The Mouth of Doom: Session 38

General Summary

“Then They Discuss Which Familiar to Sacrifice”

Their original plan had included them returning to Castle Calaelen, giving Arddan a report then returning to the dungeon the next day. However, as they stood in the Mender Ward’s mess hall staring at the leering demon face, they decided to send Soren and Erukoesk back through the portal. It was a smart move, they still have plenty of time in the day and it would potentially give them more to discuss with the Crown Wrenjer. At first they were going to just send the Tressym, Soren but their small flying cat wouldn’t be strong enough to move the pedestals. The bard noted that it sounded like they were discussing which of their familiars they would sacrifice and as the dragonborn stated his feelings, Sindragosa wrapped around Te’Leyuura’s shoulders enjoying the relative safety with the additional familiars.
Erukoesk, the celestial bear as Zetwuzadi explained to the others, is of the paladin’s faith and represents the large southern bear constellation. The paladin’s mount and the Artificer’s familiar, Soren return to the pedestal room. They were given instructions to move the pedestal that they teleported near, through the cardinal directions. After about thirty seconds they appear in the mess hall. With each new discovery they note the cardinal direction and where it teleported too. After some more moving and testing, they had mapped out all the directions that led to other places. The room that the pedestals pointed north and east, was the only other room that had no apparent danger. To return back to the mess hall, the directions were north, and southwest. Two of the rooms that they had teleported into had immediate danger. South and southwest led to the spiders that had slowly started to eat Erukoesk before they were brought back. North and southeast led to a dark room, the walls were even painted or stained black. The creatures that were attacking Soren were like shadows. When the familiar had been snapped back to Jarvis, Soren’s tail had been poofed out and Zetwuzadi promised both her bear and the tressym some fresh fish when they returned to the castle. The last pairing that led somewhere was north and south, it led to another set of pedestals. However, they decided to leave that for another day.
As they left the stone skull, heading back to the castle the Wrenjers had restored as an outpost, the sun was a welcomed sight. It warmed their skin and the clear skies made their short walk pleasant. They would need to refill Jarvis’ ring and Vadim wanted a day of rest for drinking and singing. Only a few hours ago they had been blessed with eating Sworen’s food and they could smell that the Leonin was in the kitchen again and knowing Enya, she was there with the paladin, learning, helping and flambéing as many items as possible. Some of the Wrenjers move to make a plate of food but Enya shoos them simply stating that they will bring the delicious assortment of vegetables in rich spices up to their war room. Nearly the same time as the door was shut, Leofric slowly and dramatically doffed his armor while a cigarette dangled from his mouth. The cleric explained to Arddan about the spiders and how they were slowly eating the celestial bear. Artem quickly takes over the conversation to help smooth out the details. As the rogue brought the map up of the area that had indicated the Mouth of Doom, Rappan Athuk, The Gut and The Grand Cornu’s Landing, Te’Leyuura brought out a copy and shared it with the Crown Wrenjer.
As they settled with their food around the large conference table, they shared with Arddan what had happened since they had last talked. They explained the door that led to the Gut, the skeletal horses and the long hallway that they had only traveled a bit down and that they had heard some faint music. If the map was to be trusted, the Gut would be miles long even if it didn’t wind and turn like the halls in the Mouth of Doom. It would take them multiple days of travel to arrive at the location indicated as Rappan Athuk. Their conversation changed from travel to what else they had experienced in the dungeon. After they had fought the wraiths, they noted that the Brume had started to slowly leak through walls and linger. Arddan expressed their concern, they had hoped that the servants of that Master had been scraping by in the area around the Brume however with the Brume slowly returning to cleanse the area, it seemed that they had found a cultivated leyline and had been using and corrupting it.
Te’Leyuura brought up the fact that they were sucked into a stone statue trying to gain a boon from a chaotic artifact. She explained the chaos room and how both Anisble and Artem had been able to gain knowledge and skills as the artifact illuminated some of their past experiences; however with Te’Leyuura fate wasn’t with the wizard and she got sucked into the stone. She did learn that, with her Vedalken heritage, she could breath water and cast a spell in a pinch. After their dinner, Arddan informed them about some terrible news that they had just learned. Gylidd’s closest neighbor, Kolkaris, had experienced a terrible catastrophic disaster. The nation’s borders had been closed already with the foreigners being asked to return home due to another incident that had happened south of them. It seemed that they had also been attacked by a massive Brume Beast that had resulted in new leadership of the Opal Heart Engines. Not even a day into the new leader’s reign did a massive cloud cover the island. The cloud was dark and green lightning could be seen. Massive bolts of sickening green lightning targeted three separate locations at once; the wreckage of Kolkaris’ largest cities could be seen floating above the land as far as a mile into the air. After the long ritual the people of Gylidd had just completed to help quell some of Vrokíva’s wrath they are worried what will result from their southern neighbor. Arddan doesn’t believe that any of the Kolkarin Wrenjers would have survived as they would have been in the thick of it, trying to fight whatever was happening. However, right now this group needed to focus on things they could help with and that meant returning their focus back to the servants of the Master.
They had a few options, they could travel overland to the location of Rappan Athuk, they could travel through the Gut or they could continue their investigation of the pedestal room. Arddan would be willing to place some of the castle’s Wrenjers to occupy the Mouth of Doom. However, as Artem stated their desire to destroy the Master’s fortifications in the dungeon before they moved on, the others agreed. They know that the teleportation areas are at least a mile away and they make plans to stock up on food for many days away from the castle. Their conversation moved once again back to the Gut. After a quick meeting with Hyrakin, Zetwuzadi described what the worg could remember of their long walk through the dark. They remembered an underground inn, a large chamber of plants that moved and were told not to even look at, a massive gate made of a dark metal that blocked passage with glowing runes that their leader moved with their hands to open and a long hallway with open areas.
Most of the Wrenjers settle in for the rest of the day, while Zetwuzadi, Artem, and Leofric make a trip to Zelkor’s Ferry. The paladin wanted to continue training the guards, while the cleric wanted to make a doctor’s visit to Olman Dark, and the rogue wanted to make some purchases so he accompanied the cleric. Leofric couldn’t place the exact moment but they knew that the necromancer was a monster, but their visit didn’t help the feeling. The ancient wizard was working on a flesh golem for their mobility and after a quick check in with Kanndra, his wife, Leofric could sense that the young woman wasn’t who she seems to be but radiated experience, knowledge and the confidence of an older woman.
The next day, the Wrenjers returned to the dungeon. The sky had some cloud cover but it did not rain on them as they traveled the familiar path to the darkened and tainted area of the Mouth of Doom. Instead of quickly returning to the leering statue, they made their way to the only door on the first floor that they hadn't been able to open. After a short discussion, Vadim approached the door and simply Knocked on the door. The booming sound bounced off the walls and only the small bits of Brume absorbed some of the magical noise. As the door swung open, four sturdy ballista bolts launched into the wall. In the exposed room, they could hear the shambling corpses head towards them. The zombies were easily taken care of with only Sindragosa receiving an unwarranted slap against the stone wall. With the final blow, Zetwuzadi released the last trapped soul. Jarvis, noting the excellent condition of the ballista bolts, spent a small amount of time carefully removing them from the stone wall to bring back with them when they returned to the castle.
With the first floor finally completely cleared, the Wrenjers returned to the leering statue. Instead of just sending the familiars in, they all travel to the first set of pedestals. As they landed they had to quickly move to allow the others behind them to arrive without shunting them forward. Now they could see the small divots around the base of the stone pedestals, there were eight in all. From here they sent Soren and Erukoesk to the next area of pedestals to explore and investigate more combinations. They were given the same instructions of moving the dial to the cordial points. When Erukoesk used the teleporter, Zetwuzadi was still connected with their companion. With the line of communication open, they were able to get a real time investigation of the area. The room was seven bears by three bears wide with two pedestals, the arrows pointing north and south. With some brunt force, the bear and tressym moved the arrow. Soren teleported, leaving the bear behind and instantly Jarvis was connected to their familiar. They had found the room of webs.
Soren is snapped back to the Artificer and after a moment the tressym returns to the bear and they move the pedestal again. This time when Soren teleported, Jarvis wasn’t quick enough to return their familiar as the new sequence had brought Soren to the darkened room. With the loss of the familiar they quickly test if they could teleport together as a group and they could. Now their plan was to seek vengeance for Soren and slay some Shadows.

Report Date

03 Jul 2021