Undeterred, Galileo keeps up his search in the other rooms, convinced there must be something hidden under the floorboards.
"Hurp..."
He vomits un the corner, "What ungodly reek... Ozzie, check the floorboards will ya?... hurp..."
Braving the stench of the room the party eventually finds a loose floorboard that was hastily nailed down. Prying it open they find a single silver coin, surrounded by a steel ring about three inches across. Strangely the mint date is 10 months and 13 days in the future.
Oswald quickly retreats from the chamber, as he watches the Prophet tearing at the floorboards, pull some items out from under and vomits.
Nice find, Galileo.
Brother Laurence remains with Oswald while the others enter the noisome chamber. He frowns. "What is it?" he asks.
The single piece of silver does little to offer an explanation of itself. It is a perfectly normal coin with an error on the mint date. A horse rearing up in front of a twisted staff, on the reverse is a stylized house on an outcropping of cliffs. When you take up the coin nothing happens other than you feel the cool surface and see the glinting metal not worn down by age yet.
The stairs downward into darkness, the apparent source of the slime trail, beckons you onward.
Starring forlornly down into the stairs downward into darkness, the apparent source of the slime trail, beckoning them onward, Oswald Copperpot reaches into another pocket, produces a jar of grease, and begins to apply it liberally on himself.
Slime-covered trails leading down into darkness makes me break out in hives. This helps.
Once properly greased (pulling out his Everburning Torch), the shiny Gillman prepares to leaf the way down, down, down into the deep black....
Valkarian quietly follows the Innsmouth resident Gillman into the stygian depths.
Brother Laurence shrugs and refreshes his orisons, also descending.
Galileo takes the coin, rubs a thumb over it, even flips it into the air, "Now, which side is heads and which is tails, I wonder."
He tests it for magic before sticking it in his pocket.
"Downward, ho!"
The stairs turn twice as you descend into the darkness. Traces of dust and debris indicate that they might have been choked with rubble which has been cleared away. Halfway through the architectural style changes to one involving stone arches and brick-lined walls.
You are disgorged into an ancient crypt:
This chamber’s brick-lined walls are supported by fifteen foot-high stone arches. Between each arch, circular alcoves have been cut into the wall, each containing a stone sarcophagus. One sarcophagus on the southern wall has toppled over, spilling its long-dead occupant partially out on the brick floor. A dry swath of black sludge nearly ten feet wide runs down the center of the room, connecting the west and northeast stairs. The far end of the hall seems to have collapsed long ago.
Stepping ever so gently, carefully, suspiciously down the slime-covered stone steps, the Investigator 's Everburning Torch brightens the landing to reveal the crypt.
F++% he'll undead just waiting for fools to strut on through, my fish-scaled arse! Disease, poison, those disgustingscratches that fester!
Oswald fishes into a pocket pulls out a Tanglefoot bag and begins doing the thing that usually starts some type of Delmoth shenanigans....
Oswald, truly disappointed, finds no trip wires or pressure plates spoiling to kill him.
Galileo notices the shift in architectural stylings and wonders...
"Hmm...nope... I've got nothing."
He bumps into Val as the team stops upon entering the crypt, "Excuse me. Y'know, I should probably really be near the front of the pack. Oh, dead people, nice."
While the others are looking at other features of the underground crypt, Brother Laurence examines the sludge.
He bumps into Val as the team stops upon entering the crypt, "Excuse me. Y'know, I should probably really be near the front of the pack. Oh, dead people, nice."
Valkarian turns to look at Galileo, and regards him with a pained gaze.
Has he no inkling of the horrors we face, that he should be so eager to see them first? Very well."You may go in front if you wish." He looks at the body. "I have no fear of this corpse; indeed, I would envy them for being embraced by sweet Oblivion, had I not learned of how Oblivion is but a pipe dream. This mortal shell may be at peace, but the soul's suffering continues eternally.
Nay, a corpse is no matter. I fear there are far worse things to be found. And it may be all we can do to keep such horrors from the unaware populace above, to give them another day of blessed ignorance."
Oswald doesn't believe his eyes! So, the Investigator reaches yet again for another vial, drinks it, blinks a few times and smiles. Putting away his Everburning torch, he proceed to follow the next corridor.
Be one with the darkness.
Peeking down the next corridor, Oswald beckons to Valkarian and Galileo smiling.
We may yet reach a fine moment of terror mixed with elation soon to satisfy the both of you.
Brother Laurence and Oswald find nothing particularly revealing in the corpse or the trail of nearly dried slime.
Euda looks thoughtfully at the walls as they descend the stairs and remarks, "it looks like the slime had to force its way through here... or, whatever was covered with it, maybe... the weird thing, though, is that there's no sign of it coming back this way, like whatever went up the stairs either disintegrated in the sunlight, or... well... is still up there... somewhere..."
While others busy themselves looking for traps and examining the slime, the druid looks for any more clues as to the origin of the slime.
You descend further and further into the bowels of Carrion Hill with no other apparent option. You descend down seemingly endless flights of stairs only broken up by partially collapsed chambers which run the gamut from distillery to temple. All the while following the trail of ever more dry slime. You pass through at least 10 architectural styles each more ancient and decrepit than the last. Finally you reach a destination of sorts:
Ancient Processional, “1”
Ancient stone pillars support a stone ceiling here. Thick sheets of pale fungus and mold cake most surfaces. To the south, the hall has collapsed in rubble, but to the north it opens into a vast cavern in which eerie glowing light flickers. A thick, dry smear of black slime and strange circular prints in the mold runs from a flight of stairs in the north wall east into this cavern.
When you head east you arrive at the Sunless Grove, “2”
An immense cavern sprawls here, its floor an uneven jumble of loose stone and fungus, its ceiling rising like a church cathedral to a height of nearly a hundred feet above. Glowing fungus grows thick on the walls, bathing the cavern in ugly hues of purple and pale blue. Toppled pillars and mounds of rubble dot the eastern half of the cave, while to the south a mound of fungus, bones, and rubble rises. At the mound’s apex squats a flat-topped altar stone, with towering barren trees rising on three sides, their leafless branches twisted and groping toward the ceiling above as if in search for a sun’s warmth they shall never feel. A trickle of what appears to be sludge runs thickly and slowly from a hollow under the altar stone to gather to the northeast of the hill in a swampy pool. Four cave passages branch off from the cavern, but only the one to the southwest has not been blocked by a series of relatively new-looking iron bars. A swath of black slime and round footprints winds lead to the bank of the pool of sludge.
Two mangled bodies adorn this strange altar chamber, one floats face down in the pool of sludge, the other lies atop the hill, slumped against the southern side of the stone altar. Both bodies show no signs of bleeding despite being twisted like rags. Similar to the bodies you found in Slipper Market.
You are not alone here, perched atop the altar is a humanoid figure with pallid skin, sharp ears, and inhuman eyes. It is messily devouring an arm stolen from one of the corpses while reading a tome.
Valkarian has a bit of knowledge of engineering (+5) and history (+6), and a deep and abiding interest in Azlant. Are any of the ancient architectural styles Azlanti?
The warrior-scholar takes in the sights. The cyclopean ruins; the mycological infestation; the wracked bodies of victims sacrificed in blasphemous rites.
And above all, the pallid necrophage atop the altar, poring over some damnable codex.
Valkarian does not recognize the fiend, but he activates his ancient Azlanti wand of Shield and draws his sword.
Valkarian does not recognize any Azlanti styling but he does recognize Thassilonian influences near the bottom.
Brother Laurence doesn't recognize the creature or anything meaningful about its surroundings, but he knows an undead when he sees it. He begins muttering what sounds like an invocation to Groetus and calls down a brilliant yellow flash of lightning in the same square as the enemy.
Oswald Copperpot hates taking the stairs. Stairs are just a way to allow gravity to escape constraints, causing limb rending, bone breaking, facial fracturing to become as real as that guy buried alive in a house's walls.
Oswald continues to step carefully down, down, down the many stone steps steeped in serious sliding and slipping debris.
So, the Hill in Carrion Hill has been solved.
The Investigator does indeed examine the various styles of architecture. He admires the building upon the former to make room for the latter.
Reaching the Cathedral cavern, viewing the disgusting mound, the putrid altar and the creature calmly reading while savoring an arm, Oswald seems a bit perplexed by the findings.
He seems to be about to call out to the creature, but then the bright blast of lightning illuminates the entire scene.
Probably could have just coughed loudly.
Those trees are not natural, they were grown via necromatic magic!
That would be a ghoul reading and dining. Any elves present? Go say hello.
The ghoul looks up at you and lets out a meeping lament as Laurence begins to draw in divine power . However Galileo reads the situation before it really has even begun, Laurence’s murderous intent and the ghouls' uncanny reflexes.
"Can biting a ghoul make you sick?" Euda calls out to Oswald with clear concern. "Or, a bear specifically- would biting it make Bear sick?"
Oswald Copperpot looks incredulously at the Druid. The Investigator then smiles at her meaning.
Nothing that a really high alcohol content mouthwash would do.
He the shake his head in disgust.
"Ho fiend! Looks as if we've found our culprit, my fellows! For the precious lives lost, your evil doings end here, vile one! For Carrion Hill, we will avenge thee! Ho my fellows! May justice ebb our fears and guide our blades this day!"
Galileo draws his sword as he moves forward among the standing columns, his baritone voice and bravado lifting his party's spirits as it echoes off the cavern walls.
The ghoul's head darts up focusing on Galileo's speechifying before leaping and rushing at the bard with teeth dripping foul saliva.
A bolt of lightning electrifies the ghoul causing it's necrotic flesh to convulse uncontrollably.
Simply too inspired to watch such shenanigans, Oswald Copperpot decides to attempt to Tumble Through the ghoulish space to better Flank with the oration bard!
Oswald then--swifty-- Study Combat the slime-covered ghoul, before striking out with his recently drawn rapier!
Someone have Prestidigitation handy? My poor rapier!
Did Valkarian get to use his wand or not?
If so, he stows his wand and moves towards the ghoul.
If not, he uses the wand and moves towards the ghoul.
Edalmir follows the others into the chamber and begins to sing an unusual song as he holds the group's banner aloft. Licks of fire begin to coalesce around everyone's weapons.
Meanwhile, Euda rides Bear to the ghoul, chanting a fresh blessing over him. When they arrive, opposite Larry, Bear chomps at the vile creature with his fiery maw.
Did Valkarian get to use his wand or not?
If so, he stows his wand and moves towards the ghoul.
If not, he uses the wand and moves towards the ghoul.
Oswald rushes at the ghoul and in a flash stabs it through the heart. Fortunately for the ghoul it’s not using it. Meanwhile Bear and Euda charge it and bear tears a large chunk of flesh from the creature. It still stands there, it’s too long tongue lolling.
"Take that fiend! The beating hearts on the surface fear not your cold and pallid flesh. The bold fear not death! Like the flash of lightning brightens the midnight sky, our burning steel shall cleave through your malicious soul!"
Galileo's speech, like his longsword, fails to impress the foul undead. It sways out of the way and the sword dulls its edge on hard stone. The creature pained and reeling from the assault carefully picks its way past Laurence and the rest, extricating it from the melee.
It hisses, ”Peace.”
Valkarian delays, waiting to see what his new associates will do.
Euda scowls at the affront to the natural world, but signals Bear to wait a moment. Seeing her do so, Edalmir follows suit and ceases his song. Then the little druid shoots Galileo an impatient look and loudly whispers, "see what it wants."
Oswald stares at the ghoul with doubt and just a bit of skepticism in his totally not blue eyes.....
Galileo lowers his sword, and eyes the foul undead. "You have your chance to speak, fiend, but these may just be your last words, so make them count."
The ghoul picks its way back from you slowly, never keeping its eyes off of you. It sneers at you, "Fiend? What fiendish thing have I done to deserve this treatment?" It picks up the arm it was eating and begins to drool, but doesn't let down it's guard.
"You may desire to kill me but I would know why."
Oswald grins at the ghoul, but in a disarming way.
We are investigating the sudden appearance of a creature that originally manifested here.
"Aye, people have been torn limb from limb in the city above, and all evidence leads us here to this place where we find you. Since you seem to have a penchant for eating limbs, explain your being here."
"Whatever destroyed the building above had truly immense strength and left a trail of slime.
For these reasons, I judge it unlikely to be your handiwork, creature, which is why I took a defensive action rather than immediately attacking you on sight.
But perhaps you know what did it?"
"I desire to destroy you because you're a twisted perversion of life," Euda answers flatly. "You're little more than a puppet of a once natural, living being now animated by dark power..."
Bear's eyes remain locked on the creature as it moves, and her snarl reveals a readiness to lash out at it at any moment.
The ghoul covetously closes the book on the altar and latches a lock on the side. It regards the group with little choice but to squirm under their accusations and questions. It holds its tongue as Euda perhaps accurately describes the ghoul.
The ghoul jitters, ”I don’t know what killed your people on the surface or who killed them,” it motions with the half eaten arm at the pair of mangled corpses in the room. It continues, ”I arrived only an hour ago drawn by their scent. Perhaps there’s a clue in this book but it seems to be locked with no key in sight. I could open it with the proper motivation, perhaps that wand you hold can be mine in trade.”
"Or... and now hear me out... we could fry you with a bolt of lightning."
Oswald grins at Galileo's response.
It seems that having nothing Instructive concerning our current investigation into this sudden calamity may cause you to develop burns, rashes and such.
The ghoul takes the tome in its hand and lifts a foot to flee.
Seeing the ghoul's feet twitch, Galileo rushes in, pointing his sword in the direction of the altar. "Your feet won't find any traction, villain!"