Session 53 - Into the Maze of the Shrine (part 2)

[avisarr]

Session 53 - Into the Maze of the Shrine (part 2)

At the bottom of the stone stairs, the passage opened up into an octagonal room. Of the eight walls, seven had identical doors. The eighth wall was the stairs that the characters were coming down. The floor was made of concentric circles of brick. They were colored and formed a large copy of the Jaidor Talisman glyph.

Martin checked the first door. It did not seem to be locked and he could see no evidence of a trapped. The party opened the door and it exploded in a massive fireball. Flames filled the room and the party were all knocked to their feet. Most of them were burned. After patting out the flames, they peered through the door they had just opened. It led no where. Just a blank wall on the other side.

The party decided to be more cautious and they retreated back up the stairs, out of harm's way, should there be any more traps. Tyron Orbus cast a spell which created a duplicate of himself, a shadowy counterpart able to exert force, but itself having no true corporeal form, an illusory double.

He sent the double back down the stairs. He could see through its eyes. The duplicate Tyron then opened each of the doors, one at a time. Various traps were sprung. Poisoned darts fired and clattered against the fire wall, a jet of acid hissed and sizzled in a puddle on the floor, poison gas whooshed from a bladder, a spring loaded blade shot out and sliced through air, a sepia snake sigil discharged harmlessly. The final door, however, did nothing and opened harmlessly. The party came back down the stairs to study it more closely. All of the doors led to blank walls. Including the last one, which had not bee trapped apparently. Tyron's magic duplicate opened the door all the way. The party peered at the blank wall on the other side. They threw a coin at the wall. It bounced off. They then tossed a coin at the door and there was a spark. It was then that they noticed the smell of ozone around this door. It was electrified.

So, seven doors. All seven were trapped. And all seven doors led no where. Just blank wall on the other side.

The party began a thorough search of the room. They searched every square inch of the stone walls and floor. It wasn't long before one of them realized the center brick at the center of the floor, a round brick, was not mortared in place. Rather, there was a very small gap. With effort, they wiggled the point of a dagger in place and lifted up the edge of the brick. It took them some time, but the managed to pry the brick out. It was circular and shaped a bit like a cork. It covered a small shaft in the stone which was only about 6 inches in diameter.

The party stared at the hole. A morphian could easily turn to protoplasmic goo and ooze his way down this shaft. They, however, could not. They dropped a continual light coin down the shaft and judged it to be about 15 feet down and the shaft opened up into another room down there. They tried passwall, but the stone here was of a different kind. It was Girrall (also known as Karrym stone). A heavy stone laced with minerals that deflected magical energy. Their spells would not be able to penetrate it.

Teela sent her magical mechanical spider down to take a look. This is a magic item she had had for some time. The mechanized arachnid, which usually traveled rolled up in a ball, unfolded its legs. A small enchanted mirror ejected from its abdomen. Anything the spider sees is shown on the mirror. Teela ordered it down the hole to investigate. The spider climbed down the hole with no problem and transmitted back images of a small round room and a stair case descending further down in the ground. The room was empty except for the glowing coin the party had dropped down here.

Finally the party decided on a plan. They would use Saramuthak's storage spheres (affectionately named pokey-balls by the players). Of course, this would negate the antidote in their bodies. However, the party decided that infection from the Scourge at this point was not a concern. The Scourge took 24 to 36 hours to kill. And they planned to fight their way to the center of the maze and seize the Talisman before the Scourge could kill them. Once they had the Talisman, Tyron Orbus was certain that it could cure them of the Scourge. Furthermore, if they become sick before they reached the center of the maze, Ugita assured them that the power given to him by his god could purge the disease from them. The party dropped some rags and pouches down the hole. Martin then sent his familiar, Weez, a weasel, down the hole and they had Weez gather the rags into a pile, forming a "nest" of sorts.

The party then allowed themselves to be "pokey-balled" in the enchanted glass spheres... one person per sphere. Ugita dropped the first glass sphere down, uttering the command word "Saramuthak" at the moment he released it. The contents of the glass sphere are stored as dark smoke and it takes a few seconds for the smoke to issue forth and take the form of the object inside. Therefore, it was possible to utter the command and drop the sphere down the shaft. It landed softly on the rags without breaking. (Ugita could have sacrificed a sphere and simply let it break against the stone floor, but wanted to keep them all intact). Having been activated, the sphere spewed out the dark smoke and the smoke formed Callister. The rest of the party was transferred down in this manner. Put in a glass sphere at the top by Ugita, dropped down the shaft and then brought out again by those who had already gone through. Ugita, being the last to go through, pokey-balled himself into a sphere. Weez, was sent back up to push the sphere down the shaft and then come down himself. In this way, the party managed to get through the stone shaft. They had possibly exposed themselves to the Scourge (they actually didn't know if the Scourge disease was down here in the subterranean depths) but they felt they could deal with infection if it occurred.

The party was now in a small stone room with only one exit – a set of broad stone stairs leading down. They assumed their marching order, Grimnoth out in front. Tyron Orbus cast a Fly spell and hovered a few inches off the ground.

Half way down the stairs, the party heard a "click" and each individual stair step rotated 45 degrees forming a continuous slide. The party slid down the ramp, out of control. Oil fell from the ceiling above coating the party as they fell. The party, all except Tyron, slammed into a spiked wall at the far end of the ramp. Grimnoth took the brunt of the damage, but Callister, Ugita, Gruebal and others were all injured and impaled on spikes. As they struggled to free themselves, Ugita cast some healing magic on Martin who was badly hurt. Good thing too, because a second later, the party heard another click and a small object fell from the shadows above. The party heard something shatter and another fireball exploded engulfing them all. Ugita's "Armor of Holrumna" automatically sealed protecting him from most of the damage. The rest cooked. Although they survived, the party was in bad shape. They were bruised, battered, bleeding, cut, impaled, burned, coated in sticky oil and now they were on fire. Gritting their teeth against the pain, they managed to pull themselves off the spikes and pat out the flames. Ugita cast several more healing spells on various members of the group.

No door was immediately visible, but a quick search revealed a secret door in the side of the wall. It was only 2 feet wide and 2 feet tall. It was large enough for most of the party. Grimnoth struggled to squirm through such a small hole and Ugita was forced to take off his armor to make it through.

On the other side, the party found a corridor that off in one direction. They could see that it opened up into a large room about 30 yards away. The party proceeded forward cautiously. They came to a huge chamber. The floor was lower than they were, a short flight of stairs led down ten feet to a lower floor area. The room was filled with a whitish mist obscuring vision, so it was impossible to tell how large the room was, but the echoes of their voices indicated it was huge.

The floor was covered in one foot square stone tiles, each bearing a glyph. The glyphs depicted the following images: a sword and hammer, a flame, a lightning bolt, snowflake, crown, egg, hand, wand, skull and eye. Ugita cast a fly on himself and he slowly made his way across the floor. About half way across the floor, a strange creature that looked like a manta ray with four large claws, swept down out of the mist and slammed into him. The flying manta ray grabbed him with all four claws and began hauling him up. Rothgar fired into the mist, even though he could not see Ugita. He aimed from the sounds of the struggle, but he heard his first arrow strike metal. The next one ripped through the creature, killing it. Ugita, wisely grabbed the creature and did not let it drop. Instead, he used it to cover himself, draping it over him. He then flew back down to hover over the floor. As he crossed the floor, he saw other flying manta ray creatures. They ignored him. On the far side, he found an identical set of stairs leading up out of the lowered floor area and a corridor on the far side. He returned to the group and he and Tyron shuttled them across one by one.

The party followed the corridor to the next chamber. They come to a close set of doors. Martin could find no locks or traps on either of them. The party opened up the door and peered in. Inside they found a large chamber. The floor was empty. On the far side was another door. Floating in mid air in the chamber where hundreds of weapons. Not just weapons, but weapons being clutched by severed skeletal hands, but pieces of armor (some with bits of skeletal bodies in them), decapitated heads, limbless torsos, etc. It was a gruesome spectacle. All of the heads, torsos and weapons were turned as if watching the party to see what they would do.

The two side walls of the chamber were covered in colored tiled which depicted a large picture of a lizard. As the party watched, the tiles flipped, shuffled and rearranged themselves to create a new picture – a lion. A few seconds later, the tiles changed again to form a picture of a horse. Every few seconds, the pictures on the side walls changed. It seemed the pictures cycled through about 40 different animals, randomly. The weapons, armor and skeletal body parts continued to hover in the air. They made no move.

Ugita sat in the doorway with his enchanted skull, his holy stones and began to chant in an attempt to turn the undead things. He was partially successful, some of the decapitated heads came under his control.

He questioned them and they responded. The party quickly learned that the weapons and body parts would attack any creature that entered the room that did not look like whatever was depicted on the wall. Ugita tried to free them with magic, but the power of the room was too great. He questioned them about where they had come from. They indicated that they had once been adventurers and explorers like the party, but that they had fallen in this room and had become a part of it. They told him that the only thing powerful enough to free them from this room was the power of the Talisman. Several of the decapitated heads begged the players to find the Talisman and come back and resurrect them.

Rothgar fired an arrow at one of the heads (which had not succumbed to Ugita's magic and was not cooperating). The arrow struck the head in the face. Then, one of the severed hands come over, plucked the arrow out of the head and then released it. The arrow floated up and joined the other weapons in the room. Rothgar smirked in annoyance.

Tyron Orbus cast an anti-magic spell, a globe of energy surrounding him and that would move with him, which would nullify all magic. He then stepped into the room and the floating objects that encountered the anti-magic field fell to the floor with a clatter. The party, using Callister's enchanted spyglass, Ugita's helmet's True Sight and Grimnoth's eye lens, quickly identified all of the magic items in the room. Most of the several hundred pieces of weapons and armor were non-magical, but a few were enchanted.

The party then used the following method – Tyron would walk in, neutralize a few dozen objects and then carry them out of the room. The party would then put them in the enchanted chest while Tyron went back into the room. Within 30 minutes, the party had emptied the room entirely. Everything – weapons, armor, heads, torsos, hands, etc. – had been stored in various compartments in the enchanted chest.

The few magic items that had been retrieved from the room were separated from the rest and the party took a few hours and a few spells to identify them.

The items were as follows:

Mechanoid Arrow – An arrow with a long complex head composed of tiny gears, blades, metal rods, pistons and bolts. When fired, this arrow mechanically transforms into a miniature golem – a mechanical quadruped. The little golem can obey commands, is intelligent, can morph and fold up into a cube, a snake, a variety of shapes and his original arrow shape. He's tough and damage resistant. This arrow is reuseable.\

Detonator Arrow – An arrow with a metal tube and dial that goes from one to 20. Dial is a timer – 0 to 20 seconds. Once shot, the timer runs down and then boom. Arrow explodes in fireball.

Sword of Karoch – A massive, two handed sword which glows and vibrates. Enchanted blade bites deep and severs limbs.

Bow of Selestar – Magnificent wood and horn bow. Steel wire string. Strong enchantment guides arrows to their target.

Liquid Armor – A vial of a thick, silvery liquid that continually moved around in the vial. If uncorked, the liquid would flow out over the skin and coat the user in liquid armor.

Bio-Enhancer Bracer – An ornate metal bracer with 5 vials built into it, tubes and needles. Allows the user to rapidly inject potions directly into blood stream. Also, if armed with a healing potion, the bracer will automatically inject it if the wearer is critically wounded. Vials are made of glassteel and are refillable.

Damage Reflection Armor - Bright blue steel armor. Mirror reflective finish. Damage REFLECTION. Any physical attack made upon the armor would be reflected back upon the attacker. The reflection of the attack actually comes out of the mirror finish and strikes.

Short Sword – A sword of dancing. Can be telekinetically wielded at range.

That's where we wrapped up Session 53. The party has just cleared out the room of floating body parts, acquired some nifty new magic items and a chestful of weapons.