The Party goes back for the Giant Octopus Zombie and Finds a Painting that Teleports People Who Annoy It.

In this session, the party went back to fight the Giant Octopus Zombie that almost killed Reebo in the previous session. Afterwards they annoy the painting of Rapid Rithiena who teleports them to an unknown part of the Manor.

Continued from: The Secret Lab, a Picture Gallery, and a Zombie Giant Octopus.

Tegel Manor Southwest Wing, Friday, April 3rd, 4433  11:30 PM

Shadow Walker, and the rest of us, searched around the room we had stopped in.  Shadow, looking around the fireplace, noticed a set of rungs on the inside.  Reebo went to check the area, and the ladder, for traps.  No traps detected. While it would be a tight fit for some, we could all climb up to wherever it went.

Reebo went up the ladder, with Shadow providing such support as a bow up a chimney could provide.

At the top of the ladder, he found a square room with a glowing orb in the center. He made note of it for later and climbed back down.

Meanwhile, we opened a northern door, finding a narrow room with a pile of dirty laundry. The shelf had some miscellaneous stuff, a check for secret doors revealed nothing.

Back to the main hallway, we headed a little bit north.  Back toward the octopus in the bowl room, promising ourselves that we would stay at range this time.  Reebo agreed whole-heartedly.

Opening the door to the octopus, it looked about as we remembered it.  The octopus still looked like it was fresh off a taxidermist, but now with arrows included.

As we fired at the bowl, the octopus stirred. Pretty soon the bowl shattered, with water spreading all over and the octopus falling to the floor.  Those with actions remaining in that round fired for effect
 
The octopus came at us, a little aggravated. It came within reach of Arkelm, and grabbed hold of him.  He struggled against it, but was grappled.  Another tentacle reached for Shadow Walker, but the dextrous monk dodged the grapple.  Aefir, also in range, took a tentacle to the chest and was grappled also.  Last, but definitely not least, Natalie was swiped soundly but avoided the grapple.

Damage all around for the melee victims. Those who could move the *(*()*() away from that tentacled monstrosity did so.

Arkelm and Aefir were dragged in and attacked again. Aefir was barely protected by his armor, but Arkelm went unconscious in its tentacles.  Argh!!!

We battled valiantly, trying to keep Arkelm alive with spells and kill the bloody octopus as fast as possible. Finally we were able to dismember it to the point it could no longer fight and its parts stopped moving.

The room had a petrified dwarf head on the floor with a dagger embedded in it. Reebo sent his mage hand to get it, and recovered the dagger. No corrosion on it at all, he dropped it into the loot bag, but it slipped and cut a big gash in the loot bag and the contents spilled out but he was able to grab the potion bottles before they could shatter on the floor.

We checked the octopus room for other things. The dwarf skull was actually the topmost part of a stone statue, broken off.  A snake skeleton was coiled in the corner.

Opening the door to the south, checking things best we could before settling down for a while. Reebo could hear squeaking. Rats, big rats in the next room to the south. Opening the door confirmed it...BIG rats.  Soon enough, big dead rats.

The room with rats had a moldy bed with a dead body in it.  A desk had a neatly stacked pile of papers on it. A wardrobe contained clothing suitable for a butler.  The papers were barely readable, and when Syndra looked at them she thought they were a stack of bills for kitchen supplies and stuff.

Mushrooms were growing around the bed, we left them untouched.

A rat hole in the floor was clearly where the rats came from. Reebo could see it went down about 10' to a N/S tunnel.  We used the wardrobe to block off the hole, protecting us at least a little from another incursion.

Strangely, the corpse in the bed had NO sign of rat munching. We left it alone too.

We took a short rest, recovering some energy and giving us time to consider our best options. Nothing bothered us while we rested.

Carefully going out into the hallway, we moved along slowly past more paintings into an area we had not explored before.

One of the paintings yelled 'get out of here' at Paraselene when she backed into it, and she VANISHED from our sight. It looked at Natalie next and said 'go away'. She went away too.

Natalie was with Paraselene in a steamy room.  A lot of mold and mushrooms, three doors. Two were locked, one not. The stayed watchful and waited.

In the hall, the party noted that the name plate on the painting identified her as Rapid Rithiena. A tall and thin woman, very pale. Aefir asked where she sent folks, and he disappeared too. Syndra said 'take me too'  and she also disappeared.

Shadow Walker asked her WTF and disappeared too.  Arkelm and Reebo talked it over, and spoke to the picture also. Hoping to wind up all in one place, Reebo gambled on getting together with the group, and vanished too.  Arkelm stayed in the hallway, quiet and watchful.



It was very hot and humid in the room most of us had been sent.  Many spoiled paintings, running from the humidity.  Most metal was rusted. The northeast door was locked, east door was not locked, southeast door was locked. There were mushrooms all over.

The doors all opened into the room, so Shadow spiked the two locked ones as we further searched around.  Nothing of interest. Clothing in the dresser was decayed but seemed for a woman.  Possibly the Rapid bimbo who sent us here.

The unlocked door was a wardrobe room, with moth-eaten gowns and such.  Beyond it was another room of long decayed clothing. Brushing the clothes released a cloud of tiny black moths. Reebo got out fast but Syndra inhaled one moth. She felt kind of sick, and the world changed proportions.  Drugged to some extent or another, but she did a lesser restoration on herself before things got too out of hand and she could still concentrate.

The door on the southeast part of the room was next.  Reebo unlocked the door and it opened onto a very large room. A pool in the middle of the room, tile floor, room dripping with water condensation.  Stone benches. There was a large hole in the floor near the south wall and a door on the eastern side of the room.

Going over to the east side, Reebo could hear people arguing on the other side. The door was unlocked and he detected no traps.

Shadow tested the pool with a wooden staff, and a water elemental came out after him. He disengaged and split. Everyone cleared the doorway to the mushroom room so he could come through if he got there.

Shadow got out, the rest of the party got out of the room, and we closed the door.

Reebo went to the north door and started unlocking it, in case we needed to flee. He got it in good order and fast time. Opening the north door, he saw an E/W hallway. Sloshing sounds came from beyond the east door behind us.

As the water elemental seeped under the doorway, we all moved to the hallway. It appeared to only go west for a meaningful distance.  A dead end to the east MIGHT have had a secret door but we did not take the time to look. With everyone in the hallway we closed the door behind us and hoped for no pursuit.

We headed west down the hallway/corridor.  Coming up to a larger area with another hallway to the east, Reebo went down to look past a tapestry. He saw a room with a canopy bed with a jeweled tiara on the nightstand. He noted it for later.

The room we were in had a painting of Rembard the Rake on the southwest wall, we stayed away from it once making note of the name.

With no sign that the elemental was pursuing us we huddled to consider our options.

One option was for Reebo to sneak back and leave Arkelm an indication of where we went, and to STAY OUT of the pool room with the elemental.

Another was to get to the front door, where Arkelm strongly indicated he wanted to go to Reebo before he teleported.

Whatever we were going to do, leaving signs of our passage was an absolute.  Getting outside seemed REALLY good, even through a window if we could find one.

Continued in: The Medusa.