Session 12, They Smell Even Worse on the Inside

I am so confused. There is this weasel named “Pop” that Eowyn pulled out of a bag. Maybe it’s a real weasel. Maybe it’s a magically summoned weasel. Maybe it is some artificer construct. Maybe a familiar. I have no idea. Eowyn is talking to the weasel as if we all should know the weasel, “Aren’t they great, everybody?” I’m not sure if Eowyn is using the weasel to find traps, or if she is using the weasel to find treasure, or “shiny things”. If it is the former, come on. Don’t use a live creature to go spring traps. If it is to find treasure, that’s very unlike Eowyn, to be concerned about treasure. And… why was she keeping it in a bag? How cruel.
 
Vardai continues to lead the way through the caverns. If you recall, we are on a mission to check on some Myconids who had intel about prisoners. The prisoners had already been freed, but we needed to gather more intelligence on the captors, maybe some cultists. That led us down to where we fought some grell in a pretty tough fight. We’ve recovered from that fight and are now continuing our exploration. We go along a walkway and into a structure. Ruins and symbols are engraved into the walls. The ceiling is about 10 foot high. Vardai pauses, “It looks like this structure my people built with their own hands.” Dried blood, possibly decades or even centuries old, can be found on the floor.
 
I start ritually casting Detect Magic. Will touches one of the symbols before I can complete the ritual. Come on Will, are you trying to set off a trap? Activating the symbol cause a doorway to shift, exposing a new room. That room has a large round stone in the floor with a matching stone in the ceiling. The round stone is large enough for all of us to stand on. Someone surmises the stone might be an some device that raises, or elevates, one to a higher level. We decide to call it an elevator.
 
My detect magic completes. The room ahead glows with transmutation magic. The rooms (are they rooms?) to my left and right glow with evocation magic. Detect Magic is a really awesome spell. It allows me to see into the magic spectrum. At least that’s what I call it. When I cast the spell, I can see items that are infused with magic as if they were a light source. If they are magical, they might glow as if a torch would glow. The stronger they glow, the more powerful the magic infused into the item. It takes some knowledge also. If I can understand the magic (usually by knowing how the magic could have been crafted), I can make out the school of magic. It’s a very… wait… that illusionary magic is a coming from a sword hilt! Cool! I found a magic item. I think it might be a hilt that conjures a magical blade. I hand it to Will.
 
Crap! Ooze! It burns! Oozes are falling from the ceiling and attacking. The first one landed right on me. Ouch! A second one hits Will hard. I get hit again and I lose my Detect Magic spell… not that it is doing me much good right now. OK, two can play the burning game. I cast Flaming Sphere to burn two of the oozes, and I summon Ember. Julia kills (maybe “splatters” is a better word) one, and Vardai swings her axe through another to finish it off. Her axe emerges from the ooze corroded. I can’t Mend that.
 
As we are recovering from the fight, and we all agree to look up in every room, Will casts Goodberry. His goodberries are different this time. Somewhat crunchy. I shall call this version “Crunch Berry” (TM owned by Quaker Oaks Company). Eowyn ritually casts Detect Magic.
 
Vardai goes into the next room and looks at a monument. It is from the location where my Detect Magic was previously pinging. Eowyn, now having Detect Magic up herself, confirms the evocation magic. Vardai activates the monument, which causes it to glow (in real life… not just through Detect Magic) with a faint aura. A door slides open, revealing Zombies. As we ready ourselves to fight, we realize it is a one-way door. They can’t see us. Will or Julia suggests that we teleport Ember in, fiery teleport a few times, and take them out. Ember does so and takes out the Zombies unscathed. Of note, the zombies were formerly drow when they were alive.
 
So… how does the fiery teleportation work? Well, I’m not exactly sure. But it’s really cool. Cool in a hot, explosive, fiery sort of way. At first, I thought that Ember did some sort of a plane shift, where she shifted into the Plane of Elemental Fire causing spillover into the material plane. But, having teleported with Ember many times, I am pretty sure that isn’t correct. If she did plane shift, the sheer volume of her teleports could cause rifts in the planar integrity and allow fire elementals to come into our world and doom it. In additional, I see no evidence of transiting that Plane of Elemental Fire while teleporting. Plus, I am not even sure if such a plane actually exists… I might have just fancied it. However, I now think the Fiery teleportation ability is just an ordinary short-range teleport with the flashing fire explosion. Combining a small evocation effect into a conjuration ability. Really, the next time I am at the Court or at a university, I should find a Conjurer or an Arcanist to tell me more. Or I could ask Eowyn. She definitely knows a lot about arcana.
 
We collect five moon swords and some crossbows. Since this place is basically one big maze with lots of opening and closing walls, we decide to approach the exploration systematically. If we put a coin on the floor of each room explored, we will be less likely to get lost. That’s when Eowyn said I should cast Druidcraft. OK, fine! I don’t know Druidcraft. Again, I am sorry I am a horrible Druid that doesn’t know Druidcraft! I already explained that. (Session 3, Of Cantrips and Spell Choices). Then Eowyn casts Thaumaturgy, and I respond by casting Thaumaturgy on my own. I’m a Tiefling, I can cast Thaumaturgy all day!
 
After our short noisemaking session, we return to the room with the large round stone elevator. Eowyn touches the right symbols and the stone raises us up to the next level.
 
Skulls fill the place. I cast Detect Magic, and the room has a faint aura of necromancy. It is residual, as if long faded. Eowyn states, “It appears out necromancer has resources. This is too much for a single caster.” Investigating further, we conclude that even though the prisoners were freed recently, the necromancer has moved on at least a year or two ago. Eowyn continues her teaching moment, “Bartholomew (also Session 3, Of Cantrips and Spell Choices) was from Coral Gate. If the necromancer is bringing in resources from Coral Gate, Etonia would not take to kindly to that.”
 
At this, I am confused. Will and Eowyn keep talking about stuff that isn’t important. I don’t understand the Coral Gate connection, although I do think Julia being captured in Coral Gate and brought here is evidence of such a connection. The conversation turns to the rareness of elves and Will’s heritage as a half-elf. Again, I’m not completely sure of the connections, but I do know that I want to stop the necromancer.
We step back on the stone and go up another level. Sweet, uh, I mean Crap! Tentacle monster things and Troglodytes, plus a few undead! We hear, “Ahh, the master has sent new subjects.”
Julia attacks with her psychic blades, followed by a particularly devastating shot by Will. Vardai throws her javelin, but misses. However, the lightning from the javelin does hit its mark.
 
Then the tentacle monster hits. Vardai is hammered, and then…
 
What happened? Eowyn is helping me up. I hurt! Wow, do I hurt! Oh crap, I am needed. I get up off the floor and decide to go big… Scorching Ray. One ray hits. Then I summon Ember and she teleports us to the other side of the room.
 
The troglodytes start closing in and we are losing ground. Julia takes aim and kills the alien tentacle monster thing. Will is engaged with a troglodyte. Some vines twist and turn out of the floor and try to catch Vardai, Eowyn, and me. But Vardai is too fast, she dodges the vines. I didn’t realize it to just now, but Vardai is hurt bad, but she attacks with uncharacteristic ferocity. Eowyn gets caught up in vines and does her own version of a short-range teleport. I think the vines poisoned her somehow. I get constricted by the vines, but Ember teleports me out. I follow up with a Burning Hands spell against several enemies. Between this and the earlier fights against the Grell and the Ooze, I feel I can only cast one more spell. I better save it for a Cure Wounds.
 
I just realized, there’s an enemy spellcaster, maybe even a necromancer (but not The Necromancer). Julia hits the mage hard. As Will puts an arrow straight into a Troglodytes forehead, the mage hits Julia with some spell. I am near Vardai, and she’s barely standing, but still fighting hard. I promise Vardai I won’t let her fall, and Vardai liberates the troglodyte’s body from its head. The odor is horrible as Vardai’s blade pulls out.
Flying glass shards come up from the floor and tear into me. I can taste my blood pouring down my face. I’m in bad shape, Eowyn is in bad shape, Vardai is even worse. I’m not close enough to Will or Julia to know how they are doing. The mage begins casting again and… drops as Will hits it with a dancing dart. A final troglodyte lunges into Will as Will demands its surrender. But Vardai comes up behind it and splits it in half, head to crotch.
 
She says with disgust, “They smell even worse on the inside.”
 
• Thank you to George Sanders, his Anhult Campaign, and World Anvil.