"Why it's known as a dungeon cleaner" the hollow chuckle echoes inside his helmet "Get rid of the junk, leave the best"
The Horn - Level 2
The Party closes the door, while the oozes may be indeed able to melt through the door, they seem to respect the boundaries that doors create. Thus, with a simple swing of the hand, the encounter with what may be a useful natural creature, is ended.
Area 2-13 - Grumble
An empty room.
Area 2-14 - Clyde
Yet another, empty room, but much larger.
Area 2-15 - Mal
Perhaps it is no shock now, but this is yet another, empty room.
Brian chimes in, "Well, there's certainly plenty of room to gather up forces and move them in but the cost of furniture would be expensive, would it not be better to hire carpenters to build furniture? Plus, would it not also be quite peculiar to order a tremendous amount of furniture from Farholde to be sent into the woods?
Unless of course, we make this an army of the dead who don't need such luxuries..."
"We would need carpenters we can trust, this isn't just a house to refurbish after all"
The Horn - Level 2
Brian shrugs, "I thought we would just convert them to the cause or kill them if they won't".
Mephistopheles' blue eyes laugh.
Simply employ volunteers from our enemies as we wade through them. Should be plenty.
The Wizard then absently nods at the Hallow Chamber.
That's basically permanent for now.
The Wizard follows along behind the others.
Clyde follows along, clearly out of his depth with redecorating one's lair.
The Horn - Level 2
The Party moves back to the hallway entrance of their first victory together and investigate the doors left behind.
Area 2-17 - Mal
Yet another largely empty chamber with only a few remaining wrecked pieces of furniture remaining.
Area 2-18 - Clyde
This chamber, much like the room to an ooze "feels" wrong. The room contains a plain wooden table where many candles have burned down to nubs, there is also the drawn image of the sun on the wall. An inscription has been carved below that reading
“Mitra lucet omnibus, Mitra omnia regit”
Area 2-19 - Grumble
All that remains in this room is a broken, headless statue. Even a cursory glance reveals that the statue is very detailed.
Elliaria matches the head to the statue, it's a perfect fit!
Hmm...Some writing here. I recognize the word Mitra but nothing else.
"Oh, that is the Allerian Knight's motto. 'Mitra shines on everyone, Mitra rules everything.' They do love their dead languages. Hell, many of the noble families go to special services in a language that they don't understand to prove to their neighbors how pious they are. It was delicious to see them give in to their pride in the middle of Mitran services."
"Oh, and this is holy ground as well, though not as strong as the previous one."
Elliaria will check the nostrils and ears of the statue. A sculptor will only go deep enough that people see it is a hollow. When a person is turned to stone it goes as deep as the original natural orifice.
Elliaria confirms this is the real deal, whoever this was, could be rescued with the proper magical solvent!
Mephistopheles' blue eyes glint in agreement with Ellaria's knowledge of the inscription and lesser hollow spell.
The Wizard continues to delve, discover and discuss their potential findings....
Probably need to place a help wanted advertisement.
Jack squinted in confusion while Elliaria fitted the stone head to it's body.
"Damn good statue. Why you carrying the head around?"
"Because this was once a person. We just need a little stone shaping and stone to flesh and we can see who he was. If he was petrified by a Mitran, it might be somebody we can use."
The Horn - Level 2[/b[]
Brian speaks, [b]"We are at the end of this level I suspect, based on the size of the Temple, the hall will probably lead up or we are at the end of our tour of the Horn..."
The Horn - Level 2
Area 2-21 - Everyone
This long L-shaped corridor extends almost 220 feet. Every ten feet is a new mural carved in larger than life detail. Together these murals depict a detailed history of the Sons of the Pale Horseman. Some of the murals have been defaced, but there is simply so much adornment throughout the Horn that after a while the knights in the Victor’s service simply could not deface it all or perhaps the horrors were too much to bear and they finally had enough.
Someone with a working knowledge of the Abyssal tongue and with patience could catalogue every major event in the Sons’ history -- from their founding in a distant land, their expulsion, their search for a new home, their building of the Horn, the summoning of Vetra-Kali and then the many years of serving the daemon prince. It is actually an epic tale (though doubtless aggrandizing of the sons).
Hmmm....Perhaps we could explore outside using flight or climbing?
While the group looked over the intricate mural, Jack looked around for the dragon that had been guarding the rear as they explored. "Aurex, have you seen anything out there that coulda been another floor, or any other way in?"
"This is interesting. The Sons of the Apocalypse have a much richer history than I expected. I recognize most of the daemons and some of the rites depicted, but whatever this foreign land is, and the various human histories referenced are less familiar to me."
Mephistopheles' blue eyes linger ever so gently on each and every mural depiction displayed deliciously directly in front of him......
... embedded within some of the murals which are not completely defaced are rituals! With enough time and patience, I may well be able to tease out the powers that lie within. Though one would also need mastery of the Planes and Religion to successfully translate these Rituals into usable form.
The Wizard smiles.
While the group looked over the intricate mural, Jack looked around for the dragon that had been guarding the rear as they explored. "Aurex, have you seen anything out there that coulda been another floor, or any other way in?"
Jack blinked and scowled when he realized Aurex wasn't with them. "Where'd that overgrown lizard get off to?"
"You sent him off to deal with the elf corpses," Raaven reminded Jack. "Would you like me to retrieve him?"
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Grumblejack grumbled in annoyance. "Naw, it's a better job for you anyway. Aurex can't really stay outta sight when he's flappin' around during the day."
"Go with Clyde's idea. Take a fly around the horn and look for other ways in we might have missed."
"Of course, master," Raaven replied with only a tiny hint of exasperation and a longing look towards the mural. "Don't make too much progress without me, Wizard. I am very curious about these rituals you've spotted."
She floated down the hall, fading to invisibility again as she went.
"So now what?" Jack asked the group. "Seems like we got some time to kill while Raaven looks around outside. Not sure what to do first."
The Wizard seems perfectly fine delving into the murals, as they wait....
The Horn - Level 3
The Ninth mulls what tasks to potentially tackle next while Raaven investigates higher up the Horn. The Cacodaemon flies invisibly up the mountain with ease. At approximately 200' above the bottom and a 90' angled ascent from the entrance to Level 2.
While the handholds are adequate to climb, one failure and the unfortunate soul who slips will likely never be the same again, even f they live. Much easier to Fly or Levitate to this position.
The landing platform is baroquely adorned with every surface decorated with countless daemons tormenting and triumphing over mortals foolish enough to oppose them. Prominent among these decorations to the left of archway is a bas relief of Vetra-Kali sitting cross-legged. You for one, can truly appreciate the imagery.
This landing appears to lead into a large hallway, from within glows an eerie green light.
"We're here, may as well see what the light is all about. I'd rather not leave anything to chance while we're here. We need to know every nook and corner of this place"
"We're here, may as well see what the light is all about. I'd rather not leave anything to chance while we're here. We need to know every nook and corner of this place"
After a few minutes of discussion and killing time, Grumble scowled in thought. "It's glowing? Don't go in," he said after a moment. "Naw, good work. Come back. See if you can find Aurex, we might need him."
He waved the party back from their various tasks and distractions.
"There's a third floor. Raaven says there's some kinda landing pad out there. Leads to a big glowy hallway. So there's gotta be some hidden stairs in here somewhere, right? Or maybe another word for the throne?"
The Horn - Level 2
Grumble heads to the Temple once more and to the hollow column that had stairs leading down, it would stand to reason that it would have also had stairs leading up!
But as he looks up, Grumble realizes that it does not...
So we will need to coordinate flying. We need to expect a welcoming party and so should arrive ready to fight. When we are ready to go up of course.
We have a dragon who can presumably carry one or two, and our shadowy wizard can cast both fly and spider climb. He can prepare more than one, but obviously the more spells he prepares to get us into the fight, the fewer spells we have once we're there.
Because I don't breathe I can come in a bag of hefty capacity, but I'll need somebody to open it on the other side. But I don't like that option.
Perhaps adding some scrolls or a wand would help us out. We will presumably also need a way down until we find another way down like the throne or something we missed.
Mephistopheles spends the time scribing the mural runes into his Spellbook....
A mysterious blocked staircase leading to yet a third level? Probably want to leave the blockage for now and just use the outside entrance that Raaven located.
The Wizard then chuckles.
If anyone needs help getting it up, there are spells for that. Getting back down is easy.
Mephistopheles then motions to Ellaria.
If you're going to town, please purchase a Scroll of Animate Rope. That should do it.
He hands her a purse of coins.
"Waitaminute..." Grumble muttered.
He stomped his way back to the second floor prison and squinted through the bars at the ceiling. Then he pointed.
"Saw it earlier. Didn't connect the dots 'till now. There's a hole," he said, thinking as hard as his stunted brain could manage. "Gotta be like the pit on the second floor, just inside the main door, right? That one drops down to that cell on the first floor. So there's a pit trap up there somewhere."
He scratched a crude outline of the horn in the dirt with one of his claws, with rough boxes for the floors set inside a simple triangle, and lines connecting the floors where the pits were. He scowled at the drawing.
"I ain't no good at this s##*," he grumbled frustrated. "Makes my brain hurt. Maybe one of you smarter folks can figure out what I'm getting at. So, the Horn is like big... uh, horn, right. The outside is slanted. But this hole here goes straight up. So, it's gotta be right on the outside edge of the slant up there, right? Like on that landing pad? Or just past it?"
The Horn
Raaven returns as Grumble alerts the others about the pit trap. Aurex is in tow. He awaits in anticipation of a question without speaking.
Looking up, it is clear that there is indeed a shaft that would lead to level 3, the trap is likely still set as Raaven saw nothing up on the landing.
Mephistopheles' blue eyes peer studiously at the plausible path up a pit trapped to Level 3. After a few moments, the Illusionist shrugs.
If I've been privy to possible engineering, interior decorating, and physics involved in this particular project, I've been a Transmutation specialist.
He looks to Ellaria.
"Oh, I'm willing to go up and trigger the trap. But if it needs skill to disarm, that's one aspect that I haven't spent time learning. I could check it out and then have Grumble or Clyde follow once we know what's going on."
I have some skill in disabling such devices once I have a chance to study them.
"Seems easy enough to scout," Raaven quipped, then rose into the air up the shaft.
"it's always good to have a range of skill uses, especially working on a joint operation. That way obstacles can be brought to heel and easily overcome" the soldier agrees
The Horn - Level 3
Raaven finds that his weight isn't sufficient to trigger the trap, but certainly, Aurex would be. He flies up and triggers the trap, hovering to avoid falling and he and Raaven tie off a rope allowing the rest of the Party to climb the rope and arrive at the third level.
It appears as Raaven described it.
Clyde studies the trap and finds it, surprisingly, in good working order, the Mitrans likely reset it to slay any that attempted to traverse to the third level after they destroyed the forces of Vetra-Kali.
Area 3-1
Once inside, the entranceway is a large hallway with five doors. The baroque decoration continues and everywhere is found bas relief carving showing the doings of daemons. There is a great deal of abyssal writing here as well.
The hallway tells the tale of the ascension of the daemon prince Vetra-Kali Eats-the-Eyes. It is revealed that Vetra-Kali is a Leukodaemon who
through his savagery and remorseless cruelty rose from the ranks to be appointed an Archdeacon of Pestilence in service to the Pale Horseman. This hallway exalts and praises the many ruthless deeds done by Vetra-Kali to gain this prominence.
Six green ominous flickering continual flames (one beside each of the single doors and two beside the double doors at the end of the hall) light this hall.
This is uncleared territory no doubt, so we best open the doors one by one to avoid getting overwhelmed if guardians remain
"I agree."
"Best be careful yes, we have no idea what still lurks in these abandoned halls"
Before climbing up, Grumble told Aurex "Fly up to the landing and meet us at the top."
Once everyone was up, he grinned at the position of the pit right where he thought it would be, nodded his agreement to their plan and moved towards the left door.
"Lock and trap checks, then me and Mal through the doors first. We'll start here. Ell, Clyde, you're up."
While waiting for the trap specialists to do their thing, the Wizard points at each one while murmuring arcane words.
Message . Depending on mortality rate, he will cast Message on each of them every 70 minutes....
The Wizard frowns at the cruelty of climbing a rope, as he deftly maneuvers up it.
Elevator. Definitely putting a f~@!ing elevator here.
Standing still in the 3rd level hallway, Meph immediately casts Detect Magic while he peers down the hallway from his position.
Safety first, my minions.
Mephistopheles' blue eyes shine as the tall red-skinned Tiefling laughs.
"Barring my human nature, I think I'm one of the safest here" he shakes his head "I'll double as a second door if needed"