Session 42 - The Fountain of Pestilence

The adventurers find a trove of books, find the source of the pestilence and awaken something within.

This write up is from Kay's notes from our October 30, 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: Shafts and Ladders

Date: May 25, 3517

Location: Mouth of Doom, Level 3

12:20 PM
Breena heard the sound of cockroaches to the north. As Artie and Elron started to work on the western door, Blaze moved toward the north and cast flaming sphere. Elron forced the door open, and found only a scattering of roaches in an empty room.

The flaming sphere caused the roaches to the north to all disappear into cracks in the hallway, except for the few fried by the flaming sphere. The party went north and around a corner to the east, and found a set of double doors. The air had been roasted and there was a fried bug smell in the air.

Artie checked the doors, they’re not locked or trapped, but are warmed from the flaming sphere, and stuck. Elron stood at the right-side door and opened the other one, pushing hard. We recognized the room on the other side; the exploded zombie parts scattered about the floor were familiar.

The walls were painted with murals showing a figure in white, healing mythical creatures, including some well-known deities.
Artie checked out the door in the north wall; it was not locked, not trapped, just stuck from the swelling of the damp wood in the humid air. Artie checked the south door, it’s locked, also not trapped. Artie took 20 minutes to unlock it since the lock was a bit corroded.  

Elron opened it, once it was unlocked. Inside, there were three semi-circular alcoves on the walls with a shelf in each one, on which a gold statue sat. The northern alcove held a statue of a unicorn; the eastern alcove held a gargoyle, and the alcove next to it held a winged horse. Sinis spent 10 minutes casting detect magic; all three are magical, type transmutation. Elron asked Artie to check each one for traps. Artie spent 10 minutes on each one. Elron also checked for traps neither one found any. While this was going on, Blaze checked for secret doors.
Everyone got out of the room and Elron used his cape to protect his hands to pick up the statues without touching them.  

Suddenly there were giant rats coming into the larger room from the stairs, as Elron was putting the winged horse in his loot sack; its weight indicated it was solid gold, about 20 lbs.

 
In the larger room outside, Artie moved against the east wall and cast fire bolt with steady aim, hit one rat and killed it. The giant rats moved forward and Sinis cast acid splash on two rats, but missed. The rats moved forward and the first one tried to bite Blaze, and failed. The second one bit Breena, the third one missed. Parahelia drew her longsword and hit one. Blaze moved north toward the wall to get out of the way and cast flaming sphere in the center of the large group of rats, eleven by last count. The first rat dodged but got singed, and all other rats next to it took half damage. Breena cast thunderwave at the rats and killed seven at once.

Elron heard the sounds of the battle, and quickly picked up the second statue and put it into the loot bag, then moved to the third statue.

Artie saw a rat, aimed at it with his fire bolt, and it exploded, with pieces going everywhere.

Sinis saw two more rats in the hallway to the south, cast acid splash; the first one dodged, the second was hit. The two surviving giant rats turned and ran back up the stairs. Blaze moved her flaming sphere over to the stairs to cover the area.

Parahelia started coughing and clearing her throat; the corrosive pool next to her was giving off toxic fumes.

In the smaller room, Elron picked up the third statue, and suddenly all three turned to dust. Sinis used his detect magic on the dust; the magic was gone. He noticed that the toxic pool was also magic, type necromantic; no surprise there. Elron came out into the larger room and saw all the dead rats.

The north door was not locked or trapped. Elron opened the door into this room, pulled on the door, failed, tried again. It opened onto a hallway to the north. At the end of the hall were a pair of double doors. Artie checked, no traps, not locked, but stuck and there’s a sound on the other side; it sounds like a pool and water moving.

Elron stepped up, pushed to open, had to kick it twice before it opened.

There was a pool of pestilence in the center of the room. Elron could see furniture past it to the north, like scribes would use to copy books. There was a cabinet on the right side, and a bookshelf with books on the top shelf on the left side; it held about 10 large tomes, and there was a hand print bas-relief on the left and an open doorway to the right. There was a pool of bubbling liquid flowing east to west into a corroded area. Looking down the east hallway, Breena could see a gurgling fountain of bubbling liquid five feet high.

Elron put the books in his bag. Checking the cabinet, he found that it’s locked and had a needle trap.

There were sounds coming from the pit in the center of the room. Three zombies rose up out of the toxic pool in it. All were missing their left hands and were wearing clerics’ robes like the others.

Breena warned everyone and put an arrow in one. Elron used his sling stone and attacked the second zombie; he hit and it exploded on impact. Blaze, who had moved parallel to the hallway, was on the west edge of the explosion, but got lucky, avoiding the flying zombie parts.

Parahelia hit one with a guiding bolt. Artie decided to hide. Sinis cast burning hands on two zombies, each took fire damage, and one exploded. The final zombie moved toward Elron, who shot it with an arrow.  Now it had two arrows sticking in it, but continued forward.

Elron ran like hell to the southern door. Parahelia hit it with guiding bolt and it exploded.

Blaze went into the room to the east where the liquid was coming from. There was a round room with a fountain 5 ft high of pus and filth. The room looked like it was once used as a temple. On the north side was an alcove with a 10-ft tall statue covered in blood and filth with a necklace of left hands festooned around its neck. Rot and disease created a miasma. From the fountain were five large rivulets flowing down five corridors.

Back in the previous room, Artie disarmed the trap on the cabinet using mage hand and Elron opened it.

Blaze started going back to the room to the west when she heard a change in the sound of the fountain. She looked back and saw two large objects floating up in the fountain. They were about 4 feet across and looked like eggs with slime running off the top. She warned the group.

Elron finished opening the cabinet and found that inside were three blue scrolls and one red scroll. He took the scrolls and books and added them to his pack. The books weighed about 5 lbs each and were bulky.

Breena moved to the pool to get a look at the eggs.  Artie prepped a fire bolt. Parahelia moved up to look down the hall. Blaze ran full tilt to the outer door to the south.

Elron moved down to the pool and prepped his sling. Sinis went through the south door. Artie moved north and held his fire bolt. Blaze stuck her head in back through the door and used dispel magic in the pool; there was no apparent change.

From the other room, the group heard a sound like eggs ripping open and the splash of something climbing out of the pool.

Continued in Session 43: Demons and Books