I Can’t Believe We’re Still Alive!
The Thursday game, recap of August the 13th – Opening the doors west of the froghemoth room, we find ourselves in a room with a tapestry hung across which depicts a feast around a table on which a boar sits. The Monk sneaks by to find another and finally a third tapestry which show the scene devolving into depravity. Hanging on the wall behind the third is the rotting carcass of a boar’s head. The Monk feels the compulsion to put his head into the boar’s mouth but escapes this fate by using stillness of mind. We hatch a plan to negate the effects by tearing down each tapestry and then wrapping them around the head. As the Monk and Paladin tear down the final curtain, it erupts into flames injuring the party members. Seeing the head, the Warlock becomes charmed, but this ends as the Paladin hacks away at it. Within the mouth are some items from previous victims. A search reveals this room is nothing more than a lethal trap.
We briefly consider tackling the sarcophagus room of the almiraj but agree that there is probably another way into it from the east. Also, each party member is inhabited by a spirit from a trickster god. Who knows if that is a good thing, but here we are? If the sarcophagus is anything like the previous ones, it will have another relic of a god with some useless items.
We head back to the Grand Hall to explore a door south. It leads to a hall that seemingly dead ends to the west but searching reveals a crawlway leading north. The halfling Cleric crawls forward, but in the middle is a wall on which is carved a snarling minotaur. Through its open eyes, she can see that the crawlway extends further west and that a strong push could send the wall up into a recess in the ceiling. The Monk attempts to do this but cannot and misty steps past it to continue down the crawlway. He finds a hallway that ends in a bright rectangle of light. When the Monk and the Paladin together lift the minotaur wall, they discover the trap has a one-minute timer before it falls again, slicing anyone unlucky enough to be there. Together they lift it and the rest of the party hurries through. Once we are all in the hall, we see that the light comes from a hole leading down to another room. Next to the hole, a window looks into a room where a Tomb Guardian stands, one hand on a lever on the wall. The Warlock experiments with a minor illusion of a human walking down the hall and disappearing into the room below, but the Guardian does nothing.
The Cleric goes down another crawlspace to the south and hears wind ahead of her. It ends in a hole many feet above the floor of a large rectangular room containing balconies at either side with five wooden platforms floating between. On one balcony, a lever appears in the upward position next to stairs leading up. On the opposing balcony, a large fiend sits with its wings furled against it. The party all make it across the drop to the balcony.
Up the stairs, the Monk finds a secret door. Upon opening it, we encounter a curious scene. Two statues of gods stand upon plinths overlooking a pit that contains a large clay golem around whose neck is hung a key. A chest appears beside him. A magical field shimmers across the pit. The Paladin stands upon an empty plinth south of the pit while the Monk rotates the warrior statue towards him. Suddenly, the Paladin is teleported into the pit. The Druid repeats this for the Monk and he and the Paladin battle the golem. After defeating him, we open the chest to find two glass eyes, one green and one pink. After manipulating the statues to get them out of the pit, we investigate a door north. The room beyond is the one under the hole in the hall above overseen by the Tomb Guardian. Around the room are carved demons whose eyes flicker with fire. We surmise that if you enter the room, the Tomb Guardian probably pulls the lever and encases the room in fire. So, we pass on messing with another one of Acererak’s deadly puzzles.
A hallway west from the pit room leads to a dead end with a mirror hanging on the wall. Around the mirror are indentations into which we place the two glass eyes, but with each one, our reflection changes to show the party becoming less healthy. We get a bad feeling about this and are not interested in pursuing this further, so we head back to the large room with the fiend. Through a combination of wild shape. fly spells and some froghemoth-inspired platform jumping, we all end up on the balcony with the fiend. Once there, we see that one of the fists is clenched shut. As we end the session, we do not have time for resting. We must push on next time. Reminder – Keshma the dao is still with us.
Respectfully submitted,
Marigold Underbite, Cleric – May Pelor light your way!