Session 9: Underground Exploration Report
General Summary
27th of Rova, 4707 AR
Baldur stays behind to keep watch in the tunnel. The rest creep ahead and begin exploring the caves.
There is a hideous creature with long arms, wicked claws, and a slavering mouth which splits open at the chin to reveal a lot of teeth. It gets a solid bite on Theo before it falls. Satashi determines that it is a Sinspawn, an unnatural creature sometimes found in old ruins.
Further in the cave, they step through a busted wall to find a tile floor. There is a beautiful red marble statue of an angry woman holding a book with a seven-pointed star on the cover, and a real ornamental masterwork ranseur (which Naeric swipes). Naeric declares that the statue depicts Lamashtu. Later on, Espa wonders if the ranseur is Lamashtu's holy weapon, which Naeric uses as a teaching moment to explain it's actually natural weapons like claws.
Next they find a small room with a fountain in the middle, and a flying green spooky head. It shrieks, paralyzing everyone. Before they recover, the head swoops in and gives Theo a terrible kiss. Naeric uses his moment of paralysis to determine that the creature is a Vargouille.
Theo splashes through the shallow pool to slash at the flying being, while Satashi, Naeric and Espa shoot various magics and projectiles through the air. Finally, Naeric's blast of lightning releases the horrifying visage from its life.
They examine the fountain, determining it is magical. After ten minutes of watching, the water swirls and cleans itself from the debris from the battle. Espa dumps out her waterskin and refills it from the fountain for later examination.
Further up the stairs, there is a circular staircase which has collapsed. Satashi suspects it leads to the surface, and was closed off to keep it a secret.
They head south from where they entered the dungeon, and find a black marble stone altar filled with filthy water. They enter a pair of large double doors, and are beset by enemies!
Erylium, Angry Quasit
They enter to find a Tiny demonic woman, a quasit, with leathery wings and spiral horns. She shrieks with rage when they enter, speaking in a mixture of languages they don't know and heavily-accented common. What they catch is that they're "daring to intrude upon the Mother's sanctum" and that "I, Erylium, will protect the Mother's unholy space from you intruders!" At the top of the raised platform is a bubbling triangular pool of glowing hot orange liquid. Erylium drops blood into it, looking worried when the glow dims. Two sinspawn climb out from the pool and set their sites on the intruders. Theo charges up to her, but Erylium turns invisible. This becomes a common theme, as she mostly shoots various spells at them, then disappears and flies elsewhere. Espa grows a fungal thrall up through the skulls decorating a fountain near the entrance, and directs it to keep the sinspawn -- Redmond and Blutarr -- at bay. Theo leaps off the platform and does a sweet roll through the landing and stabs at the air where he thinks the quasit remained. She becomes visible, blasting him in the face with a swirling array of colors. He is stunned, and blinded for a minute, while she flies away. Naeric hides in the closet, then pops out to tenderly dip Satashi and feed him an elixer of health. Neither Theo, with his blindness, nor Espa, in her cloud of spores, can see their moment of bonding. Erylium is caught in the spore cloud, and Satashi manages to land some impressive shots through the gloom. Naeric and Espa also trade spells with the quasit. She manages to get both Satashi and Naeric with a spell that feels like the worst hangover they've eever had. In a turnabout move, Naeric manages to blast Erylium with color spray, stunning, blinding, and dazzling her. Meanwhile, Espa and the thrall finally manage to take out Redmond. Even dazzled, Erylium is not without a fight. She transforms into a bat, making her hard to hit, and uses echolocation to navigate. She attempts to head out the doors, but they party is hot on her heels. Theodore finally recovers his vision and deals the final blow, twiling his rapier straight through her open bat mouth. Erylium finally falls, dropping dead in her true quasit form. The group examines the room, and particularly the bubbling pool. Naeric determines it is a runewell, likely a lesser one, used in Thassilonian magic. He knows they're used to summon sinspawn with sacrifice, and they have various types depending on the school of magic associated with them.Rewards Granted
Items:
- Masterwork ornamental ranseur worth 55 gp
- Erylium's dagger, with:
- +1 potency rune (worth 35gp)
- Returning Rune (55 gp)
- Sinspawn guard: 40
- Vargouille: 40
- Erylium and crew: 120
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