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Lesley moves to deny Blue the flank, prompting White to look back at Blue as if to ask “what now?” just before her gun goes off, though the round just barely misses.
Blue writhes as the wave of energy eats him from the inside out and he crumbles to dust. White looks even more panicky even as the holy energy burns him, too.
The Shadows
Conditions: Netherworld, Dim light or Bright depending on location of wayfinders and light spells. BLESS
BOLD May Act
Bramblespine
Olaf
Melania
Black Molly
White
Qigiq
Lesley
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Bramblespine stares at White,
but he stares back bravely, though it’s clear that he’s just barely keeping it together.
Then the witch’s darts find their mark, though, tearing through the shadowborn’s body with ease.
Olaf blasts the slayer with holy energy, burning him to ash.
Melania and the Cap’n team up to shred the body, though there’s little left of it.
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With everyone healed up, you proceed south into the next room. Bramblespine continues making their map, and Qigiq leads the way down the passage and into a small room. Debris fills this area. The scars of a battle long past mar the walls, both from physical weapons and magical attacks.
The incomplete notes are the first portion of Alystair Caskwater’s journal. He seems to have been a self-styled monster hunter and warrior. His name has been lost to history and is unfamiliar to even the most scholarly PC. 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.
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Bramblespine muses over over the book found by BlackMolly and SilverBeard "Caskwater... not a name that's familiar but it looks like they had a plan to confront a mage from the Netherworld that was attempting to weaken the barriers, probably some foul undead invasion plan or the like. It also looks like they had a rich patron, although I'm not seeing details on them. Maybe we'll find more of the journal if we keep looking."
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You move down the hall and find a strange room to the left.
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.
Both Olaf and Bramblespine immediately urge caution. There is clearly something very evil and very strange here. It seems that perhaps this room had been used as part of a ritual or something, and there are still dangerous occult energies lingering here. It would perhaps be best not to approach this hazard too closely.
Although they both can attest to the apparent efficacy of stopping up the spout, they are also both sure that approaching closely enough to do so would trigger the dangerous energies before one could even get to the spout.
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Olaf easily redirects the energies, cleansing the last of the evil from the room. The supernatural smell of offal decreases after a few moments, and the flow of blood trickles to a stop. The pool is still full of nastiness, but you are certain that the otherworldly danger is past.
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Molly and Lesley argee that the mural depicts the god Aroden raising the Starstone and the Isle of Kortos from beneath the sea and that the reflection shows the creation of a place in the Netherworld: the birth of the Shadow Kortos that today holds the location of Shadow Absalom.
Leaving the stench of the pit behind, you continue through the strange dim tunnels. They soon turn to more natural caverns that twist and turn upon themselves. Here, signs of another battle fought long ago are in abundance: 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.
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.
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Following the long thin corridor, you exit into a much larger chamber, its north wall 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 into the gloom to the west. A sturdy door made of a black metal* of some sort stands to the south. The door does seem to be rusted shut, but the lock appears to be in working order.
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Lesley pulls out her thieves' tools and begins working with the lock after Melenia fails to open the door by pushing it.
"Hmm, I am having trouble working on this one. Perhaps there is a key for this?" she says but can try again.
"Give me more time, I know I can open this." she tries one more time.
"There you go," she says in relief and quickly returns the tools into her bag and wields her weapon before pushing the door open for everyone.
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Qigiq opens the door for the rest of the team, then leads the way into the room. 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!”
From within the sarcophagus, he immediately draws an enormous sword and attacks. As Alystair speaks, you also hear sounds from the rooms to the west. Beyond that doorway, there is stirring as two crypts bursts open, its animate occupants lurching into the room. One seems confused and gets turned around while the other rushes towards the fresh meat in the first room - you!
Full of energy and eager to “repay” your kindness, the creature that was once a skilled monster hunter and warrior moves with preternatural speed. He steps up to the front line of Pathfinders and swipes at Qigiq and the Cap’n both with one mighty swing.
His greatsword cleaves from the warpriest into the pirate spraying rancid flesh across both.
Meanwhile, one of the creatures from the deeper crypt rushes in and attacks Olaf
His huge sword tears into Olaf, likewise sending a spray of stinking seaweed that threatens to make the priest puke.
The Ritual Chamber
Conditions: Netherworld
BOLD May Act
Alystair (Red)
Green
Bramblespine
Melania
Qigiq
Black Molly
Olaf
Lesley
Blue
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Lesley springs into action and shoots the one that rises from the coffin before they take them all down.
vs Red for B/P (concussive) damage
She gets close, changes her weapon into melee mode, and reloads.
She slices the same target with the blade of her triggerbrand.
vs Red for P/S damage
◇ Spring the Trap
◆ Strike (with Triggerbrand on ranged mode)
◆ Touch and Go -
◆ Strike (with Triggerbrand on melee mode)
↺ Hit the Dirt -
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Olaf ignores the stench wafting from the garbage and repays their kindness with a blast of holy energy!
Although both of the hideous beings resist Olaf’s blast, it does seem to burn them extra anyway, and burn Alystair more than the mook.
Melania zaps them both
Perhaps distracted by the burning of holy energy, neither manages to dodge her lightning.
Molly goes on the defensive, protecting both herself and the Cap’n. Silverbeard tries to shove Alystair away but gets tangled up in his own feet.
Lesley springs into action with a shot at Alystair that misses, though it zings right past the undead horror’s ear. She steps in closer and swings but he dodges the to-him “new-fangled” weapon.
After what the lich did to him, Alystair is not afraid of Bramblespine’s patron and shrugs off the hex.
Having just seen Melania cast the same spell, this time they’re both ready and react a bit more quickly to avoid some of the damage.
The Ritual Chamber
Conditions: Netherworld
BOLD May Act
Alystair (Red)
Green
Bramblespine
Melania
Qigiq
Black Molly
Cap’n Silverbeard
Olaf
Lesley
Blue
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Qigiq sends a prayer of protection across the team of Pathfinders.
The second of the undead from the other room arrives. He’s clearly not stupid, sees the traffic jam, and notes the holy man. That’s the threat, so he moves to focus on Olaf.
The tight corners of the room make swinging a greatsword hard, and he misses.
Alystair laughs as Cap’n Silverbeard falls on his ghostly ass. He twirls his greatsword and sweeps across the two standing foes in front of him: Qigiq and Lesley.
Overjoyed with his success, and still chortling at the poor Cap’n, he swings again at Lesley
Maybe he should focus on fighting and not on laughing.
The one in the Green tabard picks his targets carefully
Olaf and Molly get slashed by the sword and sprayed by more foul seaweed.
Also happy with how things are going, he swings again at the holy man
The Ritual Chamber
Conditions: Netherworld; Benediction (+1 AC)
BOLD May Act
Alystair (Red)
Green
Bramblespine
Melania
Qigiq
Black Molly
Cap’n Silverbeard
Olaf
Lesley
Blue