We started with a conversation with Otari’s ghost. Several people had various things to say but I think it can be summarized into 3 primary areas. What happened to him. The Roseguard fought Belcora 500 years ago. Their wizard had some up with a spell to prevent her from fleeing down into the lower levels. Most of the fight occurred on the second story which is all but gone. He fell into the lower levels when the stairs collapsed. He wandered, looking for an exit. He passed through a lot of the challenges we had faced however he hadn’t gone below where we already were. He went through the library, killed the Minotaur whose bones we saw and eventually fell to the Otyugh whose body we had found. He/we assumed the fight continued and she fell at that pool of blood at the base of the tower.
Second, what do we have to do. There is a barrier at this level that prevents going any lower. He thinks she turned their wizard’s barrier against them. She used “something precious” from each Roseguard member to power the ritual. He thought that we’d need to retrieve those items, find the ritual and reverse it to get passed. His item is his Skeleton key, found with his body. We also need the Rajani sword, currently under lock and key by the adults in town. And linked to Amicia. To our surprise, the holy symbol in the procession of Oakwood’s father was not an item. Otari thought her cloak would be more precious to her. We assume she was buried with it so it would be in her sealed tomb under the town of Otari. And we need that holy symbol to open it so we still have to get it from the adults. Lastly is the wizard’s book which hopefully has the ritual. We had no idea where that might be. If it’s amongst all the books we’ve seen in this place, that’s quite a haystack. However, when asked, Otari thought it might be elsewhere. He “suggested” (hint hint) we talk to the town wizard. Anyhow, that’s quite a list of difficult problems to solve. The big question will be weather we try to convince the adults on what is going on or assume they’ll shut us down again and “steal” the stuff we need to save the world.
Lastly, what can we do for him. Our ghost experts think that he is tied to this cave, the place of his death. He thought he could not move on because he is somehow tied to the Gauntlight. Our working theory is if we can stop Belcora (or her ghost or her minions) he’d be free. Xeelie asked what he’d like done with his bones. He wanted to be reunited with the cleric in the tomb under the town. Apart in death but together again in the afterlife. We gathered his bones so we could put them in the tomb when we break it open. In addition to his Skeleton Key, he pointed us to his +1 studded leather armor (which was given to Brisco) and Venom Dagger (which will be sold). He told us where the ritual and barrier were. And asked that we keep him updated. It’s been kind of boring down here after 500 years. At least the Will O Wisp won’t be bothering him anymore. Eventually, we managed to pry the knowledge thirsty away and continued with our explorations. Xeelie took lots of notes.
We followed one river and discovered that it led to the room with the Gibbering Mouther we had recently killed. The next cave led to a vast hallway. To the south, we could see the scintillating barrier. To the north, a hexagonal room. However, there was some lady and her puppy at the barrier so we headed that way. She claimed to be heading to the gladiatorial matches, promised to be down here somewhere. Some players had vague memories of talking to someone about them long ago. She didn’t seem to be a ghost and was up on current events in Otari. She asked who we were voting for which opened the discussion on whether we could vote. What is the voting age and what was our age? She had two different colored eyes that evidently identified her as a Hag or hag related. Her puppy gave people the “powerful evil demon” vibes. There were continued discussions while Xeelie tried to use all of her knowledges but other characters started wandering off. Since this hag/witch wasn’t doing anything, we decided to ignore her and head north. After all, we’re not murder hobos.
To the north was a large room with a raised platform in the middle. On that was a huge stone with seven gashes across it where energy was pulsating out. There were 2-3 doors exiting. However, before we could do anything, 4 undead hands crawled out followed by 4 Lesser Wisps. As per normal, people demanded to know their strengths and weaknesses since we had fought them before. And were pointed at the Bestiary list. And as per normal, the information there was lacking. But we already knew what there was to know. The Wisps were immune to all magic and had no weaknesses. And the hands were undead. With a full load of players and 8 monsters, the initiative order was packed. Everyone did their normal stuff. TerStegan waited for his initiative to come up so he could start slaughtering them. Brisco complained about not having any healing spells left and not having any other spells that were useful. Xeelie did her Find Weakness class powers. Clarisa fired a cantrip at two hands and last going Oakwood finished them off with vitality energy blasts.
After a round and a half, 3 hands were out and 1 wisp. Everyone saved against the Wisp’s sparkles in round one although TerStegan used a hero point. Clarisa critically saved so she was immune for 24 hours. However round two, Oakwood missed his save and became Confused. And is poised to start attacking random friends. Meanwhile, that witch and her evil puppy had moved up. Were they going to help or attack? However, at that this point, Brian had a potential emergency and had to drop off. It turned out to not be an emergency but by then, it was too late to get back going. Next game is next week to accommodate BTO’s schedule where we’ll pick up in mid round.
