After all those bad dreams about Azequia looking at the dreamers, most of the party was in panic, and wondering what Azequia wanted to tell us and what she would do to us now that she knew we were here.
But Darion disagreed. His theory was that something else had given us this dream, not Azequia. And she had not looked at us, but at something which’s perspective we had re-lived, in the dream, as if standing in the position of that something.
Of course no proof for that counter-theory either, but it served to calm the group: No, they were not onto us. No, they were not gathering up outside of our door just this very minute.
On a whim we went south, passed a double door, and discovered a group of dead cultists.
Azequia’s Simps
One of them was a journal-writer, so we learned some things from him. Azequia came with a whole group of ardent supporters who did everything she asked them to, and were fully on board with the plan to trample and burn the whole world, to make a clean slate and build a new, better world from the ashes. They were at odds with “The Circle”, which opposed their plan to open the gates of Hell. But not everything was happy times for the cult: lately they were flustered because people they had sent out to gather food had not returned, and “He” was there. Although Azequia liked “him” and called “him” important, her fellows were somewhat antagonistic because “he” only ever gave information when asked and did not volunteer anything.
To Darion, that sounded a lot like a cat. Hez!
According to the diary, “he” showed up 4 days ago. That would also work with the time we lost sight of Hezeroth, and account for the travel time for a tiny cat.
Had to be him.
Demon Wing
The tunnel went on westward, and when some small light appeared down that hallway, Apoqulis stood out in the open with his lantern like a great target. Darion drew Endbringer and he and Thippet hugged the wall to surprise-attack whoever if he came. And come he did: It was a fire demon who lit up and spread flaming wings to race at poor Apoqulis like a hunting eagle.
Lucky for Apoqulis, Thippet and Darion were ready and intercepted the attacker just before he could hit Apoqulis.
Natural 20! And a magical anti-infernal blade! Darion sliced the winged demon out of the sky like a piñata. The fiend turned to ash!
Shadow War
Going on left we found another double door and Apoqulis and Thippet went inside – only to be attacked by four spectral shadows who, as it turned out, were able to suck STR from foes on an attack. Obviously, Shadows are hard to fight – but we have a number of magical weapons.
Darion went to town on the Shadows and killed 2 alone, and 1 together with Thippet and Maetrius, who broke out his magical whip, with a name that isn’t quite flying in the current year. But a cool item nevertheless!
Apoqulis had only some holy water, which did not help much. During the fight, Thippet and Maetrius both got hit and lost STR points – but hopefully only temporarily.
We were in a good place, found weapon racks and more dwarven Tower Shields which give a +2 instead of a +1 on defense. Sadly, Darion cannot use them as Endbringer is a twohander.
But we found a magical armor, trapped, which cut at Darion’s legs.
On the plus side, AC rises from 17 to 18 with it.
And Apoqulis can now use Darion’s old banded armor, which raises him to 18 too. For one moment in time we felt quite fancy!
Mirror Cabinet
From the Shadow room there was another double door into a central chamber. Tinted in blue light, with endless walls of mirrors, and inside, shady figures who turned out to be mirrors as well: When Thippet went in, one of the shady figures came closer and was revealed as a mirror-Thippet. Same with everyone else who went in.
On the opposite wall there was a plaque, and Thippet made it over there and, fearful of potential attacks, back, and his mirror-me shadowed him the whole way. The party expected some exits somewhere, but Thippet saw only mirrors.
Darion suspected that all doors were mirrors on the inside, but it turned out that ours was not.
Bamboozled, we retreated from there, worried about the potential damage a fight against a mirror-me might do, especially if that mirror-me may be at full strength versus our depleted state.
Prison Break
Again we had to decide how to go on. We let the dice decide between going onward into darkness or checking out the double door back in the southward corridor. The double door won.
We discovered an aeons old prison with skeletons of two prisoners lying about, and, most interesting, under a pile of dusty fabric, an escape tunnel.
It was likely a dwarf who dug out a tunnel here, starting right in the center of the prison floor and coming out somewhere outside in freedom. Thippet went in, but not to the ultimate end: When he saw daylight and heard birds chirp he turned back.
Terribly small, but if all else fails, there is our way out that will not involve any stinking Troglodytes. Might be tough to bring armor through though, except if stacked and pulled after us in a sack.
The party discussed for a time if this was a tunnel out of the prison or a tunnel into the dungeon. Why? Because where was the excavated dirt? But Darion was adamant the tunnel must have been a dwarf who was locked up and wanted to go. Because what would be the odds for someone to tunnel into a dungeon and end up in the center of a prison cell of all potential entrances. Tiny! Very tiny. Near to impossible. So I stay adamant to defend the Prison Break theory over the implausible Burglary theory.
Darion and Thippet looked for secret doors that may lead into that blue-light mirror-cabinet, but nothing was found. The mirror-room taunts us with its mystery that we cannot fathom, but some of us are sure that it holds the key to getting deeper and confronting Azequia.
Special Lycans
With the prison cleared, we went back to the Shadow room and then farther west.
In the western corner there were piles of smelly, fungal refuse. But when we were about to pass it, three gigantic cockroaches showed up. Human-sized! They broke out of a smelly, musty pile of all kinds of waste – and they did us dirty. Three of us got bitten quite hard, Darion, Apoqulis and Thippet each suffered heavy wounds from them. The fight was long and hard, as they were hard to hit and they suffered multiple rounds in flaming oil without dying.
These bites turned out to be a very bad thing when we finally did manage to slay them, because in their death they showed signs of turning human-ish. They were Were-Cockroaches, and it remains to be seen if the three of us are fated to fall to the curse.
The Elf-Druids may be able to help us, but otherwise we are way too far from anywhere with clerics of the necessary power to be sure.
Bruised, bitten and tired we stumbled back into the Shadow Room to catch a break, shocked to find that we had been underway for just such a short while that another long night rest was basically out of the question for now. This dungeon was challenging us to the limit and, maybe, as time will tell, beyond. We need more healing and we can’t get it – and because we do not have the luxury of time, because we are on a clock and the fate of the World hangs in the balance, we cannot get it even through the tunnel dug by our Nameless Escape Artist.
PAPIER UND SPIELE 