TGAT: Session 27

Richard Dickens taking on two pieces of an Aballin

## The Great Ziggurat of Boccob (Cont...)

### Hall of Verdigris (Cont...)

Back at the secret door entrance to the Hall of Verdigris as the party go to step through, Dave D'angle steps through the door behind them and rejoins the party.

Richard Dickens is the first to step into the chamber and inspects the tiered basins and fountain in the middle of the room spotting a number of assorted coins and gemstones inside but did not disturb them; he then inspected each of the gargoyle statues in the corners of the hall finding not much of interest on the stony creatures.

After Richard Dickens quick run around the room, the other party members joined him in the hall and also performed a number of searches within the room finding nothing more of value. Richard Dickens and Cubone standing near the fountain each through in a gold piece and watched the water in the lowest basin. Nothing happened. Richard Dickens reached into the water to retrieve his gold piece and as he pulled his hand out, attached to it was a big gloopy living puddle. The Aballin attacked Richard Dickens.

Richard Dickens parries with his rapier and slices the monster cutting it into two separate halves but the attack instantly dissolves his favoured weapon. The new half of the Aballin attacks Cubone who is stood nearby. Bushy runs away back out of the secret door. Lia Saevia looses an arrow at the 2nd half splitting it into another two halves... quarters? Einrik Stürmkarst and Dave D'angle both also attack parts of the Aballin splitting it into a total of 5 pieces by the end of the first round.

In the second round, Dave D'angle is slammed and grappled. Einrik Stürmkarst's is similarly grappled and his warhammer dissolved. Bushy who has come back to save Dave D'angle loses his right arm to the Aballin's acid. Lia Saevia and Richard Dickens continue dealing damage splitting the ooze into a total of 6 pieces.
The third round, Cubone fell prone while making a botched attack on the Aballin piece nearest him. Dave D'angle broke free by slamming himself (and the attached ooze) into a nearby wall. Einrik Stürmkarst too managed to break free of the ooze grappling him. Saevia and Richard Dickens continue dealing damage splitting the ooze into a total of 7 pieces. Richard Dickens however has not moved away from the two large Aballin pieces nearby and the two mindless oozes instinctively flank him.

At the start of round four Bushy again runs away, the loss of his arm overcoming him. All party members take on the Aballin pieces closest to them splitting the ooze into a total of 10 pieces, but finally kill two pieces. The other eight pieces do not make it beyond the fifth round, but neither does Richard Dickens nor his gear whom is entirely consumed by the Aballin's acid.

Einrik Stürmkarst in desperation and disbelief that another party member has deceased draws two more cards from Cubone's Deck of Many Things. Drawing the Moon card gaining two wishes. His first wish being for the resurrection of Richard Dickens and the party stand mouths agape as Richards wounds heal and his breathes once again. The second wish to restore the lost arm of Bushy. Unfortunately this selfless act was not cosmically paid in kind as the next card he drew was the Ruin card; he instantly appeared naked in-front of the party as he lost all of his non-magical possessions.

The party check back in the hobgoblin room for weapons and gear they can use in the interim and pickup the odd spear and musky ill-fitting leather armour. They press on wards to the south and check the seaweed curtain only to discover it is merely a cleverly embroidered but normal drapery. It conceals another alcove 10' deep and 20' wide, with verdigris-covered bronze doors to the south and normal doors to the east and west.

They listen to each door and can hear the sound of armour clanking on the other side of the western door. They hear two people talking on the other side of the eastern door so elect to enter this first.

Inside are two under-priests who call loudly to alert others in the western area. Each cleric wears cowled greeny-blue robes with a gold circle on front and back, carries two hammers, and wears a gold ring fashioned as a squid-like creature with ten-arms. The party fairly quickly dispatched the two priests and were ambushed by a well built Duergar wearing full plate, and wielding a dwarven great axe, who had just burst out from the western door. The party also made short work of him, Cubone dealing the final killing blow with a sneak attack.

Einrik Stürmkarst and Richard Dickens both found a secret door to the south and decided to open it revealing the large room which would have been behind the verdigris-covered bronze doors.

## The Pool Chamber

> This large room is fashioned of great blocks of polished serpentine, save the domed ceiling of polished crystal - made to reflect everything in the room in a distorted way, concentrating light upon the center of the large oval pool of water in the center of the chamber.
>
>

> The whole place seems to be lit with a blue-green light from this pool, and at the same time the pool seems to absorb light capturing it in its heart. Pale green flames come from eight bronze cressets, four on the east wall and four west; the flames shed light but not heat.
>
>

> Tapestries of vilest sort cover the east and west sections of the north wall. The south wall shows a mosaic of some great ten-armed octopoid monster, holding a sacrificial victim in each tentacle. The monster is fashioned from dark purple tiles, with reddish highlights and green orbs.
>
>

> The pool is an oval. 20 ' across and 30 ' long, set in a basin of small lapis lazuli tiles. The crystal-clear water allows vision to the very bottom of the basin. The edge depth appears to be about four feet. The floor slopes steeply to the middle. to 12 foot depth, where some sort of humanoid is chained. You suddenly receive a telepathic message! The triton is pleading to be released, so that it can prevent your deaths when the kraken, shown on the wall, materialises and attacks. It will appear at any moment - so as many as can jump into the pool and help the triton break its chains! Soon it will be too late!
>
>