Wealday, 5th of Desnus, 4721 AR
Gauntlight Keep
Level 2 - Servant's Quarters
Morlocks
7.50a
The remaining
morlock guarding the door brandishes its club at Zor'ahn, while attempting to shield its eyes from Tristan's light, misses wildly and slams it into the wall. It swings again and achieves the same result before desperately launching itself at the dark ranger to no avail. Ehrn plunges her glaive into the morlock's side, opening a gaping wound. Her second attack falls short. Zor'ahn's shadow suddenly lashes out and decapitates the shadow of the morlock. The creature instantly crumples to the floor.
Ghost Queen Morlock Throne Room
The party quickly assesses themselves before gathering in front of the door. Tristan opens the door into somewhat of a bizarre scene. In the room ahead is a rotted bed-like structure upon which sits a morlock, rather casually, looking at the group. Another morlock rubs this one's feet, oblivious to the party. A third stands warily with its club, but does not react to them. A small disgusting, muddy stream flows through. The reclining morlock speaks to the Exterminators. "Welcome, guests, to the abode of the
Ghost Queen!" languidly gesturing with a one long, well-manicured nailed hand as a way of greeting. "You are in the presence of royalty for I am the king of the Ghost Queen morlocks." Kaliff translates. Tristan begins to move in.
Unleashing like a tightly coiled spring, Ehrn suddenly rages and storms the room and slashes at the "king" with her glaive. He howls loud and long, a puzzling sound, and attempts to scramble away. He gestures at Ehrn who feels sudden racking pain erupting across her body, leaving her sickened. The king stands. Tristan enters the fray and launches a vicious swing with his smoking sword, cleaving open his side. Suddenly, there comes the sound of scraping and slithering, followed by a low moaning sound. A
grothlut materializes out of the gloom from the direction of the dirty stream. It disgorges a projectile of acidic fluid at Tristan. It misses, but the splash catches him instead. The morlock guard swings at Tristan as well, but its club only smashes against the fighter's shield. Zor'ahn moves into the room and slashes with his Wooden Argentis, nearly impaling the guard. He swings is blade again but does not connect. The pedicurist lashes at Tristan with its clutched nailfile and plunges into him twice in quick succession. Kalitos enters the room and spellstrikes the manicurist. Kaliff steps to the door and casts
bane, but to no effect.
Ahrn rips into the king again and is able to trip it up towards Tristan. He begins casting a spell, but Tristan slams his
Smoking Sword through the creature's midsection, nearly pinning him to the wall. The two remaining morlocks scream and look frightened to the bone. He turns and nearly decapitates the guard, but misses the manicurist. The abomination attempts to spew on the party, but only splashes them instead. It moves up on Kalitos and is suddenly caught in Kaliff's sustained
bane spell, immediately feeling doomed. The Zor'ahn steps and the Mark of
Nhimbaloth begins to churn, captivating monstrosity. Kalitos falls into an arcane stance and slashes the creature. Kalitos sustains his
bane and flings a
phantom pain to little effect.
Ehrn retches, shaking off her sickness and swings at the grothlut, missing, but is able to aid Tristan instead. The remaining morlock tries to move through Kalitos, but the magus bars the way. It tries again and is able to flee past him. Tristian jabs but misses. The monster slashes at Kalitos, Tristan, and Zor'ahn. Tristan is overwhelmed and falls to the floor. Zor'ahn heals himself and Kalitos before launching a devastating attack. The abomination explodes into cloud of acid, splattering almost the entire group.
8.20a
The party attends to their wounds, making themselves ready to continue. Zor'ahn searches the area and finds the king's cache: chalk drawings of a crudely sketched feminine figure and a map. The map appears to be of another level.
Beyond is an earthen, rough, muddy room with rooms protruding from above. Moving into the area reveals drag marks in the mud and bones strewn about and a small opening to the east. Zor'ahn squeezes through and finds what might have been a washroom with a sink. From this vantage he sees toolmarks on the wall, indicating it was broken through to gain entry in the adjacent area. A blood trail shows the path of the lone surviving morlock. The party clears the other rooms, finding only remains of beds and ruined furniture.
8.50a
Absalom's Apocalypse Exhibit
Back at the exhibit featuring
Absalom in various reasons for ruination, the party decides to attempt to push further into the room. Kalitos sneaks in past the first section and makes it to the next. Here Absalom is shown being cracked apart by earthquakes and fissures in the ground. Suddenly, a sonic boom resounds from the model and strikes him. Knowing he will be unable to continue, the magus attempts to sneak back, but he is then hit by a gout of fire. The party pulls his body back, attends to his wounds, and discusses how next to proceed. Down the hall,
Zozzlarin appears and starts to clean the wall with his tongue.
9.40a
Flooded Cavern
Back at the suspected lair of the swamp dragon, Zor'ahn enters the water only to find it of concerning depth with the ceiling being only 3 ft. above water. Not wanting to take his chance, he withdraws.
9.50a
Elevator
At Kaliff's insistence, the Exterminators return to the strange circular room, featureless save for the skull of Nhimbaloth. Squatting down, the sorcerer finds a seam running around the edge of the room. On a hunch, he has the party to pile into the room before closing the door. As soon as the skull is depressed again, the entire floor beings sinking down a hidden shaft.
10.00a
Level 3 - Library
Ghoul Workroom
The platform lowers to an area where there are now two doors, one north, one south. Opening the north reveals a long hallway, the floor's design of which is remarkably different from the other areas in the keep. There is a dusty, musty smell and and the party can hear the faint sounds of clanking, as if someone working with tools. To the south is a short hallway and listening at door produces no sounds, but there is a musty, earthy, mildewy intense smell. The party follows the northern corridor and opens the door there. Within is a humanoid figure working on a canvas on the table in front of them. He immediately looks up and curses. It is a
ghoul, hissing out with long tongue. "How dare you interrupt my work! Begone now!"
Kaliff runs in and slashes ineffectually as does Tristan. "I shall tattoo blasphemous limericks upon your flesh after I am done with you!" the creature hisses. Tristan notices that he has been tattooing on a canvas of pale skin before him. Kalitos is slashed and paralyzed. It bites at Tristan, but he gets his shield up in time. He then swiftly leaps across the table. Zor'ahn moves in and his shadow strikes out at it but misses. Kalitos moves up and quickly heals his brother. Ehrn enters the fray and slashes the ghoul with her glaive. Kalitos does nothing. Tristan alights the smoking sword and savagely slashes the creature. The tattooist reaches out quickly and grabs a piece of skin from off the table. He puts it in his mouth and gulps it down, appearing to be instantly invigorated. He then rips into Tristan with his claws. Zor'ahn moves his spark back to his weapon and flows another strike at the ghoul, slicing deeply into him. Kaliff tries to heal Tristan to no avail. Ehrn unleashes hell and misses, but she is able to demoralize him.
Kalitos recovers, gets on the table and does absolutely nothing. Tristan swings and misses. The ghoul rips a claw through Zor'ahn, who suddenly stiffens in paralysis. Zor'ahn heals slightly. Ehrn redoubles her efforts and continues wounding their enemy. Kaliff touches a shield on his brother's back and it begins to dance around the magus.
Kalitos misses with spellstrike. Tristan misses as well. "There will be songs written of my death!" the ghoul spits. "Only we will know of it and we're not songwriters," Tristan taunts back. Tristan is slashed and paralyzed. The tattooist swipes out at Kalitos, but the shield dances in his way. He then tumbles out of the way towards Ehrn. Zor'ahn regains control of his body but misses with his attack. Kaliff casts
tentacular limbs and a swarm of shadowy vermin vomits from them and briefly engulfs him. With one last powerful thrust, Ehrn finishes the ghoul tattooist off.
