March 10, 2025

Next stop, Curst!

The tower is marching along toward Curst. Outside we hear a lot of good-natured shouting. A group of decoratively painted lizardfolk are clustered around their leader, who is lifting a huge rock over his head to much applause. They shout for us to stop and ask for a ride to Semuana's Bog. The leader's name is Sesspech.

The party confers and ultimately agrees. To pass the time, Harvey suggests a jumping contest. The party wins! Then Sesspech suggests a liazardfolk trivia content. We lose. Sandro offers to swap recipes.

Zaythir chimes in to mention the time dragon's domain, the Mausoleum of Chronepsis, is nearby.  Renee is in no hurry and says she'd prefer to skip the stop and continue adventuring with us instead.

Arriving at the swamp, the lizardmen invite us to stay a while. During the visit we meet their head cleric, a massive lizardman named Kh'halmech. Sandro asks him for his thoughts on our reincarnation situation. He explains that sometimes people reincarnate in the place where there are "supposed" to be. Then he pauses and says, "But wait... your souls are not intact. Do you mind if I kill one of you to test a theory?" Botticelli volunteers and is subsequently beheaded. Within minutes, a new Botticelli appears.

The cleric observes that each of us has a fractional soul, really only a sliver. Perhaps that is somehow pulling you back. If you can find where the rest of your souls are located, perhaps you can gather your souls again.

More competitions! Nine and Fulton defeat Kh'halmech in weightlifting. Fulton defeats Kh'halmech in intimidation. Kh'halmech defeats us all in climbing. Fulton matches Kh'halmech while discussion lizardman religious dogma. The lizardman god, Semuana, appears, then flexes and congratulates us on performance in the competitions. He presents us all a trophy: a small lizardman skull, out of which flowers are blooming. It works as an Alchemy Jug. It can produce clear springwater, but can't create anything with calories.

We arrive at the outskirts of Curst. It's in a desert-like area of low foothills. The town smells of rusted metal and is surrounded by a substantial wall of metal. Zaythir says we should not get too close and sets us down a good bit outside the wall.

The guards at the wall are humanoid elephants which Harvey recognizes as Maelephants. They are 10-12 feet tall, armored, wield huge glaives, and have metal spikes attached to their trunks. They wave us through the gate without comment. As we pass through we notice all the locks are on the outsides of the gates - they are made to keep people in rather than out.

Nine attempts to walk back out the gate but is stopped and turned back by the guards. Harvey points out wyverns circling overhead to prevent escape by flying.

Inside the city most of the population is human. There is a great deal of suspicion among the population. There are a few Demodans walking among the population. We notice one carrying a thrashing human heading toward the center of town. Harvey asks what the human did. "He welched on a deal." What kind of deal? "Talk to the warden." The human claims to be innocent and is terrified of being tossed into the gate to Carceri. Since we're looking for the gate we decide to follow. We arrive at the gate in the center of town. The mimir chimes and its eyes flicker as we approach.

Fulton describes the gate to the mimir.

Fulton suggests we find a pub. We find one near the Barred Gate. The bartender is a surly, scarred half-orc. We all order Curst-distilled whiskey in metal glasses. It tastes terrible. Silas almost made us make CON saves.

Fulton chats up the bartender. We learn the town is mostly run by Baron Villigus Bazengar. The bartender says that if we're looking to leave we shouldn't have entered the city in the first place. Harvey attempts a charm, which the bartender ignores.

Fulton pulls out his magic map. A scarred human sees the map and approaches. "That's quite a map you've got there. If you want to leave Curst you need the right friends." He introduces himself as Valder. He's wearing black platemail and a tattered cloak. "Would you like to join my son and I for some tea?" He leads us to a shack close to the town dump. Once inside he calls for Felek, his son. The younger man has almost translucent skin. Valder brews the tea and passes it around. He makes his offer: "If you take my son out of Curst I'll show you the way out. I can't leave with him."

Valder was a "mercy killer" assassin. He decided to quit the organization, which is forbidden. He was being hunted by the other killers so he decided to hide out in Curst, knowing his pursuers would not follow. He can't leave because he assumes he is still being hunted.

Valder leads us to the junkyard and tells us the tunnel is behind the dragon's right eye. Nine looks around and is sure we're being watched and followed.

Boticelli scouts ahead to find the tunnel entrance. He can hear a bubbling or humming noise coming from the deeper part of the noxious sludge pool which surrounds the dragon's head (statue). The tunnel entrance is in the same area. Boticelli climbs some nearby garbage and leaps over to the dragon's head. After the confirming the location of the tunnel, the rest of the party jumps over the sludge and climbs into the tunnel.

The tunnel goes a short way and dead-ends in a room with a puddle of sludge. The arch with the portal is nowhere to be found. While searching for a path out, Harvey's detect magic spell identifies a buried magic amulet. He digs it out to identify later. Mario casts "speaks with animals" and a nearby rat reveals the path out leads through the slime. 

Boticelli goes first since he can hold his breath for a full hour. He learns the undersludge tunnel is 40 feet long. Fulton and Mario follow. As Fulton emerges from the sludge, two armored creatures come down the tunnel and stop. We suspect they are "mercy killers". Felek comes through the tunnel next. The armored creatures recognize him and ask if he found his dad. Felek lies but it's obvious to everyone. The creatures say we are free to go but Felek is coming with them.

The rest of the party arrives and battle commences!

The fight is going poorly. Harvey casts Tasha's Hideous Laughter and both creatures fail their saves. We take the opportunity to flee down the tunnel while they're laughing. We run through the portal and sprint for the walking tower, eventually making our escape. Level up!

We identify the amulet as a Liar's Amulet. Once per day it can make a mind reader believe one false thing when reading the wearer's mind.