Journal 20: The Buried Enclave

General Summary

Out of the frying pan

Our intrepid band of heroes make their way out of the cathedral post-haste. The myconid are panicking, as they seem to be unwilling to leave the cathedral. However, their choice has been made for them, as the cathedral is almost completely on fire. Rael uses his entangle spell to create a patch of ground where the myconid can survive. Unfortunately, the spell only lasts for a minute. Azeir Khemet Wallace Shynt closes the doors.   We hatch a plan to store some soil (that is next to the underground river) in our tent to bring it to the myconids. Once the myconid learn of this plan, they race toward the patch of soil, ignoring everything else. In the meantime, Maze regurgitates an egg. The team is grossed out. From the egg hatches his familiar, Felicity.   We have to wait until the fire dies down in the cathedral, so the myconids can return. One myconid asks Nate to make sure they survive, and gives him a mushroom from his body. We make the myconids take turns on the patch of soil. Unfortunately, it's not an ideal solution - several die during the wait. After the fire has died down, we move the remaining nine myconid back to the cathedral.   Maze shows he looted an orb from Missy (apparently truly named Missandra), the succubus we defeated. To all but Rael it looks like an orb filled with thick, black smoke. Rael has a warm, fuzzy feeling inside and sees a pretty woodland place and doesn't want anything to do with the orb.  

When all else fails, talk to the rock

We communicate with the stone giant, and once we hit the subject of he points to deery centaur statues, then deeper into the mountain. We conclude he means there are deertaurs lower in the mountain, who might be able to help us with Emilio's state.   The stone giant is making a statue of Maze. Our band of heroes rest up in Nate's Leomund's Tiny Hut. For a tiny hut it is pretty comfortable to sleep in with five guys. While we rest, the stone giant is shaping stone. We are unsure what it is, but when we wake up it turns out to be a giant snow stone plow.   We pack up our stuff and grab Emilio's corpse. The stone giant pushes the stone plow into the wall, and a tunnel is created. We follow, but are unable to keep up. Rael summons several horses for us to ride. After some time, we stop, and the stone giant shapes a giant stone drill. He then pushes it downwards, leaving a slide-like tunnel. We then say our goodbyes, and the giant returns to his cathedral.   We debate how to go down the (steep) tunnel, and eventually agree that we will try and move carefully, and if that fails, will use Nate's Feather Fall to not die horribly. We tie a rope around everyone (in a line) to be sure nothing can go wrong.   However, after some of us end up failing and plummeting down the hole, we are forced to use Feather Fall and slow our decent. We find out that our trajectory will absolutely end in our corpses on the bottom of a chasm, and use the Immovable Rod and the rope to get down without getting physically hurt.  

Who said this was a heart?

Our band of heroes find themselves in a giant cave with an eery shifting red/purple stone walls. We recognize the color, and rock, from before: it was present on the Duegar priest, the brainy rats, and the Duergar Kavalrachni had some on them.   In the distance, we see a giant city. There is a path moving towards the city, and one back into the cave wall. Moving closer towards the city, it seems to be collapsed and desolate. It is protected by a shimmering barrier.   We use the gray bag of tricks to summon several animals and (try to) make them move into the barrier. They disappear once inside the barrier. Rael tries Dispel Magic, but it has no effect. After this, Maze simply jumps in. Nero, ever the careful one, sticks his hand in but disappears too. Rael and Shynt jump in after them. Nate debates whether to follow them, then does so.  

Into the fire

We wake up in a seemingly different place. There is a male turtle person being sent away (by his wife?). There are thiefling children playing, and there is a giant fucking dinosaur walking around. Maze tries his charms (to get answers) with the turtle lady living in the barn. After that doesn't have the desired effect, he threatens her instead, and destroys some furniture. The turtle lady is named Elena, and was born in Middlebrook. We learn that this is apparently the enclave of wizards that went away to research the Arcane Death plague.   We see a city in the distance with a giant clock tower in the center of town. The time is 11:50. We move toward the city, and meet a lady with a cart. The thiefling children are afraid of us. There is also a pamphlet runner that hands us flyers, something about a circus in town.   After talking to the cart lady and hitching a ride, an eagle man stops us. He seems to be a protector of the city. We assure him we come in peace. He tells us to get to the town, and answer questions there. Suddenly, a giant shadow envelops everything, and we hear a voice saying something, though we don't understand it. Then, a fiery firestorm descends upon us, and we die.  

Into the fire

We wake again, and the same exacy scenario as before is presented to us. This time, we move towards the town quickly. Maze sees a shady guy and chases him. The rest continues towards Gyntle's, who apparently runs a shop.   Maze manages to corner the shady guy, and learn some more. Something about an insurgency. He learns the name of the two big players. He then talks to some guards at the clock tower, and convinces one of them to bring him to their leader, Morbelgion. He then tries to kill the guard, but it turns out these guards have fireball necklaces and gets incinerated instead. We also learn that the town is named Tul Inuth.   We talk to Gyntle and Myntle, the gnomes, inside their shop, Gyntle and Myntle's Magnificent Gizmos. We (try to) convince them we are from the future. Gyntle shows us his basement, which hosts a device known as The Electrolon. It is haunted by electric gremlins. Rael uses Dispel Magic to get rid of the gremlins. Gyntle is pleased.   Apparently the clerics (of the Crescent Temple) want the Electrolon to create a giant metal robot. Ulfgar and Fedrin are in charge of the temple. After learning this, the walls start to melt and we get dead by the firestorm again.  

Into the fire (again???)

We wake up once more, and decide to move the other way, into the grove. Apparently, druids live there. Druids are always good news.   Rael changes into a wolf and runs off. He finds a dryad, who is being harassed by an ape. Rael shows him who's boss and asks the dryad some questions. Apparently, there are deer centaurs druids called Alseid in the grove.   The rest of the group tries and follows wolf Rael, but gets lost. Instead, we find a giant crocodile. We run away. Nate gets bitten by a snake, of fucking course.   We manage to find the deertaurs, and talk to the leader of the Alseid, Leshenna. After a minute, the firestorm appears again, and we die.