Chapter 5

In which the party finishes what they started and learns the value of occasionally indulging in a little intense pickle

After a moment Frelik popped back to his feet, panting and frantically scanning his surroundings as though still looking for a fight.  Luckily his brain managed to override his barbarian instincts just long enough for him to realize that the violence was ended.  Valeria tried to explain what had just happened to the confused barbarian as Davros went back across the pit to investigate the lab.

Magpie glanced at their new prisoner and cawed with dismay.  Attention drawn, Valeria frowned at the woman’s less than healthy skin tone and called back over her shoulder, “Oh Davros, you may want to come have a look at this, she looks like she may be your type.”

Even from across the chasm Davros blanched, “Her skin is about the colour of dead.”

The woman made no response, standing quietly in the corner.  Davros approached and pushed back her hood.  Her skin was, as they feared, rotting and putrid, what hair she had hung lank and lifeless around her face.  She wears much makeup – more than Yuri cares for on his women – and enough perfume to choke on, but she is clearly no longer living.  Yuri shuts his eyes against the hideous sight of this once-beautiful woman now rotted but still standing.

“Who are you?”  Valeria asked softly.

“My name is Esme Verisi.  I was… sick and Svilennius offered to help me.  He says he tried to help me but before he could succeed I died so he brought me back.”

“Oh?” Valeria cocked her head, “And do you believe that?”

“Look.” She says, throwing her hood back to reveal the full extent of her decay, “Of course I’ve died, he was working on something to help reverse this.”

“The death? Or the rotting?” Valeria asked, snide as ever.

“At least the rotting.” She retorted.

Keen to help the woman, Davros searched the Alchemist’s corpse and the lab, uncovering multiple wondrous items as well as all kinds of useful tools and a magic spear.

A few people claimed items they thought might be useful and Davros secreted away the rest.

Magpie turned to the woman, “How long have you been down in this forsaken crypt?”

“It is hard to say exactly,” Esme frowned, not a flattering expression on someone whose face was rotting, “It’s been about a week since I came to.  Svillenius thought he could bring me back, but failed several times.  So I do not know how long I’d been unconscious.”

“Who were you before?” Valeria asked, “Well, who are you still, I guess.”

“I was studying magic in Korvosa when I caught a wasting disease and turned to Necromancy to try and cure myself.  I came here to consult with the Necromancers of the Ankar-Te district, but I soon realized had neither the time nor the money to get this cured.  That was when I met Svilennius, who was eager to try and help me… I think the poor fool was in love with me.”

“He was.” Valeria nodded.  “Was Svilennius an evil person by nature or did he simply go insane trying to create undead things?”

“Having semi-succeeded with me he tried the experiment on others, trying to perfect it and see if he could find a way to stop the rotting and bring someone back to life.”

“So why did he attack us the moment we entered the room?” Valeria demanded.

“Actually, I believe you shot first.” Akura pointed out.

Esme ignored him, “He was jittery.  He was expecting the Pharasmans to come down and evict him at any moment.  He was a former cleric of their church, now in exile and was always paranoid that someone was going to come down and get us. I imagine you startled him.”

The party stared at her in mingled confusion and awareness.

She tried to explain, “He believed that using alchemy to revive the dead was less blasphemous than using negative energy, so had been working on a way to revive the dead that way.  His efforts got him cast out of the church of Pharasma as a heretic.”

Davros, shaking his head sadly as he flipped through Svilennius’ notes, sighed, “It looks like he wasn’t even close to reversing your condition Esme, I’m sorry, you’re going to rot out.”

She seemed sad and resigned, but not overly surprised by the news.

“We can’t leave you here.” Davros continued gently, “But if you like we can either show you a hole in the wall by which you can escape, or we can take you up to the church of Pharasma to see if there’s any way they can help you – or put you out of your misery as quickly and cleanly as possible.”

“If you’re willing to turn a blind eye,” the woman replied, “I will certainly take my chances in the city.”

“There’s a tunnel.”  Davros nodded, “Though we can’t guarantee where it leads.  I won’t begrudge a soul a chance for survival.”

With a rotted smile the woman nodded and thanked the group before disappearing off the way Davros indicated.

Satisfied that she was safely away, and indeed going the direction he told her, Davros returned to rifling through Svilennius’ lab, pocketing anything that looked useful or valuable.

As Davros had finished his ‘shopping’ trip, Frelik flapped his left arm around saying, “Ah, guys, I don’t think my arm’s supposed to bend this way.”

Without a glance Davros tossed him a vial from his pouch and they headed back into the maze of tunnels to double-check any doors they’d missed - in the interests of being thorough, of course, and not just seeking more loot.

The first room they entered contained a strange statue which, although it was clearly made of stone, glowed with a golden-green iridescence.

“That’s a statue of the Peacock Spirit – a deity of mind, body and soul.” Davros muttered.  Yuri tossed him an irritated glance, wondering if this encyclopaedia impression thing was going to become a regular occurrence.

In the base of the statue Davros noticed what looked like a small door.  Cautiously he reached out and popped the hatch open.  Inside lay a single green feather which Davros secreted away for later.

Carrying on around through the halls proved rather uneventful and they soon found themselves back at the statue of Lissala.

Valeria, ever obsessed with loot, reached up to pull what looked like a feather out of the statue’s hand.  There was a single, blinding flash of light and Valeria swayed once on her feet before shaking it off and tucking the feather away.

Returning to the embalming chambers they’d first explored, they rang the chime the priestess had given them, coaxing open the one door which had been magically sealed against them.  The room, which they realized belatedly must have been dedicated to envy, was empty save for some simple, rough-hewn furniture.  The group shared a pretty strong sense of foolishness.

After some squabbling, the group finally agreed to a watch order and bedded down to rest again, regaining their strength for whatever lay ahead.

A good eight hour rest later, the group once again re-evaluated what else they needed to accomplish in these catacombs before heading back up to the surface.  After a brief - and fierce - debate all but Frelik decide that they feel duty bound to clear the undead creatures from the room of the runelords (one of which had already soundly trounced them once before Yuri refrained from mentioning).

They began with the crypt of wrath again, pride still stinging from their previous defeat at his hands Yuri suspects. 

Magpie threw open the door and began making a speech into the hole, attempting to draw the creature out as the rest of them (except for Frelik who stood in the back, face-palming) stood ready for whatever came through the door.

“Once again you dare disturb my wrath?!?!” A familiar voice shouted, “Come in and face me.”

“No!” the group shouted in unison, “You come out!”

“I will not.”  The creature replied, “I can wait you out!”

“That’s not very wrathful.”  Frelik muttered.

“I cannot leave this crypt!”  It retorted.

Whipping out a wand which he maintained could do nasty things to anything undead, Magpie positioned himself to fire it off as he asked, “Why not?”

“Honour binds me to defend it!”  The thing replied.

When no one else had a good reply to that, Valeria let out a long-suffering sigh and stepped forward, firing her pistol into the darkness.

As the ball clatters into the creature’s armour he shouts, “Aha!  At last, a worthy challenge!”  He belts Valeria with his ranseur and finishes with a dire warning of, “Flee mortals!”

Magpie responds with a vicious flash from the wand in his hand which leaves a small, smoking hole in the skeleton’s chest.  When he raised the wand the second time the creature scored a hit on Magpie, though he still managed to get another searing shot off before retreating a step.

With a harsh cry Akura leapt forward, fist swinging.  And missed.  Davros elected to applaud sarcastically instead of helping – at least until Akura’s dirty look silenced him.  With another swing, pointed gaze still fixed on Davros, the monk put a fist through the skeleton’s torso and severed its spine.  It dropped to the ground, lifeless. 

After a careful study of the tiny room the guardian had occupied they discovered a secret door, behind which were buried the bejewelled corpses of some of wrath’s wealthier devotees.

The next door, that of lust, has no guardian behind it.  Instead there is only  a grouping of bodies who are remarkably well-preserved given their age – though the wonder of their preservation are overshadowed by the lewd and graphic positions of the bodies.

Picking through the pornographic tableau, Frelik managed to extricate quite a lot of jewellery to add to the party’s coffers.  He kept one necklace, which he held out to Valeria with an evil grin, “Here, I got this one for you.”

Disgust written on her face, Valeria took the thing in a handkerchief muttering, “Thanks…” before tucking it away.

The next room, Sloth, is much like lust’s except with the obvious omission of the lewdly positioned bodies.  In the centre of this room is a mound of something, in the weak light it looks like either a squat stalagmite or a mound of greasy fat.  As the group cautiously approached the thing it stirred, rising and shifting into a greasy, humanoid figure.  It lunged forward, one of its claw-like appendages catching Davros in the chest.

“Stupid lemure!” Davros muttered, firing his crossbow at the thing’s face, doing only minor damage.

Following suit, Valeria cracked a shot off at it, but the bullet only sinks into the fatty body, not appearing to do any damage.

Running past Davros on his way towards the creature Frelik snatched the ranseur they’d collected from the wrath room off the half-orc’s back and swung it at the creature with a savage cry.  With a sweeping, slashing cut the barbarian sliced the devil in two, as it crumbles and sizzles away into nothing, leaving an empty room.

Up next was gluttony - apparently one of the barbarian’s favourites.  Inside they found a pair of humanoid creatures, their skin hanging off their bones in huge folds, like bodies that had once been tremendously fat but were now emaciated and wasted away.  They growled, maws opening to reveal glistening, ghoulish fangs.

Ever quick to react, Valeria is the first to move, firing a shot into one of the creatures which blew a small chunk off it.

Wielding a wand over his head as Frelik gets too engrossed in his own display of prowess to swing, Magpie fired a blast of energy at the creature in the rear which fizzled and did nothing.

Making an unhappy noise in the back of his throat, Akura leapt forward, sinking a fist into the near creature and handily finishing it off.

“Duck!” Valeria shouted at Frelik.

The barbarian obeyed without question and Valeria’s glowing bullet struck the second ghoul right between the eyes, splattering its brains all over the opposite wall.

This room is even less treasure filled than the others.

The next door, pride, revealed a long corridor of polished wood with plush red carpet and alcoves stuffed with bodies wrapped in pristine white linens.  In the distance, the light music of chimes can be heard.  The hall is pleasantly warm and surprisingly not dank given that it’s a crypt.  Magpie shook his head, “Ugh… so much illusion.”

Frelik stepped through the opening first.  Which was likely a poor choice.  As soon as he crossed the threshold a flash of colours engulfed him and he dropped to the ground, unconscious.

A skeletal figure detached itself from the opposite wall, dripping blood on the red carpet as it approached the prone figure of the barbarian.

“Ew.” Akura muttered, moving warily into the hallway.

With a grunt Davros hurled a bomb over the monk’s shoulder which exploded into a blast of flames and vines which wrapped themselves around the thing’s bony ankles.  The damage from the fire, however initially effective it seemed, was apparently not worth much as the creature hadn’t started putting itself back together almost immediately.

With a hiss, covering the monk in blood and spit, the creature swung at him – and missed.

The monk responded with a fist, knocking the creature’s head off and causing the thing to collapse.  Much to everyone’s dismay, the body had already started re-assembling itself when Magpie shouted, “Stay down!” laying a cure spell on the thing which finally got it to stop moving.

In one of the alcoves of this room they found two vials and some more riches, but very little else.

After a few minutes the barbarian popped back to his feet, swaying a bit as he frowned, “Was I unconscious again just now? And why can’t I see?”

“Give it a minute.”  Someone muttered as they guided him to the next room.

The next room, envy, is eerily cold; tiny ice crystals riming every surface.  On the far wall was a brownish mold.

“That’s brown mold.” Magpie muttered, “It feeds on heat – particularly warm bodies.  We could kill it with cold, but fire will just make everything terrible.”

Carefully shutting the door on it, they resolve to bring it to the attention of Pharasma’s clerics and leave it at that.

The crypt of greed is a dusty, alcoved room.  There is definitely the glitter of gold, taunting the party in by the light of their torches.

Frelik, voluntold to explore the room first, steps in only to be struck in the shoulder with a glaive on a pivot which swung down from the ceiling to surprise him.  With a muttered curse, he drove a spike into the slit, preventing the blade from coming out again.  The worst part was, all the jewellery in the room was fake; gold-plated costume jewellery worth only about fifty gold pieces all told.

Done with the rooms, the group moved on to the final set of double doors; the only ones in the room they hadn’t opened yet.  Beyond was yet another tunnel, sloping down deeper into the earth.

They instead chose to follow the hole that went up; the one they suspected the Tengu from earlier had entered by and the one they’d sent the undead Esme out through.  It wandered up, down and twisted this way and that.  In the distance they thought they could see light so they kept on going.  Soon they emerged into fresh air, only to discover they were standing in the mouth of one of the other faces of Kaer Maga’s walls - nine-hundred and fifty feet in the air up a thousand foot sheer cliff.

Unwilling to scale the cliff as a way to get back into the city, the group agrees that pursuing any of the downward routes would likely be unwise and agrees to return to the Godsmouth Cathedral to report their findings and their success.

First trying the secret knock the priestess had taught them – to no avail – they rang their trusty chime again and stepped back through the door, allowing the heavy door to close and seal behind them.

It was early evening in the ossuary and all was quiet, Pharasman priests preferring to do the bulk of their work at night.

They worked their way back up through the labrynthine levels of the Ossuary until they found a low-ranking acolyte who recognized them, greeting them with a relieved cry, “Oh!  The cryptmistress will want to see you at once!”

He led them back to the tiny chapel they’d met in three days prior where they were soon attended by Valanthe Nerissia herself.

“So, I assume you succeeded?”

“Minus some mold?  Yes.”  Davros muttered.

“We discovered who was stealing the bodies,”  Magpie squawked, overriding the general hubbub of voices as everyone tried to deliver their own version of their adventures all at once.

“I believe you may know of him?”  Davros added mildly, “He was an alchemist named Svilennius.”

“Ah.  Svilennius.  Yes, he was one of our brotherhood – before his heresies.”

“Well, he never really stopped with the heresy.” Valeria added snidely.

“Very well.  And you’ve secured that level of the ossuary?”

“Yes.” Davros replied, “With the exception of three passages which we’ll detail for you later.”

“And behind the statues of the Runelords,”  Magpie added, “In the crypt of envy there is a brown mould in need of killing.”

“We didn’t have the tools to defeat it.” Akura added apologetically.

Valanthe nodded sagely.  “Very well.  We’ll have to send a group down to verify that you have indeed cleared the level of course, not that I do not believe you, but you know how it goes…”

The party nodded with understanding.

“Oh. On a more positive note.” Magpie added, “We found these holy symbols and vestments of Pharasma down there.”

Offering them the money for discovering Svelenius up front as a sign of good faith, she explains that the rest of their payment will have to wait until she has confirmation of their success and offers to pay for the vestments, holy symbols and accoutrements as an added reward for their hard work.

After equitably dividing all their ill-gotten gains between the six of them the group parts ways to take an evening off for themselves, agreeing to re-convene in the morning and discuss what to do next.  Given what a successful team they now made, they were eager to embark on more ah, business ventures together.