Murdicog's Manse Session 14: Out of The Frying Pan and Intermezzo
Players: Osric III of Kikstahta, Swashbuckler (EvilTables); Grappadora Hamaques, Swashbuckler (Jay_zer0); Buster Diamantis, Theurge (Mistuh)
Summary
After raiding the Xanthic Vault, the adventurers spent some downtime (from mid-July to Mid August A.D.M. 26) in the remote Üvian village of Vul Anoryith. Grappadora alternated guard duty and banditry, and Buster made progress on a memoir of his adventures.
Vul Anoryith has the peculiar distinction of being built between enormous, teetering oolite pillars, arranged in a 9 x 9 grid. The pillar at the center glows faintly, naturally piquing the adventurers' curiosity. Though they had been warned that those who touch the pillar disappear, both Buster and Grappadora decided to place their hands on it anways. Instantly, they found themselves in a vast, featureless expanse of windswept tundra.
Well, not quite perfectly featureless. A stone archway in the side of a small rise gave access to a damp subterranean passage. After Osric (and his apprentice Bekhtar Amphibia) arrived 10 minutes later, they began to explore.
In the first room they examined, Osric fell victim to a devious gravity-reversal-ceiling-spike trap. Adding insult to injury, Buster tried to examine an explosive Catapultus michorizae mushroom in the same room, further injuring everyone in the resulting blast.
Exploring to the right, they encountered a room where puppets (seemingly sans puppeteers) enacted a comical version of their past adventures. Much was made of the travails in Murdicog's manse, particularly the sale of Lil' R to the Electron Sovereign and Lil' 30's grisly death at the hands of a Giant Lagomorph.
Though offered rotten tomatoes at the end, the adventurers clapped appreciatively, thereby earning the effect of the Bless spell. A brief encore enacted a fanciful (and highly improbable) tale involving pigeon mail-carriers, grey aliens, and murderous scholars.
Continuing deeper in, they passed a room from which a jaunty tune wafted. Grappadora recognized it as a piece called "Charmed Saturnalia". According to legend, this song was once used to lure the youths and maidens of Tot'Capol (in the Cannibal Coast) into the steppe, where they were never seen again.
Amphibia used her thief skills to peek into the room and was instantly ensorceled by the music. She uttered a quick apology and then sprang inside to take up the dance. The others rapidly plugged their ears and set about rescuing her with a rope. Grappadora's redoubtable dancing skills prevented the skeletons from taking notice of the intrusion.
They went right again, south on their makeshift map. A party of four standoffish Molemen was encountered, so they doubled back to explore further in opposite direction. In one room, they found a humanoid beet sleeping on a dirty mattress and drinking beer. He was willing to make conversation but had little useful information -- he was not native to these parts but was simply hiding here to avoid his ex-wife.
They doubled back and attempted to ask the puppets for directions, but received only cryptic arm gestures in response.
Past the beet's room, they found a hulking Atlantean Warrior amidst a forest of glowing tendrils and promptly reversed course.
In another room they found six vats that preserved the corpses of purple-eyed women, each having undergone some kind of mutation. A notebook on a desk in the room (readable thanks to Buster's Read Languages spell) provided instructions for reversing Hag transformations among women from the remote lands of the Vashtari in psouthouestern Antarctica.
Past a secret door, Buster was able to safely make contact with the glowing tendrils and ascertained that it was a sentient mycelium network that was trapped in this room thanks to the efforts of the dungeon's other inhabitants. The party debated whether or not to help it but came down against the idea.
Aftermath
Treasure Found: Instructions for reversing Hag transformation in Vashtari women.
Foes Encountered: 1 Catapultus michorizae, 200 dancing Skeletons, 4 Molemen, 1 Atlantean Warrior, 1 Deadbeet Dad
Rumors:
- The Molemen and Necromancer are the main denizens of this dungeon.
- There are other mycelium networks around the continent.
- The beet guy's ex-wife is trying to find him.
Deaths: None.
XP Awarded: None.
Notes
- I can't say too much because I don't want to spoil the location and nature of this dungeon. It is an interesting detour from past material, partly because it incorporates material I didn't write. Teleportation of this sort is also an interesting way to interact with the unique scale of the Antarctic map.
- They ended the session in the dungeon, so I'm using "dungeon time" (something I got from Songbirds but probably goes way back). Next session will pick up right where this left off, but if/when they emerge, weeks will have passed as per 1:1 timekeeping.
- Grappadora's musical background (extrapolated entirely from his posession of a randomly rolled Batrachian viol at start) has had an extraordinary amount of utility.