Post by Dungeon Master on Nov 2, 2016 11:37:22 GMT -8
The bubbles were cleared a few at a time, with healing in between. The party is rested, and decides it has wasted enough time here (close to a week of campaign time, with another week before the Priests are expected to make their journey from Rappan Athuuk, to reset the traps and erase chalk markings on traps and such within The Mouth, Demon's Gullet, and Fountain).
Einfal correctly plots the course back to the entrance of the Teleportal area, and the party navigates through the Pestilence level back into the Gut. The Gut is followed to the Inn, and the party kills the remaining week, and decides to spend the last couple of days on the south side, by the stables.
The Priests of Orcus come in numbers. There are eight important looking individuals in the front, along with a Vulture like humanoid creature in their midst. They are followed by numerous Acolytes, which the party estimates to be 30 or 40 in number. Each of the Acolytes has an undead with him, typically a Skeleton or Zombie. The party, with Invisibility, decides to abandon all attempts at stealth and run full out away from this horde. Unfortunately, the bird man's senses were rather acute, and it detected Jedakya's movement with the invisibility; a Dispel Magic upon the general area and the healer was plainly visible. The Vulture teleported beyond Jedakya, so he was now between the Vulture-Man and the Priests of Orcus.
Einfal attempted speech through the Eidolon, explaining they were from the surface and were exploring in an attempt to find the priests of Orcus, as they wanted to become members of the religion. Jedakya corroborated the story, but the Priests saw through his lies and beat him almost to death. The Vulture-Man slew the Eidolon and demaded that Einfal show herself or the life of his new slave was forfeit. She offered to buy her former companion's freedom and to become an Acolyte and learn the worship of the Great Orcus. A price was set for Jedakya, which turned out to be a few gold pieces more than the entirety of party liquid wealth. The Vulture-Man accepted, but confiscated Jedakya's items down to his clothes even.
Einfal went with the Priests and Jedakya fled around the corner (towards the Northern Passageway), where the party had gone. He was given a dagger and a blanket, which he cut a hole into with the dagger, for a makeshift poncho.
Einfal went with the Priests, who believed her (Bluff) lies that she wanted to join their ranks. They told her of an adventurer that they had captured within the Mouth, and that she would be given the honor of torturing him to death slowly and painfully, as proof that she was committed to their cause. All this time, she was looking for an opportunity to slip away, but she was in the midst of the Priests, with a massive horde behind her and her Eidolon dead...
The Northern Passageway, eventually opened into a natural cavern with lime walls and ceiling. It did not appear to be in immediate danger of collapse, but that said the cavern wasn't likely to be that difficult in forcing it to collapse. Almost immediately, the statue became visible. Whoever she was, she was mostly regal, except for a necklace of fangs; the statue was forty feet tall, with some kind of a basket upon her head.. this reached up almost to the ceiling of the cavern.
Helmut, via Metamorphosis, flew up the top of the statue while carrying Acetalyne. Once they were above the basket, it became clear that it was hollowed out and near enough ten feet across and about that deep too. In the bottom were several sets of bones, completely rotted clean of flesh and a strange blue gem around the size of a human's head. Helmut went in to investigate and landed beside the gem, his eyes glazing over as he approched. He curled up onto a ball, with the gem near his chest and started to stroke it. Acetalyne felt a pressure against his head, but shook of whatever the effect was. Helmut was non-responsive to the calls of Acetalyne, who decided to climb down to the party; he fell, but due to his monkly arts took basically no damage in the process.
Thrymmm decides it is best to chop the statue down, but quickly realizes the cavern is going to come down instead. He flies upwards, spots the gem and decides to crawl over to it and rub it as his eyes glaze over...
Jedakya is on the ground, too heavy to be lifted upwards and too poor a climber to ascend. Acetalyne climbs up and finally decides to descend within the bowl/basket. He once again shakes off the pressure against his mind, and shakes Helmut to wake him up. Helmut responds almost immediately, with a violent swing of his sword and then goes back to rubbing the gem. Acetalyne disturbs him again, and this time Helmut activates his Corrosive Aura (AoE Acid)... Acetalyne jumps down and takes some acid damage, but again nothing from the fall. Unfortunately, while Helmut and Thrymmm rub the gem, the Corrossive Aura continues for six rounds and Thrymmm dies while happily rubbing the gem.
Einfal has managed to slip away from the Priests of Orcus, and she makes her way towards the Northern Passage, hoping to catch up with the party...
Newmeat (Aegis 6|Soulknife 6, Jimmy #10) is the next addition to the group, sent by the Arch-Mage at what would have been dawn upon the surface. He decides to fly to the top of the statue and tie a rope around Helmut, careful to not disturb him while doing so. Helmut does not attack while this is happening, content to continue to rub the gem. Newmeat, Jedakya and Acetalyne manage to pull Helmut out of the basket, and the effect is broken.
Newmeat, having viewed the action up until his arrival, informs the party that Einfal has escaped, and she's not that far behind the group. They decide to wait for her, and she arrives a few hours later.
Once the situation has been explained to her, she seems obsessed with acquiring the gem both to sell it and to possibly give it to the Priests of Orcus. As the party is exploring the cavern, she heads back for the gem and her eyes glaze over... The party rescues her from the statue, using the rope method again... and they leave the gem behind.
A cavern is found, which is covered with runes upon the floors, walls and ceilings. The runes have a negative effect upon the minds of everyone within the area. People become dizzy and disoriented and start to take damage while within the area... they basically move through it as quickly as possible. Einfal sends her Eidolon back in to explore and it perishes...
This cavern leads eventually to a natural cavern, and that leads to the second level of Rappan Athuuk (if descending from the Sunken Graveyard entrance). The party realizes they're close to where they wiped by the Anti-Paladin and turn tail and flee the way they came.
An alternate exit, from the limestone cavern follows a river as it meanders roughly to the Southeast. This eventually leads to a massive black gate with bars of Adamantine. One such bar upon the gate must be worth a fortune. The gate is beyond the parties ability to pick and does not respond to Dispel Magic. There are three runic symbols above the gate, one of a demon (Orcus) another of a Circle and another of a Square. The party ignores these.
There is another passageway which heads west from this room.. presumably the path that the Priests take, and they haven't returned yet, but will be relatively soon.
This leads to another cavern with a short windy passageway on the right (to the north) opening into a spherical room or the main passageway continues into a larger cavern with a winding ramp circling upwards and out of view. Einfal sends her Eidolon up the narrow passageway, and it spots several plant like creatures resting. Einfal moves up into the passage to a point where she has clear line of sight to the creatures and decides to Fireball them pre-emptively.
They animate and move aggressively towards her... she backs down to where the rest of the party is... they attempt to form a blockade with Helmut in the front. Unfortunately, more of the creatures come from the main/larger cavern too.
Helmut and Newmeat position themselves where (due to size increases) none of the plant creatures can bypass them to get to the rest of the party. The plant creatures prove rediculously easy to hit, but in turn lash out four times each, and wrap a tentacle about the target's neck. Once the tentacle is attached, any damage dealt to the plant creature is evenly divided between the plant and whoever it has a tentacle latched to. The party, after a bit of painful discovery, decides to attack the ones in the rear... Both Helmut and Newmeat have reach, due to their size increases and everyone else has some kind of Ranged attack, except for the healer who is busy keeping everyone alive.
Most of the rear creatures fall, but Helmut has one attached to his neck, while Newmeat has three latched to his neck due to moving forward to stagger his position with Helmut but allow the plant guys to approach him from six squares as opposed to Helmut's two squares of adjacent open area.
Newmeat decides to spread his attacks amongst the creatures attached to him, sort of harming each without killing any, while taking the full (half) of his damage each time. Helmut focuses fire, also taking the full (half amount) of his damage and drops the creatures that are attached one at a time.
It's very late at this time (2:30am), and Helmut decides the battle is taking too long; why is Newmeat keeping four things alive while damaging himself for half his damage dealt each round, without killing any of them. Helmut goes into full offense mode and drops the plant guys in turn, but between (half his damage), and (half Newmeat's damage) and the damage dealt by the plant-men, Jedakya cannot keep up and Newmeat perishes.
Out of game, the next morning... Helmut's player isn't really sure why he attacked, knowing Newmeat was dying in the process, but said it seemed like the correct move at the time.
Einfal correctly plots the course back to the entrance of the Teleportal area, and the party navigates through the Pestilence level back into the Gut. The Gut is followed to the Inn, and the party kills the remaining week, and decides to spend the last couple of days on the south side, by the stables.
The Priests of Orcus come in numbers. There are eight important looking individuals in the front, along with a Vulture like humanoid creature in their midst. They are followed by numerous Acolytes, which the party estimates to be 30 or 40 in number. Each of the Acolytes has an undead with him, typically a Skeleton or Zombie. The party, with Invisibility, decides to abandon all attempts at stealth and run full out away from this horde. Unfortunately, the bird man's senses were rather acute, and it detected Jedakya's movement with the invisibility; a Dispel Magic upon the general area and the healer was plainly visible. The Vulture teleported beyond Jedakya, so he was now between the Vulture-Man and the Priests of Orcus.
Einfal attempted speech through the Eidolon, explaining they were from the surface and were exploring in an attempt to find the priests of Orcus, as they wanted to become members of the religion. Jedakya corroborated the story, but the Priests saw through his lies and beat him almost to death. The Vulture-Man slew the Eidolon and demaded that Einfal show herself or the life of his new slave was forfeit. She offered to buy her former companion's freedom and to become an Acolyte and learn the worship of the Great Orcus. A price was set for Jedakya, which turned out to be a few gold pieces more than the entirety of party liquid wealth. The Vulture-Man accepted, but confiscated Jedakya's items down to his clothes even.
Einfal went with the Priests and Jedakya fled around the corner (towards the Northern Passageway), where the party had gone. He was given a dagger and a blanket, which he cut a hole into with the dagger, for a makeshift poncho.
Einfal went with the Priests, who believed her (Bluff) lies that she wanted to join their ranks. They told her of an adventurer that they had captured within the Mouth, and that she would be given the honor of torturing him to death slowly and painfully, as proof that she was committed to their cause. All this time, she was looking for an opportunity to slip away, but she was in the midst of the Priests, with a massive horde behind her and her Eidolon dead...
The Northern Passageway, eventually opened into a natural cavern with lime walls and ceiling. It did not appear to be in immediate danger of collapse, but that said the cavern wasn't likely to be that difficult in forcing it to collapse. Almost immediately, the statue became visible. Whoever she was, she was mostly regal, except for a necklace of fangs; the statue was forty feet tall, with some kind of a basket upon her head.. this reached up almost to the ceiling of the cavern.
Helmut, via Metamorphosis, flew up the top of the statue while carrying Acetalyne. Once they were above the basket, it became clear that it was hollowed out and near enough ten feet across and about that deep too. In the bottom were several sets of bones, completely rotted clean of flesh and a strange blue gem around the size of a human's head. Helmut went in to investigate and landed beside the gem, his eyes glazing over as he approched. He curled up onto a ball, with the gem near his chest and started to stroke it. Acetalyne felt a pressure against his head, but shook of whatever the effect was. Helmut was non-responsive to the calls of Acetalyne, who decided to climb down to the party; he fell, but due to his monkly arts took basically no damage in the process.
Thrymmm decides it is best to chop the statue down, but quickly realizes the cavern is going to come down instead. He flies upwards, spots the gem and decides to crawl over to it and rub it as his eyes glaze over...
Jedakya is on the ground, too heavy to be lifted upwards and too poor a climber to ascend. Acetalyne climbs up and finally decides to descend within the bowl/basket. He once again shakes off the pressure against his mind, and shakes Helmut to wake him up. Helmut responds almost immediately, with a violent swing of his sword and then goes back to rubbing the gem. Acetalyne disturbs him again, and this time Helmut activates his Corrosive Aura (AoE Acid)... Acetalyne jumps down and takes some acid damage, but again nothing from the fall. Unfortunately, while Helmut and Thrymmm rub the gem, the Corrossive Aura continues for six rounds and Thrymmm dies while happily rubbing the gem.
Einfal has managed to slip away from the Priests of Orcus, and she makes her way towards the Northern Passage, hoping to catch up with the party...
Newmeat (Aegis 6|Soulknife 6, Jimmy #10) is the next addition to the group, sent by the Arch-Mage at what would have been dawn upon the surface. He decides to fly to the top of the statue and tie a rope around Helmut, careful to not disturb him while doing so. Helmut does not attack while this is happening, content to continue to rub the gem. Newmeat, Jedakya and Acetalyne manage to pull Helmut out of the basket, and the effect is broken.
Newmeat, having viewed the action up until his arrival, informs the party that Einfal has escaped, and she's not that far behind the group. They decide to wait for her, and she arrives a few hours later.
Once the situation has been explained to her, she seems obsessed with acquiring the gem both to sell it and to possibly give it to the Priests of Orcus. As the party is exploring the cavern, she heads back for the gem and her eyes glaze over... The party rescues her from the statue, using the rope method again... and they leave the gem behind.
A cavern is found, which is covered with runes upon the floors, walls and ceilings. The runes have a negative effect upon the minds of everyone within the area. People become dizzy and disoriented and start to take damage while within the area... they basically move through it as quickly as possible. Einfal sends her Eidolon back in to explore and it perishes...
This cavern leads eventually to a natural cavern, and that leads to the second level of Rappan Athuuk (if descending from the Sunken Graveyard entrance). The party realizes they're close to where they wiped by the Anti-Paladin and turn tail and flee the way they came.
An alternate exit, from the limestone cavern follows a river as it meanders roughly to the Southeast. This eventually leads to a massive black gate with bars of Adamantine. One such bar upon the gate must be worth a fortune. The gate is beyond the parties ability to pick and does not respond to Dispel Magic. There are three runic symbols above the gate, one of a demon (Orcus) another of a Circle and another of a Square. The party ignores these.
There is another passageway which heads west from this room.. presumably the path that the Priests take, and they haven't returned yet, but will be relatively soon.
This leads to another cavern with a short windy passageway on the right (to the north) opening into a spherical room or the main passageway continues into a larger cavern with a winding ramp circling upwards and out of view. Einfal sends her Eidolon up the narrow passageway, and it spots several plant like creatures resting. Einfal moves up into the passage to a point where she has clear line of sight to the creatures and decides to Fireball them pre-emptively.
They animate and move aggressively towards her... she backs down to where the rest of the party is... they attempt to form a blockade with Helmut in the front. Unfortunately, more of the creatures come from the main/larger cavern too.
Helmut and Newmeat position themselves where (due to size increases) none of the plant creatures can bypass them to get to the rest of the party. The plant creatures prove rediculously easy to hit, but in turn lash out four times each, and wrap a tentacle about the target's neck. Once the tentacle is attached, any damage dealt to the plant creature is evenly divided between the plant and whoever it has a tentacle latched to. The party, after a bit of painful discovery, decides to attack the ones in the rear... Both Helmut and Newmeat have reach, due to their size increases and everyone else has some kind of Ranged attack, except for the healer who is busy keeping everyone alive.
Most of the rear creatures fall, but Helmut has one attached to his neck, while Newmeat has three latched to his neck due to moving forward to stagger his position with Helmut but allow the plant guys to approach him from six squares as opposed to Helmut's two squares of adjacent open area.
Newmeat decides to spread his attacks amongst the creatures attached to him, sort of harming each without killing any, while taking the full (half) of his damage each time. Helmut focuses fire, also taking the full (half amount) of his damage and drops the creatures that are attached one at a time.
It's very late at this time (2:30am), and Helmut decides the battle is taking too long; why is Newmeat keeping four things alive while damaging himself for half his damage dealt each round, without killing any of them. Helmut goes into full offense mode and drops the plant guys in turn, but between (half his damage), and (half Newmeat's damage) and the damage dealt by the plant-men, Jedakya cannot keep up and Newmeat perishes.
Out of game, the next morning... Helmut's player isn't really sure why he attacked, knowing Newmeat was dying in the process, but said it seemed like the correct move at the time.