We are rolling up Treasure and gold from the last session.
We are continuing the adventures in the Yoqqo Basin.
There is a wall of mist in front of us. Previously, two Shedu had come down to speak with us. Timbraun was outside with the Shedu, who were looking for an evil longsword named Pathbreaker.
Timbraun asks if the Shedu will team up with us to search for the sword. They tell us that they have something weighing on their minds. Their powers have waned and they find themselves forgetful of things. They believe something about the Mist in this place has an enchantment on the mind. They have not done great explorations because this can eliminate their psionic abilities, which is their main power.
We were able to make stakes from the tables with the room containing the Werewolves.
The Shedu will ally with us if we can find a plan to go in there. They want to know what we can do to reach the other teleporter across the mist. They say that it is dampening their psionic abilities somewhat. They are quite worried about the mist and the effect seems to be latent in the labyrinth in general but they believe it is tied to the mist.
If we can find and destroy Pathbreaker, they will give us a magic shield called Mindplate. It was given to them by great powers as a reward for those able to destroy the sword.
They will signal to us telepathically if anything passes by and will stand atop the building. They will leave periodically to avoid the effects of the miss. If we encounter some great danger that accosts our mind, they might be able to protect us for that moment. So far none of us, even with Psionics, feel the effects of the mist.
We discuss using the Medallion of ESP and how it might work. Both Thorgard and Maervahr possess one of these.
The Shedu say they found a chamber to the east, that is quieter than the rest. There is an odd device inside that pushes out the mind effecting powers from this place. This may be nefarious however. They have past over the mist with their wings and saw many walkways but have not gone deeper. The unifying factor is that there are great Xorns at the bottom of the basin that are able to navigate easily the pillars and walkways. There is a skeleton on a spike that is causing the psionic disturbance, this is also the place that has the other teleporter. This one malfunctions, they say, it is odd but the teleporter only works one way.
The priority is to locate the Kit for Timbraun but we can ask the Xorn to lead us to Pathbreaker as well.
We head back inside.
Timbraun will release the Xorn from his magic locket with the command word “Zug-wap”. We think the Kit is on the third floor. Timbraun asks the released Xorn where the Sword is.
It witnessed the sword on the back of a human creature that was fleeing from one of the dogs. It went to the mist on the lower level and the Xorn did not follow. We ask about the dogs and it tells us it is the dogs with many legs.
The Xorn turns and opens the door. We follow.
It leads us to an arrow shaped platform, which is open and made of stone. It is surrounded by the mist. The mist does not billow out far. The Xorn glides along the floor as though sailing and proceeds southward. It comes to another open area and stops. It waits for us to catch up. The Xorn begrudgingly gave us all this information.
We then decide to not map.
Titus asks if we can order it to go along the safest path. We will move at the safe speed, moving 30“ per turn. We have 6 turns of “Xorn Control”. The Xorn stops in the diamond shaped room and asks if we can fly. He tells us we will get the second safest path.
We head out on a 10' wide platform down a hallwy for 50', when we begin descending down a curving ramp that descends through the mist…NVM! We went the wrong way.
This other way proceeds through mist into a normal room 50' wide and 30' deep. There are a few triangular archives in here.
The Xorn surprise is a 1-5.
We are not surprised.
As we move forward, the Xorn proceeds across the hallway towards a staircase. Many screeches come out from the walls as like Rats. Mist form Rat-like things with smoky tendrils begin to pour out onto the stone floor.
They have the Xorn surrounded. The Rats are small and the Xorn is medium sized. There are 8 Rats attacking the Xorn, which will need 20s to attack. One Rat hits but it does not look like it did very much! The Xorn counters the charge and it instantly kills a Rat, doing 3, 2, and 1, which kills another Mist Rat. They begin to pour out like liquid. They pool into the floor and surround the Xorn's feet. They are coming toward us. The people in front are being attacked.
The Rats are making a drawn out, echoey squeak sound, like a “ghost rat”. They get sweep attacks against the Rats and Fothas kills 7 of them. There are now 71 of the Rats. Thorgard also sweep attacks and kills 9 of them. Lygan will be able to hit 7 of them as well for 8, 3, 10, 6, 9, 6, and 4 damage. He kills all 7 of the Mist Rats. The Rats are still coming and they do not leave corpses.
The Rats are not going to overcome the front of the party. There are 5 party members up front but the Rats are coming unceasingly.
Fothas says to watch out for Vampires.
The Rats continue to attack the Xorn. They do not hit him. Because we are in a hallway, there will be about 2 Rats per person in our front line…actually 3 of them.
Lygan is missed but Thorgard takes 2 damage. Fothas is missed. The Rats continue to ravenously overcome the front line. They all miss this next round.
Fothas kills 7 and Thorgard kills 9 of the Mist Rats. Titus hits 4 times for 6 damage, 8 damage, and 8 damage. This kills 3 of them. They all had AC 7. Lygan actually killed 4 and Ekkor killed 2.
Maervahr's Medallion of ESP does not pickup any Rat thoughts through the front lines of the party. The Sleep spell also goes off however none of the Mist Rats are effected by it. The Xorn hits 4 times, killing 3.
They have destroyed over half of them and none of them are ceasing. Those who tried to disbelieve these things are assured that it is real.
Those in front lines attack first this round. Fothas kills 7 more Mist Rats, Thorgard kills 9 of them. Titus does 5, 6, and 8 damage, killing 3 Rats. The Xorn kills 4 in total, there are 7 left. Lygan and Ekkor kill 6 leaving only a single Rat alive.
It hits Thorgard for 1 damage!
Invisibility goes off on Timbraun and Protection From Evil goes off on Litlee.
Timbraun tells the Xorn to charge ahead and Litlee casts Prayer. However, Fothas tells him not to do that.
They kill the last Rat.
We wait a turn with the Xorn after Timbraun tells the Xorn to stop.
There are a couple of pathways in the mist and the Alcoves are the general area where the Rats came out of. There is nothing in the alcoves, no bones or refuse. As we get ready to follow the Xorn.
We are onset by a wracking of the mind…Save versus Spells.
Lygan, Ekkor, Fothas, and Titus all failed. The feeling passes those of us who saved but the others have a feeling of being hung over.
Titus has psionic abilities but he has not lost any psionics. All those who failed are at -1 INT.
The Xorn leads us down some stairs to a descending ramp, down further. The mist opens to the left revealing a stone wall. Old and stained and has a great height even though we cannot see it through the mist. We proceed deeper and further through the mist, down the passageway.
We travel for a half hour steadily along this passage, going along a very large cylinder, down this passageway. There is still a Mist on our right side. Thorgard gauges how far down we are. We have two turns left on the locket.
After proceeding down this stone way, we get to an area where the ramp gets to some stairs. This gives Thorgard a moment to concentrate but the circumference of the tube has been enormous so it has taken us a while. He estimates that we are 150' deep, or ten stories. The Xorn tells us that there is a gap in the floor we must traverse and there are Tall Men with dogs up ahead. Danger ahead says the Xorn…They are Giant Men.
We head forward in our regular marching order. It goes down the stairs until we find a gap in the mist, that the Xorn was speaking of. The Xorn floats down the stairs into an open area shaped like a bell. There is a curved platform through the mist, a thin walkway like the one we have been traveling on but it is 5' wide. It is separated at its closest spot by 15'. We cannot see what lies beyond other than the walkway continues.
Maervahr casts Fly. Maervahr proceeds into the mist. They can see his ship, floating above the stone walkway. He hammers in the spike, two of them and then has Koriss climb across. Koriss grabs the rope and shimmies across. We are on the other side of the platform now.
Fothas and Titus will go. Thanks to the continual light, they can see through the mist.
There is another stone platform that we can see through the mist, that is only 20' away. The mist cuts our visibility by half. Maervahr flies up to the top, near the 15' high mist.
Lucien drops a coin and the noise echoes across loudly.
The Xorn says that, to the north, is the quickest way. We head that way along the passage.
After proceeding down a 5' passageway, about 200' or so, the Xorn brings us to this intersection and says, while looking up through the mist, to the north west. It says, “When I arrived here to investigate the alarm, he saw the object we described. A regular man being pursued by the dogs. We can fly through the mist or fight against the tall men.”
The Xorn departs to his home plane.
We rest for 1 turn before Maerahr proceeds through the mist holding the end of a rope. He flies through the mist revealing another passageway, that is quite wider, like a highway 15' wide.
We are not surprised.
Maervahr is still invisible. We hear something coming from around the corner, something is coming like a droning noise. There is a glowing pink light flickering on the wall as though something illuminous with the droning noise.
We lose the initiative.
As we wait, two Xorns come around the bend. Accompanied on their shoulders are 18 flying Jellyfish with pink electicity. They are surrounding them like an aura. They are not charging, just moving forward.
Turn Undead is used and Tatrin can turn Wights. It has no effect. The Jellyfish have flat, wide stingers. They make a similar droning noise like the Xorns. Their droning is in sync.
The Jellyfish become agitated and attack with their stingers. Maervahr has spiked in one spike.
The Jellyfish attack. Fothas attacks the Jellyfish first, who have AC 4. With sweep attacks, they do not go first. Titus is attacking the Jellyfish but Lygan attacks the Xorn, who must his AC -2/3. Lygan does 3 damage to one Xorn. The 18 Jellyfish attack randomly some are flying through the mist to go after what is making the banging noise on the stone.
1/3rd of them go. 6 of them are going through with the banging noise. Flying creatures are not subject to the rules where they can be hit by opportunity attacks. There are 6 characters in melee with the Xorns. The Jellyfish all miss, there is one attack on Lygan. There are two attacks on Ekkor, who has an AC 2, that hits. Ekkor takes 1 damage.
Thorgard is being attacked by a bunch, 3 versus his large magic shield and has AC -3. No hits but with his shield, he is at AC -1. One hit on the side hits. He takes 1 damage. Two attacks on Lok-Vurn, who has AC 2. He is zapped for 1 damage.
Fothas has AC -3 and a single claw hits him for 1 damage, STONESKIN Avoids! Lygan has an AC -3 and he hits with one claw and a bite for 1 damage but the STONESKIN stops all the damage.
The 6 Jellyfish are just engaging Maervahr in melee. They will attack next round.
Tatrin can shoot but decides to not shoot. The crackling pink things go through the mist. Timbraun is activating the pendant so the Xorn must save or be captured. The Xorn Resists the power of the pendant and it becomes enraged! (just pissed off…). The Xorn resists the locket and they get sweep attacks.
Invisibility blocks sight from Infravision.
Titus hits twice, killing two. Fothas kills 6 of them, Lygan hit 5 of them and Thorgard did 9, killing one. Thorgard hits 6 of them, killing all the rest of them. The others are departing from Maervahr's sight.
The fight continues.
Timbraun's Command Word does nothing….ACTUALLY IT WORKS, the Xorn is captured!
They can attack the Xorn at AC -2/3. Fothas hits for 11 damage. The Xorn attacks Fothas and only a claw hits for 1 damage. Fothas gets a second attack as does Thorgard. Thorgard hits for 13 damage and Fothas hits for 10 damage, killing the Xorn! It has been obliterated.
Maervahr secures the other spike and ties off the rope.
During the rest period, our minds are wracked.
Koriss failed his save, Lucien failed, Fothas failed. Then another save and Koriss immediately regains his INT back. Fothas has 5 INT.
Our ropes are now secured. Koriss climbs over as does Lucien. The mist makes us feel the same haziness that we feel when our minds felt when we were wracked. The passage is angled downward, down to the north east.
We head to the north east.
Our minds are wracked again. Koriss and Maervahr both save.
We come to a door and the mist reduces the view to 10'. We come to a Stone Building, which contrasts with the mist walls. They go up 20'. The ceiling is still mist.
Maervahr will head up directly above door of the stone building, with another rope. Maervahr flies up the stone wall and goes into the mist, he will go 20'…he goes only 5' and can see over the top of the building. It is smooth stone and flat. He then returns back down and lets them know.
Litlee casts Find Traps. The door openers heave on the door and we must…
We are surprised on a 2 in 6. Not surprised but our opponents are surprised in the melee.
We open the door and Fothas, Titus and Thorgard come face to face with a big wall of undulating Jelly. There is a remnant of a creature being digested that looks like a furry spider that is 2/3rds gone. This is a Gelatinous Cube and we are in melee.
Fothas, Lygan, Ekkor, Thorgard, Titus, Tatrin and Lok-Vurn can attack on segment 1 with a +2. They must hit AC 8. Lygan hits for 4 damage. Ekkor does 6 damage. Titus hits for 17 damage! The Cube is cut down to pieces, surrounding the dissolving a corpse of a Dog Spider. The thing has the head of a dog and the body of a spider.
There are big fangs visible on the Spider corpse.
We check for treasure.
We do not detect any traps but there are two doors. Timbraun will let the Xorn out using the command word. He will ask it if he remembers the guy carrying the kit on its back. It only heard about the man running into the mist, going through this door.
The Xorn says this is the domain of the tall men and their Dog Spiders. This was long ago prisons but they were repurposed in later years.
The only time the Tall Men come to this place is to retrieve the Dog Spiders and have been here since time immemorial. It was only after they arrived that they trained the Spiders to do their bidding. If their legends are true, it is in this part of the labyrinth where they were born. The Xorn are forbidden from going into this area, by the powers that have been passed through generations. The Xorn have a sense of warding to keep away from the south.
We see a grubby keyhole in the western door, there is no keyhole in the eastern door. The keyhole door is locked.
Koriss does not pick the lock. Breaking the wooden door takes a turn and takes 3 checks for wandering monsters. The Scroll of Knock is produced by Maervahr and the door opens!
We are surprised.
When the door opens, 5 Dog Spiders burst out. They are bigger than the one in the Gelatinous Cube. They immediately set on us in the front party.
Lygan and Thorgard. Plus Ekkor and Titus. They do not have a shield or DEX bonus. Lygan has AC 0.
Lygan dodges the first, but he is bitten by the second one. He takes 7 damage and must Save versus Poison or die. Lygan saves! This gets rid of his Phantom Armor, but no saves. He did take 2 damage.
Ekkor is now attacked who has AC 3. One almost hits but misses and Ekkor takes 2 damage, Stoneskin resists! Titus has an AC 1 normally but now has AC 3. He is hit for 7 damage and must save. HE SAVES! The Dog Spiders are in the area of our marching order. They are doing maneuvers on the ceiling and using a web.
Lok-Vurn, Tatrin and Litlee are also in melee. The Xorn is also still with us. The ceiling is 15' high. These creatures have AC 5.
Attackers must hit AC 5. Lygan hits for 9 damage, Ekkor misses. Thorgard hits for 14, Lok-Vurn hits for 10. Litlee hit for 3 and Fothas hits for 8. None of them are dead yet.
Chromatic Orb goes off but it misses. It dissipates without further effect. The Xorn attacks and then the Spiders attack first. The Xorn hits with two claws for 3 damage and then the mouth hits for 6d4 damage, doing 15 damage! The Xorn kills one of the Dog Spiders. The Spider unleashes a pained bark and chitter noise.
There are 4 left. Second attacks for Fighters will go off. One attack against the Xorn, and BARELY MISSES! The other attacks go, one on Titus and one on Lok-Vurn. Titus blocks the Spider's attack. Lok-Vurn is flanked by two Dog Spiders and one hits. He has Phantom Armor so 3 points get through and Lok-Vurn fails his save versus poison.
LOK-VURN DIES TO POISON!
Lygan is the target of the final Spider attack. Lygan defends. Fothas does 15 damage, Lygan did 3 and Thorgard did 7 damage.
Hold Monster goes off and three of them instantly fails their saves! One is bouncing around.
Neutralize Poison can be cast right after combat. The Dog Spider must make a Morale Check. The Spider tries to disengage along the ceiling. They can attack it normally and it will also attack. Thorgard hits for 12 damage and Fothas hits for 9, Lygan slays the Dog Spider.
Maervahr kills each of the held Dog Spiders.
Tatrin produces a Scroll of Neutralize Poison, which may have a 5% failure chance to cast. The spell is cast from the scroll and the poison is neutralized! Lok-Vurn is cured!
Titus and others are healed with Cure Light Wounds spells.
Inside the door are loose chains and harnesses plus lots of dead animals and a metal container filled with water. There are no exits outside this room. There are several husks in the room. Four medium sized husks and one large one.
We cut the webbing after our turn of rest. Many people got their INT point back but others did not.
We begin working at the husks, 3 of them are large Boars, drained of blood. The medium sized one is a Lion that was drained of blood. There is a medium sized human that was drained of blood. Strapped to his back is a gaudy of collection of wrapping and tubes. Like an unwieldy statue and put some metal rods in it. It is wrapped in webbing. This matches the description of the kit!
We also find a ring of four keys on the body of the human as well as two curved daggers. A golden ring is also found as Maervahr uses Detection of Magic. There is a faint magic on all of the keys, strong magic on the Kit strapped to the corpse and strong magic on the gold ring.
We decide to head back.
Maervahr can no longer fly once we get to the rope. We shimmy across…
We are not surprised. We are moving along and made it back to the initial area with the second level with the squiggly pathway. We have crossed 2/3rds to the other side. Some of us have not and we see undulations in the air like the Gelatinous Cube we saw before.
They must hit AC 8. Maervahr's Magic Missile destroys the Cube.
In the remains of the Cube we find:
We proceed up and our minds our instantly wracked, save versus spells or lose 1 point of INT. Koriss and Maervahr save but Thorgard, Tatrin and Lok-Vurn, Litlee all fail. Titus failed too.
Koriss and Maervahr fail the second time…Timbraun, Litlee and Ekkor all fail. Titus is currently at -2 as is Lucien.
We continue to leave…we finally made it to the Hourglass shaped diamond room and we can see the edge of the building. This time the room is occupied.
We are surprised.
It is 2” outside of melee. We are surprised by 3 Giant Lizards that are 20' long! They will attack the front line, except Fothas. There are 4 potential targets.
Lygan, Ekkor and Titus are being attacked. It hits Lygan for 5 damage but misses Ekkor. Titus is also hit for 5 damage.
These are the big 20' long Subterranean Lizards.
They continue their attacks against 5 targets. These are large creatures. Fothas and Thorgard each do 12 damage. Ekkor does not hit yet. The Lizards attack, one on Thorgard misses. Ekkor is hit for 9 damage! Titus is also hit on a 12, taking 10 damage!
Timbraun calls for the Shedu out in the mist. Lygan does 10 damage, Thorgard does 6 and Fothas does 8. Ekkor does 5 damage.
They are very wounded. Maervahr casts Polymorph Other and turns a Subterranean Lizard into an Olive Green Snail!
There is no Morale Check for the Lizards. We get tied initiative.
Timbraun starts casting Lightning Bolt. Fothas does 10 damage and Ekkor does 9. Thorgard does 8 damage and Lok-Vurn does 8 as well. Tatrin does 5 damage, all of the Lizards are slain!
Timbraun lets the spell fizzle.
The Shedu appears and Timbraun tells them we did not find the evil sword. Each of the Shedu bow to our party and ask if we wish to give our names. Timbraun gives his name. Perhaps it is good that brought you out since our quest is tied to your homeland.
Do we know Shin? Yes. We can inform him of forces that plot against him. Titus speaks up to the Shedu and promises to come back here in due time to finish the quest they have given us. They would have to discuss this proposition because they will have to review the places we must be in the future.
Timbraun's quest is Time Sensitive which may hinder returning to the Yoqqo Basin. The Shedu will depart after we leave this place.
Thorgard would like to ask what kind of danger this is. The Shedu follow us to the cramped hallway with the teleporter. After looking at the Blade of Lowir, a Warrior Thorgard could understand that there are blades of similar power that have fermented over time. Some have wills of their own and seek to do harm to those on this plane. This is the reason for their presence here.
We get back to the top and we have been underground for 6 hours. We get back to the surface using the rickety teleporter.
Ekkor is healed with a Cure Light Wounds. It is currently the evening of the 16th when it was currently lightly raining. The evening is just cloudy weather. The night goes by without incident.
It is heavy rain this morning.
Thorgard gets Stoneskin as does Lygan.
Our INT is now back!
Fothas has a Rod of Passage and will use that for only Timbraun and Fothas. He activates the rod, taking himself, Timbraun and the Kit back to the Courtyard of Zorian's Domain. IT IS DONE!
Titus is healed by Tatrin.
We will head back overland next session.
FOR THE SUNDAY GROUP:
Josalyn casts Endure Heat on Kheskhor to Read Magic.
Rolling for the Gems:
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