Mini 19: Diving into the Shadow World

General Summary

16th of Keltier 1524 Continued

With detect thoughts finished, they behead the goblin. A lightning storm bursts from him and hits the party, corrupting the bloodline of many. Balthazar and Isabelle collapse. Galanith feels very unwell. Brienda is able to resist the bloodline as it empowers her and Nobu is untainted by bloodlines. Brienda immediately gets teary and scared at what is happening.

Brienda starts getting teary as she watches two of her friends fall over and look to a swaying Galanith. Galanith does what she can to reassure the young girl while Nobu gets down to business with securing the door. Galanith checks over Balathazar and Isabelle. Balthazar had a seizure and when it's finished he is unconscious, sweating and feverish. Kaida curls up with Isabelle's body.

Nobu uses all the free items in the room to barricade the door, before using rope to expertly secure them in place. When done Nobu comes over to comfort Brienda and reassure her that it is okay to cry because this is very scary. Eventually, they decide that they need to get themselves and the unconscious people out before they are discovered. At 5pm they leave out of the window, using ropes to lower people down with Brienda able to magically catch any who should fall.

They get over the perimeter fence and consider what to do next. They consider leaving the area and finding a place to hide in the wilderness but are conflicted on hiding their tracks. Brienda suggests they don't but do after having found a spot they could have stayed in. They could go to a cave and cover the tracks from the cave as they head back and hide in the village. They can hear that their mess has been discovered and so they quickly put this plan into action. Once they find a secure place to sleep, they take watches and get some rest during the night.

17th of Keltier 1524

 In the early hours of the morning, Brienda is about to start sleep walking but Kaida wakes her up. Galanith helps Brienda get back to sleep before resuming her watch.

At 3am, everyone wakes up well rested though the ill people feel very tired and very unwell. They discuss the situation and the fact they cannot afford to allow the ill to rest as much as they would like. They need to keep moving or the paladin will die. Nobu will go out to search the village to try and find the lab, though they believe it is in the shadow world. Their hope is to find it in this world to avoid searching the shadow world as fully once they can get into it. Balthazar gives Nobu a rock that should react to portals or rifts.

Nobu searches the building one by one and nearly the last building he goes to actually looks like a lab. It has partially sunken into the river, so Nobu carefully goes in via the river side. He gets into all the rooms he can before he goes back to get Balthazar and gets him to unlock the doors he cannot open. The whole party joins them just in case they find what they are looking for. 

By 9:30am they have searched the entire building. They head back to their hiding place to allow Balthazar a rest while Nobu goes to scout out the manor to see what the goblins are up to. The main gate is ajar, so Nobu sneaks through. However, a bug's chitter gets his attention. He looks up at the gate and finds a huge blue and orange bug looking very happy to see Nobu. Nobu immediately runs after it takes a sizeable bite out of him. He leads it on a merry chase through the village before eventually losing it and making a trap for the bug. He gets some spare clothes out, fills it with snow and the dust of sneezing and choking. The bug falls for the trap and he is able to double back and make his way back to the group.

At 10:30am the party head to the manor. They can hear the bug actively searching for Nobu. They go back in the same way they entered the manor the day before. They head downstairs into the basement and Balthazar's stone that detects other planar energy starts to glow. They're careful and quiet but they don't see any issues. Statues, crypts and broken walls that lead to a pond portal.

Isabelle and Kaida dive head first into the pond. Soon followed by Balthazar, Nobu, Brienda and Galanith. On this side of the portal everything is the same but the colouring of the stone is different. They don't want to go through the crypt, so risk another way and find a torture that does lead them around the crypt. Galanith picks up a jade head iron maiden and a set of lock picks before leaving.

The party quickly makes their way back to the lab and find in the shadow world the front door is closed. They try to open it and find that it is frozen shut. They consider a variety of plans involving torches. In the end they magically burn the door until it thaws and use thaumaturgy to open the door rather loudly.

Looking inside they see the heavy stone walls of this room dampen the cold and the howling wind outside. An inscription in what looks like Draconic runes is carved into the wall opposite to where they came in.  The message reads: “Welcome to Salsvault! Visitors, please wait here for an escort, and DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING WITHOUT PERMISSION.” They can hear clanking footsteps approaching. Two suits of armour walk into the room and attack the party. They quickly dispatch the armour and continue to go in the direction the armour came from.

The go into the forge and find two feet sticking out a rubble pile. They look goblin and nature, so the party pulls them out, hoping for help that the goblin can give them regardless if they will volunteer or be volunteered. 

However, the goblin is a zombie which tries to attack the group. Balthazar instantly kills it. The open the door from the forge to a hallway and find three more zombies that attack the party. They party takes some minor damage but other wise deal with this issue.