Session 32: Really. Big. Murals. 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.   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, and the realm was built to magnify this effect.   The party is relieved that their minds clear, and review what they believe they've learned:  

• 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."
• Apparently, these eyes have evolved some sort of sentience after the deaths of the original masters of the Hive, the Sazuar nation, and formed Incarnations such as Horan.
• Each eye has its own realm, built to collect and magnify its power, and presumably this room was one of those realms.
• They speculate that "the Crystal-eating Serpent" that periodically takes the central crystal is part of the Ravager, and these crystals form its eyes.
• Whatever the crystalline starfish/scorpion is that entered the Hive, they suspect it is an intruder from Runespace, and are concerned what its purpose is, and what it will do with the "spiky armor" the golden people said it took
• They don't know if the starfish-thing arrived in the crash ship they spotted, or if that was someone else.

  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. As far as they know, the powers of the lesser eyes of a beholder are:  

• Charm Person
• Charm Beast
• Slumber
• Telekinesis
• Petrification (Turn to Stone)
• Disintegration
• Fear
• Impediment (Slow)
• Wounding
• Death

  The central eye typically causes an Anti-Magic effect.   After arguing about whether they owe anything to the golden people whose idyllic (if simpleminded) realm they have disrupted, the party agrees to venture deeper into the Hive, and then return here to check on them. After not finding any other way out, the party reluctantly orders their ship into the opening at the top of the black monolithic pillar, which stretches 500 yards tall into this huge room.  

Session Notes

 

The Tunnel

  The interior of the pillar turns out to be a gigantic cylindrical tunnel, maybe a hundred yards wide. It's so large that sounds don't even cause echoes. The air here smells very fresh. The tunnel stretches in a straight line as far as you can see. It's dark, but you can clearly make out a circle of white light at the far end. When you hold your hand at arm's length, you can just about cover the circle with your thumbnail. It might be a hundred yards away or a mile. In the light from the entrance you can see that the tunnel's wall is made of some kind of black stone with glints of silver and grey. It seems to be heavily carved with pictures or symbols.    Examining the symbols, they depict abstract, hieroglyphic-like shapes: circles, cubes, beholder silhouettes, and above all, eyes. There also seems to be a repeating pattern of a series of circles, set off in a distinct way, almost like a label.   About halfway down the tunnel, in the lights from your ship, you spy what appears to be a silver slime covering the surface of the tunnel, in a rough ring that covers the full circumference, and ranging from perhaps 20-30' wide. After throwing a barrel, and then a chicken, through the ring without incident, the ship proceeds through. Examining the two sides of the tunnel on either side of the slime, they speculate that this slime is some sort of cleaning mechanism.  

The Central Room

  As the ship approaches the end of the tunnel, you see a cloudy grey sky. At least it looks like the sky, and you can make out thin white clouds in front of the grey background. There seems to be sunlight; the air feels warm and smells fresh. When they emerge, they find the ship emerging from the top of a monolith, similar to what it entered in the previous room. The rim of the monolith is decorated with that same strange pattern of repeating circles.    This room makes the last room look tiny. This one is a gigantic sphere. What you thought was grey sky is really the surface of the sphere. You can't immediately tell how big this room is (because you really don't have a sense of scale). But there are clouds high overhead, and you see other patches of cloud floating above other parts of the sphere. You can make out lakes and streams above you. The room looks like the surface of a world seen from space.    Light comes from a huge white crystal set into the wall of the sphere (not in the center, as in the room you just left). Upon closer inspection, the crystal is actually floating in the center of a large circular hole, like a pupil in the iris of an eye. The hole looks at least a mile wide (but again, sizes are difficult to judge.)   Along the inner surface of the sphere you see weird terrain: huge brown slabs of different shapes; tall black towers, one of which your ship just emerged from; and open plain filled with silvery grey vegetation of some kind. Some of that vegetation stands nearby. The plants look like tall silver weeds, or the stalks of weeds, and appear dried out and dead. The air seems fresh and warm, with a slight burnt smell.  

The Murals

Eventually, the party realizes the central chamber is just under five miles across, and that the weird, huge brown slabs are gigantic murals that depict the history of the Sazaur, the Queen's Eyes, and the Ravager. The 25 murals each measure roughly one mile by one-half mile, and their shapes vary depending on their location.   The party decides to examine them. While approaching the top of the chamber, near the glowing crystal, to examine the murals there, they see that the crystal that lights the room is very bright, blinding to look at directly, even as you are still over a mile away. It is 100 yards in diameter. This giant crystal floats in the center of a passage between this chamber and another. The passage appears to be a little less than 2 miles wide, and not very long, perhaps a tenth of a mile. The crystal is small compared to the passage's diameter, making it look much like the pupil of a giant eye. Beyond the passage there appears to be another chamber, but all you can make out from here is a brass-colored sky or wall (which the party eventually realizes is likely the brass dome they saw from the outside of the Hive.   However, as the ship gets closer, the helm loses power, and the ship starts to fall towards the surface of the sphere. The party rallies the crew to attempt to glide the ship away as it falls, and Zreestram manages to pull the ship up just in time, when the edge of the tunnel that the crystal is in cuts off line of sight from the crystal.   The party debates using the shuttle to examine the crystal, or the room beyond, but decide to hold off for now.    Once the party examines the murals, as well as the distinct symbols on the lip of each tower, they realize the murals could not only tell the history of this place, but help them determine which tunnel goes to the realm of which power. They decide to take the time (most of a day) to decipher the murals.   

• The first sequence: This describes the history of the great Hive Mother, or Queen, who led the Sazaur to supremacy. These five murals are equilateral triangles pointing toward the central passage with the glowing crystal.
• The second sequence: This sequence depicts the death of the Queen, and the ritual the Sazuar enacted to turn the Queen's Eyes into relics. These murals are trapezoidal. Each of these murals has a tower in its center that measures 100 yards across, similar to the one which the party's ship emerged from.
• The third sequence: This sequence depicts the construction of the Hive, and the Hive attacking other beholder ships with a range of different powers. It also includes a rough schematic of the Hive, which the party can use to construct a rough map (See below). These murals are perfectly rectangular, though curved inward due to the curvature of the sphere.
• The fourth sequence: This sequence depicts the placement of the smaller eyes in their own rooms. Like the murals of the second sequence, these are trapezoidal, but their short sides point away from the passage with the glowing crystal. Also like those of the second sequence, each of these has a 100-yard-wide tower in its center (one of which the party's ship emerged from). Each mural shows two large squares (except for the last, which shows three). Inside each square is a beholder eye and one of the power symbols evident in the earlier murals.
• The fifth sequence: This sequence depicts the construction of the Ravager, which is depicted in the same way the first mural sequence depicted the Queen. These murals, like the first sequence, are triangular, but their apexes point away from the passage with the glowing crystal. Chillingly, the final mural shows the Ravaged capable of rendering an entire planet lifeless. 

After many hours of study, the party is able to decipher the symbols for the various powers, and match them to the towers. 

• Charm person: a row of circles.
• Charm beast: a row of linked circles.
• Slumber: a thick, wavy line.
• Telekinesis: a procession of thin, vertical bars.
• Flesh to stone ray: a line of bizarre alphabetic characters
• Disintegrate: a thin, dotted line.
• Fear: a row of abstract eyes, pupils within circles.
• Slow/Impediment: a line of half-circles facing left.
• Wounding: a line of half-circles facing right.
• Death: a straight line ending in an empty circle
• Anti-magic: jagged, parallel lines. 

The Room of Wild Beasts

The party decides to tackle the Charm Beast room next. After passing through another tunnel, they emerge, and the temperature jumps about 40 degrees. The air feels as humid as if you were in a swamp. Instantly you begin to perspire. You hear a deafening clamor of animal roars and the screeches of birds. Moving onward, you can make out the other walls of the room. The far wall must be two miles away! Inside the room is a primeval jungle. From all six walls, trees grow hundreds of feet high. A river winds through the jungle, somehow turning the corners at the edges of the cubic room.   At the center of each wall of this room stands a large building. From here, they look like amphitheaters. The largest building stands on the wall opposite the entrance. In the far corner of the vast chamber, you see a colossal waterfall, cascading into a moat that completely encircles the largest building.    At the base of the tower they emerged from, they see a huge figure, 20' tall, in bronze, spiky armor. After carefully examining it from a distance, they realize it hasn't moved in a long time (considering the vines covering it), and that it is likely similar to the armor the golden people in the Charm Person realm said that they scorpion/starfish had taken. Windellian examines it, and eventually manages to open the visor. Inside is a small control area, similar to a helm but apparently built to allow a Beholder to control the armor. Windellian seats himself, and attempts to control the armor, with mixed success. After getting the armor to move, and attempting to have it crawl inside the shuttle to take with (and almost gutting Rylan in the process), Windellian insists the crew strap it to the hull (on the opposite side from the shuttle), for later experimentation.    Exploring the room, eventually the party examines the largest building on the far side, where they are accosted by the Beastmaster. The jungle noise grows to even greater levels. Then the underbrush parts and silence descends; eerie, unnatural silence. You see a man. At least you think it's a man. The figure is very tall and is covered head to foot in thick, matted, black hair. He's dressed only in a loincloth. A bronze amulet is affixed to his chest. The amulet contains a withered red eye, so large that it must be a beholder's.   All around him are the beasts of the jungle. Specifically, the party is surrounded by over a dozen huge apes, who watch the characters keenly. The Beastmaster shouts out, "Ho, new creatures in the forest! What fine sport you'll make! Come, let's go to the arena and I will allow you to fight for your freedom." As the huge apes attempt to grab the party, they spring into action. Windellian leaps into the air to drive the apes back with a blast. Zayer joins him, and casts Armor on the party. Jessa attempts to blast the Beastmaster with her weapon, with little effect, and then Windy destroy the eye with his "laser". At that, the Beastmaster dissipates in a cloud of smoke, and all the beasts go wild, attacking the party and each other. The party fights their way back to their ship, and take off.   Making their way back to the monolith, and back through the tunnel, the party returns to the central chamber. After a quick rest, they decide to press on, and enter the tunnel that will take them to the Slow/Impediment room.