Post by Dungeon Master on Nov 2, 2016 11:36:38 GMT -8
The party decides to backtrack and check for places they have not explored within 'The Mouth of Doom', 'The Demon's Gullet' and 'The Fountain of Pestilence'.
They end up taking the passageway to the right/south from the stairway leading back up to the Fountain, from the Gut. This leads to a teleport, which they later discover is one way only, placing them back near the start of the level. They decide to explore one of the areas on the map, which had been previously ignored; the room with the likeness of Orcus carved into the wall, which they had had difficulty in approaching and chose to ignore...
This leads (via teleportation) to a room which not only is dark, but every surface is painted black as well. Once the whole party arrives they investigate.
There are a series of plates, which can be lifted upwards and rotated about. Some of these have one notch point where they can be lowered, while others have two or three such notches. After some experimentation with traveling one way and then taking the same plate back to the origin room, and then changing the position of the plate, which then took them elsewhere... it is determined that this will be a complicated area.
Some of the rooms look almost exactly the same as other rooms, which further adds to the confusion. In the process of exploration, they come across some Spiders which proove to be a nuissance, along with some Giant Ticks upon the room, in clusters of fours... which drop down on meals that walk beneath them (fireball shined here).
The Eidolon is sent forward several times, presumably to maintain its' effectiveness with limited duration buffs. In one room the link is severed to it almost immediately, which indicated it was slain before it got to act. The Eidolon frequently went ahead, before ascertaining whether the current room was safe, trapped or had any hidden passageways to explore, or whether the telportal disc could go more than one place. One such disc had no notches, and the Eidolon died attempting that teleportal. The Summoner continued to rationalize the Eidolon's reckless exploration, as better that it dies than a living companion.
Not all of the Telelportals transportation took the same length of time, which the party theorized meant that certain rooms were further away than others. Also, it was discovered that there was a varying amount of time after a teleportal had been used, prior to it being reusable by the next person.
In one room, there was a lengthy one minute delay between arrivals, with the Eidolon arriving first. It, via the telepathic bond with the Summoner, revealed the room was basically a massive lake with the Teleportal just beneath the surface. An island wasn't too far off from the Teleportal. Helmut came through next, and at that point a Hydra attacked the pair. They basically fought it and then ran from it, and fought it another couple of rounds, while mainly playing run away. The Eidolon was relaying the information back to Einfal (its' summoner) and she was relaying the situation to the party. Thrymmm figured he should be next, as he did the most damage and the thing needed to be killed. Helmut wanted the Jedakya because heals would mean survival, and he didn't really want to die. The party sent Jedakya and then Thrymmm. Thrymmm was extremely impatient, with the one minute delay after Jedakya before he could arrive, and was quite vocal about it. With the arrival of Thrymmm, and the damage he was dealing, combined with the inability to down anyone in the party with the healing of Jedakya, the creature dove downwards into the murky depths and wasn't seen for some time.
Thyrmmm reconfigured his Astral Suit the next day, and went swimming with the Eidolon in tow, in search of the Hydra. While he didn't find the Hydra, he did find a cavern littered with bones, which got progressively tighter as it went on, but the reduction is size was over a truely massive distance. His swim speed was rather impressive in his suit, yet it was well over a day of swiwmming before the relatively narrow passage opened into a vast cavern. He spotted a massive sleeping creature, with tentacle arms that were a hundred feet long. Although he wasn't sure what the creature was, he did recall stories of sea monsters that could sink ships, and this sleeping beast was larger than any ship he had seen before. Tail smartly tucked between his legs, he returned to the group.
The Teleportal in this room pointed in only one direction, which was not the direction they guessed that they had come from. The party chose an order, but the healer did not want to be the last one out of the group, he continued to point out he was the most valuable member and the highest priority in all situations. He never wanted to be first, or last, or on any edge... The order was decided as Eidolon (who was theoretically less important, as it could be summoned back), and then some of the damage dealing classes, then Jedakya and finally Helmut in the rear.
As everyone else was out of the room, except Helmut, the Hydra choose to re-engage in one more attempt at lunch. Helmut activated an acid aura, which dealt automatic proximity damage to anything that was close to him. He stayed near the Teleportal, and proved to be too thorny of an obstacle to be worthwhile eating.
This teleportal took the party to a room with bubbles along one of the walls. There were two Teleportal options to choose from. The bubbles prooved to be explosive and possibly deadly if enough were detonated at once.
The party camped at this point, and we ended our session.
They end up taking the passageway to the right/south from the stairway leading back up to the Fountain, from the Gut. This leads to a teleport, which they later discover is one way only, placing them back near the start of the level. They decide to explore one of the areas on the map, which had been previously ignored; the room with the likeness of Orcus carved into the wall, which they had had difficulty in approaching and chose to ignore...
This leads (via teleportation) to a room which not only is dark, but every surface is painted black as well. Once the whole party arrives they investigate.
There are a series of plates, which can be lifted upwards and rotated about. Some of these have one notch point where they can be lowered, while others have two or three such notches. After some experimentation with traveling one way and then taking the same plate back to the origin room, and then changing the position of the plate, which then took them elsewhere... it is determined that this will be a complicated area.
Some of the rooms look almost exactly the same as other rooms, which further adds to the confusion. In the process of exploration, they come across some Spiders which proove to be a nuissance, along with some Giant Ticks upon the room, in clusters of fours... which drop down on meals that walk beneath them (fireball shined here).
The Eidolon is sent forward several times, presumably to maintain its' effectiveness with limited duration buffs. In one room the link is severed to it almost immediately, which indicated it was slain before it got to act. The Eidolon frequently went ahead, before ascertaining whether the current room was safe, trapped or had any hidden passageways to explore, or whether the telportal disc could go more than one place. One such disc had no notches, and the Eidolon died attempting that teleportal. The Summoner continued to rationalize the Eidolon's reckless exploration, as better that it dies than a living companion.
Not all of the Telelportals transportation took the same length of time, which the party theorized meant that certain rooms were further away than others. Also, it was discovered that there was a varying amount of time after a teleportal had been used, prior to it being reusable by the next person.
In one room, there was a lengthy one minute delay between arrivals, with the Eidolon arriving first. It, via the telepathic bond with the Summoner, revealed the room was basically a massive lake with the Teleportal just beneath the surface. An island wasn't too far off from the Teleportal. Helmut came through next, and at that point a Hydra attacked the pair. They basically fought it and then ran from it, and fought it another couple of rounds, while mainly playing run away. The Eidolon was relaying the information back to Einfal (its' summoner) and she was relaying the situation to the party. Thrymmm figured he should be next, as he did the most damage and the thing needed to be killed. Helmut wanted the Jedakya because heals would mean survival, and he didn't really want to die. The party sent Jedakya and then Thrymmm. Thrymmm was extremely impatient, with the one minute delay after Jedakya before he could arrive, and was quite vocal about it. With the arrival of Thrymmm, and the damage he was dealing, combined with the inability to down anyone in the party with the healing of Jedakya, the creature dove downwards into the murky depths and wasn't seen for some time.
Thyrmmm reconfigured his Astral Suit the next day, and went swimming with the Eidolon in tow, in search of the Hydra. While he didn't find the Hydra, he did find a cavern littered with bones, which got progressively tighter as it went on, but the reduction is size was over a truely massive distance. His swim speed was rather impressive in his suit, yet it was well over a day of swiwmming before the relatively narrow passage opened into a vast cavern. He spotted a massive sleeping creature, with tentacle arms that were a hundred feet long. Although he wasn't sure what the creature was, he did recall stories of sea monsters that could sink ships, and this sleeping beast was larger than any ship he had seen before. Tail smartly tucked between his legs, he returned to the group.
The Teleportal in this room pointed in only one direction, which was not the direction they guessed that they had come from. The party chose an order, but the healer did not want to be the last one out of the group, he continued to point out he was the most valuable member and the highest priority in all situations. He never wanted to be first, or last, or on any edge... The order was decided as Eidolon (who was theoretically less important, as it could be summoned back), and then some of the damage dealing classes, then Jedakya and finally Helmut in the rear.
As everyone else was out of the room, except Helmut, the Hydra choose to re-engage in one more attempt at lunch. Helmut activated an acid aura, which dealt automatic proximity damage to anything that was close to him. He stayed near the Teleportal, and proved to be too thorny of an obstacle to be worthwhile eating.
This teleportal took the party to a room with bubbles along one of the walls. There were two Teleportal options to choose from. The bubbles prooved to be explosive and possibly deadly if enough were detonated at once.
The party camped at this point, and we ended our session.