Session 10: The Mastyrial caves Report

General Summary

~Recounted from Osiris' memories

We crouched in the disgusting, damp, darkness of the Mastyrial caves. Though I couldn’t see much, it sounded like the dwarves knew something. Gar told us that Mastyrials are blind and hunt by sound, so we should stay quiet and stay away from the water. I went to retrieve the torches since they could help us navigate, and the Mastyrials wouldn’t see them anyway.

Gar whispered that he would try to stop the Mastyrials from moving. Gar went through his usual mystical hand gestures and tried to draw the energy into himself. I know literally nothing about magic, but even I knew something was wrong. I think we could all feel the energy moving towards Gar the way it was supposed to, but there was a flash, and he was suddenly glowing brightly, as if he was fire itself. Burning Gar’s glow made everything visible around us, and revealed a manmade stone path leading into the darkness. Unfortunately he had generated so much heat the earth at his feet had melted. He was stuck in the rock and on fire. I have to admit, I was impressed by the little guy’s efforts to stay composed. Unfortunately, he failed, and a loud Dwarvish yell echoed throughout the whole cave. I suppose around then every Mastyrial present turned and began making its way towards the source of the sound. That was it for Gar following his own advice.

Zwerk moved quickly. He pulled Gar out of the melted earth and led him to safety. I didn’t like the idea of engaging with countless foes and becoming surrounded without a clear escape route, so I used my psionic powers to fling several of torches off into the darkness. My aim was true, and the torches revealed the rest of the stone path and a doorway flanked by two large columns. We finally had a destination.

Akassia once again used her magic to encase half the advancing Mastyrials in burning rock and to immobilize them. Gar also used his magic to ensnare another group of Mastyrials. Nuuta tried to move stealthily toward the doorway, but she tripped and stumbled face first into one the disgusting, murky pools of water dotting the cave.

Zwerk then shouted, “Freedom!” and began running along the cavern walls. His cry drew a swarm of Mastyrials, and they began attacking him with their stingers. The stingers found their mark, but I guess he managed to resist their venom because he wasn’t going down. Zwerk is one tough Son of a Dwarf, but I didn’t think even he would last long like that, so I tossed him to the far end of the tunnel, but a Mastyrial had latched on with its pincers and went along for the ride. Zwerk made quick work of the stowaway Mastyrial by staving in its carapace with a single mighty blow of his trikal. Akassia moved across the tunnel, and discovered the corpse of a Kreen, clutching a scroll-sized scroll case. A Mastyrial attacked Nuuta with its stinger, but fortunately she was able to resist the poison. Zwerk then took out Nuuta’s attacker as well.

Two Mastyrials moved in to attack Gar. He valiantly tried to fend them off with his whip. The weapon has range, but it’s more suitable as a tool for flogging slaves than as a battlefield implement. I watched helplessly as his whip got snagged on a Masytrial’s tail. The Mastyrial’s pincers found Gar’s hand and chopped it off with a fountain of blood. Once again, Gar screamed. I unleashed my powers upon the two Mastyrials beside Gar and split them both in two. Gar tried to treat his own wounds, but something went wrong. Akassia then healed both Nuuta and Gar and managed to stop the bleeding. Apparently having forgotten his wounds rather quickly, Gar emptied his water flask and filled it with venom from the Mastyrial corpses.

I knew things wouldn’t end well if the conflict continued much longer, so I used my last resort, my Psionic howl. I don’t know what happened exactly, but I guess I disoriented and terrified the five remaining Mastyrials.

We were now free to investigate the far cavern. In the next chamber we found a tall pyramid with a large bowl at the summit. We confirmed that this was the source of the strange humming. Nuuta set one foot on the steps and a weird expression came over her face, however she managed to resist the pyramid’s effects and retreat. Akassia used her magic to build a bridge that went up and over the pyramid steps directly to the bowl. The bowl was filled with a dark purple liquid and two orbs, one black and one white that were rotating around each other. She also saw a face grimacing in pain and anguish.

Suddenly, Akassia shoved her torch into the liquid. The bowl exploded loudly, the humming ceased, and the purple liquid was sprayed onto all of us. We also managed to resist its effects, though Zwerk also had a weird look on his face. Looking carefully, Akassia found a series of marks, a cipher written in chalk on the top of the pyramid. Gar instructed Zwerk to take out his writing implements and make a rubbing of the symbols carved onto the bowl. They were similar to the markings we found in the ruins under Raam. Per Gar’s instructions, Zwerk also copied the cipher. Akassia used her magic to search deep within the pyramid. She found several skeletons and two huge quartz columns that are used to focus the Psionic powers that were formerly radiating from the pyramid. We gathered up the fragments of the bowl so the inscription could be translated later and split the two quartz columns so they could be carried back to Dolahan’s camp.

Dolahan seemed surprised though not ungrateful to see us returning safely. He thanked us on behalf of his Kreen before he served us a sumptuous, nourishing meal to lift our spirits and allow us to rest.

Before we slept, we agreed on the following plan:

-We would first return to Raam to inform Haaka and the Night Runner tribe about the alliance with Dolahan.   -Then we would contact the Veiled Alliance Wizards to discuss the rumors circulating about me killing members of their ranks.   -Third, we would finally take Nosay’Yu into the Raam ruins to translate the mysterious inscriptions on the wall.

Only after these objectives were completed would we be ready to journey towards Urik in our search for more allies.