Idalium Game 115: Like a Bad Penny

Session date: Monday, August 12, 2019
Game date: Saturday, September 9, 211

PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 7, hp 41, xp 73421/140000
Caryatid, Magic-user 5, hp 24, xp 22955/40000
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 4, hp 15, xp 11851/16000
Adrien, Fighter 4, hp 16, xp 11926/16000

Retainers:
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 5, hp 17, xp 17940/32000
Father Chase Pike, Cleric 3, hp 13, xp 5618/6000
Kevon, Fighter 2, hp 8, xp 2808/4000
Ms. Vanjie, Thief 1, hp 1, xp 37/1200

Heading down to the 3rd level again, the party had to deal with several restocked encounters on the way. In the Street of Temples, an swarm of bats had roosted on the ceiling, but the group was able to quietly sneak past. In the Temple of Hedonism, they stumbled upon a nest of four giant gecko lizards. Gulleck and Simon used their rings of animal control to immobilize them, but as they were giant animals they could only control one each. The other two lizards attacked angrily. One bit Simon savagely, breaking him out of his trance. Now there were three angry lizards attacking them, but Caryatid put a quick end to the combat with a sleep spell.

They made their way through the caves on the 2nd level to the sloping passage that led down to the beach of the underground lake on the 3rd level. They were alarmed to discover that they had company on the beach: nine skeletons wielding swords and shields, led by a horrid, stitched-together creature wearing the tattered remains of a sack-like coat. They recognized this monstrosity. It was "Mister Beefcake", the cobbled-together horror that Caryatid's clone had created as a bodyguard. Last they had seen him, they thought they had killed him, but apparently he had not been as dead as he seemed. A red glow pulsed beneath the bared flesh of his barrel-like chest, accompanied by a deep throbbing heartbeat. The Beating Heart! They had always suspected that Caryatid the Green had stolen this foul relic, but now they understood that she had used it as part of the dread rituals that had given this creature its parody of life. And now it granted the monster the ability to command the undead!

"Fireball," intoned Caryatid, and the air around the monster and his skeletons exploded with flame. The skeletons were instantly annihilated, scorched bones clattering to the ground. And then the battle was joined. The adventurers swarmed around the monstrous man, slashing and jabbing with their blades. Caryatid sent a magic missile into the fray. And then with a roar of frustration the hulking brute pushed Adrien to the ground and walked away from the battle, striding right into the underground lake. The black water submerged him and closed over his massive, lumpy head.

The adventurers stood on the shore, breathing hard. Father Chase used his staff of healing to treat Adrien's wounds. Once they had caught their breath, they entered the caves of fungus to the north. Taking a mushroom-choked passage on the right, they came to a place where the way was blocked by a pair of giant mushrooms, livid violet in color, with dangerous looking tendrils growing from beneath their caps. They decided to retreat back to the first chamber, for fear of being poisoned or worse.

Taking the left branch, they entered another passage where mushrooms and other fungi were growing densely. At the entrance to the passage, an enormous pale white puffball grew, quivering alarmingly. Gulleck jabbed it with her axe, and it exploded into a cloud of spores, sending Gulleck and several others into a deep sleep from which they could not be awakened. The others waited nervously, guarding against any wandering dangers, and after 20 minutes or so, the sleepers groggily awoke, speaking confusedly about bizarre fever dreams, in which tendrils of mycelium spread underground and alien fruiting bodies sprouted and proliferated.

Once the others had recovered their wits, the group explored the next chamber, in which there was an odd area in the west corner of the cave where no mushrooms grew. The rock was a different color here and the mushrooms stopped growing where the color changed, forming a well-defined perimeter. Gulleck grabbed a chunk of a mushroom and chucked it into the "dead zone", but nothing too dramatic happened.

Caryatid's magically enhanced nose got a sudden whiff of gold from a passage to the northeast, so they moved on from this chamber into a similar one where fungus covered all of the surfaces around them. In the eastern corner, they could see a skeleton, partially covered by a bright yellow fungus, next to a rotting backpack that spilled decayed adventuring gear along with hundreds of gold and silver coins. After their experience with the puffball spores, no one was too keen on disturbing the yellow mold, but Gulleck dared to grab a handful of coins that were farthest from the mold-covered skeleton. This was a tiny portion of the large pile of coins, but sufficed as a souvenir and to have obtained at least some treasure on this delve into the dungeon.

Unwilling to press on further this day, the adventurers returned to the surface.