Kimandatsu's Lair

Having spent the night in the ninjas’ dojo beneath Ravenscraeg, the party felt prepared enough (they hoped) to venture still lower into the depths of the Frozen Shadows’ fortress. They were hoping that Ameiko was still alive somewhere in the dungeons below. They made their way back to the stairs, noting that none of the alarm traps Bella had rigged seemed to have been disturbed, and began to descend.

The stairs were steep, and went far deeper than they had expected – 50, 60, 70 feet or more. The walls dripped with condensation and there was no light, so magical light sources began blinking on from the party’s spellcasters. As they neared the bottom, it suddenly grew quiet. Not just cautious, I-wonder-what’s-around-the-corner quiet, but abrupt, ear-popping silence. Marie shuddered as she felt a foul unholiness surround her, but she gritted her teeth and continued on.

Bella motioned for everyone to wait, and crept the rest of the way down the stairs slowly, checking for traps. It was well she did, because a thin tripwire was stretched across the bottom step. She deftly disabled it, pointed it out to the others, then stepped around the corner into the hallway. It stretched away almost out of sight in the dim light. A wide alcove, or perhaps another room, opened to the left midway down its length, but what drew her attention were a quartet of zombies that were shuffling towards the light that was spilling out from the stairs behind her, making her a ready target. She backed away and fired her bow, but her hurry made her miss.

Sawyer had been close behind the rogue, ready to provide backup if needed, and it was certainly needed now. He stepped forward to block the zombies’ advance on Bella, and sent one crashing to the floor with a swipe of his longsword. The others converged on him, joined by one they hadn’t seen coming out of the alcove. Two swung rusty scimitars, which Sawyer easily dodged. The other two stopped several feet away. Their skin had been carved with dense patterns of runes, and these rune-scars began to glow with a faint blue light. Their power suddenly discharged through their scimitars, shooting crackling sparks of electricity that gave the big fighter a nasty shock.

Marie moved up behind Sawyer, and called upon the power of Desna to smite the undead, but she felt as if something were inhibiting her connection to her goddess in this area; the zombies had little difficulty resisting her positive energy. The Silence made life difficult for the spellcasters: Nicki backed up the stairs until he could cast Invisibility on himself, but had no spells to contribute to the fight, while Zhustin worked his crossbow gamely, but only managed to bounce bolts off the ceiling. Sandoval, unable to sing, also plied his bow, but to no effect.

Just then, they saw a large pit open up in the floor on the far side of the alcove, blocking the passage. Before they had time to wonder what that was all about, four more zombies shambled out of the alcove to confront them. Shinjiro had moved up to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Sawyer, and took one of the undead down, but the two front-line fighters were zapped by bolts from the newcomers’ runes. Marie again used her Channel Divinity, and this time three of the zombies keeled over. Sandoval and Bella began to find the mark with their arrows, and the zombies’ ranks began to thin.

Goti Runecaster

Then a bolt of acid came flying out of nowhere to strike Sawyer and a creature appeared on the far side of the pit. It was an ugly, misshapen thing, looking like the get of an unfortunate union between a troll and a spriggan. Remembering Lute Haggersly’s ravings, they concluded this could only be Goti Runecaster. Sawyer and Bella both feathered it with arrows, but it barely seemed to notice, and responded by blasting Sawyer with some variant of a Scorching Ray spell, but with acid instead of flame. Marie moved into the alcove, which proved to be a 20x20 side chamber; she was hoping to find and end to the area of Silence, but her search was in vain.

The pit blocked any attempt to engage Goti in melee, and the spellcasters were out of commission. They could still plink at him with arrows, but based on the spells he’d thrown at Sawyer, that could be a losing proposition. Shinjiro decided this situation was unacceptable. Calling upon his ki, he leapt across the pit and over Goti’s head, landing behind him to deliver a flurry of blows. Goti turned, and suddenly more than doubled in size, pushing Shinjiro back down the hallway. He drew a massive pick, and delivered a blow that almost knocked the monk off his feet. Shinjiro hit back, while Bella and Sawyer continued sinking arrows into his back, but Goti wasn’t going down. He swung his pick again, and the impact all but did Shinjiro in. The corridor turned to the right at its end, with another set of stairs leading down; Shinjiro began a hasty retreat down the stairs, but came up short. At the bottom of the stair was an ornate double door, flanked by a pair of alcoves, and inside each alcove were massive bronze statues wielding swords. He had a bad feeling he was now stuck between a very large rock and a very hard place.

Luckily for Shinjiro, when he fled down the stairs, Goti turned to confront the rest of his attackers. Marie had moved up to get in range for her starknife, and Nicki pulled out his blowgun. He had a dart he had prepared the night before, coating it with Blue Whinnis Poison. He puffed his cheeks and sent the dart into Goti’s massive bicep. It might have weakened him a little, but it did not knock him unconscious as Nicki had hoped. Instead, he spread his fingers, and sent a spray of acid across the pit and into the faces of Marie, Sawyer, and Nicki.

Several party members worried that Goti’s troll heritage might be giving him regenerative powers. Bella and Nicki both decided it would be best to throw a little fire into the mix, and hit Goti with flasks of Alchemist’s Fire. As the creature began burning, Sawyer, Sandoval, and Bella redoubled their arrow attacks, and every shaft seemed to find its mark. The combined onslaught was too much, and Goti Runecaster crumpled slowly to the ground. As he died, the walls of the pit seemed to flow together, leaving an unmarked and seemingly solid floor.

Despite the appearance of a solid floor, it took awhile for the party to trust that it wouldn’t disappear beneath their feet, and for the next several minutes they jumped awkwardly over the place where the pit used to be. The area of Silence ended at that spot, so they were finally able to converse and cast spells. Shinjiro returned from hiding in the stairwell, and warned the group about the menacing looking statues, while Marie doled out some healing. There was a door in the west wall of the corridor right beside where Goti had been standing, and Marie casually opened it, while everyone else cringed. Inside was a storeroom, with boxes and sacks neatly stacked along the walls. Shelves holding orderly bins had been built into the walls, holding containers of foodstuffs along with a variety of bottles and casks. A wooden meat locker stood beneath the shelves. Despite the seeming order to this room, a faint charnel reek underlay everything, and no one had the nerve to open the locker.

The side chamber also held a heavy closed door, obviously locked. Bella wasted no time in investigating it. She checked it for traps, and discovered that the lock had been cleverly designed so that turning the key (or picks) once would appear to unlock it, but would still leave a trap mechanism enabled; to disable it, you needed to turn the lock two full turns. She did so, then held her breath as she pushed the door open. On the other side was a veritable trove of valuables gathered into one place. Chests overflowed with gold and silver ornaments. Crates held trade bars of precious metals. Ornate, gilded drinking horns peeked out of a burlap sack, and coffers spilled forth gold and silver coins in quantities rarely seen in this part of the world. Everyone stood in awe for a moment as the magnitude of the hoard sunk in.

As they began to search through the treasury, Marie spotted a small coffer that appeared to contain magic. Inside, wrapped in velvet, was an elaborate construction of tuning forks, combined into the shape of a basket guard such as you might find on a sword or dagger. This went to Sandoval, to see if the bard could figure out its purpose. There was also a large chest that contained well worn (and by the smell, seldom washed) clothing and gear, including a sextant, snowshoes, and a pair of smoked-glass goggles. With excitement, they realized this must belong to Ulf Gormundr, the arctic guide. Searching farther in the chest, they came across some familiar items: Whispering Shrike, the magical wakizashi they’d found in Brinestump Caverns, and the medallion with the Amatatsu crest that had once belonged to Sandru’s dead brother. These were Ameiko’s – she must be close!

With renewed hope, the group gathered at the top of the next set of stairs. As Shinjiro had described, at the bottom of the staris were a pair of alcoves flanking an ornate double door. Standing in each alcove was a bronze statue depicting a warrior dressed in the ornate garb and armor of a warrior of distant Tian Xia. Beneath their broad helmets, the statues wore demonic face masks with snarling fanged maws, while their hands clutched gracefully curved swords in poses of battle.

Bella started to descend the stairs to check out the door, but Zhustin grabbed her by her shirttail. “I’m thinking we should each have one of these out,” he suggested, holding up one of the jade raven statuettes they’d collected from the various Frozen Shadows ninjas. Grudgingly, Bella conceded, leaving her dagger sheathed so she could keep the statuette on display in her off hand. She reached the door without incident; she wasn’t convinced the statuette had anything to do with that, but she also wasn’t willing to pocket it to find out. The door didn’t seem to be locked, so without waiting for any further advice, she pushed it open.

The room inside was a multilevel architectural wonder. The chamber was divided into two tiers, the upper tier lying twenty feet above the lower tier, and rotated forty-five degrees. The peak of the ceiling rose to a pyramid sixty feet above the floor. The diagonal orientation of the upper tier formed four twenty-foot-high ledges above the walls of the lower tier. A fountain issued from the southernmost of these ledges, pouring in a waterfall to a decorative pool in the floor containing several ruby-hued koi. Black lacquered folding screens were set at various places about the room, creating a veritable maze of panels.

On the far side of the room, just visible through a gap in the panels, an attractive, middle-aged woman was in conversation with one of the Frozen Shadows ninjas. Her blonde hair was done in braids and tied with colored and bejeweled ribbons, while a finely tailored velvet and fur cape draped over her shoulders. From the descriptions they’d heard, this must be Thorborg Silverskorr. As the door opened, she looked up and smiled. “At last! The mighty heroes have arrived to rescue the poor little princess. Perhaps I’ll let you live long enough to watch my minions rape her before I peel the skin off her delicate flesh.” She gave a melodious laugh, then stepped behind one of the screens, out of sight of the party.

Her ninja companion was not so chatty; he simply charged at Bella with his siangham. Nicki fired off an Acid Arrow while Bella parried his blow with her rapier, then stepped back to give Sawyer room to step up and finish him off. The party had been spread out the length of the stairway when Bella opened the door, and they all now rushed forward to help out. Marie cast a Shield of Faith on Shinjiro, while Sandoval unleashed a Sound Burst on the area where Silverskorr had ducked out of sight, hoping she’d still be in the vicinity.

Kimandatsu

Instead, an enormous creature appeared on the eastern ledge, 20’ above the floor. It was easily nine feet tall, with mottled, purplish skin and wicked looking tusks extending from its lower jaw. It was dressed in heavy, Tian-style armor and carried an enormous longbow and equally enormous metal-studded club. It sneered down at them, and when she spoke it was the same voice they had heard from Thorborg Silverskorr. “I am Kimandatsu, oni of the Five Storms! You think you can stand against me? You think you can stand against the Five Storms? Fools!” With that, she unleashed a ferocious Cone of Cold. With the party all clustered around the doorway, no one escaped its blast.

So far, they’d only seen one ninja, and it lay bleeding out on the floor, but no one expected he was the last foe they’d find in the room. Sawyer and Shinjiro rushed in and began knocking down the screens that blocked off parts of the room; although they were not fastened to the floor, it took time to knock them over. Bella and Nicki both thought it would be wise to disappear, and quaffed Potions of Vanish. Sandoval began singing, and Marie cast a Channel Positive Energy, healing some of the damage done by the Cone of Cold, while taking the risk of also helping unseen enemies.

Sure enough, ninjas began popping into sight all around Marie and Sawyer. They couldn’t dodge the attacks of one without opening themselves up to attacks from another. Shinjiro rushed to Marie’s side and took down one of her attackers, while Sawyer took out one of the others. Zhustin summoned a Lantern Archon to hover in the air near the niche Kimandatsu stood in; the small glowing orb fired off a pair of light rays that injured her. That got her attention, and she cast a spell at Zhustin with a snarl. He felt himself grow drowsy, but shook it off. As soon as she had cast the spell, Kimandatsu disappeared.

Bella quaffed a Fly potion, then knocked over another screen, trying to open up as many lanes of fire in the room as possible. Nicki went gaseous, and began drifting lazily upwards. Marie zapped one of her attackers with her Wand of Inflict Moderate Wounds, but another popped into sight behind Shinjiro. Sandoval didn’t like the idea of Kimandatsu seemingly being able to disappear at will; they needed to have a target. So he picked a high ledge at random and fired off a Glitterdust spell. To his surprise, Kimandatsu appeared, her form outlined in glittering, glowing motes of light.

The PCs earned 1,914 XP, putting them at 28,919 XP with 35,000 required for level 7. We’ll be at Leo’s next week.