2023/07/19: Infiltrating Necrosa's Bases Part 3 Report
General Summary
Knight, Lillith, Kal'vus, Union, Zaran, Buzz, Illease, Ik-chuk The base flooding went off without a hitch. The base was reduced to a new crevasse. Buzz called ahead for Orb to prepare a containment cell for the two liches. The party and their civilian rescuees suddenly found themselves in just such a cell, and Orb quickly escorted the living out through a gateway that cast heal on anything that passed through. The party went through scanning and security. The scanners weren't really sure what to do with Knight, but Orb passed him. Orb also said she "removed all the tracking spells that were on you all", though no one involved was sure where or when such spells were applied. Orb set about delichifying the two liches. Buzz contacted Eldritch with updates. Dungeon number 2 is the one with the monster creation facility, and is really nasty overall. Fortunately, it turned out that the Leithien special forces were sent to handle that one, and while it'd been a lot of tough fighting, it was all things that could be traditionally killed. Lich alive: Tanned guy with long blond hair. Occasionally has glowing crown. Lillith and Theraj got brought back to life. Lillith would still need atonement or a similar effect to turn good again. All facilities except Facility 6 had been handled. Another adventuring party had been picked up to help, and Eldritch and his guards had handled another. Pretty much all the bases were doing things related to Blackmoore. Bad, concerning, experimental and research things. According to Theraj, 6 was where the purely magical divination and analysis took place. "Expect wizards." The party headed to join the rest of the returned adventurers and strike teams on the upper level of the Rook. The route up from Orb's lair involved an extremely packed dumbwaiter. Knight asked how everyone was doing as they went. Illease was feeling tired and somewhat overwhelmed. Lillith suggested she stay downstairs at the inn and rest. Ik-chuk, meanwhile, was trying his best to pretend to be a dog or other pet and not a wererat that needed killing. Elven rangers that the group passed were blatantly glaring and some were switching to silver arrows. After realizing that he wasn't big enough to interpose himself between Ik-chuk and all the various rangers, Knight suggested Lillith inform everyone that Ik-chuk wasn't a wererat and was from out of town. Lillith got hugged by Calantha halfway through the explanation. The following confrontation was entertaining (if somewhat concerning) for all observers. Calantha: "If you couldn't breathe, you wouldn't be talking. This is just a little choking between friends." Calantha gave Lillith an atonement at her request, despite not finding that Lillith was evil now. It made her feel better. (She had it ready for someone else, but he could wait.) The last of the strike and retrieval forces arrived, and the groups convened. (Sweet was observing absently through a mug of beer.) At Lillith's bidding (since she was sitting next to Eldritch and didn't want to get up), Knight took the mess of loot the party had gathered over to Sweet. She grabbed his arm instead of the loot, and after some poking and prodding, pronounced him "safe". In answer to Knight's question, she said that he was safe from exploding, engulfing the area and endangering his soul and those of everyone around him. He found this... somewhat reassuring. Then Sweet went through and identified all the loot, including unexpected mental effects. It turned out the giant demon head was alive, listening, and able to speak, if essentially powerless. The party handed him off to the Fist of Ranthael, despite vehement but ineffectual (and quickly silenced) protests from the head. The Fist promptly transported the head to the head temple of Ranthael, where they immediately set about preparing a ritual to banish the demon for an extra long time. After a lot of inspection and discussion of loot, the party switched to considering when and how to hit the last base. Two other groups still wanted to go. The Alvidarian party and the blue party, which is actively discussing whether it should be named "Sapphire Rain" or "Sapphire Tenet". The latter is pretty new. (Lillith got them to go for Sapphire Tenet, mostly by saying Sapphire Rain sounded like a stripper name.) A dryad named Abarai volunteered to act as a guide for this three-group run, since all the other dryad guides were traumatized and wanted to go home. She was naturally concerned by that fact, but it was for a good cause. Sapphire Tenet members:
Alvidarian party members :
Ik-chuk may be joining New Hallownest after this is handled. The three parties rememorized, rested for the night, and set off the next morning. It was a cold place in the mountains. The parties discussed combat tactics. The Sapphire Tenet likes to shieldwall and toss arrows, the Fist of Ranthael likes to charge, and the Shadows are skirmishers. "Arrows" means make some distance from the enemy. Going to be making the arrows AoE. "Swords" means just charge in. Chaos and Lillith had some debate over the best way to handle the wards. Chaos's option was to cast a spell on himself, walk up to the door, and start hitting all the buttons. It took him six seconds to hit the disintegration ward. Then he walked out from behind the party where no one was looking, looked over at the settling pile of dust, and commented that "That looked like it hurt." Apparently this is his party's usual anti-ward system. None of the others in his party know how it works, and he isn't telling. Lillith, Ik-chuk, Union, and Kal'vus set about getting the vault door open. It was a close thing, with the door prepared to brick itself if an unlocking attempt failed. It took the party sticking Ik-chuk's teeth into one of the holes and using him like a wrench at one point, but they did it. Beyond was a hallway. Two towers with blinking lights in the windows watched over it from the far end. Buzz sent a poison clone forward, and the blinking lights launched bolts of force when he was just a third of the way down. The first blow his left arm off, and the second vaporized his entire pelvis area, including his upper legs. He disintegrated after that. Lillith sent an unseen servant to test the defense and try to knock on the door. It got through fine. After a bunch of further testing, the party just brute-forced the turrets, blasting through the walls of force with disintegrates and sheer numbers of well-launched arrows. The magic elementals inside died to the same. The area immediately in front of the door was a big pressure plate. It turned out it just turned the turrets slowly toward the pressure plate so they could shoot anyone standing there. Since that was no longer a problem, Buzz sent the three hippos he'd tested it with to charge the door. All died horribly (though one may just have been teleported), and Lillith only needed to go through three more wards to get the door open. The door creaked open ominously. On the far side was a vast library. On the ground floor were 20-foot shelves. The library extended about 100 feet in all directions, and a vertical hole in the center revealed more floors above and below.
Rewards Granted
1 xp
Missions/Quests Completed
Character(s) interacted with
Illease, Ik-chuk, Theraj, Eicria, Fist of Ranthael, the Sapphire Tenet, Orb, Sweet, Eldritch Sol Leithien, Abarai , Tamrinth, Kuran Alvidar, Azrae, Tiros, Calantha
