Session XII
The cast:
- Finn McCarr, a Venturer
- Regular-Sized Rudy, a Dwarven Fury
- Pilo Filo, a Paladin
- Barborygmos (“Borb”), a Cleric of Ammonar
- Buddy, an Elven Ranger
- Linda, his henchman, an Elven Courtier
- Sammy Davis Jr. Jr., her familiar, a small dog
- Robin, a Warlock
- Batmanuel, his bat familiar, no longer a soothsayer
The adventurers had lept into the vortex of arcane energy with no idea what to expect. When they regained their senses, they and their surroundings had taken on a greyish, translucent cast. Despite this, the area they were in strongly resembled a garden the adventurers had noticed previously in the dungeon. In addition, they discovered that they had been reunited with Pilo Filo and Regular-Sized Rudy. There was little time to remark on this, for reunited party found themselves being menaced by a giant snake more than twenty feet long. Luckily, the serpent was lazy and not inclined toward immediate violence, as it likely could have slain the entire party. Making as little movement as possible, Linda drew upon her elvish powers and sang the snake to sleep. Rudy did not waste a moment, and he jumped forward and hacked off the snake's head.
“My friends, we seem to have been transported to the Ethereal Plane”, Robin opined. “Some aspects of this dungeon will be the same as before, but others may be changed. Caution is required.” The dungeon's basic structure seemed to be unchanged, and the adventurers came across the crystal ball that had shown Pilo Filo in hellish torment. Knowing it to be full of deceit, Finn McCarr fired a bolt at it and shattered it into countless pieces. Robin bemoaned the loss of a possible source of information.
The party also came across twelve sarcophagi. Barely waiting for his friends to agree with his plan, Rudy pushed one's lid off, revealing the remarkably preserved corpse of a human man. Quickly, the dwarf sliced the corpse's head off and took the finely wrought orichalcum necklace it had worn. He and Borb repeated this process for three more sarcophagi. Each contained the same body, and each newly uncovered corpse had already been beheaded. Yet, when opening the fourth sarcophagus, the two sprung a deadly trap: a pit opened in the ground, and coffin, cleric, and dwarf all fell into it. Tragically, the sarcophagus landed heavily on the two adventurers, crushing one of Borb's and both of Rudy's legs. Neither would be of much use for the next few weeks. The adventurers decided to not open any more sarcophagi.
To return to the main area of the dungeon, the party would have to travel through either the stone fish room or the bedroom. Both were sure to be dangerous, but the fish room was deemed less so. In the Ethereal Realm, the stone fish were animated and radiant. And something in the room was hunting them, an aberrant beast with a three-pronged mouth. The adventurers crossed through the room as quickly as possible. They caught the monster's attention, but not its ire, and escaped safely.
The vortex existed in the Ethereal Plane as well. Nearing it, Rudy was snatched into the nothing. Past the vortex was a narrow cavern passageway filled with waist-high water. The six remaining adventurers were advancing slowly through it, when, abruptly, a hole opened in the ground sucked Borb down into the murky depths. At this moment, Finn McCarrr revealed that he was a real hero (and a real human being). Tying himself to a rope that he handed to Buddy, he dove down after their cleric friend, and, remarkably, pulled him up to safety. Borb coughed and choked, utterly amazed at his continued existence. The watery passageway eventually widened into a small side room filled with paintings and statues, all of the same man who had been in the sarcophagi. Finn greedily eyed the paintings, but their size, as well as the possible threat of the statues, meant that they would have to be left behind.
After leaving that area, the adventurers all jumped through the vortex again. As they suspected, it returned them to the Material Plane, where they soon found Rudy. Since the vortex did not lead out of the dungeon, what else could be done? The adventurers returned to the ballroom of automata. Finn grabbed one of the inert mechanical humanoids and began to drag it away. This prompted the four dancers to attack, and battle was joined
The automata proved to not be especially dangerous combatants, but the fight was still difficult. Borg, Rudy, Robin, and Pilo had all not fully recovered from their wounds, and so they could not contribute to the party's efforts. Linda, Buddy, and Finn did their best, but first Linda fell, wounded cruelly in the genitals. The unskilled and bookish Finn then struck down an automaton. He shouted in triumphant glee before being smashed in the face by another. Enraged by the loss of his friends, Buddy did not flinch, and soon he was the only one left standing. But he was now the only adventurer still capable of combat. And the party did not have sufficient rations to wait for anyone else to recover. They hoped desperately that no further enemies would be found.
Making sacrifice to Bel at the altar now seemed a more appealing idea. Buddy, Borg, and Philo crept into the entry room. But luck was against them, as a number of the goblins had fully reformed themselves. Accompanied by a flurry of crossbow bolts, the three hastily departed.
Another possibility was a room that had contained six floating well-cushioned chairs that had been arranged in a circle around a pentacle drawn into the floor. Rudy sat down in one of the chairs, and a great red, horned demon appeared in the pentacle. “A mortal summons me”, the demon intoned in a guttural voice. Rudy stood up quickly, and the demon disappeared. He chose another chair, and the demon appeared again. “The same mortal has summoned me. What does he want?” the demon said this time. Rudy apologized. “Sorry, I was seeing if I could summon anything else instead of just you” and stood up again. “I don't know what I was expecting that time” he told his friends.
The ceiling of the demon's room had its own gravity, and it contained a lovely lily pond. The adventurers next made their way to it. This prompted a lovely nymph to appear and greet them. The mad mage who had made this reality-bending structure had imprisoned her in the pool for his own enigmatic reasons. “If one of you approaches me in the water, your life force might free me. Then we could work together to escape”, she said. The party looked at one another. Could she be trusted? Always one to volunteer, Finn stepped forward and waded out toward the pool. Yet his heroic instincts failed him terribly here. While his friends watched, the nymph grabbed the venturer, paralyzed him with a touch, and drowned him. Face-down in the water, his limbs slowly stopped twitching. Then the nymph turned to the rest of the party. “See how peacefully your friend rests. Would another one of you like to approach? I sense I am close to freedom, and then we can all escape together.” The survivors backed away in horror, and the treacherous water fairy disappeared into the depths of her pond.
Back in the demon's room, the adventurers had a remarkable idea. Finn's body still floated in the pool above them. The agile Buddy threw up his grappling hook and stuck it in his friend's body. The others then pulled the venturer out of the water, back onto the demon's area. If they ever managed to escape this dungeon, perhaps Finn could be restored to life. Seeing no other choice, Robin sat back down in one of the floating chairs, summoning the demon. Upon request, the fiend gave his name: Andromalech. Surprisingly, he proved to be quite chatty. He warned the adventurers not to trust the nymph that lived above him, a warning they ruefully agreed with. The party mentioned they were attempting to find a way of leaving this dungeon. Andromalech cheerfully mentioned that he could do just that. When asked how such a thing might be accomplished, and where they would be transported to, the demon was frighteningly vague on details. Having just been deceived, this made the adventurers quite cautious. But what else could they do? The only other plausible source of escape was the altar of Bel. But accessing it would require killing many goblins, something that Buddy was unlikely to be able to accomplish without assistance. And their provisions would go bad in less than a week.
The party trusted in Fate, sat down in the chairs, and told Andromalech that they were ready to leave. He smiled gleefully, and darkness took them. When they regained themselves, they found they were back at Türos Tem! According to a nearby soldier, mere seconds had passed since they had first entered the cube, which had vanished with their exit.
Pausing only to catch his breath, Buddy rushed Finn to Cyfaraun. The venturer was restored to life, but at the cost of his sight. Now blind, Finn considered everything he had seen and done and decided that his life as an adventurer had come to its end. He could seek out wealth and power as a blind businessman instead of having to delve for it in squalid dungeons. His companions were saddened by his departure, but they accepted his reasoning. Finn promised to lend them his mercantile services whenever they found themselves in Cyfaraun.
Shortly after, Rudy and Borb had their wounded legs restored. While waiting to recover, they made the acquaintance of a replacement for Finn, a fierce barbarian named Conan O'Brien. Once everyone had been restored, the adventurers ventured to the buried temple for their first time. After killing an ogre with relative ease, they made quite a discovery: The door that led to the temple's lower floor from the old brigand's area had been bashed down. Shortly thereafter, they heard the moaning of a dozen zombies. Although those were defeated, they would surely not be the last. For the undead of the catacombs could now roam the entire temple.
Mortal Wounds Count:
- Linda, damaged genitals
- Rudy, lamed legs (later restored)
- Borb, lamed leg (later restored)
Death Count
- Finn McCarr (later raised)
Tampering with Mortality Count:
- Finn McCarr, blinded
- Rudy, bottomless hunger
- Robin, claws
- Borb, difficulty sleeping
Retiree Count: