2024/05/15: Defending Zyth Part 10 Report
General Summary
Terana, Knight, Zaran, Kal'vus, Buzz
With their options limited, the party decided to skip the mimic (again) and try the south door. Big metal reinforced door with no handle or visible lock. Azhar took a look, and from what she could tell, there was something in one of the other rooms that would activate the door and cause it to open. While she continued testing the door itself and Knight kept an eye on her, the rest of the party went to search the room where they had found the succubus.
Buzz found a loose panel in the floor. He used his magic dagger tattoo to try to wedge up the 5'x10' panel. While it didn't shift much, he got the impression that there was a counterweight system of some sort that would allow it to use.
Kal'vus, while tilting his head in frustration, noticed an odd pattern in the ceiling. There were dots in two parallel lines of three, like on a six-sided die. He flapped up to take a look. From what he could see, the dots were very slightly indented. He got Knight to come over and press the buttons while Terana took Knight's place at the door. They took a lot of pressure to press, but they did click and return. After all six were pressed, Knight got caught with a blast of hellfire.
More experimentation by Lume. More hellfire. Knight and Azhar got the other door open by having Knight reach around the edges of the door, practically tying his limbs in a knot, and pulling the handle on the other side. Next room was a 5-foot-wide bridge over bubbling purple liquid, with an ogre with a giant body shield at the other end and a whole lot of ballista holes in the walls (5 per wall). The room was bout 100 feet long, 50 wide, and 10 tall above the bridge.
Buzz put up walls of stone and walls of force to reinforce, widen, and shield the bridge. The party warriors charged across. They survived the ballista/magicannon blasts, but the bridge didn't. They had to run up the collapsing parts of the bridge. Knight got through, dashing around behind the ogre. Kal'vus and Terana latched onto the front of the ogre's shield for dear life. The ogre, confused by the disappearing enemies, turned around and whacked Knight. Knight lived. Zaran shot the ogre in the back. The ogre didn't live.
The bridge was still gone and Buzz, Azhar, and Zaran were stuck on the other side. The warriors who had crossed looked for ways into the ballista rooms or other useful secret passages in hopes of finding their teammates safe passage across. They found no passages, but did get an ogre picture book (covered in meat residue and drool) and a bone scroll case adorned with golden human (or aasimar?) hair. The book depicted a red-haired demon prince/lord driving out a darker demon lord who had undead minions. The book claimed the red-haired demon was going to take over the world with the ogres' help, and after their heroic victory they'd get to eat all the people they wanted.
The next path was a 10x10 tunnel about 85 feet long, extending to the west from the southern end of the room. The tunnel was raised a bit and very shiny (with some soot residue). It turned out to have a couple of ogres at the end with super magic bows that blasted the whole tunnel with hellfire and something similar once potential targets got 12 feet down the corridor. The party considered their options. When Knight tried checking for dream routes, he noticed that the golden hair on the scroll case was shining especially brightly. Terana wanted to shrink everyone and withdraw down the corridor with them in her pockets, but she acquiesced to Knight bringing the trio into the dream realm of the hair.
Inside the dream realm, the warriors found hundreds of bone devils surrounding a golden-haired woman in a cage. They were mocking her and celebrating. Her cage was hanging above a pit of fire and spiked bone. The adventurers wasted little time in engaging the bone devils.
Knight bone devil kills: 129 + 36
Terana bone devil kills: 210
Kal'vus bone devil kills: 33 (they were a lot sparser by the time he got to them) Talked to the woman in the cage. She said she's there as a result of her bad decisions. First bad decision: Becoming an adventurer and traveling the world. 2: To face the demon lord Hoen. 3: To marry him. If she were sent back in time, though, she would have made all of those decisions again. She says the demon king made her smile, and laugh. He wasn't the one who put her here. This is where she ended up after she died. While Kal'vus was cutting his way into the cage, she revealed that the demon king in question was the tall, dark, handsome demon lord who used to be in control of the dungeon realm, before he apparently got ousted or imprisoned by a red-haired demon lord recently. The woman's name is Zella Iconspire. She's really in love with the demon king. Kal'vus pulled Zella out and flew her back to land. She initially believed the party was just more of her unending torment, but she was cooperative regardless. The effort of pulling her to land was harder than expected, with Kal'vus feeling like he was pulling against something. Knight helped with the last stretch and found himself deeply tired, even more than Kal'vus was. (It may be that Kal'vus was aided in moving Zella's soul by being an ex-god. Whether Knight getting tired was related to this factor is unknown.) Zella was free, but still somewhat ghostly. With few other options, the warriors took her with them as they left the dream. Zella vanished immediately, but from where Knight was holding her hand (or possibly shoulder) she left behind a pearl on a simple string necklace. Small, not quite spherical pearl. Detects as magical, but does not identify. Under scan, there are little whorls of necromantic energy coming off it and being weird. Roughly balanced between positive and negative energies, perhaps slighly more positive. It seems to have some sort of effect on the veil between life and death. It doesn't seem powerful enough to affect a soul being resurrected, but it is strong enough to affect the dream of one. Terana resurrected Zella. Petite athletic human. She doesn't remember the party rescuing her in the dream, and she has no idea what the pearl is. Terana gave Zella some clothes (and/or a toga). Note: She's a multiclass sorceress/monk. No weapons needed. Terana was now exhausted, so she set up a Hero's Feast and the warriors took a rest while the rest of the party tried to find a way across the bridge room.
Terana bone devil kills: 210
Kal'vus bone devil kills: 33 (they were a lot sparser by the time he got to them) Talked to the woman in the cage. She said she's there as a result of her bad decisions. First bad decision: Becoming an adventurer and traveling the world. 2: To face the demon lord Hoen. 3: To marry him. If she were sent back in time, though, she would have made all of those decisions again. She says the demon king made her smile, and laugh. He wasn't the one who put her here. This is where she ended up after she died. While Kal'vus was cutting his way into the cage, she revealed that the demon king in question was the tall, dark, handsome demon lord who used to be in control of the dungeon realm, before he apparently got ousted or imprisoned by a red-haired demon lord recently. The woman's name is Zella Iconspire. She's really in love with the demon king. Kal'vus pulled Zella out and flew her back to land. She initially believed the party was just more of her unending torment, but she was cooperative regardless. The effort of pulling her to land was harder than expected, with Kal'vus feeling like he was pulling against something. Knight helped with the last stretch and found himself deeply tired, even more than Kal'vus was. (It may be that Kal'vus was aided in moving Zella's soul by being an ex-god. Whether Knight getting tired was related to this factor is unknown.) Zella was free, but still somewhat ghostly. With few other options, the warriors took her with them as they left the dream. Zella vanished immediately, but from where Knight was holding her hand (or possibly shoulder) she left behind a pearl on a simple string necklace. Small, not quite spherical pearl. Detects as magical, but does not identify. Under scan, there are little whorls of necromantic energy coming off it and being weird. Roughly balanced between positive and negative energies, perhaps slighly more positive. It seems to have some sort of effect on the veil between life and death. It doesn't seem powerful enough to affect a soul being resurrected, but it is strong enough to affect the dream of one. Terana resurrected Zella. Petite athletic human. She doesn't remember the party rescuing her in the dream, and she has no idea what the pearl is. Terana gave Zella some clothes (and/or a toga). Note: She's a multiclass sorceress/monk. No weapons needed. Terana was now exhausted, so she set up a Hero's Feast and the warriors took a rest while the rest of the party tried to find a way across the bridge room.
Rewards Granted
Hammer, shield, club, book, bone scroll case wrapped with blonde hair
1 xp (+ bonus for some characters)
Character(s) interacted with
Created Content
Kal'vus
Zaran
Buzz Gizmo
Terana DelGarrod
Knight of Darkhome
Report Date
15 May 2024
Primary Location
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