Chapter 11: Note to self, do not fly outside of castle

General Summary

We returned Denar to Katherine, there were more than a few questions asking how he was so old, we just shrugged our shoulders and said, "Magic." As we returned to the inn for the night, an elf and a Tiefling sat in the lobby talking. The Tiefling got up and said, "Mary, I'm so glad to see you!"
I stopped and looked around, "It's nice to see you?" I said hesitantly. "Who are you?"
"I'm Ash! I don't know what happened-"
I interrupted him, "Let me guess, there was a guy at a river and he said, 'You are causing problems in the River of Time,' and sent you back?"
"Yes!" he replied, "This guy, meet Hemlock, was with me."
"The more the merrier," I said. "We found the missing kids and just dropped the last kid, well, he magically grew up to a man now, back at his family. We're going back into the dungeon tomorrow to find out what is wrong with the magic, or try to. We also found a way in that bypasses all of the traps we've been having trouble with."
"Sounds great!"
Before we headed out, I stored all of the apothecary supplies with the herbalist I've worked with, and let her pick something from the supplies I found as payment. In retrospect, I really should have asked her if she had more healing potions.

Back to the Dungeon, again

As we got back to the dungeon, Ash said, "Check out what I can do now," and he started to fly up and over the wall that had been the tower.
That is when I remembered the gargoyles that attacked us before.
Right before the gargoyles launched at Ash to hit him.
The gargoyles swooped down on Ash, and DaVinci attempted to shoot them, but the arrow flew harmlessly past, Alfred threw a cold spell at them, but they swooped under and slashed Ash.
Ash flew as fast as he could toward DaVinci. I ran to get where I could shoot the gargoyles, but could not get a shot. Hemlock successfully shot the creatures as they threw rocks down at us.
DaVinci quickly drew another arrow and shot the gargoyles as Alfred hit them with a witch bolt, Ash turned and slashed them. I attempted to shoot the gargoyles, but could not get line of sight, no matter where I moved, but above me, I could hear chirping. Maybe the gargoyles were protecting their young? Hemlock shot them as DaVinci missed with his next shot. The gargoyle swooped down and slashed me, 
Ash swooped down after them delivering another blow and the gargoyles started to retreat.
"I think they are just protecting their young, so if we don't fly they will leave us alone," I said. We all agreed a short rest was in order before descending down the stairs into the dungeon, making sure the new guy knew where to step so we were not all blown up.
We walked past the room Denar was in, I ignored the stupid demon trying to call my name. I really should have been smarter than that, and not given him my name.
As we rounded the corner we heard the sound of shuffling and moving. We slowly snuck up and saw these strange clockwork creations moving around the room transcribing something. If we tried to talk to them, they'll give us short answers, but will always return to what they were writing.
"It almost looks like elvish, but not quite," Hemlock said as he looked over the clockwork creature's shoulder. He sniffed, "When it completed a word, it seemed like it briefly was burned, almost like he was inscribing a spell."
"What are you copying?" DaVinci asked.
"We are copying the books to preserve them."
"Who are you copying them for?" Alfred asked.
"We are copying them for the master."
"Who is your master?" DaVinci asked.
"Ogothe Ze is the master."
Just as they said that, a mostly human figure with large fangs and his clothes on fire emerged from the shimmering room behind us.
The creature ran forward and jumped onto Ash biting him. Ash grew paler as the creature seemed to grow stronger. I pulled one of my bombs from my satchel and quickly modified it, throwing the bomb at it. It fell back from Ash and ran towards me, biting me.
Ash ran through the sparkling doorway, he stumbled to a stop and looked around it was a room, no a realm full of dead bodies, and so many undead scrambled towards him.
DaVinci heard the screaming and came around the corner, impaling the vampire on me, killing it. Ash stumbled back through the doorway and as he looked back the doorway was only a tunnel of bones. 
Alfred managed to rip the other vampire off and destroyed it.
Hemlock called us over to the automatons, "Look the book he was using is returned, and now he's copying something in dwarvish."
"I don't know what else we'll learn here," I said, "Let's keep following the hallway." We rounded the corner and found the actual library. There were shelves of books in the room, but in the middle was a giant hole torn in the ground. On the other side of it a large automaton was counting down. As it counted down, out of the room to our right something started to come out.
"Come join us," I yelled at Alfred as he started to head towards the other doorway. He ran up to join us at the automaton just as it reached zero. The world flashed and we were thrown sideways.

Same place, just different

It was the exact same room, but somehow the place looked more decrepit. Some form of undead came around the corner and spoke some kind of hissing language, "Fizzbang wok here you why?"
Ash replied, "Curious."
Then it jumped at us.
DaVinci shot the smaller automaton that had come with the larger one, and the undead creature walloped on us doing so much damage.
I dropped a holy bomb on the creature. Ash screamed in frustration and hit it.
But more guys appeared from around the corner running in to join the fight.
Alfred cast a spell strengthening Ash and myself to protect us from evil. DaVinci ran in to hit the monster, and it stood up under his hit as Hemlock shot it.
I threw another holy bomb onto the giant bad guy, and the skeletons around him swarmed us, hitting and we were now bleeding all over that seemed to strengthen the Big Bad.
Ash hit him, and the creature cast some kind of spell summoning a mace that swung on DaVinci but missed him.
DaVinci swung on the Big Bad, and Alfred threw a witch bolt at him. My holy bomb hit it, and it screamed in frustration. Ash's hit missed as a zombie and a skeleton were hitting him, and some strange creature that was not fully here, hit him and he briefly looked less real. Hemlock shot the skeletons.
Everything was going horribly, no matter how much we hurt the creatures, more appeared, and while all of this was going on, the giant automaton was continuing to count down.
The strange ethereal hit me, and I went down, someone must have given me a healing potion because I woke up as the giant automaton said "Ten!"
I threw another holy bomb and the giant automaton said, "Initiating transfer." The light flashed and we again were thrown into a new world.

Plant world

The room looked different again, the walls were more decayed and it was a more lush land. "Nobody move," DaVinci said. We all stood still as the automaton counted down.
As we stood there a giant plant creature moved slowly towards us, we slowly inched away and around the automaton trying to keep out of reach of the moving plant.
No one knew what it was, but given our luck so far today, it was sure to be unfriendly and not something we wanted to mess with.
The plant creature continued to follow as we moved away and the automaton counted down, just as it was about to reach zero, Hemlock teleported through the automaton to its other side so he was close enough as we transported into the new location.

An idyllic resting place

This new location was perfect. The library was in perfect condition, all was calm, we looked around expecting something to try and kill us, but no, it was all calm. completely calm.
"Entering recovery mode. Next translocation in a day."
I guess we can recover now.

Report Date

22 Aug 2023