Bella fought off the paralysis and stabbed again, "Remember me?"
Zetty focuses on sketching fast, her concentration letting her telekinetically catch the tools she threw last time and sending them back in for another round!
Vengis and Zetty batter the ghoul with projectiles, then Bella delivers a sneak attack right to his black heart! The ghoul's eyes bulge and he gurgles on stagnant, black blood before he crumples to the floor!
The ghoul has no possessions of value, but the room contains 2 Bulk of books about tattoo artistry and historical tattoos of interest that you can sell back in Otari (5 gp per Bulk).
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"I'm not sure he had an inkling of what was going to happen to him," Vengis quips dryly after the ghoul falls.
"So--more valuables from this cult. This looks like some interesting stuff. I've got a feeling we could sell this back in town for a pretty copper."
Once they have gathered everything, the sorcerer suggests trying the adjacent room.
Bella took out her healer's tools and bandaged Grem and herself.
When Vengis suggested checking the western door, she replied, "I took a look in there already. It's an office. There's another room next to it. Trust me, you don't really want to go in there: that's where he was butchering the bodies!"
Once she finished healing, she checked the southern door.
The hall to the south ends at a door that opens onto a wall of solid stone. Judging by your position relative to the level above, you surmise that this is likely the bottom of the magical elevator shaft you found on the level above. Presumably, riding the elevator down would clear the way into this room.
You go back to the main hall and head south. This chamber’s smooth stone walls glisten with moisture despite the air being dry and somewhat stuffy. Several low divans are arranged in a circle and interspersed with low tables stacked with a few books and rotting morsels of decayed flesh. A twisting ribbon of pale blue light stretches between the bare floor at the room’s center and the ceiling above, its points of contact sending creepers of what looks like infected tissue out in a distorted spiral for a few feet. It resembles the energy in the room with the dead purple worm on the level above.
Searching this area reveals a secret door in the west wall. The walls of this hidden chamber are decorated with intricate, intertwining runes and shapes carved into deep into the stone and filled with dull, silvery metal. The floor and ceiling are polished to a reflective sheen. It appears that this is another inert teleportation circle, ready to be activated with the ritual you discovered.
The other two rooms in this south wing are more small offices. A few lesser ghouls linger here, but you defeat them with minimal effort!
Zetty glances into the "office" and makes a face. "Shoulda listened to you Bella. That's not getting a sketch." She follows after the halfling in stops and starts as Bella leads the way through the southern doorway. She spends a moment sketching the ribbon of pale blue light hanging in the air, then hurries to catch up as Bella continues.
"We know its some kind of energy, but why did they make this weird... here where the energy coming through? Like... the chairs and books and - ugh - snacks." She points at the chunks of decaying flesh. "Did the ghouls just like to relax here or something?"
She spends a while studying the energy ribbon from different angles, in case it'll reveal some secrets it didn't on the floor above.
She stays in the back and pelts the remaining ghouls with light furniture as the group clears out the small offices. Once the ghouls are dispatched, she searches through those rooms for any other interesting documents or objects. Assuming she doesn't come across anything, she returns to the large "ribbon room" and shrugs.
"How about we check the north end next? I think there was a passage there with some branches that we left behind."
The cat sticks its tongue out at Vengis and heads down the hallway toward the north.
The first door Nalfeshnee comes upon is locked. Unable to get past it, the familiar moves to the other doors in the north hallway. The next door leads into a room that is only partially completed. The walls bear telltale marks of chisels and picks. Discarded stone-working tools lie against the unfinished walls. Most of the mining tools remaining here are mundane, but one of them is a +1 striking pick.
The final door at the end of the north hallway leads into a room with an inert furnace. The furnace contains a layer of ashes, but searching through them uncovers a ventriloquist's ring.
Zetty takes quick sketches of the rooms, particularly the one with the furnace. After a magical inspection of the items, she asks "Hmm, this'll make someone good at lying even better, and let you throw your voice. I wouldn't mind it. Maybe we can trick some ghouls with it?"
Bella replied to Zetty, "I think you'd make good use of it. Go ahead and take it.
"I think there's some more doors in the room where we met all the ghouls. Let's explore those."
She led the group back to the large room where they met Nhakazarin's acolytes. She examined the western door on the south wall, before opening it.
Long shelves with several chairs drawn up to them ring this room on all sides, save the north. Rancid stains of old blood and decay cake the shelves and floor.
Searching the south wall, Bella finds a section of shelving that folds down to allow access to a secret door. A small alcove, its floor decorated with a silvery circle of inlaid runes, sits in the eastern wall of the empty room beyond. This is an inert teleportation circle. You could use the awaken portal ritual to activate it.
Another door exits the room to the south.
Bella commented, We should learn the ritual to activate these portals. They'll come in really handy, I think!"
She contineued to lead the party south, through the next door.
The door opens onto a short flight of stairs leading down. The dripping, sloshing sound of water fills this large cavern chamber. The air is cold and damp, and to the east sits a sizable pond. A lazy rivulet of overflow trickles to the north down a sloping tunnel, while a five‐foot‐diameter opening gapes in the ceiling above the center of the pool.
You realize you are at the bottom of the well you found in the level above, and that is confirmed a moment later when the gibbering mouther emerges from the water, slightly burnt still, and begins to slough towards you, babbling its maddening song!
The creature sloughs closer, spitting a glob of burning phlegm at Bella's eyes!
Zetty is struck by the horrible gibbering and starts sketching random mad things on her pad!
Despite her confusion, Bella steps forward and attacks the gibbering mouther, scoring a critical hit!
Zetty turns and hurls a projectile directly into Eyenia's face! Though badly wounded, this snaps the oracle out of her confusion.
Vengis tries to batter Eyenia too, but she ducks away from his projectile.
Grem turns around and punches Zetty!
Eyenia uses her moment of clarity to heal the party.
The mouther snaps its many jaws at Bella, landing a hit that leaves a bleeding wound behind!
Bella snapped out of her confusion and tumble around behind the abomination. She stabbed at the maddening creature, then healed some of her own wounds. "Grem, flank with me!"
Zetty's hands go up to her forehead where Grem clocked her something fierce. "Oww! As if the babbling wasn't bad enough." She tries to turn Grem around to point him in the right direction, then ducks past him to get out of the way in case he goes crazy again. Once inside the room, she ponders what kind of creature the party is up against... and what weaknesses it might have, then inspires courage in her allies by sketching the heck out of the gross mound!
Fortunately this time, you all manage to resist the mouther's gibbering. Zetty begins to inspire courage as she recalls that gibbering mouthers are weak to bludgeoning damage. Attacking them with slashing weapons is not recommend, as slashing wounds instantly open up into new maws that bite at whoever attacked them! They also have all-around vision, so they cannot be flanked.
Bella moves around the mouther, patching herself up and landing another critical strike on the thing. Vengis scores a critical hit, crushing a huge chunk of the thing's body with a large rock!
Grem moves in and assaults the creature. He finds it hard to hit at first, but his final punch connects in a critical spot, splattering flesh and goo everywhere!
Eyenia moves in and fires a divine lance but fails to hit.
The monster shifts its focus to Grem. The dwarf dodges some of its gnashing jaws, but he takes one hit.
Bella pressed her advantage, stabbing twice against the horrible thing. Then she prayed for diving protection, raising a shield of holy energy.
Zetty scurries past the horror to get a clearer view of it and then begins sketching furiously, trying to capture the awfulness on paper. As she does, she lifts a rock and sends it tumbling at one of its many mouths. "Blunt things'll work best!"
Eyenia tries again with a divine lance. Her aim is even worse this time.
Zetty hits the mouther with a projectile, then Bella stabs it. Grem lands one punch, but it's enough to finally finish off the monster! Its horrid gibbering ceases as it collapses in on itself, an inert pile of stinking flesh.
Searching the pond, you discover 190 cp and 64 sp under the well opening.
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Vengis averts his gaze as the monstrosity explodes in grotesque manifestations of unnatural gore.
"What--was--that--thing!" he whispers.
"Perhaps we're getting a little too deep," he suggests. But when they count up the riches in the pond, he's placated once more.
"It seems there was another corridor to the west," he says, pointing back the way they had come.
"Gross. Gross is what it was Vengis!" Zetty wrinkles her nose at the remains of the gibbering mouther "I'm sure we'll see a whole bunch of gross things down here still waiting for us. But there might be some really unique things too." She turns her writing slate around, revealing a picture of a gibbering mouther mid-gibber "Plus, don't you think this really captures the essence of it?"
With the coins recovered, Zetty takes a peek down the northern tunnel , then joins Vengis at the western tunnel. "This part looks a lot more natural. I wonder why they left it like this?"
Bella took out her healer's tools stopped her bleeding. Then she worked at patching everyone up. [b]"A healer's work is never done.[/ooc]
Once evertone was feeling better, she helped Zetty look down the passageway to the north, and then explored the passageway to the west.
n the north end of the cave, a downward sloping tunnel seems to lead to a lower level of the Abomination Vaults. A long tunnel to the west leads several hundred feet away from the dungeon, likely connecting to another complex further on. However, you do spot a smooth section of the natural passage that conceals a secret door to the north.
"Thanks Bella." Zetty gingerly pats the bandage Bella wrapped around her head "Maybe Grem hit me harder than I thought. I totally forgot my head was bleeding..."
She follows Vengis to the secret door "I don't know about gold, but there might be something super interesting back here. And we've really got our pick of ways down to the lower floor." She inspects the secret door and waits for Bella, Grem and Eyenia to catch up before opening it up.
"No problem!". Bella replied to Zetty. She followed the gnome to the secret door and asked, "Do you want me to go first?"
his large, cross‐shaped chamber contains several long couches, the leather cushions that once adorned them cracked with age. Dead plants lie slumped in planter boxes along the walls, and a long‐dry fountain depicting a lighthouse stands in the middle of the room.
A rotten stench fills the air, coming from a unique undead creature—a morlock ghoul. He looks up from the book he is reading eyes you cautiously, but he nods in greeting. ”Hello. My name is Augrael. Who might you be?” he asks, long tongue lolling from his mouth.
Bella was surprised to meet a polite ghoul, and responded in kind, "Hello Augrael, my name is Bella; I'm pleased to meet you! What are you reading?"
"Oh, it's just a bit of occult theories. Somewhat interesting," Augrael says. He gives the halfling a tentative smile. "You need not fear me. I mean you no harm, for I have little taste for flesh that was merely once living. Indeed, since my transformation, I have found that the flesh of other undead creatures has a much more pleasing flavor. I only desire to dwell here, reading and feasting when the mood suits me."
"Wow! You're the first person we've come across down here that hasn't tried to roll our bodies up into a Canker, outright eat us, or kill us for trespassing. Nice to meet you!" She quickly whips up a sketched rendition of Augrael and passes it on to him.
"We don't want to distract you from your fun times here too long, but I figure you should know that there's a whole ton of ghouls we recently were attacked by and we had to... defend against. So you should have free reign of the floor to find whatever books you like."
"Do you know anything about what's been going on around here? The Belcorra-related gossip, you know?" Zetty leans in conspiratorially "Anything juicy about what's down deeper?"
Augrael smiles at the illustration that Zetty gives him. "I don't know a lot about current events, as I haven't really left this room in a long time. My memories of my life before undeath are hazy, but I know I was part of a tribe of morlocks who worshipped Belcorra Haruvex. We knew her as the Ghost Queen. Our leader, Graulgast, lead us up from the deep caverns to clear the way for her return, but then we ran into the ghouls who call themselves the Cult of the Canker. I don't remember exactly what happened, but the ghouls must have bitten me and turned me into one of them.
"Graulgast exiled me from the tribe, so I tried to join the Cult of the Canker, but they said my hunger for undead flesh was unnatural, so they shunned me as well. So here I am, on my own, which suits me just fine. But if you defeated them, then I am grateful for the freedom to explore the libraries here at my leisure. And if their remains have not been disturbed, then I will have plenty of tasty snacks as well!" The ghoul chuckles and licks his lips.
”I only have vague memories of the path the Ghost Queen morlocks took to get through this level. I can show you the route we took, but I don’t know what awaits below. Likewise, I don’t know of any specific treasures near here. Sorry!”
Bella replied to Augrael, "There's a quite a few books in the library north of here. I only ask that you leave the volumes in good order, so we can read them as well when we want.
There's quite a nice library in the town of Otari: the Dawnflower Library. I've spent some time studying there. It's attached to a temple of Sarenrae there, thus the name (although there's shines to other faiths as well)."
"Well it sure if good you didn't end up joining that Canker Cult. They were a bit too much, really." Zetty nods and then says "Can you at least point us to the way you came up from? There's so many ways down, and knowing one that's a bit safer than the others seems like a good plan."
When Bella mentions the Dawnflower Library, Zetty rubs at the tip of her nose "Um, it's definitely nice. But, even as open minded as Otari is, I'm not sure if they'll..." She waves at Augrael. "Or if they'll just take him at face value."
"I do appreciate the offer," Augrael says, "but I'd prefer to just stay here by myself, if it's all the same to you."
The ghoul agrees to show you the way he came up from. He leads you through the halls until you reach the large library in the room south of where you fought Nhakazarin . He indicates the stairs down past the eastern door there.
Zetty thanks Augrael and asks "Do you mind keeping an ear open if anyone comes through this floor other than us? We might be able to bring you some interesting books from Otari if you'd be willing!"
Whether or not the ghoul agrees, she turns to the party "Let's be thorough here, at least to make sure there won't be anything dangerous lying in wait... or worse, running to tell whatever's below that we're coming." She points to the south, toward .
Bella had mentioned the Dawnflower Library to make conversation. She didn't expect that Augrael would want to go there.
Once the ghoul had led them to the way down, she bid him farewell, "It was nice to meet you. Enjoy your reading!"
She conferred with Zetty, "Yes, just a couple of more places to check on this level." She carefully opened the door that the gnome was pointing to.
Augrael agrees to Zetty’s request. He waves as you depart.
This room is lined with tables divided up into several narrow carrels, with old wooden chairs pushed in against them. Upon them, old stacks of paper and tattered books sit amid dry inkwells and brittle writing quills. To the south, a skeleton dressed in shiny-looking chainmail lies slumped on the floor, clutching something in its bony hands.
The spectral form of a drow woman floats among the work spaces here, as if looking over the shoulders of unseen scribes to appraise their work. When she sees you, she scowls. "Tardiness will not be tolerated! Now, take your seats and begin your work. These books are not going to transcribe themselves!"
"Oh, transcribing things! Just like back at the Arcanamirium." She steps into the room and takes a seat at one of the tables "What are we transcribing today? And can you remind me who you are, and who we are?" She smiles as she slips a ghost charge bomb into her free hand... just for insurance.