Chp. 8 - Please Save the Children!

[saalaria]

Swilbosh, never ceasing to be amazed by "human" behaviour, just stands and watches proceedings. If he was different race, his mouth would be hanging open in disbelief.

Eventually once the activity with the "wine" has finished:

"Sssshall we head north now?"

[Hotgoblin]

Bene rushes over to lap up Groyn's spew.

[Pulpatoon]

"Sssshall we head north now?"

Porphyry: "Hush, now! Such impatience. Give us a chance to study the effects of the 'wine' on our subjects—I mean, comrades."

[greyarea]

Asherrion attempts to move the combined body north.

[thesniperknight1]

Gagel strokes his long beard with an air of intelligence unprecedented from the imitating thief, "Hmmm....very peculiar", he ran his finger along the inside of the cavity and examined it, "This isn't blood, this strange remnant smells oddly of oil and the texture matches as well. You know that fire in many cult activities represent clarity or a way to be closer to their gods, some even consider it god in itself, fire doesn't belong to any of the three forms of substance, it isn't liquid, solid nor gas, it's not even matter. Does anyone have a jar of oil? Fire it up and the eyes shall glow to lead the way to salvation....or lady death. And could you stop looking at me?", he looks behind him to see no one there.

[Grognardsw]

While some in the party favor continuing north again, most dwell in the statue chamber to drink and statue-gaze.

As Groyn the dwarf continues to vomit uncontrollably (bile and even blood are coming up now), Bene the dog comes to his master and laps up the vomit. After a half-dozen good licks, the wolfhound sways on his feet. There must be wine in the vomit! The dog burps, backs up, turns to the party, and miraculously speaks: "I've never been with such a crackpot group of two-leggers in my life! Do all of your race act this way? My cousin Scooby warned me about this. Stay in the wild woods he told me!"

Fingal the thief, perhaps becoming unhinged by all that he has seen in his Borderlands career, imbibes the wine. A wave of euphoric derangement settles into him and he acts happily crazy.

Meanwhile, Gagel the Enlightened follows his unnatural intuition and procures oil to pour into the cavity of the skull. The thief ignites it, sending light through the tunneled eye holes of the skull. The light beams hit two spots - one on the east and one on the west walls. The party searches those areas and finds a secret door at each.

- Fingal and the wine: [1d12] = 4 On chart: "Become public spectacle of euphoric derangement for 1d6 hours." Enjoy playing that
- Euphoric derangement for [1d6] = 1 hours
- The clue about the oil residue and the eye sockets was mentioned in the initial room description, and the second time around in there, but it wasn't caught. Fingal's wine-induced increase in Int. and Wis. led to his realization of it. Eventually one of you would find the secret doors...

In the great chamber to the north, Sleestak the lizardman shaman concentrates on his spirit, holding himself together as a he travels amid disturbing images and revelations...

Something is coalescing. This is new, for each sight thus far has been two-dimensional and static.



Breaking free...



And shifting into color for the first time...



A man emerges from the chiaroscuro confusion, slashing killing maiming dismembering...



engorging, sodomizing, devouring, absorbing...





and looking at Sleestak, realizing the lizardman is there.

[AleBelly]

"We're not all crackpots, Bene" replies Wulfhart, his capacity for being shocked having been exhausted throughout his adventures. "But damned if the crackpots aren't good at finding stuff. I need to find the kids and get my...reward."

He walks over to the west secret door and opens it.

[thesniperknight1]

Gagel states, "Two doors gentlemen....and dog, which will it be?"

[Inferno]

Sleestak, lizardman shaman:

The psychedelic, interdimensional voyager sensed a disturbance on the periphery of his ever-expanding consciousness. He stated distantly:
"Who are you?
"And what brings a Destroyer to this garden of unearthly Creation?"

[OGRE MAGE]

Fingal climbs up the back of the statue and puts his head right above the skull, possibly inhaling some of the fumes from the burning oil. He leaps off the statue and does a somersault in the middle of the floor, ending up sprawled out on his face. He begins flapping his arms and legs, attempting to create a snow angel while he humps the stone.

Finally, he jumps up and yells something at Bene.

Scooby! Scooby? That's an odd name for a cousin!

Fingal then runs around the cave flapping his arms and yelling Zoinks over and over.

[Pulpatoon]

Porphyry looks askance at the wine bottle. "A sip might invest a cretin with a modicum of intellect—imagine what gifts it might bestow upon someone who is already brilliant? Or it might send one into convulsions of nausea or euphoria. No, it's not worth the risk."

The satyr places the bottle at the base of the statue. "If anyone else is interested in gambling with their brainmeat, you're welcome to it. Oh, and there is another bottle, here, anyone else is thirsty." He holds up the stoppered silver vial. "Look, mammary glands. Surely you can't resist that?" He waggles the bottle in what he thinks is an alluring manner. It isn't.

If no one takes him up on testing the contents of the second vessel, he will go examine each secret door, looking for anything that might make them choose one over the other, such as signs of recent passage, and monster spore.

[thesniperknight1]

Gagel laughs, not his usual obnoxious loud laugh that tells the world "you are not worth it" but a small almost condescending laugh, "Oh your arrogance knows no bounds my dear friend, I find it delightful the way you see everyone beneath you like lab rats. You want us to drink something that hasn't been tested before? It could literally be anything! I admit that the curiosity of the unknown is quite tempting but the fear overpowers it, how about trying it and seeing for yourself, I am sure whatever irreversible damage it might cause, you could fix with whatever spare parts you have collected through your...'experiments' or as I like to call them involuntary organ transplants", he observes the insane Fingal with great amusement.

[Pulpatoon]

"You want us to drink something that hasn't been tested before? It could literally be anything!"

Porphyry looks over Gagel, Groyn, Fingal, and Bene before replying dryly, "Whatever could I have been thinking?"

[doughx99]

Niles will walk over to the west door and back up wulfhart,not wanting to chance the wine.

[Hotgoblin]

Groyn try's to speak during his wretch-a-thon...I ain't never....blahr, gurgle...ugh...drinking that dang wine evers I says!!! As puke and blood drool drips off his lips and nose.

Bene the wolfhound shakes his head in dismay at Groyn, then walks away saying....Right... Never drink wine again...we will see!!! He 'speaks' to the group Maybe it would be a smart idea if I sniff around for the children, I presume you brought some of their clothing, so I may get their scent He looks intently at the group.

[Pulpatoon]

Porphyry to Bene: "We did not. But we don't need precision, do we? It's not a single child we need to find, but a group. Your nose should be able to pick that up readily enough, wouldn't you say? Even if it is only the most recent passage of humans, that would be a tremendous help."

[Grognardsw]

Fingal the thief cavorts about the room while the Porphyry and Gagel spar with their fine intellects. The satyr's skeleton stands immobile, awaiting orders.

Wulfhart the barbarian shakes his head. He and the Niles/Asherrion symbiote open the west wall secret door. There is a narrow hallway with a 6' ceiling which descends quickly to about 3', requiring one to crawl on hands and knees. There are many bugs crawling around. Wulfhart sticks his torch in there, careful not to light the paper Niles on fire, and sees the crawl-way extends at least 30', to the edge of the torch light.

Bene the wolfhound suggests he try to catch the scent of the children and asks if there are any of the children's clothes about. The adventurers look at each other, a moment of embarrassed silence descending as they realize no one thought of that before. The satyr suggests that the canine try anyway, so Bene starts sniffing. He only smells the scents of the adventurers - human, elf, dwarf, lizardman, elf/alien hybrid, satyr, skeleton - all about, from their previous searches. Groyn the dwarf finally stops vomiting; his beard is a smelly mess. The stench wafts about the room.



In the great chamber of debauchery, through blasphemous walls into interstitial realms of Chaos, Sleestak the shaman steps back as the being he just addressed springs forth from the pornography of violence and flesh. He doubles in size and looks down upon the vision-questing lizardman. The edges of its body shimmer, changing shape while maintaining the whole, causing mild dizziness in Sleestak when he watches it too long.

"You speak! A serpent man of old. I was worshiped by your kind in distant Lemuria. You travel beyond your ken. I accept your sacrifice and will eat you."

[AleBelly]

"Yuck!" yells Wulfhart eloquently as he sees the bug-filled crawl-hole. "I'll not go first there. Let's shut it and check the other."

Only if Wulfhart is aware of Sleestak's predicament.

"Hear that? Some low voice? I'll go investigate while Fingal flops about."

Sword drawn, he heads towards Sleestak.

[Pulpatoon]

Porphyry peers down the passage and whistles for his skeletons. "Shall my osseous lads act as scouts? They'll be lousy at reporting what they find, but we can at least listen for the sounds of breaking bones."

[Inferno]

Sleestak, lizardman shaman:

"You speak! A serpent man of old. I was worshiped by your kind in distant Lemuria. You travel beyond your ken. I accept your sacrifice and will eat you."

Within, Sleestak swallowed the screaming terror of his soul, fighting against his every instinct of survival to flee. Without, the reptile visionquester was strangely calm, the eye of this swirling vortex of violence and hate. His fear barely quelled, Sleestak regained clarity and could see the thing for what it was. In seeing, he regarded the living depiction of a perverse sadist god with something like pity and remorse. So much potential, so much knowledge, and so little wisdom. Like a child given absolute power. Of course this is what it would do with it. What else would it know to do?

When the all-powerful graven image's tantrum abated, Sleestak simply said, "We are far from distant Lemuria, my friend."
As he spoke, the shaman stepped out of the magnificently beautiful hallucinogenic dimension-scape and fell back down, down into the base, coarse, limited, material world of his birth.

If he survived and the omnipotent infant didn't follow, Sleestak would seek out the impotent infants (the humankin grave robbers).
He serenely rasped to them with his eyes focused in the distance: "...This depraved charnel house... is a powerful medicine lodge... of the mad god, Cthulhu, and his brothers...
"...Our path lies below... We must seek a trail downwards..."