The Dungeon of Graves: Session 17
General Summary
Slaps
Report Date
31 Jan 2021
Each of the adventures thrown together by the Shrike of Czira have their own reasons for working for the shady individual. Some of them have shared but most do not talk about why they are delving into the dungeon seeking the Architect. Just near the ornate door they found yet another secret passage. The last few have been terrible with two of their companions falling to what was hidden behind the door and yet they still understand that they will have to explore every inch of the dangerous catacombs dedicated to the worship of the Master.
After thoroughly investigating the secret door, they opened the passageway revealing the source of the frost laden walls. The walls of the cave are unworked, a naturally formed opening, with a floating sphere of ice. They discuss how they could possibly use the ice and Nam brings up the brown mold and how they will need the cold to kill it. It is obvious that the cold is radiating from the sphere and Keartas sends Terrance, his owl familiar, into the cave to investigate it further. Unfortunately for the owl, they instantly take damage and poof from existence until the wizard is able to summon them again. However, they now understand that it would be painful for anyone to get too close. Sinestra sent their magical claw into the cave moving the sphere safely out and away from the group. After the danger had passed, they discovered that the cave had been used as some sort of meat cooler, for whom they do not know.
As the sphere is moved, they discuss moving it into the room behind the ornate door; however, Lothar brings up that they do not know if the person behind the door is friendly. While they continue to talk about how to use the orb, they decide to head back to the room where the magically animated broom had cleared and take a short break.
They move back to the room, keeping the orb in front of Sinestra and apparently while they were gone the Madman had been creeping up from behind. They could hear the labored breathing in the darkness. The madman runs out and rushes the group but as they approach the orb they are instantly damaged by the cold and they run away. Sinestra asks the group if they should just deal with the person but most don’t want to cause them harm if they have too.
Lothar and Vai’len keep watch while the others rest and during their break, Nam is able to mend the giant deck of cards the ogres had been playing with when they had thought that lunch had been delivered to them. After more discussion on what to do, they decide that they need to at least try to open the fancy door. Mogg, with Vai’len’s help, managed to barely unlock the door. The door leads to a small anteroom with raised frescos and another ornate door at the other end. Each fresco details a story showing someone’s great deeds. Acacius, seemingly not caring about letting people investigate the room for traps, strolls into the room. He can notice that each fresco is identical on the opposite wall. The progression is of a hero, presumably Saracek, and their quick journey from fighting demons to kneeling in front of a demon and receiving some sort of power. In the first depiction, the hero is human wielding a greatsword and in the final shot, the hand gripping the handle is skeletal. At the bottom of the frescos, in the same language that was upon the door, is the description of Saracek’s story. They were a humble individual, strong and charismatic but used their power to help and defend the weak. Saracek rose quickly in the Army of Light and had been present in both the sacking of Tsar and the quick pursuit of those who had fled to Gylidd. Then the story abruptly cuts to them forsaking their oath and devoting themselves to the Master to be forever known as Saracek the Fallen. Vai’len and Mogg move to the ebony wooden door inlaid with gold, they notice a runic trap and a similarly difficult lock.
Keartas takes the time to ritually cast Identify to understand the rune that the door is armed with. The door handle has a death symbol upon it that could be triggered or disarmed but either way it would be dangerous for the individual who would attempt. Mogg and Vai’len move to the door. The bugbear would be attempting the lock with the sea elf’s help. Unfortunately, the lock is more complicated than their current skills and the rune triggers, dealing a massive amount of damage. After their disappointing attempt, they move north to investigate another door. Once again the door leads to a hallway with more doors. They all move down the hall while the orb is moved into the room off to the right that smelled of dirt and had spores floating in the air. Vai’len can hear breathing down the hall and quickly moves past the others back through the door while the others move into the room after the orb. She did inform the others what they had heard as they moved past but they seemed to be focused on their current room
The room is worked stone with various rat tunnels shooting off, one of them large enough for the group to move through. As the orb moves into the room, the particles floating in the air quickly freeze and drop down like snowflakes. The room had smelled like a greenhouse but now smelled more like a cold day. They move the orb down the larger rat tunnel with Sinestra and Mogg following close while the others follow farther behind. Lothar, Levin and Vai’len remain near the main door, just in case the breathing the rogue had heard moments ago decided to investigate the group. The orb moves into a larger cavern and quickly runs into purple mushrooms. It seemed that this area was being cultivated by someone as there were many raised areas with fungus growing.
They are able to determine that the purple mushrooms are violet fungus that animate and hide among others that don’t move, trying to decompose anything that comes through and as they cold reaches the mushrooms, some do move out of the way. As some of the adventurers move to get a closer look, a bunch of screaming erupts as shriekers feel something approach their territory. The sound can be heard hundreds of feet away. Mogg moves away from the opening and the screaming stops. Lothar can hear the Madman scream “Shut up!” Before leaving, Mogg can see yellow mold also growing in the cavern. They talk about moving the orb around the area and they throw a torch into the room, allowing Sinestra to see where to move the orb. However, with the torch the yelling returns. The violet fungus animates and moves rather slowly to the torch. It had landed on the yellow mold and it slowly started to catch fire. Sinestra moves in and the yellow mold explodes with the druid taking damage. A battle commences with the slow moving violet fungus and the groups attempt to quiet the shriekers.
Beyond the door Lothar and Levin are holding, they can hear someone running down the hall approaching them. The battle is happening on two fronts. Lothar, Levin and Vai’len waiting for the eventual Madman breaking through the door and the others fighting the mushrooms. Acacius moves into the opening, once the yellow mold just inside has been eliminated. Mogg, Keartas, Sinestra and Nam start focusing on the shriekers. It is only difficult because they were unable to get great angles on most of them. Lothar had tried to tell the Madman that they were trying to quiet the noise and that they needed some time. After breaking through the door however, the Madman is instantly nailed with a bolt thus eliminating the chance for negotiation.
Although the violet fungus is slow, it is very successful at breaking the orb and slapping the torch out. As they finally reach Acacius, they are only able at dealing minimal damage. Meanwhile, the Madman targets Levin making their new companion unconscious in two swings. His muscles seemed to be inflated and in a constant rage. Nam moves Levin out and heals them. The magic users abandon the mushrooms as the Madman becomes the bigger threat. Seeing the tides turn, the Madman runs away without anyone pursuing them. As everyone rejoins Acacius and Mogg near the mushrooms, their mighty fighter falls to the excessive slaps of the violet fungus. As the threat has finally passed, they gather the fallen Gylidder guard and pack them away for a proper send off later in the day.
At the far end of the open cave they see some larger rat tunnels. All around them are the corpses of rats, it seems that whomever had cultivated the mushrooms had used rat bodies as fertilizer. After some investigating they note that the mushrooms could be a renewable resource for food. They talk about what to do, do they head up the tunnels that seemed to be similar to those they had found in the other open cave or do they continue down the hall. They push on and discover a room filled with rubble. Under all the debris they do find an undamaged bottle of ointment, some sort of lotion that hadn’t shattered. The next room seems to be an old moldy pantry with rats. Outside the room, they can hear whimpering which ends when Nam calls the others over to the pantry.
Inside the room, Mogg coaxes some of the rats out with food and he chats with them. He learns that the room beyond the door has a giant worm of some sort and that the Madman is loud. Mogg makes a deal with the rats, offering more food and their help if the rats would help them in return. The rats agree, they are indeed rather hungry.
