Vaults of Madness

From Lexicanum


The First Vault


On returning to the Artisan’s District the next few days were spent resting and recovering from the various ailments suffered from after their confrontation with the undead of the crypt taken over by the unded serpentfolk Suzuthla - Drusi was very busy!

On the third day after,  they were summoned to Glaur's rooms who asked what progress they had made finding out about the mysterious incoherent  Pathfinder they had rescued from the undead. Somewhat shamefaced Enelia admitted they hadn’t made any - as they had been unable to get any sense out of her . Somewhat exasperated, Drusi commended that the elf's madness was beyond her ability to cure and what she really needed was a scroll of Heal . By an amazing coincidence, Amivor happened to have one in the expedition's supplies and he promptly  produced it.

Once the scroll was used, the elf now cured, revealed her name was Juliver. She explained she had been part of an expedition led by a famous Pathfinder,  Endo Kline, and they had been investigating a hidden serpentfolk city deep underground. They had been captured but she had managed to escape, and fled through a portal. In the process of fleeing she had encountered the  Suzuthla, who had cast Feeblemind on her. She requested the help of the party to free her friends and help to deal with the serpentfolk threat.

Kech2The party agreed, and next morning set out, taking Juliver first to the crypt where they had defeated Suzuthla, but she told them that couldn't be the place she had arrived at, as she vaguely remembered  fleeing from a cliff. Malwen, remembered some cliffs to the north of the boggard swamps she had overflown, and they decided to head there.

They found a huge doorway carved into the side of the cliff. One of the doors was ajar, but  Kylar was hesitant to enter the darkness beyond, even after decreeing it free from traps. Enelia strode in, brushing the rogue aside, just as someone dropped a huge stone statue on top of them!
Battle was joined with a group of keches who had been guarding the area. The keches were swiftly defeated and moving deeper into the complex, they  discovered the bloated corpse of a man-bat which Malwen identifed as a sabosan. This gave them momentary pause, before they almost immediately ran into another, larger, group of keches.

This second group proved more of a threat, with Untomo being badly pin-cushioned with arrows, before a Celebration spell from Dingle helped defuse the worst of the threat.

The Alchemist’s Lab

Kylar led the way as they moved deeper into the complex,  muttering under his breath about Enelia’s unusual lack of enthusiasm for taking the lead. As they moved into the next room sabosan dropped from the ceiling and attacked them.

Drusi and Untomo soon found themselves in difficulty as their opponents latched on to them - biting at their necks, though Kylar somehow managed to avoid them and leaped back, arrows flying from his bow. Their wounds bled heavily, as their comrades rushed to help, all except Enelia who loudly announced he was guarding the rear. It was a difficult combat but with Dingle’s bardic inspiration Malwen's Vigour spell that helped mitigate some of the bleeding damage, eventually the party were successful as the last of the sabosan fled to the south.

Drusi set about healing the injured as Enelia arrived - announcing that the rear was secure. There were two exits from this room. The southward passage where the sabosan had fled, and the northward passage which was blocked by a wicker screen. They decided to take the southward passage encountering another group of sabosan who were swiftly dealt with, especially with the aid of some Flame Strike spells from Drusi and Malwen. Again, Enelia seemed to hold back from the combat, Dingle even resorting to using Suggestion to get him to help in the fight.

Kylar found some small treasures hidden in an alcove, but there was little else of interest so they decided to head to the north passageway. Kylar hacked the wicker screen with his scythe and they moved on. Drusi was growing increasingly concerned with Enelia’s erratic behaviour as he uncharacteristically, headed to the back of the party .

Ahead of them they could see daylight, and following a short passageway, they found an area where the celling had collapsed,  allowing the jungle above to colonising the area with creepers and other vegetation. Malwen led the way and as she did, her elven sight spotted a secret door to the south. Kylar and Untomo forced the door open, to reveal what looked like an alchemist’s lab within. The wrecked lab  was covered in a fine black powdery substance. Kylar was first to enter, but almost immediately exited, somewhat wild-eyed. Untomo, who had accompanied him, suddenly dashed across the room and disappeared down a corridor to the south.

Somewhat bemused, Malwen entered and began searching the area. She discovered on one of the tables a journal bound in black dragon hide. She flicked through it discovering the contents were written in an unknown language.

A Warrior’s Death


While Dingle, Malwen and Drusi looked over the journal, Kylar edged forward, listening-in to make sure that the others weren’t keeping anything  from him. Enelia, meanwhile edged back even further and used the rod he had found to cast Tiny Hut around himself. This seemed to irritate Dingle who used Dispel Magic to bring it down. Enelia, fearing he was under attack, took to his heels and fled – all the way out of the vault. The others somewhat reluctantly followed him.

Elsewhere in the vault Untomo began exploring carefully on his own, finding a room whether the wall were covered in an iridescent sheen. The brave warrior edged his way into the room only to be attacked by the room’s occupant – a giant slug. The tribal warrior put up a valiant defence, but already wounded, he was quickly overwhelmed, succumbing to the creature’s acidic bite.

The others eventually returned to the dungeon, Enelia trailing them somewhat reluctantly. They made their way through various passageways passing-by a large set of double doors in a room dominated by a large statue of a warrior. Eventually they found their way to the room where Untomo had met his fate,. Fortunately the combined spells of Malwen, Drusi and Dingle proved more effective against the loathsome gastropod. The despatched the foul vermin and they were able to find what little was left of Untomo’ s body. Searching the room Kylar managed to find a gold nugget secreted in a crack in the wall which he immediately filched, muttering to himself about ensuring he got his “fair share”
Stone Golem
Saddened at the loss of the warrior they returned to the Artisan’s quarter and reported back and that night the tribe held a wake for Untomo which everyone except Kylar and Malwen attended. Next morning Amivor assigned [Keith], a monk, from the expedition to help them, and they returned to the dungeon.

They headed straight to the double doors, Kylar was initially reluctant to search them for traps until the promise of treasure convinced him. He found nothing and Malwen opened the doors revealing a large room, dominated by the broken remains of a huge statue and walls covered in mural. Malwen stepped through, just as the large statue behind them lurched into life revealing itself to be a stone golem.

The golem proved a formidable foe, with nothing the party seemed to do hurting it. While it seemed very capable of hurting them! The of battle tide turned when Malwen cast Sudden Stalagmite - locking the golem in place in the doorway – which at least enabled the others to escape it’s crushing blows. The druid then cast Summon Nature’s Ally, bringing forth a huge earth elemental. The elemental was making good progress against the golem, when unfortunately Dingle cast Dispel Magic and managed to dismiss it! Malwen then followed up with a Fire Seeds  spell, while Drusi began treating the wounded. The golem lurched, and ripped itself free of the stalagmite. It took a step forward and then collapsed to the ground, defeated.

They then began a detailed examination of the mural room. The mural on the west wall depicted a scenic jungle valley with waterfalls pouring into a central lake with an island. Dingle reconised this to be the valley of Saventh-Yhi before the city was built. The south wall showed a beautiful jungle city around a lake, with seven magnificent spires marking its skyline This was obviously Saventh-Yhi before its destruction. Themural was highly detailed and finding the area of they city they were in, there was a symbol that seemed to denote the entrance to the vault. Searching the mural carefully they could see six similar symbols in other areas of the city.

The final mural on the east wall depicted the room they were in as seen from the west wall looking east. The statue in the center of the room was still in one piece in this mural. Several tiny shards of broken crystal lay on the floor in front of the mural. Presumably, the remains of the crystals that Juliver broke when she escaped through the portal, thus deactivating it. Enelia spotted that the image of the eastern wall depicted in the mural included an image of the mural itself. This mural within a mural showed a door surrounded by a stone border with six empty holes. The edge of the actual mural revealed a stone border with Azlanti runes in place of the holes on the image-border, plus an additional Azlanti rune which appears in both murals’ borders. These runes were recognizable as the seven Azlanti virtues of rule, which
also correspond to Saventh-Yhi’s spears—abundance, eager striving, fertility, honest pride, rest, righteous anger, and wealth. 

The Sunken Vault

They decided to press on rather than rest and made their way to the farming district where the nearest of the other vaults was shown on the mural. They spent some time searching the area till eventually Enelia found a sinkhole that look promising. Cautiously they made their way down into the darkness. The area below was flooded with murky stagnant water and stank of rotted vegetation. Malwen spotted something floating and Kylar tried climbing round the walls only to fall into the water, only to immediately be attacked by a swarm of megapiranha  - he exited the water somewhat rapidly!

After debating for some time how to proceed till Kylar used his Feather Token to summon as Swan Boat. The boat itself filled most of the cave and they boarded and retrieved the floating object – a partially devoured corpse. Unfortunately the boat was too large to go through the passageway that exited the cave, so they had to take to the water anyway. Enelia led the way through to the next cave, wading through the waist high putrid water. There was some dry land – or what passed for it – and Enelia headed straight for it, followed by Malwen and Drusi, where they were almost immediately attacked by a group of Grey Nisps. There was a brutal fight in which Enelia was subjected to a Hold Monster spell and badly injured, Malwen was dragged into the murky depths and nearly drowned before Sev, Kylar and Drusi, backed up by Dingle’s support help them prevail.

Once the fury of battle settled Kylar started behaving even more erratically than usual and Enelia seemed to withdraw from them, much to Drusi’s concern. Malwen wildshaped into a crocodile and went into the water finding a sunken passageway to the north that eventually led to the lake around which the city was built. Meanwhile back at the sunken vault, Drusi was getting increasingly frustrated  trying to deal with Enelia and Kylar’s increasingly strange behaviour. Kylar went back to the Swan Boat muttering darkly about tentacles, and speaking rudely to Dingle. Enelia continued to distance himself from the others.  A Detect Magic spell identified a magical source under the water, but no-one seemed inclined to go and get it. Eventually, after Malwen returned, frustrated and tired, they decided to leave … except for Enelia who refused to accompany them.

While Enelia settled down for a dark uncomfortable night’s rest in the damp vegetation, the others returned to the Artisan District. Kylar refused to go back to their shared rooms and took up residence in a nearby empty hut, barring the door behind him. While the others slept, Dingle spent a pleasurable few hours pranking the hapless rogue with Ghost Sound and Dancing Lights until Kylar was a nervous wreck huddled in the corner clutching his blanket.

Next morning, Drusi announced she had the spells to help cure Kylar and needed someone to distract the rogue while she cast it on him.  Dingle “distracted” Kylar with a Celebration spell, and when eventually the rogue slumped into unconsciousness, Drusi cast Heal on him – curing his insanity.

Meanwhile back in the sunken vault, after an unpleasant night Enelia fled the area – just as the others were returning. Seeing them, he dashed into the jungle

The Muddy Vault


Seeing Enelia dart into the jungle, the others followed. Savinesh and Drusi struggled through the undergrowth, but Malwen managed to keep up with the ranger, using woodland stride, maintaining enough distance just to keep an eye on where he was going.
Enelia still unreasonably panicked by being surrounded by so much water ran blindly on – almost straight into the path of a  Charau-ka hunting party. He managed to avoid them by running away, and clambered up into the trees to hide. Enelia also ignored the Charau-ka, but she had managed to lose sight of her friend. She was able to quickly locate his rough position using Detect Magic  but stopped about 20 feet away from where he was hiding so as to not spook him further. She then sent Laiwok to fetch the others – who had got hopelessly left far behind them.

As Drusi and Savinesh arrived there was a whispered consultation about what do do to capture their erratic friend. Unfortunately Enelia’s keen elven hearing overheard everything and assuming his paranoid worst, he dropped to the ground and took to his heels again. Malwen immediately cast Entangle  to attempt to slow him down. Savinesh began making her way round the edge of the spell effect to cut off Enelia’s escape, but the paranoid ranger wriggled his way out of the entanglement and began to make his escape. Malwen immediately  summoned a greater earth elemental and instructed it to restrain the ranger.

Enelia was helpless against the huge creature, but struggled futilely. Drusi advised they needed him unconscious before she could heal  him. This caused Enelia to struggle even more as the huge elemental began squeezing the breath out of him! Eventually, the ranger slumped into unconsciousness and Drusi was finally able to cast Heal, curing his insanity. After various attempts at explanations they returned to the Artisan District to rest.

Next day, they returned to the Second Vault and Malwen, with the help of Air Walk and Tongues from Drusi, went in and summoned a water elemental to retrieve whatever was at the bottom of the pool. The elemental recovered several items of treasure as well as three blue crystals marked with the Azlanti rune of abundance.

Deciding to try and locate the vault in the Government District, they eventually located it on one of the smaller Giant Flytrapislands. They made their way cautiously into the vault, hugging the near-wall of an entrance chamber, maintaining a goodly distance from a huge heap of tangled vegetation covering a rockfall and a suspiciously dark pool of rainwater.

Enelia even fortified with an Owl’s Wisdom and a damp scarf across nose and mouth, still somehow managed to fall foul of the pervasive black spores, and began acting erratically again! The others unaware, of the elf's predicament, led the way down a stone staircase to where they found a passageway buried partially  in three feet deep of slimy black mud, which dripped from cracks in the walls and celling.

Enelia was reluctant to move forward to join the others, but when they were attacked by ooze mephitis, and Drusi nearly drowned in the slimy mud, he summoned up his courage and stepped into the fray.

As he did, he was horrified to see the globules of mud that dripped down twisted and warped, forming hideous mudmen with huge gaping mouths and grasping hands that reached for him hungrily. This was too much for the already fragile psyche of the ranger and he fled back upstairs. Unfortunately he got too close to the vegetation there, in which lurked a Giant Flytrap, which immediately attacked. Below, the others eventually decided they were ill-prepared for this terrain and called for a tactical withdrawal.

The Deeper the Mud

As Enelia was snatched into the jaws of the flytrap and Kylar tumbled forward to aid his friend only for him to be trapped, Dingle unleashed a barrage of spells. Far below them the ooze mephitis continued making  themselves unpopular with the others as they tried to extricate themselves from the muddy corridor, though Malwen and Drusi managed to kill one and Savinesh another.  Somehow, as Dingle began casting Lightning Bolt from a wand, Enelia managed a work himself loose from the flytrap’s jaws and falling to the floor, managed to tumble out of rang. Reaching into his pack he took out two figurines of wondrous power and released the two lions to aid the attack.  Eventually under the combined onslaught, the flytrap was destroyed and Kylar freed from its maw. On the level below the rest of the party finally manged to kill the last of the ooze mephitis, and went upstairs to join their friends.

Deciding they had definitely had enough of the muddy vault, they headed out onto the island to rest, Dingle casting Tiny Hut for them to rest in. Enelia declined to join them in the hut and used his rod to create his own safe haven nearby. Next morning, Drusi managed to cast Heal on Enelia, curing him (again) of his insanity.

After taking what preparations they could against the spores, they once more entered the vault, passing through the mud-filled passage cautiously. Ahead of them they could see the passageway widening into a hexagonal vaulted chamber – also filled with mud. Enelia led the way only to find that about 10ft into the room, the mud became quicksand! Malwen and Savinesh managed to get a rope to him and haul him out, when a towering mud-drenched figure,  a shaitan, erupted from the area ahead and threw a ball of mud at Savinesh.

The party began to retaliate with arrows and spells, when suddenly Drusi found herself encased in stone from the waist down as the mud she was standing in instantly solidified. Savinesh and  Enelia clambered on to the solid rock, only for it to instantly transmute back to mud and they found themselves in the quicksand. The shaitan sank into the mud, and Malwen summoned a large earth elemental to go find him.

Rather than haul themselves to safety, Savinesh and  Enelia swam forward. This proved to be a tactical error as they suddenly found themselves encased in stone – and sinking rapidly. Far beneath them and unseen by all, the earth elemental had found its target and battle commenced.

Seeing the dire straits her friends were in, Malwen began summoning a greater earth elemental.

Stuck in the Mud

Malwen’s Greater Earth Elemental dived under the surface of the mud and easily retrieved the rapidly sinking Savinesh and Enelia and after some confusion about his instructions eventually placed them (right way up) in the shallower mud at the edge of the room. Her large elemental continued its lonely combat with the shaitan until it’s elder brother eventually joined him.

Drusi and Kylar, began trying to extract there friends from their stony entrapment, and then stood about frustrated unable to do much while the muddy combat raged deep below. The shaitan, it’s Stoneskin gone and hurting from the elemental attacks withdrew and hid, by casting Meld into Stone.

Still perched on Kylar’s shoulders Dingle cast Web  across the surface of the mud and Kylar used his escape artist skills to negotiate the sticky bridge provided. On the other side a passageway led up, the depth of mud shallowing to a large columned hall at the end of which a gleaming fountain, untouched by the mud around it spewed crystal clear water. Dingle cast Detect Magic identifying that the fountain was imbued with conjuration magic. Cautiously Kylar entered the room only to discover that the shallow mud in this room was in fact an Elder Mud Elemental. Quite sensibly, after taking a beating from its attacks, he and Dingle fled. The elemental did not follow them out of the room.

Meanwhile back in the other room, Drusi found herself in trouble as the shaitan, having outwaited the summoning of its opponents, cast Soften Earth and Stone under her feet causing her to plunge deeper into the mud. Fortunately Savinesh and Enelia managed to help her out onto more solid ground. As they did so they suddenly found themselves blocked out of the hexagonal room as the shaitan popped out of the mud and cast Wall of Stone across the passageway entrance.

Savinesh began to punch though the wall of stone while, thinking quickly, Enelia dived under the wall through the hole in the floor made by the Soften Earth and Stone – rapidly followed by Malwen  wildshaped  into a crocodile!

Enelia closed to combat with the shaitan, while Malwen launched a series of Flame Strike spells at him. When a returning Kylar and Dingle joined the fray – mainly Kylar providing a safe perch for Dingle to launch spells from - the shaitan was finally defeated. Enelia and Malwen dived after the body as it sank into the mud and retrieved the shaitan’s necklace of shards.

The Silent Vault

Deciding that they needed a rest, Dingle cast Leomund’s Secure Shelter and everyone spent a relatively peaceful night. There was many attempts, of varying levels of success, to get rid of the thick mud encrusting both their clothes and persons. Apart of course from Dingle who had been saved from the indignity of the mud by being carried on Kylar’s shoulders.

Next morning Dingle dismissed the shelter and they prepared to face the mud elemental. It proved a formidable foe their weapons doing little damage to it, fortunately Malwen’s summoning of a huge earth elemental helped even the odds. Even so, Savinesh was nearly killed and only svaed by a last-minute casting of Mass Vigor from Malwen. Enelia too was sorely wounded before the creature was despatched.

While Drusi doled out healing to those in need, Kylar examined the fountain cautiously finding it curiously untouched by the mud thickly encrusted round the rest of the room. More-or-less healed by Drusi, Enelia strode forward and began washing himself, noting as he did that crystal-clear water  did not become muddied. He drank some of the water feeling completely refreshed by it.

After some discussion they decided to press on, and head for the vault located in the temple district. Skirting the areas still controlled by troglodytes they found the vault in a heavily overgrown garden, the doorway open in the side of hill. Kylar went forward to investigate only to come under attack by two burning hands spells from the undergrowth. As his friends moved to support they were attacked by two serpentfolk with wicked-looking curved blades and battle was joined.

Enelia made his way round through the undergrowth, finding a third serpentfolk still hiding and grappled him. Kylar spotted a fourth in the undergrowth and loosed-off a flurry only to find himself dominated. The serpentfolk, proved little challenge and soon, apart from the one that had dominated Kylar were either dead or trussed-up. The remaining one, ordered Kylar to go into the vault and “open the sarcophagus” and began to sneak away. Dingle had cast detect magic and spotting a magical source moving away through the vegetation, despatched Savinesh to intercept.

As Kylar followed his instructions, Enelia followed after him, which proved to be a mistake as they were promptly attacked by three spectres. Kylar and Enelia found themselves trapped while their colleagues came to their aid, though Kylar managed to tumble his way out of trouble. The spectres proved difficult to deal with and before the undead were finally destroyed, Kylar, Enelia, Savinesh and Drusi, were all suffering the after-effects of their malevolent power

The Trapped Catacomb

After debating for a while whether to return to the healing fountain they had discovered in the last Vault they had explored, the Party eventually decide to rest her, Dingle obligingly casting Secure Shelter. Drusi doled out healing to those injured and cast a Restoration on Enelia, promising to cast it on the others afflicted by the spectres next morning. That evening Dingle spotted Kylar acting oddly insisting he had to go out - still under the effect of the Dominate spell. The bard cast Celebrate to render him insensible and the Break Enchantment to remove the malign influence upon him.
 
Early next morning Enelia, followed closely by Savinesh led the way into the Vault. Beyond the room with the sarcophagi, a passageway led into the hill to an intersection, they passed through a secret door on the right that had been left ajar. Kylar moved up to the front, somewhat miffed that no-one had asked him to search for traps. The passageway beyond led to a large room where the were attacked by tTerkowhree fast zombie dire tigers. They proved ferocious opponents nearly killing Kylar and Enelia before finally being despatched to their final death.
 
In the room beyond they found a crude altar and in an antechamber a sarcophagus, in which a body, painted to resemble a skeleton, clutched a bone-knife made from a human long-bone. Dingle advised that the knife was magical but no-one seemed inclined to take it.
 
Heading back to the intersection the went up the next corridor to a room with a fiendish combination blades-and-darts trap. Enelia and Savinesh dashed through, but the rest of the party followed cautiously along behind Kylar as he attempted find a safe path, disabling triggers for the trap as he went along.

It took the rogue some time, and Enelia and Savinesh meanwhile had their own problems as they were attacked by three rawbones and a terkow. This proved an extremely tough encounter - even when the rest of the party eventually came to their aid. Fortunately a combination of spells and Turning  from Malwen, Drusi and Dingle managed to weaken the undead  sufficiently for the party to prevail. Kylar, Enelia and Savinesh were all badly hurt in the battle – some falling victim (allegedly) to friendly fire!

The King Has Come

As Drusi dashed about healing folks, Enelia suddenly noticed that the body of the terkow had vanished. Drusi observed that terkow were a type of vampire and it would have returned to its grave and would regenerate unless they found it and destroyed it. There was some dissent in the party about whether to try hunting down the terkow’s final resting place immediately or to wait until Drusi had sufficient spells to help restore everyone fully. Enelia eventually took matters into his own hands by marching off down the corridor!

In a nearby room they found three sarcophagi. One of them had a cracked lid and was filled with blood. Draining the blood they found the body of the terkow comatose within. After some spirited debate and hacking at it for a while, Drusi eventually suggested they should drag it outside. This was duly done and the terkow was destroyed under the brightness of the sun.     

They decided to rest and Dingle obligingly cast Secure Shelter. It took Drusi a couple of days to gather sufficient spells to heal everyone, but eventually they headed back into the Vault. As they entered the Vault however, Enelia fell foul of the ever-present black spores and his paranoia returned full-force. Searching the two other sarcophagi they recovered some treasure and also some crystals marked with the Azlanti rune of fertility. In the final room in the Vault they discovered many graves and also a heavy concentration of black spores. Enelia was sorely affected and started to hallucinate. He briefly attacked Dingle believing him to be undead, and eventually fled outside. The others followed, finding him hiding  in the bushes near the secure shelter, and decided to rest (again).

Next morning, once Drusi had dealt with the Paranoid Ranger, they debated which Vault to head for next – eventually deciding on the one in the Mercantile District. As they made their way there, they passed by their base in the Artisan’s District where they were informed that a column of troops had arrived in the Mercantile District a couple of days ago and were setting up camp. Judging by the makeup of the soldiers, they were most likely troops from Usaro sent by the Gorilla King.

They decided to proceed onward, and were eventually met a squad of derhii, who after Dingle tried to schmooze them, eventually told them to wait on the summons of the Gorilla King.  After a couple of days hanging around, during which time Malwen by wildshaping managed to scout out the camp - finding a hundred or so assorted derhii, dire apes and charau-ka as well as numerous human slaves in residence. It was clear from the pavilion the slaves were still building, and the somewhat lackadaisical approach of the troops, that the Gorilla King himself was not in residence. She reported back to the others and they eventually decided to try one of the other Vaults.

Making their way to the Residential District they eventually found where, some time ago, someone had dug a tunnel into the Vault. Making their way down to a hexagonal room, they were attacked by a group of  thorny cave lions who laired there. Once the lions were destroyed, they found the remains of a dwarf’s camp, but little else of interest save a passageway heading westwards.

The Verdant Refuge 

Moving deeper into the Vault, they found a chamber every surface of which was covered with some sort of mould, lichen, or fungal growth. Pale white tendrils of root-like growths hung from the ceiling or lay on the floor, drawing nourishment from the matted compost there. Shelf fungi grew from the walls to prodigious size, and one variety of puffball fungus actually gave off a pale luminosity. The atmosphere was thick with the humid smells of rot and mould. They proceeded cautiously until some basidironds, lurking in the dense vegetation releases clouds of hallucinogenic spores into the air. Kylar and Enelia were sorely affected by the spores, but fortunately their comrades were more able to resist and aid in destroying the strange plants.
 
After recovering from this encounter they pushed forward, hacking their way through a narrow, rough corridor choked with strange plant life. Many of the growths here on the walls, floor, and ceiling were similar to other fungi in the vault, but the predominant growth consisted of spiky black stalks as thick as arms that emerged from the loose soil of the floor and appeared to grow directly into the walls and ceiling between cracks in the stone. Large black flakes continually broke away from these and fell to join the mulch covering the floor. Malwen pointed out that these resembled the black spores they had found elsewhere in the Vaults but on a huge scale.
 
Eventually they cut their way through to a chamber which gave off an overpowering reek of compost and decay. Steps descended into what was once perhaps a pool or bath, but was now a pond of strangely mottled organic sludge. Rising from the centre of the mass was a tree-like growth with a trunk of cracked, warty grey bark and a splay of knotty, withered branches. As they entered the room, it spewed a torrent of acid at them, and battle was joined. The elder polyp proved a fearsome opponent, with Enelia, Savinesh and  Kylar all ending up swallowed-whole before Malwen and Drusi managed to eventually finish it off with their magic.
 
Savinesh and Enelia were cut from the creature’s acid-filled interior just in time, but it proved too late for Kylar, who was dead. After a brief discussion however the party decided that they would rather have their comrade back than seek to replace him and by agreement Drusi used a scroll of Raise Dead  to bring the rogue back once more.

 The King Has Come

After resting for several days back in the Artisan’s Quarter, the part eventually decide to head out to the penultimate vault. Enelia eventually located it – a cave in the side of a bluff in the jungle to the north of the military district.  The entrance to the vault was guarded by an enormous spider-infested, undead dire-crocodile. This proved but a brief annoyance to our heroes as Malwen cast Flame Strike, Dingle got to use his brand new Wand of Fireballs and Savinesh, Enelia and Kylar attacked close-up. Enelia and Savinesh were badly wounded in the encounter but some healing from Drusi soon put them in a fit state to continue.

They passed through a series of web-covered caverns before arriving at a huge vaulted chamber where they found the nest of an advanced corpsespinner. The corpsespinner proved an annoyingly troublesome foe, entangling most of the party in her sticky webs  until Dingle managed to Fascinate her (despite their lack of a common language... note-to-self they have fixed that bug in Pathfinder). While entangled in the webs, Enelia luckily spotted the crystals they were seeking in a niche in a wall and Kylar was able to retrieve them and the party beat a hasty retreat – thank you and goodnight!

On arriving back at camp, they were informed that derhii scout had arrived earlier to inform them they were summoned to the presence of the Gorilla King on the following day so, late next morning, they set out once more for the Merchant’s Quarter.

Escorted into the camp by a squad of derhii, Ruthazek seemed in a jovial mood, having even laid on a feast for them – albeit the dishes were to put it mildly off-putting! Over lunch he offered them a deal – if the party could pass the traditional three challenges he would take his forces an leave the city. If he won, then they must agree to the same. Slightly reluctantly the party accepted and Enelia stepped forward to the first challenge – The Test of Strength. Unfortunately Enelia fluffed this one, much to the approval of the assembled simian troops and it was left to Dingle to rescue the party’s hopes in the Test of Storytelling. This he achieved with such aplomb that the Gorilla King conceded the field.

After much debate and consideration, Enelia once more stepped forward for the third and final trial – the Test of Combat! Buffed to the nines with every magic item, buffing spell and bardic help the party could scrape together, the ranger faced-off against the Gorilla King himself. The two  clashed together in combat swinging might blows at each other, eventually though severely injured the ranger managed to hurt Ruthazek  badly enough to force him to concede.

Despite losing face before his troops the Gorilla King held to his word and promised to remove his troops by dawn. As the Party left, he did give them this parting shot – that although he had ceded control of the city to them, the jungle around it was his domain!

The Final Vault

True to his word the Gorilla King and his forces where gone when the party returned to the Merchant’s Quarter next morning.

Enelia led the search for the final Vault, eventually finding a twisting path that led along the side of a cliff face. As they went along they were attacked from the cliff-top above when two huge spiked tree-trunks swung down on vines and slammed into them - well Enelia mostly!
 
The party reacted quickly, Enelia and Savinesh swarmed up the vines, Malwen wild-shaped into a bird and Drusi cast Air Walk. On the cliff top they found several charau-ka - raging and frothing at the mouth. A fearsome combat ensured, with Malwen raining down Flame Strike from above and Drusi trying to keep everyone alive. It was a close thing as Enelia was very near slain and Savinesh badly wounded before the last charau-ka was killed.

After things had calmed, Drusi and Malwen noticed that one of the charau-ka had green fluid seeping from it’s eye socket, and on closer examination found it’s  caved-in skull was full of fluid and the brain was absent. Fearing some new horrible disease they warned the others to be careful.
 
They proceeded on to the Vault,finding the first chamber guarded by a pair of ogre mages. They proved to be annoying combatants using a combination of their innate invisibility and darkness spells and spring attacks to disrupt the party’s progress. Eventually, led by Enelia, the party fled deeper into the Vault.

M’Deggog’s Lair

Moving deeper down the tunnel Enelia stopped where the passageway descended into mud. The ogre mages took that opportunity to launch a fresh assault at the rear of the party. This time, with Dingle dispelling the magical Darkness and Malwen summing a large fire elemental to help they were able to hit back at the ogre mages hard enough to cause them to flee.

Savinesh led the way through the mud, discovering rapidly that it had been booby-trapped with poisoned punji sticks! Fortunately, being immune to the poison, it did not prove a major hindrance to the monk. Enelia crashed through the traps, relying on the Stoneskin that had been cast upon him to negate the damage, while Kylar used his Ring of Jumping to leap over the muddy area. Malwen wildshaped into a bird and Drusi cast Air Walk, and carried Dingle safely across.

They moved through a series of passageways and rooms finding the corpses of several boggards and charau-ka , several of whom had the same green ichor oozing from their eyes, nose and mouths. The eventually found themselves in a large bedchamber where they were attacked by a flesh golem stitched together from various different simians. The flesh-golem proved a formidable foe, especially when joined by a Derhii spellcaster as both seemed to be immune to magic in various degrees.

Dingle began using his bardic abilities in a support role, while Savinesh focused on the flesh golem - and Drusi and Malwen desperately tried to keep the monk alive. Kylar and Enelia focused their attention on the derhii, and slew it. Only for a small creature to explode out of the corpse’s skull! They tried surrounding it, but it used dimension door to escape to safety behind the flesh golem.

The Final Crystals

Malwen cast force jaws at the intellect devourer who retaliated by casting black tentacles – catching Drusi, Malwen and Savinesh in the effect. While Kylar moved round trying to get a bead on the intellect devourer with his bow, the huge earth elemental and the flesh-golem continued to Intellect Devourerwhale away at each other. The intellect devourer used dimension door to escape from the grapple of the force jaws,  which only placed him in range of Kylar’s attacks. As the rogue unleashed a flurry of arrow, his friends began the process of extricating themselves from the black tentacles, which they eventually did with some difficulty.
 
The intellect devourer hit Kylar with a feeblemind spell, reducing him to a dribbling idiot (not that anyone would notice a Malwen sourly observed!) and fled under the huge bed at the end of the room.

The earth elemental finally despatched the flesh-golem and moved to attack the intellect devourer, closely followed by the rest of the party. The elemental disposed of the intellect devourer's cover by the simple expedient of picking up the huge bed and slinging it across the room, at which point the devourer ran for it casting reduce size and scampering under a crack in the cave wall.

The elves in the party stotted this was actually a secret door and opened it as the elemental used earth glide to erupt from the floor of the next room – crashing through the contents of the strange laboratory there. Savinesh dashed in to press  home the attack and between them the intellect devourer was quickly slain.
 
Searching the ruins of the laboratory, they found four blue crystals inscribed with the Azlanti rune of wealth and a portable hole which contained a complete alchemist’s lab!
 
The final set of crystals obtained they returned to the Artisan's District and Drusi began the process of healing the wounded – and Kylar!

 






































































































































































































































































































































































































































































Annals