Tricksy, Dagger, Richie, and Bizzle loiter in the Warren, throwing darts, making traps, and throwing traps. The sobbing man in Rooster’s office introduces himself as Sam Bob, and his lucrative problem seems to be that his beloved son and archaeologist, Tim Bob, has not checked in as anticipated to resupply a dig venture at Tranth Volantor. The absence of Tim Bob has left a large hole in Sam Bob’s heart and a large hole in the ground.
The mission is to rescue Tim Bob. Pragmatic Dagger inquires whether the pay is the same if Tim Bob is already dead already. Rooster hastily ushers the R&S operatives away from inconsolable Sam Bob. They gather up lots of extra rope, more than an adventuring party could possibly ever exhaust, and requisition horses for the uneventful journey to Tranth Volantor.
Tranth Volantor is a ruined fortification. Stacked crates of salvage rocks, coal, brass and copper nails and gears, lumber, and sundry other miscellany surround a recent campfire just inside the entrance. A conspicuous hole in the ground was created by something unpleasant bursting out of a formerly smaller hole in the ground, presumably to snatch away archaeologists milling nonchalantly around.
The party rappels down into a cavern ringed with twelve pillars engraved with GELDARXAIHX. Richie reckons that is the name of an aberrant, and Tricksy’s primeval awareness confirms several aberrations within a mile. They follow drag marks out of the raw cavern into a stone-worked chamber featuring a teleport pad, two floaty balloon things behind a door, and stairs up behind a different door.
Choosing the stairs over the floaty balloon things, the party wends through halls and chambers compartmented by doors trapped magically and mechanically. Before long, the party is overtaken by a pursuing pair of beholders who bellow threateningly about the party’s rude intrusion. Despite several random nasty eye rays, the beholders are unexpectedly susceptible to injury and succumb to reasonable violence.
Proceeding deeper into the dungeon, the party soon encounters another pair of beholders. Dagger attempts communication this time, but GELDARXAIHX and GELDARXAIHX are both indisposed to socializing. Richie charges them and falls through a floor illusion trap that sends him crashing into a spiked pit. The beholders are defeated and Richie is retrieved.
Proceeding deeper into the dungeon, the party soon encounters a second teleport pad just beneath a plasma sphere containing a super hot elemental waiting to incinerate anyone teleporting in. Skipping the first teleport pad was a wise decision. Self congratulations are cut short when Bizzle opens a double door, triggering a massive granite block to smash through the room and into the sphere. An explosion of hot elemental spray does less damage than it ought to, although the elemental’s take might differ.
Proceeding deeper into the dungeon, Dagger finds another floaty balloon thing and stabs it. The balloon pops spraying Dagger with spores. Dagger senses that he has now become the host of impending doom, but there’s nothing to do for it now except possibly refrain from stabbing any more floaty balloon things.
Dagger throws open a door which in turn throws him through a room with two more beholders. This time, Dagger turns the proverbial tables and yells that he is GELDARXAIHX as he runs out a door on the other side which flings him out of the room and into a wall. It’s a tough act to follow, but the rest of the party engages the beholders. The beholders telekinetically loft Richie and drop him through a hole to the next level down, a long fall. The beholders are defeated.
Richie whispers loudly up from below to remind everyone that he fell a considerable distance and would enjoy a little help soon. The noise attracts the unwelcome attention of some truly horrifying stitched and stapled together leather and bone undead who advance on Richie and pluck him off the rope lowered by the party. Richie is brutally slain, rent into pieces.
Concern for Richie is cut short by the flashing yellow top buttons of everyone’s Graycoat. Before Bizzle can retrieve his Graycoat Quick Start manual, Slick, Tatters, Barry, and Badger materialize.
Badger is remarkable for his twin hair points and mutton chops which are impressive even for a dwarf.
Dagger immediately spots the much younger dwarf Barry’s blue collar, R&S insignia owing to his access to Berronar Truesilver’s healing favors. Dagger requests medical evaluation regarding his earlier balloon spore dosage. Barry recommends a wait-and-see approach along with a high fiber diet and plenty of exercise.
Tatters explains that this here complex is a Beholder Hive which establishes when a beholder admires itself in a mirror and thus procreates.
Bizzle packs up what little can be found of Richie’s remains. Dagger continues ahead, discovering guillotine traps and a chamber with a foreboding mist-covered floor surrounded by foreboding statues. Badger climbs atop a statue. The statue throws Badger into the poisonous fog. A fierce fight ensues, and the statue golems are defeated.
Dagger finds another couple of floaty balloon things blocking the next hallway. Dagger estimates he has 14 hours to live from the last spore dose and therefore has nothing to lose by experimentally running through the hall popping the floaty balloon things. The spore cloud diseases Tatters.
Dagger “disarms” the next trapped door. Bizzle opens the door and is surprised to see a large spear impaling him where moments before there was only a healthy torso. A fireball trap is rendered “safe” by Dagger. Barry scarcely has time to consider why the room is talking to him before rapidly advancing Dagger is sucked through to the next chamber toward a whizzing fan blade. Badger forms a humanoid chain and Bizzle tosses in a rope. Slick hauls everyone out to safety and the vacuum door is closed.
Tatters suggests backtracking to any of the down-holes to proceed in a more downward direction, presumably toward the progenitor of the numerous GELDARXAIHXs, and also happily away from the vacuum.
The party rappels down a previously bypassed hole to the other side of the pit from which the necrosis carnex gang emerged to dismember Richie. Badger’s curiosity toward the weird creatures attracts their attention. A fight breaks out. The undead have a tendency to explode violently while simultaneously healing the others in their tribe. Barry turns them, and they retreat into the darkness.
Tricksy and Barry hang back to guard against the necrosis carnex attacking from behind while the rest of the party explores a large checker tiled room. Each square features a single letter in Undercommon. Dagger quickly surmises the letters in GELDARXAIHX are unsafe to support any weight, and all others will allow crossing to the other side. Bizzle, convinced the opposite must be true, confirms Dagger’s initial hypothesis by stepping onto a G and falling into the acid pool below. Bizzle belt blinks into the acid-free ethereal plane and explores beneath the puzzle while the others map out safe passage above. Mapping accelerates dramatically when Tatters thunderwaves out the unsupported tiles.
Dagger finds the most promising way forward, but the party is too scattered when he encounters a pair of beholders. The party dashes to engage, but the hasty defense results in Barry’s petrification and Bizzle’s deathray demise. With Barronar Truesilver’s timely intervention, Barry narrowly returns to flesh. The beholders are defeated. Dagger Plan B’s Bizzle to corpse dragging shadow form.
Shadow Bizzle finds that he can wield Sinestra, the evil scimitar. Cranky Shadow Bizzle defends his precious dragged corpse from looting and a couple of helpful attempts to improve his movement speed by mass reduction via dismemberment and / or trans-dimensional tricks.
The party resolves to continue down another level, mission first. Bizzle’s corpse leads the way and cushions other falling party members when the piton comes loose. Hopefully resurrection works on bean bags.
The party soon finds a connected pair of rooms with enormous, elaborate clockworks. After defeating a couple of beholders, Dagger shoves over a conspicuous lever. The clockworks halt, stopping the slowly rotating floor surrounded by statues.
The voice of GELDARXAIHX demands to know who has shut down his works? The party answers in unison, “DAGGER!” GELDARXAIHX demands to know the reason for the intrusion. Dagger explains they need to locate and retrieve archaeology boy Tim Bob, whom Barry concludes is one of these several petrified statues loitering on the ring of teleport pads. Would it be worth a spell to restore one of the statues? No, it would not, is GELDARXAIHX’s booming opinion. A beam of petrification smacks Barry.
Beholder GELDARXAIHX swoops down, reactivating the mechanism lever as Dagger struggles to head him off. Tricksy, just in from abandoning Badger to the necrosis carnex gang, plugs GELDARXAIHX with some perfectly placed arrows and gets a sleepy time eye beam in response. Slick charges with his great axe of finesse and absorbs a disintegration eye beam before tripping into the turntable gap where the gears begin pulverizing him. Tatters launches sculpted fireballs and magic missiles. Dagger vies for control of the lever and is petrified. Tatter’s fireball slays GELDARXAIHX.
Barry restores “archaeologist” Sven who directs Barry to mission objective Tim Bob. Restored Tim Bob and Sven offer poorly coordinated explanations and disseminations. The group easily discerns that the operation was more a looting enterprise than one of research. Sven has a mental break and attempts to assault Tim Bob, as do the other restored archaeologists. Dagger delivers corrective groin kicks until order is restored.
The mission is a success despite the lack of any clawback funding.