Destroying Sinpools and slaying a Demon
We rejoin the Party in a library under Thistletop, in the dead hours of the night. Vig and Torvan scout ahead to make sure their path free of this place is clear, where they find that Shadowmere has apparently slain the Goblin Druid (and Ripnugget the chief, mostly as collateral damage). After healing the War Horse's wounds, the party arrives back in Sandpoint an hour before dawn. Depositing Nualia in the prison, the party retires to the Lorrimor house for some well-earned rest. The next morning finds Shalelu gone to scout the remaining tribes of goblins, and Lyrie and Orik off for Magnimar.
A conversation is had with Mayor Deveros and Father Zantus, about Nualia and what the party found under Thistletop. The Mayor and the High Priest are - stunned, and confused, and go to talk to Nualia - but not until the Priest agrees to help the party fight a demon. Father Abstalar Zantus asks to wait until the next day, so that he can prepare spells appropriate for demon-fighting.
I'm not sure exactly what spells that the High Priest of Sandpoint might feel appropriate for fighting a demon - but, as we shall see, that is a moot point. This is the place in which you, the reader, will nod sagely about the foreshadowing, for when one fights demons, one feels the demons entering them, and ... well, and now the entire literary device has broken and fallen apart. I'm sure you can see what's to come, seven paragraphs from now.
In the morning they procure some Holy Water and head back to the caves under the Glassworks, where they destroy the Sin Pool.
It's - whoa. It releases some strange energies, and the party is infused with power and powerful magics. There's a moment of unpleasantness, and then Our Heroes feel themselves taken apart and put back together again, and then they are... more.
Here. After they recover, they feel like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGC1bV4-fmk
"Yes," they say to each other. "Yes, we should go fight a demon now! I have a very positive attitude about this."
On their way home to recover they're met by Aldern Foxglove, the Magnimarian Merchant-Prince, who invites the party to his home in Magnimar. Perhaps in three weeks? Aldern agrees to introduce Our Heroes to the kind of merchant who can handle their more specialized - and higher-priced - shopping needs.
The next day after recovering, they return to Thistletop for some Demon-Fighting. Shadowmere is left behind to guard the town of Sandpoint.
Our Party wends their way through the hedge maze, across the bridge and into the structure on top of the Thistletop Monument, and then downstairs and again down stairs to the lower level of the Thistletop dungeon. Doors are listened at and opened, and a clear and obvious trap is spotted - an easy jump, for most of Our Heroes.
Most of Our Heroes but not all - Father Zantus stumbles, lands on a pressure plate, and is beheaded by two statues wielding glaives. Count it back now - I'll wait.
I might, myself, have been slightly inaccurate with my information; Your Humble Narrator is not quite Untrustworthy, but might not describe events exactly as Our Heroes would find them to have transpired.
Stunned and more cautious, the party explores the Thassilonian crypt, finding strange and mysterious chambers and even, at one point, battling the shadows themselves! A collapsed treasure chamber is found with an enormous golden helmet - five feet across, as big as a giant - which turns to face the party! Giant construct heads are strange and scary, but not quite demons, so the party persists in their investigations.
Vig finds some small cracks in the mortar of the complex's brickwork, sized for coins - and, after some false starts, the Party discovers how to open a hidden door. A torture chamber - or operating theatre - is investigated, and a key found there used to open another door...
Yes. There is a demon behind that door. If not for our party's new powers and abilities, granted by the release of the energies stored in the Sin Pool, Malfeshnekor the Demon would have slain the entire party. It is a close-fought and difficult battle, but Our Brave Heroes emerge bloody, exhausted, and triumphant.
The last door in the complex has a ghostly figure sitting on a throne - which the party NOPES right out of, leaving the complex with Abstalar Zantus' remains, back to Sandpoint to report their victory over the Demon and the Goblin threat, but at the cost of Sandpoint's high priest.
It is a complicated and difficult conversation, with the other priests at the Cathedral. Mayor Deverin is - stunned, to say the least. Tomorrow will be Father Zantus' funeral. The day after there will be a town meeting, where Our Heroes are asked to speak to the town, and assure them that the goblin threat is over. They agree, hesitantly - for while Sandpoint might be out of immediate danger, Our Heroes are beginning to sense that larger forces are gathering - larger, evil, world-changing forces.
But first they need a Thassilonian scholar to help them investigate the remainder of the Thistletop Dungeon - and so we meet Brodert Quink, Sage and Thassilonian Expert. He translates several sets of runes on the way down deep under Thistletop. The Giant helmet turns out not to be a construct, but a Giant Hermit Crab - Torvan is grabbed in a Giant Claw, and almost drowned, but quick work by the party (and a surprise assist by Brodert and a wand of Magic Missiles) makes quick work of the Crab.
Finally, the ghostly image is revealed to be just that, an illusion that repeats the same message over and over in Ancient Thassilonian:
Let us now consider that message, playing out for millennia in the silence, in the darkness. Playing out forever to no one - perhaps at one time it was a long speech, a soliloquy or a last directive from an ancient King to his most loyal followers - but now, all that is left is a snippet, a brief look into times long, long past.
And so Our Heroes return to Sandpoint. Tomorrow is a funeral for a priest. The day after, a performance to help a city heal and move on. And then, eventually, to the Big City of Magnimar, and to Bigger and More Adventurous Times!
A conversation is had with Mayor Deveros and Father Zantus, about Nualia and what the party found under Thistletop. The Mayor and the High Priest are - stunned, and confused, and go to talk to Nualia - but not until the Priest agrees to help the party fight a demon. Father Abstalar Zantus asks to wait until the next day, so that he can prepare spells appropriate for demon-fighting.
I'm not sure exactly what spells that the High Priest of Sandpoint might feel appropriate for fighting a demon - but, as we shall see, that is a moot point. This is the place in which you, the reader, will nod sagely about the foreshadowing, for when one fights demons, one feels the demons entering them, and ... well, and now the entire literary device has broken and fallen apart. I'm sure you can see what's to come, seven paragraphs from now.
In the morning they procure some Holy Water and head back to the caves under the Glassworks, where they destroy the Sin Pool.
It's - whoa. It releases some strange energies, and the party is infused with power and powerful magics. There's a moment of unpleasantness, and then Our Heroes feel themselves taken apart and put back together again, and then they are... more.
Here. After they recover, they feel like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGC1bV4-fmk
"Yes," they say to each other. "Yes, we should go fight a demon now! I have a very positive attitude about this."
On their way home to recover they're met by Aldern Foxglove, the Magnimarian Merchant-Prince, who invites the party to his home in Magnimar. Perhaps in three weeks? Aldern agrees to introduce Our Heroes to the kind of merchant who can handle their more specialized - and higher-priced - shopping needs.
The next day after recovering, they return to Thistletop for some Demon-Fighting. Shadowmere is left behind to guard the town of Sandpoint.
Our Party wends their way through the hedge maze, across the bridge and into the structure on top of the Thistletop Monument, and then downstairs and again down stairs to the lower level of the Thistletop dungeon. Doors are listened at and opened, and a clear and obvious trap is spotted - an easy jump, for most of Our Heroes.
Most of Our Heroes but not all - Father Zantus stumbles, lands on a pressure plate, and is beheaded by two statues wielding glaives. Count it back now - I'll wait.
I might, myself, have been slightly inaccurate with my information; Your Humble Narrator is not quite Untrustworthy, but might not describe events exactly as Our Heroes would find them to have transpired.
Stunned and more cautious, the party explores the Thassilonian crypt, finding strange and mysterious chambers and even, at one point, battling the shadows themselves! A collapsed treasure chamber is found with an enormous golden helmet - five feet across, as big as a giant - which turns to face the party! Giant construct heads are strange and scary, but not quite demons, so the party persists in their investigations.
Vig finds some small cracks in the mortar of the complex's brickwork, sized for coins - and, after some false starts, the Party discovers how to open a hidden door. A torture chamber - or operating theatre - is investigated, and a key found there used to open another door...
Yes. There is a demon behind that door. If not for our party's new powers and abilities, granted by the release of the energies stored in the Sin Pool, Malfeshnekor the Demon would have slain the entire party. It is a close-fought and difficult battle, but Our Brave Heroes emerge bloody, exhausted, and triumphant.
The last door in the complex has a ghostly figure sitting on a throne - which the party NOPES right out of, leaving the complex with Abstalar Zantus' remains, back to Sandpoint to report their victory over the Demon and the Goblin threat, but at the cost of Sandpoint's high priest.
It is a complicated and difficult conversation, with the other priests at the Cathedral. Mayor Deverin is - stunned, to say the least. Tomorrow will be Father Zantus' funeral. The day after there will be a town meeting, where Our Heroes are asked to speak to the town, and assure them that the goblin threat is over. They agree, hesitantly - for while Sandpoint might be out of immediate danger, Our Heroes are beginning to sense that larger forces are gathering - larger, evil, world-changing forces.
But first they need a Thassilonian scholar to help them investigate the remainder of the Thistletop Dungeon - and so we meet Brodert Quink, Sage and Thassilonian Expert. He translates several sets of runes on the way down deep under Thistletop. The Giant helmet turns out not to be a construct, but a Giant Hermit Crab - Torvan is grabbed in a Giant Claw, and almost drowned, but quick work by the party (and a surprise assist by Brodert and a wand of Magic Missiles) makes quick work of the Crab.
Finally, the ghostly image is revealed to be just that, an illusion that repeats the same message over and over in Ancient Thassilonian:
"… is upon us, but I command you remain. Witness my power, how Alaznist's petty wrath is but a flash compared to my strength. Take my final work to your graves , and let its memory be the last thing you..."
Let us now consider that message, playing out for millennia in the silence, in the darkness. Playing out forever to no one - perhaps at one time it was a long speech, a soliloquy or a last directive from an ancient King to his most loyal followers - but now, all that is left is a snippet, a brief look into times long, long past.
And so Our Heroes return to Sandpoint. Tomorrow is a funeral for a priest. The day after, a performance to help a city heal and move on. And then, eventually, to the Big City of Magnimar, and to Bigger and More Adventurous Times!
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