Ed: DMing; Paul: Godzilla "T-Hex" Hercules (dragonborn warlock 10); Scott: Smudge (shadar-kai rogue 8 / barbarian 2) and Martin (duergar cleric 10); Matt G.: Garth Anon (lion-headed human barbarian 10).
Last time, the party found a way down to a lower level of the dungeon under Apemen City, in pursuit of the anomalous source of magic (and, likely, a beholder).
Besides the body of the grell the party defeated last time, there's a pile of stinking rags and another pile of gory bones. Smudge examines the rags and bones, but finds nothing.
T-Hex examines the door to the north-west. It's slightly hot. The door to the southwest is cool.
T-Hex opens the door to the southwest, which opens into a curved passage shored up with roughly cut timbers.
Smudge opens the door to the northwest, revealing a tunnel that curves north-northeast and ends in an elaborate double door. Carvings on the doors depict a hierarchy of demons ordered from weakest to strongest (headed by Demogorgon).
T-Hex looks beyond the door with his arcade eye. The room beyond is large with three other exits and lit by four large braziers. In a recessed area on the floor is the lid of a sarcophagus carved with the image of a muscular humanoid with fish and pig traits and horns and talons. The walls are paneled with wood.
Smudge opens the door. The room smells of cedar.
T-Hex has been told since childhood to never trust demons. He makes an Arcana check (22) and realizes this room may be the tomb or recuperating place for demons of various power levels — kind of a demon spa.
Garth rotates figure carved into the wall next to the northwest door, and hears something start ticking. The door explodes off its hinges, followed by a cone of ball bearings that sprays Smudge (38 damage). A rough corridor behind the exploded door runs north.
T-Hex examines the sarcophagus. The sarcophagus is less finely made than the room itself, but nevertheless of museum quality. T-Hex casts arcane eye inside the sarcophagus. A creature inside that looks like the fish-pig-goat-eagle demon thing depicted on the lid. It breathes. A folded piece of paper is tucked next to its right hip. It looks like a pawn ticket.
The party doubles back to explore the other passage out of the grell room, which runs west for a long way before terminating in a cave-in. T-Hex casts his arcane eye down the tunnel, trying to see past the rubble. The cave-in goes at east thirty feet, but the eye can see light.
T-Hex goes back to the sarcophagus room and opens the south-west door. A passage leads west, then splits to north and south-west. The party follows the tunnel south-west. The dowsers tell us the source of the magic anomoly is ahead somewhere.
Martin erects a tiny hut and the party rests.
Enemies defeated: none
Treasure: none
