The Mouth of Chaos 2

*Game Played: May 27th, 2021*

*GM: ThomJTK*

## Synopsis:

With the Mouth of Chaos opening once more, a group of mercenaries sought to enter it to hunt for treasure, experience, and further signs of their lost companion. Braving undead, automatons, and their own foolishness; the company suffered a grave price for their acquired treasure.

## Mercenaries:

* Reek't - (she) Amphibi-Kin Artificer, Lv2
* Abdiel - (he) Goliath Rogue, Lv2
* Nwalme - (he) Shadar-kai Phantom Rogue, Lv3
* Kral - (he) Hobgoblin Fighter, Lv1
* Onvrahg - (he) Bronze Dragonborn Tempest Cleric, Lv2
* Rasutar - (he) Aaracokra Ranger, Lv1
* Ahlanna (Pregenerated Character) - (she) Human Paladin, L1

## Adventure Summary:

The party did a small degree of preparation prior to gathering for the entry; purchasing a healer’s kit, a small lizard, a bottle of whiskey, and 100 ft. of rope. As they arrived to the entrance of the Mouth of Chaos, they saw the door form as a trail of fire; before solidifying into reality. The doorway opened and Edga the demon returned to greet them, granting a small nob of acknowledgement to Nwalme and Reek’t whom had visited the Mouth during its previous appearance.

Offering up a new lizard friend to Edga, he happily took the small companion on his shoulder and downed the bottle of whiskey given to him. Lips loosened, he hinted that the group would see a set of stairs not too far from their entry point that would lead them to better treasure but more dangerous foes. Trying to pry more information on what lay within from the Demon, Onvrahg talked up the joys of the smoked venison jerky he was carrying on-hand as his rations. One strip became two strips, became the entire bag; and the Demon informed them to be mindful of the automatons within before reminding them that their time was already counting down.

Once within, the party was immediately aware of the claustrophobic nature of the dungeon that had entered, having to maneuver single-file down narrow corridors. Scouting out a three-way split ahead, the pair of rogues discovered the aforementioned stairwell down the central split. Deliberating for a moment on their path, the party veered right, sighting a long and narrow hallway that permeated past their Darkvision, and a room with four urns branching off. Bypassing the urn chamber for the moment, they cautiously maneuvered down the hallway in search of traps. Suspicious that they had discovered none, Nwalme took pointe, scouting out two rooms ahead and a crate at the end of the hallway. Spotting a brass scorpion to the left, and two skeletons to the right, they chose assaulting the undead before attempting the automaton.

However, as they turned the corner, they soon realized that the seemingly simple encounter had turned into an ambush, as nine skeletons in total awaited them from behind wall segments; testing their ability to keep formation and fight back against the undead creatures’ upper-hand. Taking out the closest undead, and taking up ranks along the walls themselves, the party held their ground until Nwalme was surrounded. With enemies on all sides and few options remaining, he shattered the gemstone in his Ring of the Storm, unleashing a booming thunderclap upon the skeletons surrounding him to cumple one into a pile of loose bones, knock one away into a barred wooden door, and reverberate through two others before cunningly disengaging in the chaos.

But the thunderous noise did not go unnoticed, attracting unwanted attention from the other chamber. As the final skeleton was felled, Abdiel and Onvrahg caught sight of the Scorpion maneuvering in their direction. Emptying his bag of ball-bearings on the path ahead, Abdiel took up an ambush position with the remainder of the party following suit. The scorpion’s multilegged, narrow steps avoided the ball bearings with ease as it descended on the readied group – whose actions only glanced against its metallic plating. Delivering a claw to Abdiel and a downing stinger attack to Kral; the ranged fighters immediately maneuvered to keep their distance as Onvrahg raised his shield and bellowed with lighting from his maw to attract the creature’s attention. The surge of electricity roared through the construct, leaving it shocked and vulnerable as an Acid vial from Reek’t and dual sneak-attacks from the rogues took it from the sides; and a perfectly shot arrow from Rasutar disabled it through the eyes.

Patching up wounds, extracting a dose of the automaton's venom, and taking a moment to breathe from the battle, the party became aware of a faint pounding from beyond the door ahead. Reek’t and Kral cautiously took the lead, realizing that the wooden door was not the source of the pounding (though it was coming from beyond it); and that the door was barred from their side, rather than the other side. With nods to one another, the pair swiftly threw up the bar and pushed the doors open to find a larger pair of metallic iron doors, locked in triplicate with steel latches. An investigation of these doors revealed dents along the top, where something was still pounding against its imprisonment. Putting an ear to the door, Reek’t knocked five times in a pattern to have two loud thumps return from the other side, visibly denting the doors further.  With the rest of the party keeping a safe distance from the certain risk, Kral took two latches, Reek’t took one, and they released simultaneously.

The doors flung open as a massive four-eyed crustacean-esque creature with huge mandibles burst through it into the room. Kral’s battle-trained instincts kicked in, immediately disengaging from the creature and firing a heavy crossbow bolt in its direction and piercing into its shell. An arrow from behind fired by Abdiel bounced off harmlessly as Reek’t gazed into the thing’s multiple eyes, sending her into confusion and luring her into its lair. Turning towards its prey, the massive creature slashed into Reek’t with the first of its claws and Reek’t nimbly dodged the second swing despite her confusion, but the creature’s massive mandibles tore out a chunk of flesh and caused her to begin bleeding out.

The party attempted to assault the creature with its back turned, but to little avail against its armored shell. Such petty attacks from a distance would not distract the hulking monstrosity from the meal so readily bleeding at its feet as it viciously slashed her body to shreds before beginning to devour the corpse that now lay before it. However, even in death, Reek’t did not go down easily, the amphibian-kin’s poisonous skin glands inflicting damage to it. With a party member lost to them, and knowing their time to recover the body was short, an emboldened assault came forth with a radiant bolt of light springing from Onvrahg’s outstretched palm to cause the creature’s weak points to brightly glow. Entering into melee range, Kral slashed down with his longsword to draw blood as Nwalme bolted towards the spill with his arrow of slaying to dip it in the blood and fire it into the beast. A solid hit and green burst of light exploded from the arrow, stripping the creature’s shell raw with the damage it inflicted; but not enough to kill it. Dodging and blocking the counter-attack, a necrotic gong rang out from the cleric’s holy symbol to knock the Umber Hulk into a stupor and Rasutar’s arrow narrowly missed its mark yet again. Fighting back confusion attempts yet again, Kral’s blade stabbed forward into the exposed flesh of the beast, finally dropping it.

Worn and weary, the party was distinctly aware that their missteps had cost them the life of a member; and did what they could to recover Reek’t’s body from the creature’s stomach. Examining the body, they discovered a spiny, wave-like blade embedded in its shell, which Kral took as his own. Knowing their time was limited, the group opted for a brief respite – likely to be their only such attempt – to tend to their wounds and gauge their remaining resources.

Knowing they had removed the chamber across of it’s guardian, the party examined where the clockwork scorpion had come from to discover a fair deal of treasure in stow; a chest of silver, long-rotted rations, a blue and red potion, and a leather bracer with a polished piece of a tendriled root of an apple tree attached to the inner arm by stitches of silver thread. Packing away their loot for the moment, they turned their sights to the crate at the end of the hallway. Dashing ahead towards the siren call of treasure, Abdiel tripped a pit trap and fell into a pool of acid. After the companions fished him out, Rasutar took the lead and furled his wings, leaping gracefully across the pit to reach the crate, uncovering eight emerald stones of poor quality and a large quantity of slag and mica.

Circling back, the party encountered a Paladin, Ahlanna, whose party had died horribly on the lower levels, leaving her the sole survivor. Combining forces, they continued towards their entry point to the urn room to investigate further. With a mercenary at each urn; the contents were revealed to be an archaic gold coin, a silver ring, a single ruby, and a Shadow - which was quickly turned and dispatched by Onvrahg’s holy symbol. Faced with the choices of retreating through the entryway, delving to the lower floors against Ahlanna’s warnings, or attempting the left pathway. Agreeing to tread with caution and retreat should things become too dangerous, Nwalme took the lead ahead, scouting a chest not too far down the hallway. Failing to notice any traps, the party was cautious of a possible ambush and sent Ahlanna ahead to attempt opening the poorly locked treasure chest. Though there was no ambush to be had, the opening of the chest did cause an expulsion of tar around her, coating her in the thick goo and costing more time for the group as they removed the quickly caking tar from her.

Beyond the tar chest was a room with a glowing sigil inscribed in the floor, pulsing a faint red like a beating heart. Immediately deciding to avoid and steer around the room entirely, the party maneuvered to the next hallway, where Abdiel keenly spotted several holes in the floor indicating spike-trap floors. Navigating around them in stages, mindful of the possibility of additional traps, the party came to another crossroads. To their left, a heavy wooden door; ahead, a locked iron doorway; to their right, the dim glow of a coal furnace that a further inspection from afar revealed to be a large automation spider. Choosing the southern door, the party encountered only a horde of zombies in cramped quarters. With little room to maneuver, the sandwiched group worked to divide and conquer their undead foes, battling them down to reveal only a room barren of loot.

Debating between the remaining two paths, Rasutar checked the stone floor for signs of passage to discover the discarded scales of kobolds beyond the iron door. Determined to attempt one more chamber, the party intentionally created noise, intending to lure the kobolds to them. Minutes passed to no results, though the yipping of the creatures could be heard as they ordered comrades to the fray. Growing impatient, Abdiel and Rasutar burst through the doorway and caught sight of a kobold fleeing. Firing an arrow swiftly towards the fleeing creature, the Aaracockra made a critical error in his quick aim, firing through a trip-line and triggering a swinging spiked log towards him as his companion. Unfurling his wings to agilely maneuver over the trap, Rasutar landed at the opposite end of the log, while Abdiel took the brunt force of its swing to knock him down. Giving chase to the escaping kobold, the pair were besieged yet again by traps; this time a cage dropped from a hole in the ceiling atop of them.

As the kobolds maneuvered at the end of the hall into position to fire upon the entrapped mercenaries, Kral and Ahlanna rushed forward behind the cage, lifting it to allow Abdiel and Rasutar to escape before pushing it forward down the hallway into the barrage of sling-stones. With a final heave-off at the end of the hall, the kobolds suddenly lost their vantage as the mercenaries descended upon them, dropping them like flies. Rounding the cornered hallway, and patching up their wounded, the party discovered a secret door embedded in the wall, and pushed the stone door inward to reveal a large room with a pile of gold directly in the center. Wary for traps, Abdiel threw a grappling hook towards the treasure pile and in an instant, the stone door slammed shut in front of him. Placing his ear to the door, Nwalme heard the sound of rushing air, and gauged the likelihood of gas or poison.

Back around the corner, the party investigated the kobold’s stash to find several chewed bones, some smoked meats they had been cooking, and an identical pair of satchels. Experimenting, they discovered that an item placed in one would affect the weight of its companion satchel, yet the moment a satchel was opened to be observed, the weight in the other vanished. Realizing they were able to transfer items between bags, and that the secret room had a second entryway; the mercenaries debated utilizing the satchels to get as much gold as they could from one end to the other. Deciding against the action, Abdiel stepped forward with his thieves tools in hand at the second secret door, and attempted to disable the locking mechanism. Jamming it successfully, he grabbed as much gold as he could carry and bolted out of the room as the toxic gas released behind him.

Exhausted, beaten, and running low on time, the party turned around to make their way back to the entryway when curiosity got the better of Kral. Passing the pulsing sigil once more on their return, Kral stepped within and in a sudden flash of light was overcome with bloodlust. Brandishing his longsword into a two-handed swing, he brought it down upon Abdiel, opening a deep gash that collapsed the Goliath and sent him into a dying state before Kral was brought unconscious by the other mercenaries. Utilizing the acquired healing potion to bring Abdiel back to consciousness, they tied and bound the unconscious body of Kral, dragged him back to the entryway and retrieved the stashed corpse of Reek’t before exiting the Mouth of Chaos with only minutes to spare.

Looking upon the fallen and unconscious mercenaries, Edga gave a small bow to the mercenaries and offered thanks for the sacrifice to Vilithk. Tossing the empty bag of jerky to Rasutar, he departed through the doorway, sealing it behind him to leave a bare stone wall where the Mouth of Chaos’ entrance once stood. With the demiplane sealed once again, the party dared to wake Kral – who had been broken free of the possession in their escape.

## Outcome:

Entering once more into the domain of Vilithk, Reek’t was killed in battle with an Umber Hulk. Though Kral was temporarily possessed and Abdiel wounded, the party suffered no further casualties. Nwalme’s Arrow of Slaying and Ring of the Storm were both consumed.

## Adventure Rewards:

* Each Survivor Obtained: 29 Gold, 2 Silver, 17 Copper
* Onvrahg Obtained 1 Emerald (fair quality), 1 Ruby (poor quality), and Brookseeker
* Kral Obtained the Wastrilith Longsword and 1 Emerald (fair quality)
* Abdiel Obtained 2 Emeralds (fair quality)
* Nwalme Obtained 1 Emerald (fair quality) and a Vial of Poison [single use: 2d10 dmg or half on a successful DC 14 Con save]
* Ahlanna Obtained 2 Emeralds (fair quality)
* Rasutar Obtained a Silver Ring, Blue Potion [Temporary HP 1d8, for 1 hour], and 1 Emerald (fair quality)
* The Uncertainty Satchels were left to The Whispering-Cutlass' Guild Pot
* Advancement to level 2 for Kral and Rasutar