Previous: Session 098; Next: Session 100
Start: 9th of Flosculus, morning, after long resting in Castle Darkstone alongside all of the Skallywag Squad (except for Inazious the Inebriated), all of their pets, and Tar Runo who was left here to guard the pets.
Waking up, the party discussed possible avenues to explore, but settled on hopping back inside Original Sin (Poison) and exploring the Folding Halls within.
After a Hero's Feast and with Ronin using a few spells to shrink the party, everyone entered the Poison Pool entrance room. There, they navigated to the Clockwork Puzzle Table room. Arwa Hathspelt, with Fabricate and some strategizing assisted by Nesdin, created some gears and fixed the contraption within. With a bit of Boggle oil, the machinery was as good as new, and two secret entrances opened - one to the Garden, and one to the Drowned Study, with the party choosing to swim to through the water.
With help from Aoife Sweeney's water breathing to scout ahead and guide the way, everyone swam into the Drowned study. After some investigating, Rohtagels attempted to pull the broken desk from the ground. Calliope noticed it was stuck to something in the floor and attempted to cut it, when the sticky material reacted, and the froghemoth whose tongue was latched onto the desk began to attack. During the fight, Calliope and Nesdin were both swallowed, but the party was able to quickly kill the beast and avoid anyone drowning. They searched the desk and found a sealed drawer which contained a scroll of Create and Destroy Water, a scroll of Control Water, and a Froghemoth Figurine of Wondrous Power. Aoife Sweeney then swam down into the hole to proceed.
Swimming down a few hundred feet, she breached the surface of the water (but never felt she turned upside down) and emerged in a grove of skeletal trees (the Sable Orchards chamber, in a bone pocket as opposed to the necrotic pockets). She guided the party through the water, and everyone stepped on shore. In the trees, they heard whispers of various anecdotes: the tale of a grove of Satyrs who were beset upon by an evil Minotaur, a recipe for Hag's Eye soup, and a whispered warning that the Daisies and the Trolls were in an alliance. After discussing the options for a while, and determining that these three whispers were representative of paths out of the current grove. They consulted the Infinite Scroll, and found an entry for an archmage long ago who was pursuing lichdom had found these halls, got to this chamber, and was lost for two months of his time, a year of real time, following the path which he determined was the seemingly most truthful. He eventually got tired of the truths and began hearing repeats, so he chose paths at random before finally finding the exit. The party decided to try to follow the lying path and chose the Daisy one, which led them to the exit door (the real rule here, in hindsight, was the path which shared a secret - the tale and the recipe were more readily available knowledge).
The hall beyond had a T intersection: one leading to the massive meadow chamber, and another leading downstairs into spiderwebs. They went downward, and entered the Dead Spider Crypt chamber, and found skeletons formed in the shape of spiders. One human skull was found, who introduced himself as Archie (Dindaarch). He begged them to kill him, as his memories were replaced by that of a spider's. Instead, Nesdin incredibly dispelled the powerful memory modification on him and returned him to his senses. Dindaarch admitted that he had pursued lichdom, and had the Infinite Scroll about 4-5 thousand years prior, during the Cabalum, but was abruptly killed in this chamber. He couldn't identify who or what killed him or why his memories were replaced with that of a spider. However, even with his memories back, he had long lost the motivation for lichdom, as he had lived too long and still wanted to die. Dismissing those wishes, Crax Goobadink shoved the talking skull into his backpack, where Dindaarch and Tacidwaas could bond over the shared drive to have one of them die (both wanting Dindaarch to die).
Walking over the bone piles, they found another door which led to a massive chamber - the Antechamber of the Silent Bells. Hundreds of skeleton warriors were interred in the walls adorned in ancient weapons and armor. Thousands of bones littered the floor, and a 50-foot tall stone door stood closed at the back of the hall behind two mausoleums. The roof was populated by 8 bronze bells of varying sizes (all massive, but got bigger closer to the end of the chamber) which had no clappers within them. Walking inside, the doors behind the group slammed shit, the stone slabs at the front of the two mausoleums opened, and two large skeletons wielding large bronze bells of their own, hung from sturdy metal rod with a headstock atop them with which to swing them. They turned to the party in unison.
End: 9th of Flosculus, Bill's Bimbos and Ronin entering combat with the two Carillonneurs and the undead around them in the Antechamber of the Silent Bells within the Folding Halls.
Word count: 865
