---

---

Kerr sighed in relief when no further Rune Dogs sprung from the enchanted pool.  He didn't know about anyone else, but he would be perfectly happy if he never saw another one of the monstrous creatures again.  He hugged Liseth as she came over to him, as much as to just share the closeness of human contact as to reassure her, although there was that as well.  Kerr let out a long breath, gently stroking her hair as she rested her head on his chest, trembling slightly.

It had been a rough few minutes.

Kerr could hardly credit what they had just experienced.  A millenia-old demon, slain.  An evil pool of ritual spawning, seemingly deactivated.  And who knew what other dangers or wonders these catacombs might hold?  Kerr kissed Liseth on the head, gave her a squeeze, then stepped back to look at her.

"I've got a bag in my pack," he said simply as they both looked down at the quasit's headless torso.  "I can, um, bag it up, I guess, and take it with us?"  He looked slightly appalled at the idea.  "Then Father Zantus and Loon . . . I mean, Mr. Voon can decide how best to destroy the body."

With a reluctant look, Kerr dragged a bag out of his pack and set about gingerly putting the quasit inside with the absolute minimum touching required.  After he had, with a look of distaste, dropped the demon's detached head inside, he pulled the drawstring closed.  He looked at the bag ruefully.

"Guess I won't be using THIS bag again," he ventured, in a brief attempt at levity.  He then looked out the door where Pisca had gone.  "Pisca, I'm not sure we're going to be able to go anywhere until Kellan, um," he looked over at the oversized warrior, "shrinks.  I don't think he'll be able to fit in those smaller passageways very well."

---

---

This message was last edited by the player at 09:16, Mon 07 Apr 2014.

Cato watched as Kerr carefully bagged up the remains of the Quasit.  "I'm sure we can chip in and buy you a new bag, Kerr.  You've certainly earned it!"  He didn't know if the attempt at levity worked.  Everything seemed more grim here, though the prospect that there could be more death lurking around the next unexplored corner certainly added to it.

He looked up at giant-sized Kellan.  "I can dismiss this spell at any time."  Cato snapped his fingers, and Kellan shrunk back to normal size.  "Of course, I can only cast one more spell today, thanks solely to this fine gift."  Cato produced the pearl and rolled it in his fingers, before stowing it in his belt pouch.  "I hope there's not too much more waiting for us here, because I am almost out of tricks."

Liseth's words were spoken to an open door.  The gnome was gone.

"What?"  Pisca's head popped around the edge of the doorjamb.  The gnome, apparently, had not been that far gone.  "Oh.  Well then, I suppose we have all the time we want, don't we.  All for the best, really."  Pisca sauntered back into the Quasit's Sanctum of Corruption and Malevolence.  "I wonder what these spiky runes are?" she said, and began an investigation of said, spiky rune.

"Might as well do a thorough investigation of this place while we're here, then.  Wouldn't want to miss any hidden compartments filled with powerful magic items or any such.  Say, you know what might make a nice present, Cato?"  The gnome shrugged from her pack and then riffled within for her journal.  She tore a page from the book and then reached up onto her toes to hold it firmly against one of the runes.  With her other hand, she rubbed a piece of charcoal over the paper, making a tracing.  "For Brodie, I mean.  There.  A rune.  If I had more time, I'd make some drawings.  But that would take a while.  A long while."

"How long did you say the antitoxin would last?  Aaahh!  I want a picture of that very interesting fresco!"  Pisca frowned a very dissatisfied gnomish frown.  "Well, we'll just have to come back later.  I'll take a quick look around to see whether we're missing anything or not.  Then we'll move on."  The gnome took in the entirety of the room, able to view it now with true leisure for the first time.  The pools.  The runes on the walls.  The ring of skulls on spikes.  The fresco above.  And the decapitated body of Quasit Girl.  Even a small portion of it would take up hours of investigation, but Pisca gave it what appraisal one could in the short moments allowed.

Before beginning her search of the room, however, she returned Quasit Girl's dagger to the place where the other things were arrayed on the floor.  "Cato, could you see whether any of these things are magical in nature?" she asked.  Then she set about her search of the room and the two doors to the north and south.

"Oh, and Stomper?  Would you mind chopping a claw off of one of the Rune Dogs for me?  No!  Two of them, if you please.  I have someone who might appreciate a gift of those as well."

Please roll the following checks.
1) Linguistics (+8) to read the runes.
2) Knowledge Arcana (+9) for mysteries involved in this room.
3) Knowledge Religion (+3) for Lamashtu's connection to the Rune Dog well.
4) Knowledge History (+3) for this place's role or place in history.  Also for an insight into the fresco on the wall and ceiling.
5) Knowledge Nobility (+7) for any insights into the culture that built this place.  Also for an insight into the fresco on the wall and ceiling.
6) Knowledge Planes (+3) for the dangers presented by the Quasit body.
7) Perception to Search for secret doors

Active Effects:  Antitoxin 1h, Message on Liseth and Kellan 20m, Bless ??/20r, Dancing Lights 1m

AC15
HP 15/18
Archaeologist's Luck: 2/7
Used:  Antitoxin, Arrows -2

Cato set to work on the items, casting Detect Magic,  to identify auras present, and then carefully examining any items that showed an aura.

OOC:
Spellcraft checks, if applicable: +8

Kellan was delighted to find that he was not as tired as he had expected, and was recovering fairly quickly. Unlike some of the previous fights where he had been so tired he felt like being sick, instead he felt a kind of pleasant warmth in his limbs that helped against the constant chill

At Piscas request he turned and examined one the the fallen rune dogs, rubbing his chin.

"Sure, I think I can handle that."

Stooping he pulled out his dagger and set to work, employing some of the same lessons he normally used for dressing out game. "A short break would be good...I was going to say before that this could go on for awhile...I would hate to have to take another day and let Gods know what shift around down here...or try to come up"

Liseth closed her eyes to shut out the horrible scenery and relaxed in Kerr's arms when he squeezed her.  Even if it would last for only a moment.  Then he had to step back and Liseth was again confronted with the terrible underground cathedral to Lamashtu and the corpse of the slain demon.

At least Pisca came back inside and abandoned her plan to rush through the rest of the ruin.  Now she was bouncing around the chamber trying to examine everything; which had to be safer than running through the dark tunnels though.  Liseth turned back to Kerr.

"Are you sure that you're going to be okay carrying it?"  The small acolyte balked at the idea of bringing the demon's body with them, but they couldn't just leave it.  She offered a weary smile when Kerr joked about needing a new bag; she didn't know how he could be funny at a time like this.  But she was very grateful to him for doing so.

"Pisca..."  When the demon was stowed in a bag, Liseth once again turned her attention to the gnome, "The antitoxin should work for about an hour.  Wait, you want to give somebody a Rune Dog claw as a gift?  That doesn't sound like a very nice gift to me."  But Kellan got down and started gathering them anyway, so Liseth made a grimace and turned away from the awful work.

With her back to the now properly-sized Kellan, Liseth decided to study Lamashtu's temple.  Lamashtu was far from a deity that Liseth wanted to associate with, but she was still a deity.  Even if she was the evil Mother of Monsters.  And the white-clad acolyte didn't foresee many more times that she might find herself inside of one of the Demon Queen's temples.  She did want to learn about all of the gods, after all...

Knowledge (Religion) in studying Lamashtu's temple.

Pisca pulled her head back in from the southern most of the two side doors leading somewhere off of the Tee oh Eww EE.  "Well, Lys," said the gnome, "he's not exactly what most people would call a Nice Guy, if you know what I mean.  So it's not a nice gift.  But I think he'd understand the gift.  And I think he'd appreciate it."

"Oh, wait.  Right.  You've met Jubrayl," she added, resuming her investigation.  Her Pisca-less voice drifted back into the temple from beyond the door as she entered the other room.   "So you know what I mean.  He isn't Nice, but he's very good at the sort of thing that he does.  And he's very fair too," the gnome added.  "Given the sort of thing that he does."

"You didn't look as though you liked him much.  It's surprising, though.  Quite a lot of human girls seem to be attracted to that sort of thing.  Dangerous.  And not very nice.  I'd almost think it was a human thing.  But I don't think that it is."

Active Effects:  Antitoxin 1h, Message on Liseth and Kellan 20m, Bless ??/20r, Dancing Lights 1m

AC15
HP 15/18
Archaeologist's Luck: 2/7
Used:  Antitoxin, Arrows -2

This message was lightly edited by the GM at 09:14, Mon 07 Apr 2014.

---

---

Kerr grinned at Cato as he put the bagged-up quasit in his pack.  “Can it be a special bag?  With meaning?  Like, inscribed with ‘To Kerr, the best archer in the world, thanks for all the arrows.  Love, The Sandpoint Saviors?’”  He chuckled slightly, glad for an opportunity to relieve the tension.  “Yes, Liseth, I think I’ll be fine.”  He patted his backpack, smiling appreciatively at the most-beautiful woman in the world.  She was so thoughtful.  “I don’t think I’d want to carry a dead quasit around on a regular basis, but it should be okay for the couple of hours it will take for us to get it back to Father Zantus and Mr. Voon.”

“Thanks for the kind words earlier, by the way, Cato.  I’m just glad I can help out in some way.  I’m sorry, I was rude not to acknowledge you right away but with all that was happening . . .,” the acolyte swept his hand around the temple, as if to encompass everything they’d experienced over the last few minutes.  He shrugged helplessly.  “Well, you know.”

Kerr tried to keep his mouth from dropping open as Cato reduced Kellan to normal size with a simple snap of his fingers.  He was still a little in awe of what the scholar could do.  “Well, it seems like this quasit was running the place, so I’d have to guess that she would be the most-powerful being here, right?  Or else whatever was more powerful than her would have deposed her over the course of the centuries?”  Kerr shrugged again.  “Of course, I’m no expert.  Maybe things work differently with demons.  Although if I had to guess I’d say that demons would have an even stricter power hierarchy than normal, if only because I can’t see a more-powerful demon kowtowing to a lesser one if it didn’t have to.”

He looked on with an unreadable expression, holding Liseth as she turned away from Kellan’s sawing of trophies off the fallen Rune Dogs.  “Jubrayl is definitely not a good guy.  But he’s reputedly got his own code.  He likes to think of himself as a gentleman.  And yeah, now that we’ve stirred things up down here I don’t think it would be a very good idea to just leave.  Who knows what else is down here, or what it might do now that we’ve killed its leader?”

He paused as the import of Pisca’s statement hit him; he looked at his girlfriend in surprise.  “Wait, Liseth, you met Jubrayl?”

---

---

Cato laughed at Kerr's reply.  It felt good to laugh, as though it pushed back the oppressive spirit and terrible nature of the dungeon they were in.  "Anything you want, Kerr.  And don't worry about anything; I can't imagine a place I'd least like to have a conversation."  Cato's face paled..."Actually, I take that back.  But this is certainly one of the worst."

Cato handed Pisca back the dagger.  "This is certainly magical, but I'm afraid I can't quite tell what the enchantments are right now.  Maybe being in this shrine is throwing me off."

"And besides," Pisca said, re-entering from the door to the north, having made a circuit of the Tee Oh Eww Eee as a whole, "wasn't part of this to make sure that there were no other ways for things to climb up from here and attack the town?  For all we know there might be a network of catacombs down here that connect to Thistletop!  The gobbies might be able to sneak right through here and come up inside ... say ... Old Light!"

This was said amidst a flurry of pointing and arm waving to put emphasis on how bad this could become if it should ever decide to become a reality.  Pisca the Small Whirlwind of Hands and Arms, however, stilled rather suddenly.  The hands went on her hips, and she turned a look of suspicion that was, if such a thing is possible, directed at the entire room as a whole.  "No secret doors in here, though," she said, and the tone of her voice reflected her lack of trust in this ultimately very evil temple.  "That does make a certain amount of sense.  Who wants armies of goblins trooping through your sacred temple to Lamashtu.  Right?  Though, I'll have to say, Cato, that despite the dedication of this place as unholy to Lamashtu, that is a pool of very advanced arcana, don't you think?  Probably an arcane device developed by one of the Runelords or a follower using long-forgotten Thassilonian magics."

At long last, though, Pisca broke off her deadlock with the silent and inscrutable Thassilon-Lamashtun Temple of Ultimate Evil.  She gave one last finger wag at the grim and tight-lipped walls, and then said, "Oh well.  Might as well move on.  There's nothing beyond those doors.  Just two small rooms.  Maybe used as dressing rooms for priests and exotic dancers.  Just one more thing before we go, though."

The gnome then approached the now inert Pool of Rune Dog Birthing.  From her pouch she fished out the vial that had contained her dose of antitoxin.  "Another present for Brodie," she said by way of explanation.  Then, carefully -carefullycarefullycarefully- she dipped the vial into the translucent lava-like substance.

"By the ... by ... Kerr Mollin ... you ... might be careful ... with the body of Quasit Girl.  I've ...  Ah, gotcha."  Her sample secured, the gnome went about stoppering the vial and then cleaning the outside of it.  "I've heard stories of demon bodies drawing the attention of other creatures from beyond the veil.  According to the stories, the demons never lose their connection to their homes and that connection can be used to breach the veil, creating a tear through which others might come into our world."

"Or ... I suppose ... we could go into theirs.  I guess.  If someone really wanted to do such a thing.  I suppose demon bodies could be used in Veil-Sundering magic.  You know, the dark evil kind.  Um ... how well do you know this Voon, Kerr Mollin?"  The last of the translucent lava was wiped away, and Pisca placed the sample in her pack.  "You trust him, right?"

"Oooh.  Magic dagger," grinned the gnome as she accepted the weapon from her wizardly friend.  "Well, we'll just have to try it out, won't we.  It's a shame that the other things aren't magic too, though," Pisca added as she tucked both the dress and the tiara into her pack along with the sample from the pool.  Not that any of us could wear the dress," she said.  Then the gnome gave Cato a long appraising look, smirked, and then shook her head.

Active Effects:  Antitoxin 1h, Message on Liseth and Kellan 20m, Bless ??/20r, Dancing Lights 1m

AC15
HP 15/18
Archaeologist's Luck: 2/7
Used:  Antitoxin, Arrows -2

"Jubrayl?" Kellan stopped his work and looked up "Jubrayl Vhiski?" He repeated as he set one hand on his hip. "I...ah..." he seemed to thing about his next words carefully "Jubrayl does not really get along with the guards...or a lot of people. I'm suprised you know him at all"

He glanced down to the rune dog then back up towards where Pisca had reappeared. "I'll cut these things off for you, but I'm going to suggest you stay away from him...he just...he's not good people" still seeming a little conflicted Kellan worked the dagger between the joints before taking the things by one finger each and offering them to the gnome.

"He didn't seem very nice, that's true..."  Liseth answered Pisca about Jubrayl.  It was a topic that the girl didn't relish remembering.  The short amount of time that she spent within the Fatman's Feedbag was something that she would not mind forgetting.  "I don't know why so many girls would like dangerous people who aren't nice."  That statement caused something to click in Liseth's mind, but she would need a little time to consider it before she was sure of what she was thinking.

The small acolyte nodded reluctantly along with Kerr when the young hero spoke about how they should finish exploring everywhere down in the ruin.  She certainly couldn't argue against it; what if there were more Rune Dogs hiding somewhere?  They could come out and attack people at any time now that the Quasit Demon was dead and couldn't give them orders.  That wasn't something that they could risk.

"Oh, well...yes.  Briefly."  Now Kerr was asking about her meeting with Jubrayl; and Kellan even seemed very concerned.  Liseth supposed that she would have to tell them what happened, "Remember the other day when I told you about how I talked with Katrine and...only ended up making her mad at me...?"  The small blonde sighed, she still hadn't seen Katrine since then to try and apologize.  "This was before our dinner to celebrate the boar hunt...where Lord Kaijitsu showed up..."  Liseth paused, she didn't want to say anything that might sound disrespectful of a man who was just recently killed.

"Well, before we found Katrine, Pisca and I went all over looking for her.  Pisca wanted to learn about Katrine's mysterious boyfriend, so I followed her into the Fatman's Feedbag."  Liseth fidgeted nervously as she recounted what happened, "I don't think that it was a good idea to go in there."

The white-clad girl frowned, "A big man named Conor grabbed me after I went inside."  That was a name Liseth was not likely to forget soon, "I was so scared that I didn't know what to do, but then Jubrayl showed up and sent him away.  I thanked him, but he didn't seem very happy to see me there,"  She glanced over at Pisca, "And I think that he wasn't very happy with Pisca either."

Liseth wanted to change the subject.  She looked away from everyone and brought her attention back to the temple to Lamashtu that they were inside.  The horrible imagery and evil feel that the temple had about it were preferable at the moment, when compared to talking more about that terrible time spent in the Feedbag.

"So, I think that this room here, with the summoning pool, is where the temple's priest was supposed to perform rituals.  The altar room that we came through is where worshipers would have mundane services performed."  She frowned again, "Whatever mundane services might be for worshipers of the evil Demon Queen of Monsters.  I think that the whole temple is probably big enough for fifteen, maybe even twenty people to have worshiped here at once.  I wonder how many people...or maybe they were monsters?  How many did actually use this temple?"

She nodded to Pisca when the gnome spoke about the pools, "I don't know about arcana, but I am pretty sure that Lamashtu worshipers don't typically have things like these pools in their temples.  So someone else might have put it here for a different reason."

But Pisca was now talking about how the demon's body might attract even worse things to it; or even be used to get to where the worse things are.  That certainly didn't sound good, "I don't think that Mr Voon would want to do anything like that Pisca.  I hope not.  He said that he would need Father Zantus's help to destroy the demon's remains, and I don't think that Father Zantus would help him if it might result in something like that."

"Hmm..."  Liseth took Kerr's free arm again, "We should hurry and make sure that no more monsters are hiding down here.  I don't really want to spend more time here than we have to."

---

---

Kerr's mouth fell open as Pisca indirectly suggested that Mr. Voon, Looney Voon!, might possibly use the quasit's body as the focus for some sort of dark magical rite.  It was something that hadn't even occurred to the young acolyte.  He wanted to slap himself on the forehead; he felt so naive sometimes, especially around people with more life experience, like Cato and Pisca.

"Um, I don't know, Pisca.  Mr. Voon's been in Sandpoint as long as I can remember.  I've never heard anything about him doing dark deeds, but he has always been a little mysterious and, er, eccentric."  Kerr started to scratch his head in consternation, then realized he was still holding an arrow.  He put it back in its quiver.  "But I don't know him well enough to vouch for his character one way or the other."

Kerr was slightly comforted as Liseth spoke; his visions of a revealed Voon using the quasit to perform some unspeakably evil ritual dimmed, even if they did not entirely disappear.  "That’s right!  We can give it to Father Zantus and he can work with Mr. Voon to dispose of the body.”  Kerr looked very relieved at the idea.  “I know for a fact that Father Zantus would never be involved in anything like that.”

Kerr hugged Liseth, relieved that her visit to Fatman's hadn't resulted in something worse than hurt feelings.  “I don’t think you should go back to the Feedbag,” he said simply, trying not to sound like a nag.  “There are some really rough characters there, and Vhiski’s not always around to keep them in line.  I don’t want to think about what might have happened if you had run into this ‘Conor’ guy in Jubrayl’s absence.”  His eyes had gone hard, almost flinty, at the prospect.  He hugged her even more closely.  “I never want you in harm’s way, Liseth.”

He looked at the others.  “But I agree, we should explore the rest of this place as soon as we can.  Those antitoxins won’t last forever, and we have no idea what the quasit’s death will mean to whatever else might be down here.”  He paused.  “Does anyone have anything else they need to do here before we head out?”

---

---

"Nope, lets get back to it" Kellan replied to Kerr as he used the leverage from his pole axe to push himself back into a standing position. The young guardsman was feeling relieved at the destruction of the quasit, had been treated by the wonderous healing magics of Liseth and appeared to be ready for more.

In truth he simply wanted to be done with this place. The darkness, the ever present feeling of being watched, the terrifying creatures lurching from alcoves and hallways. The sooner they could delcare the complex safe the sooner they could be back outside with the sun on their backs and the sea breeze in their hair. He did not know how, or if he could explain any of this to Shayliss, but even just seeing her smiling face would make a world of difference.

"Care to lead on Pisca?"

It was hard to be cross with the gnome, and he knew first hand that Jubrayl could be the manipulative sort. The thought however of Liseth being harrased at the Fatmans made him want to storm the place, so he could just imagine how Kerr felt. The life of a Paladin was about as hard as one could choose. Sure you got the respect, but it seems like one would have to give up so much.

As they prepared to move out Kellan was struck with the idea that this must be kind of how adventurers must feel, or those members of the Pathfinder society. Exploring moldering ruins and tracking down things like this rouge Quasit. He decided that it agreed with him more than he would have thought.

For some reason, the gnome looked something on the verge of being put out.  This reason soon made it self apparent.  "Lysa was never in any danger," said the gnome.  She gave both Stomper and The Boyfriend a look that did its best to draw from both the schools of hurt and indignant as she collected the two dark and wickedly curved claws from the former of the two male protectors.  "She was with *me*."  And Pisca hooked a thumb at herself for emphasis.

"And it was important.  There's something going on at the mill, I tell you, and people can get hurt.  Especially people like your girlfriend's sister, Stomper."

Then the gnome wandered off in the direction of the door again, admiring the Really Terribly Sharp claws.  Until, that is, she turned about rather suddenly and leveled one of previously said, Really Terribly Sharp claws at Kerr Mollin.  "And I could have handled Conor," she added as abruptly as she had turned.  "Even without Jubrayl."

"Everything was under control," she said in a firm and decisive manner.

Her point made, Pisca returned to her previous Exit-Heading ways, tucking the claws into her pouch as she left the temple behind.  "Why don't we go back to the statue of the Runelord Lady and see what's down the hallway that she seems to be welcoming everyone into, huh?"  Nocking another arrow, the gnome took Kellan's offer and lead the way, softly padding back along the winding corridors, her eyes and ears open for danger.

Perception and stealth again.  Headed back to the statue of Runelady Alaznist again and then down the east-heading corridor.

Active Effects:  Antitoxin 1h, Message on Liseth and Kellan 20m, Bless ??/20r, Dancing Lights 1m

AC15
HP 15/18
Archaeologist's Luck: 2/7
Used:  Antitoxin, Arrows -2

Refreshed after their brief rest, Cato packed his few supplies into his pouch and climbed up.  He listened to Liseth and Pisca describe their adventures in town.  "You know, it sounds like the two of you had almost as much excitement in town as we're having down here.  Well, less mortal danger, but equal amounts of moral danger."

Cato still wasn't sure about whether everything that piqued Pisca's seemingly endless curiosity actually was a threat, but the gnome seemed to be right about things more often than not.

Cato pulled out his crossbow and loaded it again, preparing to use the weapon once he was out of spells.  "What do you think is going on at the mill, Pisca?  Do you think there's other things happening in town?  Are they related to the goblins and this?"

Cato followed the group through the doors.  "Going back to statue and entering this complex the 'right' way sounds like a good plan, now that the is dead.  Lead the way, Pisca."

"You don't have to tell me twice."  Liseth rested in Kerr's comforting hug, "I don't want to go back in there ever again."  The blonde gave him a kiss and returned his hug, despite the hard metal breastplate that Kerr was wearing, "Thank you for being concerned for me Kerr.  I know that I'll never be in harm's way when you're with me."

"Oh, I know that you weren't going to let anyone hurt me,"  Liseth was quick to add when Pisca started becoming indignant.  She pulled away from Kerr and looked apologetically towards Pisca where the gnome was pointing with a Rune Dog claw.  "I would just rather not be in a place where you would have to.  Handle someone like that mean Conor."  Pisca had an awful lot of pluck; and she was so small!  Liseth wished that she could be brave like that.

Staying with Kerr, the young girl followed when everyone decided that it was time t finish exploring the ruin.  Lamashtu's temple felt somehow less...oppressive now that they had defeated the quasit demon.  But Liseth still felt a chill under the gaze of Lamashtu's image behind the altar and was very glad to be out of the evil place once it was left behind.

"So, Kellan..."  Liseth's mind was still working on a problem, but something that Pisca said a few moments ago gave her an idea.  "Do you think that I could meet with Shayliss?  Since I haven't been able to find Katrine, I could ask Shayliss to convey my apology to her."  The slight acolyte frowned, "I don't want Katrine to keep thinking that I don't care about her feelings.  And she has to see her sister, right?"

---

---

Led by their intrepid gnomish explorer, the party trekked back the way they had come, returning down the long temple hallway and north to the upset-looking statue of Runelord/lady Alaznist.  As far as they could tell, the death of the quasit had not resulted in any seismic change to the area.  No uncontrolled monsters roamed the halls.  No cracks appeared in the ceilings.  No huge stone boulders descended from above, forcing them to dive out the entrance and into the waiting hands of rival adventurers.

The complex was as quiet as a tomb.

Pisca led them past the statue and down the hallway stretching eastwards from the room where it stood.  Or, rather, led them UP the hallway.  The hall rose relatively steeply over its fifty-foot length, traveling upwards through a stone-lined passageway to an unremarkable but solid stone door at its terminus.  The portal bore no markings indicating its purpose or what might lie behind its uncommunicative stone.  Not even the party's most-acute ears could hear any sound at all from whatever area might lie beyond.

  <Blue>OOC:<pre>

   P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X   Y  Z AA BB CC DD EE FF GG HH II JJ KK LL MM NN OO
  +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
1 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
  +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
2 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
  +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
3 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
  XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
4 |R |L |C |K |P D  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
  XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
5 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
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  +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+


D  = Door      G = Pisca (she's a Gnome, right?  So as not to confuse her with Pool)
A  = Altar     L = Liseth
S  = Stairs    K = Kellan
P  = Pool      C = Cato
               R = Kerr

---

---

"No," the gnome had whispered while on the way to the mysterious door, before realizing that the human arcane scholar was not within the network of her Whisper Magic.  And then, "Badgers," she'd cursed.  "Let's try again with a different selection."  But, this time, when Pisca had begun weaving her fingers in the pattern of the simple spell, she could picture all three of them -Stomper, Lysa, *and* Cato- all in her mind.  "That's better," the gnome had said with a satisfied nod.

"As I was saying," she had then restated, "No, I don't think it has anything to do with the gobbies, Cato.  Probably more to do with one of the Five Families that's willing to burn down other peoples' mills in order to further themselves.  Dangerous people.  And, I think that Katrine Vinder is drawing her family closer to these dangerous people by seeing the man that she's seeing."

"Vim Vinder is very protective of his family," had said the gnome in a recognizable copy of Jubrayl Vhiski's voice.  "And that protectiveness might interfere in others' business, yes?  In a way that might not be ... healthy for anyone."

"This gnome would, personally, rather not see the General Store burned down," she had then said, with a meaningful look in Stomper's direction.  "With, possibly, someone's girlfriend possibly inside.  Something to look into once we settle with the gobbies."

She had gone silent then, after reincarnating her gnome-shaped light and sending it on ahead as she had done many times before.  But here, now, presented with this inscrutable and Highly Stoic door, Pisca chose to send the gnome-shaped light away.

"Lets try this ... "  The gnome gave as small sigh as she switched back from her Whisper Magic to a normal whispered voice for the sake of Kerr Mollin.  "Lets try things a little differently this time.  No light to give us away.  Hide, or extinguish all lights.  I'll open the door as quietly as I can.  Maybe take a look.  Maybe have to take a listen.  Maybe after that, I close the door again."

"Alright?  Ready?"

Stealth check, please.  To open the door w/o being noticed by anyone who might be on the other side.  Oh, and might as well have a Perception check to detect anything on the other side.

Active Effects:  Antitoxin 1h, Message-All but Kerr 20m

AC15
HP 15/18
Archaeologist's Luck: 2/7
Used:  Antitoxin, Arrows -2

Cato gave a small chuckle, and replied via Pisca's spell.  "Somehow, it's good to know that other plots and activity is evolving that has nothing to do with the goblins and these ancient dungeons.  The world keeps spinning, and people keep plotting.  Perhaps it's up to us to ensure that happens, however.  I wouldn't have thought I'd have found myself in this position."

At Pisca's words of preparations, Cato regained his composure, reaching out with his senses, trying to discern anything he could from the dark and quiet around him.  Mostly, he reflected to himself, he'd just wait until Pisca heard something and then react.  He nervously cracked his fingers, limbering up his hands for whatever tiny bit of arcane energy he could still muster versus whatever foes still remained in this dungeon.

"But, Pisca..."  Liseth recognized that now was the time to be quiet and whispered her responses.  It was a good thing Pisca's magic let her hear what was being said, "Who would have something to gain by burning down the General Store?  They wouldn't want to hurt Mr Vinder and his daughters just because of Katrine's boyfriend; would they?"

"Is that what you were saying earlier?  About how some girls like dangerous and not-so-nice boyfriends?"  Liseth frowned, was Katrine seeing her mystery man because he was tied to a mill-burning plot?  But Katrine wouldn't be party to something like that...right?

"No light?"  Her surprise caused Liseth's voice to scale up beyond a whisper, "But, if there are more monsters, how would we see them?  I don't want to be stuck in the darkness."  Liseth sputtered for a moment before getting an idea.  "Kellan, I'm going to have to cancel the light on your spear."

Touching a hand to Sarenrae's symbol around her neck, Liseth whispered a brief prayer.  The divine focus brightened with light, then she removed it from around her neck and tucked the glowing implement into her pouch so that the light would be concealed.

"Okay Pisca, I'm ready."  In the darkness, the girl reached for Kerr and took hold of his arm; then waited for Pisca to see what was through the door.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:23, Wed 09 Apr 2014.

Kellan spoke in a conversational tone, apparently not in the mood for stealth as they travelled. He seemed a bit bothered by Pisca's words, cocking his head as he seem to ponder over the situation.

"So you can't tell us because somebody might get hurt? What exactly do you mean by that...and what do the Vinders have to do with it?"

He threw a glance back at the others behind him in the column as if by habit, to make sure nothing was sneaking up on them before continuing. He obviously did not like this talk of secrets and threats

"Jubrayl may think himself clever, and in some ways he may be. But Sandpoint is not Magnimar ...push these people too hard and he'll find himself run out of town...or hanging from a tree..."

He turned to Liseth "I'm hardly in a position to speak for Shayliss, I don't know what she would say but I don't mind if you try...I'm just the boyfriend"

As the lights went out Kellan tried to quiet his breathing, shifting his weight now and then as they waited.

---

---

Kerr looked a little troubled by Pisca’s idea.  “Okay,” he said doubtfully, nodding at Liseth’s concern about being able to see the attacking monsters that had seemed pretty plentiful to this point in their exploration.  “But those Rune Dogs didn’t look to have much trouble seeing in the darkness earlier.”  He put a protective arm around the small blonde.  “Seems to me like anything that’s been down here for this long would have developed ways of seeing that didn’t depend on light sources, you know?”

Reservations expressed, the archer acquiesced to Pisca’s plan.  One by one, the party extinguished its lights.  Pisca’s glowing gnome faded into nothingness.  Cato extinguished the light from his staff.  Liseth hid her glowing holy symbol in a pouch so completely that not the faintest glow leaked out.  Kerr dismissed the light that had been glowing from Liseth’s white robes.

And darkness fell.

Or rather, it returned.

The closeness of the passage hadn’t seemed quite so oppressive when the group was traveling with the aid of four different light sources.  But now that all trace of those lights had disappeared, they could almost feel the corridor’s walls pressing in on them, sentinels that had stood for millennia and would stand for millennia more after these strange, scurrying creatures left them in peace.

No one could see anything.  Liseth could feel Kerr’s bicep tighten with tension as she held onto his arm; she fancied she could feel the blood pulsing underneath his skin.  The clink of Kellan’s armor seemed magnified a thousandfold in the still darkness.  Even Cato’s measured inhalation and exhalation appeared to be amplified far beyond the volume that any normal breathing could hope to attain.

Pisca felt around on the door in front of her; the latch that had been so obvious in the brightly-lit corridor was much less so when that corridor was steeped in pitch blackness.  After a few seconds, the groping gnome found the handle and turned it, cracking the door slightly open while listening for any sounds of an occupant in the space beyond or indeed any sign of life at all.

The door's creaking seemed cacophonous, but Pisca knew that the sound of its opening couldn’t have really been that loud.  Yet in the deep, still, dark silence of the passage, it seemed like anything waiting on the other side could not fail to hear the door’s opening as a nigh-heraldic announcement of their presence.

The rest of the group couldn’t tell what Pisca was doing with the door.  Only the sound of the door’s movement gave them any hint that she had done anything at all.  The door’s opening did not cause any movement of air not caused by the door’s movement itself.

If anything did lie in wait on the door's opposite side, it gave no sign of its presence.

---

---

Ever so quietly, Pisca eased the door closed again.

"Whew.  I didn't hear anything," said the gnome through her Whisper Magic.  "But that doesn't really mean a whole lot.  Except that I didn't hear anything."

With a few quick gestures and the word Jibber Pisca reincarnated her Gnome Shaped light.  Then, in the soft glow from the friendly figure, she faced the four human friends with whom she had found her way into this frightful place.

"Now listen," the gnome began, and, after a moment it became clear that she had jumped tracks and was now speaking of something entirely other than these dangerous Thassilonian ruins and the room beyond the door they now faced and what danger might lie beyond, "what I meant, Stomper, is that I don't know for certain.  That's why I can't tell you.  What I see is like a trail of tasty cheese bits leading little mousies to the edge of a very unstable and crumbly cliff.  I see Katrine Vinder involved with someone at the Scarnetti's mill.  I see Vim Vinder, who is very protective of his family, poking around the Scarnetti's mill in order to find out who Katrine is seeing.  I see the Scarnettis who have many things to hide and a habit of burning down the property of their enemies not liking Vim Vinder poking about their mill."

"And yes, Lys, that is very much what I meant by some girls liking dangerous and not-so-nice boyfriends.  I think it works that way for boys too," the gnome mused, now headed well and truly along a path only marginally tangential to the one dictated by the ancient ruins within which they now stood.  "Boys sometimes like girls who are entirely ill-suited for them.  For some reason known only to fairies and wood spirits, they're attracted to pretty evil things.  And these pretty evil girls always seem to delight in corrupting good boys.  I think there's something in the nature of good and evil that attracts one to the other."

"Alright, now.  Hide."  The short command was the only warning that the gnome had returned to the immediacies of the moment.  "I'm going to throw the door open and send the Gnome-Shaped light through.  Hopefully that will buy us enough time to surprise whatever might be on the other side of this door.  Even more hopefully, there will be nothing on the other side of this door and we'll take it completely by surprise."

"Ready?"

Open door and send the Dancing Lights straight ahead 15ft into the next room.

Stealth check, please.  And Perception.

Active Effects:  Antitoxin 1h, Message-All but Kerr 20m, Dancing Lights 1m

AC15
HP 15/18
Archaeologist's Luck: 2/7
Used:  Antitoxin, Arrows -2

This message was last edited by the player at 00:59, Fri 11 Apr 2014.

Most of the time he had been in town, Cato had thoroughly enjoined Sandpoint.  But occasionally, things in the small community made him jumpy.  And one of them was talk of stringing outsiders up to hang.  Cato tried to appear nonchalant when he turned to Kellan.  "You think Jubrayl might be strung up because he's from Magnimar?  Has the guard had a problem with that sort of thing in the past.  I know Sandpoint had the recent unpleasantness, and now this trouble with the goblins, but it seemed to be a quiet, happy town for the most part."  Cato thought about the people he knew in town.  If there was a xenophobic mob who distrusted him, would Brodert help?  Would Ameiko?  Would Kellan?

Cato shook his head and tried to clear his thoughts.  Exploring these dungeons was no place to think about things like this.  He was a hero in Sandpoint.  Why would they drive him out?  Jubrayl was most certainly not.  And that was why Cato found himself in the dark, listening carefully for some terror to defeat.

He responded to Pisca's whisper magic.  "I think scouting with your lights makes sense.  The Rune Dogs we first encountered in here seemed to attack those first.  Presumably, they're aren't the most intelligent monsters in Golarion."