Characters
Panthalassa, a necromancer who summons primordial creatures
Daytona, a dhampir gunslinger fresh from Hell (again)
Garazi, a beautiful young witch with a bird familiar
Willard Corn, a man of mysterious circumstances
Heck, a revenant seeking vengeance on witch hunters
Khamaat, a newly awakened mummy
Events
When we last left our heroes, they were descending a spiral staircase down into the depths where they could hear a strange metallic buzzing. The sound was coming from a swarm of bio-mechanical bats, which surrounded the group and made them fight for their lives on the staircase. Judicious use of fiery blasts and necrotic bolts knocked the mechanical bats--which had been spying on them on behalf of Patchwork Jack--out of the air.
While exploring this new level of the complex, they discovered a corpse that Khamaat determined had been exsanguinated via medical means. Additionally, many areas on this level of the complex proved to either be flooded or to have a fast-rushing stream bisecting the caverns they were trudging through.
Garazi summoned Txori and sent the bird to scout one of the larger caverns. The cave was lit by phosphorescent fungi and was filled with over twenty Vlaak sarcophagi that were leaned against the walls. Willard was able to read the runes carved onto the stone sarcophagi; the runes indicated that the dead were "Doctor-Priests" of some fashion.
Garazi sent her familiar into another cave--this one stinking of feral animal. Txori was able to relay that the cavern was inhabited by two ratman, each of whom was bearing an eldritch firearm fitted with a glowing green stone, before she was blasted into nothingness. (Don't worry, she can be re-summoned in ten days, good as new.) As the group stormed into the cave, one of the ratmen released a giant rat to attack them. Panthalassa responded by summoning a raptor, which took down the giant rat as it attacked Willard. Once the ratmen were dispatched, the group was able to determine that the eldritch weapons were now useless because they were powered by the life forces of their wielders.
Heck volunteered to wade into a chamber filled with massive fungi since he is immune to poison. He found two ancient Vlaak corpses that had been covered in a carpet of fungal matter. He was able to obtain strange medical instruments (which he gave to Khamaat) and an alien sword (that was given to Willard). Since Heck was now covered in potentially deadly spores, the group made way so he could give them a wide berth and clean himself off in one of the cavern streams before returning to the party.
Disappointingly, neither Panthalassa nor Serafina could pick the lock of a large, metal-plated door that had the name Dahom-Ka inscribed in runes above it. They would need to find a key to open that door. There was also much dithering in the sarcophagi room over whether they should open one of the three final resting places of the Lord Doctors within the chamber. Ultimately, they decided to leave things alone in that room.
However, on one wall they did find a relief carving of...Willard Corn and a three-legged dog?! The words accompanying the depiction indicated that they are dangerous escaped "experiments."
Once a staircase was located, they descended to the next level. This set of stairs spit them out near a waterfall created by the rushing streams above. In a nearby room, they found barrels filled with human body parts preserved in formaldehyde for further experimentation. The floor in the room beyond the chamber smelled of vinegar and looked strangely wet. When Heck threw a piece of leather into the room, a translucent pseudopod extended and caught it; the leather sizzled in its acidic grasp! The group was soon fighting an unnatural ooze.
Once the ooze was dealt with, they discovered another room that had been clearly been used for either surgery or butchery--or a combination of both. There were cleavers and anesthesia masks next to a scarred operating table. Other interesting surgical item was recovered from a flooded room. Panthalassa used her cephalopod familiar Happy to scout the room. After determining that there was a Vlaak skeleton and a floating sack in the water, Khamaat--also immune to poison and disease--waded in to retrieve whatever was in the bag. The item was a broken mechanical glove meant to assist during surgery.
They also encountered a strange mollusk that was posing as a stalagmite, but they decided to avoid that monster. However, they did explore a series of rooms with broken white tiles on the floor that seemed to be some sort of hospital ward. Panthalassa picked the lock on one of the rooms and they discovered that there was a key jammed into a crack in one of the walls. In fact, Daytona had had a vision of a crazed, wild-eyed man hiding the key in that crack back in the past when this site was an operating medical facility.
The key was a fit for the lock on the door on the previous level that they could not open. Now they are ready to find out what lies beyond the door.
