Session Ten: The Ancient Dwarf Dig
General Summary
NEED CORRECT DATE
Continuing to investigate the camp, they spot a column to the east and after several minutes of investigating and sand removal via Rayne's magical wind, they realize it is a large, stone boot and lower leg, with the top portion of the massive statue long destroyed and nowhere in sight. As Rayne finishes uncovering the area of what would be between its legs, he finds a broken shovel with the elvish lettering Harlok H large, black stone that the others recognize as an emergency cover should danger come. Sikander comes a bit closer, remembering the scary stories Jendora would tell him and Kathra growing up, ones where the ancient dwarves would step on you and send you into space if you misbehaved. Wanting to be cautious and prepared, Sikander goes on about setting up camp for a few days and wanting to do a thorough investigation of the area.
The others continue to dig and investigate, letting the dwarf go about his work. As Rayne continues uncovering the stonework, an image of three hammers overlaying each other is found that he recognizes as the Traystrike, each hammer belonging to Moradin, Grapthor, and Duenna. Jogging his memory from long ago, Rayne pulls out the gem he found, thinking it may be a key. As he does, the gem vibrates and seems to point to the south side of the mesa and the massive, flat door under the statue. Rayne and Anya search for a keyhole with no luck, so Rayne calls Sikander over, who reluctantly starts their direction. As he gets closer and hand takes the gem from Rayne, they all notice Sikander's armor begin to shimmer with tiger stripes of color in iridescent greens and blues. Sikander wanders around the black stone looking for the point it belongs while Stefan shouts about just wanting to smash it. They all agree that is not a good idea as Sikander finds a small hole and places the tip of the gem into it.
While he places it in, they all see his body become rigid a moment and change in a way that he has the appearance of a fierce cloudy figure, speaking a kind of dwarvish that Anya and Stefan do not understand. Rayne figures out he has been possessed by the spirit of Grapthor, one of the Dreignor spirits known for making great holes in reality.
Anya fights to keep calm, memories of the Feywild running rampant, and tries to use dissonant whispers to interrupt the possession unsuccessfully, while Rayne attempts to dispel the magic. Instead, he is knocked back and sees a vision of a large set of dwarf hands manipulating strange beasts into portals. Tal jumps and tries for the gem, but misses, and as he does both he and Piper disappear. Sikander this whole time is shooing them away and laughing darkly in a voice that is not his own.
Rayne gets up, walking purposefully to Sikander, reaches out and grabs the crystal and after a couple tries manages to wrest it from his grasp. As soon as he does, Sikander is himself again, and at a loud popping sound, Tal returns, but with a tabaxi at his side instead of Piper. He is spitting and hissing at all of them, so Anya runs forward to calm him, asking if he had come here with the missing party. One-eyed, missing part of an ear, and clothed in an odd assortment of fabrics and bandoliers, the tabaxi tells them his name is Baleet and he is from Fran...from the inside. Molly crawls up to Anya's shoulder and starts hissing back at Baleet. Seeing her, he starts asking if he can take the cliffcat off for some "private time", which none of them are ok with.
Redirecting him, they ask about Sikander's armor and Baleet helps him find the switch to disable the ability that channeled the spirit held within the gem. He then hands the gem back to the dwarf, who hesitantly takes it and finds he is just fine, exclaiming his thanks to "Bullet", instead of Baleet. Sikander returns to the opening, places it in, and they all watch stone iris opens, melting away to reveal a room about the size of the stone. Looking in, Sikander begins shouting marching order instructions (Anya and Tal, then Rayne, then Baleet, with Stefan bringing up the rear), and they all slowly drop into the hole, taking a closer look as they do. Rayne notices the dust seems to be repelled from the room as he watches it float up and back out of the hole.
Looking around, Sikander gets a sense for the architecture and the room and comes across some carvings, clearly made with tools far finer than anything Sikander had used or seen - vaguely dwarvish, but still alien to him. The images are blocky and primitive and fill him with awe:
Carving on North Wall
A figure of a dwarven woman holding an ornate hammer with thorns growing out of it. At her throat is a crystal identical to Rayne's. (Rayne wonders aloud if this is Druenna, except her hammer is slightly different)
Carving on West Wall
A large, war-like figure with a massive army behind him. The figure is fierce and broad shouldered with a hammer in hand. (Even Anya recognizes this as Moradin, the Soulforger)
Carving on the East Wall
An older figure - shorter and bent with a bandage on his eyes and a withered foot, behind him a large circle that spirals toward the center.
To the south, is an opening in the floor, with an odd, wormlike object. On closer inspection Rayne realizes it is a finger with a ring on it. He pulls it off and finds a death's head marking which he recognizes the ring as the symbol Harlok and his family. Sikander is quick to comment on the bad luck that comes from removing the jewelry of the dead. Continuing to inspect the room, Rayne looks to Baleet and asks the "Cat" if the crystal does anything else. Quite insulted, he retorts to "Lord Spider" that this is a multitool and can be destructive. Some are known to contain mental impressions of those who created them. After a quick check, he advises this crystal belonged to the ancient elves and that he should get a spell jammer. They both excitedly reminisce on their respective spell jammers for a moment, then decide to hand the gem off to Sikander to see if having him place the gem in the different points on the carvings will open another path.
Touching the older dwarf carving, a grinding noise starts below them every 30 seconds. Moving to Duenna's, he touches the carving and the machine stops. Approaching final carving, Sikander touches the crystal to it and the grating noise shifts slightly then starts again. As it does, he looks down the hole and sees a room slightly bigger than this one, with statues just visible within. Getting bored, Stefan shoves Sikander into the hole who falls unceremoniously to the ground. The others quickly join him and find there are statues of polished metal with shadows seemingly behind them. Looking around the room, three Aartuks come into view, with Anya connecting them as being from the same plane as the Star Manglers she'd faced in Leilon. They are able to communicate telepathically and initially don't want to be killed, but as the continue to attack the group, everyone responds in kind, except Sikander.
The dwarf ends up wearing one of them like a hat as they have a telepathic conversation in the middle of the fight. His Aartuk tells him they are strangers form far away and fleeing the God Eaters. He sees an image of thousands of the creatures swimming, frantically trying to escape a hideous strange skeletal creatures chasing and killing them. Before much more is shared, Stefan finishes off one and Rayne destroys the one Sikander is talking to. He shares what the creatures told him, giving Anya pause at the mention of the God Eaters again. Even Baleet is uncomfortable, describing these as extradimensional parasite and entities that should be feared. Looking about, they discuss their next steps. Anya, determined to keep her hanno safe, takes out a rope and ties it between the two of them - a choice she would come to regret rather quickly as Stefan promptly grabs Sikander and shoves him back through the hole in the ceiling. This lifts Anya up and has her dangling while he climbed back into the first room, except it is different from just a few minutes ago.
Same Hole, Different Room
As Anya and Sikander wander this room, waiting on the others to climb back up, they find:
Carving on South Wall
Large snarling monstrous creature that appears almost mishappen, lumpish, and terrifying with glowing dark eyes and hair that spikes out. Sikander immediately recognizes this as Gorm, the Dwarvish God of the Underworld.
Carving on West Wall
Mythical dwarvish twins of Thim and Tamrod - sisters that punish evil dwarves, like those who had not accrued enough gold before their passing. They are creatures of the underworld.
Carving on the East Wall
Stefan recognizes the pirate symbol used on flags of ill open - a hollow-eyed being carrying a sickle in one hand and an hourglass in the other. The Summoner.
To the south is a massive stone doorway, with a well-sealed wall covered in rough, random scraps, as if the wall had been grated on. Near Gorm's carving, there is a pool of human and orcish blood, which Stefan gravitates toward. He and Baleet go back and forth about what is acceptable to gain what you want, including killing your own siblings. It was the only way Baleet managed to gain the lab that he now has back home. While they are having this macabre discussion, Sikander starts to try tapping the crystal on the wall, prompting a stern reprimand from the tabaxi as that could damage the crystal. He stops tapping and finds the specific spots within each carving and finally puts together that each one will either start (the Twins), stop (Gorm), or change the direction (the Summoner) of the wall’s movement. While they are working out this puzzle, Stefan slowly feeds the blood found on teh floor to the wall of the Summoner, which seems to be absorbing what he offers. Enough so, that Sikander comments the wall must be like a dhampir, causing Stefan to sulk, thinking Sikander is making fun of him or is mad at him (he had also been rebuked by the dwarf for bragging about his kills).
After his close call, Sikander finally looks into the room and finds one he hasn't seen before. He and Anya climb down and find glowing pebbles moving around in geometric circles. The others follow and Baleet recognizes the room as a planar map, and starts pointing out various planes, specifically one that seems to blink in and out that he doesn't recognize and gives Anya chills as she looks closer at it. Looking around the room, there is a blood imprint on a doorway where a humanoid had clearly been thrown with some force and then smeared in a counterclockwise direction. Additionally, Anya finds a multicolored goo, but Baleet advises her not to touch it as it could be sentient. Curious, she reaches out to it via message and immediately stops, grabbing her head as if a hundred voices were shouting in her head at once. Accepting an empty jar, she collects what she can and tucks the trans planar ectoplasm (as Baleet describes it) into her side pouch. While she collects the goo, Stefan and Sikander inspect the bloody wall and they agree on the next step - Stefan then throws Sikander at the wall in the same manner as is imprinted, but nothing comes of it. Realizing that was not the answer, they Stefan unties Sikander from Anya and throws him back up into the dark room.
Anya misty steps up after him. After some trial and error, get the walls rotating, allowing the others to go into the room behind the blood covered wall. Anya and Sikander work their way back to the others as they all find themselves in a massive chamber, with all manner of things sticking out of the walls. Curious, Stefan reaches out to grab one of the pieces and realizes it is an arm in a robe that belongs to a wizard. On closer inspection, they all slowly realize the archeological party appear to be permanently trapped in the wall, each with a look of terror on their faces. Across the room, is a young man cowering with his hands over his face, mumbling the same thing over and over. Anya kneels before him, trying to calm him down and hears, "It's coming - it's coming - it's coming..." (as this exchange happens, Stefan sneakily ties Anya's rope to the kid, giggling to Sikander saying, "See how she likes it").
The party isn't given much time to wonder what "it" is as a grotesque figure with tentacles protruding from it appears. As it does, Anya notices her arm immediately go black.
Roll Initiative - The Eldritch Lich is coming
Rewards Granted
Weird goo - like talking to 100 voices at once Finger with a pirate ring on it
Missions/Quests Completed
Well...we located the missing party...so...yay.
Character(s) interacted with
Baleet, Bullet, Balet...this poor Tabaxi Artificer that appeared in place of our dearest Piper
Notes
Don't forget....the doorways are only open for 10 seconds, rotate for 30 seconds, and there are four doors to rotate through. We currently have the Underworld room rotation going. Do we need to get back to the other room in order to escape?
