Bella darted behind the closest southern skeleton and stabbed at it twice, "Time to rest in peace!"
"First one Bertolt! Distract them for Bella if you can!" Zetty calls out as Bella rushes into the room to get behind a skeleton. "We've fought skeletons before... we've got this!" With an inspiring word, Zetty focuses on telekinetically lifts and propels a pot off the kitchen's stove. She aims for the only skeleton she can see clearly - red.
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Bertolt loudly bangs his hammer on his shield. "I AM BERTOLT SIEGWARD ZEINDOLF, AND YOU SHALL FEEL MY He cries out in a booming bass voice, trying to call as much attention to himself as possible. He leads with his shield and bashes the skeleton next to Bella, and brings down his mighty hammer as well!
Eyenia fires off a blast of divine energy at the other skeleton next to Bertolt.
Zetty inspires the group, but her projectile is off the mark. Bella stabs one of the skeletons with her rapier, then Eyenia scores a critical hit with her divine lance. Kragga moves to flank the damaged skeleton, missing with her first swing but destroying it with her second! The glowing wisp inside the corpse wriggles free of the fallen body.
Bertolt steps up to attack the other skeleton, annihilating it with two heavy blows from his hammer and shield. The wisp inside emerges as well, and remembering that the wisps have the ability to animate new corpses if not dealt with, Vengis zaps both of them with lightning to destroy them.
The remaining two skeletons move in to attack Bella and Bertolt. Each one lands a hit.
Bella winced as the skeleton stabbed her. She stabbed back twice before praying for divine protection.
Zetty maintains her inspiration, drawing the scene of her allies smashing through skeletons with ease. She telekinetically grabs another kitchen implement and tosses it at the yellow skeleton.
"See? No problem."
Eyenia tries to shoot another divine bolt but it misses more soundly.
Vengis lights up the skeletons with electricity, then Zetty and Bella score critical hits, destroying the bony shells of the wisps inside. Bertolt and Kragga make quick work of the wisps themselves, and within moments, the battle has concluded.
Once the last skeleton was destroyed, Bella set about treating the party's wounds (mostly her own, which she had neglected dealing with earlier).
Once that was finished, she searched the area before preparing to move on. "The dead do seem to be restless, so be on your guard."
Bertolt whoops loudly as the last skeleton falls. "Ah, well done, well done indeed! Ah, thank you." He says with a nod to Bella. "Ah give me just a moment to bang this out..." He places his shield on the table and starts banging at it carefully with his hammer.
Zetty nods "Those weren't anywhere near as bad as the wights earlier. I wonder what caused these skeletons to animate? They seemed really different from the ghouls and the wights..." Zetty inspects the dining room, scanning for some clue that might reveal what a bunch of undead were doing here.
Once she's satisfied that she's understood as much as she can, she joins Vengis at the first northern door.
Bella started on the westernmost of the doors on the north, checking for traps and then looking in.
Once everybody is at full health, you begin exploring the doors here in a clockwise fashion. The first one is a storage room that contains two skeletons and nothing else of value. Next to this room, stairs ascend back up to the third floor of the Vaults--these connect to Belcorra's office there.
A tall wine rack stands against the door of the next room. Nearly all the wine has gone bad, but you manage to scavenge three valuable bottles worth 20 gp each.
The next room is another portal chamber, featuring twisting runes filled with dull, silvery metal. Beyond this is a washing room and a waste disposal room, featuring a metal hatch that opens onto a long chute. This is the chute that Kragga climbed up earlier to scout this area out.
The final door to the south opens into a large chamber hung with grisly paintings depicting various spectral beings cavorting among ruined neighborhoods, overgrown swamps, and foggy graveyards. Three large overstuffed chairs pair with small end tables, upon which sit empty wine glasses. To the south stands a cluttered writing desk with its own chair, while a large iron tub to the west is visible between standing screens depicting shadowy marshes.
Seated behind the writing desk is a horrible human-shaped mass composed of thousands of slithering leeches, clad in a vest and trousers! The monster looks up from the book it was reading before standing up and striking an imperious pose. "Who are you? Why have you come here?" it demands in a surprisingly strong baritone voice.
Bertolt steps forward, keeping his shield raised. He had seen creatures with monstrous appearances have non-monstrous intentions, so he keeps his mouth shut and his weapon low, for the moment.
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Vengis swallows hard and ventures to respond.
"Greetings," he says, averting his eyes from the disgusting creature and the sorcerer does not seem his silver-tongued self.
"We are merely travelers, exploring this forgotten place. You'll be glad to know we've made some of the upper levels a little safer. And what of you? What are you doing here?" he finishes unconvincingly.
Zetty shudders but tries to back Vengis up. "Hi there! Zetty's the name. Vengis' right, we're just exploring this place, drawing things we find. It's been very impressive so far, one way or another. Though the reception we got on several of the floors wasn't exactly the best." As she speaks, she quickly sketches a looming figure formed of wriggling leeches, all dressed in a vest and trousers. She shows the sketch to the strange, monstrous fellow "Here you go."
She tries to remember if she's seen or heard of anything like this monster before.
Zetty recognizes the creature as a variant worm that walks, the soul of an evil spellcaster inhabiting the body of the vermin that devoured its body! Worms that walk are immune to precision damage and resist most physical damage, but they are weak to area and splash damage.
The creature scoffs at the gnome's sketch. "Is that meant to impress me? You must not know who I am. I am Volluk Azrinae!" the leech-man declares. "And I will brook no meddling in our glorious work here!"
Those of you among the original group recognize the name. Volluk Azrinae was a drow whose portrait was in the upper laboratory, and he was one of Belcorra's right-hand men!
Volluk raises a magical shield, then casts a powerful spell, causing gnawing worms to materialize within Bertolt's flesh!
Success: The target takes 19 piercing damage but no persistent damage, and the spell ends immediately.
Failure: The target takes 19 piercing damage and 2d6 persistent piercing damage and is flat-footed due to the pain for as long as it takes persistent damage.
Critical Failure: As failure, but the target takes 38 piercing damage and is also slowed 1 by the pain for as long as it takes persistent damage.
Bertolt was ready for trouble, but not the instant magical onslaught as it overwhelms his constitution. However the assault only spurs him to launch forward, throwing the materializing worms from his body. "You shall fall foul creature!" He roars! He moves in, encircling the monster, and brings down his hammer before launching his shield forward!
Bella moved behind Bertolt and did her best to patch up some of his wounds. Then she studied the "man" that claimed to be Volluk Azrinae and tried to figure out how to fight this abomination.
Zetty wastes no time in creating a far more fearsome rendition of Volluk upon her writing slate, but contrasts it by surrounding him with a flock of seagulls - the birds diving in to gobble individual leeches. "Don't be scared guys, he might have some magic, but he's just a giant pile of wrigglers when you boil him down! Don't bother with precise attacks, and instead focus on big booms if you've got them." As she speaks, she slips out a vial of alchemist's fire to try to follow her own advice.
Kragga moves in to attack Volluk, channeling fire into her sword, but she misses with wild swing!
Eyenia heads to one of the corners of the room and summons forth a blast of shimmering motes of starlight, blasting through the room but only striking the hideous leech-wizard.
Critical Success The creature is unaffected.
Success The creature takes half damage and is dazzled for 1 round.
Failure The creature takes full damage and is dazzled for 3 rounds.
Critical Failure The creature takes double damage and is dazzled for 1 minute.
Bella is unable to accurately assess Volluk's weaknesses. She patches up some of Bertolt's injuries.
Volluk avoids some of Eyenia's spray of stars, but the fiery burst proves quite effective, burning away several of the leeches that make up his body and leaving him dazzled.
Bertolt strikes the former drow twice, and while his hammer doesn't seem to harm the creature at all, the electricity does kill a few leeches.
Bella's alchemist fires proves effective, burning away several leeches as it sets Volluk ablaze.
Kragga and Vengis miss with their attacks, but Vengis's quip does leave Volluk distracted!
Volluk casts a quick spell to raise his shield again before reaching out for Bertolt with his tendrils! He lands one hit, causing numerous leeches to latch on to the dwarf and bite at him!
"Rahhh!! Foul creature, you shall fall!" He raises his hammer and it sparks out with violent electricity before coming down!
Bella healed Bertolt again, using the power of her gloves this time. Then she moved up beside him and stabbed at the abhorrent enemy.
Zetty keeps up her sketching, and her inspiration. The way her allies seem barely able to scratch the weird worm-person adds a frantic energy to her lines. She draws another alchemist's fire with her free hand and tosses it. Up close, it'd splash a little on her allies, but it seemed worth it to burn as many leeches as possible.
Eyenia conjures another blast of divine energy to fire at Volluk.
Kragga enters her arcane cascade stance and swings her sword at Volluk, but her attack misses!
Most of your attacks falter against Volluk's agility and magical defenses. Bertolt does manage to land one hit with his hammer, and Zetty's alchemist fire splashes the worm that walks, burning several leeches. But the leeches are regenerating just as quickly.
Volluk opens himself up to an attack from Bertolt as he casts a spell in an attempt to paralyze the dwarf. Then he moves forward, the leeches that make up his body expanding to engulf Zetty as he moves into her space!
Bertolt tries to punish the reckless spellcasting, but is unable to land a blow.
Bertolt pursues the monstrosity. "Coward, you run from my righteous fury?! I shall strike thee down!" He narrows his eyes, breathing hard from resisting the spell. My hammer is doing next to nothing. I need to follow Zetty's insight." He unbuttons a pouch on his belt and pulls out a string of what appears to be firecrackers. "Zetty, move back!" He roars, and flings it forward!
Bella moved to flank with Bertolt. then stabbed twice with her rapier. She wasn't sure it would do anything at all, but she had exhausted her healing options for the dwarf.
With a shriek, Zetty throws herself free of the squirming leeches. She kicks and shakes to get loose of the last few, then spins back around to face the source of the little monsters. "How about something that'll really melt those leeches down?" She quickly sketches, then raises her pad into the air. Beads of ink rise off the page and spread... forming a small black dragon - a wyrmling really - floating in the air just above her.
She points at Volluk, and the illusory dragonet releases a jet of acid in a line toward him!
Eyenia conjures forth a beam of shimmering, gentle light and directs it towards Bertolt before placing a hand on his back and saying, "You do not fall today. You will see the light yet again."
Kragga pursues Volluk and swings her sword in another powerful arc, finally managing to hit!
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Things finally swing around in your favor as Kragga and Vengis both land devastating strikes. Bertolt's bomb burns away numerous leeches, and as Zetty's illusory dragon breathes fake acid on the former drow, Volluk cries out as his body collapses, and the individual leeches begin wriggling across the floor in all directions, looking for a way to escape!
Bertolt's brows shoot up. "Ah, do not let it's foul vermin escape!" He scrambles to the door and slams it shut, trying to use his shield to block any cracks in the bottom of the door.
Eyenia conjures another spray of starlight, blasting the worms with celestial energy. She channels all her fury at the abomination before all that is holy and scours it from existence.
The spray of stars engulfs the leeches, incinerating them all and ensuring that Volluk Azrinae is gone for good!
Among Volluk’s papers are a scroll of comprehend language, a scroll of paralyze, and a scroll of worm’s repast. A lantern of empty light sits on the writing desk.
As you are recovering from the fight, a faint scream rings out from somewhere nearby. At first, it seems to be emanating from a lifelike painting of a graveyard. Further investigation reveals the painting swings outward, concealing a hidden door!
Bella's priority was to get Bertold's wounds attended to; she took out her bandages and treated his cuts and bites.
Once she had finished, she opened the secret door in the painting and scouted out the space beyond.
You open the secret door and enter the chamber beyond. The walls of this circular chamber are smooth and gray. A flickering, nauseating ribbon of pale blue light churns in the center of the room--the same ribbon you have seen on the upper levels of the Abomination Vaults. Where the light touches the ceiling, the stone bubbles as if it were infected flesh. Below, the light bathes a screaming, thrashing dwarf bound onto a metal table, his body covered in blisters.
Bella recognizes the dwarf as Lasda Venkervale! Lasda was the bartender at the Rowdy Rockfish until he mysteriously vanished nearly a year ago!
The dwarf is bound by four manacles. You did find a key in the previous room that looks like it will fit the manacles. However, trying to open them will expose you to the blue light.
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"Ah, thank you Bella Bracegirdle! With your aid I shall stand against the undead hoard for years!" He gives a mighty laugh and slaps her on the back.
In the next room Bertolt gasps at the dwarf bound on the table. Once Bella confirms that the dwarf is somebody known Bertolt rushes to his side and dashes through the blue light.
Bertolt's very presence seems anathema to the necromancy as it leaves him unscathed. He bodily picks up Lasda and carries him away from the table. "You are free brother! No longer shall ye be chained in this impertinent condition."
Bella was amazed at Bertolt's ability to withstand the necromantic energy exclaiming, "Anyone else would have been badly injured by the deathly corruption! You are a dward of many talents!"
The dwarf leans against Bertolt for a while, gasping for breath, before he finally regains his mobility. The ribbon of necromantic energy flickers and fades away!
”Ugh... Thank you for freeing me from that nightmare!” Lasda gasps. ”I used to always go on walks in the predawn hours, up to Otari’s graveyard and back. One morning, I saw a strange figure holding a lantern, gesturing for me to approach. By the time I noticed the figure was made of leeches, it was too late.
“He dragged me down here and strapped me to that table, saying I was to be the anchor for some necromantic ritual. The magic healed me at the same time it ate away at my life force, keeping me in a perpetual state of agony! It was horrible.
“I’ve been down here for months. I am ready to get out of this horrific place! Please, take me back home. My mother must have been worried sick all of this time!”