Session 26: The Purple Tomb

Lilia Scouting

Summary

The Stone Orb

Cato-blep-as

XP Award

• 400 XP for defeating the guards in the Receiving Room
• 688 XP for killing the ancient cyclops and his sahuagin surgeon
• 675 XP for obliterating the Catoblepas and its ghast children
• Total: 1763 XP
• Current XP: 45297 XP -> 47060 XP (Level 8)
• (Required for next level: 48000 XP)

Things That Happened

The Receiving Room

• Date: 26th of Tarsakh (The Claw of the Storms, April), evening, 1372 DR
• Octavius conjured Dancing Lights and Diedric cast Light on his shield.
• The party, remembering their three-day fast, quickly ate some rations. Lilia, in Octopus form, ate some fish in a sahuagin net.
• Inspecting the half-flooded chamber lined with purple stones, the party eventually discovered a rail system that allowed six purple slabs to be moved along them. They revealed these rails with pretisdigitation.
• Finding the water distasteful, Lilia equipped a sahuagin pearl bracelet on a tentacle, and enjoyed the salt water taste.
• Thinking better of their illumination plan, Diedric provided the party with darkvision, their eyes glowing silver.
• This room's purpose or origin was not yet understood.

The Processing Chamber

• Lilia swam forward with Smokescale to scout.
• This chamber had three stone slabs in the center, with alcoves surrounding them. The alcolves contained stone slabs, which were either sitting surfaces or tables.
• As she entered, she felt a snap as the tripped a wire under the water, causing a room-sized network of nets to fall from the ceiling, trapping her and Smokescale.
• Diedric's warhammer began ringing in the other room.
• A group of sahuagin warriors, a priest, and several ghouls and ghasts flanked the party. The undead glowed a dark purple.

Encounter: Sahuagin Guard Post

• Highlights:
  • Smokescale's head being bitten off by a ghast.
  • Octavius falling prey to a Hold Person and falling to the waters.
  • Lilia in Octopus form grappling the priest, biting his head with her beak.
  • A fireball preventing all three warriors from acting.

The Observation Labs

• The party proceeded into the next room, even more cautious of traps.
• They observed two round chambers, with seating surrounding large stone slabs, barely poking above the water.
• Lilia recognized this as a surgical ward, possibly for study or teaching.
• In the second room's slab, they observed a prone dead cyclops, bearing an interesting set of tattoos on its legs, being operated on by a frail sahuagin priest. He was stiching its rotted intestines when he turned to notice the party, and the cyclops awaked.

Encounter: A Relic From Another Era

• Highlights:
  • Diedric channeling divinity to successfully turn the undead Cyclops, causing him to flee down a hallway.
  • The priest escaping Lilia's grapple, only for his head to explode from Octavius's crossbow bolt.
  • A gutteral bellow from down the hall as the fleeing Cyclops alerted more adversaries.

The Pillar Room

• Barely noting that the next room bore six pillars, one holding a rough stone cube, the party was charged by a dark brown, bloated buffalo, dinosaur, warthog, and hippopotamus hybrid. It had the worst stench you've ever smelled: like bloated, rotting death mixed with swamp gas and skunk musk. A part of its shoulder was missing flesh, showing bone beneath. Undead, likely dredged from the bottom of an ocean.
• Two ghasts, which had been feeding on its rotted milk, joined the fray.
• Lilia shouted a warning about the catoblepas's stench.

Encounter spillover: The Catoblepas

• Highlights:
  • The cyclops hurling two stones at Diedric, nearly downing him.
  • Lilia being crushed out of octopus form.
  • Two ghasts exploding from Turn Undead, and the Catoblepas fleeing, only to return to be eviscerated by Lilia's Spike Growth.
• This combat-heavy session came to an end.

NPCs Encountered (or mentioned)

• None