Journal Entry 10.00 Taming the Wandering House

The party heads south to find the final reagent, crystal ooze. Traveling to a large lizardfolk fort, they negotiate a trade. There is a plane traveling house which the lizards want gone. Do this, and they will give the party the ooze.

General Summary

After discussing how to best get the final remaining reagent, Graykar says his contacts have come up with two options. One is to buy the crystal ooze directly, though it would be pricey and the authenticity of the product might be in question. The other is to go and get it. Fortunately, Graykar has a lead on this also.
The difficulty of this final reagent is that it is crystal ooze which only grows in the burial dirt of a lizardfolk mound. However, to the party’s knowledge, lizardfolk don’t bury their dead. They eat their dead as a way to transfer their strength to the next generation.
Graykar and Urik travel to find a bard who claims to have knowledge of another who might know. They encounter him at a small bar known as the ‘Hornless Unicorn’. On its sign is a dejected green horse with head lowered. Inside they find a young man singing. Urik remarks that the kid sounds like he was born with the raspy voice of an old man and sings with the glory of an old soul. Graykar points over and whispers to Urik, “that’s our man, or kid rather.”
When he is done after a few more songs and takes a break, they approach. He leads them on to another older bard by the name of Verix who used to travel far to the south in the lizardman territories.
As Urik and Graykar have returned, they see that Tars is visiting. The Sea Pronk, to which he is now the second mate, is in dock for some serious repairs, at least a month’s worth work. Tars is using this time to visit with Aja and Morvion while Rafe travels to their home village to see his family.
Tars is also visiting to ask Dame Imokan about the artifact he had picked up after trading in Sanguine Flourish. The two dice seem to affect luck strangely and have kept him alive on more than a few occasions when death seemed certain, almost as if events suddenly rewrite themselves. Tars is conflicted because he knows he has been killed only to find that this didn’t happen a moment later.
This time the entire party sets out to talk to Verix. Finding Verix in an older bar in the music district of the 9th tier, the party discovers he is blind. Due to his blindness, he is unable to guide them. However, he has a solution as he has helped others before with the knowledge gained from the travels of his youth.
He sends them to Gregory the Alchemist who can for 50 gold make a potion able to extract a memory from one person and impart it to another. Gregory returns with the party, concocts his potion, has Verix hold the potion to his head while thinking of the location of the crystal ooze. Then he finishes the potion and has Graykar drink. Graykar now has a fairly clear memory of how to get to the lizard man encampment where they will find the final reagent. The only side effect seems to be that Graykar is confused about some of the knowledge he possesses. This effect seems to pass after a few weeks.
Meanwhile, Aja asks Verix as to why he is blind. Finding out that he was cursed by a priest of Ramian Fax he had crossed, Aja makes it her mission to get the curse removed. After some searching, she finds the spells necessary to remove the curse and accomplishes her mission so that Verix can once again see.
With a goal now in mind, the party buys two flatboats and heads south. The journey is largely uneventful excepting a rather strong attack from a group of boggards. Graykar reminisces how at one time, a single boggard almost did the party in and now they have handled several with ease.
Several days south of Chrailis, traveling through they Black Marshes, they come upon a large embankment coming out of the ground. On it is a large wooden fortification manned by several lizardmen. Never having seen anything like this level of engineering before from lizard men, they cautiously approach.
Graykar comments that this far from Chrailis, the lizard men often respect a show of strength and might be open to negotiating. Casting some spells to augment their appearance, the party approaches the front gate. The party sees that most of the lizards manning the walls are green, however, they see a few reds mixed in.
As they approach, they are called to halt and speak. Introducing themselves they are greeted from past the gate by a tall powerfully built green lizard man who introduces himself as Crozzask and states he is the commander at this fort. The party asks for the crystal ooze and he refuses. Then a lizard which appears to be his aid says something quietly to him causing Crozzask to hiss out, “Make house go away, we give pale scaless the dirt ooze.”
The party asks about the house but doesn’t get much more information except that it needs to go away and that it has caused a lot of young lizard men to go missing. The lizards point in the direction of the house then indicate that they will even offer a guide.
Following their guide about a half day west, they see a large wooden house with a thatch roof surrounded by a small wooden walkway over the marsh waters. On the front of the house separated by the walkway appears to be a secondary building. The house has several windows, all appear to be shuttered closed.
As they approach, they hear a voice from the edge of the pier sticking out from the house. On it is a flickering image of an older man in a mechanized wheelchair. He is dressed in dignified clothing with a red plaid blanket covering his legs. He is looking in the general direction of the party without making any eye contact.
“Greetings Travelers, behold, in front of you is my house. I warn you, entering it can be quite dangerous and perilous. However, if you insist, then you might be able to help me out. You see, I’ve kind of lost my house, its gone a little bit of a wandering spree through the planes. I can’t follow it, just send this message after it. If you would be so kind as to help me retrieve my house, I promise you a great reward. To send my house back to me, you just need to find the heart of the house and return the heart to the chalice. By the way, don’t be in the house when you do this else you will travel back to my plane and may never see your home again.” He pauses, disappears briefly then appears again saying the same message again. This loop continues on.
Checking out the shed they see a small table with two chairs. In the middle of the table they see a golden chalice, which is unmistakable as the chalice the old man is referring to. Also on the table they see three small items, a brass key, a small steel ring made of tiny gears and servos resting on a folded note, and a small lantern with green oil inside. As the party tries to pick up each item, each item seems to be mostly insubstantial. It starts to move then falls through their hands to resume its former position.
Going inside the house proves to be difficult at first, the door doesn’t want to open yet seems to be sentient. The party has to trick the door into opening as it appears to be unbreakable and unpickable to Graykar’s skills.
Entering the main room, the party sees several piles of gears and mechanical parts. There are two tables covered with contraptions and strange tools. Also spaced around the room are what appear to be three mechanical humanoids just standing there.
Exploring the main floor, Aja enters a room where an old elaborate print machine sits. It emits a fog that rolls up along a glass shield. As she looks at the fog, she sees lighted red words forming in an unknown language. Utilizing her comprehend languages potion, she is able to see that the words scrolling by are actually detailing the events of the room with statements like Aja is shocked to see that the words on the teletype are talking about her or Graykar is examining the door to the other room and then she sees an alarming messages. The soldier bots are concerned that Tars is about the enter the Phase Controller room.
Suddenly scared, Aja screams out for Tars to stop, however, he opens the door. Three soldier bots phase into the room and begin attacking. Urik attacks one of the now moving mechanical humanoids in the room. Aja sees on the teletype, Urik attacks a Bulter Bot, the Bulter Bots begin to defend themselves.
The party is quickly outmatched by the strength of the soldier bots with Tars going down almost immediately, taking a blow which should have killed him. Thinking quickly, Aja types in the following message, The Soldier Bots stand down and regard the visitors as friendly. The Soldier Bots phase out and the butler bots quickly stand down also.
Tars recovers from the lethal blow. For a brief moment, Aja was positive she saw on the machine the message Tars is slain as the halberd pierces his heart. However, he seems to be ok now with no wounds to his chest, just to his abdomen. A wound which Urik is able to easily heal.
Aja also types in a few other messages along the lines of The House views the party as being friendly and meaning no threat and The Heart of the House vibrates with a loud thrum.
Exploring the Phase Controller room, they find a large device in the room with several knobs, buttons, and levers. Utilizing the three main levers, the party is able to bring the items on the table in the outbuilding into phase so they can be picked up.
Graykar picks up the ring and reads the note. It says “Up to 20 uses, creates a potent blast of physical force capable of felling the strongest foe.” He puts on the ring and tries it out. A powerful blast of force lances out from his hand and blows the table in front him apart, causing gears and sprockets to fly like missiles all over the room. At the same time, the gears and wheels of the ring start spinning and saw into the flesh of Graykar’s finger, sawing it off. Even after it lies on the ground, the ring continues to whirl eating part of his finger.
Experimenting with the lantern, when they light it produces a thick red cloud that quickly in a matter of minutes fills the room.
And finally, the brass key opens a trap door in the fireplace. Using the Phase Controller allows the party to turn the fire on and off in the fireplace.
Before going down, the party decides to rest up.
Descending into the basement, they see a room with a large mechanical dragon of exquisite detail lying in the middle of the room. The dragon is not moving. At the far end of the room is an elaborate organ with wires and circuitry coming out of it.
Exploring the room, they find several diagrams for mechanical devices on one of the work tables, many of which seem to be the blueprints for the dragon construct. Aja collects them and asks Graykar’s to put them in his backpack. Further exploration has Aja looking intently at the organ. She pushes a single key and a loud note booms out filling the room. Morvion happens to be looking at the dragon when Aja pushes the key and he sees a single eye open of the dragon. He quickly tells her to stop. The dragon doesn’t react anymore.
Aja wants to push a few more keys, however, the party urges her not to touch any more keys and she heeds their advice.
Exploring the side rooms further, they find a bedroom to one side. In it is nothing of interest except few books what appear to be possibly stories or fanciful histories.
To the other side they find a dining room. Exploring it, they find a fully set table with several butler droids surrounding it. Finding that the droids are trying to serve the party dinner, some of the party sits down and finds the meal to be quite filling while others like Urik refuse to try food from strangers.
Continuing on, the party finds an enclosed theatre with an arena in the middle. When the party enters the arena, they find a field has popped up which keeps them from leaving. A large image appears in the middle of the arena and speaks to the stands that the demonstration is about to begin. In the stands around the arena, spectral audience members begin filling the long benches.
The party discovers that the demonstration is actually the display of three models of attacks bots. In sequence, three waves of bots attack the party. They defeat the three waves one after another. Then the demonstration is over with the large image saying that all three models are available for purchase.
Urik notices that the glass floor actually has a hallway beneath it. Rearing back his hammer, he slams it into the floor creating a large hole. The party descends to a lower level to find a small maze filled with sprung traps. Navigating the maze, they find their way to a vault with a thrumming sound coming from within.
Getting into the vault, they find the heart of the house a red liquid in a glass decanter hanging over a large flame. Not finding any way to remove the liquid without having it phase back into the goblet which it sits, Morvion tries drinking it. This time it doesn’t reappear in the goblet.
Aja also finds a large manual on advanced topics of construct creation. She keeps the book with the intention of studying it at a later date.
As they leave, they discover that the traps have reset themselves. Fortunately, Graykar suspicioning this might happen had disabled many of the traps on his way through the first time. As they traverse the maze, they hear a loud klaxon blare three times then the house starts to shake for about 30 seconds. Arriving back to the main floor, this happens again and looking out the door, they see the house is sitting in a large field of ice. It is frigid cold from a sharp wind when they go outside. None of the party has ever seen such a terrain nor experienced such a biting cold outside of a magical attack.
Morvion tries to regurgitate the liquid to no avail. Then he cuts his wrists doing serious damage to himself to fill the chalice with his blood. This also doesn’t work. He then decides maybe he needs to try and urinate it out, so he drinks some liquid and waits.
During this time, the klaxon blares again and the party sees the house is now on a mountainside overlooking a large valley with a great city in the distance, several trails of smoke ascending into the sky from multiple chimneys and factories. It appears to be early evening and the city is unnaturally lit up with amber lighting.
Morvion now feels the need to urinate so begins to go to the outbuilding when Aja stops him, saying that if he returns the heart now, they might be stuck on this new plane. So he waits.
The house shifts again, this time a desert. Thirty minutes later it shifts to a forested woodland.
As they wait for the house to shift, they see several lizardmen rushing the house. At first, the party thinks they are hostile, however, Aja can translate that they are yelling for the house not to leave.
Once the lizardfolk are on the walkway, the party discusses events with them.
The leader of the lizard men is a red lizard, taller than the other green lizard. He is dressed in robes and is obviously a spell caster. He has cast a tongues spell and speaks fluently in the native language to each of the party as they individually hear him. He explains they were in the house when it shifted. Unknowingly they left the house and it shifted, leaving them stranded. It reappeared a few days later and they weren’t able to get back to the house in time, so this time they waited and when it just appeared, they were ready to return to the house.
They agree that if the party can help them get back to their homeworld, they will get the crystal ooze for the party. The party agrees. The house shifts two more times before returning the marshlands that the lizardfolk recognize, they hop off quickly promising to return with the ooze.
Finally able to relieve himself, Morvion urinates a red liquid into the chalice. Rather inelegant he thinks to himself, wondering if Aja’s use of the teletype hasn’t somehow bonded her to the house and forced this method of extraction as she mentioned this very idea in the vault early on.
Doing so cause the house to disappear. They wait for several hours for the man in the wheelchair to appear and give them their promised gift. He never appears. Exiting the landing and leaving the outbuilding behind, they start out on the trek toward the lizardfolk camp. As soon as they all leave the structure, it disappears altogether.
Not making it very far, a single green lizard man approaches cautiously. He is carrying an earthenware jug, saying the ooze is inside. He also cautions to be careful because the ooze is highly, he stumbles for a word, before getting out the word caustic. He also says that Far Fort is in the debt of the party for returning some of their youth and that Crozzask has declared the party to be honored guests and can stay in the trading huts should they find their way this way again.
With the ooze in hand, the party heads back to Chrailis. Their return journey meets a lot more resistance as they near the city. They run into a group of militarized lizard men who they have to fight off. Graykar is the first to mention how this group seems better armed than the normal bone weapons used by the lizards near the city, actually using metal weapons and some metal armor.
And this first group seemed to mark them, causing them to be harried all the way back to the safe areas of the city. Overall, the party fends off over six separate attacks. Once they near the city, they meet a large group of Rangers patrolling the marsh lands and report their findings only to be told that over the past few months, that such attacks are becoming a common occurrence. Traveling south of the river is getting quite dangerous as not only are the lizards getting better arms but are also seeming to get better training.
Returning to Dame Imokan and having gathered all the regents they await further instructions. She says that the now need to retrieve Jerig from where she has him hidden. Her healers are reporting that he has recovered enough to be coherent and might be able to finally answer some questions about Hursing and about if there are other notes and research materials to be found.
After returning, Graykar heads to the temple of Valshin to get his finger reattached, which they do so for a modest donation. He can't help but notice that it is about a half inch shorter than it was before where the ring had eaten part of his finger.

I like standing still,

but that's just a wishful plan

Ask me where I come from,

I'll say a different land

But I've got memories and

travel like gypsies in the night

Alice Merton

The Wandering House in the Swamp

Inside - Top Level

Basement - Top Level

Trap Level

Vault Room

Report Date

30 Jul 2018