- The heroes, having spent an uncertain amount of time now waiting for their companions to recover, decide to move quickly to find any survivors from the Hildebrande attack
- The weight of their responsibility for the attack was heavy on some of The Undaunted – The Stone Thief was now actively hunting them, of this, they were all but certain. How many just died because of their disregard?!
- Emerging from their recuperation, they realized they were now in the Gizzard, and within minutes of exploring they found some of Hildebrande’s survivors being led by a band of orcs and ogres!
ENGAGE!
- Thankfully, most of the survivors wisely hid away during the fray, and despite knowing of The Undaunted’s reputation, they still looked at them in awe witnessing their handiwork first-hand
- Strangely though, one young boy seems remarkably unphased by the commotion – no fear, no tears in his eyes
- Need a place to keep survivors safe in Stone Thief
Puki ⊕ uses a Positive ___ with The High Druid ⊕ to channel the power of the earth to ‘mind meld’ with The Stone Thief temporarily to understand how to get to the Sunken Sea – the tower there might be a good place for the survivors to stay safe while The Undaunted learn what they can
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- Puki places his hands firmly on the ground – and the imagery starts to rush to him
- The Stone Thief HATES Puki
- Through its hate with you – Puki is overwhelmed with an array of images of tunnels, hallways, traps, etc
- The stone thief starts to react – tries to meld the stone in a different way – no matter how it changes – your mind shifts to adjust – Puki remains aware of the changes – certain now how to get to the Sunken Sea
- Puki now, in the lead…. knows the way to go… straining to retain his focus, sweating and hands pressed against his temple
- Sometimes Puki raises his hand to tell us to wait as a monster patrol goes by… just long enough for them to miss us
- Then we see it – the Stone Thief melding the hallways ahead of them – and it doesn’t phase Puki one bit – he knows immediately where to go… and soon the smell of the moist air makes clear they were back at the Sunken Sea
- Reminded of having found the temple to the demon worship – even though the Stone Thief was trying to absorb it
- The boy who doesn’t shed tears (Sebastien) seems keenly interested in where they are going and why…
- Arriving at the tower, show them the cupboard of infinite food and tell them not to leave
- The pirates we left there to protect the statue of Casila look dangerously at some of the younger women, but Legion threatens them with undead imagery and demonstration of his wrath, but Merian:
Merian ⊕ uses a Positive 6 with The Great Gold Wyrm ⊕ to emanate an aura of peace and contentment among all the refugees and even powerful enough to change the temperament of some of the pirates
- Examining the relic, one of the pirates says “Now listen, it doesn’t look exactly the same… I’m not gonna lie – it’s a bit creepy.”
- The statue basically looks the same, but the face has broken into a very broad anticipatory looking smile… like someone about to open a present at Christmas
- Legion tries to assess the magical nature of the statue now having witnessed High Elves’ attempts to ‘crack’ Cornellion’s glass heart phylactery:
- either her life force is attached to this, or this is simply a backup in case something to her, in which case attacking it now won’t do anything, or she has a connection to this, so doing something around it might make her aware of what is happening around it – but these are just 3 of many possibilities
- The heroes decide to destroy it
- Puki crashes his hammer into the shoulder of the statue, and just as he does, the face contorts and hisses at Puki
- Puki feels a warmth wash over him, and a flash sweat stings his eyes
Puki ⊕ uses a Positive 6 with The Priestess ⊕ to protect himself from further magical reactions as he continues to smash the statue – over and over, hitting the statue as it contorts and reacts
- Before the final blow, in a hissing whisper, the statue calls out to Puki, “I see you!” – all the heroes were certain the voice was not just that of Casila, but that of The Blue as well
Deciding to go get the rest of the townspeople who may have been taken to deep keep
- Puki is reasonably certain that he knows how to control the levers at the top of the partially submerged tower
- Taking the small boat from the shore, the heroes row out to the tower, gain entry as before, walk past the cages where they found Casila‘s former party member, and arrive in the trigger room
- Triggering the levers, the heroes are whisked down the transportation chute and arrive again in…
…. the Deep Keep level
- The stagnant water splashed all over the heroes, and they survey their surroundings – the changes of the Stone Thief make this unfamiliar
- Coming across the carcass of a wyvern, not unlike the one Master Throatcutter rode, Legion inspects it for a means of its demise
- It was cut and stabbed, just like the escaped beast they found nearer the arena in another exploration of the Stone Thief
- Nidalru admires the dagger – certain it is of a particular make, though crude compared to what she uses
- Puki is sure he knows the owner of the dagger, but can’t place the face/name
- Heroes decide to go to the map room first
- creep past the throne room which remains hauntingly undisturbed
- as we approach, familiar guardians approach to block our passage, 3 of them!
ENGAGE!
- Arriving again in the Map Room, the heroes see the stone ‘map’ again and note the obvious changes as the Stone Thief continues to change and morph
- Perhaps surprisingly, none of the Caretakers appear in the map room
- Hurriedly, Legion makes a copy of the map to avoid Puki having to suffer the weight of melding with the Stone Thief’s ‘mind’ again
The Plan: On to Deep Keep, where The Undaunted hope to find more survivors of the attack on Hildebrande, and learn more of what The Dragonic has ‘brought’ with him.
