We started with a Battle of the Bands in the tavern that had no business exiting down here. I.e. a skill challenge. Oakwood used acrobatics, rolled a 7 for an 18 and lost. Brisco used his Wildsong (nature) augmented with a summon animal for a +1, rolled a 10 for a 25 and a win. Clarisa breathed fire with a focus spell to use intimidation, rolled a 14 for a 26 and a win. TerStegan finished with performance with musical accompaniment cantrip for +1, rolled an 8 for a 24. That was a tie but it went to us. Lastly was a group roll with a +3 for the 3 individual successes. TerStegan rolled that for us, rolled a 15, got a 32 for a win. But he wanted better so he used a hero point and rolled a 4 (14) for a 31 and a win. No cash prize. Nothing gained. The band left the stage to their room behind. We talked to a Morlock barmaid. She was eager to “go under the knife” and be upgraded like the Female Drider bouncer. Evidently, they were all waiting for the call. The drink options were poor after 500 years. Unfortunately, only TerStegan could speak undercommon so the rest of us were sidelined. He tried to get directions to the head surgeon but they were pretty convoluted. But truthfully, we were going to go into every door eventually so it really didn’t matter.
The closest door was where the band went. It had some stage props and another door. The band was in this room, smoking some stuff. TerStegan talked to them a bit but they had nothing useful to say other than don’t piss off the Drider. The next door was into the band’s dining room. Another door lead back to the bar and to another door. That door led to a room with no doors, some sort of office. And an unknown creature. She spoke 3 unknown languages until she got to undercommon. She offered to hire us as the new band when TerStegan told her we beat the current band. She fired them on the spot but TerStegan talked her into keeping them since we had better things to do. She then said the audience over, get out. So, we left.
We were back to the tavern. We went through a door behind the bar that led into the kitchen. The bartender was annoyed but didn’t do anything. There were 3 people, chained in alcoves. One was an unconscious drow, obviously beaten. The deep gnome looked okay and the 3rd was a human woman with a missing hand and hanging from a hook. We shut the door before we started talking to them. The drow said he was waiting to be transformed. He had been captured from his drow land, deeper underground. TerStegan tried to get more information on where and what that was but didn’t get anything. I suspect the module left that undefined. I.e. it was “elsewhere.” He was going to try to pick their locks with Xeelie missing but Oakwood’s key to the cabin was similar enough to work. The drow thought he could find his way out if we took him to the central spiral staircase. The gnome was evasive about his home but took the same deal. TerStegan asked them to put in a good word for us in their homeland in case we ever ended up there. They promised to take the human with them since she was pretty out of it. We did pick up a jar of deadly nightshade mushrooms in that room, assuming it was worth something.
There was one last door into a pantry. However, it was full of yellow mold. DC 26 Fort. TerStegan crit failed that for drained 2 and 4 points of damage. Brisco tried a treat poison on him and rolled a medicine check. He succeeded and gave him a +2 on his next save which was next round. He got a success and dropped one stage. Brisco’s next roll was a failure but not a critical failure. However, TerStegan crit failed the next save and took 16. Brisco gave him an antivemon potion for +1, missed a medicine, used a hero point and did a crit success. That all gave him a +5 but he still failed and stayed at drained 3. The next time he rolled well but the spores expired after 6 rounds anyway. But there might be treasure in there so we kept at it. Brisco went and talked to the spores but could only manage a 15 diplomacy roll. But the GM made him open the door first so he had to make a save. And now he was poisoned. He stepped in to do a quick search since it couldn’t get worse? He spotted a potion and grabbed it. His next save was a crit fail, stage 3 and took 11. He tried to treat poison but failed. He missed that save and took 21. Oakwood gave him his antivemon potion and he eventually got better. Oakwood did his healing thing and then Brisco did treat wounds on both as well. It took a total of 30 minutes to get them both back up. And probably more wall clock than that. The potion turned out to be a moderate healing potion but since we used two potions in getting it, it was probably a net loss.
The next door led into another teleportation room that was being used as a store room. TerStegan and Clarisa were experts in the needed skills. She made the roll but he did not so it was not activated. Another hour used up. Oakwood convinced them that we really didn’t need to fix this one right now. We moved on. We went through the bar and out the main double doors. No one objected to the freed prisoners coming with us. That led to a short hallway that then went to a long hallway. That led to the room Clarisa fell down into. But that finally got to the spiral stairway. However, we ran into a couple guards. The large Seugathi guard went first. It moved up and used its reach longsword on TerStegan. But it licked it first to add poison to it. And crit with 20. 22 points plus another Fort save. He crit saved that. Brisco started within the range of the Pitiful Moan but made his Will save. He moved into the stairway and did Rousing Splash on TerStegan across the gap. TerStegan made that Will save as well. But he was in another aura and made that one too. He turned on his aura, stepped forward and attacked the large thing. And did a mere 15. Oakwood turned on his aura, moved up but not close enough and crit with a blast. But sleepy DG accidently did vitality damage so he did none.
Clarisa moved up and missed with a TK Projectile. I think she was the only one to miss a save for sickened 1. The small guard missed TerStegan with a claw. It tried to push past him but failed. And missed again. The big one acrobatically managed to slide past TerStegan to get flanking. Although he did take damage from Oakwood’s fire. He then crit because of the flanking and TerStegan took another 21. TerStegan made that save. And it missed on its last attack. Brisco saved and used Electric Arc. One crit made and on crit missed. And then missed with his trident. TerStegan attacked the small one to remove the flanking advantage and crit. He did 33 and killed it. It exploded and did acid to most of us. We all saved but the big one did not. So, we took none. TerStegan then swept over to the big one and did 21. Oakwood hit for 18 and then missed. Clarisa had to move a bit to get a shot. She did the TK thing and hit this time. It was only 9 but it was enough to drop it. TerStegan got some healing and we sent the prisoners on their way down the stairs.
On the other side of the stairs was a door. That led to a T. To the north we thought it went to a viewing area to see the hydras. To the south, was a room with two alcoves and a door across. That door was more of an image of a door with no handle. We were suspicious. We spiked the entry door open. The alcoves had key holes. A round hole for a round key that we found earlier. Oakwood turned the key and the north door closed, despite our spikes. But turning it, the other way opened it again. The other alcove had 4 key holes and we didn’t have that key. Evidently it would take a master thievery and 4 high DC successes to pick it. So, a dead end. We went around the other way through more hydra viewing hallways. That ended in a wall that looked an awful lot like it should be a door. It took some rolls but we found the hidden pressure plate eventually. We think the surgeon guy the mummy wants us to kill is just around the corner. Another boss battle in a 10 by 20 room. Next time.
