The Ossuary

[Rebonack]

[Into the Ziggu-Rat]

It's probably a good thing that the Vile Necromancer decided to get out of the way because THERE'S NO STOPPING THE ZIGGU-RAT (at least according to the Ziggu-Rat). It goes barreling past, clipping the skeleton giant pretty hard and very possibly ripping several bones away which are, of course, incorporated into the Ziggu-Rat.

The skeleton in the niche with the Vile Necromancer begins petting her hair.

It's awkward and creepy.

But!

Now the path forward is open again mostly because the rat doesn't slow down even a little bit. If the Necromancer continues onward she'll soon find herself in the central chamber of the ziggurat, a wide room with four thrones facing an empty sarcophagus. The sarcophagus is empty, though the thrones aren't. Four more bone giants, each with a different weapon, sit in eternal vigil over the empty tomb.

...the power source is here. Or at least a tentative connection to it. Something is missing, however. And that missing something has thrown the power source's grip on the material plane into a tenuous state.

Meanwhile!

The Ziggu-Rat is charging toward Khannie and the Consecrator.

Khannie gives an exasperated groan at the sight of the creature if only because, "Ugh. This is the worst pun EVER."

Come on, Khannie. Not EVER. It is pretty bad, though.

The Consecrator looks at the teen as if she's crazy and cuts loose with the most power beam of golden flame he can muster! It zaps into the monsters, but it just has too much mass! Cracks of solar radiance spiderweb through its body, but it isn't coming apart. "I- I don't know if I can stop it!"

Khannie huffs a little breath, rolls her shoulders, and steps forward whilst hauling back one fist suddenly wreathed in shadowy purple flames. In a blur of motion she brings her fist down in a crushing strike, smashing the rat's head into the ground as light and darkness react violently with each other.

The rat just kind of...

Disintegrates.

Which kind of sucks because now Khannie is coughing on all the consecrated ashes in the air. "Oh beans this smells really heckin' bad."


[The Tome of Eliander]

Oh no!

Raheeda has been fairy spored!

What if she suddenly starts to desire climbing trees?!

~The dust of renewel? Is there something... um... did I do it wrong?~ the dragon asks, smelling one of his wings just in case there might be something wrong with it.

Then?

The dragon is looking like it's...

Kind of...

Nodding off?

Anyway it's looking dizzy.

And Harley is running off to confront the cultists so probably Raheeda should help.

[quillpleasant]

The Tome of Eliander

Harley hasn't run off quite yet, as he wants to make sure that Raheeda is on board with the attack before jumping in alone. There's a lot of cultists, and as much he's trying to be a hero, he's well aware that she's significantly stronger in a fight than he is.

"Don't worry, I think it's a good thing. Can't you feel that energy?" he asks, one foot tapping distractedly against the ground. "And we need all the help we can get to take these guys on. Speaking of, pincer? Attack them from opposite sides? Pincer attack?" He's really excited about the pincer attack.

[Shadowcaller]

The Tome of Eliander

"Fey energy." Raheeda insists under her breath. Not particularly trusting of most forms of magic that was used on her.
"I don't need it. I've taken on cultists before." While alone and everything!
Though she's more than a little thankful that her hand feels better even if she won't admit it.

"So what would we need a pincer for? I can have bloodheeda charge in first and distract them. Then we strike."

[Rebonack]

[The Tome of Eliander]

It looks like our friends here are pretty busy having a very important conversation about how to press the attack.

The dragon doesn't seem to be very interested in helping with this conversation on account of...

Having fallen asleep?

Just kind of flopped over and started snoozing.

Reality around it is beginning to twist and smear as strands of silk begin drifting through the air around it, which isn't helpful in the least. Like he said, in the state he's in he wouldn't be very helpful.

Meanwhile!

The cultist are still up to... cultist things.

Over there.

Probably best to do something about that soon.

[quillpleasant]

The Tome of Eliander

As he notices the dragon falling asleep, Harley can't help but smile under his mask. It's kind of cute, despite being a giant weird bug beast. Or maybe because of that.

"Okay, yeah Bloodheeda is a good idea. But when we charge in, can we go from opposite sides? Since then they're caught in the middle? I just think that would be kinda cool." Because it's a PINCER.

"But yeah, I'll be ready. Good luck," he says, as he crouches and begins to move off towards the right, circling around as he tries to get close to the cultists without being seen. Ever since he was just a rabbit Harley has always been good at stealth and today is no different, as he moves through the deepest shadows, feet soundless against the cracked ground.

[Earl of Purple]

Into the Ziggurat

The ziggu-rat does damage the bone giant, and the Vile Necromancer looks it over and decides it's beyond her current ability to repair. So she'll tell it to lie down and fake death until someone approaches from the outside, at which it should try to surprise them with an attack.

In the heart of the Ziggurat, the Vile Necromancer strides next to the sarcophagus and pulls out the salt she found earlier. She'll put both cubes in the stone coffin, and starts to weave her sorcery into a net. She's trying to use the salt cubes to connect to the divine power source lurking just out of reach, and bring it forth into herself. She might explode, trying this; it's certainly risky, but far less risky- in her mind- than staying put and doing nothing whilst the heroes approach from behind.

[Rebonack]

[Into the Ziggurat]

Evil can push people to do strange things sometimes, can't it? Khannie already made it pretty clear that she isn't looking for a fight, yet the Necromancer is risking one of the classic hubris-based villain deaths to be ready for a battle that might not even happen?

After all, how often does a villain try devouring too much power and then has trouble as a result?

Perhaps thankfully, that isn't the result.

Through her spell the Necromancer will discover that the divine power she's seeking is embodied somewhere deep below, rotting in the dark. There's a conduit to the surface, though it's a tenuous thing. As a result of the magic, a ghost manifests before her. It's a vague, indistinct thing, but the Necromancer will get the impression of an austere, arrogant ruler. A king of kings.

"Why do you disturb my slumber, oh wretch wizard?"

Meanwhile!

Khannie and the Consecrator are hurrying along the tunnel and happen upon the 'dead' bone giant right about-

Now.

[Shadowcaller]

The Tome of Eliander

"Oh, alright. Makes sense I suppose." Raheeda relents.
But she still didn't know what that had to do with pincers or why Harley was so excited about them. Did bunnies have pincers that she had never learned about?

Now she needed to focus though. Battle was about to start.
She takes a deep breath and grabs her bag of blood which she had just recently renewed. People never asked where she got it and that was just fine with her since she rather not explain either.

Pouring the blood out on the ground she proceeded to stab said ground with her spear which in an instant animated the red liquid. Not just her but all her gear perfectly recreated in blood.
"You take the left pincer and I right one, okay?" Raheeda tells her clone while gesturing

"...pincer?" Bloodheeda scratches her head in confusion.

"Yeah, I don't get it either. Just coming in from that side first and then we'll fall in from the other once you distracted them."

"Alright, alright. Left pincer it is."

Raheeda then goes to lead Harley to the right as bloodheeda goes to the left. Harley will be given a few moments to prepare and then the bloody clone suddenly charges in with a fierce battlecry!

[Rebonack]

[The Tome of Eliander]

Getting a bit closer, our heroes will be able to make out some details in the eerie green firelight. Every single face in that circle?

Eyeless.

Every one of them.

Where there ought to be eyes instead there are only empty sockets.

Which really begs the question of how they can read the book without any eyes.

But that mystery isn't solved right away since Bloodheda just ran screaming into the stone circle. Hopefully that cry wasn't too blood curdling since that might cause some problems.

"Interloper!" howls the high priest, pointing at Bloodheda. "Dispose of her lest she disrupt the ritual!"

Of the eight cultists chanting around the fire four draw stone daggers and beg approaching the clone.

[quillpleasant]

The Tome of Eliander

Harley isn't much phased by the eyeless nature of the cultists, although it does make him think. If they can exist fine without eyes, can they also do so without other body parts? Because that might make them difficult to kill. Well, they can burn that bridge when they come to it.

As Bloodheeda advances and the cultists split up, Harley crouches, knife at the ready. He glances over at Raheeda, nodding to confirm their plan of attack. What time is it? It's pincer time.

Harley breaks into a dash, keeping low and quiet as he heads for the cult members who stayed behind. They haven't even drawn their knives- this is going to be easy. As he gets almost to them, Harley leaps, arms outstretched as he tries to bowl at least a couple of them over.

[Earl of Purple]

Into The Ziggurat

It is not Khannie the Vile Necromancer is so scared of, as Khannie is not looking for a fight and her powers- whilst interesting- are not a direct counter. The Consecrator, however... He seems a hero tailor-made to kill her, and she's terrified.

"I came to warn you. There is one coming who seeks to end your existence, and mine. He will put an end to your rest and all hope you have. You slumber only; you sought an escape from death. He shall not rest until all that is dead remains that way, with Light granted by the Heavens." The Vile Necromancer isn't being entirely honest; she did not come to warn this dead king. She came to usurp him, or she would have planned on doing it the moment she discovered him. She's now only seeking an alliance because without it, she fears she's dead.

Down the corridor, the bone giant lies motionless, no clues to its continued animation save the power the Vile Necromancer imbued it with. It'll wait until the adventurers have nearly passed it before rising and swinging its bardiche at the Consecrator- or until they attack it, if either party senses its continued potency.

[Rebonack]

[Into the Ziggurat]

Above does seem to cheat like that, doesn't it?

Create a Hero that's an opposite to ruin your day.

Anywho!

The presence continues to exist imperiously, apparently unmoved by the plea.

"I have no fear of destruction. I have escaped slavery to the gods and I have bound the power that slumbers below the plains of salt to my will. I am the great king of kings and the time will come when I will teach all the world again that there is no greater king than I. If you desire to by my servant then I have a task for you through which you might prove your worth. My mortal remains were stolen from this place. Return them to me and I will share with you the secrets to overcome death himself."

Meanwhile!

"Be careful. All the dead in these halls are possessed of dark power," the Consecrator warns Khannie.
"Yeah no kidding I can smell 'em," the girl retorts.

Normally the playing dead trick wouldn't work, but given the fact that they're surrounded by an overwhelming number of undead already...

The axe comes speeding toward the Consecrator and just as it strikes him there's a concussive blast of light, hurling him away with great force. It even leaves Khannie staggered and momentarily dazzled by the flash of light, burning at her illusion. The effect will probably be worse for the skeletal giant and all the other undead nearby,

"Ah beans that really hecking stings," Khannie sort of swears, trying to patch the holes in her illusion to cover up the ash grey fur sticking through it. But sadly there are more pressing problems. "Are you okay?"

"It's only a shallow wound, the Light from Above protects me," the Consecrator replies, blasting a beam of radiance at the skeletal giant.

[Shadowcaller]

The Tome of Eliander

She still wasn't sure what "interloper" meant and at this point she was afraid to ask. Her people kept shouting it and she was pretty sure she was supposed to be shouting it at people too but it sounded so weird.
Like, she could figure out from context but why didn't people just use the word "intruder" instead? It was so much clearer!

These are the thoughts running through the head of bloodheeda as she is jumped by a bunch of cultists.
In response she attempts to stab one of them. The blood spear able to pierce through flesh as easily as butter and pull out of it with the same ease.
Then she does some implausible acrobatics and dodges away from the rest of them before their shorter weapons can reach her.

"Now!" Raheeda calls out to Harley.

It was time to become a scorpion (metaphorically speaking)!

[Earl of Purple]

Into the Ziggurat

The skeleton giant collapses as a result of the blast of Light, combined with its weakened structural integrity by the Ziggu-Rat brushing past and stealing bones as it did so. It won't rise again, but perhaps the Light aggravated the other skeletons nearby.

"No, you have not. The Gods are always watching and ever patient. You have evaded their chains for a time, and now they have bored of the sport and sent one who thinks it his duty to put you back in chains, thinking everyone would be happy enslaved so long as they just obeyed." If that doesn't change this entity's mind, however, the Vile Necromancer bites her lip. "If you can guide me out of here so I am not followed, I shall seek your body." Although perhaps not to return it, she's thus far undecided. She'll have to see if this entity is right to be as confident as it seems, or if the blowhard behind is as dangerous as she fears.

[Rebonack]

[The Tome of Eliander]

The cultists are, sadly, a bit too far apart to tackle several at a time. Harley does, however, manage to tackle one of them. He goes down hard, having been pretty focused on his foul chanting. He's thrashing around for sure, but not doing a great deal beyond that. "Noo! The One Who Sees will be displeased!"

Speaking of displeasing things, with one of the cultists down the green flames flicker and gutter slightly, but the rest of the cultists start chanting even HARDER.

Meanwhile, Bloodheda stabs a cultist!

This results in something very strange happening.

Initially, it's about what you expect would happen when someone gets poked with a spear. They have a hole in them and don't seem very happy about it. But then the cultist takes his own knife and begins stabbing himself a whole bunch! And instead of blood gushing out of him there are...

Eyes?

Lots of eyes.

Eyeballs just rolling out everywhere as the cultist deflates into an empty sack of skin.

What.

Now there are eyes all over the ground and the remaining three cultists are trying to close in on Bloodheeda still.


[Into the Ziggurat]

The spirit doesn't respond to the claim that the gods haven't been thwarted yet. He's arrogant enough to be certain that he's won.

"There is a flight of stairs along the interior of this chamber leading to an exit at the ziggurat's summit below the altar. Depart through that route and I will ensure that my minions keep the heroes occupied," the ghost says as the impression of a hand lifts one of the black salt cubes out of the sarcophagus. "My will has touched this. It will pull toward my remains and guide your path. Now be gone."

Once the Necromancer takes the cube she'll be able to feel it tugging in her hand as if being pulled by a magnet.

Meanwhile!

Turns out the blast of Light has riled the skeletones.

Skeletons and mummies with ancient bronze weapons greened with corrosion begin piling out of the niches in the wall and advancing toward the heroes! The Consecrator begins blasting away and Khannie gets to work clobbering any of the undead that try getting too close.

There are a BUNCH of the stupid things, though.

[quillpleasant]

The Tome of Eliander

Well, one is better than nothing. Harley will attempt to quickly headbutt the cultist he has pinned, before rolling off and bouncing back up to his feet. Based on the state of the flames, it's looking like they might need to take out all of these cultists to succeed, so time is of the essence.

With a quick glance towards Bloodheeda (are those eyeballs?) Harley runs towards another cultist, crouching and kicking out to try to sweep the legs and knock him over. He's hoping that just disrupting their ritual will work, because actually killing everyone would be a lot more work.

[Shadowcaller]

The Tome of Eliander

Bloodheeda is too focused to notice the eyes as the next cultist coming charging at her will find themselves running straight into her spear. But rather than continuing to retreat back Bloodheeda follows the stabbing momentum and dashes right into the cultist. Despite her relatively small size she ends up going straight over him like a charging bull.

However, her spear is still in his body as he drops and using that as a pole she vaults into the air out of the reach of the other cultists.

And as the cultists watches her red clone launch herself into the air the real deal arrives.
She's disgusted by the eyeballs but it made her want to defeat these guys even more.
Wading straight into the group she mostly uses her spear as a staff to keep them away from her as she's heading straight towards the high priest. Pushing and slamming anyone that got in her way.
Since she's intending to stab him right in the chest as soon as she gets a clear shot.

[Earl of Purple]

Into The Ziggurat

The Vile Necromancer nods her head in respect to the spectre and takes her power-imbued salt and runs to the staircase, rapidly ascending to escape the oncoming heroes.

[Rebonack]

[The Tome of Eliander]

Sweep the leg!

With a cry the second cultist goes down and the flame gutters once more. It seems diminished now, like a fire that's struggling to continue burning. The downed cultist immediately attempts to grab onto Harley with one hand while reaching for a knife with the other but then-

BONK!

-that plan is ruined pretty solidly.

The cultists swarming Bloodheeda are having a hard time. But the eyeballs help! They begin swarming through the air around Bloodheeda, trying to bounce into her aggressively. Normally this really wouldn't be a huge deal but every time an eyeball collides with her a little bit of her vision will be stolen. If she gets bumped TOO much her eyeballs will be ripped free to join the swarm.

Which...

Isn't great.

As for the high priest, he conjures a giant spectral eyeball between his hands which fires a beam of green flames at Raheeda! Obviously getting blasted by the flame ray would be bad. Not only does it burn, it also inflicts a curse of blindness! Definitely not great. If Raheeda isn't stopped by the eyebite ray then that cultist is absolutely going to get stabbed with the spear since he wasn't expecting Raheeda to keep moving if she gets hit.


[Out of the Ziggurat]

The stairs are nearly invisible. There's a good chance that the Necromancer wouldn't have even noticed them if the spirit hadn't pointed them out. The Necromancer will soon find herself exiting the ziggurat at its peak, climbing out from a trap door hidden below an altar. Whatever the salt cube is pulling toward, it seems to be somewhere far distant. Somewhere beyond this forsaken valley for sure.

[quillpleasant]

The Tome of Eliander

Harley dances back from the grasping cultist, looking over to where Bloodheeda is being swarmed by eyeballs. That looks really nasty- but can she even be permanently harmed? Wouldn't she just reform afterwards? He hopes so, but there's no time to find out. Right now the priority is the cultists- and the fire.

Still riding the adrenaline of the moth dust, Harley charges another cultist, crouching low in an attempt to bodily grab his enemy and lift him by the waist. Despite his relatively short stature, he's quite strong even without the blessing, so if he does manage to lift the cultist he'll attempt to throw him.

Onto the fire.

Maybe the robes could help smother the fire, or maybe the fire will consume the cultist. Win win either way.

[Earl of Purple]

Out of the Ziggurat

Elvyra has her pair of minions follow her up to the stairs, determined to ensure that even if the dead king she spoke to is destroyed and the power in the salt evaporates, this trip isn't wasted. For one, she now knows there's a hero on her heels, and that's valuable information. The gate guardian would have been useful as well, but there's no way to get it out subtly and escape is now more important than valour.

[Rebonack]

[Out of the Ziggurat]

The Necromancer will be able to escape on her quest without too much further issue. The heroes won't be able to follow, at least not right away, because they're bogged down with skeletons. And once THAT's don't they'll continue on into the ziggurat where the Consecrator will search fruitlessly for the evil power source while Khannie busies herself taking photos of the historical artifacts inside the structure.

After all, she was just there to collect some A!A samples and take some pictures for another project. This place is neat!

"Hundreds of undead, but still no evil power source. I was SURE there must be a bound demon here that needed to be destroyed," he laments.

"The place is definitely spooky but I'm not seeing anything about demons," Khannie says, eyeing a carved wall depicting the history of the Ossuary. "It looks like this place was built by some emperor who turned his whole capitol city into a giant tomb for himself. A real creep. 'cuz I guess he thought the people who are regular dead are made slaves for the gods? Nothing about buried demons."

"It's close but I just can't find it. Like a dead rat under the floor," the Hero sighs.

Khannie pats him on the shoulder. "This place isn't going anywhere. And if something big DOES come up there are LOTS of heroes that can help you put it down! You haven't gotta do everything on your own."

The youth smiles back at Khannie, though it's a bit forced. He isn't sure what to make of a girl touching him.

"Anyway, I gotta get back home and catalog all these pictures and artifacts," she says, rubbing her forehead. It feels like she's got a big goose-egg up there. One of the skeletons had clobbered her with a club but she hadn't though she had been hit THAT hard. "You take care of yourself, okay? Later!"

And then Khannie will begin heading back to the nearest Riftline station while the Consecrator is pushed along by fate.

[Shadowcaller]

The Tome of Eliander

The eyeballs could fly?!
That's the most un-eyeball thing there is!

Bloodheeda couldn't avoid all of them so she's gonna get her eyesight reduced here. Nor can she really fight them off with a spear as it was meant for single targets.
So once she lands she's going to make a break for it and hope the eyeballs follow along. Would make it easier for the other two at the very least.

Meanwhile, the actual Raheeda is getting beamed at. To which she would say it was brave of the priest to assume she worked off eyesight alone. Since she could still smell him. Granted it wasn't going to be as accurate which is why Raheeda instead decides to just jump at the priest instead rather than risking missing him with her spear.

Then she's gonna bite him as her jaws extend in a snake-like manner. Her fangs would have trouble with actual armor but if he's just clad in cloth then he's going to get injected with a likely deadly dose of venom.

[Rebonack]

[The Tome of Eliander]

Thankfully(?) the swarm of eyeballs goes chasing after Bloodheeda rather than sticking around to harass the rest of our heroes.

Raheeda does a pretty great job of biting the cultist leader, who is not in fact wearing armor. It seems like these weird cultist guys rarely if ever are. Now, poison typically doesn't do its thing instantly. It's still bad, though! This guy is definitely toast. But not immediately toast, which gives him time to pull out a knife and try to shank Raheeda with it! This is, of course, not a great thing.

Harley manages to grab a cultist (who begins screaming) and toss him onto the bonfire (which results in him screaming MORE). A few seconds later the huge green fire goes out!

...via exploding.

This is VERY BAD for the cultist that was right on top of the fire. He gets launched skyward and probably isn't going to have a good time when he lands. Those further away will probably just get knocked over by the blast. The book that was sitting atop the lecture is definitely caught in the shock-wave and flung out of the circle of stones.

[quillpleasant]

The Tome of Eliander

In order to throw the cultist into the fire, Harley needed to be fairly close to the fire himself. And so, turning away to scan for more cultists to attack, he's completely unprepared for the explosion of green flame. The force of the blast sends him flying through the air before slamming hard into the salty ground face first.

Ow.

The downside of having a mask with sound enhancing acoustics is that it makes loud things a lot more painful. The blast has temporarily deafened Harley, and he pushes himself unsteadily to all fours, shaking his head to try to clear it. Blinking, he looks down to see that his forearms have been scraped raw from the impact with the ground, and the throbbing in his side and left hand are a good indication that he's broken some bones.

Looking around blearily, he sees the other cultists recovering from the blast, Raheeda tussling with the leader, and... the book! It's just laying on the ground, abandoned for the moment. Wincing, Harley begins to crawl towards is as quickly as he can, the salt stinging his knees. He's not quite recovered enough to get to his feet, or at least he's not thinking quickly enough to try.

[Shadowcaller]

[The Tome of Eliander]

Like the cultists Raheeda don't seem to be wearing any armor. Until just about when the dagger is about to pierce her robes a force field is projected around her which will stop the blade in its tracks. It looks like he could spend a few seconds just continue the motion and the blade would reach her eventually but it will give Raheeda enough time to gut-punch the high cultist and then roll away.

Just in case he too would turn into eyeballs.

[Rebonack]

[The Tome of Eliander]

"Noo! The sacred fire! We have failed He Who Watches and Waits!" wails one of the cultists, who immediately begins cutting herself in penance.

What the heck is WRONG with these people?

I guess they aren't called deranged cultists for nothing.

Also?

Raheeda decks the cultist leader and absconds! The cultist leader is knocked over by the blow and begins wallowing on the ground and foaming at the mouth. Giant viper venom really isn't good for people.

Also also?

Harley now has a spooky book!

Good job, Harley!

[quillpleasant]

The Tome of Eliander

Clutching the book to his chest, Harley gets shakily to his feet. Great, now they just have to-

Wait, were they supposed to retrieve the book? Or destroy it? He couldn't remember what Raheeda's note said.

Casting a nervous glance at the cultist who's begun flagellating, Harley limps over towards where the poisoned leader now writhes.

"Raheeda!" he hisses, "Quick! What are we supposed to do with this thing?"

[Shadowcaller]

The Tome of Eliander

At some point Bloodheeda is going to collapse back into a pile of blood. Boy, will those eyes feel dumb now.

Meanwhile, the real but blinded Raheeda is crawling away when she hears Harley shout. "Uh- t-take it! Um! To trog's!" That's where they had found the mission after all. If nothing else they could find the actual job description there if it wasn't actually supposed to go there.

Now how long did that blindness last? Since it was gonna get difficult to get out of here without her sight.

[quillpleasant]

The Tome of Eliander

Harley's eyes widen abruptly as he sees how Raheeda is doing. Since the blindness isn't visual, he hadn't realized that she had even been affected, but something is clearly wrong. He sprints over to her, tucking the book under one arm as he reaches out to help her up with the other.

"Are you okay? What happened, did his spell hurt you?" He glances warily around at the scattered cultists, hoping none of them are regrouping. Maybe they should check in on that moon dragon before leaving too, but first he needs to figure out what's wrong with Raheeda.