Hallucinations Abound

From Erevel's back the pitcher plant suddenly attacked slamming her with the whole of its body.

"The damnable plant has attacked me," she hollered.

Ciprian, standing in the ledger room suddenly wrapped his arms around his body, "I'm melting, I'm melting," he yelled trying to hold himself together.

Gavril moved up into the bedroom and studied the plant target.  Armania moved up and cast a flame strike on the plant.

Ursina blessed the party.  Erevel attacked and lopped off part of the structure of the plant, which also had burn marks appearing on the plant structure.  Paullus was still watching the hole on the first floor from the stairs.

Ciprian unwrapped his arms and moved back into the bedroom and identified the creature as a Basidarond, which had the power of Hallucination Cloud and was immune to cold.  He then started a Bardic Performance-Naturalist against the Basidarond.

Gavril suddenly fell to the floor and started flailing his arms and legs, attempting to swim.  "Beware the quicksand," he bellowed.

The plant moved over to Gavril and slam attacked him, at which point Gavril found it harder to breath and lost constitution.

Armania clutched at her throat and appeared to be not breathing as she stood still.  Paullus suddenly stared firing his bow into the stairs around his feet.  "Spider, spiders everywhere.  They are crawling all over me," he hollered.

Ursina, not seeing a way forward moved back a step, prepared to apply healing to any party member who needed it.  Erevel slid over and again hacked away at the creature.

As the battle continued Gavril stopped flailing his limbs and confidently stood up, at which point the Basidarond attacked again and when Gavril's breathing slowed in again fell to the floor unconscious.

Ursina rushed into the chamber and Rebuked Death on Gavril bringing him back to consciousness.  Paullus stopped firing at the spiders and headed up the stairs firing at the plant.  Armania started breathing again and moved the flame strike on top of the Basidarond.  She then fired magic missiles at the abomination.

Erevel hit the plant critically, doing massive damage and the plant fell to the floor in as mass of pureed membranes.

As the party started to apply healing and search the rooms, Armania suddenly dropped her wand and ran away from it exclaiming that it was a viper.

After Gavril was cured of the lost constitution and damage the group set about the search the bedroom.  On the shelf were the incense was, was apparently a shrine to Hastur.  The desk and bed held nothing new of interest.  Ciprian found an ochre symbol of Hastur on the back of the tapestry on the north wall.  He proceeded to slash the tapestry to pieces.

Erevel now suggested that maybe a search of the hole dug below would be appropriate and she headed down to look.  After improvising a rope down to the floor 50 or so feet below, Erevel climbed down and emerged into an underground natural cave, dimly illuminated by large floor lanterns, extending from east to west, slightly ascending from east to west also.  Toward the east the cavern continued into the dark.  In two corners of the cavern Erevel saw two strange beings with star-shaped heads and numerous writhing appendages arranged radially around a barrel-shaped body.  The beasts were floating in the air.

In Erevel's head she heard a shrill screech interleaved with bangs, clicks, whistles and trumpeting sounds.  "SX*5D&@agwnvsgnwjbgdmzzxw@@#SAJD%%%558*!" it seemed to repeat and then move on to another sequence still just a shrill.  

Gavril and the rest of the party followed down to the cave floor and as they entered the cave they also heard the sounds in their head.  Armania, after staring at the beats for a few minutes, "these are elder things, aberrations from some distant land."

Ciprian had a little more information "They are amphibious and also have some kind of starflight."

The sounds in the characters heads started to coalesce into common, but still shrill and full of strange sounds.   "During the Age of Serpents, a storm of Hastur worshiping flying polyps came to Golarion, using their mastery of wind to carry a shell of breathable air through space from their previous conquered world in search of a new world to infest. They claimed two sites on the planet as staging areas for this infestation, raising a triad of Star Stelae at each site. These monuments marked the land as the flying polyps’ territory, but also linked the sites to Carcosa so that the flying polyps might offer sacrifices of new lands to that parasite city as supplication to their master, the King in Yellow. One such site was where Thrushmoor would eventually be founded, but there the flying polyps were confronted and defeated by a powerful group of serpentfolk in a pyrrhic battle that saw the destruction of both forces, leaving only the three Star Stelae as lasting evidence of their presence. The flying polyps were much more successful at a second site in southwestern Casmaron, building one of their eerie cities around the three Star Stelae they erected there." 

"Are there still polyps in that area?" queried Armania.  

"Yes, we believe they are and we are trying to recover enough to move out into the world to finish our job.  You of a feeble mind, would not understand!" came the reply in her head.

Meanwhile Erevel had moved to the east where the cave sloped down to a shallow pool of water with a stream leading into the wall to the southeast.  The pool did not rise or lower, seemly there was no current.  Examining the stream Gavril found that the water quickly filled to the entire tunnel.

"Does anyone have water breathing?" he asked.  Getting no positive replies he moved off back to the larger cavern.

"Why can't you just leave now?" Armania asked the Elder Things.

"We are coming out of a long hibernation and need time to recover our strength before making our way out into the world." came the reply.  "Your simple minds would not understand or be able to hinder us in any way," they stated haughtily. 

At this point the group bid farewell to the Elder Things and clambered back up the rope to plan there next assault.

"Where have we not looked or searched for secret doors?" Ciprian asked of the group once they were outside the coachhouse.  "Maybe the topiary?"

"I was in the topiary and there was only a well, which we saw the bottom of below, in amongst the bushes." answered Gavril.

"Maybe the bath house, we didn't check too carefully there," Ciprian added.

Moving through the topiary on the way to the bath house revealed nothing new.  The bath house was a dead end as no hidden or secret passages were evident.

"The inside and outside of the buildings seem to match up so we probably didn't miss anything on the ground and 2nd floors.  We did hear of a possible star stelae in this area, though no one seems to know for sure if it still stands."  Paullus said with an air of dejection.

"We have to ways to the lower level, which should we go back down?" asked Ciprian.

"Let's just go down the main room entry and thoroughly search the rooms," Erevel suggested.

So the group headed back to the cellar area of Iris Hill Manor and began a room by room search.  Finally in the family crypt on the southern wall where a seven foot high bas-relief of Pharasma's face adorned the southern wall, Erevel found a secret door.  Behind the door was a short hall and a spiral staircase leading down.  At the bottom was a short hall leading west that appeared to open into a larger north south passage.

As the party reached the lowest level they simultaneously heard whispers like multiple people speaking in unison:

"I cannot forget Carcosa where black stars hang in the heavens.  Where the shadow of men’s thoughts lengthen in the afternoon. When the twin suns sink into the lake of Hali and my mind will bear forever the memory of the Pallid Mask."

Exchanging looks that betrayed the voice, the party harden its resolve asErevel first stepped into the passageway and moved to the north.  Further north in the middle of a circular, vaulted chamber, standing on a platform of natural bedrock, a black stone monolith similar to the two in Thrushmoor glowed with a pale, yellow light. Old and new Blood stained the floor surrounding the monument.

Ciprian cast vanish on himself.  Gavril moved toward the south and found a large chamber opening to a large chamber resembling the courtyard of an ancient, subterranean palace, with columns supporting a 30-foot high cloister dome. In the middle of the floor, a tile mosaic of the Yellow Sign emitted a thin, yellow vapor that filled the room with a faint odor of chrysanthemums. The vapor rose to the concave dome of the vault, through which an image of minarets, towers, and spires of a mysterious city silhouetted against a yellow sky can be seen. The image swayed softly with a slow alternation of light and darkness, to the sound of invisible pipes and strings. At the far end of the chamber, a marble throne sat within a semicircular apse. A floor-to ceiling band of gilded mosaics decorated the walls, depicting a fantastic urban landscape populated by figures in flowing robes and full-face masks.

In the middle of the room was a woman and a nauseating winged creature which combined the features of a carrion bird, an ant, a bat and a decomposing human in a most hideous manner.  As she saw the party, she shouted at them at the top of her lungs, her voice echoing under the vault: “If you think your condition means you’re important, you’re wrong. You are nothing! You are an ember floating from some putrid bonfire that will also wink out in the cold death of the universe. We are all worthless before the Unspeakable One! Even if he has marked you, I am the one who will open this world to him—not Lowls, and not you. You will not take my place—you will die! The King in Yellow is coming!”

After this she floated upward to hover in the dome.  The members of the party that could see the winged creature felt their sanity draining away at the sight of the horrid thing.  Armania cast invisibility on herself and moved into the passageway, Paullus moved up to the entry and fired arrows at the woman.  Ciprian moved into the passageway and identified the monster as a Byakhee, an aberration, that did not breath and was immune to cold.  Then started a Bardic Performance-Naturalist against the Byakhee.  Gavril cast invisibility and moved into the southern chamber, activating a Glyph of Warding that damaged himself, Armania and Paullus.  He continued to hide behind a pillar.

The Byakhee flew up to the woman and tried to shield her from the heroes attacks.  Erevel moved into the room apace and hid behind a southern pillar.  Ursina cast bless on the party.  The woman, probably Melisenn, cast a spell to no seeming effect.  Armania followed up with a fireball catching both enemies but none of her fellow adventurers.  Paullus fired arrows at the Byakhee and Ciprian cast Contagious Zeal on Erevel.  He then moved into the chamber behind a pillar.  Gavril moved to study Melisenn and stayed behind a pillar.

The Byakhee performed a fly-by attack on Erevel and returned to shield Melisenn.  Erevel then moved behind the throne and downed a potion.  Ursina cast invisibility and moved into the chamber ready to help heal any party members.  Paullus was then surprised as the Hound of Tindalos which the party previously fought appeared behind him and attacked followed by its disappearance.  Paullus screamed for help as the party grew aware of its perilous situation.

Melisenn cast a spell on Paullus, Terrible Remorse, which could cause him to attack himself.  Armania cast haste on the party, Paullus swiftly retreated to the stairway, out of sight of the battle.  Ciprian acquired Contagious Zeal from Erevel after moving closer to her.  The Byakhee flew down to attack Erevel, attempting to grab her but failing.  Erevel returned the attack but the Byakhee seemed to be healing itself as it flew around.  The Hound then attacked Armania and again disappeared.

DM's Notes: The party earned 1200 XP for the night and now have 33,454.  They will be at 7th level if and when they survive the present encounter.