As usual after we had got our asses kicked, we were thinking about strategies and options. We were racking our brains for potential connections between various elves and what secret hints may be in the writings of Therindor the Trap builder. But ultimately that got us nowhere.

More important was that Maetrius was sussed out about us after Apoqulis asked him about his possessions in a slightly greedy-sounding way. He muttered to Aretain, the only other non-bitten person, if it might be time to high-tail it out of there and leave the proto-lycans behind. But Aretain blew him off: “We have no choice.”

Maetrius suffered though, and read malice into every sideways glance from us bitten guys, so he had to step out into the corridor to get a door between us, and Aretain went with him so nobody was alone.

Mirrorverse Experiments

Darion was too pumped to sit around and wait, he opened the door to the mirror-people again and walked around in there. Thippet came along and they checked the walls again, and even found weird spots that Darion took for secret doors, but they failed to get them open. All the while his mirror-man went with him, but didn’t do anything.

Also, the mirror-man didn’t have any items. No weapons, no equipment. That fact, combined with the remains of four crumbled and smashed mirror-people on the floor, gave Darion an idea. He pulled out Endbringer, emptied his mind of aggression (to avoid triggering a like response) and made movement with Endbringer that would damage his mirror-Darion without directly attacking him.

It took four solid hits to destroy Mirror-Darion, so Real-Darion figured that the Mirror-people were entering the game with full HP. Yet, destroying the Mirror-Darion did nothing, although a new Mirror-Darion stepped out of one of the mirrors. (overall, there were a couple more mirror-people in the eternity of mirror-verses than were actually physically in the room, and their number did not diminish: we conclude: we could potentially destroy mirror-people forever but for no gain.)

6 adventurers

Finally Darion went back out, and we girded ourselves to go out and explore westward. And now, I have to admit, I also found Apoqulis’ behaviour slightly odd. When we passed the place where we had killed the Were-cockroaches, he showed an unhealthy level of interest in their musty and rotten possessions. Thankfully he let himself be pushed onwards.

And so we discovered another prison like the one we already knew, only on the opposite side.

And it was better used: An orc, a bunch of Troglodytes, and even a human! The human, Chris, was almost starved to death and revealed that he was one of six adventurers who had come here for loot. As far as he knew he was the only survivor, and he expected to be taken and killed any time.

The orcette did not react to any attempts at contact… we did not consider speaking to the Trogs. Thippet picked the lock of Chris’ cell and removed his manacles. Apo was back to his fully human self and fed Chris; but Darion warned him not to give him too much too fast. After almost starving to death, over-eating might kill him, Darion figured. Apoqulis acquiesced and gave Chris 1 additional HP with his last healing cantrip of the day.

Next up everyone was wondering how to arm him up, but we had nothing. Darion had something, actually, but he wasn’t prepared to give a newbie from who-knows-where, who *claims* he came here for loot, a weapon and turn his back.
But we offered him Apoqulis’ old chainmail.
Ultimately he didn’t like either of those things: He had no fight in him, was weak, and also apparently a Thief, so he found chainmail uncomfortably heavy and getting in the way of his sneak.

Fine with me.

There was a door on the east, and we heard nothing from there, but Maetrius heard jumping and cackling of an impish nature in the corridor where we just had been. Thippet quickly picked the lock of the door east – toward the interior and the mirror room – and opened it into a narrow hallway with one T-intersection and one end-door that was far enough in to potentially lead into the mirror room after all. Right where Darion had noticed an irregularity in the mirrors. Darn it!

Demoniac

Apoqulis tarried in the cell block, and wondered worryingly loud if we should not take the orc with us as a prisoner, or make her an ally by feeding her good food, and Thippet also liked the idea. But with some hissing and nudging Maetrius and Darion managed to push everyone into the narrow hallway and close the door, leaving the orc behind.

Taking orcs with us is fine and dandy when we
a) are not on our own last legs and
b) have someone who can talk to them and explain that we should work together.
As it stands we are pretty damaged and down on resources, need to hide from unknown forces, and we can’t communicate. It would be borderline suicidal to take her with us now. Especially for Chris who is potentially down at 2 HP where he can be felled by a strong sneeze.

Thippet picked the lock of a door at the end of the northern T-intersection, and Darion waited right behind him, blade bared, ready to give hell to whoever. When Thippet opened the door he saw a hexagonal room with a dark altar, an imp, and a winged flame demon. Darion wanted forward, but Thippet snapped the door back shut.

A short moment of chaos and indecision, then the flame demon ripped the door open to come and get us. But Darion had his action held and magical anti-infernal sword Endbringer ready and struck the beast down with one fell swoop. Perfect!

Alas, the imp attacked Thippet, and the people in the back were thinking about throwing or shooting things, which was very risky for Darion who blocked 90% of the corridor. Thankfully, they abstained from shooting him in the back – alas, the small Imp elected to leave Thippet alone for a moment and sting Darion from the front, and got him.

That was a moment where Fate comes knocking: The sting took Darion down to 8 HP, into the realm of getting one-shotted by sword, but more importantly, it required a Poison Save. One of those moments, when the future hinges on this one roll of the dice. Do or Die.

But the goddess of luck was with Darion: he succeeded, narrowly.

Then Darion went on the offense. He pushed the little Imp back and stepped sideways to get out of the way from friendly fire; then the imp failed to hit him again, and finally Darion managed to strike the little critter and cut him in two.

Done.

Weirdness intensifies

We entered the room and found the dark altar covered in medium-fresh blood, and it looked like it could be opened. Meanwhile, Apoqulis made weird jokes (“Chris, come in here, look, this is where all your friends died!”) and tried to milk poison from the dead imp’s stinger. On a practical level, not a bad idea, but a disconcerting sight nonetheless.

When he suggested to skin the little imp and make a tiny buckler out of his hide, Darion had to ask: “Are you sure that the were-cockroaches bit you only once?”

Anyway, we were all pretty down and tired, Darion wounded, Apoqulis without spells, Aretain down to “Ventriloquism” and a slingshot. So we decided to give it a long rest. Darion suggested the safe space we had carved ourselves from the Shadow-room, and not to go through the long dark corridors with the imp-traffic, but rather through the mirror room. For some reason, Darion liked that mirror-room and expected it to be important, while most of the others were creeped out by its quiet, familiar-looking denizens. Maybe Darion himself was bitten more deeply than he thought?

Either way, the others went along with Darion’s pushing, and so we left the crime scene behind and snuck back to the Shadow-room though the center instead of around the block. And there we settled down to regain spells, before we would fool around with the bloody altar and unearth its secrets.
Settle down and, in some cases, level up: Aretain and Thippet got across the threshold and grew in power. Monsters, beware!

Morgansfort: The (almost) whole story