The party braced themselves as a torrent of skittering scraping sounds echoed up from the elevator shaft, a grim prelude to the horror residing below. A tripedal, yet amorphous, entity comprised of flesh, mouths, and shards of bone, burst forth from the shaft and unleashed a mind shattering howl. The creature’s abhorrent screech caused Triple J, Endrin, and Nyx to fall limp and dying while Malcolm and Eris were merely rendered incapacitated. Artaema, the only member of the party still in control of her senses, managed to blind the creature and take cover. The creature stalked the Goliath down and harried both her and Malcolm with razor sharp shards of bone. Malcolm retaliated with his cursed blade, carving into the monstrosity but bathing his own hands in the creatures foul bile in the process. Eris regained her wits and restored the rest of FCG to life with her divine rite. The princess then issued a royal decree and commanded the creature to leave. Compelled by Eris’ magic, the entity fled back down the elevator shaft, trampling over Malcolm in the process. FCG used the opportunity to flee down the passage from whence they came. Artaema and Eris lingered near the back of the group in an attempt to cover the party should the creature return. Moments later, the writhing horror came screaming around the corner only to be met with flame and arcane destruction at the hands of Artaema and Eris. The creature burst into a glob of acid that nearly killed Nyx again. Triple J revived the downed sorceress and the party took refuge within one of the adjacent chambers, desperately in need of a long rest.
Barricaded within the ruined lab, FCG took turns watching the door. Endrin was distracted from his guard duty by the sudden change in his friends’ appearance, each of whom now resembling denizens of the Kryn Dynasty, some of whom were familiar to Endrin. Nyx too, experienced a night of unease as her dreams were haunted by visions of a decaying angelic figure. Nonetheless, despite the eerie sounds echoing from the surrounding halls, the party managed to complete their rest, though Nyx and Eris both awoke weakened as the Woe continued to ravage their bodies. The need for a cure growing more urgent with each passing hour, FCG pressed onward and downward to the supposed disease laboratory on the level below.
On the twelfth level of the subterranean structure, the party wound their way around to an airlock-esque chamber with a series of doors. Similar to the auxiliary lab they’d encountered near the river inferno, each of the doors required a gem to operate, however the largest of the doors seemingly required three. As FCG was in possession of only one gemmed key, they used it to explore the smaller doors and passages first in hopes of finding two more. The party discovered two adjacent rooms still mostly in tact. One was filled with a red gas and was in disarray while the other contained a lab station, another gemmed key, and clues as to the creation of these keys as well as some other notes on the Woe. Inspired by the notion of creating their own key by scientific means, Endrin, Eris, and Artaema headed back into the gas filled room to ply their ideas. The trio devised a plan to condense and capture the gas so that it might be ran through the alembic set up in the other room. However, their manipulation of the gas caused it to take a form they were not expecting, the form of raging gaseous elemental.
The elemental created a whirlwind around Eris, Endrin, and Artaema. All three were blown back and knocked prone, Endrin however, in his weakened state, was unable to endure the force of the blow and was killed instantly. Eris retaliated with another magic missile from her robe as well as an orb of frost. Alerted by the commotion, Triple J, Malcolm, and Nyx came running around the corner into eyesight of the elemental. Artaema got to her feet, scrambled over to the dead gnome and rewound time around him, restoring Endrin to life at great cost to her own vitality. Artaema, crawled to the corner of the room while the rest of FCG unleashed hell on the elemental by means of psychic lance, blight, and divine smite. As Eris smote the elemental, it’s gaseous form took on a crystalline state as it shattered across the room. Within moments the shards of the creature began to tremble and coalesce into an elemental of a more solid nature.
The crystal elemental renewed its enraged assault on the party, slamming Malcolm with its massive fists, impaling the warrior with shards of its jagged form. Malcolm battled back, cleaving away crystal with each swing of his blade. The fighter’s fervor however cause the embedded gems in his chest to reverberate rapidly and explode, wounding Malcolm from within and catching Eris in the blast as well. The elemental’s moment of triumph was short lived as Triple J proceeded to confuse it while Endrin, still angered by his death but a minute ago, cast another blight upon the creature. Triple J then brandished his pink Aeorian laser sword for the first time and charged in. The bard, though awkward with the blade in his hand, managed to fell the elemental, slicing it in two. Amongst the remains of the shattered elemental was a gem of adequate size for the door key sockets.
Malcolm and Endrin helped Artaema to her feet as the party made their way back to the airlock. Following a short rest, FCG steeled themselves as Malcolm placed all three key gems in the large door’s sockets. The door ground open revealing a cold, dark passage beyond.
