Miacknian Mun and Friend

Gavril was hurting bad but went ahead and attacked the oozing monster in front of him.  With great aplomb he used both hands to inflict damage, though less than he wanted.

Armania finally was able to fire off a magic missile at the creature.  Then she moved south to get a view down the main hallway.  As she settled there the mate ooze slogged up around the corner and moved toward her.

Erevel and Gavril were the targets of the next attacks of the Proto-Shoggoth although neither ended up being grappled.

Erevel, completely enraged at this point, attacked with fury and the ooze deflated all over the angel sitting in the corner.  Paullus thought "Good thing I already turned that head!! I won't touch it now with its new slimy surface.  He then moved south to join Armania in watching for the second enemy.

An invisible Ursina crept close and gave Gavril a good shot of healing.  Ciprian joined Armania and Paullus in blocking the passage east.   Gavril was torn between heading east to attack from the rear of heading south to the rest of the party.  Eventually he headed to the south.  Armania stepped forward and fired a lightning bolt down the hall to harm the creature.

At this the creature headed north back toward where the party once was.  Paullus headed that direction as Erevel was healing herself.  Ursina also administered to Erevel's wounds, while Ciprian moved to the front with Paullus.

Gavril also moved to the forefront, while Armania came forward to cast magic missiles once again.  The creature moved and attacked Paullus and grappled him.  With this damage came a feeling of sickness as microscopic fragments of Proto-Shoggoth tissue infected him.  He could feel his cells being eaten and transformed as he gagged on bile.

The battle ended quickly as the party redoubled its attacks which freed Paullus from the monsters grip. Ciprian gathered the party around and began a multi round Path of Glory to heal them.  This was very judicious as it returned the party to full strength before they continued the investigation.

Ursina related that the angel head she turned had returned to its original position.  Ciprian moved over to it and tried turning it himself.  Again when he let go of the head it returned to peer down the east/west hallway.  Armania, Erevel and Gavril moved to the eastern wall and searched for secret doors but they found nothing. 

Ciprian was continuing to say prayers over the dead bodies and wrapped them in the funerary cloths.  Toward a double doorway on the south he found 24 magic crossbow bolts strewn across the floor. Unfortunately along with this load he also found the grim remains of a lower jaw housing four gold teeth.

The party finished dealing with the dead bodies and wondered what to do next. Paullus came up to the group and again lost control of his stomach.  "I'm still feeling very sick," he whispered faintly.

Ursina performed a heal check and determined that Paullus was suffering some form of infection similar to a disease.

"Should we try one of these scrolls of Remove Disease?" Gavril piped up.

"Do we know that it will work?" Armania questioned the wisdom of that action given the limited supply of the spell.

"We don't know anything else that might work, I guess we will have to try it," Ursina answered.

After reading the scroll and casting the spell on Paullus he began to recover and felt that the infestation was not eating away at his body any longer.

"Should we rest?" queried Armania, "I am rather low on spells."

"I agree.  I am in the same state," Ursina chimed in.

"There is the barricade and the two doors," Gavril reminded all.

"And that open doorway in the southeast that Armania says has a reek wafting from it," Ciprian added. "It appears from the map that the gateway down is in that area."

"Let's go open the doors and see what is behind them," Erevel insisted.

As Erevel got to the doors, which bore deep gauges and smears of ichor, she just pushed them like they would swing open easily.  This was not the case.  It appeared that something was preventing the doors from opening, maybe items piled up on the far side, like a barricade.  Gavril joined Erevel and together they applied their shoulders and pushed the doors slowly, and noisily open.

The room was in disarray. An alchemist’s lab was set up on one of the tables, and a few of the shelves had been cleared of books. Throughout the room, a chaotic swirl of yellow hues had been painted, daubed, and scratched into the walls, on the spines of books, and across the floor.  In the room was a man in thick layers of soiled clothing. He had wild blonde hair. From behind his glasses, beady eyes seemed almost ready to pop from his skull. He was lithe and pale, and his body showed signs of recent injury and past self-abuse. His actions were furtive, and his eyes darted about like those of a hunting lizard. He had a quick, excited voice and babbled about otherworldly nightmares with horror.  The man was the spitting, albeit filthy, image of the painting in Mun's Infirmary.  Standing midway in the room was a creature akin to the hollow ones and crafted in the main mans own image.

"Everything is out to get us Akie.  Attack at once they are here to kill us," the lithe blond man raved.

Ciprian entered the room, "I am Ciprian.  We corresponded in the past when I worked for Lowls."

"Lowls, that bastard left me here.  Look at those creatures!!!  Oooh, they are going to kill us!  They killed the guards, they killed the priests.  How can we ever get out of here."

"Where is Lowls now?" Armania asked.

"Oh Oh Oh he left me here.  We were supposed to get out together. Have you found the traitor?" Mun asked his voice getting higher and more excited. "Akie watch them, they are crowding into the room."

Gavril, Ursina and Erevel had edged into the room.  Each time they moved Mun jumped at the noise and his beady eyes furtively followed them around.

"We really want to help, we have killed the monsters.  You can leave with us." Ciprian was trying to convince Mun of the party's good intentions.

"How long ago did Lowls leave you here," Armania piped in.

"How long, how long?  It has been weeks, we have been here alone. Oooh, Oooh I must finish my work."

"What did you have to eat and drink?" Armania continued

"We had some with us, didn't we Akie," Mun responded.

"Did you go to the lower levels with Lowls?" Ciprian asked.

"Levels, levels, levels.  Oh yes we found and Necronomicon and we worked on it for -- oh how long was that how long?"

"What was Lowls after now?"

"He was going to get the book. Oh no, no, no keep those tentacles away from me," Mun said as Erevel moved closer to him. 

"Do you know how to enter the lowest level, the Soul?"

"The soul, the soul.  Who's soul?  Does one really have a soul?"  Mun continued excitedly.  "I have no soul.  How does one find a soul? Akie, they are monsters, kill them, kill them!"

Mun was clearly on the edge of sanity but as Ursina and Erevel moved closer, Akie flew to Ursina and bit her.  The battle was then joined as haste was caste by Ciprian, who also started a Performance against humans.  Armania fired magic missiles, Paullus fired arrows while Erevel tried to close on Mun who drank an extract and disappeared.

Gavril and Ursina were both harrying Akie who fought back with bite and claws but hit the floor.  Armania did an Invisibility Purge and Mun reappeared and used a wand that brought Akie back to life.  Ciprian and Erevel found Mun hard to hit as he was not exactly where he seemed to be.  Then when they did hit, Mun's Thorn body delivered its own damage.

Mun and Akie were no match for the group and Mun's state of mind did not help them at all.  They both fell and the group closed the doors and prepared to perform healing and identify the magic items before sleeping for the night.

Several magic items were found on the two bodies and the room contained several extracts.  The magic items found on the bodies in the halls were identified and any extract that could help was used.

Interestingly when restoration was used upon Erevel and Paullus, the patches of mold and tiny, multicolored mushroom caps erupting from their skin did not disappear.  In fact their charisma was still reduced as the sight of this was horrifying.

DM's Notes: The party earned 7267 XP for the night.