Beyond the far doors, a 15‐foot stone walkway spans a narrow stretch of swamp water, connecting the ruined keep to a large stone outbuilding. Double doors block each end of the walkway. Standing before the southeast door is a seven-foot-tall skeleton dressed in armor made of gnarled roots, bones, and rusted metal. The skeleton clenches a morningstar in one weathered hand with the weapon’s heavy, spiked tip resting on the walkway at the skeleton’s feet.
Peering closer, Grem can see the wooden struts and crude lashings that keep the skeleton together. Though it looks imposing, it is little more than a statue.
Vengis detects a magical aura nearby, and searching the morningstar reveals a rune inscribed upon it. It is a +1 morningstar.
"Wow, this is quite the find!" Bella declared. "A light weapon is better for me, but someone should use it; an actual magic weapon is not to be taken lightly!"
After they had finished examining the statue, she opened the door leading into the bastion on the other side of the water.
"Wow for sure. That skeleton's biiig." Zetty glances at the weapon, but stares for far longer at the massive skeleton in its unusual armor. "Even if its just an art piece, the bones came from a pretty huge person. And considering where it is, its kind of like someone wanted to ward off people who didn't look too closely. That might mean the mitflits haven't wandered in to this room beyond. Assuming they weren't the ones who built it in the first place."
As for the weapon she suggests "A backup weapon for you Grem?" before joining Bella in heading across the bridge.
With your new prize in hand, you head through the next set of double doors. Splintered framing in the ceiling and floor hint that thin wooden walls once divided this stone building’s interior. With those walls demolished, only a single, large chamber remains. Rubble, swamp vegetation, and mud pile in heaps like foul nests, while a larger stack of rubble, sticks, and bones looks almost, but not quite, like a throne. A flattened mound of sand with a few dozen bits of wood and stone stuck into it covers the floor before the throne. It seems to represent a crude map of Otari.
A pudgy mitflit sits at attention on the throne. Two other mitflits are nearby--the same ones you encountered in the keep's entryway. By the side of the throne stands a giant solifugid.
The mitflit boss taps the haft of his trident on the floor before addressing you in Common. "I am Boss Skrawng! I demand to know why you have come to bother me before I have attacked Otari!"
As for the weapon she suggests "A backup weapon for you Grem?" before joining Bella in heading across the bridge.
"Ha," the dwarf rumbles. "I don't plan on losing my weapons any time soon, but thank you for asking. I have heard that such enchantments can be transferred to another weapon, if someone where so skilled."
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Grem bristles at the self-possessed king of the mitflits when it mentions attacking Otari. "Attacking, you say?!" the usually composed monk seems to actually be getting angry. "And what would you gain from doing such an act?"
"So you would have been alright with us coming to bother you after you attacked Otari?" Zetty murmurs. She wastes no time in starting to sketch out Skrawng's pudgy visage, beginning from his chin. As she works she says "How about instead of attacking Otari, you don't bother the town? We might even be able to get along."
She positions herself next to Bella and slightly behind, ready to provide some magical boons to the halfling should it come to a fight.
Bella replied to the boss, "I live in Otari, so I don't think I'd like you attacking it! It wouldn't be a very good idea anyway; the town was founded by a member of the Roseguard."
The other mitflits wince in the face of your angry responses as the boss pathetically backpedals. "Did I say attack? No, no, no! I have no plans to attack Otari! I am harmless! Friendly! Let's talk!" He punctuates this reversal by using his trident to scatter the map of Otari at his feet.
”So, what are you doing in this place?”
"Well, at the very least I'm here to draw you and everyone else in this place." She shows the boss her current progress on his true to life, and therefore not particularly flattering, portrait. "We've also heard there's some strange things going on here recently. Strange lights. Ghosts. You wouldn't know anything about that?" She frowns, noticing a detail off on her writing slate and turning it back around to fix things.
Bella added, "Indeed, as my friend says, spirit lights have been seen in the lighthouse, something new! We're here to find out what they are."
Boss Skrawng's eyes widen when you mention Gauntlight's eerie glow. He shakes his head. "We have nothing to do with that! There are many bogeys in the keep. Hauntings and glowing ghosts, but the light is the creepiest haunt of them all! Every night, the light glows. I am too afraid to look, but I bet there is a really big ghost up there!"[/b]
The gremlin shifts impatiently on his throne and takes a deep breath, summoning the shreds of his bravery. "I have tolerated your intrusion in my domain. But you have killed some of my subjects, and that must be punished!" He shouts something in Undercommon, and the two other mitflits and the giant solifugid rush forward to attack!
"There goes being friendly." Zetty hadn't been expecting much, but the mitflit had managed to let slip some interesting details. And his speechifying had provided an opportunity to get a good initial sketch of him and his coterie.
She begins adding Bella's outline to the picture, shortsword first. As she does, a glow begins to surround the halfling's weapon.
Despite his usual calm demeanor, Grem seems to be going red with fury. "I will not stand by and watch some wannabe king make plans on Otari. Not gonna happen!" He steps forward gets into the fight with more aggression that usual. " Stand back, kids," he growls out as he punches at the targets. "This mountain's about to blow."
◆ Step
◆ Mountain Stance
◆ Flurry of Blows
Grem’s attacks come up just short. Vengis unleashes tendrils of darkness, but the mitflit resists the spell and Boss Skrawng is completely unaffected!
The mitflits stab at Grem, scoring several hits. Then the solifugid pounces on the dwarf, taking him down with its jaws and a critical hit from its claw! Boss Skrawng takes cover on his throne and fires a poisoned dart from his blowgun into Vengis’s neck!
The battle started disastrously, with Grem going down right away. Bella grimly drew her sword and advanced to strike at one of the mitflits with her newly empowered blade, hoping to hold off the enemies while the others had a chance to revive her dwarven friend.
◆Draw Sword
◆Stride
◆Strike
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As the leader puts a dart into Vengis's neck, the sorcerer recoils.
"No! Stay away from my face!" he shouts, and then he feels the poison entering his bloodstream.
"I told you we should have left!" he exclaims. With his previous spell failing spectacularly, he falls back to one he knows cannot miss, targeting the leader.
Eyenia gets next to Zetty and Bella and takes a deep breath, releasing an aura of calm and reassurance for a second time.
Zetty blinks, hardly believing the sight as the solid dwarf falls to a flurry of attacks. She quickly pulls out her emergency healing scroll and invokes the spell to bring Grem back to consciousness.
Grem shakes his head to clear away his blurry vision as he gets up from the ground, not entirely sure what happened a moment before. Determined not to give up, though, he gets back to his feet and resumes the fight.
◆ Stand
◆ Mountain Stance
◆ Flurry of Blows
Bella moves in to help Grem. With a brutal stab of her enchanted blade, she impales the solifugid, dropping it in a single critical blow! Eyenia blesses the group. Vengis batters Boss Skrawng with magic missiles while Zetty uses a scroll to get Grem back on his feet. The dwarf attacks again but once more the mitflits dodge his attacks.
The gremlins try to take the dwarf back down while Skrawng angrily shoots more blowgun darts at Vengis!
Bella could tell that Grem's condition was still disparate. She quickly applied some healing salve to his wounds with one hand, and stabbed at the enemy with the other!
Bella's first strike kills a mite, swiftly turning the tide back in your favor!
Zetty takes her writing slate in both hands once more, relieved that Grem is looking much more healthy after Bella's attention. She delivers several abstract lines to her page to represent poison leaving Vengis' body, then points her pen at a second mite, raising a nearby rock and tossing it at the creature.
"Thank you," Grem says to Bella, but includes Zetty as well. He continues his assault, hoping to make up for his recent failures. He moves in closer to the king, but attacks the remaining mitflit.
◆ Step
◆ Flurry of Blows
◆
The second mitflit falls to Zetty's projectile and Grem's first blow. The dwarf whirls on Boss Skrawng, delivering a punch to his midsection! Skrawng groans and doubles over, badly hurt. "Okay! Okay! You win! Please, have mercy on me!" He drops his trident and raises his hands in surrender.
When Boss Skrawng surrendered, Bella tried her best to save the fallen mitflits. They had paid the price for their leader's decision to attack, which wasn't really fair.
She admonished the boss, You should have thought of their lives before you attacked us!"
After she had done all that she could, she told their captive sternly, "Time to talk! Was the plan to attack Otari your idea, or is someone else trying to put you up to it?
"And I want to know who has moved into these ruins recently."
Zetty relaxes as the boss gives in, returning to her art without the threat of imminent bodily harm. She draws the boss' trident next to the edge of the frame and suddenly the weapon skids over the ground and ends up next to her.
She studies the trident to avoid engaging verbally with the mitflit leader. The thought that the mitflit had been planning on attacking Otari made her nauseous. And she had no idea how to face someone who'd admitted to it. In stories sometimes it was all about 'exacting justice', but that was something for people with swords to do, not the artists that were chronicling events.
The standard mitflits have more darts and shortswords, while Skrawng only has a blowgun, trident, and his crown made of mud and bug parts.
”Nobody put me up to it. It was my brilliant plan to train the giant maggots we found in these ruins. When the insects were fully grown, I was going to lead the whole Mudlicker tribe, mounted on trained giant fly war steeds, down to Otari to raid and rule. It would have been glorious! But I suppose it was not to be.”
Boss Skrawng sighs. ”We Mudlickers used to live in the dungeons beneath this keep, but a bunch of mushroom-eyed people chased us up here many nights ago. Their king is a magic priest mushroom-eyed guy who can hurt your brain just by looking at you!
“There's a swamp dragon that lives under the boathouse behind the keep. There is another big building there too, but I have never been there. A boat full of people came to visit a week ago. They went into the swamp dragon’s cave while the dragon was out, but the dragon came back a little bit later. I assume it ate the people.
“That’s all I know!”
Bella followed up, "How deep are the dungeons below the keep?" It seemed this place was bigger than they had thought!
”Deep deep!” Skrawng declares. ”There is at least one more level beneath the one where we lived. That’s where the mushroom-eyed people came from! Who knows how many more levels are further down?”
Zetty ponders the descriptions, trying to think about what the "mushroom eyed people" might be.
Bella spoke to her comrades about what Boss Skrawng had told them, "The mushroom-eyed people could well be the reason for the lights that Wrin saw. But we need to find out more about them. The king sounds like he could be dangerous.
"It sounds like the upper part of the keep is only the smallest part of this complex. I would assume that the Roseguard would have explored the whole place, but maybe there's areas down there that they didn't find."
Grem stands back while Bella questions the mite king, his burly arms crossed over his chest. His brief loss of emotional control nothing but a memory at this point. The halfling woman seems to have covered all the pertinent questions for the time being, but he waits a little longer, just to be sure.
Eventually, he says to Skrawng, "You, and the rest of your minions had better leave and never been seen anywhere near Otari again, on pain of death. Am. I. Clear?"
To Bella, he responds, "I still believe that clearing this level is our best course of action, for the time being. But it is good to know what lies ahead of us."
Bella asked Skrawng for a more detailed specific physical description of the "mushroom-eyed people". She wanted a better description to give to Vandy when she asked her about them later.
She also searched Skrawng and the other mitflits for valuables. She wanted to buy a better healer's kit; since he had attacked the party, it was only fair that he contribute towards the cost.
Skrawng is unable to provide any more details besides that the people are pale and gaunt with gangly limbs and stringy hair. The mites don’t have any valuables beyond their meager weapons.
Zetty scrawls down some notes in the margins of her page as the mitflit provides quite a lot of information. "So underneath the keep we have people with mushrooms for eyes. Doesn't ring any bells for me, but maybe if I see them in person..." A hint of yearning enters Zetty's voice thanks to the prospect of truly unusual creatures. "You're right though Grem, I wouldn't want to go check down below if there are more people and monsters up top here causing problems. And we haven't even climbed up to the lighthouse yet!"
"And what was that about a swamp dragon under a boathouse? People came to visit its lair and didn't leave? This is getting more and more interesting. Dangerous too, of course. But-" She flips to a new page "-not many artists can claim to have gotten a live draconic subject to draw!"
"Mushroom eyes. How do they see then? Strange. The mysteries build without end."
"So umm, do we just let him go?" Zetty points her pen at the mitflit leader "He didn't promise to leave like you asked Grem." More than a little out of her depth, Zetty looks to the rest of the group to decide how to handle the mitflit.
Bella attended to Vengis' poison damage and commented, "Looks like I'll have to bandage you up again, Grem."
”Yes! Yes! I’ll go! I promise! I won’t come back!” Skrawng insists.
"My wounds can hold out," Grem responds to Bella, but turns to Skrawng. "Be sure that you do. I aim to keep my promise."
After Skrawng scurries off and Bella tends to Vengis's injuries, you head back into the keep and through the double doors to the north. The ceiling of this room has fallen in two places. A smaller collapse destroyed a flight of stairs that once led up to the now-ruined upper floor. A larger collapse mostly buried the southern double door, leaving a hole in the roof partially blocked with several crossed timbers. A second double door to the north has a stone face carved with skulls caked with tangles of moss.
The symbol is a rare one, indeed, but Zetty's bardic lore allows her to recognize the mossy skull as the religious symbol of Nhimbaloth, the Outer God of ghosts, despair, swamps, and will-o’-wisps.
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Now bandaged up, Vengis looks better prepared to go on. Still, he says "I have utilized all of my more powerful magic on the encounters we have had so far. In the event we run into anything more powerful, I will be unable to help as much. I suggest we rest for a while--preferably back in town."
When Zetty points out the bizarre religious symbol, Vengis raises an eyebrow. "Is this an old carving, or something new?" he wonders.
Zetty clambers over the rubble until she can plant her feet in a clearer spot "Wow! Now that's a bad sign. Nhimbaloth-" She points her pen at the skulls carved into the northern door. "-that's the sign of an outer god of ghosts and swamps and will-o'-wisps and general despair. I'd guess this was once-upon-a-time a hideout for their followers, Vengis."
"The mitflits sure didn't seem like they were following Nimby, so that's a good sign at least." She pauses for a moment to detect magic, trying to suss out of there's any uncouth magic still lingering on the door before her allies open it.
"Could it be they still linger below?"
She pauses, "I am in a similar situation to Vengis. My powers are have waned, and I must recollect on the distant voices for them to wax once more."
Bella conferred with her allies, "I think we should stop here and at least heal up Grem. We're rather depleted; I wouldn't want to run into anything nasty. We likely should head back to town soon, in any case."
Grem looks a little reluctant to turn back, but after a few more voices are added to the chorus, he relents. "Better to err on the side of caution, I suppose. My masters would be proud." He ends that last thought with a slight huff of air before he turns around and heads for the exit.
It may be a good idea to report in to Wrin with our current findings, as well."
You decide to head back to Otari, making the twenty-minute journey back to town without issues. It is just after noon when you arrive, having been in the ruins for close to three hours. Wrin is likely at her shop if you want to fill her in on what you have discovered so far, and the town’s shops are open if you wish to purchase anything before resting.