Red dust and foul air puffed through the portal opened by Menka’s passwall. Before the party entered the underground we heard a familiar shriek off in the far distance, in the hills. A shriek we had heard on our way out of the Temple of Diancecht under the apiary.

See Grom’s description of the area on pg. 318, in Session the Fifty-First.

Cathal approached the portal and noted the presence of evil. Pervasive though not yet intense. He walked through the entrance unharmed and heard rushing water in the distance. The portal had appeared in the wall of a large chamber carved out of the living rock, with a ceiling 25’ above his head. The reek of pelagic corruption assaulted his nostrils and a fine, red dust lay everywhere.

The party followed Cathal into the cavern. Chiselled out of the red curved walls, their heads joined in the center of the ceiling like an arch, are two rows of images depicting a two-headed king gazing sternly down on those below. As the party entered the chamber, the carved faces appeared to follow the party as they move.

An arched portal lead into a hallway in the northern wall. Between the party and that portal, a human corpse lay on the floor. A bloody trail lead from beyond the portal to the body. Looking more closely, we saw that he had been impaled by what appeared to be a ballista bolt or javelin, probably from a trapon the other side of the portal.

Menka examined the body, while Seamus and Flint checked the archway, seeing if any traps still existed. The humanoid corpse was clad in archaic clothing. Blonde, he wore a strange conical hat. One eye was larger than the other. One was the eye of a fish, while the other was the eye of a human. He reminded us us Ephraim, defeated near Pippen’s dwelling in Session the Twenty-Fourth. The humanoid seemed to have expired at least a week prior.

Searching the swelling corpse, we found loot!

Pelagic Corpse Loot#

• book
  • Marvels of Science:The back half of this book has been burned away. What’s left describes both the healing of sick people and rejuvenating the dead.
• scroll (see below)
• water flask
• vial
  • Might be mead? The smell was so strong it almost knocked the cleric’s block off.

The scroll contained a letter addressed “to the King Beneath the Hill”.

The Rope Bridge#

The rope-bridge stretched some 40-50’ over the rushing river below. The bridge was made of wood, partially rotten, navigable but certainly not safe to move quickly across. Flint saw dark openings high up on the walls to either (east-west) sides of the end of the rope-bridge, which ended in an pen entryway into the opposite cliff-face in the wall on the other side of the bridge, almost certainly where the ballistae bolts came from. We suspected that the bridge itself was trapped, though this guess proved incorrect. We would find our-selves under direct attack, shortly!

Lycovyne, Gonchar and Tim mounted the carpet. The rest of us proceeded carefully. Menka,in the van, hoped his Gloves would keep him alive. Kyril used 2 of the 3 points available via his Staff of Defending +3 ^{[Is this related to the *Sword +4, Defender* described on pg. 165 of the DMG?]} to decrease his AC.

• initiative (no roll)
• 6 large, ballista-sized missiles were fired at us.
• Gonchar (on the carpet) got hit for 6 points
• Lyncovyne got drilled for a whopping 26 points of damage
• thet missed Menka, Seamus and Cathal
• initiative win
• Cathal leapt forward through the hail of missiles, aiming for the far archway
• Menka caught one of the large bolts but the size of the thing knocked him off is feet, and he failed his dex check
• Seamus caught the cleric and prevented him from perishing in the water far below.
• A bolt missed Seamus, but a second one hit him for 7 points
• initiative win
• Tim, Gonchar and Lycovyne jumped off the carpet and headed toward the archway
• Menka caught a second missile and made his dex check
• Seamus got nailed for 10 more points
• Kyril switched his Staff back to full +3
• Giant skeletons, at least 10’ tall, were visible on the other side of the arch, nocking large arrows into oversized bows for the next attack
• initiative win
• Menka was unable to turn the giant skeletons
• Cathal hit a skeleton for 19 points with a sharp weapon
• Gonchar hit one for 22 points
• Lycovyne hit a foe for 7 points with his sword
• Tim zapped one with a magic missile for 24 points of damage
• Seamus, Menka and Flint all missed, some twice
• They missed Cathal but hit Menka for 6 points
• initiative win
• Gonchar hit one for 13 points
• Kyril hit one for 9 points, shattering it!
• Flint hit again for 8 points
• Gonchar got hit for 7 more points
• initiative loss
• Gonchar got hit for 10 more points
• Flint got hit for 8 points
• Seamus hit one for 9 points and hit back for 9 as well
• Menka got nailed for 16 points
• Tim zapped another giant skeleton for 19 points
• Cathal hit one for 12 points
• Gonchar (with 2 natural 20s) destroyed a skeleton
• Menka chipped a nail
• Flint hit one, destroying it
• initiative loss
• Flint got hit for 8 more points
• Kyril got hit but actually did not
• Cathal nailed an skeleton for 13 points
• Kyril and Gonchar both hit one for 9 points
• initiative loss
• Cathal hit one for 12 points
• Kyril rolled a natural 20 and shattered another bony asshole
• Seamus hit one for 9 points
• initiative tie
• Seamus hit again for 8 points
• Gonchar hit with a glancing blow for 9 points, shattering a skeleton
• Lycovyne, with a natural 20, lopped of a skeleton skull!
• initiative win
• Cathal hit the last giant skeleton for 20 points!
• Gonchar cleaned it up with an 18 point shot, destroying it
• 6 giant skeletons, 40 HP

We struck down the last of our foes and looked around the chamber. Barrels of javelin-sized arrows stood against a wall, but the chamber was otherwise empty. The bony fuckheads had dropped no loot. Cathal applied some necessary healing and we cast some much-needed curative spells.

Was That Trip Really Necessary?#

Another archway of tree trunks lead to a hallway going due north. We followed this hallway cautiously and it ended it what can only be described as an elevator that went the wrong way. It would seem we had found Gorm’s “falling up” portal.

Gonchar and Cathal stepped into the elevator and somehow survived a 75’ fall upwards. A few moments later they yelled down to send up Menka. Flint threw a length of rope into the shaft and it fell in the wrong direction, as expected. He and Tim held the rope while Menka held onto it and entered, climbing down on the rope. The cleric failed his dex save again and took 13 points of falling damage, though he did eventally arrive.

He found the paladin and the dwarf standing in a large 60x60 room. 10 columns lined the room, covered in sword bas reliefs. As the cleric fell into the room the swords on the columns seemed to start leap to life and we saw their egdes glinting in the light as they danced. They did not attack us, but it was disconcerting.

One by one the rest of the party made the journey down the elevator shaft.

Large double doors stood at the bottom of a flight of stairs in the wall to the north. A passage just south of our position lead to a small chamber which contained, in its center, a humming globe of energy, within which was an achingly beautiful, sleeping, winged woman. She murmured and squirmed in her sleep, brow furrowing, like one caught in a nightmare. The walls, ceiling and floor shimmered with a hazy, shifting mist that vanished and reformed, monstrous forms of terror briefly visible within. Menka cast dispel magic but it seemed to have no effect.

Kyril approached and touched her globes. We then saw him do brief battle with an invisible opponent, which appeared to the party as if he was battling nothing more than the shifting mist, striking at it with his staff but the weapon passing through. Shortly he would tell us that he was attacked by the figure of death - it attacked him and just missed, then disappeared.

Tim cast knock on the globe to no apparent effect. Assuming there was a key somewhere nearby, we moved on.

A hallway lead west, ending in a 70’ square room. Again, bas-relief murals covered the walls, depicting the two-headed king vanquishing his enemies in battle. One in particular showed him paying homage to some amorphous, demonic entity. Two giant heads with diamond eyes leered down at us from the ceiling. The dwarves slavered openly.

We searched for secret doors and, instead, found 2 unusual sections in the west wall. One section looked like a burn mark, another section was simply warm to the touch. Menka touched a torch to the burned area and a secret door ground open at that location, praise Thoth!

We traversed the hallway behind it which led to a domed chamber. Piles of shattered, bird- like bones littered the room, possibly bat or stirge bones. An obsidian shaft in the middle of the chamber dropped downward into inky blackness. We may have heard running water in the distance, below.

Gonchar, Lycovyne and Flint mounted the carpet and tried to pry one of the large diamond eyes out of the two-headed king’s head. As soon as Flint put his back into it black skeletons burst out of a secret door located behind the warm spot on the west wall!

• no initiative or surprise roll
• 2 black skeletons rammed into Gonchar and exploded, doing 10 points of fire damage
• Tim zapped 2 more with magic missiles, blowing them up
• 2 black skeletons ran into Cathal, doing 9 points of fire damage
• Gonchar destroyed the last 2 with one shot, taking 4 more points
• black exploding skeletons, ??? hp?

Flint returned to his thievery and liberated each one of the 4 large diamonds from their rocky skeletal home. He estimated them to be worth 5,000 or more pieces of gold, each!

Black, Exploding Skeleton Loot#

• 4 giant diamonds, 5,000 gp each.

The Evil Christmas Tree#

We walked through the secret door the skeletons used and found a hallway which curved to the north and ended in . The hallway walls and floor were blackened and covered with soot. The party exited back into the “room of conquests” where we had fought the burning skeletons and proceeded through a northern exit into the chamber of the swirling swords, and entered into an open hallway in the southern portion of the west wall. The hallway was bitter cold. It ended in a freezing coldroom covered in blue ice. A black pedestal with a rounded top occupied the center of the room. It was not covered in the blue ice. Indeed, the pedestal radiated warmth.

In the western portion of the north wall a portal lead to a sort of upward sloping upward ice slide. Probably the slide referred to by Gorm at the Diamond Spider Inn.

There was a second open hallway leading out of the ice-room in the eastern portion of the north wall. Down that hallway (which was was not frozen), Flint saw a red tree adorned with some species of ornaments. Upon closer inspection the red tree was found to hold miniature figurines of beautiful women. 3 miniature nymphs were ice cold. 2 miniature sylphs hung on the tree. 1 was ice cold though the other was warm to the touch and looked like the beautiful winged female we had seen in the globe to the east. There was a sixth figurine of a beautiful, improbably voluptuous woman who appeared human, rather than the faerie-babes depicted in the other carvings. The party took the figurines.

Kyril and Tim brought the warm, sylph figurine back to the woman in the globe in the room to the east. They touched the figurine to the globe and it vaporized. The sylph was freed and stood before us, stretching her wings.

She related details of Heimfell’s attachment to an unnamable, amorphous demonic fire god, and related that Heimfell had kidnapped her when she did not return his declarations of love, and trapped her here, seemingly as a punishment for her rejection of him. She has been here for many ears. Once she completed her tale, she asked us if we needed anything else from her, and when the Druid advised her to return to nature, she thanked us for freeing her and dimension doored out of the chamber.

We headed east again toward the chamber with the twirling swords, and entered a hallway on the western end of the north wall, following a short hallway which ended in a 10x10 room with no ceiling. That chamber was a small room with a ring of symbols on the floor similar to the one outside on the altar. Perhaps a portal? There seemed to be no other door in that room. The party elected to not enter the 10 x 10 chamber or ‘break the circle’, and moved on.

The Pit of Green Flame#

Following the northern wall in the room we climbed the stairs, approaching the 20’ tall bronze double doors we had seen earlier. Flint examined them and found them to be trapped. The visage of the two-headed king holding a great gem was a hammered bas-relief into the bronze doors. A small bowl protruded from each door. Inscribed across the doors were runes, interpreted by the thief, which was a prayer to Cthuga: Cthuga, he who gave strength, we pay homage to thee with the blood of thy enemies. Tim dripped blood into each bowl and the doors opened.

As the doors opened a blast of hot air burst forth and we looked into a pit of green, emerald flame emanating heat. In the center of the northern end of the large room, beyond the fire-pit, stood an idol of a misshapen horror of warping, glowing greenish lava - in the center of which gleamed a HUGE ruby! The idol’s body flowed and melted down to feed the emerald flames which emitted that stifling, horrid heat from the center of the room. The room was scorching hot and each member of the party took 1 point of damage as we entered, although Gonchar was immune. Double doors made of bronze stood in the west (20’ high!) and east walls, and a hallway appeared to lead out of the room in the northwest corner.

We walked to the doors in the east wall and Cathal forced them open. Chill air, refreshing in this blast-furnace of a room but for the underlying stench of ancient rot which soured it, emanated forth. Green mist covered the floor starting 5’ in. The north and south walls each had 4 arches and an alcove within each contained shadowy figures. We did not enter.

Heading north to the room at the end of the hallway we each took 1 more point of damage from the scorching heat. 6 floor-to-ceiling tube-shaped energy cases in this room held an assortment of beautiful females: 3 nymphs, 2 sylphs and a human female. The nypmhs faces and a sylph’s face were twisted into grimaces and seemed to be in pain, while the strikingly bodacious human female’s face was expressionless. Flint was able to read the runic inscription on the rear (northern) wall: For love unrequited, for pain eternal and for treachery foreseen, I return in kind.

Each of the individuals in the energy tubes looked like the other figurines on the tree. Touching the figurines to the energy cases released the women within, their occupants apparently dead, with the exception of the one containing the human female. Cathal touched the figurine of the va-va-voom human female to the container and let her out.

She smiled, thanked the party enthusiastically, jiggling maddeningly, and she flirtatiously touched the dwarf’s shoulder, who smiled at this winsome, curvy beauty, who by the beard of the hammer-lord was not human as he’d originally thought, but a (somewhat tall) female dwarven beauty of rare charm! This was a rare treasure, to be defended and protected and, should he be a lucky dwarf, perhaps more!!

Meanwhile, Cathal peered at the temptress suspiciously (while the rest of the party gazed longingly), and suddenly, with a loud Celtic curse, attacked the female, while Gonchar, outraged at this unchivalric assault on one of such rare and untrammeled beauty, moved to defend her from Cathal with blade and axe!

• Menka cast hold person on Gonchar
• the female gated in 4 vrock - she’s a succubus!
• initiative win
• Tim used the Oil of Disenchantment on Gonchar and the cleric released him
• Menka said a prayer
• Kyril case faerie fire on the 4 vrock
• Lycovyne cast magic missiles at a vrock but they had no real effect
• Cathal hit the succubus twice for 24 points
• Seamus clocked a vrock for 8 points, then got hit for 11 himself
• The succubus failed to charm Lycovyne
• initiative win
• Tim cast magic missiles at a vrock, overcoming its resistance and destroying it
• Cathal, with a slice of his holy sword, dispatched the succubus, who hissed at him, as she returned to the Abyss. “This is not over, Holy Man - I will see your stinking Hibernian soul squirm with pain in the pits below while my demon-brothers ravish your sisters and mother!”, spitting steaming blood at him, and wagging her forked tongue at him lasciviously…
• Flint hit a vrock for 6 points
• initiative tie
• Seamus nailed a vrock with a natural 20 for 18 points
• Kyril got hit but did not
• They missed Gonchar as well
• Cathal hit one for 17 points
• Gonchar hit one with a natural 20 for 49 points
• Menka hit and killed a vrock, praise Thoth!
• Flint hit one again for 5 points
• Lycovyne hit one for 7 points
• initiative win
• Seamus hit again for 8 points, killing a vrock
• succubus, 43 hp
• 4 vrock, 56 hp

end