Death Speaks
General Summary
Grud carries a corpse of Kalsak, a winter wolf, into Nihilus's Temple asking for him to raise the creature as an zombie. Runa, arriving earlier, watches as Nihilus gives a speach to the masses of people watching. He then places onyxes into it's eye sockets and begins his incantation. The beast immediaty jumps up and starts to snarl. Nihilus calls Grud to address the beast and hides behind him as Grud approaches. Grud talks with the beast and agrees to accompany it on a hunt.
The two take off into the forest, Grud in wolf form, and hunt a deer. He watches as Kalsak devours the creature. After finishing the beast off Kalsak asks why Grud raised her. He speaks of their bond and their history. She agrees to continue their partnership in exchange for a corpse every week, and the corpses must occasionally be elves.
Back at the Temple the dragon's corpse is chained to an Altar. Runa, Nihilus and Zephyr talk as they wait an hour and a half for Grud to return. Nihilus casts speak with dead on the creature and asks about it's history. They learn it's name is Ikess. It was resurected by cultists and it became paranoid afterwards. It was raised in the Abhest desert and had resided inside the cave for only a few months before being killed. The learned little about what to do next except hunt down Seyua Dumont, and search Abkhest.
Zephyr mentions that Seyua Dumont was a cultist of some kind and had a small following. She died a few months earlier after upsetting a powerful creature. Stumped about what to do next, Runa and Zephyr both remember a skull was found inside the cave. Teleporting there, forgetting there was no air, they quickly find the skull and return.
Once again they cast speak with dead and learn that this skulll bellongs to Seyua, and she was killed by the very dragon that she raised. It was angry at the idea of becoming a lich and killed her and skattered her followers. She mentions her cult is everywhere, and has many sects. They learn the biggest base that she is aware of is on the Isles of Corella.
A crew is recruited and Nihilus's ship is sailed to the isle encountering no troubles, but the isle is devoid of civilization. They pull into a cove where they are assured the vessle will be safe from storms, and beach the vessle.
Exploring the jungle they are beset by insects and slough through muddy ground finding little of interest until they come upon butchered animals. Two deers lay dead with most of their meat removed. Grud follows the footsteps as he and the Golems clear the way knocking over trees and wilting vegitation with Grud's magical item. A dense fog covers a small mountain.
An opening is found in the mountain, apparently a temple of some sort. Realizing the fog is magical it is dismissed by Nihilus. Contining in they find the temple looks dilapitated and poorly maintained, but each step seems to find better and better maintence until it looks pristine.
A giant room opens in front of them, a big circlular stone pattern adorns the ground with pillars supporting the structure. Two dragon statues form fountains with water gushing out of their mouths. Everyone notices a set of red stone tiles just beyond the pillars. The two golems are sent in one at a time hoping to trigger any traps. Next Musashi walk forward towards the fountains again finding no traps.
Grud then walks around the pillars and into an illusionary floor. The greased floor slips from beneath his feet and he catches onto the ledge. His fingers start to slip but his grip holds strong and he pulls himself back up only to notice the golem was not as dexterious. It makes a huge splash in the water. Grud watches as a zombie sharks charge biting into the construct. Nihilus takes control of them and then sees a giant crab reach up and pull the construct below the waves. Both sharks attack the creature and Grud, now flying, dives into the water slashing at the creature. Nihilus calls them off and takes command of the third undead creature ending the battle. Grud pulls the golem up out of the water while Nihilus jumps down onto the back of his new crab. Thinking of the parable he decides to ask for a ride across hoping his command of the creature sees him across safely.
Ready to move on Nihilus notices a problem. The beast is too large to fit in between the pillars. It smashes one column away to make room and the group continues down the hallway. The passageway travels quite far before they encounter a clockwork dragon barring their path. Nihilus attempts to communicate with it but it does not respond to any command. They attempt to walk past it and are hit with a gout of liquid damaging the golum and breaking Musashi's sword. It unloads a series of attacks on the golum almost destroying it before being cut down by Nihilus, Runa, and Grud. It collapses gears shooting out in every direction.
Ahead the passageway is covered in drawings of people's faces. They repeat the same images over and over, and Runa suspects Enter Image is used to scry through these faces. The golems begin smearing grease over the walls in an attempt to negate any information from these images. They continue down the hallways and end up back where they started. They have turned in circle and suspect magic is at play. Nihilus casts greater dispel twice before he is able to remove the magic aura hiding the Guards and Wards spell. He casts a targeted dispel magic to remove the confusion affect and the continue on finding themselves right back at the beginning with a clockwork dragon at their feet.
Even without spell stimying their efforts they are still lost in a maze of caverns and Nihilus starts mentally maping out their passage and finds an exit out by heading down. They continue down and down until they find a staircase. One of the faces comes to life and asks them their purpose here. Grud destroys the image after Nihilus tells the creature nothing will be discussed until we are face to face.
At the bottom of the stairs a small invisible party wait for them. Atri Drayton, and his three priests stand with Druet Whytewood as their guard. Atri and his three priests are not physically there but rather possesing three guards with magic jar. All invisible they stand waiting for the approach of party. Grud sees them and makes a point of looking right at them. Atri Drayton asks again what their intentions are, why have you raided my Temple. Nihilus lies about their intentions and suggests a partnership. Looking deep at the person he senses the Grand Priest, as he refers to himself, does not recognize him. The Priest has little interest in partnering with strangers, especially ones enganged in wanton destruction, and asks them to leave. Combat ensues and the group is cut down quickly and effortlessly.
Searching around the notice themselves resisting effects and begin hacking at a well carved statue of a dragon. The dragon was embued with a magic mouth spell, but the party assumed something far more sinister. Musashi then becomes possesed and Nihilus dispels the effect. Continuing their search they find a pool whose water is held back by magic and muddy foot prints leading into and out of the pool. They decide that this elf anti paladin, whom they killed, will be a nice meal for Kalsak. They carrying each of the bodies out of the room and into the maze of hallways.
Up ahead they hear footprints echoing and Runa runs ahead to investigate. She is flying and invisible. She encounters two other guards, looking simillar to the ones from before. She turns to go but they evidently see her and cast destruction on her. She unloads a spelll of her own that kills one and nearly kills the other. Grud begins running toward them while Nihilus conjures a stead to catch up. They show up just in time to see Runa getting hit again with another magical effect, and running to safety. Grud finishes the last one off. These bodies are added to the loot and carted off, while the crab pulls the zombie sharks out of the water and to the boat.
On the boat speak with dead is cast and they learn the temple has around a dozen rooms. This person doesn't know the priests name either and only knows him as Grand Priest. Rooms are described and they are teleported in. Many children are in this room and Grud slaughters them all, presumably, for Runa's frequent baths. Moving down they find guards, similiar to before, but evidently not possesed. They are allowed to flee. Several rooms are searched all containing innocents, or mostly innocents, except one large vault which Grud effortlessly smashes.
Treasure is found as hallways start collapsing, killing the spared guards. They begin filling their backs unworried about the devistation outside. After the loot is collected they walk of the room to find their path blocked by rubble. Having little else to do, and hearing more collapsing echoing through their room, they decide to teleport back to the ship and sail home.
Grud then walks around the pillars and into an illusionary floor. The greased floor slips from beneath his feet and he catches onto the ledge. His fingers start to slip but his grip holds strong and he pulls himself back up only to notice the golem was not as dexterious. It makes a huge splash in the water. Grud watches as a zombie sharks charge biting into the construct. Nihilus takes control of them and then sees a giant crab reach up and pull the construct below the waves. Both sharks attack the creature and Grud, now flying, dives into the water slashing at the creature. Nihilus calls them off and takes command of the third undead creature ending the battle. Grud pulls the golem up out of the water while Nihilus jumps down onto the back of his new crab. Thinking of the parable he decides to ask for a ride across hoping his command of the creature sees him across safely.
Ready to move on Nihilus notices a problem. The beast is too large to fit in between the pillars. It smashes one column away to make room and the group continues down the hallway. The passageway travels quite far before they encounter a clockwork dragon barring their path. Nihilus attempts to communicate with it but it does not respond to any command. They attempt to walk past it and are hit with a gout of liquid damaging the golum and breaking Musashi's sword. It unloads a series of attacks on the golum almost destroying it before being cut down by Nihilus, Runa, and Grud. It collapses gears shooting out in every direction.
Ahead the passageway is covered in drawings of people's faces. They repeat the same images over and over, and Runa suspects Enter Image is used to scry through these faces. The golems begin smearing grease over the walls in an attempt to negate any information from these images. They continue down the hallways and end up back where they started. They have turned in circle and suspect magic is at play. Nihilus casts greater dispel twice before he is able to remove the magic aura hiding the Guards and Wards spell. He casts a targeted dispel magic to remove the confusion affect and the continue on finding themselves right back at the beginning with a clockwork dragon at their feet.
Even without spell stimying their efforts they are still lost in a maze of caverns and Nihilus starts mentally maping out their passage and finds an exit out by heading down. They continue down and down until they find a staircase. One of the faces comes to life and asks them their purpose here. Grud destroys the image after Nihilus tells the creature nothing will be discussed until we are face to face.
At the bottom of the stairs a small invisible party wait for them. Atri Drayton, and his three priests stand with Druet Whytewood as their guard. Atri and his three priests are not physically there but rather possesing three guards with magic jar. All invisible they stand waiting for the approach of party. Grud sees them and makes a point of looking right at them. Atri Drayton asks again what their intentions are, why have you raided my Temple. Nihilus lies about their intentions and suggests a partnership. Looking deep at the person he senses the Grand Priest, as he refers to himself, does not recognize him. The Priest has little interest in partnering with strangers, especially ones enganged in wanton destruction, and asks them to leave. Combat ensues and the group is cut down quickly and effortlessly.
Searching around the notice themselves resisting effects and begin hacking at a well carved statue of a dragon. The dragon was embued with a magic mouth spell, but the party assumed something far more sinister. Musashi then becomes possesed and Nihilus dispels the effect. Continuing their search they find a pool whose water is held back by magic and muddy foot prints leading into and out of the pool. They decide that this elf anti paladin, whom they killed, will be a nice meal for Kalsak. They carrying each of the bodies out of the room and into the maze of hallways.
Up ahead they hear footprints echoing and Runa runs ahead to investigate. She is flying and invisible. She encounters two other guards, looking simillar to the ones from before. She turns to go but they evidently see her and cast destruction on her. She unloads a spelll of her own that kills one and nearly kills the other. Grud begins running toward them while Nihilus conjures a stead to catch up. They show up just in time to see Runa getting hit again with another magical effect, and running to safety. Grud finishes the last one off. These bodies are added to the loot and carted off, while the crab pulls the zombie sharks out of the water and to the boat.
On the boat speak with dead is cast and they learn the temple has around a dozen rooms. This person doesn't know the priests name either and only knows him as Grand Priest. Rooms are described and they are teleported in. Many children are in this room and Grud slaughters them all, presumably, for Runa's frequent baths. Moving down they find guards, similiar to before, but evidently not possesed. They are allowed to flee. Several rooms are searched all containing innocents, or mostly innocents, except one large vault which Grud effortlessly smashes.
Treasure is found as hallways start collapsing, killing the spared guards. They begin filling their backs unworried about the devistation outside. After the loot is collected they walk of the room to find their path blocked by rubble. Having little else to do, and hearing more collapsing echoing through their room, they decide to teleport back to the ship and sail home.
Rewards Granted
Loot:
Coins
185 pp, 618 gp, 532 sp, 1,272 cp
Armor
[153 gp] masterwork light wooden shield
[4,250 gp] +2 chain shirt
[4,655 gp] burglar's buckler
Weapons
[2,380 gp] +1 elven curve blade
Gems
[12 gp] unworked alabaster (worth 6 gp; Craft (jewelry) DC 10 to repair)
[9 gp] unworked irregular freshwater pearl (worth 4 gp; Craft (jewelry) DC 10 to repair)
[35 gp] unworked sard (worth 17 gp; Craft (jewelry) DC 12 to repair)
[11 gp] unworked irregular freshwater pearl (worth 5 gp; Craft (jewelry) DC 10 to repair)
[10 gp] obsidian
[80 gp] amethyst
[100 gp] tourmaline
Potions
[50 gp] potion/oil of cure light wounds (CL 1)
[300 gp] potion/oil of corruption resistance (CL 3)
[300 gp] potion/oil of owl's wisdom (CL 3)
[300 gp] potion/oil of resist energy, acid (CL 3)
[750 gp] potion/oil of haste (CL 5)
[50 gp] potion/oil of sanctuary (CL 1)
[750 gp] potion/oil of water breathing (CL 5)
[300 gp] potion/oil of darkvision (CL 3)
[300 gp] potion/oil of remove paralysis (CL 3)
Scrolls
[150 gp] arcane scroll of bear's endurance (CL 3)
[25 gp] divine scroll of goodberry (CL 1)
[150 gp] arcane scroll of scorching ray (CL 3)
[1,650 gp] divine scroll of liveoak (CL 11)
[3,825 gp] divine scroll of energy drain (CL 17)
[1,650 gp] divine scroll of harm (CL 11)
[1,050 gp] arcane scroll of animate dead (CL 7)
[700 gp] divine scroll of volcanic storm (CL 7)
[25 gp] divine scroll of keen senses (CL 1)
[1,125 gp] arcane scroll of plant shape i (CL 9)
[1,125 gp] arcane scroll of sonic thrust (CL 9)
[700 gp] arcane scroll of minor creation (CL 7)
[375 gp] divine scroll of remove curse (CL 5)
[375 gp] arcane scroll of summon monster 3 (CL 5)
Wands
[4,500 gp] wand of blindness/deafness (CL 3)
[4,500 gp] wand of mirror image (CL 3)
[11,250 gp] wand of displacement (CL 5)
Wondrous Items
[2,400 gp] robe of bones [no external clues]
[1,800 gp] efficient quiver [no external clues]
Misc
[30 gp] 6 holy symbols of Shar
[5 gp] 1 holy symbol of Loviatar
Experience:
Nihilus (16): 4734 XP = 1267 (Brain Eating Sharks with a side of crab) + 1600 (Clockwork Dragon) + 1867 (Possesed Cultists and Friend) + 0 (Innocent Children and helpless statue)
Grud (16): 4734 XP = 1267 (Brain Eating Sharks with a side of crab) + 1600 (Clockwork Dragon) + 1867 (Possesed Cultists and Friend) + 0 (Innocent Children and helpless statue)
Runa (13): 11266 = 3033 (Brain Eating Sharks with a side of crab) + 3900 (Clockwork Dragon) + 4333 (Possesed Cultists and Friend) + 0 (Innocent Children and helpless statue)
Coins
185 pp, 618 gp, 532 sp, 1,272 cp
Armor
[153 gp] masterwork light wooden shield
[4,250 gp] +2 chain shirt
[4,655 gp] burglar's buckler
Weapons
[2,380 gp] +1 elven curve blade
Gems
[12 gp] unworked alabaster (worth 6 gp; Craft (jewelry) DC 10 to repair)
[9 gp] unworked irregular freshwater pearl (worth 4 gp; Craft (jewelry) DC 10 to repair)
[35 gp] unworked sard (worth 17 gp; Craft (jewelry) DC 12 to repair)
[11 gp] unworked irregular freshwater pearl (worth 5 gp; Craft (jewelry) DC 10 to repair)
[10 gp] obsidian
[80 gp] amethyst
[100 gp] tourmaline
Potions
[50 gp] potion/oil of cure light wounds (CL 1)
[300 gp] potion/oil of corruption resistance (CL 3)
[300 gp] potion/oil of owl's wisdom (CL 3)
[300 gp] potion/oil of resist energy, acid (CL 3)
[750 gp] potion/oil of haste (CL 5)
[50 gp] potion/oil of sanctuary (CL 1)
[750 gp] potion/oil of water breathing (CL 5)
[300 gp] potion/oil of darkvision (CL 3)
[300 gp] potion/oil of remove paralysis (CL 3)
Scrolls
[150 gp] arcane scroll of bear's endurance (CL 3)
[25 gp] divine scroll of goodberry (CL 1)
[150 gp] arcane scroll of scorching ray (CL 3)
[1,650 gp] divine scroll of liveoak (CL 11)
[3,825 gp] divine scroll of energy drain (CL 17)
[1,650 gp] divine scroll of harm (CL 11)
[1,050 gp] arcane scroll of animate dead (CL 7)
[700 gp] divine scroll of volcanic storm (CL 7)
[25 gp] divine scroll of keen senses (CL 1)
[1,125 gp] arcane scroll of plant shape i (CL 9)
[1,125 gp] arcane scroll of sonic thrust (CL 9)
[700 gp] arcane scroll of minor creation (CL 7)
[375 gp] divine scroll of remove curse (CL 5)
[375 gp] arcane scroll of summon monster 3 (CL 5)
Wands
[4,500 gp] wand of blindness/deafness (CL 3)
[4,500 gp] wand of mirror image (CL 3)
[11,250 gp] wand of displacement (CL 5)
Wondrous Items
[2,400 gp] robe of bones [no external clues]
[1,800 gp] efficient quiver [no external clues]
Misc
[30 gp] 6 holy symbols of Shar
[5 gp] 1 holy symbol of Loviatar
Experience:
Nihilus (16): 4734 XP = 1267 (Brain Eating Sharks with a side of crab) + 1600 (Clockwork Dragon) + 1867 (Possesed Cultists and Friend) + 0 (Innocent Children and helpless statue)
Grud (16): 4734 XP = 1267 (Brain Eating Sharks with a side of crab) + 1600 (Clockwork Dragon) + 1867 (Possesed Cultists and Friend) + 0 (Innocent Children and helpless statue)
Runa (13): 11266 = 3033 (Brain Eating Sharks with a side of crab) + 3900 (Clockwork Dragon) + 4333 (Possesed Cultists and Friend) + 0 (Innocent Children and helpless statue)
