March 1, 118
The party rest for about 3 hours, in order to regain their strength. By the time they finish, it's mid-afternoon and they're ready to head back in.
Back in the demiplane, they return to where they fought the gargoyle and the magical swords. After listening at the door and hearing nothing, they continue through it. Beyond is a hallway that, after a few bends, ends in another door. Listening again, Calanon hears what sounds like the footsteps of an animal or beast of some kind.
Calanon takes the lead in the narrow hallway and opens the door. Beyond is a large room; at the other end, the hallway continues, but more importantly, both the left and right walls contains alcoves, each housing a large cat-like creature.
Calanon and the rest of the party cautiously approach, which attracts the attention of the creatures. They bound out from the alcoves and attack!
Now that they're closer, the party can see that, although they superficially resemble large cats (such as tigers or lions), the creatures are quite different. They have six legs rather than four and a long tentacle tipped with spikes protrudes from each of their front shoulders. Furthermore, Calanon realizes, when he is first struck by one of the tentacles, that they are under the effect of some sort of illusion - the actual location of the creatures is slightly displaced from where they appear to be.
With the illusion protecting them, and their speed allowing them to dodge most of Ellyanna's area-based attacks, the battle is a tough one. In the end, the party emerge victorious, but injured. Everyone survives the fight, but they are exhausted and most of their resources are spent.
Despite their current state, they know that, according to Malecar at least, there is only one room left in the demiplane, so they cautiously continue forward. Continuing through the room and the next passageway, they come to a door. When they can't hear anything, Ellyanna decides to cast a Light spell on an arrow and slip it under the bottom of the door, hoping to see what's on the other side.
The door is well-fit and she can't see much underneath it, but the light does attract the attention of someone from within the room, who shouts out and asks who's there. They respond to the voice, and quickly determine that it's Therian, Sahril's son, or at least someone claiming to be him.
Therian tells them that he's trapped in a cage suspended over sand, and that several large monsters are burrowed in the sand below him. When they party ask him to tell them everything he can about his kidnapping, he largely corroborates what they've already learned. He does give them one new piece of information, though - apparently, a man has been coming by every few days to bring food and water. He uses levitation magic to avoid touching the sand. Based on Therian's description, the party realize that the man is Gorith's butler.
Even though they're close to Therian, the party decide that they're not in good enough condition to face the monsters that he's described. Assuring Therian that they'll return, they make their way back to the portal and leave the demiplane, then find Severn to update him on what's happened.
Severn is concerned that they need to rescue Therian as quickly as possible - the longer they wait, the greater the chance that Gorith will realize what has happened and try something desperate to retrieve Malecar's device. He decides to assemble some of his own underlings and send them in to face the final obstacle.
No comments:
Post a Comment