Kvit is used to noises being too loud for his large ears and instinctively swivels them away from the brunt of the soundwave.
Kvit moves into the room to help support the rest of the group. As Kka rushes back into the doorway, Kvit reaches out to grab their arm and casts Blur on their near-death-prone companion.
"Kka, wait, let me give you some semi-permanent concealmeny before you go back in there."
Kka is delighted when Lough advances to engage Nhakazarin directly as this gives Kka the opportunity to get behind the ghoul and strike twice while the creature is distracted.
Kvit casts a spell on Kka, making it harder to discern her exact location. Kka advances and slashes twice at Nhakazarin. Both slashes connect, and she's not too happy about it.
Nhakazarin thought this was going to be a lot easier. She takes a bite out of Lough (since he isn't blurry), then retreats to the meat golem.
Her retreat triggers a reaction from Lough.
But he misses in return.
The priestess runs back to her meat-statue, rips the foot off the creation, and scarfs it down in a few quick bites. She looks much better after that, and a little energised as well.
Kka -6,
Nhakazarin -33, quickened 1
Cherry Berry, -3
Lough, Fort save pending vs Sound Burst
Giyozara, -6,
Kvit
Everyone may act!
Kvit moves up to get a better view of the room and the retreating ghoul. He picks up a broken length of wood from one of the display cases and sends it hurtling towards the ghoul queen.
The rotted wood however basically disintegrates in mid air as it flys straight and accurately towards it's target.
Cherry dashes forward to keep the ghoul in range.
"I think the queen deserves our very best.
Cherry then reaches out and touches Kka's shortsword. "Go get her!"
...how does it feel to have all the luck in the world? :P
Kka looks over her now glimmering shortsword. "Gee, thanks Cherry. Let's put this to good use." She then darts forward and once again slips in behind the priestess and cuts her while Lough keeps her occupied.
Kvit throws a piece of wood at the priestess but misses. Cherry Berry walks up to Kka and enhances her weapon. In turn, Kka runs up, slashes at the priestess, and runs back. Lough attempts to hurt the enemy, but misses.
Kka -6
Nhakazarin -44, quickened 1
Cherry Berry -3
Lough -6
Giyozara -6
Kvit
Giyozara may act!
<><><>Three action cast level 2 Horizon Thunder Sphere
Giyozara charges a big ball of lightning and throws it at the ghoul. It hits her in the face and deals quite a bit of damage.
Nhakazarin looks pretty injured, but isn't ready to give up fighting yet. She lunges at Lough, trying to get past his shield with her bite attack.
Lough's shield snaps in place and takes quite a beating, but she still manages to tear some of Lough's flesh.
Satisfied after that attack, she runs away, pressing herself in the corner of the rounded room. She then casts a spell, and black energy envelops her, then enters her body. She looks much better after that.
Kka -6
Nhakazarin -27
Cherry Berry -3
Lough -21, Fort save vs paralysis
Giyozara -6
Kvit
Everyone may act!
"Kka, I'm giving you a one time boost!"
Having cast their first spell, cherry points their frond at the undead monster and casts a second spell.
◆◆
Kka watches as the ghoul whirls through her motions and slinks off into the "corner". "She's a slippery one, this one, but I think we're wearing her down."
As Cherry casts her spell, Kka's vision becomes slightly more acute. She charges at the ghoul and attempts to dodge past her for a better angle of attack...
...but the priestess blocks her path and Kka has to strike her from where she stands.
As before, Kka decides to put some space between her and the ghoul and give Lough a clean shot at the creature.
Kvit ducks around the back of one of the ruined display cases to get a better view. Raising one finger a gout of flame flies towards the ghoul...
...but he continues to miss with his spells.
Cherry Berry boosts Kka, then throws divine light at the priestess. Sadly the beam goes wide. Kka does the usual hit-and-run tactic, but without a flanking buddy, the damage is less than she'd hoped. Kvit walks up and throws a ball of fire, but misses as well.
Lough seizes up and stands stock still, the ghoul's paralytic enzymes doing its work.
Kka -6
Nhakazarin -34
Cherry Berry -3
Lough -21, paralysed
Giyozara -6
Kvit
Giyozara may act!
<>Stride into the room
<><>Ray of frost
Giyozara throws a ball of ice at Nhakazarin and clocks her straight in the head. She's dizzy for a moment and a little unsteady on her feet.
Despite that, Nhakazarin is still fast enough to run up to Kka and cast a spell on her. Kka feels the life force being drained out of her.
Kka -6, Fort save
Nhakazarin -54
Cherry Berry -3
Lough -21, paralysed
Giyozara -6
Kvit
Everyone may act!
Kka sees Nhakazarin bearing down on her and glances at the immobile changeling. "Uh, Lough? Any chance you'll snaap out of it soon and rejoin the fight? Not sure I caan taake her without your help." The priestess finally gets within reach and touches the rogue.
Kka jerks her arm away as if stung "Ouch! Daang that hurt. You'll pay for thaat, you bit..ter womaan!" She then tries to confuse the priestess by dodging past her...
...but the priestess has apparently gotten wise to Kka's tricks and blocks her path again!
As before, Kka decides to put some space between herself and the ghoul.
Kvit continues scurrying back and forth behind the dilapidated display cabinet and launches a small orb of acid at the ghoul.
Lough remains paralysed. Luckily, Kka scores a good hit on the priestess. She definitely isn't looking good anymore. Kvit follows it up with a splash of acid.
Kka -13
Nhakazarin -74, standing on pure willpower.
Cherry Berry -3
Lough -21, paralysed
Giyozara -6
Kvit
Giyozara and Cherry Berry may act!
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
"HEY LADY!"
Giyozara takes out his hand, palm up, and blows some energy into it, which grows into a ball of energy and streaks towards the priestess.
"It's been fun, but the time's come to BLOW this joint."
Then, in those cheesy plays he's seen, he turns his back on the explosion, hoping that the energy will finally put her down without looking.
"Let the light of Erastil help you."
With a gesture, a whispered prayer to Erastil, and by brandishing their holy symbol, Cherry fills the small chamber with positive energy.
◆◆◆
[ooc]All of the party should be in this area.[/oc]
Giyozara charges a big ball of electricity and throws it at the priestess. The ball explodes and she evaporates in the ensuing blast.
As the smoke clears, there's nothing left of the priestess other than her staff. When you examine the item, it turns out to be a Staff of Necromancy!
There's nothing of value left in this room, other than the giant meat-statue, minus one left foot. Upon further examination, the flesh seems to be from all sorts of different creatures: you see pale morlock skin, several bits of unidentifiable monster flesh, and even bits of other ghouls.
Cherry frowns at the staff. "To be fair, I can use that staff; mostly. But on the same hand, I really don't want to use that staff. None of the spells are straight out evil, but most of them are...'not civilized'."
"Now . . . I'm not gonna say I'm not open minded or anything . . . but . . . I mean . . . giant meat-statue made in the image of a super-evil spellcaster? We cool with just . . . leaving that here? Seems . . . seems like we shouldn't be."
Kka lets out a cheer when Giyozara's blast vaporizes the priestess. "Yessss! Good one Giyozara. She never saw it coming." The rogue then slumps against a table breathing heavily. "All this running around will be the end of me. Are we done yet with the ghouls? Why do I think not."
When Cherry shows some reluctance to take possession of the staff, Kka says, "Well, It's no good to me. How about the rest of you smaart ones? Kvit, Giyozara? Caan either of you use it?" Unsure, she looks over at Lough repairing his shield. "Can the big man use it? He's been even stranger than usual lately, so who knows anymore." "All I know is that it's worth a whole bunch of cash back in town. Might even be worth going all the way to Absalom to sell it"
When Giyozara comments about the giant meat-statue, Kka mulls over her knowledge of such things . "You're probaably right Giyozara. With a little necromaantic magic, this meat pile could be given life. Maaybe we should haack it up into little bits like we did the giant worm upstairs." She pauses a moment before continuing. "Maaybe we should also incinerate the remains or the ghouls might just rebuild it." She looks over at Kvit when she says this.
While Lough fixes his shield, Kka gets to work treating her own wounds and those picked up by the rest of the group.
Gyozara grows claws for a second on his hands
(<><> Gouging claw)
"Shall we get to work disassembling this . . . well I hesitate to call it art . . ."
Kvit shields his eyes as the ghoul is incinerated by the blast. "Yess! Remind me to have you teach me that back in town."
As the smoke clears, Kvit notices the staff too. He was well-versed in the most common types of staves. The blackened and somehow sickly-looking staff was most certainly a staff of necromancy. He stares at it lost in thought for a moment. "Hhmm. Necromancy. Not quite what I was looking for, but, powerful." His eyes dart to his own staff. It was a very basic and quite unremarkable staff. An array of inlaid crystals helped focus the power, but the crystals were dull and inexpensive. Nothing like the staff before them. "Well, why not give it a try? I could pull the crystals out of my staff and combine them back in town..."
***
Meanwhile, Sneakers scrurries up Kvit's robe onto his left shoulder. Seeing the focused stare, he waves a small paw in front of Kvit's eye. "Oye, hey boss, you in there?"
***
Kvit's nose twitches as Kka mentions his name. He sort of shakes his head as if waking from an odd dream. He grabs Sneakers off his shoulder puts him back into a pocket. "Stop waving your grubby paws in my face."
***
The small rodent familiar hangs out of the pocket looking up at the wizard's strange expression and says, "Ah, uh oh, going power mad already..."
***
Then, Ignoring Sneaker's comment, Kvit answers Kka, "Eherm. Well, I could try it out for now. No sense leaving something like that lying around." He was clearly trying to seem casually disinterested but was very obviously interested. "Oh, unless you want to try it out Giyozara? You did blow up the queen as it were?"
When the conversation turns towards the flesh statue Kvit frowns at Kka thinking that Kka knew of Kvit's internal dialogue rather than her looking at him for his flame producing cantrip. "Why are you looking at me? I didn't -" He stops catching on as Giyozara grows a claw again.
"Ah, yeah, I could probably burn it up given enough time. Unless you really want to get hands on their Giyozara."
With Giyozara on board, Kka pulls out her shortsword and advances on the statue. Together they tear it apart piece by piece; Giyozara working from the bottom up with his claw and Kka working from the top down with her shortsword. Eventually all that is left of the artwork is a scattered field of meaty bits. Kka catches her breath. "Okaay Kvit. It's baarbecue time." She stands back to give the wizard room to blast the remains to carbon.
While Kvit is doing his business, Kka searches the room thoroughly for anything interesting
Everyone goes look through the room for hidden treasures, but come up empty. The display cases obviously used to hold something important, but they've been smashed a long time ago.
Kka and Giyozara go about hacking bits off the statue, and after a while there's nothing left but lumps of rotting flesh and broken bones. Kvit then torches the pile and a deeply unpleasant smell of burning meat fills the room.
Kka, satisfied that she found everything worth finding in this room and beginning to get nauseated by the stench of burning flesh, retreats back to the Restricted Collection room. She stands in front of the two Southern doors and mulls her options. "Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Mo, through which door, do we go."
"The East door it is, then." Kka goes up to it and checks it over for locks and traps, then stands back for Lough to kick it in. "How about we try and get through through the next room without you getting paaralyzed, okaay?"
|
Lingering disappointment about his party’s miscarriage of priorities pangs our paranoid hero, who yet wishes to directly follow the eastward lights, instead pressured into being bossed around by his dear tengu friend, whom, with tongue in cheek biting down, he obliges with solemnity despite his reservations.
Punching the door open with mechanical piston.
Lough punches open the door with his fist, ramming it out of its hinges.
This room is lined with tables divided up into several narrow carrels, with old wooden chairs pushed in against them. Upon them, old stacks of paper and tattered books sit amid dry inkwells and brittle writing quills. To the south, a skeleton dressed in shiny‑looking chainmail lies slumped on the floor, clutching something in its bony hands.
Cherry Berry notices one of the carrel desks can fold up to give access to a secret door.
A woman floats through a wall into the room and is surprised to see you. She tuts, then says, "You're late, scribes. I expected you here hours ago. Come on, take your places and start transcribing these books before the worms get to them. We don't have all day."
"Oh pickles," Borbo curses. "That's Chandriu Invisar. She's the director of the scriptorium. She was in loooooove with Master Azrinae, always trying to flirt with him, totally ignoring poor Borbo."
Borbo then makes a gagging noise before continuing, "I think that's her body on the ground there. I'd recognise that dress anywhere."
"Y . . . yes . . . ma'am?"
Giyozara, bibliophile that he is, will look for some books to copy.
Kka looks over Lough's shoulder and sees the floating woman. "Uh, oh. I don't like the look of thaat one. Is she a ghost? Sure looks like it." Though she'd not had much direct experience dealing with ghosts, Kka knew enough to give them a wide berth. They were notoriously difficult to take down and tended not to stay down for long. By comparison, ghouls were a far more preferable enemy.
When Chandriu apparently mistakes them for scribes and demands that they start transcribing, Kka is at a loss. "Looks like this one's a little cuckoo, so whaat do we do now? Doesn't seem like she waants to kill us... not yet anywaay." Kka then spots the skeleton. Her eyes gleam with avarice as she takes in its shiny armor while her mind spins fantasies about what other riches it might be holding in its hands.
When Giyozara steps into the room, apparently willing to start transcribing the books for the ghost lady, Kka nods in approval. Whispering, she says, "Good idea Giyozara, if we pretend to be scribes she might ignore us and give us time to search this place." She then follows Giyozara's lead and does her best to behave like a scribe while surreptitiously looking this way and that for anything more of value.
|
|
Shrugging, our paranoid hero, accustomed now to simple compliance when told directly, sits next to Giyozara, and grabs two books - one full of words and one empty - choosing one in which he understands a tongue, and begins transcribing it into another language that he knows, to the best of his ability.
Common, Goblin, Jotun
- They're undead with the negative healing trait. Positive energy damages them, negative damage heals them.
- They're immune to precision damage, as they don't have vital organs to damage. They're immune to poison and paralysis as well. Basically anything that could affect a physical body.
- They tend to rejuvenate. Reducing them to 0 HP means they disappear for the day, but their spirit-stuff revives after a while, somewhere between two days and about a week.
- Ghosts tend to have unfinished business or something that keeps them from going to the afterlife. If you solve that business (and then kill them), they're gone for good.
- They resist nearly all damage. Nonmagical damage is resisted even more.
The inkwells have dried up ages ago, but if you mime transcribing (or using your own, if you carry one), the ghost-lady looks content. She floats to and fro, looking over your shoulder and making sure you're not slacking off, but doesn't seem to notice if you're writing with empty inkwells.
All the while, she blabbers on about how much she loves Volluk Azrinae. "He may not know it, but he loves me too, I can feel it. I've been coming over every week to visit him in that ghastly laboratory. Limbs everywhere, that is not a place for a noble scientist like him! I've invited him to visit this scriptorium and consider a change of career. Together we can make a throne out of these books and lord over this level of the Vaults like a happy couple. Or..." she giggles and blushes, "instead of a throne, maybe we can build a bed. Oh, I'm so looking forward to that day."
"Please kill me now," Borbo grumbles. "Borbo thought he never had to listen to stupid library-woman ever again."
After about ten minutes of work, Chandriu excuses herself.
"I'm sorry, I have to check up on things for a minute. Continue transcribing. I've taken note of your work and if it hasn't progressed when I come back, you won't have dinner tonight."
She then floats through the secret door without opening it. She's gone for about a minute, then returns.
You get the feeling this is something that'll happen regularly. In the minute that she's gone, Kka tells the others that ghosts are site-bound. This one is presumably bound to these two rooms. If you escape during that time, she won't be able to follow.
The corpse on the ground seems to be clutching something large, flat, and rectangular. However, the skeleton is slumped over it, so you can't see it without moving the body.
Kvit glances sidelong at the others as the ghost demands they work at transcribing. He quickly follows Giyoara's lead assuming that maybe they can get some information out of the ghost if they play along, or at least see what books they were transcribing.
While seemingly hard at work, Kvit looks over to Kka. "See anything worthwhile here? I think we could grab whatever that corpse is clutching, but I have a feeling her ghost wouldn't like it. Unless she doesn't know she's dead? I guess I don't actually know how that works."
He nudges Giyozara, "Hey some of these were on that list, right?"
Though an avid reader, Kka was never much of a writer, so her efforts at transcription are rather poor, especially given the lack of ink. Though occasionally pretending to scribble something down whenever the ghost lady looks her way, Kka spends most of her time scanning the room and its contents. When Kvit spots the books they've been looking for, Kka nods eagerly. "Good eyes, Kvit. Those are definitely the books that Azrinae borrowed from Belcorra."
When the ghost lady leaves momentarily, Kka slips the three books into her backpack. "The laady doesn't seem like she's all there." She pauses to stifle a laugh at her inadvertant joke. "<Arr *cough* urk> I mean, she seems to have checked out mentaally. If after hundreds of years she still thinks haaving babies with Azrinae is a possibility (ew! gross!), then the faact that both of them are dead haasn't sunk in yet."
On the ghost lady's next visit to the adjacent room, Kka fills her friends in on what she knows about ghosts. "... Sooo, let's not piss her off, okaay?" Knowing that the odds of that eventuality were rather high, Kka quickly calculates her distance to the door and how fast she can exit the room.
The next time they're left alone, Kka immediately hops off her stool and goes to the fallen body. She quickly looks it over and then moves it just enough to free the large, flat, and rectangular object from its grip. She glances at it to see what it is, but quickly stuffs it into her backpack and returns to her seat before the ghost lady returns. The shiny armor once again catches her eye. "Hey, Kvit. This chainmail should haave rusted awaay long ago. Can you tell if there's something special about it?" Kka wasn't interested in wearing it herself, but if it was made of silver or cold iron, then it might be worth stealing.
As the ghost goes into the secret compartment.
"I mean, we should try to excorcize her right? Put her to final rest? I'm no Pharasmin, but that seems like a good guy thing to do. Anyone know how to do that? Do we just . . . talk to her? Maybe she has some sort of unfinished business? I hear unfinished business makes ghosts, but that was in a bawdy romance novel so I'm not sure how true it is."
Kka informs everyone what she knows about ghosts:
- They're undead with the negative healing trait. Positive energy damages them, negative damage heals them.
- They're immune to precision damage, as they don't have vital organs to damage. They're immune to poison and paralysis as well. Basically anything that could affect a physical body.
- They tend to rejuvenate. Reducing them to 0 HP means they disappear for the day, but their spirit-stuff revives after a while, somewhere between two days and about a week.
- Ghosts tend to have unfinished business or something that keeps them from going to the afterlife. If you solve that business (and then kill them), they're gone for good.
- They resist nearly all damage. Nonmagical damage is resisted even more.
Kka grabs the item when the ghost goes away. It turns out to be a painting of a handsome drow. Below it, in gold script, is written the name "Volluk Azrinae."