The Iron Coral, sessions four through six

Rathy takes the net and trident from the dead coral gladiator. After camping overnight in Room 3 (Level 2), the party made their way back through the coral garden (Room 1) and up the stairs to the north leading to (Level 1) Room 14. This room has a ten foot glass dome in the floor, filled with swaying water. Amaris readies her hunting knife to have a look at the big door with symbols and braid patterns that opens to Room 15. Someone touches the glass dome, and it breaks: a yellow worm is released and flows out with the water down the stairs to the lower level. Walter fires at the worm with his musket.

The yellow worm is killed after some thrashing by Rathy, and the party enters Room 15. The walls are stone; there are three unresponsive humanoid figures. They seem to be guarding three crystal spheres. Leaving the room with a sphere is a challenge; eventually Walter takes the left sphere, Bruusa takes the middle sphere, and Amaris takes the sphere on the right.

They go back into Room 7: yellow slime walls, pulsing sac on the floor. A glass window slides open into Room 6. The sea battering the coral is almost deafening in here, and the slime on the floor is slippery. Amaris goes first.

Rathy enters Room 18, filled with golden, cool, glittering air. Walter enters quickly and starts grabbing flakes of gold on some damp paper. Rathy enters Room 17 which contains a glowing white glove on a pedestal. No one, including Bruusa, can remove the glove from the pedestal. Amaris enchants her crystal sphere with Elemental Spy and rolls the sphere towards Room 8, the misshapen room with lumpy metallic walls that the party went through on an earlier day. A glittering woman materializes and attacks; she is frozen by Amaris’ magic, and Rathy uses the net to drag her (living but unmoving) body on the floor with the party.

Backtracking downstairs to Level 2, making their way to Room 5. Walter takes some sentimental jewelry from one of the safes. Rathy takes one of the vault combination locks inscribed with alien symbols. The party passes by several rock pools in Room 9; bright blue weeds sting Walter’s hand as he collects some pennies. The walls of Room 10 are covered with crude paintings of a snakelike figure swimming in water. The glittering woman revives and makes her escape.

They encounter the coral prince in Room 7, cut off his head, and find only knick-knacks and cheap toys in his hoard. Walter’s musket is damaged; Rathy’s sword is now just a handle but he has a trident. The head is still alive, and speaking; they leave the head (and his precious letters) with the three faceless humanoids working in Room 16. Amaris takes a damaged book that seems to be an operator’s manual to the Iron Coral.

Room 6 has a sewage canal running through it. The party go down a ladder through a wide shaft to Level 3, Room 6, which is a long corridor. They visit Room 7, which has a pool of milky water. Rathy gives Walter some of the gold thorn-like pattern inlay. They walk back and head down Room 3 of polished golden tiles. A tapestry hides a passageway to Room 4. A huge, silver-framed mirror dominates the south wall. One’s reflection seems too bright at first, then shifts to show a potential cause of your death. Walter is almost shot at a poker game. Amaris is almost trampled by a stampeding barbarian horde from her youthful nightmares, before being pushed out of the way of the mirror’s gaze by Walter. Rathy saw a vision of an electrocution death by licking something in a wall; then he shattered the mirror.