Adventurers
- Cantano One-Tooth (Fighter 1)
- Mandras (Thief 5)
- Rafin Falskax (Cleric 3)
After nabbing some crude weapons from the room opening out onto the cliff, the party made their way along the corridor towards a foul smell. They pushed against a door and found themselves in a room with a large pile of sludge stinking of rot. After determining that nothing in that room moved, they tried a door along the opposite wall, which opened out into an overgrown corridor, mushrooms dotting the floor and creeper vines hanging from the ceiling, not quite obscuring a little old aquaduct running along the ground.
Warily the adventurers closed the door and, noticing some bones and tattered clothing, started poking around the sludge. Before they could do much, however, the door was flung open and three mushroom-like humanoids lowered their spears, demanding to know what the party were doing spoiling their Experiment. Some dialogue ensued but the party were unwilling to offer up one of their own to restart the Experiment and attempted to push past the shroomlings. With a cry of “For Puruglese!” the creatures hurled themselves at the humans, with more appearing from the corridor in both directions.
The adventurers fought them in the doorway, cutting down several but the front rank staggered as a larger specimen, with multiple arms emerging from its stalk of a body, spattered them with an odorous fluid which induced waves of intense nausea. Dodging another scuttling mushroom’s adhesive spit aimed for their boots, they beat a retreat, engulfing the plantfolk that followed them with flaming oil flasks, and returning to cliff room to give their queasy colleagues some fresh air.
Airwaves cleared, the group decided to backtrack to where they’d found the secret door into the fancy bedroom. They poked around to see if they’d missed anything else of interest. Cantano opened the trapdoor near the bed to find a pair of gloves about shoulder-width apart with fingers facing outwards. Prodding them with this spear had one try and grasp hold of the shaft. A few more prods elicited the same response, and the adventurers decided to leave these gloves alone.
Instead they made their way through the other door in the room which brought them out into a gusty statuary hallway, with several creations in the forms of llamas flanking the walkway. As the party entered the room each statue, exquisitely crafted with tiny pieces of bones, splinters and pebbles, turned with a loud rattle to peer at them. They didn’t move from their pedestals, but their faces noisily followed the adventurers’ movement.
Moving into the wind, the party found themselves at the great chute dropping away nearly 100′ below with its whirling wind circling a bright, fist-sized gem, opposite the first way in they’d found. Roping themselves together and pressing against the wall, they edged down the stairs, and then when the windy from rose up to meet them they dashed through a doorway into a room. One wall was lined with horizontal barrels, and Mandras gave a tentative twist of one spigot. The aroma of an old, rich wine filled the air, temporarily driving away the sharp headache-inducing smell they’d been walking through up to this point. A chance for a breather before making their next move.