Crypts of Chaos

[JigokuBosatsu]

"Shivering [EDITED]," utters the normally polite gnomess. She draws her Hexenblade.

[Avoraciopoctules]

In Room 00
The shadows coalesce in a corner of a room, accompanied by mocking laughter, and then flee once more. What remains looks to be a massive (Large size) suit of articulated full-plate black iron armor, with eyes of glass, a large-headed adamantine hammer clutched in its hand. Emblazoned on the newcomer's chest are four runes in a strange language.

Xil waves back to the armored newcomer as she heads out.
"Yo, welcome to the Crypts of Chaos. Good luck surviving, this is a pretty deadly place."

[Ancient History]

Room 00
The armor raises its head and emits a series of squeaks, squawks, and skwonks. The Oracle raises herself to the surface of the pool and, placing her hands in front of her mouth, answers in an approximation of the same sounds.

[Avoraciopoctules]

"Look out for cursed items, and be aware that your soul is gonna be stuck in a evil god's buffet river if you don't do something to fix it in place before you're destroyed. See ya!"
Xilraxochitl continues back towards the soul river to the West.

[Ancient History]

'Xochitl passes back down the western corridor. This time, she sees something she missed before: strands of blue hair or fur on the floor near the door to the Yugoloth Lord's chamber.

[Avoraciopoctules]

"Ha. If it's live enough to have colorful hair, it's live enough to get eaten by bugs. Good sign, now to check on the scavenger team."

[Ancient History]

'Xochitl passes the Yugoloth's door (which still smells of overripe cheese and brimstone) and moves to the end of the western corridor, where it opens up to the cavern. Nothing moves as far as the dread mummy can see, and the sounds of battle from farther west are no longer present.

[Avoraciopoctules]

Now moving without speaking, Xil heads out toward the battle site to check on her minions.

[Ancient History]

Following the previous path down the river of souls, over the arch of stone and the remnants of her last battle, and back up the other bank to the ruined road, 'Xochitl sets off further west, past the Weaponer's tower. After some little distance on this route 'Xochitl notices the ground level grows a little higher, and the rocky cavern floor on either side of the road gives way to slowly growing mounds of rich black earth and compost, with small forests of mushrooms and toadstools, some reaching almost a foot in height, with little blue things flitting about under the canopies. After half a mile of such travel, and the road reduced to an overgrown path among the vedure, 'Xochitl reaches what she believes to be the entrance to the next cavern - a long, low opening some twenty feet wide at the base, but only five feet high, from whose dark recesses a damp, musty gust of warm air blows.

[Avoraciopoctules]

Sniffing carefully, forewarned of the presence of some kind of druids or other nature guardians, Xil has her minions hang back a hundred feet or so while she slowly advances, ready to summon something in the way if she is attacked.

[Whatever]

Cadwyn reflexively steps back from the corpse, keeping Madoc away from it. "Is it alive?"

(What does the corpse look like? Still all injured and bloody, or are there signs of the body regenerating itself?)

[Ancient History]

At the Giftgiver's Hall
The bloody, headless corpse of the Giftgiver shambles forwards. The great metal weight has crushed its skull and buried it inside its chest cavity, so that the ribs burst and spikes of bone protrude through the squashed torso. Nevertheless, the arms and legs still look strong, and have the lavidity of death, the fingers reduced to mere bony claws from where it must have crawled its way out from under the instrument that killed it.

[Red_Rob]

"Does everything that dies here come back? It's like their souls have nowhere else to go! But what does it want? It better not want it's robe back, I'm not wandering around naked again!"

Kai is going to back away with Cadwyn until he get's this thing's measure.

(Did the Infernal healing put Kai to full or did he only get one jolt due to the confusion?)

[Ancient History]

{Kai is at 13 hp}

The gift-zombie lumbers forward, reaching for the nearest victim - Berry! {AoO}

In the Western Cavern
'Xochitl passes through the dark passage between caverns. If the previous one was twilit by the river of souls, then this particular cavern is even more gloomy and dismal, with only a dark ruddy light emanating from a central pillar. The mushrooms here are of unbelievable sizes, but carefully sectioned off with mathematical detail into hexagonal patches about ten feet across, each tended by a group of vaguely humanoid fungus people, with pale grey arms and legs and florid, black-gilled caps spotted with white. The road passes quite close to one patch, where a pair of four-foot tall mushroom-people in overalls appear to be mulching a group of dead humanoids into a fine paste with a rake and a maul. 'Xochitl's errant skeleton stands idly by where they work.

[JigokuBosatsu]

"This place doesn't make any sense sometimes!" Berry slashes at the gift-zombie as it lurches forward.

[Avoraciopoctules]

In the Western Cavern
'Xochitl passes through the dark passage between caverns. If the previous one was twilit by the river of souls, then this particular cavern is even more gloomy and dismal, with only a dark ruddy light emanating from a central pillar. The mushrooms here are of unbelievable sizes, but carefully sectioned off with mathematical detail into hexagonal patches about ten feet across, each tended by a group of vaguely humanoid fungus people, with pale grey arms and legs and florid, black-gilled caps spotted with white. The road passes quite close to one patch, where a pair of four-foot tall mushroom-people in overalls appear to be mulching a group of dead humanoids into a fine paste with a rake and a maul. 'Xochitl's errant skeleton stands idly by where they work.

"AhAA! That's where you ran off to, you silly horde-monster. Hello, fellow sapients. Any of you speak Common? Sorry if any undead escaped over here to cause problems. I lost a few designated sub-commanders not too long ago, and any standing orders their minions had were probably lost."

Xil calls the skeleton over, and checks it for spores.

[Ancient History]

"This place doesn't make any sense sometimes!" Berry slashes at the gift-zombie as it lurches forward.

Berry's hexenblade catches the zombie at the base of the gut, and she executes a quick uppercut that splits it from stem to stern, putrid guts collapsing out of it with a woosh of foul fluids. The giftgiver's mutilated corpse falls.

"AhAA! That's where you ran off to, you silly horde-monster. Hello, fellow sapients. Any of you speak Common? Sorry if any undead escaped over here to cause problems. I lost a few designated sub-commanders not too long ago, and any standing orders their minions had were probably lost."

Xil calls the skeleton over, and checks it for spores.

The fungus-people look up, but if they understand, they give no indication.

The skeleton doesn't appear to have any spores on it, but a small frog peaks out at 'Xochitl from inside the skull.

[JigokuBosatsu]

Berry jumps back from the filth. "I think you can keep your coat, Kai."

[Red_Rob]

"Good hit Berry! I still don't like the way everything seems to come back to life. Remember when you killed those giants and one of their heads came after you? Now this. We didn't leave any more corpses lying around did we? What if Master Archibald wasn't taken..."

[JigokuBosatsu]

"Archie coming back as a... a lich or something is the last thing we need. Well, unless he was friendly, in which case... yay liches!"

[Avoraciopoctules]

The fungus-people look up, but if they understand, they give no indication.

The skeleton doesn't appear to have any spores on it, but a small frog peaks out at 'Xochitl from inside the skull.

"Huh. Cute." Xil attempts to gently grab the frog between two fingers. Then she waves to the fungus people with the other arm and marches back towards the Oracle's chamber.

[Whatever]

If the giftgiver's corpse has stopped moving, Cadwyn will use the Godblade to slice it into tiny pieces, making sure that Madoc doesn't try to eat any of it.

"Poor Satan." Cadwyn says with one mouth, while the other replies, "This is no place for a sanity clause, after all."

[Ancient History]

Go West, Young Dread Mummy
'Xochitl attempts to fetch out the frog, but it retreats and jumps out of the skeleton onto the ground. Then the dread mummy begins retracing her route, the skeleton following behind her.

OMG, You Killed Santa...Again
The dismembered remains of the giftgiver are spread out before the door to his hall. Cap'n Ratbeard doffs his hat and mumbles a few words.

[Avoraciopoctules]

"That's the second time gambling on the brains of minions what ain't got any didn't pay off. Next time, I definitely gotta send a subcommander with."
2 skeletons and a swarm of undead wasps trailing in her wake, Xilraxochitl returns to the Oracle's pool.

[Ancient History]

'Xochitl retraces her steps back along the road, pas the Weaponer's tower - where the clink of hammer on anvil has been replaced with a dull thumping - and back down one bank of the river of souls and over the arch of stone. The walking armor with the hammer trundles past without even a nod, heading into where the cavern where the river of souls flows north and east; 'Xochitl and her crewe continue on to the western corridor, and eventually arrive back at Room 00.