"Wheeewwww!" Morga exhales, then dashes past Autumn and Vildran's prone forms so she can heal them without healing the sinspawn. "San, stand next to them!" Once he's in position, she casts her final Heal spell.
"Autumn, Vildran: they're dead. We're safe, for now. San, maybe close that secret door again so we don't get any visitors while I'm patching us up." Morga informs them as they come to consciousness. She pulls out the healer's toolkit and begins ministering to them.
Vildran bolts awake, quickly looking around for oncoming attackers. When he sees Morga lowering her hands from a healing incantation he exhales.
Thank you.
and proceeds to sit still for her treatment.
And again. Are... are we getting in it over our heads with these fights? Each one feels so desperate and near-fatal.
He doesn't want to talk much more after that. It's easier to hide the shame and self-disappointment if he just stops.
After a minute he looks over to see how the others are feeling, if their confidence is as low as his.
With everyone back on their feet thanks to the healing from Morga, you start to retreat back to a place of safety to hopefully rest and recover. The question is only how far you should go.
And again. Are... are we getting in it over our heads with these fights? Each one feels so desperate and near-fatal.
“Totally,” Autumn replies to Vildran in a deadpan voice. “We should just leave this cursed island and abandon the town to its fate.” Though she’s sorely tempted to take her own advice, she’s invested too much time and energy into this wretched endeavor to let it go now, so she simply heads back to the boggards’ lair. There she informs the frog-people that the shambling guardians are now dead, but they were sorely wounded by the battle, and would like to rest for a while. She’s in better spirits now that her injuries have been healed, but she still seems concerned by the creeping rust disease, and exchanges a meaningful glance with Morga, as if wondering whether the cleric would be able to cure this affliction now that they have some time.
As Autumn explains what they've just survived, Vildran looks around the frog-abode for a place to lay out a bedroll.
“We should just leave this cursed island and abandon the town to its fate.”
"It has been dangerous... We still have to find Ordwi and Morga's aunt though. And besides how often do you get the chance to explore a real Thassalonian skymetal workshop?" San is trying to put on a good face but anyone can tell his brush with death has dampened his mood.
Morga's eyes droop as she nods agreement, despite her guilt for wasting more precious time. "Right. We need to rest." I'm sorry, Great-aunt Hilga. I'm so sorry... She sighs heavily, pulling out the healer's kit again so she can treat Autumn's Rust Creep. "Autumn, these are the herbs that worked last time. Can you help me grind them for the infusion?"
@Team: If the answer to the above questions aren't favorable, do we want to rest for 16 hours so Morga can be fresh and ready to go? Someone may have to convince her.
During a lull in Autumn's treatment, she finishes treating her own wounds from the fight.
Autumn nods dully at Morga, taking the herbs and grinding them without much enthusiasm. This underground cavern is much bigger than she expected—and she’s not even thinking about how many more levels below there are down the stairs. She’d much rather make a quick buck than … well, whatever they’re doing now.
“Did you learn all this healing stuff at the cathedral?” she asks the dwarf to pass the time. “How’d you end up there anyway?”
Vildran laughs nervously. He should be quite excited about studying the Thassalonian ruins, but he's constantly preoccupied with... no dying.
Still, it reminds him to look around and wonder what there is to learn along the way.
You retreat back into the boggards' domain to their surprise. It's clear that they weren't expecting you back so soon (or maybe at all). They're even more surprised and excited when you've destroyed the two sinspawn guarding the stairs deeper down. At first it seems like they will pack up and leave immediately, but then a more cool-headed Gurga warns them that the rusty ones may have left other dangers even worse than the two guards along the path down. She makes a show of commending you all for your success, but decides that she'll only go down *after* your party does.
The boggards are welcoming enough when you mention you need a place to rest, but their domain is not much for comfort. You lay out bedrolls and blankets over a bed of junk and mushrooms, but everything becomes unpleasantly damp in minutes. It's clearly exactly the way the boggards like it, but it leaves a lot to be desired for comfort. Nevertheless, exhausted as you are you're able to get some rest.
Morga stays up, treating Autumn through the night. Perhaps it's Morga's own weariness, but the herbs that worked last time seem far less effective this time around. As morning approaches you see that Autumn's condition has worsened.
----
It's hard to tell if dawn has arrived in the surface world down here, but most of you feel reasonably well rested. Morga settles down afterward and goes to sleep as well, and eight solid hours later awakens stiff but refreshed. All throughout this you all hear the sounds of the boggards cleaning, sorting and arranging their acquisitions, along with ongoing persistent chatter about how they're going to bring all their prizes back home once the way is clear.
After resting, San approaches the boggards, "While we are letting our companion rest, is there anything with which I can help? I feel bad sitting around while there is work to be done.
Once everyone is refreshed and ready to move out, San lifts his pack and makes sure he has the right bow out. Looking over the team he finally notices Autumn is looking a little worse than the day before. With a knowing grimace, "It can be rough getting going with the bruising and pain. It subsides a bit once you move around. Should we investigate that room to see what we can find? Maybe something we can trade for that wand of Heal."
Autumn’s mood is no better than her illness. Despite San’s well-intended words, they can’t overcome her worsening disease and a night spent in such thoroughly damp surroundings. “So heinous,” she grumbles, trying to smooth out her wrinkled clothes and cover the ever growing rust-colored patches on her skin. “Soon there’ll be as much mold as rust.”
As if she had taken grumpiness lessons from Morga, the sorceress gives the archer a half-hearted nod and slowly gets up. “Let’s get this over with—I am so done.” With aching steps she gingerly follows him back to the laboratory beyond the secret door.
Feeling much better--physically, that is; she's still anxious to find her great-aunt and Ordwi--Morga replies to Autumn: "I'm with you there. And I'm more used to roughing it." She follows her into the room with the stairs to search it for anything useful.
1st: Bless, Fear, Sanctuary
Once the room has been thoroughly tossed, she suggests: "Do we want to clear the rest of this level before going downstairs? There were some doors we didn't open back before we found the boggards."
Vildran likewise approaches the boggards, but he brings them curiosities. Still, he feigns helpfulness of a particular variety in a clumsy attempt to ingratiate himself with them.
Yes, if you're in need of magical services, I might have just the thing! So, why did your tribe come up to these ruins to begin with?
--------------------
He agrees with Morga's thinking to make sure they have the lay of this floor before moving on.
We certainly wouldn't want lingering sinspawn to follow us down and block a retreat.
The boggards are very happy to receive any baubles and curiosities, especially if they're made of metal, but they adamantly refuse any help with sorting and cleaning and organizing their haul. One of the two underlings just squawks out "No! You'll not understand. Too complicated." They seem content to leave you to your resting without expecting anything more.
As for the laboratory, you make your way back there and find the space to be as you left it. Now that you aren't fighting for your lives you can inspect the space and its strange features. A sluggish clicking sound fills the air in this vast chamber. A wide, rusted metal cylinder that rises from floor to ceiling stands in the northeast corner of the room. After a short inspection you realize this pillar of rusty metal looks very similar to the material of the spires you saw on the surface of Rusthenge. Long cables and articulated armatures attach from the spire-root to cube-shaped devices with ticking gears and monotonously clicking weights that swing in lazy circles. Just west of the metal cylinder, a copper cauldron stands on a rusted iron stand; one of the legs has bent, growing weak from the encroaching rust. Cold ashes sit under the cauldron.
In the southeast corner sits a stone basin holding a broad, sloped bowl with runes carved along the outside rim. Across from the basin in the southwest corner is a wooden cage built into the stone floor. Chalk-drawn runes surround a circle of chalk drawn around the cage. In the northwest corner, an empty bookcase stands against the wall behind a staircase that descends into darkness.
At the north end of the room is a workbench with several old books in Ancient Thassilonian. Also sitting on the bench is a worn wand. In her more careful search of the room Morga finds a second wand behind the bookshelf in the north-west corner of the room.
San wanders around the room periodically casting a spell to detect magic in the area. "I bet the Runewatchers would find these books to be valuable. Maybe even get them to accept us??" He gives Vildran a hopeful expression with the last comment. "Once we're done here we'll have to see if we can bring them out."
While searching, Morga looks for a chunk of metal she can slip into her pocket , as well as taking a peek into the cauldron to see if there's a potentially identifiable residue in there. If so, she calls over San or Vildran to check it out.
The chalk runes around the wooden cage and the runes around the bowl draw her eye. Hmmm... Those don't look good.
“Let’s figure out what this laboratory is for first,” Autumn responds when Morga tries to put the cart before the horse. Though she doesn’t disagree with the dwarf’s suggestion, for much the same reason as San, she would like to have some idea as to what the cultists are up to. In this regard, she looks mainly to the bookworm of the group to figure it out.
As for herself, Autumn focuses on searching the southern wall for the second secret door—the boggards had mentioned a ritual chamber overrun with cultists, and she doesn’t want any of them catching her by surprise. As soon as she finds the door she quietly listens at it, then examines the area to see if it was recently used. It would be wonderful if the cultists were ignorant of the door, but that seems highly unlikely—they must have come in here to place the sinspawn guardians and light the now dead fire beneath the cauldron, but the only way into this room from above is through one of the secret doors.
Afterwards, she takes a closer look at the wooden cage, searching for any clues as to its previous occupant. Did it house another cythnigot?
Yeah! he enthusiastically concurs with San.
I'm pretty sure they'd be jealous of this whole experience.
Since San is detecting for magic, he'll approach the bookshelf to get an overview of the topics, and any clues about the cultist's purposes here. Perhaps there are powerful rituals within.
pod of poison:
Intricately carved wolf fang on leather cord:
Eye pendant:
--------------------
Vildran asks morga to see the wands she just found...
-----------------
San is briefly disoriented after casting detect magic as the spell seems to ping off everything around him at once. Magical energy suffuses much of this chamber, though after some study he recognizes that it's by far strongest around the metal pillar and its associated machinery to the north-east. The wands take a little more examination, but he determines that one is a wand of grease, while Vildran identifies the other and a wand of burning hands.
Morga's able to easily find a scrap of metal among the fragments flaking from various things in the room. Inside the cauldron she sees a thin oily-looking film on the bottom. She's not entirely sure what it is, but stains on the interior of the cauldron suggest there was more fluid inside it previously . She looks over the rune-rimmed bowl as well, but other than vaguely recognizing that there's something magical about it, she's not sure what it might do.
Autumn has better luck to the southern end of the chamber. With the help of the descriptions the boggards provided, she easily spots a recessed handle in the stone that'll allow you to open the hidden door. She hears nothing from the other side, but to be fair the door is heavy stone. She finds scratches and wear on the cage, but establishes no clear picture about its previous occupant.
Vildran takes a good half hour reading through the ancient books on the bookshelf but by the end he has a fairly good picture of what this secluded lab is for. The texts focus on two main topics: the theory behind the construction of runewells and the interaction of sin magic with various exotic metals. Annotated within the tomes is an esoteric technique for channeling energies associated with the sin of envy from dilute sources into a much more concentrated form. Vildran sees sketches of the spires of Rusthenge piercing down deep into the earth in order to conduct magical energy to focal points below them. Devices are depicted for siphoning portions of this energy off and storing it, while others seem designed to transmit it to a central hub. Vildran looks up from his reading and sees that the machinery in this room is of the transmitting variety and that - based on the diagrams in the tomes - it has been designed to direct any gathered magic to some floor beneath this one. It seems to be active - Rusthenge is still functional all these years later.
In addition to the priceless lessons taught by the tomes, Vildran finds some more material wealth ensconced among the pages. He uncovers three scrolls - one of mud pit (1st), one of dispel magic (2nd) and one of resist energy (2nd).
Reeling from the overwhelming sensory assault, San has to take a minute to recover. "So this thing is supposed to channel Sin magic to something beneath... those cultists were sacrificing things at the visible part of Rusthenge. I wonder if we could disrupt whatever this is doing. Jam some of the parts or something". His magical theory might be lacking but surely some of these mechanical pieces are important.
Autumn turns away from the secret door, indicating with a shake of her head that she heard nothing on the other side. To San she responds with a warning. “Good idea, but remember what happened when I tried to disrupt the apparatus in the entry room?” Nonetheless, she cautiously approaches the cylinder and its connected cables and gears and weights, trying to figure out the safest way to disable the device. “Vildran, do those books say anything about how to stop this thing, safely? I don’t want this thing coming to life to kill us.”
While she examines the ticking device she asks Morga, “Which room do you want to clear first after we’re done here? The ritual room that the boggards said is full of cultists?” She gestures towards the secret door to the south.
Morga's brow creases with concern at Autumn's suggestion. "I'd...rather pick them off by ones and twos than face a whole room full of them, based on our luck so far. We don't know if they have another cythnigot or anything else that powerful. How about we go back to that main hall and continue working our way around it, like we were doing before we found the boggards? They'll prevent any threats from coming up behind us from this direction."
While you discuss your next moves, Vildran carefully analyzes the poison in the pods and determines it to be a weakened form of lethargy poison . Exposure could easily knock you out, and you saw as much when you were first rescuing Ordwi days earlier.
Autumn nods, agreeing with Morga’s rationale. “We should also use all the stuff we’ve found—that might’ve helped in the last fight.” So saying, she takes two of the newly found scrolls for herself and admiringly eyes the finely crafted pendant that is shaped like an unblinking eye. “Fetch,” she murmurs as she hangs it around her neck and feels a tiny surge of occult power. “Do you want to use the dero poison on your weapons, or trade it for the healing wand? The boggards had some poisons of their own, so that’s something they should value.”
After Vildran shares his assessment of the complicated contraption, Autumn nods in agreement. “Fortunately this machinery should be a lot easier—and safer—to disable. But if there’s anyone down below, they might notice the disruption and come up to investigate.” She waits for when everyone is ready to proceed, then unscrews several cables, cuts free some of the swinging weights, and snips a few select wires.
Griping his bow again, San nods to Autumn, "Let's do it. If they come up the stairs, we can block them there. Either way, I don't think we should leave this thing intact."
While Autumn disables the mechanisms, Morga stands guard at the top of the stairs, straining her senses for signs of approaching foes. As soon as everyone is ready to retreat, she follows.
He starts looking around at the shelves to see what books he could stash in his pack that would provide the most info.
Hearing Autumn's question, he mutters absent-mindedly
Yeah, should be easy to just wreck the mechanics.
He finally focuses on what Autumn's about to do, and walks up behind her to inspect.
So are you looking to just turn it off for now, or permanently damage it? I want to see what happens when you do this. I'm not sure what to expect.
His antennae lean in too.
----
Autumn's deft hand with the equipment here detaches and disables individual contraptions until the machines fall still and the continuous clicking sound ceases. It almost seems like the rusty metal column in the north-east of the room is now shining a little brighter, but it could also just be coincidence. Luckily, there's no immediate response from anything down the stairs. Everything appears to be quiet for now.
Vildran casts his detect magic and notes a strong sense of magic still fills the room. His sense isn't fine tuned enough to deduce if it is particularly stronger or weaker than before.
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Relieved that the mechanism simply stops—unlike the disastrous awakening of the apparatus in the entry room—Autumn begins prying apart small key bits of the machines: a loose gear here, a freed weight there, and even an armature. Recalling the boggards’ seeming penchant for metal, she gathers the assorted scrap into her pack and returns to the boggards’ damp lair to negotiate, trusting that her companions would secure the secret door behind her.
“Great Gurga,” she greets the leader, “we would like to trade for your wand. Here are some small prizes,” she takes out the bits of machinery from the laboratory, “some precious poisons,” she lays out all thirteen doses of dero poison, “and …” The sorceress pauses for dramatic effect, before twisting her hand with a flourish, producing a gleaming platinum coin. “… a metal so rare and pure that only a privileged few can claim.”
As the apparatus shuts down, Vildran frowns.
I... cannot tell what stopped. There is too much magic here. Maybe it needs a cooldown period...
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Gurga croons with joy at the platinum coin, examining it and its inscriptions with great interest. The poisons similarly earn excitement from the other two boggards, almost as much as the metal scrap and Autumn's earlier gift of the mirror. Gurga waves to her two underlings and they retrieve the wand of heal. She has them pass it over "Yes. Very fair trade between friends. One special stick for many smaller useful treasures. We will take care of them, yes we will." She describes the method of activation for the wand, clearly at least somewhat versed in using such things. "Just don't expect it to put legs and arms back on bodies. We tried. Very nice light show, but Kril kept being very dead."
Autumn accepts the wand with a grateful nod and a warm smile. “We’ll try to remember that,” she responds to the story about poor Kril, then hands the wand over to Morga. It pains her to part with the platinum coin, but given how deadly the last two sinspawn were, adding some extra healing seems like a sensible precaution. After all, no amount of coin is worth her life.
“We’re going to remove more rust people threats, but we’ll be back. Please let us in when you hear us knock three times and call your name.” She gestures at the stone bench blocking the door through which they first entered.
"Thank you Gurga four the opportunity to trade." As they approach the other path, "Hopefully after the sinspawn, the cultists won't be much of a problem."
"Just don't expect it to put legs and arms back on bodies. We tried. Very nice light show, but Kril kept being very dead."
"I sure hope so." Morga grumbles. They weren't *that* much of a fight in Stonehome, but down here the team's luck has been very different. She doesn't feel good about allowing herself to hope that the rest will be easier. The wand helps, though. "Thank you, Gurga. We'll keep earning your trust. It's good to have you as allies."
Vildran grips his staff and nods at Morga as she prepares to open the next door...
-
You turn your attention to the door to the north-west. The door is closed and padlocked, but with a little experimentation you find that one of the keys you retrieved the day before fits the lock. The door is heavy and well reinforced, so Morga hears nothing of note from the other side. You open it.
The stench from over-full chamber pots is overpowering in this vast, dusty chamber. The remains of archery targets, practice dummies, and wooden training posts lie sprawled around the room—it appears that components taken from these old furnishings have been used to build a few rickety-looking beds to the north. A feeble oil lamp glows from the center of the room, perched on an old sawhorse. The only exit is a door to the south.
Other than the smell you notice two more important things. Two of the beds to the north are occupied by blanket-covered lumps that are the right size and shape to be humanoids. Neither stirs. You also immediately hear the heavy breathing of something bestial, though from your position outside the door you can't see it.
The quiet, stealthy Autumn escapes its attention and can act first.
|||| INIT ||||
Autumn (Stage 2 Rust Creep)
????
San
Vildran
Morga
Autumn’s first reaction is to simply close the door and let sleeping dogs—or whatever beast has such a heavy breath—lie. As with the boggards, she has no intention of interfering with anyone except the cultists, and as deplorable as the rust people might be, she can’t imagine them living in such squalor, especially compared to the sleeping quarters they just passed.
But that immediately raises the question of who is here, behind a locked door, with some guard beast, in a filthy place that reminds her of the storage room below Stonehome—where the prisoners were held. Ordwi. And perhaps Morga’s aunt.
With that realization comes another. Perhaps it’s a subtle change in the beast’s breathing, but the sorceress senses that they’ve been noticed, and their window of opportunity is shrinking. With no chance of quietly sneaking past, and, she realizes with some surprise, her companions already in perfect formation to attack, she takes the initiative, boldly striding past Morga into the room, just far enough to see the creature with her own eyes. Pulling the trigger on her crossbow, she looses a quarrel at it and then quickly retreats back to safety, hoping to lure it into the narrow doorway where they should have a tactical advantage.
The hound howls. The deafening howling seems to pierce straight past your ears and into your souls, inciting an unreasonable, primal fear.
San stays firm in the face of its howling, but the rest of you falter. Autumn and Morga are left frightened while Vildran is stricken by such intense fear that he immediately bolts, trying to get away from the room and its unseen occupant.
You're sure that everything on this floor must have heard that howl, it was so resonant and piercing.
|||| INIT ||||
San
Vildran (frightened 3, fleeing)
Morga (frightened 1)
Autumn (frightened 1, Stage 2 Rust Creep)
???? Hound (2 dmg)
Vildran is not sure if he's even still in his body after that fright. Without thinking, he turns to run, his antennae limp and dead atop his head. He rushes towards the nearest door back to the boggards' abode.
He fumbles at the door along the way to opening it...
and rushes to round the next bend that he can find.
Morga hears a set of her allies' feet beating a hasty retreat--Vildran's by the rhythm of it. She can't fully blame him; the beast's howl caused her insides to drop as well. "Great." She grumbles. "Let's do this quickly, before more folks come to the party."
Raising her shield, she casts Guidance on San and strides into the room, placing herself right in front of the beast so he can get past her without getting bitten.
The hound’s howl shakes her very bones, but unlike the fleeing elf—who, she must admit, is being rather sensible, considering that the noise has probably alerted everyone in Rusthenge to their presence—unlike Vildran, there’s enough anger for Autumn to stand her ground. What was she thinking? Why didn’t she try a more subtle approach? Evidently Morga’s penchant for combat is rubbing off on her. “So …” she mutters at herself in annoyance, at a momentary loss for words. She’s tempted to follow Vildran, but the dwarf has gone all in, so …
“So heinous!” With grit teeth, she dashes forward once again, but stops short of the corner, using the adjacent wall for cover. Not that that would help the hound: with flashing eyes she summons a magical bolt that phases through the wall at the beast. “Ordwi!” she shouts, hoping that one of the two blanket-covered lumps is indeed her.
San dodges Vildran's hasty retreat and dashes in past Autumn and Morga to get a good shot on the beast.
The hound rattles its chain as it lunges at Morga. She holds it at bay with her shield, jamming its jaws and then turning it aside as it goes for a second bite. Finding no success against Morga, it leaps toward San instead with its last action. You can see there's still some slack on its chain.
|||| INIT ||||
San
Vildran (frightened 2, fleeing)
Morga
Autumn (Stage 2 Rust Creep)
???? Hound (13 dmg)
Autumn frowns when she realizes that the bodies don’t react at all to the bone-chilling howl—they just might be trying to save a couple corpses. But with her comrades in danger, she persists, quickly taking advantage of the distraction provided by San’s arrow to blast another phase bolt at the hound. She follows up with a withering glare while keeping her ears peeled for the sound of approaching footsteps.
Trying to create more space, San runs to the corner of the room, hopefully beyond the reach of the chain. Assuming a familiar shooting stance, he fires another arrow. Where did Vildran run off to?
As the creature shoulders past her, Morga is at first dismayed that it got by her so easily. Then again, it's given her space to cast a spell without getting bitten in the process. Thanks, hellion! She calls on Desna's power to pierce its hide, casting Needle Darts. Shards of metal fly out of her pocket and hurl toward the hound, after which she raises her shield once more.
|||| INIT ||||
San
Vildran (frightened 2, fleeing) x2
Morga
Autumn (Stage 2 Rust Creep)
???? Hound (30 dmg)
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This looks safe!
behind him.
Looking around the room, Vildran figures standing in the corner quietly should do.
Then, looking down he sees bedding with blankets.