Despite the continuing workload and things going on I wanted to take time to recap last night's session of the Karameikan Fist. Thank you Jeremy for doing so last week. This week we see the adventurers make a deal with a drow who had them in a bad spot, then break that deal for an unseen figure later to be shocked by what they saw, then a fallen comrade returns to them before the evening ends. The recap of the events last evening...
The webbing continued to spring up around Callaum, Shadow, and Atvan as the arcane casting Daisy had heard finished behind her, where she had just rushed through. It pulled at the members of the Karameikan fist as it sprung out and up in the purple mists grabbing hold of everything. One strand latched on to part of the cavern roof, pulling free a piece of stone that fell below. Directly below it Atvan was unable to dodge it as the webs had held him tight. The stone struck his head and he was out cold, his limp body held at strange angles in the webbing that held them all now.
"Call her off and we can again speak" the drow priestess called out in her native tongue to the chitine as Daisy had turned and charged back at her.
Feeling anger but seeing that they found themselves in a very dangerous situation he agreed and yelled out to Daisy to stop. The drow again offered to spare them in exchange for killing the one known as Balcoth, and she would take them to the Earth Blood in exchange. After some deliberation and compromise which included the drow being allowed half of anything they found with Balcoth if her help was needed they agreed.
Checking over Atvan they found him to be alive but hurt and unconscious. Callaum offered to use his ability to create webbing to place him upon a cavern wall where carrion or rats would not affect them and they moved off down the corridor following the drow woman.
Soon the party found themselves below a ledge above. The drow woman told them that they would find the one they sought to the west and then south, and that she would follow at a distance. Callaum went up first, lowering a rope to the others, and they soon set off. It was not far however when Callaum, using his ability to see in the dark to scout ahead, heard the sounds of movement.
Creaping along the ceiling he soon found himself looking at a buglike creature the size of a pony attempting to remain still. He retreated and noticed down another passage a number of small piles of reddish-brown dust. Looking closer he realized this was rust, and pulling from stories he had been told of when younger realized that this creature was likely something they called a rust monster, a creature that would corrode metals and eat the remnants.
Relaying this back to the others Daisy began taking off her chain armor as Callaum went forth with spears in hand. Shadow stayed back with the light, where she could see. With one throw of a spear the creature charged forth into that light, where it was struck with a pair of arrows from Shadow's bow. As Callaum attacked again from above the creature seemed to get scent of the large amount of metal that Daisy wore and charged her.
As it reached her an antenna struck out at the armor she was removing, striking it. The area the antenna struck immediately turned a reddish-brown as it rusted away and it was spreading fast. Gathering her axe and running towards a crevice to hide it in, a trail of rust followed Daisy along the path as her armor rusted completely off, falling to pieces even as she ran. The creature followed but another arrow struck it in the back along with three balls of magical energy from the drow and it fell lifeless.
"Daisy, what a shame about your armor," Shadow started, seeing the disappointed look on the warrior's face having just lost her magical armor.
"It is the way of things" Diasy shrugged.
"Would you like me to make you a new shell?" Callaum asked as he pulled up his clothing to reveal the strange weblike armor he wore. However she remembered that they had found a second set of magical chain not long ago as well, but Atvan carried it. They decided to go back for it but Shadow chose to remain behind to wait with the drow.
The drow and Shadow conversed for a while about where she came from and what she was doing her, and Shadow mentioned that she seemed a long way from any drow city he knew. She asked if he knew many and he said no, to which she replied perhaps she wasn't that far. In reply to Shadow's doubts she asked if he remembered the iron door and then just let the thought trail off. Not long after Daisy and Callaum returned ready to proceed on once again.
They continued down the stone passage and soon found an intersection where it turned back south. Sure this is where they were meant to go Callaum continued forward and soon found himself faced with a magical darkness.
"I believe this is where the Balcoth creature must live" he returned and announced to the others. "Stay close so that we don't get lost."
With that he turned and entered into the darkness slowly. He crawled in the darkness using the walls to guide him for some time before finally a voice boomed out from ahead "You travel with the drow Natasha! Strange companion that you have. Do you travel with her or are you working for her?"
The voice halted the party in their tracks. It boomed out again asking them if they would perhaps care to hear his offer instead if they simply worked for her, to which she hissed and told them to do what they came to do, to not listen to its lies and let their guard down. However the party was intrigued and told the drow they would listen to him and decide for themselves. She hissed again and told them that they had made an enemy this day and that they had best not return unless with his head and they heard her moving away in the darkness.
"We will speak with you" Callaum called out and they proceeded carefully forward. Soon they were no longer in the magical darkness and they heard the man call out again "I will speak with you from here, and after you hear my words then I will show myself."
The voice asked what brought them here and told them that he could lead them to the Earth Blood and asked that in return they help him. Soon he told them of how there were priests of Orcus below, and evil god, and they controlled a monolith. He agreed to lead them to the Earth Blood and told them they could have all they found if they helped him gain control of that monolith and left it to him. They inquired as to what it was or did but he didn't wish to say, so after deliberation among themselves they agreed. Daisy however left it up to the others as "everyone they meet wants something, to get something, to kill something, and she just wants to find her brother!"
"Then it is settled, but before we travel together you will have to see me, and then we will see if you still agree." The creature called out to them, and hearing this they became nervous but cautiously walked forward. A smell of decay crept over them as they moved forward and soon they saw a robed figure standing next to a stone sarcophagus. The rest of the room they saw shelves and workspaces and items obviously belonging to a wizard such as vials and beakers.
The man himself though held their eyes. His hands were pale, void of all color, and the skin stretched tight across the bones and tendons in his hands. The hands moved up to the cowl of the cloak and he lowered his hood. His face had the same tight skin, looking to belong to a body many centuries old, with just a small amount of gray hair upon his head. "Can you still work with me" the creature stated. With little hesitation over what they were seeing they agreed.
"Have you ever had a pet?" Daisy asked, and with a saddened look he stated that he had, and they had just met him. This upset Daisy greatly as she had partaken in killing this man's pet, however she pushed on with her next question. "Can you change our friends back from stone?"
They explained to him that they had two friends who had been turned to stone and he told them he could help one explaining that he didn't know the spell himself but held a scroll that would allow him to cast the necessary magic once. He suggested that they do it now they before going below as the more of them there were the better.
The party deliberated over a very tough decision for quite some time before finally deciding that Temeris would be the choice. During part of the decision they mentioned that Temeris had a habit of dropping urns and producing ghosts, to which Balcoth turned incorporeal and rushed at them before stopping and stating "That isn't necessarily bad ... but do you still agree to travel with me?" They did, and thus they led Balcoth on, out of the cavern after he removed the magical darkness, and towards where they had left the statues. They went carefully past the area with the drow and soon found themselves back below the sinkhole next to their two perfectly still friends.
Balcoth pulled out a scroll tube and from it pulled a scroll that looked as brittle as his hands. As he unrolled it and began to read off the arcane words the statue of Temeris began to soften, to gain color, and as he said the last words and the scroll crumbled Temeris began to move again and the grey he had been quickly all rushed away and was replaced by the colors of life.
"Look out for the Basalisk Daisy!" he yelled out as he leapt toward her, picking up right where he had left off as he first gazed at the large lizard.
"You Fool!" Shadow exclaimed as Temeris looked around seeing the stone Crispin as well as the chitine and old man among them. "It has been days since you were turned to stone!"
As the rest explained the events since that day, Temeris took it all in, often speaking out in excitement over this or that. "I was really a statue!" it had started with. "You met a drow? I want to meet her!" he had exclaimed before being told that she was likely their enemy now. "A real rust monster? Maybe we'll see another!" Many such statements echoed in the halls before they finally got to the part where they explained that they agreed to work with this being before him. "Do you eat hearts or make thrones of skulls?" he had asked before being reassured enough to agree to travel with him.
They continued on, convinced by Balcoth that they should get Atvan in whatever state he may be in as they couldn't trust the drow. In fact he stated that he expected she would wait until the worst possible time and then catch them between a rock and a hard place. They did, and soon Balcoth had led them to a door which he said would lead them below though it had been several years since he had been below so he couldn't offer too much information to them.
After finding and disabling a needle trap Temeris opened the doorway into a worked stone hallway that was lit by the torches along the wall. They moved carefully through the area and found a few rooms where ruined coffins had been emptied, and in one room they found the remnants of what looked like a sleeping area used recently. Soon they entered into a room where Balcoth stated he believed the door below was, and given there was only one other door Temeris crossed to it.
As he opened it a short hall ended in another door, and they could hear talking from beyond. Daisy was able to repeat a couple words which Temeris and Shadow didn't understand but Callaum relayed that he believed they were talking about how they were standing a useless guard.
The party wanted to catch them by surprise and after a warning from Balcoth that they could not let him kill because he would make any he killed like him, Temeris slowly opened the door just a touch to peek inside where he saw men and an orc eating. He threw open the door and jumped in swinging his dagger towards the orc's back...
...and that is where we stopped. The party has gone from traveling with a drow to the undead in search of the elusive Earth Blood but they finally have a direction. But before they can continue, will they survive their next fight?
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