Shattered Star 4.06

[02:20.59] <TenMihara|GM> *****Pathfnder: Shattered Star*****
[02:21.08] <TenMihara|GM> ~Chapter 4: Beyond the Doomsday Door~
[02:21.15] <TenMihara|GM> -Part 2: Windsong Ruins-
[02:24.52] <TenMihara|GM> The Pathfinders, after listening to Casamir Azmaren's plea to rescue his daughter and the Windsong Abbey from its invaders, proceeded to start scouring the ruined cathedral in order to do so. Along the way, they managed to recover the Headdress of the Masked Abbot, and slay a pair of disgusting qlippoths. Now the way to the Abbey's upper level is open to them.
[02:24.58] <TenMihara|GM> ****Session Begins****
[02:25.43] <TenMihara|GM> The stinking carcasses of the corrosive qlippoths seem to start reeking of decay abnormally quickly, but thankfully the acid fog they filled the stairs with dissipates after about a minute.
[02:31.52] * Yalana blanches briefly as she blows her nose into a readily available silk handkerchief to clear the sensation of burning acid from her nostrils. "Eugh. I hate cloud magic. It gets into everything."
[02:32.20] * Ewan descends the stairs, coughing and holding his head. "Well running into these things was a worrying development."
[02:33.30] <TenMihara|GM> Andrezi steps away from the corpses with a wave of his hand. "I think these might take the cake for the most unpleasant creatures I've ever had to deal with." He looks to Yalana. "Are you alright?"
[02:34.25] * Alette dismisses the giant cat and begins resummoning. "I still vote the worms as the worst."
[02:34.36] * Yalana blows her nose again, then nods to Andrezi. "Aside from some unpleasantness with inhaling acidic smog, I am unharmed." She looks off down the hallway from which the pair had emerged. "Perhaps we should check where they were nesting, to ensure no more unpleasant surprises?"
[02:37.09] <TenMihara|GM> What was once a magnificent cathedral now lies in ruins, its outer wall almost completely obliterated. The space inside is clogged with rubble, broken beams, and shards of stained glass. Splashes of dried blood and fragments of flesh and bone lie scattered throughout the ruined chamber.
[02:42.32] * Ewan retrieves a wand to give himself a few taps before he makes rounds. "Looks like there will be much work ahead once the threat has passed."
[02:42.58] * Yalana sighs quietly. "Well, that's a shame. I suppose we shall continue upwards then? There's at least some chance some of the things on the upper floors survived intact. None of the larger creatures could reach there without ruining the buildings, after all."
[02:44.12] <TenMihara|GM> Andrezi nods. "A terrible shame, but the best thing we can do now is make sure the abbey is liberated so that it cane be rebuilt." He smirks at her. "Perhaps in time it could be as great again as it was before the death of Aroden."
[02:50.06] <TenMihara|GM> The two sides of the staircase, the party discovers, lead up to matching paired rooms. Each one has a door leading to another chamber in the middle of the two, and another door leading east. Both rooms have round sitting sections overlooking the sea, but only the northern one has that rotten flesh smell.
[02:55.35] * Ewan wrinkles his nose, turning to one of the eastern doors. "The smell makes me worried, but nothing much we can do about it now. Is everyone ready to continue, or...?"
[02:56.45] <TenMihara|GM> Andrezi looks to the southern door and places his hand on the hilt of sliverfang and looks to the southern door first. "Smaller room might be less likely to have something waiting to kill us?" he suggests.
[02:57.23] * Yalana tilts her head to one side. "We are looking for a shard of one of the chairs assigned to a priest here. Somewhere in this area at a guess." She looks out at the view. "This certainly seems like a reception hall to me."
[03:02.04] <TenMihara|GM> Andrezi shakes his head. "This looks more like a tea lounge, too small to hold a full council of priests... well, if they were all accounted for anyways."
[03:09.10] * Ewan hums. "It would be good to check everything we can just to be safe." he notes, watching Dilys head over to to southern door and peek in.
[03:09.49] <Alette> "The more rooms checked, the less potential knives in our back."
[03:09.51] * Yalana nods her head. Sticking close to the others. "Let us be thorough. I would prefer no additional surprises. We've had quite enough sudden ambushes for one adventure I think."
[03:11.01] <TenMihara|GM> The rectangular room between the two waiting rooms is almost completely lined with wood and furnished with a round table and a single chair, several stools near a large fireplace, and two tall bookcases flanking a window with flowery stained glass designs.
[03:20.19] <TenMihara|GM> The bookcases beside the window are almost empty, but the few that are there contain obscure litanies and poetry written in Aklo and Abyssal. Familiar with those languages, Alette can deduce their contents. There is one small book on the table that seems to be a collection of poems in abyssal dedicated to the Demon Lords of Golarion. However, that small book also has something scribbled in its back cover.
[03:22.06] <Ewan> Dilys pushes in, leaving the books in favor of checking the rest of the room. Ewan follows suite soon after, though he stops to glance over the unfamiliar language.
[03:26.00] * Yalana glances briefly at the page, twitching her tail back and forth. "Well, I can't help with this." She looks to Alette, "Any ideas?"
[03:26.58] * Alette also looks to the books, skimming over them. "Hrm, for the most part they're just poems dedicated to demon lords." She flicks through, pausing at the last part on the cover. "Although... Hey, what do you make of this? "Two to Left for Annis Hag. Three to right for Banshee nag. One to west for greenie crone. Two to east for spnister lone. Two to dusk for wife in tears. Three to
[03:26.58] * Alette dawn for witch's leers."
[03:33.55] * Ewan stares at the book a moment, then shakes his head and shrugs. "Sounds like it should be familiar, but can't really place it." he finally says. Dilys, meanwhile, continues poking around the room.
[03:35.30] <Alette> "Maybe Casamir knows about it..." she muses, stashing the book for now. "I'm borrowing this." said to no one in particular.
[03:35.57] * Yalana rubs her chin and contemplates that. "Perhaps it is speaking of seating arrangements? While I imagine all those who would come here seeking to sit would know their proper places, it would be a clever way to make certain that knowledge remained in place in the future."
[03:39.56] * Ewan pulls out his journal, quickly scribbling down the translation and noting it down. "It's potentially important, as riddles seem to often be wherever we go."
[03:40.52] * Yalana taps her horn quietly a few moments. "You ever wonder why all the information we find seems to be relevant to our quest? Sometimes I wonder if someone, somewhere is manipulating things towards these ends." She sighed quietly, waving it off. "Regardless, let us carry on."
[03:42.24] * Alette looks to one side and shakes head. "Could've sworn I saw a crack there. I must be losing it."
[03:42.51] <Ewan> "Perhaps it's a bit of confirmation bias, and we're only remembering the ones that were important?"
[03:46.41] <TenMihara|GM> The huge room beyond the waiting rooms is a large open chamber chamber surrounded by an ambulatory, creating a sort of indoor arcade with numerous five-foot wide arches providing access into the center. In the central chamber, which sits under a vaulted twenty-foot-hight ceiling supported by wooden timbers, twenty-one ornate chairs stand in a solemn ring, their backs against the walls of the arcade between the arches
[03:46.52] <TenMihara|GM> -between each of the arches.
[03:47.38] <TenMihara|GM> On the high back of each chair is the beautifully sculpted holy symbol of one of the major deities of Golarion. An immense dark fireplace looms to the west.
[03:48.41] <Alette> "Looks like we may have found that chair you were after. Why did you need to see it again?"
[03:50.30] <TenMihara|GM> However, this council chamber is not unoccupied, as indicated by noses first and eyes second. The stench of rotting flesh is coming from a massive, undead bugbear who looks to have quite literally had his heart ripped out. Accompanying him are a trio of shrivelled corpses wrapped in bandages.
[03:52.48] * Ewan holds a hand to his nose with a grimace. "You'd think I'd be used to this kind of thing by now. Those things better not stand up."
[03:53.15] <TenMihara|GM> They're already on their feet. The Bugbear is brandishing a rather vicious looking axe, and has a bow strapped to his back.
[03:54.49] * Yalana blanches. "Eugh. It seems that our mysterious invader has left us yet another present. Lovely."
[04:03.45] <Ewan> "I had to hope, I had to just HOPE!" he calls, backpedaling to put some distance as he loads a bolt of acid to fire at one of the mummies.
[04:06.29] <TenMihara|GM> One of the mummies gets seared by the acid, but the Bugbear seems to be calling the shots. He gestures for the mummies to go forward, but rather than joining them he glares at Ewan and pulls out a bow. The mummies move up and then attempt to slam their bandaged fists into Andrezi, Alette's Reaper, and Dilys
[04:12.23] <TenMihara|GM> Andrezi grunts as the mummy's desiccated fist slams into him with remarkable force, but thankfully he manages to avoid breathing in the fumes flaking off its cursed flesh.
[04:13.38] <Alette> The armoured figure makes use of her own wings to go up and over, bringing her blade in a downward strike at the rotting not mummy thing.
[04:14.12] <TenMihara|GM> The mummy that had attacked the reaper fails to make a passing swipe at her as she flies overhead.
[04:15.39] <TenMihara|GM> The reaper delivers a nasty gash to the undead bugbear, and though the wound is gruesome, he barely seems to actually notice.
[04:21.00] * Yalana sighs in some annoyance as she rubs her chin. "Today is becoming an increasingly exhausting day." She waves her hand in the direction of the mummies as the air around them bursts with glittering light and dust.
[04:22.05] <TenMihara|GM> Though the eyes of the mummies are milky and dead, they are still used for seeing, and thusly are prevented from doing their job when filled with glitter. The mummies don't have the clawing and cursing reaction a person might, instead blindly groping for their targets nonetheless.
[04:23.18] <TenMihara|GM> The bugbear, now with a face full of reaper, drops his bow and brings his axe to bear.
[04:25.54] <TenMihara|GM> The zombie misses her first swing, bug manages to wound the reaper on the second. However, he curiously begins to sob as the axe tears into the creature. "... still numb," he seems to say.
[04:27.04] <TenMihara|GM> Andrezi, figuring the dried up mummies would be flammable, unleashes a whorl of flames from his hands, though he carefully angles it upwards to avoid hitting the council chairs.
[04:29.15] <TenMihara|GM> The mummies shriek as the fire sears their dried and desiccated corpses.
[04:36.37] <Alette> "From the sounds of your blubbering I'd say dying has taken all the fun out of hurting others, eh?" She said she she channeled some deatly energies to lessen the severity of the slash.
[04:41.33] <Ewan> Dilys backsteps, taking aim at one of the mummies and letting loose a close-range flurry of arrows just outside its reach. "Back, back!"
[04:45.07] <TenMihara|GM> She manages to shoot the flaming mummy right in the head, dropping it, allowing her to pepper the other two with the remaining arrows.
[04:47.52] * Ewan follows up with a bolt of acid to the closest mummy. "Go back to resting!"
[04:49.24] <TenMihara|GM> The remaining two mummies grope blindly at Dilys and Andrezi, but utterly fail thanks to the blinding glitter
[04:52.17] <Alette> Meanwhile; swishing swinging cleaving slicing.
[04:53.01] <TenMihara|GM> Alette's reaper delivers another gruesome slash to the bugbear, though he manages to deflect the second blow.
[04:53.43] * Yalana digs one of the wands from her bag, delivering several more bolts of magic to the bugbear.
[04:54.06] <TenMihara|GM> The magic missiles dissolve without harming the creature
[04:56.39] <TenMihara|GM> Luthask doesn't even seem to notice the magical attack as he swings at the reaper again, returning her scythe slashes with his wicked greataxe
[04:57.34] <TenMihara|GM> Luthask trades the Reaper blow for blow, though his seem to be coming up short of the larger creature's.
[04:59.37] <TenMihara|GM> Andrezi takes a step back and dips into his reserve of arcane power, reusing his burning hands spell.
[05:00.33] <TenMihara|GM> The mummies are not quite burnt to ash, but they look crisp and papery and ready to fall over.
[05:03.06] <Alette> "Would you kindly hurry up and stay dead? We're busy." More deathly energies repairing the gashes.
[05:03.23] * Dilys sidesteps again, loosing another flurry of arrows to weed down the mummies.
[05:06.57] * Ewan follows up with Dilys's flurry with a shot at the remaining mummy.
[05:07.52] <TenMihara|GM> Dilys manages to peg one of the mummies right between the eyes, while Ewan's acid bolt melts through the neck of the last one, felling it.
[05:09.24] <Alette> While the zombie is being reaped some more.
[05:10.06] <TenMihara|GM> The Reaper brings her scythe through the zombie bugbear, who has just enough time to sob again before the negative energy holding him together dissipates and he collapses in a heap.
[05:17.24] * Ewan takes a moment to whip up something for Dilys while the homunculus starts to nervously poke the corpses to check them. "Hopefully now we'll have a breather, though I half expect something will come crashing through a door any moment now." the half-elf grumbles.
[05:18.36] <TenMihara|GM> Thankfully nothing does. The mummies don't have anything of interest on them, but the bugbear's axe and full plate both appear to be enchanted, and he also has a quality longbow with some arrows, and a headband that read as magical to anyone looking for that sort of thing.
[05:21.51] * Yalana looks over the chairs, spotting one which matched what she'd been told to retrieve. She regarded it carefully and thoughtfully. Walking around the chair and pondering the best way to solve the problem of getting a piece of it back.
[05:23.39] <TenMihara|GM> A barred door sits to the north of the large council chamber, and two of the chairs seem to be particularly dusty; those bearing the holy symbols of Rovagug, and Aroden. The Rovagug seat looks to have never been used at all. Meanwhile, the seat bearing Iomedae's symbol has a wicked gash in it at neck height. The state of the room being what it is, carving a small sliver from the Calistrian seat would likely go unnoticed.
[05:26.14] * Yalana looks towards Andrezi. "I don't suppose you bothered to pack a knife, did you?" She looks back to the chair. "One of Calistria's priestesses requested a sliver of her chair from this place. And I'd prefer not to have to actually destroy the chair to get it."
[05:27.30] * Ewan pulls out a knife and walks over. "Always good to keep one handy, though it might take a bit..." he says. Dilys, meanwhile, piles up the gear from the Bugbear, having to scrunch her nose as she stripped the full plate off the fallen undead.
[05:35.11] * Alette puts a hand on the damage chairs, including the one that was carved and used her magic to mend at least a little damage.
[05:40.52] * Ewan heads back once he passes the knife and quickly IDs the gear, stowing what he could. "Place is a mess, and it appears someone may have lost their head. Probably downright merciful compared to what could have happened."
[05:41.47] <TenMihara|GM> The gash in the Iomedean seat appears as old as the dust on the Arodenite chair, but is smoothed out a little by Alette's mending spell, as is the sliver Yalana took from the Calistrian one.
[05:44.55] * Yalana sighs quietly as she deposits the shard of wood into her bags. "Well, at least it's a small measure of repair considering the state of this place." She looks towards the damaged chair where someone had been beheaded. "Do you suppose that's from the more recent beheading, or the original?"
[05:46.14] <TenMihara|GM> Andrezi looks at the gash and considers that. "Casamir probably knows the answer to that. Might be a bit of a sore spot if it was the recent abbot's demise though, they were probably good friends."
[05:47.22] * Ewan dusts himself off as he stands up. "Looking at it again, it seemed to be the old one. We good to go?"
[05:57.22] * Yalana nods her head. "Yes. Let's." She motions towards the remaining pair of doors they hadn't opened yet.
[05:57.25] <TenMihara|GM> Andrezi nods, bringing Silverfang back out. "Ready when you are."
[05:57.29] <TenMihara|GM> This room is sort of an enclosed bridge suspended over the cliff and shore. The east and west walls are decorated wth magnificent stained-glass windows depicting wonderful landscapes of the Outer Planes and the homes of the Gods of Golarion thereupon.
[05:59.50] <TenMihara|GM> At the far end of the hall are a pair of towering monsters that look like a cross between giant men and vultures, surrounded by a cloud of spores and feathers.
[06:04.07] <TenMihara|GM> As the party enters, the wrathful demons screech at them
[06:05.06] * Alette groans at the sight of the uglies. "Vrocks, guess what they're immune to." She says to Yalana.
[06:08.16] * Yalana rolls her eyes in annoyance, crossing her arms. "Everything useful or relevant I could do to make this easy and quick?" She snorts in annoyance and stomps a foot. "You would think the world was conspiring to make my gifts useless considering the consistency with which everything we encounter seems to ignore all the things I'm most skilled at."
[06:09.36] <TenMihara|GM> The combined screeching of the Vrocks hits the Pathfnders with stunning force, causing them to reel for several seconds, save for Alette and Ewan who get lucky behind Dilys, who is immune, and her reaper, who is not so fortunate.
[06:17.23] * Ewan scoots forward to jam Andrezi with a shot of Barkskin, while Dilys clicks her heels and lets loose a panicked flurry at one of the Vrocks. "Demons! Another one of those tigers would be good!"
[06:21.04] <TenMihara|GM> Seeing Ewan and Dilys unaffected by their stunning screech, the Vrocks take a different approach and attempt to telekinetically hurl the half-elf and his daughter through the stained glass windows and off the cliff
[06:42.42] <TenMihara|GM> Dilys manages to hold fast under the force of the telekinesis, but her father isn't so lucky. He's thrown roughly through the glass, shattering it, before he begins to plummet towards the sea below
[06:45.26] * Ewan yells in surprise as he's hurled through the glass, the ring on his hand glowing after he starts to fall a few feet, slowing him down.
[06:48.04] <Alette> "That must've hurt..." She commented at the smashing. "They're immune to electricity but if you feel like raping thier mind, that's an option." She then threw somethning sparkly at the hideous avians.
[06:50.17] <TenMihara|GM> The Vrocks shriek in fury as their eyes are filled with the silvery powder.
[06:51.58] * Yalana smiles a touch at Alette's words. "Ah. Wonderful." She raised a hand and moved as though to grasp hold of the two Vrocks at range, motioning as though shaking them as their perceptions of the world became erratic and impossible to discern reality from illusion.
[06:53.24] <TenMihara|GM> The Vrocks shrieks of anger turn to confused squawking.
[06:56.11] <TenMihara|GM> The Reaper manages a powerful blow to the already arrow peppered Vrock, but the wound isn't nearly as deep as it should be.
[06:56.29] <Alette> The reaper charged up to prepare a bird fillet. "You probably wanna avoid getting too close, they're emitting diseased spores." The vampire warned her other comrade.
[06:58.08] * Ewan 's yelling quickly fades into distant cursing, as he pulls out an extract and, with difficulty, knocks it back, hopefully halting his fall. Dilys, meanwhile, lines up another flurry of arrows at the wounded vrock.
[06:58.31] <TenMihara|GM> Ewan's flight extract allows him to take control of his descent, though he's come to a half halfway down to the water.
[07:01.32] <TenMihara|GM> Dilys manages to put an arrow in the Vrock's throat, though her other two shots amount to little. Still, the combined assault has the confused Vrock looking ready to keel over. In its panic it attacks the nearest threat, which is the reaper.
[07:02.35] <TenMihara|GM> The Vrock claws, bites, and slashes with its rear talons at the Reaper furiously, but only manages a meager gash with one of the raptor like hind claws.
[07:06.11] <TenMihara|GM> The other Vrock, confused and dazed by Yalana's magic, turns to the other, wounded Vrock, and does a much better job of tearing it to bits than it did the Reaper. Like the Qlippoths before, the corpse remains, however gibletized, on the material plane.
[07:08.20] <Alette> "How many demons and abominations has this guy got bound? Someone REALLY needs to get a hobby."
[07:09.58] <TenMihara|GM> Andrezi dashes to the window, ready to cast feather fall on his falling companion, though he stops when he sees he's already just floating there. He chuckles a bit nervously. "Gave us quite a scare there!"
[07:13.19] * Ewan holds up the hand with the feather falling ring. "Really glad I kept this thing!"
[07:13.58] <TenMihara|GM> Andrezi chuckles and nods. "Not much I can do to that thing unfortunately, but I should have guessed you were alright when your girl wasn't worried."
[07:19.38] * Ewan starts to fly up, leaving Dilys to turn her attention to the remaining Vrock. "Next is you!"
[07:25.46] <TenMihara|GM> The Vrock, able to focus a bit through its confusion to percieve the threat, attacks the reaper furiously, though the actual harm it manages to inflict is not too bad considering.
[07:26.23] <TenMihara|GM> Andrezi decides to keep his distance, waiting in case Ewan needs help climbing in the window.
[07:31.37] <TenMihara|GM> Alette and Yalana have little more to offer, leaving it to Dilys and the Reaper to wear down the demon.
[07:32.43] * Ewan floats up to the broken window as Dilys lets loose ANOTHER flurry of arrows, hoping to actually hit the beast this time.
[07:37.51] <TenMihara|GM> Alette's Reaper companion is able to relieve the Vrock of its head with a couple more severe scythe swings.
[07:38.19] <TenMihara|GM> Andrezi is able to help Ewan back inside, though he's still bleeding from the nasty glass wounds.
[07:38.57] <TenMihara|GM> ****End Session****
[07:39.37] <TenMihara|GM> Rewards: 27,200 Experience Points; +9065 XP Each