Jeremy
Explorer
3/5/22
Veldra’s echo manifests and opens the door wider to the chamber only to be snapped up by tentacles from the monster and destroyed. However as it moves, it is revealed that the mass seems to be chained to the center of the room and can only reach so far. Spells and attacks from polearms at reach bleed the beast until it has no fight left in it. Rho got a little banged up and Grath chastises him for getting too close as there was no need to approach the chained monster. Veldra searches through the monster’s treasure but ends up getting a face full of mushroom spores.One of the chests contains another journal of Alexander who as his paranoia accelerates has taken to disguising his musings in a scratched form of draconic. He describes people coming for him and him slaying them in some kind of mausoleum trap and starts describing a ritual to extend his life unnaturally.
There is a large room with blue, red, and green crystals and banners with three dragon heads that Rho identifies as a blue dragon, red dragon, and green dragon. The banners are well secured to the wall. Rho checks behind the red dragon banner but finds nothing but wall behind it. Gribitz notices there are some foul markings around the floor of each of the crystals. Grath puts together to use the elements of the breath weapons of each of the crystals. Gribitz mixes up a toxic concoction assembled from rotten meat and questionable mushrooms and dumps it on the green crystal which lights up. After that he throws a bit of fire at the red one that also lights up. Finally he moves around the room scuffing his feet building up a charge and zaps Grath in such a way the arc of static electricity crosses the blue crystal. Whether it was precisely necessary to shock Grath is unclear but the giggling would suggest not.
The doors open but draconic whispers beckon Grath and Rho and Kith to set them free. They claim to be mighty dragons, trapped in the crystals. However they speak in draconic so Veldra and Gribitz can’t understand and head off to search for more clues and treasures. They find an old rusted safe with a coin slot in the front, but Gribitz sets to work taking the safe apart as it is so decrepit that much of its security has rusted away. A bit of magic fades from it once he finally gets the hinges off.
Meanwhile, Grath notices Rho is particularly reticent about dealing with the green crystal. He points out that chromatic dragons don’t work together unless forced. The dragons report they have been imprisoned for multiple centuries. While Rho is questioning them about their age prior to imprisonment they reveal that they were slain in their youth.
Rho picks up the blue crystal and smashes it. A disembodied voice celebrates its freedom but when the blue crystal shatters, a spectral red dragon appears, shackled, and apologizes as if it is not in control of what is about to happen. Grath moves to smash the red crystal quickly prompting the chains of the red dragon to swarm around the crystal defensively. Encouraged he is on the right track, Grath summons spiritual power to swing at it further, cracking its surface beyond the protective chains though not shattering it outright.
Meanwhile Rho moves to occupy the spirit, taunting it. Some of the remaining pixies try to distract it, summoning up phantasms of necromancer spirits chaining the dragon further driving it into a frenzy. It strafes the room with fire and catching Kith full on in the blast who falls, charred and blistered, and dying to the ground.
Veldra’s kneels over the kobold and her hands glow with healing magic with the after image of celestial wings appearing behind her. Kith's burnt flesh scars and she sucks a shaky breath back into her scorched lungs. Her eyes flutter open and look around. Grath moves with urgency and finishes off the red crystal, releasing the red dragon but also causing the spectral green dragon to take form. It seems not at all conflicted about the destruction it is compelled to unleash on the party.
Rho calls out a warning and slides under the green apparition and charges past, shattering the remaining crystal before the green spirit has a chance to spew its poison into the chamber. Rho collects shards from the crystal prisons and takes down the draconic banners.
In the next room is a library with a hungry mimic that demands food. Rho feeds it and in return it offers insight into the surroundings. Talking about the various adventurers, goblins, and duergar or derro that have come through. Grath goes through the library pulling out various historical tomes, reference documents, and even a treatise on building labyrinths. He also finds a backup spellbook, possibly of Alexander.
Further on they find an animated broom that starts sweeping and a bit later they find the matching bucket that collects the broom's detritus before feeding the remains into mimics. After a while the party tires and heads back to the myconid colony to rest up. In the morning the orb of fates annoys Grath until he smashes it to Laz and Gribitz's cheers.
Later the party sets out again, encountering another gazer babbling about Ocelot, Gribitz immediately blasts the mad abberation against the Green with fire. Unlike the previous floating aberrations, this one survives the first attack and begins to spin around to react but it is too slow and the others finish it off. There are some more treasures added to the bag of holding as well as secret tunnels before Veldra opens a heavily runed chamber.
There is a talking pillar in the room that summons cards from thin air. Gribitz asks it about talking to Alexander. It wants to play poker. Gribitz makes an absolute mess of it, not understanding any of the rules. He flips between Go Fish, Poker, Blackjack, and Uno before declaring himself the winner. The pillar affably agrees with the nonsensical rules of the goblin and gives Gribitz his random prize: 16 fish.
