We awoke in our beds at the clubhouse after a long rest. At breakfast, we started the same debate we had the previous morning. To hang around town and prepare for the (re)election while Xeelie built magic items or go back to the Gauntlight. But that was cut short by a knock on the door. It was the town elders including mayoral candidates Osef and Carmine. They wanted to consult with us about the election. Evidently Carmine had agreed to withdraw from the contest. He had never intended these sorts of tactics. He was just taking advice (and money) but didn’t fully realize what was happening. Despite the lack of hard evidence, they were now convinced the accountants aiding him were under the employ of the Kartos Consortium and they meant harm to the town. They were looking for ideas on how to catch them so that they can arrest them? I’m not sure what happens to them if caught. It’s not like Otari has a prison. Execute them? Send them packing? Away, we were pulled back into this mess.
Some ideas were bandied about. None of them were very hopeful. Mostly TerStegan came up with a plan of sorts. Carmine can act as a double agent to try to get them to tell him their new plans. It was pointed out that they didn’t include him in the old plans but perhaps if he said something along the lines of “I didn’t realize you guys were prepared to use such tactics. I’m all in. What’s next?” It seemed obvious to us that if we took no new measures, they’d be suspicious and were not likely to try again for the ballot box. However, Osef said that it would take a unanimous vote from the council to deviate from town tradition and that’s not likely to happen. Along those lines, Carmine will tell them our plan was to count the votes the day of the election but that he could stop that vote and put them back in the guard house overnight. With extra guards. (I.e. some of us.) If they tell him they have a new plan, we counter that. If they go for the box again, we’ll put a paint bomb in it and they’ll be marked. Caught red handed. Of course, if we catch these two, that still doesn’t tie them back to Kartos but I guess first things first. While they pulled it together, we were told (by the GM) to go back to work on the Gauntlight. Xeelie did get Carmine to agree to have his daughter work on our magic item transfers. It doesn’t actually save anything, having Xeelie doing them so it doesn’t cost us anything to have Amica do them. That way, we can push that forward without leaving Xeelie in Otari.
Brian wanted to know where we would be entering the current level. That prompted a discussion on fixing the portals. It turns out, reactivating dead portals takes no money. Just an hour of time and some skill rolls. So, we turned on the one on level one, near the swamp dragon lair. (The one on level zero was broken and would require money and acquiring a more difficult ritual.) Xeelie made an Arcana roll and TerStegan made an Occult roll. That turned it on for 1-6 days. Next, we went to level 3 in the library area. That ghoul we didn’t kill was busy repairing books and shelves and such. Along with some of the other left alone creatures. Oakwood asked if he needed anything since he was kind enough not to give us any trouble. He needed paper, ink and such. He had piles of books ready. Each 1 Bulk was worth 5 gold pieces. And now that we had extra portable holes, we could haul some away. (So much for helping him.) We repaired that portal and since one of them rolled a critical success, it would be activated indefinitely. We then proceeded to level 4, next to the dining room.
It was here that Brian sprung his trap. (We should have been suspicious when he cared which way we were coming.) We saw an undead thing in the form of Volluk Azrinae. We had already faced a version of Volluk in this room and almost died so we were not thrilled to have to face him again. But this was a different form. First of all, its stats were jacked up as usual to face a whole party. Each round, it got a reaction to cast a Deathly Gaze which Drained. 1 on a stiff Fort save and 2 on a failed. That gives -1 to Con stuff including a level’s worth of hit points off the top. TerStegan and Xeelie were soon afflicted. Once “gazed” it had another attack that did damage and put the Doom condition on them. That meant you were one or more steps closer to death. And to add insult, it was against that depleted Fort save. Plus, a fist attack, high AC and saves etc. Xeelie’s attempts to identify it kept bouncing. It didn’t do a ton of damage so the real worry was the threat of character death. Once again, Brisco showed up in time to start healing people. Oakwood hit above average and Clarisa used a full load of Magic Missiles. On its 3rd round, Clarisa actually saved against that gaze. Thankfully Oakwood, who’s primary stat is Con, did not get targeted. So as often is the case, we were afraid for our lives in rounds 1 and 2 and it was dead by round 4.
Evidently it was a remnant of the original monster. According to the rules, Drained and Doom take a long rest per level to recover and they were down 3 and 4. However Brian said that this “depends on the monster”. So, we spent a couple hours mending the teleportation circle. One of them rolled a critical success so it was up permanently. Evidently, they recovered a level per hour (or was it two). We healed up and decided to press on since this was the first fight of the day. (I’m not sure why we didn’t wait some more hours for them to fully recover.) We hadn’t found the circle on the current 5th level but we hadn’t seen much of it yet. We went down to that level and down a hallway and came to a door. Xeelie was prepared to pick it but Oakwood used the copper key we got last time. It was a storeroom full of organs in jars and limbs wrapped in paper. There were some medical instruments but they weren’t worth anything. What there was was two weapon racks with a “gnarled stick” on each. One was identified as a Wand of Summon Animal, level 2. There was much discussion on what kind of animal a level 1 animal was. Answer, not much and certainly not worth a 3-action cast and an action to sustain. Brisco took it but I think it will be sold. The identify on the other wand failed so it was stowed for another try later.
The next room had two pits in the center plus three more in alcoves on the far wall. There was a stone throne with two levers. And two creatures. They were abomination sort of things with frog legs and multiple tongues. Their stats were comparable to ours which was good but it was their special attacks that were the issue. One went first. It leapt onto Xeelie, tossed her 5 feet on a stiff Reflex save and threw her down the pit. She got a Grab an Edge Reflex save which she made. It then hit her with a trip attack which dislodged her but then failed to toss her into its mouth. Good news, she fell 55 feet down, taking 22 points. When the second one went, it did the same to TerStegan except he missed the Edge and just fell. And before anyone could go, the party was split. That’s never a good thing however most of the healing was up and most of the damage dealing was below. So that became two fights as Brian switched from map to map.
Above, when they could finally go, they used movement to back away from the pits and get into the hallway. Thankfully, they didn’t have reactive strikes. The monsters were still hitting and tripping but 5 feet or 10 feet on a crit wasn’t going to get them down the holes. Thankfully those attacks suffered from MAP. Neither side did a lot of damage. Certainly not the TerStegan’s 30-50. Once they got Injured, they backed away too and started using a ranged acid spit attack. Those hurt more and did persistent acid damage which are always trouble. Oakwood got good use out of his Aeon stone again and his shield, acting as the hit point buffer. They finished them off right about the time the other half got back up. Meanwhile TerStegan and Xeelie landed in an underground lake. They actually landed on two slumbering Hydras. TerStegan got to the shore as did Xeelie. She cast Fast Healing on him. We could see the curve of the Gauntlight Tower but the stone was transparent. As if this was an observation area. Probably so that they could watch people tossed down the pits be torn apart by hydras. Thankful, the first Hydra rolled a 1 on its perception and didn’t notice them. It snapped at the second, assuming it woke it up. The second spotted the fleeing teens but snapped at the first. All that gave our heroes a couple round head start and they made it to an exit around the corner. From there, it was up the spiral stairs and back to the rest of the party.
We stopped there. Brian chose not to do any healing or refocusing or repairing. So, we’ll start there next time. A new dungeon level but the same constant fight for our lives. It’s not easy, saving the world.
