Session 84
General Summary
- The trap caused all the air to get sucked out through the Ventilation Room.
- The party decided to split up into two groups to try to find safety: Dazki and Marvin went towards Ventilation; Dwardazik, Grogery, and Kesmet went further north, finding their path blocked by an intricate door and regrouping with the others.
- The ghost of Secretary was in Ventilation and helped solve a puzzle (trivialized by some cleverness from Dazki) that restored the air to the tunnels.
- There was another intricate door leading from Ventilation.
- The door had some sort of souls in it, who demanded that each party member have good intentions before they would be let through.
- Dazki, Kesmet, and Marvin all passed the test, but Dwardazik failed it, triggering a combat encounter. Dazki tried, unsuccessfully, to get Dwardazik to stay his attacks.
- The combat encounter ended when Dwardazik released a held attack that connected with an arrow from Dazki inside of the enemy, triggering some sort of chain reaction or something that made the ghost solidify and fall to the ground.
- Dazki vented about Dwardazik's aggression constantly getting the party into trouble, but Kesmet and Marvin defended Dwardazik's actions in this specific situation, so he dropped it as the party took a short rest to prepare for the fight with Vicra.
- Grogery passed the door's test, and the party entered Vicra's inner sanctum.
- Vicra was conscious, but fiddling with his mask — he seemed to still be preparing himself after his resurrection. The party attacked.
- Vicra started off by using his suppressed "gift" from The Mirage Entity, as before.
- Once he did, Grogery executed the plan to break his attunement from the mask, and Marvin used his magic hand to steal it from him.
- Without his mask to suppress the consequences, Vicra took a full breath, unleashing his full potential in a transformation. Margaret, who had been splitting the damage he had been taking, was killed in the process, but came back as a phoenix-like bird.
- The Flesh Artist knocked Dazki unconscious; Dwardazik revived him with one of Aggromir's healing potions, getting the elf drunk / poisoned.
- The Flesh Artist also knocked Dwardazik unconscious, and the dwarf was killed just before Grogery would have healed him back up.
- Ultimately, Kesmet killed the Flesh Artist with a fire bolt.
- Upon death, the Flesh Artist once again formed into a spectral bird, but black tentacles emerged from the waters below and dismembered it before it could escape
- Grogery resurrected Dwardazik quickly enough to avoid too many lasting consequences.
Full Recap
It'll be a Breeze!
WARNING. METABOLIC CLEANSING PROCEDURES ACTIVATED. PERMITTED METABOLIC INDIVIDUALS ARE ADVISED TO STOP WORK AND TRAVEL TO DESIGNATED AIRLOCK AREAS.Even as the voice says this, wind begins to pick up in the hallways. The party sees a sign up ahead, further down the tunnel, next to a fork. They run towards it, and Dazki checks it out: it is an arrow directing them to the "Ventilation Room", which is where the air seems to be blowing.
Kesmet: Guys, let's split up so we can find safety faster. We'll meet back here at this intersection. Marvin: That sounds like a bad idea! Grogery, as he runs in the direction that the sign does not indicate: I'm going to at least look up this way! Dwardazik: I like that plan, Kesmet! Find something safe, come back here. Dazki, that way! Grogery, I'm with you!Marvin follows Dazki towards "Ventilation", and Kesmet goes with Grogery and Dwardazik up the other way.
Three large stone pillars stand in the Ventilation Room, each with three large grated vents embedded in it. There is also a well-polished metal altar with another purple sphere, swirling with gray smoky dust. The ghost of Secretary is here, too, trying to interact with the orb out of curiosity, but it can only seem to phase through it. Dazki examines it. It's very similar to the purple orb in the previous room that had had the chalk slates scattered throughout, and indeed there are chalk slates here too. The theme of "body and soul", and the focus on the ethereal plane throughout this area, explains the ghost's interest in the orb: it's somehow tied to the ethereal plane, reminiscent of a crystal ball. The orb doesn't seem immediately useful, but the slates do. There is a slate on each pillar and one on the orb's pedestal.
Grogery's group moves further down the tunnel, entering an unlabeled room with a shallow set of stairs leading further out and up to the north. This room has several bookshelves with cloth thrown over them to protect them from dust or debris, like what you would do in a mansion that you don't plan on coming back to any time soon. There is a large table, similar to one in the bureaucratic areas but without any grates or Heads. Instead, it is reminiscent of the workstations that Annu had been using to multitask his research. Somebody has picked up similar study habits.
Dazki takes a piece of chalk out of his pack and tosses it to Marvin as he hurries to examine the various slates. It's hard to tell exactly what was written on the slates; it wasn't written in Common, or in any other language that he understands. Some sort of runic language. He can't tell what alphabet it was written in, but he can discern that all of the slates had the same word written on them, roughly four runes long.
Dazki: Marvin, all these chalk slates had the same word written on them. Write "OPEN" on them with me!They do.
Kesmet: Guys, how much longer do you think we should go before we head back and try to meet up with Dazki and Marvin? Grogery: Not sure there's time! Dwardazik: We didn't find anything. I suggest we to turn back now. If nothing else, we can always backtrack through the base. Kesmet: If I go with Grogery, I can take us both back to that corridor where we said to meet up. We can check up ahead, but I can only take one person. Grogery's a bit faster.Dwardazik runs back, while Kesmet and Grogery check the stairs. Grogery also sends a message to Dazki:
Found some maybe-promising looking stairs, taking them up, no time to go back, you safe?At the top of the stairs is an imposing and intricate door. It is coated in thick, well-polished brass, with silvery runes that float about it. In the very center is a large mirror-like disc tinted purple.
The air is now so thin that the party members can only take one more deep breath before it is completely gone.
Dazki responds to Grogery:
In ventilation room, trying to figure out some runes.Every time Marvin and Dazki write the word "OPEN" on a slate, the letters magically change themselves to say "INCORRECT", and the slate wipes itself clean. The ghost of Secretary isn't saying anything, just messing with the orb, trying to interact with it. Dazki, having temporarily run out of any other immediate ideas for what to do with the slates, just sits down to brute force the puzzle, trying to get different parts of the different runes. Marvin doesn't know any better than Dazki and just tries different words: "REVERSE". Also incorrect. "CLOSE", also incorrect. Dazki does surprisingly well: he recognizes a few letters in Abyssal, even though he doesn't speak the language. He is able to work out what three of the four runes stand for, but the fourth eludes him. Secretary does start to get more and more excited as he puts in the letter, and he stares into the orb to see if Dazki will get another.
Grogery moves further up to look at the door a bit more: it has two heavy-looking bars wedged firmly that jam the door, locking it in place. He can even see his face in the polished mirror. Grogery (silently) asks Kesmet to try opening it and investigates it at a short distance. Kesmet (silently) responds by indicating that they probably aren't getting any further by themselves, and he's ready to teleport them to the rendezvous point. Grogery agrees, and they teleport back, narrowly missing Dwardazik; the group is basically back together now.
Dazki touches the orb and is immediately zapped over to the ethereal plane, where he can actually breathe again. He can see all four symbols clearly, including the one that he couldn't figure out.
Dazki: All right! Well, that was... exciting. Good job team! Marvin slumps down with his back against a pillar. Marvin: So, this mask is pointless, then? Grogery: Not necessarily! Vicra's whole curse thing alsoSecretary reacts, repeating "bookcases that were covered". It nods and and leaves in that direction.sucked away our abilitymade it painful to breathe. Marvin: I was suffocating just like you guys were... Dwardazik: Damn, what'd you do, Dazki? How'd you figure this out? Marvin: I dunno, Dazki knows Abyssal, apparently? Dazki: I don't actually know Abyssal, I've just seen some of it before, enough to remember some of the letters. The rest, I got when I touched the orb and apparently got shunted into a different plane of existence. Marvin: And then, was the ghost talking through you or some shit? Dazki: It wasn't talking through me. Spirits can hear on multiple planes, I think, isn't that right, Grogery? Secretary, condescendingly: Isn't that right, Grogery? Grogery: I think so? Dazki: So I think that's where I was sent, and then the ghost was able to hear me and communicate my message. Grogery: Thank you, good Secretary. Secretary: You can't even read! Dazki: You're right, we can't read that language. Thank you for your help. So what did you guys find? Grogery: A door. Too complicated to figure out how to open when we were trying not to suffocate. Dwardazik: That tunnel to the north led to a room with an altar or something, and some bookcases that were covered. I ran back after that.
Dazki: Well, if we were hoping for the element of surprise, we definitely just lost it. Grogery: Considering that there are five murderous people disrupting the area downstairs, I think we already lost it. Dazki: Now he knows roughly where we are, instead of hopefully not having that much information. Well, I guess we should see what's up with that door... Grogery: The color of this orb thing is very similar to the color we saw on the door. Kesmet, what did you see up there? Kesmet: Same thing we saw further up: big ornate door with swirling watery symbols and a purple shield mirror thing. Dwardazik: That doesn't seem like a normal door... Dazki, with a sigh: Nope. Why would anyone use a normal door? Kesmet: To allow for easy passage between two rooms. Dwardazik: Well. Is there anything we need to do? You said there was a door up there and an identical door over here. They probably lead to the same place, then. Do you want to maybe investigate those bookcases and that other altar in that other area? Kesmet: If the spooky dude that regenerates knows we're here, then I think we should kinda hurry. This door over here is kinda where that weird ghost lady was pulled. Maybe we should hightail it to there. Dazki: I agree with that completely. Grogery: It's not like this base is going to self-destruct after we take down Vicra. He dies all the time, and this place doesn't collapse.Dazki approaches the door.
The Door Can See Into Your Soul
You can see yourself in the big purple polished mirror. Your face and everything; "you know, it's a mirror". But as you approach the door, the quicksilver runes rearrange themselves to fill in the rest of your body below the mirror. Dazki investigates. As you investigate, the quicksilver runes that fill in the rest of the body, they mimic your movements a little bit before beckoning your attention back towards the mirror. Obviously magical, obviously "soul stuff". As other members appear in the mirror, they also get little bodies drawn on the mirror. Written in quicksilver in a semicircle along the top is a poem:When shown enmity, I'll cut and crack,Dazki thinks on this a moment... what would need to be protected by such an intricate door, vastly superior to all the rest?
But give me a smile, and I'll smile back.
Dazki: Clearly, this is his inner sanctum. Marvin: Obviously, there's lingering spirits around here. Hell, those spirits wanted to attack me just because I'm wearing The Mask of the Wasted Breath. Probably something to do with that?Marvin steps closer to look at himself in the mirror, striking suggestive poses. His mirror self winks back at him, even though he didn't wink at it. Dwardazik muscles in right behind him, "let's see what a TRUE hero looks like!". It looks normal, though for a split second, he can see a root system of pure black running down the side of his face. Kesmet steps in, seeing just himself, normally. "I don't see what that guy was so freaked out about". He waves, and it waves back.
Marvin: So, guys, the clue was "show me enmity and I'll cut and crack". Don't we want it to cut and crack? Break down, so we can go in? Kesmet: Too obvious... Dazki: Interesting...Marvin stands in front of the mirror and punches himself in the head, where his mask is. He hits himself, but his mirror counterpart dodges its own punch and starts snickering at him. He punches himself in the gut next, his mirror self missing again.
Dazki, addressing the mirror with a smile: Hi! Can you please open for me? ikzaD, speaking by vibrating the metal door: What is your intent here? Dazki: My intent is to save lives and protect people from Turmoil.ikzaD bows to him, and some of the runes swirl around to form a handprint of quicksilver on the outside. Dazki puts his hand there.
ikzaD: And what of the rest? Kesmet, approaching with an extremely forced smile: Hey there, good lookin'! My intention is to gather as much info about Dennis as I can!Another handprint appears on the other side, the identical height.
Marvin, approaching and leaning against the rock with an elbow on it: Hey sexy, when are you gonna let me in there? nivraM: Whaddaya wanna do once you get in there? Marvin: You know what I want, you fiery sexy redhead you! nivraM: I really don't! Marvin: I'm here to get my doctor's checkup. He wanted me here, I'm here! nivraM: Well, that makes perfect sense to me.nivraM starts touching himself all over, now trying to seduce the real Marvin. At one point it puts its hand against the mirror, longingly, Marvin meeting it with his own hand. nivraM goes in for a kiss, but Marvin backs off ("whoa, you gotta take me out to dinner first"). A handprint shows up against the door.
Dwardazik: So wait, do we have to do somethin' weird to get a handprint over here? Grogery: Yeah, you have to smile and ask to be let in. Dwardazik: All right... is it my turn, I guess? Grogery: Well, I have to still, but I think I can get in. Dwardazik, approaching the mirror with the most forced smile yet: ...let me in. kizadrawD: ...why would I do that? Dwardazik: 'cause I said so. kizadrawD: Well, like, what are you gonna do when you get in there? Dwardazik: I'm gonna be inside. Duh. You're not stupid, you're me. kizadrawD folds his arms "grouchily" at Dwardazik, who returns the gesture. Dwardazik: If you're still alive at the end of this, I'll buy you a round.A quicksilver handprint shows up for Dwardazik as well. Dwardazik places his hand on the handprint like the others have done. A hand reaches through from the other side to meet his, and it grows terrible-looking claws. It grabs his hand and squeezes hard, then kizadrawD claws itself out of the mirror. It's hostile.
Combat Summary
- Even though the kizadrawD entity had initiated combat, Dazki implored the group, especially Dwardazik, not to attack, holding himself back as well. Grogery also initially refused to act aggressively towards the entity.
- The other three took hostile actions against the ghost right away, which the ghost responded to with hostility of its own. Grogery and Dazki figured that they had no choice but to respond in kind.
- Dazki shoots an arrow, and right as the arrow is about to connect, Dwardazik lets out a held attack that connects with the arrowhead inside the ghost, forming a sort of branching, solidified lightning that turns the ghostly form into a root-like assemblage of a metal vein in the shape of a dwarf, clanging to the ground.
Aftermath
Dwardazik, looking to Dazki: "Don't attack", huh? He falls to the ground, exhausted. How come I'm the only one who has to fight myself? Dazki: 'cause you're the only one who's an aggressive asshole! Dwardazik: I still kicked its ass! Marvin: I dunno, that's kind of aggro, yelling at him like that, Dazki. I don't think that's what he needs right now. Dazki: At this point, I don't give a fuck if that's "what he needs"... what he needs is to hear the truth: you, Dwardazik, and your aggression, have been causing us nothing but fucking problems! Get it together, man! Marvin: To be fair. That thing did attack him first. Dwardazik: Yeah, that was self-defense! I even said I'd buy it a round! I didn't know it was gonna do that! I mean, Marvin's over here makin' out with the door, and I'm just assuming it'll work. I figured it would know what I was thinkin'! Dazki: Clearly, it did. Dwardazik: So, what, it's not like there's any kind of rules to this. What am I supposed to do, kiss the mirror? Is that what we were supposed to do? Dazki: "Give me a smile, and I'll smile back." It asked what your intentions were. Dwardazik: I wanted to go in! Dazki: Were you honest and friendly about your intentions? Did you at least give positive intentions? Or were you your normal gruff self? Dwardazik: Well, I was my normal gruff self. Because I'm normal. Dazki: Give a smile. Use that head of yours, if it's not too full of rocks. Kesmet: To be fair. I also attacked the thing. You know, I thought we had to kill it. I didn't back off. My bad. Dwardazik: Well, excuse me for not being the expert on occult items. Dazki: Just read! I know you're capable of that. I know you're a good enough and smart enough person to do that. Live up to what you can be. Marvin: I hear you, Dazki, but with this situation, we don't know how many times you have to get hit before the ghost just stops attacking him. Dazki: *sigh*. Fair. Dwardazik: So, I messed up, OK? I'm not really good at this thing, OK? I've got cuts and damage all across my body right now. I need to take a moment. Dazki: All right, I've said what I need to say. Grogery: So, while on the topic of taking a moment, it seems that more than a few of us are pretty roughed up. I have some spells. It would be best to save them for the fight, but we all are pretty roughed up. Dazki: Let's take a breather, formulate a plan, go from there. Dwardazik: We got any potions? We can just use those. Kesmet: I'm not a candy shop. I've given out most of mine. Dazki: At this point, he knows we're coming. Another hour's not going to make or break it. We have some time, we'll take a breather. Marvin: What about the ventilation system? Dazki: We'll stay in that room. If anything happens, we'll be right there to fix it.They copy down the symbols onto a sheet of paper while the symbols are still (relatively) fresh in their minds, and then they begin a short rest. During the rest, they discuss a bit of strategy.
Dazki: So, while we're fighting this guy, we need to make sure that we protect Kesmet and Grogery. Kesmet, because he can actually deal damage to him and hurt him to make him use that breath thing that he does. Grogery, so that he can remove the curse on that mask as soon as he does. Marvin: I should be immune to that breath thing that he does, because I also have one of those masks on? Dazki: Yeah. Marvin: So I can get in close with this Pyroconverger here. Kesmet: I could make myself and one other person very strongly invisible. Marvin: Since you and Grogery would benefit from that the most, I say you two should go for that.They discuss strategy a bit more. At the end of the short rest, Marvin pumps everybody up with a motivating speech:
Marvin: Guys. We've killed him once before, we can fuckin' do it again, all right? We've come way too goddamn far to let this guy roam about and hurt more innocent people. We're gonna go in there, and we're gonna come out fuckin' HEROES. Now who's in? Dwardazik: We can do this, damnit! I've had enough of this guy's trickery.They return to the door, the four handprints still prominently shown. Grogery understands and walks up to the door.
Grogery: Hello, Mr. Me-in-the-Door! yregorG waves back, displaying a toothy goblin grin. Grogery: I think I saw you in the other door as well! Mind letting me through? yregorG: Well, what do you want to do in there, buddy? Grogery: Same as a lot of people here. Protect people, make sure they don't get hurt. At the end of the day, sometimes people go too far in the wrong direction. Not through any fault of their own, but because they need a better light to guide them. I want to help be that. Marvin steps in to help: Hey, come on door, cut him some slack. I know he's boring, but he's a cleric. What do you expect?yregorG falls asleep, drooling from his mouth beyond the edges of the mirror (where the quicksilver runes move to continue the path). A handprint for Grogery does appear, which Grogery meets with his hand. Once all five party members place their hands on their respective handprints, there are clinking noises as the bars locking the door retract. The door opens with a hiss: the air pressure is different on the other side.
Airing Grievances
As the door opens, you smell a chemically sweet, almost acidic smell. You hear flows of burbling water, like from a large fountain. Indeed, in the center is a large pool. Though much of the chamber is interesting (there's an area walled off by a curtain, ragmen attend to various alchemical or otherwise magical stations on the sides), none of that seems meaningful compared to what is in the center. In the center of the room is a large glowing fountain of a light blue water-like substance surrounded by four large "canisters" built of metal and stone. In the center is a somewhat familiar individual, without his garb. He is very gaunt, with long matted black hair. Clearly elven, though poorly fed. He has something like a black day robe. Currently, he stands halfway in the liquid of the pool in the center. He has a mask on, fiddling with it with a large ivory bone needle, modifying it by adding various runes to it; clearly, he is not ready to see you yet.Dwardazik: I say we go in there and start breakin' stuff! Kesmet: Oh. They did say it would be 23 hours until he was ready to see us... not that much time until he would be alive. Grogery: Fair. Marvin: Guys, if you're gonna try to do some invisibility, do it. Then the rest of us will try to sneak in and get some cover. Dazki: Sounds good to me.Kesmet casts Greater Invisibility on himself and Grogery.
Dwardazik: Should I maybe hang back for a signal or something? You know, my track record of fucking everything up. Dazki: Count to twenty. Dwardazik: I can do that.The party takes position in the room somewhat near the door. Grogery gets a bit close; even though he's invisible, he makes enough noise to alert Vicra. Vicra cranes his head around, holding onto his mask as he does so. He does not see Grogery, but he does see Dazki and lock eyes with him. As they lock eyes, Dazki sees an angry rage bubble up in Vicra.
Combat Summary: Phase 1
During the first phase of the fight, Vicra seemed to be somewhat holding back, suppressing his more powerful abilities, to avoid consequences of his deal with The Mirage Entity.- At the beginning, Vicra cast his Curse of the Breathless arcanum (suppressed by the mask). When this would get re-cast a second time, those who were already affected would lose breath points on a failed save.
- Vicra did not seem to be taking full damage from attacks, as if the damage was being split between himself and something else.
- Moving out of a Cloudkill aura, Dazki found Margaret in a side chamber, behind a curtain. He tried to shake her out of what she was doing, but to no avail. Once she was in sight, Dazki noticed that she would take some damage whenever Vicra would, explaining why Vicra seemed to take less damage even from Kesmet's unresistable fire-based attacks.
- Dwardazik used nearly all the charges of the Chromatic Wand of Magic Missiles that was "recovered" from Baxton to do a huge chunk of damage, causing Vicra to lose concentration on his Cloudkill. This created an opening for Grogery to cast Remove Curse, breaking his attunement to the mask and worrying him far more than any of the incoming damage so far.
- Once his attunement to the mask was broken, Vicra started holding onto the mask for dear life and retreated to his pool.
- Marvin used his magic giant hand to steal the mask from Vicra, revealing his misshapen face:
Combat Summary: Phase 2
With his mask removed, the Flesh Artist unleashed some sort of ability that transformed him into a truly terrifying creature, parts of his body ripping apart and wind whipping around him. The wind forms a familiar spiral pattern in the pool of "water" that he is now floating just above. This transformation damages him, enough to kill Margaret.
- Dwardazik charged after Vicra into the pool, making a leaping attack but missing. He fell prone into the pool and disturbed a strange creature in the pool, called a "Heron Man". When he started his turn in this same pool, he took some damage and Vicra healed a little.
- The Flesh Artist lashed out at Grogery with a claw attack that seemed to linger on his face.
- Dazki charged up his Bloodspine with a gigantic blood arrow and used it to attack Margaret's bird form. She would still split the damage with Vicra. He finally decided to yell out to the others to let them know what the situation was.
- The Flesh Artist used Sculptor of Flesh to cast Polymorph, turning Marvin into a mule.
- Grogery did a safety heal on Marvin, Kesmet, and himself, which drew the attention of several Heron Men from the pool, running at Grogery's direction and making bird noises.
- Dazki was the first to go unconscious, revealing a disturbing fact: being unconscious means that you breathe automatically, so every round that passes while unconscious is an automatic death save failure.
- Margaret flew through Dwardazik, casting a powerful Finger of Death on him as she did so. This triggered a Turmoil event, which stunned her, preventing further movement.
- Dwardazik used one of Aggromir's healing potions to revive Dazki, who became poisoned (and drunk) for a while.
- Dwardazik did actually die from taking a breath while unconscious, though Grogery would bring him back after combat was over.
- Dazki released the last bit of holy water in his scabbard and tossed it into the healing pool that the Flesh Artist was standing in, causing it to change colors. It's not clear what this would have done, because:
- Kesmet finish off the Flesh Artist with a fireball, followed by a quickened fire bolt.
