Session 0055 - The Flooded Floor

Roster

List of characters who's player was in attendance

Player characters who's player is attending the game start with 1 Hero Point, and can get more during the session.

Absent

List of characters who's player was absent

Player characters for missing players do not start the session with a hero point, and can not get any more during the session.

Session Log

Immediately after the fight with the undead water-bloated dark elf Alicia and Harbek set to work helping to patch people up. It is clear that Eriana is feeling quite ill after getting hit by the creature.
While they do that the body of the undead creature is examined. It has no coins or obvious wealth apart from strange leather armor that appears to be in remarkably good shape. Rebar examines it, noticing fine runes on it that convinces him it is magical. They remove the armor from the corpse and stash it in their Spacious Pouch for safekeeping.
The two healers look over her and Harbek is convinced she is suffering from some disease and is in its initial stage. Nobody recognizes the undead, and so it is unknown what form of disease has affected Eriana.
Fortunately, Harbek has a Cleanse Affliction spell prepared which he hopes will cure the disease. It is the last spell of that level he is able to cast for the day. Eriana does feel better after he casts the spell.
Afterwards he keeps an eye on her while helping Alicia to heal up the rest of the party.
Once they have recovered and the healers have refocused their healing powers, the party decide to examine the ziggurat to the east. The stone ziggurat set in the floor rises toward the dark ceiling overhead in three steps, each rising 10 feet higher than the previous level. Convoluted designs in carved relief cover every foot of the structure, except for the uppermost step. There, the strange designs appear on three on the four sides, each showing a single glyph. The fourth side is completely devoid of all markings.
The top tier also reaches the ceiling, which is only 30-feet high here, unlike the other levels of the complex the party has seen.
Arkaban joins Eriana in climbing up the ziggurat and examining the symbols. Arkaban has the code breaker in hand, scanning over the symbols and looking for more revealing phrases.
He eventually discovers them - three phrases on the three sides of the top tier of the ziggurat. The phrases are: "The Scorpion's Tail", "The River's End", and "Garyx's Eye".
This confirms what he presumed earlier that there would be six such phrases that he guesses describe constellations in ancient giant cosmology. Arkaban is not certain if they describe constellations; they could be geographic descriptions, but it seems most likely constellations. He explains that on the upper level where Garrow and the rest of the Emerald Claw soldiers hold there is a giant chair situated in a wide channel open to the sky that looks like it was designed to view the sky.
Also, he spent some time examining the runes around the chair and already came to the conclusion that there are likely six constellations required to activate its magic. There are a great many runes on the chair, and it is impossible to know which constellations and in what combination are required. Now that they have the six constellations it seems likely they have the key. He also seems convinced that Garrow will not be able to figure this out without this information.
While the group have been examining the ziggurat it becomes clear that Eriana has recovered. All traces of the disease seem to have gone, and she if feeling normal again.
The party also notice that the 5-foot diameter hole on the north wall continues to pour out water at the same steady rate. It has been over an hour since they forced open the doors and noticed the flow of water. Arkaban did not notice anything on the top level to suggest there was a large cistern of water that could account for the flow.
However, he does mention that on either side of the great chair the walls rise to a roof 100-feet above and they are more than twice as long perhaps 100-feet wide. It is conceivable they could each hold water, which might account for the long steady flow. If that was so the water would eventually stop, and at the rate of flow it can't last too much longer they think.
Looking around the chamber, those with darkvision (Eriana, Harbek and Arkaban) notice there is another 5-foot hole opposite it on the south wall. There is no water pouring out of that hole.
They all decide to go and take a closer look.
When they approach the hole they notice that it appears to provide a view outside. However, when they get close enough to see it clearly they notice that the view is out onto a vast body of water where the surface is just below the hole. The water stretches as far as the eye can see with no visible features.
Both Eriana and Rebar walk around and discover that the hold is on a wall that is about 20-feet wide that they are able to walk around. In other words, the hole is viewing something that should not be possible. The light is also slightly off what they believe it should be outside at this time of day (just a little after noon).
Hrovard takes a look inside the hole and puts his arm in and touches the water. He notices immediately that the temperature is quite a bit cooler on the other side of the hole, but it is not emanating cold.
Upon touching the water there is a sudden churning of waves so he pulls his hand out in alarm. A figure then pops up out of the water, mumbles something unintelligible and spits a cone of burning water out of the hole!

It singes Hrovard and Rebar and nearly gets Eriana, but she dodges out of harms way. The water burns like acid.
This gets everyone engaged to attack the creature. Hrovard grabs his battle axe and attacks with that. Harbek, Arkaban and Rebar all cast damaging cantrip spells at it. Alicia and Ferdinand use their crossbows to shoot at it, while Eriana runs in and stabs at the creature from the side. Muroni is very short of arrows, so she grabs melee weapons and stands ready in case anything comes out of the hole.
During the fight three more such creatures appear. Each pop up out of the water and spit a cone of the same scalding water out of the hole. The party is also able to quickly cut down two of the creatures, but not until Hrovard, Rebar, Eriana and Alicia all get singed by their breath weapon (Alicia moved close to try and shield everyone, putting herself in harms way).
One of the creatures is taken out with a critical hit by Eriana when it was nearly dead, and another one in a similar state was critically hit by Hrovard.
After a brief fight the party have killed three of them with one creature remaining. However, Alicia notices two of the presumably dead creatures begin twitching and start moving again, apparently recovered and functioning again.
They realize at this point the creatures have some power to regenerate so it seems pointless to keep fighting.
Everyone backs away, slogging through the couple of feet of water in the chamber to get away from the portal.
As the creatures revive they yell and taunt from the portal but do not emerge from it. The party move well back and the creatures eventually disappear again under the water.
Someone tired and low on resources, the group decide to move on. Before leaving, Eriana goes to get a closer look at the hole on the north wall that is gushing water. Like the one to the south, it is on a wall to a structure that is 20-feet wide she is able to walk around.
Thinking back on the recent fight with the creatures in the water, the group think they could be weak elementals - perhaps Mephits, or Water Scamps. If so, it suggests the holes may be portals to a plane of water. If that is true, the flow might never stop.
It is also worth noting that the water pouring from the hole is cool, clear and apparently very fresh.
A quick look around the rest of this vast chamber reveals nothing else, so the party decide to head back to the familiar room on the gallery level to rest and recover.