Session 12: A Divine Chug
General Summary
The dawn breaks. Arulo fell asleep in his bathtub and is awoken by him almost drowning. He shoots awake and sees Faces staring at him. They have some banter and Arulo dresses himself. Raine wakes up too. Meanwhile outside Ruuch did not sleep, and meets up with Usze and Palanthus. Usze'Taham dremarks that our old hero looks terrible and asks if he's even ready to do this task they have ahead of them. He claims he feels fine, and they head down into the tombs to meet the rest. Usze tells the group everything he remembers about the maze, how it works, and what might be waiting for them there, notably how in the maze its possible to "think" something into existence if you have enough brain power. Once grouped up, The Black Eye immediately teleports them without any fanfare.
Once in the maze, the group encounters a massive creature that refers to itself as the "backup" warden, replacing the monster that tore Adalai to shreds and hunted down Usze during his first visit long ago because it was busy with sludge. The massive one wants to be named Up, and thus the group obliges. He warns them not to use magic, and not come near the sludge that is taking over the maze. They agree, and head onward. Not even 10 seconds into the maze Ruuch splits from the group and finds a room to himself to try and summon his wife. The group only notices after they've encountered a friendly large robotic guard. They head back and Arulo finds him. Ruuch lies and claims he was trying to summon a powerful weapon, and needed some peace and quiet. Though Usze is upset, he lets it slide.
Arulo remembering about the whole "thinking something into existence" thing, pulls out a coin and tries to think about a brand new ship (he rolls a fuckin nat 20). The coin in his hand starts to shape into a tiny ship, and starts to grow uncontrollably. With quick thinking Ruuch snags the ship and puts it in his jar of preservation, making sure it does not grow any further and crushes anyone. Thankful, Arulo promises that he will do anything for Ruuch just once. Ruuch notes that that is a big thing to say, and Arulo replies with "I am a man of my word".
The group goes on through the maze and meets up with another guard, this time sentient. He asks their purpose, but before anyone could open their mouth Ruuch butts in to claim they are the "Maze inspectors" and attempts to deceive the guard. Not at all fooled, they banter on until Usze has had enough and exclaims their true purpose to come cleanse a pool, much to Ruuch and Arulo's irritation. The guard and Ruuch spar on until things get uncomfortably tense and they are about to fight, with Ruuch ready to cast fireball. The group attempts to calm Ruuch down and somehow succeed. They carry on.
Walking past a T-shaped crossing the group is suddenly attacked from a corridor, with Arulo being the unlucky one targeted. With no ability to cast spells, and barely any room to move, no one is really able to help Arulo in his battle aside from Raine. Ruuch attempts a lot, and Usze tries to run around and hit the monsters with his crossbow. Arulo is able to keep the beats at bay until one hit is too much, and he falls unconscious. Meanwhile the guard from earlier hears the ruckus and comes to assist in taking out the Sludge. Raine picks up Arulo and throws him over her shoulder, but does it a bit clumsily and Arulo's face smacks against her armoured back, with the cold steel jerking him awake. The monsters are taken care of by Ruuch, the guard and Usze. Usze thanks the guard for his help, but he just scoffs at him and walks off.
The group wanders more and tries their hand at a few tactics (asking the trees to show the way, Hanzel & Gretel, switching leaders, etc.) until they meet up with Up again, who literally points them where to go. They finally find the pool, but when they do it is covered in a red shield, with a familiar figure inside floating above the pool. With a maniacal laugh, Killos greets them. Ruuch is ready to murder him but Usze stops him, instead asking him many questions about where Adalai is, why he is here and what he's doing. Killos answers some questions vaguely and others not at all. Eventually Usze is fed up and instructs Raine to "Do her thing". While this is going on, Arulo is just relaxing in the back until he feels a presence behind him.
Turning around, he is greeted by Rashall, who is happy to have finally caught up to them. Killos greets him as well, and although Rashall claims not to know the maniac, Killos says quite the opposite, and that they go way back. First asking where Adalai is, he learns of his death by the party. Without further ado, Rashall asks for Usze and explains why he wants to kill him, also noting that he has no quarrel with the rest of the party and will not hurt them. Usze refuses to let himself be murdered now, but being in the position they are, a tiny corridor barely 5 ft wide and with two enemies at both ends, all he can do is stall. Usze and Rashall engage in battle, but right before Killos tells Usze telepathically "He does not know the rules of this place". With that, Usze attempts to cast banishment on him, however it fails. A pulse of magic is shot. Rashall summons two swords and is about to attack Usze, two more pulses, when suddenly...
########################## EDITOR'S NOTE: Usze: "I'm ready, how about you?" Rashall: "Very well then, any last words?" Usze: "Just one.... Banishment." ##########################
Reacting to the pulses of magic, Up the backup warden shows up to witness Rashall slam down a flaming sword upon Uzse who attempted to dodge it, and smacks against the trees. Furious at Rashall ignoring his warnings, Up attacks the demi-god. While this is happening, Raine moves closer to the pool, and instructed by her leaf, kneels down near the red shield. In reaction to her, the part of the shield near her turns a goldish colour and she is able to move through it. Once again instructed by her leaf, she lowers her head into the red waters, and drinks. The liquid around her lips turns a similar gold, and witnessing this Killos goes mad, curses at her and attacks, but he is too late. Despite hitting her, she was successful. Raine is informed that she herself, is now the final pool of her goddess Eldath. Ruuch contacts the Black Eye(?) and asks how they can get out. Either at the entrance or at the cauldron (the entrance to the prison) can they exit.
The fight goes on, and the stench of death grows heavier and thicker. Usze attempts to run and is followed by Ruuch and later on Arulo. Up keeps Rashall busy for a moment which gives the group some time to think. Usze shares his thoughts that the True Warden is only here for Ruuch and himself. Palanthus makes it past. Up is just smacking Rashall against the floor like a monkey trying to break open a coconut. Speaking of trying, Raine attempts to bypass them, but is unfortunately smacked in the process. Up apologises to her. She gets up and walks on. Rashall is finally able to break free from Up's clutches and wounds him.
Ruuch summons his familiar hawk to try and scour the exit, but unfortunately the strange circumstances of the area prevent it from moving even five feet. Arulo goes on and walks past it. Then, inbetween him and the others, the warden shows up out of a corridor and completely annihilates the tiny hawk. When Rashall is finally closing in on the group, Usze tackles Ruuch and uses dimension door towards the cauldron at the other side of the maze, in an attempt to lure the Warden away from the rest. Arriving at the cauldron, they are greeted by more sludge monsters, and fight on. Ruuch finds a gun by the corpse of a dead guard and attempts to use it, first shooting around wildly much to Usze's dismay. With the help of the guard from before who shows up again, they dispose of the sludge creatures. Usze touches the black smoke in the cauldron and is teleported back. Ruuch does so as well, but not before shooting a sneaky sludge creature attempting to catch the guard.
########################## EDITOR'S NOTE: Usze: "geez your accuracy is as good as Vic's!" Ruuch: "Shut it, this is my first time!" ########################## Guard: "Whoa... Thanks." Ruuch (still claiming to be maze inspector): "Your superiors will still hear from this." Guard: "Oi fuck off mate!!" ##########################
Arulo unfortunately merely sees his allies disappear in front of him and assumes the worst. Rashall underestimates the beast and throws his flame sword at it, only for it to bounce off and hit him right in the skull. Arulo remembering Rashall has no intention to kill him personally, manages to avoid the Warden and reach Rashall requesting him to take him to safety. Rashall sees he is outmatched and takes Arulo with him, teleporting away. In the meantime Palanthus and Raine were able to sneak away to a dead end thanks to Zelthin (coming out of seemingly nowhere) taking care of a big sludge monster that was there.
########################## EDITOR'S NOTE: Palanthus: "So, what do we do now?" Raine: "I don't know!" Palanthus: "Do you have a plan?" Raine: "No!" Palanthus: "...ah... I see...." ##########################
They overhear the backup warden Up have a conversation with the true warden about whether or not the party deserves to be killed, and also whether or not Up is a good backup warden. When the sounds settle down, the two quietly make their way through the maze towards the cauldron. They see Up again and he is sad, wailing about how the true warden called him a bad warden. Raine comforts and compliments him, and as thanks tells them where the warden is so that they can avoid him for now. They carry on without much trouble, but the smell does seem to increase with every step they take. Almost reaching the end, they are attacked by sludge. Before they can do anything, it seems the true warden was right on their tail, and he destroys the sludge monsters, which gives the girls enough time to hurry towards the cauldron and touch it, teleporting them back to the tombs.
Arulo awakes in a comfy home. Rashall kicks his furniture, frustrated that he was so close, yet unable to kill Usze. Arulo, still in a bad condition from the sludge fight in the maze, thanks the demi-god for saving him. Angry at his teammates for seemingly abandoning him, he tells Rashall that he knows Usze's location and can bring him there if he so desires. Rashall is not at all against this, and tells Arulo to let him know whenever. He assigns him a comfortable room (the same room Adalai slept in) and tells him to rest. The door closes, and Arulo senses a sending message.
The rest of the party awakes on the floor of the tomb and is happily greeted by Arulo's crew. They quickly find out he is not with them and start to get hostile. The group are also confused about his whereabouts. Ruuch uses sending to send him a message, and he is responded with the info that he went with Rashall and is in Kalanthus. Ruuch tells the crew he has a ship for them, but is keeping it safe for when the captain returns. With that, their mission, despite quite the handful of hurdles, was a success. Eldath's final pool is literally Raine herself, and she is at full power. With that, another sunset drowns, the party grew even stronger, and their next adventure is ready to begin.
Report Date
08 Jan 2022
Primary Location
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