Down a Desert Burrow, Part 2

The Party: Arcturius-9, Corwen, Farrow, Khonshu

The adventurers continued investigating the subterranean laboratory. Afflicted with her emergent ghoulish compulsion, Farrow comforted herself with the random lab cat. The others agreed it would be safest to restrain her for the time being, tying her leg to a table while they continued exploring.

Corwen and Khonshu stirred up the small dust devil within the metal and crystal box machine. When questioned with the aid of Canary and the fire elemental within, the air elemental said it didn’t know caused the damage, it only helped to clean when commanded. At first it was angered by the negotiations but eventually relented to charging the elemental shard in Canary in exchange for release. Khonshu used his tools to open the machine and the spirit was gone in a stir of wind.

Moving ahead, yet another body was discovered, and a circular, metal hatch door. The hallway also continued forward, branching into two directions. Opening the hatch, the group walked into a glass tube ending in another hatch. Beyond the glass, there was a large cavern dimly lit by some excavation equipment, and containing a big pit. The cavern was covered in giant, horse-sized flies. The smell of rotten flesh was stronger here.

Deciding to check the rest of the compound first, they move forward into a small lab room with some glass container boxes. One was broken and a three foot long worm creature crawled blindly on the floor. Carefully moving to the other glass box revealed a large chrysalis within the incubator.

Moving to the other path, the hall turned a corner to a smaller cavern. This one lead to a shallower pit showing some mined ore. Three large chests containing raw ore were also found. They identified the metal as the magic-resistant dimeritium like some of the doors were made of. Taking a few chunks of ore with them for now, the group returned to the hatch.

On the way, they saw the worm creature slowly moving toward them. Khonshu tried to prod it back into the other room, but it reeled back and spat acid at him and Mule. Khonshu activated a device to shield and store some of the attack so hit could use it to strike back. Backed by Corwen’s arrows and Arcturius-9’s javelin, Khonshu killed the bug with his charged pike. They collected an acidic blood sample from the creature.

At the hatch, Corwen checked the nearest body in the hazardous material suit and found a few silver coins on him. They decided to make use of the hazmat suits and pulled them over top of their armor. Corwen also pushed a corpse into the fly cavern to see what would happen. Several flies swarmed in and devoured the body with their mandibles.

Khonshu grabbed a plate of cured meat from the kitchen area to use as a distraction. Throwing it in the cavern did distract a fly and the others attacked. The giant insects were flighty and difficult to strike, but the party was able to destroy a number of the flies that moved toward them. After taking some bites, Mule found an infection of some sort. They retreated into the glass tube to recover. The fly pox disease did not seem like an immediate danger, but would need to be taken care of later. Arcturius-9 drank several healing potions to get back on his feet.

After discussing whether they had any reason to go back into the cavern of horrors, they deciding they should try to find out where the cavern led. Khonshu made Corwen invisible with some magical diagrams and the rouge snuck in to look. He noticed the pit was coated with a clear, waxy, slippery substance around the lip and walls. And that there was a hole in the cavern ceiling forty feet up where more flies seemed to come in. Reporting back they determined to draw the flies out in small groups and take them down. Khonshu figured the ceiling hole should come to the surface some place north of the ruins, near some dried riverbeds they had passed.

Before waiting for more flies to appear, they moved in and fought against the swarm. They wiped out most of them, though suffering damages in the process and fly pox infections for Arcturius-9 and Corwen. Two injured flies flew up the ceiling hole to escape.

Khonshu sent Canary to scout. The ceiling hole did lead to the sandy surface as predicted, the fire elemental reported back. The flies seemed to be a natural fauna. With a tinkered light, Canary next descended into the large pit, whose bottom was just beyond the reach of darkvision for Corwen and Khonshu. At the bottom was a pool of liquid which trapped several giant flies. In the center was a large red cage fungus that resembled rotting flesh, the source of the small. Corwen scrapped some of the wax off with effort, finding it not flammable.

Not wanting any part of the death trap, the party was almost ready to leave when Corwen’s sense picked up that they were not alone. After a moment a slow clapping sound alerted them to the appearance of a figure in tattered blue robes. He levitated toward them, they saw fungal tendrils growing from the man’s form. He complimented the group on their abilities and was disappointed they wouldn’t be able to work together. The party recognized the voice of Levander, the wizard they had met in the badlands, who had a hand in the raising of the Agony Engine, and who when last they fought had almost blasted them off the Bluespire Mountains. His body had further corrupted into a twisted visage of decaying fungal growth and hive-mind repose.

After more banter which didn’t reveal much, Levander did say he had already gotten what he came for. A second Levander appeared behind them and summoned a gust of wind that almost blew them into the pit. Corwen was thrown back but luckily hit a wall instead. They pushed forward to confront him and the wizard made gestures to drop the temperature of the cavern in a cone of cold. The sharp icy spell took Arcturius-9 to the brink of exhaustion and froze Mule and Corwen solid, leaving them hanging on to life by a thread. Levander flew over the pit to avoid the weapons attacking him. When Mule bit at the first Levander, it was revealed to be an illusion that talked.

Khonshu was spared by his positioning and send Canary with a healing spell to save Corwen, though he was still frozen solid. Meanwhile, Arturius-9 unleashed his new weapons with a surge of power. His face plate spit to reveal a metal skull. Opening his mouth, a pulse waves shot forth, crushing Levander in mid-air and drawing him close enough for the cyborg to land huge telling blows with his greatsword. Heavily damaged, Levander disengaged and flew up. After a gland toward the pit as if he wanted to do another thing, the mage flew out the hole in the ceiling, leaving his illusory double standing like a statue.

Reviving Corwen and Mule, the group send Canary down to take a sample of the cage fungus, its flesh and the black goo that was within. Khonshu used his tinkering to record a photograph of the specimen as well.

Deciding to secure the compound and call Agent with news and a request for a clean up crew to investigate further, the party had a chance to regroup and try to address their lingering ailments. They were left with the feeling that larger plots were stirring around them out there somewhere.