Dikes Fall, session 3

The adventure continues at the bottom of the Sunken Pit.

Rifling through the gnome's belongings, they find a pouch of 60gp, a heavy pick, and a light crossbow. They continue exploring and find a room with a sour smell, lit by a few guttering candles. An ancient, bent  woman steps into the light, candlelight barely illuminating her dusky skin.

Triptych from the
Garden of Earthly Delights, Hieronymous Bosch

"He was to give me part of his land,” the milk witch croaks. “And now I am left with nothing."

The party appeals to her sense of greed. With both brothers dead all the land could be hers. The gnomes have a kingdom deep below the earth, on the Other Side. It is a place she can’t go without an invitation, but the party can. If the group can lower the gnome's banner and raise the milk witch’s own she can lay claim to their lands.

“You can have anything within the castle but the demesne and castle are mine.”

They agree. To open the a way to the domain the Mangus retrieves the gnome’s body. The witch performs a strange ritual causing the corpse to warp and stretch into a portal almost but not quite entirely unlike a humanoid figure. The witch hands them a small packet with her banner and instructs then not to open until they’re in the tower. Then she’s gone, leaving only a sour odor of spoiled milk behind.

Beyond the impossible portal is a narrow stone passageway. As soon as they step through, the air turns hot and oppressively dry. The passageway is actually a narrow a ravine, or from above by a winking reddish glow. The ravine widens as it meanders through the cracked stone, revealing a fortress with two squat towers. Closer to the group is a high wall surrounded protecting the whole compound and encircling lush gardens. Mangus tosses a rope over and clambers up but falls into the garden. The rest of the party join the bruised and embarrassed tax collector at ground level. The party can spy four points of interest in the garden: a fish pond, a hedge labyrinth, a set of standing stones, and, distantly, the sound of animals just out of sight.

Detail from the Last Judgement,
Lucas Cranach the Elder

Suddenly the underbrush is filled with a rustling sound. A pack of fish creatures, running on pairs of long spindly legs, tear into sight yapping madly. "Sit!" Annemarjin yells, but it only goads the little fish-dogs into attacking. They skirmish for tense moments before gaining the upper hand on the fish-dog pack and driving the survivors off.

Vamosh goes to check out the standing stones and decides she wants to cast her Patron Bond spell there. They hear the sound of shoveling within the circle and go to investigate. It's a dwarf working on digging a hole for another standing stone coming later this week. He tells them that the masters are out, and only the staff are left now.

We go investigate the hedge labyrinth. Vamosh hears giggling from the other side of the hedge. It intensifies they approach the center of the labyrinth. In the center is a pergola on which four topiary children sit. As they come into view the and the laughter stops.

"I don't want to menace the hedges," Mangus grunts. There's a small chest beneath the pergola. Mangus does a quick assessment using his tax collector background and thinks it could contain 150 sp worth of treasure. He lights the wooden structure on fire. We hear a gasp as the flames consumes the pergola and topiary children. It doesn't spread to the rest of the labyrinth.

El Laberinto, Leonora Carrington

On their way out the pass through the labyrinth is barred by six more topiary children carrying bows. They have given up the pretense of being simple bushes and draw their bows. Opening fire they hit Annemarijn with a volley. Mangus lops the leafy head off of the children in the fracas. Arden tries to uproot one of them, but its roots are too strong. Annemarijn bashes with her club, but thorns sprout from her wooden weapon and nearly kill her. Arden stabs down into the ground, trying to get at the root of the topiary child. It drops dead at his feet. Annemarijn casts Color Spray with a boon from her fickle patron, imbuing it with ineffable cosmic power. All of the topiary children, and all of the party except for Vamosh and Annemarijn are dazed by the psychadelic blast of chaos, knocking them unconscious and blind. The Elf makes quick work of the disabled enemies, but the rest of the party lies dead to the world .