The Dream Palace (part 3)

The squad assembles in the lobby of the Dream Palace, with a cleric name Clarise from Simi's temple in tow should be find other victims of Pratchett's depredations. She uses her supply of potions to heal the damage that Valcos sustained in his heroic re-arrest of Ralso, who is now handcuffed and manacled under their watchful eyes.

Undead Fetus Attack!

Simi re-interviews Ralso, given the preponderance of evidence of her guilt in acting as Pratchett's confederate. She denies any direct wrongdoing, but Valcos is not convinced she should not "perish trying to escape". Ralso tells the squad of the secret ladder to the basement, which is where Pratchett has done most of his evil.

Leaving her in the custody of Jorin and Mister Gone, the squad and Clarise head to the basement. 

The first room is a lab supply room. Long racks of freestanding wooden shelving, all covered with glass bottles and jars of varying sizes, line the eastern and western walls of this rectangular stone room. Inside the jars float embalmed monstrosities ranging from preserved humanoid body parts and whole fetuses to more bizarre curios. Other than the wooden staircase to the northwest, the only exit is a wooden door to the south. 

Six of the bottles contain six Undead Fetus, who free themselves from their bottles and attack. The steench is nauseating, but we dispatch them with only minor injuries. 

Flayed Skins

The next room is a bloody mess. Six flayed humanoid skins hang like tapestries along the stone walls of this long hallway, some edges tacked out taut to display their gruesome features, others hanging in long tatters. Some appear old and leathery, while others are fresh enough to still stink in the cold room, the blood having dripped down the stone in dried brown smears into the long metal-grated drain in the floor. The exits are through a door in the northwestern corner and a set of double doors on the northern wall to the east. 

As the squad enters the room, the six flayed skins fly to attack, trying to wrap themselves around the squad members like a straightjacket. Grimwald finds himself caught, but breaks free - forewarned, the rest of the squad avoid a similar circumstance and together they shred the enemies.

The double doors to the north wall lead to the lair of the Ochre Jelly. A large, circular well fifteen feet wide dominates the western section of this large stone chamber. Directly above the well, a matching circular hole in the ceiling extends up into darkness, its sides mirror-smooth. Doors exit the room to the south and northwest, and a corridor leading east bears two more. A metal basket with a ten-foot-long handle is propped up in the room's northwestern corner. 

This is Pratchett's "garbage disposal". allowing him to get rid of corpses with no evidence. The Ochre Jelly surges to attack the squad. The squad first learned from Ahmoset Nez in the House of Planes that Pratchett had an Ochre Jelly, and so they researched the beast; they knew that only bludgeoning weapons would be effective. 

And fire. Valcos throws the four bottles of Alchemist Fire they had taken from the fighting goblins on their first patrol. Grimbold wielded his mace and shield. Simi willed her rapier to metamorphosize into a mace, and Valcos gapes in amazement as she slams it into the blob and knocks it backwards. Pumpelly attacks it will a sonic boom, and follows it up with Biting Words, causing it psychic damage.

Ochre Jelly

The squad pummel the beast until it heads to the bottom of the well, trying to escape down the drainpipe. Nobody is willing to jump down and challenge the woulded creature, so they drop flaming torches into it while Pumpelly stands on the rim and rains down a hail of sling bullets, killing it.

"Let the record show that the creature was killed by a bard with a rock," Pumpelly said. Nobody disputed his assessment.

Adjacent to the room was a  chamber with a heavy, industrial-looking forge with a basin for melting metal. The equipment looks old and half-ruined, with a severely cracked chimney extending up along the back wall.  The basin contains a few items from victims; a locked inscribed with "To Anastasia, my love" and a ring with the image of Rusty the Rust Monster from the menagerie. They are put into the Bag of Holding as evidence.  

Healing party, the Smelting Room with evidence that this was where Pratchett disposed of bodies, after the Ochre Jelly was done melting their flesh.

Next the squad discovers a Necromantic Lab. A long wooden workbench along the north wall in the western portion of this room is crowded with books, scrolls, small bottles, and the skull of some ursine predator and is watched over by a humanoid skeleton on a wire stand. To the east, two open iron-barred cages collectively contain three slumped and decaying humanoid corpses. 

To nobody's surprise, the corpses animate and attack. These unfortunate souls are Wights, created by Pratchett's necromancy, seeking to drain the life from the living. Clarise holds one at bay while the squad destroys the other two, then destroys it. The room contains several volumes of horrific necromancy, a spellbook, two scrolls, and a passel of spell components. All go into the Bag of Holding as evidence. 

(To be continued in the next game)