Continuing from the previous adventure, the party had just discovered the chamber that contained the portal to the Gray Waste. Before jumping through, they wisely decided to go back to the Market Ward and purchase a few healing supplies as they just realized that they no longer had Dr. Fever with them to tend to their wounds. (Of course, they decided against doing anything about the strength loss suffered from the pheromones of the gloomwings.)

After stocking up, the party tossed some rotting flesh into the well to open the portal - which was about 30' down the 60' deep well. Throwing caution to the wind (as per the advice of Que), the party simply jumped into the well and fell through the portal. This led to a very odd sensation as they entered the portal in a vertical direction, but exited in a horizontal direction. After tumbling to a halt, the group was able to take stock of their surroundings.

It appeared they had entered some sort of underground tunnel, but one that was coated with mud and slime and mucus. After travelling some distance in the direction they exited, the party found the tunnel opened up into a small cave, beyond which lay a much larger cavern. The transition between the two chambers was minorly blocked by a row of slagmites and stalactites. Guessing that there might be a trap, the party elected to perform a series of running dive rolls between the rock formations and out into the cave beyond. Everyone gracefully lept between the rocks, save for Rusteen who managed to gracefully impale himself upon one of them.

Once past this obstacle, the party was able to explore the cavern they now found themselves in. The first major discovery was that the portal they had entered by was actually down the gullet of an enormous, sleeping black dragon. The second discovery was that the exit from the cavern had been blocked by a massive cave-in. Third, there was treasure to be had in a large pile of chewed bones and dissolved flesh that sat on the shore of a small pond. In the process of sorting through the treasure, the party soon learned what had put that pile there in the first place.

A much smaller, but still rather dangerous, black dragon surfaced from water and attacked. The group quickly hid inside one of Jack's rope trick spells. And then spent the next four hours trying to formulate a plan to deal with the monster. Basically, Zin mind blasted it into submission, and then Rusteen abused the stunned creature to death. (Critical hits and sneak attacks make for a lot of damage in a fairly quick time.) After this threat had been dealt with, the party was free to do some initial treasure division and then figure out how to leave the cavern.

The party gained a fair number of unusual items, both magical and psionic in nature. Some, the party figured out the use of on the spot, one the party identified later, the rest they still have no clue. I'll list the items here and their initial division.

Outlands Longsword +1 (Shazarr)

2 Psionic Darts +2 of Returning (Que, Zin)

Bottle of Air

Ring of Counterspells (Jack)

Immovable Rod

Hand of the Mage (Rusteen)

Masterwork Leather Armor (Zin)

An ectoplasmic skin (Ginaea)

A psionic crystal engraved with the Sensate faction symbol (Zin)

Acheron Small Shield +1 (Rusteen)

2 Abyssal Shortspears +1 [actually found later but listed here for convenience]

The now rather obvious exit lay in a swim underwater through the pond. As it turned out, the pond connected in a fairly short distance to a smaller chamber which did possess an exit to the outside environment. Of course, this exit was blocked by a large patch of mushrooms. Shazarr decided to investigate and got hit with acid for his troubles. Of course, the acid also injected him with spores that threatened to turn him into another mushroom patch. Fortunately, Zin was able to halt the progress of the problem long enough for the tiefling to return to Sigil and get the problem taken care of. Once that obstacle was removed, the party camped for the night and then set out through the exit on the next day.

During the night, the party discovered the first danger of adventuring in the Glooms of Hades. The plane tends to drain the living vitality out of a person through a series of vivid dreams. If a person isn't careful, these dreams will also result in a loss of willpower and the eventual desire to never leave the Gray Waste.

The landscape outside the cave complex proved to be a gray, twisted reflection of a Prime evergreen forest that was cloaked in a cold, damp mist. The party followed the tracks of a band of grimlocks they had seen earlier and soon discovered a decaying dock on what had to be the River Styx. Sounding the horn they found hanging on the end of the dock, the party waited for one of the infamous yugoloth boatmen to arrive. After naming their destination and eventually blundering onto a price, the party boarded the skiff and were soon ferried towards their destination.

The boat journey took two days. On the second day, an enormous iron war galleon passed their tiny skiff. The vessel was stocked with tanar'ri, and two made a bet to see if they could hit one of the passengers on the skiff. The demon missed. And then Jack called back a bet they couldn't hit Rusteen. The tanar'ri took the bet - and won it. Jack paid up, and the war galleon dissappeared from view. Of course, Jack viewed it as a profit since the party now had a pair of magical shortspears. The skiff soon beached on shore and the yugoloth pointed in the direction of their destination and then abandoned the party to their fate.

The journey to the Rotting Spire took another couple of days. Along the way, they passed an odd stork creature that carried an enormous sack of larvae. They wisely decided to avoid the creature and continued to the home of the hag they were to give the chest to. Upon finding the spire, the party was rudely greeted by a quartet of gargoyles. Although Shazarr did convince them of their need to see the hag, the gargoyles told the party that they had better have some larvae with them. So the party turned around, found the odd stork creature and mugged it for its larvae.

Larvae now in hand, the group returned the Spire and were ferried up to see the hag. They presented the chest and the key for the lock, and then patiently waited to see both what was in the chest and what her return message for Augustus would be. The chest contained a steam mephit and message. The message spoke as follows:

"Moxelpik, mighty night hag, I am a secret admirer of yours. I send this gift as a symbol of my devotion to you. It will do your bidding and serve you well. As a show of my gratitude for accepting it, I make one more gift to you - you may kill the bearers of this chest if you so desire."

Naturally, she did so desire. She told the mephit and the two zombie doormen to attack and kill the party, and then she flew away on a magical broom. This left the party in a relatively tough fight. Although the steam mehpit and the fire mephit it summoned weren't too much trouble, the two ju-ju zombies were. Eventually, the party managed to whittle the creatures into a final death, although they were rather badly beaten up in return.

The escape from the tower and the Gray Waste proved rather easy, given a conveniently placed map. Upon return to Sigil, Augustus congratulated them on successfully providing him the emotion he wanted - a genuine sense of betrayal and outrage.

The next session will cover the payment from this job and the next job that Augustus has already picked out for the party.

Authored by: Ken Lipka E-mail me: krlipka@yahoo.com

Return to Stories Page