A skull-faced stone golem, rippling with muscles, approaches a wary party. It is backlit by a fiery cauldron.

Episode 93 – Shrink to the Past

These trolls are NO JOKE. As the first one shouts out to retort Barnaby’s rude comments, a second troll pops out from behind the eastern wall to ambush the party. Krask is, unfortunately, on the receiving end of the troll’s ranseur, which severely debilitates the kobold.

Fyn and Company use this as their rallying cry and jump to Krask’s defense. Trace steps between the fleeing kobold and the second troll, and Barnaby does the same. The troll no longer has a clear path to finish off Krask. Queue up a barrage of critical hits from Barnaby!

On the other side of the cavern, Fobias, Richard and Fyn lock down the other troll. Lyergo plays a small role, but let’s be honest – he’s cannon fodder at this juncture.

When the trolls fall, their treasure is immediately gathered. No, no – let’s not focus on the dying kobold. This is what HE would want!

One of the bulging sacks is filled with a wide assortment of hefty, shiny stones. Some additional investigation reveals that these are nothing more than worthless rocks. Apparently the troll saw some semblance of value in them, although there was none.

With their bags burgeoning with their latest finds, the party makes a critical decision. Do they head to the north and follow the lamia tracks? Or do they continue to the south, deeper underground? 

The main driver of their decision to continue to the south is that the walls begin to show more signs of man-made construction. They forgo the allure of lamias and venture into the unknown.

Several hundred feet later, the party arrives a hallway that Fyn recognizes as distinctly Thassilonian. Smooth, rounded corners are a dead giveaway for this kind of architecture. Interestingly enough, however, there are large piles of stone and rock that suggest cave-ins. How long ago? It is decidedly unclear.

Up ahead, the party notices the hallway opening up into a rectangular room. When they cross the threshold, however, some of them become incredibly disorientated. The combination of foreign angles and rounded walls causes mass nausea and shrinkage. But that’s not the only threat the party has to worry about!

A rune giant swings its massive club at the party has they enter the room. A good thing about being smaller is the increased Dexterity bonus, making it slightly more difficult for the giant to connect with his blows.

Once again, the party is able to take care of business without much trouble. With only a single enemy, they surround and burst him down appropriately before moving on towards the next room.

A HUGE cauldron bubbles along the far wall. Fire means life, and down here life means enemies. They approach with trepidation, unsure of what to expect. And what they encounter certainly isn’t first on any of their prediction lists!

There, barreling towards them, is a gigantic stone golem. Its flashy turquoise eyes glow with an intense fire as its skull-like face sneers. This is NOT going to be good!

What is this creature’s purpose down here? Is the party going to right way to find Mokmurian? Why couldn’t the shrinking effect be permanent?