Xalver, flanked by Thurdram and Solana, interrupts Alpha Company, supping at the Inn Decision in recuperation from the extreme werebabysitting encounter at Wardenwood, to announce a new mission pursuant to a lingering, unsolved Opeth prophecy recorded by one Marcos Blackbramble. The Vessel Prophecy, catalog index 975K, concerns a device or item of inverted triangular shape representing specific, positional color combinations: bright bluish white in the upper right, fiery red in the upper left, deep golden in the bottom, all surrounding an orange hexagon. The next part of the prophecy entails Charlie Company’s encounter with Tophe rolling the dislocated head of Cohoreth the Herald. Tophe is represented as being pretty angry and vulnerable to the golden triangle portion. The final part of the prophecy introduces APPOTHROMAX, identified as an esoteric dragon mentioned primarily in an old diary penned by the sorcerer Mer Sageshout. A dragon worshipping cult in the Snakewoods murdered Sageshout’s son Thelvi which brought obsessed Sageshout to their underground temple and, perhaps coincidentally, to the end of his diary. Alpha Company must use the Hall of Doors to approach the temple entrance by Snakewood forest, infiltrate the dragon cult lair by any means available, and identify and gather any information relevant to 975K.
Equipped with one half of a teleportation and speaking stone set in case rescue / recovery becomes necessary, Alpha quickly and proficiently navigates the Hall of Doors and Snakewood to a stone cap concealing a staircase descending to the lair. Encouraged by the mission ease so far, confident Nala ditty-bops down the stairs where a skeletal guardian has been waiting indefinitely. She hucks a hand axe into it. Ssatschia, marveling at how quickly the cakewalk turns violent, follows down the stairs and nimbly slips around the guardian who is focused on shield bashing and longswording Nala. Seeing a couple more guardians lining up to abuse Nala, Ssatschia turns their undead attention around the other direction, and they clack away from his rebuke. Cut off from his brothers in humeri, the first, surrounded guardian is quickly defeated at the cost of Moth’s critically shattered hand. Snory, standing on a hurtful patch of mean green moss, tends to Moth’s fist while Ssatschia and Nala run down the second guardian. The third guardian has fled down a twisty corridor into a collapsed dead end where Nala and Ssatschia trap and finish it as well. The tough guardians have landed their share of damage so the party pauses to dress wounds.
A valuable, yet portable, dragon statue intently watches the party rest. An intense, but hands-off, examination of the lovely statue reveals no known religious significance and no sentience in the gemstone eyes which “watch” only in the sense that good artwork can seem lifelike.
The rested party explores a cluttered room of sarcophagi that has become strewn with broken pottery, discarded bottles, and busted implements of war. Exploring Nala soon locates a skeletal executioner lurking around a corner. The executioner ineffectively swings its oversize, novelty great axe around in the tight space. It does not long endure its poor choice of weapon, armor, and moniker as the Ssatschia-blessed party gives it a quick re-death.
Rested Ssatschia finds a cleaning closet containing several lidded jars. Lifting the lid off one of the containers of sneezing dust, Ssatschia has a vision of his own terminal sneezing suffocation. He drops the lid back on the jar, slams closed the closet door, and breaks the outside handle off.
Snory cannot shake the nagging hunch that there is more to discover in this cluttered room of sarcophagi. He tramples through mounds of debris and notices a decently concealed door. Nala and Monk clear debris away from the door. Ssatschia finds and defeats the lock and the door opens into a brief cavern. Moth traces along the cavern wall and locates another door, secret on the opposite side but not concealed on the cavern side. Moth opens the door to find a secret vault and its guardian wraith. Blessed Moth and Nala go to work on the wraith. The wraith relieves Moth of better than a third of his life essence. Moth’s magical fists relieve the wraith of existence.
Snory looks through the vault for anything relevant to the mission. An uncharacteristically tidy urn catches his attention. He collects a fancy jade key from it. Through the other side of the vault, Nala opens a door into yet another room of sarcophagi. Nala and Ssatschia pop the tops off the sarcophagi. The three occupants each feature a diadem respectively formed of gold, silver, and the mysterious yet inexpensive white polymer peeyveeyceey. These antiquities are left in place by the independently wealthy Alpha Company.
Moth reaches for the exit door and receives a full dose of poison from a concealed needle. His dwarven resistance reduces the effectiveness down to a slight tingle. The party files into a hallway that seems to be the other side of the collapsed corridor going back to the dragon statue hall. They stack up to breach the door at the other end.
Nala critically finesses the door open and beholds a flower arrangement that, upon closer inspection, is a skeletal necromancer standing confidently upon a raised dais. Nala has no difficulty seeing the necromancer’s three attending skeletal guardians. Snory, taking a page from Ssatschia’s holy book, makes his way to the dais and turns the undead into the corners of the room. Ssatschia throws a blessing. Moth and Nala choose the closest guardian and beat the marrow out of him. Not one to pick up a piano bench, Moth heads for Phlouwurz next. Nala and a pair of highly animated spiritual weapons follow his lead.
Nosy Snory finds Phlouwurz’s book of APPOTHROMAX prominently displayed on the raised dais and liberates same. There are also three keyholes in the lectern which recall the jade key in his pocket.
Surrounded Phlouwurz, not one to give up his life and life’s work without a fight, blights and blights again bloodying the entire party. Moth goes down until Snory transfers some life to his account. Nala’s greataxe, Ssatschia and Snory’s combination spiritual weapons and death tolling, and Moth’s punching wear Phlouwurz bloody. Moth goes for a stunning strike but Phlouwurz hides his ki and takes a dimension door to the other side of the room where Snory is attempting to slink out of spell range. Snory, not up for another spell attack from Phlouwurz, goes all in on a lethal infliction of wounds leaving only a pair of skeletal guardians which are quickly mopped up.
