Introduction
Pre-session downtime notes:
July 13th is a busy day on the docks in the port of Sojenka.
13 July
Part One
Party treks to Xathok, A Class II Market village on the edge of Paradise Bay. About halfway between Xathok and Drenoba (another Class II Market) is the Shrine of Hades and the underwater Temple of Lumoch. Reaching the Shrine takes a full 6 hours, they arrive at about 2pm.
Ebb tide was at 1pm, and Flood tide is going to be at 7pm. While they will have *Potions of Water Breathing* that enable them to breathe underwater, they do not have FREE ACTION, so movement will be reduced to 10’.
When they follow the trail down to the water’s edge and the cliffside cave, they can see several sharks in the water. Some are near the cave entrance, others are farther out to sea.
After they enter the cave, which is just above the waterline, they can hear the lapping of waves in the pool in the large chamber, as well as a strange wheezing sound. Moving further into the chamber, the wheezing sound is coming from the Drowned Ones “dwelling” in this chamber.
Funeral, Bulwark, and Boris all present their holy symbols and manage to Turn all of the undead, who flee down into the pool.
Scribbles casts Light on a spearpoint and the group drops down the pool to the lower level where the temple is. They move down the natural passage and get to the “rubble chamber”, where they are surprised by Deep Ones who manage to get two shots off with heavy crossbows.
Bertrand and Beaufort (men at arms), Three-fifths & Messer charge these Deep Ones and engage in Melee.
There is also a large crowd of humans that have been drowned and are in the process of being transformed into Drowned Ones. Funeral is able to Turn a good number of these, who flee toward the chambers further into the cave complex. This disrupts the advance of the reinforcements coming to protect the Deep One lair.
Three Fifths and the others parley with the Deep Ones (who roll an 11 on the Reaction Roll!). It turns out the Deep Ones are angry about the death of their Guardian, but they blame it on the treachery of the Gluk, whose cursed temple is poisoning the waters.
The humans and the Dreenoi henchman are allowed to enter the Temple of Lumoch, as they have declared their intention to repair the broken altar and stop the leaching of chaos energy into the water.
Inside the temple, they manage to get past the Brain Coral sitting on the stone pedestal without molesting it. There is a lot of talk about how to best stab or chop it.
In the central chamber, they see the giant crab automaton and put the fake “pearl” into the hole in its mouth/face. The crab does not move or even seem to register they are there.
There is a brief battle with two undead coelacanth and then they enter the sanctum of the temple, proper. The broken altar lies in front of an enormous statue of Lumoch, a mermaid-like creature with the tail of a lobster and a narwhal-like horn coming out of its head.
Bulwark drinks the Stine Shape potion and repairs the altar. He then takes the amphora and replaces it into the socket so obviously made for it.
When the jewel-inlaid amphora is back in its socket, there is a backlash of magical energy and Bulwark is killed!
Torrent collects his belongings.
They move on to explore and search the “egg rooms” for quite some time, finding only shredded, leathery egg shells and broken mother-of-pearl “tree” branches.
Part Two
They decide to leave, and are disappointed with the amount of treasure they found in this temple. They stop in the vestibule and scrape a large number of colorful, coral tiles from a mosaic. They fill three bags.
Afterward they exit the Temple and find two of the fishmen waiting for them. The Deep Ones say they are going to escort them back to the surface, but the priest wants to see them first.
Boris and Three-fifths decide they can’t leave well enough alone, and they ask to borrow two heavy crossbows for some unfinished business in the temple. They whole group troops back in and they gather near the brain coral, just sitting there, pulsing with its grotesque pink light, reflecting a hideous purple back from the coral growths all around it.
Boris and three-fifths take careful aim and let fly, two silvery bolts fly out, and one pierces the brain coral.
Seemingly forgetting all about the psychic attack that happened last time, when they tried smashing the thing with a hammer. This time they were not so lucky!
A horrific psychic scream filled the temple, and a flash of sickly pink light.
Several of the group made their saving throw, some did not, all took damage. Not all were able to survive, saved or no. Torrent, dove, Bertrand and Beaufort all died writhing in agony as the psychic manifestation tore apart their brains.
Oof.
After this debacle, the group returned the crossbows, and were led to the priest,who had re-gathered his undead charges. As thanks for cleansing the Deep One’s lair, he gave them a conch shell full of small pearls, semi-precious stones and bits of shaped and polished coral.
Finally, they returned to the main chamber above, which was now filled with water from the rising tide.
They needed to wait 7 turns for the potion to wear off, so they huddled in an alcove, with spears set and pointing out, to protect themselves from wandering sharks.
The minutes ticked by in tense anticipation of swimming death, but they were spared.
They returned to the surface where Cookie had built a camp for the men at arms, and they spent the night.
There were no encounters.
14 July
In the morning of the 14th they returned to Sojenka. There were no extraordinary encounters on the road.
Downtime 15-20 July
Scribbles will go with 3/5 to have the pearl examined.
Funeral is going to return to Sojenka to make a report on the water temple. He will visit the boys rescued from the fire temple.
If I have time, Scribbles will research the pearls himself, and see if his order has any record of the Brain Coral.
Barber is going to approach Lord Hedwig and recount his exploration of the bars, the cult, and the palace of the Red Prince and explain his conclusion that his wife is sequestered in secret with her sister. Especially given the runaround I have received, and see if he wishes to further employ me to investigate.
19 July Charlos will be attending the Hawking even hosted by Governor Asharem
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