Into the lair of the warlock…..
The party stood in ankle deep warm water within an hallway full of steamy humid air. They moved slowly down the hall until they reached a small room. Within this room was a small stone statue that looked to have been made of tentacles around a circular body with a large singular glass eye and a hallway out of the room. The tentacles on the right held several small objects and the tentacles on the left were empty. The party approached and began to inspect the room.
The barbarian approached the statue and the eye became focused on him. He turned to talk to the party and heard nothing. He stepped forward and walked into an invisible barrier. He and the party were now separated. He investigated the statue and the objects it held: a few spell scrolls, a stone tablet with dwarven runes on it, an elaborate braid made from three pieces of multicolor twine, a small peg game and a piece of sheet music. He read the dwarf tablet and it appeared to be a family recipe for chili. He held the sheet music up for the bard to look at. The bard was able to play the music but the barrier still stood and the barbarian could not hear it either. Frustrated he walked past the statue and then the fighter passed into the room.
They discussed the situation. The fighter investigated as well and like the barbarian just passed by the statue. The archeologist came through the barrier and investigated. All the objects seemed to have a theme, applied knowledge. He removed a small book from a side bag and placed it in an open tentacle. The statue stopped staring at him and the barrier opened again. The monk came through and was told what to do. He removed a treasure map they had found and placed it in a tentacle. The barrier dropped and the rouge passed through. The statue stared at him as he was told about it. He decided to try some sleight of hand juggling. The barrier fell and the bard passed through the statue staring at him. He was informed and decided to preform and old elven song. The statue stopped staring. The party passed on down the next hall where it split into three separate hallways, left, right and forward. (This was a statue of Ug’Bothat and eldritch god who is very keen to acquire any and all knowledge. Any player giving some sort of information could pass freely. Any player not giving info could pass freely but would face minor consequences i.e. extra damage, disadvantage rolls, tougher saves etc. )
Here the party decided to split ( hooray and boo at the same time for the DM). The rouge and barbarian ( now #1 ) went left and the bard, monk, fighter and archeologist (#2) went right. As the two groups move down the halls they were still in ankle deep hot water, had to dodge random tiny geysers and dealt with increasingly hot humid air. Eventually both groups were attacked by large muscled, tentacle armed creatures with bulbous eyes and deranged fanged lipless grinning mouths. These were obviously the grue they were told about. The beast attempted to entwine people in their tentacle arms and then dive into them with their fanged maws. They proved to be no real threat and more of a nuisance for both party #1 and #2 as they moved about the halls.
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| More tentacle and less claws for my grue |
#1
These two moved through the halls and eventually discovered a 100’ long hallway that was covered by 6’x6’ sheets of copper along the length of the hall. The rouge found them to be trap free and they moved down the hall. As they walked they noticed that it was getting warmer and warmer. Soon they realized their weapons, buckles and money were beginning to get warm. Soon all the metal on them began to glow hot and burnt hem and through pouches and packs. As they exited the hallway their metal objects instantly cooled to room temperature, but not before they took some damage from the hot metal. They moved on to the next hall and discovered a stairway down to a large platform on the edge of a chasm full of steam. As they descended the stairs, they noticed that a pillar of wispy smoke was beginning to coalesce on the platform. It sort of took the shape of a human torso with smoke for legs. It noticed them and began to ask a series of questions.
“Why is the color of though green?”
"What is the meaning of 3?"
"The master of numbers! What is the master of numbers?"
The barbarian and rouge had no answers and everything they came up with only made the smoke creature wail as if in pain. Eventually this wailing turned to pain for the ½ orc and dragonborn. They responded by attacking the smoke creature. It became a battle where their magical weapons harmed it at the same time it’s strange psychic screams torn into them. Soon the dragonborn was unconscious on the platform, bleeding from his eyes and ears. The enraged barbarian continued to launch blows at the smoke creature while struggling to remain standing. It was due to his sheer will and stubbornness that allowed him to survive the psychic onslaught and slay the apparition before him. As the smoke and steam creature dissipated again he dropped to his knees barely conscious. He moved to the dragonborn and noticed he was alive, but just. They took a few minutes to recuperate before moving onwards.
The platform they were on dropped off into a chasm that wrapped around the interior of the mound, it contained the heart of the geyser Fifty feet below them was giant pool of boiling water and rising steam. About that time the geyser erupted and hot water and steam rushed up past them and out the top of the ceiling above the chasm. Across the chasm was another platform and a hallway. Hanging from the ceiling were three chains the attached to three 4’ platforms swaying over the chasm. It looked like the only way across for them would be to leap from platform to platform.
What followed was a comedy of errors. The dexterous rouge falling into the boiling water. The barbarian doing the same. An attack from a pack of steam mephitis. The rouge remembering that he had a Rope of Climbing from 5+ adventures ago he could use. The rope’s command word becoming “spaghetti” for some idiot reason. Thus leading to the phrase “I’ll spaghetti over to the next platform.” The rouge being talked into trying to tightrope walk from platform to platform. The rouge falling while trying to do this. The climbing back out of the water a 2nd or 3rd time. It all culminated with the two of these guys crossing the three platforms and then having to do some minor healing again after just minor healing before the crossing started. It was just ugly.
These two travelled down the hall off the platform and discovered a huge room at the end. This room was in all manner of disarray and had a balcony that opened over another off shoot of the chasm they had just crossed. The rubble, items and trash thrown about the room and the balcony were minor elements. The biggest aspect of the room were the five giant circular portals that were open to what looked like the vast and infinite cosmos. These portals filled a part of the ceiling the right and left walls and two on the floor. When looking into them stars, planets, suns, nebula and all manner of celestial bodies could be seen. There was no movement into or out of the portal either. Objects could be dropped or thrown into them, but nothing was coming out of them. They were open, but for what reason was unknown.
The rouge and barbarian searched the room and managed to find a multitude of hourglasses. The barbarian knew these from the tomb of Zerbaxa. Besides all the broken bits of furniture, strange scribbled notes, piles of books, spell components, and clothes thrown about the room: they also found a small hidden door in the floor. They found it not trapped, so they opened it and climbed down the ladder they found inside.
A giant green tentacle seems to undulate within one of the portals as the pair descend the ladder.
#2
The archeologist, monk, fighter and bard travelled down the left hall. There they battled some grue, dodged blasts of scalding water and steam and eventually discovered a huge chasm. This was another offshoot of the chasm party #1 found. However, this was much larger and housed a series of four platforms leading to a landing and then another five platforms that lead to a platform and hallway. After the main geyser fired, they all decided to investigate the central hallway.
They discovered a room with a central dais with an indent that looked like human feet in the center, a closed door opposite them across the room and nine flesh golems standing around the room. They were all motionless and composed of human parts both male and female. There also appeared to be many parts that were much larger and of a different color than the human parts. These looked to be bits from the dead goliaths they had discovered days prior. These golems all had numbers carved into their flesh ( 11, 13, 7, 37, 9, 43, 17, 19 and 5 ). One was wearing a helmet the rest were not. One was wearing a belt, One had gloves. One had a tunic. Three had boots. Three of them had blue bits of clothing. Three of them had yellow painted onto them. Three had bits of blue cloth attached to them in different locations. As the party entered the room the door behind them slammed shut. The disembodied voice spoke again.
“One of these is different than the rest. Choose. You have sixty seconds starting now.” (I set a timer and gave them 60 real seconds to solve this )
There was a quick discussion and with 12 seconds left they grabbed the golem with the number 9 on it. They began to pull it toward the dais as time expired. Four golems activated and began to advance on the four party members. They got the #9 golems’ feet set on the dais feet indents. This stopped the remaining four golems from activating. This just left a battle against three active Frankenstein-ish monsters. Not a problem for four people right. Well….not until the bard casts Shatter ( a lightning class spell ) on a golem thus giving it a boost to health and damage. The archeologist was able to keep some at bay with a torch to help the battle. Still even with that the group managed to beat down the not undead, but made from undead constructs fairly easily. door out of the room had unlocked when the golem was placed on the dais, but the group was too busy to notice. The monk opened the door and was assaulted by a grue! He dispatched it easily and they all moved forward.
They discovered another door at the end of the hall. They opened it and within was a another small room. At the center was a small pillar atop it was a glass case. Dangling from the ceiling were nine basketball sized glass orbs in a 3'x 3' configuration. They looked to house strange white smoke or sometimes yellow, green, grey or black smoke. As they entered the room the door behind once again slammed shut. A different disembodied voice spoke this time.
“Release me! Please release me! For anyone who frees and wears me I will give them multiple powers; flight, invisibility, the ability to see magic, unnatural speed, protection and can even bestow a single wish to them. All this and in return I only want a pittance of life energy once per year. Besides....you cannot leave the room without me on a finger, so you might as well release me. All this power literally at your finger tip.”
The glass case housed a simple golden sentient ring. Well the group went about trying to open the case. This lead to electric shocks. They attacked it and received more electric shocks. They tried to pick the lock and……yup shocked again! Finally someone thought to crack a hanging glass orb. As the glass shattered a pile of clear gems pour out onto the floor along with a small brass key. They tried the key on the case, but it didn’t fit the lock. They turned and noticed the door had a key hole, but the key didn’t work there either. However, it was clear. The glass orbs were the answer to their situation. They began to shatter them randomly.
What followed next was a series of strange events. A smoky black orb broke open to unleash six shadows that assaulted the party. They didn’t do a lot of damage, but they managed to sap some strength, thus making for a lower damage out-put for monk and fighter. More orbs were cracked releasing more multi colored gemstones and keys, all of which were not working. Finally they found an orb with a key that fit the door, but it would not open. The ring spoke again to remind them that they needed to take it/him with to leave. A yellow orb was broken and a fine yellow powder poured all over person beneath and the floor. It appeared to be yellow mold and panic struck. Well until the archeologist stepped up to investigate and discover it was just dry yellow dye and not the poisonous mold. The monk cracked a grey orb and a thick grey slime pour out onto him. It began to move over him and his skin burned as it did so. This grey slime was trying to completely cover and digest the monk. The archeologist lite another torch to try and burn the oozing slime from the monk. The monk did one better and tossed him a explosion potion he was still carrying. He yelled for the potion to be thrown on him and damn the consequences! The monk was sure he could survive the blast and remove the ooze before it enveloped and digested him. The potion ( basically a 6D6 fireball ) was thrown at the monk. A blast and heat wave later and the ooze was dry and flaking off the monk, who was no worse for wear ( fire protection rings are nice ). A pair of additional orbs were broken, one containing more gems and the last unleashed a torrent of thick black oil and another key.
All the other keys were used and eventually the glass case opened. The fighter choose to take the ring and the other three didn't care. The door behind opened with the key this time and the party moved out of the room. The fighter suddenly felt a searing pain in the hand where he was wearing the ring. The gold ring slowly turned to brown and then rust and then crumbled away. The fighter was left doubled over in pain with half his life energy drained. ( as a ploy to get the party to fight verbal or physical over piles of gems and powerful magical ring...this didn't work at all. nobody wanted or believed in this wish ring. too many skeptics and hardened gamers to believe in this )
The group of four back tracked to find the rouge and barbarian. They came upon the copper plated hallway and moved down it. The monk started taking damage and dashed ahead moving so fast thanks to kung-fu powers that he took very little damage. the other three moved through and began to bake. eventually they backed out (taking more damage), stripped off their metal and drug it through the ankle deep water. Thus making a for a safe trip through the hallway. Next they came to the platform and platforms over the geyser chasm. Here it wasn't such a comedy of errors. The group made it over easily...wait they didn't. everyone sans the archeologist fell into the boiling water, but they worked together well enough to make it up and over more easily than the barbarian and rouge. They then came to the room where the portals to the universe were open. Here they found the rouge and barbarian waiting for them.
Lukas ran throughout the room (like Tuco at the end of Good, Bad and Ugly) looking at the various note, scribbles and hourglasses. Eventually he made it to the balcony over the chasm. Here he found what he was looking for, how the hourglasses are used. The incantations and components needed to activate the hourglass he had. How they are used open the way to the lost magical city thought to be a legend....Myth Drannor.
The reunited party begins to search the room and then screams are heard from the rouge. The group turns to see the rouge wrapped up by a giant tentacle being crushed and pulled into the portal to the cosmos. Three more tentacles burst forth and giant unblinking eye also appeared in a portal. The party sprung to action!
Lukas came rushing off the balcony his arms full of paper, an hourglass and bits of ingredients. The monk and fighter attacked tentacles. The rogue tried to break free, but instead he continue to be crushed and felt like he was going o die (again). The barbarian unleashed devastating swings at the giant eye staring into the room (natural 20 rolled with vorpal weapon). The pair of blows drove deep into the eye of the eldritch god watching them. The room began to rumble as the great beast before them had been wounded. The rouge broke free before he was pulled into the void beyond. The tentacles flailed around wildly looking to grab and smash anyone or anything they could. The party knew they were facing a being of god-like proportions and thought discretion was the better part of valor. Plus they guy who had brought them here was fleeing the room for safety. They followed after Lukas as Ug' Bothat lashed out in impotent rage behind them.
As the party made their way back out of the geyser lair Lukas spoke of what he found and where it would eventually lead. It appears that Ariahiri Didani had found a way into Myth Drannor and Lukas was almost giddy at the prospect of travelling there. The group stopped once outside and investigated the gemstones found in the talking ring room. Sadly with some investigation, they discovered all the stones were just faceted colored glass. It looked like a bum deal for treasure, until the rouge and barbarian produced an armful of loot they recovered from the hidden room in the floor. The split the loot the best they could and made to return to Stonekeep.
Meanwhile, somewhere in the cosmic void an ancient god of tentacles with a giant eye watches the group of mortals that wounded and escaped him.
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