Session 28 - The One Where They Almost Killed Themselves

29th Jan 2022 19:00 - 23:15

In-game timeline: DR1489 Eleint 4 - Eleint 5

Our "Heroes" nervously head to the next room in The Gauntlet, and are faced with a room containing yet another pool, this time filled with schools of small fish with nasty looking teeth, and with 25 low pillars protruding out of the water, each seemingly displaying a glowing rune. A sign above the door as they come in displays the ominous message: "Beware All Magic!"

Much discussion, and the throwing of the last remaining pieces of Khandi's fruit salad into the water, and on to one of the pillars, resulted in very little happening. The pirate crowd grew restless.

Mahtis recognises that one of the symbols seems to represent Transformation, but the group otherwise don't recognise any of the symbology in this room.

Eventually Mahtis, still fearful of what nickname she may be attributed, makes a move. She jumps over to one of the pillars, and a blast of force above her head knocks her to knees and causes a small amount of damage. As the group look on, all of the runes on the top of the pillars change. Mahtis follows up with another jump to a neighbouring pillar which seems to be safe.

Khandi, keen to retain his non-insulting nickname, makes his move and jumps onto a different pillar which has the same symbol as Mahtis'. Other than slipping on the banana that he had previously thrown onto this pillar.

The party start to show a modicum of INTELLIGENCE as they work out which runes seem to be safe, but as the runes seem to change every time they land on one, it made planning a path across quite difficult.

But a path they did plan, and they slowly made their way across. Carro gets complacent at the small amount of damage that they seem to be taking even when landing on a "bad" rune, and jumps onto an untried rune, only to be faced by three small flying creatures - stirges - that appear above him and fly down to attack! The rest of the party are unable to rush over to help, but try to fire in from a distance. Carro does manage to take care of them by himself, though did have a little help from Khandi's vicious mocking. After the minimal damage taken so far, Carro is surprised to take a bit more significant damage from the bloodsucking large insects, but they eventually dispose of all three.

As the group spend time planning their next moves, the crowd start to get restless. A countdown begins - what will happen when it reaches zero, the group don't care to find out, and they hasten their planning. Carro spots an opportunity to reach the far side, and he takes it - being the first to finish. TC recklessly jumps to an unknown symbol, taking some damage from illusionary spears and less than illusionary daggers, Khandi takes some psychic damage when stepping on another new symbol and Mahtis gets entrapped by crawling vines.

Eventually they all manage to reach the other side, though all have taken some damage in the process. But they provided good entertainment to the watching crowd, who start to filter to the next room. As the party exit this room, Khandi manages to pick up a crumpled note that was dropped by Brynn watching above. It seems to imply that they will next face "themselves" and that they should perhaps hold off healing until after "the mirror".

This becomes slightly less cryptic when, after being offered an hour's rest and recouperation, they are individually shown into a small room containing a mirror, with the instruction that they "say goodbye to their former lives". Sensibly, they heed Brynn's advice and heal themselves up after this room.

The final test before being accepted as pirates is then revealed to them when they enter a large arena. Many pirates are watching on, as well as a number of shark-heads, and three less-than-attractive elven-looking women. What is more concerning is the group of people that enter the arena at the same time as them, from another door.

A second version of Khandi. TC and Carro, and a black bear that they suspect may be an evil-Mahtis in wild-shape form, stand across from them. Carro shoots at her evil version, but the group then learn the perils of standing in a group when evil-Khandi casts an impressive spell on the entire group of them, causing significant damage to all.

Reeling from the effects of that single shatter spell, our "heroes" try to recover their composure. They begin to trade blows with the evil-group. TC comes off the worst, and falls unconscious twice during the fight, to be brought back into the fight by Mahtis' healing spells. Luckily for our "Heroes", the evil versions of themselves seem to disappear as soon as they are knocked incapacitated and are unable to be cured back into the fight. When Carro also falls in battle, things are looking bad for the party or potential pirates, but Khandi and Mahtis manage to hold the remaining evil versions off long enough - with Mahtis managing to score a critical hit on her evil counterpart and felling her, just before evil-Carro uses his sharpshooting ability to impale an arrow into his "good" version and dropping him.

With only two "Heroes" standing, the benefits of holding off healing start to pay off, as the evil versions are all low on health. But they battle on. Eventually our "Heroes" prevail, but it is a very tough fight for them. The last standing evil-twin, which happens to be Carro, falls in round 7.

The party is exhausted. Literally. As the crowd, which very much enjoyed the fight, filter out, our weary "Heroes" are beckoned out by a dwarf on the far side of the arena, who introduces himself as Brighton. He is a friend of Brynn and seems to know that the party are only pretending to want to be pirates. He explains that although they have succeeded in The Gauntlet, there is one last thing they have to overcome before they can rest up. The leader of the Sahuagin, a very large, four-handed creature known only as The Baron, will arrive to ask them why they want to be pirates. If they are unable to convince him, they will be sent back to the slave pens. 

Seeing how knackered they are, Brighton hands them some small vials of liquid, that he explains is a potion of Liar's Tongue, and will help them to convince The Baron of their commitment to the cause. They quickly neck these potions, just as The Baron arrives. He interrogates each one of them in turn and, despite their exhausted state, they all somehow manage to deceive him. As he turns to leave, the group breathe a collective sigh of relief and collapse on their beds, hoping for the first good night's sleep they have had for a long time!