| Session Date | January 29, 2022 |
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| Base XP Gained | Carry Over |
The party decided that discretion was the better part of valor with regards to the temple of Demogorgon, so they decided to rest before trying to tackle it. Returning to the natural caverns, they followed this in an unexplored direction, eventually climbing roughly hewn steps up to a more finished room where they were immediately attacked by a strange undead thing with a normal head but a skeletal body. It went for Mordecai immediately and its touch seemed to have a powerful influence on him - he was geased to defend the thing, which he did by casting a silence spell to protect it from spell attack. It then attacked ZZ, also influencing him, though in no obvious and overt way. Still, it was slain.
Beyond, the party came to a room with a pillar of fire with a face leering from it. It demanded a sacrifice, so the party dutifully threw in the eye-marked poison potion of clairvoyance, after which it said it would answer one question. The party asked what triggered the sliding wall trap in the Demogorgon temple and it said that breaking the plain of the raised area would do it. Jarrik then tried throwing a magic arrow in to get a further boon, but his paltry offering angered the thing and the party was hit by a blast of intense light which blinded Bel, Mordecai, Orion, Knar and ZZ! The party retreated in no condition for much of anything. Fortunately, the blindness lasted only about an hour before it faded without lasting damage. During this time, a ghostly apparition of a Type VI Demon came by. It noticed the party and looked at them, but they did not react and it soon faded away.
The party now finished exploring the natural cavern, which ended with a hatch leading up to another tomb section. The hatch pivoted to move a statue of a Type VI Demon made of red stone. There were also four stelae similar to the ones in the other tomb area, but also a central one depicting four Type I Demons. Side chambers to the north, south, and east all contained a number of sarcophagi. (My sequence of events is a little fuzzy here as my notes are worse than usual!). The party opened a sarcophagus to the south to reveal a skeleton with a large amulet and broadsword. Orion grabbed them but the sword proved to be evil and took control of Orion. Worse, a wraith rose up from below the sarcophagus and attacked. The party fell back to the main chamber, though the wraith was driven off (I assume turned but I didn’t write it down, alas).
The northern section proved to have a secret door at the end that opened to a chamber with another sarcophagus, this one carved with an old man in robes holding a rod. The party couldn’t budge this one, so Knar used a knock spell. An old man, matching the carving, arose from this and angrily talked at the party in an indecipherable language. Knar cast comprehend languages even while the old man held his palm out at the party, then up to his mouth. At this point, he spoke accented Common and demanded to know why the party disturbed the rest of him and his people. He made some general threats about the “black fires of the Abyss” as the party slowly backed away. Apparently this was insufficient, as a melee ensued. The old man blasted Orion with magic missiles, knocking him unconscious. Worse, the four carvings of Type I Demons leapt to life and joined the fray, the old man blasting away at the party with his rod; one hit engulfed everyone in the party in intense pain, making combat very difficult for them all and spellcasting impossible, though Hans did manage to cast mirror image…and lost all three in one fell swoop (call that good or bad luck as you may). Mordecai did manage to use his staff of curing to bring Orion back. But things were getting rapidly out of hand, so Bel blew the horn of Valhalla, while ZZ invoked the powers of Chaos with his jester suit, wrapping up one demon in a nice silk waistcoat.
With the Mearling warriors tenuously holding the line, the party retreated back down the secret hatch below the demon statue. Somewhat improving from the pain, Knar cast web to block the way, and the party retreated with9ut further incident to the red room to recover form their near disaster.