Session 171

General Summary

• The party returned to the temple entrance and dug their way through a blockage down to the next floor.
• The next floor was almost unbearably hot. There were fortunately very few enemies, but the environment itself posed major threats nonetheless with the intensity of the heat, painful shimmering illusions of Phantasmal Force, and rupturing pustules filled with magma.
• One illusion of Jahdzan and Argon showed that the dwarf is starting to resign himself to what he believes is a likely possibility that Maedia will not want him back.
• A later illusion had no visual component, only the sound of a distraught Jahdzan wailing over why "you" would take "him".
• The party fought some gooey entities. After one died and exploded with a superheated splash, a worm "swam" through the walls, grabbing its remains and leaving.
• Moving on, there was a room filled with a mist of raw adrenaline, causing each party member to show a primal response — except Dwardazik, who had a lovely time.
• Initially, the three tried to just run right back out — though Marvin panicked and stumbled upon a different exit than the one they came in through.
• Upon returning, Dazki and Theran were more OK, though Dwardazik triggered another wave that got Theran again; he started blasting and had to be coaxed out.
• Marvin had taken the other exit, so the other three went back in to try to regroup. Dazki panicked upon entering and attacked Dwardazik all the way through.
• The next chamber was a little cooler (though it smelled of ammonia), and there was a crystal golem that just wanted some water, which Dazki helped with.
• Following some more exploration, they made it to an unrecognizable organ structure with plasmic guardians and (apparently) a way further down. The guardians complained about the temperature being too hot for the party to descend further down. Marvin convinced them to let the party enter a cave behind them.
• Inside the cave was none other than Argon, now undead and covered in prismatic crystals — and angry, attacking some red strands tethering him in place.
• The cave was much cooler, so the party did some damage to the beast, but they focused on picking up some keys and orbs from behind it and running out.
• Dazki used some of the orbs to cool down the immediate area. The guardians admitted that this helped, but not enough to allow passage through the barrier.
• Shortly afterward, the party heard the sound of Argon breaking free.

Full Recap

D.S. al Coda

The once-blocked path leads back to the hallway covered in plasma, with the snake heads at the end. This time, the central clogged portal no longer pulses with a foul yellow energy, and the orchestral music in the area is less full. The snake heads confirm that the irritant has been dealt with, and so they are "no longer forced to drown out such a horrible, horrible noise with [their] song".   The portal is still clogged, but Dwardazik and Dazki dig through it using shovels from the bag of holding. As they tunnel through, it gets softer and warmer, and they break through to the other side.  

Getting Warmer...

Dropping down to the floor, the ground is like more of that wet, fleshy material. Immediately upon reaching this next level, the heat is almost unbearable. There's a dead larva near the landing area, (Medicine 7) which doesn't seem to have suffered any grievous wounds from something larger than it, but otherwise it's unclear how it died. They pick a direction and walk through a narrow hallway. Along the way, one of the molten pustules in the wall suddenly bursts and covers Dwardazik in some sort of hot fiery liquid. Theran casts "Summon Anti-Turmoil", bringing forth a fire elemental that can walk in front and safely trigger any further traps. As they walk further along, a large semi-transparent worm suddenly causes the ground to rumble and shake, and it bursts through one wall into another, as if swimming through the air.  

Goodness Gracious, Werewolves of Fire

They come to a fork and start down a path that leads towards another glowing crystal, seemingly supercharged with heat and glowing a "red-hot yellow color". As the party approaches around the crystal, Dwardazik touches it (taking some fire damage, with no other effect), and werewolves suddenly appear next to Dazki, Marvin, and Theran's elemental.   Despite Dwardazik and Theran noticing that these are just shimmering illusions, Marvin and Dazki still take damage from them and are actively grappled by them all the same. Dazki quickly uses his Unerring Eye ability to see them for what they are: entities spawned by some sort of corrupted Phantasmal Force spell. They move further on.  

Blobbers

At another fork, they see another dead larva near two glowing amorphous blobs, and there is a more typical-looking crystal in the other direction. Getting closer, more illusions of Jahdzan and Argon appear. Jahdzan pours what's left of his water over Argon's head, as Argon is panting heavily.

Hang in there, buddy! This heat is nothing compared to what we have to face... either further down, or at the surface: either our love gives us the cold shoulder, or our families rip us from bit to bit. Frankly, I'm numb to either idea. All I want is to embrace her once more, even if she never really takes me back or forgives me. Stay strong, Argon, we've got to keep up this feverish footpace... this, uh, blistering beat... ... ...this, uh... ...oh, sod it, let's get out of here before we roast!

More glowing amorphous blob entities near another dead larva, with bits and pieces of them that bubble and pop off as if superheated. One works to dissolve and dismantle another dead larva. Around the time that they see this, however, (Constitution Saving Throw 4) Theran begins having a really hard time weathering the heat in this area. Dwardazik offers him a drink from his flask, and Theran also uses a "Normal Druid Stuff" spell to make a puff of wind blow in his face to help cool off, which helps for now. Theran's fire elemental pushes forward, and the amorphous blobs attack it.

Combat Summary

• Theran's fire elemental held the chokepoint, blocking the gooey creatures' attacks and slamming off gooey chunks of them.
• On Dwardazik's turn, he unloaded using a series of Lunging Attacks past the elemental, destroying one of the creatures — which caused it to splash extremely hot liquid in the vicinity, which the elemental was immune to — and started in hard on the second one.
• Not too long into the combat, there was another rumbling from that large worm, which the gooey creatures seemed to recognize immediately. For some reason, the rumbling and shaking seems not to be from the worm itself; rather, the fleshy walls themselves quivered in fear of the worm.
• Theran identified the direction of the worm and called it out. Dazki called for everyone to spread out, and the remaining plasmoid attempted to flee — though Dwardazik caught up to it and finished it off before it could get too far away.

The worm burrowed through the walls once again, this time grabbing the corpse of one of the gooey creatures. Thanks to the party's clever positioning — and a little luck — only Theran's elemental was in the worm's path. The worm had seemed to zero in on the plasmoid's exact position from afar.   The party quickly headed northward, finding another superheated crystal that caused more Phantasmal Force illusions. Dazki was still safe, but all the others saw bees that would damage them; Dwardazik (Intelligence Save 1) even saw "the queen of all bees" among them. A few quick investigation checks later, and they continued northward through a small river. Dazki flew around to activate one of the larger popping magma pustules (mostly) safely, and they proceeded all the way across. Dwardazik just jumped from platform to platform, doing quite well until the last jump, where he stumbled a little bit but still managed to barely stick the landing. Theran picked him up with the broom to get the group together to decide what to do about the next cavern.

Theran: By the way, Dwardazik, during my explanation, it seemed like there were parts that you weren't really paying close attention?   Dwardazik: What?   Theran: You know, like, back before we went down to this floor?   Dwardazik: Oh. I understand what you mean. Yeah, I was, uh... talking to Gemineye.   Theran: I can empathize with something like that. Is Gemineye "he", "it", or "they"?   Dwardazik: You'll have to talk to Gemineye about that.   Theran: OK, because my brain keeps wanting to do all three at once, but I can't really say that. Is Gemineye fine with the situation? Because "Barf" did not like me (for obvious reasons), and I don't want there to be friction or anything while we're trying to do the mission...   Dwardazik: I think we should focus on getting out of this sweltering hellhole before we worry about that.   Theran: ... ... ...got it. Got it.

Fight Nite, Flight Nite, and Just Right Nite

The next chamber down is filled with fire, as well as some sort of purple mist that causes all three non-Dwardaziks to flee the chamber, whereas Dwardazik (Constitution Save 29) actually felt invigorated. Dazki and Theran fled the way that they came in, whereas Marvin panicked and lost the exit. Dazki and Theran came back in and managed to resist the chamber's effects for a time, regrouping with Dwardazik to figure out what was going on.   Dwardazik methodically proceeds to smash some more of the large superheated crystals in the room, each swing spawning a new ghost in the room that he pays no mind to (despite Dazki insisting that he try a different tactic). The ghosts filled the room, and as soon as Theran moved through one, he was overwhelmed by the urge to fight the nearest target(s). This was fine when the nearest targets were some of the ghosts, but then he attacked Dwardazik when the dwarf came to try to see what was going on with him.   (Medicine 13) The purple mist is almost pure adrenaline, and the ghosts seem to spread it more somehow, so there's a primal "fight-or-flight" response thing going on here. Dwardazik tries to grab him to carry him out, but Theran, in his panic, uses a "Speed-of-Light Starblink" spell to zip across the way before he can. They eventually chase him out of the room by forcing him to back off as his "Shooty Blam-Blams" are unable to hit Dwardazik enough to push him away, and the effect wears off as they all exit the chamber. In the confusion, Marvin wound up finding a secondary exit and leaving in a different direction than everyone else.   Upon returning, Dazki is the one who panics and starts attacking the others, though Dwardazik uses his Pariah's Shield to take the damage instead of Theran. They eventually find the exit and regroup with Marvin.

Bladder Round

The air is slightly cooler down here, but the air is thick with the smell of ammonia. Marvin activates their scroll of Air Bubble, giving him 24 hours of having a bubble of fresh air around his head.   There are some weird creatures moving around in the liquid, and further around a corner is a large crystalline golem. One of the weird creatures blunders into Marvin, and he uses a Cutting Words to keep it from dragging him down. The crystalline golem yells: "Toll." Dwardazik pulls out a bell and rings it, saying, "it tolls for thee!". It steps closer, and Theran just throws 10 gold at it. Dazki asks it what it wants, pulling out his waterskin. The waterskin seems to be exactly what it wants. Dazki floats above it and pours out the rest onto it, causing it to begin to dissolve. It lets out a "thank you" as it dissolves into the foul liquid below.   They proceed through another narrow tunnel that opens up only slightly to a curvy room that's also filled with fire. There are amoeba-like slugs throughout. The chamber itself doesn't pose too many direct problems, though Marvin does cast Fly on Dwardazik so that they can all get through the ground-based hazards without anyone having to double back around. The way leads around back up.

Cool Your Jets

Dazki and Dwardazik pop another magma pustule without taking much damage, and Theran is the first to see the werewolf illusions in the distance, allowing them to orient themselves somewhat. They go the other way, seeing two more gooey creatures that they avoid stealthily (which Dwardazik, still flying, does by walking along the ceiling).   The hallway opens up to a larger room with two plasmic guardians blocking icy tunnels and rivers — of water much cooler than the ambient temperature — flowing uphill into another one of those large bubbles. The guardians billow out, "Current temperature 12 points above ideal ambient conditions. Travel to vital conditions currently restricted." There is another crystal, which Dwardazik touches. This time, visual illusions Jahdzan and Argon do not appear; instead, just the sound of Jahdzan's voice:

Why must you take him? Why? Oh, why?!

(Medicine 29) This structure is not a well-defined organ, though there is plenty of vasculature nonetheless. Dwardazik finds a small pile of yellow feathers on the ground.   The guardians billow out again, "Parasitic infection not permitted beyond this zone. If you feel lethally uncomfortable, please retreat to the upper levels or kindly die." / "Your presence here is discomforting to the mother body. If this is something you care about, then please leave the lower chambers or kindly die to the heat. Thank you for your cooperation."   Marvin tries just asking the guardians if the party can go through the tunnels that they guard. They respond, "Temperature regulation restricted until foreign bodies agree to leave." Marvin says, "we agree to leave, now may we please go down these tunnels?", (Persuasion 29) which works just fine, and they walk in.

Crystal Clear

The tunnel leads to a refreshingly cool chamber, with fresh snow crunching beneath their feet. A large creature lives in the center, covered in prismatic crystals. It's covered in thin red strands growing from the nearby walls, seemingly tethering it in place. Dazki's immediate thought is to cut the strands and release it so that it can cool down the rest of the zone, but as he gets closer, it tries to lunge at them in anger. It can't get anywhere near them, but it is enough to give them pause. (Insight 22) The creature was avian in nature, but now it's an undead shell of its former self.   Theran uses "Shooty Blam-Blam" to knock the creature back to the other side of its range, enough for Dazki to run to the other side of it and investigate a pile of crystal orbs. (Investigation 22) There are some "flat, key-shaped worms that squirm about" in the pile, which Dazki takes. This angers the bird — now identified as Argon — and it shoots an icy spear at Dazki, missing him. Argon roars, and huge chunks of ice fall near them "as if from the ceiling, though you don't know from exactly where", pushing them out of the way. Theran slams more "Shooty Blam-Blam"s into it while Dazki grabs as many of the cold orbs as he can fit into his pack before running away.   They retreat out the tunnel (Argon cries out in desperation) and Dazki places the orbs that he collected next to various hot-looking pustules around the area.   "Current temperature 8 points above ideal ambient conditions. Travel to vital conditions currently restricted."   One more cry from Argon echoes out into the chamber, followed by a sound of shattering crystals.