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Silviana expels a long sigh of relief. "Well fought! You're an impressive crew, and it is my privilege to join such a well-oiled machine."
"Why thank you! We've tussled with eldritch horrors a few times before. Just over there, in fact!"
Axton points in the direction of the dorms at C4.
"I suggest we set up camp in that room with the window of Sarenrae."
"Lead the way!"
"I have a spell that will allow all of us to gain the benefits of rest without actually going to sleep, so long as we don't blah blah blah Adult-in-Peanuts-cartoons noises.
"Mm-hmm. Yes. Very good! Smart thinking.
"Well, I'm beat! Good night!"
As the others talked, Bharak only paused and stared. Work a hand that was almost trembling he lifted up a stone. ”Lads…eh…lass…” He said, his eyes never leaving the stone. ”Is this what I think it is? Because I think it’s a philosopher’s stone.” He paused, letting it sink in. ”The amount of gold we can earn with this is…” He trailed off, lost in thought.
Silviana blinks. "What's a philosopher's stone?" she asks. "Is that like a sorcerer's stone? I've never heard that philosophy pays very well, to be honest."
"A philosopher's stone, lass! Bards back home would sing of this. Now, the issue with it, is that it takes a trained alchemist to use. But if ye have one? It turns iron into silver and lead into gold!" He held it up, all but forgetting the actual reason why they were even at the fallen temple. These beauties are said to only work for as single day. And ye'd need about six thousand pounds of materials to work with. But when ye be done? It is said that the lad who found one bought that much raw ore and turn it all into gold. Six. Thousand. Pounds. Of gold!"[/b] He looked at his companions, gauging their reactions.
You retire to the Sarenrae room and rest while Silviana goes dream walking. You rest and recover without any problems.
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D2. UNDERGROUND LIBRARY
This room is lined with fine wooden planks, even on its ceiling, and features a large rectangular table and several smaller round tables. Tall, well-stocked bookcases occupy the walls.
Dressed in a long dark coat and a tall hat, this lanky humanoid exudes an almost palpable aura of horror.
D3 Cultist cells
This hairless humanoid lurches on back-bent, dog-like legs, its hideous mouth flanked by tiny arms with three-fingered hands.
D4 ANCIENT LOUNGE
This finely furnished lounge contains a cushioned wooden bench, wall-mounted glass cabinets, a round table with wooden chairs, and a large bulky chest. The table itself has been fitted with straps around its circumference that would be just about right to restrain a human atop it by the ankles and wrists.
There is a human male strapped to the tabletop. He is guarded by two menacing females.
Wickedly barbed chains adorn this lean figure, and gaps in the bindings reveal deathly pale flesh etched with jagged scars.
D5. HIGH PRIEST'S CHAMBERS
This chamber is furnished with a bed, a table, and a cabinet like
the tapestries that hang on the wall, all are gray and colorless, giving the bedroom a gloomy feel. To the west, a short alcove ends at a three-foot-diameter circular window in the wall that shimmers with energy as it looks out over the sea.
The room is occupied by a very ugly man!
D8
This area contains two of the Qlippoth Gongarians you fought above!
09. PRISON
A large, mahogany desk with a high, leather-covered chair dominates this room. A chest sits near the desk, while a wooden shelving unit contains several sets of manacles and a few cudgels. Two steel gates in the east wall lead to two parallel rows of prison cells.
This lumbering apelike monster has blood-red fur, twisted horns, and a hideous fanged orifice set in the center of its chest.
There is an elderly human male in one of the cells.
. Nildus
D12. SACRED FIRE
Four pillars support the vaulted, forty-foot-high ceiling of this
large chamber. Each pillar is decorated with flame-like carvings and stylized images of phoenixes. A low, two-stepped platform in the middle of the floor surrounds a diamond-shaped fire pit in which a forge sits.
The is a Giant female working at the forge.
This muscular giant has crimson skin, smoldering eyes, and small black horns. Smoke rises in curls from its flesh.
She is attended by three creatures.
This snake-bodied humanoid hisses with anger. Spines of crackling flame dance along the creature’s blackened, fiery-red scales.
What are you doing now?
Using her commune spell-like ability, Silviana asks Desna is there is anything in this building that is sacred to her, and if so then asks subsequent simple questions to figure out where it is.
Koriah can identify the man bound to the table being tortured as Gein Kafog, the Abbey's Cleric of Zon-Kuthon. That he is bound and being worked over indicates he isn't on the side of the invaders.
She can also identify Zolerim as the Cleric of Nethys, a very unpopular member of the Abbey's clerics. She is unsurprised he'd be working with the invaders as he cares for little but than gaining more magical power, and with rebuilding the Runelord Alaznist's destructive Hellstorm Flumes-towers used back in Thassilon's day to project beams of fire to scour approaching armies.
Nildus was the abbey's Cleric of Erastil and Koriah knows little of him.
What now?
So, what are you doing now?
It was odd, as it felt like the group had been away for many days. Perhaps it was a lingering effect of the divine conflict that happened. Regardless, things could be worse. They could have been like the priest Kafog. Who, if one thought about it, might have enjoyed his final moments? One could never tell with those mad enough to worship the God of Pain.
"Not a bad idea heading to the prison." Bharak said. "Only one way in and out. Make sure it is cleared before we move on."
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Silviana casts freedom of movement on Bharak before they enter the prison.
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Bharak stood by the door and took a deep breath. "Once more into the deeps." He said, blade in hand. He was ready to throw the door open and get started.
The Baregara knew someone was approaching and so isn't surprised. Bharak throws the door open.
Bharak, Axton & Lt. Vhane act first!
Axton makes a noise of excitement and casts fireball!
And then he makes a noise of disappointment as the fireball is negated by the outsider's spell resistance.
The prison exploded with fire and smoke following Axton's fireball. Through this haze came Bharak, charging in with his blade held up high. At the last moment he saw the Baregara. Locking eyes with it, he brought his blade down....
Vhane, readying for the attack, takes aim at the door, and as soon as Bharak busts it open and Axton launches his fireball, Vhane quickly locates the creature and fires!
Axton fails against it's SR.
Bharak hits, Lt. Vhane hits once.
The Baregara has a target in front of it and attacks.
It mauls Bharak and wraps one large arm around him.
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The party can now act! Koriah, Ryn & Silviana. The back around to Bharak, Lt. Vhane & Axton.
Koriah opens up with her aklys.
She fails either damage or trip the Baregara.
Next.
Silviana performs an invocation , calling upon Desna to justly smite their enemies.
Peeking around the corner, Silviana targets the baregara with her divine might ability and attempts to throw her starknife at it.
It bounces back to Silviana's hand after she throws it, like a boomerang.
Silviana slices it with her flying starknife.
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Next.
The world, Bharak reflected, was a dangerous place. He had spent many a month wandering the wilderness alone, surviving alone. Coming close to dying, alone. With the creature bearing down on him, he could not help but remember some of those close calls. The chances of this being his final fight would have been high, if it were not for his comrades. Silviana's blessings had stood between him and a horrific death from being drawn into the maw of the monster they fought. For her blessings, he gave thanks. And he did so by thrusting his own blade down its gullet.
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Bharak cuts deeply into the monster twice.
Axton, Ryn & Lt. Vhane to act!
Axton reaches into his magical haversack and pulls out his wand of acid arrow. He aims it at the demon with the cheesy spell resistance and fires.
Ryn launches herself into a spectacular display of altheticism, somersaulting into the room, completely over both Bharak and the deaon, to land behind it, bringing her shield down on it's lower back.
Feels strange fighting something that doesn't die almost immediately doesn't it?
Seeing Ryn fly overhead, only to gracefully land with shield planted firmly into it's lower back...Bharak yelled out "Bah! I could have done that." Said the dwarf. His feet firmly planted into the ground. Nothing, in his entire existence, supported that statement.
Axton's spell is ignored.
Ryn somersaults over the Baregara but is attacked.
She slams her shield into its back despite being clawed.
Lt. Vhane?
Quickly reloading, Vhane launches another barrage of attacks.
Lt. Vhane finishes the Baregara with his bolts as it staggers from the damage Bharak & Ryn are doing to it.
D9. PRISON
A large, mahogany desk with a high, leather-covered chair dominates this room. A chest sits near the desk, while a wooden shelving unit contains several sets of manacles and a few cudgels. Two steel gates in the east wall lead to two parallel rows of prison cells.
Loot:
+1 studded leather,
+1 composite longbow with 20 arrows,
MW heavy mace.
scroll of breath of life,
scrolls of lesser restoration (2),
scroll of neutralize poison.
The chest contains 350gp worth of coins and jewelry taken from the other (now-dead) prisoners who were once kept here.
Silence falls and you can't hear anyone moving towards you down the passageways.
What now?
Silviana tends to the injured with her healing touch.
"Shall we see to the prisoners?" she suggests.
Axton picks up the scroll of breath of life and hands it to Silviana.
"Obviously, you should carry this, but let me know where you store it. If you fall, I have a decent chance of using this scroll to revive you."
"Shall we see to the prisoners?" she suggests.
"They're dead?"
The chest contains 350gp worth of coins and jewelry taken from the other (now-dead) prisoners who were once kept here.
Silviana puts the breath of life scroll in one of her wrist sheathes. She frowns. "I thought I saw at least one prisoner here when I scouted before. Perhaps I misremember."
”It would be awfully rude to not check. It’s the least we can do.” He said. He was quite glad that they had found more resources to give them a second chance at life. He hoped though that they wouldn’t need it…
Breathing a sigh of ease as Silviana's healing takes effect, Ryn nods, focusing her attention on the crawl ahead into the still-occupied chambers.
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Only one of the prison cells (the southeasternmost one) contains a prisoner today. This door is more than just locked Ardathanatus
has used stone shape to lock the bars and door of this cell in place.
As a result, in order to open the cell, the door must be smashed down, or a spell like stone shape must be used to loosen the door and bars.
Within the cell languishes a starving man covered with angry welts and
scars resulting from what appear to be suckers (partially healed wounds
from various qlippoth torments).
He is too poorly off at the moment to respond to any questions.
What are you doing?
Axton casts detect magic on the bars and cell to see if there's any reason teleportation magic wouldn't work or if there's some sort of trap that might occur if someone else were to enter the cell.
"I could retrieve him with two uses of a dimension door spell. But I'd like to ensure that it would work before I use the spell. Honestly, I'd like to know who he is, first."
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