Children of Sorrow

[Nephis]

This time NEMO knows he can help: he races over to the nearest column and comes to a sliding halt on his knees next to it. He immediately begins to gingerly press stones, try to twist them, probe and poke cracks, until he feels it - the weakness in the arrangement. Looking up, he sees Jendi striding towards him, a thundercloud on his brow. "Here!" the halfling exclaims, "I need to deactivate here!"

Jendi continues to stand over him, scowling, as the halfling does his magic with his skillful fingers and quick wit. After several moment, he sits back on his heels and looks up at his friend. As the warlock kneels beside him, Jendi's scowl turns first into a frown of concentration, then into a smile of admiration. The halfling's dexterous work has succeeded in this mechanical act of abnegating more of the malevolent presence in the the chamber: the blue lights dim and the buzzing subsides just a little bit more.

---

* Nemo makes a Primary Skill Thievery check to disable the Profane Arcane connectivity: +12 = Autosuccess vs. 13 Moderate DC

 

[darkbard]

Skill Challenge, Cleanse the Sunken Vault of the Taint of Gulthias, 3 Successes/1 Failure/1 Hard DC available/2 Secondary Skills available.

Nemo's countermeasures are sufficient to negate not only the residual necrotic energy of the pillars but also the lingering malevolence of the Altar of Sacrifice. This room is cleansed of Gulthias's taint. But it is still not safe. Not while the dark fane below, the Sanctuary of Orcus, still reeks of evil.

And so you make your way back down the maw into the chamber below. It is as you left it: the zombie's corpse continues to molder near the blank wall that once held the portal; skeletal remains are scattered amidst smoldering braziers; the enormous statue of Orcus, bereft of its scepter still looms. And beyond all, there is the baleful grave of Gulthias radiating its palpable evil.

As you approach the steps to deal with this taint, you feel yourselves repelled and nauseated by its foulness. Your will is sapped, your steps falter.

This is a Group Endurance check (against the Easy DC, 9).

 

[Nephis]

As the group approaches the steps to Gulthias's bed of defiled earth, Jendi cries out and doubles over, as if in excruciating pain. Nemo and Mylistra turn towards him, concern on their faces, and Toriq rushes back down to her little brother, cowering on the floor. As she touches his shoulder with one hand and lifts his chin with the other, the halforc stares into his eyes, trying to understand what she is seeing. Her brother begins to speak.

"She thinks I'm still not strong enough," he murmurs, "but I am! I can withstand the temptation! I know I can." Toriq shakes her head, confused and worried at his words. The shadows swirling around in his eyes are even more worrisome. Taking both of his shoulders in her hands, she shakes him slightly, but he continues to murmur.

Then Toriq feels a hand on her own shoulder, and turns her head to see Mylistra's concerned eyes. The witch and the halfling have both joined them. Mylistra takes one of her friend's hands in her own, reaching for one of Jendi's, the halfling taking his other. "Together," the witch says, "it is only the first steps that are the hardest. And Sehanine will protect us."

To the astonishment of the others, Nemo responds, "As will the Duskqueen." Somehow, the halfling's statement brings Jendi out of his dazed confusion, and they all mount the steps to the grave.

---

Group Endurance check to withstand the repulsion and nausea of the foul grave (and the confusion it causes):

• Jendi: r1 +2 = 3 vs 9 Easy DC = Failure
• Mylistra: r11 +1 = 12 vs 9 Easy DC = Success
• Nemo: r16 +1 = 17 vs 9 Easy DC = Success
• Toriq: r1 +7 = 8 vs 9 Easy DC = Failure

2/4 individual successes = 1 Success in SC

 

[darkbard]

Skill Challenge, Cleanse the Sunken Vault of the Taint of Gulthias, 4 Successes/1 Failure/1 Hard DC available/2 Secondary Skills available.

As one, you crest the stairs onto the platform. An odor that transcends scent rises from the fouled earth piled in the center. Putrid. Blackness itself. Being so close, the eyes and nose run; you cough uncontrollably. But you endure.

And then one of the stone statues in the shape of a winged demon, all claws and teeth and barbed tail, reaches out and grabs Jendi. A voice reverberates in his mind, and only he can hear it. "Kill the others! You will be rewarded with unparalleled power. Kill!"

Jendi is held fast for the moment (grabbed, in mechanical terms). What do you do? Moderate DC.

 

[Nephis]

Her mind still distracted by what she just saw in Jendi's eyes and heard from his lips, TORIQ looks up suddenly to see one of the winged statues grab her brother. Her protective older sister instincts kick in, as usual, and she leaps to assist her brother in freeing himself.

However, as she struggles to get him free from the statue's grasp, she begins to realize that Jendi is standing stock still, non-reactive, to the matter at hand, at least. Head cocked, he seems to be listening to something that she cannot hear.

Then he turns his head and looks her in the eye.

---

* Toriq makes a Primary Skill Athletics check to break Jendi free from the statue's hold: r1 +8 =9 vs 13 Moderate DC. Failure

 

[darkbard]

Skill Challenge, Cleanse the Sunken Vault of the Taint of Gulthias, 4 Successes/2 Failures/1 Hard DC available/2 Secondary Skills available.

Surely he doesn't mean to do it. But Jendi raises his staff and strikes his sister a blow to the side of her head. The Halfelf wrestles free from the statue's grasp, a wild gleam in his eyes. As Toriq raises a hand to her wounded skull, Jendi raises his staff once again, preparing for a follow up blow.

How do you stop him? Moderate DC.

The consequence for the microfailure is that Toriq loses a Healing Surge.

 

[Nephis]

MYLISTRA hopes that the shaking in her knees is not revealed as she quickly steps over to the siblings to intercede. She grasps Jendi's staff and stares into his eyes - almost gasping as she sees the swirling shadows that Toriq saw moments ago. But unlike the warden, the witch perceives that these shadows are not of the Duskmaiden. They have the taint of Orcus and his undead magicks.

With one hand still grasping the staff, the Stygian elf raises her dagger in her other hand and calls out to her Goddess, "Sehanine, aid this child of the Duskmaiden in his affliction and your own child, a Guardian of the Ruby Spire. Send your protection and healing down to them both, that he may cast out the Demonlord's Shadows of Undeath and return to his senses, that she may recover from the physical and psychic blow of her brother's strike."

Silvery Moonlight seems to glow within the chamber, along with Shadows more brilliant than the heavy cursed shadows of Orcus: both siblings are covered in these dual and dueling lights for a brief but radiant moment. Then Jendi, shadows no longer swirling in his eyes, turns to his sister in concern: "Riqqi? What happened to you?"

---

• Mylistra makes a Secondary Skill Religion check to invoke Sehanine and the Raven Queen: r17 +5 =23 vs 9 Easy DC for a +2 SS bonus to her
• Primary Skill Healing check to cast out psychic damage from both siblings: r8 +9 +2 SS = 19 vs 13 Moderate DC for a Success.

 

[darkbard]

Skill Challenge, Cleanse the Sunken Vault of the Taint of Gulthias, 5 Successes/2 Failures/1 Hard DC available/1 Secondary Skill available.

The dominating power of the Demon Lord of Undeath cast out and the siblings healed by Sehanine's clement touch, nothing remains but the inevitable: Gulthias's grave. For the fane to be cleansed and the area secured of low danger, the malevolence of the grave must be dispelled.

How do you do it? This is, of course, the Hard DC.

 

[Nephis]

Mylistra and JENDI look through Gulthias's Blood Book of the Goat-Horn together and find an appropriate ritual for casting out what Gulthias put into the soil. Mylistra sucks in a breath as she realizes what the ritual costs: this is a hungry book. She starts to explain to Jendi what the cost is, but notices him staring over at his sister with haunted eyes.

Mylistra looks over to her friend and see the warden puzzle over the depth of the soil, using Jendi's staff to measure it. If guilt were not a factor, the witch suspects that the warlock would never allow it to be used thusly. Toriq calls out to them, "it should be deeper: there must be some kind of trap door. Also, I don't think this upper layer is tainted..... Wait! I have found something."

At that both Toriq and Nemo (who had been helping her look and examine) both leap back. A loud grinding sound resonates throughout the chamber, and they all watch as the lower level of soil slowly rises upward. This new soil is most obviously the source of the taint they have all been feeling, and they almost gag sensing it.

Jendi and Mylistra walk up tentatively up to the edge of the soil, and Jendi opens the book and prepares to read the words that Mylistra had just translated for him. Stopping him, the witch holds her hand over the pages and - with her own dagger - makes a small slice in her palm, allowing the blood to drop onto the page. Momentarily the symbols on the page seem to gleam silver, then Jendi begins to read the highlighted words. As soon as he has spoken a specific phrase, those gleaming letters fade back into the more static brown ink upon the page.

When he has finished reading, he stares down at the page, then up at Mylistra, mouth agape. "This is a hungry book," she repeats, feeling a bit dizzy at the blood loss and knowing he had been too preoccupied to hear her earlier.

"Wow," Nemo murmurs reverently, looking around at the vastly changed atmosphere, "it actually worked!"

---

• Mylistra uses her Encounter Power Healer's Mercy to give her blood and weaken herself for a +2 Power Bonus to Jendi's Primary Skill check
• Toriq makes a Secondary Skill Dungeoneering check to bring the truly tainted soil to the surface: +8 for Autosuccess = +2 SS bonus for Jendi's Primary Skill check
• Jendi makes a Primary Skill Religion check to perform a ritual reversing Gulthias's desanctification of the grave soil: r10 +8 +2 SS (Toriq) +2 PB (Mylistra) = 22 vs 21 Hard DC. Success

 

[darkbard]

Skill Challenge, Cleanse the Sunken Vault of the Taint of Gulthias successfully completed. Rewards: XP = 300 (Level 3, Complexity 2 SC) /4 = 75 XP per PC and you've earned the first success in the umbrella skill challenge. Further, this is your second completed encounter since your previous Milestone, so you've achieved another Milestone.

This additional XP tally qualifies you for L2, so go ahead and level up your characters, posting character summaries in spoilers below, and then we will proceed with the Skill Challenge to establish safe camp/haven in dangerous territory, with that first obstacle, ensuring low danger achieved (this includes the area below ground, the area above, and the immediately surrounding forested areas, all freed from Gulthias's taint).

At the end of your post draft some fiction establishing how you're approaching the second obstacle (locate/create shelter/concealment) and I will frame some challenge to that approach. Include the specifics of how and where you are doing this (here, below ground? above, in the area where you fought the drakes? beyond, in the surrounding forest?).