DRAMATIS PERSONAE:
Rodrigo (Swashbuckler 6)
Awg Wahmn (Calmonari 6)
Torak (Cleric 6)
Chaff (Vivimancer 6), with familiar Pretty Bird
Kwinsea (Aquamancer 6), with familiar Hermes
With the disappearance of the lighting went the constant crackle and crash of the electrical storm, dropping the party into an eerie silence. Awg took advantage of this to listen for any clues or foes around them, and was rewarded with a scratching sounds somewhere to the west. The party decide to move in that general direction and made for the door in the south wall. As they did, the lighting once more started to flicker overhead, and within a few minutes it was the same extensive storm as it was before the mechanism was cranked.
Beyond the dark quartz door was an east west corridor, which the party followed west into a small room. It was empty, with another exit to the south. Awg, in front of the marching order, was suspicious, so the calmonari carefully inspected the floor before proceeding into the room. No traps were found, but he/she noted this floor was freakishly clean and completely devoid of the dust, crumbled bits of wall material and miscellaneous trash noted in the previous rooms. Uncertain of what that foretold, the party moved forward cautiously into another, similar room. The difference here was in an alcove to the east, where a number of items seems to float in the air or perhaps were stuck to the wall; a helmet, pair of swords, and a few other items. Chaff shoved to the front of the line, and starred intently at the items, hoping to glean their nature. He noted they were somewhat hazy in appearance, and then to the vivmancers surprise, they lurched towards him! Chaff was able to dodge away from the gelatinous bulk that tried to slam into him, then whipped out his wheelock and buried a bullet in the mass. The party started to do a fighting withdrawal, making attacks as they backed up. Kwinsea tried a
lighting bolt, but it appeared to have no effect. Torak and Rodrigo lobbed flasks of oil and hit, while Awg followed with a flaming torch. The gelatinous cube burst into flames, and after a half minute or so had collapsed into a liquid-y pool of bubbling goo. The party picked the still warm items out of the slime. This included the jeweled helmet, which Awg claimed and awkwardly perched on his.her head (it not being made to fit a clamonari's skull structure). The swords Rodrigo examined, and found them to be of fairly poor quality. There was a dark quartz potion bottle which Torak claimed, and discovered after a little experimentation that it was a
potion of flying. The last things of interest were four head sized chucks of quartz; they looked like pieces of the walls that had broken loose for some reason. Chaff looked them over and discovered one was covered in a crude scrawl of writing. It was in Teroclidian, of which the little vivimancer had a rough understanding. The writing spoke of a God Who Walks Among Men having gone insane, trying to use his elemental powers to escape the captivity imposed by the mists. That made them all think immediately of Empyrius, thinking that perhaps they'd found his lair after-all.
But they would still need to find him, so the party moved on. Backtracking, they explored the eastern branch of the corridor. This led by a roundabout route to a long, narrow room. There were exits to the north and south, and it was dominated by a trio of strange tanks. They were egg shaped and supported by metal lattice work; for all intents and purposes, they looked very much like the large egg structure in which they were currently exploring. Two of them contained fluid and occupants; the first a weird, large metal sea urchin (which Awg didn't recognize), and the second a primitive hominid with long clawed fingers. Awg tapped on the tanks to rouse the creatures, but close examination confirmed they dead rather than in suspended animation. The third tank was broken open (from the outside it appeared), and contained nothing but signs of dried fluid and broken crystal. Kwinsea started poking around the base of the eggs, and noticed that each one had three ornate dials, each inscribed with the numbers 1-3. She didn't touch them, but did make note of the current settings (322, 332, 133 respectively).
Further investigation was interrupted by the sound of many feet approaching from the south entrance. Everyone pulled back into the passage, out of sight. Rodrigo stuck a mirror around the corner to see what what coming, and observed a small swarm of molted blue and white, man sized ants heading their way. After a quick whispered discussion to decide weather to fight or flee, the party choose fight as they'd eyed a good tactile setup. Chaff used his
web spell to block off the room between the outer wall and the first egg, which left open a narrow gap between the egg and wall. Rodrigo, Awg and Torak positioned themselves there so they would only have to deal with one ant at a time. By this point, their formic foes has noted the party's presence, and headed their way. Several tried climbing the walls, but didn't seem able to grip properly. A pair also investigated the
web, leaving the other half dozen to make for the gap. One of these skittered up on top of the egg, and proceeded to clamp its mandibles down on Awg's skull, while a second made for the gap. Awg made short work of his opponent with a swing of the
Terminaxe. Overall, the three front line fighters had a relatively easy time of hewing down the ants one or two at a time, although Awg continued to get bitten frequently and deeply from the ones on top of the egg. In the end, the party prevailed and stood triumphant over a pile of dismembered giant insects.
After a quick root through giant bug parts failed to uncover anything interesting, the party turned and headed north. This led them to a door which, based on Awg's earlier listening, likely led to the source of the scratching sounds. Nothing could be heard at the door, so they hauled it open to reveal a small 10'x15' room with another door. Awg headed over and listened at this one too; and once more heard the scratching sounds. Torak walked up to the door and knocked, at which point the scratching stopped. Moments later it started up again, and next thing the party knew, there were strange, glassy looking rat/ferret creatures emerging from the walls of the room and attacking them with electrical shocking bites. While Awg, Rodrigo and Torak swung away at the critters, Chaff got the door open so he and Kwinsea could get out of harms way. Unfortunately, they'd forgotten their foes could move through walls and Kwinea was attacked from behind by another pair of the creatures. In the end they were able to defeat them with no significant hurt inflicted on the party, opening the way into the room beyond. It was pretty much empty, except for a plain wooden chest against the far wall. It was tipped over, with the opening facing the wall. Using the
Terminaxe as a shovel, Awg scooped out contents onto the floor in front of them. It proved to be a mix of cut quartz stones and coloured gems, a potion bottle (another
potion of flying) a chunk of silver weighting about 200lbs, a well-made dagger, and three golf-ball sized round crystalline rocks, inside which a blue light flicked. Rodrigo examined the dagger, and noted it to be of good build quality. He also observed writing on the hilt, and passed it to Chaff to read. However, the vivimancer could not decipher the text this time, it being an unknown language and not Terocolidian ...
TOTAL XP
8140*
GAINS
Bejeweled Helmet (1250gp)
100 cut quartz crystals (10gp each)
20 assorted gems (50gp each)
Chunk of silver (20gp)
2
potions of flying
dagger -1 (Cursed)
2 swords
3 golf-ball sized stones, glowing blue inside
9 blue and white molted giant ants
5 slitherats
1 gelatinous cube
LOSSES
None
*2xp per gp rule in effects
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