Weary from their eight or ten minutes of grinding through dozens of ghasts, the adventurers realized that they needed to rest up immediately.
They made their way back to the rotating dias spindle that would take them to the higher levels of the mine called Jackal and Ram, and exited this part of the mine called Drake.
The party made their way back to the holy church of Berronar Truesilver on Jackal and - over the course of a twenty-four hour period - accomplished a number of small tasks:
- In an increasingly-disturbing display of butchery, Ma'yah skinned one of the baby basilisks and made baby-back-basilisk kabobs over a fire;
- The party healed themselves up and prayed to their deities;
- New hit dice were acquired for leveling up, but all party members still couldn't take advantage of their new abilities without training ... most everyone is at least three levels higher in experience but no training take advantage of their new abilities;
- The party attempted to fiddle with various settings of the central control panel on Ram, releasing the mines' cleaning solution on the Jackal (a gelatinous cube) which got busy dissolving errant stone and rock;
- The party came very close to locking themselves in the mines for a very long time ... I didn't elaborate on that during the session but it was a very tense moment for me ... they almost crippled the spindle ... would not have been too fun ... but that didn't happen;
- The party finally decided to return to the Drake and continue their slaughter/investigation of what the heck is going on down there.
Drake is distinctive in that it wasn't built with the intention, care, or craftsmanship of the upper levels. It was built hastily, erratically, and there were odd shifts in elevations, mine starter channels that went no where, very narrow shafts, and no uniformity in the dig.
Further, the weird white vines and trees and leaves that literally grew from the earth and wound its way through the cavernous underground was unsettling: when cut, the vines would emit a bubbling white froth smelling strongly of ammonia, and that very liquid-like substance would prevent the vines from burning without the assistance of oil. But that wasn't the most disturbing thing about it.
When the party entered a larger space, they discovered the true horror of the relationship between the vines and the ghasts. Everywhere in this room, tucked away in the walls between the vines and roots and leaves, small white embryos of ghasts were nestled, with little vines that fed into their bodies like umbilical cords feeding that ammonia nourishment into the small fetuses ... they found a ghastly nursery!
Horrified, the party moved deeper into the nursery area and encountered much older specimens - perhaps toddlers and some around the same size of a six or seven year old child - suspended by vines against the wall, or, laying on the floor. It was shocking and terrifying as these beings were conscious and opened their gooey white mouths for the first time, branding teeth that they haven't ever used, confused by the party's presence but most likely very hungry.
Just then, one of the older ghasts stirred, and straighted up from its cradle of vines, and said:
Be ... Our ... Ghast ...
Be our Ghast ...
Let your next breath be your last ...
We'll rend the flesh from your bones
And we're truly up to the task!
We will tear, we will rip,
We promise quite a trip,
There will be oozing blood and gore
While we eagerly chew your lip....
You will sing and you will laugh all day,
For as a ghast you will say ...
Be ... OUR ... GHAST!
BE OUR GHAST!
BE OUR GHAST!
And with that, the party immediately exited while Siegride called a Shatter spell from the heavens and obliterated the lot of them.
Moving on ...
... the party encountered an enormous chamber. In the center of this chamber was an enormous 30' diameter gaping hole in the earth, and from it, enormous vines and tree trunks spewing from it and reaching out into the cavern. Four thick chains descended into the pit. Meanwhile, suspended next to the pit were four huge stone columns connected with thick chains that reached far up into the darkness of the ceiling which couldn't entirely be seen; there was, however, something large and circular suspended above the pit, obviously held there by the four counter-weight of the columns. Chains of various sizes were found throughout the chamber, apparently providing some support for this elaborate contraption, and there was another control panel.
The party ejected the panel and found one block missing from the usual four. They inserted a Drake control block and rotated a subject block that was there to a diagram of a circle. When they executed the command, a huge 20' diameter wooden platform descended from the ceiling to rest just above the opening to the pit.
Tamroohk leaped across the 10' expanse to land on the platform and investigated. There was a single control stick that had three positions: down, hold, and up. Just then ... Elan noticed that one of the large chains suspending the platform kind of jerked ... and went quiet.
As the party was exploring this, Vongur gently prodded and reminded the party of a few items that they had collected in their investigation of the mine. The first was a Sunburst subject block that they inserted into the control panel and unlocked, which caused a loud rumbling and a burst of sunlight some 20' in diameter to shoot into the cavern. Then, Vongur gently reminded the party of the sun and time calculations written out by hand found in York's apartments. They realized they were maybe just ten minutes away from an apex based on their current date (translated from the Dwarven calendar) ...
... and that ray of sunlight was slowly crawling across the chamber, moving with the slow journey of the sun so far overhead. As the sunlight touched the vines and trunks emerging from the pit, they smoked, recoiled slightly, burned. It wasn't enough to harm the vines, but it was obviously not very comfortable for the things.
The party began to quickly think through their options. They could wait until the sunlight was entirely over the pit and then descend, but the sunlight would eventually move on and they may not have enough time to get to the bottom of the pit and back up before their sunlight expired.
On the other hand, they could descend now, taking advantage what sunlight was available to them as it moved across the platform and spilled into the pit.
Excellent adventurers that they are, the party opted to go now, quickly, and descend into the pit! They all boarded the platform and Ma'yah threw the control stick into "down", and the thing lurched downward, moving at a very rapid 30' per round (six seconds).
What this created was a 4-dimensional set of movement on the battlemap. You had the pit at 30' diameter, the platform at 20' diameter, a 20' diameter sunbeam moving across the battlemap at a rate of 5' per round (six seconds), and a 30'/round descent motion into the bowels of the space! Every round, the sunbeam would move just slightly to cover more of the platform.Meanwhile, ghasts - nestled in the crannies of the vines and trunks in the pit, were awoken and leaped from their cubbyholes and hideaways to land on the platform to engage the party! There was close melee combat as the battlemap was restricted ... the ghasts that touched the sunlight burst into flames and their flesh boiled, taking 1/2 their hitpoints in damage every round due to exposure, but they were still able to attack! The party had to make saving throws against poison to avoid the stench of the ghasts, and, on every hit, they had to roll saving throws against paralysis! Every time a ghast was dispatched, more would take their place!
It was epic! Siegride cast a Thunderwave that shot five ghasts clear off the platform; Tamroohk wrestled with several of them, throwing them off the platform, too; Tolman was stabby and took down several of them with his blades; Llew was immediately poisoned from the stench but still managed to use his bardic abilities to cause some of the creatures to flee; May'ah was hit and paralyzed, only to be luckily Lesser Restored by Siegride; Gorbash took heavy damage but was still chopping them up; and Elan ... well, she tried shooting stuff but generally missed, but, connected on one or two shots!
Basked in sunlight, the pseudo dragon's scales adapted from the pale white of sickly underground vines to a golden shade of yellow and looked as if he was going to abandon poor Ma'yah to her paralyzed fate ... until she was Lesser Restored and snapped back to life, whereas the pseudo dragon seemed to change its mind and hang in there with Ma'yah ...
The suspended platform fell into the pit, descending further ... on round 4, some 120' down, the party then discovered the source of all things bad. An ominous sound was heard as the platform kept descending. Buried in the rock, suspended there for maybe a millennia or more, broken totems, askew in the rock, but still very intact. The totems depicted the head of a mosquito; a raven; a wolf's head; and a man with frog caught deep in its throat. And from the seed of these totems grew the wicked white vines and trunks and trees that wrapped into the earth, growing, living, giving birth to evil! Most of the party looked on in horror - they recognized the totems of the Barbarian tribes that used to populate these lands, for they had encountered them before in the grizzly White Stands! They were the symbols of Anguta, Tekkeitsertok, Amaguq, and Agloolik - the Night Stalkers - the evil ones of the ancient people! And buried as they were, they were still growing, and very much ... alive!
And that's where we left off! Next time, we might actually wrap up this adventure!
R
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