The Beast in the Broken Menagerie

Armania was being sickened by the colorful mushrooms growing from Paullus' and Erevel's skin.  "Can something be done to fix this?"

"Maybe they are a food source," Paullus surmised.

"I wouldn't try that!  They probably are poisonous," Ursina warned.  Let me check again to see is this is a disease or something else.

After studying his two affected heroes Ursina was at a loss, "I don't think this is a disease or infection.  I can't determine if I can help."

Ciprian used one of the Remove Disease scrolls to attempt and clear the problem to no effect.  He then did a Knowledge check and found that Paullus and Erevel were under a curse.  

Armania broke out the Break Enchantment wand and on her second attempt successfully removed the curse on the two heroes.  Their mushrooms and moss faded as the curse left their bodies.

Finally the group packed down for the evening to recover from the day's machinations.

As they slept each hero had a brief dream where they stood in a featureless plane where rocky sandstone cliffs flickered in and out of existence. They were alone aside from a singular blurry form that merged the images of an elderly woman and a strange creature with a conical body topped with four rubbery appendages. The merged form reached out, but before it touched the hero, the dream scene vanished.

When Ciprian awakened he immediately tried to identify the creature of the dream.  He also inquired if anyone else had the same vision.  The rest of the party indicated that they also had a dream.  Ciprian determined that the non human creature was an Yithian which in addition had a Mind Swap capability.

Otherwise there were no Night Terrors and Paullus awoke with the days memories intact.  Gavril checked the eastern wall of the room for secrets as he recalled the barricaded room was to the east of this room, but he found no secret passages.  He voiced the opinion that the party should visit the Guards in that room first.

Armania and Erevel disagreed, the Guards were probably about as crazy as Miacknian Mun so they should be left alone at least until the wards were reset.

"We should explore the room with the Angelic Gate to see if there is an issue with it.  One on the angel heads does not stay turned, maybe the problem is with the gate," Erevel said.

The party headed toward the unexplored room being cautious of the inner walls.  Erevel, as always was in the lead and she stepped past the open arched doorway into the chamber and a preternatural stench which hung in the air there among the vandalism and chaos of the chamber.  Remnants of bent, broken, and gnawed cages littered the room, along with mounds of books and papers. Blocks of stone from the ceiling and walls littered the ground.  The stench clasped Erevel stomach in knots of misery as she felt sickened.

Ciprian, hearing this gave Gavril, Ursina, and himself a bonus on fortitude, Gavril entered the chamber and choked down the stench, neither Erevel nor Gavril saw anything in the chamber.  Meanwhile, the other party members began to cluster around the archway into the room.  Ciprian stepped in and also successfully bit his tongue at the stench.  Erevel and Gavril moved up toward the north of the room where an alcove led to the east.  The rubble was heavier in the alcove, partially obscuring the angelic gate.

Paullus saw the incorporeal limb swipe at him from the wall behind, it missed but his yell was audible to all the party.  At the same time invisible tentacles attacked Erevel and grappled her.  No one saw any creature even after the attack.  Paullus moved away from the internal wall, ready to fire at the first sight of the ghostly figure.  Ursina entered the chamber with broken room and immediately felt sick.  She could not see any creature and held off any further action.  Gavril tried to move around what he thought could be a creature given Erevel's condition but he ran into a solid object which he attacked blindly.  Erevel tried to break the grapple but failed.

Armania hearing of the invisible creature moved away from the wall and to the edge of the door after casting Invisibility Purge.  At this a creature the shape of which gave the impression of a squirming mass accompanied by an indescribable monstrous stench appeared holding Erevel in its grip.  Ciprian immediately identified it as Spawn of Yog-Sothoth, an aberration, which was resistant to sonic damage and had Combat Reflexes.  He then began a Bardic Performance and caste haste on the party.

Behind Armania a ghostly creature, little more than a dark shape with two flickering pinpoints of light where its eyes should be, flowed out of the wall touched her, draining her constitution, and then retreated into the wall.  The newly visible Spawn lost its grip on Erevel and then attacked both Erevel and Gavril but did not succeed in a new grapple.

Ursina was standing in the room when she heard some cracking above her.  Looking up she saw a part of the ceiling give way but she failed to leap out the way of the falling block and was injured.  Paullus moved into the chamber and became sickened by the horrid stench.  He then shot arrows at the Spawn.  Ursina, ignoring her new injury, moved up next the the Spawn and wailed away at the evil monstrosity with her holy book.  Gavril and Erevel continued their attacks as Armania started a Summon Monster Spell.  Ciprian, not eager to engage either enemy, continued buffing the party.

Now the Wraith exited the wall and continued into the stench chamber to attack Ciprian draining his constitution.  The Spawn now with three enemies attacked all of them grappling only Ursina.  Gavril leapt out of the way a falling boulder from the ceiling as Paullus, with a new enemy, drew his sword and began to inflict minor damage to the incorporeal creature.  Ursina, feeling no way to escape, continued attacking with her holy book while Gavril destroyed the Spawn with his attack.  Erevel and Gavril both headed to the south end of the room to help with the Wraith.  Armania directed her newly summoned Dire Tiger to attack the Wraith.  Unfortunately the Tiger could not grab the ghostly figure but was successful on attacking it.  She then cast magic missiles at the Wraith which of course did full damage as opposed to the normal weapon attacks.  Ciprian with a identified the incorporeal creature as a Dread Wraith with Sunlight Powerlessness, he then changed his Performance to the Wraith.  With a deep breath he broke out his mace to attack the Wraith.

The Wraith now with many enemies attacked and drained Erevel as Paullus found himself having to leap out of the way of a falling ceiling piece.  He then returned the attack followed by Ursina trying to make the figure more corporeal but that was unsuccessful.  Gavril and Erevel now applied full attacks to the Wraith along with Armania's magic missiles and Ciprian's mace.

The Wraith still stood and attacked Paullus and then new horror appeared as Ursina and Armania were attacked by Hounds of Tindalos.  While the main fighters continued with the Wraith Ursina attacked the Hound and Armania Dimension stepped away and cast Stone Call to pelt one Hound with rocks and directed the Tiger to continue to attack.

The battle against the Wraith continued but finally Erevel dealt the killing blow.  All the while members of the team kept dodging falling rocks.  The Dire Tiger charged and grappled one Hound while Ursina dispatched the other.  Gavril took advantage of the grappled Hound to finish it off.  

The party breathed deeply as Ciprian asked how damaged the group was.  Erevel and Gavril both wer very injured so Ciprian again used the Greater Path of Glory to heal up most of the party.  Restoration and lesser restoration were used to regain the drained and damaged Constitution.

Erevel and Paullus headed back into the room and started clearing rubble from the angelic gate, another 10-foot-wide circular metal valve. It depicted four smiling angelic faces with fierce, pointed teeth.

"Hopefully we will be able to turn the head of that last angel statue now," Erevel stated wearily.

DM's Notes: The party earned 6400 XP for the night.  The heroes now have a total of 175,821 XP.  The 12th level number is 220,000 XP.