf approaches the eastern side to see what the blood disappearance reveals.
Afterwards she would go and check the carvings in the side rooms.
Destroying the altar
The carvings
The three large alcoves in this room are covered in carvings. These
carvings, all written in Azlanti, tell the history of this particular Zura cult in three stages.
The southern alcove tells of the cult’s genesis in a city named Saventh-Yhi in the jungle, a city apparently built by Azlanti. This section ends with the cult’s exile from Saventh-Yhi and how they made a dangerous overland journey that ended on the shores of a remote island far from their homeland.
The northwestern alcove takes up the story at this point, detailing the
cult’s exploration of the island , their discovery a:nd defeat of a large group of serpentfolk and the creation of this temple. 7
The northeastern alcove plots the cult’s future plans, focusing on how they had hoped to earn the gift of vampirism from Zura by undertaking
extensive and vile rituals, and once this gift was theirs, how they planned on making the journey back to Saventh-Yhi to awaken (infect) that city with Zura’s blessing (vampirism).
Davor shrugs at Shalissa's comment. "Unless I have time to learn whatever that language is.... Not really."
Still curious about what the snake-lady did Davor dips a finger in to the blood and touches the face of the statue like she did....
Davor looks down at his arms and legs, expecting the change but still surprised at the feeling. He tries to speak....
Having never flown before he waves his hands as if swimming through the air as he floats up toward the cracks.
Davor slowly rises towards the ceiling and disappears through the hole.
This X-shaped room has a low ceiling and walls dense with ancient carvings and bas-reliefs of a bat-winged demonic woman, including a particularly large one on the northeast wall whose lips are smeared with dried blood. A number of supplies — food, discarded clothes, a few waterskins, and a
well-used bedroll — lie in the center of the room.
Shalissa observes how the blood flow stabilizes. She frowns "It seems that was not enough Kerndrew..."
Then turning back to look at Gregor she adds "Perhaps we should look for a big hammer and shatter the altar to stop the influence of this vile vampire god in the island"
The elf blinks and looks around "Where is Davor?!"
Gregor watched as Davor did what Yalissa did and turned t gas, moving through the crack in the ceiling and he relays the information.
Im assuming he will return when hes satisfied. In the meantime Let me get my pack and see if i have anything that can help bring down this statue.
he moves over and retrieves his pack and sets it down and begins to go through it.
He pulls out his rope and going down into the temple wraps the rope around a pillar, then returning to the statue he ties the rope around the statue then moves back to the rope wrapped around the piller he begins to pull the rope, using the pillar as leverage.
Not knowing how long the magic will last, Davor just takes a quick look around.... His attention is drawn to the large image of the demonic woman. Smeared dried blood? Maybe to activate the same spell here to escape back?
He wills himself to fly back to the other room and his friends. Knowing that he can't fly without the magic he wills himself to a standing position, and tries to will the spell to end....
Inside the temple of Zura you are standing over the beheaded body of the woman you knew as Ieana. the former Varisian Scholar turned out to be a strange serpent creature.
The woman spent the last few days transcribing the the Inscription about some ancient Azlanti city named Saventh-Yi hidden in the Mwangi Jungle.
Father Kerndrew has started to work on destroying the evil altar with his positive energy, but for now it seems to be necessary to finish the work by blunt force.
Gregor suggests to topple the statue on top of the altar.
Once he returns to solidity Davor explains the process. "Don't destroy it all yet. There's another room through here, but it takes touching the blood to the status to turn gaseous and flow through the cracks. There's more information there, as well as what looks like a sleeping room for that snake-woman. I think we need to check it out fully before we destroy this. Besides, bringing down the statue and the alter might cause the magic here to collapse the roof on us. Maybe it would give enough time to escape...." He reaches out to the blood again, then remembers the face inside. "And we should take some of the blood with us to re-activate the mist form magic. There's another face inside."
"Did you notice any threats in there, Davor, that would require such as myself to take part in such a ritual? I will do it--Iomedae herself would, if it were necessary--but if it fails that criteria, I would just as soon stay here while you all investigate."
Shalissa observes startled as Davor comes down in gas form and reshapes back to half-orc "Impressive"
The woman eyes the inscriptions and frowns a bit bothered she cannot dedicate herself to study them "Ok, Davor, show me what you have found while Gregor destroys the altar"
Assuming touching the statue just works and Davor and Shalissa can both fly to the secret room, the elf peeks quickly around "Someone has been certainly sleeping here recently"
She extends her hand and tries to detect magic around.
Afterwards, she searches among the supplies and tries to decipher the inscriptions here.
Once they've looked around in the dark Davor asks, "Can you make a light? I didn't prepare the spell today and forgot to ask for a torch. We can both see clearly in the dark, but sometimes a light might catch a reflection on something that we might not notice in the dark."
Davor and Shalissa once more activate the vampiric magic and turn into a misty form sailing upwards towards the ceiling and entering the inner sanctum of the temple.
Once up there you an examintaion of the resting place reveals the food to be locally caught or harvested (fillets of fish, shellfish, and strips of meat taken from birds and monkeys—all quite fresh, while the bedroll and other supplies seem to be from the Jenivere—the clothing, in particular, is recognizable as having belonged to Ieana.
Up here are no new inscriptions but only various relgious carving of the vampire goddess.
The largest carving of Zura on the northeast wall radiates moderate transmutation magic (probably the spell Davor used to get back down here.)
Below that carving Davor is able to detect a hidden panel, but also notices he glyph of warding placed on the lid.
Davor examines the glyph carefully. He motions for Shalissa to step back, moving with her. "Magical trap. It might mean that whatever it is guarding is really important. Or it could be a trick by that snake b%&*+. What do you think?"
"Well, this confirms Ieana was indeed the serpentfolk priestess" Shalissa nods to Davor "I also noticed the protective magical aura"
Then places her hand on his back "I trust in your skills Davor"
Hearing Shalissa's comment, Davor steels himself and focuses on the trap. "Thank you. I'll do my best..." He knows that magic traps are harder, and usually more dangerous that mechanical ones. But, they could be disabled with a little luck.
Davor carefully tries to open the panel without triggering the rune, but some residual tingling from the spell distracts him at a critical Moment and he feels the spell triggering.
A dark cloud of evil energy springs forth and settles onto him, and he feels his mouth and ears lengthening while his arms starts to develop flappy wing. Feeling himself turning into a bat, the Orc tries withh all his will to hold onto his orcness. After a few seconds of back and forth he finally feels the curse leaving him and disspating into the air.
Behind the Lid you find a small drawer containing 2 scrolls, asingle ancient playing card, A block of incense and a candle.
Shalissa looks at Davor tense and concerned as she feels something went wrong "Are you ok Davor?" seeing his shape going back and forth until it stabilizes he comes to touch and check him "It seems you triggered the glyph. A different way to disable it I guess"
With a smile to the half-orc, she kneels and observes the different elements "All of these irradiate magic"
"Let's pick them and return down, I will observe them more closely there with the others" once they have the items, Shalissa will follow Davor's lead on how to return to the altar.
Once down... "Hey guys, how is destroying that vile place is going?" she shows the magical items "Look what we found there up!"
And starts to attempt identifying them more carefully.
"Well, we took a break, since destroying anything further risked trapping you up in there!"
scroll of divination,
a scroll of restoration
The rest escapes youur knowledge for now
After Shalissa and him have cleared out the drawer he takes out his vial of blood and smears some on his fingers before giving the vial to shalissa. Then he steps up to face of Zula touches the lips and turns once more into a cloud of mist and sails through the cracks in the floor back to Father Kerndrew and Gregor. Following his example Shalissa also appears.
Gregor had put a rope around the statue ready to pull it over, and was sitting on his pack waiting and nodded when Father Kerndrew answered Shalissa
As he feels the magic settle on him and his body betray his very existence, Davor focuses on who and what he is. He is a half-orc! While he had denied much of his orcish ancestry, what he had accepted was what he was!!!. His mind was still his own, even though some of his brain still felt rattled.... He gritted his teeth and growled. He had to resist!
He was still growling, low but still there when he felt the magic release him. He was still a half-orc, not some bat freak! "I'm.... never going to do that again! Well, ah, maybe. I think I'm OK. Now what was that guarding? Or did that snake woman clean it out?"
"OK. Ready to pull it and run? Just hope it doesn't cause the whole place to collapse."
"That was a disgusting ritual" Shalissa smirks as they become corporeal once more "I also hope we never have to do that again"
She nods as Gregor and Father have delayed the work on the altar "Let me check the inscriptions now, we have been so busy, but this is an old place and might hold important information"
"Look at this! The cult of Zura came from Saventh-Yhi!" Shalissa gets very excited for a moment quickly looking through the inscriptions for details "These parts are very complex, but I think they were planning to come back there to extend the vampirism. This is very old Azlanti, I wonder what else did Yarzoth managed to translate."
The elven woman picks up the serpentfolk priestess notes and gives them a quick glance.
The notes of the serpent priest are written in a ancient language, which Shalissa is able to decypher as Aklo a remote language spoken in the the subterran Darklands.
Apparently Yarmozh has beeen very thorough in transcribing the walls and there are many pages of text.
"Guys, there is a trove of information in here. She made a great work" Shalissa examines the pages and nods satisfied "I think I can decipher it, it is written in some kind of language talked by the creatures that live underground"
Then looking back at the altar "I think it is time we finish breaking the altar and leave this awful place"
After Gregor checks once more that the rope is secured correctlyThe man put all your might into it trying to topple it onto the altar, but it seems to be secured to the ground quite well.
Only When the feeble Priestess joins there efforts the statue is fianlly toppled and crashes onto the altar.
Afterwards you notice the first cracks appearing in the surface of the alter and with the help of the remaning stone pieces from the statue as hammers you continue with the task.
After another few minutes of work, the crack gives finally way and a huge wave of blood gushes forward and into the room.
At the same time you feel a strong wave of energy pushing outwards from the altar and onwards.
You hear a wailing screams of deadly agony coming from the area of the temple you have left behind.
This was a huge energy wav that will carry for many miles.
Shalissa jumps back after she feels the statue starts to cede behind her push. Covering her eyes from the debris she tilts her mouth "That's done!"
"Did you hear that? It came from the previous rooms in the temple..." the elven woman nods "It seems this is working... and that wave of energy... it is strong enough to carry for many miles... only the gods know what implications this is going to have further away..."
Shalissa looks towards the exit "Ok guys, I think it is time for us to run away and fast out of this place"
"You don't have to tell me twice! Is everybody ready? Let's get moving!" Father Kerndrew makes sure that everyone else is safely on their way and takes up a rear position behind everyone else to make sure that nobody falls behind.
Gregor was already coiling the rope as fast as he could and nodding at Father Kerndrew. Go. Youre the slowest. Ill bring up the rear.