Serpents of Chaos - Delve 13 - The Copper Circle Round 2

Serpents of Chaos is an AD&D 1e campaign set in the lands of Hyperborea, a vast region of steppe, inland seas, deep mountains, horse-hordes, fierce barbarians, and hardened adventurers. Largely inspired by Howard, Leiber, Frazetta, and Dunsany.

Our intrepid adventurers this game were Talon the Courser (Ranger 4) and Lorb the Theurgist (Magic-User 4).

This group entered through a different route than the last party did. They entered from the top, going down a staircase into the middle of the copper circle, where there was a courtyard with three doors. The doors spoke with their magic mouths, telling the adventurers to "make my statue whole again," "read the paper full again," and "count the coins again."

They made their way north, moving past the pool with the dead guy floating in it and off towards the psionic pygmies first. They chatted about the pygmies' search for Thenzur but didn't get any farther than that.

Personal illustration

The next room had a central shaft with a squished dead guy at the bottom. Talon and Lorb helped themselves to his gear, finding a potion of heroism and some magic arrows. They saw a piece of paper (with "SHA" written on it) and carried on, finding a laboratory (already pilfered) and a room full of what they decided were traps.

They opened a final door that lead to a small but tall circular room. A pool of brine water lay in the center of the room and seven thick copper rods hung down from the ceiling. Some dark shape moved on the ceiling, which turned out to be gray ooze. A gray ooze that was hungry, and moving towards them. 

They dumped oil in the doorway, but waited to light it until the ooze came through. As soon as it climbed (along the top of the portal) they threw a torch down. The flames did nothing. A burning hands spell was cast. Which also did nothing. Lorb and Talon chose discretion over valour and ran away.

While on their way out, they saw a thief, levitating over a pit in a hallway. He disappeared around the corner and the adventurers did not give chase.

They left the copper circle, returning to Svargorod with a few baubles.