The Well of Demons

It had been a long day, starting with scamming the rice shipments, being smuggled out to the hidden Imperial Shrine, fighting their way through the malevolent cemetery, and finally meeting the dead Emperor Higashiyama Shigure. Now they were told they had to go someplace called the Well of Demons, recover his body, and either make deals with all the worst former emperors of Minkai or kill them. The party decided they needed a rest.

Unfortunately, a good night’s sleep didn’t make the task seem any less daunting. Following Empress Onoko’s instructions, they recrossed the bridge and followed the path north out of the Mikado Cemetery. They soon found themselves skirting the edge of the picturesque Lake of Tears, so-called because of the tradition that it was fed by the tears the goddess Shizuru shed for the fallen emperors. From what they could see, it was fed by a tumbling cascade pouring down from the island’s hills. At the south end, a channel from the lake passed under a torii gate to form the moat around the Shrine of Heavenly Sovereigns. At the north end was another torii gate, and the lake’s clear waters ran through it in an ever-quickening stream, and they could hear the low roar of a waterfall ahead.

A short distance farther on, a great chasm opened in the earth, surrounded by high hills, and the lake’s waters poured into it. Standing at its lip, they could see a steep, muddy path spiraling down into the abyss, passing beneath the waterfall several times before it disappeared into darkness and mist.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Zhustin muttered, and gulped down a Fly potion, certain that something would happen on the way down. Sawyer activated Suishen’s Air Walk power and took a firm hold of Ameiko’s arm; he was going to keep her safe no matter what. Bella took the lead, moving out to ensure the footing was solid, then motioning for the others to follow. The path narrowed, forcing them into single-file. The depth of the descent was uncertain, as they peered down trying in vain to see the bottom.

That urge to see what was below them became stronger, and they leaned farther out, straining their eyes against the dizzying drop. They all felt a momentary falling sensation, and most were able to snatch themselves back to the wall of the chasm in time. But Marie, Sandru, and Ameiko kept leaning out, became overbalanced, and fell forward. Sawyer’s firm grip on Ameiko saved her, but Marie and Sandru plummeted into the depths, their fading screams echoing off the walls of the pit!

Zhustin had been standing beside Sandru, and as he saw him fall, he reacted instantly. He threw himself off the path, and flew headlong down into the pit, racing against gravity to reach the caravan master. They plummeted hundreds of feet, through the mist of falling water. He sensed the narrow pit open up around him, but had to time to take in his surroundings. He grabbed the falling Sczarni by the waist of his pants and pulled up, skimming just above the surface of a vast underground lake. Sandru was safe, but Marie hit the water with a splash, and disappeared beneath it.

She surfaced a few moments later, sputtering, bruised, and battered, but with no broken bones. She thanked her lucky stars that she had not swallowed any of the water; although the waters above were crystal clear as they poured down into the pit, the lake they fed was foul and fetid. She took a quick stock of her surroundings. She was in a huge underground cavern, with falling water pouring in from an opening some 80 feet above her head. There was a muddy beach to her south, and tall cliffs rose behind it; she thought she could make out some openings at the top of the cliffs to the south and west, but wasn’t sure. It looked like there was another small opening to the southeast, and she could see another large beach leading into a cave to the northeast, but she found herself being pulled northward by a strong current, and could hear the roar of another waterfall from that direction. Not at all confident in her swimming ability (in full armor no less), she Teleported to the beach to the south.

Above, the rest of the party watched their friends disappear into the pit, and sprang into action. Sawyer, still holding fast to Ameiko, jumped off the path and began Air Walking down, zig-zagging from one side of the pit to the other. The others began running down the spiraling path, heedless of the slippery footing, Nicki unfurling his bat-like wings as he ran. But despite their hurry, the descent seemed endless. Seeing Nicki’s wings out, Sandoval shouted “Can you carry Bella?” but the sorcerer shook his head; he had grown up having everything carried for him, and even after more than a year on the road, his slender muscles could barely support his own weight, let alone carry another. He dove off the path and flapped down. “Don’t worry – I’m good!” Bella called cheerily, and stepped off the path. Sandoval watched in horror as she hurtled into the depths, then suddenly slowed as she activated her Ring of Feather Falling. Shinjiro also threw himself into the pit. For the first sixty feet, the monk used his uncanny training to lightly catch himself on invisible outcroppings, slowing his descent before he, too, activated his Ring of Feather Falling. Sandoval looked around. He was alone on the path, forced to hoof it while the others took shortcuts down. Cursing, he resumed the endless spiral.

Zhustin saw Marie surface, and breathed a sigh of relief. When she vanished from the water, it took him a moment to re-locate her new position, but once he spotted her he tightened his grip on Sandru and began flying towards her. But just before he reached her, ripples appeared in the water’s surface, and a creature emerged. It was a hideous being of living slime, mimicking the shape of a half-melted man. It waved its arms, and the lake’s surface surged upwards, as if pulled by tidal forces. Within seconds, the beach on which Marie stood was submerged in a good ten feet of water, and she was once again swimming. More of the creatures began surfacing. One hurled a gob of slime at Marie, narrowly missing. Another appeared well out in the lake, then suddenly reappeared behind Marie, and it too barely missed her with acidic slime. A fourth surfaced, blinked through the lake to appear below Zhustin, and fired a glob of goo up at him, and he was barely able to avoid it.

With slime creatures closing in on her from all sides, Marie wanted to get out of this stinking water. She cast Air Walk, and began climbing up until she was well above the surface. Zhustin thought these were some sort of demon, but he wasn’t sure what type. In point of fact, they were Omox Demons, favorites of the demon lord Jubilex. Whatever their species, he wanted no part of them, but his selection of spells was limited unless he loosed his hold on Sandru. Looking around, he saw a ledge at the top of the cliffs to the west, and voiced the words of a Dimension Door spell that transported him and his passenger to its relative safety. The demons in the water looked around angrily as their quarry disappeared. Then an arrow bounced off one’s head, courtesy of a well-aimed but ineffectual shot from Sandru that merely served to alert it to their new location. The Omox reappeared near the foot of the cliff and fired a glob of slime up at Sandru, burning him with its sticky acid. The others continued to focus on Marie. Two hit her with gobs of acid, and the other conjured an Acid Cloud that engulfed her. Fortunately, some celestial part of her being resisted the corrosive acid, and she shrugged the attacks off.

At this point, Nicki came diving out of the pit. He quickly saw that the path the others (he thought) were following ended a good 80 feet above the surface of the lake below. But he didn’t have time to worry about that. He saw a group of swimming creatures harrying an airborne Marie, and he thought he had just the solution: he cast an immense Freezing Sphere that froze a huge portion of the lake into a sheet of ice, trapping the Omox Demons in its grasp, as well as chilling them to the bone. The Acid Fog turned to acid snow that floated down onto the ice sheet below. Unfortunately, Marie was also caught in its arctic blast. On top of the damage she’d taken in the fall to the bottom of the pit, she was in bad shape, so she flew away from the chilling cold and cast Heal on herself.

Shinjiro floated down not far behind Nicki. When he spotted Zhustin and Sandru on the ledge to the west, he used his Abundant Step to teleport to their side. Sawyer came (Air) running down right behind him, Ameiko in his arms, and he too dashed to join the others on the ledge. Safe high above the water and well out of the Omox’s reach, Zhustin targeted the demon right below them with a Scorching Ray, but the Abyssal creature’s natural spell resistance thwarted the spell.

Nicki was feeling pretty smug; he’d managed to trap three of the demons in a sheet of ice, making them sitting ducks. But the ice was only six inches thick – enough to form a strong surface, but leaving plenty of room for the 7-foot tall demons to still have contact with liquid water below the ice. That allowed them use their Liquid Leap ability to teleport through the water away from the ice sheet. The Omox Demons then summoned Babau Demons – which appeared surrounding the group who’d thought themselves save on the high ledge. Instead, they were now beset by half a dozen new demonic foes, and Ameiko found herself bleeding from a nasty claw slash.

Bella came floating into the cavern at this point, just in time to see Nicki fire off a Chain Lightning at the Omox Demons swimming in the water. The bolts of electricity arced between the demons, but seemed to do no damage whatsoever. Nicki spotted Bella, and flew over to grab her, to ferry her to the ledge at the south, but Marie intercepted them and cast a Fly spell on the rogue, leaving Nicki free to use his hands for better things. For her part, Bella drew her bow and began to strafe the Omox Demons.

On the ledge, things had just gotten a lot more confusing. Shinjiro unleashed a flurry of blows against the Babau Demon next to him; he hit, but the thing’s thick hide let it shrug off most of the force of the blows. Ameiko cast Heroism on Sawyer, adroitly dodging the attacks of the demons surrounding her as she cast the spell. Then she slipped in between them, and dashed around the corner. The ledge they were on opened into a large cavern with a wide passage leading south; she crouched there, worried about demons in front and the unknown behind.

Sawyer stepped into the gap she’d left and laid into the demons with Suishen, preventing them from pursuing Ameiko. Zhustin was also surrounded, but rather than escape, he swung his Spell Storing Staff at the nearest Babau Demon, hoping to zap it with this magic, but melee combat was not his strong suit, and the swing went wide. Sandru was also flanked by demons, and he swung his scimitar. It landed a pair solid blows on one of them, but its blade couldn’t even pierce the thing’s leathery hide stretched tight over its skeleton. Like the Omoxes, it was covered with a layer of protective slime that splashed and bubbled on the blade as he hit.

The Babaus clawed at Sawyer and Sandru, drawing blood. Both fighters suddenly felt a violent push, as if some invisible hand had tried to shove them off the lip of the ledge, but they were both able to fight off the psychic assault and maintain their footing. One of the Omoxes teleported through the water, reappearing in the hole it had recently vacated in the ice sheet. From this vantage point, it fired a blob of slime up at Bella, flying above.

Sandoval finally reached the end of the spiraling path – only to find himself still 80 feet from the bottom, with no way down. Below him was a sheet of solid ice, so he Dimension Door’d down to the ice and began singing at the top of his lungs, his song echoing throughout the cavern. Nicki fired off a trio of Scorching Rays using his Elemental Spell power to twist their flames into acid. The blasts of acid splashed harmlessly off one of the Omoxes, and Nicki cursed loudly – was there anything that could hurt these freaking things? Bella had also seen her arrows barely penetrate the demons’ tough slime coating, so she switched to her adamantine arrows, and was gratified to see them sink to the fletching. Marie drew her adamantine mace and flew down to play whack-a-mole with the Omox poking up through the ice, but her mace missed the Omox and cracked the ice instead. The Omox Demon immediately lunged at Marie, bashing her with acid-coated fists and trying to wrap its arms around her, but Desna’s love of Liberation allowed her to easily slip through its grasp.

The group up on the ledge was having a hard time of it. Shinjiro kept flailing away at one of the Babau Demons flanking him, gradually wearing it down despite its natural damage resistance. But Ameiko saw her well-aimed arrows bounce harmlessly off one demon. Realizing she wasn’t likely to be able to hurt them directly, she abandoned her bow and began waving the Amatatsu standard over her head, hoping to rally her friends to greater glory. Sandru’s Power Attack failed to injure another and the two demons on either side of him attacked with a fury, and he found himself being ripped to shreds by their teeth and claws. Only Sawyer was having any success. Suishen flashed mercilessly against the demons, and even though its flaming blade didn’t hurt them, one fell to its razor-sharp edge.

Zhustin threw himself backwards off the ledge – but the Fly spell he still had running kept him from falling. He cast Greater Invisibility on himself and mentally searched his spell list for something that might damage these demons. Nicki flew past Bella and cast Greater Invisibility on the rogue. “Give ‘em hell!” he cried, then unleashed a barrage of Quickened Magic Missiles on the Omox in the hole in the ice. Bella, now able to fire without her target anticipating her attack, flew directly above the hole and fired three adamantine arrows straight down into the demon’s skull. It gave a strangled cry, then sank slowly out of sight.

Shinjiro continued to batter the Babau Demons around him, avoiding the splashes of acidic slime that flew from each blow. Sawyer whirled and took the head off another of the demons, as Marie flew full-speed towards the battle on the ledge, sure they would need her healing. Sandoval, standing alone on the ice, felt a sudden Telekinetic shove that threatened to push him off the ice and into the water, but he managed to hold his position despite the slippery footing. Zhustin, seeing Nicki’s success with Magic Missiles fired his own against one of the Babau Demons. They were slowly whittling the enemy down, but would they run out of time – or spells – before they overcame the demons’ seemingly insurmountable defenses?

I’m going to go ahead and tally up XP, even though this battle isn’t over yet, to make it easier to keep track of next week’s totals. At the end of this battle (assuming you survive – evil DM laugh), the PCs will have earned 18,514 XP, putting them at 457,948 XP and at Level 14. You need 635,000 XP to reach Level 15. Note that you will not level-up until after this battle, so you’ll complete this encounter with your 13^th level characters. We’ll be at Leo’s again next Sunday. The following week, I’ll be in San Diego, so you’ll be doing games at Rich & Joette’s.