The Dueling Knight - Whips and Worms

Life, Achievement/ Win

The Path of The Path of Nightshade arrives in Fortona Pier and decides to try there luck at the "FUN"geon at The Dueling Knight .

The partys arrives at the Fortona Pier. It’s a small byway, clearly just small habor town for continuing on the journey north to the Brokenlands. The population is mostly halflings, with a lot of dwarves and gnomes. There are occasional half-orcs and goliaths clearing coming from the North and may have settled here. The harbormaster is very welcoming and refers them as "Leggy Folk". He directs them to the tavern “Avelina’s” for sleeping and The Dueling Knight for fun and good food. Most people on the road seem headed toward the DK.   The center of Old Town is a lively area with lots of shops and hookers. The lunch rush is happening and a crowd has formed near The Dueling Knight. It was built more than a century ago and has been renovated many times. It’s a large, unassuming building until you see this giant knight statue and magical lights in the facade. The main attraction is the illusionary viewscreens that show the audience the progress of the patrons of those attempting the "FUN"geon.   A stout halfling named Moira takes orders from The Shades. Thuniel orders one of everything to sample it all. The rest of the party scans the menu and food is brought out quickly and enficently.   Moira greets them saying "Welcome to DK's" and explains how the "FUN"geon operates then goes to get waivers for those who want to participate. The group wanted on the arcane viewscreens as a group of adventurers just about get roasted, but one of them manages to hit an eye out of the statues blowing flames at them. A second group falls through illusionary platforms into a spike pit. One adventurer closes his eyes and manages to walk through the air for a bit.   Gilly asks how they don’t die and Moira says that Arden has an ability to whisk someone away at the brink of death.   A third group of adventurers slides through trapdoors in the floor as they dodge spikes.   After a hearty meal it is now The Path of Nightshades turn in the "FUN"geon. The enter a room where a halfling man given them a entusiatic briefing. The stairs down seem to last longer than they should and they learn the "FUN"geon is on a different plane. A room full of armor and weapon racks meets them at the bottom of the decent. A tall elven man gives us speech about the dungeon. Adventures daring to face the peril in the Trials of the "FUN"geon must use the equipment in bins and use only their equipment.   As they enter the briefing area and equip there chosen equipment. Altcath goes with a leather chaps and whips theme. They are led into the first room.   Flaming Heads of Haxior Large pillar in the center of the room holding four large cyclopian heads with red gem eyes. The room is filled with dust and the heads rotate. Fire blows at us and we dodge, but get singed. Alcath tries to whip it, but misses. Gilly hits an eye and it stops glowing. When we get all four eyes out at once, the door opens. An annoucer presents the name of the next room.   Shimmering Pits of Psylaxian The floor over the spike pits changes, but Thuniel catches onto the pattern and dashes across, followed by Gilly. Caia falls, but catches herself with a web and Alcath hauls her back up. On her second try she makes it. Moz turns into a gecko and crawls across the taut rope. Alcath makes it with a tiny mishap. The voice comes on again anouncing the next room.   Hall of Distruvian Largest room so far. The path is narrow, through a huge meat grinder. Rotating trap doors and platforms that spin, walls are lined with wooden spikes that shoot out at random intervals, big columns clashing together. There are spikes on the ceiling and floor that the rotating platforms might fling you into.   Thuniel inspects the room and sees hidden in the middle of the room is a giant hidden stone button. Gilly looks closer and sees the big button would require 150 lbs to push, but there’s also a little button hidden at the far end of the room. Gilly shoots the little button, and after a few seconds, there are no more spikes shooting.   Alcath runs in and manages to cling to a rotating platform. He makes it to the button and depresses it. He gets the feeling everything will start again when he gets up. The rest of us run across, then Thuniel picks him up and moves him across the remaining space.   The next room is very small and “safe” room. There’s a large teleportation circle in the middle of the room. A halfling in a DK uniform greets The Shades and warns that none ever survive the next room. He invites them to return to the restaurant unharmed if they so desire.   In the next room, The Shades face three hallways, each colored differently. Each one contains a rickety bridge over a bottomless pit and at the end of each hallway is demonic statue with a gaping maw. Gilly can tell the red room is warmer. Thuniel can smell coppery, bloody smell in the green hall. The blue hall is moist.   Caia summons Ebony and sends her down the blue hall. As soon as she crosses the threshold, a giant stone wall closes off the room. Caia, seeing through her eyes, watches the room become engulfed in water and Ebony drowns.   The Path of Nightshade split into three groups and go down each hall. Stepping over the threshold, Alcath and Thuniel are chewed up by demons, Caia and Gilly are burnt to a crisp, Moz swims around as an octopus and never finds a wall or anything. Gilly is terrified by the familiar feeling of death. They are all transported at the same moment to a waiting room, with five comfy seats for each of us. There’s refreshments, a comfy fire, and a closed door. Everyone is all healthy and such. Each member sits on a chair to relax.   Alcath tries to get up and cannot rise. Everyone is grappled by the chairs. The weapons on the walls animate and move to attack the party. There is a lute, a sword, a bow, and a trident. Moz uses a vine to pull Gilly’s chair into the fireplace. The fight the animated objects seems fruitless. Alcath’s radiant damage doesn’t do anything and neither does Caia’s thunder damage. Moz’s vine can’t move the lute, nor can Thuniel’s telekinesis.   As the party stops focusing on fight and tries to escape there grasp of the chairs, the other items all go inanimate. During the battle Caia and Thuniel die and are transported out of the FUNgeon to wait the others.   The final room there is in the center is a large platform with a spherical device with 8 protrusions. There are large holes, ten feet wide and bottomless, around the room. The door shuts and The Shades hear a low hum and then lightning strikes all eight holes from the eight protrusions. Moments later, a large wyrm emerges from a hole, armored. It howls in pain and disappears back into the hole.   The party figures out the pattern enough to figure out which half of the holes it will come out of. After Alcath hits it and it retreats, that hole fills in, and the crystal pointing at it breaks. Moz tries to talk to it and it says it doesn’t want to get shocked again. Moz stops Gilly from hurting it and shoots a crystal instead and it breaks and that hole fills in. Moz eventually gets it to tell her that we can leave if we fill in the holes. The wyrm thanks us for the fun after we fill in the holes and then he disappears.   There’s a fanfare as the final room is completed and a voice congratulates The Path of Nightshade in there victory. They enscribe the parties name on the wall and are led into the treasure vault. Each is handed “DK” money and The Shades find themselves in a souvenir shop where they can buy whatthey want. We have a “Parchment” drawing taken of them by a throne with two large DK Knights by it.   Thuniel gets a leather saddlebag with a Head of Haxior on it. Gilly gets a patch for her hat of the DK Symbol. Moz gets wiggly headband and a little kerchief for Momo. Caia gets a music box with the purple wyrm that pops up in time to the music and a foam sword for Ebony. Alcath gets custom chaps that says “I survived DK." The party also takes a a to-go box of food that has magical effects.