Wednesday, November 21, 2018

"The Maze of Death" - Tomb of Annihilation, Chapter 36


Having obtained the spirit of I'Jin, the party decided to retreat to the first level to replenish their water supplies from the magic fountain.

"Wait," said Bramble, "The custodians may have re-set the iron statue. Zeynap, you and I carry no metal, so let's go alone just in case."

The pair left the others in the atrium and did, indeed, encounter the iron statue, repaired and rest. They re-filled their water skins and containers from the magic fountain. Zeynap took a drink. Suddenly, she fell to the floor in a convulsing seizure.

The seizure subsided and Bramble saw that Zeynap had transformed back into a man.

"Huh". Bramble took a drink. Nothing happened.


CHAPTER 36
"THE MAZE OF DEATH"

THE EXPEDITION
  • Bramble Wolf - a theran barbarian wise-man (Wildhunt Shifter Druid) searching for the legendary origin of his tribe, recently transformed into a woman by a magic fountain, slowly becoming a goat due to a curse from a bronze staff. Current bearer of the spirit of the trustworthy god Moa.
  • Apparently Jones - a blue-skinned demijin caravan guide and animal trainer (Air Genasi Ranger) from Akasa, the land of sky mountains. Having failed to find work in Port Nyanzaru as an animal handler, she has joined the expedition to the interior as a scout. Current bearer of the spirit of the foolhardy god of froghemoths named Kubazan.
  • Xoc-Wik - a b'alam warrior (Tabaxi Fighter) from the jungles of Bres, searching for those responsible for the destruction of his tribe.
  • Zeynap Shiravadakar - a Eusebean smuggler (Human Warlock) bearing the spirit of a celestial unicorn. Current bearer of the spirit of the nimble god I'Jin.
  • Argent Truth-Sayer - a golden azi knight errant of Bhamut (Dragonborn Paladin) in the service of Bhamut, sent on a holy mission to join the expedition to destroy the Soul Monger. Current bearer of the spirit of the selfish god of wealth Nangnang.
NPCs
  • Orvex Ocrammas - translator and guide for hire; rescued from the Fane of the Night Serpent.
The Mirror of Stolen Lives
The party regrouped and descended the flights of stairs in the atrium towards the fourth level mezzanine. It was getting darker, as if the light dimmed with each descent of stairs. The fourth level mezzanine was covered in dust and the bones of the long-dead lay scattered about. There was a narrow passage to the left immediately at the bottom of the stairs. Argent held his glowing shield before him and ventured into the passage.

Argent reached a T-shaped intersection. The passage to the left disappeared into darkness. When he looked to the right, he saw what appeared to be dim moving light eighty feet away. He took the passage to right to investigate. As he proceeded down the corridor he noticed the light was getting closer. He realized the light was his own and that he was looking at his own reflection in a mirror at the end of the hall.

He got close enough to see that the mirror was affixed to a wall in a small room, fifteen feet square. As he examined the mirror, he could see, in addition to his own reflection, the shadows of other beings trapped within. Argent felt a tug at his mind, like his soul was being drawn forward into the mirror. He immediately shut his eyes and shouted, "Don't look at the mirror!"

Zeynap, walking behind him, looked over his shoulder and said, "Don't look at the what?"

Zeynap's body began to stretch and extend towards the mirror like a silvery liquid. He was quickly sucked into the mirror. 

Zeynap was gone.

DM Note- 
Argent made his saving throw. Zeynap, having been warned, rolled his saving throw with advantage - and lost. 

Argent called the others, "Zeynap looked at the mirror and he got trapped inside it. What do we do?"

Bramble shrugged.

Zeynap was standing in a foggy featureless void. A small window high above him provided a blurred view of the outside world. Sounds were muffled and remote. He tried teleporting through the window. He only managed to teleport ten feet within the featureless void. He tried destroying the window with an eldritch blast. His blasts had no effect.

Xoc-Wik moved forward with his eyes closed. He felt around the mirror. It was affixed to the wall. He called out, "Zeynap Shiravadakr!"

Within the featureless void,  the window became closer - or larger, it was difficult to tell. He could see and talk with Xoc-Wik as if looking through a pane of glass.

Zeynap exchanged ideas with the party but nothing worked.

Argent finally said, "I think I know what to do!" He withdrew the magical mace of Wongo and smashed it into the mirror. The mirror shattered into a million pieces!

Suddenly several silvery figures poured out of the mirror into the room. As each figure took form it shoved those that proceeded it farther away from the mirror. The room was soon packed with people and monsters of various sizes! Argent and Xoc-Wik were pushed out of the room and into the corridor. Indeed the figures emerging from the mirror were likewise forced into the hall by the press of bodies behind them.

The room was jam-packed shoulder-to-shoulder! There was a hulking muscular humanoid with the head and hooves of a water buffalo. There was a large humanoid figure with a long nose covered in green warty skin. A massive four-armed gargoyle was shoved into narrow confines of the hallway. In between was a male Avallonian wearing a yellow tabard, a female Omuan warrior in bulbous plate armor made from the shell of a giant scorpion, there was a male Omuan merchant huddled in the corner, there was a mysterious humanoid with dolphin-smooth grey skin, a large almond-shaped head with large orb-like eyes and long slender appendages, and there was Zeynap - pressed into a corner. Finally, a small creature resembling an echidna with a long proboscis and several legs flitted around the room on four bat-wings.



There was a brief moment of confusion as the pressed mass got their bearings. Bramble called out, "Stay calm! We're not your enemy!"

The humanoid water-buffalo called out in Old Omuan, "Lukanu! What is happening? Where are we?"

The armored Omuan warrior, "I am here, Zaal! I am pressed between one of Acererak's gargoyles and an angry jungle troll!"

The Avallonian was pushed out into the hallway with Argent. He offered a handshake to Argent and said, "Greetings! I am Biff Longsteel! I seem to be standing next to some kind of large gargoyle-ish creature! Would you mind lending a hand?" Argent grabbed Biff and shoved him to the rear.

The grey-skinned creature simply spoke in its strange language of clicks and clucks.

The Omuan merchant, standing near the back corner, looked nervously at the bat-winged creature hovering near his face.

The large green warty creature - the jungle troll - began pushing against the others with its claws.



Xoc-Wik said, "Right, first things first!" He loosed an arrow through the throng, passing through small gaps and under arms and legs, to pin the bat-winged creature to the wall.

The merchant screamed in terror and slumped to the floor.

A melee ensued! The fighting was difficult in the enclosed space of the small room. Claws into faces, elbows into chests, knees into backs. Zaal the water-buffalo attacked the troll with a battle-axe while Zeynap zapped it with eldritch blasts. The strange grey creature huddled in the corner and watched nervously.

Zeynap and Zaal were soon able to subdue the jungle troll but the hideous monstrosity kept getting back up. Despite their best efforts, they were unable to defeat the creature as its wounds simply healed after each attack!


Lukanu engaged the gargoyle with her twin yklwas. Argent  backed away from the gargoyle, making enough room for Bramble to summon a flaming sphere into existence. The sphere rolled into the gargoyle from behind, enraging it further.

Lukanu was able to quickly dispatch the gargoyle. She faced the flaming sphere rolling towards her. Argent shouted, "Jump over the sphere! I'll catch you!" The dragon-man crouched down under his shield. Lukanu leaped over the fire and landed on Argent's shield, rolling off into a crouch directly behind him.

Once the corridor was clear Bramble was able to send the sphere into the jungle troll. The wretched monster caught fire. Unable to regenerate its burning flesh, the jungle troll perished under Bramble's magical spirit flames.

Prisoners of the Mirror
Having vanquished the jungle troll, the party introduced themselves to the people freed from the broken mirror.

They met Lukanu, champion of Omu and personal bodyguard of Queen Napaka. The man-buffalo, which the party learned was called a "goshi", was named Zaal. Zaal was Lukanu's loyal companion. He was a hulking brute but friendly and polite nonetheless. The pair had been trapped in the mirror defending the royal family from Acererak's minions in the aftermath of the destruction of Omu, an event that had transpired nearly two hundred years ago. She was desperate to learn the fate of the royal family. When she learned of princess Mwaxanaré, she pledged her life to restoring the skull chalice of Ch’gakare to the rightful heir.

The Avallonian was named Biff Longsteel, the lone survivor of the Company of the Yellow Banner. Biff was a friendly lout, long on charisma but short on critical thinking skills. He seemed little perturbed to learn the fate of his companions. He had been trapped for little more than two months.

The Omuan merchant was insane. A look of permanent terror molded to his ashen features. He rocked back and forth babbling incoherently.

The grey-skinned humanoid with the almond-shaped head spoke no known language. It was known that she was one of the mysterious beings known as vyth. Xoc-Wik donned the ancient Omuan helmet he found under the arena and made telepathic contact with the creature.

Xoc-Wik learned that the vyth's name was Zorai. Through a series of mental images, he was able to learn that Zorai hailed from one of the vyth bases located deep underground. There was a great seismic disturbance near the surface and Zorai was assigned to investigate what had happened. Zorai took a magical flying saucer-shaped vehicle to the over-world and arrived at the aftermath of the destruction of Omu. She saw the snake-things known as nagini capturing slaves and putting them to work constructing the Tomb of Nine Gods. She became invisible in order to explore and investigate. She unfortunately encountered the mirror and had become trapped within ever since. He could sense that she was grateful to have been freed and sensed no ill intent from her.

DM Comment-
My setting does not have traditional Tolkein elves. The closest thing are elioud, which are mysterious alien beings from a parallel universe called Aeon. In their home plane they are beings of pure energy and thought that take physical form when they visit our plane. Their descendants are the silvans, which are your traditional forest elves but with green skin and photosynthesis. Therefore, up until now I didn't really have a drow analog in my setting. So I at first described her as a pale-skinned silvan. 

However, I have my best ideas when I go to the bathroom. I took a quick break and while I was doing my business I had a great idea! 

My setting is heavily inspired by:

  1. Blavatskian Theosophy
  2. Hollow World stories
  3. The Shaver Mystery
  4. Various ufologisms and Erich Von Danikenisms. 

According to the Shaver Mystery, aliens come from deep within the Earth. In a flash it dawned  on me! The drow-analogs would be grey aliens! 

Thus I created the "vyth", which were subterranean descendants of elioud who came to Antara long ago. They are technologically advanced, as in- magic, a fly around in saucers kidnapping people and taking them back to their underground bases for research and to be slaves. 

The Maze of Death
The mirror chamber was a dead end so the party reversed itself and explored the other end of the corridor. The corridor ended in a stone slab decorated with a life-sized painting of a robed and hooded humanoid figure holding its right hand up palm out. The face of the figure was a featureless void of stars.

The reversal of the normal marching order put Xoc-Wik in front. He studied the painting on the door for a moment, smiled, and said, "High five!" He slapped the palm of the painting with his own palm.

The stone slab raised into the ceiling revealing a T-shaped intersection beyond.

Xoc-Wik looked over his shoulder with a smug sense of satisfaction.

"Seriously?" complained Bramble.

Xoc-Wik moved in and off to the right to let Argent and Bramble lead the way. The corridors created a complex pattern that bent outward and turned back inward towards a central hall, creating a butterfly shape. The walls of the corridors were decorated with bas relief carvings of a mighty black star destroying entire cities and turning all who looked upon it to dust.

On the left end of the central hall was another stone slab adorned with a similar painting of a hooded and robed figure. This figure, however, held up a right arm severed at the elbow. The figure held its dismembered right arm in its left hand.

Argent and Bramble winced at the implication.

In the center of the hall was a short pillar. A crown adorned with a large black opal sat atop the pillar.



Bramble thought for a moment. He had seen this crown before. He thought back to the hall in the Fane of the Night Serpent, "The Black Opal Crown! That's the crown the snake-people were looking for!"

In case the pillar was trapped, Zeynap used a minor spell to levitate the crown off the pillar and over to Argent's hands. No sooner had the crown risen into the air that a foul gust of wind blew from the unexplored corridors  on the far side of the hall. Argent stashed the crown in his backpack and the party moved into formation.

"Um, Hello!" called Zaal, "The door is closi-" Zaal was cut off with a heavy thud as the stone slab through which they entered slammed shut once more. Zaal, Xoc-Wik, Apparently, Biff, and the merchant were trapped outside.

Two dark vaguely humanoid forms glided into view from around the near corner and the far corner. Each wore long dark robes with hoods drawn. Under the hoods, their faces were starry voids.

Everyone felt a wave of sickening pain wash over them as the creatures entered.

"Bodaks!" choked Bramble.


Zeynap happened to look at the near one in the face. He could feel his soul being drawn out. He clamped his eyes shut and looked away, "Don't look at them!" he shouted.

"That's not all!" called Lukanu from the corridor behind them, "Something just attacked me! Something invisible!" Bramble, Argent, and Zeynap could hear Lukanu swing and thrust her yklwas at an invisible foe.

Bramble called on the spirits of nature to erect a flaming wall around the far bodak. The creature was forced to retreat back down the corridor from which it came.

"It's circling around! Get ready!" shouted Bramble.

The other bodak glared at Argent. Argent gritted his triangular draconic teeth and withstood the pain generated by the being's nightmarish gaze.

Zeynap reacted quickly, waving his arms about and creating a zone of sickly green light that permeated the area around the remaining bodak.

The bodak wailed in pain as the energy from the green light burned away its cloak, revealing a strange smooth-skinned humanoid being beneath. Its face now a chaotic tangle of dancing red and orange and white lights.  

The bodak continued its advanced towards the party even as they slowly withdrew into the corridor behind them. The second bodak, slowed by the burning green light, appeared in the corridor behind the first one. Despite their inevitable advance, the bodaks never came closer than fifteen feet from Argent. They simply continued to stare him down with their malevolent death gaze. Argent, for his part, kept his eyes averted and his shield held up.

Zeynap, Bramble, and Argent withstood the painful aura of the bodaks long enough for the green radiation to complete its work. The green light continued to burn away the bodaks - their body slowly disintegrating away and turning into large flakes like burned paper  - until all that remained of the bodaks dissipated into crispy ash!

Stalking the Invisible Stalker
"Could still use some help here!" called Lukanu. 

Argent moved to assist the Omuan champion. She was fighting an invisible opponent. Argent could deduce roughly where the assailant stood and blindly attacked that area. Argent and Lukanu finally heard a raspy screeching sound like broken glass pulled across violin strings. They were no longer being attacked. 

"Did we kill it?" asked Lukanu.

"I don't think so," replied Argent.

Bramble made a suggestion, "It retreated! Keep pushing forward. These corridors are narrow enough that you have to run into eventually! Zeynap, tell them what that green light does."

Zeynap smiled, "The green light will illuminate anything invisible within it!"

Bramble patted Zeynap on the back and pointed to Argent and Lukanu, "So keep going! Force it into the light or into a corner!"

Argent and Lukanu made their way down the corridor, weapons ready. They reached the great hall. Most of the hall was bathed in the iridescent radiance. The pair spread out to try to push  ]the invisible attacker into the radiance and keep it from escaping past them. The invisible creature was not in the hall. They pushed on down the rear corridor. They turned the corner and saw an alcove halfway down the hall on the right. A large green devil face was carved into the back of the alcove. Similar to the one at the entrance, its mouth was a dark void and large enough to crawl into. 

The coruscating radiance bathed the corridor up to the alcove. Argent pushed forward towards the alcove. As he approached, he was struck by an invisible attacker. He counterattacked and once more heard the thing scream in pain. He could feel the force drive the mass of the creature to the ground. He could feel its invisible solid form become soft and quickly evaporate into air. 

"Nice!" declared Bramble, "We stalked the invisible stalker!"

Vithi-Zorai
The area appeared to be free of opposition. They rested and took stock of their surroundings.

They examined the painting of the robed figure with a severed stump holding its dismembered right fore-arm.

They tried to high-five the severed hand. Nothing happened.
They put the equivalent weight of the crown back on the pedestal. Nothing happened.
They called for assistance from those outside. They heard no response.

DM Comment-
Realistically, if a PC was outside the door when it closed, they could just high five the painting again to re-open it. And I had two PCs and two NPCs outside. However, Apparently's player was out this week so Apparently had brain fever and Xoc-Wik's player had to leave just before the party entered the Maze of Death, so he too had brain fever. 

I justified it to myself by ruling that no one can open the door from the outside while there were people inside. 

Bramble wondered aloud if the void inside the mouth connected with the void inside the devil mouth near the entrance

DM Comment-
Given what was actually inside the devil's mouth, I almost choked when Bramble's player suggested that.

This fruitless experimentation went on for some time. It became increasingly clear that the only way out was for one of them to sever their arm. No one seemed willing to volunteer. Bramble, Argent, and Zeynap stood around the stone slab, pondering their options. Zorai quietly slipped away. Lukanu, suspicious, got up and followed her.

Argent stood up and took a deep breath, "I will-"

He was interrupted by an eerie scream of pain from the devil face.

The trio ran to investigate. They found Zorai on her knees before the devil's mouth, clutching her severed right arm. The hand and forearm had been cleanly removed and cauterized.


Lukanu stood looking impassively at Zorai, her arms folded.

No words were said. It was clear that the devil's mouth had taken Zorai's arm. It was also clear that Lukanu watched and made no attempt to stop her. Indeed, it appeared that Lukanu approved of the decision as the most logical choice. The look on Lukanu's face almost said, "It's what she deserved."

Zorai sobbed. Zeynap helped her up and carried her back to the center hall.

"Why didn't you try to stop her?" Bramble asked.

"Why would I? I didn't know it would sever her arm!" replied Lukanu, indignantly, "I thought she was just trying to find another way out."

Zorai held her stump up to the painting. The stone slab raised.

"That being said, I don't mind how it turned out. She's a vyth. The vyth kidnap Omuans as slaves. She probably deserved this. Besides, now we can escape."

"But I was about to voluntarily sever my arm! It should have been me!" said Argent.

"No, we need all the warriors with all their limbs right now." said Lukanu, "We don't need- THAT." she nodded her head towards Zorai. Zeynap wrapped a blanket around the frail grey-skinned creature.

Lawrence the Lizard
Once the party was reunited with those trapped outside the first stone slab, Zorai opened the second stone slab in the center hall. A narrow corridor descended a long flight of stairs.

Argent led the way down the stairs and down the remaining corridor. They emerged near the end of a wide hall that connected to the atrium far to the left. Immediately to the right, at the end of the hall, was another green devil face. The mouth of this face was not cloaked in darkness. One could easily see the space beyond. It appeared to be just large enough for a man to craw inside and stand up, which Argent did.

Argent looked around.

He saw a small colorful lizard of a type common to the jungles of Chult.

"Hello there," said Argent.

"'Allo!" replied the lizard in perfect Avallonian, "Pleased to meet you! Name's Lawrence!"

Argent jumped back and hit his head on the ceiling of the confined space.

TO BE CONTINUED...


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