As the battle raged Gavril moved to flank the three armed Derro, but found that his flanking did no good, neither did his sneak attack. But he managed to hit the Derro, but took damage from the thorns.
Then the Derro cast a spell and disappeared. Her ally also cast a spell and disappeared.
"Where did they go?" Paullus bemoaned.
"I'll find them, if they are still in the room," Armania declared as she cast Invisibility Purge revealing the two Derro in the northwest and southwest areas of the room. Ciprian also appeared next to Gavril.
"They are in the corners behind the skins," Armania stated pointing in those two directions.
Ursina moved further from any enemy and continued applying healing to herself. Paullus moved north and fired arrows through a skin, behind which he thought the Derro was hiding. One arrow seemed to hit its mark. Erevel moved around the skins and attacked the same enemy. Ciprian also attacked but found that he took more damage than he inflicted.
"This is a losing situation with these damned thorns," he bemoaned.
Gavril was not ready to continue the attack as he needed more healing. The three armed Derro attacked both Erevel and Ciprian with its two handed attacks. The other revealed itself from the curtain of skin and stared at Gavril while casting a spell at Armania who shrugged it off.
Armania fired magic missiles at the many images of the second Derro as Ursina again waited for the battle to end. Paullus fired arrows again at the three armed enemy and dropped it to the floor. Erevel yelled for Ciprian to assure that the monster was dead as she moved down to the remaining enemy and even though there were eight images she hit the actual one and dropped it to the floor. Ciprian executed a coup de grace on the prone Derro.
Ciprian immediately moved to the Hollow One who was no longer sobbing but still sat on the ladder rocking and mumbling.
"Are you hurting? Or in peril?" Ciprian began. There was no response as the mumbling continued. Ciprian tried again in Aklo but still got no response.
"I can take you to your father if you follow me," Ciprian tried using another tack. He noticed that the Hollow One held a few pieces of paper. But still there was no coherent response from the tortured soul.
Interrupting his mumbling the creature pointed upward at the trap door and then began sobbing, harder than before, while tearing at its skin as though trying to unravel itself.
Meanwhile Armania and Gavril were searching for magic of which they found several on the two Derro bodies, weapons, armor, potions and seemingly a spell book but the contents were strange. The spells were obvious by name but they appeared to be specified by formula.
Ciprian successfully convinced the Hollow One to move away from the ladder by continuing to talk at it. Gavril immediately clambered up the ladder to check for traps on the door in the ceiling. He found nothing that was concerning so he let Erevel climb up to peer into the next floor. As she slightly lifted the trap door all that she could see was endless trailing Ivy vines that covered the floor here like a living
carpet. A sickening scent of decay hid within the scent of fresh vegetation. The room did seem to be lit and was smaller than the rooms they had just climbed through.
Erevel lowered the door and reported to the crew. Armania suggest that she would cast a fireball into the room through the open trap door. So Erevel flung the door open and a fireball exploded in a firery burst above them. After the flames were reduced, Erevel climbed into the chamber and saw the floor covered with now charred and singed vines. The vines flowed in through broken windows to cover the floor and walls, even climbing up the rafters into the cupola dome above. Ursina cast invisibility on herself and Armania also cast invisibility on Paullus. Ciprian cast vanish and Air Walk as they followed Gavril up to the next level.
The ivy began to wrap around the ankles, arms and legs of the heroes, successfully entangling Paullus. Then four tentacles reached down from the rafters and attacked the only visible party members, Erevel and Gavril.
Ursina cast Prayer on the party followed by Gavril attacking the tentacles. Armania began Summon Monster and Erevel attacked the tentacles around her. Agna asked where in the world was the party and how did we get here and fired her arrows at the monstrosity as she popped into view. Ciprian moved away from the walls and identified the monster as a Dark Young of Shub-Niggaurath an evil aberration that was immune to fire and had sucking maws that could drain strength. He then began a Bardic Performance against the monster.
The Dark Young again attacks, but this time there are three targets Agna having become visible. Again the monster attempt to grab those it hit but these failed. The party attacked, including the Bralani summoned by Armania. In the middle of the attacks the Dark Young began to lose its grasp on the rafters and fell to the floor along with broken beams and splinters. Ciprian and Armania were pushed out of the way and Agna ended under the creature. They all took damage from falling debris.
As the heroes saw the Dark Young up close, chaotic image of hundreds of faces all flickering between
one another appeared in their heads and they heard “It sends its tendrils through their minds to gather its strength, but despite your knowledge you are clean. You can stop it. Don’t let it infect this world and serve it to Carcosa.”
The vines continued their grasps at the heroes and the monster continued its attack and finally grabbed Agna. Gavril moved to flank with Ursina and with their combined damages along with Lightning Bolts, Magic Missiles the heroes prevailed and the monster stopped moving, its tentacles flailing to the floor.
As the vines withdrew from the ankles of the heroes healing was started including from the Bralani. Gavril noted a chest hidden in the rafters. Armania levitate him up to the box, which was not trapped but was locked. Gavril picked the lock and found papers a leather bag filled with coins inside and six diamonds.
Just as Armania was saying that the party could leave from the Cupola, Ciprian slid down the ladder to the Room of Skin and began to talk with the Hollow One again. The immediate response was an attack on Ciprian. The party leaped into action moving down to the lower level with the Bralani and Armania casting spells from above.
DM's Notes: The party earned 8800 XP for the night and now have 139,888 XP and need an additional 15,112 to reach 11th level.
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