Session 79: 5 Days to save Chipper part 11 Day 3 Report

General Summary

Session 79 – Wednesday August 19, 2021 - 5 days to save Chipper part 11 (Day 3)

  4 Hour Dungeon crawl session. 6:00 PM to 10:30P

Party of 6 (The order of Heroes, Inc.):

It is the 12th day of the month of Uktar (The Rotting) in the 3rd year of the Age of Enialis

• Annalisa (Anna) – Human L8 Monk – L5 Wizard /L3Fighter – Ryan Armstrong (remote)
• Jaquette Mara – L16 Human Druid – Jackie Armstrong
• Lucky Lightfoot – Leprechaun – L15 Bard/L1 Sorcerer – Jacob Munson
• Luigi Risotto – Wood Elf L14 Monk/L2 Wizard – Dan King
• Rolen – Human L16 Warlock – Josh Pozsonyi
• Tyrena Rechs – Human L13 Ranger/L3 Fighter – Nathan Gioconda
• Jeter Kaiser – L16 Human Sorcerer – Spencer Armstrong (Back at school)

Goals:

Destroy the Soulmonger and stop the death curse

• Get Ring of Winter from Artus Cimber who is in Chult (also going after the Soulmonger)
• Gather the other parts of the god Destroyer (Blade, Hilt and guard)
• Locate the Amber Sarcophagi and destroy them with the god Destroyer
• Take the sword to the Summer Queen and have her destroy it.
• White Dragon at Purple Rocks

The Cog of Blood

The party found themselves without Jeter in a room with 5 teak wardrobes. The wardrobes stood against the five ironclad walls of the room. Each wardrobe had a door bearing a carved image or scene. Puddles of gray slime covered parts of the floor. The room had two exits, but an adamantine portcullis blocked the passage to the north. Set into a metal plate above the portcullis was a row of five red crystals shaped like drops of blood. Lucky tried to extract the crystals, but he could not. Anna walked around the room examining each of the scenes. She saw a scene depicting an army of orcs clashing with an army of hobgoblins. Another had a grinning night hag with a swaddled human infant in her arms. The third door was carved to depict the face of an ornate clock. The fourth wardrobe door had a scene depicting twisted, screaming humanoid faces wrapped in chains. The last door had a scene depicting ghouls gnawing on bones.

The Nine Hels Wardrobe

Anna opened the door with the screaming humanoid faces wrapped in chains. Waves of heat assailed her as she opened the door, revealing an iron road leading to a basalt citadel surrounded by the charred remains of defeated armies. Prisoners screamed from iron gibbets that festooned the citadel walls. Suddenly, a single glowing ember flew out of the wardrobe and transformed into a winged, bony fiend with a smiling, skull-like visage.

Luigi smacked the fiend with his staff and then stunned it with his flurry of blows. Lucky used his rapier and stabbed it. Rolen shot 3 bolts into it. Anna shot a lightning bolt at it causing massive damage. Tyrena finished it off with her greatsword turning the creature into dust. The dust fell to the floor and turned into a small pool of black ichor. One of the red crystals above the adamantine door began to glow.

Gehenna Wardrobe

Lucky opened the wardrobe with the night hags and saw inside a view to the caldera of an active volcano. Shards of black rock were floating above the molten magma. Perched atop one shard were two man-sized creatures with insectoid features and four arms apiece. The volcano appeared to shoot forth a flame and two Mezzoloths appeared in the room holding pitchforks. Jaquette threw down her staff of the python and it turned into a huge constrictor snake. The snake constricted around one of the Mezzoloths and restrained it. The lion and Luigi both attacked the restrained creature badly wounding it.

The 2nd Mezzoloth cast cloudkill sending the room into thick cloud of poison. Lucky not able to see was able to hit the restrained Mezzoloth with his firebolt, killing it. Rollen shot into the darkness and 3 bolts hit the wall above Lucky’s head. Anna shot her arcane hand into the cloud and missed the Mezzoloth (and barely missed Luigi.) Choking on the poison, Tyrena felt her way past the Lion and to the Mezzoloth. With a strong blow, Tyrena hit the Mezzoloth with her axe and did so much damage, the Mezzoloth lost concentration on the cloud of poison.

Jaquette had the snake bite the Mezzoloth and then tried to cast a bonfire under the Mezzoloth’s feet but the Mezzoloth avoided both. Luigi came in a pummeled the creature near death. The Mezzoloth stood up, horribly wounded, and then teleported behind Rolen. Lucky aimed at the creature with his finger, Rolen ducked, and Lucky shot a firebolt at the creature killing it, leaving behind an oily whisp of smoke and the trident. A 2nd crystal above the adamantine portcullis began to glow.

Mechanus Wardrobe

Anna opened the wardrobe door with the clock on it and saw a glimpse of the landscape of Mechanus with enormous interlocking gears and cogs stretching as far as she could see. A single monodrone with spindly legs and small wings tumbled through the open door. It stood up and started to fly back into the wardrobe but was rebuffed by the wardrobe’s one way magic. It whimpered sadly as it tried and tried again. Rollen looked at the 5 red crystals above the adamantine portcullis and saw that only 2 were lit. Rollen looked at thing and shot it with a firebolt. Hitting it square in the eye, it exploded into a sphere of dust. A 3rd red crystal then began to glow.

Acheron and the Shadowfell Wardrobe

Anna opened the door with the ghouls and Lucky immediately opened the door with the orcs. Anna gazed out across an ancient cemetery; its canted tombstones shrouded in fog. Eerie, hungry shapes moved among the graves in the distance. Suddenly, bright lights flashed by her and a Boneclaw appeared in the room. Lucky saw dust and smoke billow from the wardrobe, and the air around him sounded out with the roar of battle. Beyond the doors, armies fought under a blood-red sky that had an iron cube floating in it like a huge, distant moon. Clouds of ash suddenly flew out of the wardrobe, transforming into seven screaming orcs plus their chief.

Anna pulled out the necklace of fireballs that she found in the Crypt of the Napaka, as she prepared to throw them into the room it exploded upon her dealing 16d6 damage on much of the party, but it did take out all but 2 orcs and their commander. Using tides of chaos Luigi saved the snake. Anna used an action surge and cast lighting bolt. A couple Wil-o’-Wisp appeared. The orc chief slashed into Tyrena with his great axe and Tyrena attacked right back severely wounding the Orc. Jaquette cast blight on the Boneclaw. The Boneclaw reached out and grabbed Tyrena and Jaquette and pulled them directly to it. Luigi ran around the wall and kicked the orc chief onto Tyrena’s greatsword killing it. He then followed up and began punching the Boneclaw and knocked it prone.

Lucky tried to command the Boneclaw to drop Tyrena and Jaquette and the Boneclaw responded with “no.” Rollen shot a couple bolts into the Boneclaw. Anna dipped her mechanical arm into the psychic goo and took a bit of damage herself but then punched the Boneclaw with it directly in the head, killing it. Anna and Tyrena started attacking the Wil-o’-Wisps. Jaquette provided the party with a healing spirit. The giant snake grappled one of the remaining Orcs. While chewing on his robe, Luigi took out a Wil-o’-Wisp with his staff. Lucky took out an Orc with a firebolt and Rolen took out the last orc and the last Wil-o’-Wisp.

Hall of Decay

When the last creature was killed, the last 2 crystals were illuminated, and the adamantine portcullis rose. The party spent a moment healing and collected a trident or 2 from the dead creatures. The party then proceeded through the open portcullis and followed the hall. The hall turned east and opened to a stairway leading down 10 feet. Graven images of rotting corpses decorated the hall, and the floor was littered with tarnished coins, pieces of armor, broken shields, axe heads, and other bits of scrap metal. Lucky walked down the steps slowly expecting the bits of metal and armor to leap up and attack. The rest of the party watched. Lucky stepped forward off the stairs and all his leather, metal, wood, paper, and cloth items rapidly decayed and fell to bits on the ground. Lucky stood there with his magical items and glass vials fell to the floor. Luck gave a finger to the ceiling and stood there partially naked, trying to pick up what available items he could.

Anna put everything she had into her magical backpack and wearing nothing but her magical underwear she walked down the hall. Jaquette cast dispel magic on the hall but it had no effect. Anna and Lucky saw a set of stairs going down on the southern side of the hall. They went down the stairs and found a room filled with green fog. They turned and went back up.

Luigi took a sheet of paper and tossed it into the hall and watched it dissolve. Luigi took his spell book, thieves’ tools etc. and put them into a bag of holding. He then walked into the hall naked but completely covered with Goat hair.

Mechanus Chain

Anna walked to the end of the Hall of Decay and glanced into the next room. Hot wind tinged with the smell of burning oil blew down a forty-foot-diameter vertical shaft. Stone balconies protruded from the walls on opposite sides of the expanse, with the west balcony fifteen feet higher than the east one. Two thick chains rattled in the gulf between the balconies — one ascending two hundred feet before disappearing into a cloudy vortex lit by arcs of purple lightning, the other wrapping around an enormous metal gear floating one hundred feet below. Another hundred feet below the gear, a second vortex raged. Anna stepped back and Luigi with a tear in his eye, ran down the hall past Anna and leapt from the eastern balcony and landed safely on the lower western Balcony. Lucky cast levitate upon himself and followed Luigi asking, “What’s going on?” Luigi responded, “I’m a monster and I don’t have good spells!” Anna glanced up in the room and saw a small army of Quadrones along with a Pentadrone ready their bows and gaze down.

Armillary Sphere

Lucky consoled Luigi and they saw a crawlway heading east. Falling the crawlway, they came to a small chamber containing a bronze apparatus centered on a hinged arm. Slowly rotating within the arm was a 10-foot-diameter globe decorated by a topographic map of landforms and oceans. Concentric rings of brass constrained the device, all rotating and bearing their own lesser spheres. One of those spheres had sharp points and appeared sunlike. Carvings of tall, headless humanoids decorated the walls of the room. Gazing at the apparatus they recognized it as Toril and its moon Selûne. Lucky approached the device and it suddenly swung around, its rings rotating out of the way as the surface of the globe peeled back to reveal a dark, hollow interior. Inside this cavity was a padded bronze chair with levers built into its armrests. Lucky climbed into the chair and the sphere closed.

Lucky could see through the sphere as if it was transparent. He began playing with the levers and the spheres began to rotate. As soon as the rotation began a Nycaloth bearing a greataxe exploded out of the moon and attacked Luigi. Luigi responded, punching the Nycaloth and stunned it. Lucky figured out how to use the controls and began rotating the spheres. Luigi continued to pummel the Nycaloth. Lucky spun the contraption until the sun, moon and planet were aligned. A flash of light struck Lucky, and his intelligence was increased by 2 and then the levers froze, and the sphere stopped rotating. Luigi, with tears in his eyes still, continued to hit the Nycaloth with his staff and with a final blow to its chest, killed it.

Lucky couldn’t fix the gears and firebolted his way out of the sphere. Luigi ran back through Mechanus Chain room, avoiding arrows shot by the Quadrones. Lucky examined the room and found a secret passageway that led back to the control room. Lucky went back into the control room and retrieved Anna’s Immoveable rod. Lucky then fled the area and made it back to the hall of decay.

The next level down.

The party regrouped and with all their items protected in magical bags, they went down the stairs into the room filled with Green smoke. The Smoke billowed out from a bronze cauldron in the middle of a twenty-foot-high vaulted hall. Barely visible through the haze were three rocking chairs, several work benches heaped with haberdashery, a spinning wheel, and a rusty iron cage containing a prisoner. Galleries stood ten feet above the floor to either side of the room. As they walked into the room three tiny figures waddled toward the party through the smoky haze: a straw doll with rusty pins sticking into its body, a faceless child molded from clay, and a stuffed monkey with the lower body of a unicycle. The straw doll said, “You need to run away! The Sewn Sisters will be back any moment now!”

Lucky surmised that the Sewn Sisters were night hags. The straw doll introduced itself as Strawbundle and that he used to be a real girl. Strawbundle pointed to the cage and said, he’s told them everything you; They know all.”

Jeter and the dolls.

In the cage they saw what looked like Jeter except he wasn’t tall, he wasn’t fat, his faced had a large lump on it, one arm and leg looked like they belonged to a baby. Jaquette examined him and it looked like parts of his body were really that of an infant and it looked like he was still growing and forming. They figured it might be a modified form of a clone spell. They freed him.

Luigi suggested they rescue the dolls also. He put Strawbundle on his shoulders. Jaquette took the clay doll with no face called “No-face” and Tyrena picked up the Monkey. Tyrena received a charm of comprehend languages that last 7 days. Strawbundle gave Luigi a charm that allows him to cast the etherealness spell 3 times. Jaquette formed a face for No-Face, and No-Face gave Jaquette the charm so that she need not eat, drink or breathe for 30 days while No-face is in her possession.

Strawbundle explained that the three night hags are nursing some kind of creature that lurks behind the great green door. They explained that the only way to get through the door is with 5 skeleton head keys. Rolen pulled out his satchel of heads and dumped the heads onto the floor quite proudly. The party then realized that there are cover plates over the 5 keyholes on the door preventing them from using the skeleton keys. Looking around the room they saw 5 doors that each had a symbol for each of the heads. Luigi looked for the Triangle.

Trial of the Triangle

Luigi found the door and opened it revealing a room that had A five-foot-wide, floor-to-ceiling glass cylinder near the back wall of the room. The cylinder was filled with light, the source of which was not apparent. A tiny one-inch triangular hole was cut through the glass, five feet above the floor. Inside the cylinder, an iron lever was set into a metal plate on the floor. Rolen cast mage hand and tried to move the lever but it could not. Lucky cast mage hand and then Luigi did also and the 3 working together were able to push the lever. The metal plate covering the tringle on the large green door moved revealing an opening where the triangle skeleton head would fit.

Trial of the Square

Anna found the room with a square on the door. She opened the door and found the room was filled with flying sheets of parchment, with writing on the pages visible as they fluttered by. A metal plate bolted onto the far wall was set with a ghostly lever. Anna reached out and grabbed a piece of parchment and found a “Bestow Curse” spell. Anna grabbed a 2nd one that was “Water Breathing.” Lucky reach out and grabbed a “find familiar” spell. The rest of the paper burst into dust and 3 dust mephitis appeared.

One of the Dust mephitis tried to cast some spell, but it failed. Luigi struck it with his staff, and it exploded. A stick of black chalk fell to the floor. The 2nd Dust mephit said “Bloatbug” pointing at Luigi and Luigi’s weight increased by 50%. Rolen, from the hall targeted the 2nd mephit and killed it. A 2nd stick of chalk fell to the floor. Lucky hit the last one with a firebolt and destroyed it in an explosion of dust with yet a 3rd stick of black chalk falling to the floor.

Phantom lever

Anna reached for the ghostly lever, but her hand passed right through it. They party tried blowing chalk dust on the lever, using skeleton hands, and drawing a lever on a wall but nothing seemed to work. Recognizing that the lever is very ethereal, Luigi used the gift given to him my Strawbundle and cast etherealness upon himself. He found himself in the same room but everything was grey and whispy but the lever looked solid. He pulled the lever and in the distance the plate over the square keyhole was opened.

Noticing that Yaka, the annoying gold head was not with him, Luigi moved back down the hall to the main room. In the room however, in the Border Ethereal plane, he saw that the rocking chairs were occupied by 3 hags. One had gold tarnished gold coins covering her eyes. Ants crawled in and out from behind the gold coins. The 2nd wore a string of chattering children’s teeth and had a peg leg. She let out a low laugh and yellow gas billowed out of her nose and ears. The 3rd had a sack covering what should have been her head except it moved and squirmed. A viper poked its head slowly from the sack and hissed at Luigi, “We see you.”