The Age of Worms / Flood Season pt. 10 / Galen the 25th, 3592 CE / 8-9-20

Following the directions given to them by the mysterious information broker, Ptolus, Not By Choice heads out eastern gate of Cauldron and down the slope of the volcano. They are searching for a lava tube which will lead them to the Ulat-Kini ruins now occupied by forces of the Ebon Triad, a cult made up of three heretical religious sub-sects who seek world domination. This cell is lead by a disgraced town guard named Triel Eldurast, who has stolen the Sacred Wands of Water in order to ransom them back to the city of Cauldron for a high sum. After locating the lava tube, Not By Choice finds themselves in a vast cavern into which has been built a facade of strange and alien angles, the ruins of the cavern's previous inhabitants. Standing atop a ledge looking over the cavern's sludge-filled lake, the party encounters their first obstacle. The wooden cage which appears to be used to transport people across the expanse via a pulley system rests on the opposite shore. Milton investigates a nearby structure which houses the winch, but as he attempts to break the lock on the mechanism, he alerts the cultist guards, one of whom recognizes the party from their encounter at the Lucky Monkey. A fight breaks out, and after the cultists have been felled, the party is able to begin ferrying themselves across the lake two at a time. On the shore of the lake they begin investigating the various doors that lead into the ruins. Scrimshander discovers to his dismay that the building housing the lower winch is trapped when a wall collapses, almost crushing him. Suddenly giant aquatic humanoid called a merrow rises from the algae choked lake to attack the party. As Nari and Kade watch helplessly from the cage dangling over the waters, the creature strikes out at Lulu, but the magical armor that Nari cast upon her does its job, badly injuring the creature, which is finished off by a deadly strike from Milton's psychic blade. The reassembled party soon discovers that the collapsing wall was not the last trap they would encounter this day, as one door after the next seems to lead to a mechanism of doom. They discover a door that appears to be the compound's main entrance, leading to an innocuous foyer with a large meeting table. However, the passage beyond proves just a deadly as the other doors, with pitfalls and arrow slits from which Scrimshander and Milton are assailed as they attempt to navigate it. Meanwhile, Nari makes the mistake of testing another room with her foot, which is impaled on the spikes which emerge!