Even with Jordimandus out of the picture, the battle for the Festering Maze is far from over. As the slothful leader turns to stone on his throne, the party turns their attention to the newcomers.
A pair of hideous, tentacled beasts enters the room. One bursts through the bubbling sludge, clinging to the balcony by Fyn and Fobias. The other charges towards Barnaby at the main entrance. They radiate with an intense aura of misfortune, which has a profoundly negative effect on Trace, in particular.
Barnaby reacts quickly, slashing out at the Qlippoth Chernobue with speed and precision. He avoids the thick, orange poison dripping from the creature’s teeth. Avoids it, at least, for now.
Krask, still invisible, takes advantage of his position and fires a steady barrage of arrows at the new threats. His previous attack on the Hezrou caused enough bleeding damage to send the demon toppling into the sludge, dead.
Trace steps up to the chernobue that’s hanging off the railing, provoking three attacks of opportunity from the enemies. The paladin barrels through, taking the hits and narrowly avoiding the devastating effects of the humors.
Additionally, Fobias sees his companion’s movement and lashes out at the blubbery outsider. He connects, but his ranseur has some difficulty penetrating the thick hide of this creature. Outnumbered, Fyn casts Slow, which catches the quasit and some of the humors in its thrall.
Gaze into the Maw
As the qlippoths continue their onslaught, one of them realizes that it isn’t having much luck with its venom. Instead, it contorts its body backwards in a sickening display of flexibility, revealing a gaping maw with rows of sharp teeth. The sight of this creature is unnerving to the point of paralysis.
Everyone except Barnaby is frozen with fear and unease.
Understanding how dire the situation is, Barnaby dodges the incoming blows from the southern qlippoth. With an act of desperation, he cuts right into its body, killing it. Unfortunately, his reflexes weren’t perfect, and he feels something wriggling under his skin where the creature bit him.
Shrugging off his constitution drain, Barnaby confronts the last two creatures. The quasit tries to take advantage of Fyn’s helplessness, but Barnaby swats it out of the air like an errant hot potato. Dead.
Interestingly enough, the vaporous humors begin to retract back into their vats just as Trace shakes out of his reverie. The paladin quickly restores the mobility of the Great Invincible Fyn, who sends out another cone of magical power at the remaining enemy. The qlippoth shrieks before falling back into the sludge.
Don’t Forget the Loot
As the vapors fully retreat into their vats, it seems as though the danger is gone. Trace assesses Barnaby’s poisoned state, casting Delay Poison until an antidote can be found. Meanwhile, Fobias jumps onto the stone throne to check out Jordimandus’ stone corpse.
First, Fobias sees that the throne isn’t actually floating at all; it’s suspended with a pair of immovable rods. Secondly, he finds a secret latch that opens up a spare compartment on the throne. He takes the contents, which include a series of books and scrolls.
Fyn grinds up some diamond dust and returns Jordimandus’ body to flesh. Since the bloated man died to poison, he doesn’t suddenly start attacking the party. That would be weird.
Funnily enough, one of the scrolls that Fobias found was scroll of stone to flesh. You know what they say about hindsight and all.
Anyways, Fobias ties a rope to the immovable rods in order to collect them on his way back to the balcony. The party gets a rod of absorption, cloak of resistance +3, another ring of protection +2, and an expensive silver mirror. Additionally, one of the books from the throne as a manual of gainful exercise +2. How fortuitous!
The most important discovery, however, is in one of Jordimandus’ spellbooks. Inside the front cover, the slothful spellcaster had a note outlining the various Runeforge Weapon components. As it turns out, the party isn’t collecting items to light the forge; they are finding components to produce powerful weapons!
If only they had this information at the beginning of their venture in the Runeforge. It certainly would have make things much easier. They head back to the central commons to rest before heading into Pride.
Reflections of Memories
The hallway is quite exquisite, with intricately chiseled, polished granite dotted with resplendant peacock motifs in azure-tinted gold. At the end of the hallway, floor-to-ceiling mirrors stretch along the wall. As Barnaby glances at your yourself in the mirror, he sees his reflection wink and smile back at him.
Barnaby’s reflection draws its scimitar and brandishes it towards the halfling playfully. It laughs while twirling the end of its mustache with its free hand.
Behind Barnaby’s reflection, blurry shapes sharpen into the forms of his Magnimarian townhouse. The heads of the beasts Barnaby slayed protrude from the wall, before howling, growling, and roaring all at once.
The Bag of Holding begins to shake, violently. Eventually, the shaking becomes too much, causing the bag to drop on its side. From the opening, the heads of other creatures the party has fought and conquered in this adventure roll out:
Jaagrath Kreeg, Xanesha, Mammy, Lucretia, Mokmurian, the false Longtooth; you hear them all. And then, in unison, they shout in their native tongues –
“MY NAME BARNABY DARYNGTON AND I DARE YOU TO BEAT ME IN A SCUFFLE!”
Will the party finally meet Vraxeris here? What kinds of weapons can the forge produce? What’s Barnaby going to name his new, wriggling, poison-friend?