
Loudwater
Chronicles
Session 11:
After the big battle, Brinden randomly vanished and Silas heals Artemis. She wakes up and frantically looks around for the large beast, but hears this sloshing meat sound. She sees William happily buried into Levi’s carcass, digging out globs of crimson.
Artemis: What the heck is going on?
Silas: I’m not asking.
William: ...what?
William pulls himself from the corpse and looks around, noticing everyone just dully staring at him.
William: Go about your business, nothing to see here!
Illi goes up to where Bainx was and takes off anything that’s wolf related. There is a pelt draped around him with an array of wolf tails. She doesn’t recognize it beyond the fact that it is a wolf. She makes a little pile out of the pelt and puts the head on top. She takes a little white stone out of her pocket and puts it on top and kneels, closing her eyes and holding a silent vigil. After she’s done, she puts the stone back in her pocket and gets up.
Silas: Do you need help, Artemis? I mean, you’re still pretty bad off, but can I leave you to your own devices? I kinda have to talk to Illi.
Artemis: ...yeah.
((at this point, everyone takes a short rest and use hit dice))
Silas sucks it up and approaches Illi with hands up, but doesn’t get too close. Illi pulls out one of her swords and points it at him.
Illi: Don’t come any closer.
Silas: I’m not.
Illi: Are you planning on throwing another javelin at me?
Silas: I don’t have any left at the moment. I didn’t mean to throw it at you.
Illi: What do you mean, you didn’t mean to? How do you just throw a javelin at someone and not mean it?
Silas: I had no choice. I tried as hard as I could to not do it. I had absolutely no choice, it was like my body wasn’t my own. I could not stop myself, I tried. But… but I couldn’t. I can’t explain it.
Illi: You always have a choice. Never turn on your own pack. Never.
Silas: Do not talk loyalty to me, little elf. I know what loyalty is, and I did everything I could to not throw that javelin at you. I had no choice.
Illi: What happened out there?
Silas: I’m not entirely sure. I threw a javelin at Bainx, he threw it back, and he told me to attack. And that was the last… until I threw that javelin, I could not NOT attack you. It was specifically you. I couldn’t not throw that javelin at you. I don’t know. I can’t explain it. I don’t know.
Silas doesn’t recall the javelin wounding him, there is no wound or tear. But he does remember a piercing in his mind as the javelin passed through him, rendering him helpless to Bainx’s command. Illi realizes Silas is being utterly truthful. She reflects over recent events and though she is unsure how Bainx is able to have such an ability, she recalls the incident with the nothic and how some people seemed to lose control of themselves. She doesn’t believe the nothic had anything to do with it, but there might have been other greater powers at work. And she realizes a creature as despicable as Bainx in the position that he is in, having the ability to command beasts at his will certainly would come in handy. Illi draws her sword back and sheaths it, cooling down a little bit. Silas offers her some healing, but Illi believes they should keep their distance. Silas notices something shiny in Illi’s eyes, something that he didn’t see before. There is a bit of silver in her eyes.
Silas turns and eyeballs William.
During all that, William wasn’t satisfied using his hands to dig out the rat flesh, so he took out one of his knives and slices open the large body, watching all the insides ooze out and sitting back to admire his work. He has a happy moment and is muttering to himself again.
Artemis looks over at William too, and remembers during the end of the fight, there was a moment where she was standing next to him and he almost seemed angry she was there. She’s normally familiar with him doing everything he could to stay by her side, but for that moment when she went to his side for once, he almost couldn’t get away from her fast enough. This intensity in William’s presence is still there, but his focus is wholly on the carcass in front of him. She doesn’t know quite what to make of that.
Artemis regards the creature and it has all the features of a rat, but it seems to be swelled up and has stitched together sections of flesh where the rat appeared to have been compelled to grow so large, it was bursting out of its skin and the goblins had to forcefully stitch and staple it together to prevent it from bursting at the seams. It is almost completely devoid of fur except for small patches. There’s multiple brands on it, none in a language they understand, they appear to be tokens or symbols. There are a lot of tumorous growths around the creature, especially around the face and muzzle, growing over where the eyes were supposed to be. There are eyes there, but it is the size of a normal mouse’s eye and it is cataracted over. Artemis feels perturbed and disgusted by it, it’s wholly unsettling to think what the goblins must have done to compel such a thing into creation.
Silas: (to Illi) Did you search Bainx?
Illi: Nope.
Silas: Search him. I’m staying back here.
Illi pokes him with the hilt of her sword a little bit, rolls him over, but doesn’t see anything else that catches her interest. Though she does spit on Bainx.
Illi: Didn’t find anything.
Illi goes over to Artemis, keeping her distance from Silas while eyeing Silas.
Illi: (to Artemis) Are you okay?
Artemis: Better. Just unsure of what exactly happened. I’m covered in… someone’s blood.
Artemis also noticed a silver tint in Illi’s eyes. The glow in her eyes reminds Artemis of the glow in the eyes of the wolves she had come across back in the forest.
Artemis: There’s something in your eyes that’s very familiar. There seems to be a little bit of… silver.
Illi: Wait, silver? What are you talking about?
Artemis: I guess you can’t really see your own eyes, but I’m just letting you know.
Illi pulls out her sword and looks at her reflection and looks confused, like it wasn’t something she was expecting. She pulls out her hair a little and compares the silver streak in her hair to her eye reflection.
Artemis: I noticed that too, but I guess I never put it together.
Artemis looks across to the funeral pile Illi made out of Bainx’s equipment, and notices a silver line from the eye of the wolf down its muzzle to its chin. She decides to let Illi keep her privacy.
Silas is debating whether to thoroughly search Bainx or deal with the kid and the rat corpse. He decides on the kid. He gets about 10ft away and crouches down to his level and looks straight at him.
Silas: You okay, kid?
William: Perfectly fine, why wouldn’t I be?
Silas: ...cause you’re sitting in the middle of a rat corpse.
William: So?
Silas: Most people don’t do that.
William: ...by the way, you want that guy over there behind the pillar?
Silas: Yes.
William: Tch. //snaps his fingers in disappointment// Okay, fine. You can keep him.
Silas: Are you gonna get out of there anytime soon?
William: Fine…
Silas: You don’t have to, you can stay there if you want. Just asking.
William: Nah, nah, I’ll get up.
Silas: ...and leave Nord alone.
William: FINE.
Silas didn’t notice during combat, but now hears the tone of William’s voice is very abrupt, confident, forceful, dominant even. But there’s nothing visually different about him, he looks like the same William. William stands up and takes off Nord’s blood-drenched cloak and wipes himself off with it, depositing it with a splat next to him. He next takes off the blood-drenched goblin outfit and deposits it with the cloak. But he keeps the hat and puts it in his bag.
Silas decides to go check out Bainx’s body and starts pouring over it. He finds a note written in common with a familiar five pointed star marking with an eye in the center. The note says “You have everything you need to open the way. Retrieve the artifact at once.” He also noticed that Bainx is equipped with a shoddy shortsword, daggers, a gnarled and hooked whip with chunks of flesh caught up in it. He also finds a gold ring with bloodstones in it (worth 200 gold pieces). He notices two other pieces of equipment, first a necklace around his neck tied with a piece of leather with a small blue globe made of crystal or glass. It pulses in his hands. The second is a gauntlet on Bainx’s right hand with an oculus that opens up and looks at Silas. Silas debates whether to take off the gauntlet or remove Bainx’s hands.
Meanwhile William investigates the room. There are large stained glass murals adorned on the walls 10-15 ft up. There no light shining through, but there appear to be figures in the glass that are very well done. It’s awkward that a craftsman came down here to make such ornate stained glass windows. Why? On one side of the room, there are a collection of boxes and barrels with the same star markings. Most of them are kinda opened and full of whatever was in them.
Artemis and Illi meanwhile make their way to Nord. They noticed the gigantic splashes of blood in that direction. They go closer and see the body of Nord resting up against the pillar and not moving, but they suspect he is at least alive. Artemis goes up and kneels next to him, and sees he’s breathing and has a heartbeat, he’s stable but barely clinging on. He’s got bruises, some old, and looks like he’s been through hell.
Illi: Is he okay?
Artemis: He’s… alive.
Illi: That’s a start.
Artemis: That’s about as good as it’s gonna get right now.
Artemis takes out her blanket and push it on him.
Illi: Do you think he’s hungry?
Illi reaches down to her belt pouch and produces a berry. Artemis doesn’t know what to make of this. She doesn’t remember Illi having any berries, but she does now.
Artemis: Um…
Illi: Here, feed him this, it’ll make him feel better.
Artemis: Where did this come from?
Illi: Uh… I made some. In my bag.
Artemis: Oh, okay. That’s logical.
That seems fine to Artemis. So she administers the berry to Nord, carefully pushing it in his mouth and massages his throat a little bit. As the berry is consumed and passes through, Nord’s eyes flutter and snap open. He gasps.
Nord: Where… where… the monsters! The goblins! Stop them! Stop them please, you can’t let them have it!
Illi: Told you he’d feel better!
Illi offers one to Artemis.
Illi: Do you want one too?
Artemis carefully observes Nord, but he looks okay, so she consumes it. It pops in her mouth with a squishy release of fresh juice. The flavor is on the more sour side, almost so sour that it feels like if anything sour is eaten after, it would taste sweet. Artemis feels her wounds start to heal. She instantly feels something through her druidic power, it is a good berry. Welcome to good berry, home of the good berry, may I take your order? Artemis also noticed she’s no longer hungry and is completely nourished. It’s pretty awesome.
Artemis: Weird.
Illi is smiling and seems pretty content with herself.
Nord: Did… You are… still alive. Does that mean the goblins are gone?
Artemis: Goblins are dead. From what I know.
Nord: Oh praise be to Shantae(?). Did you secure the artifact then? Can we leave this place?
Artemis: Do you know the way out?
Nord: The goblins and that one Bainx, has been laying into me for days now. They are here to get some kind of... magic item, some kind of presence. I-I-I don’t know anything about it, I was just sent with a team of others, one of our members died, I think. I was… taken. But they’ve been... searching. The one in charge, he has this… orb... that has been leading them towards some kind of object, they were convinced I must have known it. But I-I-I don’t know what it is except they keep talking about its extreme power… If they haven’t taken it, then there’s still a chance! We have to… we have to find it, surely you know what they’re here for, correct? That’s why you’re here! That’s why you’re here to save me, to get the object, right?
Illi: We’re just here to get you.
William meanwhile is rooting through the boxes. He sees a bunch of objects like feed and water, shovels, ropes, winches… One of the small boxes is a small wooden oak rod, and behind another is a large full length chrome mirror. William casts detect magic. The wooden rod registers as magical, as does a normal-looking sack. He also notices a ping of magic from Silas, from something hanging around his neck. The wand seemingly has a spell imbued on it. The bag is registering as a wondrously rare item. And there is magic coming from Bainx’s whip hand. William takes the wand and is trying to stuff the magic bag into his backpack.
Silas: What did you find over there?
William: Bags…
Silas: Okay…
William: It won’t fit >:|
Silas: ...then maybe you shouldn’t try. Maybe you should just put yourself in it and jump.
William: Jump WHERE?
Silas: Around. Instead of walking.
William: What is this, a potato sack race now?
Silas takes the necklace and unhooks the gauntlet from Bainx’s hand. It’s an apparatus that is connected over Bainx’s gauntlet. It has two halves and can be clasped onto any glove or gauntlet. Silas removes it and separates it and sees the item itself is really nicely constructed. He’s not sure what it does, but at the very least, he could fetch a hefty penny for it. He gets the feeling that it’s pretty valuable. William wanders down and just stares at it intently. Silas doesn’t let him see it.
Artemis is trying to get Nord up to his feet. He’s a bit wobbly.
Nord: They brought me in here and the one they call Bainx, he had some kind of… object… that was drawn towards the large doors at the far end. He was sure I knew how to open the doors, they were beating me quite ferociously, trying to get the secrets of what to do, but… I have no idea what they’re even talking about. And that’s when you all showed up.
Illi walks over to the door and holds up her brass disk. William is confused. They both see this large ornate door. Illi sees it’s a giant metal door without any hinges or openings or handles. There is carved in more of that strange language. In the center of the door is a large hooded figure that takes up the dominance of the thing. In his right hand is a lantern, in his left hand is a large embossed lock that is almost extended from the door, but the lock has no keyhole. Illi puts up the disk against all parts of the door. She thinks the magic on the door is broken and is disappointed. William scratches his head with the wand. Nord tilts his head curiously.
Nord: (to Artemis) Is that…? The elf… Does she have the key to the door? She seems certain… or something...
Artemis: ((?!?!! could not make out what she says, time: 1:16))
Illi puts the brass disk back in her pocket and pouts. William casts detect magic towards Illi’s disk and finds faint magic pulsing. He’s not quite sure what it is, it’s like a residue. He’s still confused. Illi leaves and William goes back to staring at the door.
Illi: (to Nord and Artemis) Maybe you should go take a look at the door.
Illi, Artemis and Nord make their way to the door. Nord looks faint, but is mobile.
Silas: Oh good, he didn’t die.
Everyone stands before the door. There’s no holes in it whatsoever. It’s very disappointing. So William decides to check his new bag instead. He opens the bag and reaches inside… and there’s no bottom. It just keeps going and going. William turns the bag upside down in confusion. Artemis realizes William has a bag of holding and shares it with the rest of the party. William is amazed and starts putting anything and everything he could get his hands on into the bag.
Illi: Is the key to the door inside the bag, maybe?
Artemis regards William and approaches him.
William: ...yes?
Artemis: Is there a key… is what we need in that bag?
William: How the hell should I know?
Silas: How about you stop giving lip and look?
William: //smirks// ...alright.
William reaches into the bag and thinks of a key. Nothing happens.
William: Nope, not in here.
Silas: ...okay. Thanks for looking.
Silas goes to fetch his javelins, then returns to William. He’s not getting the one from Artemis back.
Silas: Can I see the bag?
William: No.
Silas: Why not?
William: It’s mine.
Silas: I’ll give it back.
William: ...no.
Silas and William are staring daggers at each other.
Artemis: Does anyone else have any ideas?
Silas: Do you want to get through this door or not?
William: I don’t care.
Silas: You don’t care? You don’t care what’s on the other side?
William: Nope.
Silas: You did your job. You got Nord back. Take him and go.
William: Alright!
Artemis: You’re gonna leave Nord with HIM?
Nord: Um… do I get a say in all this?
William: No.
Silas: Yes.
Nord: Um… by the way… Hi! I’m Nord. I don’t believe we’ve been introduced.
Silas: No, we haven’t… but I did drag you around for a while.
Nord: I taste sour… can someone explain the sour taste in my mouth? Maybe what’s happening? You are the heroes sent to retrieve the item and get me out of here, right?
William: Hero? //laughs//
Nord: But… you slain the goblins, right? That was you, right?
Nord looks anxiously around to each of them.
Nord: I mean, that’s why you’re here, right? No?
Silas: We’re here to get you. Your buddies…
Nord starts pawing his pockets a bit, like he’s frantically petting himself.
Nord: My dagger, my dagger, my dagger, bastards took my dagger!
Silas: Calm down. We aren’t going to hurt you!
Illi: Do you want another berry?
Nord: What berry? What do you mean another berry? What are you talking about?
Illi: The sour taste, it’s from the berry.
Nord: I’m… Uh, no. I think I’m quite happy with the amount of sour I have currently, thank you. Um…
Silas: Why were you down here in the first place? (to Artemis) Did you already get any information out of him? Does he have any information?
Nord: The name is Nord, again, by the way, I think I did introduce myself. Yes, indeed. You can call me Nord, if you’d like, Nordstrom if you prefer…
Silas: I would if I were talking to you, I’m not talking to you at the moment, so please, just a moment. Artemis?
Artemis: He said they’re down here to retrieve something and they thought he had certain information that he says he doesn’t, but, um, I don’t know.
Silas: Well, that goes with what the creature in the other room said.
Artemis: Right.
Illi: And Bainx. Bainx said that too.
Nord sheepishly raises his hand.
Silas: ...yes, Nord?
Nord: Oh, thank you. Thanks for using my name, by the way too. Did I get your name by the way...?
Silas: No you didn’t.
Nord: Oh. Very good. Well, my horned friend... I was sent with my friends, we were sent off by Merrick. Merrick gave us gold and told us to bring a cart worth of goods down to the cave here, which I presume I’m still here in, although this room doesn’t look like it’s part of any cave I’ve ever seen, but beyond that, um… Yes, he sent us here and we were ambushed by goblins. We had shovels and picks and things, um, some medical equipment to help anyone that got hurt in, in digging. He had people coming, I thought that might have been you all. Weren’t you the ones he sent to dig deeper into the hole and see what was going on down here, what what?
Silas: No… why would Merrick want to dig deeper down here?
Nord: Well… I-I should say I quite don’t know. He has intentions of his own, he’s a grown halfing. But he seemed quite… quite insistent to get someone representing the Piscene Corporation out here in to this dig site. Is all. I don’t know why… I thought it was quite safe, he told us there’s no one else here, certainly not goblins. If there were goblins, I never would have never come!
Artemis: Maybe that’s why he didn’t tell you.
Nord: ...he didn’t tell us on purpose, is what you’re saying? But surely if he thought there were goblins…
Silas: Strangely enough, he actually did send bodyguards out later. After you.
Nord: Bodyguards? No, we didn’t have bodyguards.
Silas: No, you didn’t. But this one was sent to be a bodyguard.
Nord: (looks at William) You… you were supposed to be our bodyguard?
William: //shrugs// Apparently?
Nord: Well, it’s quite strange, if you were supposed to be our bodyguard that you didn’t come with us, and plus why would we need a bodyguard, there was no danger.
William: I don’t ask about these things.
Nord: I… I see. Um… but you found the object the goblins were after and we can leave here now, right?
Silas: Do you know what they were after?
Nord: I-I-I didn’t even know there was supposed to be goblins here.
Silas: Do you know the object that.. There’s apparently an object down here, do you know what it is?
Nord: Um… I, um… I’m not sure. I heard them speak. The one named Bainx talked of being sent by his master to retrieve a grand artifact. Said that he would need a team of people to move it. Um… beyond that, I don’t know.
Silas: You don’t know anything about this door?
Artemis: So we’re looking for something big.
Nord: Apparently. And the door… um… I don’t know anything about the door except Bainx had this orb that he was furiously trying to slam into the door.
Silas: Orb?
Nord: It was a small thing he carried around his neck. He was insistent that it had something to do with the door, at least he thought it did, he was trying to find some hole to put it in, but he couldn’t find anything to plug it in to. And that’s when he turned on me, and he started furiously beating me, he was asking me where is the keyhole.
Silas: Okay...
Artemis: So you’ve never seen anyone coming or going through that door?
Nord: No, when they brought me down here, it was sealed shut. He kept, Bainx kept holding onto some scrap of paper in his claw saying to himself “they said we had everything we need.” I don’t quite know what he was talking about…
Artemis: Did we get everything off of Bainx?
Silas: Yes.
Silas seems pretty sure he searched Bainx thoroughly
Illi: I didn’t find anything.
Silas: Yeah, well, that’s cause you just poked him. (to William) May I see that bag of holding briefly…? And then I will return it.
William: ...fine. Don’t steal any of my rocks.
Silas: I won’t, trust me. Not a problem.
William hands over the bag and Silas tries to think of something they could use to open the door as he reaches into the bag. Nothing happens. Artemis is looking at the sculpture on the door.
Artemis: Maybe we need to light the lantern…?
Silas: That was my thought… Move, William.
Silas steers William aside.
Silas: Go stand over there, please.
William wanders off and continues trying to shove things inside the bag. Silas stands over the door and takes the objects that Bainx had. He holds the orb in his right hand and the gauntlet on his left hand. When he puts the gauntlet on, at first it’s loose, but then tightens and seals on his hand, and the oculus opens up and the eye frantically looks around. There is a powerful magic in this gauntlet that Silas feels coursing through his hands. He feels imbued with some kind of magic. Silas goes up to the door and holds both objects up to it. The spherical object is pulled towards the door, but just slams uselessly against the metal lock. Silas attempts to put the gauntlet up to the lock, but nothing changes.
Artemis watches and remembers the figures on the fresco outside the room. Illi and Artemis goes back outside to inspect the murals. In the last mural, the five cloaked figures seem to make their way up to the final figure. This figure holds a lantern and a lock, and the lock appears to have a spherical opening where the key would go. Artemis notices in the painting, the lantern is in the left hand and the lock is in the right hand. Artemis mentions to Illi that in the painting, it’s opposite from the door in the room. Illi agrees. The girls relay the information to Silas (and William).
Silas unhooks the gauntlet from his left hand and puts it on his right. Illi pulls out her sword and holds it up like a mirror to look at the door to see if it looks different. The reflection shows a spherical keyhole.
Illi: I think there’s a hole when you look at it backwards…?
Silas: (to William) What else did you find over by those boxes?
William: Uh… wood. Shovels, ropes, winches…
He runs over to the supplies and starts dragging out the chrome mirror from behind everything.
William: Will this…? Can we look at it in this…?
Silas helps him get it out (hon hon hon) and pulls it over to the door and stands it up. The figure in the reflection is reversed and the lock in the reflection has a large, spherical opening in it. Silas attempts to put his hand on the mirror, it feels cool. He attempts to put the gauntlet on the door, nothing happens. He finally puts the fob in the mirror. He feels the familiar pull, and the fob sucks into the hole and there’s a ripple in the glass as a large red seam tears down the door. Artemis gets out her shield. The figure splits in twain and the door pushes open. Silas sets the mirror aside and takes out his shield. They all hesitantly peers inside.
Everyone sees this large open room. As the door cracks open, torches light up, two per wall, lighting up the room. In the center of the room is this large, black solid stone, like an obelisk on its side. About 7 foot long, 3-4 feet wide, 3-4 feet deep. There are etched channels on the ground and chains are coming up from the channels. They notice it creates a five-point sculpture. On four of the five points, there are robed skeletons with swords plunged through them on their knees. From those channels, appears to be dried blood. At the end of the channels are red chains that bind the stone to the floor. The robed figures look like the five on the murals, but there are only four bodies here.
Artemis: They might be guarding something…
They consider pushing Nord inside first. Nord is staying far, far away. On the upside-down five pointed star, the upper left point is clear.
Artemis: Throw the disk!
Silas: ...let’s not, cause every time, something bad has happened.
Illi: But… but… it could do something!
Artemis: It’s always gotten a response, so…
Silas: Um… this looks eerily like that piece of paper, like that symbol.
Artemis: Yeah, we’ve seen that symbol before.
Silas: That symbol we keep seeing.
Artemis: And there’s an eye on the gauntlet, right? Does it seem to be doing anything?
Silas casts divine sense, placing his left hand over his necklace and lets his awareness go out, ignoring William. He doesn’t sense any undead or fiends, but instead he senses good. The corpses appear pure, no maliciousness. William sees Silas strike a pose and do something. In his head: “He knows us. He’s seen us. We’re not a secret to him anymore.”
Silas steps into the room and goes around the circle as much as he can and to the empty point. As he does, he sees all the figures taken a position where it looks like they’ve kneeled down and they’re holding their sword in one hand and bracing it. It looks like they almost killed themselves. Each look like they’re in a similar position, kneeled over with the swords buried in themselves. At the empty point, Silas sees a sword that has been abandoned on the ground, which looks like the other swords, but there is no body, no sign anything was here. The channel leading from this point is dusty, but doesn’t have the dull red that flows from the other ones. There’s no chains from this channel to the stone either.
William looks down at the blood. It’s long, ancient, dried blood forming into chains. There’s a protection magic that seems to be emanating from the channels with the blood in it, that seems to be emanating from the chains that are connected to the object. They seem to be kinda anchored to the swords impaled in each of the bodies. What the fuck. If they need to move the object, they’d need to break the chains. William tries to cast detect magic again. This whole room washes white from the center point, this object in the center is oozing with magic. It’s the most powerful magic source he’s ever stumbled across.
William: ...wonder if it’ll fit in the bag.
Silas: What do you see?
William: Brightness…
Silas: Do you see anything else? What are you getting out of this? ...and if you lie to me, I’ll tell them all what you are.
William just stares at Silas, but then shrugs and tells Silas that this object in the center is a strong magical presence, that the channels and chains are binding and holding it in place, that it has something to do with the swords.
Artemis makes her way into the room, it’s still and quiet and far from natural. She is unsettled at the morbid display, but she doesn’t sense any immediate danger. She notices the swords in each of the bodies, and one lying abandoned.
Artemis: It seems like someone ditched out. Abandoned their duty.
Silas: So it looks like there’s a lot of magical protection around here. The problem is we found it. Do we take it with us? Because if we just leave it here, obviously the goblins are after it, somebody else is after it. Merrick’s after it. Everybody’s after this thing, do we take it with us?
William: ...I have a bag.
Silas: You do have a bag. I’m not sure I trust you with that. What if we gave it to Artemis?
William makes a face.
Silas: What is WRONG with you?
They go back to considering the stone and realize they would need to get it unanchored from the floor to take it, and the object itself appears to be solid stone and may be tough to move. Illi picks up the sword from the floor. Silas steps back. Illi sees it’s a well crafted silver short sword. It looks nice. It looks not as much functional as ceremonial. She takes her disk and strikes down with the sword. CLANG! There is an indent on the brass disk and the sword has a chipped edge to it now. Illi tosses the sword to the side and picks up the disk. William tries scraping at the blood in the channels.
Illi: What if we bring the mirror in here, maybe this room will look different?
Artemis: Yeah, I’d give it a shot. They’re saying he had everything he needed.
Silas: Are you guys going to lug the mirror in?
Artemis: Sure.
As Artemis and Illi bring the mirror in, the bodies look like skeletons in the room are reflected as whole people in the mirror, like they just came in, still quite dead, bleeding into the channels. And it fuels down small crimson rivers into where the chains are. They look whole, you can see their faces.
Silas inspects the stone. It appears black, but as he comes closer, he can see all kinds of writing etched on it in the unknown language. The stone itself looks to be some kind of deep marble, he can see small veins of red running throughout it. Aside from the carvings, there doesn’t seem to be any openings or any way in, it appears to be one flush piece. There are six markings circling the whole end as the writings kinda wrapping around that are large, he doesn’t recognize them either. He estimates that it would take some work to move. If there was some way to make it lighter. The top is dusty, it’s assumed there are more writings and markings on there.
Illi notices there are no chains or blood on the corner of the rock in the mirror. It’s solid in the ground, but on the corner with the empty point, the rock can be wiggled a bit.
William hears a voice in his head saying “The wand. The wand, boy. It has charges. How much have I told you, again and again. You have to focus on these things, this is where the value is. It’s a wand of levitation, boy. Levitation. We could take this with us, we could.”
William: ...we could.
He surmises that the wand is imbued with three charges of magic, a levitation spell. He wanders away from the room and goes to where Artemis is standing at the door, quickly attaching to her, clutching at her once again in a familiar fashion. At times, it was maybe annoying, but at this point it’s almost kinda refreshing because he’s been so strange for so long. And now he’s treating her like he’s treated her before. Artemis puts her hand down on his shoulder and just looks at his face. He appears calmer and smiles brightly and adoringly up at her. Silas keeps an eye on him.
Silas: Interesting. Do we want to try to break this spell?
Nord hasn’t been getting any closer, but sees Silas through the room.
Nord: Is that…? Did you find it…? Can we leave here now?
Illi(?): We’re not sure how to move it
Artemis: We can’t just leave it.
Nord: I should say not if the goblins came down for it. They’ll send more. They seem to want it. I mean, you were sent to retrieve it, right?
Artemis: There’s only one other creature that seems to know about it, he’s down here too.
Nord: Another creature…?
Silas: That’s VERY true… I would like to not leave this for him. He did say if we figured out how to take it, we can have it.
Illi: Is there any equipment on which we could carry it? There are some carts. I don’t know how we’d get it ON the cart, but...
Artemis: Ropes and winches and things like that…
Silas: It does seem to move a little bit, but it’s gonna be heavy. It moves a little bit over here where there’s no chains. But we have to get these chains off first. There is no way to move this without getting the chains off.
Silas walks up to one of the bodies and pulls the sword out. As he does, he hears an exhale, and what’s left of the body falls to dust. The chains coming from that corner shatter from the channel.
Silas: Do we have a way to get this thing out of here? Anybody? Magic users?
William starts tugging at Artemis.
Illi: Maybe if I feed it some berries…
Artemis: I don’t know, we’ll have to try some things… Um… Let’s see.
William continues tugging more furiously at Artemis.
Artemis: William? Do you have an idea?
William pulls Artemis down and whispers to her.
William: We… we can lift it up…
Artemis: We can lift it? Together, you mean? Or…?
William: I can!
Artemis: ...you can? Okay. Let’s do that. How are you gonna lift it up?
William just shakes his head sheepishly. He seems pretty sure he can do it.
Artemis: If you think you can do it…
Silas continues removing the swords, each one gives an exhale and the body falls to dust and the chains shatters until all the anchors are gone. As the last anchor releases and shatters, the black object in the center of the room shakes. It has been held so taught against the ground for so long that now that this last release is done, there’s so much resilient friction against the ground.
Silas: So do we have a way to lift it?
William: What are we gonna do with it?
Silas: Take it with us.
William: Just… take it... out?
Silas: Does anyone have a better idea?
Artemis: It seems like the people that were here were guarding it and they’re not sure what we’ll need to do with it once we have it. But we can’t leave it here.
Silas: Crazy idea, this seems to be a temple. Or it seems to be a temple. Can we… the people in charge of Loudwater right now are the priests, right? We can take it back to town. And instead of handing it to Merrick, we can take it to the priests.
Artemis: That sounds good. And we’ll need to see how to get it all the way there. But, agreed.
William: What if someone tries to take it? What if that thing tries to take it?
Silas: It said… it did say if we can get it out of here, we can have it. I know it probably wants it, but…
William: What if it’s lying…?
Artemis: We don’t necessarily have to go back where it was though, do we?
Illi: If it charms us, we certainly do.
William: Can this fit through all the openings…?
They determine based on its size, it can be pulled through the holes. William tugs on Artemis again and tells her that it can work for only 30 minutes. He expresses many other concerns regarding how to get it back to town. They decide on using the wand and some rope to get it out of the cave and placing it onto a cart. Silas decides he was willing to distract the nothic if it shows up again. They randomly stuff the mirror in the bag of holding too. Silas again tries to convince William to hand the bag over to Artemis, but William refuses to do so. As Silas puts his hand in the bag, he feels something brush against his left hand. He pulls out a small leather pouch filled with 1050 silver pieces and 50 gold pieces.
William: I didn’t put that in there…
Silas: No you didn’t.
They carefully take the object up and out. Working their way up the elevator, out the entry way. There’s no more goblins. They’re cautious around the waterfall, with Silas at the ready, but they don’t get harassed at all. Nothing clutches onto their minds. They don’t hear or see anything. They’re kinda relieved at that. They make their way up and outside. It is approximately 3pm a day or two after first going into the caves. It’s the first time they’ve sense fresh air. It is exceptionally refreshing to Artemis and Illi. As they’re pushing the floating object out, they hear a familiar voice.
Bharash: Well, well, well!
Out from the bushes steps a dragonborn in full plate armor.
Bharash: If it isn’t my GOOD FRIEND Artemis! So good to see you, my dear. Now about that escort I promised you....
As he says that, ten guards from either side left and right come out of the bushes holding crossbows. And as he looks around amongst them…
Bharash: You’ll be pleased to know there was a human and a dwarf that told me of a very strange party making their way through here-- ...you? William? Is that.. is that… the Dark Rider…? Yes it is! They told me you were dead! Well, it seems yet another person has underestimated you, boy. //laughs// Now… we have a great many things to discuss.
Lee: Motherfucker.