Session 14: Under the Surface Report

General Summary

After forming a plan to infiltrate Reaver's Keep, the players set off in the early hours of the morning, armed with supplies from Anton to help them - including potions of invisibility and a tiny homunculus that allows them to sneak around silently. Once they arrive at the foot of the keep, they initially decide to question some of the local civilians who live around the docks to try and gather some insider information about the facility that may help them in their efforts to get in and out undetected. Eventually learning about a side entrance into a chapel of Neryn connected to the main Fortress, the party splits off into two squads: 'Strike Team Alpha', consisting of Averel and Sly Tony, and 'Strike Team Gamma', consisting of Heato, Rostliem and Donevan. Strike Team Alpha drink their potions and take the homunculus, approaching the front entrance. There, they encounter a 4 direction crossroads in the middle of the keep manned by 4 guards. Tony causes a distraction with the Nine Elements by holding him up whilst invisible to make it look like the rat was floating. Needless to say, the guards were absolutely terrified, allowing for them to sneak past and survey further into the complex.   Meanwhile, Donevan, completely visible, decides to storm the church filled with soldiers before promptly realising how terrible of an idea it was and misty-stepping away. Heato and Rostliem proceed to fix the situation by making the guards believe that Donevan was simply a vision sent from Neryn. After searching through most of the keep, the party meets back up once more in front of a storage room filled with various boxes, barrels, chests and vases. Deciding it could be a worthy investment of their time, the party lockpick the door and pillage the room for its gold; finding a magical Alchemy Jug in the process. However, their happiness is brief as not too long after, a gang of mimics decide to make themselves known and all make a beeline for Donevan, the only member of the party who isn't invisible. What follows is a messy escape from the room as the party try to clamber over the boxes away from the creatures and make it back to the door that they came from. Heato takes a hit to protect Donevan and ends up succumbing to the mimics himself. And just in time, a weakened Corsair pulls his unconscious friend from the mimic infested bloodbath, allowing Tony to hold the door closed whilst Rostliem mends the lock to trap the mimics inside.   Now paranoid, the party travels further into the keep and eventually comes across a secret door locked with magic. One Dispel Magic later, they find themselves further underground into the facility, into a level for Holdenglade's most elite members of the militia. Here, they encounter a Gladiator blocking one staircase downwards and a Gelatinous Cube cleaning the halls. Though eventually, after sneaking past guard quarters, they uncover a second staircase that leads them even further below. This time, the level they enter onto seems abandoned, with its lights flashing red and the wailing of a siren echoing throughout the halls. Exploring the corridors, they slowly learn the fate of a team of scientists who brought up tainted monsters from the undercity to examine. All of them, whilst searching for a way to suppress the monsters' abilities, ended up becoming tainted themselves, turning into these shambling necrotic husks. All that's left is a central hexagonal arena in the middle of the facility, with 5 large vault doors separating the party from what lurks inside. Fearing that they've taken a wrong turn, Heato forces himself into another nightmare to try to remember the route Marko took to enter the undercity and realises that they have to open the vault doors in order for them to be able to descend further down into the gut of the facility; in the process also learning the horrors of what waits behind the doors.   Left with no other choice, Tony plucks up the courage to open up the vaults, releasing a great snake the length of the room infused with a human head; its eyes glassy and staring and its mouth perpetually open in a petrifying grin. It swiftly devours the husks of the scientists before beginning to search for more food. And just as the snake was about to discover the party, the second vault door opens; this time releasing a thin gangling spider, covered in Witherthorn Roses and egg-sacs that, when exploded, create tendrils made up of muscle fibers that would latch onto the nearest creature in their reach. As the spider scours the room, one of its legs brushes against Donevan, before it promptly lifts him off the ground and hurls him closer to its mouth for consumption. Pressed into a corner, Heato attacks the beast and manages to restrain it, allowing Tony to fire an arrow into its mouth, causing massive damage. Donevan manages to break free and pulls himself back up to the observation deck with the rest of the party, yet it quickly becomes apparent that they won't be able to hold off both the snake and the spider for long, let alone deal with the other abominations Heato witnessed in his nightmare. But in a stroke of genius, Averel shapeshifts into Marko Turei, the man with the Golden Pendant, who had previously held off the monsters with ease, and scares off the remaining creatures back into their vaults. The battle is over, and the party breathe a sigh of relief, in astonishment of what just happened. But then the fifth door opens, and out of the mist, slowly but silently levitating toward them, is the single scariest thing in the entire universe: The Orb of Annihilation...   All characters level up to Level 7.