Past Meet Present - The Foundingstone!

In a session that ran past our normal time last night by quite a bit thanks to combat taking longer than I ever expected (sorry to everyone for that by the way), the heroes found themselves the leader if the chitine and quite the fight ensued afterwards.  Here is a recap of the evening...

Karath and Daisy, feeling much better after some rest, traveled down the hallways in the direction that the others had stated they would be going.  As they approached the room where they had not long since fought the raptors the stench of death and decay became heavy ahead of them.  They soon found the others and also discovered that they had encountered a strange undead which was the source of the smell, an undead that was able to paralyze with its touch.  After a brief re-telling of the recent events in the battle and ensuring that everyone was set to continue, and also after talking briefly about what direction they wanted to take or if they wanted to return above to check on the horses,  they decided to continue on.

Choosing to ignore the stone doors in the southern end of the room where the pulsating light made its appearance around their edges Temeris crossed the room to the other wooden door.  Beyond the party found another hallway, and further on they found a workshop of sorts.  Within beyond the racks of rusted and rotted tools they found a pedestal upon which it appeared something had been carved before.  Pieces of a strange stone like substance and translucent dust still lay about the floor around the pedestal.  The party examined the room and Temeris took a shard to examine further later to try to determine what the substance was and then continued on.

Further on they found the hallway eventually connected back with the halls they had been in towards the south, however on the way they also found a room behind double doors, and another room beyond that which appeared to have been a bedroom perhaps ages ago but had been buried under several thousand pounds of rubble from the collapsed ceiling.

Deciding to return to the stone doors Temeris searched it and found nothing odd, and thus threw the door open.  Beyond he saw a room which had two statues in the shapes of unicorns which seemed to grow in brightness and then discharge that light causing the strobe effect, then fall back to pure blackness before repeating the process in very short time.

He moved into the room and found that the statues had been painted black at one time but the strobing effect seemed to play with everyone's vision making shadows jump and things move in jerks and jumps.  Moving to the stairway beyond as the rest of the party filtered in he looked down and on the landing just below was a four legged creature that seemed to morph continuously.  It let out a unearthly moan and charged forward.

The creature even as it charged forward seeming to hop from place to place as the strobe flashed, went dark, and flashed again morphed between the shape of a centaur with a single horn protruding from its forehead, mouthing something during its charge, and that of a midnight black unicorn and then back again.  As it reached Temeris dodging a crossbow bolt on its way up the stairs it swung its horn at him but missed.

Furious battle ensued as Shadow and Cripsin let fly with missile weapons and Howler charged forward.  Things started out poorly for the party however as Howler, charging forward amid the pulses of light, was unable to see Temeris step aside from an attack by the creature before he sunk his teeth deep into the back of Temeris's upper thigh tearing a large chunk from his leg and opening a large gash.  Temeris dropped to the floor, passed out from the pain and from another injury to an already battered body, and lay bleeding there.

The Druid Atvan then cast a spell to make his quarterstaff magical and hit harder than normal while Crispin attempted to break a statue thinking that it could have something to do with the creature, however his attack glanced off the statue doing no damage to it.  Atvan then engaged the creature delivering a mighty blow from his staff staggering the creature as Daisy moved up behind, drug Temeris back a step, and coaxed a potion of healing down his throat.  Under the combined attacks of the party all focused upon this thing it finally exploded in a cloud of black smoke and disappeared leaving no trace behind that it ever existed.

After having fought raptors, ghouls, and now this abomination the Karameikan Fist Adventuring Company was certainly feeling it had taken its lumps and exhausted its abilities.  Returning to the room that appeared to have been a bedroom and greeting room with only the single door in they settled in to rest and recover once again.  As they laid down Shadow and Atvan engaged in a conversation about the nature of Atvan's abilities as a druid and about the deities of nature.  They carried on a for a while as the rest of the party fell away to sleep and soon Atvan had joined.  Afterwards Shadow settled into a meditative state in which he prayed to Meiliki, a god she had followed and sought guidance from for years, for guidance and healing.  As she sat praying she felt a power come over her and a few of her wounds healed themselves.  It appeared her god had answered her and chosen her to represent her clergy.

They rested for several hours without event, however Temeris did not sleep peacefully with creature of pure horror at every turn in his dreams.  He tossed and turned and when he awoke finally he was drenched with sweat.  Passing it off as bad dreams the adventurous group gathered themselves up and healed themselves as best they could and set out to continue their search.

Returning to the room with the strange abomination that they had just defeated they continued the search.  The strobing effect still emanated from the statues but the continued on.  Further on they found another pair of statues and a door behind one.  Behind that door in a small cold room they found a small statute in a niche, however the statue was covered with an odd black mold that seemed to seep into the stone of the statue itself.  Crispin could tell using his magics that the statue and perhaps the mold itself, held some sort of magic in them.  They wrapped it up to look at further later and continued on.

In the next room they found a large room with several pillars, many burned and broken.  It appeared that at some time some great explosion had occurred here as nearly every surface bore evidence of a great fire and a faint smell of brimstone still hung in the air after all these years.  Against the far wall a skeletal figure lay petrified, however all but the bones were long gone.  Temeris believed that this was a tall dwarf, but Shadow was certain it was a short human when it lived.

Finding nothing more in this room they returned to the only passage that they hadn't taken already.  From the raptor room they headed West, down another hall, and soon found themselves in a room where water covered half of it.  With no other direction to take Temeris stepped forward and waded through the water, checking out an empty room behind a rotted door but finding nothing, and then heading down a hallway.  Beyond a turn he noticed that the hall sloped downwards however eventually submerging the entire hall and in doing so drowning out all light as well.

Shadow proclaimed herself to be a good swimmer and as such was given a sunrod, a rod of strange ability to create light without flame, and she dove in.  Exploring beyond she found a large room still submerged but with a pair of doors.  With repeated trips for air she eventually found that a pair of small rooms were beyond the first door but beyond the second was a hall that led up and eventually to a room where another door with the skull carvings and the skulls above the door with the glowing eyes existed.

After returning and relaying what she had found the party was excited as they believed this would open whatever was behind those doors.  Shadow jumped in followed by Temeris and Crispin told the others to run around to the other door because he believed all three would open and thus those that weren't great swimmers would not have to try to make the swim.  He then dove in, getting a big mouthful of water, and came back up.

Shadow and Temeris reached the other side well before Crispin because of the delay and upon surfacing in this other room Temeris eagerly ran forward to push the final stone just as Shadow was asking if it would be best to wait for Crispin.  However it was too late and the third set of eyes began to glow and the door started sliding open.

The room beyond had a huge domed ceiling with light pouring through where the blocks came together.  The glow in this room was brighter than anywhere else in the complex.  In the middle of the room was a large contraption, long since rusted and broken, that had several globes and arms of metals.  Against the Southwestern wall, the section without a door now standing open, stood a chitine in black armor next to a large skull carved of some sort of stone, teeth clenched down upon an eternity symbol, with eyes glowing blue.  Around the skull were mounds of earth as if the skull was uncovered from this ground.

"Others!" exclaimed the Chitine in their strange version of the common language upon seeing Temeris and Shadow. "Come, come in.  It has been a while since I have seen others.  Come on in.  Share with me in the power of the Foundingstone!"

Shadow grabbed Temeris as he took a step forward, instructing him to wait.  It was near torture for the young man to wait instead of barging in, however Crispin emerging from the water at that moment and seeing the site, then also grabbing Temeris's other shoulder calmed him slightly for the moment.

"Let's at least wait for the others" Crispin asked of him, and Temeris agreed but proclaimed that they had better hurry because what were adventurers if they were just standing around and not having adventures.  The desire to barge in grew in Temeris as the chitine continued to implore him to come in, to talk with him, to look at the Foundingstone, to touch the Foundingstone.  Each question asked about what it did was answered with "touch it and see for yourself" or "just come in and look at it".

As Daisy and Atvan arrived at the door across from them Temeris wriggled free of the grip of Shadow and Crispin who had become exceedingly alerted by the chitine's insistence that they touch the Foundingstone for themselves.  He rushed into the room and moved halfway to the stone, still asking what the stone was or why he called it the Foundingstone.  Seeing trouble ahead Shadow readied her bow and stepped forward, as did Crispin.  Daisy entered the room as well and stood near Shadow who whispered to her that should anything happen to attack the skull as she believed that it had bewitched the chitine.  Atvan went to the other door.  Soon Karath appeared as well, having been slower to arrive than the others.

The Chitine seemed to single out Temeris, inviting him to share in the power of the Foundingstone.  He nearly ignored the rest of the group in speaking directly to Temeris.  Temeris approached close to the stone, looking at it closely while standing atop one of the mounds of dirt.  Fearing that Temeris was about to touch the skull Shadow waited no longer and fired two arrows at the Chitine.  One clattered off the wall but the other sliced one of its arms.

"What?!  What is this attack without provocation?"  The Chitine seemed to continue to address Temeris but still didn't draw his blade.  "What kind of adventurers are you to do this?  Please, see reason, see what the stone does before someone is lost in this non-sense!"

However with that all hell broke lose as the dog charged the chitine and more arrows flew.  Seeing no way out of it Temeris attempted to tackle the chitine to stop the attacks but it sidestepped the attempt and instead exclaimed that he had hope for Temeris but now he must defend himself.  Drawing his blade and swinging at Howler Daisy became very upset however and went into a fit of rage and began attacking the chitine as well.  Attempts to sleep and fascinate the chitine seemed to only momentarily daze it, and soon into the battle the skull on the wall began to occasionally pulse red, and with each pulse a portion of the wounds suffered by the chitine would appear to heal themselves.

After watching for a while Atvan determined that it was time to intervene and stepped forward to try to disarm the chitine, however it saw the attack coming and took a chance to catch the Druid off guard with a great gash across his chest that left him bleeding and barely standing.  Crispin stepped forward and swung at the skull and hit it dead on, however the strength of the blow didn't seem to affect the skull but instead put a small crack in the shaft of his weapon.  Battle raged on with the chitine taking many wounds but also healing with every red pulse, however outnumbered as he was he was doing little to the adventurers he faced. 

The group spoke out that they needed to get him away from the skull.  Taking a chance Temeris then attempted to disarm the creature and was able to catch him by surprise with the maneuver and the sword flew from the chitine's hand.  Picking it up he ran from the room.  The chitine followed behind, pulling the sword back from his hands.  Atvan then attempted to push him the rest of the way out of the room but the chitine saw the attack coming and braced himself, not moving.  However Shadow followed just on Atvan's heals and being completely unprepared the chitine slipped and tumbled backwards out of the room.  Daisy rushed forward to continue to attack the one who attacked the dog but was unable to get through the doorway.

As the chitine continued his attack Crispin pulled a tanglefoot bag, and odd alchemical bag with a sticky webbing that would explode out when thrown, and threw it at the chitine.  It struck cementing him in place, however he began to hack at his binds still.  Temeris yelled at Daisy to go to the other door and rushed forward to shut the door to the room, hoping to separate the chitine from the effects of the skull.

Karath having already moved towards the other door was outside of the room when all three doors slammed shut with only Daisy still in the room.  Temeris began to run to the other doorway, unaware that the other doors had shut as well.

With Crispin, Shadow and Atvan all standing before the chitine still hacking away at his binds they decided that they would just have to try to knock him out.  Shadow fires a pair of arrows into him, however Crispin attempting to not seriously harm him lost his grip on his weapon and it flew out across the small room.  However Atvan then stepped forward and brought his staff down upon the chitine with a loud thud and the sound of cracking bone.  The chitine dropped to the floor motionless.  However laying there even without breath his wounds still seemed to be slowly closing.

Daisy meanwhile turning around and seeing herself in a room empty other than the broken contraption and the skull surrounded by mounds of dirt realized that it appeared that the dirt was arranged so that it appeared that the skull had been dug out of the earth.  Cursing at the skull she rushed forward and like a dog began tossing dirt upon the skull.  Each handful of dirt caused the glowing eyes to dim just a bit, and the radiance in the room and the entire complex to dim a bit as well.

Outside running down the halls towards the other door Temeris noticed the lights getting dimmer, and upon reaching the other door found Karath and Howler there with the door behind them shut, just as the lights went out.

Back with the body of the chitine those still there pulled rope out of their packs and worked to tie him up.  As they did this they noticed the dimming lights as well, and just before the lights went out the lifeless chitine took a deep breath in ... and then darkness...

>>>>>>>>>>>>

So we stop there.  Daisy inside the circular room has tossed dirt upon the skull, and in doing so the lights that lit this complex have extinguished.  She finds herself alone in the room, in the dark.  Temeris has come to find Karath and Howler standing in front of the closed door to the circular room just as the lights have gone out.  And as for Atvan, Shadow, and Crispin, they have done their best to tie up the chitine which appeared dead after the blow from Atvan's staff but whose wounds continued to heal and just before darkness breathed in a large breath of air once again.

What comes next for the Karameikan Fist Adventuring Company?