Session 43 recap

The party:

Hector, a 13th level Archontean fighter

Vul, a 13th level Archontean magic-user

Julia, a 14th level Archontean cleric of Lucreon Thoth

Melnax, a 7th level elf

Bjorn, an 8th level Wiskin assassin

Susarra, a 10th level Archontean fighter (retainer)

Scylla, a 9th level Archontean ranger (retainer)

Kormak the Snake, an 8th level Wiskin fighter (retainer)

The fight began with Coco and Melnax lobbing Fireballs into the room, killing three quarters of the undead and wounding most of the rest. The remaining creatures swarmed Hector and began to pummel him, the wights draining some of his life force while healing themselves and the zombie hitting him with a meaty fist. Hector moved back out of the room to lick his wounds while Scylla, Susarra, and Kormak moved up. As the retainers held the creatures back Coco and Melnax destroyed one each with Magic Missiles while Julia invoked the power of Thoth to destroy the last.

With the undead vanquished the party began to search the room. The walls were pebbled and slightly oily. On the east wall were three large pieces of graffiti in Mithric: “Death to the hoppers!”, “Life to the Xth”, and “We have disabled the damned wells. Let them try to flank us now!”. Niches to the east held seven foot diameter circles of stone rising three feet above the floor. The cavities within extended ten feet below the surface of the chamber floor with a carved amphibian head at the bottom with a four foot diameter hole in the place of the mouth. The heqeti statue appeared to depict a spellcaster with features close to human but with noticeable amphibian overtones; slightly thickened legs, flattened face, slit nose, and slightly too large mouth. The statue pointed a wand at the secret door through which the party had entered. Using the Helm of Comprehend Languages Coco was able to translate the runes on the plinth of the statue which gave the name of the Heqeti depicted as Qisstep.

Coco cast Detect Magic as a ritual while the rest of the party searched through the room. In addition to some mundane items the party found a magic gladius Heqeti spear, and four pieces of reddish crystallized resin. They also found a backpack containing a leather egg-shaped item, identical to one that had exploded and covered Bjorn with yellow mold previously. He used an Alexia’s Useful Pole to prod this one from a safe distance until it exploded, this time producing a cloud of black and white spores which dissipated after a few minutes.

Returning to the previous rooms the party began to follow the string that had led to the secret door back the other way to see where it came from, eventually finding the end of the string in a room that also contained the desiccated bodies of a dozen starlings. Using Phocion’s Dividers, they determined that they were still about 1,600 feet below the surface, much too far for the starlings to have wandered in randomly. Continuing west they came to an intersection they recognized from before, so they returned the way they had come and took as southern passage, which led to a large chamber constructed in the Rudishva style with all edges rounded and hexagonal black granite sheathing tiles. A long oval console and three stools made of white plasteel stood against the east wall. In one of the stools was the desiccated corpse of a rudishva in an orange jumpsuit, a heqeti stone spear protruding from its back. Three hammocks of sturdy flexible plastic hung from posts set into the curved northern wall. In one of these was a second corpse, also in orange jumpsuit and bearing signs of violent attack. Five corpses of heqeti hoppers lay in the center of the chamber, appearing to have killed each other. By the east wall were several white plasteel racks holding numerous pieces of broken and useless rudishva gear.

The party backtracked past the starlings and took a northeastern passage, coming to hole in the wall beyond which was a covering of the motion sensing vermillion mold. Carefully moving the mold aside the party moved through the opening into the next room, finding that the entire wall was covered in the mold, which depicted a crude spear pointing west and an image of a heqeti hopper.

Continuing to the northeast the party found a dead end tunnel, and back tracked to a northern passage that led to a water filled room, the surface of which was filled with large fungal growths that resembled lily pads. Coco threw a chicken from Larel’s Sack into the water and its splashing around released a cloud of spores into the air which put the chicken into some sort of euphoric state, and it began to sink down into the water, oblivious of its surroundings. Before it could drown however it was swallowed whole by a giant snapping turtle which burst out of the water. As it made its way onto shore Kormak bloodied it. He and Hector dodged its attack and then Hector finished off the beast.

Examining the pool, the party could see an underwater passage leading north near the bottom. Coco gave Julia the Staff of the Frog and she swam through the tunnel, surfacing in a room which the party had visited before. While she was gone the party searched through the sandy beach in the turtle room, finding two five pound bars of platinum, two magical darts, and a magical jade cup that was identical to their Jade Cup of Life Restoration.

After Julia returned the party returned south and then took the northwestern exit from the vermillion mold room. As they walked down the tunnel, Hector noticed a secret door on the western wall. Moving through this secret door they found a broken stone door resting on its hinges. The room beyond was covered in Heqeti frescoes that had been extensively defaced, with images hacked out and various curses scribed in Mithric all over the wall (e.g. “Lucius took a dump here!” and “May Osiris keep the slimy ones from passing the veil”). To the south was an altar in the Heqeti style, formed of red obsidian and with a shallow basin The northern part of the room contained a Heqeti statue that the party now recognized as portraying Qisstep, looking much like the other statue, although the head and both arms had been knocked off.

Searching the room discovered that Lucius had been a man of his word, and also several fittings and accoutrements marked with the Archontean numeral ‘X’:, indicating that soldiers of the Xth legion was quartered here briefly during the Heqeti wars. Julia found a secret compartment in the statues plinth and Hector opened it, triggering a poison needle that he shrugged off the effects of. Inside the hidden compartent was a smooth, worn granite ring and a necklace made of jade, coral, and shark teeth.

Returning to the tunnel the party continued north and then west, finding a relatively flat cavern with a sandy floor. It was brightly lit by six torches thrust into the sand around its edges. Amid the torchlight six three foot tall bipeds with sharp teeth and elongated nose, ears, fingers and toes, playing bocce with an assortment of skulls. A large lizard equipped with a cargo net containing bottles of various sizes containing brandies, ales, and other liquors was tethered nearby. The creatures introduced themselves as spriggans and said they had been sent by their lord to find out what had happened to another group of their kind that come to Arden Vul “a little while ago”. When pressed on the exact time frame, they said it had been about a thousand years, and seemed to just be enjoying their vacation on the Prime Material plane and were little interested in finding their lost kin. They offered to let the party join the bocce game but they declined and continued south.

They soon came to a passage that sloped down to the east as well as a ledge that dropped thirty feet to a split passage. Descending the ledge they found a a passageway to the southwest and a room to the southeast. The passage led to an intersection they had previously visited so they returned to explore the room. This room was high ceilinged, with a mass of webs in its upper reaches. The party had just noticed this when a large spider descended from the webs and attacked Kormak, after which it turned translucent and seemed to be non corporeal. After it phased back in again the party ganged up on it and dispatched it with ease.

The party returned back through the spriggan room and spent some time filling in holes on their map and confirming suspicions about the layout indicated by their mapping so far. They eventually made it back to the large room with water in the middle containing the fungal lily pads. They moved east and then south, finding a twenty foot ledge with various animal corpses at the bottom. Exploring this room they found that the animal bodies obscured a corpse of an Archotean scholar, on which they found a magical ring and a small wooden coffer carved with scenes of Archontean justice. The coffer contained two weird Rudishva tech items, each about ten inches by four inches and composed of a supple, flesh like material, as well as a slate tablet inscribed on which in Mithric was “The crystal guardians completely ignore us, save when we attempt to harvest the giant crystal columns. We need more resources, better defenses, and stronger protection against the environment within.”

Image courtesy of Artvee.

Returning to the tunnel and continuing east they soon encountered a passage of Archontean manufacture. A niche in the northern wall contained one of. The now familiar rose quartz one way teleprinter destination circles and a plaque on the wall said in Mithric “Do not proceed past the environment veil without proper protection. Their language remains elusive. Those without authorization may be trapped”.

A southern passage led to a hazy energy field, beyond which could be barely seen a large cavern filled with orange-tinted selenite crystals. A chicken from Larel’s Sack was thrown towards the field into the room and disappeared over a ledge. Bjorn stepped through the field and found that the environment beyond was extremely hot and humid. Below the ledge was a lake from which the giant crystals protruded amongst which crystal beings similar to the ones the party had seen before were moving. Assuming that the chicken had died in the near boiling water Bjorn attempted to cross back through the barrier but to his dismay found that it was impassable from the south side. A mild panic set in for a few moments before Coco was able to Dimension Door him back onto the north side of the barrier.

Having only used the magic rugs and Phocion’s Dividers to leave the Halls for a few weeks, the party made the decision to finally make the long trek out of the Halls by foot. This required going through the Bliss Pollen chamber which left Bjorn and Kormak thoroughly addled. While Hector, Scylla, and Susarra kept a close eye on the Wilkins at the top of the observation deck overlooking the Bliss Flower cave, Coco and Julia returned to town to have their recent magical treasures identified. These included the spear and ring of Misstep which turned out to be too thoroughly evil to use, a Ring of Fire Resistance, and the crystalized reddish resin objects, which were Tears of Kauket, gem-like solidified extrusions of pure chaos collected from the Abyss where the demons that the Heqeti worshipped laired. Each of these had a positive and negative effect on the bearer, and the party eschewed their usage as well.

After Bjorn and Kormak recovered from the effects of the Bliss Pollen, the party moved south. Here they found that the stars down were filled with an inky black darkness that their Continual Light stones would not penetrate. Hector tied a ripe around his waist and descended into the darkness. After forty feet the stairs stopped and shortly entered into a room that Hector started navigating by feel. Soon he heard whispering and the air around him grew cold as unseen creatures surrounded him and started closing in.

R.I.P.:

None

Foes defeated:

ten skeletal wights
ten strong zombies
one phase spider