On the tenth day, a pair of dungeon veterans gave the Mountains of the Mad Marquis another try.
- Al-Hafiz, Level 4 Fedayeen
- Laguna Tempest, Level 4 Warcaster
As usual, Al-Hafiz brought Eric the Barbarian along as extra muscle. They had cleared most of the Ancient Ruins on level 3 the previous expedition, and hoped to finish off the floor. They arrived at the ruined surface keep to find four Orcs carrying the corpse of a fifth. They were wearing brightly colored sashes similar to Ishizaka's mercenaries but under that they were clearly tribals from the hills. They had accepted Ishizaka's offer of protection in exchange for service, not interested in being picked off by scalphunters after surviving the onslaught of the berserkers. The sashes showed they were under the genie's protection, and it was illegal for Commonwealth bounty hunters to kill them for their ears.
The Orcs recognized the adventurers as friendlies, and accompanied them down the winch to the sinkhole. Thelema the Gravewarden received the corpse, and the Green Men offered a prayer of depositum custodi along with a flask of an unknown substance. Thelema asked the adventurers not to enter the sanctification rooms. She was teaching Endura how to cut up and prepare bodies, because having work to do made her sister less mopey and suicidal, and a group of armed thugs appearing wouldn't improve the situation.
The gang took the long way around, through the skeleton infested catacombs. This was harmless because Thelema whitelisted them after the first time the group rescued her, so the skeletons didn't attack. The players decided as long as they were over here, they would explore the water termite infested zone before going to floor three. There were still some unmapped areas and potentially some treasure.
The twenty foot high stone dam was crawling with giant amphibious termites, holding back a whole roomful of water. The adventurers tried to climb it and got attacked by the termites, who spat a disabling irritant and swarmed them. Fighting the termites head on was obviously a losing proposition because there were a lot of termites, and they could all spew disgusting substances on their attackers. Laguna managed to hoover up some treasure with a ring of telekinesis from the big pile of magic items recovered on the previous delve, but that wouldn't help explore and map the infested area. So Laguna cast his first level 4 spell, Polymorphing himself into an eight headed amphibious hydra. This wasn't as inconvenient as you might think. The ring of TK let him manipulate objects despite not having hands, and the rest of the group were happy to carry his inventory items.
Hydra-Lagnua climbed up the wall and ate all the water termites, devouring them with eight bite attacks per round. He devoured the queen and the eggs and swam upstream until the passage got too narrow for him to fit. Then he returned and got Al-Hafiz to check out the rest of the tunnels. Al-Hafiz was able to swim upstream far enough to found the rope that Wakefield dropped down the waterfall on the first floor from the Marquis' secret dining room. The dam the water termites built called the water level to rise high enough that it flowed through a gap near the ceiling and fell down to the floor below. Laguna used his hydra strength to smash through the wall opposite the dam, where the water trickling over the edifice drained out through the cracked stone. The rock fell away to reveal the same central shaft the group had been circling the entire adventure, with the lamp of clarity overhead and the stone bridge below.
With the water termites exterminated and floor two put to bed, the three explorers went down to level 3. They used the Rod of Bat Friendship received from Alaksandu the Vampire on the previous day, calling up some giant bats to carry them down fifty feet to the bridge in the Ancient City. It took several bats to carry the hydra down. Al-Hafiz wanted to explore downstream, through the waterlogged statue room. The chamber beyond that was a misty gymnasium, with a completely submerged pool in the center. There was a shiny object in the pool, and Laguna the Hydra dipped a head into the water to inspect it: a skeleton clad in a bronze panoply, decked out with jewelry and clutching the head of a spear.
A wraith coalesced out of the mist to attack Al-Hafiz. He chopped its arm off with the sword of sharpness he took off the Enlightenment cultist the day before. Eric didn't have a magic weapon to hit the spirit, so he threw a firebomb and made a cloud of steam which mixed into the ghost's matrix, disrupting its cohesion. Laguna pulled the armored skeleton out of the water with his heads and threatened to devour it. The ghost backed off.
The water flowed into a hole in the ground, cascading fifty feet to the next dungeon floor over the face of a toppled statue. The room beyond that was an old courtyard, buried by geologic time. There was a skeleton in a purple robe, bent over a still functioning fountain that bubbled crystal clear liquid. The characters worried that this was a lich, but were able to stomp the bones into dust with no trouble. The skeleton's hands were in the bowl of water, along with a couple rings Al-Hafiz was able to retrieve without being burned by the clear fluid, which was actually acid.
The next room they explored was filled with lichen and slime, and giant cave locusts jumping everywhere. The presence of an eight headed hydra drove the locusts crazy, they jumped everywhere and spat foul smelling fluid all over anything. The adventurers kept their cool, but the passage beyond was too narrow for the hydra to fit into, so Al-Hafiz went alone. The low-ceilinged cave was full of crawling insects that bit and stung him. A brown mold schlepped into the chamber looking for heat sources to absorb, but Al-Hafiz drove it off with a flask of acid he took from the fountain earlier. He found some interesting treasure discarded on the floor and pushed onward. The acid in the fountain was flowing from a rock wall that was almost burning hot, indicating a source of great heat on the other side. Al-Hafiz realized the stone chamber of Hasdrubal the Red Dragon was on the other side of the wall.
He explored the other branching passage from the bug room and found himself in an old megaron, The ceiling was partially collapsed and the brown mold sat in the long-cold remnants of the fire pit. Apparently it associated the taste of ashes with warmth. Al-Hafiz checked the passages branching from the throne room, and found they looped back to rooms the group already explored: the gravel filled chamber and the slime filled chamber. He deduced the gravel was from a deliberately designed trap rather than an accidental cave-in, and there might be corpses with treasure under the rock fill.
Al-Hafiz returned to Eric the Barbarian and Laguna the Hydra, who had eaten all the locusts and found more treasure in the lichen and slime of the cistern. The adventurers went the long way around so that Laguna could reach the gravel room, intent on excavating it in search of the key to the locked armory they discovered the previous day. Al-Hafiz' helmet light flickered, the perpetual light stone in the mask dimming for a moment. He used his amulet of ESP to see if someone nearby was messing with him, and caught a panicked thought from someone running away as fast as they could. He chased after them, but wasn't able to run down the culprit. The gang continued on their way. While crossing the big bridge over the chasm, they heard a gunshot echo from somewhere in the dark, accompanied by a flash of light. Al-Hafiz called out to Cortez, but the only reply was a voice he didn't recognize, laughing. He used his amulet of ESP but whoever it was wasn't close enough.
Excavating the gravel room took a while, and they had to dodge a grey ooze hanging on the ceiling, but the adventurers recovered several trinkets from the crushed corpses under the rock fill. Ready for a break, they summoned the bat and went back upstairs to have all the cool stuff they found identified by Thelema.
By Andrea Maraldi
The bats were able to reach the big sinkhole with Thelema's cemetery garden using the access tunnel the Vivisectionists built for them next to the lamp of enlightenment at the top of the main shaft. The access tunnel emerged fifty feet above the cemetery floor. The bats carried Al-Hafiz and Eric down while Laguna the Hydra waited at the edge of the tunnel, concerned at how the dwarf sisters would react to his appearance. Thelema and Endura were lying naked on the soft grass of the graveyard. Thelema was enjoying the sunshine, Endura was not. According to Thelema, sunlight would reverse Endura's cave adaptation, which had fucked up her vision and made her skin transparent to the point you could see the muscles and fat deposits underneath. According to Endura, the sun was punishment for the many horrible things she'd done, and the more punishment she endured while she was alive, the fewer blows from the Hammerer shed suffer after death. Al-Hafiz got in a theological debate with her, Thelema pulled him aside and started identifying his magic items. At her recommendation, Al-Hafiz destroyed the body in the cursed suit of bronze armor, preventing the ghost from returning. Al-Hafiz agreed not to let Thelema into the drug lab on the first floor, no matter how much she offered to help with anything scientific.
Rested up and with the new items distributed, the group returned to the ancient city to clear the last couple rooms. They checked the columned room where the Hoglord had chased the Bugbear Ranger on the previous day, and confirmed that the chimney with the waterfall in it led up to the now empty termite colony on the second level. Then Al-Hafiz' magical headlamp went out. That wasn't supposed to happen. With his keen senses, he noticed that his magic ring was missing and there were footsteps receding in the direction of the abandoned villa. He used his amulet of ESP to track the mind of the thief and pursue him, through the courtyard and storeroom into the slave barracks. The thief's mind disappeared from his psychic vision with a crunching sound.
At the end of the slave quarters, on the balcony overlooking the disposal pit, Alaksandu the Vampire stood with the corpse of a Dark Creeper in her claws, chewing on the skull like a praying mantis. Al-Hafiz asked if he could have his treasure back. The Vampire scraped the ring off the dead man's hand with her dewclaw and tossed it to the Fedayeen.
With all that out of the way, the adventurers returned to the armory door that vexed them on the previous expedition. Laguna used his ring of telekinesis to unfurl and read a scroll of dispel magic. He removed the lightning runes on the door, then tore it down with his Hydra strength.
Inside, a bunch of weapons appeared to float in mid air, glowing and glistening through a strange membrane. A gelatinous cube oozed out of the door. The trio hacked it to pieces before it could do anything nefarious. They pulled almost a dozen glowing weapons and armor pieces out of the inert pile of slime, then planned their next move. With ample resources at their disposal, the adventurers decided to give the next level of the dungeon a try. The disposal pit where the bats and vampire lived had a path down to the next level, though it was too narrow for Laguna to fit in Hydra form. The Rod of Bat Friendship was the answer once again, the oversized chiropterans carried the group down to the bottom of the fifty foot hole without complaint.
The bottom of the pit was covered in mineral deposits and batshit, encrusting a layer of old bones from sacrificial victims in ages past. There were a couple tunnels leading deeper into the dungeon, but a pair of hungry Bulettes burst out of the ground before the group could advance further.
By Diterlizzi
Laguna wasn't scared of the fifteen foot landsharks. He used a freshly identified wand of haste to buff himself and his friends, then went to town on the first beast. He tore its armor off, allowing Al-Hafiz and Eric the Barbarian to finish it off with their weapons. The second Bulette grabbed the carcass of the first and retreated underground to eat it.
With haste still active, Al-Hafiz recommended making the most of the buff. The adventurers sped through the tunnel to the next chamber, following the sound of running water. The tunnel widened into a chamber with a crude statue of a giant pig, standing atop an ancient statue from the city on the floor above. This room opened up into a natural cave at the bottom of a 200 foot shaft. At the top of the shaft was the lantern of clarity, hung by the Vivisectionists to protect them from dark draconic dreams. At the bottom were a series of tide pools and rock formations, thrashed by an underground river running from a fissure in one cave wall to a yawning abyss on the other side.
The adventurers hopped across the river at its narrowest point, but were interrupted by a giant cave salamander before they could leave. Hoskanner the Olm wasn't interested in eating them, he wanted to make a deal: he was blind, but he could feel the sun hundreds of feet above him. If the adventurers brought it down to the bottom of the cave, he would give them a nice treasure. He also warned the adventurers to be careful of the giant pig.
The adventurers stood before a house, windows and door sculpted out of the rock face. The porch was covered in potted fungi, and the windows were made of red gems that shone with bright light. Silhouettes moved around inside, talking loudly and laughing. Al-Hafiz shouted a challenge to Gorrister the Great: he could come out and join the God of Mercy's great crusade, or he could die.
The laughter stopped. The shadow of a face appeared at the window. Several other shadows appeared. Then the front door opened. Gorrister the Great, Cortez the Orc, three women and two men came out onto the porch. The biggest, fattest, most dangerous man grinned at the adventurers with far too many sharp teeth. Gorrister, he said, was already spoken for. Then he cast charm person on Al-Hafiz. The mujahid called on the God of Mercy to fortify his mind, and the magic passed over him harmlessly. He saw through the glamour. Standing on the porch, between Gorrister and Cortez, were a Hag, a Devil Swine, and three half-hag, half-devil swine children.
Gorrister the Great and his father-in-law Ogygus the Swine
With the haste effect still up, the initiative was to the three adventurers. Laguna the Hydra tore the hag to shreds with eight heads worth of bite attacks, tearing her in half and devouring the pieces. Al-Hafiz realized that Gorrister and Cortez were charmed by the Devil Swine Ogygus. He read a scroll of dispel magic that Laguna prepared the previous day, freeing Gorrister from the charm effect. Eric the Barbarian rushed forward and engaged the horde of monsters in hand to hand combat. No longer operating under the swine's orders, Gorrister fled the field, running into the house. Cortez shot Eric with his rifle. Enraged by the death of Varvara the Hag, the Devil Swine and his children unloaded on Laguna the Hydra. A brutal hand to hand combat ensued. Laguna tore through the combatants but was cut down to size and forcibly returned to human form by a hail of blows, ending the polymorph effect. Al-Hafiz and Eric killed Cortez and used their magic weapons to focus down Ogygus. Al-Hafiz used clerical protection to save Laguna from death, and the three adventurers finished off the remaining monsters.
The adventurers swept forward into the house, looking for Gorrister. His muddy bootprints led through the living room and bathhouse into a hidden doorway in the back. This doorway led into a hexagonal chamber full of enormous black crystals. It was hot and the very air was filled with concentrated evil. Eric pointed to the corner of the room, where Gorrister had discarded his muddy boots. The bandit chief had found whatever he was looking for in this room and fled.
The haste effect had worn off, leaving the adventurers to pursue Gorrister at normal speed. He was long gone by the time they found their way through the escape tunnel in the back of Ogygus' master bedroom. The central shaft had a big gouge in the wall, going all the way up to the bat egress tunnel two hundred feet above. The adventurers summoned giant bats and flew up to the top, through the tunnel and up through the sinkhole. By the time they got to the old keep on the surface, the outlaw was nowhere to be found. Without Jack Fatherd's wilderness survival skills or the Hoglord's sense of smell, they were at a loss.
With no prospect of finding the bandit in the wilderness, the party went back into the dungeon to deliver the "sun" to Hoskanner the Olm. At the top of the central shaft was the lantern of clarity, hung by the Vivisectionists. The adventurers disconnected it from its mounting in the roof of the cave, and had the giant bats carry it down to the tide pools at the bottom. True to his word, the old Proteus vomited up a pile of gold and a magic robe, then climbed on top of the glowing orb to sun the underside of his body. In the light of the globe, the adventurers saw a Cave Elf and a giant Tuatara wearing a saddle in the cavern to the South, on the front porch of Ogygus' house. They hadn't stopped to loot the bodies of the swine family, or their home, and now someone else was doing it for them. They thought about challenging the lady, but decided they were in no shape to fight. They had restored some of their health but they were low on other consumables, and they had recovered plenty of treasure for the day anyway. So they went back to Thelema to get their stuff identified.
Thelema asked if they had seen the bald guy who rode an earth elemental up the wall of the sinkhole - the same asshole bandit who had harassed her for information a couple weeks ago. As she went through their items, the gang discussed possibilities regarding what Gorrister found in the chamber at the bottom of the stone egg. Al-Hafiz mentioned Alaksandu the Vampire's cryptic warning about a "droplet". As a learned wizard, Laguna recognized the term. Droplets were physical manifestations of dragon dreams. A pitch drop at the bottom of the stone egg would contain a piece of Hasdrubal the Red's soul. Al-Hafiz realized this was why the Enlightenment cultists brought an Iron Flask: to safely store the fragment. Which, instead, had left the dungeon inside Gorrister the Great.
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