Session 18

Date: 5/13/2018

Attending: Jake, Wes, Joey, Aaron, Justin

Absent: Dave – Mother’s Day

Start Time: 7:15 p.m.

Just as the party is about to go down the stairs, Osbert halts the group, and says “I won’t be going. I am a new man and my former life is behind me – but I do not want to face the temptation that may be found in these ruins. As there have been redcaps in the area and some of the mercenaries from Evershade fled rather than be slain or captured, someone should stand guard.”

After some minor heckling and accusations of cowardice the party agrees to let Osbert sit the temple ruins out. Jace expresses concerns that this may foil the party’s attempt to bluff through the meeting or ritual they expect to find. Norris then points out that that is an assumption on their part. “It does not look like anyone has been down these stairs in quite some time. What if the purpose was for Benzu to find or release something? Or even just open this door? We don’t even know if we can close it again.” A quick examination reveals that Norris is correct, and the secret door cannot be closed.

The party, being stalwart adventurers, presses on anyway and descends into the depths of the underground ruins. Khalo and Jace lead the way using darkvision, the rest following behind some 40 feet with Soromir’s hooded lantern. At the bottom of the stairs is a corridor. The walls floor and ceiling are made of cut rectangular stones and are covered in dust, mold, and slime. Cobwebs drape down and bridge angles where walls and ceiling meet, and the air has a pungent moist mustiness odor and taste.

The party goes down the hall for about 60 feet where it ends in a “T” intersection. Opting for the right-hand path they move on, when Khalo hears a low moaning and shuffling getting closer. Soromir comes forward with the lantern and the party braces themselves for whatever arrives. Two dwarven mummies stumble into the 15’ cone of illumination from Soromir’s lantern. The party slays the undead horrors, but Jace contracts a powerful disease Norris identifies as mummy rot.

The party retreats up the stairs and makes camp near the ruins. They rest for the remainder of the day, through the night, and into the morning. Every 8 hours Norris tries to cure the mummy rot, and fails while Jace rots away, until the last attempt is successful. The party returns to the ruins.

Once again in the musty halls the party pushes on past where the dwarven mummies were found. Coming to another “T” intersection they once again choose the right-hand path. While wlaking down this new corridor it is noticed that a 5 feet long section of wall doesn’t look to be the same construction as the rest of it. Cleverly concealed it was probably unnoticeable when the hall was kept up, but now the growth pattern of the mold highlights differences and seams that would otherwise be invisible. Jace uses his wand of Detect Secret Doors and is able to find the opening mechanism. Opening the hidden door, a short 4 foot depression is revealed, with another door.

This door is circular and made from a single piece of metal. A hand wheel is mounted in the center. The party compares notes and realizes that this door is almost the exact same as the one Blackbriar opened on the Isle of Demos so many weeks ago. The only difference is that one was etched and inscribed with runes and sigils and the door in front of them is plain and unadorned.

The party opens the door.

Beyond is a hall radically different from the one they are standing in. Each wall, the floor, and the ceiling seem to be made from a single slab of polished black basalt. Dust lies on the ground but no mold or cobwebs are on the walls. The air is drier and has a faint antiseptic smell to it.

Walking in the hall goes a short feet and dead ends in a large circular room. The ceiling is domed, and a large glass half hemisphere is mounted upside-down in the center of the ceiling. A dark opaque red liquid fills 1/3 of the hemisphere; the remaining 2/3s are streaked with a dried brownish red residue. Glass and copper tubing of various sizes comes out of the base of the hemisphere and drapes before disappearing into the walls and ceiling at various points.

The circumference of the room is a collection of alchemical worktables littered with beakers and jars, collapsed and rotting bookcases, and six intermittently spaced glass cylinders running floor to ceiling at a slight angle and capped at the foot and hear by metal apertures. The cylinders are large, three feet in diameter, and are filled with a pale yellow liquid. Floating in the liquid are six bodies, 1 per tube, each desiccated and in various states of damage – one missing an arm, another’s whole body cavity is open and empty, etc… What is consistent is that they are all male, and the face of each has been sliced off in a perfect rectangle from chin to scalp, exposing the skull.

In the center of the room resting on 4 metal posts is a metal tube stretched horizontally across the supports. It is about 7 feet long and 3 feet in diameter, and the top section seems to be a hatch of some kind with a latch on the side. Large tubing rise out of the floor and are mounted into the thing, and a faint pumping noise, along with the gurgling of fluid is heard.

The party first inspects the cylinders. There is one dwarf, one human, one elf, one gnome, one Halfling, and one orc each. Other than that they cannot determine any information. Orenthal examines the one intact bookcase and finds that most of the books crumble to dust when touched. One does not. Flipping through it he sees a language that he can’t identify much less read, but looks similar to elvish and sylvan. Casting read magic he comes to a page he can read through the spell. It is titled “Analysis and Procedures of attaching the Warlord’s Additional Limbs.” It then goes into a detailed description of a bio chemical and magical process which Orenthal barely understands (at his first read in his defense). It seems to be attaching a construct arm to a dwarf, and fusing it to the spine in some fashion.

As Orenthal reads he realizes the bottom half of the page is a magical trap. He is able to resist (made his save versus permanent Feeblemind spell) but once the trap is sprung the ink slides off of the pages of the book. Orenthal pulls out his journal and furiously tries to write down everything he remembers.

Next the party congregates around the central metal tube. Khalo hacks one of the pipes open spilling what seems to be the liquid from the hemisphere above. Some of it touches Khalo’s skin and he is overcome with memories that clearly belong to someone else. A different droplet provides different memories, a distinctly different source (person) from the first. Otherwise the liquid seems to be blood.

Suddenly Orenthal chooses to open the hatch on the metal tube. A hissing noise causes him to jump back as a thick gas is released from within. A figure sits up in the tube.

It is tall, perhaps seven feet if standing, and rail thin. It’s skin is a pasty grey color, and it is completely hairless. The one remaining ear is elvish in appearance, but far longer than a typical elf – extending an inch or two higher than its head. A black metal apparatus is mounted into its right face, covering or replacing its mouth, right eye, and right side of its head. Where its mouth would be is a black metal mesh in a frame. Its right eye is gone as is half its nose, and the socket is deep with a pale purple pinpoint of light deep within.  The black metal continues down into its torso and its right arm has been replaced with a mechanical one – a thin insectine limb that ends in a three pronged pincher instead of a hand. Its clothes are alien in design and cut. The one good eye spins 360 degrees in its socket before coming to rest on Orenthal.

It says something than no one understands. Orenthal tries to respond in common. The being then casts a spell, and then speaks in clear common to Orenthal. The conversation is disjointed and stilted, but it indicates that this is not its world, that it was not at rest but entombed, and that centuries had passed. Khalo asks several questions that seem to be ignored. It gets out of the tube and stands. It casts another spell which Orenthal identifies as some sort of messaging spell, similar to sending but that can cross planes. Khalo, frustrated at being ignored, attacks the being, stabbing it with his spear. The party, now in initiative, lays into it, and slays it quickly.

Orenthal was upset and Khalo and he begin arguing – Khalo defending his choice to attack and Orenthal lamenting that more information had not been retrieved, assuming that they could have leveraged the fact that they released it into being allies.

Suddenly a portal – specifically from a gate spell – opens in the room. Only Khalo is in a vantage point to see within – and he looks and the runs from the room full stop. The rest of the party bolts with him – asking no questions. Orenthal is the only one who doesn’t immediately run – instead he peeks around the edge of the gate.

He sees a vast hall made of polished red stone, with support columns in a line. Walking towards the gate is a figure like the one they just slew, except this one’s metal parts are different – having a metal band that comes over the top of its skull and surrounding (and replacing) both eyes. One either side of it is a large circular creature floating about three feet off of the ground. The creatures seem to be all head, enormous toothy mouths under a massive central eye, nine other eyes arrayed on individual stalks branching out of their heads. The tall grey elf like thing was conversing with one of the eye things as they walked. Orenthal flees.

Exiting the room they shut the circular metal door.  After waiting for 30 anxious minutes, they open the door and cautiously enter. The room is completely empty. Furniture, tubes, hemisphere, liquid, all gone leaving bare black rock. Even the dust is missing.

They re-enter the regular temple halls and turn right. It goes for a short way and then dead-ends in a square room. It is empty except for a pedestal in the center with a small wooden box on top.

The party approached and Khalo picks up the box. No trap goes off. He hands it to Orenthal who opens it. Within is a deck of cards. The characters are confused, the players hyperventilate, and the DM chuckles. Orenthal pulls the deck out, flips it over, and thumbs through the cards. It is a non-magical oracular deck used in divination, similar to a real world tarot deck, with art that is Nerull themed. The characters shrug, the players angrily accuse the DM of “just messing with us!”, the DM laughs (if anyone just stumbled on this via the internet and doesn’t understand the references here, look up “Deck of Many Things.” It’s a game wrecking artifact that players can’t resist).

They retrace their steps, passing by the secret door and the side hall that leads outside, continuing on until they reach another “T” intersection. Once again they go right, and it dead-ends in another room. This one seems to be an old barracks, with moldy bedframes and rotting mattresses. A quick, rogue-less search reveals nothing of interest and they go the opposite way. Hearing movement down this hall, Orenthal sends Icarus to get Osbert, temptations be damned, and the hall continues but they find an ornate door in the walls. Khalo throws it open just as Osbert joins the group (along with Icarus), and they see a worship hall with pews and an altar. A ghoulish priest is leading 25 other ghouls in a silent worship service to Nerull. The party prepares to charge.

End of Session

500 XP