Fireday, Calistril 1, 4713 late morning
Caravan, Necropolis, Path of Spirits
“You can never have too many diamonds.”
— Takkad of the Shoanti
One of the things I noticed when reading through the journal’s of the Sandpoint Heroes that were available from the Pathfinder Society was that Takkad carried a lot of diamond dust and diamonds. I thought it a bit much. On their trip to the city of Xin Shalast he wrote that they brought over twenty thousand gold pieces worth of the stuff. “Seriously,” I thought, “who needs that many diamonds?”
Apparently we do. Maybe not that much (Takkad seemed obsessed with healing), but more than the meager amount we have… had. We are not fabulously wealthy like the Heroes, but it seems we should have invested more of what we did have in this crucial spell component.
I woke this morning feeling much better and sure that I would fully recover by the afternoon.
Olmas did not fare as well. I placed a most of our remaining diamond dust in an outline surrounding him, and as I cast Restoration the glittery, sparkling dust turned to ash and vanished as if blown away by an ethereal breeze.
I wondered if the process could be reversed? Start with ash and absorb life force to create diamond dust. Beorn seemed intrigued by the idea, but the others thought it best to not dwell on it.
In any event Olmas felt noticeably better, but is still in need of another casting. He’ll have to wait until we can get more diamonds. As will poor Bevelek, who remains dead.
The night had passed mostly sort of without event. Some yetis climbed atop the portable shelter Kali had used to partially obstruct the passage from Yeti-ville to the caravans, and they kept watch for most of the night. Nothing came up the tunnel from behind us, which after restoring Olmas I blocked with a make-shift wall of stone (courtesy of several castings of Stone Shape).
Kali told us some useful things about the yetis: they are aggressive, they are adapted to living in the cold and in fact radiate intense cold. We had already discovered this about them the hard way, and decided to focus on the gold door and leave the yetis for later.
Using combinations of Fly and Airwalk we crossed the chasm and approached the golden door. Upon closer examination we saw that it was a heavy wood door gilded with gold, which had been scraped away in places. A daemonic tusked skull grinned back at us from the center.
Radella looked carefully at the latch and said that it had once possessed a lock and trap, but both now were broken.
I cast Hide from Undead upon the party, after which Ivan raced back to the caravan to do the same for those left behind. When he returned Radella opened the door.
A short hall led to an octagonal room from which firelight flickered. As we gaped a dark shadowy form materialized and approached. From behind us came an unnatural screech of hatred and despair. The revenant had reawakened and was heading our way.
The shadow arrived first and touched Radella with its ghostly claws. She recoiled, looking visibly weaker, and wisely stepped back.
Sparna summoned his dwarven Spiritual Ally, which hacked at the shadow. Kali hasted us as Ivan shot arrows into the shadow.
The revenant moved through our group ignoring us and setting its pale gaze upon the shadow, which it clawed at ineffectually.
I created a Spiritual Ally to pair up with Sparna’s, and the two beings of force hammered hard on the shadow, which fled towards Olmas. Why do things always flee toward Olmas? He managed to land a solid blow with Suishen and the shadow dissipated into a swirl of smoky wisps that faded away.
The revenant dropped to the ground.
“Third time’s a charm!” Timber quipped as I reached down for the revenant’s possessions.
| [434] | +1 rapier |
| [435] | cloak of elven kind |
| [436] | goggles of minute seeing |
| [437] | master-work thieves tools |
| [438] | backpack with 200-300 gp of gold leaf (from door) |
We used three charges from our wand of Lesser Restoration to bring those of us touched by the shadow back to full strength. Kali sent an archon lantern summoned for the fight into the octagon room to reconnoiter, and it reported back, “Bodies laying in state, not moving.” We moved in and found dark blue walls painted with red daemon faces. Atop a large blue painted stone sat a skeleton with a golden mask. The light came from a crystal lamp.
We took the time to relieve the skeleton of its accoutrements.
| [439] | crystal lamp (continual flame) |
| [440] | +1 ghost touch four mirror armor (+1 breast plate equivalent)
|
| [441] | +1 ghost touch 9 ring sword. Each ring holds a charge and glows when ready — one charge per week. As a swift action the wielder can use charges for the following effects:
|
| [442] | 8 silver and brass (with gemstones) bracelets |
| [443] | 8 rings (decorative) |
| [444] | gold mask with jade eyes |
Sparna said the theme of eight items was symbolic of Fumioshi.
Having had a successful encounter with the shadow we decided to push on and explore the catacombs that led to the yeti king’s throne room. As expected burial niches lined the walls in the side corridors. Back in the main corridor more red faced daemonic faces were carved in the corners of the intersection leading to the yeti king.
Some distance down the corridor stood a pair of yetis with their hands out, palms up (the universal sign for, “Thou shalt not pass!”). A large area of magic lay before the corridor: another anti-life shell, making the yetis’ gestures moot.
Kali cast Code Speak and include the yetis and myself, and so we put down out weapons and approached as close as possible to parley.
A yeti opened the discussion with “You stop here.”
Kali countered with, “We mean you no harm. We simply wish to pass.”
“King say you not pass. King prophecy you come, and here you come, just as king say. King powerful.”
“We can offer your king a rich tribute for our safe passage through his halls.”
“No. King say you evil and must be destroyed. You wait there and we come get you.”
“How does your king know we are evil? We only wish to pass.”
“Not many moons ago our king become smart. Now has power stone that goes ’round his head. He say ”soon humans arrive in wagons, and we must kill.” Now here you humans are in wagons, just as king prophecy. Soon you all die.”
It was clear that negotiations were not the way past the yetis, and it was equally clear that they had signalled for a force of yetis to circle around us while these two cretins kept us distracted. We opted to move back to the lake cavern and take on the yeti force as it arrived.
Kali erected another magical shelter that blocked the narrow way into the cavern, and we used Resist Cold spells to prepare for the encounter. This slowed them down, and as the yetis began to force their way through the shelter, we began to pound them with attacks.
Yetis began to drop at a steady rate, but as the last one fell more began to squeeze through a narrow tunnel to join the fight. An aura of confusion courtesy of yours truly soon put their plans of an organized attack to rest, and as they began to retreat back down the tunnel Ivan placed a wall of Flame along their path, causing much harm and even a fatality.
Kali asked for Ivan to drop the wall of flame and sent fire elementals swarming down the tunnel and into the yetis’ living areas. The sound of yells and caterwauling told of the mayhem they were wreaking. I followed a short way down the tunnel when an ice storm struck.
Behold, our king has power to protect us. All hail king!
Hmm, ok, a spell casting yeti. I used Dispel Magic to stop the ice storm giving those of us caught in the area of effect a chance to retreat.
Or were we advancing? Sparna, Ivan and Olmas though now was a good time to press the attack, which I thought sounded reasonable. But Kali thought we should return later when we had a full complement of spells. This too seemed reasonable, especially considering we had just learned that the yeti king was a spell caster.
After an intense discussion we decided to head back to the caravan and wait for tomorrow. We are on high alert and are expecting an attack before the night (or even the rest of the day) is over.