Messick has possibly survived. His body has petrified from the demons magical sword attack. Anaxie has survived in a small crawl space thanks to Messick casting death ward upon the gnome. Jay Harris, after finally trying to redeem himself has perished in the crash. The group begins the coordinated effort of excavating the ruins in order to recover Messick's body. Fritz and Angel have summoned several azer to help with the excavation. They finally recover Messick's body but decide to keep going in order to retrieve as much of the demon's weapons and gear as possible. They are able to retrieve the two demon henchmen who's swords are magical. One can potentially petrify someone, the other can polymorph a foe.
After they are able to restore Messick to life and they have rested the group moves on. They follow the notes from the journal of Kwalish hoping to find him in the city of Daoine Gloine, the fabled city to which Kwalish said has found as was fleeing to. Traveling through the mountains again they eventually reach the other side.
Daoine Gloine
They look down, from the mountainside, to see the ruins of a city below. The city of Daoine Gloine. The upper parts of the city are toppled towers and crumbled buildings. But below a shimmering layer the rest of the city is clean and pristine. Below this line, there is no vegetation. Whereas above vines and other greenery slowly erode the city's infrastructure. After come experimentation they realize the whole city is filled with some sort of transparent ooze which quickly eats most organic matter, perhaps even some metal. Peaking out above the ooze are several buildings, so the group decides to investigate one.
They fly and land upon a glass topped temple. But as they move across it's roof they realize that the glass is really glass statues of people layered together, some broken in order to produce a good seal all around the roof of the building. Choosing one of the statues to carefully shatter they are able to see inside. Looking through they see below a vast open temple. Its floor littered with glass fragments of other statues and debris, giving the impression that the temple has not been used in a very long time. They carefully descend through the opening they have made in the ceiling.
The Tomb Of The Medusa
Inside they discover a gorgon. It is dead but someone has resurrected it into an undead abomination. It hisses at the intruders, clearly insane. Making sure to avoid it's gaze they are able to defeat the massive creature. Moving through the temple, the group finds various creatures, all turned to glass, apparently from the gaze of the gorgon. It would seem creatures were bound here to the walls, awaiting the gorgon to turn them to crystal statues. Whether as a sacrifice in honor or in appeasement it is unclear.
They eventually find a portal which leads to a large chamber. The chamber is dark save for a worktable cluttered with blueprints, tools and a great assortment of gears, screws and various unknown items. In the middle of the room, is a giant metal crab-like vehicle, suspended by chains above an opening in the floor with, what the group figures out, is more of the dangerous ooze-like substance.
They spend time in the garage, inspecting blueprints, collecting odds and ends and, eventually, inspecting the vehicle suspended from the chains. During their rest there, several crystal-like creatures emerge from the ooze, below the suspended vehicle, and attack the group. Acting on an instinct, Messick asks the creatures to halt their attack. They are friends and they are here to meet with Kwalish. There are here at the behest of Anaxie Zephries. The crystal creatures stop attacking and are able to communicate with the group using a rough gestures. After resting they decide they will take the crab-like vehicle, an giant apparatus of Kwalish, to descend into, and through, the ooze.
The Apparatus Of Kwalish
Fritz, after studying the blueprints he found for the apparatus, is a capable driver. He steers the vehicle through the ooze. Everyone looking through the various ports to see the city from within the ooze. Whole street scenes are setup with crystal statues of people posed in an assorted collection of dioramas. There is a street market with sellers silently hawking their wares. A group of children, their statues broken and refashioned to make it seem that they are playing football. The round crystal ball the the motionless, children seem to vying for seems to refract the sunlight differently than the crystal of the children. Sunlight passing through it seems to shatter into an odd rainbow.
The Danger Room
Using the vehicles controls, they find they can extend an articulated thin snake-like device which can attack to things outside the vehicle. Once the device connects with the football, the entire group is enveloped in a bright light. When the light quickly fades, they find themselves in a dark ruin. Walls crumbled and doorways littered with rubbled. They can see that the vast ruins are in fact, populated by dark figures moving quietly and quickly in the shadows.
The group quickly discovers that the dark figures are a threat. The black robed figures each run to chests situated throughout the ruins, once opened, they pull out various items. Some pull out scrolls, some weapons. Then they use them on the group. The adventurers quickly take cover and try to keep the enemies at bay but they quickly discover that the items the enemies retrieve from the chests are devastating effective. The enemies scrolls keep healing them, while other scrolls sends a swarm of meteors descending down upon their heads.
The adventurers finally decide to go for the chests themselves and are able to beat back the enemy. And as the last enemy falls, with a flash of white light, they find themselves back inside the vehicle.
The vehicle was able to connect them to the pocket dimension hidden in the crystal bauble. As they move through the city of ooze, they keep their eyes open for the baubles that have the same rainbow refraction, which were previously scouted out by Angel, as she flew across the city.
Clockwork Kraken
They surface, unsure as to how long the air lasts in such a device and unsure how long they were inside the pocket dimension. Opening the rear hatch to let in fresh air, they catch a glimpse of a massive creature moving through the ooze. It flashes across the street only to disappear into the street across. They quickly close the hatch, descend and quickly bring the vehicle to full speed. As the chase progresses, they are able to make out more of the creature. It appears to be a massive water creature, squid-like in appearance but made out of metal and crystal. It easily begins to outmaneuver the group in their vehicle. They speed down a street only to see that the street ends at the edge of the ooze, the mountainside looming quickly ahead.
Fritz panics and pulls back on the controls but not in time to avoid the sloping rocks ahead. Fortunately, the creature is amphibious, its swimming motion turning smoothly into a sprawling crawl along the rocks. They are able to turn the vehicle around hoping the clockwork kraken is not also amphibious. They see the creature approach and Azula banishes the kraken.
They decide to investigate a bauble seen outside a building, seemingly guarded by a few of the crystal-like creatures they have already encountered. After a bit of investigation and maneuvering of the vehicle they position the vehicle's rear hatch against the hatch embedded in the door of what seems like a glass blowing shop. Once in position they are able to open the vehicle's hatch as well as the building's hatch.
Entering the building it would seem it has been sealed off from the ooze surrounding the city. Inside it is dry and warm. Various crystal people stand motionless in a parody of the busyness of a glass blowing shop in full swing. One crystal statue, holds and inspects a large beautiful bauble, which gives off a rainbow refraction.
They touch it and are instantly transported into it's pocket dimension.
The Lost Laboratory Of Kwalish
The find themselves standing in a room filled with various magical implements, bubbling liquids moving through intestinally-shaped glass tubing. One side of the room is occupied with control panes. Another part of the room is filled with large canisters filled with what appear to be beating hearts. In the center of one wall, stands are large crystal cylinder, inside of which stands an illithid. A mind-flayer. And finally, in the corner of the room slumps a massive suit of armor.But there seems to be no Kwalish.
No comments:
Post a Comment