** spoiler omitted **Ye be forgettin' me!
Dravite will take the darkest watch.
- Ripnugget: chainmail*
- Manic: battleaxe*, chain shirt*, light shield*
- Weasly: dogslicer, shortbow*
- Squat: half plate*, greataxe*
- Gruesome: dogslicer, heavy crossbow
- Alwyn's old MW greatsword
6 potions of protection from evil (300 gp)
6 oils of magic weapon (300 gp)
4 jugs of alchemist's fire (60 gp)
silver dagger (22 gp)
** spoiler omitted **
Stayers:
Elisile slips into deep reverie for the first part of the watches, until Dravite wakes her. Feeling refreshed, she spends her watch mainly investigating the door and the column, although she keeps an ear out for sounds of danger.
Assuming the night passes without danger, she will prepare new spells in the morning.
Leavers
Davos decides to return to Sandpoint with Aylmora and the others. While in the temple, Davos says to Larken, "I will remain by her side until we return to Thistletop. I will return and help to ensure that what ever foul beast is improsioned below the earth remains so. After that however, I must return with her to Magnimar. I must report to my temple and the best hope for Aylmora's recovery lies there."
After the combat, the discovery of the tortured prisoner and the casual cruelty of the demented Nualia and her allies, the otherworldly hounds and the ancient complex under the goblin den, Dravite's near-death experience...
... it is hardly surprising that no one sleeps well or feels relaxed while keeping watch over Thistletop. Nobody feels like talking, and a sullen dread falls over the group, left isolated as their colleagues returned for a more comfortable night in Sandpoint.
But there is more to it than that. Particularly in the deeper levels of the complex, there is an undefinable, almost palpable wrongness about the place. It seems like there is something lurking within the halls, hiding, stalking, waiting, not quite visible from the corner of the eye. Something ancient and implacably hostile. No one who lingers below on their guard shift is reluctant to leave once their replacement arrives.
Above ground the surf pounds implacably on the cliffs, an oppressively impersonal force that cares nothing for the hopes and aspirations of puny mortals, a force that will outlive everyone and everything, and that will grind the works of man, dwarf and elf to dust without even acknowledging they were ever there. The only puctuation is the occasional booming roar from whatever lurks in the sea caves beneath the sacrificial hole amongst the briars on the mainland.
Needless to say, everyone is very grateful when the dawn finally peeks over the forest to banish the night fears for another day.
Ah, twas a lov'ly night, aye? I be wishin' we 'ad the power ta be droppin' de whole place inta de sea! Tis a polluted vein is what it be!
Rummaging around the stuff on the shelves where the final battle with Nualia and her followers took place reveals her journal. It is a long read, not just in length but also difficult with the insane ramblings, veneration of demonic gods, bitter diatribes and the general hatred she displays to virtually all things connected with civilisation and its works. However, the gist can be pieced together after a read of a few hours.
Nualia long felt bitter and isolated due to her unearthly looks, and had no friends in Sandpoint. In addition, her adoptive father, Father Tobyn, the previous priest at the temple, was very strict and allowed her little freedom. So when she caught the eye of a roving Varisian youth, Delek, the naïve and lonely Nualia was easily seduced. They would meet and tryst in the caves by the beach beneath Sandpoint, and there she conceived a child. Once Delek found out he was to become a father, he did the only responsible thing and fled Sandpoint, never to return. And her father, on discovering his daughter was pregnant, furiously forbade her from leaving the temple to prevent embarrassment to her and, more pertinently, him.
However, as she only realised later, these caves led to a temple of Lamashtu that had lain hidden for millennia, and the mother of monsters blessed Nualia and her child. After seven months, her monstrous spawn was still-born, too horrific to live. With the double shock of losing her child and birthing a fiend, Nualia fell into a coma. There, Lamashtu fed her dreams and poisoned her already unstable mind.
On the night of the temple fire, Nualia awoke from her stupour in great wrath, her humanity shredded by contact with the evil of Lamashtu’s whisperings. She jammed the door of her father’s bedroom and set fire to the temple, fleeing her hated home for Magnimar. There she fell in with a cult of murderers called the Skinsaw Men, and with them she tracked down Delek and extracted a horrific revenge (his sacrificial murder is related in loving detail). But her hunger for vengeance remained unassuaged – Sandpoint and its citizens needed to die too.
The Skinsaw Men gave Nualia a medallion emblazoned with a seven-pointed star, called a Sihedron medallion. They explained that it was symbolic of both ancient times and of things to come, and that she had a part to play in the coming new order. Led by the words of the Skinsaw Men and the visions of Lamashtu, she returned to Sandpoint and found the ancient catacombs under the town. There she remained for months, under the tutelage of the quasit Erylium, until Lamashtu gifted her with the knowledge of a powerful fiend trapped beneath the goblin lair at Thistletop named Malfeshnekor. Freeing the fiend and razing Sandpoint would be sufficient sacrifice for Nualia to shed her hated human form and truly become one of Lamashtu’s children.
Leaving behind the excited children and the relieved townsfolk of Sandpoint, they head back up the road before hacking their way through the Nettlewood. It is midmorning by the time they get back to Thistletop to be greeted by their compatriots. They seem unharmed but weary – Thistletop is an uneasy place to spend the night.
Well met! How be Crag? And the girlie? Is she gonna be a'ight? Ye missed a right great night o' rest......let's not be fer staying anudder night though...
"It is good to be back. I brought some demon-slaying presents for everyone. Come get some goodies!"
I'll take a potion and an oil...
Maybe let somebody else pop a frag on this Malfeshnekor. I'm going to chop him the f*++ up.
I can be takin' de potion an' de weapon oil. Don' be thinkin' I be havin' much use fer de firey stuff dough.
Tanks.
Schweeeeeat....
Dibs on th' magic bastard sword!
Oh.
WOOOOOOOOOT!
After preparing her spells for the day (updated in her profile) Elisile will cast Read Magic on herself and peruse Lyrie’s scrolls, seeking any spells that may be useful.
When the others arrive, she addresses the group. “We must be cautious in our actions here today; it appears that this fiend is locked away, we must see that we do not release it unless we are very sure that we can defeat it. It would be … unfortunate if we were to set it loose and be unable to destroy it. Do we, as a group, feel up to that task? I feel that this creature is likely much more powerful than the demon we faced below Sandpoint.
“If we are determined to proceed, I have some spells that may help. Hudak of the Shoanti, I can enlarge your form again if you wish it. I can cast a spell that protects somewhat against evil on one of you, and enchant someone’s weapon. Who wishes to benefit from these magics?”
Just before they set about seeing how to open the door, Elisile will cast Mage Armour on herself from her scroll. Just before the door opens she will begin casting various spells on herself and others who may want them.
Ach! We be needin' a plan laddies. How are we ta be tacklin' dis sitch-i-ation?
I'll take the enlarge; I dig it the most.
I'll try this magic bastard sword out unidentified maybe.
"I want to see what this snickersnack can do..."
Since there doesn't seem to be any pressing time concerns, Larken gives the door and the column his most thorough examination before even checking to see if the door is locked.
If locks need disabled, and the traps don't kill him, Larken then takes 20 on any open locks checks for a total of 29[/ooc]
This line made me laugh for five minutes...think positive, dude! Dayum!
;)
Oh, sorry, Aubrey; think "positively." I'm a little hungover...
Oh, sorry, Aubrey; think "positively." I'm a little hungover...
Larken prods and pokes at the door and coin slot. Both seem to be clear of traps as far as he can tell.
"This had better be good", Alwyn mutters, before slotting a gold piece into the gilded column.
There is a click and then a loud grinding sound as the pillar rumbles down into the floor, revealing a short corridor running north-south. Double doors are at the north and south ends of the passage and in the middle of the east wall. The air here is dry and stale, and a thin coating of undisturbed dust coats every surface.