Kvit is quiet as he packs his tools away. While he does, a few trains of thought cross through his mind. Eventually he settles on, "We don't have time for this, this, distraction. But, we might need Fuìn. And at the very least, we don't need a denizen-controlled Fuìn causing havoc unexpectedly while we're gone. We need to somehow get in there to fight the denizen directly, or to draw the denizen out. Either of which I have little idea of how to do. But I have some leads."
Kvit also gets to work researching. First though, he sends a letter to a few family members in Absalom, asking for books on the specific topics.
Cherry decides to take a different angle on the research, hoping to pick-up something else.
"Has anyone else noticed that we appear to be, I don't know more hostile to Fuin today?"
Kka's examination of the patient doesn't find anything medically wrong with Fuìn. "He looks okay to me. Not a whole lot we caan do except wait out his maalingering." when Cherry mentions being unusually hostile to Fuìn recently, Kka frowns. "I dunno about thaat. Not sure I've ever liked him all thaat much to begin with." "But then again, I don't like most people, so that's not particularly odd."
Kvit looks at Cherry like they've said something nonsensical. "Of course we've been- I mean, why wouldn't we-"
He stops and rubs his whiskers.
"Cherry might be on to something, perhaps this could be related to the denizen. A way to isolate the victim? I feel as if I don't like Fuin, but I can't really put my finger on why. If it is indeed artificial, then we need to try to be cognizant of it."
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"I mean. He is a fetchling. Just sayin'"
Lough's callous remark - perhaps a projection of his own insecurity and sense of outsidership - is spoken coldly and bluntly. Inviting his listener to read between the lines to observe the casual prejudice that are afforded the kayal people, and to join that mob mentality.
Eventually, Fuìn wakes up, feeling even worse than yesterday. The goat he accused of being in a conspiracy is headbutting him in the back. After several unsuccessful attempts at shooing the beast away, Fuìn hauls himself back to the nearest bar, where people immediately vacate their seats and leave when he enters. "Yer' costin' me customers," the barkeep growls. "Get out before I break yer' bones."
Fuìn trudges to the next bar, where people are already waiting for him with weapons in hand. "Don't you dare come near this bar, fetchling. You'll taint it with your gloom."
One person even throws a rock at Fuìn's head, but misses.
Proverbial tail between his legs, Fuìn runs to the Crook's Nook, where Kka is most likely to be. He finds Kka and explains what happened to him this morning.
Meanwhile, Cherry Berry, Kvit, and Lough hit up their respective studying spots to see what might be wrong with Fuìn. Kvit and Lough come up empty, but Cherry Berry finds a reference to a powerful curse that can alter people's perceptions of a person and negatively influence them. That sounds a lot like what's happening to Fuìn right now. People usually use this curse to isolate people from their environment, either to make them a social pariah or mentally break the subject due to isolation.
When Fuìn stumbles into the Crook's Nook, Kka sighs. "What's his problem now? If Yaz sees him she'll kick him out. Can't say I'd blame her." She quickly moves to intercept him, and grabbing him by the arm, marches him out the front door before the other patrons decide to take things into their own hands. "You better come with me." She takes him around the side and through the back door, then to her room where she sits him down in a chair. "Staay here. I'll get the others." Kka goes back out and rounds up the rest of the gang and brings them back to her room.
When Cherry mentions that it might be a curse, Kka frowns in thought. "A curse? How did he pick up this curse? Waas it from that Doriaanna girl? From the ruby we found in her doll? Does it haave something to do with thaat Denizen of Leng Motley Maan that's been bugging her?"
She turns to face Fuìn. "You got any idea where this Motley Maan is? If I remember correctly, Kvit said thaat he shouldn't be too faar away."
Kvit is wildly annoyed at being herded back to the crook's nook, the second interruption today. And seeing Fuìn in Kka's room just makes it worse. "Yes, this is most certainly the work of the Denizen, and yes, it should be within roughly a mile of here. Which gives me an idea, but-" He glances meaningfully towards Fuìn "I don't want to say anything in front of him. Just in case."
"Alternatively, I've been working on a ritual to enter his mind to help Fuìn directly."
Cherry sighs as the Denizen is mentioned. "That is a cruel creature we need to do something about."
Kvit nods, "Regardless of how we feel about Fuìn, we need to take care of the denizen. We can't delve into the ruins safely if we can't count on the town's security while we're gone. Or worse, stumbling back injured."
"Cherry, you take Lough and go to the library, see if we can't find anything else. I'll go to Morblint's and see if he has anything that might help. Kka, maybe you can talk with Erin about it. And Fuìn... Maybe it's best you stay out of sight for now."
Kka heads over to Wrin's curio shop and finding the strange woman there, describes their dilemma to her in hopes of getting some direction.
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You research some more. Lough finds a leaflet stashed away in the library about "Doctor Dawnsand's Sleep Shack of Rest and Respite" in Absalom that promises good health through meditation and proper sleep routines. He figures that if you strengthen your mind through good vibes, the Denizen won't be able to break in.
Kvit and Kka don't find anything relevant on how to defend against a Denizen's invasions, though Wrin is obviously very concerned when she hears about Fuìn's condition.
Cherry is going to try the religion angle as well, hoping to maybe more successful this time.
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"It's easy. You just have to be One with the Universe...."
Lough enters a tirade about how all of physiology, psychology, and psionicry has "gotten it wrong all along" and how "if only they did this" that "everything would be totally fixed" and "i have empirical proof" specifically "look at this one study" and that "even though it isn't peer reviewed" that that is because "the truth can't be suppressed any longer" and whatnot...
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Cherry goes back to converse with their fellow priests about how to banish this denizen, but the others don't have any experience with this sort of stuff.
You reconvene to share what you've learned (not much), and as you're mulling over your next course of action, your friend Wrin appears. "Sorry for intruding, but after you told me what Fuìn has been going through, something has been tugging at the back of my mind. I finally realised it. I do a nightly stargazing and yesterday I was suddenly filled with inspiration for a poem, but I had no idea what it meant. But I finally connected the dots and it might have to do with you. Here goes."
She clears her throat and begins speaking in a soft, melodic voice.
"A being of dreams and fright
Torments every single night.
He stays hidden, out of sight
And enjoys the chaos with great delight.
Finding him is your plight
In order to make things right.
To avoid a brawl or a flite
He hides under a place pale of light.
Defeat him in a fight
To make things all right.
Put a stop to this wight
And people will be more polite."
Wrin stays silent for a moment.
"I mean, that's clearly what's happening to Fuìn right now, is it not? People are angry at him because of some curse this being put on him, right? The stars suggest he's holed up in the ruins of Gauntlight somewhere, so you'll encounter him eventually, I guess.
You're still going back, right? The whole Belcorra thing hasn't stopped, I presume?"
After hearing Wrin's poem, Kka gets a little excited. "So this denizen thing causing Fuìn's problems is somewhere in the Gauntlight? Looks like we need to head baack into the vaults staat! The sooner we find it and kill it, the faaster Fuìn and the mayor's daughter get fixed up."
She looks down at the sleeping Fuìn. "You in any fit state to join us? We'll probably need your help down there."
Kvit feels, well, a little dumb. Of course the cursed thing is in the Gauntlight... But he doesn't show it to the others.
"I agree, seems to be as good a place as any to check. Though as we've seen, the Gauntlight is a big place. We may still have trouble finding it."
He looks at Fuìn, ...hopefully he can be trusted a little longer...
.
Sneakers stands up to his full height. Let's do this! And by us, I mostly mean you guys."
Cherry raises a frond in the equivalent of a thumbs up.
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"Hey bub"
Lough gives Fuin the harsh truth "Look, hate to say it but. Nobody likes you. Like. At all. You should stay here in Otari. Probably stay to the outskirts, like here in this barn. I don't think the farmer will notice if you, yunno, use your fetchling powers to remain unnoticed. Also, probably don't hang out here during the day. Matter of fact. Maybe you should just leave Otari and go back to the Neterworld where your people are from. Look. Everybody is thinking it; I'm just nice enough to say it to your face. I mean, you're a helluva fighter - not better than me of course, I'm f*!%in' invincible - but you are pretty good. Just kind of a lame guy otherwise, all around. So. Do us all a favor and handle it. Sound good?" after brutally insulting him, he slaps his shoulder as if that makes everything okay "Good talk"
Turns and leaves without looking back.
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Kka is a little stunned by Lough's diatribe against Fuìn. Not because she disagreed with anything he said, but mainly because Lough managed to string together more than two short sentences at a time. "Huh! Maybe he's starting to rejoin us here in the real world."
She turns to Fuìn. "I'm gonna haave to agree with Lough on this one. Probaably best if you sit this one out until we kill off the denizen. With luck you'll become less toxic after thaat and caan go show your face in public again. Take care." She quickly trots after Lough.
Kvit doesn't argue with Kka/Lough or attempt to stick up for Fuìn. He knew his feelings about Fuìn weren't correct, but it was a distraction at best and it was the last thing he needed while fighting the denizen.
"When we defeat him, you should feel better almost immediately, then come find us."
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You trudge back to the lighthouse and go back down the now-familiar top few levels. You go down the 80-foot deep spiral staircase and you finally reach the bottom.
The spiral staircase bottoms at a circular chamber’s red stone floor. Four wide passages lead away in opposite directions, three of them ending at a door. The west passage features the most impressive of these doors, which are 15 feet high and inscribed with a blazing pentagram. The southwest stairway descends from this room and appears choked with boulders, rubble, and dust.
You take a quick look around. You see the remains of a stairwell poking out of the rubble to the east, but it's completely filled up. This would take a long time to clear out.
This room, as well as the hallways (and the rest of the level, though you don't see that yet) has no torches on the walls, but every ten feet or so a big magical symbols embedded into the walls, casting the rooms in a dim, red light. Cherry Berry recognises these symbols as Diabolic.
Three of the hallways end in doors, one of which is an impressively large set of red doors inscribed with pentagrams. The other two hallways both feature multiple doors.
Before you have time to choose a room to tackle first however, a rough, raspy voice from the north issues a command in a language you don't understand, but is unmistakably the signal to attack. A red-skinned devil with a wicked glaive commanding six of those hideous slug-creatures advance, but you make quick work of them. The slugs don't pose much of a challenge, but their organs explode outward once defeated, and after six of those explosions, you're covered in guts, goop, and other stuff you'd rather not identify.
Loot: a single glaive, used by the devil.
The way north is clear. As you go north, Cherry Berry and Sneakers alert you to a secret door in the western wall. It's locked, but after some picking, Kka reveals another teleport circle. You continue.
This chamber’s well-worn floor attests to its constant use. The walls angle up to the ceiling 20 feet overhead. The northern wall has a mine shaft elevator, but a wall of shimmering orange energy blocks the passage leading into it.
It's clear this room was the centre of the devil's drills. Blood and ichor stain the walls. More importantly however, is the glowing wall of pure energy that separates the room from an elevator shaft. If you could disable this magical wall, it'd be much easier to go down to the lower levels than if you had to clear out the collapsed staircase.
Kvit fortunately knows enough to stand back far enough and him and Cherry to avoid most of the entrails.
"Lava wouldn't make a very strong door. Based on the welcoming party we dispatched, I'd have to guess something more like brimstone. Which, while impressive, still isn't very durable."
Kvit approaches to inspect it and see if there is a way to get it open. Or figure out what's on the other side.
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You go check out the big door to the west. It's a giant red stone door that's inscribed with an enormous glowing pentagram. The centre has an indentation the size of a human hand, with five deeper indentations. It seems like some kind of device would fit there.
Kvit investigates the door and comes to the conclusion that this door is magically sealed and even prevents teleportation magic from going through.
Kvit also notices that something in your possession seems to resonate with the door's magic. You fish around in your belongings and you find the piece of metal you found in the previous level belonging to the drowning devil radiating the same magic as the door. Looking at it in relation to the door, it's clearly one fifth of a pentagram amulet. It looks like it would function like some sort of key.
Kvit also notices a small flaw in the lock, which means that you could open it with only four pieces of the pentagram and performing a Religion check to simulate the infernal energies of the final piece.
Kvit had just stepped back from inspecting the door when Lough pushes foward to insert practically random things in the lock. He sighs "That will not work and may damage your crystal, Borbo, whatever."
He looks down to the eastern hallway and begins walking away. "So far, two impenetrable barriers. Let's keep moving."
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Lough removes Borbo's crystal from his mechanical arm and inserts it into the locking mechanism. A circle of energy appears around the pentagram and shrinks down towards the indentation. Once the circle hits the crystal, a burst of flame erupts from the pentagram, dealing fire damage to Borbo and Lough. The door also gives a mental backlash, leaving you both Stupefied 1 for an hour.
A crack appears in Borbo's crystal, and a small plume of sulphur-smelling smoke trickles from it.
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"Boss, I don't feel so good. Whatever you did, please don't do that again. It feels like I̶̢͓͕̹̭͉͑̽́͒̽̃̎̂'̷͉́m̶͚̮̗̱̾̎̂̅̐ ̷̧̣̰̫̠̼͖͉̯̥̮̫̑͆̋͊͝g̸̨̼̰̟̬̞̃͒͊̉̓̇̍͠͠o̵̡̨̙̖̬̙̙͎̭͍͇̗̜͆͒́̀͛͑͜i̴̞͙̒̌̉̎͗̇͑̓͂n̸̋̌͗ ̢̛̛̣̝̮̞̩̠̺͓͎͖̥̓̓̊̿̄̏ͅg̸͍̠̘͉̝̗̍̃̊̓̄̓̀̈́̅̃̚̕ ̸̨̛̦̠̣̲̬̯̫̼͈̹̔̏̑̆͗́̓̂̐̇̽͋͘͝t̴͈̮̝̦̬́̍̇́͛̈́̔̉̑̐̚o̸͎̪̹͛̌͗ ̴̢̜̯̹͈͚̣̘̭͚͎̠̈́͆̃t̷̡̺̘̙̜̘͍̞͕̳̜͈̯͚̉́̆̈́̚h̵̨̛̛̤͙͇̋̏́́̈͂̊̽̆̃̕̚͘r̵̳̞̺͓̯͚̿̊͒̓o̴̎͝͝ ̨̖̥͍̰̗̠̭̏ẁ̸̨̺̘ ̴̡̩̹̩̦̤͗̍͑͜͝ͅu̵͈͒̓̄̈̃́͌̒̊͗̀̐́͠p̴̧͇͓͓̮͎̻̜͔͚̻̱̐͊̃̓͘ ̴̛̦̘̲̹̭͓̥͗͂̕͜ḭ̴̧̼̰̞̞͓͆̃͐̆̍̀̂̑̎̚͝͝n̵͔̗̥̻̞͓̤̖͓̣͍͚̜̹̝̽̒̉͊̋͠s̶̨͕̍̊͋̈͂̆̽͛̃̈́̕i̶̽ ̡̱̭͓͈̫̞͎̼̯̖̈̿͌͝d̷̰̭͋̔͛̈́̃͛̎͝͠͝ẹ̵̢̣̰̲̪͌̓̃̓̀͑̚̕͜͝ ̵̦̪͙̝͍̏̊͐͒m̵̡̧̛̳͖̞͎̰̭͍̼̫̌̑̒͆̒̌͆̕y̴͍̮͖̭͉̩͎̻̏͒̎s̵̡͓̗̗̯̦͓̪̻͉̊͆͛̅͌̆̏̕ē̸̈̄̑̏̃͝͝ ̺̙̺̙̹͔̗̼͉̖̗̭̊͐͂̏͜l̴̳̬̬͉̘̲͙̩͉̯̺̍́͆̽͗̾͂̓͂́̓͆̈́͘͜͝f̷̡̘̻̯͎͆̔̊̐̔͘͜͠͝.̴̤̥̖̳̃͒͊͘"̷́ ̧̛̮̳̘̜̬͖̹͉͉̱͂́͛̆̑̏͘͜ͅ
Borbo's voice distorts and becomes almost unintelligible at the end of his sentence.
Kvit was walking away as Lough triggers something and dives for the floor. "Lough! You- you- don't do that again! We don't even know what's back there. Bah, do whatever you like, might as well. We've already lost Fuìn maybe. Might as well..." He's bothered, not necessarily just by Lough's actions either.
Kka scrapes the slug goo off herself and patches everyone up after their fight with the devil and his minions. When all that remains is a solitary Glaive, she shrugs. "That was a lot of work for a used weapon."
After examining the force wall and finding no way to turn it off nearby, Kka turns away. "Looks like we're going to haave find a way to turn this thing off if we're to use thaat elevator." Seeing Lough heading south, she follows after him and approaches the western door.
Once they've figured out that they'll need to find the remaining four (or maybe just three) pieces of the amulet to unlock this door, Kka sighs. "These guys and their faancy magical door locks. It's enough to make a lock picker cry." But her tone turns a little more shrill when Lough decides to stick Borbo into the indentation. "Woah there, Lough. I have a baad feeling about this."
"I told you so." Once they recover from their stupefaction, she proceeds to patch everyone up... again. Looking at the crack in Borbo's crystal, she purses her lips and bats away at the acrid smoke emanating from it. "Sorry Lough. It'll take more than I have to fix that crack.
Kka gives Lough a look that would freeze hell over. "Since sticking anything but amulet chunks into thaat hole is asking for trouble, right, Lough? Why don't we go try and find some more of those chunks?" She looks around. "Let's see whaat's behind this door? Doesn't look like it's all maagically protected." She heads to the nearest northern door and checks it over for traps and locks.
Loough slots Borbo's gem back into his arm. Something feels... off, but you can't quite put your finger on it. Anyway, you continue. The door to the north seems safe, so you open it.
These rooms stem off a long hall and obviously functioned as prison cells, but the doors stand open. The cells contain stacks of crates, barrels, and quivers full of arrows.
The prison cells all stand open. One door seems different, and looks like an isolation cell, which is locked tight (there's a small latch you can open to peer inside). You don't see anyone inside, though.
Four of those electrified and metal-limbed morlocks you fought earlier are standing guard and digging through the crates and barrels, while suddenly you enter someone's telepathic range and you can hear what she's muttering to herself. ".... can't believe I have to check this all over again.... did we have four hundred and thirty-one arrows, or four hundred and thirteen?... why do I have assistants who can't freaking count?... some of those glaives are showing signs of rust, can't trust anyone to do my work for me.... have to speak to Urevian about this..."
You see a fly-baby with a clipboard flying up and down the hallway, totally engrossed in her note-taking that she hasn't noticed you yet. The green morlock raises an eye at you as you open the door, but doesn't otherwise react.
Kka calls out in the direction of the zebub. "Yo, lady! We don't waant to interrupt of anything, but haave you seen anything around here thaat looks like this?" She holds up the piece of the amulet in her possession for the zebub to see.
The zebub frowns at Kka as she holds up the amulet. "Pentagram pieces are distributed on a need-to-have basis. For instance, I'm doing inventory and have to report back regularly. Shoot, I said three hundred and forty-one arrows, right?"
A nearby morlock shrugs unhelpfully.
"If you need to speak to Urevian, watch the potty mouth, young man. He's a devil of eloquent words, so if you show some manners I might let you borrow my amulet piece."
The four morlocks look up at the word might, the implication clear to them what happens if she decides you're not worthy of the piece.
Kvit steps up, somehow becoming more and more comfortable dealing with the strange creatures down here...
"Forgive my companions's lack of manners, among other things... We're down here investigating sightings of a Denizen. They are trouble and I doubt Urevian would be happy to know one is down here messing about."
Cherry nods, trying to look serious.
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When the zebub indicates that she has an amulet piece on her person, Kka looks sideways at Lough to see how he wants to play it. After all, they were dealing with an evil devil and four murderous morlocks; these weren't just innocent bystanders. Plus, Kka wasn't exactly the sweet talking type and manners weren't really her thing. She holds back for the time being, hoping to get more info out of the little flying fiend, specifically about this Urevian guy she mentioned.
"Soooo, whaat does Urevian waant with all these arrows? I don't see a lot of demaand for thaat many arrows down here."
The zebub turns to Kvit first. "Oh, Urevian knows about Ysondkhelir. He's our chief strategist. Though I must admit, he's been slacking off lately. He's barely come up with a decent plan in the last fifty years. But you say he's 'trouble'? What kind of trouble, exactly?"
She then turns to Kka with a roll of her multifaceted eyes. "What else do you think a bunch of devils are doing down here? We're planning an invasion of that little town up there. Though in all honesty, most of us just really wanna leave this place. Problem is, we're bound to Urevian, and he's bound to Belcorra. So the sooner he can wriggle himself out of that stupid contract, the sooner we can go back home."
Kvit inwardly curses... "Of course they're part of the leadership down here..."
"Exactly, he's been slacking off and just messing around with people's dreams. He's even tried mind controlling one of the guys down here. Urevian will definitely be... Unhappy with him."
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Cherry is frowning very hard, but since lying is anathema to them, they will keep their mouth firmly shut.
When Kka hears that the weapons being counted are to be used to invade Otari, she's not exactly surprised. Nevertheless, her blood starts to boil a little at the prospect. Clearly, they would have to destroy all this ordnance and these devils' ability to create more of it. It may not stop the putative invasion, but it would slow it down substantially; perhaps enough to allow a proper defense of the town to be organized. Their best bet right now would be to track down this Urevian fellow and take him out; that would unbind these fiends and send them home; at least until Belcorra could arrange for a replacement. The other option was to cut a swath of destruction throughout this level and destroy everyone and everything that might be involved in preparing for the invasion. Either way worked for her, though she thinks the latter option would probably be more fun.
"We definitely need to have a chaat with Urevian about all this, staat! I don't suppose you know where he is right now? If we caan meet with him, I think we caan help him break the pesky contraact that's keeping you all down here."
"Yeah, by breaking Urevian in half and sending him back to hell."
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The zebub bobs up and down angrily. "What? Mind control on Belcorra's allies is strictly forbidden! You're right to raise this issue. He could get demoted, or kicked out entirely! Which means there's a spot open as chief strategist, and I might not have to count arrows along with these-"
You feel a weird sensation in the air as the zebub does something, presumably excluding the morlocks from her telepathy.
"blithering idiots any longer. Here, have my pendant piece and report to Urevian, and maybe mention how helpful I have been, yes?"
She fishes out another piece of wrought iron from somewhere on her body, the piece similar to the one you found earlier. The prongs of a pentagram become clear as you fit them together.
She turns to Kka, rolling her eyes again. "Urevian is obviously behind that massive door, that's why I gave you that piece. Honestly, try to not drool in Urevian's presence, all right? I'm starting to have my doubts about giving you the pendant piece already."