The Barbarian pauses and reads the language, "It seems the diligent efforts of my friends have paid off in teaching me to read, well I cannot write but, I read something here my friends.
The path lies through the frog.
Have we seen a frog statue of painting in our explorations of this place?"
Justin looks at the spot on the wall indicated by Hamar, Then he looks at the barbarian himself. Then He looks back the way they came.
The wizard facepalms.
"Oh. Because of COURSE it is. Put the entrance to the hidden burial chamber in the LAST place anyone would think, or want, to look. Good job Hamar."
The wizard turns about and heads back the way they just came from.
"I'm guessing that whomever discovered that little secret left that message because they weren't able to get back out again. And wanted the next 'visitors' to this place to at least have a chance. Let's not disappoint them."
The wizard seems, not angry, more sad, at this most recent discovery.
The party tramps back down the hall to their recent scene of battle. The room is enveloped in a haze of rancid fog. The liquids that comprised the two foul creatures they slew is rapidly sublimating- the liquid evaporating into smoke tendrils as they watch. The stair sits on its plinth at the center of the now empty pool.
*statue, not stair
Hamar will inspect the statue for traps and for some secret switch or compartment.
Trapfinding
Perception
Justin also investigates the statue and now-empty pool it sits in.
Apparently, The wizard is momentarily paralyzed at the sudden resurgent memories of his attempted ingestion. Twice.
Justin shudders and shakes himself.
"Shards and Shells, What a memory!"
Hamar inspects the statue. The large bulbous frog god has a bulging belly with a door inset into it, about five feet tall. Looking inside he can see that there is an ancient concretion of ash and charcoal at the bottom. He can find no traps, but he sees an inscription just faintly visible on the back of the statue’s sooty interior wall
It is a welter of flowing runic script that hurts the eyes
CTHUA T'LH GUP R'LHOH-G'TH'GG LGH THOK!
G'LLH-YA, TSATHOGGUA!
Y'KN'NH, TSATHOGGUA!
It hath come !
Homage, Lord Tsathoggua, Father of Night!
Glory, Elder One, First Born of Outer Entity!
Hail, Thou Who wast Ancient beyond Memory
Ere the Stars Spawned Great Cthulhu!
Power, Hoary Crawler in Mu's fungoid places !
IA! IA! G'NOTH-YKAGGA-HA! IA IA TSATHOGGUA!
Justin crawls in to the statue/sacrificial frog, (Reluctantly, and only after using his Prestidigitation Charm to protect himself from the worst of the interior 'residue'). The wizard tries to read the inscription, but his eyes end up squinting more and more at the unruly script until his headache returns.
Justin backs out of the unpleasant space.
"I do not recognize that language. It's similar to Infernal, in that it just seems wrong, but I'm not certain what it is. Can you read it Memnon?"
Justin recognizes it as Aklo, the speech used by abberations, mad wizards, and chaos cultists across the planes. He doesn’t get the gist of it, as some of it is written in an even more obscure dialect of some sort. Something about Tsathoggua, the subject of the statue
Memnon zips down and takes a look
“Oh yeah, Aklo. Wizards on Ranaïs used a lot of this dreck. Plus a dash of …. R'lyehian? That’s not usual. “
Memnon starts to read out the inscription. As he finishes, a strange thing occurs. The statue animates! It stands tall on its batrachian hind legs, and spreads its webbed arms. The furnace door in its belly opens up and a pale green fire springs to life within the cavity. A hushed sourceless whispering infuses the still air of the chamber
Hamar takes to the air with his flight still activated looking around for the source of the whispers. "What is this devilry?"
The whispering seems to emanate from the pale green fire within the statue
Memnon zips down and takes a look
“Oh yeah, Aklo. Wizards on Ranaïs used a lot of this dreck. Plus a dash of …. R'lyehian? That’s not usual. “
"If you say so."
Memnon starts to read out the inscription.
"Ah, are you sure that's a good idea Mem,...??"
As the Mimir finishes, a strange thing occurs. The statue animates! It stands tall on its batrachian hind legs, and spreads its webbed arms. The furnace door in its belly opens up and a pale green fire springs to life within the cavity. A hushed sourceless whispering infuses the still air of the chamber
Justin floats into the air, and backwards. Several Feet.
"OK,... But THAT is definitely unusual!"
Hamar takes to the air with his flight still activated looking around for the source of the whispers. "What is this devilry?"
"THAT, must be our 'path'. I think. The ones who left that note must have discovered the secret, but couldn't read Aklo. Lucky them!"
Justin floats back closer to the now 'lit' statue. Cautiously.
"Warriors first? Secure the entrance. And um, be sure to look up." Justin adds, having a sudden, terrifying, flashback to that ONE room in the floating citadel of the Negative plane.
(THIS wizard, for one, will NEVER presume 'up' is 'safe' again.)
Justin surmises the statue is some sort of gate. Likely through the green fire, which seems to contain dancing figures the more he looks at it.
"I am jumping into that green fire?"
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Justin surmises the statue is some sort of gate. Likely through the green fire, which seems to contain dancing figures the more he looks at it.
"Yes Hamar. It's a magical Gate. We go through it. Preferably without looking too closely, at the figures,... within,..." The wizard starts to stare, and then shakes his head vehemently.
"Yes. Through. Quickly."
As Justin and Hamar discuss the magical gate, Alessia steps into the flames.
The Barbarian sighs and flies in after Alessia.
"Seriously how have you lunatics survived this long?" Merle facepalming as the two jump in
Alessia steps into the green fire. She experiences that unique portal feeling where her body seems to stretch and then snap back into form. She finds herself standing on a flat surface in the midst of a jungle. The surface is high above the tree crowns. As she orients herself, she sees that she is actually standing on a step pyramid fashioned of some black stone shot through with red flecks. Off in the distance, she can see a wide river with some buildings clustered at its banks. As she looks up, she discovers that there is no sky. Rather, the horizon wraps upwards and over her head, with what looks to be desert directly above her some far distance away. A large flaming eye sits in the center of this massive sphere, taking the place of a sun.
Hamar appears beside her. As they recover they can hear the sounds of a jungle in the background. Bird calls, monkey chatter, even the scream of a large cat
Hamar turns around to se if the portal gate is still visible.
There doesn’t seem to be a gate open behind them. Hamar has traveled through enough gates to know this is a sign that the gate is one way
The Barbarian grimaces at that fact hoping the others come through, if not, well, he has survived worst places. In theory.
"Seriously how have you lunatics survived this long?" Merle facepalming as the two jump in
"Clean living?" Justin offers, swiftly checking that all his defensive enchantments are still in place.
"Karrin, then Merle and I, the rest bring up the rear. Quickly. We don't know how long the Gate will stay open, or if it's one-way." Justin says, pointing at each in turn. His other hand holds his 'Blasting Rod' at the ready.
Justin looks at Memnon with an eyebrow raised in question, holding his coat open. With a brief nod, and a suspicious lack of snarky commentary, the Mimir ducks inside the offered protection of the spell-armored coat.
Blayze quietly whispers a prayer to The Drifter as she steps up, ready to follow through the eerie portal.
Within a few moments, the entire party has entered the odd spherical realm. They stand on a smooth black stone surface, the top of a step pyramid that towers 300 feet into the air. The summit is roughly 100 feet on a side, square. At the center of the flat summit is a small building made of the same black red-flecked basalt. It is only about 20 feet on a side, and a strange glow and almost imperceptible hum emanates from its narrow entryway.
“I have never seen a place such as this” Manhayth says in a hushed tone, staring at the bright desert the hangs above their head miles above. The burning eye hangs in the center of the sphere, casting a warm heat over all.
Suddenly, there is a horrid screeching noise, and a blast of foul wind. A hideous creature corkscrews out of the sky, a twisted mass of pustulant flesh, bulbous eyes, writhing tentacles , and mouths full of teeth
Hamar
The Barbarian rises slightly off of the ground in flight.
"My friends, you certainly have a way of finding all different manners of ways to die".
"LOTS of practice recently my friend. LOTS of practice."
"Memnon!" Justin calls, tapping the small but obvious lump under his coat.
"Take a peek please. I need to know how to kill this thing!"
You can use this skill to identify monsters and their special powers or vulnerabilities.
Check: In general, the DC of such a check equals 10 + the monster’s CR. For common monsters, such as goblins, the DC of this check equals 5 + the monster’s CR. For particularly rare monsters, such as the tarrasque, the DC of this check equals 15 + the monster’s CR or more. A successful check allows you to remember a bit of useful information about that monster. For every 5 points by which your check result exceeds the DC, you recall another piece of useful information.
Memnon flies out from under Justin’s coat
“You know, cleaning spells can’t take the place of an occasional shower boss…. PHEW”
Considering the flying Winter Solstice ornament has no nose, Justin is pretty sure he’s joking
He looks at the approaching abberation
“YIKES! Heads up! That’s a flying polyp! If a wind elemental and a gibbering mouther had a love child, that’s what it would look like! They’re tough, magic resistant, and their flesh is not wholly in synch with our reality, so they are hard to hit! Merle, you’ll like this - they are vulnerable to electric blasts!”
Justin is considering how best to tell Memnon exactly where the crystal paperweight can go soak his head, but the Mimir's suddenly sincere warnings put all thoughts of their usual banter out of his mind.
"Flying Polyps? I've read of those. Barely. Magic resistant? They sound more like Magic IMMUNE."
"Of COURSE their magic resistant. Where would the fun be otherwise?"
"You heard the Crystal ball! Merle, Haste please. Fly the warriors if you can. Defensive buffs everyone! Don't waste direct magic attacks. If you do, Lightning is your best bet! Memnon, if we can break through it's magic resistance, is there anything it's immune to? If so we don't wanna waste magic on it."
"I'm gonna call in reinforcements for this one,..." Justin says, backing up to the rear of the group. The wizard points a finger and draws a circle of flame around himself. It turns Blue. Then he begins chanting in the cadence of a summoning spell.
"Elements of Eternity, Above and Below, Balance of Essence, Fire beget Snow. Locktwarr danelora, Luatha danu, tuatha tuatha, chnox danu,..."
Memnon zips about agitatedly
“They are immune to acid, sonic, and cold. I think the only thing that might affect is that Giant deadly popsicle Karrin uses”
Ferissirion growls, but it sounds more like the sound a dog makes when someone speaks their name
"I doubt this thing is immune to Ferissirion," Karrin says, "But the bite of the blade might be somewhat diminished."
Justin almost stutters and falters his spell upon hearing the creatures' immunities, on top of it's considerable magical resistance. But he recovers and smoothly continues the summoning chant.
25 Hamar
24 Justin
19 Manhayth
17 Merle
16 Karrin
16 Mel
14 Blayze
14 Alessia
10 Flying Polyp
Round 1
The Barbarian is loathe to approach such a creature so far away exhausting any sort of escape options once he arrives, he instead activates a power from the Luckstone, Tower of Iron Will, just in case...
Merle will begin by hasting the group.