Episode 8: A Room With A View

Introduction
The Champions continue to battle through the dungeon, facing new and unusual dangers, as the mysterious portrait watches over them.

Listen at ImaginaryFriends.ca

Amazon Apple Podcasts  Stitcher  Spotify

Sponsors
Adventure Dice - use promo code "badrollers10" to receive 10% off your order

D10 Dimensions - the perfect source for creative roll tables

Summary
The party walks into a large sitting room with a large tableau in front of them. Various people sitting and standing around the room. The party focuses on the centre of the room, where two women look like they're frozen in conversation. The party can see a bar, various seating arrangements but all the people seem frozen in place, with three men who are standing, strangely looking down at the floor. When Amaranth's Favourite Idiots enter the room, these men look up at the party. Argrath says hi to them while Dovie wonders what trouble Argrath might have just gotten them into this time.

Roll for initiative!

After the first few attacks on the 3 strange men, Argrath and Nimue are shocked to see the wounds they inflict instantly heal, except for the strike Argrath did when smiting them. Dovie notices that the men approaching them look stitched together while the bystanders look perfectly normal, except frozen in place. Sam, remembering the previous room, looks for a portrait and finds one above the fireplace. This time the Satyr is making an "oh no" type of gesture. Sam then takes one of the daggers taken from the evil cult members and throws it at a stitched up golem. It sinks in and explodes the golem, covering Argrath. Nimue explodes the second golem with a radiant charged arrow. The portrait now looks as if it is going for a fist bump. Argrath dispatches the final golem by decapitating it while smiting it. The portrait now seems to be frozen in a clap, celebrating their victory.

Nimue and Sam check on the frozen bystanders and find that they all have a pulse while Dovie and Argrath investigate the room. They find three other doors in the room, two that look clear and one that seems trapped with mechanisms and glyphs.

Using their key, the party opens one of the normal doors and find a staircase leading down. Fearful of a trap, the party sends Walter down first before following after. In front of them, they se a room filled with treasure but Argrath notices something is off with what he sees and throws his axe into the room. The party watches the whole room ripple as the axe is thrown in and returns. Recognizing that in front of them is a gelatinous cube, the party retreats to the top of the stairs and launches ranched attacks on it until it is destroyed. Upon dying, the cube loses form and fills the room with acid, making it impossible to pass through. From the safety of the stairs, the party checks and confirms that there is no treasure or other doors in the room.

The group goes to check one of the other doors but first decide that they need to stop and rest. They take a short rest and use this time to attune to their magic items. During this time, the portrait is empty.

Dovie goes to inspect the door that is trapped. She manages to break the connection between the mechanism and the rune, allowing her to open the door safely. Dovie then enters a small room with books, alchemist supplies, and ingredients. A potion room. The books are in a variety of languages but Sam recognizes one in druidic. After some research, Sam successfully makes a potion for greater restoration. They party decide to restore the woman at the bar, they use the potion and the required diamond on her and the potion takes effect immediately, the diamond dust begins to spread around the room, restoring everyone. After some discussion with the confused bystanders about what happened and how they got there, the party glances at the portrait and a piece of paper floats down from it, telling them to take the bystanders to the antechamber. Dovie leads the now restored bystanders to the antechambers and while talking to them, learn that they come from a different world and have never even heard of Amaranth. In their world magic is not rare and is part of their everyday lives. Upon reaching the antechamber, Shadow eagerly greets them and all the magic items that were once on the table are now gone. Argrath casts speaks with animals and chats with Shadow, asking if the blink dog can accompany him now. Argrath and Shadow confirm that they can eat the food now (especially the cakes) but Argrath can't get more information out of Shadow about what's happening here.

Going through the last door, the group, led by Argrath enter a narrow hallway. Argrath takes a step on a tile and finds himself teleported back to the antechamber. Using her new goggles, Nimue is able to see which tiles are trapped and leads the group safely through the passage. They reach what appears to be a small bedroom with a desk and bookshelves. When Sam goes to inspect the books, the bed and the desk come alive and attempt to devour the party.

Roll for intiative!

After the party attacks, the Mimic Bed lunges towards Nimue and attacks her, grappling her in the process and then pulling her into its mouth and biting down. Dovie uses an earthen hand to grapple the desk while Sam attacks it with her swords. Nimue is hurt badly by the Mimic Bed and Sam breaks off her attack to heal her while Argrath keeps trying to chop away at it. Finally, after Nimue manages to prevent the Mimic Bed from clamping its teeth down on her, Argrath smashes the bed, destroying it. Then turns his rage to the Mimic Desk and kills that too.

Sam quickly heals the party and they investigate the rest of the room for any hidden objects. They find that all the books are blank but in the process of going through them, find a hidden door. In the new room there is an empty weapons rack, two armour stands, and a table made of glass. They look around and see a door on the far end that appears to be shimmering. There is a plaque on the wall that reads "to enter the final trial, you will have to leave all but your hearts behind". The party leaves their weapons, armour, and items behind, except for Argrath who can't leave his Axe of the Exile behind, and the door swings open.

Argrath enters first and the world bursts into white and is transported to the burning remains of his village. A sea of the bodies of his people lie at his feet. He looks up and sees the demons responsible for this massacre. Reaching for his weapons but finding none, he grabs a rock and charges at them. Argrath gets surrounded, he fights valiantly but the odds are too much and he is killed.

Dovie emerges through the blinding white light to find herself in Virstock. The cries of her people and the smoke from burning buildings greet her as she sees demons slaughtering everyone in their path. She prepares to attack but finds her magic is gone. Dovie starts screaming at everyone to get out, to run, and tries saving anyone she can. Eventually, while Dovie is in the open trying to save people, the demons overtake her and though she fights with everything she has, she dies.

Nimue walks through the door, through the blinding light, and into an unnatural hot forest. She looks down and sees Belle, dead at her feet. Other dead forest creatures are all over and the trees are burning. Portals keep opening up as otherworldly creatures keep coming through. Nimue with no magic and no weapons, looks at these odds, picks up Belle's body, and runs through one of these portals. She is transported to a hell world where these demons overwhelm her and take her life.

Samonari's vision comes back after the white light and she finds herself on her boat. Her senses are taken over by screams and the smell of smoke. Above her, she sees the Dreaming Dark and knows their responsible. Without magic or weapons, she channels her inner Argrath and rushes in to help her people. She does her best but the numbers are too much and she is felled.

The party feels themselves slipping away from life, their world goes black but then starts to transform to a bright white and they find themselves blinking at a very sunny sky. Sand underneath their feet, they try to reconcile all the pain and agony they just went through when they hear someone clear their throat behind them. Standing behind them is the woman from the portraits. She is small, with ram horns, and cloven feet.

"Welcome, my name is Raexeothi, but you can call me Xeo, but most people call me the Satyr."

Trivia

 * The party attunes to their magical items attained in the previous episode
 * Argrath finally gets revenge for never being able to fit in a bed
 * Argrath admits he can't get rid of the Axe of the Exile