Continuing to explore the Cellar

We returned the following morning to continue the exploration. We quickly found trouble when Graklak knocked over some stuff, drawing the attention of some odd mixture of a baby and an insect. Sprite was able to identify it as a type of Devil, called a Zebub. It quickly fell back and started calling out in our minds. Rosa was able to understand it speaking in Draconic. It was calling it's surrender. We decided to halt our attacks and listen to what it had to say. It wanted to share with us an experience it had of others like us coming through here. It needed to touch someone to do this. Griska volunteered, with the others standing ready to squash it. The creature reached out, touching Griska's hand. Soon he was drawn into a vision the creature had seen. He saw a Half-Elf pulling himself out of a huge collapsed ceiling. He was covered in burns and cuts. Griska recognized the collapsed area as where the group had first fought the Morlocks here in the basement. The Half-Elf fought some creatures, before stumbling down the hallway to the door with the green glow coming from below the door. The creatures were not the Morlocks, but Griska did not recognize what type of creatures they were. However, he did believe the Half-Elf was probably Otari, who was thought to have perished in the battle with Belcorra. Through conversation we learned that this creature was bound here to clean the complex. He did not have much information to share about the other creatures in the complex. We extracted a promise from the creature to leave us alone in return for us not killing him. We then learned he is not really a very good cleaner, doing light dusting without moving anything. In a nearby room we found 2 large humanoid statues. While they were obviously defunct now, they had been some sort of Automaton in the past. Inside them we found some gem stones. We then headed to the room with the glowing green light under it. Opening the door we found a small room with a well inside. While we watched, letters formed on the wall in green, stating "I was Otari, save me from below". The ribbon of green light then snaked out and flowed down the hallway, under another door. As we followed, it went through a room with bones scattered around some destroyed furniture. As we moved to follow the light, a large skeleton formed from the bones. Sprite was able to tell it was a Skeletal Giant. We quickly dispatched it. As we hurried to follow the light Rosa and Zebott just managed to see the light disappear under a wall at the top of a stairwell. Griska and Zebott found a secret door there, as expected. Opening it we hurried after the light, but it had either dissipated or accelerated. There were several ways we could go, but we decided we should head back upstairs and search the rest of that level.
Opening a nearby set of double doors we found a 10 foot wide hallway with several dioramas of Absalom. Each depicted a different calamity befalling the city. Each showed the Gauntlight in the distance. As we moved in sound and light exploded forth from several dioramas, dropping both Orcs in rapid succession. After they were pulled back to safety and healed a bit, Mel went inside to look for traps. She managed to find all 5 of them and disable them. We healed up for a few more hours before moving past the dioramas. Pulling open the double doors at the end of the hall we found a room filled with webbing. A strange creature stood within. It stood upright as a humanoid, but had spider-like facial features and huge claws. It demanded tribute, referring to itself as "the King" in Aklo. Once again, Zebott's language skills came in handy to translate this for us. After some back and forth a battle commenced. The creature was joined by 2 man-sized spiders. It hit hard, but was downed quickly along with the spiders. Sprite was able to identify the spiders as Dream Spiders. Zebott & Sprite both could tell the creature was a Web Lurker. Searching the room we found several web noose traps & some items hidden under a table. We gathered things up and continued searching the room. We headed back to the secret room and holed up to heal and identify some magic. Afterward, we headed to check out some rooms near the shrine to Belcorra. We found a room that Sprite theorized was for magical transportation to other rooms like it. We then found some stairs heading down to another beach-like area. Graklak started slapping the water with a board to draw out the water creature we had heard about.. He was successful... It rose from the water & spit a ball of acidic mucus at the group, then soon after flew in to fight us. We quickly dispatched it, but it did a good job spreading damage around the group! We took a bit of time to heal up and identify some more magic before moving on.