The Danger Gang Makes Its Move In Mount Salerno
The Danger Gang wakes up; everyone feeling confident and excited. Martialis casts Augery to see if they're proposed plan should work, or at least the first half, and the Big Tree says it might.
So, they head down to the Sea of Mercury, Can and Marty having cast their Fly and Airwalks on those agreed appropriate in advance. They take a minute trying to convince Psychopomp that the Princess might be bad news, but he aint buying it. So Can casts Fumble on him, which Slows him. Psychopomp tries to get off a blast of heat breath weapon, but Marty's Control Temperature takes care of that. They begin their flight across the mercury sea. Out of nowhere, a cloud of butterflies approaches them, but Can's Burning Hands takes care of that before they even try to worry about what their deal is or anything. They head past one beach, to another where they see the Majordomo's raft resting.
They land their and hoof it down the hallway past the beach. At the end of said hallway, before a room, is a big ol' chest, out of which pop a half dozen skeletons who start chucking flaming ribs at the boys. Marty whips up a few giant insects which help the boys take 'em out. Unfortunately, both Lleryn and Can get knocked down to a negative in the melee. They also see Psychopomp's head pop out of the mercury at the entrance to the hall. They take cover around the corner in the room. Marty suggests that they try to rest their, which everyone finds good for a laugh, until they realize he's serious. They give it a spin. After a minute or two of trying to lay low, they hear Psychopomp yell out, "Cat, the mistress is in danger! All bets are off!"
Not long after that, a swarm of white mice approach the room from a hallway to the south. Karl whips out his Aeolean bag of the South Winds and shoots it right down their throats, scattering the vermin. Unfortunately, the next things coming down the hallway will not be dealt with so easily. They see a metal dwarf and a figure wearing a pink cloak heading towards them. Karl hides in the shadows while Barry grabs the amulet of protection off of Can and opens a bag of west wind down the other hall to avoid any other kind of gaseous visitors. It is then that he notices another pink cloaked figure coming through the wall to the north. This one turns out to be the real Princess. Kotrag bravely steps up to the plate, and quickly gets drained of two levels. This puts him in a real sour mood, and so he sits out for the rest of the fight. Meanwhile, Karl, using his new Tinkering profficiency, backstabs the robotic dwarf, with limited effect. Can casts Haste out of his spellbook, which is, apparently, something he can do. Marty changes into a lion and steps in on the robot while Karl steps up to the vampire. Barry fights her aswell, and the amulet does a fine job protecting him from having levels drained (her attacks do, however, use up four of it's charges, for the record). Karl, however, is not so well equipped, and loses a level in each of his classes. However, he does land the finishing blow, such as it is, which turns her into a gaseous cloud. Barry grabs the still blowing bag of south wind and blows her down the hallway. They follow her down into what turns into a luxurious bedroom. She escapes through a tiny hole in the wall. They use the bag of wind to spray some holy water after her, though who knows if that does anything. Couldn't hurt, though. It's then that they look up and see a man in an iron mask with a robotic woodpecker banging on it in a cage.
They bust him out and remove the mask; it's the Patriarch! Everyone is very happy, but what do they do now?
Everyone discusses how they can maybe get back past Psychopomp, what tricks they have left up their sleeves. Karl isn't hearing any of it. He climbs up to the ceiling and begins chipping away at the roof. They talk and talk, until they realize that Karl's right (as always). Marty climbs up on people's shoulders and stoneshapes a tunnel that leads a good ten feet up, then goes to try to rest. Karl keeps digging while people sleep, but is only about to chip away about an inch of this amazingly hard stone. As he takes a break to whipe the sweat off his brow, he hears some sort of nibbling. He and Barry run over to the door and hear the tell-tale sound of mice chewing through the door. Karl tries to talk them out of it, but, no dice. So instead he grabs Charon's Cup and cuts a small hole in the bottom of the door. All the mice rush through the extradimensional pocket into the treasure room.
Once the rest cycle is complete, they finish digging up to the surface. Great. Everybody's happy. Except they forgot Hush. They need to go back into the lion's den and get her out of there. They heal up as much as they can and head back down stairs. First room, everybody falls for that cat bastards Confusion. Well, everyone except Lleryn, who has only one hitpoint and is promptly knocked out by a punch in the face by the Patriarch. The cat man tries to dimension door out with the Patriarch, but Marty grabs him in a moment of clarity. With the weight limit exceeded on the spell, the Cat Man cannot drag him away. Marty yells out to his loyal tiger companion Swifty, who rushes down to their aid. Saucer of milk, table two. Eventually, however, Swifty can not withstand the attacks, and fails his morale check. On the other side of the coin, between scattered moments of clarity, and the Patriarch having wandered away while confused, the Cat Man decides it is time to cut his losses. He gets out of there. Lleryn runs and grabs Hush and they all book it for the Tigress and tell Kolya as fast as possible.
After a little more resting, Can is ready to Teleport the Patriarch back to Chrysopolis. The Patriarch promises that, should he regain his tongue, he will cast Restoration on those who lost levels trying to save him.
