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It isn't hard to find pick Kragga out among the crowd at the Otari Market. At nearly seven feet tall, the orc towers over all of the other customers! They give her a wide berth as she browses the wares on display at the various stalls. She is muscular and hale, wearing patchwork breastplate armor and with a greatsword strapped to her back. A tome of stitched together leathery pages hangs at her belt.
When she spots you approaching, she gives a tusked sneer, her red eyes glinting eagerly. "Heard about you lot. You the ones exploring the dungeon under that lighthouse, yeah? Name's Kragga. You need some muscle in your group, I'm your orc."
Zetty wastes no time in making a rendition of the new orc, even before her introduction is over with. The moment Kragga finishes, Zetty scrawls a flourish and lowers her slate to extend a hand. "Hey nice to meet ya! If you're looking to fight a whole scary horde of ghouls and ghosts and maybe a 400 year old crazy lady that worships the old god Nhimby, well, you've found the right group!" She nods "Because that's eeeeexactly what we've been finding. And unfortunately we just lost the most reliable ghoul-puncher we had. So we'd really be more than glad to have you."
"Other than the experience of punching horrible monsters, why do you want to explore under the lighthouse?"
Bella introduced herself to the large orc, "Hi, I'm Bella! I'm the medic, so I'd be the one healing you when you get banged up. As Zetty says, we've run into quite a few ghouls. If that doesn't scare you off, we do have an opening."
”I’m not afraid. I eat ghouls for breakfast.” Kragga brags. ”Figuratively, not literally. Anyway, I’m from the Deadwatcher Clan. We make it our purpose to oppose any powerful undead that threaten the world. Got wind of the rumblings beneath this town, so I came to check it out. Now, I’m ready to send these ghouls and ghosts to the Boneyard where they belong!”
"That's the kinda passion we need. Let's do it then Kragga!" Zetty grins "You ready to head out now? We've cleared down a few floors already. Here's the map." She shows her sketch of the floor, pointing out all the different staircases leading down. "We're starting from here."
Chapter 4: Long Dream the Dead
You return to the Abomination Vaults and follow the path of the green light, descending the stairs from the library. The stairs end at a narrow landing with a door to the west. The south wall, facing the stairs, flickers and glows with ribbons of eerie green luminescence.
The glowing light manifests another message: "Gauntlight is a weapon, built to raze Absalom—it must be brought down!" After the message is read, the words slide down into a writhing ribbon of footprints that leads under the door to the west.
Beyond the door is an immense cavern, cold and damp. Water drips from condensation above into a large, still lake. Thick patches of moist mushrooms, some nearly four feet tall, grow along the western shore of the lake, while a narrow trickle of water feeds in from a tunnel to the south. A thirty-five-foot-long pavilion made of stone stands in the middle of the lake, elevated ten feet above the water level by more than a dozen stone columns. The entire pavilion is encrusted with damp, pale fungus. Two stone bridges arch from the pavilion—one connecting it to a door set in the northern wall and another to a door to the east. A faintly flickering campfire burns in the middle of the pavilion, its smoke curling to the ceiling. You can spot a figure hunched by the fire.
The glowing green footprints head away from the pavilion, making a panicked, twisting route to the southwest...
"Built to raze Absalom..." Zetty ponders out loud "So far all it did was make some zombies and weird creatures show up in Otari. Does that mean it can do something else? Or would it just make undead on a much much scarier scale?"
In the lake room, Zetty's attention is drawn by the dramatic image of the pavilion sitting atop its pillars. She stays to the back of the group, sketching the dimly lit scene. As she works, she reflects upon the fungus growing all over the structure, trying to remember if its a dangerous type. She also tries to make out the figure and identify what kind of creature it may be.
The fungus appears to be harmless. With her low-light vision, Zetty can see it is a feral-looking human man clad in dirty furs. She also spots a large wolf lurking nearby.
The message from Otari was very ominous. She commented, "I wonder what powers Gauntlight has that we don't know about yet?"
When she spotted the hunched figure by the fire in the pavilion, she tried to greet it in a friendly manner, calling out, "Hello there, my name is Bella! What's your name?"
The man leaps to his feet and howls and barks wildly, as if trying to warn you away. The large wolf bares its fangs as well.
Hearing Bella's voice, the man stops howling and blinks several times as he remembers that he can talk as well. A few moments later, he calls out in a halting voice, ”This is my territory. You are not welcome here!”
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Vengis isn't in the mood for a fight--at least not until he can better gauge if Kragga can stop as many blows as their hale dwarf companion had.
"We're not interested in fighting you in your territory, and trust me when I say you don't want to fight us, either," the silver-tongued sorcerer says.
"Perhaps we can come to an arrangement. You let us through your territory, and perhaps provide us with some information, and in exchange, perhaps we can bring you something you want," Vengis suggests.
Bella added, "Perhaps there are some supplies that we could bring you? If you have any wounds, I can also treat those."
Zetty nods "You don't happen to be interested in art, are you? Because I'm sure there isn't too much of it down here. We could get some for you?"
The man grunts. "Don't need supplies. Don't need art. You don't bother me, and I won't bother you."
”I’ve only been around the east part of this place. There’s a shadowy ghost on the island to the south that you should steer clear of. And if you enter the nightmare stairs to the north you’d do well to keep your eyes closed if you ever want to ever escape them!”
"Thanks for the warnings!" Zetty waves to the mystery man.
She takes a few steps away before murmuring to the group "Nightmare stairs? Shadow ghost? Uh, this doesn't sound good. So do we go east then?"
Bella replied to the hermit, "It must be terribly lonely being here all by yourself. Although I suppose you have your wolf for companionship."
The bearded man simply grunts and turns back to his campfire.
The green light can still faintly be seen from down the southern passage...
Noticing only now that there aren't any bridges leading east, west or south, Zetty heads to the edge of the pavilion platform and looks out across the water, wondering if there are any horrible lake monsters here like there were up above.
"So we've got nightmare stairs that way." She points her pen north, then flicks it to the west "A lake to jump, a wall of mushrooms, and then a ghost if we go south and maybe something else north-west. Or is that the stairs?" She glances at the bearded man in case he wants to provide some more hints, but she doesn't address him.
"Beautiful, new...?" Zetty raises an eyebrow, confused, before following Vengis' eyes over to Kragga. "OH! Oh, Vengis, oh. Ohhhhh. Got it." She adjusts her glasses.
"I guess, are you a good swimmer then, Kragga? Want to lead the way?"
Kragga smirks at Vengis's compliment, displaying her tusks. "Sure. Not that far, though. I'd rather not get wet."
And with that, the orc gathers the rest of you in her arms, gets a running start, and leaps across the water! She lands on the far side and sets you back down again. "This way."
Kragga leads the way south, in pursuit of the green light. A rusty metal chute protrudes from the ceiling to the west here, coming to an end over a pool of slimy water. A huge mound of fungus lies under the tube against the west wall, resting in a strangely monstrous shape. It appears to be the preserved body of a massive otyugh, preserved in fungus. Fortunately, the monster is long dead.
The light moves past this room and into a cove to the south. A low rocky isle rises less than a foot above the surrounding water here, its surface covered with a fine layer of pale green mushrooms and mold. A human skeleton dressed in rotten leather armor and clutching a rapier lies in a heap at the center of the isle.
As you draw near, a transparent green shade rises up from the skeleton, a Varisian man with a sickly appearance. Could this be the ghost of Otari Ilvashti, the fallen member of the Roseguard?
"Beware! Beware the Eyes of the Empty Death!" Otari rasps. He is unable to say anything more before three glowing creatures suddenly rise up from the water. Two of them appear to be 3-foot-long lengths of hair-like fibers that flash and pulse with ribbons and points of eerie yellow light as the creatures flit through the air. The other one is a bobbing ball of light with a vague appearance of a grinning skull!
The skull-light flies at Kragga, its body crackling with electricity as it tries to shock the orc. The other two creatures fly up to Bella and Zetty, churning and flitting in the air around their heads, their lengths flashing and sparkling in bewildering arrays of distracting pulsations!
Kragga roars in anger as the skull-ball shocks her. She channels fiery magic into her blade and swings at it.
While the creature dodges her strike, she channels the arcane energy as she enters her arcane cascade stance, flames limning the length of her sword.
Bella carefully observed the length of hair-like fibres floating in front of her, trying to gauge it's capabilities.
◆Battle Assessment (hair-like fibres)
After studying the skull as well, Bella called out to her companions, "They're all immune to all spells, except faerie fire, gust of wind, magic missile, and maze!"
She tried stabbing the fibres in front of her, to see if that would work.
Zetty sways in place, suddenly very unclear on what's going on and who is who exactly.
Hearing that her magic will have no effect on the creature, Eyenia calls out, ”Our victory is foretold!” An aura of hope and courage surrounds her.
"Sorry about this," Otari says. The ghost disappears, only to suddenly emerge with Kragga's shadow and loom large behind the orc. The shadow drives a ghostly hand into the skull wisp, leaving it flatfooted, before it returns to its normal size and Otari's ghost reappears. Kragga shudders, feeling gross.
Vengis's magic missiles blast the skull wisp. Zetty attacks the flickering wisp in front of her in confusion, scoring a light hit. Bella misses with her attack. Eyenia invokes a blessing to guide your aim.
The skull wisp repeatedly zaps Kragga, leaving her badly wounded! Meanwhile the other wisps continue to flicker and undulate.
Ignoring the flickering, Bella patched up the orc, "Stay with us, Kragga!"
Then she resumed trying to stab the fibre, although it didn't seem to have any effect.
Regaining her senses, Zetty quickly takes in the terrible twists the fight has taken in the few moments her brain has been clocked out. She raises her tablet and starts to sketch a more impregnable Kragga, lightning caroming off her chiseled abs. She adds her remaining allies to the scene, showing them all standing strong!
Kragga stands a bit straighter after Bella's healing. She draws power from her weapon, gaining a bit of extra toughness, then she roars a challenge and swings her sword in a powerful arc at the wisp! Unfortunately, she misses her target, as does her follow-up swing.
Eyenia takes a deep breath, extending the aura of courage.
She then mutters a prayer to the Cosmic Caravan before extending her hand to Kragga, a ray of healing light enveloping the orc warrior, "Your fate does not come today. Theirs, however, does!"
Otari repeats his shadow infesting trick, delivering a brutal blow to the skull wisp. Vengis's second barrage of magic missiles blast it apart, causing it to crackle and pop as it dies!
Eyenia heals Kragga as she and Bella miss the remaining flickering wisps. The wisps attack Kragga, but thanks to Zetty's magic, their shocks barely faze her!
"Yay, Otari!", Bella cheered. She tried again to stab the flickering wisp, this time with better accuracy.
"Phew!" With the most fearsome foe down, Zetty tries to recall what she can about the remaining wispy foes, then telekinetically lifts a nearby rock and tosses it at the one Bella is fighting.
Zetty recalls that the lesser wisps are known as flickerwisps. While a flickerwisp can taste fear, and finds the flavor delectable, it does not feed on this emotion. Instead, flickerwisps subsist on confusion and doubt.
The gnome batters the wisp in front of her with a hurled projectile, then Kragga slices it apart with a mighty swing of her sword! Meanwhile, Bella lands a critical hit on the other flickerwisp and finishes it off with another thrust of her rapier.
Otari sighs with relief. ”At last, my tormentors are gone. Thank you, friends, for finally finding me.”
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"I will explain it as best as I can," the ghost says with another sigh. "I am--I was--Otari Ilvashti. I have been dead for centuries now, and I recall little of my life. But I know that Belcorra's spirit stirs in the depths below, and my fear of the devastation she plans to unleash upon Absalom keeps me shackled to this world.
"When the Roseguard fought Belcorra in Gauntlight Keep, she unleashed a powerful magical explosion that collapsed the room where the fight took place. Belcorra and my companoins avoided the collapse and fought on—to Belcorra’s ultimate defeat—but I was caught beneath the collapse. I had fallen into a level beneath Gauntlight Keep that none of the Roseguard knew existed. I desperately wanted to escape to the surface and share my discovery, but Belcorra’s minions forced me to flee ever deeper into the vaults, until finally I was cornered in a dead-end cave by an immense otyugh that left me trapped and suffering from filth fever. I died in this cave, but my spirit lingers on.
"In death, I have been supernaturally linked to these dungeons--the Abomination Vaults, as Belcorra calls them. I have been afforded glimpses into the inner workings of the dungeon and its key players, and what have I seen chills me to my core.
"Belcorra harbored a grudge against Absalom and intended to use her sinister lighthouse, Gauntlight, as a weapon against the city. The Roseguard never discovered its actual use, other than that it had something to do with the ability to transport creatures across significant distances and could animate the dead with its light. None of the other Roseguard members knew about the Abomination Vaults beneath Gauntlight. I learned about them only in mylast few days alive.
"Some property of the Abomination Vaults increases the manifestation of ghosts, spectral undead, and haunts within their domain. I initially believed this was a side effect from Gauntlight, but I've now come to suspect a link to a much more ancient and ominous source deep below this level.
"Belcorra herself is now a ghost, although she cannot move far from the site to which she is anchored. I can sense her somewhere deep underground and I can sense that the range of her movements is slowly expanding. I susepct Belcorra intends to fully reactivate Gauntlight and use it to begin her long-delayed attack on Absalom. She must be put to rest before she can finish this task. I am not sure how to stop her, but I believe that clues await discovery in the deeper levels of the Abomination Vaults.
"There is a barrier on this level blocking further progress deeper into the Abomination Vaults. It is powered by the souls of Belcorra's defeated enemies. Fortunately, I know how to take it down. The Roseguard were the adventurers who finally killed her, and their psychic resonance can drop the barrier. You must find and place four icons the Roseguard once held dear onto the altar to the north to lower the barier. My thieves' tools, here among my bones, serve as my icon. The other icons are the brooch belonging to the cleric Aesephna Menhemes, the spellbook belonging to the wizard Zarmavdian, and the trusty longsword of the fighter Vol Rajani. With the icons assembled, the way forward will open."
"I'm so glad to finally meet you, Otari," Bella said enthusiastically. "I have studied the exploits of the Roseguard; You guys did some really great things!"
She bowed, "Bella Bracegirdle at your service! We'll find the icons and take down the barrier. You can count on us!"
Zetty takes a seat on the little island as Otari delivers his tale. She nods as he confirms what the group had already been coming to believe about the lighthouse and Belcorra. She rubs with a bit too much energy at the tip of her nose with her pen, clearly agitated.
"Really good to see someone - dead or not - down here that isn't creepy or horrible. We've been smashing through undead and monsters for a while now, and it sounds like there's a lot more to go." She takes a new page on her slate "But we're here to discover weird things and stop Belcorra, so that's not going to stop us!"
"Thank you," Otari says. "My friends... Aesephna, Zarmavdian, Vol... If only I could have seen them all, one last time..."
The ghost wipes away spectral tears, but he soon regains his composure and looks at each of you. ”I feel a great weight lifted from my spirit, now that I have passed my warning along. I believe I can finally move on to the Great Beyond. May the gods guide you, my friends. Stop Belcorra!” The ghost lets out a final heavy sigh before fading away.
Searching the skeletal remains on the island, you find Otari's gear. Aside from the infiltrator thieves' tools that serve as his icon, his gear consists of a dagger of venom, a sneaky key, and +1 studded leather armor.
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Vengis watches as Otari fades away to nothing.
"He made a tremendous sacrifice--let's avoid making the same one."
He picks up the thieves' tools. "So--he said this is the first of the icons. We need to put it on the alter to the north, along with the others. I'd suggest we just hang onto them until we have all four items. We've just got to figure out how to find them. Any ideas?"
Bella knows that Vol Rajani’s sword, the Cooperative Blade, is on display in the Dawnflower Library. The bookseller Morlibint might know where the spellbook is, and Mayor Oseph Menhemes likely has his ancestor’s brooch.
Bella told everyone what she knew, "I'd say it's time to go back to town and pursue the items we need. I'm sure Vandy will let us take the Cooperative Blade when we exlain the situation to her. We can ask Morlibint about the spellbook, and Mayor Menhemes will be reasonable when we explain the stakes."
As Otari disappears, Zetty reaches out with a hand and calls out "I'll make sure of it! You'll all be together one last time - in a painting if nothing else." She lets her hand drop as the ghost vanishes entirely. "And I mean it."
After a moment of quiet for the fallen hero, Zetty says "We'll definitely hold onto them. The only question is - do we explore some more around this floor first, or head back to town to try to find the remaining icons? I'd like to scout out whatever else might be around here, before we try to break through this barrier."