Session 38 recap

Chert, a 7th level dwarf

Coco, a 13th level Archontean magic-user

Julia, a 14th level Archontean cleric of Lucreon

Melnax, a 7th level elf

Bjorn, a 7th level Wiskin assassin

Susarra, a 10th level Archontean fighter (retainer)

Scylla, a 9th level Archontean ranger (retainer)

After taking Rex and Armenius through the magic rug to begin their convalescence at the Villa, Hector stayed behind while Chert joined the party to partake in the battle against the doppelgängers. In preparation, Melnax ritually cast Invisibility on Bjorn, Coco cast Invisibility on herself, and Melnax drank a Potion of Invisibility.

The party then returned north to the main forge room. As the party entered the leaders of the doppelgängers yelled something in an unknown language and all of the “dwarves” began rushing towards the party en masse. Chert then yelled the previously agreed upon code phrase to begin the attack (“SURPRISE MOTHERFUCKERS”) and the battle was joined.

Twin Fireballs from Coco and Melnax dropped the entirety of these con rank and doing serious damage to the first. Julia was caught in Melnax’s Fireball and lost the Continual Light spell she was casting while Chert swung at the doppelgänger in front of him. Coco retreated and was struck by a doppelgänger while the front lines traded blows. Bjorn threw his spear at the Fireball-weakened leader, killing him. Coco cast Invisible Stalker while the front line dropped three more doppelgängers. Seizing the initiative the party killed the remaining doppelgängers before they could respond.

Searching the bodies produced a fair amount of loot, including a platinum square with the word “Ljots” on one side and a yin yang symbol on the other. Chert said that this was the symbol of the doppelgängers.

Moving east from the forge, the party went down a short flight of stairs and after Coco Knocked the locked door open, proceeded into a hemispherical room that contained a massive twenty to thirty foot diameter pocket of Arcanum. Unable to resist the allure of that much Arcanum Coco and Melnax both rushed into the chamber and began investigating. The rest ion the party sent the rest of the day removing chunks of the Arcanum using a finely made set of chisels and hammers they found in the room. Over the first day Coco lost all of her hair and became convinced she was Vul reincarnated, while Melnax felt that his next four spells would be empowered beyond their normal capacity. On the 3rd of Deuterios the rest of the party continued mining while Melnax became convinced he was the heir to the Elven throne while CocoVul developed vitiligo. On the 4th of Deuterios CocoVul contracted a transdimensional flux while Crown Prince Melnax gained knowledge of the spell Dispel Magic. On the 5th of Deuterios Bjorn continued mining while Julia went to the Rarities Factor to have some items the party had found on the doppelgängers identified and Chert investigated the forge. On the 6th of Deuterios CocoVul learned the spell Fly while Crown Prince Melnax felt a little less hale and hearty. Julia had grown impatient and went to town to purchase a nonlethal poison to knock CocoVul and Crown Prince Melnax out and remove them from the Arcanum pocket. Bjorn took shot at the Arcanum with the laser pistol and destroyed. Small amount but stopped when CocoVul and Crown Prince Melnax reacted angrily. Julia returned to the Arcanum pocket on the 7th of Deuterios to enact her plan but by the time she arrived the pair had come to their senses.

Finally able to resume their search for the way out of the forge area, the party returned to the octagonal room and proceeded west to a T intersection and went north. This room contained a fresco of a cave that Chert was able to identify as the Grotto of Contemplation in the Dwarven Kingdom of Kazildor. A featureless mosaic consisting of only gray tesserae was detected as magical by CocoVul and was speculated by the party to be a patch of Living Mosaic, bout nothing they tried could activate it.

Moving to the south the party entered a room with two beautiful sloped writing desks made of teak, three teak cabinets, and a pair of teak stools. The entire chamber was filled with a haphazard collection of scrolls and parchments. CocoVul ordered their ‘servants’ to search the room which they did, with Chert finding plans to construct Gauntlets of Ogre Power at the forge. A sketch made of Zhorak during life was also found.

Returning to the octagonal room the party went south through a door and found a passageway that had caved in some time before, with a later dug tunnel leading deeper into the halls. Chert had determined that they were still on the Nether Reaches level, so this tunnel represented passage to a level that was deeper than any they had explored thus far. Putting a pin in this for the moment the party returned once more to the octagonal room and proceeded east through a portcullis. This led into a triangular chamber that showed signs of mining. Two tunnels led west out of the chamber, while a ledge above the passage they had entered through had a coffer made of carved ivory plates, the carvings showing exotic scenes of elephants being ridden into battle by non-Archontean humans. The coffer contained a stone ring carved with a salamander and a three inch statuette of a salamander carved in Onyx. CocoVul began ritually casting Detect Magic but the noise of the ritual awoke some sort of creature as a pile of boulders began to animate and coalesce into a roughly humankind figure. Julia brandished the Bones of Jaken the Proud which kept the creature at bay but it reached down and plucked a large boulder out of the cave floor and threw it at the party. CocoVul cast Stone to FLesh at the creature but it resisted it. Crown Prince Melnax levitated towards the ceiling while Chert, Scylla, and Susanna charged it. Bjorn ran up the wall while CocoVul and Crown Prince Melnax cast Magic Missile at the creature, destroying it. CocoVul cast Detect Magic as a ritual successfully this time, determining that the ring and statuette was magic, but the coffer, though valuable, was not.

The party explored to the northeast, finding a chamber with another rock creature which they dispatched with little difficulty. Further exploration led them to another chamber with a third rock creature consuming a layer of iron ore dust that coated the floor. The apparent corpse of an eleven woman lay nearby while an odd simianesque chittering sound emanated from a high set ledge on the far wall of the chamber. CocoVul cast Lightning Bolt on the creature and and as they closed to melee range Susarra was severely beaten about the head and shoulders before the party could bring the creature down.

Investigating the chittering sound, Scylla cast Speak With Animals. The creatures had a weird accent hat Scylla had not heard before. Encouraging the creatures to come out from hiding with kind words and proffered fruit, the party saw a pair of two foot tall creatures with grey fur that turned blue around the eyes, two horns growing from their head, large canine teeth, and flaps of skin between their torsos and arms. They brought the strange creatures through the rug to the Villa for Callista the druid to take care of and searched the body of the eleven woman, finding a few valuables, magical items, and a spell book. As it was getting late the party returned to the forge area and bedded down for the night in the ingot storage room. CocoVul produced a possum from Larel’s sack to satisfy an odd curiosity of Julia’s.

Arising on the morning of the 8th of Deuterios the party returned to where they had found the odd creatures and continued exploring the mines. They soon found a chamber containing two stone statues of dwarven miners. Chert initially suspected these to have been actual dwarves who had been the victims of petrification, but closer inspection showed that the faces were too perfect and identical as well as small slots located under each of the statues left arms. Bjorn had an idea and inserted one of the odd orange disks they had found, whereupon the statue started moving, mining the coal seam. After turning to place the mined coal in a cart and finding no cart present, it left the chamber proceeded to the north.

The party decided not to follow the automaton on its errand and continued exploring to the southwest. After a time they cam to an intersection, with one passage going south to a worked passage and another going northwest. Taking the northwest passage the party soon fond themselves in a long east-west hallway, fifteen feet tall, with sixteen three foot diameter columns supporting the roof. Each column is carved in the form of an Archontean legionary, complete with banded mail, hoplite helmet, spear and gladius. The legionaries faced different different directions with no apparent pattern. Remnants of paint were visible in a few places. Several short ten foot passages led to doors, four on the north wall and t here on the south wall. Two of the southern doors and one on the northern wall were found to lead to collapsed passageways.

Opening the easternmost door on the northern wall showed the ruins of an Archontean office. Shattered desks, chairs, and scroll cabinets littered the room with two intact scrolls amongst the debris. A pack of wights, driven made with hunger from being locked in the room for Thoth knows how long immediately began to run at the party. Julia Turned Undead but was only able to destroy one of the creatures, while pair of Fireballs from CocoVul and Crown Prince Melnax destroyed the rest, the scrolls also being destroyed in the dual conflagration.

The door in the southern wall led to a room of identical dimensions, a chamber that was once the office of an Archontean bureaucrat with frescoes showing the counting, storage, and exchange of coins by archaically-dressed officials. All furnishing are long gone, with a fire pit having been constructed in the center of the room. The next door on the northern wall led to a passage that went north and then northwest. The party left this chamber for the time being being and entered the last door on the north, which led to a series of ascending staircases before ending at an apparently blank wall. The party corrects guessed that this was a secret door and proceeded through into another thirty foot by twenty foot room. A six foot diameter circle of lapis tile identical to the one the party had appeared on in the forge area was set into the northeast corner of this chamber of Archontean era construction, the neatly worked granite surfaces blackened by smoke from a large fire that cracklesdin the center of the chamber. A ten foot square iron grill was hung from the ceiling above the fire on which sizzled a dozen thick steaks. Two dirty humans crouched near the fire, tending to the meat. Seeing the party enter they greeted them cheerfully, inviting them in Archontean to join the feast, which was taking place “just down the stairs in the main hall”. Bjorn alone accepted their offer to grab a platter of meat and help carry it down.

They found themselves in a very old cavern, with rough walls covered with an oily sheen, and a flat, sanded floor. The ceiling was thirty feet tall. Two ledges were built into the east wall, one containing a cistern with clear water with the other holding a large pile of bones. To the south were five pedestals, the central one home to a ten foot tall horn horn, while the four surrounding ones held tubular gongs of various sizes. To the west was a ten foot tall stone ledge running alongside the wall. In the center of the chamber were three stone tables with heavy stone benches where over a dozen more of the disheveled men sat, eating the steaks with gusto. Smelling the delicious meat on the platter he carried, Bjorn surreptitiously licked one and was only barely able to stop himself from biting into it. As the strongest and healthiest of the odd men came over to exort the benefits if the meat (which he called Throom) Bjorn cut his monologue short with a knife to the chest. With a bestial scream the man told his compatriots to attack the party.

R.I.P.:

None

Foes defeated:

Ten dwarves doppelgängers

Three It Wasn’t a Rock; It Was a Rock MONSTERs

Thirteen wights