2024-03-16 Demons in the Labyrinth
Player Characters
- Malivette
- Balasar
- Hyacinth
- Auri
- Tarhun
Summary
The party set back out into the Labyrinth after resting. Furifuru stayed behind and Hyacinth joined.
They took the known route to path 9870 to resume the expedition from the previous mission.
In a slightly zigzagged hallway, they encountered goatlike bulezau demons and gas spores. They fought off the rotting fungal creatures.
The path forked. They came from 9466 and the other paths were 3298, 14186, and 15705. They took 15705.
They found another room with two fountains. This time, the central sculptures were a tree and a mushroom. Drinking from the tree made the character learn either an expertise or a cantrip, depending on the character drinking it. The mushroom fountain was poisonous.
The path forked. They came from 1172 and the other paths were 7170 and 8359. They toook 7170.
They found another thri-kreen hero statue, this time of Lir'ch, the one who revealed the truth. Speaking the name revealed a hidden chest with an amulet of stonekind. They also found a hatchable hall in a ruined hovel across from the statue.
The path opened into a wide cavern, and the glow of faerzress disappeared. They had found the south exit of the Labyrinth.
Satisfied in establishing a path, they traveled out to Umethrynn to store the heavy hatchable hall, rest, and restock on rations.
They marched back to Fariel Columns and re-entered the Labyrinth from the west ingress. They followed their maps to path 12864, and explored from there.
They found a hunk of flesh-goop in the hallway, and theorized that it was related to the mutated demons the PCs were expecting to find.
The path ahead was obscured by a heavy toxic greenish cloud. Tarhun sent Junior into it to scout. Junior returned to report finding a vent deep inside. Tarhun constructed a panel from raw materials, and Junior carried it in to block the panel.
They traveled a few hundred feet before finding that there was more toxic gas ahead; it seemed that this area of the maze was full of noxious clouds. The PCs decided to try a different route.
They backtracked to path 19741. They rested in the hall for the night.
After awakening, they continued on until they found a door. Opening the door revealed a square room beyond with golems and chess-piece statues inside; the golems animated and attacked. They discovered during the battle that they had to move in a valid way relative to the changing chess pieces or suffer lightning damage. They destroyed the stone golems, who were also subject to the same rules.
They busted the four changing chess statues open and recovered four orange primal crystals.
The path ahead forked. They came from 10584, and the other branches were 5067 and 11778. They took 5067.
There was a circular room with a single fountain, an image of the sun carved into its center block. They drank from it, but were surprised to discover it was poisonous.
Following the hallway ahead, they found a chamber with a variety of mushrooms including fire lichen and nilhogg's nose. They found the remains of a thri-kreen, and cast speak with dead on it. They questioned the ancient being about the Labyrinth and its people. It referred them to a book it carried which would help guide them to the Capsule. A poem in the book revealed that there was a different numeric formula to reach the center: palindrome numbers.
The path ahead forked. The party came from 19021 and the other branches were 11532 and 4957. They took 11532.
They found the remains of a somewhat recent group of adventurers in a hallway. The adventurers had been twisted into horrific shapes. The PCs found a mace of disruption on the corpses.
The path forked. They came from 12415 and the other paths were 2745 and 17472. They took 17472.
The hallway reached a dead end at the base of an empty shaft, as if the path had turned 90 degrees upward. Tarhun cast fly on his steed, and the others rode their flying mounts to reach the top of the shaft 80 ft above.
They stepped into a huge pentagonal chamber full of stone buildings: a thri-kreen city. Their voices echoed in the vast, dusty chamber. The place was long abandoned, with little sign of life other than rats and fungi.
They spent a while exploring the collapsed ruined buildings. Pushing fallen walls aside, they found a chamber that was once a classroom, and examined it for clues.
- There was maze text on the wall explaining basics of the maze script.
- They learned about the thri-kreen number system, which appeared to be in base 12.
- They found a red primal crystal. When Tarhun touched it, he was transported into the mind of a thri-kreen child asking questions of their teacher.
- There were small models depicting the Great Temple of Ghaztyut, Cindon's Library, and the Suntouch Spires.
Looking around the town, they found an old sport court of some kind. They confirmed that the thri-kreen number system used base 12.
They found another thri-kreen hero statue dedicated to "Hak'cha, the one who pu...". When Hyacinth guessed that it was "the one who pursued greatness", the hidden staircase opened beneath the statue. Pursuit of Greatness, the talking ribbon that granted Hyacinth her hexblade powers, realized that she was indeed an ancient hero, as she believed: the thri-kreen Hak'cha, who braved demons and devils in the Labyrinth. There was a journal and a skyswatter halberd in the hidden room.
The PCs took a night rest in the town.
They continued into the hallway past the ruined town.
There was another fork. They came from 20737 and the other paths were 18144 and 7401. They took 7401.
They found another pile of strange fleshy goop. A ways ahead they saw a water-like rippling translucent curtain, beyond which was a bright orange light. When one of the PCs fired a cantrip into it, the air around them was distorted, and the whole party was pulled into a large hexagonal extradimensional room.
Floating in the center of the room was a hideous abomination of flesh, chain, bile, teeth, and pus. The mutated multi-faced demon creature unleashed powerful waves of energy, and distorted the PC's abilities based on where they positioned around it. Balasar ran in to fight in melee, Essa took away the Miscreation's self-healing, and the others fought through the monstrosity's defenses.
When they destroyed it, it emitted a wave of powerful transmutation magic, which they resisted. The distorted space fell away, and a large orange crystal orb was left in the middle: the Orb of Enhancement/Mutation.
The area's faerzress was diluted, so Auri teleported the Orb of Enhancement in front of the Bastion of Dreams, where Inkpot Gods members cautiously moved it inside. Casting a spell on the Orb caused it to inflict a transformation on Auri: she became allergic to healing potions. One of the Inkpot Gods members who touched the Orb lost one of their eyes to its mutative power.
On the way out, the party picked up the two deployable domiciles that were left behind in an earlier Labyrinth expedition.
They exited the Labyrinth and returned to the Bastion to ensure safe storage of the Orb.
Balasar randomly took 1 bludgeoning damage, and had no idea why.
Documents found
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