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"Ow ow ow ow. We could certainly spar or learn more about you. We're kind of new here. You don't like bright light, but most of us rely on it to see properly. How do you deal with the rainbow? Is your fashion always black and gray? Maybe some purple could compliment..."
Cirri rambles a bit before realizing her foe isn't going to listen. She sighs and conjures her water into a mace.
"See? No need to fight to the death. UGH."
Cirri plans to use Ocean's Balms as needed to keep these knife-happy vagrants alive as possible, once they calm down!
and again the stalker easily dodges the lightning.
However, Cirri's watery mace smashes into red with devastating effect and the stalker falls down dead.
Niccolo Neska
Shimmer
Orion Oneiros
Glasha
Cirri Merryweather
Once you continue on and down the stairs, you will find a room filled with debris. The scars of a battle long past mar the walls, both from physical weapons and magical attacks. A corridor continues south from the room.
You find the remnants of a book under a broken table against the east wall. Most of the pages have been torn out, but the first few are present, written in crisp, clear Common. Though some of the phrasing is antiquated, you can read it without any trouble.
It appears to be a journal of one Alystair Caskwater, some sort of antiquarian monster hunter. The writings detail Alystair’s plan to travel with his retinue to the Netherworld to take on a mage native to that plane who was suspected of weakening the barrier between planes and attacking some rich patron on the Isle of Kortos centuries ago.
DC 15 Society or Pathfinder Lore:
You estimate that, based on the book’s decay and the language used, that it’s several hundred years old.
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Shimmer notices the remnants of a book under a broken table against the east wall. She kneels down and carefully turns through the pages. She doesn't offer her services as a medic , but her healer's tools are visible at her hip if anyone needs to ask.
"Hey, this belonged to an adventurer a long time ago who came here to the Netherworld to fight a mage who was weakening the barrier between plans. My first guess is that he lost and that's our lich... But he clearly knew about the portals and came here on purpose, so his notes might be helpful! Too bad this book is so damaged, most of it isn't here."
If you say no fair, then... fair enough!
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Cirri sighs. "Alright, let me heal you a bit. One second."
She moves up to Niccolo. "Uh, do you want >Ocean's Balm<? Heals you up right quick."
Cirri agrees with Shimmer. "Hmm, I guess the... l-lich may have made a Netherworld location. We must be there."
Actually a Spoiler, question for the GM
No objection from me!
Continuing down the sole corridor...
The smell of rotting offal and blood fills this room. A spout of blood flows from the north wall into the pit below. The pit is half full, blood and offal making a viscous, stinking stew. A carving on the eastern wall depicts a giant figure raising a massive stone from the sea and an island with it. The carving also shows a reflection beneath that raised island of a shadowy land emerging as well, as if reflected in the sea, only the lack of the giant figure and the massive stone indicates this is more than a reflection being depicted.
You have spotted something, the spout of blood is some sort of hazard, it seems to pull at your life force even at this distance.
Given its nature you could use Occultism or Religion (trained) DC 17 to counteract it, or Thievery (trained) DC 20 to disable the spout.
The mural depicts the god Aroden raising the Starstone and the Isle of Kortos from beneath the sea.
Arcana or Occultism DC 14 or Netherworld Lore DC 8 :
You recognize the reflection as showing the creation of a place in the Netherworld: the birth of the Shadow Kortos that today holds the location of Shadow Absalom.
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Cirri, I... would appreciate... such healing. There is a strange feeling that polite communication and the words "I would appreciate" instead of, for example, "do it quickly while you're alive" are difficult for Glasha. Not in the sense that she's against it, she's just not used to this kind of communication.
Seeing the disgusting scene, the orc suddenly freezes, but not from amazement. She had seen worse in Darkland. No, she looks for danger with her eyes... and finds it. It's a trap. Glasha points with her hand, urging everyone to freeze too. It will suck out our life force...
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"Oh wow, the mural shows the god Aroden raising the Starstone and the Isle of Kortos from beneath the sea... by why is everything so bloody and stinky?" Cirri pinches her thin nose as she starts to move ahead to investigate it.
Luckily Glasha stops her from approaching further. "Oh, it's a trap. That would explain the blood..."
Cirri decides now is the time to drink her >Eagle-eye elixir<. She also pulls out her set of Thieves' Tools.
"Is the trap mechanical in nature? I could try to disarm it."
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"That's not technically the mural we're looking for, but maybe we should take a rubbing anyway."
Shimmer inches closer, holstering her weapon to cover her face. "I can try it..." she says, trying not to breathe in.
As sprites go, Shimmer isn't particularly magical. For a moment it looks like she's going to lose control, but she manages to pull the right thread.
As Shimmer finishes her incantation, the strange pull on your life forces that had been building is suddenly released. For some of you the first thing you will notice is its absence!
The flow of blood from the spout slows and stops, and the nauseating smell of offal recedes somewhat. You can explore the room properly.
Niccolo, you can see that the incantation Shimmer eventually used was successful. However, I'll use your occultism roll for further info about the mural, see below (copied from the second spoiler in my post above and the nested content there for occultism et al).
You recognize the reflection depicted in the mural as showing the creation of a place in the Netherworld: the birth of the Shadow Kortos that today holds the location of Shadow Absalom.
Orion, your search around the room doesn't find anything extra of interest. Even with the spout shut down, the room is pretty unpleasant. Also if anyone uses detect magic it is apparent that the magic of the spout is slowly rebuilding.
Having recorded the mural, the party plunges onwards into the citadel. The corridor continues on past the disgusting fountain and the smell recedes as you descend to the more chaotic, rubble-strewn tunnels beyond.
Within the tunnels you see abundant signs of another battle fought long ago. Scorch marks cover walls made of uneven stone, slashes from blades and arrows scar the walls further in, preserved in this collapsed extraplanar demesne. The fighting here seems to have been much more intense than in the earlier chamber.
You find another torn journal page in the rubble. Written weeks later, this fragment details the travails of the same group from the first fragment as they hunted the mage across Shadow Kortos, tracking them to the dark reflection of the Uromaz Citadel. The last entry indicates that they planned to trap her within by collapsing the citadel above into a massive pile of rubble, kill her, and return to the Universe.
You then climb the stairs out of the rubble-strewn tunnels and follow a long corridor into a much larger chamber. Its north wall is filed with an enormous carved stone mural, this time of a great battle against a draconic foe. Depicted within the mural, a great many faces stand behind a singular individual, weapons raised as a dragon attacks. The hands raising weapons behind the hero are skeletal in nature, and their faces skulls. Stairs descend to the west, a sturdy door made of a black metal of some sort stands to the south.
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"What's this bit of paper? Oh! It's one of the missing pages from Alystair's journal. Looks like they're the ones who tried to collapse this place, to trap and kill the mage. I guess it didn't work. The mage is a 'her,' like the lich. That hardly proves anything, but if we were already thinking that (I was, anyway)..."
And another mural. Shimmer's wings of light aren't strong enough to carry her far, but they give her enough of a boost to reach farther off the floor than one might otherwise expect. She starts on the rubbing.
"I can't make sense of this image. If Alystair is the hero... but then the mural would have been made after this place was collapsed... But it could just be a reflection of something in the Second World--is that how the Netherworld works? It might just be about an even older story."
Shimmer, Cirri and Orion set to recording the mural. However, it is not a quiet process as collapsable ladders and makeshift scaffolds are set up to reach the whole of the huge mural. After perhaps an hour, the taxing work of copying the intricate mural is complete.
Despite the noise, Glasha's watch over the room is uneventful. The door to the south remains firmly closed and nothing emerges from the stairs descending to the west.
Over the course of the hour you will have determined that the sturdy door is locked. Without the key it would require either picking the lock or forcing it open .
The crash of the crumpling door echoes through the room as Glasha bursts through it. Beyond is another darkened room with dancing shadows.
The first feeling that this room gives is the promise of home and light. The second is a palpable wave of dread, as a wave of negative energy flows into the chamber, pouring into the open sarcophagus at its center. Excess energy flows around like a foul wind, smelling faintly of ozone. In the distance, screams echo, or perhaps laughter? It’s impossible to make out. A tattered and rotted body quickly rises from the sarcophagus, garbed in rotted and torn fabrics that may have once been a sign of nobility.
“Finally, I can feel that I’m freed from that accursed lich, and I believe I have you to thank. Sadly, the only gratitude I can offer is death. I need your strength to become my strength, so I can repay those who betrayed me!”
➤ Glasha
Alystair Caskwater
Orion Oneiros
Shimmer
Red skeleton
Cirri Merryweather
Niccolo Neska
Black skeleton
Glasha delays.
Alistair strides forward, fetid water dripping from his rags, and makes a mighty swing with his greatsword catching both Glasha and Cirri in a single swipe. It covers you both with a wave of rotting flesh and seaweed. He then laughs and booms "Yes, you will soon fall and I will relish your strength!"
at Glasha AC 19 and Cirri AC 17 for slashing plus Grotesque Gift (see below)
➤ Glasha
Alystair Caskwater
➤ Orion Oneiros
➤ Shimmer
Red skeleton
Cirri Merryweather
Niccolo Neska
Black skeleton
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Shimmer sees a clear shot on the undead creature. She darts forward, taking advantage of his comparatively large size to slip directly past him and (hopefully) under his guard.
It's not the most defensive position, but better than trying to shoot past her allies in the crowded doorway. They're too big to pin her down anyway. Probably.
She takes the shot.
"I think probably longer than that!"
Glasha retreats, firing her hand crossbow as she does. The bolt hits Alystair but doesn't seem to pack much punch.
Shimmer flitters past Alystair into the room and then fires her jezail at him, her planned shot giving it much more stopping power.
Glasha
Alystair Caskwater
➤ Orion Oneiros
Shimmer
Red skeleton
Cirri Merryweather
Niccolo Neska
Black skeleton
Orion fully heals Cirri and then raises a magical shield.
The red skeleton clanks awkwardly up to Shimmer drawing its sword.
Glasha
Alystair Caskwater
Orion Oneiros
Shimmer
Red skeleton
➤ Cirri Merryweather
➤ Niccolo Neska
Black skeleton
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The dhamphir sees that the group is fighting undead, even mindless undead. He knows what trouble they can cause so he attempts to put them out of the world's misery and fires a telekinetic projectile, picking up a loose stone, in an attempt to smash the skeleton skeleton/
telekinetic projectile
smashy smashy
and then cast shield on himself.
Cirri makes two swings with her watery staff but Alystair easily dodges both.
Niccolo flings a stone into the Red skeleton, smashing a few of its ribs, leaving it quite badly wounded.
The Black skeleton moves into the room, draws its bow and fires at Shimmer, with the arrow striking a glancing blow.
vs Shimmer AC 19 for piercing damage
➤ Glasha
Alystair Caskwater
Orion Oneiros
Shimmer
Red skeleton
Cirri Merryweather
Niccolo Neska
Black skeleton
Glasha's bolt lodges in Alastair's shoulder.
Alastair crows "Yes, keep peppering away at me, but the struggle is futile - soon your strength will be mine!" and strides up to Niccolo and again takes a mighty swipe, this time at Niccolo and Cirri. Both are hit by the blow and are spattered with a syrup of rancid flesh and rotting seaweed
at Niccolo AC 17 and Cirri AC 17 for slashing plus Grotesque Gift
Glasha
Alystair Caskwater
➤ Orion Oneiros
➤ Shimmer
Red skeleton
Cirri Merryweather
Niccolo Neska
Black skeleton