| Session Date | October 29, 2022 |
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| Base XP Gained | 4989 |
The party stepped off the teleporter pad into a round room. They examined the pad a bit to see if it would bring them back to where they just were, but it no longer glowed and clearly was intended to be one way. They sound came into a room with a number of weird mutant monsters, strangely deformed combinations of various creatures and humans (and some none of the latter). They were immediately hostile and a melee ensued. As they were cut down, though, they would begin to rise up once more to fight. Du’ took care of this with a produce flame spell.
A nearby room resulted in the same thing, though Hans was able to slow these ones which made the fight much easier. One was literally disarmed by Burt’s Shambler! Beyond the second group was a room with a carved wizard face on one wall that gave a vague and largely unmenacing warning. The party found a second teleporter room beyond, this one glowing and apparently ready for transport. However, they decided to complete their explorations of this level before attempting it.
In one large room they saw strange glyphs carved at either end of a very long room. As they sensed a trap, they did not enter and moved to another room with a lone chest. But, it too was detected as a trap. Jarrika slipped into the room and did a wide circuit around the chest, dropping rope behind her. Then, once outside, the party pulled the whole chest out, setting off a terrible roof-dropping trap that crushed the chest. Sadly, it was empty anyway.
In another room they found a series of preserved heads mounted on the wall. The party decided to take one, a copper dragon. When they did so, a potion dropped from its mouth and miraculously didn’t burst on the stone. A quick search found one in another head. A room beyond had more trophies, but these all of the most hideously deformed creatures, which the party speculated were failed (successful?) experiments by Copper or some other wizard.
The party was ambushed via secret door by another group of mutants. Though tougher than the previous ones fought, they were soon destroyed and burned. Nearby, the party came to a room with a door of the strongest metal any of them had ever encountered. Inside was yet another skull atop a black pedestal. This one asked, “ho among you is brave? Who will accept my challenge?” Jarrika stepped forth and suddenly was transported to a corner of the room, surrounded by a force field. Next to her was a second force field holding a Bugbear. The field between them dropped and the bugbear attacked, but Jarrika soon slew it. She was beamed back to the party and found she’s received a potion. More challenges followed, of increasing difficulty. Dane went next and defeated a Gargoyle handily, receiving a crossbow of distance. Du’ took on an Olbear which he handily defeated with a hold animal spell; he became a little harder to kill. Helgavinka had a tougher fight with a Fire Elemental, but her sword was too powerful for it; she received a permanent increase to her strength. And finally Jarrika returned to the ring, defeating a Gorgon after a tough fight and managing to avoid being turned to stone despite many chances to fail. She received a boost in her skill (i.e. a lot of XP!)
Pleased at their successes, the party now made their way back to the nearby secret room from which they were ambushed to rest.