Session 39: The Torture Chamber and Mimics

The party sets off a trap in the torture chamber and runs into a room full of mimics before meeting an old foe.

This write up is based on our Sunday, March 3, 2024 session and was written by our scribe Carl with a few additions from myself. Thanks to our mapper Jimmy for the screen shots.  Since we are scattered around the country, we use Discord for voice communications and the Roll20 online tabletop to connect with each other.

Continued from: Meeting Ram and Rodark Rump.

Location: In the Torture Chamber inside Tegel Manor.

We had just finished with a wraith (hopefully). 

It was time for a little bit of healing, and getting ready for the next encounter.

Natalie noticed a body fade in and out on a nearby rack and had a feeling of impending doom.

There was an 8-foot-tall marble statue of a two-faced man standing in the southern end of the room, his left arm raised and his right arm close to his side. The left side of his face was burned and angry, and the opposite side was pleasant and smiling. The statue held a chain that dangled three feet below his clenched left hand.

After close inspection Aefir noticed that the arms might move, and suggested we pull the chain and see what happens. 

Sure, lets do that...

Reebo pulled the chain with a mage hand, and the right arm came up and clicked into a new position.

Suddenly blue flames burst out of the fingers, targeting each door of the room. Blue flames and orange blasts hit each door, and a mooing sound came out of the bull. Blue flames appeared in the braziers and ghostly images appeared over the skeletons, silently screaming out from torture.

Some ghostly torturers attempted to grab Benedar, but he eluded their grasp. Well, we knew the job was dangerous when we took it.

Another chain, connected to the pit, reached for Shadow.
 

Natalie cast fire bolt at the specters trying to grab Beneddar and it went through both of them with no effect. The things grabbed Beneddar and dragged him to a rack and tried to chain him down.

Paraselene cast a spell, and the power of Mitra sent them on to somewhere else. Benedar, who hadn't been chained down yet stood up and cast mage hand and tried to lift the chain on the state, but the raised arm stayed in place.

The chain that Shadow dodged attacked Natalie. She had not considered it a threat until then, but changed her mind. That metal sucker was LONG....

Arkelm tried to force the arm of the statue down, but couldn't. He could feel a vibration and thought that the arm was moving down slowly on its own. Hopefully not too slowly.

We stayed out of range of the chain and watched for anything else coming out. Benedar cast Toll of the Dead on the chain, but it seemed to have no effect.

We stayed alert, waiting for new enemies or for the event to run its course, or to starve to death if it never was going to run out.

Shadow threw a coin at one of the blue fields on the doors and it bounced off. He noticed some kind of a glyph at the center of the field, and a second orange glyph as well. Several of us looked at it and understand what it meant. Benedar was sure it was a rune of water breathing.

Arkelm, on the other hand, actually knew magic stuff, and recognized both glyphs. The blue was a wizard lock, and the orange was Flesh to Stone.

Benedar poked an arrow into one of the blue flames on the braziers, but it did not burn. He resisted the urge to stick his hand into it. He cast mage hand but it was unaffected and did nothing useful to get us out. Good try, though.

We heard the chain rattle as we waited for something to fight. Reebo estimated it would be about half an hour til it reset.

We could also hear some scratching from a rat hole in the floor. It was the last way we would leave a room, but it was there if we really needed to.

We waited until the arm timed out, watching it slowly go down as the arm with the chain raised back to their original positions. Click! The flames went out and the doors were once again accessible.

Beneddar and Shadow looked down the pit with the chain, the pit had lots of bones at the bottom, 30 feet below. Suddenly the chain attacked them. The chain hit Shadow hard, but could not grab him as he dodged out of range.

Enough of that room, we leave the chain to itself.

Reebo listened at the doors to see if any might lead us to more things of interest.

On the west, he opened a door to a hallway where we had come in before, it was empty.

Beneddar threw an arm load of rusty torture implements down the chain pit.

Out a door to the south we went, to another small skinny room with no apparent purpose. However, we did find a secret door in one corner. Reebo unlocked it with the usual elegance of operation.

It opened to an even narrower corridor that went south and turned west. A skeleton was in it, walking toward us. It didn't last long.

At the end of the narrow corridor Aefir opened a door that was behind a tapestry in a huge room. Many skeleton parts on the floor. It was the big hall we were in a long time ago. Nothing new there, so back up and look for new areas.

Back to the torture room, NOT pulling the chain this time, we went out the southwest door. A room with dusty and stained chairs and a sofa, probably a leisure room the torturers used.

Beneddar walked up to a sofa and it tried to bite him... So much for resting.

Beneddar disengaged, and the mimic attacked Reebo instead, SLURP, but missed. Reebo probably needed to bathe anyway...

The fight was on. Even more, since it looked like most of the furniture in the room were mimics...

Clumsiest mimics EVER!!! Still, they put a fair amount of damage on us.

Reebo found a silver dagger with some blood on it strapped under a table.

Behind a curtain was another room. Two dressing tables with small bottles and containers. There were two mirrors that did not show an image, as if they were only frames. We took the bottles.  Aefir threw something at one of the mirrors and a small demon came out. Aefir said it was Dretch, a type of demon.  Mirror of summoning?

It was a wimpy demon... good thing.  Throwing at the other mirror did nothing.

Heading off to rest and recover we ran into Rufienna the Reckless, second time we have met her. Last time we had to run from her. Hopefully this will be her last encounter.

She was smacking Aefir soundly, til Para put a silence in her area. Cut out the Moan and she isn't all that tough...well, still tough enough.

Yeah, tough, but we finally got her down.  DEFINITELY time to go rest the night through.

As soon as we closed the door out of the torture room, we heard a scream behind us. Probably it reset its goodies.

Back to our local hangout, Fido happy to see us for sure.  Rest and recover.

Continued in Session 40: The Party Meets Steadfast Tumblebelly