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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jeremy" data-source="post: 9749465" data-attributes="member: 4036"><h3>2/26/22</h3>Grok leads the party around to a large room with two knightly statues and a crystal ball.  Even though the goblin continues through the door to the south the crystal ball draws the attention of the party.  Grath investigates the crystal ball and its pedestal, but once he spots a language he can't identify he decides it safest to leave the orb untouched.  The party hurries after Grok.Kith helpfully points out that we forgot the orb which she holds aloft to Grath's horror.  He slaps it out of her hands where it shatters on the ground with a crash followed by an accusatory voice demanding an explanation and some loud sound from the previous chamber where the twin statutes were.  Grath hurriedly closes the door behind us and shoos everyone away to the south.Gribitz tries to pick up the trail behind Grok but the stone of the tower doesn't leave many clues.  The fact that the available paths split and multiply 6 times and more doesn't help.  There are more flail snails, pots (one of which is filled with water that Gribitz decides to magically dunk on Grath as he seems so mad), and finally Grok himself, utterly oblivious that he had lost the party for a time.  Grok points the party past more traps and doors.  However the party gets distracted again by a parchment wall behind which they find a hidden leather scroll case.  Some of the writings in the scrolls talk about a large central chamber Alexander was very invested in protecting.  This time however, Gribitz keeps an eye on Grok and the party manages to catch up again without incident.  Grath keeps reading about summoning rituals and daily life for Alexander as Veldra shepherds him along and watches out for him.Eventually the party arrives at a huge room filled with debris and rocks and goblins including a massive obese goblin.  Rho gets out the barbecued stirge and offers them up to the broodmother as an offering.  Seemingly appeased by the tasty offering, the burbling blob of a goblin speaks for a time about the blue creatures with weapons and armor that come through the wall and attack the goblins.  Gribitz is enchanted by the majesty of the broodmother and is drawn closer and closer.  As he reaches her side she casually scoops the tiny goblin up, opens her massive maw, and casually begins eating the shaman, feet first without ceasing her conversation.  Gribitz screams in pain, snapping out of his fascination as the party suddenly reacts as well and rushes in, slashing and stabbing their way through any goblins that move to block the path to their queen.The broodmother is too large to be much of a combatant, but her massive girth also shields her from many of the thrusts an stabs of the party trying to slay her, and her wretched howls of pain rapidly draw more and more goblin reinforcements from the labyrinthine tunnels.  By the time she gurgles out her death scream, the caverns rumble with the footsteps of answering hordes of goblins that all  rush to the defense of their mother.  Gribitz channels the Green through Stick and terrifying dense growths of thorn vines erupt all through the hallways, skewering the charging goblins but no matter how many fall to the wall of thorns, their crazed fascination only draws more through the spines and vines.  The horror only escalates as a baby goblin chews its way out of the corpse of the broodmother and soon expires.  In the end the halls fall silent and the party stands around staring at each other.  Except for Gribitz who searches around for goblin treasure and declares the greatest of it is a golden femur he holds aloft proudly.One side effect of the massive flood of goblins converging on the broodmother's chamber is the vast number of doors and side tunnels that all stand open now, along with a fair number of recklessly sprung traps that are now revealed and avoidable.  With so many directions to explore, Gribitz once more chants his summoning spell until he is surrounded by a faerie circle of mushrooms that explodes into little colored sprites that giggle and vanish in every direction before coming back and excitedly telling of thwa they saw.  However, none of them found any exit to the complex.  Grath decides that the best course is to continue seeking answers in writings and heads for the large well appointed room of bookshelves, desks, and ornate stone pools filled with a yellow fluid the pixies describe.When they arrive Grath begins to read the increasingly paranoid ramblings of a rapidly declining Alexander journaling his descent into madness.  Gribitz warns about the dangers of the books, the madness they always cause, and the pool of yellow liquid that is sure to come alive and attack them like the gray pool had earlier.  Before the goblin's crazed theories can be dismissed the pool indeed animates and attacks.  Gribitz sings “I told you!” as the party dispatches the abberant oozes with relative ease.  As the party resumes their searching of side tunnels there is a sound of screeching glass coming from Grath's bags. When he investigates he finds the glass orb from earlier reforming itself.  Once it is whole an imperious disembodied voice begins immediately disparaging the manners and intellect of the foul ruffians that abducted, sullied, and clumsily shattered it.  The orb refers to itself as the Orb of Fates.  It promises swift retribution on the party in the form of its stone guardians any moment now. As the party already has a talking inanimate object, Lazandrias leaps to the party's defense and he and the Orb of Fates really do not get along at all.  When he can get a word in, Grath asks the Orb about Alexander.  The Orb would much rather argue with the more intelligent Lazandrias than the clumsy cretins that dropped it but it does at least acknowledge that Alexander is dead and controls the exit from the tower.  When polite or aggrieved questions fail to make progress, Gribitz resorts to increasingly rude and crude insults, manipulations, and suggestions about the Orb's limited faculties and knowledge until the Orb becomes so offended it disintegrates to powder.  When the party eventually comes across the orb's chamber again, the golems immediately animate and attack but it is revealed they are actually illusions.  Suspicious, Gribitz checks to see if the orb is still actually on the pedestal under illusion and indeed finds it.  The Orb is somewhat different in personality having been caught, even laughing somewhat nervously at the jokes and threats of the party.  It is certainly more forthcoming with answers.  As it is questioned it reveals the location of a hidden door covered in skulls behind which is a terrible monster that will try to devour the heads of any that come near it.  He also reiterates that while Alexander is deceased, he can still be conversed with via a spell and that only with his assistance will the party be able to leave his tower.The party agrees to take the Orb with it for now (to the harrumphing of Laz), and it guides them to a large red door covered in chains and skulls.  Following the Orb's instructions the door is opened revealing a large writhing mass of tentacles and teeth within.</blockquote>

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