Washing Pool and Stairs

After recovering from the battle with Erylium, you retrace your steps back to the foyer with the statue of the angry looking woman. With a little tugging Yola frees the metal and ivory polearm from the statue's grip. On close inspection it is clear that the weapon is both finely forged and finely crafted, being both a deadly weapon and a work of art. Now suitably armed, Yola leads the way up the long eastern stairway.

The door at the top opens into circular chamber. Water ripples in a circular pool lined with skulls here. Smears of what looks like blood mar the pool's rim in places. Opposite, another door leads out of the room. Seeing the blood, the party cautiously enters the room but fails to spot the chamber's guardian concealed in the shadows until it strikes.

A bizarre and ghoulish creature drops from the ceiling on leathery wings. At first you think it is some sort of bird or bat, but then it opens its mouth,emitting a greenish glow that illuminates it - a severed, winged human head sprouting tentacles instead of hair. The thing begins to shriek as it swoops towards you, and its enchanted voice strikes terror into your hearts. Sasha and Seoni clutch their ears and fall to their knees, paralyzed by the shrieking.

Yola is the first to gather her wits and respond to this latest threat, and with a single thrust buries the foot long blade of her new polearm straight through the creature as it dives towards her two prone companions, ending the terrible shrieking as quickly as it began.

The group shakes off the effects of the encounter with no lasting damage and searches the small room, but finds nothing of value here, so moves on through the other door. Beyond it a circular staircase winds up around a pillar into darkness. Shining Sasha's lantern up the stairs reveals a cave in not for up the stairs, completely blocking the way up. As with the blocked passage that Sasha and Gerund found in the tunnels, clearing the stairs is a feat well beyond the skills and equipment you have at your disposal. Faced with a dead end, your party winds its way back to the statue room yet again. There are now only two unexplored paths left to you - the north facing door in the statue room, or the northern down sloping tunnel to your west.

I sped through the encounter with the creature in the washing room ( called a vargouille) to keep things moving, and I was right! check out the roll log to the side to see how the combat went. Yola took it out with one hit, and even if she had missed, Poot was right behind her with a fatal bow shot.

If you have any actions or questions you'd like to take or ask about the two rooms at the end of the stairs please feel free. Otherwise, just post as to where you want to go next. If everybody chimes in quickly I'll update before Wed.

Finally, a note on loot: Since you guys are remarkably bad at saying things like " I pick up the miniature tiara," I'm going to assume you as a party are grabbing loot as you go. Unless someone specifically states they are picking up item x, I'll pool all this together and you can sell it as a group when next in town.