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Kka notices Fuìn's odd reaction to the Evangelist and raising an eyebrow, peers at him with a beady red eye to see if she can figure out what the problem is. She toys with making a smart comment, but Lough intervenes and the moment passes. She shrugs. "What a bunch we are. Looks like we're all screwed up inside somehow; just one straw away from going completely bonkers... Well, except for Cherry maybe; nothing seems to faze them."
Kka checks the room over once more in case she missed anything the first time, then examines the other door for traps and locks.
Kvit moves into position while Kka checks the door, trying to peer under her arm in case she needs any help.
Fuin opens his mouth to respond to Lough, but frankly isn't entirely sure what to say. Fortunately he's spared having to come up with a response because Lough just naturally drifts off to somewhere else.
Fuin sighs, hauls himself up to his feet, and gives the big weirdo an amicable pat on the shoulder. "Sounds good, buddy." He glances around and clears his throat before heading over to where Kka and Kvit have gathered, meteor hammer at the ready.
Kka checks out the next door, deems it safe, and opens it.
This vast octagonal chamber is mostly empty. The walls are carved and painted to resemble a sprawling graveyard half‑sunken into a swampy morass, yet all the graves in the mural are open and empty. Carved images of shrieking ghosts parade upward and into the hungry pupil of a malevolent eye at the apex of this room, thirty feet above. A circular fifteen‑foot‑diameter platform sits in the middle of the room, raised three feet off the surrounding floor. The platform supports an altar stone made of an irregular slab of rock marked by seven deep indentations, almost as if a huge, seven‑fingered hand had gripped the stone with enough force to leave grooves behind. Now and then, a faint blue light flickers and pulses inside one of these indentations. Small objects lie heaped atop the altar.
By now, you recognise the symbol of Nhimbaloth and you think this is a shrine dedicated to her. A palpable dread emits from the altar, and as you get close the fear intensifies. Just being in this room sends chills running down your spine, and looking at any of the imagery or the altar itself makes it even worse.
As you get closer to the altar, you see that the objects on top of the altar are severed hands. The hands animate and start to attack you, as well as four of those hairball-will-o'-wisps, but with your combined firepower you make short work of them.
Cherry Berry is unnerved by the contents of this room, but keeps their wits about them.
Fuin's seen worse than this thing. Nhimbaloth is creepy and all, but so far as he's concerned, this thing isn't any more horrifying than an average day in his hometown of Gloomcatch. The Kuthonites there weren't quite as zealous as the priests in Nisroch, but they were still fervent. This is just a little spooky. He can handle spooky.
He wipes the... blood?... from one of the will-o-wisp-looking things off the meteor hammer with a dirty rag and glances around. "So, uh. What next, folks?"
Kka casts a beady eye on the malevolent shrine...
...and doesn't like the look of it. No, Not. At. All. A shiver runs down her spine as the palpable evil of the room burrows its way into her brain. "This plaace gives me the serious creeps." She stays just outside the door and points to the altar. "Do you think thaat's the altar the Otaari ghost guy waas talking about? The one we're supposed to put the Roseguard icons onto to shut down the baarrier? If it is, then we caan't be far from the baarrier." She points into the darkness to the South. "Maybe down there somewhere?"
At first Kvit is at first very curious to inspect the altar to Nhimbaloth. His gaze travels around the carved mural and he takes it all in. His inspections are interrupted by the wisps. Fortunately there is plenty of room to stand back and let the magic fly.
After, he approaches the altar to take a better look and his feet freeze. He's suddenly and uncharacteristically afraid. "I-" He gives an almost relieved glance towards Kka. "Yes, I definitely feel the same. Let's not spend any more time here until we have the artifacts."
.
"What's up boss? Nothing here now but a bunch of body parts and a sparkly altar. You need to rat up!"
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"I like this place less and less the more we explore it." Cherry comments.
So, where to next? South or east?
Kka had hoped that someone else would walk down the southern great hallway to see what was there, but apparently she wasn't the only one wary of getting anywhere near that altar. When nobody moves and the crickets start chirping, she says, "Fine! I'll go see whaat's down there." She steps into the octagonal altar room and with her back against the wall, slides south and down the hallway to see what's there.
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Fuin hustles up next to the rogue. "Hold up! Let's not have anyone going off solo, yeah? I'll come with you."
As you so south down the wide hallway, you leave the shrine behind. Your nerves calm and you feel fine again.
The ceiling of this wide hall rises to a height of twenty‑five feet. Stone sarcophagi carved with tormented, emaciated figures stand upright in alcoves along its walls. To the northeast, a fifteen‑foot‑wide portion of the wall has crumbled away into a series of ledges that drop down into a cavern. Eerie blue lights glow to the north and south—the light to the south is brighter and constant, while the light to the north flickers softly.
Right in front of the stairs to the south is a shimmering wall of ectoplasm. It detects as strongly magical.
As you step close to a sarcophagus, the lid turns transparent and you can see inside. Each corpse inside a sarcophagus is dressed in rags and marked with obviously fatal wounds.
As you're looking around, two sarcohpagi swing open, releasing its undead contents. Two corpses wielding longswords step out. "We..... guard.... against.... our..... will," they wheeze as they approach you.
Cherry Berry
Kvit
Fuìn
Kka
Lough
Pink
Orange
Well, that's a good roll for you. Everyone may act!
The further that Kka gets from the altar the better she starts to feel. She's almost back to her cheery and friendly self when two of the sarcophagi swing open to emit their undead contents. "Ah, finaally! I thought things were getting a little too quiet around here."
Taking advantage of her advantage, Kka darts forward, stabs at the nearest creature and retreats behind the front-liners.
Kvit looks concerned or conflicted as the guards announce they appear to be doing this against their will. The best course of action when facing undead , especially ones animated against their will, was destruction.
He would like to think their slow movements were the previous owners of the skeletons trying to fight back, but knew they couldn't rely on that.
He takes a vial of what looks like salt and adds a liquid that starts it fizzing. Capping it, he holds it out towards Fuìn and Loigh. "Ghost charge, a direct hit will weaken one. But it'll fizzle fast." Then he retrieves the wand of magic missiles.
Fuin nods appreciatively as Lough beans one in right in the face with the ghost charge. "Nice!" Hoping to continue his allies' hot streak, Fuin hustles up to Pink, meteor hammer already spinning in a dizzying web of pain. As he reaches the creature, he lets the hammer fly, overextending his arm slightly to make the weapon go just a little farther, then murmurs a spidery syllable that seems to quiver as it crawls out of his mouth. A shadowy disc of energy apparates before him.
♦ Stride 25 feet.
♦
♦ Cast shield.
↺
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Kka runs forward, stabs Orange, and retreats again.
Kvit preps a vial of Undead-B-Gone and hands it to Lough, who chucks it at Pink. The vial explodes, draining it of energy.
Fuìn walks forward and thwacks Pink in the head with his weapon, then protects himself with a spell.
Cherry Berry
Kvit
Fuìn
Kka
Lough
Pink 22 damage, Enfeebled 1
Orange 16 damage
Cherry Berry is up!
Cherry starts by throwing Guidance up on Kvit, then tries to identify the monsters before casting shield on themselves.
♦ Guidance on Kvit
♦
♦ Shield
Cherry starts by throwing Guidance up on Kvit, then tries to identify the monsters before casting shield on themselves.
♦ Guidance on Kvit
♦
♦ Shield
Cherry gives Kvit a bit of a divine boost, protects themselves, and thinks about these creatures.
These things are Cairn Wights. They typically guard burial places, but they can pop up anywhere if a necromancer needs undead guardians. Their big thing is that they can drain someone's lifeforce upon a hit (and heal a little from it), and upon defeat, they can make one final attack out of pure spite. They have regular undead immunities, but no special weaknesses or resistances.
Pink staggers forward and tries to attack Fuìn, but Fuìn's meteor hammer whips out in response and bashes into the wight's ribcage. You hear bones breaking, but Pink still stumbles on.
Fuìn, please make me a DC 18 Fort save or become Drained 1.
As the undead's claw connects with Fuìn's flesh, necromantic energies suck out part of Fuìn's soul.
Orange then stumbles forward, flanking Fuìn with Orange, and slashes once with its longsword and once with its claw as well.
Cherry Berry
Kvit, Guidance
Fuìn, 37 damage, two DC 18 Fort saves
Kka
Lough
Pink 31 damage
Orange 11 damage
Everyone is up! Pink looked bloodied when Fuìn hit it, but after healing a little, it's no longer bloodied.
"Try not to let them hit you," Cherry calls out. "They can heal themselves by hurting you, and try not to be next to one when they go down, they retaliate to being defeated."
♦♦Electric Arc DC 19 Reflex, Electric Damage
♦Stride
Cherry then moves closer so they can better react to a changing battle.
Kka laughs at Cherry's comment. "<Ark!, ark!> Thanks for the tip Cherry, cause otherwise I'd have done my best to get hit." "Actually, that's not too far from the truth if history is anything to go by." Seeing her opportunity, Kka darts forward, skips past Fuìn and both wights to get behind the furthest one which she then slashes twice.
Fuin barely manages to resist the flow of necromantic energy trying to feed on his life force.
"Gosh, Cherry," he tries to drawl through gritted teeth against the pain, "I hadn't thought of that. Thanks."
Surrounded, he lashes out with his meteor hammer twice before throwing up the shadowy force disc again.
♦
♦
♦ Cast shield.
Kvit snatches up a discarded bone and launches it telekinetically towards the nearest wight.
Then summons a shield of force.
Fuìn luckily resists all the life-draining attacks the wights throw at him.
Cherry Berry throws electricity at the wights, but they manage to dodge the worst of it. Kka runs to flank with brave Fuìn and manages to critically strike Pink! It's enough to make Pink collapse, but not before it performs one final retaliatory strike back at Kka.
Kka, please make a DC 18 Fort save or become Drained 1.
You can re-do your final action, if you want.
Fuìn lashes out twice at the remaining wight. The first attack misses, but the second one connects! Lough raises his shield and slams down on Orange . Lough hinders Orange's movements with his free arm, which causes Kvit's Telekinetic Projectile to critically hit! It falls dead to the ground, and combat is over.
The Wights both carry a longsword and studded leather armour, otherwise they have no loot.
As Orange falls, he lashes out once more at Lough, who kept him off balance.
Fuin immediately touches Kka and spreads positive energy through her wounds to mitigate the worst of the damage.
As the party sets about patching each other up, he spends his focus on laying on hands, then plops down for 20 minutes to replenish his meager magical stores.
Once done, he takes a look around the area they got jumped in, peering curiously at the ectoplasmic barrier. "I guess this is where we're supposed to go when we get the icons. Do we just like... touch them to the barrier? Or put 'em on that altar back there? Or... what?" He almost pokes the ectoplasm to see what it feels like, but thinks better of it at the last moment and snatches the finger back.
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Kka lands the perfect cut and slices through the belly of the wight, taking it out. Before it goes down though, the creature lashes out one last time, causing a nasty gash on Kka's leg that tries to drain her strength...
...but she hops back out of the way before it gets the chance.
When Lough takes out the remaining wight, Kka pumps her fist and says, "Yeah!".
She then does her usual efficient patch-up job on their assorted injuries.
Kvit kicks one of the bones as he inspects the area. Answering Fuìn he says, "Otari wasn't very clear. They said that we needed to present the icons to the souls that are powering the barrier to put them at ease. I suspect it is more likely we need to bring them back to the altar room."
Kka frowns at Kvit's comment about where to put the icons to open the barrier. "Uh, I'm pretty sure the Otaari ghost said we haad to put the icons on the altaar near the baarrier to shut it down." She points back up the hallway to the evil altar at the north end. "I'm guessing thaat's whaat he waas talking about."
Kvit sighs, "I was really hoping to avoid messing around with that altar. I would bet my left whiskers that something more than just the barrier coming down is going to happen when we present the icons."
"Well, back to the altar room for the eastern door?"
Kka really hopes that the whole barrier thing is a bluff and that they won't have to find all the icons and deal with the evil altar. She walks down the hallway slowly with sword outstretched in front of her expecting to hit some invisible barrier...
...which eventually she does, right in front of the stairs. She curses under her breath. "Raats!" She then turns around and grudgingly heads back to the room with the altar. "Yeah, fine! let's check the other door." Skirting around it to the east, she checks the door for traps and locks.
Fuin watches Kka poke the barrier with her sword and secretly wishes he'd followed through. He wonders what it feels like. It looks like it probably feels like flan.
Dangit, now he's hungry.
Lough's skin becomes paler as vitality leaves his body. Within seconds, he looks like he's just recovered from a terrible illness: sunken cheeks, bags under his eyes, and unfocused eyes. Looks like he needs some good bed rest to recover.
Kka pokes the barrier. The barrier itself isn't visible, but everything behind it is tinged a weird sickly blue colour, and as her shortsword connects, a string of ectoplasm comes with it, and the wall ripples visibly, as if you've disturbed a vertical water surface.
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Fuin looks at the spooky snot string attached to Kka's blade and is no longer hungry.
As soon as Kka's shortsword touches the wall and it ripples in that strange way, she pulls it away sharply as if she'd felt a jolt of electricity. Seeing the weird sickly blue ectoplasm on the tip, she shakes it off violently. "Ew! ew, ew, ew! I am not going anywhere near this thing until we bring it down. She shivers at the thought of any part of her body coming into contact with the blue goo.
She moves backwards a couple of steps away from the wall before turning and moving briskly back up the hallway to check the eastern door of the altar room. "I need to get out of here."
Cherry examines the barrier with their skill in religion, to see if there is a way to shut it down.
This is very powerful magic. You would need to be incredibly high level to be able to dispel this. But you do notice that Otari's lockpicks have a psychic resonance with the barrier, so what Otari said about the icons could be true. You're not entirely sure, but the icons could be a way to shut this wall down.
Kvit watches the experiment with interest. "Interesting. It's as if the barrier was made of ectoplasmic material from the souls themselves. It really is horrible."
.
Sneakers looks on too, "That is disgusting. Oh well, nothing left to do but leave!
.
Kvit shakes his head, [b]"There are still a few places to look down here. Let's head back to the altar room and that other door." When the group enters the altar room, Kvit sticks very closer to the outer wall remembering last time when he got too close.
You go back to the altar room. The heebie-jeebies immediately return as soon as you're near.
Kka determines that there are no traps on the door to the east, then opens it.
The walls of this five‑foot‑wide hallway shimmer and ripple with faint whorls of pale blue energy. A staircase to the west leads upward, and the one to the east leads down. Both the ascending and descending stairs reach small landings.
You go through the door and you're no longer frightened. Seems like the feeling of unease really is bound to the altar room.
You decide you go north and follow the hallway clockwise (and always ascending the stairs), and you immediately feel a weird magical sensation. The whorls of energy shimmer around you and produce a sense of vertigo. Once you reach the door in the 6 o' clock position, you open it and see the man and his wolf companion giving you the stink-eye. You close the door and move on. You find a door in the 9 o' clock position and open it, and you find yourself back in the altar room. Which should be impossible, because you kept ascending the stairs, but you find yourself on the same level as before. And similarly, no matter how much you go counterclockwise (and descend), you keep meeting up with each other.
After some Detect Magics and identifications, you find these halls are infused with minor teleportation magic, essentially creating an endless staircase. After more careful poking and prodding, you find that there is an illusory wall in the northern hallway that you can easily step through if you know it's there.
You go through the illusory wall and find a comfortable sitting room, and two people are talking to each other, but strangely, there is no sound. One person is clearly Belcorra, which you recognise from the wood golem you fought earlier, who is excitedly talking to an immaculately-dressed drow that you recognise from the painting you're carrying as Volluk Azrinae. Then the room shimmers and the two people wink out of existence, and the room suddenly looks dilapidated and very dusty. There's a door to a new room.
In this room, sitting on a lounge chair, you see Belcorra reading a book. She doesn't seem to notice you, and before you can do anything, the scene fades and you see two extremely creaky chairs with springs jutting out of the cushions and mold everywhere.
You realise by now that you're seeing psychic impressions of how these rooms used to be, left behind by someone with a powerful psyche.
The door in this room leads to a luxurious dining room. Inside, you see Belcorra nipping from a glass of wine while enjoying a roast arm. The arm looks disturbingly human. Then the image fades and only a wobbly old table and two creaky chairs remain.
The fourth room contains a luxurious bed, and a stone archway shimmers as a portal opens up and Belcorra steps out, wearing a cruel smile on her lips and blood on her hands. Then, once more, she fades away and a run-down bed remains.
There is one more door in this room. This is what you see as you go through: The walls of this octagonal chamber are sheathed in a foul‑looking moist webbing made of stringy, semi‑transparent slime. The bodies of three creatures have been mounted on the walls in this webbing, as if on display: a lavender‑skinned elf, the legless body of a spider‑like humanoid, and a hideous humanoid with transparent flesh.
These bodies seem to be kept in some kind of stasis by the webbing, as they're in immaculate shape and look like they were still alive this morning. They do still seem to have some kind of valuables on them, so you have to cut them free if you want to get at their loot. The webs are slimy and spongy, and Kka recognises it as being similar to the ectoplasm she had on her weapon a few minutes ago. Once the bodies are freed, time seems to catch up to them and they rapidly decay into a stinking mess. The spider-like humanoid has a lesser mistform elixir, the lavender-skinned elf has a strand of holy prayer beads around his wrist, and the see-through humanoid has a +1 striking composite longbow on his back.
As they wander through the rooms and experience all the imprinted scenes of Belcorra, Kka remains oddly quiet. When they reach the final octagonal room, she lets out a breath. "Huh! Well thaat waas interesting. Looks like the cleaning crew haasn't been through here in a while though. Good help is haard to find these days I guess."
She then points out that the webbing is like the stuff the barrier is made of before cutting down the bodies. Kka picks out the items of value from the stinking piles that are all that remain of the three figures. She tosses the beads to Cherry. "These look more up your alley, Cherry. What do you think?" She looks at the longbow and shakes her head. "Nice weapon, but not very praactical for close combat. I think I'll stick to my shortbow; it would be nice to traansfer that Striking rune over though." She examines the elixir and shrugs. "Meh!" She tucks it away with the rest of the loot.
Once everything is taken care of, Kka looks up. "Now whaat? I think there's only that southern door of the dining room to check before we're done here. Oh, and the traash poltergeist probaably should be neutralized." She then leads the way back through the evil altar room, putting as much space between it and she as possible and makes her was back to the dining room where she checks the door in question.
Fuin stares in horror at Belcorra's choice of meals, and is definitely uncertain whether he wants to continue, but continue they must. He forces himself through the next door, and the next, until finally he breathes a sigh of relief when their journey down Serial Killer Memory Lane ends. He silently thanks Sarenrae he wears a half-mask, as it hides his shame for being relieved the final room "only" has three horrifically mutilated bodies.
"Honestly, at this point? A trash poltergeist sounds like light-hearted fun in comparison." He tries very hard not to think about Belcorra chewing on a cooked arm.
Don't think about an elephant, he thinks miserably.
Kvit is excited as they move through the many magic hallways and rooms. Though towards the end he starts getting overwhelmed and exhausted from the barrage of illusions, psychic images, and teleport shenanigans.
During the tour, Kvit tries his best to theorize and explain things as they go. Seeing the images of Belcorra in her "everyday" activities was an incredible insight, and matched the writings in the journals. It also cemented the idea she was a monster.
At the octagonal room, he looks up at the arranged and preserved bodies. He almost feels sorry for them. They likely weren't innocent, but Belcorra was a whole other level.
He is caught by surprise by Kka's nonchalant remark, wondering if she is becoming numb to the violence and such or is just trying to put on a brave show. "Can't tell if these were victims or punished minions. Not that it matters much now. I can get that rune moved to something else if we need it, back in town.
Kvit nods, Yeah, let's check the remaining rooms. Then I suppose we go artifact hunting in town."
|
Lough barely flinches from the horror sight-seeing through the infinite stairs and the rooms with visions of Belcamorra’s life.
Nodding to Kka, he stows his shield onto his back, and pulls forth the Holy Text of Nhimbaloth from among his effects ”Let’s deal with the ghost!” feigning innocence!