Session 33: A Slow Adventure Report

General Summary

Previously

  After entering the Hive in the outskirts of the Runespace system, they party discovers a message from the Arcane, imploring any who made it this far to end the menace of the Ravager. According to the Arcane's message, "...the Ravager, depends on the energies of the Queen's Eyes. The ten lesser eyes dwell each in their own domains within this Hive", and the Arcane want them to "destroy the ten lesser eyes. Only this can end the menace of the Ravager."   In the first major chamber, an idyllic forested realm, they fight the effects of a powerful charm spell, talk with happy, simple-minded golden people, and then meet (and eventually destroy) the Lord of the Dance, Horan, who is apparently an incarnation of the Lesser Eye of the Charm Person power.   The party decides to press on, intent on destroying the eyes to end the threat of the Ravager, and concerned about the the crystalline starfish/scorpion that entered the Hive, suspecting it is an intruder from Runespace, They are worried what its purpose is, and what it will do with the "spiky armor" the golden people said it took   After reviewing what they know about the powers of beholders, they fear that the other eye-realms will not be nearly as pleasant as this one.   Venturing into the black monolith, and passing through a tunnel with odd silver slime apparently cleaning it, they enter a huge central chamber, with massive murals telling the history of the creation of the Hive and the Ravager, using the eyes from the deceased former queen of the Beholder nation. There is a large glowing crystal to one side, in a tunnel to another space, that they suspect is (or houses) the central Queens Eye.   After spending many hours deciphering the murals, and matching what they learn to the symbols on the towers, they decide to tackle the "Charm Beast" realm next. There, they defeat The Beastmaster, and obtain a huge set of spiky armor, presumably similar to what the starfish took. Windellian has mixed luck attempting to control it, and the crew straps it to the hull (on the far side from the shuttle).   Returning to the central chamber, the party decides to tackle the Slow/Impediment realm next, and enter that tunnel.  

Session Summary

  Zayer points out that the party has been in the Hive for about 2 days, which means the Hive could potentially jump to the Flow in as little as a day or two--but the party really doesn't know how long the Hive will travel past the minimum point before jumping. It could be right away, or a few weeks. If it does, the party could find itself lost in the Phlogiston, or eventually arriving in an unknown sphere. Zayer expects that, even trapped inside the Hive, he would be able to tell if the Hive entered the Phlogiston, since it would cut off his connection to the Planes. He resolves to pay close attention to that.    As the Surprise travels through the tunnel to the Slow realm, they note a different sort of creature tending the tunnel. Unlike the silver slime ring the party saw in the first tunnel (from the charm person realm), or the lack of any silver slime in the 2nd tunnel (to charm beast), here the party sees a single large blob, colored dull silver, the size of wagon. It is semi-erect, and has two pseudopods. One appears to be holding more of the silver slime, the other is shaped like a trowel. The slime appears to be brushing its own substance into a crack in the tunnel wall, repairing it. You realize that this is likely the source of the many glints of silver and grey you've noticed in the tunnel walls.   After some debate, Jessa asks Ralgir to use an oar to scoop up a bit of the silver slime. She has heard rumors of the Arcane having magic that can help ships generate their own air, and/or automatic repair themselves. This seems to be an advanced form of that, and she hopes to study and perhaps duplicate it. The blob doesn't react at all as Ralgir does this.    The ship continues, and exits the tunnel into the far room. The faces of this room measure over two miles per side. Each is a slimy, turgid ocean of yellow-green water, covered with moss. Dozens of oblong grey islands, each about 150 feet long and 20 feet wide,drift in the oceans. The islands are barren, but glisten as if covered with slime. The crystal decahedron in the center of the room continually bathes the room in amber light, like a perpetual sunset. The ocean smells like burning wood. On a wide ledge that surrounds the base of the tower they just exited from, the party seems another suit of the spiky armor, this one laying splayed out, with odd patches of color.    The party decides to investigate the armor, and finds that it appears to have been cracked open from the inside by the grown of strange pink crystals, and that this apparently happened recently--perhaps only a few days ago. When BN Sue tries to shatter away the crystals, they erupt into a cloud of whirling dust, and the armor jerkily attempts to swat him. Fortunately, BN Sue had Jessa's environmental protection device activated, and the dust cannot reach him. He leaps back to the rope ladder dangling from the ship, and cuts it away beneath him as the armor tries to drag him down. The armor collapses back into a heap. Jessa notices that the pink crystal looks a lot like the crystal that infested the walls of the derelict Vlleryn, but the party has no idea what that signifies.   Meanwhile, one of the oblong grey islands has *slowly* approached the hovering ship, and some of the party can hear a faint whisper from it. When Prax climbs out onto the lower hull to get closer, he is able to make out a very slow message, "HELP...US...OPEN...BLACK...SHELL...IN...BIG...SHELL". The message simply repeats, with no response to any attempts at communication.   crashes up through the waves about half a mile away, and settles on the surface. The spiral-shaped shell is nearly 700' in diameter and about 70' thick. It appears to be smooth, pink stone. Its sides glisten with a grey gelatin like that on the islands. Near the base of the seashell, just above the surface of the ocean, is a circular opening about 20' in diameter. A rush of water abruptly spews from the opening, as if the shell were emptying itself of liquid. The water spews for several minutes, then dwindles to a trickle before stopping completely.   With great trepidation, the ship approaches the shell, and eventually Prax, Jessa, Zayer, and BN Sue lower themselves down, and enter the shell. Sloshing through the standing water left in the shell, the group follows the spiral into the darkness. As they continue, the diameter of the chamber gets smaller and smaller. They are attacked by strange creatures in the water--all slow-moving, all covered with the same grey slime, and apparently mutated versions of familiar water creatures, except for water lizards capable of delivering electric shocks.    After fighting off a series of small attacks, they reach the center of the shell, a circular chamber 100' wide. It looks smooth and curved, as one would expect a shell's center to look. Its resident is not  shell, vanishing through the walls of the chamber an instant later, and the black blog dissolves into dust.   Unfortunately, the shell begins to sink again, and the group has to quickly rush back through the tunnels, reaching the opening just in time. Once they reboard the ship, the party sees that the amber crystal has darkened considerably, and are surprised to see a hovering group of small water fairies (nixies), about a foot tall, approaching the ship.    The party learns that the nixies (very) small water world was attacked and swallowed by the Ravager, which they describe as looking like a giant beholder with armored skin. The nixies found themselves inside a large chamber, and explored, encountering some of the other inhabitants of the Hive. They eventually found this ocean realm, and decided to colonize it, but found themselves trapped transformed, unaware of the passage of time or anything else, until the party's actions just now must have freed them. They have no idea how much time has passed, but are very excited when one of the party members says they can join the ship "Yay!". In the time that it takes to travel from this realm back to the central chamber, after 25 choruses of "We all live in a space-beige triop", the party realizes that have 50 or so chaotic, curious nixies on the ship will not be a good thing. Fortunately, the nixies are happy to go the Charm Person realm when the party describes it (nabbing a sample of the silver slime from that tunnel for Jessa first).   Before they depart, the nixies say that one of the other inhabitants they met told them that "In the Death realm, there are pods shaped like bells at the entrance. Rub the syrup on your bodies, or the undead will kill you."   The party thanks them, and decides that they might as well try to tackle the Death realm next, since they have some clue on how to survive there. The session ends with the ship entering the tunnel to that realm.