Having tended to their wounds, the group decided it was best to keep pushing forward. Maintaining a watchful eye on the ceiling while keeping the other to the ground, they followed Caravaggio back to the room he had found the satchel in. There were several crates and barrels that were clustered together in this once majestic chamber. On what they guessed was the southern wall, were a large set of lavish looking doors. Even though they were fully encrusted with the fecal substance that covered everything here, the doors still held a regal charm.
The party fanned out and began to rummage through the storage containers to see if there was anything else of value. Many of the containers lay smashed on the ground, cracked open or otherwise damaged in some fashion. With each crate and barrel they searched, there was nothing to be found, except more filth coating everything. Satisfied that they had done their due diligence, they met back at the entry to the room.
"Looks like everything here's been picked clean, in a manner of speaking" Tidal said in a gravelly voice, chuckling slightly at his own joke.
Most of the group rolled their eyes and didn't reply. Rachel gestured over towards the large regal doors.
"Any chance we can get those open?" Rachel inquired.
"Not if we want to be quiet about it" replied Caravaggio with a resigned tone. "They're encrusted in a very thick coat of what ever this stuff is." gesturing to the filth that clung to everything around them.
"Well, there is still another path at the other end of the hall we entered. Let us double back and check it out" Dido offered.
Nodding in agreement, the group began to retrace their steps back to were they had first entered the hall. Everyone in the group was now covered in some fashion with the caked on remains of the fecal octopi they had encountered earlier. As they neared the other end of the hall, Caravaggio stopped the group with a silently raised fist.
"I'll proceed to scout ahead from here." he said in a hushed tone, before skulking away into the next room.
The opening to this room appeared to be the result of something having burrowed through the wall. It was similar to how the tunnel they took to get here had opened up into the hall. As Caravaggio examined the room, he noted that it must be some sort of offering room. By the southern wall there was an alter, broken and caked in filth. There were spots around the room that would have served as places for offerings to be placed but they had long since been looted. The other notable feature of this room were the bulges that lined it's perimeter near the walls. It appeared as if the floor was heaving up from the ground, and there were several in view from Caravaggio's position. Moving very cautiously, he began to enter deeper into the room. On the opposite wall from him was, the was an opening into the next room. The door long gone from it's frame, Caravaggio could see into the next chamber. From this distance, he could make out an old bed frame and what may have been at one time a dresser. Taking the extra precaution of passing near one of the floor bulges, to test if it would react to his presence, there was no reaction. Caravaggio concluded they could move safely through this room and went back to rendezvous with the rest of the group.
Coming back into the hall, Caravaggio saw the rest of the group waiting for him. The shades of grey he saw when in the dark began to be replaced with color as the light from Dido's sword illuminated his travelling companions. He could make out the glinting silver of Rachel and Dido's armor and the red of Tidal's pauldrons. They were all covered at least partially by the brown and yellowish hues of the filth that was caked on to every surface here. It was in Rachel's auburn hair, smeared across Dido's gold trimmed breastplate and covered most of Tidal's beige colored hide from horn to hoof.
Rejoining his companions, Caravaggio relayed what he had seen.
"It should be safe to proceed." Caravaggio concluded.
"Shouldn't we try and hit one of those bulges to make sure it's not a potential ambush?" Tidal inquired.
"Why must you suggest we hit everything where ever we go?" Dido retorted.
"Last thing you want is to be surrounded by a ton of little things nipping at your legs." Tidal growled back.
"Or we could leave well enough alone and not disturb them." Dido shot back, trying to hold back the irritation she felt towards Tidal for always being so brutish. "It might not even be a hostile creature." she continued, "Given the terrain, it's more likely to be some kind of gas bubble trapped under this filth that could release toxic fumes!"
"Then let's put it to a vote!" Tidal said, snorting and shaking his head.
"Sure!" replied Dido. "All in favor of not hitting the bulges raise your hand."
Looking around at the group, Caravaggio, Rachel and Dido all lifted their hands. Tidal snorted again dismissively.
"Fine." Tidal said in a gruff, "We'll do it your way. But don't come crying to me when a swarm comes gnawing at your ankles."
Their debate concluded, Caravaggio lead the party back through the opening into the offering room. He charted a path to the other side, careful to avoid the bulges. As they passed through the threshold into the next chamber, they could see that the outer wall had caved in. However, the filth that encrusted everything in this place seemed to tapper off halfway across the room. This left the other side relatively bare and exposed. There was a bed frame near the far wall, though it had long ago been stripped of everything save the frame itself and buried under some of the caved in rubble. A quick scan also indicated there was nothing of value here, so Caravaggio lead everyone towards an opening in the north wall that lead to a slope heading downwards.
As the group descended the ramp into this new area, they were greeted by the sight of a private garden. It likely had been more regal in it's day. Now there were only worn stone planters and soil in elaborate arrangements around the sides of the chamber. The chamber's focal point seemed to be where a dry old fountain rested, surrounded by three emerald colored pillars that likely had served as benches. The fountain was now cracked in two and parts of it were scattered around it's base. The emerald pillars had a very distinct flattened pill shape to them and each was several feet in length. There was a crack along the eastern wall, though it showed evidence of being patched up at some point. The most notable feature of the room however, was the lack of the dung or filth covering any surface in the room.
The group spread out and examined various parts of the room. Dido took a moment to try and sense any creatures using her divine senses. Clutching an emblem in her hand while looking around the room, her green eyes a glowed in a ghostly ambience. Rachel marked a few small symbols on the ground and began to perform her ritual of Detect Magic. Tidal took the opportunity to test the material of the emerald benches with a quick swing of his hammer. As the hammer's face connected with the bench, a metallic echo reverberated in the chamber causing everyone to look over at him. Shortly after, Rachel and Dido completed their investigations and shared their negative results with the group. They decided to press on as there was nothing of evident value here.
Moving towards the north end of the room, the party entered a grand chamber. It was clearly a throne room, with a large bronze throne placed in the center atop a dais. A long path lead to a lavish set of doors at the north end of the chamber. Some worn out banners still hung from the walls, though many were gone now. Those that remained where so worn out that what they displayed was no longer visible. The south wall behind the throne had a line of winged statues, each worn and smoothed and impossible to tell what they had been carved to venerate. The filth and fecal matter were also creeping back into this chamber. It was all around the lavish doors and along the western and southern walls. Caravaggio recognized the doors right away as the doors from the room with all the crates from the other end of the hall they had explored earlier.
"So this is the throne room?" Tidal said, gesturing to the whole chamber. "Any chance there's actually anything of value here? This whole venture seems to have been a bust so far."
"Well, we have come full circle now." Caravaggio replied, pointing to the lavish doors. "We're on the other side of where we started."
Dido took a few steps forward and cast the pale blue light of her sword to the far side of the throne. As the light illuminated the far side, two parallel groves could be seen running form the dais towards the western wall.
"I've got something over here." Dido alerted the group. Waving them over, she showed them the tracks. "It seems logical that something heavy moves along these groves."
"Let me check it for booby traps first." Rachel replied, moving up to the throne and beginning to examine it. Caravaggio joined in, inspecting the dais.
Upon conclusion of their check Rachel gave the all clear and Dido gave her glowing sword to Rachel to hold and she pointed to Tidal and Caravaggio and then motioned at the dais.
"Let us see what secrets this throne hides." Dido said as she moved to push the dais. Caravaggio and Tidal both joined in and at first, nothing happened. All three grunted and exerted themselves to budge the dais.
"You'd think there was lever or something?" Tidal grunted.
Their efforts soon paid off. The rumble reverberates off the walls, and the sound of stone grinding against stone began to echo in the room as the dais started to inch it's way down the grooved tracks. The movement was slow at first, but then it began to pick up pace. The three party members found they had almost begun to sprint as the dais moved along the track. As they moved however, a pit that was previously hidden began to become exposed. Tidal being in the center position of the three, was practically moving right into the pit as it was revealed. He quickly let go and stopped right on the pit's edge. He teetered for a moment before catching his balance.
The dais kept moving quickly with Caravaggio and Dido in tow until it came to a stop near the far wall. The two sprinted back to see what they had uncovered. As Dido collected her sword from Rachel, she noticed the rumble could still be heard and it was growing louder. Looking back at Rachel, she inquired with a puzzled look "Did you not say there were no traps on the throne?"
Rachel only managed to shrug back before a display case fell on it's side, splintering into several pieces. The ground heaved near the dais before it violently exploded upwards. A hail of stone and debris went flying across the room and the group braced themselves against it. Small bits of masonry and chucks of stone floor peppered the group. As the debris began to settle, the group looked towards the source of commotion. They found themselves in the presence of a new beast. It's features were very smooth, but seemed to be made of stone. One could be somewhat mistaken for thinking it was a shark, given it's greyish color, large mouth and sloped dorsal like fin. However, it's mouth did not contain any visible teeth, and it rested on four muscular legs. Rachel recognized it right away, a bulette.
"Aim for it's belly!" Rachel yelled as she rolled towards some cover.
Caravaggio unsheathed his rapier and dashed towards the bulette. Dropping down to a knee, he slashed at the creatures underside leaving a deep cut. Before the beast could snap back at him, Caravaggio had sprinted back to where he had started.
Rachel brought her hands up, forming a triangle with her thumbs and index fingers to launch a sacred flame, but lost her focus as the ground rumbled from the bulette taking a step. Grabbing her holy symbol of Saloon, Rachel summoned her spiritual weapon. A floating crescent shaped blade materialized in front of the creature's snout. With a thought, Rachel sent it darting towards the beast and it sliced at it's underside. The blade was silent as it moved, and glowed a pale moon light.
Dido flanked the creature and landed two quick blows from her sword. The bulette turned to snap at her, but when it closed it's jaw, it bit only wisps of smoke. Dido had vanished for a second, only to have reappeared on the other side of the room near the entrance they had used to access the chamber. She lost track of the bulette however until a moment later when it burst out of the ground between Caravaggio and Tidal. The explosive entry sent Tidal leaping into the air. Not having made the correct judgment on where he was leaping, he plunged into the hole they had revealed beneath the throne. Caravaggio had not reacted quick enough and was sent flying backwards towards the entrance. He landed with a heavy thump on the ground, his fur and armor torn up by the debris that had propelled him into the air.
Tidal found himself at the bottom of the pit they had found. There was no light where he was and the glow from Dido's blade was not strong enough to pierce the dark he found himself in. He stumbled around trying to feel out his surroundings. Closing his eyes, Tidal tried to use his magical awareness to feel out anything that might aid him. Tidal's senses became flooded with the presence of magical items that he felt blinded by their presence. His fingers passed over something firm and he instinctively grabbed it and hurled it up at where he though the bulette was. What he had grabbed was not very large, and in fact felt about as big as a small branch or stick. But he flung it with all his might and the object went up and then landed on the floor beside the pit.
The room was spinning for Caravaggio. The clattering of something on the floor brought his sense back and as his eyes focused, he found himself staring down the snout of the bulette. Acting on reflex, he swung his rapier towards the beast's undersides while moving into a roll past the creature. After completing his roll, Caravaggio sprinted to the other side of the room to find some cover. The bulette had only just begun to turn around to chase Caravaggio when the pale glowing crescent blade swooped in and sliced through one side of it's flank then out the other side. It's belly ruptured and it's entrails plopped to the ground with a wet flop. The beast let out a brief cry, then slumped to the ground.
The group remained still for a moment just listening. There was still a rumbling sound present. After another moment, it slowly began to disappear. It faded as if what ever was causing it was moving away from the group. Satisfied that there was no immediate threat, each party member began to move back towards the pit.
From down in the pit, Tidal could see the light from Dido's sword begin to cast it's glow down to where he stood. Dido squatted down and retrieved the object that Tidal had tossed during the fight. It was a golden rod of sorts. At one end there were two orbs attached. She stored it with her gear deciding that there would be time later to thoroughly examine it. Moving to the edge of the pit, She cast the full effect of her swords glow down to Tidal.
"Anything else of note down there?" Dido inquired.
"Well..." Tidal's gravely voice trails off.
Tidal began to take stock of what was now visible to him. A couple of scrolls and a pair of black slippers. There were also two chests. There was a moderately sized one made of wood and brass, and another which was much smaller and made of iron.
"... there's a couple of scrolls and some chests." Tidal offered.
"Anything you can pass up here?" Dido replied.
"Gimme a moment" huffed Tidal.
He grabbed the small chest and the scrolls and tossed them up. The small case landed with a clang and the scrolls softly hit the ground and rolled towards Dido. As she bent over to pick them up, Tidal put the slippers in his satchel. Then he turned his attention to the wooden chest. It was locked and too heavy to toss up. Impatiently, Tidal grabbed his hammer and swung down to try and crack the lock off the front of the chest. However, he missed his mark and crashed the hammer right on top of the chest, splitting it open and scattering it's contents within. Looking at what was now pouring out of the chest, Tidal could tell that the chest must have been fully packed with coins. There must have been thousands of them. Mostly gold coins, but some silver coins mixed in.
"Looks like we found some treasure." Tidal mused aloud.
Dido looked down and saw Tidal standing in front of the broken chest with the coins spilling out and laying around his scaly feet. She balled her free fist tightly, and held back an irritated groan. But there was still a twitch from her left eye.
"How are we suppose to carry any of that if you smashed the chest?" Dido called out with a sharp tone of frustration.
"Calm down elf." Tidal retorted with a tone he would use with a petulant child. "We'll just bag it up with some of those banners that are lining the walls."
Rachel walked over to Caravaggio who was walking with a slight hobble. She put out a hand and placed it on his stomach. Focusing the energy inside of her, Rachel released it into Caravaggio and it washed over him like rays of moon light. He could feel his wounds closing and strength coming back to him. His hobble was gone as he took a few steps towards where Dido was. She was know kneeling down at the edge of the pit, handing the remains of the banners to Tidal. He kept walking past her to the carcass of the bulette. Grabbing it, he dragged it over to the throne. With a grunt and a heave, he rested it upon the throne and set to work. Cutting up the carcass and using it's draining fluids, Caravaggio made the bulette to appear as if it was an open book. He pinned it's flesh back and sliced it's meat to be it's pages. Using the organs, he made it look as if they were nuggets of information falling from it's pages, trailing off from the throne towards the large regals doors. Upon the beast brow, Caravaggio used it's blood to paint a crude rapier and the letter P.
While somewhat put off by Caravaggio's practice, Rachel thought he might be honoring a deity. In an attempt to be polite, Rachel took a few scraps for the creatures entrails and shaped them into crescent moons as a tribute to Saloon, her God. As the two wrapped up their work, they wandered back over to Dido and Tidal, who had now finished making sacs with the old banners and filling them with the coins they had found. There were five sacs altogether, each filled with roughly 600 coins. Dido passed one each to Rachel and Caravaggio. Caravaggio then took out some rope and dropped it down for Tidal to climb out of the pit.
Dido knelt down beside the small iron chest and began to pick it's lock. She unwrapped some small tools from her gear as she set to work. The rest of the group sat around her taking stalk of what they had found and waiting for Dido to complete her work. After a while, there was a soft click and Dido was able to lift the lid. Resting at the bottom of the chest where three disc like objects. Each was made of iron, with glowing red runes of infernal design on them. These were soul coins. Dido went to pick up the top coin to hand over to Caravaggio. As she touched it, she was struck with a memory.
It was a new memory, but it felt like one she had always had. But, it wasn't her memory. It belonged to someone else. It was from a goblin. One that worked in a fiery pit. The heat was extreme and oppressive. She could remember sweat pouring from the brow. A sound of a whip cracked. There was a sharp pain on her back. Then, she stumbled. She was holding something heavy and it through her off balance. She was too tired to correct herself. There was no ground to land on. She had fallen over the edge and was now in free fall. The heat grew more intense as she fell. Then there was searing pain as she hit the lava below.
The memory faded as Caravaggio took the offered coin from Dido's hand. She couldn't tell if he was living the memory from the coin as he held it, but she figured he must be. Dido went and grabbed the next coin to hand to Rachel. Again, she was struck by another new, but old memory.
There was a soft warm breeze coming through the open window. White silk curtains moved with the breeze. She was sitting at a table. She was an elven maiden. Across from her was her lover. He offered her a drink. She sipped from the cup. Then her mouth felt dry. She tried to swallow but couldn't. Her throat became tight. She couldn't breath. Panic set in. She reached out to her lover but he just sneered. Why? Then, another elf joined him. It was her chamber maid. She put a hand along his back and bent over and kissed him. Then everything went dark.
Dido shook her head as Rachel took the coin. The memory had been so intense. But as the coin left her possession, the memory began to fade. She could see a tear roll down Rachel's face as she put the coin away. These coins seemed to hold the final moments of the souls trapped within Dido thought to herself. She decided to tip the last coin out of the chest and into her coin pouch without touching it. She had experienced enough memories for now.
After each member of the party stored their gear, they set out back to the surface. The walk back out was uneventful but long. They made their way back up the tunnel and up to the surface where they were greeted by the fowl air that blew around the palace of filth. As they regained their barring's and started to make for the edge of town, Caravaggio stopped the group. He pointed up to the top of a ledge slightly ahead of their position.
Up on the ledge was a creature. It was bloated and tall. There were several flabby layers of sickly yellowish skin that folded over itself. It's eyes and mouth seemed to be stitched shut, but the group felt that it could perceive them all the same. The creature stood motionless, facing them from it's place on the ledge. A swarm of flies floated around it.
"Hail!" shouted Caravaggio at the creature, waving a hand. But there was no response.
Not waiting for the group to spend to much time figuring out how to communicate with this new entity, Tidal grabbed a Javelin from his back pouch and tossed it in one fluid motion. The tip lodged itself in the creature's skin folds and seemed to knock it back on it's heels. After teetering for a moment, the creature then fell on it's back and burst into black ichor.
"There, problem solved. Let's move." Tidal grumbled as he began to move down the path.
The group just stared at him silently for a moment before deciding that it wasn't worth arguing and started to follow. They began to work their way back to the edge of the town, where Caravaggio would summon the path to take them back to Syllucraff with their new bounty.
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