Herok isn’t able to determine the significance of the altar or implements.
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The silver bowl on the altar is worth 5 gp. The knife sitting on top of it is a low-grade cold iron dagger with the rune of Abraxas etched on the blade. Within the bowl are six smooth garnet beads, one worth 2 gp, two worth 5 gp, and three worth 10
A search of the dagger reveals that its pommel can be detached—a seventh garnet sits inside the dagger’s hollow handle. This garnet is of higher quality and is worth 25 gp. The other door here leads to an ancient cloak room that once contained raiment sacred to the worship of Abraxas. Most of these robes have long since decayed away, but a green and orange cultist cowl currently emblazoned with the rune of Abraxas remains draped over a peg in the wall.
Siobhan slices the demon, then Viviana’s glaive comes down in a critical arc! The blade bisects the brimorak, both halves of its body flopping to the floor in a pool of boiling blood. Its flaming sword evaporated into smoke as its burning body smolders out.
Sorry, I've been lax on map duties. I'll get it posted on Monday so you can see where you are and where you haven't been yet.
Kamo eviscerates the meokdan attacking him. Meanwhile, Pagma rushes in to assist Sakura, stabbing her assailant twice. Sakura then beheads the nindoru with a critical slice of her katana! A thorough search of the room reveals a small tear under one of the mattresses. Within is a spiritsight ring.
Neither Batman nor Sylva are able to hit the demon, but Ravenna does well, scoring a critical hit, followed by a normal shot! Zienvus momentarily befuddles the fiend. The demon manages to maintain enough presence of mind to cast a spell, surrounding itself with mirror images! It then unleashes a burst of spores at the sprites attacking it!
Enemy Status: -60, clumsy 1 stupefied 1 for 1 round
The first troop of priests takes the full blast of Pen's lightning, but the other priests and the two demons dodge some of it. Clara's bombs only splash the priest troop, but they still serve to thin their ranks. Briar then charges forward, her blade cutting a bloody swath through the assembled priests. By the time she is done, they have fallen around her. That opens a path for Visna to get to the hezrou. As she draws near the hezrou, the toad demon's horrific stench assails her nostrils!
Ignoring the foul smell, Visna enhances her cold iron axe as she attacks, wounding the fiend and knocking it off-guard! The remaining troop of priests blast Briar with a cone of flames!
Meanwhile, the demons reluctantly abandon their ritual to turn their attention to Visna. The hezrou bites down on the thaumaturge, grabbing a hold of her! It holds her tightly against its sore-ridden body as toxic fluids spurt from its burst boils and weeping wens!
The succubus flaps her wings, lifting off into the air. She then casts a spell, attempting to scramble Briar's thoughts!
Enemy Status: Priesthood -43, Hezrou -88, Succubus -49
One of the ghouls dodges some of Caraid's fireball while the other takes the full blast. The explosion does not damage the strange machine in any way. Telvir temporarily slows one of the ghouls. Humerus moves in to try to grab one of the ghouls, but it dodges his attempts. Ceceka moves in and strikes the ghoul, which blocks some of the impact with its shield spell. Aily moves to flank the ghoul, stabbing it twice! Slowed and badly wounded, the injured ghoul tries to bite Aily, who dodges away. The other ghoul steps away out of Ceceka's reach and casts a spell, attempting to dominate the warrior!
You can see a trio of ghouls appear at the edge of the hole in the ceiling above you. They grin as they peer down at the battle unfolding, jeering and shouting in delight!
Enemy Status: -117, -8
Both Hooli and Xiung-Lau slice the vulnerable myceloid. With the last strike, the creature groans and collapses to the ground, lying still. With its death, the fungus infestation in the grove immediately begins to recede, with mushrooms and mold shrinking, melting, and evaporating.
Krohan grunts in pain as Brijetta strikes him. Mal fails to disarm him. Gig's spell begins to calm Thenur's angry spirit, but not enough to prevent it from urging Krohan to step up and attack Brijetta again. Luckily, he misses her.
You clear the rubble and move through the south door. It opens onto a 5-foot-wide hall that runs west and east. Several doors exit the hall to the west, while to the east, the corridor opens into a small room which should be on the other side of the room you spied through the crack in the wall. The north and west walls of this chamber are carved with hundreds of runes, all radiating out from a seven-pointed star with a flickering flame burning at its center. Now and then, a little sputter of sparks showers out of these flames. A wooden door in the northeast corner of the room has been adorned with a single rune carving that looks vaguely like a horned, fanged face. The runes on the walls are prayers, written in Thassilonian, to Abraxas, the demon lord of forbidden lore and magic. Kazumi and Zen both recognize the rune as Abraxas's symbol.
Pagma splashes the guhdggi with bombs, then Kamo moves in and finds an opening. He drives his silver dagger deep into the frog-thing's back, and it lets out a anguished shriek! The red butterflies in its mouth scatter to the winds as the nindoru collapses! Meanwhile, Sakura slashes one of her assailants but is unable to finish it off as it narrowly avoids her second strike. Fortunately, Jing-De scores a critical hit with a ray of frost, finishing off her wounded foe. The two remaining meokdans open their mouths wide, reach down their throats into their stomachs and pull out a human femur! They wield these femurs as clubs, one leaping to attack Kamo while the other swings on Sakura. Sakura's foe hits her, the bone splintering with the force of the impact!
The demon resists Viv's spell. Vyana, Siobhan, and Helmut each score a hit, leaving the fiend badly wounded. It retaliates, slicing Helmut again in a critical hit, though it misses with its follow up attacks.
The crack in the wall is too narrow to pass through, so you follow the tunnel to the north. The low-ceilinged, wood-braced tunnel comes to an end at a stone wall through which a four-foot-diameter hole has been burrowed. The rectangular room beyond is lit by flickering flames at the center of seven-pointed star carvings on the east and west walls, while to the south, a pile of stone and rubble lies on the floor in front of a wooden door and under an open trapdoor in the ceiling. Goblin arms and legs protrude from the rubble.
It doesn't look like the blade is pointing to anything in particular. Wherby has no idea what the religious iconography signifies.
You return to Harrowheart and quickly move through the next arch, emerging elsewhere within the Harrow Court. You find yourselves in the fetid swampland in the southern reaches of the demiplane, just on the edge of the farmland surrounding the central village. Here, two large groups of cultists are engaged in a foul ritual. The swampwater around them bubbles and churns with poisonous gases that the cultists are encouraging along. Leading the cultists is a succubus with a hand crossbow at her belt, and standing guard beside her is a hulking, toadlike demon with a large, toothy mouth. Initiative:
The succubus glances in your direction and scowls. She and the toad demon remain focused on the ritual, though. The two groups of cultists move forward to interpose themselves between you and the demons, then they cast spells, bombarding you with empowered fireballs!
Turac calls upon Iomedae to heal Reknar's injuries.
Uhe's gesture throws the spirit off enough that it is unable to avoid Brijetta's blast of spines. Gig unleashes the last of his magical power, and it proves to be jus enough to destroy the corrupted spirit! The clan dagger clatters to the floor, and Krohan grimaces as Thenur's spirit's hold on him weakens. However, the possessed dwarf continues to attack Brijetta!
Did you want to finish exploring this level of the dungeon first, or go down the stairs now?
Helmut is splashed by the demon's boiling blood, but Siobhan's intervention protects him from harm.
Vyana and Siobhan both miss the demon, and it ignores Helmut's spell. It slashes at Helmut twice, but fails to hit the goblin. Angry, it lashes out with a hoof, connecting this time, but Siobhan protects Helmut from most of the harm and weakens the demon as it is assailed by visions of its sins.
The smoke clears away, removing the demon's concealment.
Pagma hurls bombs at the guhddgi, splashing it twice before finally landing a direct hit. Jing-De blasts the frog-fiend with searing light, badly wounding it! Kamo finishes off the foe he wounded earlier and injures another, while the slowed Sakura only scores one hit on her opponent. The guhddgi lurches forward, using its two spears to balance. It staggers across the room to get to Jing-De before stabbing out with both spears from 10 feet away!
The remaining meokdans attack Kamo and Sakura. The gurgle in delight as they rip off bits of flesh, chew, and swallow, healing some of their wounds!
The guhdggi continues to burn.
Enemy Status: -51, -3, -1
Torgral howls with agony as you slice, bite, burn, and blast him! The mighty demon plummets from the sky and slams into the ground, sending up a huge plume of sand! You are able to claim The Uprising from his body. He also wears a king’s ransom in jewelry—necklaces, bracelets, rings, and belts worth a total of 4,500 gp.
The crack is too small for Kazumi to fit through. A fire burns within a seven-pointed star carved in the ceiling of the small room beyond, casting light that fills the area with a flickering radiance. Two wooden doors sit in the southwest corner of the room, while just before the crack, a low stone altar made of marble sits. The top of the altar holds a silver bowl with a slender-bladed knife balanced atop the bowl’s rim, its point aimed toward the west.
Tekmin peers through the crack in the wall that the demon squeezed through. A fire burns within a seven-pointed star carved in the ceiling of the small room beyond, casting light that fills the area with a flickering radiance. Two wooden doors sit in the southwest corner of the room, while just before the crack, a low stone altar made of marble sits. The top of the altar holds a silver bowl with a slender-bladed knife balanced atop the bowl’s rim, its point aimed toward the west.
Both Herok and Tekmin hit the demon through the smoke. Wherby hexes it, and as it tries to attack, the pain overwhelms its mind. With a whimper, the demon collapses to the floor. The smoke disperses a few moments later.
Kazumi scores a critical hit with the ray of frost! Nadja misses, but both Jeni and Zenobius strike the demon! It groans and falls to the ground with a thud, its flaming sword dissipating into smoke. The smoke cloud in the room clears a few seconds later. There is no sign of the goblin ghoul that fled the chamber.
Before Sakura runs off, Jing-De bestows a protection spell upon her to ward her against the nindorus. Then the fighter charges in, eviscerating the nearest of the meokdans. Kamo moves up alongside his sister, severely wounding a second meokdan with his silver dagger! The guhdggi grunts and waves its arms as it casts a spell, attempting to slow Sakura down. The meokdans hungrily bite at the Yuzuki siblings, trying to sate their eternal hunger. One gets a lucky hit on Kamo, ripping chunks of flesh from his side!
Enemy Status: M2 -19
Humerus chases the ghoul and grabs him, holding him in place while the rest of the team assaults him! Blasted by divine power and magic missiles, perforated by knives, and finally decapitated by a raging warrior, the ghoul goes down hard. However, the alarm has already been raised. Through the open door, you can see that a group of six immense violet crystals stands along the walls of the northern half of this octagonal chamber. Each of the jagged crystals is seven feet across and reach up nearly to the rafters twenty feet above, appearing almost as if they were flames of purple fire solidified to some sort of smoky quartz. Each crystal contains a shadowy humanoid shape inside. Flickering light pulses within the crystals, and now and then a mote of glowing radiance breaks free to drift toward the center of the room, where a twenty-foot-diameter domed cage sits. The cage is mostly made of gray metal bars, but a low, solid metal wall to the north features a panel of strange machines to which three hoses are attached to an awful-looking monstrosity that slumps awkwardly within the confinement. An octagonal hole in the ceiling above the central cage opens to the tower’s upper floor. Two ghouls in hooded robes stand before the cage, brandishing bone staffs. They call out to spread the alarm as they raise magical shields and then cast powerful spells, blasting the spirits of Caraid and Humerus!
The demon resists Wherby's evil eye, but it succumbs to his ill omen. Herok and Tekmin both miss, but Ximble scores a precise strike and follows up with a critical hit! Boiling blood sprays on the gnome as the demon staggers under the assault. Though badly wounded, the fiend continues to fight. It slices at Ximble, but misses due to the bad luck Wherby inflicted upon it! Snorting angrily, the demon breathes forth a cloud of thick black smoke!
Enemy Status: -67
The blade spirit takes the full blast of electricity, but Krohan evades it. Brijetta moves in to grapple Krohan, holding him back. Gig blasts the blade spirit with more magic missiles. The blade spirit retaliates with another barrage of sparks, sending Gig spasming to the ground!
The possessed Krohan easily breaks Brijetta's hold, then swings the phantom pick at her.
Enemy Status: Blade Spirit -25
The demon begins to stagger under your assault. Kazumi strikes it with a ray of frost, Jeni hits once, and both Nadja and Zenobius stab and slice it. However, the two latter attacks trigger a spray of boiling blood at the demon's attackers! Despite its injuries, the enraged fiend continues its attack, this time turning on Zenobius to slice the champion with its burning sword! It then snorts a huge cloud of thick black smoke from its nostrils, filling the air around it.
Enemy Status: -54
Pen fires scorching rays to burn both Torgral and the demonic horde. Clara lobs two more bombs into their midst, then Briar sweeps her blade through the rabble, finishing off the stragglers. The gnoll then rockets up into the air, moving to flank Torgral with Visna, who slices the fiend twice! Torgral turns on Briar, biting the barbarian!
Enemy Status: -177
"Pressing matters, you say?" the guhdggi inquires. "Well, I'm afraid nothing is more pressing then our hunger..." The lesser nindorus lick their lips as their stomachs growl loudly. They begin to stalk towards you... Initiative:
Viv heals the group as Vyana attacks the demon, which parries with her flaming sword. Siobhan delivers a good slice, her blade triggering a burst of boiling blood from the wound. Helmut recognizes the fiend as a brimorak, or arson demon. Knowing such demons are vulnerable to cold iron and good damage, the goblin coats his teeth with holy candy and bites the fiend, eliciting a pained shriek and another spray of boiling blood! The brimorak slashes at Helmut with her burning blade, then she snorts forth a cloud of thick black smoke that fills the chamber!
Kamo recognizes these creatures as fiends called nindorus. When an evil mortal soul that has been reincarnated multiple times is wrenched from the cycle of souls and corrupted, it can undergo a horrific transformation into a fiend known as a nindoru. A force for entropy and the breaking of cycles, nindorus are hideous creatures whose bodies often appear distorted, who wield weapons that have been shattered yet still function, and whose true face is often hidden from view. Each nindoru epitomizes the fracture of a specific cycle, be it one from the natural world or from societal traditions. To the nindoru, nothing is more delicious than the consumption of a creature who has reincarnated multiple times, with those who are theoretically about to ascend to true enlightenment presenting the tastiest meal. Those slain by a nindoru are themselves torn from the cycle—the lucky ones move on to the Boneyard for judgment, but many are instead corrupted to form more of these horrific fiends. Followers of Sangpotshi find nindoru to be particularly abhorrent and count them among the greatest threats imaginable. The smaller nindorus are meokdans. As the least of their kind, meokdans suffer a constant and painful hunger, for they lack the ability of more powerful nindorus to derive nourishment from a reincarnated soul. Meokdans epitomize the cycle of food, from consumption to the creature themselves being consumed in the end, be it by predators or the environment growing from their remains. The larger froglike nindoru is a guhdggi. A guhdggi forms from the corrupted reincarnated souls of those who have trod the same pilgrimage route through multiple lives. Guhdggis embody the cycles of repeated journeys and the concept that every journey taken ends at the start of the next. Central to this concept is the notion that no journey ever truly begins or ends—they just emerge from the previous one.
Ed succesfully deactivates the device, cutting off the flow of arcane power to the level below.
The demon dodges the summoned scorpion's attacks. Both Nadja and Zenobius find it difficult to hit the fiend through the crack in the wall. Jeni, however, effortlessly hurls her ice blades at the fiend, one scoring a critical hit! Bleating with anger, the demon's eyes flash. It vanishes, reappearing a moment later as it teleports right in front of Jeni! The fiend glares up at her with its burning red eyes as it slices with its flaming sword! Fortunately, Zenobius' divine intervention spares Jeni from most of the pain of the vile weapon!
Enemy Status: -27
Tol misses with his attacks, but Ed's projectile strikes the sinspawn, as does Hess's bolt. Turac and Reknar both deliver powerful blows, and the monster falls! The desk-like arcane device here is larger and more intricate than those found in the main lab, as if they were merely prototypes to test a theory, with this device being several iterations more advanced. Unlike the devices in the previous room, this spire doesn’t gather energy—instead, it refocuses the energies from this level down into whatever chambers are below. Lying on the desk is a scroll of mud pit, a scroll of dispel magic, a scroll of resist energy, and a wand of grease.
Caraid's beam goes wide, but Ceceka, Aily, Smoke, and Telvir all hit the ghoul Humerus is grabbing. The skeleton punches the ghoul in the face and tosses him across the room, where he clatters to the floor in a crumpled heap and lies still. The final ghoul hisses and turns to flee, leaping away so swiftly that you don't have a chance to react. He bounds up the stairs in the corner of the room and opens the door there, shouting, "Intruders! Sound the alarm!"
Mirinde slowly maneuvers the miniature sun down to the bottom of the tunnel. It seems the tunnel only moves in one direction away from the bottom of the shaft, but you can't really see anything that's down there from your current vantage point. Nothing moves or makes a sound in the dank tunnel below.
Ximble moves up to assist Tekmin. He quick draws his switchscythe and attacks the demon! He misses, though, as does Herok, but Tekmin delivers another blow with his frying pan! The demon slashes at the halfling again, scoring a hit, but Herok's glimpse of redemption keeps Tekmin from going down again, and the weakened demon is unable to land a follow-up hit.
Enemy Status: -32
Hooli's defiance puts the myceloid off-guard. However, neither she nor Xiung-Lau are able to take advantage of it, both missing the foe. Lie Jie gets Kwan Tai back on his feet, and the hobgoblin delivers a critical hit with his sword! In response, the injured myceloid pummels Kwan Tai back into unconsciousness!
Enemy Status: -35
Briar gets Pen and Hajeck free from the grasping hands, then charges into the horde of demons, though she is unable to get a good hit. Pen's lightning crackles through the fiends, slaying a good number of them. Torgral avoids some of the electricity, and Clara's bombs only splash him, though the alignment ampoule triggers his weakness to good energies. As he dodges Visna's axe, Torgral flies a few feet closer and attacks the Ulfen woman with his jaws and claw! She reacts by slicing him with her axe, eliciting a roar of pain and anger!
The demonic rabble eagerly swarms around Briar!
Enemy Status:
Horde -119, Torgral -96
You return to the kitchen and head north. Twin rows of narrow, uncomfortable-looking bunks are this room’s only decoration, although several have been crushed and then pushed together under a hole in the roof to the northeast, forming a damp-looking nest made of rubble. The sheets and thin mattresses on the bunks are moldy and smell awful. To the north, three partially collapsed dressers are slumped against the wall. A creature resembling a large, bloated frog with long, slender human arms instead of front feet sits here. Its eyes appear bulbous and blind. It carries a large wicker cage strapped to their back, while dozens of cords and straps affix a trove of broken weapons, tools, and items to its belly and flanks. It grips two longspears in its hands. But perhaps its most unsettling feature is its second face, evident whenever the froglike mouth opens to reveal a human face peering from its throat amid a tangled nest of butterflies. The frog creature wallows on the nest of rubble, attended by five smaller creatures. These creatures appear human in shape, with thick, tangled hair that grows directly from their faces as well as the rest of their heads, leaving only their gaping mouths visible. Their arms appear to be broken and unnaturally long, with equally long fingers tipped with ragged nails. Small, open sores pockmark their skin. These simpering creatures massage the frog's flanks and legs, begging for food. Upon spotting you, the frog creature rouses from its nest and waves you over. "Ah! Travelers!" it croaks, the human face in its throat smirking. "It has been so long since we have had visitors here. Come, come! Stay a while! We would love to hear stories of your journeys."
Ready to proceed now, Viv casts her spell of blessing. Siobhan raises her shield and opens the door. A fire burns within a seven-pointed star carved in the ceiling, casting light that fills the area with a flickering radiance. Two wooden doors sit in the southwest corner of the room, while to the east, a low stone altar made of marble sits before a crack in the wall. The top of the altar holds a silver bowl with a slender-bladed knife balanced atop the bowl’s rim, its point aimed toward the west. A short, muscular, red-eyed, goat-headed demon stands before the altar. She stands only 3 feet tall and wields a burning sword. Fire licks up from her flaming hooves. She glares at you and shrieks something in the language of the Abyss. When it becomes clear you cannot understand her, though, she sputters and raises her burning sword! Initiative:
Before you can react, the demon thrusts her free hand forward, launching a fireball that erupts through the room! The flames leave the demon untouched!
In the face of Viviana's devout prayer, the sparking magic sputters and dies. The door should be safe to open now, and beyond it no doubt lies the fire monster...
Helmut recognized the star as the Sihedron rune, a Thassilonian sigil symbolizes the seven virtues (or sins) of rule. You clear the rubble and move through the south door. The north and west walls of this chamber are carved with hundreds of runes, all radiating out from a seven-pointed star with a flickering flame burning at its center. Now and then, a little sputter of sparks showers out of these flames. A wooden door in the northeast corner of the room has been adorned with a single rune carving that looks vaguely like a horned, fanged face. Helmut recognizes it as the rune of Abraxas, the demon lord of forbidden lore and magic. The runes on the walls are prayers, written in Thassilonian, to this demon lord. Vyana realizes the sparks are coming from a trap. The magic is faltering but still dangerous.
The west door leads to a pantry. Thick layers of dust cover the shelves and containers stored here. Most of the food stored here has long since rotted away, but a search uncovers a large supply of tea leaves, including a tin of rare tea worth 150 gp.
Kamo gives the room a more in-depth search and after several minutes, he finds a very cleverly hidden treasure under a loose floor stone in the southwest corner of the room—a type II bag of holding that contains an astounding amount of jewelry, statuettes, and other fine art, worth a total of 200 gp. He recognizes the stolen objects as things that went missing a month or so before the last day of spring earlier in the year.
Hajeck and Pen struggle in the shadowy figures' grasp, unable to escape on their own. Briar can't quite get her friends free. Visna demoralizes Torgral as she breaks free and flies up to confront the fiend. Clara slips free as well and then hurls a bomb at the troop of demons! "Foolish mortal! You think stand a chance againt me and my master, the Prince of Wolves?" Torgral shouts, though his voice wavers a bit. "Have a taste of destruction!" The demon opens his mouth and spews forth a torrent of corrosive flame!
Meanwhile, the demon throng continues to hurl debris at those still within the shadowy figures' reach! The alchemist's fire burns out.
Enemy Status: Horde -72
The demon throng resists Vashta's spell. Neither Aicard or Oro are able to land a good hit on the rioting vrocks, but upon Vashta's urging, Targrish manages a solid strike with a chakram. Hajeck claws at the vrocks as well, reducing the horde to a smaller size. The vrocks bite, claw, and scratch at Hajeck and Aicard.
Enemy Status: -212 |