Rested and re-equipped, you descend once more into the sewers. You move as quickly as you're able, retracing your steps since the platoon of Vigil soldiers behind you makes stealth all but impossible.
Twenty minutes later you find yourselves back at Old Leatherback's cistern--Grimetongue and its fellow otyughs nowhere to be seen. You're not sure if that's a bad sign or not, but either way its a problem for later. The soldiers behind you dim their lanterns as you consider the problem of the enormous sewer gator before you.
Ketra slips on ahead briefly, eyes roving for any traps the Seal Breakers might've set and listening for signs of Old Leatherback's presence. She's got no good plan to deal with the gator, but figures it's worth first working out if anything else lies in wait.
"I can't say this is a great plan," Silvia whispers, taking a large bundle out from her pack and starting to unravel it, "but most lizards are pretty docile when they've been fed. So I figure if we feed him first, maybe he'll be inclined to let us pass without any trouble."
She stands, holding up a mass of viscera of the type to be thrown out by most butcher shops as unsellable. I doubt Old Leatherback cares about the difference between chuck and a fancier cut, anyway.
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"Well, the town pup always liked a bone with a bit of something on it to gnaw, back in Roslar's Coffer. Maybe this is the same idea."
Garret spends his time helping to instruct the guardsmen in this dangerous crossing, with a focus in avoiding angering the great beast.
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While Garret instructs the rest of the party and their soldiers about what to expect on the crossing, Silvia periodically dumps the mess into the cistern every few minutes. Despite (or perhaps because?) his immense size and obvious strength, Old Leatherback seems content to take the lazy route to his meal and drifts over to devour the chum, black eyes tracking your collective movements. As the group swings the board "bridge" out over the gap, you all wait with baited breath as each member of the force moves across, one at a time, with what feels like agonizing slowness. Silvia shows a clear talent for knowing exactly when to dump more chum into the water though, keeping Old Leatherback's attention from straying too far.
Ten minutes after you started, everyone but Silvia has crossed. The paladin slowly backs away from the enormous gator before herself slowly easing across the creaking board. The massive gator swings his head around to track her, but it must have been content with the feeding it had gotten as it declines to rush the paladin. That finished, several soldiers manuever the bridge-board to be on their side again, not wanting to risk it being knocked down in your absence.
"I don't love the thought of trying to retreat this way." Ketra looks a little pale. "Hopefully it doesn't come to that." She readies her knives and leads the way forward a little ahead of the rest, as stealthily as she can. She tries to recall what layout Grimetongue showed her the previous day. If she thinks there may be foes imminent, she rejoins the group so they can enter all as once.
She also keeps lookout for any traps.
Once Silvia's foot touches ground on the far side, she lets out the breath she didn't realize she'd been holding. She turns back with a grin plastered across her face and hurries to join the others.
"On the flip side, any cultists that try running this way are in for a rude surprise."
This side of the tunnel seems much like the others, save for a pipe running from Old Leatherback's cistern along the ceiling of the tunnel. The route here does show more signs of traffic, Sanduro notes aloud, but as Doeswen pointed out there just doesn't seem to be anything like a chamber or other space for a squadron of soldiers to be hiding out.
Perhaps a hundred steps past the cistern, Garret's constant focus on detecting magical auras does finally register something--an aura of illusion, present but difficult to pin down in any specifics. Alerted to the presence of something notable, a quick search reveals a faded carving into the stone here: a bas relief bust of a regal woman in archaic finery and a circlet on her head. The carving certainly feels real but it's not clear what, if anything, the carving signifies.
Garret investigates the figure, murmuring, ”Royalty, perhaps?” as he tries to recall if he has heard of such a person before.
He also looks for patterns of wear or cleanliness on the stone that may indicate repeated touching that might open a secret or magically hidden portal.
Ketra thinks to the morning's divination and responds "Or a Herald? I wonder..."
She taps the carving lightly with the tip of her dagger. "We are looking for empty halls hiding a blackened heart. Or something along those lines."
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Silvia examines the carving alongside Ketra and Garret, chewing her lip in concentration.
"It feels familiar, but who knows if that actually means anything."
She scans the area around them with her more divine senses, searching for the presence of evil.
As your group examines the carving, Ketra and Silvia talk it over and are reminded of the hidden shrine the party had found back in Roslar's Tomb--or at least, the echo of it from the Bonelands. That shrine had been to the Red Crusader, Arazni, former herald of Aroden. Come to think of it, Ketra realizes those secondary holy symbols you'd found on the slain Seal Breakers were also of Arazni, though a little different from the winged rapier symbols she'd seen before. That could hardly be a coincidence. Retrieving one of the symbols, the dancer presents it to the carving of Arazni.
For several heartbeats nothing happens and Ketra wonders if she'd guessed wrong, but then there is a strange ripple of magic and a section of brick wall beneath the carving simply isn't there anymore. In its place is a doorway and set of weathered stone steps leading deeper down into the darkness.
In the nick of time you spot a tripwire across the top of the stairway, and careful examination reveals this one to be connected to the piping up above--it seems to trap is intended to rupture the cistern drain-pipe and no doubt dump something horrible onto intruders.
"It all ties together..." Ketra murmurs. "...and with the divination too."
"We'll probably be meeting our seal breakers soon. Ready?"
Garret offers to load a spell into the spell-storing dagger if desired. He casts See Invisibility on himself and then Shield as soon as they are about to enter.
"--Wait!" Rosalind's hand snaps out to grab Ketra's arm. "Tripwire," she points down at the gossamer-thin wire crossing the stairwell, then leans into the tunnel to peer all around. Looking up, she grunts in satisfaction. "They hooked something up to the pipe, probably to dump something filthy and acidic or something on us. Step carefully."
Forewarned to the danger, you carefully step over the tripwire and descend the stairs deeper into the earth. About twenty feet down you reach another landing and short rough-hewn tunnel that feels ancient, the brickwork gone in favor of tunneled-out bedrock. Ahead, your light source(s) reveal a thick wooden table that has been overturned to block a doorway--an impromptu obstacle manned by a pair of Seal Breaker knights armed with wickedly barbed halberds.
"Let none past--the sacred work is nearly done!"
+ ROUND ONE +
Rosalind
Sanduro
Zsofia
Silvia
Green Sealbreaker
Blue Sealbreaker
Garret
Ketra
Purple Sealbreaker
Red Sealbreaker
Silvia wastes no time appealing to the cultists' better natures; she simply starts blasting.
"Break through them, don't let them hem us in!" Rosalind raises her heavy blade high and charges the barricade with a shout. A vicious overhand chop cleaves through armor and bone as the sword slices into the Seal Breaker's shoulder. Meanwhile Sanduro casts a spell [ooc](Cat's Grace)[ooc] on Zsofia before dispatching the phantom to check the walls. Poking her arm through the stone, the phantom lets out an "Aha!" before plunging through, only to reappear a second later. "The room's pretty big, and there's two more armor jerks as backup. Another stairway leading down to boot."
At the same time, Silvia opens fire without a word. The report is deafening in the confined tunnel, and while the heavy table absorbs two of the shots, Rosalind's blow forces the Seal Breaker from cover and the paladin's next shot takes him in the torso.
Just as Zsofia reported, another Seal Breaker rounds the corner by the barricade, flinging what looks like a wineskin at Rosalind. On impact it bursts in a shower of brownish goop that rapidly hardens into a tough, rubbery resin--rooting the Watchknight captain where she stands!
+ ROUND ONE +
Rosalind (entangled, immobilized)
Sanduro
Zsofia
Silvia
Green Sealbreaker
Blue Sealbreaker
Garret
Ketra
Purple Sealbreaker
Red Sealbreaker (-41hp)
Sliding to the side, Garret gets an angle on the room past the Sealbreakers and detonates a fireball inside!
Recognizing that it won't be easy to break through here, Ketra resolves to at least deflect some of the attention from the partially incapacitated Rosa. She focuses on total defense and advances along the stairs until she's next to the makeshift barricade. She lies against the table from the other side, using it for cover as much as her foes are.
The red Seal Breaker, already badly wounded by the attacks of Silvia and Rosalind, is burnt to a crisp as Garret sends a detonation of fire lobbing over the barricade to burst on the warrior-cultist's side! The heat and force of the blast shatters the overturned table into splinters and leaves the two remaining Seal Breaker's badly scorched to boot. Stepping back in the face of the onslaught, the Seal Breaker brings his barbed ranseur to bear against the entangled Watchknight--two vicious slashes leave Rosalind significantly wounded!
"Zsofia, can you flank around?" Sanduro dispatches his phantom through the wall and draws a wand of healing, moving up behind Rosalind and taking the edge off her injuries. Still menaced by the Seal Breaker, Rosalind hesitates between trying to break free or trying to heal herself.
+ ROUND TWO +
Rosalind (-34hp; entangled, immobilized) (DELAY)
Sanduro
Zsofia
Silvia
Green Sealbreaker
Blue Sealbreaker (-26hp)
Garret
Ketra
Purple Sealbreaker (-52hp)
Red Sealbreaker
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Ketra yelps as she's showered by burning and blackened table splinters!
Silvia's fusillade continues, the paladin falling into a regular rhythm: aim, fire, eject. Rosalind needed breathing room, and Ketra needed an opening. She would not let them down.
The remaining poleaxe Seal Breaker goes down under a hail of rifle fire. His companion tightens their grip on their serrated longsword and screams a wordless challenge at Ketra, but his attacks are wild and unfocused and the dancer easily weaves out of the way. Now freed from the danger of the ranseur-armed cultist, Rosalind sets to work scraping the alchemical goo off her legs and torso; she gets enough of it off that she can move again and advances, strafing wide around the Seal Breaker to cut off their retreat and give Ketra an opening.
Meanwhile on the other side of the doorway's wall, the final Seal Breaker attempts to slash at the incorporeal Zsofia, but the phantom bobs and weaves with supernatural lightness only the insubstantial can manage, laughing and taunting the armored cultist.
+ ROUND TWO +
Rosalind (-34hp; entangled, immobilized) (DELAY)
Sanduro
Zsofia
Silvia
Green Sealbreaker
Blue Sealbreaker (-26hp)
Garret
Ketra
Purple Sealbreaker
Red Sealbreaker
Staying in the back and out of the way, Garret releases a silent scream completely contained within the mind of the blue Sealbreaker!
As Rosa rounds the next foe in line, Ketra takes advantage of the opening. She delivers an inspiring twirl before striking twice in quick succession!
Garret delivers a mental haymaker to the Seal Breaker trying desperately to hold the doorway--ringing their bell and leaving them open to a flurry of attacks from Ketra and Rosalind. The two warrior-women savage the cultist but his heavy armor prevents them from bringing him down, though the impact of Garret's magic prevents him from striking back.
"Zsofia's tangling with the last one, I'm going to back her up!" Sanduro announces before skirting the melee in the doorway and moving around to get eyes on her phantom. For her part, the now-solid Zsofia laughs and tries out a roundhouse kick at the cult warrior, though her foot just rebounds off her foe's thick breastplate. "Aw gee, it's so nice to have friends around to help out!" the phantom declares sarcastically to no one.
+ ROUND THREE +
Rosalind (-34hp)
Sanduro
Zsofia
Silvia
Green Sealbreaker
Blue Sealbreaker (-79hp; Dazed)
Garret
Ketra
"We'll be there in a moment Zsofia." Ketra leans to the side, expecting either an absolute barrage or for Silvia to run past while the foe nearby is dazed.
As expected, Silvia takes a few more steps down, firing on the move to clear a path for Ketra.
Silvia guns down the third Seal Breaker, and then there was one. Sensing the fight wasn't going his way, the cult warrior bellows and slashes wildly at Zsofia--his blade rakes across the phantom's arm and ribcage leaving a line of silvery ectoplasmic 'blood'.
+ ROUND THREE +
Rosalind (-34hp)
Sanduro
Zsofia (-14hp)
Silvia
Green Sealbreaker
Blue Sealbreaker
Garret
Ketra
Working his way down the steps and into the room (30’ movement rate), Garret gets line of sight to a door on the western side of the room but not quite to the last Sealbreaker. He readies to cast a spell on the foe if it comes into his view.
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With the way cleared by Silvia, Ketra leaps past the fallen charred chunks of table and the scorched remains of the blue sealbreaker. She rounds the corner and moves in to engage the last foe, skirting around the edge of their reach until she can lunge in.
Ketra circles around to join the melee, but the Seal Breaker is ready and manages to interpose his shield to block the dancer's blade--barely. The effort costs him dearly, however, as Zsofia takes advantage of his distraction to ram a fist into the cultist's throat through the gap between helm and breastplate. As he reals, gasping and choking, Rosalind rounds the corner and rushes in; the tip of her naginata finds the gap beneath the Seal Breaker's arm and drives in, pierces through his torso and out the other side!
Ketra whirls around, half expecting more foes to come in. When they don't, she says "Okay. Hopefully the alarm hasn't been raised. I didn't hear any of them running for help. And our fight was short enough." She gives the room a quick look-over, but proves a little distracted by watching the other exits from the room.
Standing down from combat readiness at Ketra’s words, Garret casts Detect Magic and scans the room, including the dead sealbreakers.
[2] +1 ranseur
[2] +1 longsword
[4] +1 full plate armor
[2] mswk heavy steel shield
[4] potions of Barkskin +2
[2] Lesser Talismans of Arrow Protection
The room, though seemingly older than the sewers you've just left behind, doesn't look like much at first glance. Several bedrolls, sets of blankets, and grooming kits are spaced along the wall, the area where the now-destroyed table must have been is a scattered mess of playing cards and wooden disks, as well as several candles--all dumped to the floor when they overturned the table to form their fruitless barricade.
Behind you, the Vigilite guardsmen begin to filter into that room, murmuring appreciatively at the carnage and how quickly you worked. Rosalind patches her self and Zsofia up.
The room has no windows or arrowslits, and besides the hallway you came down the only other exit is a pair of heavy old stone doors, polished smooth in ages past.
Picking up the potions of barkskin, but leaving the rest for retrieval after the danger is dealt with, Ketra turns her attention to the doors leading deeper in. She calls to Zsofia "Want to take a quick look before we open these? Looks like this is the way we're pushing, but it'll be good to know what lies ahead in case there's another blockade."
She checks the doors for any traps.
Zsofia gives Ketra a lazy salute as Sanduro returns her to incorporeal form. Slipping through the stone doors, the phantom is gone for only a minute before phasing back through the door.
"I couldn't see everything, but it's a big cave on the other side, with some sort of cathedral built in it, I think. Just on the other side is some sort of antechamber thing, to the left is a collapsed tunnel. Just outside the antechamber are four statues and a bunch of rubble; looks like a couple more statues got busted up. Didn't seem like a great idea to keep scouting alone, that place gave me the willies."
Confident there's no traps ahead of them, Silvia gives Zsofia a nod and prepares to help open the door.
"If we're lucky, these doors muffled the sound of the fight. Well, no time like the present."
"Thanks Zsofia. And I think you're right Silvia. Seems like they didn't prepare anything special for us, for better or worse. Either this place is so big that the rest of their crew was too far away to hear, or they're already gone. Lets hope its the first." Ketra, feeling the trepidation rising, spends a moment to tuck Verun deep into an inner pocket of her jacket. Far from a comfortable spot, but the thought of the little bird being trapped down here somehow is in the back of Ketra's mind.
She tries the doors, dagger in hand.
The scraping of the stone doors feels overly loud, but no ambush or assault greets you as you step into the antechamber Zsofia described. It does indeed have the feel of a cathedral or temple; the room is adorned with thousands of tiles covering the floor, walls, and ceiling. Though somewhat faded and a little damaged, the tiles form mosaics depicting a winged woman in crimson robes over her armor, doing battle with legions of the undead. A dented gold brazier with a lotus petal motif rests in the center of the chamber; two archways before you open into a larger cavern and you can see some of the rubble Zsofia mentioned in the archways. Finally, off to your left you can see a tunnel blocked off by a partial collapse, large chunks of stone and broken masonry piled in the hallway.
Your detection spells pick up a faint aura of divine abjuration lingering on the brazier--not a trap, or even a spell. More like a fading remnant of a once-potent blessing.
Garret starts drifting towards the brazier, saying, ”I detect the remnants of a powerful blessing…”
Focusing his spell, Garret tries to recall if he learned anything about such iconography in his admittedly scant religious studies.
"A powerful blessing? I guess that makes sense. Is there enough left that it might be able to help us?" Ketra asks while briefly heading to the east to look into the partially collapsed tunnel. "Hopefully there's nothing that can come through to us here."
Ketra takes a careful look around, and discovers no traps anywhere on the brazier or elsewhere in the mosaic room. She does hear the soft dropping of water somewhere up ahead, beyond the mosaic room where you all find yourselves standing. If there are Seal Breakers or other threats lying in wait, Ketra cannot detect them.
"Well, I can't say I like the quiet after what we had to do to get in here, but we can't exactly wait." She advances down to the steps to see what lies in the larger cavern / plaza beyond. She has her dagger at the ready for any unpleasant surprises.