Creep peruses the Doomvault map while resting in the Temple of Pain. There are so many choices of extraction shrines to destroy. The group chooses one to the west with a black gate to be next. It never hurts to gain control of a black gate.
Tricksy ensures the short hallway doors aren’t trapped before they are unlocked with the skeleton keys. Slick hears clanking footsteps beyond. It’s been a few hours since Creep and Tricksy have done their Crycks impersonation so they prepare that. Bizzle barges into the eye-stinging misty room and warns the red wizard and helmed horror occupants to get supplicating because the boss is here to check on progress.
Insolence abounds as Crycks attempts to ascertain the status of the extraction vessel, a yaun-ti malison. The red wizard doesn’t understand his questions. Clearly someone here does not understand the mechanics of extraction, and Creep hopes it’s not him. Crycks explains the phylactery was destroyed a month ago by some salvaging ne’er-do-wells so the red wizard and helmed horror may leave now. The red wizard believes none of this.
Tatters doesn’t care for the mist filling the room. He creates a gust of wind which fails to disperse it. Bizzle is stunned by the mist. Slick wisely stays out of the misty room and initiates violence with a critical crossbow bolt into the helmed horror.
The red wizard is well-rested from being relegated to oversight of an extractor for months at a time. He drops cloud kill on the party, but Creep catches the spell and stuffs it in his pocket. The red wizard retorts with blindness plus deafness, but Tatters counters that one as well.
The red wizard avoids Tricksy’s super suture fly, Knit. Creep and Tatters are both stunned by the mist and then blinded by the red wizard. Bizzle recovers from the stun and runs at the red wizard, scimitars first. Tricksy and Slick keep the helmed horror occupied.
The red wizard backs away from Bizzle and drops cloud kill again, uncontested this time. Everyone is hit, and Knit is slain. Tricksy and Slick escape the cloud and pour arrows and bolts into the red wizard trying to distract him. Tricksy runs up to the ceiling and double hits him critically. Bizzle tries to maintain contact, but the red wizard dimension doors away and tosses a necrotic blight ball at him.
The cloud kills Creep. Tatters finds his way out and firebolts the red wizard dead, exposing the helmed horror standing over dying Creep. Bizzle dashes to guard Creep and does his best to taunt the helmed horror, but the helmed horror randomly attacks unconscious Creep instead. Creep’s teammates engage the helmed horror. Bizzle forces a salvage bar into Creep’s gob.
Creep feels great. He jumps up and dances all around the helmed horror sticking it with his rapier. Bob The Destroyer, as the helmed horror never introduces himself, dies in anonymity and falls over.
Creep scrapes on the shrine runes. The resting group watches him bounce painfully off the force field until his injuries compel him to rest up. Now it is his turn to watch the others spend an hour bouncing around until Tricksy and Bizzle eventually compromise the shrine enough to release the yuan-ti.
The yuan-ti’s name is Oussa, all hail Zehir. Ungrateful Oussa refuses to fight for his freedom, but gets plenty fighty when all do not hail Zehir. Violence resumes but the giant snake doesn’t survive long enough to demonstrate his prowess. Creep’s witchbolt slays him immediately.
Confidence is high as the party decides to return to the previously surrendered shadow room. Tatters and Creep confer discretely and derive a plan which requires collection of all the corpses made in the temples extraction. Classic Creep. The corpses form a 10×10 bonfire ignited by Tricksy’s alchemical fuse. The bonfire is a component for a fire elemental summoned by Tatters to spread the bright light of free enterprise.
Burny the fire elemental is sent to work by Tatters to clear the shadow room of shadows. The bright light chases shadows into one side or the other of the room but disappointingly does not immediately disintegrate them effortlessly. Creep and Tricksy slip in to assess progress and help Burny find the shadows. Slick, mindful of the mission, gets into the shrine extracting a dark elf and starts scraping up the runes.
Creep gets piled by shadows who drain his strength. The room blinds him. Tricksy starts shooting Creep’s captors from the ceiling. Bizzle cuts down the nearest shadow but returns to the doorway to guard Tatters.
Slick gets ejected by the shrine and bounces into Burny. She retreats back into the shrine and extinguishes herself.
Tatters sends Burny running through the shadows, igniting them and Creep as well. Creep makes a sword burst and escapes the shadow mob only to be pursued by a dogged shadow who strength kills Creep. Rest In Peace.
Burny burns down a couple of shadows. Bizzle avenges Creep. Tatters magic missiles the last shadow.
Bizzle hits Creep in the forehead with Plan B. Zombie Creep is not as handsome as he used to be.