Session 83 - In Hot Water

5 Numont 1011

General Summary

The party has just broken ball number one, and two grey blobs fall to the floor. Stavos moves to intercept, dealing three hard hits to the first. Leo follows through with a few shots of Eldritch Blast, taking out the first. Tork moves to the second, but doesn't attack, testing it with his new form of aggressive pacifism. Elincia dials up the disdain another notch by shooting a second shiny ball, and three shadows drop to the ground. Seraphina responds with Moonbeam, brightening up the space and enveloping the shadows. Tork's new ability fails to deter the Grey Ooze, but it misses him anyway. Stavos destroys the second Ooze and then a Shadow. Seraphina smites a second Shadow into oblivion, while Leo finishes off the third. Meanwhile, Elincia takes it up another notch, breaking a third sphere, from which a Wind Elemental falls out. Seraphina and Stavos strike quickly, and the Elemental moves on top of Tork Seraphina and Stavos. Leo backs up a smidge and blasts away at the Elemental. As the party winds down this whirlwind, Elincia continues to break overhead globes, which drop various gems, jewelry, and keys, but no more enemies emerge.
The party debates the merits and demerits of the ring again and eventually come to the same conclusion; that the ring has too much uncertainty to be safely used. They decide to leave it, and the more carefully examined false gems and coins. Many of the items however are real, and have true value, including a pair of scrolls, several gems, some gold, and a valuable jeweled necklace.
The attempts to unlock the door begin, and Leo suggests they use the key that was with the valuable necklace.  Inserting it into the lock does not work. They then systematically work their way through all the keys, until they get to the one associated with the ring, which does unlock the door. Having not attuned to the ring, presumably it has become useless.
The party continues their right wall investigation of the cave system. The next room in their exploration, has 5 Flesh Golems. One speaks, "One of us does not belong! Identify which does not belong and it will serve you.  Choose wrong and you will die." The Golems are numbered 5, 7, 9, 11, 13. Leo says "Primes!", and correctly calls out Golem number 9 as not fitting in. It steps forward, and becomes the party's minion, and exposes a door behind it.
Beyond the door is another long hall, this one with a turnstile similar to what may be found at major events. The party is a bit befuddled by this, but passes through the turnstile. The passage winds north, then east, then back south eventually leading to another door.
Beyond this door is a room out of Leo's nightmares. There is boiling mud 50 feet below, and a series of discs suspended by a single chain each to the ceiling. The distance between platforms is not very large (just a few feet), but the platforms seem unstable. Stavos, using his immovable rod as a stabilizer, checks the first platform and finds it unstable as it looks, rocking easily from its single central support. The span from start to end of this appears to be almost 100 feet. As they are evaluating the situation, a geyser of steam erupts out of the mud, greatly raising the temperature in the air and scalding the party.  Wanting to get beyond this room, Elincia chooses to transform into an giant eagle, and takes Seraphina and Leo across.
Just as they depart, Tork continues the party's recent increase in recklessness and decides to attempt the platform challenge, leaping to the first platform. It turns out that there is a slick algae film on the platform and he slips from the disc. As he begins to tumble he attempts to catch himself, but fails and falls to the boiling surface below. Thankfully, his cat-like grace enables him to fall like a squirrel, and get himself properly oriented for a surprisingly graceful landing in the hot mud. Regardless of the safe landing, the mud is in fact boiling hot, and Tork takes signifigant damage, as he and his clothes are covered with boiling mud. He sprints alond the burning surface and up the opposite wall, as only a Monk can do. With minor burns, and perhaps a bit of embarrassment, he gets to the opposite platform remarkably quickly.
As all that is happening, Elincia ferries the rest of the party across. Leo and Seraphina watch Tork's progress in horrified worry, greatly relieved when he makes it up the wall.  As they are gathering themselves a second mud gyser erupts not far away from them, creating a column of unpleasantly hot mud splatters, which give them minor burns as well. Seraphina decides to open the door behind her, and start her way down the passage, which has much cooler air.  Leo also moves into the cooler space, but stays in sight of the door. watching Elincia ferry over Stavos and the Golem. Once the party is all safely across, Elincia transforms back into Elincia, and they move down the hall, Tork pausing briefly to gather himself (Wholeness of Body).
Seraphina opens the next door, and beyond she sees utter darkness - her darkvision is entirely unable to penetrate the darkness. Seraphina tries to illuminate the space with her Dancing Lights, but they don't even come into existence in the void before her.  However, Leo is able to see just fine with his Devil's Sight.  Perhaps infected by the recklessness shown by Tork and Elincia earlier, Leo strides right in. He sees another 30x 30 room with just a single item in it - a casket. He searches for a way to "turn on the lights." Seraphina, alarmed by Leo striding in alone, says "are you sure this is a good idea Leo?" Leo responds "I can see just fine, maybe there's something in here." Shortly afterwards, he yelps in surprise, as he turns and finds that he is not alone. Staring up into the eyes of a handsome man, he finds himself losing control, and says. "Hey, can somebody help me? I found some treasure, and could use a hand getting it out of here." Seraphina, not believing it for a second tries to dispel the magical darkness, and is successful! The party, now able to see the room beyond, sees the "handsome man" and Seraphina runs in to defend Leo. The handsome man seemingly controlling Leo moves to bite his neck, but Seraphina blocks him with her shield, angering the man, who hisses at her through sharp teeth, clearly a vampire. Elincia sensing the situation well, follows Seraphina's lead, and casts an elevated Dispel Magic on Leo, snapping him out of his charm, and then fires an arrow at the Vampire.
Stavos and Tork also quickly enter the room and engage the vampire. Two more Vampires materialize near Elincia and Stavos.  Leo, now angry at having been charmed, steps back away from the vampire, and casts Wall of Light, which is a little less effective since the room is so small, so only 30 feet of bright wall form (right through the Vampire). Seraphina, in a state of undead-fueled rage, smites the Vampire, dealing increadible amounts of damage on a critical hit, then follows through with a second remarkable smite. It is clear that these Vampires have bitten off more than they can chew! The party rapidly disassembles the Vampires. The lead vampire, upon defeat, dissolves into mist (confusing the party), but the other two vampires seem to die normally. With the Vampires dealt with, the party decides to desecrate the Vampire's casket burning it to nothing but ash, and upon doing so discover a hidden compartment below. In that compartment is a magical Great Hammer, and another large stash of gems and Electrum.
The party tries to understand how the vampires materialzed in the room, and find a dozen small holes in the floor. Elincia once again transforms herself, this time into into a small spider, and explores the small holes. She finds they lead to another dozen holes on the other side of the doorway. They look for a passageway back out of the area, but find none, so they take a short rest, watching for trouble. Leo heals up Tork the rest of the way and it seems like he has recovered from his little incident with the boiling mud.
After their break, the party backtracks. Elincia once again ferries the party across the room with the boiling mud, and this time Tork waits his turn. They are forced to destroy the seemingly pointless turnstile, as it will not let them exit. Wending their way back to the three-way split, they continue the right wall algorithm, and head north.
A short way down the hall, they find an alcove with water in it. Leo decides they should have Breath Underwater active, and casts it on the party. Stavos lowers himself into the flooded alcove, and finds a large wheel at the bottom, possibly a valve. He consults with the party, and they decide to open the valve. Stavos and Seraphina go down to do so, and they do notice a flow begin, though it is not a dramatic surge or anything. They emerge from the water, and Leo cleans them up with Prestidigitation.
As they continue forward, they find a large room that is flooded with water. There seems to be some kelp and algae in the water, but beyond that, it seems to be a large pond. Tork decides to cross directly to the stairs and sprints along the surface of the water. When he gets about halfway though, something grabs his ankle - some creature moving about in the kelp. Stavos had also stepped out into the room and finds himself falling into deeper water when the initial 10 feet of the floor drops away. A second monster attacks Stavos, but the party once again makes pretty short work of these creatures, which are identified as Kelpies, and they are able to safely make their way to the stairs ahead.
Continuing with the right wall, they turn down a hallway that leads into a 10 foot diameter by 30 foot long spinning tube partway down the hall and a door beyond. The rest of the hallway seems normal, but the party has to find their way across. Tork naturally takes the lead, and a length of rope with him (Stavos holding the other end), and begins to move along the tube. The tube seems to be lined with grease however, making it even more challenging than a simple spinning hallway. Tork falls once, but recovers and exits the far end, while Stavos anchors his end by tying the rope to his immovable rod.  Tork holds his end, allowing Seraphina to make her way down the tube by holding onto the taut rope for support, avoiding any more tumbling.
As Stavos is working his way along the rope a port at the end of the tunnel opens, and a flaming crossbow bolt is fired into the spinning tube, igniting the oiled cylinder. Leo tries to suppress the fire with Control Flames, but with the cylinder spinning and the flammable grease, Stavos still gets burned. Seraphina, enraged, opens the door by the far end of the tunnel, and is looking for a fight. In the small room it opens to, there is a fighter of some sort and a mage, but they are no match for an angry Seraphina and Tork. Stavos retreats back to Leo and Elincia, taking a bit more singeing from the flaming grease. Stavos ferries the remainder of the party across with the Eagle Whistle. By the time everyone is across, Seraphina and Tork have dealt with the two defenders. 
There doesn't seem to be anything of significant value in this outer room, but there is a spellbook. In a wave of deja-vu, Elincia comments "remember that time you opened a spellbook and it exploded?" just as Leo is starting to open the front cover of the spellbook. Surprise, this one also explodes!  However, this time it is not so dangerous to the party. They do take some damage, but not an alarming amount.
There is another door leading to a room of luxurious accommodation with a big fluffy four-poster bed, tapestries, dressers, and a chest just beyond. However, Leo is disappointed to learn that the apparent luxury is merely an illusion when he tries jumping on the bed, finds it to be extremely firm, and the bedding is scratchy. Having just had the experience of the spellbook, Leo decides to stand a ways back from the chest and opens it with Mage Hand, a cloud of yellow, foul-smelling (like eggs) cloud erupts from the chest, and Elincia, thinking quickly uses her Wind Fan to disperse the cloud. The unpleasant odor remains, but nobody is harmed. Inside the chest they find some more gems and coins.
Backtracking to the corridor, the spinning hallway seems to have stopped burning, and is no longer slick with grease, making it relatively trivial to get back. The next hallway leads to a large, metal set of doors that look to be very tightly sealed, possibly airtight.  When they open the doors, they find just 10 feet further down an identical set of doors. Stavos uses a piton to hold one of the first doors open. When they open the second set of doors, they see a thrid set just ahead. Getting wary, and perhaps a bit nervous at the possibility of running out of pitons, Seraphina chooses to damage the hinges on one of the second pair of doors. As it turns out, there are only three of these doorways, so they piton the door double-door.  Ahead they see a strange phenomena - the hallway starts to become lined with a thin membrane of some sort, that is creating a bubble like room inside a large pool of water. The surface of the membrane is hot to the touch - not so hot that it can't be touched, but too hot to keep your hand on for too long. Elincia pokes at the membrane with her scimitar, and it begins to leak a stream of hot water, buning her. Leo decides this should be fixed, and casts Mending on it, though he also slightly burns himself in the process. Ahead, the hall opens to a larger room, the membrane bubble growing larger. It is a roughly 60 x 40 foot diameter bubble on top of the rock floor, and the chamber full of hot water is much larger still. There is a chest at the far end of the room, and next to the chest is a rocky outcropping. Leo moves forward to examine the chest more closely and as he does the rocky outcropping begins to move, and it turns out it is some sort of gigantic crab, which moves to attack!
Once again, the party is alert, and ready for action, and they are able to quite quickly take down the crab before it is able to do any real harm to anyone. The most it accomplishes in the fight is to grapple Stavos in its claw and then throw him into Elincia, but that barely slows down the party's crushing victory. With the crab dealt with, they open the chest, finding another magic weapon, this one a beautiful trident, along with more gems and gold. The ever present danger of the membrane bursting makes the party want to leave this area and close the sealed doors again - the two undamaged doors, at least.

Report Date

04 Feb 2024