The King in Yellow No More

General Summary

By Pagu  

Flamerule 24 - Year of Rogue Dragons (Before Sunrise)

The front line of Iluminus charge forth from the hallway and slam into a line of cultists berserkers protecting the a cult leader in the middle of the ritual chamber dedicated to the King in Yellow... In the melee scrum Ulfgar the dwarven warrior, Big Red the human paladin, and Pagu the half orc paladin hack, hew, slash, and stab against the dwarven berserkers recklessly swinging giant mauls back at the heroes... Skirmishing off the edges of the melee the hobbit monk Reed ignores the berserkers and fires off barrages of radiant shurikens at the Cultist... From the rear Halorin the hobbit bard uses his magic words to distract and disorient the Cultist and berserkers while supporting his allies with rousing speeches...     The Cultist summons a defense from the Far Realms, spectral maws of all viscous types manifest around the cultist and snap at any who dare to get close... The battle is closely contested until one of Reed's radiant shuriken barrages breaks the concentration of the cultist and his magic defense wisps away... Just as that happens, Pagu scores a critical blow against one of the berserkers evening the fight... With an even fight, the melee power of Iluminus destroys the remaining berserkers as the hobbits combine their respective firepower on the newly defenseless cultist and down him...   We examine the altar and statue, and loot the dwarf...     The yellow "cloth" hung around the cavern is cured skin and a strange yellow mold on the ceiling is the source of the light bouncing off the creepy tapestry to provide the ill illumination to this room... The altar is hallowed to elder Evils and clearly needs to be destroyed but we do not have the tools or time for it at the moment... Most alarmingly is a small chamber in the far back of the ritual room... An eerie yellow mist with the same evil vibe as the voidling in Ironspur... We didn't fully examine it and we head on...       Heading north out of the ritual cavern we head into what can only be called a treasure room... Coin and riches are stashed here, likely the plunder of the many sacrifices and descents into madness done in the prior room.... We return to the searching the cult complex...   We enter the Cult leader's chambers... We find a brilliantly detailed map of the local Underdark and some intel on the activities of the derro allies of the cult... Securing intel and treasure, Iluminus heads on...       Deeper into the complex we enter a large changing room with ritual clothing hung and ready for use... Just off the large dressing room is a hallway with dormitory rooms in them... Big Red goes down and sets watch by the back door... Signaling to us he heard dwarven cultists ahead... We quietly ruffle the footlockers and get ready to charge into battle...   The corridor out of the dormitory block leads to a recreation room... Tables and couches with nearly dozen of different dwarven cultists chillaxin... We sorta surprise them...     Ulfgar and his little legs storm down the corridor to confront the rest of the Cultist horde and parks himself just past the doorway and hunkers down in a defensive stance... I charge past Ulfgar and off to the left into a pair of guards playing dice at a table... I cleave a couple of huge gashs into one, felling him before he realized there was even a fight going on... Tinkerson lumbers into the room and sets a battle line off Ulfgar's flank... Reed monk sprints under Ulfgar and several cult dwarfs to reach the Cult casters in the back of the room... Reed unloads several karate strikes on each Then sprints back into the corridor....The dwarf guards and berserkers charge at the line of Ulfgar and Big Red...     One of the cultists casts a spell of holding and I am paralyzed... I focus my will and try to break the hold the spell had on me... Being paralyzed at least makes me look non-threatening and the dwarf on me leaves me to enter the fray by the doorway... one dwarf berserker runs out from the chamber and tries to find a quick route through the complex and attack us from behind... Halorin sees that and goes to set up an ambush...They five on two melee by the doorway rages on and Reed unleashes more barrages of radiant bolts at the Cultists in the back rank... The melee pushes closer to me and I feel Big Red's aura of protection wash over me. That boost is enough to help me break the magical paralysis the cultist cast upon me... Breaking free I charge the cultists in the rear with surprise and drop them both with mighty swings of my great sword...     As the berserker who ran to flank us rushes to engage us he runs through a caltrop field and is stopped dead in his tracks by the sharpened spikes... Halorin mocks the berserker and calls for Reed's help when the berserker ignores the pain of the spikes in his feet and advances albeit slowly... Two of the dwarves fighting in the melee turn and attack me, landing wicked blow after blow... Now at a three on two Ulfgar and Tinkerson gain ground and press the attack...     In the back hallways the berserker advances on Halorin who casts an invisiblity spell at the last moment to escape danger but actually a bit too late and the berserker gashes the tiny hin savagely... Halorin screams for help and invisibly runs hiding amongst the dormitory... Reed hears his cousin's scream and runs like a lightning bolt to Halorin's aid... The dwarves on me land two more viscous blows, ribs are fractured, blood gushes, and my vision grows cloudy as I start to fall... I think I see Tempus's Great Hall as my lips anticipate the sweet ale inside but instead my Rageborn fury erupts and I spring back up in battle and hack one dwarf down and cleave the other...     Meeting me in the middle of the chamber by hacking through the dwarfs from the other side are my bruised and blood splattered companions Ulfgar and Big Red... We hear the berserker smashing furniture looking for Halorin so we head back to the dormitory to help... Just as we turn into the dormitory we see Reed deliver a leaping kick to the head of the berserker cracking his neck and dropping the dwarf to the floor...   Bruised, bleeding, and confident most of the threat in the complex is defeated we loot the remaining dwarves and search for hidden chambers...     We actually find a secret passage!! It leads to a secret door on the banks of an underground stream... A true entrance to the Underdark...   Heading back to the main cavern with the platform and that winches up to the upper mines we are devastated to see the chain chewed through and one of the dead gargoyle head on top of the winch in a giant "fuck you" from the remaining gargoyles... Halorin has an epiphany and runs to the chain... He pulls out his mandolin and plays a tune... He rises into the air, holding the end of the chain... Once he is riding the rising link 60 feet off the ground a gargoyle takes flight from a hidden ledge and aims for our little hobbit bard... Ulfgar and I fire several arrows and bolts into the beast at he nears Hallorin but it is a fiery bolt from Nickolas's outstretched finger that puts beast down crashing into the cavern floor...       After a few minutes of levitating the chain Hallorin fully extends it and is hovering several hundred feet above the floor and about 3 feet separate the chewed links... Realizing we only have minutes for the levitation Reed uses his freakish monk speed to run up the chain jumping from levitating link to hanging link and run up the rest to master winch... He lowers the upper chain it's last length to create a brief overlap of the chains... In the last minutes of the levitation spell the two hin race to lash together with rope the broken chains...   There we are standing in the lower mines with a great chain held together with hempen rope... Bollox!!

Notes

King in Yellow - Cult Leader's Notes   A Tapestry showing the Underdark Realm of Deepearth, with notes on each of the locations on the map.