Session 85

General Summary

• Dwardazik had a vision of Amber Falls and an unusual beardling before he was resurrected.
• With Vicra dead, Margaret died again, before the party could disable the soul beacon.
• The party sent the hummingbird out to W.E.I.R.D. with a message telling them what had been done and requesting help rescuing Vicra's prisoners.
• While investigating the Reading Room, Grogery stumbled upon an unlabeled map of Exignis with territories highlighted in different colors, each marked with a black spot inside of it. The territories are all set up to give Phoenix Landing a wide berth.
• The room with the centaur was being used to create another one of Vicra's Masterpieces. Grogery also discovered what the purple orb in that room was doing: it contained several souls that were being slowly drained to power the magical effects within the base.
• "Stasis and Recovery" had the mangled, barely-alive body of Dowzz, the woman whose form and memories were stolen by the Oblex. Dwardazik put her out of her misery.
• The party returned to Vicra's chamber and "recovered" several magic items around, including what look like some attempts to fix Margaret's condition using alternate means.
• Further up, the party "recovered" the gem-encrusted bowl and began to rescue prisoners.
• Before long, they met back up with the elf victim from before, the one with the damaged leg.
• He was threatening a cultist for information about Dowzz, whom he had adopted long before coming here. The party told him what had happened to her.
• At the party's request, he promised to help rescue Vicra's remaining prisoners and get them to (relative) safety for when the cavalry arrives.
• The party moved further up, reuniting with "Barf" at the first floor of the dungeon, at the bottom of the mound that they had dropped down what had honestly felt like over three months ago.

Full Recap

Amber Falls, As the Dwarf Falls

You walk along familiar stone streets, watched over by a complex of towering, rigid stone apartment complexes built into the mountain halls. Canals of cold spring water, running the length of various alleyways and trade hubs. This is Amber Falls, all right. But not the way you remember. Everything is dim. Gray. Silent. As if all life and color had been drained from the space. No dinging of forges, no tradesmen peddling wares, no crashing of water. Nothing.   As you reach an intersection, there is a being that doesn't seem to quite fit into the space: a small beardling — lost, hopeless — looks around down the various paths, overwhelmed and scared. Something about it seems... off. Whereas everything else around here is grayscale, the beardling seems almost outlined in an iridescent, black, oil-like light that drips and flickers off of it like wax melting in a flame.   Dwardazik approaches it. "Hey, little lad, what's going on here?"   The beardling turns to you, hearing the voice of another entity existing in this otherwise lonely space. As it does so, the strangeness of the entity becomes more apparent to you, its skin more like a clay doll than an actual fleshy dwarf. Its hollow, scared eyes meet yours, and you can see into them as if they were merely a soapy film covering a clay pot full of infinite, worm-filled space. It looks to you for hope, its fanged jaw quivering and about to cry from desperation — or despair.

Beardling: "...m-m-mother?"   Dwardazik: By the stone! What's going on here? Are you all right?   Dwardazik looks around for anyone trying to play a trick on him, seeing nothing. He approaches, shield out.   Dwardazik: Lad, can you hear me?   Beardling: It's so c-cold here... m-m-mother?   Dwardazik: You have a name? Are you all right?

The beardling reaches out a hand to Dwardazik, who looks more closely at the creature. It begins to cry and rushes at Dwardazik. Dwardazik prepares to accept it, reaching out a hand; the moment he does so, it falls to the floor. Dwardazik feels a sharp ache in his jaw, neck, and chest. As it collapses to the ground, Dwardazik is pulled back from the brink: Grogery has revived him.  

At Plague's End

Dwardazik takes a moment to catch his breath as he awakens with the party standing around near him, exhausted.

Dwardazik: Is he dead?   Marvin: Super dead.   Dazki: Yeah, Kesmet got 'im.   Kesmet: I shot 'im, right in the ear.   Marvin: I saw the whole thing, man. I was right in front of him. That was one hell of a show.   Dwardazik: I don't think I can move.   Dazki: Dwardazik... I'm sorry. I've been kind of a shitty friend lately. I'm worried about you, you seem angrier than usual, and... I'm worried, 'cause... you're angrier, and... wanted to kill people, and stuff like that. And you didn't with Wendi, or the gnolls, or anything else like that, so... I'm just worried, man. I don't actually think you're a bad person. And I'm sorry if I'm being a jackass about it.   Kesmet: Dazki. It's OK. You're a little drunk.   Dwardazik: I understand. But... we won! It's over, right?   Dazki: This leg of it. There's more, I'm sure.   Grogery: The hard part is over.   Dazki: It never ends.   Dwardazik: Don't mind me, I'm just gonna lie here for a couple minutes.   Marvin: That sounds fine.

Dazki begins to walk over to find his gun, but the party is interrupted by the haggard coughing of Margaret. Dazki runs behind the curtain, calling Grogery over as well. The rest make their way over there too. Kesmet instinctively gives her a health potion.

Marvin: Seriously, Kesmet, is a potion even going to do anything at this point?   Grogery: If Vicra wasn't able to do anything before all of this happened, I don't think there much we can do.   Dwardazik: Just put her out of her misery. Let this tragedy be done with. Let her soul rest.

Margaret's situation is known to be complicated: if she dies, her ghost might not necessarily leave. But Vicra gave his breath to her, and now Vicra is dead. Whatever ailment was going to kill her the first time (which Grogery witnessed earlier) is certainly going to kill her now, without a miraculous feat. Grogery gets on his knees and sends a prayer to Pelor, but no response comes.

Grogery: If we don't do something about that soul beacon that's keeping everybody's souls trapped here, she might not actually be able to find her peace.   Marvin: How did she even come back, to begin with?   Grogery: When he dies, she lives. Their lives were twined together.   Marvin: Is there much we can do for her, then?   Grogery: I don't think there's anything we can do to save her, but I think we can let her pass on peacefully.   Marvin: Yeah, what about that soul beacon thing?   Grogery: We're gonna have to do that before she dies.   Kesmet: What if we put her hand on that thing that Dazki touched?   Dazki: I don't see how going to the Etherial Plane would help.   Kesmet: You can't die while you're in the Etherial Plane, right? That's the thing?   Dazki: No. That's not a thing.   Dwardazik: Look. Grogery, I understand that you always want to heal people, but I think we're all in agreement that, whatever we do, this woman deserves some peace in the afterlife. That should be our goal.   Grogery: ...yes. That is my intended goal. But she can't have that unless we fix that soul beacon problem, and do it quickly, because I honestly don't know how much longer she has.   Dwardazik: Then let's go do that! Where's the soul beacon, again?   Grogery: All the way upstairs.   Marvin: That's pretty far. I can't get us any faster with Dimension Door, I'm all out.   Kesmet: I have one Dimension Door left. I can take somebody up there.   Dwardazik: What even is in this room?   Dazki: There's that healing pool that I fucked up...   Dwardazik goes to look at the ragmen around the room.   Grogery: Hey Dazki, you know the most about magical effects and things of that nature? Maybe Kesmet can take you up to the soul beacon, and the rest of us can catch up with you up there?   Dazki: We can try, but after that fight and the potion, I'm not exactly a lot of help...   Grogery: Yeah, you are looking a bit unsteady... I can try to go?   Dazki: O-or, well, the beacon is full, right? So if we destroy the beacon, even after she becomes a ghost, her soul should be able to leave, right?   Grogery: I think we need a second look at this beacon, either way.   Dazki: It's spirit stuff. You'd be the best with that.   Grogery puts a hand on Margaret's shoulder.   Grogery (in Elven): It's going to be OK.   Dazki: Grogery, you probably shouldn't lie to people.   Grogery: What do you mean? I didn't say it was going to be good...   Kesmet interrupts and teleports them both to the beacon.   Dazki: All right, Marvin, let's grab Dwardazik and get walking, I guess.   Marvin: Man, I'm going to have to try to shoulder you two?!   Dwardazik: Should we destroy these ragmen?   Dazki: At this point, I don't think it matters. They're not doing anything.   Marvin: If it'll make you feel better.

Dwardazik wants to look around the room a bit more, but Dazki reminds him that they'll be back later to examine the room more fully. Dwardazik chugs his last Aggromir's healing potion and starts walking with them.

Overcooked Beacon

Grogery: Kesmet, last time we were here, you seemed to make a huge breakthrough while looking at this?   Kesmet: Yeah, but I've since lost it. You think we should just shoot it?   Grogery: Let me take a look at it...

The souls in the beacon are definitely trapped inside. Any additional souls are pulled here, almost magnetically, drawn by the sheer number of souls in the beacon. They won't be able to leave here of their own volition. If the souls were not in the beacon, and the beacon were destroyed, the souls could leave. Maybe not the ones in the beacon.   The beacon is a powerful magical contraption. Interestingly, since the souls are attracted to the beacon, then should the beacon be moved, the souls would be dragged towards it. How to get the souls out of the beacon, though? What would happen if you were to destroy the beacon with the souls still inside? Well, it wouldn't be great for the souls inside. If there were a sufficiently powerful way of removing the enchantments on the device, you might be able to get the souls out intact. But any souls floating around here are definitely going to be attracted to this beacon, regardless of where the beacon goes. If you want to move the souls, just move the beacon.

Kesmet: So, if we let her die, her soul's just going to be around here. Then if we find a way to turn the beacon off and let the souls inside escape or whatever, then her soul will eventually go to the afterlife or something, right? So if we just relax —   Grogery: Well, we can literally move this and take it somewhere else, to somebody who might be able to take the enchantment off and let the souls get out OK.   Kesmet: OK. Counterpoint. What happens if we take this with us to whoever it is who can break the enchantment? Wouldn't this attract more souls of people dying? Wherever we move it, it would cause the same problem?   Grogery: That is true... we could move the beacon out into the middle of some uninhabited area, and then she'll be fine.   Kesmet: What about all the souls from animals who die?   Grogery: There's a difference between a person and an animal.   Kesmet: Either way, disabling this now or later, it's going to have the same effect, right?   Grogery: Not necessarily. Her ghost being back here means that we need to get the ghost to —   Kesmet: OK. Grogery. Do you think there's any chance a Dispel Magic will work?   Grogery: I don't give it high odds, personally. Seems more like a magic item than a magical effect.   Kesmet: Let's give it a shot anyway!   He tries. Nothing seems to happen.   Kesmet: Well, I tried.   Grogery: I think we're going to have to take the beacon with us. We'd have to move it pretty far away, pretty quickly, for her not to get trapped into it when she dies.

They decide to regroup back with the rest of the party, taking the long walking route back. They get into the Waiting Room, and move their way down the stairs to the offices, without incident.   In the offices, on their walk back, they notice that all the Heads are malfunctioning and the Beholder (Head of Heads) is gone, but they otherwise regroup with the rest of the party without anything interesting happening.

A Call for Support

Dwardazik: So, you're sending out a message to W.E.I.R.D.?   Dazki: Yeah.   Dwardazik: Probably a good idea.   Dazki: We need people and help and... all that stuff.   Marvin: I want to proofread the message, but I imagine they're going to be happy that this whole problem has been taken care of.   Dazki: The message is this:   25 miles (the direction) of base. Need help with transport of Vicra's prisoners. Vicra, wife, and cult mostly dead. Use incense.   Marvin approves the message, Dazki winds up the bird, and it whizzes off.   Dazki: OK. Message is being sent. Hopefully, they get it.   Grogery: They can send a response if they do.   Marvin: What about your buddy? Your pal? Big ol' Annu?   Grogery: We need to use the cellstone. Normal Sending can't get through, and I have no magic left besides. I can't use his thing until tomorrow.   Marvin: All right.   Dazki: You guys said you found a room with a bunch of stuff covered up?   Grogery: Yeah, looked like a bit of a library.   Dwardazik: Had a bunch of bookcases and stuff. To the north here.   Dazki: Sounds like a good place to start, books are always good.   Marvin: Book good, Dazki. Book good.   Grogery: Books are typically good.   Dazki: OK, I know I'm a little out of it, but stop patronizing me.

Yes, Book Good. Book Very Good.

They go to the room. The ghost of Secretary is still there.

---

Dazki takes a spot at the table, distraught and out of it.

---

Dwardazik pulls the covers off and starts looking for books on Turmoil.

Dazki: You know what, guys? We should just look for some powerful magic user that lost someone they loved. That was Vicra and Baxton, and the next one will probably be the same fuckin' thing.   Grogery: The Turmoil probably wants someone who's capable of using magic so that it's capable of using their power more effectively. Gets people who lost someone they've loved (or is about to) so it has leverage over them.   Dazki: It fuckin' killed the woman Baxton loved, it fuckin' killed Margaret.   Dwardazik: Wait, what? Baxton?   Dazki: Yeah, that's why he had the book and the hairpin. He lost some woman that he loved, to Turmoil bullshit. I feel dumb for not figuring it out sooner. It was pretty fuckin' obvious once you ask the right questions — am I cursing a lot? I think I'm cursing a lot.   Marvin: Welcome to the club.   Grogery: There are a lot of powerful magic users out there, and a lot of lost loved ones. Can't be literally every single powerful magic user who lost someone they loved. Some people probably didn't take the bait.   Marvin: So you're saying, he lost a loved one because of Turmoil, and then decided to start using Turmoil?   Dazki: No, regular magic couldn't fix it. Science couldn't fix it. Nothing could fix it. Turmoil promises you can fix that stuff, even if it's not really fixable.   Marvin: Turmoil can... speak?   Dazki: This book about Turmoil myths and legends and shit like that. It's like Grogery's, it's a holy book... kind-of. To their fucked-up religion.   Dwardazik: What language is it in?   Dazki: It's all encoded. That's why Baxton made sure we had those scrolls for a while. They were the key to decoding the book. I have it translated, but it doesn't make a lot of fuckin' sense. You gotta read it over a few times before you can figure it out.   Dwardazik: Could I take a look at it?   Dazki: Yeah, here. Just make sure to give it back. The thing about this book is, you have to study it for 4 hours, then make an Inteligence check. If you succeed at the Intelligence check, then you can get the information from the book. And it's a pretty high Intelligence check, DC 15. I fail about two-thirds of them. (Editor's note: it's not DC 15; please refer to the SSOT for the correct information)   Dwardazik: Uhh... are you all right there? You're not speakin' much sense. I don't know if we have four hours to sit here, though.

Underneath the covers of one, there are books and alchemical supplies, primarily gross anatomy and things like that. Information on Turmoil is very difficult to come across — it's not typically studied. Dazki's book is, in fact, the most interesting book on that. Underneath the other is another heron man in a cage.

---

Grogery is looking for the next lead.   It's frustrating trying to find correspondences. One is a letter that Vicra would have sent to Margaret while he was out on his travels, reassuring her that he was OK, checking in from time to time. The other is an unlabeled map.

Marvin: Whoa, is this a map of Turmoil activity?   Dazki: No, this is a map of the six... body parts... or whatever weird thing...   Grogery: It's a map of the territories.   Dwardazik: I find it funny that it's all within the territory.   Grogery: That purple one swoops outside. Is it out in The Phantasmagoria?   Dazki: Probably. Remember those legends we found, of the people out there working with Turmoil? So it makes sense.   Marvin: Well, Baxton was in Ashport. Vicra's operating out in the red... what are the dark spots?   Grogery: Is that dark spot in the red just... right where we are now?   Dwardazik: I believe so. Remember how we followed the coast coming up?   Dazki: Yeah, just like how the dark spot in blue is Ashport. Those places are the bases of operation.   Marvin: I think we just found exactly where these avatars of Turmoil are...   Dwardazik: I have to agree. This might be the most important find we've ever found!   Dazki, sarcastically: Hooray, we get to kill more people. Fuckin' wonderful.   Dwardazik: Nothing's to say we can't give this to Annu and have the Firelords deal with this.   Dazki, sarcastically: Hooray, more people get to be murdered. Excuse me for not being clear.   Marvin: Well, didn't you already know that there were these six?   Grogery: Just didn't have any clue where they were, or how far they extended.   Marvin: And the Firelords, are they even onboard? Do they even believe this is even a problem?   Dazki: Nope. Not at all.   Grogery: The aftermath after what happened to Baxton was probably the closest any of the Firelords have gotten to taking any direct action against these people, I would think. They seem to thrive by existing under the radar a little bit.   Dazki: Well, you know, if a cult gets popular, they call it a religion.   Grogery: Yeah... wait, hey!!!   Dwardazik: We have our targets, then.   Grogery: We'll want to reassess once we get back to Ashport.   Dwardazik: We need to be extra careful who finds out about this information. He looks at everyone seriously. The moment that these clever bastards find out that we know where they are, they are going to move. We cannot allow anyone to know that we know this, unless they are extremely trusted.   Grogery: Reasonably, someone who knows about Baxton could find out about Vicra, because they're so close together, and they were spotted together in town. If word gets out that someone took out both, the others might not necessarily think that they're in trouble.   Marvin: What even implies that any of these others would have any idea about what's going on with Baxton and Vicra?   Grogery: I think they coordinate with each other and help each other sometimes, but they generally agree to stay out of each other's way.   Dazki: Baxton said they tend to not deal with each other whenever possible.   Marvin: OK, because before, I don't know why, but I thought these were their own individuals who might not necessarily have anything to do with each other. It sounds like that's not the case.   Grogery: It's like an interesting little club that they're all in.   Marvin: Wonderful. That doesn't make me feel any better.   Grogery: I find it interesting that none of them have made a play for the capital yet.   Dwardazik: Yeah, and die?   Dazki: That's where THE Firelord is. Like, the head guy. He's the one that can actually do stuff about Turmoil. They're probably not powerful enough yet.   Dwardazik: And hopefully, they never will be.   Dazki: The one place where people actually, you know, care about that stuff enough to put effort into it.   Marvin: So why is it that Annu can eliminate, or take care of, the Turmoil influence? What is it that he can do that can actually destroy it?   Dazki: He can access the elemental plane of fire.   Marvin: So what, he just dumps it there like it's a big garbage can?   Dazki: Yep.   Marvin: Oh.   Dazki: Pure elemental fire can destroy this stuff.   Marvin: OK. That's good. I was about to suggest that the Turmoil could just take over that whole plane of existence. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.   Dazki: No, it's like throwing it into a big furnace.   Dwardazik: We've seen it firsthand. Unfortunately, Kesmet can't get hot enough.   Marvin: One day.   Dwardazik passes the book back to Dazki, unable to make anything out of it.   Grogery: So, this is interesting. I definitely think we should do research into these locations when we get back to Ashport, see if there's a very obvious lead we can go into. Or news of something being a significant threat.   Dwardazik: I believe we should feign ignorance, and we should not include W.E.I.R.D. in this. We should talk to them, but I don't think we should tell them that we know where the locations are.   Grogery: Well, we can tell them that we found some information that we might be able to investigate.   Dwardazik: Of course.   Grogery: Without giving any explicit information. Maybe not even to Annu?   Dwardazik: I agree.   Dazki: I don't think we tell anyone about the map. And if we say we found "leads", they're going to ask us what they are, and we don't want to answer that question just yet.   Marvin: Even Annu?   Dwardazik: ESPECIALLY Annu.   Marvin: I'm starting to think you guys don't trust this person.   Dazki: It's not that we don't trust Annu. It's that we don't trust the people around Annu. He's part of a bureaucracy. Bureaucracies suck.   Dwardazik: I would consider Annu... not entirely "free".   Grogery: He barely has any will of his own.   Dwardazik: He's more like a machine.   Dazki: Machines are better. You can't corrupt a machine.   Marvin: That's reassuring, but also frightening.

---

Kesmet looks around for information on Dennis. He finds some information on ex-Hounds Guild members in Overlook, but they're probably all old people.

Dazki: Hey, Kesmet, could you help me with something?   Kesmet: I haven't found anything on Dennis yet, so, what's up?   Dazki: I threw my scabbard into the healing pool. Would you mind using your magic hand thingy to pull it out for me?   Kesmet: All right, I'll go give it a shot.   Dazki: Thank you, man, I appreciate it.

Kesmet and Dazki move to the pool, which has turned into something more of an oil slick. Kesmet dips a dagger into the pool to see what's up with it... it doesn't disintegrate, but now it's covered with oil. He tries to use a shocking grasp to (he thinks) magnetize it and attract the scabbard, but it doesn't help. Otherwise, he can't quite perceive where it went, even when dragging the electrified dagger around across the bottom of the pool. He tosses the dagger aside after failing.

Dazki: It's all right, if you can't find it, we can try again later after we get some rest. I appreciate the help.   Kesmet: I might be able to Fireball the pool. That'll get rid of the water, and then we can pick it up out of there. But I can't do that right now.

They rejoin the rest of the party. Dazki decides to lie down in the reading room to recover while Kesmet looks around for anything Dennis-related, while the rest of the party leaves to explore the room with the centaur.

The Masterpiece Theatre

It has a runic circle of lights around it, and it floats in a sort of stasis.

Marvin: You know, I'm starting to think that it's better if we don't mess with these Masterpiece things.   Dwardazik: Well, I am concerned if we leave them here. We should put their souls to rest at some point.   Marvin: I don't want to touch that barrier.   Dwardazik: I don't either.   Grogery: As E.D. demonstrated, we don't know if they're actually suffering in this state. If they want to die.   Dwardazik: I don't know, it seems like a lot of these Masterpieces have a sort of malice built into their soul. Not saying that they can't get over it, but maybe we can do something for 'em and release them from their prison. Let the soul rest.   Marvin: If W.E.I.R.D. was able to tame E.D., what if we could get a giant beast... ally? Eh?   Grogery: We wouldn't be able to walk it into major cities or whatnot.   Marvin: Just make it look like a horse!   Grogery: ...with what?   Kesmet: ...interesting idea...   Marvin: I'm sure we could come up with some sort of disguise! Come on!   Grogery: Well, what happened with E.D., he was supposed to become a protector for Vicra. Maybe kind-of a guard dog for while he was regenerating, or something. W.E.I.R.D. got in and interrupted what was going on at the last second, so E.D. winded up imprinting on Cal.   Marvin: Honestly, guys, once we feel all better and healed up, we should see if we can get this thing to imprint on us. This might have been the second round, Vicra trying to do the same thing?   Grogery: Again. Doctor Perry now can't go in an urban area, because anytime someone gets too close to her, the thing attacks 'em. Doesn't like urban spaces, draws too much attention.   Marvin: Again... horse costume. I'm tellin' you!   Dwardazik: I don't know, guys. Maybe all of this talk of life and death, the social ramifications of a creature that is almost a monster, I can't handle it. I just say, it probably will terrorize the town, and it probably is in pain. Even if it isn't in pain, who has time to train it? Maybe we just leave all these creatures to W.E.I.R.D. to figure out?   Marvin: That's fair. Hopefully, they'll get that message soon.   Dwardazik: I have a feeling that, regardless of what we want to do, we don't have the time to watch over it and make sure it's done properly.   Grogery: This feels a bit out of my league.

They move up to the large purple orb in the room, and Grogery examines it.   This world you live on, the material plane. It overlaps with others. This is how ghosts appear and disappear, almost like a mirror realm. This orb, full of souls (obviously), it grants a person the ability to temporarily separate their soul from the body. Thus, entering the orb, you can be in the ethereal plane.   Though you are concerned about how the souls got in there, you are even more concerned with why you would need so many? Thinking back to earlier, when you were concerned that the doctor might be a sort of Lich-like entity — which would make sense, given that this is also an entity that regularly utilizes souls — this could be an energy source for something, if you destroy the souls and then use the energy to power things. Like a battery.   In short, this orb here... it holds the concentrations for all the spells that are being maintained in this zone. It does so by slowly draining the energy of the souls trapped inside.

Grogery, disgusted: He claims to have SUCH a respect for people's souls, and yet he destroys them just to power his base?!   Dwardazik: Is that what he's doing?   Grogery: Yeah, I just realized (Grogery explains the above).   Marvin: So, what you're saying is, he's turning people into... batteries?   Grogery: Yes... worse than that. At least if people are forced to do manual labor, then if they're a good person, then they go to a good afterlife when they die. These people are just... gone.   Dwardazik: You know, at one point, I would be utterly disturbed. But this place seems to have...   Marvin: ...like a numbing effect.   Grogery: And he's doing this all just to keep this one lady alive? I'm honestly kinda glad that we got rid of him. I know I shouldn't but —   Dwardazik: Damn straight! He was evil!   Marvin: Just think of what would happen if we didn't?   Dwardazik: Let's go investigate that room to the side, "Stasis and Recovery".

From this point on, as they go through, Dwardazik methodically destroys each ragman they encounter and collects their teleportation vial.

One More for the Road

In "Stasis and Recovery", there is a part of a water Genasi on an altar, most of its head and green hair intact. Below the head, there are vital organs and... that's it. It's alive. Dwardazik turns around and gags.

Dwardazik: Grogery, what... what the hell? Can we kill it? Do some of your things! Unheal it!   Grogery: No magic!   Dwardazik: I said UNheal it!   Grogery: Eugh!!!   Kesmet: Use axe!   Genasi: Is somebody out there?!   Grogery: Yes.   Genasi: I can't feel my legs!   Dwardazik: You can hear us? Can you see?   Genasi: I can't move...   Grogery: You're very badly hurt.   Dwardazik, looking to Grogery before saying: We're gonna help you.   Dwardazik bashes in the Genasi's head.   Grogery: Dwardazik, we might have been able to help her...   Dwardazik: May the earth take you, and may you rest in peace once we clear your soul.   Grogery: Her soul isn't going to rest in peace. It's going to float around here.   Dwardazik: I would rather have my soul destroyed than sit on a table, unable to feel anything, paralyzed.   Marvin: So was that the bitch that tricked us?   Grogery: It was an ooze feeding off her memories or something.   Dwardazik: What's done is done. We will have to have to save these souls somehow.   Marvin: How did she get up here ahead of us?   Grogery: I don't want to have to deal with this stuff anymore! Can't we walk around a corner and see a nice person having an OK time, instead of somebody who's dying or trying to kill people?!?!   Marvin: Grogery. What you did for Dwardazik proves that death doesn't mean much. Sometimes. I mean, obviously, when you're nothing but a bag of flesh it's different, but... death doesn't necessarily mean much!   Grogery: It's not that, it's just... I didn't have to deal with anything like this when I still lived at home.   Dwardazik: It's painful.   Marvin: And I could have lived my whole life not knowing shit about Turmoil, but here we are!   Dwardazik: Do we proceed? Do we go check on our friends?   Grogery: I think we've covered pretty much everyth— I don't think I can handle going into "Recycling" right now.   Dwardazik: I'm too nervous to go around those Heads. They might be hostile.   Grogery: I think we're going to need to take a break, or wait until Dazki sobers up a little bit and then keep going through things.   Dwardazik: I agree. I could use a good old rest.

They discuss next steps for a while, deciding to walk back to the other two. Dazki has sobered up.

Dazki: So, what did you find?   Grogery: You know that purple orb next to the centaur thing that we looked into a little bit before we had to move on?   Dazki: OK.   Marvin: It's a soul squeezer! It sucks the soul juice out of your soul.   Grogery: Besides just using souls to run his whole beacon, he's also using it for general magical energy throughout this base. He's eating people's souls just to keep this place running.   Marvin: It just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it?   Dazki: ...wonderful.   Marvin: Oh, we also found that backstabbing bitch too. That water Genasi. The one who said "oh, help me but don't help me!".   Dazki: What do you mean you found her? I thought we killed that horrible grotesque imagery of her?   Marvin: Well, apparently she wasn't dead, but Dwardazik put her out of her misery. She was basically just a pile of tubes on an operating table.   Dazki: So, in other words, you killed someone who had their form stolen by a shapeshifting ooze and was being operated on?   Marvin: There wasn't much left of her.   Dwardazik: It was the most disturbing thing I'd seen in a while. It was like a living head.   Dazki: So what's the plan, then?   Grogery: We're all exhausted and can't do much more before sleeping, but you know how brains work (you can't just sleep when you want), so the plan was to just grab whatever we could, stow whatever we can, pack up anything (go get that bowl!), talk to the people upstairs, make sure that people who are mobile are ready to travel, do whatever first aid we want to do on people, and just wait for W.E.I.R.D. to send their message back, with the plan of just getting everything packed up and ready to go for tomorrow morning.   Dwardazik: Our first task: we must make sure that we've recovered everything necessary from the Flesh Artist's room.   Dazki, pulling out the Wand of Detect Magic: And we can see if he had any nice trinkets with this.

They move into Vicra's room.

All Aboot Loot

Dazki looks around the room and takes note of what's around the room to look into more. Editor's note: I'm going to skip the initial descriptions since we get their details later, so this is going to read a little out-of-order. Also, as usual, don't rely on this page for all the descriptions of the loot that was in here.

Grogery: The rings remind me of a spell I know of.   Dazki: It's probably what allowed them to share their injuries and life force back and forth.   Dwardazik: Do you think it's cursed? Or could it be useful?   Dazki: Uh... ... yes.

 

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Marvin identifies the book:

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Kesmet identifies the lungs. They are broken / incomplete versions of:

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Dazki identifies Margaret's necklace:

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Grogery identifies the rings:

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Dwardazik identifies the shard:

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Marvin realizes that he also has a shield. Another hour of identifying happens, as he gives it to Dazki, who identifies it:

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Items identified (and somewhat distributed), the party heads back upstairs to the second floor, intending to rescue and tend to the prisoners.

One Level Up

In the waiting room, the party is quickly reminded of the jewel-encrusted bowl.

Dazki: I have my tools, I can attempt to jam the mechanism.   Grogery: You are not in a good way right now. If something goes wrong, there's nothing I can do.   Dazki: I can dodge.   Dwardazik: Do we really want to take such risks?   Kesmet: Before you do, let's pump you full of healing potions! How many do we —   Dazki: No, no. Don't pump me full. If I fall down, then get me one afterwards.   Dwardazik: Don't you know how much that hurts?   Dazki: Yeah. It hurts like a bitch.   Dazki disables the trap. He takes the bowl and brings it back to the rest of the party, cowering 30 feet away.   Dazki: Here, Grogery. I think you said you potentially needed this for some magic?   Grogery: Yes, higher-level stuff. The kind of thing that is really good for (he explains Heroes' Feast).   Dwardazik: That was a pretty clever use of your tools, there. I could've sworn it was gonna blow up.   Dazki: Thank you, I appreciate it.

They begin to rescue some of the prisoners and take them to the main entrance room on this floor, but this time, it's not empty.   The old elven figure from before, with the rotten leg, has an unmasked cultist pinned to the wall. He is currently very aggressively asking it questions, holding a sharpened iron rod to the cultist.

Elf Victim: What did you do with her?!   Cultist: I don't even know what you're talking about!   Dazki: Hey, what's going on?   Elf Victim: None of your business. Stay out of it.   Dazki: There's other prisoners here. If you're looking for someone, maybe we can find them.   Elf Victim: I already know she's not down there. This fucker probably did something with her.   Dazki: Who's "she"?   Elf Victim: I don't gotta answer nothing to you. Have you seen anybody?   Dazki: Yes. We have seen a bunch of people.   Elf Victim: Ugh. Well, I might as well tell ya, since you folks don't seem to shut up about nothin'. You could just let sleeping dogs lie, but no... gotta stick your noses in it.   Dazki: When a man is being threatened, yes. Yes we do.   Elf Victim: Once I got out of the game, it was lonely. But there were plenty of orphans around, so I kinda adopted a little protégée. She was like a daughter to me, see? And this fucker, his crew or whatever, definitely kidnapped her, and that's what got me into this whole mess. Once you're in, they just keep pulling you back in. There's no gettin' out.   Dazki: How do you know they kidnapped her?   Elf Victim: I saw 'em do it. And now he won't tell me.   Dazki: And can you describe this woman?   Elf Victim: Cute as a desert spring. My little Dowzz.   Dazki: Age? Height?   Kesmet: Anything objective?   Elf Victim: You're nosy fucks, aren't you... did you do something to her? Little Dowzz?   Dazki: I have not met anyone, that I know of, with that name, but I have not got the names of everyone we have met down here.   Elf Victim: Little blue girl, lovely dirty blond hair.   Grogery: There were lots of experiments being conducted down there. One of them was on her. I'm afraid that she's dead.   Elf Victim, looking with utter aggression towards the cultist: You killed her, then, huh?! Wasn't good enough for you? Nothin' ever is, is it?   Cultist: I dunno what you're talkin' about, man! Sometimes we just collect guys, all right?   Dazki: It was Vicra. It was his boss, and the guy's dead. We took care of him.   Dwardazik: Yeah, he's dead.   Dazki: He's the one who tortured her.   Elf Victim pulls his iron spear away from the cultist and uses it to steady himself.   Elf Victim: Is she at peace, then, at least?   Dazki: So... there's a problem that we have not yet fixed, but are planning to.   Elf Victim, flustered: ...none of this would've happened... everything... why does everyone around me...   Dazki: It's not you, it's — he points to the cultist — these assholes, they trap the souls of the dead here. But we are getting reinforcements. They're on their way here so that we can stop that from happening, and everyone can be released. So if you can hold on for just a couple of days, then she will be at peace. I'm going to tell you, you probably don't want to see what is... remaining... of her, but she will be at peace soon. We will make sure of it.   Dwardazik: This whole place. It's a trap. You've seen it. Tortures the soul. Before we leave, we're going to make it our mission to put these souls to rest and help out the tormented. And as much as I hate to say it — because you're an ass — that includes you too.   Elf Victim: There's just no gettin' away from misdeeds. This is just the universe getting back at me for all the bad things I did.   Dwardazik: Maybe.   Grogery: You can color me a little bit biased, because I do worship Pelor, but I believe redemption is possible for everyone, and that you don't need to be constantly hounded by the things that happened in your past.   Dwardazik: Yeah, that'd be nice...   Elf Victim: I tried to live like that. It doesn't work, it's wishful thinking.   Grogery: Well, it's sad that the world has been so rough on you that you believe something like that, but there is always another morning to turn a setback into a success.   Elf Victim: But at what cost?   Dwardazik: I dunno, man! What does it take for you to sleep at night? We all have our problems. We've all had to make sacrifices. And nobody's happy about being in this shithole right now. Vicra's dead. He points at the cultist. Your boss is dead. This whole thing's over. The only thing you can do now is run. Or...   Dazki: Help us get the rest of these people out of here safely.   Dwardazik: As my colleague said.   Elf Victim: There are too many captives to move.   Dwardazik: We don't care.   Dazki: Like I said, we have reinforcements coming.   Elf Victim: If you can get the folks from Overlook here...   Dwardazik: Yeah, as we just said, we made a call out. Hopefully we'll be able to get some people to sort out this mess. Heaven knows this whole thing is a giant cluster.   Dazki, pointing to the cultist: And you, you are now in charge of making sure everybody lives. If any of them die during the process of us getting them out of here and getting them to safety, it's on you. And we will make sure that it is not a pleasant experience. Got it?   Elf Victim: Oh, I'll make sure he does a good job.   Dazki: Just make sure he makes it out of here in one piece too. He deserves a chance at redemption, just like you do.   Elf Victim: Redemption's a lie.   Dwardazik: Yeah, yeah, whatever. He goes off to look at the soul beacon.   Elf Victim: When you've done a bad thing, there's no erasing that.   Dazki: There's no erasing it, but there are still good things you can do in the future. Just because you've hurt someone in the past, that doesn't mean you can't help someone in the future. Look forward, not back.   Grogery: Learn from the past, but don't let yourself get burned by it.   Dwardazik: These are some nice swirls.   Elf Victim: You say that with youthful faces and fresh voices.   Dazki: I'd rather be an optimistic youth than a cynical old bastard any day. Live in the world that you want to see.   Elf Victim: Well, enjoy growing to a miserable old age, or dying early with your optimism.   Elf Victim roughly grabs the cultist, thrusting him to his feet and then using him for support.   Elf Victim: You heard the bastards. We got work to do.

Elf Victim and the cultist wander off. As soon as they do, Dazki leans against the wall, clearly exhausted.

Dazki: Oh, thank God. I was in no condition to actually confront him physically.

The party proceeds further up the stairs, to the highest level of the dungeon.

Back to the ANTechamber

"Barf", the dog, is here. He's happy to see Marvin! He gives kisses all over. They smell like cinnamon.

Dazki: I'm too tired to argue, but... Turmoil Dog has got to be taken care of.   Dwardazik: What? Why?   Marvin: Don't say that around him!   Barf makes sad puppy faces.   Dazki: Because it's Turmoil.   Dwardazik: But it helped us!   Dazki: You want it to spread?   Dwardazik: What about the Glutton? This is a dog.   Dazki: Today it's a dog. What is it tomorrow?   Dwardazik goes to pet the dog. It flops over on its side.   Grogery: Well, tomorrow, I'm going to be calling up Annu to give him the exact coordinates to this place so he can come down here and make sure to sanitize all the Turmoil away. So, yeah.   Dwardazik: OK. Do we kill the dog or not? It helped us fight that spider creature.   Marvin: You're not harming Barf!   Dwardazik: I say, live and let live. Whatever happened to this creature, it's not malicious to us.   Kesmet: Makes sense...   Dazki: I disagree, but if I'm outvoted, then I'm outvoted. I'll go along with the majority.   Dwardazik: Grogery?   Grogery: There's a lot of Turmoil that's going to have to get cleaned up here anyway.   Kesmet: OK, let's say he is made of Turmoil. How much could it really spread? It's just one little puppy! We'll get rid of the rest of it by taking out Dennis, and small remnants will be fine, probably!   Dazki, sarcastically: Yeah, how much disease could one sick person inflict on a whole city? It's not like the disease has the potential to spread.   Dwardazik: Barf, you understand us, right?   Barf doesn't respond, just tilting its head. It wants to be friends with you!   Dwardazik: Barf, can you show us your true form?   Barf, looking confused, just spins in a circle a couple of times.   Grogery: We can't take it with us.   Marvin: Understandable.   Dwardazik: I think it'll be fine living here.   Dazki: All right, fine. We'll leave it here.