RPG Recap: Beyond the Temple of the Abyss, 2011-12-03
Wednesday, the 4th day of the Red Moon, 937
Neptune, Maxwell, Dave, and Gabe’s nameless fighter continued to explore the caverns beneath the Gladwell place. Presumably quite unknown to the Gladwells, there seemed to be a whole clutch of man-eaters living beneath their land. By the time the party was discovering this, though, they’d been largely slaughtered already, though the culprit has not yet been found. A few man-eaters, still clutching weapons and on the defensive, were found and dispatched, but not their attacker.
The only evidence of the attacker, beyond corpses, was a set of unusual footprints in the blood in the abbatoir and a weird severed limb amid some dead man-eaters – and a few sprays of fragrant, bright yellow blood on the walls there.
The party slowly made its way through the caverns, gathering a small collection of treasure as they went, mostly in silver and gems. They found a few priceless religious artifacts, which Maxwell destroyed quickly, lest their blasphemy escape the cave. The fighter picked up a small, grotesque rag doll and a block of kitchen knives covered in a weird, multicolored crust. Its true nature was never determined, but a daring lick by the fighter did identify it as highly poisonous. (He lived.)
Our heroes found evidence of tunnels here and there, but mostly stuck to the main passages. Eventually, they found a long, slightly broader passage that led to a dead end. Its walls were painted with large, crude murals of the man-eaters’ epic stories, and the room terminated in a broad crack in the stone, across from a ledge covered in coins, small animal remains, and other bits and bobs. After picking through the stuff, the fighter decided to find out what was down the hole. Dave the Magic User dropped a torch, which put its depth at about 75’, but the torch landed in a shallow stream, and when the fighter (and Neptune, who followed) reached the bottom, they had to light a new torch… revealing a towering, revolting humanoid, who did not take kindly to visitors.
The rest of the party rushed down into the black abyss to join the fray, but even with their powers combined, they were no match for the thing. Its touch was paralyzing, and its wounds closed on their own. Even once the thing slew Neptune and began attacking with the trident – losing its paralyzing touch – there was no change in the tide of battle. Soon, all hands were lost. The party’s bodies (not to mention their accumulated treasure) were left to the creature’s whims.