The warrior laughs off the vile magic thrown at him by the skeletal warriors. "Did you think this would hurt me?!" The outburst is followed by more manic laughter and slaughter.
Humerus is missing more bones than Caraid is entirely comfortable with. So he does something about it - something which would likely slay most of his fellow Quick.
Caraid and Telvir both work to repair Humerus' bony body. Humerus manages to land a single blow on the undead opponent he's holding but ends up accidentally loosing his grip on it instead of throwing it away. Fortunately, Aily is suddenly behind it, stabbing it again and again until finally it collapses, the shroud of blood surrounding it dissipating. Ceceka scores to hits against another of the foes.
The skeleton Ceceka hit channels electricity into his sword strikes back! The final slowed enemy can only limp up to get into melee range.
Telvir sends a burst of flame at the unslowed remaining enemy. He then commands Smoke to assist Ceceka.
for
for
AC 35 / 37 in Mountain Stance or 39 if use Mountain Stronghold
Resistance 3 to cold, electricity, fire, piercing, and slashing damage
Fort +22, Ref +22, Will +20 (+1 vs. disease and poison; +2 circumstance bonus to Fortitude DC vs. Grapple and Swallow Whole; +2 circumstance bonus vs. being Shoved or Tripped while in Mountain Stance, +1 vs. fear)
Hero points: 2
Effects: Fast healing 7
Back to almost full unhealth, Humerus grabs the slowed skeleton again and, after smashing its skull, tries to toss it back across the room. "Sorry, boss, no time for you right now."
Aily gives her minion a look to encourage him to do better, then dashes off help Ceceka.
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Aily gives her minion a look to encourage him to do better, then dashes off help Ceceka.
Caraid gives his minion a look to encourage her to do better most favoured maidservant a concerned look and hurries towards her, grazing her back with magic to help her do better.
Aily misses with her initial attacks, but lands a backstab as Ceceka strikes his opponent again and again. Telvir burns the undead and Smoke bites it, then Humerus grabs, punches, and tosses the damaged skeleton, causing it to shatter into fragments!
The slowed skeleton lands a single hit on Ceceka, but that's all it can do. Surrounded by you all and sluggish, it doesn't take long for it to fall!
"Let's patch ourselves up, quickly," Telvir suggests. "We should push deeper before our quarry prepares for us."
"You got it, blood boss! Lot of bones here to replace mine," Humerus says as he starts picking through the other skeletal remains to find replacements for his own shattered bones.
Caraid sets to work with his mundane medical skills and bone glue, soon putting all damage to rights again.
With that done he nods to Ceceka to take the lead and follows the burly warrior at a safe distance.
Cheery as ever, Ceceka gets up and scowls at the world. "Fine, let's move. That fool either wants to sit out the storm down there or he has something rotten planned for Geb. Either way, I'm going to claim his head."
Aily's frown is a little deeper in irritation at her performance in the battle, and the look her blood lord gave her. Her 'cheery' demeanor has soured a bit.
"We should inspect the sarcophagi" Aily suggests, knowing vampires as she does. She will look over each and every one, before instructing Humerus to open them.
A vampire must return to their own specific coffin in order to rejuvenate. Destroying these sarcophagi would have no effect on Hyrune.
With nothing else of interest in this room, you remove the grill in the floor, revealing a shaft that drops 400 feet straight down. It looks like that's the way forward, but it's a long way down.
Darkness envelops Aily in sinuous streams, pulling her body up then sharply in, until the prim maid is replaced with a small bat. With a squeak, the bat flaps down the shaft scouting the bottom.
Aily flies down to the bottom of the shaft. A short passage south from this empty octagonal chamber opens up to a view over a breathtaking gulf over the vast cavern below and the glowing green waters of an underground lake. A large stalactite hangs just south of this entrance, while others with cave openings can be seen to the left and right.
A glance out of this room’s exit reveals a cave opening at roughly the same level into a second stalactite to the southwest. This opening is covered with heavy black curtains. An entrance to the larger stalactite sits 30 feet higher than the floor of this room.
Aily bat flies back up the shaft, squeaks a 'It's Safe' then flies back down to wait for the others, remaining as a bat just in case.
Telivir casts levitate on Caraid and Ceceka and fly on himself. "Would one of you carry Smoke and the other carry Humerus?"
He guides everyone down the pit.
Caraid takes the dog!
And descends smoothly down the shaft, landing at the bottom with poise. Which is promptly ruined when Smoke recovers from the nervous trip and licks his face enthusiastically!
Ceceka grunts when Telvir aids his descent with magic. "This place is too beautiful for the likes of Hyrune. Now, how do we get up there?", he says as he points at the other stalactite.
Aily, still in her flaps over to Ceceka, scratches at the rope he carries as to suggest him uncoiling it. Then she grabs an end with her feet and flies it over to the southern opening.
Once there she changes back into her maid form, and secures that end for them to travel over, while attempting to be as quiet as possible.
She'll investigate the door there as well for traps and pick it open if locked.
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The door is locked, but not trapped. Aily is able to pick the door open. Mostly empty shelves adorn the walls of this large room, while at the center stand a pair of worktables. The ceiling rises to twenty feet above, where a dozen empty cages sized for humans hang from spiked chains.
A strange, towering creature stands in this room. The faceless being stands as tall as an ogre, with toxic red smoke pouring from its body and forming the semblance of a face. When it sees you, the figure looms high and speaks in a strange, grating way that sounds as if a roaring fire accidentally learned how to talk.
"You will answer me these questions three," it demands. "Then I shall answer three questions from you. Question the first. Tell me—your blood—is it always red? Question the second. It smells of your secrets in here, doesn’t it—which secret stinks most? Question the third. When did you last feel the tender touch of ashes?"
A confused frown unfolds itself on Ceceka's forehead. He eyes Aily and then Telvir, wondering whether to indulge the being's questions or charge in and undo it.
Humerus flinches as the dog is picked up, and then begins climbing easily down the shaft.
As the smoke face forms, Humerus readily answers.
"Well, blood boss, I don't have any blood, so, nope, it's not red. It's nonexistent! I don't smell any secrets, but I'd guess it's when someone farts and doesn't tell anyone! Or maybe they drop a little bit of bat guano when they're in bat form? That usually can smell pretty bad..."
He pauses, trying to remember the last time he encountered any ashes.
"Oh, wait, when the boss' dress burst into flame and left ash everywhere! That was probably the last time!" He points at Aily. "Or maybe it's all that poison shadow ash we've found. There's been a lot of that."
Telvir, an expert in draining fluids from bodies, answers the first question clinically: "Blood can take on several shades. A blueish tint is still normal for the quick, and after death it can become clotted and black. And, of course, our skeleton doesn't have any blood to speak of."
He lets the skeleton's answers stand for the other questions, unwilling to talk of the group's secrets.
The figure seems satisfied with your answers. "Three answered, now three to ask." It awaits your questions.
Caraid remains in the background, getting smothered in love by Smoke.
"Who or what are you, boss?" Humerus asks without hesitation. "And where's Hyrune?"
"I am Ibbu the Unblinking. I have been referred to as a 'waste walker.' Hyrune is in his true crypt, hidden below his false crypt."
Ibbu awaits your third question.
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"How do we reach his true crypt?" Telvir inquires.
"Go south from here, then west into his false crypt. A hidden trapdoor in the floor will lead you down to where Hyrune lurks.
"Thank you for the entertainment. Now, die." The toxic smoke billowing from Ibbu's body begins to thicken and spread!
Before you can react, Ibbu gestures, and hot lava sprays up around Ceceka and Humerus, splattering them. The being strides forward with unthinkable speed, and it begins to move even faster as it slashes at Ceceka with its hand from 10 feet away!
"Die." Caraid says firmly, invoking the creatures end.
Aily snarls at the flames. With whisper of a word, her black and white dress bursts into flames of her own, licking up from from her hem to her neckline. With graceful and pursuable strides she moves through the smoke, the fire trailing her and stinging those next to her.
Telvir sends Smoke to attack the creature and attempts to counteract its swift movement.
for
HP 139/220
AC 35 / 37 in Mountain Stance or 39 if use Mountain Stronghold
Resistance 3 to cold, electricity, fire, piercing, and slashing damage
Fort +22, Ref +22, Will +20 (+1 vs. disease and poison; +2 circumstance bonus to Fortitude DC vs. Grapple and Swallow Whole; +2 circumstance bonus vs. being Shoved or Tripped while in Mountain Stance, +1 vs. fear)
Hero points: 2
Effects:
"Not nice, boss!" Humerus cries as he begins to burn, before flinching as Smoke -- the dog, not the toxic fumes -- enters the fray. He grabs Ibbu and drives a fist into him, ignoring the poisonous fumes.
Caraid's spell has its full effect, sapping Ibbu's life force. The creature resists Telvir's spell but is still slowed temporarily. Humerus fails to grab a hold of the hulking being but does land a good punch. Aily stabs the creature from behind, then again in an critical opportunistic backstab! Poisonous, oily blood splatters out onto the floor and table.
Though burned and encased in rock, Ceceka remains firm as he attacks Ibbu. He scores a critical hit, following up with another powerful blow that finishes off the already terribly damaged creature! Ibbu lets out a long sigh that sounds like one of contentment as his body collapses in on itself, dissolving into wisps of foul-smelling smoke and leaving only his crumpled robe behind.
An examination of the documents on the worktables here reveals that much of Hyrune’s plans and plots are laid bare—certainly more than enough to prove that he was the one who masterminded the plot to poison Geb’s food exports. There are plenty of notes that indicate Hyrune was working for someone else (who isn’t named here but who you can easily deduce is Chancellor Kemnebi). The notes indicate there were problems securing enough shadow ash in Mechitar for the large-scale food poisoning that was envisioned but that “agents in Yled” have managed to secure a supply of “more than enough shadow ash to render Geb’s trading partners into fields of corpses ripe for animation.”
.
Amid the tools and damning evidence is a clear quartz crystal ball cradled in a frame made of gold and ivory that depicts a circle of flying bats—this frame is worth 650 gp.
"Hyrune was not the careful plotter that he obviously thought himself," Telvir mentions. "Let us repair ourselves, then proceed to his crypt."
"Idiots rarely appreciate themselves." Caraid replies, looking up briefly from where he is slipping the various documents into his dimensionally implausible bag. "There, that should do. Give me a few minutes and we can get going."
He's less hurried than usual because Aily is absolutely unharmed and Ceceka enjoys the pain so there's no rush!
"A detailed and patient plan speaks of dangerous intelligence, but then he wrote it all down for others to prove his damnation." Aily shook her head in absolute disdain. She finds a clean cloth in the room and cleans her knife before slipping back into her hidden sheath.
Humerus is content to let others more capable -- and interested -- than him deal with the politics, and waits for everyone to be ready to proceed again. He looks for some bones to patch himself up.
You head south through an empty banquet hall and then west to Hyrune's false tomb. This chamber looks like a partially completed crypt, with the carvings along the western part of the room being grim and forbidding, but grows more plain as one looks eastward. An elegant coffin sits near the west wall, flanked by two statues of a partially skeletal woman whose face is nothing but a ravenous mouth. These statues seem to combine two deities, Urgathoa and a Great Old One named Orgesh, a clear blasphemy.
Searching around uncovers a secret door in the floor, which opens into a shaft down. You drop 40 feet to the chamber below. The west wall of this room has two alcoves, and a pair of huge stone statues of a lumbering monster with a mouth for a face loom to the north and south. A Y-shaped blood-soaked carpet leads from the western alcoves to a short set of stairs in the east that lead up to a larger alcove, in which stands an elegant coffin of black lacquered wood. Two rows of gothic candle stands bear a dozen blood-red candles, each row flanking the carpet from east to west.
Blood Lord Hyrune himself is here, meditating before one of the grotesque statues of Orgesh. He’s attended by four hideously malformed mockeries of anatomy—partially eviscerated, mismatched carrionplays of the human form known as unrisen.
Hyrune sighs and turns to you, his face a mixture of impatience and resignation. "There you are. Congratulations on your new posts to our great nation's government," he says bitterly. "A word of caution, though: stars fall much faster than they rise in Geb. Why have you been pursuing my plots with such vigor?"
Aily brushes unseen dust off her dress, giving a look a disdain at the vampire's abode, like it is Dirty and definitely beneath them. The dhampir maid takes a moment to breach etiquette, as she embraces cold forwardness, and says with a dismissive shrug "We just don't like you."
She then feigns a look that is slightly contrite to her lords for speaking out of turn, dips into a quick curtsey, and steps behind and to the side of Caraid.
"Your co-conspirators were foolish enough to meddle with us," Telvir warns. "And we're happy to climb to power over the ruins of your broken schemes."
"Wait, blood boss, which plots were yours?" Humerus asks.
Caraid waits in the middle of the group, tapping his foot quietly. He has been setting himself up as Hyrune's antagonist. So staying quiet while he talks to the others makes good sense. He waits, spells at the ready.
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Hyrune blinks at Humerus. "Seriously? The plots to poison, raise, and control the population of the nations around Geb that rely on our food exports? Have you not been paying attention?"
He sighs and rubs his temples wearily. "Ugh. Whatever. Slay them, unrisen guards!" he commands. The four unrisen shamble forward
Hyrune creates a shield of force before casting a more powerful spell, creating a repulsion field in a 20-foot radius around himself. The unrisen suddenly charge towards you, their twisted bodies reshaping and bones cracking in a gruesome display. They bite at Ceceka and Humerus. Humerus is hit and grabbed!
"You've underestimated us for the last time!" Telvir says as he gathers energy around himself. From the ground near the bloodlord, a titanic pile of bones rise, arranging themselves into the shape of a carnivore from a bygone era!
The dinosaur skeleton lunges down at Hyrune, trying to catch the vampire in its ribcage.
HP 195/220
AC 35 / 37 in Mountain Stance or 39 if use Mountain Stronghold
Resistance 3 to cold, electricity, fire, piercing, and slashing damage
Fort +22, Ref +22, Will +20 (+1 vs. disease and poison; +2 circumstance bonus to Fortitude DC vs. Grapple and Swallow Whole; +2 circumstance bonus vs. being Shoved or Tripped while in Mountain Stance, +1 vs. fear)
Hero points: 2
Effects: grabbed
"No one likes a grabber, boss!" Humerus exclaims. Setting his stance more firmly, he tries to grabs the other undead back to prove his point -- only for it to avoid his grasp, thereby also proving his point.
Still trying to shake the other skeleton off, he stomps, sending a shockwave through the earth.
Aily looks to her lord, who seems intent on the vampire. Her cold blood sings with the desire to end one of her father's kind, but the others might not be able to hold back the shamblers before they would interfere with the duel between spellcasters... so she slides forward to stab the undead champions.