A Vexing Presence, Part 2

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

The tide was turning in the fray. Khonshu, still disguised as a glowing avatar of Helius the sun god, had the lizard-skinned shaman charmed and dominated thanks to a potion. Farrow was in the fight, but down to her last energy charges for her devices. Corwen was pretty shot up from his archery duel with the greenskin crossbowman. And Arcturius-9 had run in to take on the big lava monster, slashing away and taking bursts of fire damage in return.

The lava elemental had gone berserk after the shaman lost concentration and control, and everyone else in the cave base looked to be trying to flee. One unconscious High Roller and dead bodies of a dozen gremlins and a few humans lay on the floor as one man managed to reach the exit to start running away.

The shaman called on some power to shapechange into a giant lizard and crawled toward smaller exit while her crossbowman bodyguard covered. However, a telepathic command from Khonshu halted the shaman from going anywhere. Crossbowman had seen enough, thinking the shaman had lost it, he pulled out a small conch shell and blew on it. He vanished with a ripple, but not before swearing vengeance on Corwen: “You’re the worst one of all!”

Meanwhile the enraged lava monster came down on Arcturius-9 with a vengeance, burning spear piercing into the cyborg. Seeing this, Farrow produced a healing beam from an omnistaff attachment to get him back in the fight. Through the rumble, the remaining High Rollers and gremlin tried to flee past the adventurers. Though still under a disguise, Khonshu brought his hidden pike around to trip up on of the men and knock him out. The rest managed to get out of the chamber.

Khonshu also sent his lantern homunculus after the lava monster, firing a wisp of force just as Arcturius-9 landed a telling sword blow which dissolved the monster back into the floor with a tremor. As the glow faded from the room, the party took stock of the area. Farrow explored the scrap pile of an engine core and picked out some precious metals. She then examined the statue of Helius in the back and took a rubbing of the sun god’s symbol.

As Corwen and Arcturius-9 dragged the two unconscious men to a pillar and tied them tight, Khonshu continued his ruse with the dominated shaman while the effect lasted. She changed back into a humanoid form to answer questions. The group learned that there were a few dozen High Rollers living in the mountain wilderness and a few other bases of Bowlers, including other priests of Helius. The shaman opened the arcane locks on the steel chests with Helius’s tenet “All flowers in time turn toward the sun.” Inside, there were many items including planar shards, ceremonial objects, potions, scrolls, a wand, and a broken blade. The shaman explained the blade’s prophecy that it would be rebuilt, and a “chosen one, born of worms, living in reverse, will return the sun.” Farrow scooped up the items into their bag of holding as soon as they were identified.

The shaman asked some questions about the party’s relationship with Helius, which they deflected or played into. When asked if Helius had created Arcturius-9, the shaman received one of his action figures from Khonshu. The shaman confirmed the story of how they fought with the guards from the Locks and had taken a few survivors, only to sacrifice them to a well dedicated to Helius. This sun well was nearby, and the Bowlers answered a voice of Helius from the well. The sacrifices were delivered alive but unconscious.

Suspicious, the party asked to be shown the well. The shaman agreed, offering to carry the avatar of Helius in lizard form, which Khonshu declined. As a lizard, the shaman scaled the cliff face at the entrance over to a lower section of ridge. Farrow followed with her gadgeted gloves. They secured a line so the others could make in across more easily. Looking down to their waiting axe beak mounts, pets, and Mule, everything seemed well. The owlbear cub had even somehow managed to catch a stray, frail deer and was making a meal of it.

With renewed vigor, they approached the well once more. Farrow gathered the resources to use her drone again and sent the floating camera into the depths. The drop was forty to fifty feet and opened into a greater cavern of some sort. Farrow could see ruins of some sort of temple architecture and further areas downward. The glow had been sections of fluorescent fungus, providing some low-light in the vicinity. The drone next captured images of a statue that looked suspiciously like the giant lizard they had sent down. Several other stone shapes stood in the area among the rubble: a badger, a snake, a ferret.

Taking note of the potential danger, the group proceeded to descend. Farrow climbed down, followed by the rest once they secured Khonshu’s climbing rope to the well. They made sure to keep an exit in mind. Seeing the darkened space in person, the size was immense, reaching further than they could see, including a ledge and even darker areas below. The statues did not reveal much else, and they found no sign of Locks uniforms among the numerous bones and rusted armor and weapon fragments littered about.

Across from the ledge were other platforms and thin walkway segments that crossed the area. While exploring, Farrow avoided a dropping green slime. When she took a sample, she found it very acidic. The party kept watch now, but were still surprised by other patches of dropping slime. Luckily they avoided any direct contact and the slimes didn’t move once grounded.

Risking the jump, the powerful Arcturius-9 and Farrow with her propulsive boots leapt the twenty feet needed to clear the ledge and land on a circular platform slightly below. More remains met them but still no sign of the Locks.

Looking for another way around, Corwen and Khonshu edged toward the one complete walkway, though it looked cracked in a bad way. Then a voice boomed around them from somewhere near the ledge. It told them to leave, threatening them to no avail. Farrow called back to it enough to fluster it and she spotted a shift in the shadows of a fallen pillar near Corwen. Warning her friends near the spot, the half-elf saw a small shape jump and try to run past him. He harried it with his blade, but the creature managed to run on with a high-pitched scream.

The darkling continued his obstacle course run, climbing down a wall to the circular platform. The small figure then skulked behind the basilisk and across some planks to a set of open stairs. Seeing his comrades in danger, Corwen pulled out his magic bow and launched a sniping arrow into the creature’s scaly side as it hissed. Khonshu sent Canary over as he found a better angle to see the creature. Working his magic, he catapulted a sword from the remains on the platform and sent it hurtling into the basilisk. Too slow to move out of the path, the creature was skewered and fell over.

Relieved, Arcturius-9 advanced on the cloaked runner, about to grab him until the planks under his feet gave way to the heavier fighter. Arcturius-9 tumbled into the darkness below. The darkling went from a scared scream to a smug sneer. But Farrow saw the opportunity to fire her omnistaff to take him down. The beam flared surprisingly strong and blasted straight through the darkling’s chest, sending his body tumbling down, hitting some walls and columns on the way down into the deeper dark of the pit that seemed supernaturally obscuring. Unsure if she meant to go that far, Farrow pushed it out her mind as she climbed down some stairs to see Arcturius-9 recovering from a nasty forty foot fall onto a ledge. Luckily the cyborg could jump back to Farrow’s position as Corwen skillfully climbed down a back wall to the circular platform and followed the route to meet them. Khonshu, meanwhile found a place to secure a rope to climb down one level to a spot no too far away.

It was near total darkness here and Arcturisu-9 required some guidance. Corwen lit a torch and dropped it in time for an attack from a second, slightly larger basilisk. This one seemed cagier and stuck to a wall as it gazed at the party. Arcturius-9 tried to reach it with his greatsword, stabbing at the monster as Khonshu tried another catapult spell and sent more debris at the creature. The basilisk backed off and skittered back into the darkness.

Picking up the torch, the party explored the paths on this lower level, finding much the same debris, with some grates appearing to lead toward. Following around to more walkway, they came to the large circular column below the platform where they had stood above and found a door. Corwen was able to easily pick the lock and they opened a room containing two dead bodies and three statues, all in Locks guard’s armour. Trying to think of ways to help the petrified guards, Farrow recalled some impressive basilisk lore regarding how the effects could reversed though spells or by alchemy using parts of the basilisk as ingredients for certain concoctions.

Setting up a trap, Corwen and Arcturius-9 back down the adjacent stairs while Farrow and Khonshu backed into the circular room and closed the door. The drone outside informed them of the situation as Farrow reengaged the scrying function. The four grimlocks lumbered onto the walkway leading to the chamber and then paused. They grumbled to each other and Arcturius-9 understood their Undercommon speech saying they sensed someone near their larder. Taking the initiative, Arcturius-9 bulldozed up the stairs to knock one of the eyeless creatures off the walkway into the darkness below. Turning with mantis claws unsheathed, he crushed a second done before it could react. Corwen ran in with a sneaky stab with his shortsword, pulling back at the last moment to incapacitate rather than kill one. The last one fled back the way it came, disappearing into a doorway. Khonshu and Farrow rejoined to see the situation for themselves.

Before they could plan an action, a scrabbling noise alerted them to the basilisk’s presence on the wall of the central column. Arcturius-9 was caught by torchlight and made eye contact, felling himself restrained and his body and belonging magically start to stiffen to stone. The basilisk retreated before it could be stopped. Farrow used her nanite surge attachment to lend Arcturius-9 some boosted vitality as he fought off the petrification effect.

The relentless basilisk appeared again on a different wall, this time Khonshu risked looking at it to fire his crossbow and started turning to stone. Corwen fired on the creature as Farrow marked it with her drone, causing it to glow with faerie fire. Not liking this, it skittered back into darkness. Luckily Khonshu fought of the effects from taking hold.

The party split up, with Corwen and Arcturius-9 pursuing the fleeing eyeless figure, and Khonshu and Farrow guarding against the basilisk. Arcturius-9 charged headlong into an ambush from two grimlocks who landed some luckily blows to knock the cyborg into bleeding out. Seeing this through the doorway, Corwen launched cover fire that failed to hit its mark. But it covered Khonshu sending Canary to their fallen friend. Channeling power through his creation, the artificer sent a reviving pulse into Arcturius-9. Still prone, the fighter rolled away from the two grimlocks clubbing down at him.

Enraged, Arcturius-9 stood and easily dispatched the two blind foes. Picking up the torch, he advanced again down a twisted hallway system that seemed to be a warren of cages and living quarters. Corwen ran in as well. As they came across more grimlocks, the angry cyborg could be detained, and the rogue provided back up to clear each hallway until they came to a locked door. Picking the lock and listening, Corwen detected noise but couldn’t tell what was within. Bursting in, another four grimlocks met them. As two fell to Arcturius-9’s blade, the remaining two surrendered and pleaded for mercy. Disarming them, Corwen and Arcturius-9 marched them back toward the prison.

Meanwhile out in the cavern, the basilisk appeared again, glowing with lights revealing its location. Khonshu and Farrow had readied attacks, and Farrow shot down the basilisk with her drone before it could get any closer. They watched as the body went limp and fell into the pit below, unable to catch it.

Reunited in the center room with their captives, they interrogated through Arcturius-9, learning that the grimlocks served the Lord of the Pit, a god-like figure to them. They worked with the Voice to gain sacrifices from above, which they kept preserved as stone with the help of their basilisks. The party gathered the Voice was the darkling they had dispatched earlier. The stone would be reversed to fresh flesh when their lord hungered from time to time. From the grimlock’s belts, they took vials of a special oil that could reverse the effect of the basilisk’s gaze. Enough doses to revive the three remaining guards. They awoke disorientated but grateful.

Corwen sensed a tremor from below. They knocked out the eyeless creatures and made their escape as the rumbling intensified. Corwen made a detour to recover one more vial of the oil from the bodies of the other grimlocks they had slain.

Making a note of the sun well’s location to warn others, the party, the recued guards, and the two unconscious High Rollers all proceeded to McCraggenhilt. The dwarves welcomed the information and warnings, as well as some returned planar shards. After a meal and a needed night’s rest, the group rode on to the Locks. The leaders were thankful for the returning guards, prisoners, and information. Farrow noticed she had several missed calls and messages on her comm crystal from her father asking how her vacation was going. The party’s return to Lanternwurm followed soon after.