The Mouth of Chaos 3

*Game Played: June 25th, 2021*

*GM: ThomJTK*

## Synopsis:

With the Mouth of Chaos opening once more, a group of mercenaries sought to enter it to hunt for treasure and experience, braving new unknowns. Gifted a strange urn by Edga prior to their entry, the mercenaries journeyed through dungeon levels designed around the four seasons.

## Mercenaries:

* Nwalme - (he) Shadar-kai Phantom Rogue, Lv4
* Kral - (he) Hobgoblin Fighter, Lv2
* Braeden - (he) Human Barbarian, Lv1
* Erthish - (she) Silver Dragonborn Barbarian, Lv1
* Zhora - (she) Elven Cleric, Lv1

## Adventure Summary:

Having now had experience with the Mouth of Chos under their belts, Kral purchased string, chalk, multiple healers’ kits, and tripwires. Nwalme purchased a massive five-pound bag of jerky, recalling Edga’s enjoyment of it in their previous encounter with the demon. The three newcomers gathered what information they could from the veterans by the entryway while they awaited the opening of the gate.

Once again, the party witnessed the fiery outline form in the stonework to create a doorway; but this time above it written in glowing embers was the phrase “Do not feed the demons”, a casual warning against their bribery in the previous month. Without batting an eye at the phrase, Nwalme tossed the entire sealed bag of jerky to Edga, under the technicality that it was just a package, and that he was not technically feeding the demon anything; just tossing him something. Grinning back, Edga returned the favor with an object he had been instructed to give the party; a ten-pound ceramic urn with a sealed wax lid.

Surprised, as this was the first time they had ever been given anything by Edga, they questioned the gift before the demon clarified the situation they were in. This was their way out. Once they entered the dungeon, there would be no exit to be found until they shattered it, but an additional warning was given that they should be close to the urn should they do so. Catering the demon’s better nature, they managed to glean an additional tidbit of information; that if they could manage to take the urn through all four seasons, they would find something nice.

With introductions and information acquired, Edga revealed a small metal disc with four gemstones and a needle. Asking the party to choose between the palme blue, the vibrant green, the golden yellow, and the fading red stones; Nwalme and Kral yielded the decision to the newcomers - citing beginner’s luck on the decision. Deliberating for a moment, and going with their first instinct, the mercenaries voted Blue, and Edga turned the needle onto the blue gemstone. As he did, the doorway opened to reveal a swirling vortex matching the pale stone’s color, before the Demon gave Nwalme a good hard shove into the portal, before grinning and stating “I hope you plan to follow him in…” Left with the choice of abandoning their fellow in the dungeon, or following him in to bring the only means of exit, the remaining mercenaries hopped into the portal in pursuit of their companion.

Deposited out from the portal, the party became immediately aware of the bitter cold around them. Examining their surroundings, they found a forest of massive trees coated in thick layers of ice. Investigating closer, they noticed several things immediately wrong. The first, the lack of the moon that had been out in the night when they’d entered; secondly, the constellations were completely alien to the party; and lastly, they found fresh summer peppers growing from the branches of the ice-encrusted pines. Detouring to harvest some of the fresh fruits, the mercenaries narrowly avoided ambush from a small group of frost imps. Launching a volley of arrows and javelins towards the approaching fiends to little effect, the vicious poisoned glaives stabbed forward against Erthish and Kral, who managed to fortify themselves against the bite of poison despite the sudden wounds. Maneuvering into a vantaged position, Nwalme stabbed an imp from behind with his rapier and magic dagger, sinking into one of the imps to dissipate its body to ash. Quickly summoning the wails of the foe’s death, the second imp was struck by a burst of necrotic energy as it too was felled.

As the company collected their thrown and shot gear, a sudden chill of frostbitten wind came over them, causing further cold damage to the party. Uncertain of their goal to complete the chamber, and aware that the clock was ticking before they froze to death, Braeden was able to locate a trail leading to the south and thicker woods. Cautiously scouting ahead, Nwalme discovered a massive frost demon barking orders to its subordinates, who scattered in different directions along the split in the trail. Sneaking back to the party, Nwalme relayed what he had seen and the mercenaries strategized a pincer tactic to ambush it. Utilizing the forest as cover, they maneuvered into place. Zhora touched the crossbow bolt as Kral loaded it into the chamber; and Nwalme and Kral fired their opening volleys into the demon’s back.

Turning around in fury, the Frost Demon closed the distance between it and the bait group, conjuring a wall of ice from the ground behind them to encircle them and block off an escape route. Nwalme held the line with his rapier and dagger against the beast’s massive spear while the barbarian pair encircled the ice wall to execute their attempted pincer maneuver as Kral maneuvered up the cliffside to attempt a strike from the side. As the surrounded demon lashed out with fang, spear, and tail; the mercenaries maintained a solid defense and countered with a series of brutal strikes against the demon’s weak points; but a wide-swing of Braeden’s greataxe caused injury to Kral on the flank. Stabbing forward with renewed vigor, the frost demon stabbed its massive spear into Nwalme, who countered with a brutal strike from his magical dagger, causing the massive creature to collapse and begin to disintegrate before them.

As the bitter cold became tolerable and the winds died down, the demon’s flesh peeled back to reveal a red-hot glowing ring, a harp formed of twisted and dead branches, and a knitted warmer that seemed to fit snugly over the urn the party had been given. Uncertain what interacting the two would mean for them, the party cautiously set up camp to tend to their wounds. Having recovered, they slipped the knitted koozie over the urn to see a vibrant green portal open up before them. Connecting the dots on the encountered portals’ colorations with Edga’s words, they guessed (correctly) that the color determined its seasonal location, and they were about to head to the next season in sequence. Nwalme’s gaze lingered for a moment to a tree the frost demon seemed to have been fixated on when it sent its scouts abroad - the hastily carved word ‘HELP’ along the trunk. Uncertain of it being a trap, bait, or a true cry for help - the mercenaries voted to proceed out of winter and into the next domain.

Transporting themselves through the portal, the party found themselves in a grey, starless dawn, thick fog, and faintly glowing cherry blossoms in spring bloom. Orienting themselves to the new space, the mercenaries’ ears tuned in to the faint giggling coming from their north and south, as a rush of pollen wind blew through the party. The voice of Vilithk rang into Braeden’s ears, speaking promises of power should he be the last to leave her altar with his blade stained in the blood of a companion. Steeling his resolve against the promises, Braeden focused on the giggling voices beyond to spot tiny sprites glistening through the forest, as if to lead the party either to the north or south. Suspecting traps in both directions, the party maneuvered through the forest away from both clusters of sprites into the depths of the woods. Three hours of walking later, they began to hear the faint sound of flutes playing in the distance. Uncertain of what lay ahead, the mercenaries maneuvered into a scouting formation to investigate the eerie music.

Sighting a pair of Satyrs playing their panflutes with a beautiful maiden dancing to their melodies, Nwalme was able to utilize hand signals to subtly communicate the information to his fellow mercenaries, who took it as a signal to follow, save for Zhora. Unfortunately the approach caught the maiden’s attention as she wordlessly approached towards the party with an extended palm, as if asking any one of them to join her in the dance. Unwilling to do so without assurance of safety, Braeden instead voiced his greetings; to which she replied her own greetings in a perfect mimicry of Braeden’s speech, taking the company aback. Maintaining a safe distance, Zhora discovered from around the corner that as the mercenaries continued to feed the maiden vocabulary, she mimicked each in turn, and combined their voices to form phrases (and having only an aural perception of the situation was able to alert the party to the anomaly). Uncertain of the maiden’s motives nor what threat she had planned as she continuously extended her invitation to dance, Braeden maneuvered his Greataxe into a forward swing. Nimbly dodging, the maiden lunged forward, grasped Braeden at the wrist and suddenly the barbarian felt his flesh compress and morph, leaving a rat where the man once stood and a wicked hag in place of the maiden as her true form was revealed.

Braeden, realizing his humanity and barbarian prowess were lost in the new form, deftly disengaged to the rear and his party members lay forth an assault on the hag and her stayr minions. Nwalme scored a brutal strike yet again with his magical dagger as Kral forsook safety in favor of drawing his wastrillith longsword, harming his own hand in the process but inflicting poisonous harm to the fey creatures. Manevuering into a hasty flanking position, Erthish swung her greatsword in too wide an arc and accidentally struck Nwalme with the flat of the blade. Catching sight of the poisonous blade, the hag broke her spell concentration to paralyze Kral as Braeden reverted to his true form in a confused state.

Unable to move, Kral took a direct strike from a satyr’s blade, bleeding heavily as the sword withdrew itself. Jumping back in the fray, Braeden’s greataxe struck true from behind and broke the hag’s concentration yet again, freeing the hobgoblin from her bindings. As Zhora took pot shots from around the corner with her crossbow, Kral aimed his blade towards the Satyr who inflicted the critical wound upon him, beheading it with his own brutal counter-attack as Nwalme maneuvered into a flanking position on the second Satyr and the dual barbarians finished off the hag with great weapon attacks. Its allies dead, and too many enemies to handle alone, the remaining Satyr fled into the forest, leaving the mercenaries to search the remnants of the creatures’ camp. In the hollow stumps, they discovered a cache of gold coins, a dull grey cloak, a silver banded ring bearing fey sigils, and an ethereal seed. Unable to take the seed directly, Zhora cautiously placed the pot into the hollow stump to see a portal form, the tree stump wither away, and the seed be nowhere to be found upon removal of the pot. Ahead of them, a golden portal and the cries of battle.

Recalling that the pot itself was their way out, rather than a direct exit, the party chose to risk a longer encampment in order to recover from their wounds and plan for the portal ahead of them. With their wounds patched, their resolve fortified, and magical prowess restored - something new and troublesome was discovered - Zhora was unable to reach Revina with her prayers. Be it the shadowlands themselves, or some dark influence, she could not pray to the goddess to alter the miracles at her disposal. With new information in tow, the company took to the next portal, arriving to the sounds of battle as summer and the season of war.

Arriving at the precipice of a hilltop overlooking a large, ruined fortress, the mercenaries could hear a growling voice commanding to defend their keep from incoming invaders, that a portal had been sighted. Unawares to the mercenaries, Vilithk was once again offering power with the stipulation of death to a comrade, this time to Zhora. Ignoring the goddess’ offer too, she not only defied the premise of harming an ally, but also refused to harm the enemy they had been pitted against. Holding high a banner of peace, the elven noble led a march of unarmed peace towards the encampment long enough for the confused gnolls at the fortress to waver long enough for the quick-tongued Shadhavari Shadar-kai to broker a temporary truce - realizing that the gnolls were trapped in an endless loop of death and rebirth for the purposes of fodder, blood, and violence. Kral sacrificed his finely honed double-scimitar in trade to the gnoll chieftain in exchange for the gnoll soldiers to ‘look the other way’ whilst the mercenaries acquired the treasure entrusted to them but left them unharmed. Quickly passing the season of war unscathed with a beating-heart in a golden locket, a set of leather armor belonging to a long-dead raider, and the placement of the pot underneath the guarded Sunstone - transferring its light and warmth into the pot to leave the stone itself dun and dull.

Thanking the gnolls for their cooperation, and upholding their end of the bargain, the mercenaries crossed into what they hoped would be the final portal - one glowing the color of rubies in the sunset. As they crossed the threshold, the trees before them opened into autumnal blooms of red and orange. Sighting an encampment along the road, Erthish scouted ahead and overheard a conversation between four ghosts. Overhearing their general dilemma of both having lost their bodies, and being bound to the location of their deaths (the campsite), Erthish assessed the spectres as harmless and volunteered her and the party to search for their lost bodies. Inquiring further on the natures of their deaths, the discovered that each recalled dying in a different manner - one recalled scorching flames, another only could recall fleeing in terror before a sharp pain struck into its back, the third heard a fell roar and darkness enclosing over its head, and the last remembered falling asleep and waking up as a ghost.

With few clues to go on, the group decided to veer off of the main road, deciding such a manner of beast would likely lurk in the wilderness than in public eye. Searching through the cluster of trees, they spotted a burnt down home, a triangular scorch mark leading to its remains, and several clawprints solidified into the fire-baked mud. Suspecting the worst, Nwalme utilized an ability he had been saving since they’d entered the dungeon, becoming a phantom with the elongating shadows of sunset themselves to turn invisible right before his companions’ eyes. Splitting up at a large canyon-like structure of rocks ahead, Nwalme found another campsite, long abandoned and rummaged through as the ashes of the dead fire rose up to meet him in the form of a mouth, which offered him power in exchange for the taking of an ally’s life. Verbally rejecting the offer, and insulting the atrocity goddess as he turned his back, Nwalme could hear the beating of wings and immediately dashed back towards the party.

At the canyon, the party took notice that the canyon seemed to have once been a single half-sphere of rock that over time broke apart into its canyon-like structure. Kral suddenly felt a tap on his shoulder as Nwalme informed them of the camp and the approaching danger.

Just as he did, the drake roared, closing in on the mercenaries. Launching arrows, javelins, and blessings, the party dealt minimal damage to each other as a vicious flyby attack of claws gored through Braeden, who managed to stay up through sheet adrenaline. Bursting out of invisibility, Nwalme and his chained blades leapt from the cliffside atop the drake’s back mid-flight as he attempted to grapple it with his chained blades and take it out of flight. The gambit worked, forcing the monstrosity to land as the chains entangled it. Bringing Braeden back from the brink with her healing, Zhora maneuvered around the corner as the barbarian kept a safe distance with javelins (and recovered javelins from the growth). Erthish leapt into the fray despite the risk, fending off tooth and talon with her greatsword as Nwalme took a sharp strike of the drake’s barbed tail to his backside. From above, Kral and his crossbow continued to rain fire before a misloaded bolt jammed the mechanism and rendered the weapon unusuable. Another strike of the drake’s tail knocked Nwalme into shock as his body tumbled off its back, bleeding out.

Realizing the first of their number had been downed, Braeden joined the forward assault, attempting to distract the drake with the reach of his weapon. With two targets in line, the drake unleashed a torrent of fiery breath, sending Braeden onto his last leg but being expertly countered by Erthish, who instinctively dodged the attack and returned fire with her own cone of icy breath. From behind, Kral took a slash towards its wings and discovered the Wastrillith Longsword’s poison had no effect, while Zhora stabilized a dying Nwalme with her magic before attempting to drag his body away from the drake. Unfortunately, as she attempted to leave it’s range of attack, the drake’s stinger thrust forth into her chest, and her fellow mercenaries heard only a snapping crunch as she was impaled and thrown back against a tree. The urn, though in her backpack, narrowly avoided breaking although a thin crack could be seen forming along its side.

Forsaking the magic longsword, Kral angrily drew his steel longsword and leapt from atop the cliff, aiming directly towards the creature’s tail. A ferocious slash removed the tail entirely, causing the drake to thrash towards him, both fang and claw striking into Kral to cause his body to slowly bleed out. From behind, Braeden stood up from the brink of death and entered into a final rage, too angry to die, his greataxe plunged into the drake’s back, this final strike felling the beast. Utilizing their supply of medicine kits, and a single goodberry, Braeden patched up the dying party members as he came down from his rage; though further inspection of Zhora’s body revealed what they had feared - she was dead.

Approaching the body, Nwalme noticed the deadwood harp resonating, and hoping it might restore her to life, played upon its strings to channel the magic into Zhora’s corpse. As Zhora’s body sat up, her voice resonated through the harpstrings almost lyrically - and the company sadly realized that the harp’s power was not to bring back the dead but to question them. Informing Zhora of her fate and apologizing for being unable to save her, the elf asked that her share of the treasure be donated to House Stefarni and her body and possessions be returned to her family. With that, her soul again departed and the mercenaries inspected the drake’s body. Its scales had peeled back to reveal a potlid seemingly made of molded mulch. With few other ideas, Kral placed the topper onto the urn to see the world go dark around them and the pot burst open into a mass of wood, vines, and leaves.

Coming to consciousness once again, Nwalme and Braeden heard the atrocity goddess’ voice once more, reminding them of her offer before a tree linking the four seasons lit the room before them - sprouting an arrow from each season below its branches and a silver portal along its trunk. Taking an arrow apiece, and carrying Zhora’s body through the portal - the mercenaries departed the mouth of chaos to return to A’lune. However, on their arrival they soon realized their departure was some distance from their entry point. Instead of the familiar stone wall unearthed just outside the borders of Sunward, they found themselves at the southern borders of the Lightwood, seven days after their departure. Additionally, Erthish discovered in the palm of her hand the brass base of the navigation device Edga had used to send them into the portal; though it seemed devoid of any power....

## Outcome:

The mercenaries gained several magical items and artefacts, though again at the cost of an ally. Additionally, the loss of seven days in exchange for what seemed to be a span of twelve to fourteen hours was unnerving for the lot of them. Regardless, the mission could be considered a success in that they achieved a bonus prize for completing the tree of four seasons from the gifted urn - though what affect this will have on the mouth of chaos itself, only time will tell...

## Adventure Rewards:

* A total of 109 gold coins was found.
* Nwalme Obtained: Pirate's Leather Armor, Euphonious, Autumn Arrow, and 22 gold coins
* Kral Obtained: Ring of Borrowed Protection, Spring Arrow, and 21 gold coins
* Erthish Obtained: The Quiet Heart, Ring of Overheating, Winter Arrow, Strange Brass Compass Base, and 22 gold coins
* Braeden Obtained: The Cloak of Grey Tomorrow, Summer Arrow, and 22 gold coins
* 22 Gold sent to House Stefarni as part of Zhora’s last request.
* Advancement to level 2 for Erthish and Braeden