Paul DMing, Scott: Smudge (shadar-kai rogue 8 / barbarian 2) and Martin (duergar cleric 10); Ed: temporarily running Godzilla "T-Hex" Hercules (dragonborn warlock 10); Dane: Tudo Fleck (dwarf cleric 10).
Last time, the party explored the locker rooms of the Bile Bowl arena and triggered an alarm that caused the wizard Shahaduzzaman to flee through a secret escape tunnel.
This session, Martin rejoins the party after Bile Bowl play stops, and everyone runs down the secret north-south escape tunnel after Shaheduzzaman (though he's out of sight by the time they give chase).
Taking the lead down the escape hallway, Smudge narrowly avoids a downpour of boiling oil from one of a series of murder holes in the ceiling. Smudge swirls his vantablack cloak, invokes the Raven Queen, and teleports into the room above, where he finds four of the ugly little men who have paused playing Bile Bowl to prepare boiling oil.
Smudge tries to dunk one of the ugly men into cauldron, but the little man doesn't bend — he's sturdy.
Martin follow Smudge, flying up and reducing himself to skip through a murder hole. Tudo doesn't have any way to magic himself to the room above, so he starts backtracks up the secret tunnel, taking the long way around. T-Hex decides to split from the party to continue pursuit of Shaheduzzaman, south down the secret tunnel.
In the murder hole room, Martin unbars and opens door to the room.
Smudge "steady aims" to get attack advantage, casts green flame blade, and attacks one of the little men. The little man falls backward into a vat of boiling oil, explosively deep frying himself and splashing his comrades and Smudge with oil.
Tudo arrives at the murder hole room and scorches one of the little men with sacred flame before bopping him with his pan flail.
Martin casts sleep at two of the little men and puts the more badly injured one to sleep.
Smudge casts green flame blade and attacks on of the two awake little men with his rapier for 33 damage for a total of 38.
Tudo casts guiding bolt at the remaining conscious little man.
Smudge runs stabs the little man savagely, his rapier's green flames seeming to ignite the little man's blood in an explosion that Smudge doges.
Only one little man remains alive but sleeping. Tudo wakes the little man and commands him to sign his jersey.
After the little man sign the jersey, Tudo tries to kick him into boiling oil but misses. The little man throws his cleats at Tudo, and Smudge uses silvery barbs to make them miss. The little man does a somersault away from Tudo and Smudge to slip down a murder hole to the tunnel below.
Smudge follows him.
Meanwhile, T-Hex has continued south down the tunnel, and finds a ┼ intersection with a door to the west labeled "SECRET" and a door to the east labeled "⚡".
T-Hex investigates the "SECRET" area. The first room contains a diorama of part of the Yellow City. Working his way clockwise through the area, T-Hex finds the room to the northwest stacked full of wood crates. One open crate is full of carved wooden ducks. A large whirlpool dominates the room to the east. T-Hex floats one of the wooden ducks in the pool. The duck circles rapidly until being sucked down the middle of the whirlpool and vanishing in its depths.
The room to the southeast appears to be a workshop. T-Hex confronts the gnome working there. After some negotiation, T-Hex volunteers to help the gnome by casting Contact Other Plane.
The gnome tells T-Hex to ask these questions:
Unfortunately, the spirits rebuff T-Hex, leaving him psychically and physically incapacitated. The gnome calmly steps over T-Hex, poisons him with a paralytic, then walks away. T-Hex can't move his head, but hears the rumble of stone grinding against stone. 😬
Meanwhile, Smudge, Martin, and Tudo have made their way back down the long north-south secret escape tunnel, and found a ├ intersection with a door to the east labeled "⚡".
In the rubble on the tunnel floor Martin detects that Godzilla Hercule's tracks end at this intersection, but don't appear to go into the ⚡ room. Smudge also detects the tracks of a giant weasel.
Martin, Smudge, and Tudo enter the lightning bolt room and look around. The room is something of a large circular well, with a staircase that curves around the wall, leading upward in a strange, Escheresque twist to a gray, chalky moonscape of a ceiling. A round stone construct, like an inverted tower, hangs down from the ceiling, projecting at least eight feet downward into inky darkness. The floor is somewhere far below, hidden in blackness punctuated by pinpricks of light.
As the party absorbs this scene, lightning flashes from below, striking the stone construct.
Enemies defeated: four ugly little men
Treasure: wooden ducks
