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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 9756836" data-attributes="member: 27780">All 6 regular players present (it's becoming increasingly apparent that the beholder was just a one-off), although the githyanki was busy in the first part and the drow dropped out halfway through. Having headed back to Tu'narath to do some research and shopping, the session started slowly. Three of the players had engaged in different avenues of information gathering in PM, only some of which they shared with the party. (particularly the sniper who continues to keep his true lovecraftian alliegiances secret from the others.) While they did manage to find out a little more about their adversary, all their questions about what was beyond the gate hit a wall, with even contact other plane and commune returning unknowns in response. (which as expected just made it all the more obvious to them that this is something big and not anywhere in the multiverse they're familiar with) They wanted to find out what was beyond the gate, but that would be difficult as long as Xhagevoxhab lived and the place was covered in hiveminded fungus that could track their every move. So once again the drow cast Contact Other Plane and they played 20 questions to narrow down the fungus lord's current location, which placed it in the north-west side of the mountain previously controlled by dwarves. They then had the choice of venturing through the familiar parts of the mountain to attack them from the mines, or going to the front gate and seeing just how well-defended it was from that direction. This also caused a fair amount of debate, but eventually they decided revisiting the gnome burrows would be interesting. So once again, they floated off to the appropriate color portal, which is now a shorter trip since travel times in the astral are based on familiarity rather than linear space and they've done this one quite a few times now. There they found the enemies continue to gradually increase in power and preparedness, but not nearly fast enough to keep up with their upgrades. A kuo-toa battalion had blocked one of the narrower parts of the tunnel in, but the small ones simply flew or skittered over them sneakily while the others decided to put on some basic disguises in the hopes that if the hive mind didn't know it was them, they wouldn't fight as hard, charge straight through them and tank their attacks of opportunity, leaving them behind as they were heavily armored and had a slower movement speed. Reaching the gnome settlement they slaughtered all the way back in session 12, they found the secret doors closed again. Opening them, they saw several fungus-infested goblins guarding the other end. Thinking this would be easy, the binder and priestess charged at them, only to find that the extra thick coating of fungus on the walls sprouted tentacles and grappled them. They still weren't unduly concerned though, and continued using their secondary weapons so as not to blow their cover. Meanwhile, the kobolds went around to the secret door on the east side and did similarly. Only the winged one got caught in the tentacles, but as he's one of the less tough PC's, he actually lost nearly all his hp over the next couple of rounds before they managed to break him free. While they dealt with the tentacles, all the many minions inside: mold men, fungus-infected dwarves and fungus infected goblins all working together in perfect harmony stopped their mining and converged upon them. But the sniper used grease to keep the right side from being dogpiled while he freed his buddy, while the githyanki summoned a couple of pain devils and used his transposition power to swap them with the PC's to free them. The minions were soon knocked down, then the sniper did an AoE lightning burst to finish off most of them, with the priestesses acid whip finishing off the stragglers. Ahead of them, they saw a few of the minions retreating into the tunnels leading to the main mines. At this point they're pretty sure the jig is up and the fungus lord knows it's them approaching. Will its new defences provide any real challenge to them? Just how long will wandering the mines delay them? Will they manage to beat it this time or will it run away again? We'll all find out together next week.</blockquote>

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