Vaults of Vyzor, session #11

Roster

Rose Royce, trash elf princess (Kiel Chenier)
Porky, giant porcupine pet
Sneakerly Trull, half-orc thief (Zak S.)
Mozzarella, doggie
Ilse Raagenkampf, disreputable chirugeon (Perttu Vedenoja)
unnamed serving boy

The party did something new this week.  They entered the dungeons using the entrance in the Verdant Scriptorium, but came out of the Azure Tower!  Well, everyone except Ilse's unnamed serving boy.  He was murdered by a stirge.  They don't come out with much loot, save for a bullwhip woven with threads of cold iron and silver, allowing it to injure supernatural beings.  But an NPC visiting the Azure Tower buys a copy of their map, so Rose and Ilse paint the town red.  (BTW, this NPC, a fellow named Lord Gort, is a newly arrived adventurer of noble rank.  He and his henchmen totally plan on bogarting all the loot from the PCs.)

This is as good a time as any
to repost the best ghoul art ever.

The party took the most expeditious route from the lair of the Bargain Wolves (who were not home) to the Torture Chamber of the Mariliths.  I think Rose intended to free them, but first they had to slay the new head torturer, a troll in a business suit.  He had the fancy bullwhip, with which he had cut up one of the snake demon ladies pretty badly.  Sneakerly bargained for the freedom of the demons in exchange for Three Services each, but the one who hadn't been badly injured yet balked at the price.  The one with only a handful of hit points left decided to play ball, but the party never released her from her cold iron shackles.  Apparently her name was Nancy.  She's probably pretty pissed off now.

The main feature the party explored was a large zoo or prison or something that had a glass case with an ochre jelly and a black pudding in it, and two big cages.  One cage held a pair of piteously wailing chimerae, the other contained a gargoyle and a pair of ghouls eager to lay claws on the party.  This about the time they started to figure out that this level has a crapload of traps, including a pit with spikes that would impress Vlad the Impaler, monofilament wire, poison gas, and tripwires of unknown function.

I thought I was going to get the whole party with the flock of stirges room, but quick thinking and decisive action carried the day.  It also helps when you've got a giant porcupine on your team.  At one point though Rose Royce had to bite a stirge to death out of sheer desperation.  Turns out they taste like chicken.

A room just off the stirge chamber contained a pair of sphinxes frozen under a few inches of ice.  The party used some torches to thaw out the head of the gynosphinx, who then negotiated her and her husband's release from their icy prison.  So now Sneakerly, Ilse, and Rose are each owed a favor from Melissa the Gynosphinx and Larry the Androsphinx.  The party got some more info from Melissa on the mysterious Elf King said to rule the Azure Vaults.  He is called Elexus, King of the Unseelie Court, and he has some sort of mad science lab a level or two down.  Melissa and Larry thought he was a total dickweed well before he encased them in magical ice.

Then there was the Narrow Door.  Don't open the Narrow Door.  Beyond lies a titanic insect monster who can't fit through the Narrow Door, but his huge mantis-like razor-appendages can.  Imagine if the apocalypse was a bug.  That's what is behind the Narrow Door.

We ran out of time, but fortunately Melissa had showed them the way out of the level, into the Azure Tower.  Now any party including Sneakerly, Ilse, and/or Rose may use that entrance.

ONGOING ROLL OF THE DEAD

unnamed serving boy (O-level hireling)
Gwalin Rustbritches (dwarf hireling)

Jarrod the Magic-User (Ian Reilly)

Jonesy (0-level NPC)
Little Liam Linkboy (0-level NPC)
Limpy the Naileteer (Jeff Call)
Engsal the Enchanter (Alex Joneth)
Elfbraham Lincoln (Jeff Call)
Littlens (0-level NPC)
Biggens (0-level NPC)
Stimpy (0-level NPC)
Ren (0-level NPC)