The Main Event : The Financially Strained

Today's adventure was primarily a continuation of the last session where we picked up with the Greedy party at the Island of Shangri La on the rocks, at the base of the long path up to the "bubble". The group was joined by two absent members from last session so there was an additional 4 characters added to the party. Good thing too.

The group began its' trek up the crevasse path up the hill. Winding back and forth up the mountain, the path grew steeper as they went up and avoiding the slime trails that were left behind by whatever it was became more difficult. Dave remarked that they crevasse kind of looked like a pinball chute, greased by the slime, that would deposit you squarely in the middle of the pentagram that guarded this side of the bridge they crossed to get to this path. After this comment, several party members lost their footing and began to fall down the hill. Through the efforts of other members, all those who fell were saved before going all the way back down.

When they reached the top, the party found another LARGE pentagram carved in to the stone guarding the end of the path. On the other side of it was the "bubble". Many different options for crossing the pentagram were discussed, but Hurricane's idea to use an Unseen Servant (who became known as "Rochester") was the winner. Rochester attempted to cross the sign and could only do so through the heart. He felt "tingling" as he did. He the backed up and smeared his magical feet in some of the slime (at the party's direction). He then crossed with minimal sense activity. He reached the other side and stood before the "bubble" and saw something buzzing around inside it through the mists that seemed to surround the barrier. Rollin Hand attempted to cross by scaling the wall to the side of the mark and, although he was successful, found it extremely difficult due to the smooth walls. When on the other side, he looked in the sphere as well and was not happy at what he saw. There were two large flying "bug type things" watching the group.

At that point, it was decided for Oolst to use the special ax he carried to try and break the pentagram. As he struck the ground, a magical explosion blasted outwards down the crevasse path, severely injuring Oolst and the remainder of the party to lesser degrees (since they had backed away before the blow). Indigo Jones was hurt extremely bad and required help from Whiskey Breath to be revived. Now, crossing the pentagram was easy and caused no sensation. The new question was on how to enter the bubble. The decision was made to use the Ax again to cut a small opening. Most of the party backed away again and as Ooslt approached the wall, the bug creatures appeared to buzz furiously in delight. The ax came down towards the barrier and everything seemed to slow down even though time still seemed to pass "normally". As he cut the wall, the creatures darted for the opening, pausing only momentarily to attack Oolst in an effort to back him away from the opening. They then disengaged the combat and flew at high speed away in opposite directions. The party tried to attack and stop them but were unable to drop either creature, despite obviously injuring one creature badly. The creatures were later identified as "Mi-Go". Oolst's ax was found to not have the "hot knife through butter" effect on any creature "native" to the dome.

The group entered the dome and set up a perimeter. No one was able to see far through the mists except for Chiun (who also seemed to resist the magical blast from the pentagram). Shortly after establishing a position, the group was set upon by large humanoids that were greyish green with fish heads, webbed hands and feet. They stumbled forward with amazing speed and attacked. Dirk Goldpiece found himself a little outmatched early and tried to retreat to safer ground but was unable as his attacker followed him. An intense melee ensued with the 6 "Deep Ones" (as they were later identified) attacked with their 2 hands. The group managed to bring down 5 of them (with Chuin and Rollin doing a good amount of the damage, from behind of course). The last was held at bay when Rollin held out his symbol of Erythrea. It cringed, but would not talk. When it seemed it might be doing "something more", Hurricane smashed its' skull in. While this discussion went on, another snakelike flying creature tried to escape through the opening but got stuck. Oolst and Raifer tried to kill it, but when its' tail grabbed each one in turn and threw them against the dome wall, they decided to make the opening a little bigger and let it out. This creature was later identified as a "Hunting Horror".

Chiun was able to survey the area. He saw a city, built of non-Euclidean geometry laid out below in the valley, and directly across he saw a brightly glowing area. He estimated the distance at a couple of miles. The group decided to skirt the outside of the valley and avoid the city and head for the bright spot. So they traveled for quite some time until they came upon an area of trees that was a myriad of spider webs whose strands were the size of 4"x4" posts. In one of the webs they found an older woman, spun in to a web, whose face seemed oddly burned. She begged for help as the group tried to ask her questions and eventually, Rollin gave Dirk the OK to put her out of misery. As they moved on, Da Crusher couldn't help himself and tried to test the webs by hitting one with his shovel. It stuck fast and he was unable to shake it free. The group moved quickly on and decided to avoid the webs. Getting stuck was not a good idea, nor was finding out what made the web.

They moved on and found they needed to rest. The bright spot still seemed a distance away. After a successful disbelieve of the situation, they found that it was indeed a good distance away and would take at least a day plus to get there. They pressed on and when tired, they rested. A quick glance was made over towards the opening they had made to get in. There were literally hordes of creatures moving towards the rift trying to get out. They moved on after doing so. It was noticed that there was always light here, as if it were always daytime. As they moved along, there cam a rumbling on the ground. They scattered and hid as a giant 4 armed, huge vertical mouthed, bulbous bellied, 20 plus foot tall creature charged out at them (later identified as a "Gug"). They attacked it furiously. It had at least a 3 hex reach to swat at targets and could cast spells (it used a magic missile). It took several rounds, but with ganging up on it, they were able to drop it. As it fell, it hit the ground and, amazingly, split in to two people. They were two drow, one male, one female, both of whom were dead. A quick detect magic showed they had magic "in their hands" and a magic ring on the woman. The group cut off their hands to take and the ring. It was decided at this point, by mutual consent, that since Raifer had decided to switch classes to thief, it would be better to hand the combat command over to someone else. Rollin passed this to Oolst from Oolm. On they pressed.

They reached the large open area where the glow originated. Using Rollins' spyglass, they were able to see up close to the light and saw many skeletons strewn on the ground about the opening of the cave. It was decided to look elsewhere. A small house was spied a couple of miles away towards the city. They made for the house, which was featureless, except for one door on the far side from the light, that appeared to be constructed of lead. They entered and found "suits" hanging on the walls. The group donned the suits and entered the next room where they found but a single large lead chest. Rollin opened it to find his quarry. There was at least 50 pounds of the bright glowing hot metal. Then 3 other people in suits came in. They nodded to the party, exchanged pleasantries, then reached in to the lead box, each picked up one rock of the metal, and they left heading for the largest building in the city. The group decided to follow. The gloves of the three smoked from the heat. They lead them up the stairs of this large building and in to the main chamber. There they placed the metal in to a "hopper", pulled a lever and the material was milled quickly down to a rod of about 3 feet in length. The people took the rod with tongs and lead the group down stairs to another room where one wall was lined with small housings of hundreds of these rods. One of the three removed one rod, which came out sooty and black, and the other two then filled the opening with the new rod. Their job done, they left.

On inspection the rods were discovered to be black adamantium. A decision was made to take the metal, get the lead box back at the other place and get out. Rollin went top side to scout ahead. Oolst used his ax to chop up some of the rods to make them easier to carry. Hurricane took the small piece of "boom putty" he got from the old hermit several sessions ago and placed it on one of the rods, summoned a new Unseen Servant (known as "Hop Singh") and ordered him to wait a little and then try to create a spark with these rods and ignite the putty. Time was short because Rollin had tipped off the locals. He was trying to get more info when he offered to help some of the escape. They sent up the alarm for the guards. The group made a high tail for the lead house. Hop Singh could not make the spark Hurricane wanted, so he was instructed to take the materials up to the milling station and put it in there. He did this just as the group got to the lead house. They entered this house only to find Finneous Fingers already there with 3 lackeys attempting steal away with the hot metal.

Rollin and Finneous exchanged their typical warm feelings for each other and a fight ensued. The lackeys were engaged by the remainder of the fighters in the party. Rollin and Finneous went back and forth for two rounds when the explosion happened back at the rod house. Finneous, who was doing serious damage with his Gloves of Rending, decided it was time to get out now, and he fled, barreling his way through the party out the door and was gone. He left behind only 2 of his lackeys (since one was already dead). Rollin offered them a deal to get out if they would help carry the box for him, which they graciously accepted. The group then made a bee line for the nearest point of the dome. Explosions were continuing as they ran. The group began to fatigue and several party members fell on the way. They managed to get to the edge of the dome and Oolst sliced open the dome again and the group tried to pour out. The explosions continued and at this point it seemed as if there was a vacuum effect happening as the characters were pulled back in towards the valley. Each had to strain to get out. As the last members crossed out of the dome (Chiun and Da Crusher, who came out unconscious), a bright flash of light erupted from in the dome and a blast of air came rushing out of the gap blowing several members over the edge of the cliff perch they had escaped on to. A couple of nice catches by helping party members and a quick move by Les Paul saved the lead box from going over in to the chasm.

The group talked Finneous' two lackeys in to showing them the way out, which led to a tunnel under the river below. They made their way across and back up and out. There were many creatures crossing the regular bridge and escaping the dome. The party made for some back ways to Wolfgang's boat that Hurricane has investigated on the way in and got off the island as it exploded. They made for Akimbute's island where the remainder of the party had waited for them. They now discovered that their 3 days on the island had been 10 months for everyone else. They were greeted gleefully by the tribe and then went to meet the White Ninja member that had struck a deal with them before going in. He gladly handed over the boots Rollin had bargained for and negotiations over the 450 pounds of black rods occurred. The Ninja told Rollin that all of it would only make about 45 pieces and offered him 50, because they might be able to find some other use for it and he refused the battle ax Oolst carried stating that there was nothing he could do with it since it had already been forged.. The deal was done, and they group rested. After about a week of time, Rollin decided it was time to return to the mainland. He needed to meet with S.D. and Molly was pregnant. The group then prepared for the trip home.

The side story for the day...

At the Drow capital city of Jesper, the newly rebuilt temple was consecrated by a new avatar (the Gug). After which, the Drow queen decided to share a piece of information. She led the group down long winding tunnels, to a section of the city no one had ever been near before. There she showed the group a large cavernous opening whose floor was covered with thousands of larvae. Perched above, on an outcropping in the cave, were two Mi-Go. Sid and Ursula were able to identify them and inform the queen that they are lower minions of the religion.

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