Prison Crawl feat. Boy in a Wall

Lesotruth 13th, 989 IaC

• The party started to get their bearings, investigating some of the experiment logs
  • Steve discovered that the Ossuate appeared to be afraid of him, or 'what he might become'
  • Merja discovered a blink dog in a cell playing with one of her kidneys
  • She attempted to convince Erigor to get it for her, but he attempted to eat it once her had placed it inside her
• After getting Erigor to temporarily stop, the group decided to begin moving through the Splintering Halls, starting on the 4th level
  • Caedali made an attempt to separate Connor Bramblemoon from the Unknown, but Noesis was capable of using magic and froze her with a spell
  • Steve noticed a strange crystal hanging around his neck, and that the undead creature he was working on resembled the ones piloted by Beetleman
  • Noesis admitted he was working with the Ossuate for the time being, but claimed to have no real loyalty to her
  • He decided he would leave with the group if they could produce a probable means of escape
• The party moved out into the 4th floor hallway and began looking through the area
  • The group was soon spotted by two members of the Dark Embers, but they were quickly scared off
• The party discovered a number of strange things, including a beast of living sand, an aboleth, an enormous tooth, a deva trapped in stone, a sentient ball of flame, and a massive, chained giant
  • All the creatures trapped in the prison were unable to use their magic
  • Kel Stevaen met with the aboleth, promising to free it
  • Caedali managed to (explosively) undo the magic circle binding the deva, but the belligerent celestial could not summon his power and remained trapped in his cell
  • The flame (named Brimmus) wished to shrink out of his bindings by being doused with water
  • Steve ventured ahead and discovered the room with the giant, quickly closing it when it began to attack
• The group started to catch up with Steve, looking into the various experiment rooms
  • They freed the blink dog, closed the door on a woman lashing herself, and avoided a cell with a mimic
• Steve's zeal to escape led him to splinter a bit from the group, rushing ahead and coming face to face with a number of Dark Embers
  • Steve was frozen by magic as the group rushed to his aid
  • The group eventually beat down the mages and took two of their magic crystals, allowing Kel and Steve to cast magic
  • Merja was knocked out in the battle, but was soon revived by Kel
• The party decided to take a rest for a while, but still tackled a very suspect room full of traps in search of treasure
  • Ilryn sent some of her husks into the room to set off the traps, eventually opening the chest to reveal a large, dripping greatsword and an iron goblet with a long handle
  • The goblet began to pour water when tipped over, which the group used to free Brimmus by shrinking him down
  • Brimmus stated that there was a source for the anti-magic field located below, and accompanied the party to aid them
  • Caedali tried to offer some of the goblet's water to the deva as he had wished for a 'drink', though he was insulted that she would offer him something without alcohol
• The group rounded a corner and came to a brightly illuminated room that was found to be a ward against powerful scrying, likely for god-like entities
  • Steve began to carefully dismantle the ward as the others moved on to explore, with Caedali getting stuck in a cursed minecart
• The party heard footsteps approaching and entered into battle with more Dark Embers and guards
  
  • Steve backed out of the ward room and Kel sealed the door with Heat Metal
  • Lambchop helped break Caedali out of the minecart
  • The guards continued to approach from the south as bolts and spells were lobbed down the hall
  • The party made relatively short work of the mages, and Ilryn managed to convert one into a husk
• Steve managed to finish dismantling the magic circle, and the party was able to reestablish their connections with their deities
• Kel circled back to the tooth room, discovering a giant tooth that Patalir implored her to recover
• The party headed downwards to find the ward freezing up their magic
  • The group came face-to-face with a strange demon, holding the Mask of Fear, that warned them not to approach, attacking them when they did
  • While the demon seemed powerful, he was nearly immediately pacified by Steve's Phantasmal Killer and began to flee
  • The demon busted into a room full of flail snails and moving statues, with magic circulating throughout the room
  • As the group followed it in to attack, the demon managed to come to its senses and cursed both Lambchop and Caedali
  • The flail snails were capable of reflecting magic, so they group opted for physical means of combat
  • Steve began disabling the magic circles around the room as Lambchop attempted to break out a disembodied voice trapped behind a wall
  • Ilryn focused on retrieving her shield as the others fought off the snails
  • Finally, Lambchop was able to release a strange creature from the wall, and everyone's magic was restored as the being escaped
  • After taking some heavy damage, the party managed to destroy the last of the flail snails
• With the anti-magic field taken care of, the party retreated upwards, collecting Noesis in the process
  • Noesis brought the party to a storage room where they looted some powerful spell scrolls
  • The group wound their way up the facility, discovering that absolute chaos had broken out as a result of their actions
  • They helped to free a man that introduced himself as Unknown who bore a striking resemblance to the sandy men that had attacked Ilryn earlier
  • They also discovered Unknown, though she seemed to have been driven slightly insane by her time in the dungeon
  • Following the beckoning whispers behind a wall, the group discovered a massive blue dragon held in a magic circle, which they promptly destroyed, freeing it as it tunneled above
• The group arrived on the 2nd floor, interrogating a guard they found in the halls
  • The guard lamented that the Left Hand had sealed off the exit and that escape was no longer an option
  • He said that she would soon send the "cleaners" down to wipe out the hallways of pests
  • A small group of strange individuals began following the party, seeing them as a way to increase their odds of survival
• The party wandered into a treasure room, looting a large amount of coin, precious objects, and some of their former possessions
  • As the group stuffed away their loots, they heard familiar sounds of scraping metal echoing down the halls