[Spoilers] Maze of the Blue Medusa Storytime

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>>48694957
The woman in the paining introduces herself as Chanterelle, a prisoner of the medusa who owns the dungeon inside the painting. The party debates what to do but quickly settles on trying to help the woman. Kumar stretches out his hand towards the chains and is then teleported into the painting, the rest of the party soon to follow. After a failed Tinkering check by Alistar and a successful Str check by Kumar, Chanterelle is freed and insists on getting out of the maze before talking. Alistar gallantly gives his cloak to the lady as she was entirely naked.

Outside the party questions Chanterelle about why she was trapped in a painting. She says that she was put there by the evil medusa Psathyrella. In turn she asks what year it is and where she is. The party tells her that she is in Istanbul in the year 1628. Chanterelle is seemingly distressed by this news. When asked what she will do now she comments that she will probably try to get home, wherever that is. Very quickly, Tetrical adds that if she wants to stay with them, she needs to pay rent like the rest of them. Seizing this opportunity, Chanterelle informs them that there is treasure inside the Maze, further into the dungeon proper. She quickly sketches a (false) map for them.
Armed with this knowledge the party steps, heedless of danger, into the painting. Leaving Chanterelle behind in their basement.

>>48694970
They quickly move into the next room where they are greeted by Lady Crucem Capilli. After a short conversation the party has been informed of the salient points of the situation. IE, that Lady Capilli is an outside agent sent to destroy the maze, though she is hesitant since it is so beautiful for those with advanced senses. Also that she is willing to part with some money in exchange for (roll on the table) A personal history written by someone in the maze with commentary from the characters. They also quickly come to the realization that Chanterelles map is faked and the magical portal is closed. Being concerned but still galvanised by the promise of treasure, the party sets forth.

They start by going directly north, passing into Cyanoxantha's chamber and hearing her hissing riddle. Oddly enough, there where only three people in the party and they heeded her words so no one had to die. On this occation.

Passing through that room they entered the room with the roplebridges, Being spoiled for choice the party decided to try the right doorway first. From the doorway they heard an uncanny humming.
Entering the room and shining a light around they found the Shell and the Subfoeatan. Since they where not loaded down with treasure, The Shell just looked at them and then waved it's hand to indicate that they could pass. Alistar was particularly freaked out by the weird monster with a child's head in its eye.

>>48694985
Passing through they entered the room of Teethwheels. Seeing a door at the other end the party carefully moved across the mosaic of teeth. They examined and tried to open the door, which was bolted from their side. Doing this they sounded the alarm which sounded in the delightful tunes of a small glockenspiel, playing a tune they could not quite place. But this drew the attention of the rooms recident who quickly moved for the door. His heavy footprints freaked out the party so they bolted the door again and carefully tried to shuffle away. A pair of ominous hammerings on the door and then the occupant lost interest. The party decided to leave that door alone for now.

Moving south into the room of the Esher Stairs they where ambushed by a pair of Chameleon Women. Kumar the Berberian tanked thier macheteblows and was almost felled, Luckily Kumars rage helped him make minced meat out of one of the Chameleons and Alistair critted the other one. Tetrical, who had spent his previous turns climbing the walls for an epic backstab, glumly got down and joined in the looting. All in all the party got two machetes which Kumar took, a full waterskin and a few rations. Truly a feast since the food they brought with them was sparce. They also found a jar of preservatives which contained a strange homunculi. A human hand with an eye sown into the palm grafted to the body of a snake. Kumar, much to the others distress, opened the jar to smell and take a sip of the contents. He quickly decided that it was vinegar and was nausiated.

They retreated to the room of Lady Caprilli and proceeded to rest up from their experiences. Not much treasure was gained and the XP was negligable. But all in all the session was fun and the players where interested in delving further.

>>48695003
Session 2.
Notes: Alistairs player could not join us, but a fourth player did, The part line-up for this session was, Kumar the Berber Barbarian, Tetrical the Ratman and Zubatah The Cleric of Baal. This session lasted about 5 hours.

Curtains go up on the same small basement as Zubatah enters to find her friends gone and a mysterious woman looking through their stuff. The woman notices as Zubatah enters and asks her if they have any food about the place. Bewildered by the situation Zubatah answers that she doesn't know, but that she should share if she finds any. The questions then turn to the wereabouts of her friends to which Chanterelle gives a brief explanation that they are in the painting which is a doorway into a magical maze. Chanterelle also gives instructions how one enters the maze and Zubatah does so after a brief hesitation. When she looks back at the other side of the paining the notices a small pale child, standing in the shadows of the basement room she just left. There is not time to react however as Chanterelle lays the cloth down and closes the gate.

Zubatah enters the next room to find her companions resting in a corner, sans Alistair who was suppoed to stand watch. The party eats a few rations and discuss their current situation. Seeing as they have scant choice, they opt to continue to explore the maze.

>>48695014
First they enter the left round room, directly across from the Esher Stairs. Moving through the room they discover this chambers magic fairly quickly as Tetrical falls into Kumars shadow. As this happens, Kumar notices a (wandering monster roll) small mechanical hummingbird which enters the room from the north. Kumar is spellbound by it's exquisite craftsmanship and concludes that it must be worth a fortune. As he is busy admiring the bird, Tetrical climbs out of the hole. Kumar tries to offer the bird some jerky but as his hand comes too close it darts away through the west doorway. The party does not follow it however and spend some time and lampoil, trying to make this room safe to walk through, by spacing lamps through out it.

Knocking and examining the west door, Kumar chops a fist sized hole at the base of the door to spy inside. He sees a room full of roughly made statues and green vines covering every surface. Concluding that statues are a bad time, the party opts to not go through this door. Kumar does however grab a vine and proceeds to check if it's edible. A failed poison save confirms that they are non edible and Kumar settles down for about 5 minues to violently purge.

>>48695028
Listening at the north doorway they can hear the sounds of metal scraping against stone and the soft pained grunts of an old man. Bringing in their lamp they see a very aged man, dressed in rags with three swords stuck through his chest. Shielding his eyes from the light the old man infoms them that he is King Sanguifluus. The party has never heard of him and asks him about the swords. After listening to his story they agree to try and pull the swords out and grant him the peace of death. Kumar strides forth and pulls the most goodlooking sword out of the old king. In an unsettling cascade, the vapour thane Umbra Neon manifests and challanges the party with an ”En Garde”. The party then jokingly conclude that Sanguifluus and his thanes probably where french. The battle is short and intense, Lucky rolls dispatch Umbra Neon fairly quickly. This emboldens the party and Tetrical pulls the second sword as Penumbra Xenon forms. This time the dice where not merciful however. After a faceful of poison gas, Kumar is felled and the party decides to retreat from the room. Xenon then takes up a guard position by the doorway to see that the ruffians do not return.

Just as the party flees the previous room a small pop is heard and in the pile of puke now sits the new partymember. A Goblin called Snickergit. He is frightened and quickly draws his dagger. Snickergit informs the party that he was just about to assasinate a wizard when he was unwittingly teleported into the maze.

After some fun roleplay which shook down to the party agreeing to hire Snickergit for a cut of any profit they made, the party sets of again. First to check the backdoor to Sanguifluus chamber (locked from the inside) and then further north into the complex.

>>48695042
Moving through the north of the room with the rope bridges the party encountered The strange scene of a bunch of chesspieces telepathically arguing with a strange mutated snake/eel/child. The Chess King telepathically contacted the party, angling to persuade them to kill the mutant child Gibba to free his rook. The party was mostly not interested but asked Gibba why he had taken the rook to which Gibba answered that he likes the taste of marble. The Chess King changed track alittle and promised his and his subjects eternal gratitude and whatever treasure Gibba had on him if they would just slay him. Hearing that the snakekid might have treasure they asked what he had on him. Happy to show of his toys, Gibba turned his bag upside down and started going through the junk that fell out. Of interest where only a single spellscroll which Gibba informed them that he had gotten from his mother. Always interested in magic loot, Tetracal asked if Gibba wanted to trade the scroll. In exchange, Tetrical offered the jar with the snakehand which Gibba accepted and rapidly started to play with by dragging the jar across the floor, making burbling noises. This seeming alliance angered the Chess King who ordered his subjects to attack. After a staccato blast of fighting, Zubatah tried to convince the king to call of his subjects. A good argument and Charisma roll later, the king agreed. But he did banish the party from his kingdom, forevermore. IE, they are not allowed to step on the chessboard carved into the floor. With that out of the way, the party left the room.

>>48695063
They took the righthand door northward and came on a room with a white floor, save for a single black line from on door to the other. After an agonizingly slow march forward, Tetrical became impatient and stepped on the white part of the floor and came under the power of a fear spell. He ran screaming out of the room to encounter! (wandering monster roll.) Nothing special. After calming down and taking his time, the party finally crossed the room.

After picking up some Hypnodisks and messing around in Chronia's library they finally came on the first Thorn sister.

She was sitting in her room, playing a flue made entirely of gold when they came in. Midly interested by new people, Chronia started chatting with them. The conversation went back and forth, but she let slip that she was one of three magical sisters who where trapped in the maze, for their and the worlds sake. She also warned them not to get to close to her, lest her entropic aura would magically age them. The party Tetrical asked if there was some way of dispelling the aura to which Chronia answered that she didn't know but that she had lost hope a long time ago. The party talked amongst themselves for a bit and then asked if she had any treasure. Chronia answered that she had her flute, some wine and her tears which she might be willing to part with if the party could find her an unperishable robe. She informed them that the reptile women and lizardmen of old apparently had the secret of weaving such robes and greatly desired to be clothed. At this though, she seemed to be bored of the conversation and asked them to leave her. After asking if it was ok if they returned to talk with her some more later, to which she agreed, they went on their way.

>>48695076
Moving west into the Gallery, the party found themselves next to an arch made of goat and human skulls looking down at them. Antsy at something so ill boding, they sent Tetrical to walk under the arch first. After he was not apparently affected, they all joined him. Looking into the adjoining rooms they quickly found the Discordian apple, which they swiped. The gorilla cage, which they left alone. Content they moved north to the next art installation. A giant tank of moving milk filled with eyeballs and twitching pieces of meat. Just for the hell of it, they tasted the milk and found it to be ordinary cows milk. Tetrical emptied a waterskin and filled it up.

Moving west again towards the noise of voices, hectically arguing they came upon the Court of the Cannibal Critics. After listening to them argue back and forth Snickergit spoke up to which all the present cannibals turned and started eyeing them with hungry eyes. They where still somewhat civil in their conversation however, asking the party who they where and their thoughts on art. Snickering and jeering as the character sputtered to ape thier pretentious way of speech. Zubatah however let slip that they liked the milk in the previous room, which threw them into a frenzy. With cries of ”It's problematic!” and ”Unvalid recontextualization” they drew their dinner knives and broken glass and charged. Zubatah and Snickergit bolted as Tetrical bottlenecked the Cannibals in a doorway. As they slowly retreated Zubatah tried to tinker with the lock to the gorilla cage. After failing for about three rounds they finally lost patience and smashed the lock, letting the gorilla loose. It charged down the corridor towards the cannibals and smashed into their line, creating a chaos which allowed the party to slip away.

>>48695087
Escaping by the sking of their teeth the party decided to try their luck one last time. They entered the Gardens to find a room filled to the brim with light absorbing black roses. They looked neat, but didn't do much so Snickergit harvested one to wear on his tunic.

They moved west to see the corpse of the second Thorn sister, bound up by the vines. Tetrical failed his save and was enchanted by her magical aura just as the Orchidmen rose up from the underbrush. Not wanting to tangle with another horde of monsters the party dragged Tetrical away and fled.

With Tetrical heavily damaged in the struggle against the cannibals and Zubatah out of spells. The party settled down in Chronias Library to rest up only to discover that their rations had rotted. The only thing which survived was the waterskin of milk, so after a few unsatisfactory gulps, they settled down to rest.
They had taken heavy casualties on this day, but also gained some treasure. Maybe enough to level up if they could only locate a way to exit the maze.

And there we leave them for this now.

>>48694957
Weell I heard this was a good adventure, but isn't it mostly visual what with the caaraayzee map and art? Might be hard to convey the experience with just words.

Did you order it from their website?