Adventure Log XX
THE VIVIFIED LABYRINTH
The long, tormented night finally passed. Eventually Taylan, knuckles white having sat through the last watch alone and terrified, began shaking the party awake, eager to move on. The hissing voices continued to taunt and threaten, so Byron covered Nightingale’s ears to wake him. Gale nodded, and unquestioningly took over plugging his ears as they moved away from the large stone entrance to the labyrinth. They had to find the missing men before it was too late, so they couldn’t risk Nightingale being provoked by the horrible things they were saying about Rose’s death. The creatures outside the door would have to wait.
The Flowers moved forward down the long stone corridor, stretching along hundreds of feet at a subtle slant, with Calli’s dancing lights fending off the dark before and behind. The temperature gradually dropped, letting them know they were venturing deeper into the earth. It curved sharply to the north and ended at set of large bronze doors with carvings of tigers chasing each other in four adjacent circles. At the center of each circle a snarling tiger head looked out. Byron took the lead, first listening, and then opening them wide while the rest stood back ready for trouble. Nothing happened, so tentatively they moved forward into the room. There were giant Rakshasa statues on either side of door that matched those of the temple alcoves. A large seam in the stone encircled the room entirely, floor to ceiling, separating them from it continuing beyond. Travis held out an arm for everyone to wait, and he threw a stone over the empty space clattering to the other side. They waited, straining to hear anything changing, but again nothing happened. Byron and Travis investigated the statues on either side, looking for potential hidden buttons or levers, but nothing seemed amiss. The only way was forward.
Nightingale and Travis lept first, easily clearing the black void, dexterity and strength together. The stone corridor remained still. Byron and Calli made the attempt next, but the bard didn’t quite land, her heeled boot slipping. She toppled backwards, arms windmilling, before Byron took hold of her hand and pulled her into the safety of his arms. She made an undignified squeak as she found herself pressed against his breastplate, looking up into his dark eyes. The moment quickly passed when Taylan fumbled his own attempt to clear the gap behind her and stumbled into the duo. Focker easily flew over to join them, and all attention turned to a long dark lever set into an alcove they could now see.
In order to keep track of the maze they might be facing, Gale used an acid splash to mark a number ‘1’ into the wall next to the lever, and then pulled it. The section they stood in trembled, and with a loud grinding sound it turned them in place at great speed until they were facing a new room. If anyone had been hanging over the gap, it might have split them in two. Ahead now to the left was a door, and to the right another ominous lever. Taylan, last into the area, now needed to be the first out, and he went to stand by the new lever. Byron released Calli with a, “Pardon me…” so that she could do the same, and then indicated to Focker that he should stay close to her. The house drake settled around her shoulders obediently. The remaining men cross over into the room, and after brief discussion, they decide to try the door before the lever.
Travis opened it, axe in hand, ready for violence. He was not expecting a simple magic rune on the floor in front of him. For a moment he felt agonizing pain pushing into his mind, but gritted his teeth and shrugged off the sensation. It was nothing compared to the mental agony he’d endured when still split into two personalities. He described it to the others, and Calli and Gale suspect it to be a Symbol of Pain. Once activated, they can last for hours, and there wasn’t anything they could do but hope they could all make the saves as Travis had. Trying to avoid subjecting anyone to it, the half-orc went ahead to see if they’d even need to. In the trapped room to the right was another door, and over a seam in the ground was an open path lined with mosaics to the left that lead to another room.
He carefully opened the second door. It was a smaller room, thankfully rune free, with three large wooden chests along the left wall. Each had carvings of tigers and some sort of writing in the lids. Across from the chests was a colorful fresco of hundreds of marching tigers set around a green gem the size of a fist carved to resemble a tiger’s head. He described what he was seeing, and cleverly thought to make a rubbing of the writing to bring back those with additional language experience. Unfortunately none of them could read it, but Calli did place it as most likely being Vudrani, from the homeland of the Rakshasas.
Wanting to see what was in the chests, wanting to avoid the rune, and wanting to keep Travis as safe as possible from the traps, Gale suggested he used his Mage Hand combined with an Open/Close spell to open the chests at a distance. Travis carried through Calli’s mirror, and Gale used his own, so that together he was able to effectively play rogue. The chest closest the door had nothing in at all. Out of the second chest sprung a deadly blood red cobra, who attempted to bite the ghostly mage hand, but only landed harmlessly on the floor. Seeing Travis, it dashed forward to attack, but as he was stood further back with the mirror, the snake found itself in the room with the strange sigil before it could reach him. The magic was indiscriminate, and the cobra contorted in pain before Travis used his axe to put it out of its misery. The final chest released a purple mist that expanded to fill the small room. Travis suspected it to be an insanity mist, and the party was especially glad the hulking green skin was not caught in it.
After a short time, it dissipated, and Travis was able to get closer to see inside the further two chests. Inside the middle container, where the unlucky snake had been stuffed, were six potions. Gathering those and (with the help of Byron’s crowbar) the green gem, he returned to the rest of the Flowers. Together they discovered half were incredibly potent healing potions, and the other half restoratives. They gave Focker one of the later, as the small drake was still suffering from the fungi battle, and split up the remaining between themselves.
Taylan gathered his nerves and looked into the room, resisting the sensation of pain that assaulted him to attempt to dispel the magic, to no avail. Travis again suggested he scout ahead. He narrated as he went, describing the mosaic as a jungle mural mystically enchanted to look like The Flowers themselves being viciously mauled and eaten by a variety of predators while monkeys, snakes, and birds in the trees mock those below. Through the short hall there’s another small room with a new door- and another rune on the floor. For a moment he felt a heavy sinking urging him to slumber, but he stood strong. He crossed the room to the door, heard nothing, and opened it to find a third rune.
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The rest of the group heard a clattering sound of something dropped, and Travis ceased responding. They had no choice but to go after him. Taylan and Byron enter the pain room unscathed, but Gale doubles over as the agony took hold. Taylan and Byron pass through into the sleep room, and there Byron was the one to fall to the power. Nightingale used his unnerving ability to extend his arms to drag Byron backward into the pain room again. Taylan managed to make it to Travis, where he saw the half-orc frozen in place like a statue for only a moment before he regained control of himself.
Travis reported the room that got him ended in a blank wall, so they returned to the rest of the party. On the way the pain room managed to catch Travis, and they realize leaving the sphere of influence of any particular rune meant having to make the saves all over again if reentered. The labyrinth truly was formidable. Once regathered they make attempts to wake Byron, but have no luck. The magically inclined of the group determine that the runes were so powerful it would take magical means to wake him, otherwise they’d have to wait more than an hour for the various effects they’d suffered to wear off.
Calli explained she might be able to help them out, but felt they should pull the second lever first, in case the room spins into another rune, and she could work on all of them at once. Nightingale noded, scoured a ‘2’ on the wall with his acid next to the lever, and pulled. The grinding noise returned, and the room spun. The pain room became a dead end, and where the entrance they’d first entered was became the short mosaic hallway previously leading to the sleep room. They closed the door to the pain room, with it no longer being an exit. Using one of his mage hands with his mirror Gale looked through the hall and saw it now led to another tiled room depicting angry wasps.
Nightingale and Taylan cautiously moved forward into the corridor to better see into the new room, and find two doors inside, one to the north and one to the south. With his extended arms Gale opened them both. To the north is a short corridor to another room out of sight, and to the south a longer corridor paved in blood red stones with an alcove containing an iron casket with an image of a sobbing woman decorating the lid visible on one side of the hall. Nightingale’s eyes glowed dimly with arcane light as he detected magic, and saw it radiating from the wasp room and the bloody corridor.
Confident there was no swarm a fireball couldn’t handle, Taylan stepped into the wasp room. The grinding began again, and all the rooms span. The hall Gale was in now led to the wasps from the opposite side, and instead of returning to the party the other side exited into a corridor with four floating spheres of mist: black, white, green, and gold, ending with two levers at the far end. The other four Flowers saw only a dead end where the hall had been. The wasp room was suddenly full of six inch long needles thrusting rhythmically from every surface. They plunged into Taylan’s feet through his shoes, and he felt they did deeper damage than just drawing blood. He noticed two more statues down the south corridor before abandoning the dangerous wasp room and returning to Gale in the hall. Nightingale, his detect magic still running, saw that the strange misty orbs were some sort of conjuration.
On the other side of the door to the pain room Travis heard footsteps approaching, and held his axe aloft readied for what may enter. Calli frantically attempted to pull the lever again, but nothing happened. The door opened, and in walked a battered and bruised Vencarlo Orisini, one of the men they were there to rescue. But was it? The whispering voices had said the lady of the labyrinth would find them. This could be a disguise. A desperate discussion launched, Calli and Travis grilling a bewildered and defensive Orisini trying to think of questions only the real man could answer. They danced around the knowledge that he was secretly Blackjack, trying to let on they’d discovered it, but he refused to admit anything. They couldn’t be sure whether that was because he wasn’t who he said, or whether he was determined to protect the secret identity. The bard tried to use her witness spell to see through the real Vencarlo’s eyes, but the spell failed, and the man in front of them said he couldn’t be sure they weren’t the ones working for the Arconas. She sensed something was off in his excuses. In order to gain favor, he began warning them not to go through the door, there was a rune that would cause them intense pain behind it. He then walked them through everything he’d encountered thus far, mentioning a fountain and a corridor of blood, letting them know the levers are inactive for a time after being pulled, and that those working with the Arkonas are immune to the runes.
Meanwhile the needles had ceased their thrusting in the wasp room. Nightingale threw some leather armor into the room with the orbs, but nothing happened. Using his mage hands- one from the strange smiling badge he wore and the other his own- he pulled both the levers at the end of the hall in front of them. Grinding noises, and all the rooms turned. The orb room was now at the hall behind them, and ahead he and the sorcerer saw a filthy room full of rubble, bones, and other debris. On the far wall waited yet another lever.
The rest of the party were now turned to face a long hall full of real tiger heads mounted on the walls. Orisini pointed with wide eyes, warning the heads animate and try to eat anyone walking past. At the far end is a secret door that leads to the previously mentioned fountain and bloody corridor. Looking through the pain room they saw a room with a well full of crystal clear water. Calli questioned when Vencarlo had last seen Neolandus Kalepopolis, and he claimed he had to leave him behind because he couldn’t undo his bonds. Considering Orisini only entered the compound to rescue the seneschal, Calli and Travis knew that didn’t add up. Suddenly Calli’s green eyes lit up, and she asked where Vencarlo had told them to take Trinia when they last saw her. Orisini furrowed his brows, and meekly offers, “Somewhere safe?”
It wasn’t him.
Nightingale and Taylan acid splashed the two levers they’d pulled ‘3’ and ‘4.’
Regretting having not done it when the group was last together, Calli cast break enchantment to wake up Byron, but was unable to free Travis from the lingering effects of the pain rune. Travis went into a rage and moves towards the imposter to attack, who backed away quickly readying a javelin in his defense.
Taylan marked the lever across the room of filth with a ‘5.’
Calli demanded the imposter reveal who his really is, but the false Orisini stuck to the ruse, again pointing out they could be working for Glorio. Byron, now awake, also launched towards their mystery man in a rage, failing to resist the pain rune but getting a good cross hit on him regardless. His claw raked across the front of the man, drawing blood. Orisini again warned them to cease, or he’d retaliate. Travis swiped anyway, leaving a matching trail of blood parallel to Byron’s. Focker, still perched on Calli’s shoulders, asked how he could help, but Byron told him to stay where he was.
Nightingale’s mage hand pulled the lever in the filthy room, and all the rooms rotate once more, returning to their original position and reuniting the party. They’re met with the sight of their barbarians attacking a seemingly tortured Orisini begging them to cease. Calli cried out, “We don’t think it’s him!” But more urgently, behind them in the reappeared stun room, are two small bearded devils, and a large sphinx wielding a pair of wicked looking kukris with glowing red blades. Taylan, seeing their movement out of the corner of his eye, turns and curses loudly. Gale slammed a hand on the ground and muttered arcane words. The shadows of his fingers lengthened towards the monsters and erupted from the ground as black tentacles that wrapped themselves around the new opponents, leaving them angrily struggling in place.
When the duo relayed to the rest what was behind them, Orisini raised his arms and shouted, “I’ll come clean!” His form shimmered and left where he had been stood was Melyia Arkona. “Glorio sent you down here to die. He’s the one who trapped Orisini down here, and he tried to trap me too. You’ve got to trust me! If we can get to the next room I can get us through, but that’s Sivit the Lady of the Labrinth in there and we can’t fight her!”
Taylan moved closer to the held enemies. Gleaming white scales appeared along the side of his face and down his neck, his jaw extended, and he breathed a blast of cold into their faces. It doesn’t seem to do as much damage as he hoped. One of the devils vanished, reappearing behind Gale, and the other popped forward to take a clumsy swing at the sorcerer.
“Can you get us to the hostages?” Calli demanded of Melyia.
“Not without dealing with Sivit, but we need to take care of Glorio first!” The woman edged towards the door that would lead her out of the maze. Calli stepped through the doorway into the room, creating an obstacle to her exit, and began singing to bolster the party.
Sivit tore free from the tentacles and pointed her kukris at the men she could see. Byron turned and pounced on the devil behind Gale to begin savaging it with fist and claws. Travis stepped in beside, and bestowing his axe with a celestial goodness, finished it off. It vanished in a puff of sulfur-smelling smoke. Having room to maneuver now, Nightingale used his extra reach to make two deep cuts into the bearded devil swinging at Taylan, pumping his arcane lightning into the creature until it, too, vanished.
Melyia again expressed how impossible it would be to defeat Sivit without having neutralized Glorio, and sensing that the woman believed the words, Calli suggested they fall back and regroup.
But the party was bold. Taylan raised his hand, focused his power, and Sivit suddenly arched her back in pain as the enervate spell robbed her of some vital essence. He pulled back behind the brawlers, clearing the path for them to charge in.
Calli, seeing the men had no intention to slow down, plucked a complicated run of notes to again try and break enchantment on those suffering from the after-effects of the runes they’d encountered. Nightingale and Travis felt themselves shake off the power, but Byron remained hindered.
The sphinx hissed out words in a language they didn’t know, and a black miasmic cloud filled the space almost entirely- only Calli was spared. The noxious fumes caught all but Byron off-guard, and they began gagging on the air.
In an attempt to level the playing field Travis rolled one of his own stink bombs in under her, but she kicked it away in disdain. Byron retrieved one of the Red Mantis masks they’d kept and slid it on, activating the ability that would allow him to see how an opponent’s health was faring. Nightingale conjured a magical shield, a tall thing with an exquisitely rendered rose across it, and braced himself.
Melyia again crept towards the door out of the pain room, but Calli filled the doorway and prevented her exit. Taylan attempted another enervate but this time she was ready, and it failed to take hold. Calli called out to Focker to be ready on the lever for the moment one of the Flowers gave the word that everyone was on the correct side of the seam. Melyia nodded that this was acceptable, and didn’t try to force past. The Arkona stood next to the doorway nervously, watching the direction of the battle. To help negate the negative effects of the cloud, Calli played haste.
Pulling out a wand, Sivit targeted Taylan in an act of fiery revenge, sending multiple bolts of flame to crash into him. In a coordinated attack, Gale dismissed his tentacles for Byron who nimbly closed the distance and pounced on the sphinx. One claw dug into her side, and the other plunged deep into her humanoid chest, just missing vital organs, and she roared in pain. Travis charged in while her front was busy with Byron and carved into her leonine flank.
From her spot by the door, Melyia cheered on The Flowers, who asked why she wasn’t helping at all. She protested she was too afraid, but Calli heard the lie within the words.
Taylan used her distraction to again drain Sivit with another enervate. In a desperate fury, she focused all her attacks to try and take down the barbarian who’d done the most damage. One of her red blades split skin on his forearm as he defended, and her hooked tail tore along his thigh, but Byron’s years in the pit gave him the subconscious reflexes to take the wounds where they’d interfere the least. Nightingale stalked in, and with his long arms drove his rapier through her snarling mouth, bursting her skull with the stored electricity he channeled.
Her body collapsed into a motionless heap, revealing the stun rune behind her, and both Byron and Nightingale felt their muscles seize in place. The immediate danger had passed, however, so they were able to simply wait for it to pass.
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While the party regrouped, they continued the interrogation. Calli recalled the voices through the night had threatened both Sivit and a Vermanda, and asked Melyia what she knew of the other threat. The Arkona acted confused, and then waved airily, “Oh, that was one of those devils you defeated.” Another obvious lie.
Calli crossed her arms, “We don’t believe that. If you want our help, you need to tell us who is Vermanda. And for that matter, who is Bahol?”
She acted again like she was confused and unsure. Fed up with her deceptions, Travis took her by the shoulders and dragged her to the seam, holding her over the dark gap. She protested, “Leave me alone or I will defend myself!”
“I’m sick to death of the fucking lies. It’s simple. Tell the truth or I’m having you. In fact, we’re all having you.”
Seeing the group ready behind him to make good on his threat, she finally relented. “Alright. What do you want to know?”
They asked again about Bahol and Vermanda. Melyia sighed. “They’re rakshasas.” Calli’s eyes narrowed.
“And how to we get past the runes?” The half-orc demanded. “You’re immune as an Arkona, how do you deactivate them?” Nightingale and Taylan, seeing she was finally cooperating, returned to Sivit’s body to strip it of anything useful.
“Ah, that was a lie. Getting past unharmed has to do with your moral alignment, not being an Arkona. You can’t deactivate them”
Byron joined in, “Where’s the seneschal?”
“Somewhere in the labyrinth.”
“The Arkonas are famously not friends with the Queen, why would you trap him down here and not use him?” Calli queried.
“According to my brother, the time wasn’t right. I don’t agree.”
She explained she could take them all to the sensechal, but they would all have to get past the many traps of the dungeon. She began describing the rooms they’d seen but not figured out, yet: The crystal water in the well was poisoned, the iron maidens in the bloody corridor wail and can stun and damage you, the misty orbs are teleporters that drop you in different parts of the maze, the levers reset after a minute. She said if the party was willing to split they could ensure the levers were all set in a correct formation so that the green sphere takes them to Neolandus, and the trip back would be easier, but they’d still have saves to make against every rune encountered.
“What have you done to upset your brother? How can you ask us to kill your kin?” Calli finally asked, bewildered at the very premise.
“We’re just a warring family. Always have been. It’s in our nature.” The Arkona said this as if she was explaining why they pierced their ears, or worshiped Chamidu. It was matter-of-fact and unimportant, simply the way things were.
“And we’re just a convenient tool?”
“Yes. You all are playing pieces between us. I had hoped to befriend you and use you against my brother.”
“Well, he didn’t warn us about any of this.” Calli conceeded.
Taylan diplomatically interjected, “He gave us nice cheese!”
Calli continued, “It is surprising that he gave us a ring of evasion only to send us to die.”
“What did you do for him?”
She lifted her chin proudly, “We killed the emperor.”
“Of Old Korvosa?” Melyia scoffed, “He’s been a thorn in our side for some time. I’m not surprise he rewarded you.”
It was finally decided that their shifty companion would go alone to retrieve the hostages. Calli would check in on her with a witness spell, watching through her eyes, to be sure she was doing as she claimed. All the party need do is pull the lever any time Melyia signaled. And so the woman went, and eventually returned, but with only an unconscious Vencarlo Orisini. Taylan quickly roused him with one of their lesser cure wands, but they were disheartened to see that his hands were badly mangled and not reacting to their spells. It would take a more skilled healer to undo the indignities he’d suffered under Arkona hospitality.
He expressed joy to see them, but then noticed that a few of the party were wearing Blackjack’s gear, the trousers of which Orisini himself still wore. Nightingale noticed where he was staring, and apologized that they had to borrow some of their ‘mutual friend’s’ things after a particularly nasty fight. Vencarlo asked if they intended to return the gear, to which Nightingale gave a hesitant, ‘Eventually.’ The older swordsman conceded they were doing good work with it at the moment, and he wouldn’t be able to ‘return’ the gear until he was healed, anyway, so his blessing was given. Feeling guilty, Calli pulled Blackjack’s glamoured studded leather armor out of their Haversack for him, and they helped him into it. He received it graciously, saying he’d return it to their ‘mutual friend’ once away from this place.
Asking for his story was a short affair. He didn’t know which of the Arkonas put him down there, he broke in to the palace but was rendered unconscious by an unseen assailant and the next thing he knew he woke up in chains. And while Melyia hadn’t tortured him, he still didn’t trust her. They asked after Kalepopolis, and he said the seneschal had been taken to the torture chamber. “I can lead you there, but I’m sure she knows where it is.” He glared at the dark haired beauty, who raised an eyebrow.
“Yes, I can take you there,” she completely ignored his hostility.
Taylan reassured him, “Well, we already defeated the queen of the labyrinth.”
Vencarlo looked at the young half-elf in surprise, “The giant sphinx creature? I’m impressed!”
“It was dead easy!” the sorcerer grinned.
Hands on hips, Calli lamented, “Everyone keeps being surprised by us. Have we not proven ourselves by now?”
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Having taken time to heal everyone up, They return to the very first corridor they’d entered. The main entrance remained as they last saw it, with two giant Rakshasa statues on either side of the large bronze doors. Orisini motioned for them to follow, turned, and walked straight through a section of flat wall just before the statue to the left. It had been an illusion. Another corridor stretched ahead.
Calli kept drilling Melyia for answers as they moved. "What are the Arkona servants?”
“Servants?”
“Carnochan isn’t human.”
“Ah, no. Not human, but not servants. Rakshasa are not servants."
“They were something hissing?”
“There are different races. Most people know of the tigers, but there are also some that look like snakes. When the Arkonas returned from Vudra they brought back some friends, and they’ve been entwined ever since. You’d be wise not to face my brother if they’re nearby.”
The path reached stairs downward, another sloping passage, and finally a pair of doors. Melyia whispered that in the chamber on the other side they’d find another creature from Vudra named Senshiir. Not a Rakshasa, but a six-armed three-faced follower of Chamindu.
The Flowers quietly begin their preparations. Nightingale cast bull strength on Byron and Travis, then a cat’s grace on himself. Taylan readied to dimension door himself and Gale to the other side of the chamber. Calli planned to send Travis somewhere central with a jester’s jaunt. Byron steeled himself to run in and pounce on the first enemy he could see. Orisini and Focker agreed to keep out of the way, and Melyia offered to open the door for them.
Calli began playing a bolstering tune, Melyia opened the door, and they all took in the grim scene. The smell of smoke assaulted their noses from a heavily burning fire pit in the large room’s center. Cages hung on chains dangling from the ceiling while racks, strappados, gibbets, and other instruments of torture filled the floor space. A set of immense wooden doors stood to the north, a smaller singular door nearer the corner to the west, and several narrow cells lined the south. Two racks had prisoners stretched upon them, one nearer and one on the far side of the room, but shockingly they both looked like the man they were trying to save. No six-armed enemy was visible, but two giant cobras in the room sprung into action.
The first cobra raced up to the door and snapped at Byron, who skip-stepped out of the jaws just in time. Taylan set a hand on Gale’s shoulder and the two men vanished, reappearing next to the Kalepopolis on the far rack. Calli sent Travis into the room as she had sent Byron the day before: with a generous slap on the ass. He appeared on the opposite side of the nearer Neolandus, and in a rage took in a whiff of the figure before him. The thing did not smell like any human he’d ever encountered before. Raising his axe high, and charging it with a deadly combination of acid and electricity, he buried it into the false seneschal. The blade cut, but the elemental effects seemed to have no impact.
The Neolandus impersonator reached under the table and retrieved many weapons, immediately bringing them to bear upon the half-orc in retaliation. As the blows fell, the illusion dropped, and they were all able to regard their new foe for the first time. It looked nearly as if the mural of the goddess had come to life, even wielding some of the same exotic weapons as depicted all around the compound, and seeing one creature with kukri, longsword, spear, and fists in action would have been awe-inspiring if it had not been doing so much damage to their friend. All of its fanged mouths delighted in the violence.
Seeing Travis engaged with Senshiir, Nightingale closed the distance to the cobra between them and stuck it with his blade to deliver his customary shocking grasp. It tried to strike him on approach, but he was too nimble, and it thrashed in pain from his attack, but did not fall. The cobra strangely ignored the magus, and instead tried to bite Travis while he was focused on the more pressing danger, but Gale held his sword in place, keeping it from reaching. Byron laid into the cobra in front of him, making quick work of it. He leapt into the air, plunged his spiked gauntlets into its head, and ripped the hood away from the body. He landed in the viscera, coated in gore.
“We’ve got you, buddy,” Taylan reassured the true, but unconscious, Neolandus, and dimension doored them both back outside the room to where the noncombatants were waiting. Focker, eager to help, nudged the abused man with some healing power, allowing him to regain his senses. Calli warned him to stay down, and stepped forward into the doorway to become an additional barrier between the rescued men and the fighting taking place as she played.
Travis’ axe sliced twice into his opponent, and then he took a calculated step backwards. She fell for the taunt immediately, and as she moved in again he brought it back down into her for a third crucial hit that severed one of her breastplate’s straps and caused it to hang precariously from her body. Its three heads no longer looked like they were enjoying the battle, and her arms again whirled against him, but the three arms on the side of the costume malfunction were unable to connect while her armor was so damaged. The three arms on the fastened side made up for it, stabbing deep into Travis, who was now bleeding heavily from multiple locations.
Nightingale withdrew his rapier from the cobra, and then only moving his sword arm, rapidly thrust it over and over again into the giant snake, sparks of electricity crackling around the wounds. Its jaws opened as if it was going to sink fangs into him, but fell lifelessly on to him instead, and in his intense focus on his attack Gale didn’t dodge in time, stumbling a bit under the dead weight before he shrugged it off.
Byron moved into the room, taking up a position on the opposite side of Senshiir to Travis, and severs her spine at the lower back with one of his spiked gauntlets, which causes her to drop to the floor. He follows up with two more brutal attacks, and though it seems like she should be dead, the wounds begin healing in front of them. It isn’t until Travis, with his good-aligned weapon, removes the heads that the body goes still.
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They swiftly checked the adjoining rooms to ensure their safely, and confirmed there were no hidden enemies in waiting. The single door lead to a small room with a single bed. The Double doors lead to a huge room with six massive undead elephants chained to four pillars: this was the mysterious mechanism controlling the movement in the labyrinth. Each time a lever had been pulled a bell rang, and the lumbering monstrosities walked forward to set it all in motion.
Fighting concluded for the time being, the party once more began healing the wounded, and conversations resumed. They filled in Neolandus on how they discovered the Queen had unleashed a plague on the town, and revealed herself to be some sort of undead monster in front of the city. They let him know they needed him to do something about it.
“Not that I’m not grateful, but who are you?” Neolandus Kalepopolis seemed wary, and reluctant to speak.
“We’re The Flowers of Korvosa. We just saved your life. We’re heroes, we do that.” Calli gave him a winning smile, but he looked at Orisini for confirmation. The swordsman nodded from where he was leaning with his arms crossed against the wall. Calli took out her Drake’s Mark, and with this additional proof, he began opening up.
“You’re half right. She’s more than human but not undead, and I don’t think I’m enough to depose her anymore. She’s a reincarnation of a blue draconic warlord.” The group recalled Scream’s paintings, the persistent use of blue, and the image of the man peeling flesh to reveal brilliant blue scales. “I’m not too sure of his name, but I know who might have info on how to stop him, and possibly even save the queen from this possession. For countless years before Cheliax came to Varisia, this area known as Korvosa belonged to the Shoanti. It’s not widely known, but the Shoanti believed a great evil was held within the pyramid that forms Castle Korvosa’s foundation. They’re the keeper of that lore, I believe we need to go talk to them.”
Taylan mused, “That must be why the green lady didn’t just attack the city. She didn’t want to fight the blue one.”
“So, somehow an evil spirit of a blue dragon is in the queen, but we don’t know how or why?” Travis furrowed his brows.
“For a long time I’d suspected the queen of pilfering from the treasury. The treasury is housed deep within the stones of the pyramid itself. I think she dug too deep and found something she shouldn’t have.” The seneschal asked for them to go over again the assassination attempt. When someone mentioned she was wearing a new crown of upturned claws, it all became clear to them. That could be the artifact of the dragon that was allowing it to puppet her.
Calli had been quiet, trying to remember what she knew about notable dragons, when her eyes went wide. “It could be Kazavon. One of the most powerful and deadly dragons in history. Legends say it was defeated by a combination of heroes, but nobody knew what happened to them or the artifacts of the dragon.”
An uneasy silence settled for a few moments while they all consider the seriousness of the situation. Orisini finally broke it, encouraging them all to get out of the city as quickly as possible. Neolandus agreed, urging them to seek the Shoanti as soon as they can, as the city currently relied on that information. Calli expressed concern for their friends and family left behind, wanting to warn them to get out of the city to avoid being used against The Flowers. Byron set his jaw and made it clear the next thing he was going to do was save Gina.
Melyia finally piped up, offering the service of the Cerulean society in deposing the Queen, and a guide to assist in rescuing Gina, if only they would take care of her brother first. She could even send messengers to their people warning them to get out of town, so that The Flowers didn’t have to go themselves and put them in any further risk. It was a very tempting offer, but many of them were not sure making a deal with an Arkona was worth any price.
They begin discussing with her ways they could potentially get Glorio alone to finish him off. She warned them he was a spellcaster, while she was trained in unarmed combat. Gale came up with many tactics in no time at all, speaking as if it had already been decided. Taylan was on board. Calli proposed they simply go speak with Glorio. Give him a chance to either save or doom himself. He could just be a person with terrible connections, and they could put down the monsters and lock him up. Byron liked this idea, finding it less distasteful than springing a fight on an unaware person. Travis reserved judgement either way, trying to figure out all the angles.
They asked Melyia to step away while they held a deeper conversation. Orisini made a plea that they don’t trust an Arkona at all, that their fighting with each other will keep them busy, and they could get away now and not deal with them at all. Calli was concerned leaving them both to deal with at a later date left that many more monsters waiting to strike when they didn’t expect it. She would rather deal with everyone upstairs now, and leave Melyia in place as someone who has given reasons to believe on multiple occasions that while still dangerous, she’s at least useful, and will honor an agreement as long as it’s benificial. Nightingale bluntly suggested they kill them all, now, and be done with it. Orisini was taken aback by the bloodthirsty statement. They discussed what to do with the Cerulean Society if there was an absence of Arkonas, and based on his reputation it’s agreed Grandmaster Boule, the publicly-known leader of the Society, would take orders from anyone who displaced them. He was too lazy to run the show, he just liked the power of the position. Travis was concerned about the time the Society would be without their guidance while they dealt with the Queen, and the power vacuum it would leave for Old Korvosa. Calli pointed out all the food and resources the Arkonas have could go to all the starving, desperate people in Old Korvosa. Conversation again turned to just leaving and letting them carry on as they have been, when Calli reminds the party of all the things the Rakshasas were saying they would do to their loved ones in the night. Neolandus and Vencarlo start, they were unaware the family was in league with such evil creatures, but it did explain much about how they operated. The duo still just want to get away, in spite of the information. The party agree to place them on the boat in the cove and allow the two to get away before any potential fighting.
Calli, seemingly struggling, made sure Melyia was still on the other side of the large chamber and whispered, “You all should know, if we are going to face them. Based on everything we’ve learned, and the things Melyia has said, and not said, I strongly suspect Glorio and Melyia are Rakshasas, themselves. They are Bahol and Vermanda.” The bombshell sunk in, and The Flowers made their choice.
While gathering their things to head up, Orisini pulled Calli off to one side for a quiet chat. His was quiet, anyway. Hers in reply was a loud, “WHAT?!”