Time to Sedaddle

The Mission:
Motivated by the promise of reward, the group and I decide to delve into the catacombs under the temple in search of a cuffed beholder.
We helped the Metropoliti by drawing attention to the fact that she was charmed, and she rewarded us by sending us on a suicide mission. But I am sure it will be worth it if we survive. Maybe she will pay us in a chest full of gold coins, or a pile of gold bars, ooo ooo or may be gems. I’ve always wanted a gold inlayed beak.
 
Pedal told us beholders can be very dangerous, to put it mildly. Man, this crazy. I mean how is this watcher mixed up in all this with Sithass? What does any of it have to do with the Metropoliti? I have so many questions and we should probably get a map of the catacombs and some supplies. I would also like to talk to our fairy friend in the thief’s guild about all this. Surely, we would just go stomping around down there underground unprepared riiiiiiiight?
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There is a time to steal and a time to stealth…. And sometimes there is time for both:
Whelp we just killed a Death Kiss thing whatever that is, and now I’m first to go down the stairs, deeper underground, slowly, no traps yet. These dark places can have traps sometimes especially if there is good stuff laying around…. It is unnatural for a bird to be under ground. The air is weird. At the bottom of the stairs I can see, wow, I can see pretty far in the dark with my creepy eyeball robe! All the eyes are darting around looking, I hope I see it coming before it sees us. No traps. I’m not scared. I’ve done crazier things for gold…. Errrr. … Yeah right! The last time I did anything close to this stupid I lost something very valuable. I don’t know what we are doing here. … No traps. Moving a little further down the hall….
 
There is a light coming from that hall. I will just peak around the corner, no movement. Is that a sarcophagus? I’m not scared. Avery just walked past me into the room, followed by Lamin. No screams. Guess it’s safe. This is a well-lit room, clean, in use. On the side of the sarcophagus it says Alcopholos 2nd. Hum…. Well nothing else much to see. Better get going back down the hall. Wait, Lamin is pushing on the lid to the sarcophagus. No! Don’t! I think at her but she cant hear my brain. I mean, I am all for some grave robbing, but we have to be stealthy. Getting the drop on an unsuspecting target is always better. I put my finger up to my beak and make a “shhhhh” sound I have heard mothers do to crying children. Lamin stops trying to open the sarcophagus. And Nac’ku did some mumbo jumbo to make everyone not as loud.
The next room Had another sarcophagus in it which Lamin and Avery opened. Nothing inside. Probably grave robbers got to it. But this room did have a beautiful fresco of the construction of the Gand Temple in it which I committed to memory so I could recreate later. Supposedly the only entrance to this place is through the temple but I wonder if whoever constructed it made another secret entrance. I bet some thieves already know another way into this place. With all these dead important people around there is bound to be some shiny things laying around. Nac’ku turned into a bear which is neat because he understands what it is like being viewed as an animal that cant talk. I think that is why I like to help him communicate when he is in this form. And he is fluffy.
 
In the next room there are some weird scorch marks on the walls and a pile of bones in the middle of the room and an exploded sarcophagus. Creepy. Maybe some grave robbers couldn’t get the sarcophagus open and decided to blow it open with explosives. Amateurs. There was definitely a ring on one of these fingers that isn’t there now. The bear gave me a disappointing snort. He’s so weird. He would give his money to trees. Money should go to people who are smart enough to get it, earned it and keep it. Still… something about his disapproval… makes me feel irritated… or guilty? … maybe I just wont acquire when he is looking.
 
Around the next corner and Damn. 12 graves and most of them have been pilfered. I hate feeling like someone beat me to the good stuff. There was a copper necklace I managed to swipe before Bearie-mc-judgy- pants came around the corner. Pedal said it looked nice. I don’t mind acquiring when she is around. I think she appreciates my skills. Like that one time I stole that thing from the shop for her after the shop keeper was rude to her. That was so funny. And when she came with me to get my first set of thieves tools. That was a good day. Plus acquiring calms my nerves. Not that I am nervous or scared, at all.
 
Next room…. Vampire sarcophagus….. nope not scared. Cool as a cucumber this one. Yep. Is the ceiling crushing us? Can we just kill this Watcher thing so we an get back up to where you can see the sky please?
 
No traps.
 
Next room empty, Next room empty…… Next room big ol’ creepy hole in the ground that beholders can come out of. I grabbed on to Pedal and opened my mouth near her ear and repeated in Ol’ Reggie’s voice “I’m sorry but some jobs are just too big for us kid, Its time to skedaddle” Then Pedal just patted my head and we left the room with the hole.
 
Doors. Big reenforced doors…. And what do you know a trap…. Ish. Magic thingies are Ozzies territory. I’m going to step aside and let him do that while I get my lock picks out. What treasures could be behind those doo…. Agh!
 
Suddenly slammed with force and a ringing in my ears. There is debris in he air and I am regaining my faculties. My eyes focus. I notice I no longer need my lock picks because, well there is no longer a lock or most of the door. Ozzie! Is he okay? Yes. What the hell man?! Then the feathers on the back of my neck stand up as I realize…. there’s movement in the room beyond the blown doors.
 
The Storm behind the Doors:
Freya runs inside ready to attack and I’m just standing there behind Pedal trying to get my ears to stop ringing. The gang is running inside the room ready to battle, not one, not two, but three of these terrifying floaty eyeball things and they all look like the stuff of nightmares. I duck inside the room but use part of the exploded door for cover. Only one of the monstrous things can see me. It is sickly greenish and looks like the flesh is rotten, dead, no undead. I throw my physic daggers at it, hit, hit. It didn’t like that. Its nasty cataracted eye falls on me and it lets out a beam that I just barely manage to duck under. Shit Shit shit!
Nac’ku (out of bear form now ) is hit and his posture seems to stiffen and he drops his staff. Pedal gets hit hard but is still up. Shit shit shit. Freya is force pushed up against a wall next to me! A storm of Eye balls and magic rays and battle cries! Nac’ku still psychically linked to me tells me I might be able to use his staff to help but what is happening to him? Is he? Is he turning to stone? It’s time to skedaddle. Ringing in my ears. Skedaddle. echoes. I yell and hop out of my hiding spot and throw a homing charged dagger right at the ugliest one. The one with the glowing red eye. Hit! Hit! And it turns to me and out of its gaping mouth lets out a chilling roar. NOPE! I’m out. And I run back through the busted doorway into the hall.
 
Not Again, The Return of Munin:
I don’t get far before I hear Pedal yell out. Im breathing heavy, shaking my head. I hear an loud explosion like part of the wall was coming down. And then Frey says “Aw shit!” and then on my back I feel warmth and light, fire. It makes my many eyes on the back of my cloak squint in pain. “No. No! Huggin I wont leave you again” I say physically to Pedal and to my sister who I lost when a job got too tough and we ran. He told me to run and I left her. But not today. Not again. I go back into the battle with new determination. I am calm and strategic. I find a position I can be defensive and have cover, but also that I can fight from. I will fight this thing to the death. Its other undead companions already fallen, I focus on the Red Eyed one and fire off my psychic blade. It hits! It’s in pain. It’s movement is off, weird. It saps its maw at Freya who is so close she can probably smell it’s breath but it misses. Oh it’s blind! The fire from earlier. It must have blinded it. And it is hurt and drifting back towards the whole in the ground. We have it on the run now. I watch as Freya and Lamnin’s celestial weapon simultaneously land a final mighty blow. As the creature’s red eye dims and the mass falls into the hole and we hear its skull shatter on the ground below. I turned and hugged Pedal. And then I spit down that hole.
 
My pal the Statue:
We are exhausted and Nac’ku has now fully turned to stone. I can still hear him. I am really worried about him but I don’t want him to know. I don’t what him to freak out. He says we just need some Dimond dust or something to get him to turn back. He did make a pretty awesome statue with his massive size and middle finger turned up at his attacker. We didn’t want to leave Nac’ku so we lingered in disbelief that we were still mostly alive. And then Freya told us that she thinks she might know more about this town and the matropoliti because she thinks she is from here. She told us about how she ran away when she was little which made me sad because when I was separated from my people at least my sister and I were lost together. She was all alone. I wonder if she will remember more that might help us to make since of what is going on in this town.
 
Since my buddy was busy being a statue, I went around the corner to check if there were any graves that might have anything useful. I did find a Dimond but wasn’t sure how to make it into dust. So I put a floppy hat on our stone buddy to keep him warm and we went back up to the surface to find someone to help us.
 
Hugin:
I also told Pedal about my sister Hugin. I haven’t talked about her to anyone, so it was hard. Ol’Reggie found us when we were kids on the street. People were mean to us because we were different, but we learned how to survive. Ol’Reggie had a business opportunity for us to work with him and work the crowds as he sold goods from town to town on his cart. Sometimes he would have me copy artwork to sell as original work. Sometimes we would do odd jobs for thieves guilds. I learned thieves can't from him too. One time there was this big score but we had to rip off some scarry people and … well long story short we had to cut our losses. We were all going to get caught but Hugin distracted them long enough for me and Ol’Reggie to get away. I didn’t want to leave but he said to me voice “I’m sorry but some jobs are just too big for us kid, It's time to skedaddle”