Session 40: Exploding Zombies

The adventurers run from some kind of dam-thing, investigate an illusionary treasure chest and fight exploding zombies on a new level.

This write up is from Kay's notes from our October 3, 2024 session. Since our group is scattered around the country, we used Discord for our voice communication and Roll20 for our virtual tabletop. Thanks to Kay for the screen shots.

Continued from: Sarcophagi

Date: May 24, 3517

Location: Mouth of Doom, Level 2

3:10 PM, Thursday

After investigating the east hallway with the cubbyhole that had a ladder going up, we opened the door on the west side opposite the hallway. Artie checked, no traps, it was unlocked but stuck. Elron forced the door open into an empty room.

Sinis looked up into the ladder’s shaft; he could see it going up 40 ft, as far as the light illuminated: it was straight with no side openings. Blaze checked her maps, and if it went straight up to the first level, it would come up into the stirges’ nest room, between two pools.

At the south end of the main hallway, turning a corner to the west, Blaze saw stairs leading down about 10 ft, then a length of hall and another set of stairs going up 10 ft. The short hall had standing water about 10 inches deep, and slimy. Water was dripping down from above. At the top of the second set of stairs was a hallway going west with a double-door at the end, and a T-intersection approximately 10 ft from the stairs going to the south. 

We took the southern hallway which took a diagonal to the southeast with a door at the end. Artie checked the door; no traps, and he unlocked it on his second try.  The door was swollen from moisture.

Elron forced the door open. Water was dripping at the far end from a crack in the ceiling. The room had a 15-ft-tall ceiling, a 30-ft-long dam holding back water, a low submerged platform on the far side, and, 10 feet up on the far wall, was a niche in the wall about one-foot-tall. Blaze walked into the room and the dam moved, flooding water into the rest of the room, its level was now 4-5 inches. The dam started to move like a living thing, snake-like, but rectangular and stony.

Elron attacked the dam-thing with his sling and magic stone but missed. His second attack hit but did no damage. Blaze ran back into the hallway and closed the door behind her. It didn’t come through the door. We decided to leave it be.

We went back to the T-intersection and continued down the main hallway to the west.

When we got to the double doors, Artie checked for traps; no traps.  It was quiet on the other side, the door was not locked, but was stuck.

Elron opened one of the double doors into the room and saw a mosaic on the north wall, which showed an image of the room we’re in. We saw ourselves moving in the room, the mosaic acted like a mirror. It showed a treasure chest at the south end of the room. However, when we looked there, there was no chest; it only appeared in the mosaic. On the south wall was a painting, and it also showed us moving in it. The south wall didn’t show a treasure chest, it showed stairs leading down; but the mosaic on the north wall showed the chest but no stairs.

Artie used his bow to tap at the area of the chest, he felt no floor, but a staircase. Elron used his sword to tap on the north end reflection of the treasure chest and his sword went through it. Artie used mage hand to feel around and felt the stairs go down to about 30 feet, the end of his reach.

Elron cast produce flame and sent it down; it disappeared into the floor. Breena stuck her head into the floor and could see down the stairs and the illumination of the flame. The stairs went down to a landing then reversed downward. Looking up, Breena could see Blaze and Elron; apparently, the illusion was only one-way.

Breena tied a rope around her, and we held on; she went down the stairs. Sinis wedged the outer door to the room open, just in case. The stairs went down 20 feet to a landing that went sideways and down a stairway farther down which opened up into a room 50 ft below our level. There, it was hot and muggy, with a feeling of filth in the air.

Breena’s head popped up and reported back; the room looked dirty. Sinis suggested we look for secret doors here before going down. Blaze’s map showed possible room spaces that would be to the west; we spent half-an-hour searching but we didn’t find any. Breena went to the north wall, but the mosaic stayed the same.

We went down the stairs to the room 50 feet below. At the foot of the stairs, Elron saw a dirty floor; the walls and ceiling were moldy, the air was hot and muggy and we started to sweat. There was a 13-ft ceiling and three doors, one each on the north, west and east walls. On the walls on either side of the doors were murals of a white shining figure in healing scenes, even healing mythological creatures. To the northeast, there were lapping and splashing sounds. Breena with her night vision and being higher up on the stairs, could see zombies bending over a pool, drinking out of the pool on the other side of the room. She informed us she could see three zombies. Blaze moved forward into the room and saw four zombies. As Blaze stepped into the room, one zombie looked up and saw her; the others stood up and moved toward the group. 

Elron hit one with his sling and it just exploded.

Blaze hit the third zombie with a witch bolt. Sinis hit the first zombie with acid splash. Breena moved closer and hit the third zombie with her crossbow, splattering green slime. Zombie One turned and moved quickly to stand in front of Blaze. Artie cast fire bolt on it and hit it with fire damage. The fourth zombie moved towards Breena. The third zombie moved to Blaze. Elron moved and aimed at the first zombie, hitting with his sling, killing it, and it exploded.

Unfortunately, when the zombies exploded, they showered us with guts and zombie parts and Blaze and Elron began to feel sick.

Elron’s sling hit the fourth zombie and did a lot of damage.

Parahelia cast turn undead, forcing the two remaining zombies to flee to the north wall. Unfortunately, the spell would be broken if the zombies were attacked, which the rest of the party did. The first zombie exploded, and now Sinis and Breena felt ill. Breena cast thunderwave at the forth zombie for minor damage. Artie moved to it and cast fire bolt.

The fourth zombie turned and attacked Breena with bludgeoning damage and tried to bite Elron, but hit the edge of his shield. Elron missed with his sling, then his bag of rocks broke, scattering his shot on the floor.

Parahelia cast guiding bolt but fumbled and hit Breena instead. Blaze hit the fourth zombie with a witch bolt; it exploded, showering Sinis, Blaze and Parahelia with zombie parts. Sinis and Blaze didn’t feel any worse and Parahelia seemed unaffected.

Parahelia explained to the group that she had cast turn undead so that they would have moved to the far side of the room, where we could attack with ranged weapons, and they would have exploded safely. As we weren’t familiar with the details of the spell, we promised to do that in the future.

Blaze, Elron, Sinis and Breena had zombie rot, a disease that would prevent most healing and would eventually turn them into zombies.

Looking around the room, there were murals on the walls with a glowing figure in white healing mythological creatures, including some deities. In the northeast corner was a pool that bubbled and seethed with a horrible smell; this was what the zombies had been drinking.

We discussed how to heal the people with zombie rot. We had three scrolls of lesser restoration which will do it, but we have four patients. Parahelia told us that she can cast three lesser restoration spells but refused to do it, insisting that we use the scrolls, because she might need them and needs to regenerate them with a long rest.

Blaze pointed out that it’s probably around 5pm and we could go directly back to the castle where she can use the spells safely and we can keep the scrolls for backup for the people who can’t heal themselves. Everyone agreed to this. Parahelia cast cure wounds on Breena for her other injuries. We headed back and left the dungeon, still in sunlight.

8 PM
We made it back to the castle at sunset, with no encounters on the way.

Parahelia healed Sinis, Breena, and Elron of zombie rot, and Blaze burned her scroll on herself.
 
Everyone rested.

 

Continued in Session 41: Shafts and Ladders