SESSION 272: Siege on the Gangrenous Pt. 21 – Raul Drives the Crab, Chief.
Deeper into the tower they go discovering lots of things but few answers.
Day 208 Continued (Spire): They would press on, up the slope, but not quite yet. Raul had an idea. They would place a crab shell in the freezer room and turn on the machine in hopes of accruing a bunch of ice that could maintain their water supply. This is what they did. The tower had other ideas and threw more druids and screecher things in the path. So they decided to finish exploring the SE sector of the tower. First it was a mushroom garden room manned by a couple more crazed druids. This netted the hobos a bunch of shrooms and a potion.
Moving through the garden chamber they found themselves back at the main entrance. There was one more passage to explore. The one with the ‘clacking noise’. Before they could move along an apparition arose from the floor. It was the ghost of Salauisuus! “Close the gate! Search the darkness! Utter the word!”, shouted the spirit before it turned to vapour and disappeared. Raul was piecing things together and getting optimistic about escaping the Dreamlands.
Ramrod lead the way down the corridor. He limped his invisible way along and around a corner to a blacker than black chamber. The clack noise was most certainly coming from within. The thief fell back to the group and informed of his findings. They marched forward with the thief creeping unseen just up front and to the side. Camillus tossed a light stone into the chamber. It had no effect beyond activating the occupant. A conventional huge crab of the hex-type variety sent out its exceptionally long pinchered arms to snap at Versamage and Ramrod. It looks like this darkness dweller could see well beyond human limitation. Rammer got lucky and Versamage was ready, they both successfully dodged the first round of pinching. Herbert evoked light inside the chamber to undermine the unnatural darkness. Now they could see what they were working with. An eight foot diameter crab, its slime nest and some sort of gash in the floor. Battle raged for a bit and then we had more food – Yay! Inside the slime pile nest there was eight purple crab eggs. The gash turned out to be a rift in reality and opened into the distant darkened chamber where they had been accosted by two large pinchers, weird. It was time to collect the rest of the group and head up the slope.
Returning to the base chamber, after another altercation with druids and screechers, they opened up the barricade to the southern door.
Stepping into the adjacent chamber towards the gross slope they were once more ambushed by screechers that were hiding in the hanging skin flaps above. After killing the blind bug things they stood before the nodule covered slimy slope.
Sasha, Wily and Rammer looked upwards into the darkness pondering the best way to get the rest of the dead-weight… er gang, to where ever the upper landing was. Boris interrupted things and blasted out his own plan, “ We can just use these nub things!”. The dwarf grabbed one of the fleshy nodules. This produced a squeal, “Heh, They normally only do that behind closed doors”. Sasha sent up her rope of climbing to assist with the climb and they began the ascent.
About thirty feet up their lights were just able to define the upper ledge, they were about half way. It was around this time that more mad druids appeared. They were atop the slope and armed with rocks that they began dropping. Wham! Camillus caught one in the head but with her indomitable will she did not lose her purchase. The hobos turned on the gas as a lot of them would not survive an impact with a rock and an accompanying fall to the bottom. There was three druids at the top. Unbeknownst of our group they were short on ammo. After dropping the second round of boulders, about the same time that Rammer ambushed one of them, two of them then proceeded to throw themselves. One slammed into Sloth but with his freshly recovered hands he could not be shaken from his position. The two divers went splat. Ramrod drove his blade deep into the remaining goombah.
At the top was chamber with two doors and a wide stairwell. Ramrod slunk forward as the rest of the team finished the climb. The stairs went up ten or so feet into another chamber with a door off to the side and across the room a wall with what appeared to be a very large bas-relief of an closed eye. As he approached the eye opened and focused on the thief. Aloud booming voice was heard, “Welcome to the Tower of Saluisuus. You are an intruder. Please standby for extermination”. The eye glowed and released a beam of light narrowly missing Rammer. He jumped back and rolled down the steps as another beam slammed into the ceiling. Returning to the now alert group, “I wouldn’t go that way. Let’s try that door over there instead”. Sloth was game and he jogged to the door and threw his shoulder into it. He went through it and ended up against the wall of a small storage chamber containing a rotting chest and closet. The items somehow still protected the internal contents even though the wood of each was nearly mush. From the closet they came up with an elegant, and very expensive looking, wizard cap and robe. Wendul liked these very much. Inside the chest was a sword, a book and an ivory walking cane. Going back to the chamber Raul was convinced that the eye guard must be protecting ‘the way to go’. He did not garner much support after Rammer made an audible noise of disagreement. They went to the other door instead.
After smashing open the swollen door they once more came face to face with mad druids.. The fight was quick even with the lunatics being ready. The walls of the chamber were covered in notes and the centre of the room was dominated by a hexagonal shaped table supported by a fleshy podium and a protruding rod with a ball near the end within the middle of the top. There was also another door but this other stuff seemed more interesting at the moment. Raul went to the notes passing over things in a cursory manner. It seemed to largely pertain to dimensions. He began to collect the sheets and stack them on the table. He would remember something else a bit later. Boris and a few others looked at the table and touched it here and there to no ill, or otherwise, effect. Rather than really mulling things over they decided to press on.
Beyond the next door was a really screwy chamber of some size.
Opening the door (kicking in) they were greeted by a sickly pulsating purple light. The chamber was deep, wide and high (~60x30x50’). Skin flaps and terminal tubes dangled form above. Just beyond the door the floor had collapsed revealing a mass of twisting cords within. Immediately beyond a narrow stairwell going up. The back of the chamber was the cherry. A twenty foot wide portal stood between a sickly flesh pillars and arch. Beyond the portal an even more disgusting fleshy landscape could be seem stretching for miles. Raul had an epiphany and pulled out the scroll and read it – Kith-Karyakk! A wave of energy rolled through the room and the image began to waver. “Wait! Let’s just watch it for ten minutes to see what happens”.
They waited just long enough for the wavering to stop and to have a horde of screechers appear in the beyond that were charging to the opposite side of the portal. Wendul saw an opportunity. He conjured a fireball and sent it into the screechers before they could pass through the planar gate. Raul was not coming up with a solution until Herbert whispered to him, “Maybe it’s an incantation requiring a chant there boss”. They began chanting the magic word. It took three times to make the word of power to take effect. With the third utterance the gate promptly popped. “Well alright. Let’s go up the steps now”, came from Gurn and so they did.
The steps wound their way up to another door.
Beyond. Another chamber with another door and another weird fleshy mechanical amalgam extruding fleshy tubes that plunged into the creepy fleshy floor and walls. There was also another door. They decided not to muck with this flesh machine and went through the far door. It was a small chamber with large wall murals and another door. Sloth was about to charge through until Ramrod redirected him, “Don’t do that big guy laser eye on the other side”. “Laser eye make burn?”. “Yup”. The murals depicted Saluisuus (presumably) standing atop a tall spire above him was a gateway to a different world where a dark entity beckoned to him. “Gloivin! Never go with the evil entity”, Wendul could spot a tainted wizard from at least four paces. They carefully backtracked through the meat-machine room and back to the table chamber.
Whoops hold on a second, Raul had another idea. He pulled a window out of his jacket of useful items and plugged it into a spot on the wall that did not have any flesh-machine tubes. It worked. They could see out of the spire. It was an eastern view and fully unobstructed. They appeared to be in the uppermost portion of the spire. The hex crab stood along the shore of an expansive inland sea and they could smell something like old brine. This triggered Ike’s memory banks “Waahg! That must be the Sea of Ushangsab. Cursed, bitterly alkaline and where no life dwells. Below the waves the lost burial city of he who sleeps in the depths – Dagon! So…that means..hmm..about..two-hundred or so miles north of the Gates of Slumber. You could certainly find a gate home there it is a nexus for travellers”. This intrigued our dimensional hoppers. They decided for no particular reason to fall back to the hexagonal table chamber.
Returning to the table room, Raul went back to the pile of papers, “How could I miss this?!”. Within the stack of dimensional ruminations was some not quite specific instructions for operating the hex-crab. The thing sticking out of the table was a joystick. “Well give it a go fly-boy”, was Camillus’s input. Raul grabbed the stick and give it a stern push – ZAP!
He was greeted with the first of a number of stern electrical charges but he did get the crab moving and with the help of a hobo communication chain going back up to the now windowed flesh-machine chamber he was able to get the crab moving southwards towards the Gates of Slumber. Wendul and Herbert surmised that the mountainous crawler could shave weeks off the trek south. Just as long as someone was controlling the joystick and no obstacles appeared.
Now seemed as good of a time as any to rest before getting down to things. The period passed without mad druids or killer blind bug things.
Day 209 (Spire): Raul did his morning stretches after his hex-crab breakfast and then approached the controls, “It’s crab walking time!”.
The B-Team: Boris, Ramrod, Raul, Sloth, Willy, Sasha, Wendul, Gurn, Ike, Katre, Herbert, Camillus & Lady Versamage
ROLECALL
Raul the Voyager (MD9) 267070 xp +10% <360000> CRT 1d12/III
Fezzi-Gig (Neut: XXXX) Sword
Serious wound: permanent loss of CHA -4,
Removed one of his own nostrils.
Boris the Dwarven Lord (D9) 368995 xp +10% <400001> CRT 1d20/IV
Serious wound: permanent loss of CHA -3, carved up face
Wound: Bad leg (-5’ MV)
Multiple Injuries: lost 25 teeth (7 remaining), drools a lot CHA -1
Serious Injury: Brain Drain -2 INT
Serious wound: permanent loss of an eye (-1 to missile fire)
Ramrod the Cloned Magsman (T9) 176176 xp +5% <280001> CRT 1d20/II
Serious wound: Bad Back (-1 stone CC)
Scars: Neurological damage to hip, noticeable limp (-5’ mve)
Missing eight teeth talks with a lisp
The Henchmen
Sloth the Bopper (L8) 201741 xp +10% <390,000> CRT 1d20/IV or 1d6/G (vs. s, m)
Missing ten teeth
Sasha Plasha the Warden (R7) 125280 xp +10% <200000> CRT 1d10/III
Gurn Hammerhand the Dwarven Swashbuckler (D5) 29968 <36000> +5% CRT 1d12/III
Wendul the Magician (W6) 51716 <80000> 5% CRT 1d8/I
Camillus the Myrmidon (F6) 54987 <64001> +5% CRT 1d20/IV
Willy the Reformed Burglar (T6) 30104 <40000>10% CRT 1d14/II
Agolloch the Eye of Purity (Lawful; XXXX) Sword
Ike the Duck (DF6) – AVATAR form.
Katre Elf-Girl and Swordsman Conjuror (E3) 10157 xp <16000> +0% CRT 1d8/II
Lady Versamage Knight Errant (K6) 60000 xp <85000> +5% CRT 1d16/IV
Herbert the Gnomish Trickster (G3) 10500 xp <12000> +5% CRT XXXX
RESERVES
Elapsed Campaign Time
(652 b) days at beginning of session
665a (from Session 264) (also applies to recuperation)
Join us for session Two-Hundred-and-Seventy-Three when we ask the questions:
Did we do good?
Are we going to do anything about that Eyeball?
Are we going to drive the crab or will we pick up the mission from the Devil?
How do we got off the hex-crab once we drive it to the destination?
Tale of the Tape
Nothing catastrophic to report.
KILLS
Screechers (27)
Mad Druids (9)
Non-kaiju Sized Hex-Crab
LOOT
Magical mushrooms (9)
Purple eggs (8)
Ivory walking cane 500 gp
Wizard robe and hat
Book: 666 ways to increase your magical might
