The Wine Cellar & Acid Pit

Adventure #024

The group is guided by Cali – to the Lost City of Cyndicea. At the Stronghold of Madarua the group rests for a week and they learn that a cure for mummy rot might be found near the the chapel of the pyramid. After several dangerous encounters, the group maneuvers past a pit of bubbling acid to recover a chest. Inside is a scroll of cure disease! Unfortunately, is is only enough to cure one person and both Revned and Lumina need it.

Midweek Preview

You just defeated Darius, a self-proclaimed member of Zargon. You guess that might be a good thing… He did have some Hobgoblin bodyguards and usually those who work with goblins run in the circles of evil. Even better, Lumina seems to be back to her normal self. Seeing Lumina being possessed was kinda creepy – too bad Wulfgar and MiraJane missed out on all that excitement.

Anyhow, what’ was up with all the people in animal masks sitting in the dark? Even the room with the gambling seems a little dark. And strange how all these masked people are so focused on their gambling games. They just let you walk right on through the room and open a secret door. They don’t seem to care or notice that there were hobgoblins and a member of Zargon inside a secret room.

Calinia:
None of this was supposed to happen. You better lead your group to the city and into your stronghold quickly. It’s going to get cray cray! You know anytime a member of Zargon is injured or killed, the priests of Zargon are quick to strike back with great numbers and great force. Soon the pyramid and city streets will be flooded with patrols.

Lumina:
What the heck just happened? You got some catchy chant stuck in your head. A remnant from being possessed by Demetrius. You now know a minor cure light wounds spell and can cast it once per day (heals  1d4 hp).

Adventure Recap:

The group is guided by Cali – to the Lost City of Cyndicea. At the entrance of the city, a member from the brotherhood of Gorm calls down to the men, but they don’t answer back. There are several strange encounters with the Cyndiceans, but the group avoids them all.  They also move quickly past the stronghold of Usamigaras and the Temple to Zargon.

At the Stronghold of Madarua the group rests for a week and they learn that a cure for mummy rot might be found near the the chapel of the pyramid. They also learn that a wine cellar might also be located on the same level, and the maidens would be grateful if you can bring some back.  A challenge test also awaits the group – to determine who will be given the sword of Madarua. There are also rumors that something has happened on the upper floors of the pyramid. The group decides to search for the cure – back at the pyramid.

A  single long tunnel, is the only way in and out of the Lost City. The group must travel past the areas of giant ants and giant worms once again. After making it up to the 5th level, the group begins exploring. The Northeast corner is investigated first.  The sound of breaking glass and some commotion they decide to turn back. In the next room they find a room filled with bubbling liquid – in the middle of the room is a chest with a large iron padlock. Revned checks the liquid with her pinky – and is quite disappointed to learn that it the liquid is acid and her left pinky is gone.

Not wanting to risk any more injury, the group moves on to explore the rest of the 5th level. Several more rooms are discover – none of them have contain items of interest. A few have been untouched for many years – perhaps decades or centuries. In the Southeast portion of the 5th floor, Lumina opens a door and sees a weird glass-like barrier a few feet inside. She throws a dagger into the room and sees it stop in midair – suspended in a cube of gelatin. Those in front of the door shuffle around and throw a torch at it. Unfortunately, they did not move far enough away and the gelatinous cube engulfs and paralyzes Revned, Lumina and Cali.

MiraJane, Lithos and Wulfgar manage to lure the gelatinous cube away from their paralyzed companions. Burning the cube with torches at the same time. Eventually the cube melts away.  The paralyzed companions eventually regain movement  after 30-90 minutes.  After eliminating all other possibilities of the 5th floor, the group determines they need to investigate the room with the loud commotion.

Lumina pushes the door open and finds 6 goblins raiding a wine cellar. The goblins have been drinking and smashing bottles of wine – and are eager to fight. Lumina seems to attract the attention of most of the goblins. Other than Lithos tripping and falling, the battle was pretty easy. The goblins were slain and the group collected bottles of wine.

With no other options, the group decides they must recover the chest in the middle of the room of bubbling acid. After several options are explored, Wulfgar decides to use the benches from the chapel . While the group holds the bench above the acid, MiraJane crawls across and ties a rope to the chest. She then crawls back to safety.  The entire group pulls the chest against the bench and then across the bubbling pit of acid. [Revned and Lumina both rolled 20s on the group strength check!]

Inside are 2,000 sp and 2 scrolls (cure disease and remove curse). Finding what they were looking for, the group returns to the Stronghold of Madarua with wine and a cure. Unfortunately, the cure is good for only one person. The maidens do not have the skills to learn the magic of the scroll and none of the adventurers have the experience. They decide that maybe the members of Usamigaras or Gorm might be able to help. Since Lithos, MiraJane and Wulfgar are not full members of Madarua, they might be able to get some help from the other factions.