Summary:
I am still wary as to why we are risking our lives searching this strange metal fortress? I owe a debt to the Space Demons (the patakk call them Zzzssts) for freeing me from JaTeem’s slavers. Thus I have accompanied the eight-armed monsters and the Horned warrior on this quest. I am honor bound and will press on until that debt is paid. The eight-armed Zzzsst’s intent must be to discover something of value and they do have a knack for making the strange magical devices we are finding work. I have come to respect the huge MiTar as he is a valiant warrior. The rest of these patakks I have no idea why they are even here. Of all the strange items we have discovered I most like the exploding balls and had high hopes of acquiring more of them when we discovered a white locked box, a gray box and the strange bent bar. After fooling with them for a while one of the Zzzssts is able to open the box and it disappointingly only contained coins that were evenly distributed amongst the party. The Dwarg, Madjack, discovered that after removing one of the arms on the metal constructs he can use it to open things. This along with the colored wedges we have acquired will help us to not have to rip open all the doors saving us much time. I have acquired one of these door opening devices which will come in handy after the smaller patakks die.
The Mondwar is intent on burning the metal structure to the ground. At every opportunity he is acquiring anything he feels may be flammable and eagerly tests his hypothesis. I saw him dump out his waterskin and fill it with a black and orange liquid that spilled out of one of the constructs. The rock miners are cray cray.
After spending much time examining the boxes and their contents one of the Zzzsst presented some underflaps (Madjack is wearing a similar set over his armor which seems odd) to Roland who stripped down and put it on under his armor (this seems like a more sensible way to wear this garment). Roland soon discovered that there was some magic in this garment. Lucky Drak!
We proceed to explore the structure. I open one of the locked doors with the brown wedge I have and am instantly assaulted with hundreds of metal beetles spilling from the room. “Paaaaath!!!” I can fend off the creatures but Beryl, who was by my side, is not so skilled and ensures much damage from the creatures as they swarm through his armor. Beryl pleads for the party to burn him as the beetle’s twist and turn through his armor but alas no one else is indulging in Pyromania. Roland and Banger are quick to pull Beryl and I out of the stream of beetles as they start to eat their way through the very hard deck we are standing on. Nalin throws one of the exploding balls into the room and causes the creatures to burn and for a moment the two Zzzsst in our group fall to their knees and wail in pain, antennae waving. After the fire dies down, only a few inches of dust remain in the room. Both of the Zzzsst and I start sifting through the dust looking for some clue as to what was in here that the Beatles were so drawn to. Beryl, to no one’s surprise, gathers up some dust and tries to light it on fire.
The rest of the patakks in the hallway are surprised as tentacles drop from the dark ceiling and grab the MiTar, pulling him up in the air and covering him with some sort of ooze. Madjack is also pinned by a tentacle and yanked into the air being covered in the ooze. Beryl, unable to light the dust on fire, springs to action and starts chopping at the tentacles causing liquid to spew all over the room. Forxar incants a holy circle on the floor and calls out to his lord which seems to help the patakks. Madjack is able to free himself and drops to the floor. Hearing the screaming, the Zzzsst and I run into the hallway to join in on the fun, Beryl lights an arrow on fire and sends one into the creature inverted on the ceiling. It is immediately engulfed in flame and releases everyone as it dies, and its massive tongue extends across the room. Beryl takes part of the tongue to examine later since it glows and is probably flammable. Those that are covered in the slime try to wash it off with no results. Rolling in the dust the Beatles left covers the slime but still does not come off. The Zzzsst start chittering among themselves and seem to be pointing at the rest of us.
I open the next door and find a room full of rubbish. Roland uses his drak power on the room with no results. I start searching the rubbish and find another Yellow Tide pod.
Beryl starts to go 10 feet down the hallway pulling the rest of the tongue with him. It is putrid and covered in sores. Smells delicious. Beryl leaves the party and walks, by himself, down the corridor about one hundred yards continuing to pull the tongue with him. He then stops and ready’s his bow with 2 arrows.
Deciding to check out the rest of the doors in the hallway. Roland tries the orange wedge in the doorslot. The door opens to a 20×25’ room with 5 small globes moving around the room spewing Lightning as they go. Beryl shouts to close the door!
Moving to the next room we see a pressure plate by the door. Again Beryl runs back down the hallway towards the patakks pulling the tongue with him, and quickly presses the plate. It was a strange sight!. The door opens and we see a room full of a couple cords of wood. Beryl enters the room and starts to stack it in the middle of the hallway. It seems to be birchwood. Madjacks eyes get large as he sees that it is wood. After removing 4 pieces Beryl decides he wants to pull the bark off the wood and stops stacking it in order to make some paper. As he is ripping off the bark We are attacked!
Several long panther-like creatures with tentacle-like limbs and glowing eyes silently jump from the shadows and attack. I smile! They immediately go for me but both miss. Another goes for Beryl and just grazes him. Banger jumps out of the way and Roland takes some damage as does the Zzzsst without the cloak. Madjack is unlucky as well as the fey-panther attacks him. I attack one of the largest but am surprised, as the creature seems to not be where I think he is and I only hit it once but swear I should have connected twice. Beryl again leaps into action with his sword but is also surprised to find the creature evades him.
Not-panthers! Alrighty then! Forxar let’s lose his fey powers and one of the smaller creatures is set ablaze with white light. Banger strikes and misses as well. Our warriors should be able to hit these creatures as they are quite large. Disgustingly one of the Zzzsst spews out a white slime goo from one of its orifices which I must dodge to avoid being caught in its web. Beryl is small enough that the slime flies over his head. Two of the creatures are pinned to the wall. A feeling of relief comes over me as Nalin starts to chant a prayer. Ecknilki tries to attack one of the creatures but is also surprised to find it not where he thinks it is. I am surprised to see Cerberus close his eyes and successfully attack the glowing creature. He is able to bring the creature down with this unorthodox style of fighting. The large one drops, and the 2 ensnared creatures wail in anguish.
I go after the remaining large creature that is not ensnared. Again, I miss with my first attack but am able to drive home my sword with my second attack. Beryl also attacks the large creature and as I, missed with his first blow and strikes solidly with the second. Roland strikes the creature again and again. The 2 webbed creatures start to vibrate. One of our bugs starts clicking and shoots a glowing dart at the gooed creature. Madjack attacks and misses. The cloaked Zzzsst tries to hit but misses as well. Nalen takes out his Holy water and makes his strange fey noises which results in the creatures immediately being visible for him to see. Ecknilki misses but Cerberus strikes a huge blow to the large, webbed not-panther. A smaller one strikes me and disappears. And then the Large webbed creature disappears.
Seeing only one large creature remaining webbed the party strikes the creature again and again until it is dead.
The remaining two not-panthers flee down the hall. Beryl feeds the larger one the piece of the tongue he had. The smaller one darts into a white card room followed by the larger one and the door closes behind them.
After catching up to Beryl, Cerberus and I pull the door open but seem to ruin it in the process. And the ceiling turns red with an alarm sounding. The room is 20×20’ and is surprisingly clean with benches coming out of the wall. There is another white card door on the far side of the room. We decide to not continue the chase.
Nalin and Forxar start to search the not-panther, finding a brown shard wedged on its body (a brown wedge that Madjack takes). The alarm goes off and a humming sound is heard in the West corridor. Beryl cuts a leg off one of the carcasses (Possibly a snack for later) and I grab the large one to properly take its hide, a fine cloak it will make. Madjack inserts his Brown wedge into the second white card door. The door eats the wedge without opening. Beryl smashes the wedge slot destroying the newly found wedge in the process and the bright white glowing line winks out. Cerberus and I again pull the door open. 2 blue metal constructs are heard down the hall. These 2 have black appendages. The door opens into a 20×30’ space with a curved wall on the far end. There is a small amount of bones on the floor. Beryl looks up wide eyed!
Suddenly the ceiling drops on us and I am engulfed along with Beryl and Cerberus within this creature the size I have not seen the likes of. Cerberus and I feel the crushing grip as we attempt to push this creature off us but the weight is staggering. We feel our companions attacking the creature from outside. Cerberus and I struggle to climb out from below while Beryl attacks with his sword. Success we are free as the creature dies from the damage it has taken from the party. Beryl starts cutting off a 3 ft piece to drag behind him. I find it curious his new love of dragging bloody body parts around. It is unwise to leave such an obvious trail.
While I was engulfed by the ceiling, Ecknilki moved into the hallway and attempted to pick the lock on the door to another room. Some lightning came out of the slot as he opened the door. The uncloaked Zzzsst and Nalen are in the hall watching the two black knight constructs examining the dead not-panther creatures. The constructs are making noise and spraying the creatures down.
As Ecknilki opens the door the light goes on in the 20×20’ empty room, he tells the party this is a safer place to be as he motions to the constructs down the hall. The Zzzsst and Nalen hurry into the room. The rest of the party go into the hallway except for me and Beryl. I start to skin the not-panther beast as I have skinned many a beast after hunting my prey. It will take a while, but I think it will be worth it.
Ecknilki, Zu and Nalen can see a clear wall at the far side of the room and a mabden dressed in white with a silver leg paint is watching the patakks. He looks at the Zzzsst and says “Please state the nature of your medical emergency.” which only the Zzzsst can understand. The Zzzsst responds that his companion needs assistance. the cloaked Zzzsst comes into the room and approaches the man. Madjack comes into the room along with everyone else. Zu points to Kiaba, Madjack, Cerberus, Ecknilki and Forxar as needing Medical attention. The Glass wall sinks into the floor and reveals a pristine looking room with all sorts of interesting devices. The mabden in white inserts a tide pod into a device and it injects Kiaba who immediately feels better. Next it slices and grinds metal blades into Forxar’s stomach. Banger sees Forxar is hurt and immediately reacts by attacking the mabden in white. Roland attacks and the mabden in white responds by healing him. But then he sprays Banger with acid in the face.
Battle ensues with the white mabden who is alternately healing and attacking the party. Kiaba seizes and collapses to the ground, Roland also collapses to the ground. A blue light goes off in the room and an alarm goes off. In the hallway the two constructs start approaching the room. The white mabden begins to pull down a metal spider strangely connected to the ceiling, with all sorts of implements on it but is hit hard and sparks come out of it as it stops moving. Roland cast a slow poison spell on Kiaba and she stopped seizing. Nalin cast slow Poison on Madjack as he was succumbing to the nasty stuff as well.
Hearing the alarm Beryl and I rush into the hallway and hear noises come from the blue knight constructs. One of the Zzzsst makes noises at the construct. Beryl attacks the closest construct, but his sword bounces off a shiny blue globe that surrounds it. I join Beryl in Battle and attack the second Construct also striking a similar unseen shield. The cloaked Zzzsst continues to chitter at the constructs. The Zzzsst and I are attacked by the dark knight and it spews green smoke at us and we both collapse after breathing in the stink of it.
Nalin seeing how effective the acid canister was on the white mabden decides to spray the Blue Knights with it causing much destruction. Some of the patakks come into the hallway and immediately attack the constructs. The rest of the patakks stay in the room searching it intensely and Madjack utilizes the healing spray to help the damaged party members. The first construct falls under the barrage of attacks. The second is much harder to kill. The patakks in the hallway continue attacking it until it too falls to the ground. The party is in sad shape…
Justly scrawled – Glogfot; Hammer for CARP 2021