This barracks was the morbid sleeping quarters for the most respected members of the cult - most of whom are now dead. Seoni examined the boxes, crates, and barrels remotely using magic, which contained a variety of food supplies, such as flour, sugar, dried meat, grains, and so on. The entire room smelled sickly sweet, vaguely like a mixture of rotting vegetables and sweet taffy.
The furthest coffin on the east side of the room had a male elf in it. Seoni determined he was killed by poisoning. The body of a male human lay crumpled in front of the barrels on the southeast side of the room - Wrack determined he also died by poisoning.
Mrunk found several items of value on the body of the elf. He found a scroll of lesser restoration, a magic short sword and a gray small magic sack that appeared empty. When Mrunk reached into it he felt a small, fuzzy ball.
The next area was just part of the larger tunnel complex beyond. The tunnels were 5 feet wide and 10 feet tall. This area was separated from the larger tunnel complex by a heavy black canvas that was nailed into the ceiling and draped across the tunnel 10 feet from the door in the west wall which the heroes entered from.
The black canvas was put up to hide a rock fall trap beyond. The heroes triggered the rock trap remotely, but it warned the cultists in the tunnels of their approach.
These tunnels were carved out by hand and braced with thick planks of wood. The carved ceilings stretched to 10 feet in height and around five feet in width. The walls and floor were damp, and the sound of dripping water could be heard throughout.
Water constantly dripped from the ceiling, and a thin trickle of water run along the side of the tunnels, emptying down the sinkhole further south. The water here had no impact on combat.
A group of cultists had found themselves trapped here. After the heroes set off the rock trap, the cultists were ready and waiting for them. The cultists moved out of sight of the single torch in the northeast corner of the tunnels and waited to ambush the heroes in the northeast corner and in the south where the two tunnels reconnected. The cultists were not strategic fighters - they picked the nearest foe, got close, and attacked furiously. With no other options left to them, the cultists fought to the death.
Wrack determined that the men were starving and likely hadn't eaten in a few days. One of the cultists carried a note in his pocket:
"Baillaset,
Trusted ally, go to Oppara, find that miserable stink hole our brethren call a temple to our lord Zyphus, and instill some fear and carnage in their ranks for Bustrani's miserable failure. Tell them all that you have been sent by Zyphus, They're fools, they'll believe it. And then tell them that Zyphus wants them to trap the temple and lure their fellow cultists into accidental death. Tell them the final cultist will replace Bustrani and rebuild the temple. (The last part is true, so don't dispatch all of them.) Then spend your time watching them destroy one another, feasting on their corpses, and keeping them afraid. Use the Zyphus-granted power I instilled in you to curse every single one of them. That should make things more interesting.
Your Master,
Harvestman Quint"
The same cultist who carried the note also carried a pouch full of coins. The pouch contained 170 pp.
The tunnel ended south; a small stream of water flowed from it to the center of a chamber, where it plunged through a shadowy sinkhole. Glowing green algae coated the chamber's walls and ceilings, painting the entire room in an eerie light.
There were no traps here and nothing to challenge the heroes beyond climbing down the sinkhole. The heroes were incredibly paranoid by this point - and they should be. But this room contained no challenges other than a simple climb down the knotted rope, which Seoni botched.
The rope through the sinkhole descended 20 feet before entering a 10-foot-high chamber. This room was empty and dark, but the heroes heard voices coming from one of the three dark tunnels that exited the room to the north and west. The waterfall from the pit dropped into a small, shallow pool here and then trickled down the west and northwest tunnels.
The heroes followed the north tunnel, which wend from the bottom of the pit to the baptismal font. At several points throughout splashes of blood could easily be seen either as drag marks on the floor (Wrack determined they all headed north) or splatters on the wall.
A swinging axes trap was set here. When Aranthor activated this trap, its noise automatically warned the wight Baillaset in the baptismal font that the heroes were approaching.
Just before the baptismal font was a swinging scythe trap, as evidenced by the headless corpse beneath it. A second corpse was pinned to the east wall of the tunnel - the trap struck him, killed him, and then jammed on his body.
A stone trench about 3 feet high run the length of the west wall of the baptismal font room. Hanging above it were several human men, their chests flayed open, their blood dripping and pooling in the trench below. A thin stone tube then run from the middle of the gory container, funneling blood down toward a stone basin in the center of the room. Judging from the blood splashed around the outside of the basin, something recently crawled out of it.
This room used to be where Fel Bustrani baptized his new followers into the Zyphus faith - he used water to do so. The four cultists currently hanging above the trench were killed a while ago, so the blood was starting to thicken in the gory containers.
Baillaset, a wight, waited here. He was aware that the heroes were coming, and waited just west of the entrance to this room, ready to ambush Aranthor, who was the first through the door. Baillaset got in close and stayed there, preferring to target one hero at a time. Baillaset fought until destroyed - when destroyed, he evaporated in a bloody red mist.
No comments:
Post a Comment