The group trails after the fleeing gas and the techno-cleric uses a homing device to try and locate the vampire-spawn. They spend many minutes circling around, opening doors and exploring areas before realizing that their quarry might just be inside of a statue they passed by. Breaking the stone reveals a cleverly designed ‘coffin’ in which the creature is reforming. They press a flaming flail against the occupant while the rest of the party looks on.
When the satisfaction fades, the question of a missing gnome once again rises to the surface. As they set off in the last direction of travel, the mage uses his robes to track the gnomish migration path. They pass a few vault doors and suddenly the temperature drops as an elemental tornado of ice and sleet blasts around the corner and attacks the party. The ensuing combat ends with victory and a blast-frozen dwarf. Backtracking along the icy trail leads to a gnome that is masquerading as an ice cube.
As the party lugs the frozen corpses along and ponders retreat, they encounter an expeditionary group from the church. It seems that for the moment their interests might align, so they explore some more, ending up near another pair of vault doors. The keyhand is used to unseal it and the opening of the vault releases a gaseous plague that consumes some – and in a few cases, all – of their memories. The ones that remember how to flee do so and the depleted alliance tries to depart the area, running into a band of cultists that are also exploring the warrens.
Another battle ensues with Zaal’s lightning bolt providing an excellent opening salvo. There are injuries, but no more casualties and they all manage to escape back to the church’s stronghold. Though the church is vary of their motivations – and the fact that they killed a church paladin not but a few weeks back – their claim of seeking the destruction of the key is true. The church restores life to two of the fallen champions of Ptolus and assembles a team to accompany them when they return to the warrens.
In the interim, the city has been terrorized by reports of an icy troll that steps out of thin air to attack passers by. An old and powerful crime family seems to have been terrorized by the vault-dweller that lived under the Rosegate House. It seems at least one of the hierarchy might have been a vampire. The wizards of the pyramid have also been busy. They use powerful magic to trap the noxious gas back in the vault, but the fact that the door is unsealed means that anyone else that passes by might open it and restart the terror. If time were not already of the essence, it sure is now. They have also spent time and political capital gathering intelligence about the motivations of the church. There seems to be a body of evidence pointing towards the church looking for an item that would tip the balance of power in Ptolus towards their interests.
To preserve the resources they’ve invested in the party’s success, they also send along a representative in the form of a fighter-mage who can detect magical emanations through concentration alone. He is equipped with a scrying beacon so there are remote witnesses to whatever happens.
So it is as the group re-enters the passages. There is evidence that other adventurers have been within and they make haste to return to the inner vaults. There are signs of fresh conflict in the hallways and there is some trepidation as the mixed group advances but there are no conflicts as they climb the stairs and resume their exploration.
A large hallway full of statues and a prismatic shield consume hours of time before being abandoned. Investigating the area where the winter storm emanated doesn’t provide much clarity so they find a new direction to travel and they pass into an area where a sludge-filled fountain spawns a deadly pudding of some sort that does its level best to end them all before it is slain.
An investigation leads to a secret hatch, which leads to a hidden ladder, which leads to a chamber containing an immense statue of a winged lion with a single exit beyond it. The exit is explored and leads to more hallways and vault doors, a beautifully painted ‘chapel’ and a smoky glass floor beneath which swirls a …dragon? Above the floor floats a massive throne that might be comfortable for a large reptile, but is currently unoccupied. Woah. There’s some stuff going on here. More doors lead to a statue that asks a scary question about morality, so the rogue flees to go seek the church folk. They return and answer correctly – and a secret staircase is revealed.
The stairs are climbed and a vast cavern blocks the way. It seems that it is also a dead zone as the party’s magical items are suppressed, much to their dismay. It looks like a return to old-fashioned spelunking techniques is in order. The vertically challenged duo of gnome and dwarf set off across the cavern floor with a bundle of rope and a grapnel. The rest of the group members pause, snack and chit chat – until Zaal is accosted by the pyramid representative.
He seems to be suffering from a psychotic break as he babbles urgently about the church folk being disguised pactlords and the pyramid’s back up plan to seal everyone inside the vaults if they can’t finish the mission successfully. The pactlords are not unknown to the group by virtue of the techno-cleric having donned a bone ring that grafted to his hand and connects him to a sort of hive mind presumed to be their communication network. The ring also allows for locating the wearers, so it seems plausible that there might be another group involved. Perhaps they are working with the cultist bands, but it is also possible that they are using the cultists as stooges. The successful deletion of a high ranking cultist and many minions by the party has left a bit of a jumbled landscape.
This news is alarming to Zaal and he sets about trying to subtly inform his colleagues of these new internal threats – or are they the ramblings of a disturbed individual? In either case, paranoia is being ratcheted to new levels as the gnome scales the cliff on the other side of the chasm. Upon reaching the top, he is promptly attacked by a horde of grey-skinned, strangely bestial humanoids. Fingers tries to fling himself off the cliff and grab on to the rope. He is partially successful and managed to slow himself enough that the fall is only nearly lethal.
The dwarf shoulders the damaged gnome and hoofs it back across the cavern. He is hauled to the top and the clerics set about restoring health. As the group reverses direction, the pyramid agent’s demeanor changes completely and he returns to his previous stoicism. Did the pyramid programming revert once the dead magic zone was left? Was he trying to keep the group away from the area beyond? There is much to ponder as they retrace their steps and head off in a direction that might let them loop behind the shimmering wall that blocked their initial path.
Leave a reply