Mists of Madness, Session 2: Malicious Malikai

Aletha, Chiana, Regnor, and Corvus gathered again early the next day to discuss what should be done about Skolous and Malikai the Mad. Aletha and Chiana were still suffering from their cursed disease so were anxious to find a remedy. They went with Corvus to the bazaar of gods to research Skolous and a possible cure. They found histories that told of a phylactery that Skolous had created to safeguard his essence while he slumbered in an attempt to outlive his enemies. It was said that he sent the thing far away with one of his loyal followers to be hidden and passed down the ages until he could be raised again. Many of his priests and followers were sacrificed and buried alive with him in order to watch over his place of rest and rise up if his tomb was threatened before the return of his phylactery. Research indicated that the disease was caused by the presence of this phylactery and that its destruction would be the cure. Destroying the phylactery required sending it into the Far Realm, but doing so would require performing a ritual beyond their current abilities. When they researched the whereabouts of this phylactery they found that it was supposed to have been passed down through many hands over the centuries and the current owner was unknown. They took a brief description of it to their contact, Randall, to ask if he had seen it. He said, yes, he had seen something similar on Malikai the Mad the other day.

Armed with their new knowledge they headed back to the spire in the marsh to seek out Malikai and the phylactery. There they found the Maw of Madness still spewing forth its blue mist. They climbed a rickety scaffolding up into the cave and into the mist. In the maw they found the mists pouring forth from an iron censer hung from the roof of the cavern, like a metal uvula. The shadows in the cavern seemed to shift and move about them. Aletha decided to try to dislodge the censer by feystepping up to it, but she missed her grab and fell prone on the floor below it. That's when the phantom warriors lurking in the misty shadows moved in for the kill. The phantoms wielded ghostly blades that passed through armor and flesh with ease and left behind the chill of death. The party attempted to come to Aletha's aid and moved deeper into the cavern to fend off the phantoms. Another enemy came out from hiding, dressed in star patterned robes and his face matched the description of Malikai the Mad. A small winged homunculus leaped from his shoulder and disappeared into the mist. Malikai drew a short sword and closed with Corvus. His face shifted and became that of Corvus before slashing with his sword. Corvus was not impressed and used his booming voice to chasten and intimidate the shape-shifting creature into backing away. The creature ran around a wall and Corvus chased after it.

Regnor, Chiana and Aletha made battle with the phantoms as the small clay guardian lurked in the shadows and played tricks with their minds. Once the phantoms were sent howling back to the Shadowfell, the clay homunculus was easily crushed under the weight of Chiana's thundering mace. The shape-shifter came out of hiding, took on Aletha's face, feinted to the left, and then stabbed her. Corvus caught up and slew it. As it fell its face took on a pale and almost featureless countenance. The party found the end of the chain suspending the censer, lowered it, and removed the whole thing from the cave. They also found a crate half-full of bluish crystals, which acted as fuel for the foul thing. They determined that these objects had acted as a catalyst, reviving the spirits of dead guardians of the fort to protect the cave against Skolous's enemies. In a side cavern they found the remains of a camp for two people, Malikai and apparently his Doppleganger companion. Notes scrawled on scrolls confirmed their suspicions. Malikai had the phylactery and was somewhere near seeking to either raise Skolous or take his power for himself it was unclear. He described suffering from the same maladies as Aletha and Chiana, although he saw it as a blessing. Aletha found an Eladrin pact sword hidden amongst his discarded gear and claimed it as her own.

They searched the rest of the cavern and found a secret door that had been previously discovered and broken open with tools. It led to a narrow passage where a hidden pit trap had been sprung. At the bottom lay the body of a swamp dweller, impaled on cruel spikes. They passed the pit and continued down a spiraling stone staircase which ended in a low cavern with two identical bronze portals, each engraved with strange symbols and depictions of Far Realm dwellers. Above one of the portals the letters “SKOLOUS” were carved. Aletha pulled out one of Malikai's mad scrawlings and noted that he had referred to Skolous as the “one who shall not be named” and inferred that they should take the door that lacked the inscription. They passed safely beyond the chamber and avoided what was most likely a death trap in the other room.

They continued down a long high passage lined with murals depicting heinous acts that Skolous had either performed during his previous life or was destined to do upon his revivification. At the end the passage opened up into a large tomb with crystal columns and a series of high stone steps leading to a massive sarcophagus and a huge throne. The real Malikai was standing beside the partially opened sarcophagus and holding the phylactery aloft apparently in the final acts of an awful rite. The bones of sacrificial victims and discarded weapons and implements of torture littered the floor amongst the rubble. Malikai noticed the intruders and commanded his thralls to “rise up and protect your master!”. With that an army of skeletons clattered to life and picked up various weapons to attack. From many side-chapels came figures garbed in priestly robes and wielding long hooked glaive. Their movements were an eerily swift sliding motion. When they came fully into the light of Corvus's sunrod he could see that their bodies were made entirely up of a mass of writhing bugs, maggots, and other vermin.

Chiana began to sing a song of courage while Regnor charged into the fray cleaving through bones with his greataxe. One of the priestly horrors reached out with its glaive and grappled Regnors sword arm. Aletha blasted her enemies from afar with cold, causing the shambling horrors to burst with outward with poisonous debris. Corvus braved a gauntlet of grasping glaives to reach the center of the tomb where he burst outward with radiant light, destroying many of the weaker undead. The rest of the remaining tomb guardians were chopped and blasted into dust. While the party had been distracted with his undead servants, Malikai had disappeared around a corner behind the throne and escaped. The party took some time to search the tomb and found treasure buried with Skolous in his sarcophagus: many hundreds of mixed silver and gold coins and a pair of bracers of mighty striking which Regnor claimed as his own. Skolous, in his final form, resembled a massive shriveled toad with far too many eyes. His corpse showed now signs of life.

They searched for Malikai in a labyrinth of narrow passages hidden behind the throne. The finally found a small chamber with an obviously magical portal in the form of a mosaic of a greedy maw painted on the floor. Suspended in the air above the maw Aletha, Regnor, and Corvus saw a massive sapphire, while Chiana saw a nasty sacrificial dagger. She also heard a voice beckoning her to take the dagger and become Skolous's chosen one. Aletha warned the party of the presence of illusions so they were not tempted to grab the hovering items. Eventually they stepped into the portal and were teleported to the final room. If they had grasped the illusionary items, things could have turned out much worse than they did.

In the final room, there was a massive portal leading into a black void punctuated with stars of many colors and cloudy nebulas. A massive shadowy shape seemed to be swimming across the void and approaching the portal from a great distance. Malikai stood before the portal in the ring of a magic circle facing away from it and at the party as the appeared. Between Malikai and the party was an ever-filling pool of blood that a group of four ghouls were drinking from, who looked up only when the adventurers appeared. Malikai ignored the portal for a moment and taunted the newcomers, telling them they would be the first to witness his ascension to god-hood now that he had taken all of Skolous's power into himself. In fact he began to refer to himself as Skolous. He lifted his hands and a wave of black scarabs surged from out of nowhere to swarm over the closely packed party who were assaulted psychically with pain. The ghouls sprang forward and engaged each of the party members, immobilizing them in place with their fearsome claw attacks. Malikai cackled at the party from a safe distance and launched wave after wave of scarabs and bolts of burning black fire at them, all the while the massive shadow in the background grew larger and larger in the portal. The adventurers struggled mightily against the ghouls who were slashing and biting the immobilized members. Chiana used her ritual of Affect Normal Fire to brighten the burning braziers next to her and catch a nearby ghoul on fire. Regnor chopped and hack at the undead soldiers. Aletha teleported about in an attempt to evade the ghoul that pursued her. Corvus was blasting them with radiant light which they seemed to be vulnerable to. Suddenly some huge tentacled colossus reached through the portal and began grasping at Malikai to his great chagrin. Malikai was momentarily distracted while the party finished off the ghouls and moved into range with him. Chiana took a moment to bath in the pool of blood and take a drink to refresh herself. Corvus hid behind a nearby pillar and launched radiant fire at Malikai. Aletha kept moving to gain concealment in her fey mist, while blasting him with eldritch magic. Regnor fired arrows from his dragonhorn longbow from a safe distance.

Malikai was worn down and as he gasped out his last curse upon the party, the tentacled horror from beyond the portal got a firm hold of him and yanked him bodily through the portal. As soon as the phylactery around his neck passed the threshold the portal shuddered and imploded, taking much of the room with it. The concussive blow knocked the party out briefly and extinguished all but the strongest light in the chamber. The characters were awoken only by the shifting and rumbling of stone as the spire began to crumble and sink around them. A great fissure leading up and out to the surface had opened up during the implosion so the party hurried up the scree filled path and into the light. As they reached the surface the spire toppled over and sank into the swamp. Aletha and Chiana found that their various afflictions had magically been cured. The party dusted themselves off and headed back to the relative safety of the walls of Punjar, a little richer and more experienced than before.