Starday, 26th of Neth, 4722 AR
Standing before the black ebon doors marked with symbols of Nhimbaloth, the group decided… They wanted to explore elsewhere first. Rasp and Trulk backtracked to ensure none were sneaking up behind the party. The Hunting Grounds were wide open, it would be easy for a for to flank them. Jorne, Konnor, ShaiLu, and King Angrael continued exploring the caves east of the evil doors. Konnor had spotted some gore strewn about the cave ahead and was curious to find the cause.
They had no trouble finding the carnage if one could still call them that. ShaiLu suspected the shuln, but her examination revealed no teeth or claw marks matching the ones they had found on other remains. Something else haunted this cavern. Jorne snuck ahead to scout the way for the group. They found a narrow cavern leading away from the main one, marked by a trail of gore. The rogue carefully slid through the passage, opening into a larger cavern filled with slaughtered detritus. He also found the offending creature, a large aberration that resembled a mutated mosquito busy tearing apart a fresh kill.
The rest of the group (minus Angrael) emerged into the room just as the creature dropped its meal and attacked. It moved quicker than anything that had faced before, striding across the room and attacking with each movement. After [critically] slamming three party members of the front line. It then retreated to safety in the back of the cavern.
GM’s Note: It used a special two-action ability that enabled it to Stride three times, make a single Strike at any point during each Stride, and then used its final action to retreat to force the party to come to it. The Multi-Attack Penalty did not apply until after the third attack.
The group realized they could not stand toe to toe with this beast. It was too mobile and struck too hard with each attack. They decided to fall back into the narrow tunnel to take away the creature’s advantage of mobility. Much to their delight, it followed them down the tunnel. Angrael spotted the retreat and moved back to a safer distance.
Hound and Jorne formed a front line while Konnor teleported to the far side of the monster. This was a very risky maneuver, Konnor would be very vulnerable, but the tactic trapped the creature between himself and his allies. While the creature was stuck by the maneuver, it was not truly flanked. Its strange eyes allowed it to track each of its foes and they could not catch it off-guard. ShaiLu cast invisibility on Jorne, and the rogue crawled up the wall to attack from advantage.
The beast was discombobulated and thrashed about, missing the adventurers who had surrounded it. The group focused their fire and grievously wounded it. Not wanting to lose its life or a meal, it bit Konnor, grabbed him, and then retreated into its lair. Despite being at a disadvantage, Konnor did not let up and continued smashing and slashing the monster with Axcalibur until it finally fell.
Trulk and Rasp had split to cover more ground. The gnome cleric heard battle and rushed to his ally’s aid. He arrived just as the battle was done and helped them to tend their wounds. ShaiLu hadn’t recognized the creature, but when Konnor finally got a good look at it, he recognized it as a gogiteth, a menace to all creatures in the Darklands. Even worse, he realized this creature was probably not alone. They usually traveled in swarms. They needed to move before others arrived. They beat a quick retreat.
Again, they found themselves standing before the doors marked by Nhimbaloth. So far, they had found no other way to descend. The way forward must be beyond these doors. Jorne found the door was locked and it was quite a complex one. He secreted his collection of keys from his pockets while pretending to be picking the lock. He found the skull key worked there. As he unlocked the door, the key transformed to his surprise. The key was shaped like a skull but was made of metal. Sculpted moss began to grow from the mouth of the skull and wrapped itself around the top of the key. He did not hide the key from the others, and they debated what it meant. Rasp recalled they had seen similar moss on the skulls in the altar room devoted to Nhimbaloth in the ruins of the Gauntlight. They opened the doors.
Beyond they found a grand passage with alcoves filled with broken statues. Konnor identified the statues as being thousands of years old. This must have been here long before Belcorra constructed the Abomination Vaults. At the end of the grand hall was a stone throne on which sat a skeleton covered in jewelry and wisps of rags. Rasp suspected it to be undead and approached. He was correct. The creature began to move as they got closer and moved forward. It called each of them by name, even calling their morlock friend by his new moniker, King Angrael. Rasp kneeled and offered meaningful platitudes in greeting. He offered her Pharasma’s redemption, but the undead kindly rejected the offer. She told him she was an unholy priestess of Nhimbaloth. She was the most unholy of all Nhimabaloth’s servants and served only the Empty Death. They asked the undead its name and it said it did not remember it, but it was known as Lady’s Whisper. The doors behind them closed on their own.
Konnor used the info he had gleaned from the statues and tried to measure how Lady’s Whisper felt about Belcorra. The priestess admitted she was not fond of the witch and thought she was incompetent. She revealed Belcorra had retreated into the safest reaches of Nhimbaloth’s temple and had the last lens with her. She didn’t trust anyone else to guard it as the party had been successful in claiming the other three. Belcorra was afraid.
Lady’s Whisper said the only way to reach Belcorra now was to pass through Nhimbaloth’s tests, the Challenge of Souls. If they could pass all of them, they would reach the innermost rooms of the temple where they would find the ghost witch. She motioned to doors to her right as the way forward. The group saw two other doors going west and asked about those. Lady’s Whisper told them those doors led to the eternal resting place of those who had opted not to take the test. No one liked the “eternal rest” part of that response. Left with no good options, they decided to press on.
The undead priestess led them on. The door to the right led to another chamber where three dread wisps appeared. Lady’s Whisper motioned with her hands and they disappeared. They descended a staircase into a large chamber with ornate designs carved on the floors resembling flowers. There were doors leading west, and south, and strange pipes protruding from the eastern walls. The priestess pointed to the western doors and said their first test would be through there.
Jorne approached the first door to the west and spotted a trapped false door before it could be triggered. The priestess chuckled, “That’s one of my favorites.” The rogue went through the second door.
Through a short hallway was an almost octagonal room with narrow slits spaced evenly throughout the room. A large statue with seven reeds in its mouth stood in an alcove on the west side of the room. As soon as Jorne and Konnor stepped into the room, cultist specters attacked through the slits with ghostly blowguns.
Lady’s Whispers explained from afar these were the spirits of cultists that had failed to pass the Challenge of Souls. Fortunately, they were no more adept in undeath than in life. They tried to corrupt the party members with their vile touch, but would not overcome the hardened wills of the adventurers. Rasp thought there was more to the statue than what it appeared to be and attacked it. The priestess grew angry at his actions. Lady’s Whispers allowed the specters to press their attack for a short while before banishing them. She considered them incompetent at best and she had grown tired of watching the gnome destroy her expensive statue. The group searched the room and examined the statue’s remains but found nothing of interest.
The doors to the south were locked so Jorne checked the doors to the north which were not. He saw no traps but spotted seven tubes in the ceiling once the doors were open. This was some kind of gas trap. He took the reeds from the statue and used them to plug the holes carefully. Once the trap was disabled, they pressed on. Opening the doors had revealed two new doors. They could feel heat coming from a door leading west. Jorne opened this one and passed through a short hallway to another door which led to a sweltering room with two pools of magma on the floor. He closed the door, opting to save this room for later.
Through the other set of doors, they found a strange room with numerous alcoves filled with broken furniture. One looked like an old rack one would strap a patient to. Before they could investigate further, four glass golems (called Nhimbaloth’s Cutters) attacked. These golems were smart and forced the party to fight at the entrance to the room. When Rasps cast a divine lance at one of them, it reflected the spell at the cleric. ShaiLu sent Hound to tumble through the golems to flank them. Hound executed the maneuver flawlessly but then found himself in a bad position. The golems repositioned Hound into a corner and surrounded him. They beat the dog viciously. Rasp was close enough to use his powerful healing spells and kept the companion from falling while the rest of the group smashed and bashed the golems into shattered messes. Konnor claimed several killing blows with Axcalibur and finally, Jorne smashed the last one when it pushed back their front line and attacked Rasp.
Lady’s Whisper commented on their success. She reminded them of their first encounter with a golem, a wood one on the library level. Rasp had been beaten badly by that one. She thought they handled these golems much better than that first one. The group bandaged their wounds and prepared to explore the alcoved room further.
END OF SESSION
The Zen Game Master 
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