The party continues to explore the second level of Undermountain, the ‘Arcane Chambers’.
After the battle, Mantis spots a secret door, and discovers a room with an unadorned archway. The floor under the arch has an orange sparkle to it. Tang Wu decides it is a magical gate, and walks through it, only to run into the stone door under the arch. Shazuu touches an iron pry-bar to the arch, and the mystical gate opens. Tang Wu steps through, and the archway closes behind him. Tang Wu finds himself in a large room with two doors and a matching archway archway. The arch is adorned with a carving of a creature like an armadillo with two long feather-like tusks. The gateway abruptly disappears, and Tang Wu hears a woman’s voice in his head. The voice says, “You are not ready yet.” The gate spirals open, and Tang Wu is pulled back through it by some invisible force!
Backtracking once again, Mantis leads the group into a long, wide hallway. Two ballistas are set up at the far end of the hall. As Mantis investigates a door on the side of the hallway, Shining Brow bolts towards the ballista. The ballista, with no visible operators, open fire on the tabaxi. He turns and runs back to the party, who rally to attack the constructs. Shazuu and Tygorr finally destroy them.
Shazuu opens a door with his boot, and the group enters a 30 x30 room. In the center is a three foot tall pillar, with spigots on each side, fed by copper piping. The walls are covered with frescos of dwarves in various scenes of work, sleep, and drinking. Two dwarves hold copper mugs. Taking one of the mugs, Shazuu opens a tap, pours a mug of ale, and quaffs it. The smell of baking bread comes from the next room. Shazuu investigates and hears noises…clacking footsteps. The new room is filled with four huge vats made of wood, copper, and stone. One of the back vats smells of something rotten. As Shazuu approaches, an undead beholder rises from the vat. The party rushes in to join the fight. Tygorr finishes the creature with a blast of radiant energy. With no treasure evident, Mantis takes an empty barrel, and attempts to fill it from the spigots in the previous chamber, but chooses poorly, opening a different spout and releasing green slime, which begins to fill part of the room. Mantis flees the room with the party, slamming the door behind him.
The group moves on. Beyond a new door is a passage with a steep grade. Still walking in the lead, Mantis falls in a pit trap, forcing the group to open the trap door and free him. Near the end of the passage are two more secret doors. They choose one, and it conceals a storage room containing a pyramid of beer barrels. Finding nothing else of value, they return to the brewing rooms. As they pass through, a green slime falls from the ceiling, but misses the group. The green mass of slime advances menacingly, but is so slow that the group saunters past it and continues on their way. After a bit more wandering, they discover a staircase leading down.
At the bottom of the stairs, a door opens into a long hallway. A high slanted roof is lined with red tinted windows. More frescos of dwarves line the walls, and two massive dwarven statues stand on either side of a door at the end of the hall. On closer inspection, many of the dwarven frescos have been replaced with stone tentacles, and as the group advances, the tentacles begin to writhe. Tang Wu finds a clear path down the middle of the hall, just out of the reach of the tentacles. He leads them to a door in a side hall, which opens to a room featuring carved pillars, and a strange, metallic, box like creature. Tang Wu attacks, and the group destroys the creature, which disintegrates when beaten.
The pillars in the room feature four angelic beings. All four seem to be looking at a spot in the center of the room. The group begins to search the passages around this room, and find more statues, including a lizard man, a mind flayer, the feathered armadillo they saw earlier, a nothic, troglodytes, an orc, a massive bear, several goats, and a wererat. After discussion, they drag the nothic statue back to the angelic statues and place it in the middle. Nothing happens until someone notices an elvish phrase “Powered by elven magic…” When repeated out loud, beams shoot from the angels’ eyes, and it is no longer a statue. Shazuu immediately uses his power to dominate the creature, and make it his servant. He promptly names it Crowley. Tang Wu repeats the process with a goat, and ties it to a rope.
Shining Brow has already moved ahead, and finds a cavern full of fog, and what look to be sarcophagi. Across the foggy room are two huge owlbears. Dragging the goat and nothic behind, the group assaults the owlbears, and finish them quickly. Investigating the sarcophagus, Shining Brow finds a pot, which turns out to be a pot of awakening, to create awakened plants. Mantis finds another secret door, leading to a secret crypt. Inside is a coffin carved with a handsome elf holding a cat. The nothic perishes at Shazuu’s hand.
Next time:
- The group continues their search for magical items.
- Durnan mentioned the “Arcane Chambers”, “The Willowood”, and “Selune’s Tears” in his letter
- Return to the Mirror of Wands when strong enough (Lvl 11)
- Return to the map room and figure out how to activate it