A Breathe of Bad Air

With a player down due continuing laptop issues, we were once again playing Ray by committee as we continued our Strange Aeons campaign from the previous week. We end the session at 15th level. The GM isn’t tracking experience, just telling us to level up at the points we’re meant to in the adventure path. This simplifies a lot of things, and means that we don’t feel the need to go and find things to kill just so we can level up.

We’d slain the strange crocodile creature, and beyond was a large cavern with twisting pathways that led over chasms which seemed to drop away forever into darkness. We had fly spells up, so this wasn’t a problem, and headed towards the passage from where a wind was originating – as if the earth with fast thick pants was breathing.

As we got closer to the passage, so the wind became greater – in turn pushing us back and then pulling us in. Suddenly, Sheena was pulled rapidly forward, disappearing into the darkness beyond, followed quickly by Catiana. Not wishing to lose sight of my sister, I darted forward as well, hurtling down the dark passage until we arrived in a less natural looking passage. Voices could be heard on the wind, promising us pain followed by death.

The others soon arrived, so we cautiously headed forward. Ahead was a larger room which seemed to be filled with pillars, and Sheena bravely went first. Without warning, there was a sudden blast of wind, that knocked several of us down and almost crushing us against the stone walls. A second blast knocked out Erasmus. Gregor quickly healed him, and fearing more such blasts, Erasmus was able to use his Getaway to teleport all of us back to camp.

Whatever had been down there had been capable of almost taking out all of us without warning. We debated whether we wanted to return – but we did need to ensure that the rituals were in place to keep the Polyps from waking and causing us even more problems.

So we healed ourselves, and found the Otyugh to stock up on some supplies. After that, we sealed the entrance down to the underground with some suitable Etheric Shards and spent the night sleeping.

Wealday, 20th Gozran

With a more suitable spell selection for everyone, including some air control spells to prevent the blast attacks that had almost killed us yesterday, we were ready to return to the room of pillars.

Returning through the wind tunnel, we quietly made our way near to the room of pillars, with Ray turning invisible and sneaking inside. There were two Polyps in here, so he dumped an electrical fireball on one and Erasmus took control of the air around us, to prevent any air blasts being used. However, it was dark and there was no light, so I wasn’t able to see anything and move up. Because I couldn’t move up, neither could Catiana, so we had to wait for some magical light before we joined in.

Eventually Catiana was able to take on one of the Polyp’s in melee, keeping it busy long enough for the others to kill it. By this time I decided to try the lightning gun, turning it on the other Polyp and almost frying it completely with a single bolt of lightning. It fled, vanishing down a hole in the floor.

The hole led into a larger cavern far below, where we could just make out countless sleeping Polyps.

Where I had electrocuted the Polyp, the floor had been partially melted, and it had flowed back together, seemingly healing itself. Other parts of the floor were damaged, revealing broken runes which had been carved into them. The runes by the melted section seemed to have healed together when the floor had healed.

Our assumption was that it had been these runes that were keeping the Polyps asleep, and the breaks in the floor had allowed them to break free. Though we only had limited charges, we used the lightning gun to ‘weld’ the rest of the broken floor into place, hopefully sealing the Polyps back into their resting place.