"They're... um... dead." she admitted, rubbing her neck. Then hurriedly added "But it was before we had a truce. When we were still at war. They put up..." she wanted to reassure him that his mighty army put up a good fight, but she isn't that good a liar. So she went with "They died Well?"
"Because we can't carry your sand map with us and..." Dal begins, giving Gretta a murderous look. "You did not have to tell them that, you know?"
"He'll notice eventually and..." she was going to say, 'and it can't be THAT dumb' but after a moment of thought she has her doubts about that.
"...and what happens then is all down to how long Archa's spell lasts," Nelus finishes Gretta's thought, visibly fretting.
"Oh! I do have something to write on though." He flips open his tablet, smooths out his already transcribed notes on Wrin's prophecy, and quickly gets to sketching out a more portable copy of the map.
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Boss Skrawng looks at Gretta with a bewildered look when she says they are dead. "Oh. Gatehouse Mudlickers dead. Hmmm. Well no problem. I have more in main room! What? Oh. They dead too? Is okay, I have more in the - Oh. They dead too."
He frowns and ponders a moment in silence, thinking. He steps down off the throne and walks up to Gretta, standing slightly shorter than she is. He looks her up and down, sizing her up. With a slow measurement movement, he removes his crown and stands on his tippy-toes to place it on her head.
"Mudlickers have new boss. Mighty Boss Fire-hair." he says, turning to his two remaining mitflits and explaining to them in undercommon who immediately bow in deference to her.
Former-Boss Skrawng turns to the throne and motions for her to go take her seat.
Dal can't contain herself about the turn of events and laughs hard, letting a small snort escape in the process, which causes her to cover her mouth. She then keeps laughing.
Gretta's face goes through a series of emotions. Sympathy and guilt (since she killed a bunch of this man's kin), then suspicion as he moves toward her. Bewilderment followed quickly by shock, then... her cheeks explode as Dal's laughter bellows and snorts.
As the former king speaks to his former minions, she whispers sharply "I know! But this will keep them attacking, maybe even hurting a kid" she includes the kid cause she can't imagine these things hurting anything else. With as much dignity as she can muster, she strides forward and plops down on the throne.
"Um, my first, and really only, decry, is to declare peace with the lands of Otari. And then me and my friends there will go down and make sure you can take back your homes from the mushroom guys. Okay?" Boss Fire Hair doesn't do a great job at being an authority figure, but she tries.
Archa observes the events impassively. She blinks slowly, trying to understand the politics at play here. "I am not certain if I am supposed to genuflect to the new Mudlicker Queen," she says. "Either way, we should not linger here. We have a quest to complete."
"Right" the giant queen stands quickly out of the throne. "Good point. All ready." she adds quickly to hide continued embarrassment.
"I think it's a decree? Sorry, not important. Should we go investigate the ghosts? I just- I assume they're the most likely source of the light that troubles Wrin, and- Oh! Not that you hadn't though of that of course. I'm sure that you- Yes?"
It takes a couple more moments for Dal to recover, but then she considers Nelus suggestion and something seems off. "Hum... something... oh, right, I don't think the ghosts are really what we are looking for."
"From what I've studied, there is the whole thing with ghosts about unsolved issues and whatever, and Wrin said the lights started a couple days ago, right?" She asks, to confirm. "So, unless someone came here, died with unsolved issues..." She shrugs. "It is possible, but I think these ghosts here are more likely to be as old as the ruins."
"This..." Lennor stops, seemingly at a loss for words. She chews her lip in silent consternation for several seconds.
"This was not an expected outcome," she finally says. "Fascinating."
Nelus purses his lips, brow furrowed in consternation. But we know this whole area has been recently disturbed by all the shifting and territory taking off different getting. Wouldn't it make sense that that could stir up new activity from a slumbering specter?
" Probably you're right, but... perhaps..?"
Bidding her mitflit minions goodbye for now, Queen Gretta and the rest of the party moves north out of the throne room back into the room with the sinkhole in it.
Now that you have time to study the room, you can tell two things. First, that this room is scarred from a devastating magical battle that took place long ago. Second, there once was stairs under the sinkhole that led to a lower level. It would take many days, but it should be possible to remove the debris to restore access to the stairs down if need be.
With an inspection of this room complete, you move back into the large open room beyond. There are five different paths forward you can take from here.
With the destination of Ghosts in the top right of the map, you move north towards the room labeled "Skorpion".
As you make your intentions known you are going to proceed this route, former-Boss Skrawng points out that there is a giant scorpion trapped in that room. They lured it into there and then collapsed several timbers in the rubble to keep it penned in.
"We keep it fed, but it will attack anyone but us if you go in."
"What is past the scorpion?" Lennor asks, trying to evaluate the risks and rewards. "Is there a way around it?"
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"Could you... Could you give us some of its food? Or feed it while we go past? If you don't mind? Greta or Archa should you be asking this?"
"What is past the scorpion?" Lennor asks, trying to evaluate the risks and rewards. "Is there a way around it?"
The mitflit scratches his head, as if this is a complicated question he doesn't understand. His eyes then go wide and says, "Oh! The ghosts! We find no way around, so we block way with skorpion. "
"Could you... Could you give us some of its food? Or feed it while we go past?"
The mitflit narrows his eyes at Nelus, trying to understand what he's getting at. A quick look to his new Boss-Queen is enough to get him to comply. "Yes. We can do. We have small chance of losing mitflit to skorpion as food itself, but we do as boss-queen wishes."
Turning around, he calls in one of his fellow mitflits and orders him to feed the scorpion while you get past it. The mitflit swallows a large lump in his throat, but complies with the request.
Climbing over the barricade, he drags some food in a bucket and calls out to you when the coast is clear. Skrawng calls out "Now is time. Go quickly."
Following the advice, you take advantage of the distraction and push forward.
The ceiling of this room has fallen in two places. A smaller collapse destroyed a flight of stairs that once led up to the now-ruined upper floor. A larger collapse mostly buried the southern double door, leaving a hole in the roof partially blocked with several crossed timbers. A second double door to the north has a stone face carved with skulls caked with tangles of moss.
In the eastern side of this room is a terrified mitflit tossing food from a bucket out to a giant scorpion. It takes note of you, but is more interested in devouring whatever it is being fed (for the moment.
A pair of double doors to the north are closed, Daleranna pushes them open, ushers you through and slams them shut once it's clear.
The air in the large chapel beyond feels colder and damper than elsewhere in the ruins. Condensed beads on the walls run in rivulets across the countless skulls carved into the stone. A moldering human corpse lies slumped against a wall, his hands wedged into a crack as if he died trying to pry a brick loose. Three short flights of steps lead upward to a wider chamber to the north, where a semicircular dais supports an altar of white stone. Beyond the altar loom four stained-glass windows, each twenty feet tall and depicting four haunting scenes of ghosts rising from overgrown graveyards toward a four-pointed orange star high above.
Gretta's big meaty palm slaps Nelus on the back. "That was brilliant Nel! I mean that critter is a danger to all the folk back in town, something fierce, so sooner or later we'll have to... you know... But why in the heck is a giant scorpion around here anyway. Normal sized scorpions are not native to these parts. Giant ones should be extra rare."
She just notices the skull alter and the moldy corpse. "Well this can't be good." she wraps both hands around her hammer, and get ready to fight Something
"All sorts of strange creatures seem to be cropping up in the swamps," says the nagaji who used to be a snake up until a few weeks ago.
The altar and the windows give Archa pause. "By the First Mother," she breathes. She tries to recall the readings on various faiths Wrin provided her with, wondering which deity might find this fell place sacred.
Investigating this further, you can see beyond is a hidden door left slightly ajar. Rotating the skull opens completely once turned, revealing a room beyond.
Nhimbaloth is the Outer Goddess of despair, ghosts, and swamps. She hunts those who would prey upon souls on the way to the afterlife, digesting predator and prey as one. Souls consumed by Nhimbaloth are gone for good: no afterlife, nothing but the agony of death and oblivion.
"This place is a shrine to one of the Outer Gods, beings of chaos and anarchy," Archa says. "Nhimbaloth, goddess of despair, ghosts and swamps. She hunts those who would prey upon souls on the way to the afterlife, digesting predator and prey as one. Souls consumed by Nhimbaloth are gone for good: no afterlife, nothing but the agony of death and oblivion."
Gretta looks a little sheepish at Archa's statement about weird creatures, catching the implication after the fact. She has no idea how to NOT stick her foot in her mouth (which is much harder to do literally than figuratively, having tried it once just to see) so she just gives a goofy apologetic smile.
"Outer gods? Those things are real enough for people to worship them?" she relaxes a bit, since nothing is jumping out to eat them, posses them, or otherwise do bad things.
"The world's full of cults and conspiracy theories," Lennor says, turning to regard Gretta. "'Being real' is not a prerequisite for worship."
Before moving to search the body for clues, Lennor pauses for a moment to scan the room with her magical senses.
Nelus moves over towards the body, head bobbing as he tries to hunch his way smaller to avoid blocking anyone's view.
"But umm, we haven't seen everything yet, right? You see how the body is posed? He was trying to escape in that direction, but it's an alcove. It makes me wonder if there's something near where he's grabbing that- Oh! This skull moves!"
Gretta easily looks over the man's shoulder. "Interesting. How long you think he's been dead?"
When Nelus rotates the skull, the far western wall of the alcove slides aside, revealing a larger triangular shaped room beyond.
A quick survey of the body reveals it was probably sometime in the last few months.
Lennor surveys the area and picks up on magical items on the corpse that turn out to be the rapier and healing potion, but nothing else untoward is discovered in the immediate area.
At the far end of the room, the area around altar in front of the stained glass windows still remains unsearched.
Archa slithers close to the altar to give it a thorough search.
As Archa begins to slither towards the altar, Dal rests a hand on her shoulder. "Wait just a minute, please." She asks, before turning to Nelus and Lennor. "Do you believe you can discover what killed this guy?" She points to the corpse reaching for the skull. "You say he was trying to escape... but from what? What killed him? If there is no wounds, perhaps with was a magic trap, or poison, or... poison trap?"
Archa pauses at the touch. "I will try," she says to Daleranna, then moves to examine the dead man.
"You're a doctor as well as a healer? That's handy." the warrior says to Archa in way of a compliment.
Archa can't find any signs of poison, but she does notice that the man perished from numerous slashing injuries to his body. It looks like claw shaped patterns all over the corpse.
"I am not a doctor. But I have been granted some knowledge of human anatomy," Archa says. "Perhaps the better to understand all of my new...parts."
She looks up from the corpse. "It was not poison that killed this man. Something seems to have torn him apart with its claws."
"Hum... right, easier to block claws than poison." She says before nodding to the direction the nagaji was heading initially. "I'll join you into looking ahead then."
Daleranna leads the group north towards the altar. As she takes the steps upwards to the raised level, the room reveals itself. What was previously hidden before are the corners of the room. In both the west and eastern corners, lay a corpse sprawled on the ground.
Suddenly, both corpses animate, a bright blue light shining from behind the skeleton eyes. Rising to their feet, they swipe their sharp claws in your direction and look ready to kill you. Archa and Lennor react quickly and get a jump on the creatures.
"I see no sign of any magical traps, either," Lennor adds after scanning the room. "But he did bear a magical weapon and potion. Those may be of use."
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"Undead," Lennor says, her voice full of distaste. She gestures toward a nearby rock and it leaps into the air at the skeleton.
"In Nalinivati's name, be purged!" Archa declares, brandishing her holy symbol. She lances the skeleton that Lennor struck with divine energy, then raises her shield.
While Lennor isn't able to specifically identify these creatures, she seems to recall has hearing that have they can shoot paralyzing blue beams from their eyes and that they have the ability to claim a new corpse should their current body fall.
Lennor's rock smashes into one of the skeletons followe up by a blast of Archa's divine energy, which it manages to avoid some of.
The two creatures move in from opposite sides, one moving up to Gretta and the other next to Daleranna. Both swipe their claws twice at their opponents, but only one swipe manages to get through on Daleranna. .
"Oh! Claws!" Gretta points out as they swipe an inch in front of her face, connecting the dots between the dead man and these dead men. Avoiding those murder fingers keeps her off balance, and her resulting swing at the thing's head easy to avoid.
Her second swing doesn't even try to connect, but instead snaps the very air into a crashing clanging BANG, rocking the corpse's body.
"Oh F!~%!" Dal exclaims as she is clawed. Her eyes roll as she curses, striking and raising her shield. "ARRGH! YE F+$~IN'... "
Archa keeps her shield raised as she sends soothing energy into Daleranna's body.
"Skeletons? Oh but they don't seem like regular skeletons. Would the same techniques even apply?" Nelus studies the skeleton Lennor had battered, gnawing at his lip till an unpleasant coppery taste broke him from his reverie.
Well if Wrin's right, then we're all the kind of heroes who can survive something like this... But Dal's hurt and what if Gretta can't fight them both?!
Nothing for it; I have to try.
Nelus couldn't shove past Gretta even if he'd had the inclination, but the wiry scholar could move surprisingly quickly when the need was on him, so he slipped through the frontlines, leaving his machete sheathed as he smashed his heavy gauntlet into the base of the undead thing's skull.
The creature fails to save against Gretta's thunderous strike, get's smashes by Daleranna's axe and then Nelus swings around to deliver a killing blow to the creature and sends it crumbling to the ground.
Gretta had already gotten used to Daleranna's ax skills, but Nelus rushing around and PUNCHING the skeleton, shattering the things skull like old pottery was "Wow!" the big woman beams in awe at the bespectacled man.
Lennor's eyes flash with energy, and her mind fills with mathematical formulae as she calculates every possible angle. Once again, she hurls a rock at the remaining undead.
Lennor's projectile smashes into the creature attacking Daleranna!
As Lennor turns her attention to the remaining undead, something strange happens with the fallen skeleton. The blue glowing that was shining through its eyes suddenly rises from the body, floating above it in a cold, blue pulsing light. The light then flies up over your head, back towards the hallway where you entered until it settles above the body of the corpse who attempted to flee. The light then surges down into the body, which seems to absorb it. A moment later, the corpse begins to twitch and move, rising to its feet with the same cold blue eyes you saw in the the skeleton moments before!
Meanwhile, the other skeleton looks at the party with its cold eyes and opens its mouth as if to speak, but the only that it emits is a blast of the blue light which surrounds all of you, sending chills down your spine!
The big warrior grumbles in pain as the cold smashes into her "PETE!" she exclaims. Oddly. Cause she can't think of a single other thing to say in that moment.
Despite the pain, fear, and utter lack of creativity, she steps up next to the screaming skeleton with a flaming hammer, which she brings down on its head like a boulder tearing down from the heavens.
Okay. Okay. Most skeletons certainly can't do that. Narrows down what we're facing considerably. But more importantly...
"I know just where to hit them now."
Archa cries out in pain as blue light causes her skin to blister and burn. She clutches her holy symbol and unleashes warm healing magic to tend to the party's wounds.