The party discuss their next action, and decide that they're still well enough to continue onwards without returning to Asuna. With Zedlyn and Flossaria recovered from the ghoul paralysis, they return to the second level of the catacombs to search the area where the ghouls attacked them. They find nothing of value on the ghouls themselves, although Zedlyn chops off a ghoul's hand, hoping to be able to somehow extract the paralytic poison from it. The room contains about 40 alcoves with corpses, so they get to work searching all of them, with Zedlyn keeping watch as the others search.
A few minutes into the search, Zedlyn catches a sound in the distance, a sort of oozing, squishy sound. He alerts the others, but they decide that they only need a few more minutes to finish their search, so he stays on guard, keeping an eye out for whatever might be making the sound. The source of the noise turns out to be a huge, nearly transparent ooze creature making its way down the hall. Its transparency means that Zedlyn doesn't see it until it's too late; he only has time to shout a warning before it engulfs him.
The rest of the party turn to attack this new foe. The melee fighters and the statues advance to attack, while others pelt it with missiles. Adokas hurls his grappling hook at the creature, which penetrates into it and lodges itself near Zedlyn. Inside the creature, Zedlyn is being eaten away by acidic ooze, and he struggles to turn and grab Adokas's rope. The creature advances towards the first rank of statues and engulfs them as well, but the party's attacks are starting to show as large pieces of the creature are being lopped off. Just as Zedlyn manages to grab the rope, Sharla hits the creature with a dagger, which turns out to the last straw, causing it to collapse into a pile of slime and discharge its contents.
Freed from the ooze creature, Zedlyn's body is covered in acid burns and much of his clothing and equipment are destroyed; however, the acid doesn't seem to have had any effect on metal. His armor is still wearable for the moment, but the haft of his trident is destroyed, so he arms himself with Iriellis's old flail and Flossaria's old shield. The statues, being made entirely of metal, seem to be unharmed by their brief exposure to the ooze.
Arik takes over on watch as they party complete their search of the alcoves. Most of the bodies inside seem to have been chewed on, which the party assume to be the work of the ghouls. In terms of valuables, they find a bag containing 80 silver pieces, and a box inlaid with ivory (empty, but likely of some value on its own). One of the alcoves contains not a body, but a dozen hands, all severed at the wrist. The group are puzzled by the hands, but eventually decide that they must be the severed hands of convicted thieves, due to the fact that there are more right hand than left hands, and no matching pairs.
Continuing their explorations, the party check the western passages near the ghoul lair; both are dead ends, but a careful search of the second reveals a secret door, similar to the one they found earlier. Passing through it leads to a concealed room, containing two iron chests placed in alcoves. On closer inspection, the chests are actually fused shut, and not easily accessible. The party decide that, hopefully, they will be able to break the curse on the monastary, which will turn the chests back into wood, as they are far to heavy to carry in their current state. They leave them behind for now.
The secret room eventually leads to a west-facing exit, protected by a pit trap which Flossaria spots. The party circumnavigate the trap, but are again forced to leave the statues behind. The exit is the back side of another concealed door, which opens into the largest room yet seen in the lower catacombs. The room contains four exits, in addition to the concealed door through which they enter; one on each wall. The southern exit is a stairway leading up, and a quick trip confirms that this is the stairway from the upper level that they hadn't investigated yet.
The main feature of this room is a ten-foot wide circular table in the center, with an iron spike mounted on it that points to the north. On closer inspection, the top of the table is covered in runes, and it is mounted on a circular track that allows it to rotate. Sharla mentions that she could probably translate these runes as well, but time is still at a premium. The party decide to take the northern passage, hoping that it'll reconnect with the area that they'd explored previously.
The passage does indeed connect to a room they'd already been to, where Sharla left an empty flask on the ground as a marker. The passage also continues to the west, so they collect the flask and continue onwards. Listening as they go, they can hear footsteps from further down the passage, and they assume these belong to zombies. They decide to back off, due to them not having their statue escort with them.
Back in the room with the circular table, they head to the east, hoping to find a passage that will allow them to bring the statues through into the room. The short passage leads into a much larger north-south passage that runs farther than their torchlight illuminates to the south. As with many other areas in the catacombs, it is stuffed with alcoves. There's an eastern passage almost directly across from where there came in, so they head through there, ignoring the southern passage for now.
Heading east, they enter a small chamber which they don't have much time to admire, because they are immediately ambushed by a pack of two ghouls and three skeletons. The undead creatures get the drop on them and attack, but with the aid of Flossaria and Iriellis's holy power, they are able to drive back the creatures and default them fairly easily. Zedlyn is struck by one of the ghouls, but he manages to resist the numbing paralysis.
Searching the room, they find one very unusual occupant in one of the alcoves - a golden skeleton. Unlike the iron skeleton from before, this one is very realistic and life-like. Zedlyn scratches a bit of the gold off, revealing that it's actually a gold-plated skeleton. The party pack up the entire skeleton to take with them, figuring that it must be quite valuable.
At this point, the party decide not to explore the southern hallway, as it will only take them further away from the statues. They instead return to the hallway where they were first attacked by ghouls and explore the south end of that. The end of that hallway has both eastern and western passages. The western passage is an apparent dead end, but close inspection reveals a secret door, which leads them right back to the room they just left, where they found the golden skeleton.
As they explore the eastern passage, Zedlyn and Flossaria trigger a pit trap, with both of them falling in and sustaining damage. The rest of the group help them out, and Flossaria and Iriellis use most of their remaining healing magic to remove the injuries caused by the fall. At this point, with their healing spells nearly used up, the group decide to move Arik to the front of the marching order and continue on.
Friday, August 23, 2013
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Monday, August 19, 2013
Session 6: Tomb of the Iron God, Part 6
With the statue warriors at their side, the party decide to see if the presence of the statues will have any effect on the areas of impenetrable darkness. They gather together and march into the darkness with the statues following. The presence of the statues doesn't have any effect on the darkness, though, so they abandon that plan and debate what to do next.
The group are divided between investigating the lower catacombs and using the statues to take on the second group of goblins; after some debate, they decide to go further down into the catacombs via the stairway found in the room with the statue of the Iron God. The stairs take them down into an ancient-looking man-made area, where the walls are filled with alcoves holding skeletons. Curiously, the feeling of the supernatural that they experienced when entering the upper catacombs vanishes as they walk down the stairs.
The first chamber they enter contains passages to the west and south, along with several dozen alcoves cut into the walls. Giving the alcoves a cursory inspection, they find that they are all occupied by skeletons, but one in particular has an unusual occupant - an iron skeleton. It's a complete skeleton, clearly forged rather than created by whatever turned the priests above into iron. It's held together by bolts and mostly intact. The party aren't sure what to make of it; they can't find any apparent use for it or reason why it's there.
Heading through the western passage, it quickly brings them to a smaller room. This room has obviously been visited by the necromancers above, because as the party enter, ten skeletons arise and attack! Iriellis presents the holy symbol of Slid with conviction, and the holy light forces the skeletons to cower in the corners of the room. The group's melee fighters advance along with the statues and make short work of the creatures. Zedlyn sustains some injury and a few of the statues are damaged, but overall there are no casualties on the group's side.
Investigating the chamber, which appears to be a dead end, the party find that it contains another twenty or so alcoves, all of which are empty. They speculate that the priests used all of the skeletons from the alcoves here as fodder for their necromancy. One of the skeletons that they destroyed was wearing a golden crown / circlet, which they take. Wondering if it might have something to do with the iron skeleton to the east, they quickly double back to that room and place the circlet on the skeleton's skull. It doesn't have any noticeable effect.
Back in the skeleton room, Flossaria spots something unusual on the north wall, and on closer inspection, a section of the wall slides open into a secret door! Behind the secret door is a dusty, disused passage that immediately turns to the west. Making her way through, Flossaria gets about halfway down the passage when a trap door opens under her feet and sends her tumbling into a pit trap. Fortunately, Flossaria is sturdy and the fall isn't too bad; the rest of the party hear her cries and arrive with rope to help her climb out.
At the other end of the passage is a door that opens to the south - concealed from the other side, but easily visible from this side. However, the statues aren't able to navigate past the pit trap, so they are left behind. The door opens into another alcove-filled room, with a passage heading to the south. Glancing down the passage, the party see that it ends in an east-west tee intersection. The party decide that they don't know for sure where the secret passage has taken them, and that they would rather have their statue warrior escort with them, so they'd rather return to the first room of the lower catacombs and explore the southern passage from there.
They do so, and this passage heads down as far as their lantern illuminates and more, with an opening to the east and two openings to the west visible. As they advance, Flossaria spots a hint of movement in the shadows of the east opening. Supposing the movement to be that of goblins, Zedlyn calls out in the goblin tongue, but gets no reply.
On the alert for danger, the party advance forward, and as they round the eastern passage and lantern light floods in, they see that it's not goblins, but rather two ghoulish-looking creatures, advancing towards them with a loping gait and disturbing grins. Flossaria holds up her holy symbol of Mung, but the creatures are more amused than anything else, and continue to advance. But when Iriellis joins in as well, their combined holy power shifts the scales and drives the creatures back.
What they weren't counting on is a third creature emerging from the west passage. This third ghoul leaps at Flossaria and rakes her with its claws. A chill sensation rapidly spreads from the wound across Flossaria's entire body, and she drops to the ground unconscious. The rest of the party attack this third creature, and rapidly cut it down. They turn their attention to the two creatures cowering to the east, and attack with missile weapons from behind the statues. This attack allows the creatures to overcome their fear of Iriellis's holy light, and they charge forward. One of them catches Zedlyn with a bite, and he goes down just as Flossaria did. But with the aid of the statues, the two creatures are killed without further injuries to the party.
The group now have a conundrum, with two of their members out for an unknown length of time - they're still alive, but unable to move, and no one is sure how long the paralysis will last. Furthermore, while they're carrying the bodies, they don't have enough free hands to also carry the holy implements that cause the statues to follow and assist them. They decide to leave the statues behind and take Flossaria and Zedlyn up to the chamber above that's filled with inscriptions, so that Sharla can study them while they wait for their paralyzed companions to recover. Leaving Arik to guard their downed friends, the rest of the group head back down to retrieve the implements and the statues.
When they make their way back up with the statues, they're greeted by an unexpected sight: Arik is sitting against the wall, panting and surrounded by the bloody, chopped-up corpses of a dozen giant snakes. He tells them that a few minutes after they left him, the snakes started emerging from the walls and attacking. He managed to fight them off while only sustaining a few bites; those that he did take left him feeling a bit woozy, but he managed to fight the feeling off.
Within a half-hour or so, the effect of the ghouls' attacks wears off, and both Zedlyn and Flossaria regain consciousness. They party debate whether they are well enough to continue adventuring or whether they should return to Asuna, knowing that tomorrow is the day the caravan is supposed to leave.
The group are divided between investigating the lower catacombs and using the statues to take on the second group of goblins; after some debate, they decide to go further down into the catacombs via the stairway found in the room with the statue of the Iron God. The stairs take them down into an ancient-looking man-made area, where the walls are filled with alcoves holding skeletons. Curiously, the feeling of the supernatural that they experienced when entering the upper catacombs vanishes as they walk down the stairs.
The first chamber they enter contains passages to the west and south, along with several dozen alcoves cut into the walls. Giving the alcoves a cursory inspection, they find that they are all occupied by skeletons, but one in particular has an unusual occupant - an iron skeleton. It's a complete skeleton, clearly forged rather than created by whatever turned the priests above into iron. It's held together by bolts and mostly intact. The party aren't sure what to make of it; they can't find any apparent use for it or reason why it's there.
Heading through the western passage, it quickly brings them to a smaller room. This room has obviously been visited by the necromancers above, because as the party enter, ten skeletons arise and attack! Iriellis presents the holy symbol of Slid with conviction, and the holy light forces the skeletons to cower in the corners of the room. The group's melee fighters advance along with the statues and make short work of the creatures. Zedlyn sustains some injury and a few of the statues are damaged, but overall there are no casualties on the group's side.
Investigating the chamber, which appears to be a dead end, the party find that it contains another twenty or so alcoves, all of which are empty. They speculate that the priests used all of the skeletons from the alcoves here as fodder for their necromancy. One of the skeletons that they destroyed was wearing a golden crown / circlet, which they take. Wondering if it might have something to do with the iron skeleton to the east, they quickly double back to that room and place the circlet on the skeleton's skull. It doesn't have any noticeable effect.
Back in the skeleton room, Flossaria spots something unusual on the north wall, and on closer inspection, a section of the wall slides open into a secret door! Behind the secret door is a dusty, disused passage that immediately turns to the west. Making her way through, Flossaria gets about halfway down the passage when a trap door opens under her feet and sends her tumbling into a pit trap. Fortunately, Flossaria is sturdy and the fall isn't too bad; the rest of the party hear her cries and arrive with rope to help her climb out.
At the other end of the passage is a door that opens to the south - concealed from the other side, but easily visible from this side. However, the statues aren't able to navigate past the pit trap, so they are left behind. The door opens into another alcove-filled room, with a passage heading to the south. Glancing down the passage, the party see that it ends in an east-west tee intersection. The party decide that they don't know for sure where the secret passage has taken them, and that they would rather have their statue warrior escort with them, so they'd rather return to the first room of the lower catacombs and explore the southern passage from there.
They do so, and this passage heads down as far as their lantern illuminates and more, with an opening to the east and two openings to the west visible. As they advance, Flossaria spots a hint of movement in the shadows of the east opening. Supposing the movement to be that of goblins, Zedlyn calls out in the goblin tongue, but gets no reply.
On the alert for danger, the party advance forward, and as they round the eastern passage and lantern light floods in, they see that it's not goblins, but rather two ghoulish-looking creatures, advancing towards them with a loping gait and disturbing grins. Flossaria holds up her holy symbol of Mung, but the creatures are more amused than anything else, and continue to advance. But when Iriellis joins in as well, their combined holy power shifts the scales and drives the creatures back.
What they weren't counting on is a third creature emerging from the west passage. This third ghoul leaps at Flossaria and rakes her with its claws. A chill sensation rapidly spreads from the wound across Flossaria's entire body, and she drops to the ground unconscious. The rest of the party attack this third creature, and rapidly cut it down. They turn their attention to the two creatures cowering to the east, and attack with missile weapons from behind the statues. This attack allows the creatures to overcome their fear of Iriellis's holy light, and they charge forward. One of them catches Zedlyn with a bite, and he goes down just as Flossaria did. But with the aid of the statues, the two creatures are killed without further injuries to the party.
The group now have a conundrum, with two of their members out for an unknown length of time - they're still alive, but unable to move, and no one is sure how long the paralysis will last. Furthermore, while they're carrying the bodies, they don't have enough free hands to also carry the holy implements that cause the statues to follow and assist them. They decide to leave the statues behind and take Flossaria and Zedlyn up to the chamber above that's filled with inscriptions, so that Sharla can study them while they wait for their paralyzed companions to recover. Leaving Arik to guard their downed friends, the rest of the group head back down to retrieve the implements and the statues.
When they make their way back up with the statues, they're greeted by an unexpected sight: Arik is sitting against the wall, panting and surrounded by the bloody, chopped-up corpses of a dozen giant snakes. He tells them that a few minutes after they left him, the snakes started emerging from the walls and attacking. He managed to fight them off while only sustaining a few bites; those that he did take left him feeling a bit woozy, but he managed to fight the feeling off.
Within a half-hour or so, the effect of the ghouls' attacks wears off, and both Zedlyn and Flossaria regain consciousness. They party debate whether they are well enough to continue adventuring or whether they should return to Asuna, knowing that tomorrow is the day the caravan is supposed to leave.
Monday, August 12, 2013
Flossaria "Flossie" Heathland
Lawful Good Female Human Fighter / Cleric, Level 1 / 1
Played by Jenn
Str 17 Dex 16 Con 14 Int 16 Wis 15 Cha 13
HP 11 AC 17 Prime Attributes Strength, Wisdom, Charisma
Height 5' 4" Weight ? Age 15
Class Abilities Weapon Specialization (Bastard Sword), Turn Undead
Equipment Bastard sword, small wooden shield, studded leather armor, bedroll, bottle, metal file, gord, wooden holy symbol, sewing kit, 10 torches, wolvesbane, hemp rope, large sack
Description She's rather average looking with no real distinguishing features except for being more physically fit than the other girls in her town. She's of average human height with light brown eyes and medium brown hair. Her clothes are practical for the weather and any expected fighting she might have to do in the name of Mung. The only note worthy thing about her appearance is the necklace she wears. It is a pendant of a silver swan holding a light blue stone. It used to belong to her mother.
She makes up for her average looks with her outstanding personality and fighting skills. She's bossy and opinionated so it is quite difficult for others to dissuade her from her plans. Her stubbornness makes her try to convince others to go with her ideas (but as she is quite intelligent her plans probably are the way to go :p ).
Although she has spent the last 7 years in the small town of Asuna, she has not led a sedentary life. Her grandmother raised her with the teachings of Mung. Being quite pious, Flossaria decided that she would honour Mung by returning the undead to their more natural state of just plain dead. She has been building her physique for a few years in preparation for the day that she would encounter the undead.
Biography She meets the party in Asuna where she has been living with her grandmother for the last few years. She is originally from Imaut. Although Asuna consists mostly of followers of the iron god, Flossie is a cleric of the god Mung. Most townsfolk accept this as just part of her previous life in another town. For the past year, she has been honing her healing skills with the town's local healer, hoping that one day she could put her skills to use in the name of Mung.
Her grandmother passed away just before the strange happenings with the iron temple. Flossie spent time grieving and trying to figure out what to do with her life. When she heard the rumours about the undead in the iron temple, she knew it was her duty to lay those poor people to their final rest in the name of Mung.
Played by Jenn
Str 17 Dex 16 Con 14 Int 16 Wis 15 Cha 13
HP 11 AC 17 Prime Attributes Strength, Wisdom, Charisma
Height 5' 4" Weight ? Age 15
Class Abilities Weapon Specialization (Bastard Sword), Turn Undead
Equipment Bastard sword, small wooden shield, studded leather armor, bedroll, bottle, metal file, gord, wooden holy symbol, sewing kit, 10 torches, wolvesbane, hemp rope, large sack
She makes up for her average looks with her outstanding personality and fighting skills. She's bossy and opinionated so it is quite difficult for others to dissuade her from her plans. Her stubbornness makes her try to convince others to go with her ideas (but as she is quite intelligent her plans probably are the way to go :p ).
Although she has spent the last 7 years in the small town of Asuna, she has not led a sedentary life. Her grandmother raised her with the teachings of Mung. Being quite pious, Flossaria decided that she would honour Mung by returning the undead to their more natural state of just plain dead. She has been building her physique for a few years in preparation for the day that she would encounter the undead.
Biography She meets the party in Asuna where she has been living with her grandmother for the last few years. She is originally from Imaut. Although Asuna consists mostly of followers of the iron god, Flossie is a cleric of the god Mung. Most townsfolk accept this as just part of her previous life in another town. For the past year, she has been honing her healing skills with the town's local healer, hoping that one day she could put her skills to use in the name of Mung.
Her grandmother passed away just before the strange happenings with the iron temple. Flossie spent time grieving and trying to figure out what to do with her life. When she heard the rumours about the undead in the iron temple, she knew it was her duty to lay those poor people to their final rest in the name of Mung.
Session 5: Tomb of the Iron God, Part 5
After a holding a funeral for Lorcan, presided over by Iriellis, in which his body is burned on a funeral pyre, the party retire for the night, having divided his valuable possessions amongst themselves. Adokas goes to the healer's for the night, while everyone else rests at the inn. Adokas is not satisfied with the treatment he receives and berates the healer the next morning, to which the healer responds that Adokas is free to take his business elsewhere.
Back at the inn, Arik summons everyone into his room. When they arrive, he is looking much better, and is dressed and fully equipped. He tells them that they can't let Lorcan's death stop them; indeed, those are the hazards of the adventuring profession. They have only a single day left, so they need to make good progress. He is finally feeling well enough to join them, and furthermore, he has acquired the services of a local cleric of Mung, Flossaria, who will join them in the investigation.
Wasting no time, the party, along with Arik, head to the outskirts of town, where they meet with Flossaria. She introduces herself and Arik explains the situation to her. Seeing the group carrying around Lorcan's old crossbow, which is too large for any of the gnomes or halflings to use, she asks to carry it with her. Everyone then heads off towards the monastery.
Back in the cellars, the group can still hear the chatter of goblins off in the distance, but the barricade that they erected two days ago still appears to be undisturbed. Arik asks to be taken to any areas of interest that they've discovered so that he can investigate them. They first take him to some of the iron statues. He is unable to make out much more than the rest of the group - their condition appears to be due to some sort of divine retribution on the part of the Iron God. Either that, or some enemy did this to them and took great pains to make it appear as divine retibution.
They move on to the room containing strange patterns inlaid with iron into the wall. They seem to still have the same calming, mind-focused effect that Zedlyn encountered before, but no one is able to make any new deductions here. Arik suggests that they might be an aid to meditation.
Finally, the party show Arik to the room containing concentric iron circles inlaid into the floor. Arik points out that the pattern seems to indicate that something or someone is supposed to go in the center, and the party admit that they didn't continue investigating after dropping a book in the center. Iriellis steps forward to take a look. As she holds her arm above the inner circle, she feels a strange upward force. Throwing caution to the wind, she steps into the circle.
The rest of the adventurers see Iriellis float upwards and begin levitating a foot in the air, her body and muscles seemingly in a state of relaxation. Iriellis, floating in the circle, sees a vision of a pure white void, out of which a gigantic metal figure floats. The being introduces itself as the Iron God, and explains that it punished its own worshippers for their greed, and their dabbling with the forbidden arts of necromancy. Furthermore, it explains that the undead still stalk the catacombs, and if Iriellis accepts the task of destroying them, it will grant her a boon. Iriellis accepts, at which point the vision shatters.
The rest of the party see a flash of white light, and when their vision clears, they see Iriellis lying on the ground, holding an iron flail in her hands. When she explains what happened and what she saw, and Arik immediately steps forward into the circle, hoping to contact the Iron God as well. However, neither he, nor any other party member, are able to duplicate the effect. With this new quest accepted, the group head back to the catacombs.
Returning to the strange area of magical darkness, Flossaria takes a look, hoping to be able to see something that the others didn't, but she can't figure out what exactly is causing the darkness or what it is. Arik pulls out a strange metal cylinder that produces light from the end of it, but it is also unable to penetrate the darkness. When questioned by Sharla about the device, he explains that it's something that he found in an ancient ruin back in his homeland. He doesn't know how it works, but it cannot be through magic, because there is no magic where he comes from.
Iriellis casts a spell to detect the presence of evil and directs it towards the darkness, which doesn't register as evil. As she sweeps her sight around, though, she does detect a strong aura of evil coming from the northwest, in the direction of the room where they fought the giant tick. Walking into that room, they find that the evil aura seems to be coming from the cavern that is marked as the prison of the "Eater of the Dead". The group collectively decide that disturbing this area would be a bad idea.
Looking at the chest in the room, they are worried that it might be cursed or protected by the Iron God, but Iriellis has an instinctive feeling that the Iron God doesn't care about the treasure - the priests weren't supposed to have it in the first place; that's part of the reason why the Iron God chose to punish them. She attributes this knowledge to her vision of the Iron God; it must have been imparted to her then. Given this explanation, the party take the treasure (which consists mostly of silver and gold coins) from the chest, dumping it into a bag for Arik to carry.
Deciding to finally brave the darkness, Iriellis steps on ahead with a rope tied around her waist. Inside, she hears a low, growling voice, warning her to "enter only with reverence for the quiet dead". After a pause, it goes on to explain that "the dead walk unquietly in the Sacred Catacombs, and the walking dead are an abomination to the Iron God". Iriellis attempts to question the voice, but it doesn't speak any more than those two sentences. She starts walking forward through the pitch blackness; after about thirty feet, she hits a wall. She uses the rope to find her way back.
The party decide to try using the ceremonial implements that they found nearby. They take the long-axe, lantern, and incense burner, tie themselves together with the rope so they don't get separated, and step into the darkness. However, the implements seem to have no effect - the darkness is still absolute. Preferring not to continue in pitch blackness, the party decide to retreat and enter the catacombs from one of the two other entrances that they had discovered. They pick the one near the library / archive room.
Heading into the catacombs from the new entrance, the path soon splits into three directions - northwest, north, and east. To the northwest, the passage continues before ending in another wall of seemingly impenetrable darkness. To the north, the passage continues onwards before opening into a cavern. To the east, the passage goes for some distance before curving north. The party opt to follow the east passage.
After it curves north, the east passage continues on in that direction, and also contains a cavern opening to the east. The party step into this cavern and find that its walls are covered in inscriptions and pictures. No one recognizes the language of the carvings; Sharla mentions that she might be able to decipher them, given enough time, but even a preliminary reading of a small section will take a few hours. Arik points out that they may not have a few hours to spare, so the group forge on ahead, resolving to come back and investigate the carvings if the time is available.
The carving room contains an opening to the north, which opens into another cave after a short passage. This cave contains six iron statues, arranged in two rows of three. However, these statues are different than the others encountered thus far - they are of guardsmen or warriors rather than priests, and they have calm, neutral expressions rather than expressions of pain or fear. The party are wary that they will come to life and attack, but after they step into the cavern, the statues don't react in any way.
Attempts to communicate with the statues or cause them to react fail, until Zedlyn walks up while carrying the ceremonial longaxe and salutes, which causes the statues to salute back. The party experiment with various combinations of the ceremonial axe, lantern, and incense burner, before finally discovering that, if three characters march together carrying all three items, the statues will follow behind. With these new allies gained, the group head out of the room through a passage to the southwest.
This passage leads to a Y-shaped intersection; their options are the south and the northwest. The southern passage joins back up with the passage that led them to the room full of ancient carvings, so they head to the northwest. This leads them to a very large cavern, dominated by a giant statue of the Iron God. The room also contains a set of stairs leading downwards carved into the cavern floor, an exit to the south, and most strikingly, a corpse lying on the ground near the statue.
Iriellis steps forward to check out the corpse, and determines that it is a human male who died a week or two ago, with no visible wounds or obvious cause of death. He is wearing chainmail armor and a mace and shield are lying on the ground next to him. The party discuss the possibility that this is the missing caravan guard who disappeared from the caravan that passed through Asuna before their own. The dates fit, but none of the characters are familiar enough with the missing man's appearance to be able to say for sure.
Searching the body for anything of interest, apart from a small coin-pouch, the party discover that the man is wearing an amulet that depicts a half-closed eye. Flossaria recognizes the symbol as being very similar to that of Sirami, the Lord of All Forgetting. However, Sirami's symbol is a closed eye, whereas this symbol is a half-closed eye.
The southern passage out of the room leads back to the cave that they glimpsed to the north at the first intersection after entering the catacombs. This cave appears to be empty. Thus, the party are left with only a few choices remaining to explore: the two walls of impenetrable darkness, the third entrance to the catacombs, and the stairs in the statue room.
Back at the inn, Arik summons everyone into his room. When they arrive, he is looking much better, and is dressed and fully equipped. He tells them that they can't let Lorcan's death stop them; indeed, those are the hazards of the adventuring profession. They have only a single day left, so they need to make good progress. He is finally feeling well enough to join them, and furthermore, he has acquired the services of a local cleric of Mung, Flossaria, who will join them in the investigation.
Wasting no time, the party, along with Arik, head to the outskirts of town, where they meet with Flossaria. She introduces herself and Arik explains the situation to her. Seeing the group carrying around Lorcan's old crossbow, which is too large for any of the gnomes or halflings to use, she asks to carry it with her. Everyone then heads off towards the monastery.
Back in the cellars, the group can still hear the chatter of goblins off in the distance, but the barricade that they erected two days ago still appears to be undisturbed. Arik asks to be taken to any areas of interest that they've discovered so that he can investigate them. They first take him to some of the iron statues. He is unable to make out much more than the rest of the group - their condition appears to be due to some sort of divine retribution on the part of the Iron God. Either that, or some enemy did this to them and took great pains to make it appear as divine retibution.
They move on to the room containing strange patterns inlaid with iron into the wall. They seem to still have the same calming, mind-focused effect that Zedlyn encountered before, but no one is able to make any new deductions here. Arik suggests that they might be an aid to meditation.
Finally, the party show Arik to the room containing concentric iron circles inlaid into the floor. Arik points out that the pattern seems to indicate that something or someone is supposed to go in the center, and the party admit that they didn't continue investigating after dropping a book in the center. Iriellis steps forward to take a look. As she holds her arm above the inner circle, she feels a strange upward force. Throwing caution to the wind, she steps into the circle.
The rest of the adventurers see Iriellis float upwards and begin levitating a foot in the air, her body and muscles seemingly in a state of relaxation. Iriellis, floating in the circle, sees a vision of a pure white void, out of which a gigantic metal figure floats. The being introduces itself as the Iron God, and explains that it punished its own worshippers for their greed, and their dabbling with the forbidden arts of necromancy. Furthermore, it explains that the undead still stalk the catacombs, and if Iriellis accepts the task of destroying them, it will grant her a boon. Iriellis accepts, at which point the vision shatters.
The rest of the party see a flash of white light, and when their vision clears, they see Iriellis lying on the ground, holding an iron flail in her hands. When she explains what happened and what she saw, and Arik immediately steps forward into the circle, hoping to contact the Iron God as well. However, neither he, nor any other party member, are able to duplicate the effect. With this new quest accepted, the group head back to the catacombs.
Returning to the strange area of magical darkness, Flossaria takes a look, hoping to be able to see something that the others didn't, but she can't figure out what exactly is causing the darkness or what it is. Arik pulls out a strange metal cylinder that produces light from the end of it, but it is also unable to penetrate the darkness. When questioned by Sharla about the device, he explains that it's something that he found in an ancient ruin back in his homeland. He doesn't know how it works, but it cannot be through magic, because there is no magic where he comes from.
Iriellis casts a spell to detect the presence of evil and directs it towards the darkness, which doesn't register as evil. As she sweeps her sight around, though, she does detect a strong aura of evil coming from the northwest, in the direction of the room where they fought the giant tick. Walking into that room, they find that the evil aura seems to be coming from the cavern that is marked as the prison of the "Eater of the Dead". The group collectively decide that disturbing this area would be a bad idea.
Looking at the chest in the room, they are worried that it might be cursed or protected by the Iron God, but Iriellis has an instinctive feeling that the Iron God doesn't care about the treasure - the priests weren't supposed to have it in the first place; that's part of the reason why the Iron God chose to punish them. She attributes this knowledge to her vision of the Iron God; it must have been imparted to her then. Given this explanation, the party take the treasure (which consists mostly of silver and gold coins) from the chest, dumping it into a bag for Arik to carry.
Deciding to finally brave the darkness, Iriellis steps on ahead with a rope tied around her waist. Inside, she hears a low, growling voice, warning her to "enter only with reverence for the quiet dead". After a pause, it goes on to explain that "the dead walk unquietly in the Sacred Catacombs, and the walking dead are an abomination to the Iron God". Iriellis attempts to question the voice, but it doesn't speak any more than those two sentences. She starts walking forward through the pitch blackness; after about thirty feet, she hits a wall. She uses the rope to find her way back.
The party decide to try using the ceremonial implements that they found nearby. They take the long-axe, lantern, and incense burner, tie themselves together with the rope so they don't get separated, and step into the darkness. However, the implements seem to have no effect - the darkness is still absolute. Preferring not to continue in pitch blackness, the party decide to retreat and enter the catacombs from one of the two other entrances that they had discovered. They pick the one near the library / archive room.
Heading into the catacombs from the new entrance, the path soon splits into three directions - northwest, north, and east. To the northwest, the passage continues before ending in another wall of seemingly impenetrable darkness. To the north, the passage continues onwards before opening into a cavern. To the east, the passage goes for some distance before curving north. The party opt to follow the east passage.
After it curves north, the east passage continues on in that direction, and also contains a cavern opening to the east. The party step into this cavern and find that its walls are covered in inscriptions and pictures. No one recognizes the language of the carvings; Sharla mentions that she might be able to decipher them, given enough time, but even a preliminary reading of a small section will take a few hours. Arik points out that they may not have a few hours to spare, so the group forge on ahead, resolving to come back and investigate the carvings if the time is available.
The carving room contains an opening to the north, which opens into another cave after a short passage. This cave contains six iron statues, arranged in two rows of three. However, these statues are different than the others encountered thus far - they are of guardsmen or warriors rather than priests, and they have calm, neutral expressions rather than expressions of pain or fear. The party are wary that they will come to life and attack, but after they step into the cavern, the statues don't react in any way.
Attempts to communicate with the statues or cause them to react fail, until Zedlyn walks up while carrying the ceremonial longaxe and salutes, which causes the statues to salute back. The party experiment with various combinations of the ceremonial axe, lantern, and incense burner, before finally discovering that, if three characters march together carrying all three items, the statues will follow behind. With these new allies gained, the group head out of the room through a passage to the southwest.
This passage leads to a Y-shaped intersection; their options are the south and the northwest. The southern passage joins back up with the passage that led them to the room full of ancient carvings, so they head to the northwest. This leads them to a very large cavern, dominated by a giant statue of the Iron God. The room also contains a set of stairs leading downwards carved into the cavern floor, an exit to the south, and most strikingly, a corpse lying on the ground near the statue.
Iriellis steps forward to check out the corpse, and determines that it is a human male who died a week or two ago, with no visible wounds or obvious cause of death. He is wearing chainmail armor and a mace and shield are lying on the ground next to him. The party discuss the possibility that this is the missing caravan guard who disappeared from the caravan that passed through Asuna before their own. The dates fit, but none of the characters are familiar enough with the missing man's appearance to be able to say for sure.
Searching the body for anything of interest, apart from a small coin-pouch, the party discover that the man is wearing an amulet that depicts a half-closed eye. Flossaria recognizes the symbol as being very similar to that of Sirami, the Lord of All Forgetting. However, Sirami's symbol is a closed eye, whereas this symbol is a half-closed eye.
The southern passage out of the room leads back to the cave that they glimpsed to the north at the first intersection after entering the catacombs. This cave appears to be empty. Thus, the party are left with only a few choices remaining to explore: the two walls of impenetrable darkness, the third entrance to the catacombs, and the stairs in the statue room.
Thursday, August 8, 2013
The Ability Score Lottery
Monday, August 5, 2013
Death and Injuries
Since this came up during the last session and I was basically making things up as I went, here the rules for serious injuries.
The standard healing spells are Cure Light Wounds (1st level), Cure Serious Wounds (3rd level), and Cure Critical Wounds (5th level). Thus, injuries can be divided into these categories as well.
Light Wounds This is hit point damage; while your hit points are above 0, it is assumed that you have only sustained light wounds. Any healing spell can deal with light wounds by restoring hit points.
Serious Wounds In general, these are wounds that would put someone out of commission for a time, but are not life-threatening - broken bones, major dislocations, concussions, that sort of thing. A character who suffers a serious wound is knocked unconscious for at least a turn, and cannot continue to fight if the wound was suffered in combat. These cannot be fixed using Cure Light Wounds; it isn't powerful enough. Cure Serious Wounds will take care of them, although it will not also heal hit points when used in this manner. Cure Critical Wounds will take care of these injuries, and on top of that will heal hit points as a Cure Light Wounds spell.
A character with a serious wound cannot rise above 0 hit points until it is healed.
Critical Wounds These are wounds that are life-threatening - severed limbs, cut arteries, sword through the gut, etc. A character who suffers a critical wound is in mortal danger, and begins "bleeding out", as described below. Cure Light Wounds and Cure Serious Wounds are not powerful enough to fix these injuries (although they can delay death; see below); only a Cure Critical Wounds spell is sufficient. When used in this way, it does not also heal hit point damage. Incidentally, this is what Lorcan sustained, having rolled the second-lowest possible result on the injury table (the lowest being instant death).
A character with a critical wound cannot rise above 0 hit points until it is healed.
For reference, Cure Serious Wounds is first available to casters at 5th level, while Cure Critical Wounds is available at 9th level. There are usually casters available for hire in large cities that can handle Cure Serious Wounds; the starting price is 150 gp. Cure Critical Wounds is a much bigger deal; 9th level or higher casters are generally important, busy people and may require convincing. The price for Cure Critical Wounds starts at 450 gp.
Bleeding Out If a character sustains a critical wound and a Cure Critical Wounds spell is not available, then the character is in mortal danger and is bleeding out. The characters has 1d6 turns (10 - 60 minutes) to live. Healing spells below the level of Cure Critical Wounds can extend this duration; for each hit point that the spell would heal, it extends the character's life by 1 turn. Thus, Cure Light Wounds provides 1d8 turns (10 - 80 minutes) and Cure Serious Wounds provides 3d8 turns (30 - 240 minutes). The 0-level spell First Aid is also of use in this situation, providing 1d3 turns of respite (10 - 30 minutes).
Magical healing is not the only option to prevent bleeding out; a skilled healer can staunch the wound and prevent death. However, this is an extremely difficult task. Depending on the specific wound, the difficulty generally varies from 20 to 30. A given healer can only attempt this once, and each attempt takes an hour. If less than an hour is available, the difficulty increases by 2 for each missing turn (for example, if the healer only has ten minutes, then five turns are missing, so the difficulty is increased by 10). Also, note that this doesn't remove the injury; the character is still critically wounded, and cannot rise above 0 hit points until receiving a Cure Critical Wounds spell or waiting for the wound to heal naturally (which generally takes multiple months).
The standard healing spells are Cure Light Wounds (1st level), Cure Serious Wounds (3rd level), and Cure Critical Wounds (5th level). Thus, injuries can be divided into these categories as well.
Light Wounds This is hit point damage; while your hit points are above 0, it is assumed that you have only sustained light wounds. Any healing spell can deal with light wounds by restoring hit points.
Serious Wounds In general, these are wounds that would put someone out of commission for a time, but are not life-threatening - broken bones, major dislocations, concussions, that sort of thing. A character who suffers a serious wound is knocked unconscious for at least a turn, and cannot continue to fight if the wound was suffered in combat. These cannot be fixed using Cure Light Wounds; it isn't powerful enough. Cure Serious Wounds will take care of them, although it will not also heal hit points when used in this manner. Cure Critical Wounds will take care of these injuries, and on top of that will heal hit points as a Cure Light Wounds spell.
A character with a serious wound cannot rise above 0 hit points until it is healed.
Critical Wounds These are wounds that are life-threatening - severed limbs, cut arteries, sword through the gut, etc. A character who suffers a critical wound is in mortal danger, and begins "bleeding out", as described below. Cure Light Wounds and Cure Serious Wounds are not powerful enough to fix these injuries (although they can delay death; see below); only a Cure Critical Wounds spell is sufficient. When used in this way, it does not also heal hit point damage. Incidentally, this is what Lorcan sustained, having rolled the second-lowest possible result on the injury table (the lowest being instant death).
A character with a critical wound cannot rise above 0 hit points until it is healed.
For reference, Cure Serious Wounds is first available to casters at 5th level, while Cure Critical Wounds is available at 9th level. There are usually casters available for hire in large cities that can handle Cure Serious Wounds; the starting price is 150 gp. Cure Critical Wounds is a much bigger deal; 9th level or higher casters are generally important, busy people and may require convincing. The price for Cure Critical Wounds starts at 450 gp.
Bleeding Out If a character sustains a critical wound and a Cure Critical Wounds spell is not available, then the character is in mortal danger and is bleeding out. The characters has 1d6 turns (10 - 60 minutes) to live. Healing spells below the level of Cure Critical Wounds can extend this duration; for each hit point that the spell would heal, it extends the character's life by 1 turn. Thus, Cure Light Wounds provides 1d8 turns (10 - 80 minutes) and Cure Serious Wounds provides 3d8 turns (30 - 240 minutes). The 0-level spell First Aid is also of use in this situation, providing 1d3 turns of respite (10 - 30 minutes).
Magical healing is not the only option to prevent bleeding out; a skilled healer can staunch the wound and prevent death. However, this is an extremely difficult task. Depending on the specific wound, the difficulty generally varies from 20 to 30. A given healer can only attempt this once, and each attempt takes an hour. If less than an hour is available, the difficulty increases by 2 for each missing turn (for example, if the healer only has ten minutes, then five turns are missing, so the difficulty is increased by 10). Also, note that this doesn't remove the injury; the character is still critically wounded, and cannot rise above 0 hit points until receiving a Cure Critical Wounds spell or waiting for the wound to heal naturally (which generally takes multiple months).
Session 4: Tomb of the Iron God, Part 4
Having finished investigating the monastery's library / archive, the party exit through the eastern door of the room. Beyond is a short passageway that leads to a t-intersection, heading north and south. To the north is a room containing an archway mounted with an iron plaque, which bears the same warning as before - that those who pass must be "draped in respect" and "speak [their] name for the scribe of the dead". There are three more rust-colored hoods hanging next to archway on pegs. The party decide to leave the area alone for now and head to the south.
To the south is a door, while the passage continues onward in a winding and twisting manner. The party continue down the passage, but they are wary of goblins, as their map indicates that the first group of goblins that they heard are somewhere nearby. Indeed, after they follow several bends, they hear the sound of goblins in the distance, and they decide to back off and investigate the door near the intersection.
Through the door is a room whose only feature appears to be a series of concentric iron rings inlaid into the floor. The innermost circle is two feet in diameter, while each successive circle is a foot larger, until the largest circle is twenty feet across. The party are unsure what to make of this; Zedlyn walks in and throws a book fetched from the library into the inner circle, but nothing unusual happens. The party decide to leave this room alone.
Evaluating their options, the group next decide to investigate the pressure plate that they had backed off from before. Zedlyn attempts to trigger it by pressing down on it with his trident from a distance. It works - the plate is a pit trap that opens up, and Zedlyn manages to keep his balance and not fall in. Peering across, the party can distinguish the glittering form of another iron statue. Adokas tosses his rope across with a grappling hook and snags it on one of the statue's legs. The entire party give the rope a pull, and it seems quite secure. Adokas fastens the other end to a nearby door handle, making a line across the open pit, which he uses to shimmy over to the other side.
The room across the pit contains, apart from the aforementioned statue, a large iron cage occupied by a decomposing skeleton attired in elaborate robes. Lorcan tosses a scalpel (earlier salvaged from the embalming supplies) across to Adokas to use as a makeshift lockpick, and after a minute or so of work, he manages to get the cage open. Investigating the skeleton more closely, it appears to have been gnawed on by animals. It doesn't have any valuables or anything else of interest upon it. Untying the rope from the statue, Adokas leaps back across the pit, catching the edge. The rest of the party help him up.
With their remaining options the rats, the goblins, and the catacombs, the party decide to go after the rats, despite their earlier assumption that they probably don't have anything of value. The arrange themselves at the door where they heard the chittering sounds. Zedlyn flings it open and Sharla throws the torch into the room, hoping to surprise and frighten the rats. The rats, eight of them in total, have the opposite reaction, and flood out of the room to attack the intruders!
As the rats swarm around them, Zedlyn attacks with his trident, Lorcan with his daggers, Iriellis with her flail, and Adokas with his fists. Sharla, standing safely to the side, summons up tendrils of darkness which appear from her hands to strike at the rats. The creatures are defeated in fairly short order, with only Zedlyn sustaining any injury from the rats' bites. Iriellis heals the damage with a healing prayer, and the party move in to investigate the room. Unfortunately, their earlier assessment seems to be correct - there is nothing of value in the room, only garbage, fragments of smashing furniture, the rotting carcasses of half-eaten animals, and rat droppings.
The party decide that they will finally brave the catacombs. They move to the room containing the offering bowl and ceremonial instruments, and they attire themselves in the rust-brown hoods. They take the instruments with them, with Sharla replacing their torch with the ceremonial lantern as their light source. As they pass through the door, they each state their name and their purpose, as the plaque warns that they should.
Past the door, the character of the walls changes, more resembling a worked cavern than the fully man-made cellars of before. Additionally, each character can feel a strong supernatural presence as they step into the passage. The walk forward until the passage ends in a t-intersection; to the north the cave continues onward, but to the south there appears to be complete, impenetrable blackness. None of their light sources seem able to pierce it, including the ceremonial lantern. The rest of the party back away, leaving the gnomes Sharla and Zedlyn waiting in the darkness for their darkvision to return, but when it does, it is equally incapable of seeing through the darkness. Unable to see to the south, the group decide to head through the north passage instead.
To the north is a cavern containing an open treasure chest flanked by three iron statues; there is a passageway leading further north with an inscription above it. Sharla moves forward to read it; it is a warning that beyond is the "Eater of the Dead, imprisoned eternally". Lorcan goes to check out the chest, but as he approaches, a giant tick drops down from the ceiling and lands on him, trying to bite him.
The group erupt into chaos; Zedlyn charges forward and tries to help Lorcan pull the tick off and Sharla tries to scare it away by waving the lantern at it, while Adokas tries to attack and Iriellis fires her sling at it. Unfortunately, in the confusion, Iriellis accidentally hits Lorcan instead, and everyone else's actions are ineffectual. The tick gets to Lorcan's throat and takes a bite; he goes down, severely injured. With Lorcan down, Zedlyn switches to his trident and attacks, striking a powerful blow that badly injures the creature. It tries to skitter away, but he and Adokas pursue it. It is slower than they are, so they easily catch up, and Zedlyn strikes it with a second, killing, blow.
Lorcan is down and quickly bleeding out; Iriellis casts what healing magic she has left, but it isn't strong enough to close the wound, only to delay the inevitable - at this rate, Lorcan has under two hours left. Repurposing one of the large wicker baskets from the embalming room as a stretcher, the group head out back towards town, hoping to make it to the healer in time.
Adokas, the fastest party member due to his monk training, is sent out ahead to warn the healer of their arrival, while Zedlyn and Sharla take the basket and Iriellis follows along. Adokas makes it to Asuna without difficulty and the healer begins preparing; Zedlyn and Sharla are much more taxed by the trip but manage to keep up a good pace. Iriellis can't keep up with them and is forced to drop behind.
When Zedlyn and Sharla arrive with the litter, the healer is waiting for them and he immediately gets to work. But the wound is too severe, and it is beyond his skill to fix; within the hour, Lorcan dies of his wound.
To the south is a door, while the passage continues onward in a winding and twisting manner. The party continue down the passage, but they are wary of goblins, as their map indicates that the first group of goblins that they heard are somewhere nearby. Indeed, after they follow several bends, they hear the sound of goblins in the distance, and they decide to back off and investigate the door near the intersection.
Through the door is a room whose only feature appears to be a series of concentric iron rings inlaid into the floor. The innermost circle is two feet in diameter, while each successive circle is a foot larger, until the largest circle is twenty feet across. The party are unsure what to make of this; Zedlyn walks in and throws a book fetched from the library into the inner circle, but nothing unusual happens. The party decide to leave this room alone.
Evaluating their options, the group next decide to investigate the pressure plate that they had backed off from before. Zedlyn attempts to trigger it by pressing down on it with his trident from a distance. It works - the plate is a pit trap that opens up, and Zedlyn manages to keep his balance and not fall in. Peering across, the party can distinguish the glittering form of another iron statue. Adokas tosses his rope across with a grappling hook and snags it on one of the statue's legs. The entire party give the rope a pull, and it seems quite secure. Adokas fastens the other end to a nearby door handle, making a line across the open pit, which he uses to shimmy over to the other side.
The room across the pit contains, apart from the aforementioned statue, a large iron cage occupied by a decomposing skeleton attired in elaborate robes. Lorcan tosses a scalpel (earlier salvaged from the embalming supplies) across to Adokas to use as a makeshift lockpick, and after a minute or so of work, he manages to get the cage open. Investigating the skeleton more closely, it appears to have been gnawed on by animals. It doesn't have any valuables or anything else of interest upon it. Untying the rope from the statue, Adokas leaps back across the pit, catching the edge. The rest of the party help him up.
With their remaining options the rats, the goblins, and the catacombs, the party decide to go after the rats, despite their earlier assumption that they probably don't have anything of value. The arrange themselves at the door where they heard the chittering sounds. Zedlyn flings it open and Sharla throws the torch into the room, hoping to surprise and frighten the rats. The rats, eight of them in total, have the opposite reaction, and flood out of the room to attack the intruders!
As the rats swarm around them, Zedlyn attacks with his trident, Lorcan with his daggers, Iriellis with her flail, and Adokas with his fists. Sharla, standing safely to the side, summons up tendrils of darkness which appear from her hands to strike at the rats. The creatures are defeated in fairly short order, with only Zedlyn sustaining any injury from the rats' bites. Iriellis heals the damage with a healing prayer, and the party move in to investigate the room. Unfortunately, their earlier assessment seems to be correct - there is nothing of value in the room, only garbage, fragments of smashing furniture, the rotting carcasses of half-eaten animals, and rat droppings.
The party decide that they will finally brave the catacombs. They move to the room containing the offering bowl and ceremonial instruments, and they attire themselves in the rust-brown hoods. They take the instruments with them, with Sharla replacing their torch with the ceremonial lantern as their light source. As they pass through the door, they each state their name and their purpose, as the plaque warns that they should.
Past the door, the character of the walls changes, more resembling a worked cavern than the fully man-made cellars of before. Additionally, each character can feel a strong supernatural presence as they step into the passage. The walk forward until the passage ends in a t-intersection; to the north the cave continues onward, but to the south there appears to be complete, impenetrable blackness. None of their light sources seem able to pierce it, including the ceremonial lantern. The rest of the party back away, leaving the gnomes Sharla and Zedlyn waiting in the darkness for their darkvision to return, but when it does, it is equally incapable of seeing through the darkness. Unable to see to the south, the group decide to head through the north passage instead.
To the north is a cavern containing an open treasure chest flanked by three iron statues; there is a passageway leading further north with an inscription above it. Sharla moves forward to read it; it is a warning that beyond is the "Eater of the Dead, imprisoned eternally". Lorcan goes to check out the chest, but as he approaches, a giant tick drops down from the ceiling and lands on him, trying to bite him.
The group erupt into chaos; Zedlyn charges forward and tries to help Lorcan pull the tick off and Sharla tries to scare it away by waving the lantern at it, while Adokas tries to attack and Iriellis fires her sling at it. Unfortunately, in the confusion, Iriellis accidentally hits Lorcan instead, and everyone else's actions are ineffectual. The tick gets to Lorcan's throat and takes a bite; he goes down, severely injured. With Lorcan down, Zedlyn switches to his trident and attacks, striking a powerful blow that badly injures the creature. It tries to skitter away, but he and Adokas pursue it. It is slower than they are, so they easily catch up, and Zedlyn strikes it with a second, killing, blow.
Lorcan is down and quickly bleeding out; Iriellis casts what healing magic she has left, but it isn't strong enough to close the wound, only to delay the inevitable - at this rate, Lorcan has under two hours left. Repurposing one of the large wicker baskets from the embalming room as a stretcher, the group head out back towards town, hoping to make it to the healer in time.
Adokas, the fastest party member due to his monk training, is sent out ahead to warn the healer of their arrival, while Zedlyn and Sharla take the basket and Iriellis follows along. Adokas makes it to Asuna without difficulty and the healer begins preparing; Zedlyn and Sharla are much more taxed by the trip but manage to keep up a good pace. Iriellis can't keep up with them and is forced to drop behind.
When Zedlyn and Sharla arrive with the litter, the healer is waiting for them and he immediately gets to work. But the wound is too severe, and it is beyond his skill to fix; within the hour, Lorcan dies of his wound.
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