Into the pit Report

General Summary

1489 DR - Autumn - 1, Marpenoth (10) - Maztica - Lost Shrine of Zaltec
Morning

• The crew has fallen into the lowest levels of what must be the temples underbelly. The area is pitch black and filled with an amber tint in Hudens light source.
• The room is half caved in and holds dioramas about the sides and center. Upon examination these realistic miniatures can be moved, and then subsequently transform into life sized creatures when placed in the room. They slay the ones they transformed and resolve not to move anymore.
• After more searching they realize that the key to the exit sits in the hands of one model. And they use it to exit. Damien stays back to cover the rear.
• When moving down the hall the crew triggers a wall trap, pushing them all into the next door and blocking their path backwards. Damien says he will stay there and try to open the trap and/or dig a path out, and they leave him food to do so.
• In the next room is an ornery giant crawfish, yelling at them in ancient olman language. Huden translates and claims that it is threatening them to leave. When they do not, he wakes his companion, a Giant Hermit Crab Kalka-Kylla, who asks why they are trespassing in his chamber.
• They discuss his situation and find he is fairly disconnected from the outside world, but come to an arrangement to feed him the corpses from the other room in exchange for passage and directions. He tells them that the thing they seek is to the east. They head that direction while the crab and crayfish crunch down on the bones of the dead commoners.
• The enter a hallway with eroding blocks of lime that dissolve organic material, and find a caved in staircase that must have once lead to the upper levels.
• They discover the block will move and using Oudmans chemical mastery and grease spell (with some hilarious slipping) they protect some gloves to push it in and find a hidden tomb.
• In the tomb they trigger a gas trap that puts Xifor to sleep for 5000 years, preserving him. Oudman has to magically restore him to wakefulness and life.
• Once past the gas trap, they find a sinisterly shadowed axe (like a human hand) in the wall, and a large sarcophagus. After debating much it is opened with the triggers in the base using the date of internment, and inside is a jewelry bedecked dried up corpse.  Huden and Lucyan are convinced that some sort of magical curse has been triggered on the entire party, but are uncertain of the nature of it.
• Lucyan and Yasen begin removing the valuable items and as they do the corpse begins to gather dust and knit bones. They begin throwing attacks at the corpse; acid, lightning, blades and bows, but the body recovers and begins attacking Oudman and Lucyan nearby with visciously rematerializing claws and ancient eyes. Xifor thinks it's a lich and cries in panic, reinvigorating the desperate attacks on the body.
• Llewellyn throws the bands of binding at the body, and it wraps it up completely, pinning it back into the coffin. The body uses it's magic to summon a swarm of bats and attempts to paralyze some party members, but is held fast in place.
• The remaining crew is emboldened and renews attacks on the captured corpse, and the crew bring it back to dust.
• They finish looting the sarcophagus finding many magic and valuable items, including taking the axe from the wall.
• On exiting the tomb, Yasen succumbs to the gas sleep poison and must also be restored by Oudman before proceeding. With Xifor retrieving his stasis like body.
• After determining there are no other east paths, they return to the crab who is still munching away, and he apologizes for not knowing about the dead end, and says they should then go West to get to their goal.
• They climb through the west door, finding a small pyramid which they identify as not the one they are looking for, and a large algae growth on the wall above the next door, that falls on Llewellyn, causing mild acid damage and beginning to ruin her clothes, but fortunately no other ill effects.
• The crew realizes that their coughs are getting worse in the amber gas filling the area, and they are coughing up little bits of blood. Xifor identifies that the gas is actually mildly toxic, and they are slowly succumbing to the damaging effects.
• Heading down the hall they destroy an ancient statue of a hero in order to loot a sword from it's back, and continue into the next flooded chamber.
• The flooded room houses murky water and a slippery sludge that impairs their movement, and as they try to move across the room, Xifor and Lucyan fall into a hidden moat under the surface and the others are attacked by a giant slug, shouting at them in Olman which is not understood. Huden identifies him as an Olman demi-god (The Lord of Snails), and they struggle to stay above the water and attack the him.
• The slug eventually retreats (and Lucyan argues to let him go), and the crew frantically try to escape over the moat, with some terrible attempts to swim across and much arguing over who should be doing what, clearly showing the stress and frantic need to move on in their dire situation.
• After leaving the flooded room they climb through a hallway to a blocked door with dripping on the other side and they use the crowbar to wedge open the door. When they do a full face of water shoots through, flooding the passage and nearly bowling over the whole party. Lucyan fails to grab hold of anything and is washed back into the flooded murky moat, where the slug resumes it's attacks and insults.
• Lucyan, having lost his patience with the slug god, decides to destroy it, even being the unique creature that it is, and burns it's blood until it's no more, taking many hits in the process but putting the god to rest.
• The crew then goes back to the hallway and continues to a peaceful clear grotto and discover an evil Nereid who ambushes them as they are trying to open the path back to the starting area. With rising water shaped like a sea god and an electric eel that strikes from range, she tries to smother the group, only to be poisoned and pierced to death.
• Huden swims down into the grotto and recovers the treasure, and the team walks around the pool to the east door on an underwater ledge.
• The crew exits the flooded areas and climbs some stairs up to a hallway that seemingly goes far west. Lucyan walks down that way and straight into a wall realizing it was a painted mural looking like a tunnel, doh. He then steps to the side passage and becomes trapped in a trap that closes bars around him.
• Huden explores a painted sun and finds a switch that opens the trap and a small secret tunnel up the wall.
• Everyone climbs in to the secret passage and finds another hallway with stone animals on the wall. An eagle has a bracelet in it's mouth which Lucyan takes, only to get his hand caught. Oudman disables the eagle with Huden's help and frees Lucyan.
• the team pauses for a few minutes here to catch their breath, and feels the pressure of the poisonous gas on their coughing aching lungs, and feel the need to make haste to the upper levels.

TO BE CONTINUED!

Campaign

The Chosen

Protagonists

Lucyan Kilndar

Level 12 Shadar-Kai Neutral Evil Druid
(Outlander)

79 / 79 HP

Xifor

Level 11 Tiefling-Abraxus (Mephistopheles, MTOF) Chaotic Evil Wizard/Forbidden Lore (COBW)
(Raised by Fiends (Raised by Evil, COE))

/ 54 HP

Yasen Luzar

Level 11 Aasimar CE Hexblade - Warlock
(Expropriated One)

60 / 74 HP

Oudman - Fonkle

Level 9 hobgoblin chaotic evil artificer alchemist
(styx-tuched)

/ 80 HP

Llewellyn

Level 8 Half-Elf (Moon) Chaotic Evil Horizon Walker (Ranger)
(Turncoat)

85 / 70 HP

Damien Crane

Level 4 Human (Amn) CE Warrior
(Apprentice)

/ 45 HP

Huden Golman

Level 7 hooman chaotic evil bard
(charlatan)

/ 38 HP

Report Date

27 Apr 2020

Primary Location

Maztica