DM: Neal
Yatari, valorean, Lucian, Kavor, tohil, reb, Edgar and Dusty
Okay, my little devils… this one is a doozy. Yarsby had sent word he needed some assistance so a gathering of us went to pay him a visit. When I first saw the mansion all I could think of was “finally a vacation.” The mansion was looking rather proper, the grounds were kept and Yarsby greeted us warmly. He leads us behind the mansion to a small hedge maze. I’ve always loved such things.
As he told us about the mansion being cleared he wanted to show us something at the center of the maze. As we round the last corner I saw a large fountain and perched on it was a sinister-looking bald gnome wearing red robes. Suddenly I recognized him from all the logs I have been reading.
It was Ezekiel, the mad master door maker, and dungeon crafter. I was stunned as he normally was reported to be in the ishah plains. He told us it was time to complete his favor and used some sort of spell on the fountain, changing it somehow. I stealthily hid my casting to peer into his mind. I wish I had not.
His mind was racing far faster then I could keep up with. Evils plan and deeds flowed through my head. The darkness and vile corruptness turned my stomach. I spied a mammoth-like monstrosity. Like a centaur made from a mammoth or bear, topped with some sort of reptilian humanoid with an array of tendrils withering about its ginormous size. And then suddenly the thoughts stopped flowing as Ezekiel simply vanished.
I began to unload the contents of my stomach into the bushes. Before us lay a 10 foot wide set of stairs descending below the fountain. I warned everyone of what I had read of this Ezikiel and what horrors he has wrought upon our adventurers. With caution, we all headed downward.
We entered a room of unfathomable horror. The smell of death permeated the lair. The smell of old and new blood overtook me and I somehow deposited that last ounce of bile in my system to the floor. The place was what I imagine Avernus to look like just without the brimstone. Bodies lay piled onto each other, men women and children froze forever with the face of pure horror etched on them.
There we more stairs leading down to the north and a large grate on the center where the pool of blood emptied into. We started to look about, people noticed they could see the next floor through the gate with a sacrificial altar still set with its last victim. Lucian let slip his fire pupper through the grate into the next floor when suddenly a disgusting tendril snapped it up. Everyone rushed downstairs to the altar and found extremely powerful automatons and corpses with tendrils which seemed to have automaton parts grafted into them.
That battle was hard fought with eldritch explosions, the ringing of steel, and my cheers for my teammates. On the far end were double doors which lead to some sort of bridge puzzle. While some of us rested, others attempted to solve the puzzle of blocks. Once this metalic bridge was constructed we began to cross. Quickly learning it could only support so much weight.
After a group had crossed speedily it collapsed and reset itself self sending Lucian and his burning doggo falling 50 feet to the laboratory below. They luckily survived the fall. As soon as we got the bridge reassembled we carefully crossed and took the stairs down.
I will say this for the former master of this place. He had style. The furniture and decorations were well appointed and cozy. Mummified corpses were wrapped in funeral linens in the far for corners. Metalworking equipment was nearby along with a forge. However, his work desk held the greatest of curiosity, among the automaton work notes we found a map to the northeastern corner of katashaka. Apparently, it was important for a plan that is brewing.
While people were investigating we decided to check the double doors that were down here. Upon opening a giant automaton sprung to life. There was a very heated battle in its 20×10 foot closet. It seemed impervious to most manner of harm with the exception of elemental damage. As it dropped members of our party we were bringing them back up. Edgar and reb were wrestling with it once they realized their weapons were useless. Lucius’ dog seemed to do a majority of the damage along with tohil’s acidic vomit. Even Valoreans smite barely dented the damned thing.
I quickly ran over and read its notes on the desk and saw it was built to be impervious to weapons not made of that special adamantine metal or enchanted. It was immune to necromantic power, poisons or mental attacks. It was also highly resistant to magic, only the powers of the elements seemed to have any effect on it. We were forced to flee with our lives. Only dusty didn’t make it out of the tomb. There was nothing we could do for him.
We dropped the bridge and went back upstairs. We rested at the mansion and bolted back to White Moon Cove. It was then that it all finally clicked in my head. Look to my follow up log. “We’re all gonna die. They are coming for WMC.”
Love
Yatari