Upon returning from the town of Karlsburg after weeks of training and gambling Quassii, Vrok, Cathar, and Nevus returned to further explore the Mount of the Red Door. We carefully made our way down the levels to the place we fought the minotaur king. There were two hallways leading to what we assumed were the living quarters of the king’s underlings. Cathar noticed a pit trap on the northern most hallway. Both ways led to a large room with three doors exiting it. We noticed a strong odor from the southern door so we entered it in normal battle formation. To our dismay we found the latrine. All the urinals were smashed leaving stinky holes in the ground. We drew straws. Cathar lost. He wisely put on one of the Bio suit's we had found a long time ago from our previous adventures. Nothing was to be found so he geared back up and we continued back.
We heard voices from the throne room. We formed in formation. Vrok bestowed a few of his wonderful buffs, Blessing the party, enhancing Nevus's constitution to that of a bear, then finally uniting Quassii and himself with a powerful magic bond to soften the blows on Quassii to divert half the damage to the caster. After buffing we saw one minotaur, Cathar stealthily advanced into the room to slay the beast. As he entered unnoticed, he saw that there were several minotaurs and a new king in the throne room we previously had cleared. He immediately backed back to us and we devised a plan of action. We decided to charge the room running right by the outer most minotaur back to the hallway we used previously as a choke point to defeat the last king and company. From there we went into a defense stance firing missile weapons into the new kings entourage. In true ranger fashion Quassii fired an enhanced Hail of Thorn's at the king and his bodyguard peppering them with a ton of arrows. The outer most minotaur charged Quassii only to made to look foolish as Quassii dodged it. Nevus with his mighty great axe cut the large beast down in a massive blow to the face. Cathar from the rear used his bow with great accuracy with repeated hits. The new minotaur king wisely gave orders for the others to do repeated reckless charges at Quassii and Nevus who formed our front line of defense. The flurry of one charge after another with the previous attacker backing up - taking a free defensive hit - to let the others charge did significant damage to Nevus nearly overwhelming him. Luckily Vrok healed most of the damage with his advanced healing spells. Upon being healed Nevus charged out at the enemy group in a ferocious fit of rage. With a couple mighty swing of his axe he slew another minotaur. Quassii drew his rapier and shield following Nevus seriously wounding another one. Cather hopped and flipped in true monk fashion delivering a flurry of blows on another minotaur knocking it to the ground only for Nevus to hit with another killing blow making us to start calling him Nevus the Minotaur Slayer. Quassii wounded the king some more only to have Nevus critically strike it, beheading the vicious beast in heroic fashion. After the epic battle, we searched the other doors in the back rooms. Cathar found a secret room. Inside we found eight barrels full of sixteen hundred pounds of grain. After some empty rooms we found a room with stairs going down guarded by four more minotaurs. They immediately charged us at the doorway. Me and Nevus wounded the first one. Vrok fired a guided magic bolt critically missing nearly hitting Cathar who had to dodge the awful miss. After the group wore down the first minotaur, Nevus again killed the first minotaur. Cather killed the next wounded minotaur with his bow. Quassii ran out to wound the other two creatures. Followed by Nevus who wounded them some more. Cathar delivered a flurry of lightning fast blows killing one and knocking the other to the floor. Quassii killed the prone beast ending the conflict.
There were several teleport rooms from our last adventure leading to some hallways and rooms we had not yet explored. Mastering the teleport rooms the last time we were here, we leaned when you entered any of these rooms they would teleport you to another area, and as another party member entered it would send them to an entirely different room. We learned that to simply step back into the room again and again you would finally teleport to your friend’s location. Doing this method we all made it to the unexplored areas.
Our first room we entered had a defiled statue of Vrok's patron god Ezaos. The head had been replaced with Vork’s head. Nevus replaced the head with a marble head from the bag of holding already sculpted for another statue we have not yet fixed. Upon doing so, Ezaos bestowed upon Nevus a one time ability to cast cure wounds as a forth level spell. We continued down the long corridor to the next room.
In the room was a bed with a canopy. On the bed were ten buttons. The monk elf Cathar decided he would lay on the bed and let us try a button. Nevus pressed number 5 button. The canopy lowered and a gas filled the bed interior canopy. Then the canopy raised only for Cather to realize he had lost his night vision. We decided to rest and give it time to regain only to find out it was permanent. Cathar was rather upset and refused to get back on the bed at first. Hoping it could fix it he reluctantly laid on the bed again. Then we tried another button. The canopy lowered again with the gas. This time all of his non metal and non magic items melted into a gooey substance. Unbelievably he let us try another button. Nevus could not bare the responsibility so Quassii hit button number nine. Luckily it did restore his night vision. When the bed opened Cathar jumped out of the bed refusing to get back on it. Quassii and Nevus wanted to know what the other buttons did, but no one wanted to volunteer. Finally after debating it for several minutes Quassii offered Xon our faithful henchman 10 gold to do it. He thought about it, and said for one hundred gold he would. After paying him he stripped naked and got into the bed with a scared look upon his face. Vrok reassured him if he died he would resurrect him with his newly found spell he just got from his training. Cathar whispered into Vrok's ear ya unless it turns him into goo then maybe not. We all watched in an inquisitive horror as the canopy lowered. The next button put him to sleep. We tried to wake him but he would not. So we continued with the experiment. The next button electrically damaged him. Vrok healed poor sleeping Xon then we continued. The next button one woke him. He asked what happened. We said we were going to continue, not wanting to worry the faithful hireling. The next button seemed to do nothing. He said he felt an inner energy we assumed it would heal him maybe? The next button gave him a dark tan – his normal complexion returned the next day. He was surprised and smiled until we hit the next button which wiped that smile right off his face. It made all the hair on his body fall off. Only later finding out it was permanent never to grow again. The next button turned him into a female. At this point he was freaking out. Luckily pressing the button again, it transformed him back to a male. We wanted to take the bed back to our fort but it would not fit through the door.
The next room we open was almost entirely full of webs. Quassii pulled out a flame arrow from his quiver shot his bow igniting the webs. Then we shut the door laughing. Then from nowhere 2 large spiders phased threw the wall. Nevus the Slayer quickly killed the first spider. Then Xon delivered a critical strike with his pike piercing the spider to the wall. Cathar ran up and killed the beast with a powerful kick. After the fire extinguished, we searched the room only for Cather to find a pit by falling into it. After brushing the dirt off with some of his pride we found a few hundred silver pieces.
The next room we found had a statue of Vork in it. Nevus charged into the room to smash the evil statue only to find out it was alive and it wounded him. Quassii hit it twice with his silver rapier only to realize only magic weapons would hurt it. Vrok healed Nevus. Cathar did not hurt it but could knock it prone again and again until Nevus was able to kill it with his mighty magic axe. The next room we entered had four demons on pedestals. Nevus the Paladin like a dog chasing a bone when it came to evil charged and killed the first demon. Then the demons put a major hurting on Nevus with a flurry of bites and claws. Vrok once again healed Nevus. The battle ensued. Quassii taking damage only to be healed by Vrok. Quassii killed the next two demons. Vrok then went on the offense firing a guided bolt lighting the demon up like a Christmas tree. Allowing Nevus to deliver a killing blow with his axe. Cathar found a secret door but could not open it. After some thought Cathar figured out by putting the dead demons back on the pedestals we could open the secret door. What a treasure it was. Thousands of silver and electrum pieces some magic spell scrolls and a magic ring of protection. There were also a non-magic scroll in an unknown language.
The next room down the long corridor had six frog men guarding a tapestry. Quassii joked immediately how this was an easy fight. But it was one of our hardest fights in actuality. They were elite frog soldiers that had haste embossed upon then allowing them to attack a lot. They attacked first running up damaging Quassii and Nevus. Vrok healed us on his turn. Then their leader, a frog mage came running out from behind the tapestry with a spirit guardian spell he came close enough that it damaged everyone except Xon who was way back in the rear guarding. After we all took damage, Vrok tried to heal us all the best he could. Knowing we could not withstand this constant magical assault we broke threw charging into the room trying get to the caster. Cathar killed the first Frogman in his path. Making an opening for Nevus to kill the next Frogman. Quassii killed the next one making an opening to the mage. After Vrok did some more healing, Cathar got to the Mage knocking him on his ass causing all his haste and guardian spells to end. Nevus and Quassii each killed another frogman . Then the mage got up cast another spirit guardian spell, wounding everyone. In response Cathar knocked the mage back on his ass negating the spells and possibly saving some lives. Nevus took a massive critical strike nearly putting him down. Vrok used the last of his healing on him. Then Cathar threw a flurry of blows on the mage killing him. Quassii killed the last of the frogmen. We searched the room for secrets then rested for the night to lick our wounds and regain our spells. Probably the last time Quassii makes fun of weak frogmen.
The next room had four more minotaurs that we surprised having heard them talking from outside the door. Quassii poured a Hail of Thorns into them. Then they charged and began to hurt Quassii with there relentless reckless attacks. Vrok healed Quassii just in time for him to deal a death blow to the first minotaur. Then we weakened them down with a flurry of missiles from Cathar and Nevus’s axe attacks. Allowing Quassii to kill two more minotaurs. Cathar fired a critical hit threw the last minotaur's eye.
The next room had four blue globes in it, immediately putting Nevus to sleep. We drug him to safety fleeing the globes. We decided to go another way finding a room filled with a mysterious darkness. Vrok tried to cast a daylight spell with no effect on the darkness. With weapons drawn we searched the darkness for creatures or loot or secret doors, nothing just a constant darkness that permeates from the evil room.
The next room we found and another room inside of it with two blast doors. On the doors was the symbols on the two button device with the circle and plus on it that we found weeks ago in our adventures here. We tried several ways but could not open it. Finally we searched for secret doors and found another room to the south. In this room was a machine with more buttons. Nevus pressed some button on the device we could here noise come from within the interior room. We decided to hit some random buttons on the machine in the secret room. Clicking both buttons on the device caused the blast doors to open. After opening the door's Nevus pressed each button separately. One made the floor of the interior room go up. The other button made it go down. On the walls of the raising and lowering elevator platform there was vegetation and green fungus. We decided not to travel on it until we get more party members to join us.
We then tried to go around to the room with strange wall carvings that Quassii got paralyzed weeks ago. This time Nevus and Cathar got paralyzed. Vrok and Xon dragged them to safety. Quassii decided to go and peek in the door to the south. Inside it was a large pit with a green slimy surface on the narrow platform around the pit. Thinking it looked dangerous Quassii went back to the party. After some time the paralyzation wore off and I told the party what i saw. We decided probably to never go to that room.
We traveled back around to the blue orb room. Vrok cast a spell to aid all of us on wisdom and death saves. Then we ran past the blue orbs to the next room. We made it. The next room was a treasure room. Inside was gold statue, chests full of silver, gold, and gems.
After running back by the blue orbs with our enhanced saves we made it by them without incident, we decided to return to the northern most double door we could not get open. After trying to pick it open we decided to get Quassii's portable battle ram out of the bag of holding. We rammed the door for fifteen minutes before we could get into it. Inside was a female looking demon trapped in a pentagram asking us to free her. She said her name was Melissa and had been there for centuries. We decided not to free her telling here we needed to talk to the town sage before we would aid her. We went back to town to talk to sage. He said she was a succubus and not to release the evil creature.
We then went to all the town vendors to sell our goods acquired from the mount. Nevus had the sculptor and his apprentices make and replace the statue heads we fixed. Nevus and Cathar have leveled and needed training as does Quassii. In the end we meet up at the tavern to plan our next adventure to the Mount. There we met up with the entire clan of party members to tell them of our exploits and plan who wants to return to it next time. While we did this Xon the Bald told the group he was retiring from adventuring and will always be a friend to each and everyone of us. He will be in Town on his farm. He has gained much fame and will be missed... Thank you for your service Xon the Bald
