Abomination Vaults – Session 3: Attack of the Scorpion

Starday, 29th of Lamashan, 4722 AR

• The PCs listened through the double doors and heard someone being smacked around. Mitflit discipline in action! They burst through the doors.
• In the Mudlicker throne room (area A10), the PCs encountered Boss Skrawng, the leader of the mitflits, two mitflits, and an enormous camel-spider called Bite Bite.

• On the floor was a pile of sand Boss Skrawng has shaped to resemble the town of Otari and was marked up with obvious battle plans.
• Boss Skrawng was quite talkative and accidentally let slip his plans to attack the town (which he later denied vehemently).
• The PCs also learned 1) the mitflits came from a dungeon below the keep but had been driven out by “mushroom-headed people,” 2) there was a “swamp dragon” roaming about in the Fogfen (the PCs assumed this is what killed the giant frog in the maggot stable), 3) there was an old library across the maggot training hall (with a staircase to the lower levels) as well as a den for a scorpion they caught although directions to avoid the scorpion got mixed up — see below), and 4) the Gauntlight glowed with an eerie blue light at night and Skrawng believed there was a ghost living up there.
• Finally, Boss Skrawng offered them a quest. If they drove out the “mushroom-headed people” allowing the mitflits to return to their home, he would keep them all of his shiny gems. They accepted the quest.
• Konnor recommended returning to Otari to recuperate first but the group decided to press on.
• Leaving the mitflit leader behind, the PCs returned to the maggot training hall (area A04) and picked the wrong door leading to the scorpion kennel (area A14).
• The battle with the giant scorpion was BRUTAL! This was the great challenge they had faced so far and the monstrous beast almost killed 2 of the PCs, but in the end, they managed to slay the creature.
• The group decided to take Konnor’s suggestion and retreated to Otari to recover.

Sunday, 30th of Lamashan, 4722 AR

• The group swung by the Otari Garrison and met Captain Lardus Longsaddle whom they briefed on the mitflit threat.
• Captain Longsaddle didn’t know what a mitflit was but the PCs convinced him of the threat and he said he would post guards on the north edge of the town to keep an eye out.
• Fully recovered from their encounter with the giant scorpion, the PCs returned to the Gauntlight.
• At the gatehouse, the mitflits greeted them warmly again.
• They had learned the PCs were going to deal with the “mushroom-headed people” and they cheered them on while Konnor played them another tune.
• Through the scorpion kennel, the PCs advanced into a hall that led to a shrine (area A15).
• In the hall was a human corpse with his hand stuck in the wall.
• ShaiLu determined the human had died by being drained of his life energies and he had gotten himself stuck in the wall trying to open a secret door to escape.
• The PCs also looted the lost soul, finding a +1 rapier (claimed by Jorne), four daggers on a brace, a silver ring worth 5 gp, a minor healing potion, and another elixir Konnor took to get identified in town.
• They opted not to discover what had killed the human and moved through the secret door into a small triangular room filled with rotted furniture (area A13).
• The only thing of interest they found in the room was a key ring with numerous rusted (and useless iron keys) and two bronze keys in working order.
• One bronze key was marked with a lighthouse and the other was marked with a book.
• Jorne took the keys.
• On the other side of the triangular room was the office/library (area A12) Boss Skrawng had told them about (which connected back to the maggot training hall through what would have been the “safe” door to open).
• In the office/library, they found a secret door leading to the staircase Boss Skrawng had told them about and a rotted desk with a hidden compartment with 2 elixirs.
• Konnor stashed the elixirs for later identification.
• Curiosity getting the best of them, they decided to backtrack to the shrine and they pressed north to the altar.
• Behind the altar were 4 tall stained glass windows depicting ghosts rising from graveyards toward a four-pointed orange star.
• ShaiLu recognized the symbology of Nhimbaloth, the Outer God of ghosts, despair, swamps, and will-o’-wisps.
• When they got too close to the altar, a pair of corpselights sprung from hiding and attacked the PCs.
• The undead creatures were tough but not as tough as the giant scorpion had been. On of them even reanimated the human corpse in the hall and used it to attack the PCs but the party quickly beat them down until the corpselights exhausted themselves and disappeared.
• In a hidden compartment in the altar, the PCs found a scroll of restore senses and a 1st level wand of heal.

END OF SESSION