Session 83 - The Crystal Skull

The adventurers fight a party of Cultists before finding an Oracle, and then they find a room that is not what it appears.

This write-up is based on Kay’s notes from our May 17, 2026, session. Since our group is scattered around the country, we use Discord for our voice communication and Roll20 for our virtual tabletop. Credits to Kay for the map.

Continued from: Purple Worm and More Rats

Location: Rappan Athuk, Level 3 – Beware of Purple Worms
Date: Friday, July 13, 3517

9 AM
We went to the door at the southeast corner of the Purple Worms Cavern, the one the red clerics came through. Elron spent 10 minutes checking the door for traps. He asked Artie to come over and double check the door, that took 10 more minutes and he couldn’t find any either; they did determine that the door was unlocked and not stuck.

Elron opened the door into the room that was made of stacked cut stone and had a 14-ft ceiling. It had 4 doors, one going in each direction. The door we just came through was in the north wall of the room. Starting with the closest one on the west wall, Elron checked for traps.

As she was standing at the entrance to the room, Parahelia heard the sound of moving boulders behind her; we all moved into the room and closed the door behind us. Artie checked the east door at the same time as Elron checked the western one. Elron’s door was locked, no traps, and was quiet; Artie’s was the same. Elron then checked the south door; it’s locked, quiet, no traps.

We opened the west door. There was a short corridor going west, a cave at the end, and a door on the west wall of the cave. Elron checked it for traps, but found none.

Artie unlocked it and we moved into a rough-cut tunnel that continued to the west and then curved south. We continued south until it opened up into a hexagonal-shaped room. There were closed doors on the east and southwest walls. Artie checked the southwest door while Elron checked the east door. Ten minutes later they reported quiet, unlocked, no traps. Elron opened the SW door and found a small triangular room with another door to the south. Elron checked that the south door was unlocked, no traps, silent.

Elron opened the southern door in the triangular room, which led into another hexagonal room with only one door on the east wall. We opened it and went through into a trapezoidal-shaped room with one door on its south wall. All of the rooms we’ve gone through since the purple worm cavern have been entirely empty, including this one. We opened the southern door of the trapezoid room and entered another empty hex room with one door on the west wall. 

Both Elron and Artie checked the door; it was unlocked, no traps, but they heard someone talking on the other side. The voices were talking about some info they received and they were approaching the door. Elron readied his sling.

We opened the door to another hexagonal room where four red-robed cultists of Orcus were standing, one was better dressed than the others, probably a priest.

Marthek saw a Priest of Orcus on the other side of the door and charged through it. Marthek’s warhammer hit the Priest on his first swing; his second swing missed. Cultist 3 cast Bane on Marthek and Elron. Marthek shrugged it off, but Elron had been cursed. Sinis moved to the door to cast acid splash on cultist 3 and the one next to him, Cultist 3 fell to the floor and stopped moving; the other cultist dodged out of way; but the bane no longer affected Elron since the one who cast it on him was probably dead.

The Priest reached for Marthek but he dodged out of the way. Elron used his sling to throw some stones at the Priest; his first stone missed, the second hit, the third missed as the Priest ducked out of the way.

Breena cast magic missiles on the Priest.

Cultist 1 cast cure wounds on the Priest. Artie moved down for a sneak attack on the Priest. Cultist 2 healed the Priest.

Blaze cast fire ball, with the radius point behind them in the room, catching all four of them in the radius, burning the Priest and surviving cultists.

Marthek, who had been standing in the doorway, blocking it for the others, moved out of the way to allow the rest of us to enter. Marthek hit the Priest with his warhammer and killed him. His second swing killed cultist 1. Sinis moved to the door and cast acid splash on Cultist 1 and finished him off.

Elron looted the bodies.

Loot: 9 vials of unholy water, 3 symbols of Orcus, 4 severely damaged red robes, 42 crossbow bolts, 92 gp, a prayer book, 3 crossbows. Sinis took 2 vials of unholy water for himself; Blaze took one vial and the prayer book.

This hexagonal room had another door on its northwest wall. Elron took 10 minutes to check the door, it was unlocked and not trapped. Opening the door, we saw another hex room with a great crystal skull with glowing eyes floating in mid-air inside a magic circle painted on the floor. It looked at us and said, “All deciduous trees like accordion music. That was free, all other answers will cost you.”

We thought about that for a minute, and then Elron said, “Can I ask you a question?”

The skull said, “Yes.”

Silence.
Blaze said, “Do we have to pay for that?”

Apparently not.

Elron said, “can we pass through here?”

Skull, “Yes” (Blaze checks with the skull that this answer was for free.) 

The skull offered knowledge for a price. Elron ignored it and moved through the room to another door on the northeast wall; he checked it for locks and traps then opened the door onto a triangular room that was empty and had no other doors.

Coming back through the hex room, Elron pulled out a bag and reached for the skull. It’s floated out of reach.

Elron came back through the south door and was closing the door while the skull called out, “Wait! Don’t you have any questions?”

Blaze asked, “What is the price?” 

The skull said to put a sacrifice in the magic circle; some sacrifices are life levels, attribute points, gems, magic items, unique items. The price varies from 500 gp worth for simple questions about the dungeon, 1000 gp worth for difficult questions and 5000 gp worth for extremely difficult questions, like puzzles or command words.

Blaze thanked the skull and said, “have a nice day.”

The skull replied, “you, too!” It seemed to be friendly.  

We decided to go back to the castle to get more money to bring back for answers to questions. Artie’s first one was, “how many cultists and where are they?”

We went back the way we came, closing doors behind us. Blaze looked for a secret door on the west wall in the triangular room but didn’t find one. We went back to the first hexagonal room we had come to after the curved tunnel and checked out the east door. We opened the door into an empty triangular room and found a door on the southeast wall; checked for traps, it’s unlocked, and we entered another empty hexagonal room with a door on the west wall. Elron spent another 10 minutes checking it out before opening it onto another triangular room.

No more doors here.

Noon
We continued to go out the way we came, through the tunnel, which looked like someone tunneled into the hexagonal rooms; there were no other entrances into this series of adjacent rooms. At the end of the tunnel, at the north end, was the short hall into the larger room that connected to the Purple Worms Cavern. We walked across the room to the eastern door. Artie spent ten minutes on the door but broke his lock picks and got them stuck in the lock. Elron took over, and took 20 minutes clearing the lock and opening the door.

12:40pm
We walked into a short hallway going east, with a door on the north wall near the east end. Rocky smelled something bad. Artie got a whiff of incense. Elron checked the door, and heard a noise, maybe someone being beaten. The door was locked and not trapped. Elron unlocked the door, and pulled out his warhammer.

Elron stepped into the north end of a large room. Across the room, a lit lantern was hanging on the eastern wall. The room seemed to have one irregular-shaped section on the north side, with a short hallway that connected it to a rectangular room on the south side. The items in the room looked like a torture chamber, with sounds coming from around the right corner. Elron looked to the south and saw six orcs beating an old man.

Marthek moved into the room and saw the six orcs. They looked up and saw him and Elron.

Blaze, Artie, Parahelia, Breena and Sinis all moved into the room. Breena cast mage armor, Rocky stayed with her.

Elron ran down the hall into the south room, swinging his warhammer and hit one orc. The orc disappeared, popping like a bubble, and in its place was a jackelwere. It hit Elron with a scimitar in return.

Marthek ran down into the room and hit a different orc with his warhammer and it popped as well, and another jackelwere appeared. Marthek’s second swing killed it.

The first jackelwere missed Elron. Blaze followed them down the hall and cast wall of fire, burning three orcs who were standing in front of the old man they were beating. All three orcs turned into jackelweres, now at full strength with no burns.

Elron hit the jackelwere in front of him with his warhammer and killed it. Artie hit one of the three jackelweres with his fire bolt. Breena moved up into the room and cast magic missiles on two of the jackelweres, killing one and injuring the other. The final orc in the lower southeast corner of the room moved around the wall of fire to attack Elron.

Sinis moved down into the room to the old man who now looked like a tiger. One jackelwere used its sleep gaze on Blaze to no effect. Another jackelwere hit Blaze, cutting her with its scimitar.

TO BE CONTINUED