September 6, 2019


Beggar 2, 5040

10:00 AM

There are no obvious doors in this 60' x 60' x 60' stone cube -- not only no sign of where we can leave by, but also no sign of where we came in.
Arden is concerned that the blacknesses and windsweeps might have also been rotating this cubical space along more than one axis: that is, that what started out as the floor when we came in might now be one of the walls.  Ben, in particular, wants to rest up and regain spells before we proceed, so Arden states that we'll be resting here until tomorrow.  But before we start that, he wants to find how we are going to to forward.

He has Farryn spend the time necessary to determine which way is North.  He marks the floor with chalk, declaring that it is the floor.  And marks the North wall.  His intent is to use the stones to see if they do cause the cube to rotate.  Beari and some others would prefer to not be picked up and dropped by the cyclone stone, so she casts Rope Trick and goes up with Grrr, Zora, and Ben.  Arden tries the Cyclone stone by itself, and then with the Darkness stone -- in neither case does the room change orientation (the damage done to people who were picked up and dropped is so minor as to be easily healed overnight).

Arden proceeds to chalk mark the other walls, and then begins searching for secret doors.  He finds one at the north end of the east wall; outlines it in chalk, and keeps searching.  After finishing the walls at ground level, he also searches the floor.  Then returns to the one door he did find.  It is trapped, so he disables the trap; and it is locked, so he unlocks it.  Opening it he finds the passageway - chalk marked as such - that the group had entered by.

Beari casts Spider Climb on Arden, so he can search the rest of the walls, plus the ceiling, for other secret doors.  He finds one near the E-W middle of the south wall, immediately below the ceiling.  Outlines it with chalk and continues searching.  Back at the secret door, he finds a trap and disables it; unlocks the door; and then decides to do nothing else until after everyone has rested.  Determining that the door opens outward, he places an Unmoveable Rod in such a manner that the door cannot open against it.

We get through the night.

Beggar 3, 5040


9:00 AM

Arden goes up to open the door, it opens into a corridor 30' west to a right-handed (north) turn.  He checks for traps up to the corner, then becons everyone else to come up - which they do, assisted by Zora pulling on a rope thrown over the immovable rod.  Arden looks around corner and sees corridor continue to next door.  No traps in corridor.  Disables trap in door and unlocks it.  Everyone enters into another 60' x 60' x 60' cubical room with stone sides.  Arden, Farryn, and Zora start searching for another door to use as the exit, while Ben and Elion stay near door to protect Beari.

Four things appear - look like crosses between Mind Flaers and Great Fihyrs.  If all four tentacles attach it gets to eat yummy brains.

Elion punches with sutnning blow,  does damage
Farryn shoots, hits
Zora hits for 20, 22
Farryn fails a save, feels sad
Elion hits
Arden criticals for 71
Farryn hits, hits,hits
Zora hits - kills GMFF2, 5' step, hits, miss, miss, hits
Beari casts Mordenkainen's Sword, hits
Ben casts Flame Strike: kills GMFF3, harms another

GMFF1 grapples Zora with one tentacle
GMFF4 grapples Ben with one tentacle

Elion hits
Arden tumbles to GMFF1 and criticals, kills
Farryn shoots: hits, hits & kills GMFF3

1,200 XP

Arden finds a door 30' up the east end of the north wall; disables trap, unlocks, opens to 60' corridor to another door.
Everyone rides the Zorayator up to the door and corridor.
Arden disables trap, unlocks door, opens into 120' wide, 30' deep lit room.  Empty except for a solid stone table in the center with: a checkerboard engraved in its top surface, a pile of eight checkers next to it.  Inscribed on all four sides of the table, near the top of each side, is the cryptic expression:

HRYY  NYQ  IRDGPV  DFP  YMQQ  JDUQL  VQF  EPDF  YDD  OQG  GPP  QM  VYUNGY  OQGP

With a bit of luck, the group determines which letters are substituted for the five vowels.  Beari determines that OQG must be "lei".  Farryn figures out that the first three words are "putt ate quions".  And from there the expression rapidly resolves into:

putt ate quoins own thee bored sew know too lei inn eh strait lein

Arden and Zora - but mostly Zora - then proceed to place the eight checkers onto the checkerboard such that no two lie in a straight line.
Then the north wall disappears to reveal a well-lit room: at the far end of which someone - something - speaks to the group: "just a minute."  It then proceeds to do something for the next five rounds.  During that time, the group can take in the details of this new room.

It is 60' wide and an additional 100' long.  The ceiling raises up to 50' above this floor.  Immediately off the edge of the original room, the new room's floor drops to 50' lower, for the first 70' north.  The final 30' north, all 60' wide, are 80' above the floor = 30' higher than the original room.

Click here for an image of the expanded room.

The floor is crawling with workers coordinating together at unknown tasks.  At the far north end of the lower floor, at the left (west) side, is a manual pulley lift, with a platform about 10' wide and 5' deep, operated by more workers on the 80' ledge.  Halfway down the new room, 80' above the floor, on both sides, are four 5’ long balconies, sticking out 5' into the room.  On each balcony is a large humanoid figurine - or maybe a statue.

At the back of the north-end ledge are floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall, cabinets of bins.  In the center of the ledge is a worktable, 30' wide by 10' deep.  It is covered with a number of mechanical and organic parts.  Behind the worktable is, well, it looks like a caricature of a face, pasted onto a large, shiny black, bald dome of quivering jelly -- with a large number of tentacles coming out from the body.  The tentacles are all active: pulling items out of bins and placing them on the workbench, and now holding some of them together.

It has ten tentacles, so call it a land-squid, and right now all ten tentacle ends are together at a gap between two of the items on the workbench.  There are sparks and light coming out of the tentacle tips for the five rounds.

Spot rolls allow group members to see, and tell others who didn't:
  that all eight figurines have a single eye, which looks suspiciously like a Beholder's anti-magic eye;
  that none of the eight are moving at all, have no arms, have no facial features beyond the eye, and are staring down onto the floor;
  that behind the land-squid, in the midst of the bins, is a cube, balanced on a corner, and slowly rotating;
  that the two pieces being held together, on the workbench, are a small, headless body - maybe 30 pounds - and a wing with articulated pinions and feathers;
  that every tentacle has a ring on its tip;
  that the sparks and light are coming from the rings;
  with Knowledge::Arcana, to know that the wing is from an eagle;
  with Knowledge::Arcana, to know that the body is that of an Adamantine Clockwork Horror;
  that all the workers on the floor are constructs.

During the five rounds that the land-squid is busy, the group has plenty of time to share what each of them has observed.  At the end of the five rounds the two parts are welded into a seamless whole.

Beari and Ben, using Spellcraft, determine the ranges of effect, assuming that the single-eyed figurines do have Beholder's anti-magic eyes, and based on the way each one is facing.  Click here for a diagram.

"I hope you've been enjoying my creations.  I've certainly enjoyed dreaming them up.  I'm sure you'll be interested in my latest project: I'm crossing an Eagle with a Rust Monster, with a Clockwork Horror for the body.  Undoubtedly all you armor wearers can appreciate how useful it will be to have airborn rust attacks."

The tentacles are rummaging around the bins again.

"I've been delighted with the progress you all have shown. I've made notes about how to improve those mosaics the next time I build them.   But more importantly, I've been pondering what would be the best mosaic to meld each of you into.  Once I've finished enhancing you, you all are going to be an unstoppable force.

("Not gonna happen," mutters Beari.)

"And I need to thank you for unlocking the upper levels.  My brother locked me down here; but now, thanks to you, I'll be able to get out to where I can be truly effective.  Oh, well, there is the final guardian -- but once I've melded each of you I'm sure you will be able to deal with it for me."

The tentacles come together with the head of a rust monster, and spend five rounds welding it to the body of Clockwork Horror.