Another room waits in this wing. Perhaps Wryn or someone in town can help us learn from that poor soul-fragment. Yan picks up the gem and hands it to Sendoski; he's clearly disgusted by it.
That was a scary moment, but your branch and healing helped us all live another day! Yan nods at Oorgatch and Scarred one.
Yan picks up the gem and hands it to Sendoski; he's clearly disgusted by it.
Scarred One looks at Yan and comments
"Huh, books go to his pack but other items he gives away. Interesting..." as he limps towards the last room.
The 'conversation' with fey made him a bit edgy, he did not like fighting one but would do it. He was not so certain if his allies would not dismiss the fey due to child-look.
"I am sure that last room is a closet for brooms or other nonsense..."
”Yup. Ready. ”.
Oorgatch takes his place next to The door and opens it.
Shelves laden with tools, lumber, and planks line the walls of this 10-foot-square room. None of the supplies seem in usable condition but were likely once used to keep up with local repairs.
About 10 minutes of searching though debris and toolboxes does reveal an oversized silver key. (No decorative handle)
When others are searching through the room, Scarred one takes out healing tools.
"Ok Oorgatch show me your wounds."
He patches the other orc in some record time and effects are better than expected.
"So where to now?"
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
We can check the boathouse. We also have the lighthouse key, yes? Perhaps we can finally get up there.
No rush here.
"Yeah, let's go to the boathouse. I wonder if all those stairs down don't lead to the same underground passages. It is hard to say how big is the place below..." says Orc as he gets going.
Heading over to the boathouse you find that he southern portion of the stonewalled building has collapsed into rubble, exposing what remains of a boathouse to the elements. The shelves and boats within have decayed into heaps of rot and moss. The embers of a week or so old campfire smolders nearby.
Much of the wooden pier has collapsed into the swamp, leaving about ten feet of moldy, soggy boards slumped against ancient wood pilings. A rowboat tied to a piling looks much more recently built.
Checking out the boat you find a stash of fish-shaped doughy pastries and a carving of a flying bird decorating the inside of the boat.
A rough muddy opening under the ruins of the pier leads down to somewhere dark and wet, but not completely full of water.
No magic present and nothing of value in the boat house.
Lighthouse first. Wasn’t down ‘woe?’
"Thanks, Scarred One. Was doing pretty well after that healing spell."
Oorgatch pockets the key, and heads over to the boathouse with the rest of the team.
Once there, he looks around with the others. "Not down, yet."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
”Should see what is past the door we couldn’t open. .”
The base of the lighthouse still has smooth walls of circular stone that are painted a light gray with no indication of seams between blocks of stone.
A set of iron stairs winds upward along the curved walls to a trap door in the ceiling nearly a hundred feet above.
The eerie red bloodstain glistens on the floor at the room’s center, as though a human-sized creature bled to death on the floor very recently, despite there being no body in sight.
As before the room is magical, vastly powerful but not fully active.
Yan takes the key and, shield raised, leads the way up.
The blood pool ripples as thought it had depth but nothing happens with it as you ascend the stairs.
The key does indeed open the trap door at the top of the stairs.
Ascending to the top of the light house you find rows of black metal bars encasing this circular chamber like a cage.
Shimmering waves of force flicker between the bars and gives the illusion that softly glowing glass encases this entire area. The room appears empty save for a human-sized encasement of glass and iron that flickers and lightly glows with an unsettling, almost nauseating pale blue shimmer.
Same feeling of immensely powerful magic that's not fully functional.
Scarred One shakes his head
"That thing is making me sick. It feels very powerful..." comments as he looks around.
If nothing happens he begins to look through the chamber, trying to understand a bit the magic of this place. Is it truly something that can shot a beam full of ghosts? Are the ghosts captured somewhere?
"Ideally I would destroy it, but it is probably not simple..." says to no one in particular
Yan moves in, searching for a way to peer into the glass, or open it up…
|
Sendoski did not like the look of that blood, but he continues up the stairs with the rest of the party.
Sendoski's eyes go wide upon entering the room.
"Such power," says Naught from Sendoski's shoulder.
Sendoski stands beside Yan and peers into the glass.
"To think, this has been here all this time. What a find! We're going to be famous!" He claps Yan on the back.
"What do you think that energy is? Ghosts? There's gotta be a way to fix this up and get it working, whatever it is. You think the doll knows?"
Searching the room Scarred One's magical detecting agrees with Sendoski's assesment.
The glass dome in the middle seems like it should be removable but there doesn't seem to be any way to actually do that. Thinking about light houses and peering into it it seems as though its a lens of some sort, although there's no light source instead of it, instead it's focusing light from somewhere below some how...
"Neat."
Oorgatch looks at the glass, and tries something simple, just twisting it light unscrewing it. He tries both clockwise and counter-clockwise, but not giving enough force to break anything.
"This could be very good for sailors. Wonder why it is off."
Oorgatch's spinning efforts are not fruitful.
Yan nods at Sendoski. Perhaps the doll knows, but do we want it on, considering some of the artwork of this lighthouse we've seen?
He tosses a pebble into the pool of blood.
Heading back down to the pool of blood, it looks deep, maybe rippling occasionally out of the corner of an eye but the pebble bounces as normal as though there were nothing but rock beneath the blood.
"The lighthouse needs to generate the light somehow. I can't see it, is the pool of blood a place from which the light is generated?"
"We should lock this up, and come back at night. Just to see if the light works and all."
Interior empty. Light is magically reaching the glass dome, originating from somewhere below.
Lighthouse has been faintly glowing during the day and shining every night.
Scarred One begins to look for any marks in the lighthouse.
"Oorgatch, can you determine how often the trap door was used? If the light started to shine a few days back, then either someone had a key or got here not using the doors, like flew here."
|
|
Sendoski nods along, not entirely disagreeing with Scarred One. He considers the pool and looks from the floor to the ceiling and back again.
”If the light is being sent here, somehow, magically, then the blood must have been sent here somehow too, magically. And I bet if we find the source of the light, we’ll find the source of the blood.”
"You ask me, the lighthouse started up because someone died upon the apparatus somewhere."
Its a little hard to tell due to the strange properties of decay here but it seems other than yourselves nobody had been in either of these rooms for quite some time.
Oorgatch looks around, to try and figure out what he can. He looks out the windows, to determine how safe it would be climb up, and if anyone could get in, and checks around for any trap doors or other egresses.
”Not sure yet. Looking.”
Blood above; power below. Perhaps there was indeed a sacrifice, Sendoski… Yan shudders. We might consult Wrin before heading down — I admit, I'm at a loss here.
"Ok, let us lock it and head to town. Tomorrow morning we can start exploring the dungeons." says the Scarred One.
"Yeah. Let's talk to Wrin." says Oorgatch.
The trduge back through the swamp in the late afternoon to Otari is uneventful, almost peaceful.
Returning to Wrin she seem quite curious as to what you've seen.
"Please, what have you found? Last we spoke you were seeking a key into the lighthouse."
|
|
"Yes, we found the key alright. And met a fey, and fought a souldbound doll, who the fey claimed was an assistant to Volluk Azrinae, none other than Belcorra Haruvex's apprentice!"
He describes the paintings in the hall as well, including the one of Belcorra Haruvex.
"This fey also told us the lighthouse is powered by ghosts. And -" A sharp look from Naught stops Sendoski before he can mention the beam and the weapon.
"...and when we used the key and got to the top, it was full of powerful blue energy. We had found the light, or some of it, but not the source. Honestly, we couldn't make heads or tails of it."
"We managed to save the soul gem from the doll, and hope we can talk to the spirit inside and get more information. You know anything about that kind of thing?"
Yan tries to add details to his friend's already excellent report. More mystery! That's what we found…
Yan pauses for dramatic effect. In the lantern room is a cage of force and metal jailing (or protecting?) a dome of glass — one just large enough to encase a full-grown person. Perhaps there is someone — or something — inside, slowly bleeding.
I looked into the light and felt seasick. It feels like the glass is focusing light from somewhere below.
"Yup. Key. Door. Light. Doll." agrees the orc. "Wouldn't unscrew."
Wrin lisens carefully before responding. "How curious, it seems the truth may lie underneath Gauntlight. As for the doll I'm sure I could find a buyer for the gem if you were hard up but holding onto it to seek answers seems wise. I don't know of anybody in town who would make such a damned thing, but perhaps somewhere in or beneath the ruins Azrinae left behind enough information to craft one."
After pondering some more "You could try entering the lighthouse after dark once its glowing brightly but I worry of what dangers you might face. If I were you I'd take tomorrow off, digest what you've seen a return with plan."
|
|
Sendoski grins.
"You're so wise Wrin. That's some good advice. I could use a day off and some time to plan. How about we meet back here for another fortune in two nights and then return to the lighthouse? Think I'll hold onto this gem for now."
He slips the gem into a pocket on his pack.
"Say, Yan, maybe now's a good time to get that book back from you."
”I thought that as well ” agrees the big orc. ”There these undead, skeletons, that when we bashed them, released wisps.
“And the fey who called himself ghost-wisp. He wanted a shiny, was a telescope.
“I think the fey there may be taking advantage of us, as fey do. We may have to teach them a lesson soon. ”
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
One of Wrin's eyebrows raises at the mention of undead and wisps.
Worriedly she goes digging through her stuff for an old tome.
Blowing the dust off she looks at you with even more serious eyes than before.
"Nhimbaloth... The Empty Death. Outer God of ghosts, despair, swamps, and will‑o’-wisps, whom Belcorra revered as her patron. We had all assumed Nhimbaloth's influence had long since faded from that place. Those seeming wisps of undead animation you fought are called corpselights. Foul creatures doubly associated with The Empty Death. If Nhimbaloth's influence lingers I would expect to see more similar creatures and ghostly influence if you choose to descend deeper. Perhaps this old tome will serve you better than in my collection."
Book has instructions on Ghost Hunter training. Not required to take but available as an option.
"Nhimbaloth's influence is said to be marked by seven symmetrical divots, if you see that symbol in your delves, be ready for evil spirits or wisps as they are drawn to Nhimbaloth's touch."
"The fey seem like creatures of the fens, I would not expect to encounter them underground, unless there is something to their presence that I have not yet seen."
"But yes, take a day to sort yourselves out, make sure you do want to delve deeper and come to me with any questions the stars might help guide you on."