Far Isles Session # 94 - An Evening with Iomnogoron

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:
Rodrigo (Swashbuckler 7)
Awg Wahmn (Calmonari 7)
Chaff (Vivimancer 7), with familiar Pretty Bird
Kwinsea (Aquamancer 7), with familiar Hermes

With the paralysis now ended, the party once more headed back down the stairs into the fourth egg. Flummoxed by the lack of any access into the interior of the egg, Kwinsea first tried looking for secret doors in the area around each set of stairs. But to no avail. The party then considered a route they'd avoided thus far; over the top. This required traversing the lightning field, so Chaff decided to do a little reconnaissance first with a mirror on a long pole. In the process of maneuvering the mirror around, he accidentally reflected a lighting bolt into Rodrigo. But he was rewarded with the sight of several rooms and a passage just over the wall. But how to get there with the least zapping? In the end, Kwinsea and Chaff were temporarily stuffed in the bag of holding and dragged over the wall by the brawey Awg and Rodrigo. Who'd each quaffed a half potion of lightning resistance to numb the electrical blows. Once on the other side, the two spell-casters were let out of the bag, and the party proceeded to explore down the corridor in which they found themselves.  

The corridor soon branched, and the party elected to go to the right. It led to a fairly large room with a carpeted floor. And scenes of destruction. Awg and Rodrigo entered the room, and noted it was cluttered with what appeared to be smashed furniture; beds, tables, chairs. Scattered among the ruin were three set of skeletal remains. All were splattered with a translucent dried slime, similar that found in one of the rooms explored in the first egg. Chaff and Kwinsea came in to help look around. The skeletons were human, very long dead as most of the clothing they'd been wearing was rotted away. Each did have some plain gold jewelry, however, which was scooped into the bag. But there was little else to see, so the party moved on to the second corridor. 

Here they found a room of similar size and dimensions, but without the signs of destruction. Or carpet. Instead, at the far end they found one of the egg-tanks. And it was occupied; not by an oozanderthal this time, but a seemingly normal human.  Normal and healthy on top at least; his legs were geriatricly withered and frail. He spied the party, and started to gesture for them to approach. The egg prevented verbal communication, so they party tried writing signs in every language they knew. After several attempts, Chaff discovered the man understood the vivamancer’s sketchy Terocolidian. Questioning him about the eggs and Iomnogoron, Chaff learned the man in the tank was a Terocolidian, held in stasis for hundreds, if not a thousand, years. A former servant of Iomnogoron, he crawled into the tank when his master was driven insane by the rupture of the Adonian’s extra-planner links by the Far Isles mists. Iomnogoron lashed out, killed his servants and destroyed much of the magical machinery he used to power the eggs. The Terocolidian expressed fear of his former master, noting that his mental state could swing wildly from reasonable to destructive on a whim. When asked where Iomnogoron could be found, he directed the party to the centre of this egg. When Chaff offered to release the man from the stasis tank, he at first emphatically indicated ‘No!’ It would seem the stasis was imperfect (as shown by the withered state of his legs), and the man feared he would die if released. Over the course of the conversation however, he seemed to warm to the idea of shuffling off this mortal coil. An eternity of slow death trapped in this egg was not appealing. So when the part finished questioning him, the Terocolidian solemnly gestured to the egg controls and indicate he was ready to go. Kwinsea spun the dials, opening the tank and releasing both man and fluid. Before the party’s eyes, the Terocolidian aged rapidly until after a few moment nothing was left but a withered husk. From which the party plucked some plain gold jewelry before moving on. 

Based on the dead man’s directions, Rodrigo now went around the corridor, using the mirror to (carefully) peer over the walls. He observed at least one large room right in the centre of the egg, presumably the lair of Iomnogoron. The party repeated their previous crawl over the top (sans potion of lighting resistance this time), landing in a large chamber that filled most of the remaining area of the egg. Directly in front was a basin of green stone, filled with what appeared to be the liquid essence of lighting observed in various locations elsewhere in the eggs.  A half circle of pillars lay just beyond, inside of which was a suspended and complex sphere of crystal capillaries. Beyond this little could be seen due to the large size of the room and variable lighting from the raging storm above. Also of note was the heavy curtain hanging to the left. 

While Awg examined the pool, Rodrigo pulled back the end of the curtain. There, the swashbuckler found a lurking creature.  Encased in a heavy layer of ooze or slime, it looked much like a withed and degenerate version of the statues on the upper eggs. It seemed aware of Rodrigo’s presence, and lurched forward, growing a pair of tentacles from the slime and lashing about. This, they surmised, was Iomnogoron. As he emerged from behind the curtain, Awg tried to engage Iomnogoron in conversation. Suddenly enraged, the Adonian turned its attention on the calmonari, lashing him with whipping tentacles of slime. Before matters proceed any further though, Chaff stepped forward and ensnared the thing with mind slave. Iomnogoran halted, hesitated a moment, then turned to the vivmancer to inquire (in Terocolidian) who he was and what did he want. Iomnogoron thankfully seemed relatively lucid, so Chaff started to interrogate. The information was sketchy at times, as if Iomnogoron was having trouble with his memory. Chaff learned the Adonian used the liquid lighting to power all the machines in the egg, but no longer could remember how to do that. The capillary sphere in the centre of the room was a key part of that process, but closer examination now showed it was smashed beyond any use. The vivmancer also gathered that Iomnogoron had been trying to use the liquid lighting to find a way to overcome the mist so he could escape the Far Isles; whether the insanity was due to this effort or predated it was uncertain. Chaff asked about the weird storm island, and Iomnogoton siad it was a portal or conduit to the elemental planes. Asked about Empyrius, Iomnogoron was easily able to pinpoint the island where his fellow Adonian could be found, but inquired why the party was looking for him. Told Empyrius might have information that could defeat the mist, Iomnogoron got very excited and encouraged the party to go get his help at once. And then to return and pass the secret on to Iomnogoron.

The party also asked some general questions about the origin of the Amazons (descendants of the Terocolidian woman who revolted against their misogynistic and repressive men-folk); if there were other Adonians still left in the Coral Cays (unsure, but rhymed off a few names:  Telemachis, Soloris, Hirothaylius); relations between the Adonians of old (generally live and let live, but some rivalries and wars fought by their worshipers); any treasure to give the party to help in the search for Empyris (confusion); and anything else they needed to know about Empysius ('beware the giant guardians!'). 

Sensing Iomnogoron mental stability might not last much longer, the party wisely took leave of him. Filling their canteens with lighting essence (just in case ...), they proceed back over the wall. Before leaving the egg, however, they used the mirror to locate two further rooms. Thinking these might hold Iomnogorons treasure, Rodrigo crawled over the wall to check one, while Awg and Chaff checked the other. Rodrigo’s room contained a large sphere suspended in mid-air. It was constructed of tightly woven metal mesh, one piece of which extended into the lighting field above. Inside there could be seen hundreds of small objects floating around, but it was difficult to tell exactly what they were. And given the likely electrified nature of the cage, the swashbuckler choose not to disturb it at this time. In the other room, Awg and Chaff found a stone basin, covered with a scintillating, semi-opaque force field. Again, beyond the field could be seen some objects of indeterminate identity. But when minor poking and prodding did nothing, the calmonari and vivimancer decided to not push their luck and crawled back over the wall to rejoin the rest of the crew. The  party also checked out a couple of other rooms 'over the top'. Both contained a circle of pillars. One was otherwise unoccupied, while the other had a strange square machine with a large funnel on the top. But as with the two previous rooms, the party felt it best to just leave these rooms alone. And they then proceeded back through the eggs and ultimately back to the “No Man’s Sea”, making plans to finally sail to find Empyrius. 

TOTAL XP

2400*

GAINS

12 Pieces of Golden Jewelry (100gp each)

KILLS/VICTORIES

None

LOSSES
None

*2xp per gp rule in effects