Fane of the Heresiarch: Death Wyverns' Crucible Part II

Hydra ghouls can't count.

[Shazi]
Temporarily ignoring the zombie in front of her, Shazi takes a step back and tries to thread her shuriken through the bars. The shuriken strikes true in the body of the death wyvern, causing it to shriek in pain!

Tech: Natural 20 for 18 damage! The wyvern is wounded. Shazi, let me know if there's extra damage when you crit. I'll add it on.

[So-tin]
So-tin points his scimitar at the hydra ghoul, power lancing outward to strike the foe. The hydra ghoul shrugs off the attack as if it were from a fly!

Tech: Natural 6, miss. I don't spend APs for characters when they are on autopilot.

[Palim]
Palim shakes off the effects of the wyvern poison (saved!).

[Zombies]
The zombies claw at Kallista and Palim. Kallista easily defends, but Palim leaves himself open for a nasty bite!

Tech: Natural 20 on Palim. Palim takes 16 - 5 = 11 damage. Palim is at 37 hp.

[Death Wyverns]
The death wyverns see easy prey in Palim, and they swarm him with their attacks. Even with his buffed up defenses, he feels the sting of a bite from one, and a tail from another.

Tech: (15-5=10) damage from bite. Ongoing 5 damage negated by resist. Palim is at 27 hp. Ongoing 10 poison (save ends).

[Hydra Ghoul]

Turen might be dead, but he gets
this cool afterlife power.

Turen has grabbed the hydra ghouls attention for certain, and the horrific monstrosity focuses all of its attentions upon the druid! The teeth of the various heads rip the druid apart, each of the four sharing in his bloodied limbs - a delicious druid meal!

Tech: 
Free action: Snapping Jaws (See below).
Move: Stand up from prone.
Standard: Hydra Fury. Six bite attacks (two from Snapping Jaws). Three hits for 48 necrotic damage - 15 resist all = 33 necrotic damage. Turen is KO/Prone at -6 hp. 
Action Point: Coup De Grace on Turen. (32-5=27) points of damage. Since this is more than Turen's bloodied value, Turen is slain.

And then there were four.

Fane of the Heresiarch: Death Wyverns' Crucible

A painful demise awaits Palim in the Death Wyverns' Crucible.

Music: Atrium Carceri | Void | A Curved Blade

Palim casts the rope into the iron portal, and is instantly teleported to the Death Wyverns' Crucible! 

The iron portal becomes clear, and his allies can see all that transpires. They witness Palim appear, prone, in the center of nine slabs of black marble that jut from a pool of hissing dracolisk bile. Hundreds of humanoid shapes writhe in the bile, their limbs broken and flesh like peeling parchment. Many try to scream, but only maggots tumble from between their crooked and cracked teeth. The chamber is open to the air above, to swirling clouds of smoke and ash. 

Palim is surrounded by eight, caged, 15-by-15 foot square platforms. A short copper obelisk stands in the center of the four corner platforms; Ceramic skulls rest impaled at each obelisks' apex, mouths agape. A flame burns within each skull, of differing colors.

You also spy a glowing, magical stepping stone within each of the platforms. The aura is obvious to those trained the arcane arts - teleportation magic.

Your inspection of the new chamber is cut short as two dark winged shadows circle in the gloom high overhead. Strips of leathery flesh dangle from the yellowed bones of these winged undead beasts. You recognize them from myths and legends - Death Wyverns.

Palim's choices are obvious. Fight, flee, or die. But for the rest of you, you have a more interesting decision. You can rush in after your friend, stepping through the portal and joining him in combat. Or, you could watch the events unfold from the safety of the Ashen Ambulatory; watch and learn, perhaps, from Palim's fatal mistake. 

In the end, he is just one crusader, is he not?

Fane of the Heresiarch: Ashen Ambulatory Explored

OOC: Since you've indicated actions that would explore more of the ambulatory, I have decided to reveal much more in an open post here. Check out the image (click on the map for a larger version), and read the text below to see what you find. Fee free to perform searches, cast Detect Magic, and so forth.

Full-Length Mirror
A full length mirror is set into the crackling brimstone walls here. The copper frame is etched with a proverb in the Abyssal script: “No beauty without envy, no love without jealousy.”
 
Nobody has yet looked into this mirror.

Marilith Statue
The statue is of a six-armed, serpent-tailed demoness (pictured) that smells of lilacs. 

Font of Blighted Warding
You come close to the fountain and see that it is hewn from translucent precious stone, mixed with obsidian, in which quivering organs are embedded. 

You may drink of this fountain to gain temporary hit points equal to your healing surge value, but each time you do so, you incur 1 point of blight. Like all temporary hit points, these do not stack with one another. The THP last until beaten out of you.

Click for a larger version.

Vine-Choked Archway
A rusted iron portcullis blocks access through a wooden archway clutched by black vines. Chunks of petrified demon princes lie strewn before the gate. Beyond, a courtyard of dead trees is visible beneath the fiery underworld sky. A casual inspection of this rusty gate makes you think that this could be easily lifted.


Crucified Angel
The upper body of an angel has been crucified to the wall here. Gore cakes the wall, and its spine hangs down like a long chain. Thick frost covers the entire grisly display.

Succubus Mural
The image of a succubus has been painted onto the wall here. However, the wall is open, two halves rotated away at the center of the succubus painting revealing a short passageway and stairs leading up and out of sight.

Fountain of Blighted Haste
The teeth of pit fiends float in the grey water of this fountain. A marble idol carved in the likeness of a hooded figure wielding a trident stands in the center of the water. 

Dungeoneers may drink of this fountain to gain an action point, but each time incurs 2 points of Blight.

Iron Portal
A huge square of rusted iron is bolted to the wall here. An ochre portal that reeks of acid swirls within the square.

Hourglass Keyhole
An obsidian hourglass-shaped keyhole is set into the otherwise featureless wall.

Fane of the Heresiarch: Ashen Ambulatory

Music: Atrium Carceri | Reliquiae | Acolyte

Leaving the Bleak Seminary behind, you enter a long ambulatory where the very air is thick with soot. Bone chandeliers dangle on rusted chains from the high vaulted ceiling. Candles made from human fat burn perpetually in iron candelabrum set into the brimstone walls. Canals of lava run along the base of the walls, casting a deep red glow across the uneven floor.

The sound of hacking coughs and gentle sobbing radiates from some unknown hollow beyond the walls. From the far end to your left, you also hear running water and think you spy a fountain where the hallway bends to turn north.

You enter the Ashen Ambulatory at Q13.
Features: Fountain (D12), Mirror (O13), Keyhole (T11),
and perhaps more...

Next to the doors, you see a full length mirror set into the crackling brimstone wall. The copper frame is etched with a proverb in Abyssal. Palim, who now understands that cursed language, translates it as, “No beauty without envy, no love without jealousy.”

To the right, the hallway quickly turns to head north. From this angle, you see an large, obsidian, hourglass-shaped keyhole set into the wall.

Watch your step, crusaders...

Fane of the Heresiarch: Bleak Seminary

Music: Atrium Carceri | Void | Slower

The floor of this vast tiered seminary is not hewn from stone, but rather thick chipped glass. Hundreds of feet beneath the glass roils a lake of churning balor blood from which islands of brimstone stalagmites jut.

Towering ivory bookshelves line the walls, each filled with thousands of tomes bound in wriggling raw skin. Many demonic imps flock from shelf to shelf, rearranging tomes, shuffling papers, and lighting the innumerable crimson candles that hover in the acrid air.
 

You approach from the east,
descending the stairs (P8/P9).

Several pillars rise from between the stacks, each with three muzzled flameskulls chained to an iron hook at its apex.

A 10-foot tall statue of a demonic woman with a veil across her face looms in the center of the library. She clutches an iron brazier in her hands. Six pedestals surround the statue, with a closed tome on each.

Towards the back, a balcony rises above the entire seminary. A lectern is visible near its edge.

In addition to the way you came, there are three obvious exits... one to the north, west and south... doors of steel-rimmed oak.

Actions, crusaders...

Fane of the Heresiarch: OOC

Crusaders,

Feel free to talk freely here about anything out of character.

Fane of the Heresiarch: Watchtower

Trying something new with Fane. When I can, I will provide audio of the text as well. If this works, you simply press PLAY on the player below and enjoy! Music: Void | Cryo Chamber.


Your eyes adjust after the jarring teleportation and you find yourself in an open-walled pavilion which stands atop a 100-foot tall watchtower. The low ceiling rests on top of a ring of brass pillars shaped in the likeness of humans whose necks have been broken by the ceiling’s weight.

The squares surrounding are a spiral stairs
leading down around the base of the watchtower.

The pavilion rises just above the rim of a deep, narrow hole in the surface of the underworld. A sky of ruddy fire is visible, and from it great mouths vomit the corpses of the damned into distant city-sized fumerals.

Nearby, a 10-foot diameter standing circle of stone rises in the center of the pavilion. Intersecting geometric forms and glittering constellations have been embossed onto its surface. 

A slightly raised floor tile in the southern quarter of the pavilion is inlaid with mosaic tiles that form an inverted trident. The tile casts off violet sparks of magic. 

Actions, crusaders...

Crusader: So-tin!

So-tin, Genasi Swordmage

I knew this day was coming. I pierced through the fog of ignorance and put together the details, the clues that pointed to the arrival of this Heresiarch. And I have prepared for his arrival. 

This armor is my soul, prepared to ward off his might, and this sword was forged to slay him. With my knowledge, I know this group shall do what none have done before...

We will bring this tyrant to his knees!

Crusader: Shazi!

Shazi, Handmaiden of Lolth, 
Drow Assassin/Rogue Hybrid

Even though such endeavors are beneath me and this rabble has yet to prove its worth, I am obligated to step forward and lead them in to battle. With my unerring guidance we shall bring down this heresiarch... I trust they will listen if they know what's good for them. 

The heresiarch... The nerve! The queen mother has allowed such insolence go unhindered for long enough! It is now time to silence these false god in the name of the Lolth, and that she may guide my hand and my blade to crush the disbelievers and show this world the true meaning of power.