MAL Ep. 32

In which our heroes do succeed at dragging Jon back to the Tomb of Horrors, but only long enough for Acererak to make fun of them for a little bit. ;-)  Plus a ton of major roleplaying from everyone!

1) Back in Anselm's yard, Bay explained her belief that the Pavilion was changing somehow in response to what the party said and did, but that she couldn't put her finger on the rhyme or reason behind it.

2) The PCs examined the giant chair, noting three magical keyholes in its apron (one large, two smaller.) When Zadkiel sat on the chair, the party was transported naked and with no equipment to a giant kitchen where everything was five times normal size.

3) The 30' tall woman cooking at the stove appeared dismayed to see you all there and started trying to shoo you off in an unknown language. She did not understand the party's attempt to parlay with her, and threw a 100-pound saucepan at them. Jon sang her a pleasant song, at which point she put down the carving knife she was about to come after you with and left the kitchen, calling something out. Zadkiel somehow intuited that "Arvan" was the name of her husband, "minasa" was her word for you guys, and she was complaining that there were minasa in her kitchen.

4) The party split up and began searching the Giant's Kitchen. Neither the PCs nor the players recognized the Victorian-era furniture and accessories (which came from my childhood dollhouse,) leading to some interesting fiddling around. Aler managed to get the ice box open, but wisely chose not to climb inside. Red found some dinner-plate-sized coins in one of the coat pockets, but decided not to take any. Jon examined a huge French horn, determining that it was tuned to the key of F and that he could work its keys with his hands if Red used Gust of Wind to blow into its head-sized mouthpiece; however he decided against doing so. Red cast Resist Fire on Khirg so that he could explore the coal-burning stove, where he found a human head in the stewpot and a ceramic star that Jon recognized as the same one you'd seen on Anselm's tent. Adriel figured out how to work the pedal trash can, but everyone was stumped by the hand pump on the Victorian wet sink. Zadkiel searched a picnic basket and took a giant napkin. Eventually the party looted three keys (one of which had the Aquan triskelion on it), a giant phillips-head screwdriver, and a warhammer-sized claw hammer.

5) Along the way, though, they had some mishaps with the rightful occupants of the house. Jon, who was monitoring the hallway with Clairvoyance, alerted the party that an elephant-sized German Shepherd was coming their way. The party now heard two giantish voices yelling as the door was opened to let the dog in. It resisted Red's Charm Animal, mauled her and threw her halfway across the room. Aler used Speak With Animals, learning that it was the dog's job to "get rid of pests," but he managed to convince the dog to help them find the last key so they could disappear again, at which point it started rooting through the garbage instead of trying to kill you. Eventually Arvan, an immense fire giant with a warhammer, came into the room looking intent on killing the PCs. Jon caused a rose to float down the hallway in hopes of placating the giantess. Her reaction went unseen by the PCs. Women do tend to like gifts of flowers, but not usually from naked foreigners who have broken into their houses, so who knows...?

6) Seeing the giant prepare to attack, Khirg used the ceramic star to activate their departure sequence just as the party unlocked the giant chair to find the second chalice. Red managed to grab it in the nick of time just as they transported, and the party placed it on the stool of the tent, where it disappeared.

7) Jon suggested that maybe they didn't really need to find a third chalice at all, since Anselm had already provided them a "free Answer" in the form of information about Chavalk. The other PCs disagreed, saying they still wanted Answers to the three questions they had asked (about Jon's curse, fighting the illithids, and the crystal skull.)

8) Meanwhile, Red went back to the Giant's Kitchen to repay the giants for the trouble the party had caused. She saw a third giant in the kitchen with the giantess, wearing a vest with the logo of an exterminator company. Red quickly cast a spell to improve the quality of all the food in the kitchen and disappeared again, to the astonishment of the giants.

9) Next the party returned to the Gardens of Wisdom and placed the Aquan key into the water panther statue's offering bowl. The statue invited them to pass, but merely repeated the same question when Jon tried questioning it-- clearly it wasn't a real water panther, just an enchanted statue guarding the bridge. Adriel noticed that the temporary Will bonus she had received earlier by washing her hands in the fountain reactivated when she entered this area.

10) The party crossed the bridge into a round garden surrounded by a continuously flowing circular stream. Another bridge crossed in the opposite direction, guarded by the statue of a phoenix sitting in front of a fire pit, which requested an Ignan offering to cross the bridge. In the water garden, there were three stone wells of different-colored water with wooden dippers, a pool with an Aquan waterfall, a bench in front of a planter of flowers, and a treant.

11) The treant was welcoming to the party, identifying Red as "Defender of Nature," Adriel as "Champion of Malachi," and Jon as "Beloved of the Avatar." Red observed that he seemed very like a treant, but not EXACTLY like a treant, which made her feel a bit dizzy. Zadkiel asked for advice about the toxic Sendor River, the treant explained that he could not answer further questions for them within Anselm's pavilion, but that they could find what they were looking for in the Gardens of Wisdom "within themselves," and advised them to focus on the natural elements of the gardens.

12) Adriel drank from the colored waters one after another, causing her to become fatigued, deafened, and then blinded, but also to feel a powerful sense of inner peace. Once she drank from all three, she received a permanent fire resistance 5. However, the rest of the party really had no idea what was going on with her because she wasn't responding to them at all and just sat down in the grass to meditate on the feel of the grass and the smell of the garden for a while.

13) Meanwhile Red and Aler were examining the Aquan waterfall. They learned that whenever they touched the water, they could see a silver basket globe suspended far over their heads, but it disappeared from their perception whenever they stopped being in contact with the water. The water no longer functioned this way once removed from the pool or drunk. Mage Hand and Aler's arrow passed right through the basket globe, and Red's T-Rex form wasn't tall enough to reach it.

14) Khirg found a 3-foot-tall mushroom with a large rounded cap and lopped off the cap with his axe, slinging it across his back like a shield. Neither the treant nor the phoenix statue objected to this.

15) Zadkiel discovered a false bottom in the planter, in which was located a silver snowflake amulet. Jon identified it as an Aquan magic item that could freeze and unfreeze water, but that it would only work on elemental water, not Malachian water or, say, the water in human cells.

16) Jon used the amulet to freeze and unfreeze the waterfall. This did not make it easier to reach the basket globe, but it was still visible to people standing on the ice. Red used control weather to make the water surge 20 feet higher and then had Jon freeze it. By this expediency, she eventually reached the basket globe and brought it down. Inside was a shield with the Ignan fire symbol on it.

17) Meanwhile, Adriel, who felt sufficiently enlightened, allowed Zadkiel to heal her of her maladies, but her fire resistance bonus remained. She told Zadkiel what had happened and he also drank from the three wells, achieving the same feeling of enlightenment though with no bonus to his resistance.

18) Offering the fire shield to the phoenix statue, the party was given permission to cross the bridge. They arrived in another encircled park the same size and shape as the previous one, but this one was scattered with warm, glowing Ignan beads and had a stone circle surrounded by four charcoal lattices. The stone circle had the words "know thyself" inscribed around it in Draconic. When Jon repeated this aloud, the first lattice lit up with the word PRIDE and began to burn, and in the flames, the party saw a highlight reel of each character's most impressive moments from the campaign so far, giving each of them a morale boost. The other lattices lit up as the characters activated them, with the words SHAME, FEAR, and LOVE.

19) Ultimately, most of the characters decided to look into the flames, revealing images from their lives depicting their moments of shame, fear, and love. For SHAME, Red recalled learning the truth about the destruction of Mendham Wood; Adriel shared a poetic memory about her father protecting her from demonfire with his dying body; Aler remembered the fight in the colonnade where the Keres devils shot him down like it was nothing; Khirg revealed his backstory about freezing up in battle and watching a brother-at-arms die; Cartino remembered failing his first attempt to be accepted as a paladin's apprentice; Jon revealed his anguish about feeling like protecting his family and protecting Piper were at cross purposes; and Zadkiel remembered a childhood memory of making his younger sister cry, realizing for the first time that he could hurt people, and never wanting to do it again. For FEAR, Adriel took off her helmet and looked into the flames to see Chavalk's face looking back at her, revealing that she was afraid of his evil taking over her soul as well; Jon saw the solstice passing without his having found a way to save Piper; three characters (Khirg, Aler, and Cartino) saw visions of No-Star's nightmare of being defeated by the Invasion, with Khirg particularly dwelling on Tanya's death and with Aler seeing the twist of his parents standing on the demons' side with evilly glowing eyes, and his own eyes glowing similarly); Red upped the apocalypse ante with a vision of the whole world of Malachi lying barren and devoid of life; and Zadkiel saw himself trying to transpose with his friends to save their lives and instead placing them into the line of fire and sealing their fates. For LOVE, Khirg recalled how he first met Tanya and she helped him turn his life around after the Shame incident; Aler and Bay confessed their love for each other; Zadkiel saw the love and support of his family; Jon saw his love not only for Piper but for the whole of Malachi; and Red realized that she has come to love Adriel and the other party members as if they were her new family. With each of these Flames of Self-Knowledge, the party received temporary bonuses to their stats.

20) After the Flames challenge was finished, and angel of Mara stepped through the flame of love and addressed Jon. She said the priestess of Mara who Zadkiel had spoken to on Piper's behalf had supplicated her to "right a wrong," and asked Jon to state his case. Jon took care to be honest and straightforward, and the angel presented him with the divine gift of a golden mantle that would store the soul of a sacrificed person that it could be restored when their divinity left them, and to tell the Avatar to command her people to use it in all sacrifices from here on out. "Thus is the blessing of Mara, to teach the benighted to honor the brave who give their lives for them as they deserve to be honored." Unfortunately this cannot directly save Piper, since her soul was already destroyed in the process, but the angel says if Jon can find another way to restore her soul, he can use the shroud to ensure that it cannot be lost from her again, which otherwise would be a matter of some concern. The angel seemed to think this answer would be a disappointment to Jon, but he assured her he was grateful for her help and glad no future Avatars would have to go through what he and Piper were going through. He asked the angel's name and she said it was Hunger Only For A Taste Of Justice, and departed.

21) The air statue at the next bridge, predictably, asked for an Auran token, and nobody could find one. The party considered the idea of either swimming or flying across the river, but decided that was really out of keeping with the spirit of this place and didn't want to do it. They tried to hack the system by blowing smoke into the bowl, carving an Auran symbol on a piece of wood, and so on, but the guardian was not fooled.

22) Eventually Bay pointed out that the giant phillips-head screwdriver has a cross-shaped tip, so they could use it to open the golden seal in the Tomb of Horrors. Everyone except Jon thought this was a great idea, but Jon was unable to remember where else he had seen an Air token. Jon convinced the rest of the party to go back to the Change pagoda and at least try looking again there first.

23) However, as at the end of last session, it was really impossible to continue any further in the Change pagoda. The mirror was shattered, and the party could not put it together again. While rooting around behind the pagoda, Red encountered a large frilled lizard who puffed up at her and tried to chase her away. She used Speak With Animals on it and tried to ask it about Auran symbols or chalices, but it was about as smart as any other frilled lizard and the conversation deteriorated into "Leave my territory! I am BIG!" "No, *I* am big!" Which is really a pretty accurate representation of what a couple of posturing lizards would be saying, actually...

24) Egged on by the rest of the party, Red reluctantly tried to exert dominance over the lizard by turning into a T.Rex and proving she was the bigger lizard. It then turned into Trexy the 50'-tall T.Rex to prove IT was the bigger lizard. Bay is apparently right, this place just keeps escalating whenever you guys do. The party fled, though not before Cartino (in lion form) suffered a round of mauling.

25) The party took the giant screwdriver back to the Tomb of Horrors, with Khirg telling them all some colorful stories about how gnoll children used to LARP to this story back in the day. The traps the party had already sprung had not reset, and the damage Red had done to the wall (causing a river of blood to flood out at you) seemed to have repaired. The party gave the deadly demon head statue wide berth and unscrewed the seal, passing through a corridor to the next room of the dungeon.

26) This new room had a visible door to the east, a chest to the west, and a blue seal on the wall to the south. So of course they headed for the chest, but it turned out the floor was on a swivel and tilted once they stepped far enough away from the center, threatening to dump them all into a pit of fire ants below. Quick-thinking Khirg flung himself across the room to try and counterbalance the weight of the PCs on the other side of the fulcrum, which was successful enough to keep Aler and Bay from falling but not Adriel, who became swarmed by fire ants. Red managed to nip down in bird form before the yawing floor could crush her and cast Repel Vermin, saving Adriel (though the obnoxious lich seemed to enjoy her agony while it lasted.) The chest was empty, but contained a mocking letter from Acererak implying that the air token they were looking for was right under their noses and they were too stupid to see it. At this point Red finally remembered that she still had the enchanted air hockey puck from the arcade in her inventory, and that it even has an Auran symbol carved on it. D'OH!

27) Khirg and Adriel kind of wanted to press on in the Tomb of Horrors anyway, but Jon put his foot down and the group decided to return to the Gardens of Wisdom.

28) After offering the air token, the group passed into the third of the circular gardens, where they found an Auran symbol surrounded by a ring of obelisks and pinwheels, with three musical instruments on top of it (a harp, a saxophone, and a cello) and a butterfly windchime hanging overhead, playing a tinkling tune. Red activated the obelisks by tracing a barely visible runic letter "F" on their faces, causing the runes to glow brightly. Jon began playing the harp without first examining the three instruments or listening to the chimes, resulting in his strength being sapped twice before figuring out he needed to be playing the saxophone (the only wind instrument and also the only one tuned to the key of F.) Once he played the tune on the saxophone a scroll emerged from one of the obelisks, describing where to dig in the "Earth that gives" to proceed on their path towards the Chalice of Wisdom. Nick has reproduced this document on the Discord.

29) The final guardian asked for a Terran offering. The party couldn't think of anything.  Adriel's horse, Kadrin, began neighing and tugging at her sleeve, but they still couldn't figure out what he meant, so he saved them from having to go back to the Tomb of Horrors again by dragging one of the pinwheels (which were in the design of the Terran swastika/windmill symbol) over to the offering bowl.

30) In the final Garden of Wisdom, the party found three stone idols, one of which was broken, across from a pile of rocks. A farming field was visible on a hill beyond, but the path leading to the field (which PCs guessed must be the "earth that gives") was blocked by magical white boulders. The idol told them that to cross the path safely, they must "fix what has been broken." Adriel quickly noticed that one of the rocks in the pile looked like it might be the broken piece of the third statue's head, and the party repaired the statue, causing the boulders to roll away from the path.

31) Meanwhile Aler, searching the rock pile, found a smaller white stone engraved with information about "Stones of Wisdom," which Nick has also placed on the Discord. The PCs guessed that this might be related to the circle of star-shaped stones they saw in the yard.

32) The party proceeded to the farming field, which had a shovel resting against the fence, a scarecrow standing in one corner, and four unlit braziers around its perimeter. Unfortunately the instructions told the party to start at the northwest corner, and the party didn't know which way north was--the sky was obscured in even pearly-gray cloud cover, and Red's Direction Sense spell failed. Tired from their long day of adventuring, the party ignored the braziers and scarecrow and decided to just run with the assumption "north" was the direction facing furthest away from the dungeonmaster. This turned out to be incorrect, and a big ugly pumpkin monster burst from the earth to attack Zadkiel when he started digging.

And there we left our wearied--but oddly enlightened--adventurers for the day.

Onward!

Laura