Tal performs his parts of the ritual...
Elena works through the motions of the ritual, struggling this time around to find the same rhythm with Tal. By the end the runes are sparking furiously, culminating in a backlash that send the diviner reeling!
Grasping the sides of her head, Elena says, "Owwwww... that sucked."
Noroc hurries over to Elena. Are you all right? Is there something I can do to help? Maybe one of those healing pulse thingies?
Elena and Tal blow it on the second ritual. Thankfully the teleportation magic stays active until someone or something destroys the circle...
After the mishap, an addled Elena asks for rest. The party agrees to return to town. It's frustrating to wrap up the day's adventuring before lunch, but as they say in Galt, c'est la vie.
The next morning is damp as the sky grumbles with rain. It's Elena's birthday today, and she feels much better whilst rested.
It is now 14 Calistril 4721 AR
Carrufikus returns to Otari. When the opportunity presents itself, he will make his way to the Dawnflower Library. He seeks out Vandy Banderdash to make her acquaintance.
"Vandy, I am Carrufikus Stumblemoss at your service. I am a humble pilgrim and follower of Desna, but I wish to come to you to talk about redemption, I understand the Dawnflower believes that there is good in all creatures. I am wondering if the Dawnflower feels the same way with regards to undead creatures?"
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Afternoon, 13 Calistril:
Vandy grabs Carrufikus by the cheeks and stares into his eyes. "Interesting.... let us discuss."
The discussion lasts a couple of hours, and would be impossible for others to follow...
Cast: 1 day (the ritual begins and ends at sunrise.
Cost: rare incense and offerings worth a total value of 20 gp × the target’s level; and diamonds worth a total value of the target's level x 200 g
Secondary Casters: 1, must be the ritual’s target
Primary Check: Nature, Occultism, or Religion (expert)
Secondary: Checks Nature, Occultism, or Religion
Range 10 feet:
Target(s): 1 Undead creature of up to 8th level.
You attempt to help a truly penitent undead regain its soul. The target undead must accept the patronage of the Dawnflower. The target must spend one 24 hour period, starting and ending at sunrise. As a show of commitment and devotion by the target, the primary caster must kill the undead. If the creature isn’t truly penitent, the outcome is always a critical failure.
Critical Success: The creature regains its immortal soul. It returns to the creature type it was in life, returns to its previous alignment (if its alignment shifted), and regains any abilities it lost. For 1 month, the target receives divine insight just before performing an act that would be anathema to your deity or contrary to your deity’s alignment.
Success: As critical success, but the creature gains no special insight regarding its subsequent actions.
Failure: The creature does not regain its life, but the primary caster can try again. Any future attempt costs half as much and gains a +4 circumstance bonus to primary check. In this case there is no secondary check.
Critical Failure: The creature offends your deity and is permanently cast to the boneyard neither able to be revived nor animated for all time.
Carrufikus returns to his companions that night and over a brew, he explains how his day went and about the ritual that Vandy has shared with him.
"I was speaking with Vandy of the Library of the Dawnflower. She shared with me a ritual that may be of interest to us. So, the ritual of the new dawn is a powerful ritual that would be able to restore a penitent undead back to life. This would take an entire day but if Augrael is truly penitent, we may be able to save his soul. With that being said, if I fail to perform the ritual correctly or he is not sincere in his desire to return again, then the consequences could be dire for him. He must also accept that patronage of Sarenrae and dedicate his life to her. Oh yes, and I forgot to mention this part, the primary caster would need to kill him."
Elena listens to each word. "That's... incredible. I did not know that such a ritual existed! We have to do this as soon as possible. Prolonging Augrael's undead state is very likely a risk to us all, as I expect it's a battle for him to fight his ghoulish urges."
She looks though her coin purse, counting her wealth far too quickly. "What materials do you need, and when can we begin? I would like to help if I can."
I'm not going to be much help with the ritual...but I'll gladly steal stuff to fund it!! She looks sagely at Talborel. One must go with one's strengths, mustn't one?
”Bibi, you are kind to offer, but let’s see if these vaults will give us the gold and diamond dust we need. I think we need to return tomorrow.”
Bibi takes point in the mostly empty level, and checks the north door. While she's at it, she also looks at the adjacent door to the east.
The party returns to the morlock level. Here and there they see a morlock working, but none interact with the party. Bibi directs the party to the eastern room. This long room smells of rust and grime. Stacks of splintered furniture, pieces of weapons and armor, frayed coils of rope, jagged shards of metal, and other bits of trash lie in heaps along the walls of the room. A cold, unlit forge sits in an alcove to the west. To the north, several heavy timbers are wedged up against a door to keep it shut.
A pair of morlocks are still here, working on the ballista that they were working on the last time you came here a few days ago.
The two morlocks here seem nervous with you here. They seem like they want to speak to you, but don't.
Neither door seems interesting, trapped, or locked.
Dum dee dum dee dumm...
bibi chimes in to speak to the morlocks working on the ballista.
Hey! Do you guys speak the Common tongue?
she then stage whispers to them it's OK, I promise you won't get in trouble!!
she crosses her heart, then winks at them.
They recoil from Bibi...
she takes a step back, palms out in the universal "chill" gesture. She looks back to her crew and whispers they want to talk, but are afraid
They quickly retreat towards Graulgast's room without a word.
"What did you say to them, Bibi? You are suppose to use kind words."
"Well, keep leading us south, Bibi, if you please. Let's try and avoid their Morlock boss if you can."
Huh. She shrugs, then takes a quick listen at the door that's barred shut with timbers...
Then, leads them to the north door to check that.
referring to a door inside the room, or the north door we're now outside of?
The wedge is on your side, as if it's put in place to prevent anyone... or thing from coming through from the north to your position.
See perception for listening at that door, above, since they're the same door & I misunderstood :-)
Bibi doesn't hear anything, and the door isn't locked, just jammed up.
Tal very stoically says, I don't remember disabling that door.
You didn't.... Now that you're alone in the room, what would you like to do about it?
Bibi looks at her companions, shrugs, and slowly starts to remove the blockage--giving plenty of time to be interrupted if folks would like to, but clearly actually DOING it.
Peldur jumps in and helps Bibi clear the blockage.
It doesn't take long, and eventually the party gets the door open.
Alcoves along the walls might once have been storerooms, but the stone shelves are all empty. The room smells foul. Within are a trio of human men, dressed in rags and extremely malnourished. They're in such rough shape that they barely move upon your entrance. They don't speak at all.
They all bear matching tattoos of a bird...
It is the exact same bird.
"This does not look like a good sight.". Carrufikus remarks as he enters. "Are you hurt?" Carrufikus asks. "Do you need help getting out of here?"
The gnome immediately starts to unpack his rations and begins offering them food.
Noroc catches Elena's eye and reminds her of the bird they saw with the boat previously, and that the tattoos on the humans here match them.
That tattoo identifies them as members of the Osprey Club, the Thieves' Guild of Otari
They eagerly accept the food. One, who calls himself "Gorul" recounts how they got here, treasure hunters who were taken prisoner by the morlocks.
Another who calls himself "Shad" says, "Thank you. We want to get back to Otari, I don't suppose you found our adventuring gear...."
"It is nice to meet you, Gorul. There is a lot of treasure down here, but there are a lot of dangerous creatures guarding it. It is probably best to stay away from those Morlocks. So, I notice your nice bird tattoos. Have you ever considered getting a butterfly?"
Too haggard for small talk, they grunt that they just want to find their gear and get back to town.
Too haggard to look for it on their own, they stare expectantly at you.
Bibi makes a miniature fist-pump at finding these folk, then gasps at their condition. She hands them her flask of beer, and fumbles about her person, trying to find food & water.
After thinking a bit, and recalling what was found right near the boat...
A greataxe whose blade looks like a human skull in profile.
An arrow made entirely out of wood; the head and fletching included. It seems to not be waterlogged at all.
A compass made of silver and gold with a strange rune on the outside.
...Bibi chimes in to their guests We've found a lot of stuff down here. What are you missing, exactly?
Elena does not pick up anything that the group is putting down. Instead she focuses on the idea of getting these people out. "I'd suggest haste. We should not assume that we've got much time before the morlocks return. And I suggest we block it up like before."
The list of gear doesn't actually sound familiar to Bibi. It consists of suits of studded leather armor, two rapiers, one broken rapier, three sets of thieves’ tools, a lesser healing potion, and some gp.
Bibi listens with pursed lips. We didn't find your gear, but I give you my word that we'll recover what we can and get it to you. Can you make it back to Otari yourselves, or do you need an escort?
"Can we raid the morlocks for our gear? With armor and a blade, we can get back on our own."
We came to...something of a truce with the morlocs. They were going to attack the town but we were able to talk them down. I think going after them would be a mistake. We can escort you back, and keep a keen eye out for your gear when we return!
"This is true. The friendship with the Morlocs is precarious at best. May I suggest simply returning to Otari. Also, if you don't mind me saying, may I also suggest a different line of work where you don't need to fight just to survive?"
They look at each other and nod. Finally one adds, "There's one more of us missing, we got separated. We gotta find him."
The conversation is cut short....
"We will keep an eye out for him. We are exploring this entire area in the hopes of ridding this place of evil. If we find him, we will be sure to help him out safely. What does he look like?"
"He looks like a corpse!"
All eyes turn to see "king" Graulgust. "You've broken into my prison. The Ghost Queen demands recompense! TAKE THEM!"
Your paths of escape vanish as a quartet of morlocks appear in the doorways.
"Take them for the Ghost Queen!"
Round 1:
Elena: Go
Carrufikus: Go
Morlocks: TBD
Peldur: TBD
Tal: TBD
King Graulgust: TBD
Noroc: TBD
Bibi: TBD
Initiative assumes Talborel is Scouting
Avoid Notice (T)
Detect Magic (A: +1 (U), N: +8 (T), O: +1 (U) , R: +8 (T))
Investigate (A: +8 (T), C: +8 (T) M: +1 (U) N: +5 (T), O: +7 (T) , R: +5 (T), S: +8 (T))
Search (E)
Avoid Notice (E)
Scout
Bibi chuffs out a breath, and looks back at the erstwhile prisoners. Looks like I've been overruled. We're getting your gear back from the morlocks, it'll be a moment.
"Zapplearkem!"
With a flash of his hands, Carrufikus casts Electric Arc on both the Morlock King and the Black Morloc! An electric surge bursts forth from his small hands.
"We've got trouble here. Tal, we need your help! I give you a blessing from Desna!"
He then quickly casts Guidance on Tal.