With a few items collected by Mariel and Corita, the group backtracked to the chamber that contained the statue of Runelord Alaznist. There was one hallway left in the room which the group went through. Although it split into two paths, Draul quickly realized that the left-most path led back to the entrance to the chamber he spotted before coming across the statue. Instead, the group went to the right, following the hallway to the next chamber.
The tunnel widened into the chamber with Draul noting a set of stairs that led up a small stone platform in the corner. Atop the platform was an altar made of jagged black marble. While Corita, Razvan, and Kennick went to examine the large door on the other side of the chamber, Draul stepped up to the platform with Mariel joining him. There was a small hole in the altar which had a small pool of dark liquid. Draul scowled at the water's stench and backed away from the altar.
"Don't touch the water," Draul warned. "If this is what I think it is, then this is a shrine for Lamashtu."
"You sound very confident about that," Mariel commented.
"Shalelu never mentioned anything about Koruvus having three arms," Draul explained. "If I'm correct, I believe that Koruvus must have touched or even drank from the water at this altar, which led to his monstrous corruption."
"That does sound like a plausible theory," Mariel nodded in agreement. "There were those in Thassilon that worshiped dark and fiendish gods. It doesn't surprise me to find a shrine of Lamashtu in these ruins."
"The door's unlocked!" Razvan called out to Draul and Mariel. "Are we ready to continue?"
"Indeed we are," Draul answered with Mariel nodding. "Let's press on."
Draul stood alongside Kennick by the door, and together, they pushed it open to reveal a large chamber. The paladin had spent many times in cathedrals to see the resemblance in the room they stepped into from the walls carved with runes to the stairways that led to a pulpit overlooking the chamber across from the adventurers. The center of the room held a large pool of water that was outlined with a ring of skulls impaled on spikes. Toward the back of the pulpit, the adventurers could see wisps of steam rise up from something hidden to the group.
"How dare you intrude upon the Mother's sanctum!" a feminine voice shrieked from the pulpit.
"Who said that?" Corita called out. "I can't see anyone!"
"They must be invisible," Mariel told the group. "Close the door!"
"Better get to it," Razvan warned. "It looks like we have more company!"
Kennick closed the doors while Draul took notice of two sinspawn Razvan spotted climbing down the stairs of the pulpit. The paladin stepped forward to fight the experiments off when his muscles grew stiff. Despite his best efforts, he found himself unable to move at all. Draul could see a small creature with gray skin, twisted horns, and wings that kept her afloat above the pulpit. They had found the quasit Tsuto wrote about and Draul could do nothing to fight against her as he fell victim to one of her spells.
Fortunately, Draul had his companions to keep him safe. Mariel blasted the quasit with a bolt of magical energy. Razvan and Kennick both stepped up to confront the sinspawn while Corita took out her lute, strumming the strings to inspire her companions. Razvan stabbed at the sinspawn, embedding his dagger into the shoulder, only to be pushed away by its ranseur before it bit him across his arm. Draul broke free from the quasit's spell to help Razvan to find that his help wasn't necessary. Kennick tore through the sinspawn he fought with his teeth and lunged at the enemy that had struck Razvan, tearing through the warrior with his claws.
The quasit held out her hands, and with a cackle, casted another spell. A red-skinned rat appeared in front of the group by the pool of water, hissing. The rat was closest to Razvan but he struck wildly with his eyes red with bloodlust. Draul thought that he succumbed to the curse of the sinspawn's bite and rushed forward to help him. The fiendish rat stood no chance as the paladin slammed his greatclub down, crushing it with ease. What remained of the rat vanished and Draul looked to Razvan.
"Are you okay?" Draul asked.
"That sinspawn got me good with those teeth," Razvan said, his teeth clenched from anger. "I can't think clearly right now."
"Rest and leave the quasit to us," Draul told Razvan.
Kennick growled and looked up. "I can't reach her!"
"I have a spell that might be able to help with that," Mariel called out. "Keep me safe until I can cast it!"
"We'll do what we can," Draul told Mariel with the elf chanting.
"Draul!" Corita, still playing her lute, called out. "Catch!"
Corita kicked one of the fallen sinspawn's ranseurs towards Draul. He caught the weapon and dropped his greatclub, knowing that his new weapon would give him the reach he needed to strike at the quasit. Draul nodded in thanks toward Corita and started to jab upward at the quasit with his ranseur. Unfortunately, although Draul knew the basics of fighting with a ranseur, that was all about all he knew. His jabs failed to strike the quasit and she struck at the back of his hand with a tiny dagger she held. Draul preferred fighting with a greatclub with how simple it was to use with his training relying on holding back. If only he could reach the quasit with his weapon of choice, he would have been able to deal with the quasit for good.
The quasit was so focused on avoiding Draul's ranseur that Mariel was able to finish her spell. Her chanting came to an end and Kennick started to grow taller. He was large before the magic took place but now he could strike at the quasit with ease. Draul stepped back, but even with his claws battering against the demon, the quasit kept up in the air. Mariel did her best to aid Kennick by blasting the quasit with another dart of magical energy but it wasn't enough. Quasits were capable of resisting mundane attacks, and although Kennick was deadly, his claws weren't magical.
"Kennick, try to drag the quasit down to the rest of us!" Draul shouted. "I can't hit her while she's in the air!"
"Allow me," Corita said with a smirk. "Here's a little trick I picked up from the goblins!"
Corita pointed toward the quasit, and after she uttered a quick chant, the quasit started to laugh uncontrollably. She was laughing so hard that she couldn't stay up in the air and collapsed onto the ground. Draul knew that this was his chance to act, and given how crafty the quasit proved to be, didn't think it was a wise idea to try to take her prisoner. He called upon the Dawnflower, and as his ranseur was covered by a gold-and-red light, he struck at the demon. He impaled the quasit through her chest and her laughter ended for good.
"Good work, everyone," Draul said and pulled out his ranseur from the slain quasit. "That's one less threat Sandpoint has to worry about."
"That wasn't too difficult," Corita said cheerfully. "These ancient ruins weren't a problem for us."
"We've come a long way," Draul nodded and picked up his greatclub. "Kennick, you did great. If you can fight like that when we head to Thistletop, those goblins won't stand a chance."
"You're right," Kennick said with a hint of a smile. "Thank you for letting me fight like this and for keeping my secret."
"It's not a problem at all," Corita told Kennick.
"Now that the fighting is over, I'd like to see what's up in the pulpit," Mariel said, making her way to the stairs.
"You go on ahead," Razvan told the other, his tone sharp as he continued to fight back the anger. "I just need to calm down."
"Mariel, is there anything we can do for Razvan?" Draul asked as he, Corita, and Kennick followed the wizard up to the pulpit.
"I believe that after some time, the magical rage he feels will wear off on its own," Mariel answered without looking back.
Aside from Razvan, the group made it to the pulpit and discovered a second pool. Unlike the larger one in the center of the room, the well was shaped in the form of a triangle and filled with bubbling water. It was a strange color as the liquid appeared to be a translucent lava, and given the steam that rose from the orange water, Draul knew better than to touch it. Even stranger was that even though there was steam coming from the liquid, the area around the pool was incredibly cold.
"More corrupted water," Draul muttered. "Another of Lamashtu's shrines."
"Not quite," Mariel shook her head with the paladin noticing that her eyes were wide in awe. "I can't believe this."
"What is it, Mariel?" Corita asked.
"A runewell," Mariel answered. "They're powerful artifacts that the runelords used to extract sinful souls to empower them."
"It's dark magic," Kennick grunted.
"Indeed," Draul nodded with a frown. "They sound important, and well, it doesn't seem like these ruins would warrant having one."
"I don't think it's one of the main runewells," Mariel said, tapping her chin in thought. "It might have been a minor one created as an experiment. The existence of smaller runewells would be necessary given that they can create sinspawn."
"That would explain why there were sinspawn here," Draul commented. "How can we destroy it?"
"We can't destroy it," Mariel said sharply.
"Mariel, I get that you want to learn more about Thassilon but-"
"I mean we physically can't destroy it," Mariel interrupted Draul. "Even if it bears a fraction of a true runewell's power, it's beyond our power to destroy this one. I imagine that there's a specific method to destroy it but I do not know what it is."
"Is there anything we can do about it?" Corita asked. "We can't leave it for someone to summon more sinspawn."
"There doesn't appear to be much water left," Mariel noted and circled around the runewell. "I think I know how I can use the runewell to summon a sinspawn, and from there, the rest of you can kill it before it can fight back. That's the best we can do."
"Something's not right," Draul stroked his chin in thought. "If this runewell dates back to Thassilon, wouldn't it have plenty of souls to make more sinspawn?"
"You bring up an interesting point," Mariel nodded. "It could be that it was dormant since Thassilon's destruction and was only reactivated recently. It would still need wrathful souls to power it."
"Goblins are wrathful and plenty of them have died recently," Kennick pointed out. "What of the quasit? What was she doing in these ruins?"
"It could be that she survived the destruction of Thassilon and had been trapped here for thousands of years," Mariel suggested. "There's little we can do but speculate. Gather around so we can deal with the last sinspawn."
Draul held his greatclub tightly and Corita took out her longsword. Kennick stood between them, watching Mariel pull out a small knife better suited for opening a letter than for combat. She pricked the tip of the blade to her finger and winced in pain. The drop of blood fell into the runewell and the adventurers could see the water churning as what was left started to form a creature. From the runewell emerged a sinspawn that fell onto its hands and knees.
Draul, Corita, and Kennick struck quickly, not giving the sinspawn a chance to rise. It was killed before it knew what was happening. The runewell was empty but the air around it was still cold.
"It's done," Draul sighed in relief. "I hate how this is all we can do."
"I will see if I can find a way to destroy it," Mariel told Draul. "Make no mistake. I know that Thassilon is a wicked empire that's better off gone, including some of the malicious artifacts from that time. My interest in Thassilon is more to learn of its history than it is to see its ways return."
"That's a relief to hear," Draul said. "We should return to Sandpoint. We'll need to come up with a plan on what to do next."
"I'll need to clean up before heading back," Kennick stated, gesturing to his blood-soaked mouth.
"We'll bring some water for you to wash up with," Corita promised Kennick. "No one will know that you're a coldborn."
"Thank you," Kennick said with a nod.
Draul looked over the pulpit to see Razvan taking deep breaths. Razvan looked up at the pulpit and gave the paladin a thumbs up, showing that he had recovered from the sinspawn's bite. Draul nodded and sighed in relief. He was worried that the group was at risk of falling apart after Tsuto defeated them, but now, their spirits had been raised. They had uncovered ancient Thassilonian ruins and defeated the monsters lurking within. The sinspawn were intimidating but they along with their quasit master fell to the adventurers.
They wouldn't immediately leave for Thistletop. Sheriff Hemlock had yet to return from Magnimar with reinforcements and Draul didn't feel it was best to leave Sandpoint without their protection. When the time came, he knew that his companions would be ready to confront whatever was waiting for them at Thistletop.
A/N: And with that, we wrap up the third part of Burnt Offerings. There's one part remaining but it's the largest part so we have plenty of story left to go.
Until next time.