After resting overnight, you visit Wrin for some advice. The stars were partially occluded, though, and so she can only convey that using the icons you have gathered to open the way to the lower levels will result in both weal and woe.
You return to the fourth level of the Abomination Vaults and head north down the sarcophagus-lined hallway. This vast octagonal chamber is mostly empty. The walls are carved and painted to resemble a sprawling graveyard half‐sunken into a swampy morass, yet all the graves in the mural are open and empty. Carved images of shrieking ghosts parade upward and into the hungry pupil of a malevolent eye at the apex of this room, thirty feet above.
A circular fifteen‐foot‐diameter platform sits in the middle of the room, raised three feet off the surrounding floor. The platform supports an altar stone made of an irregular slab of rock marked by seven deep indentations, almost as if a huge, seven‐fingered hand had gripped the stone with enough force to leave grooves behind. Now and then, a faint blue light flickers and pulses inside one of these indentations.
This shrine is dedicated to the Outer God Nhimbaloth. The entire shrine is infused with an overwhelming sense of despair and hopelessness. This is the altar upon which Otari’s ghost bid you to place the Roseguard’s icons.
With an inconclusive reading from Wrin, Zetty feels awfully skeptical about the dangers in the floor ahead. She's not about to give up on finding all the weird and horrible creatures that lie below (and drawing them), but she has a sinking feeling that not everyone in the party will be making it out alive.
Once down in the Vaults, she drinks one of her lesser antiplagues and offers a second to whoever feels like they're most likely to be dealing with diseased undead today. "Don't be shy! I brewed them myself."
Once in the room housing the altar to Nhimby, Zetty shivers and avoids getting too close. From a distance, she tries studying the altar magically to see if she can work out if it has any properties to be aware of other than serving as a good place to put the artifacts.
"How about we explore elsewhere first, before we attract a lot of attention by using the artifacts here? Maybe through that secret passage to the north back in the hallway?"
"I think this would break the barrier stopping us from going down, if I understood Otari right?" Zetty taps her pen "But that leaves this whole floor full of danger still unexplored."
You head through the secret passage hidden in the back of one of the sarcophaguses. Beyond it is a rough hewn cavern decorated with several badly damaged statues. Before you get too far into the cavern, you hear a hiss as a monstrous, eight-legged reptile emerges from behind one of the statues. It snarls at you, eyes glowing with a baleful green light!
"Ack!", Bella declared, taken aback by the things ominous appearance. She took a moment to study the creature and relate to everyone what she knew about it. Then she moved to flank it with Kragga, and tried to stab it.
Zetty furiously sketches the new creature, but also thinks about whether she's seen anything similar before.
Bella notices the reptile's sluggish movements and calls it out to the group.
The halfling moves in quickly and stabs the creature!
Zetty can't quite recall what the thing is as she sketches it. Vengis blasts the beast with magic missiles, then Kragga flanks with Bella and brings her greatsword down! The blade scrapes against the creature's scaly hide!
Eyenia closes her eyes and chants a prayer to the cosmic caravan, conjuring forth a starknife made of shimmering light that hurls itself at the beast.
Without much of an idea of what the creature is, Zetty tries for a proven strategy. She switches her art to show the strange beast writhing with laughter on the floor. "Here, have you seen this one?" She shows the slate to the beast.
The reptile begins to hiss and heave in the approximation of laughter, preventing it from reacting fully to the battle. Eyenia's spiritual weapon scrapes against its scales harmlessly.
The creature focuses its baleful gaze on Bella, and the halfling feels her body start to slow and stiffen as a gray pallor creeps across her skin. It snaps its jaws at her, but fails to hit.
Bella felt her muscles stiffed up under the glare of the terrible beast. She stabbed at it desperately, trying to kill it before it turned her to stone.
Zetty, alarmed by the creature's strange ability, quickly adjusts her sketch to show the mystery beast hesitating and striking slowly and more weakly. She adds a flourish to the picture, then fishes out a bottle filled with a sparking cloud from her bandolier.
Kragga channels magic into her sword, causing it to spark with electricity. She tries to hit the reptile, but luck is not on her side! Growling with frustration, the orc enters her arcane cascade stance.
Light is part of Eyenia’s power, but the cosmos contain darkness, too. She murmurs a prayer in the language of the beings beyond the stars and a rippling field of darkness spreads out around her.
She then directs her glowing starknife at the beast again with very little luck.
It is a poor showing for you this round, as none of your attacks manage to hit the dangerous reptile! Eyenia does dampen the light level in the chamber, and while that makes it harder to hit the monster, it makes it more difficult for it to bring its baleful gaze to bear against you as well.
Unfortunately, it's not quite enough to prevent it from focusing its stare on Bella again, hoping to fully petrify the halfling! It snaps its jaws at Kragga, too, but Zetty's inspirational spell protects the orc.
Zetty focuses, trying to keep her concern for Bella's rapidly petrifying state from affecting her art. As she does, she levitates a nearby stone and propels it at the creature.
Bella turned into a very life-like statue.
"No!" Kragga roars angrily as Bella is turned to stone! The magus uses a swift spell to turn her sword into a spike of pure force that batters the reptile.
She then tries once more to electrify her blade and strike the beast!
Eyenia calls out, "No! Our fates do not end here!"
She raises her hands, summoning forth an aura of luck and courage before trying to hit the basilisk again with her starlight starknife.
The creature's gaze completely petrifies poor Bella, turning the halfling into stone! Zetty manages to hit the monster with her projectile, but everybody else fails to land a hit!
The snorting, hissing monster snaps at Kragga again before turning its gaze on her!
Luckily, Kragga resists the monster's gaze. She spikes it with force again, but can't manage to land a good hit with her regular attacks!
Zetty concentrates, trying to suppress the rising panic as Bella further turns to stone. "Anyone have any other tricks? We could use some tricks about now!" She sends another nearby stone at the monster.
Eyenia lashes out twice with her blade of starlight. The first strike crashes against the beast’s scales. The darkness of the situation weighs down upon her. But fate had another plan.
She directs it again and it arcs through the air, stabbing into the basilisk’s throat!
This time, you manage to batter and blast the basilisk with your spells. Eyenia’s spiritual weapon slices open its throat, and at last, it falls!
Blood splatters the statue of Bella, and where it lands, the stone begins to revert to flesh! If you coat her completely, it will reverse her petrification.
Most of the other statues here are broken and incomplete, but in the corner, there is an intact statue of a dwarven man in full plate wielding a hammer and shield. There’s enough blood left over to restore him, too...
Zetty crows "That trick'll do just right Eyenia!" as the beast falls. As soon as it does, she uses her magic to scoop blood from the basilisk's corpse and thoroughly coat Bella. "Hold on Bella, we'll get you out of there yet. You're going to be a little bloody afterwards, but its better than being a statue!"
Only once Bella is fully free does Zetty try to bring some of the blood over to splash the dwarven statue. She isn't sure if it'd be a friend or foe, but her curiosity demands that she find out!
The blood flows down over the dwarven statue, slowly returning color and limberness where it touches. As it reaches the base the dwarf comes to life! "Raaahhhh!" He raises his thick shield and rears back his stout hammer as if to attack! But as his gaze falls upon the eclectic collection before him standing over the body of a basilisk, his face turns to confusion. "aahhh...Hrrmmm." He lets the hammer fall to his side. Then after a pause, he rears his head back and gives a jolly laugh. "Oh mine stars, the beast got the best of me after all, ha! Oh well played monster, well played." He strides over to the fallen basilisk, putting a respectful hand on its side. "It is only too unfortunate for you that I have been rescued by your next adversaries! Haha! Well do not fear, you shall live on in memory and in song. That, I promise you." His voice is accented, but not from any dwarven city that one can recall, almost as if instead of speaking he was telling a story to an audience.
The dwarf stands and turns to face the others, then takes his hammer and rings it against his shield with a mighty BANG! Beyond the sudden loud clang there was also a short spark of electricity from the hammer. He calls out in his booming voice. "I am Bertolt Siegward Zeindolf, and I am in your debt. Please, do me the honor of telling me thine names, so that I may know who my brave rescuers are." He inclines his head and goes into a stiff bow, limited by his armor and extraordinary stocky build.
Bertolt has a broad and solid build, even for a dwarf, with height just above average. He has thick dark brown hair, meticulously combed back and braided, and a lusciously thick beard. Fierce eyebrows jut up above emerald green eyes, and his face carries a collection of faint scars and crinkles around his eyes. His nose is bulbous and somewhat crooked, and one eye is somewhat larger than the other, remnants of old wounds that never quite healed right. He wears a brilliant set of full plate one would expect of a paladin, and a tabard with a detailed coat of arms.
When she regained consciousness, Bella blinked and asked, "What happened? How long was I out for?" She felt terribly stiff, and spent a minute stretching and working her muscles. Once she was made aware of the statue of the dwarf, she helped Zetty smear the basilisk's blood over it.
When he turned back to flesh, she introduced herself and bowed, "Bella Bracegirdle at your service! I myself was briefly petrified by this terrible beast." She pointed at the body of the slain reptilian horror.
Bertolt's face splits into a beaming smile. "Bella Bracegirdle! A smarter hero than I, for you came ventured below with comrades at your side! My own petrification was not as brief as yours, and I will have some comrades to inform of my safety to assuage their concerns." He stops, frowning briefly and looking into the distance, as if recalling something.
Zetty brightens when the dwarf turns out to be very much not a deadly monster ready to eat the party. She immediately sets about sketching his likeness on a separate sheet from the basilisk. "Hi there! Zetty Perilune is the name, though I'm not much of a brave rescuer, to be perfectly honest. More of an artist who's willing to do a bit of spelunking to find the good stuff." She finishes her sketch with a flourish and presents it to Bertolt. It presents him as beaming, brave looking figure.
"How long have you been down here? Years? It's 4721 AR right now. Did you come down with quite a few comrades? Do you know where they are, or where they're supposed to be. What brought you down here anyway?" She bombards with question after question.
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Bertolt's distracted thoughts are brought back to focus by Zetty. "Ah, Zetty Perilune! And what a name for an artist, as beautiful as your work no doubt, haha!" He strides over to her, armor clanking, and throws a cheerful arm around her shoulder. "Do not sell yourself short! Adventures and heroics would be much the lesser without your kind to tell of them, which is critical to the inspiration of others to follow in suit!" He takes the sketch and beams at it. "Ohhh what a kindness, I fear I have never looked this good!" He says with a slight blush.
Then Zetty says the year, and his face freezes. "Aha-erm...surely you jest, yes? Aha, very good, yes! Ah a jokester as well, I will have to remember that." Somewhat off balance he looks around. "Erm...comrades, well of course I have my own jolly collection of comrades! But..." His face screws up in thought. "I...well I must have been alone, else they would have rescued me from such a fate, yes? Or at least there would be signs of their remains if they had fallen as well. But I can't seem to recall. Hmm...hmm..." He shakes his head. "I fear my memory is failing me, much of the details remain fuzzy. Perhaps I had taken one too many strikes to the head before I fell to this beast. But I do know why I came down!" He proudly bangs a mailed fist to his brilliant tabard. "This vast tomb is surely ridden with undead, and it is my sworn duty to put all such entrapped souls to rest! It is my duty as a brave member of the...hmm..." He clenches at his tabard, staring off in concentration again. "My word, I must have really taken a great wallop."
Eyenia gives a slight bow to Bertolt, "I am Eyenia, reader of the stars and servant of the Cosmic Caravan. I am glad fate has crossed our paths. I too see curse of undeath as a stain upon the cosmos."
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Vengis averts his gaze as the creature's blood is spread around, having no stomach for the unpleasant business.
But he breathes a sigh of relief as Bella recovers, and then seems interested in the statue of the dwarf.
"Well, I did not expect to see anyone here alive," he concedes. "Bless the heavens and all--you're alive! I am Vengis Mountebank. Welcome back to the realm of the living."
Bertolt once again is brought back to the present. "Eyenia, a divine servant! Ah surely the steady beating heart of this mighty group!" He inclines his head respectfully. "Yes, a scourge indeed. But they are also to be pitied, for most are trapped souls, victims."
"Vengis Mountebank! Ah it is most welcome, most welcome indeed. A fate far better than I might have had while combatting the undead hoards."
Bertolt draws up to his full height and plants his hammer in front of him. "So! I will have to return to my kingdom and inform them of my survival, but I fear venturing out on my own may lessen my chances. Would you accept me amongst your ranks until you return to the surface? I promise I am no slouch, and can act as your unbreakable vanguard! I humbly ask to return the favor of saving my life, and I promise my companions will hear of your selfless bravery as well."
Bella said to Bertoit, "We'd be glad to have you along! I'll be fighting along side you in the front rank."
She gave the dwarf a quick summary about the reawakening of the Gauntlight, the suspected return of the evil sorcerer Belcorra Haruvex, and what they had encountered so far.
"You're welcome to join our little troupe Bertolt! This whole exploration has only gotten more and more desperately dangerous, and I'm never going to argue against us living folks helping each other with that!" Zetty steps up and shakes the dwarf's hand. "As for your memory, well, maybe after you warm up a bit it'll all come back to you. Maybe some bits in there are still stone, huh?" She points her pen at his skull.
When Bella provides a summary of what has happened thus far, Zetty provides supplementary maps of the floors and other drawings from her pack.
"Nice to have somebody up front, taking the hits beside me," Kragga says, the orc towering over the smaller dwarf. She offers a firm handshake.
"Alright, we good to go? Which way next?"
"Hmmm... I guess we know that there's that room with what looked like skeletons around a table. That one's to the south I think. Probably dangerous again, but we've got Bertolt now, so it'll go great!" Zetty points off to the southwest.
The south tunnel ends at a concealed door that opens up into what appears to be a kitchen. A strange, squat cast-iron stove with no chimney sits in the southwest corner of this room, while to the north, a large oak table covered with cooking utensils sits against a wall. A skeletal body slumps at the base of the cupboards along the western wall.
Bertolt walks in the door confidently, eyes quickly scanning the room.
He sees the skeleton and raises his shield, walking up to it, provoking it to attack if still alive.
Fortunately, the skeleton does not animate. The cast-iron stove in this kitchen is a minor magical item that transmutes smoke welling up from its fire into clean air, but it’s built into the stone of this room and far too heavy to be worth the trouble of moving.
Peering out of the door in this room, Bertolt sees a large dining room. A pair of brightly glowing chandeliers illuminates a long banquet table surrounded by luxurious, high-backed chairs. The table is still set as if for a grand meal, but some of the place settings are scattered and toppled, as are a few of the chairs. Four skeletons in tattered finery are scattered about the room, some of them clutching their own necks.
"Mhmm." Bertolt enters the room, shield raised again, then examines the skeleton. "I would wager a full braid there was a poisoning here." He nudges one of the skeletons, ready to take on a blow.
A few moments after Bertolt enters the room, lights within the skeletons' chest cavities begin to glow. The skeletons stagger to their feet, lurching to attack! It seems these skeletons are inhabited by corpselight wisps, like the ones you fought in the temple within Gauntlight Keep several days ago!
Bertolt barks a laugh as the skeletons rise. "Oh your poor souls, you shall be put to rest soon enough! My new comrades, I shall listen to your guidance, shall we charge through them, or bring them in to this narrow doorway and chokepoint them?"