Session 28: Hunt for the Throne Pt.3 Report

General Summary

The party began to make their ascension up the great staircase. Tecuziztecatl, Lord of Snails, had told them that if they climbed a great staircase, they would escape the sapping effects of the poisonous gas. Eager to find their escape from the gas, they very nearly triggered a pressure plate. Luckily, Crucelia was there to stop them in time and maneuver the group around it.

The Arc of Nanahuatcin

After the staircase, the party entered a precession hall filled with baboon statues and partially eaten baboons' remains. They encountered a strange floating creature with tendrils coming out of its orblike body as they went further in. One by one, the group snuck by it until Vraky alerted it. The strange creature went to attack but missed. Geasle ran up to claw it, and as he did so, it burst into a cloud of poisonous spores. Fortunately, Geasle and Vraky were immune to the spores and left unscathed.
At this point, Glebnor has an idea to try and help the still-sleeping Azid. They cast a restoration spell on him, breaking the curse. Azid awoke a bit confused about what had happened. Glebnor explained that he had nearly died, and one of the gas orbs he had taken broke, causing him to fall into a slumber that would have lasted thousands of years. The party urged him to leave the remaining two orbs, but he insisted on keeping them for later.

The Guardian Beast

The party, discouraged by the lingering presence of the poisonous gas, continued down a winding hallway that eventually ended in a single bronze door. Glebnor peaked one of their oozy eyeballs through the cracked door. They were shocked to see dozens of small cat statues in various poses and taxidermied felines on the walls. A stone statue stood in the center of the room with a tall humanoid with claws, a spear, three sets of nipples, and a jaguar head. Glebnor had a hard time preparing the party for what they were about to see because it was such a shocking sight to the plasmoid.
The party entered the room and investigated the various curiosities. Azid began to ritually detect any magic in the room and felt something coming from the humanoid statue in the center of the room. However, before he could say anything to anyone, Glebnor approached the figure and began tweaking its nipples. The statue suddenly came to life and attacked the bard.
The party was quick to act in fighting the werejaguar. Vraky shoved the creature away from Glebnor as the others tried to attack it. The creature came forward and attacked Vraky, who all but welcomed the raking claws that finally put the ghoul to rest once and for all. This infuriated Azid as he incapacitated the werejaguar while everyone else attacked it at once. It came free long enough to lunge at Stinkbreath, nearly sinking his fangs into him. Geasle managed to land a killing blow with his poison dagger.
Azid removed a billowing cape from the corpse and put it on. He then went over to a tiger mounted on the wall. He noticed it was missing its right eye and inserted the obsidian eye he had taken from a statue earlier in the dungeon. He was elated to hear a click as a secret door revealed itself. He peered through the door and saw a long passageway with a bottomless pit most of the way across. Even more exciting, though, was that there wasn't any gas in this room.
Through careful work with pitons, Azid fashioned a simple rope bridge the party could use to shimmy their way to the other side. Everyone came across except for Glebnor, who fell into the pit with vicious, thorny plants. Azid cast fly on Geasle, who flew down and pulled a dying Glebnor out. Azid was able to stabilize the bard, who retreated inside their bottle. Geasle looped the bottle around his neck like a necklace.

Chamber of the Second Sun

Moving into the next room, the party found a spacious room with a hole in the ceiling that allowed fresh air. The sun shined down on them, and they noticed a small group of baboons looking down on them, agitated and screaming. As the party surveyed the room, they noticed something shifting the rubble on the floor as it moved beneath it. Azid immediately started climbing a wall, and Geasle, still under the effects of the fly spell, flew up with Glebnor still around his neck.
Stinkbreath looked around, trying to find where the danger would come from, when suddenly, a two-headed snake rose out of the debris and attacked him. He and Crucelia managed to fight the beast and kill it. As they did, the baboons from above leaped down onto Geasle and Azid. The two were surprised by the sudden attack, but neither of them was much phased and quickly sent the monkies falling to the ground below, where Stinkbreath could quickly put them down.
Exhausted by their many battles in the morning and finally able to breathe fresh air, the group decided they were due for a brief rest. Stinkbreath began to cut up the snake and cook it while Geasle quickly flew up to scout the hole before the spell's effects wore off. He saw they were now in the pyramid proper, but the roof was unstable and likely wouldn't support anyone trying to climb out. He flew down just as the spell wore off and told the group what they found. Stinkbreath offered them a poorly cooked snake, and most chose to eat rations instead.

Exploring Further

Feeling revitalized after their lunch break, the party explored further and discovered a staircase leading to the next tier of the pyramid. Azid suggested that they should explore down here further before going up. Everyone but Crucelia agreed that it wasn't a bad idea and backtracked to the room where they had just rested.

Bed of Xilonen

In the first side room they explored, they found a strange white tree surrounded by shallow, oily water. As they investigated it, its unnatural branches shot out like tentacles, grabbing people and bringing them closer to the trunk. At the trunk, a horrible maw filled with teeth began biting at its restrained victims. It nearly killed Glebnor and Stinkbreath before finally being put down by Azid.
After that fight, the party returned to the room they had just had lunch in. They decided to rest for the remainder of the day there. They stood watch in shifts for the next ten hours as everyone recouped.

The Phantom Room and the Lightning Trap

Still wanting to explore further, the party entered another side room covered in thick ash. Phantoms appeared out of the ashes and ran in fear through the walls as the party walked through. Many of them seemed to be weeping as they did so. This room led to a hallway that eventually took them back to where they had fought the werejaguar. There was only one remaining side room for them to investigate, so they went on.
They went through a set of double doors and into another hallway. As they walked through, Crucelia and Geasle triggered a trap where a cube of electricity formed and paralyzed them. Azid used a spell to push Crucelia out on the other side as Stinkbreath used a rope to lasso his brother and pull him back. Crucelia investigated from her side and said that she didn't know how to disarm it but found a spot where she might be able to crawl back to them safely.
Azid insisted that they continue forward. The party followed his lead as they crawled through the electric field individually. Once everyone was safely through, they stood before another set of bronze double doors.   The session ended at 12:00 am on their second day in the ruins.

Rewards Granted

+1,135 experience for Azid, Geasle, Glebnor, and Stinkbreath.