"you put a monstrously huge ugly violent BUG that was trying to stab me with its butt... to sleep with just a wave of your hands. I sound surprised cause it is so awesome." she bumps her friend's shoulder with her own, giving her a huge smile, before putting on her 'serious' face when Ahreni looks back at them. If Kit looks back, she just gives him a silent rasberry.
You continue up the stairs until you reach the main landing. This wide porch surmounts the rickety conglomeration of stairs and landings below, providing a panoramic view of the boggy plains that extend to the hazy horizon. The looming gray stone hall of the fortress blocks further progress. Inset arrow slits with heavy wooden shutters flank a bronze-banded portal that leads within. Above, three more arrow slits look out over the precipice.
Suddenly, a tengu ninja drops down from above, landing in a crouch behind you! Two others suddenly emerge from the shadows near the hall doors, brandishing their wakizashis!
As everyone begins to move away from the sleeping ... creature, Relisha looks unsure. "So we're just going to leave it? We will have to come back this way once we've finished here. What's to stop it from attacking us again?"
She shakes her head, but follows along with the others.
Ahreni's glaive whirls between the tengu. "Stand down fools!" She commands, in hope more than expectation.
Sylyn is sending two flaming arrows into the torso of the first tengu ninja before Ahreni is finished with her sentence.
Thjen "Wait, what??" she sputters at Ahreni's order to stand down.
The tengus' forms are blurry and indistinct, so Sylyn only lands her first strike, eliciting a squawk of pain. The tengu raise blowguns to their beaks and fire darts at you before closing in. One whizzes past Flori, but Relisha and Sylyn are struck by the poisoned darts!
"Get the one behind." Ahreni commands, "The boy and I have these ones."
She steps forward with her long fluid blade leading the way.
"Can do..." Sylyn pauses to study the far one before releasing another arrow, happy to let her disruption of negotiations drop.
Awakening from a moment of zen-like meditation, Kitasai tries to show the ninja what's-what and throws two jabs towards him.
Flori, unwilling to burn lots more magic before they've even made it into the hall, grasps her cloak and tries to daze the nearest ninja.
A sudden sputter of her heart, a spreading nauseous warmth, and a dull pulling ache. "I don't see so good." she groans but forces a smile and a horrible joke "See.. this is why you insist on protection when you are being poked, Kit." why she directed that to Kit, Oh, yes, the prostitutes.
Kitasai jabs the nearest tengu before Ahreni cuts him down with a sweep of her glaive. Flori dazes the second ninja in the front as Sylyn fires an arrow right into the throat in the one behind the group, killing him instantly! The remaining ninja can only reel as you move in to finish him off!
Ahreni scans for any more ambushers before turning to Sylyn. "Relisha, can you help her?" She asks. "If not, you stay in the middle Sylyn. We are taking no risks here."
Recognizing the effects of poison, Relisha ignores her own wound and sees to Sylyn.
Only then does the tiefling feel the effects begin burn through her own body.
Once the poison has run its course, Relisha sets about mitigating the damage.
Ahreni 44/44
Relisha 42/53 11
Flori 29/29
Kitasai 49/49
Sylyn 40/42
The poison tears through Sylyn making her slump to the ground, her entire body burning like a clump of dried grass. Even with Relisha's healing and attention, she is wobbly and pale. "R-Ready" her voice shakes but she grips her bow and nods firmly.
"We have potions for this." Ahreni says, as Sylyn folds up like a leaf. "Drink them both of you, quickly!"
Sylyn takes one and feels a bit better. Just a little bit. Reli can take the other two. She has to keep all the rest of us going.[/b]" she gives her friend a pat on the shoulder.
Relisha passes the other potions to Sylyn. "Here. I'll be fine," she says with a nod.
You proceed through the doors and enter Ravenscraeg. Rows of pillars support the forty-foot-high roof of this longhall. Torches set into pillar sconces and two fire pits set with iron spits in the center of the rush-strewn floor give the room a ruddy glow. Several doors open into rooms on either side beneath ten-foot-high balconies lined with feasting tables. At the far end of the hall, a fifteen-foot-high balcony with the master’s high table looks out over all. Smoke holes cut into the roof high above allow in more light and the croaking of the many ravens that roost on the roof’s ridgepole.
"So, um, where do we start?" Relisha asks. Without waiting for an answer, she indicates the first door on the left. "How about that one?"
Ahreni 44/44
Relisha 42/53
Flori 29/29
Kitasai 49/49
Sylyn 40/42
You begin to work your way clockwise around the lodge's ground floor. The rooms here include empty guard rooms, a bunkroom, and a storage room for wine and foodstuffs. Four human ninja are meditating in the bunkroom, but you make short work of them. An iron trap door opens onto a narrow coal chute that leads down, though it is too small for any of you to fit through.
The closet has been turned into a shrine to a foreign deity. A painted stone idol depicts a man with a fearsome scowling red face, bulging eyes, and long beard, wearing red Tian robes and an iron crown. In one hand he holds a noose, while the other holds several shuriken. A small bowl before the idol holds bits of gold jewelry and coins, while copper plates to either side of it hold the burnt remains of cubes of incense.
A corridor runs under the high table in the main feasting hall, full of tools, equipment, and nonperishable supplies for the maintenance and upkeep of Ravenscraeg. Past this is the kitchen, where you fend off an attack by several thugs preparing a meal.
At the end of the hall, a door leads into a room that has been hewn from the rock of the crag. A wooden stair rises along the walls to the north. Tables and workbenches fill the chamber, holding all manner of alembics, crucibles, burners, and assorted tools, as well as a large glass case holding what appears to be a humanoid body. A variety of dried herbs and plants dangle in profusion from hooks on the bottoms of the stairs, and sacks and chests holding additional equipment and components have been shoved underneath the stairs. A torch mounted on one of the stair posts illuminates the chamber with a flickering glow.
As you look around, the body in the case suddenly springs to life! It begins banging on the glass, begging to be freed in a strange, droning voice in the Infernal tongue...
Sylyn is convinced by their doctor to take the potions and ends up feeling much better. In the workroom she comments "Doesn't he looks a little like that traveller that came through a couple of years ago that tried to woo you, Flori?" but then it is up and yelling gibberish.
"Yaezhing." Ahreni says when they come across the shrine, making a short bow of her head. "Patron of the ninja clans. There will be many more of them no doubt."
When the body leaps up she takes position between it and the group but refrains from striking. "Can anyone tell what it is saying?"
"Sorry." Flori says, looking cross with herself. "I speak seven languages, I should be able to understand this!"
Unfortunately she absolutely can't.
Kitasai, who speaks eight languages, also doesn't understand what's being said. He offers "No, but I think it wants to get out of there."
Relisha frowns at the being's plight. With nothing but compassion, she moves closer to the glass case to get a closer look.
Ahreni 44/44
Relisha 42/53
Flori 29/29
Kitasai 49/49
Sylyn 40/42
Looking closely at the man, Relisha can see odd bulges moving beneath his skin, as if bugs were crawling under it. That, combined with the glassy look in his eyes and the odd buzzing voice, leads the tiefling to believe that the man may actually be dead, and the insects infesting him may be controlling his body...
Relisha's face pales and she swallows before stepping back from the glass.
"No, don't release him. He's dead. There's something ... something inside him that's controlling him," she says in a trembling voice.
"Poor soul." Ahreni says quietly, before turning away from the undead. "Upwards then. Boy, lead the way."
"I... that is..." Sylyn is at a loss for words. She will keep an eye on the thing, just in case, until they are out of the room.
The man in the glass cage continues to impotently bang on the walls.
Most of the plants and roots in the room are from the nightshade family and are poisonous, though one small sack holds dried malyass roots that can be used to create 5 doses of malyass root paste. The equipment on the tables constitutes a complete alchemist’s lab. If the assorted components and equipment stored here are transported back to Kalsgard, they could be sold to a magic shop or wizard for 1,500 gp, but these items weigh a total of 175 pounds. In addition, you can find an empty ring of counterspells, a vial containing an ounce of stone salve, and six gold ingots worth 250 gp each.
You head to the upper floor of Ravenscraeg, fighting a few more thugs and the guard captain. In various rooms, you find 450 gp in freshly minted Chelish coins, a single greater magical beast slaying arrow, and six bundles of wolf, bear, and fox furs worth 250 gp each.
In the guard captain's quarters, there's also a key that unlocks a door leading out from the laboratory. A cramped cell ten feet deep and no more than five feet high has been excavated in this corner of the tower’s foundation. The cell is rank with the smell of sweat and urine, and a pair of rats scurry among the rib cage of some former inhabitant.
The cell's current occupant is an Ulfen merchant of Kalsgard named Lute Haggersly. Lute has been held here for 4 weeks, subsisting on the small portions of food and water given to him by his captors, and whatever rats he has been able to catch. Lute is a merchant recently elected to the Rimerunners Guild’s board of shareholders. He was abducted from the road on a trip to some of the outlying villages around Kalsgard and was brought here, though he tells you he as not been questioned and has no idea why he is being held. He warns you that a hideous purple ogre seems to command the fortress, and he claims the ogre is actually none other than Thorborg Silverskorr, the leader of the Rimerunners Guild! Lute has no combat skills and would prefer to wait somewhere safe for you to escort him back to Kalsgard.
Across the way, stairs lead down to the dungeons beneath Ravenscraeg...
Kitasai doesn't talk during the search, silently pointing items or locations out to his party when he enters the room.
The monk says "It should be clear behind us. Stay hidden and wait, we will return shortly."
Once others are done with Lute, he leads them down into the dungeons.
After Flori explains what the magic seeped into the arrow is, Sylyn slips it into her quiver with a request "Let me know if something is a magical beast or not before I shoot please." she also makes the comment of not knowing ogres came in "Purple" she finds that oddly interesting.
Lastly she asks Lute if he's seen any other prisoners.
Lute has not seen any other prisoners.
As you prepare to descend the stairs, you feel stronger from your recent experiences and better able to face the challenges still to come.
The stairs descend into a plain room of mortared stones. The walls drip with condensation, giving the air a cold, clammy feel. There is a door to the west, while to the north, a deep channel of flowing water crosses a hall.
Ahreni points to the western door, but leaves the opening to Sylyn.
"Don't try and go down the outside steps on your own, there is a huge sleeping insect out there." she tells Lock before they go down to the dundeons.
Sylyn sets her bow down and crutches at the door Ahreni potins at, looking at the lock and along the edges for traps, before trying to work the lock open.
Relisha spends time examining Lute as he relays his tale, checking his eyes, mouth, and pulse points. Once he's finished and they give him directions on where to wait for the group, she hands him her full waterskin.
"Just water for now, but we'll get you some better food as soon as we've finished here," she instructs.
The door opens into a natural cavern thirty feet across and fifteen feet high. A waterfall pours in through a small aperture high on the south wall, filling a turbulent pool in the floor and sending a cold spray throughout the room. A smoothed ledge extends outward from the door, and two large barrels of water have been set to the right of it. Another ledge sits on the far side of the pool. A smaller cask sits on this ledge, next to a heavy wooden door.
The door on the far side of the pool is locked. The cask next to the door is sealed and holds a potent alochol--rice wine, or sake, from Minkai. An aspergillium sits atop the cask.
Sylyn is able to pick the lock on the door. Beyond is a small and musty room, hewn from solid rock. Near the far wall stands a low well, its opening only a foot in diameter. A winch and chain with a rusty steel bucket hang from the wall above it. In the far corner sits a pile of old wooden buckets and other debris, rotten and broken, with several different kinds of fungus growing on their remnants.
Once the door lock has been "fixed", a wet Kitasai moves through to the otherside and examines the room for signs of trouble.
Ahreni heads into the small room to poke at the debris with her glaive and examine the well. There's probably nothing there but it never hurts to be thorough. Especially when there are ninjas around!
Ahreni and Sylyn notice movement on the ceiling. Four strange, bag-shaped creatures are crawling into position over your heads. Within their hood-like bodies pale tentacles writhe and teeth coated in viscous slime gnash! Their warning shouts alert the party to the danger!
...but everybody but Sylyn is slow to react!
"What in the pig-dung blazes are those things?!??" the arhcer swears in obvious worry about what will happen when the pig-dung things drop on them. "Flori, please tell me that they are magical beasts and that arrow will explode into hundreds of shards that will kill them all before they can touch us with their 'nose' tentacle there. And where is the one in the back coming out of?!?" Sylyn's mouth doesn't stop, but she pulls and aims at the one closest to Flori, sending two firey arrows streaking toward it.
Sylyn's first shot goes wide, but she impales one of the monsters with her second shot, dropping it to the floor. The other three launch from the ceiling, and while Relisha and Sylyn dodge the ones that attack them, the third one slams into Kitasai's head! Its tentacles grasp for his neck as it tries to engulf his head, but the monk fights it off!
Breaking out of her daze of prophecy, Relisha slashes at her attacker with her short blade.
Ahreni 52/52
Relisha 47/63
Flori 29/29
Kitasai 47/49
Sylyn 42/44 (-2 Con, 12 NL)
Ahreni's glaive whirls as the creatures drop.
Then she moves in on the most lively looking monster.
With three brutal slices, Ahreni dispatches the remaining monsters!
Once they are defeated, a fiery light suddenly pours forth from the well. Anyone looking down the well can see a sword wedged in the shaft 15 feet below. Its blade is wreathed in flames, the source of the light.
"Rope!" Ahreni calls. Once secured she leans forwards into the well, using her glaive to pull the sword upwards.
"I..." Sylyn starts to offer, reaching for her pack, "...don't have any rope." she gives an apologetic quirk of a smile then starts looking around for any that might be lying around.
The shaft is narrow, but Ahreni is just able to hook the sword with her glaive. She carefully hauls it up out of the well and grasps the hilt. The flames die down, revealing a beautifully crafted katana.
”Scions of the Amatatsu bloodline,” the sword says, speaking in a bold baritone voice. ”Long have I waited for you to find me and wield me once more. I am Suishen!”