Nualia

“Nualia”
Rise of the Runelords episode
Episode no.	Episode 19
Date	2008
Game Master	Abbe
Characters	Dorothea Honeypot Nathaniel Nell Velicia
Episode chronology ← Previous Next → "Nell Meets Grell" "Saviour in Time of Need"
Rise of the Runelords chapter list

In this chapter the heroes continue through the dangers of Thistletop and finally face Nualia.

Nualia

Back in Sandpoint we found Orik and Lyrie in The Fatman's Feedbag. I brought their things and walked up to them and said: "Here are your things. As you can see we keep our word. I hope you do the same." It might seem harsh, but I was hurt, tired and hungry so I didn't feel like being pleasant. The others were in a better mood and stayed and talked. I headed home to the Rusty Dragon. It felt so good to get back. I unpacked the strange crown/jester hat Ripnugget had worn and the quite ugly leather helm Bruthazmus had worn and put them on the floor next to the wall thinking that I should hang them there later. Now I had to eat and left for the common room.

There were quite many customers, but I got served quickly anyway. I ordered a large meal even though we had had dinner at Thistletop. I guess I need lots of food to heal. After a while the others showed up with Orik and Lyrie. They had been drinking and were quite tipsy when they sat down. Velicia looked longingly at my half eaten dinner and ordered some for herself. Orik and Lyrie answered some questions we asked them about Thisteltop. Apparently Nualia has given birth to those shadow wolves we fought as some form of gift from the Lamashtu, mother of monsters. Orik and Lyrie found Nualias demon worshiping appalling. Dorothea thought it would be cool to have her own collection of demons. "But stuffed demons..." she added when she got strange looks from all others. I mentioned to her about them disappearing when killed. Orik and Lyrie also told us about a trap that had killed their companion Ragvor the barbarian. Honeypot tried to get them even more drunk and seemed to have some plan, but feeling hurt all over and full I turned in early and didn't see it play out.

The next morning I felt much refreshed, even though I was still a little stiff from the healing wounds. We all gathered at the Rusty Dragon dining hall, and after a big breakfast and provisioning we set out to Thistletop again. Wise from the last time, when I had to share my food with a horse, I brought extra. We got back out on the road again and got to Thistletop without any encounters. Perhaps goblins will keep their word when given.

We returned to the stairs behind the hidden door. They led down to a detailed stone door, depicting jewels and crowns. Someone without any taste had chiseled off most of the pictures. The door was slightly ajar and we continued into a room with two pillars and four ancient statues standing in alcoves around the room. The room had an upward slope and the statues leaned against the walls of their alcoves. They depicted a man with a book decorated by a star with seven points under one arm and a glaive in his other hand. I remembered the statue under Sandpoint and that female statue had the same star on her book, but another kind of polearm. They still were similar in many ways. There's probably some connection between them. Nathaniel mentioned that the statues has stones in their foreheads. When looking at Thistletop we had noted that it looked like a head sticking up of the water just enough to look, but not quite to breathe. It had some bumps in the forehead that match those of the statues. It also had a tilt that might match the slope of the room.

When we were about to leave the room and go on into a corridor that also had the same slope I notice a polished square between two statues and stopped the others before they entered. I reminded them of what Orik and Lyrie had said about a trap and we all stood out in the room looking at the corridor before us. I very carefully walked into the corridor and up to the polished square. Using one of the daggers from upstairs I tried to set it off to be able to jam it before anybody got hurt, but I couldn't. I noted though that the statues held glaives and if they moved they wouldn't slash down, but rather in a sweeping move at waist level. I returned out to the others and asked Nathaniel to go upstairs and bring some chairs, but then Velicia took out a cloak and used her magical hand to carry it through the corridor. Nathaniel didn't want to miss the magic show and stayed. Dorothea got bored and walked straight through the corridor. That finally set the trap off and two portcullises fell down in front and behind of her.

Nathaniel tried to lift the portcullis but only got it up a little, enough for someone to roll in under it so Honeypot did. She looked around and said there was some kind of magic. I looked for some way to sabotage the portcullis and while we all worked on saving Dorothea she teleported out on the other side. She said that the statue in the other end of the corridor might operate the trap. The statues in the alcoves swung their glaives as I had predicted but Honeypot avoided them making use of the edges of the alcoves. Velicia tried using her magic, but I didn't understand what she did and probably neither did Nathaniel as he looked like he tried to figure something out. Honeypot jumped up on the left statue when the glaive swung the other way. At least she was out of danger from those. I studied the trap and told everyone how it worked with a trapdoor in the polished square and the timing of the different parts involved. I also mentioned that it's old and worn. Dorothea studied the statue in front of her and said "I think I can shut it off. I just have to figure out how." Nathaniel lifted the portcullis again, making the whole mechanism strain, and I stuck a dagger in, keeping the portcullis up and adding even more strain. Then Dorothea shut it down. The portcullises retracted letting the wedged dagger fall to the ground, and the statues returned to their original position.

"So, let's move on." was answered by me with protests. I asked that we should look where the trapdoor led and we opened it and looked below. There were spikes pointing toward us and several bodies, most very old, but one new was probably Ragvor. I wished I hadn't suggested looking below when the smell reach me. It was worse than the sight of the dead bodies in different states of decay. Velicia said that Ragvors armor was magic. Someone thought someone should climb down to pick it up. As I had a feeling that might include me on a rope as many ideas I don't like seems to do, I suggested lowering a rope and that Velicia could use her magical hand to tie it around the body so Nathaniel could pull it up. It worked well enough and soon the body was out of the pit. It turned out to be a magical scale mail of some sort that Nathaniel was very interested in. So much so that after a swift cleaning of the armor he tried it on.

Nualia.

We opened the door to the left of the statue that shut down the trap. Inside Nualia and one of the awful dog-like shadow creatures we met earlier in the temple were waiting for us. It was a round room lit by burning skulls with red walls and shelves along the walls.

"So, you who have been disturbing my plans have finally come to me. Good. Then I can kill you myself."
Nathaniel Answered her "I used to like you, but now you're pure evil."

I ran up the corridor and took cover in the alcove of the statue, throwing my dagger at the shadow-dog-creature. Unfortunately I missed. Nualia cast some strange spells at Dorothea, but she just giggled. The dog-creature faded and appeared in front of Nathaniel and attacked. Velicia cast spells too and Nathaniel struck the dog in front of him out of his way with his sword and moved up to Nualia. Honeypot and Dorothea followed him into the room. I hid and attacked the dog but it made good use of some cover. Nualia then attacked both Nathaniel and Dorothea hitting them hard with her large sword, but her attacks was answered by Nathaniel who struck her back. Honeypot moved up behind the dog-creature and I tumbled right up to it slashing wildly in the air. I recomposed myself and immediately attacked again still missing it. I retreated back to the alcove and hid, seizing opportunities to trow my dagger into the fight. The dog I couldn't hit up close was then surprised by a dagger from the shadows and took an awful wound.

There was a long fight where Nualia summoned one more evil dog by tearing her own stomach and letting one out and another one leaped out after my dagger had cut her deep in the belly, Nathaniel was struck down when attacked by both Nualia and all her dog-like creatures but got back consciousness and on his feet when fed healing potions, Velicia burned a dog to death, Honeypot killed Nualia and I killed the last two dogs by throwing my dagger into them. We were all tired from the long hard fight, but we checked that Nualia was truly dead before letting our guard down.