Session 2018/03/10

The party finds themselves facing a portal to the Void, surrounded by mysterious cats that are appearing out of the portal one by one, and with one of they party members, Katalina, inside the portal, led there by one of the cats.

• Party tries to lure cats through the portal with Prestidigitation, creating illusions of mice
• 6 cats appear from the portal
• Koto creates a 5 foot hole under the cats and buries them under the dirt. They enter into battle.
• 3 cats are attacking the party from the darkness of the cave.
• During battle, Skippy decides to go into the portal to everyone's surprise. Because of the hole, he has to jump through.

• The entrance of the portal feels cold, like you’re pushing through a sheet of water, and when you reach the other side, you find yourself looking out towards a dark sky mottled with blue and purple clouds that flash periodically as if with lightning. Dotting the sky are several floating islands of rock, and you assume you’ve stepped out onto one of these islands, but you’re too busy staring at the sky and just catch yourself from slipping as you realize you’re standing on a large pile of coins and treasure. ... that shuffles beneath your weight -- and begins to suck you in.

• Behind you is the entrance to the portal which you can see now is being held open by an archway of dark stone that wasn’t visible from the other side, and is decorated with carvings that don’t really look like anything but vaguely remind you of the shape of flesh and bones. Looking up at the other rock islands in the distance, you can see that some of them have similar arches, though none that you can see that are active like this one. On the other side of this platform, about 50 ft away, is a structure made up pillars and platforms, looking like a cat tower. At the top is a beam that projects down to the portal entrance.

• The cats look different now -- on the outside, they looked like regular black American shorthairs, but inside, they’ve taken on a different appearance, with three large spikes protruding from their backs, dark red eyes, sabred teeth, tufted ears and a spiked tail. They look a bit bigger too, about the size of a Maine Coon, but mostly because their paws have taken on large, fluffy paws that allows them to move on top of the treasure pile with grace and ease.

• A couple of cats are lounging around on the structure. Katalina is about chest-deep in the gold, relaxing and petting a now spiky cat.

• Skippy grabs at Katalina's cat, and fails a persuasion check to get it to come to him. The cat bites him.

• Outside of the portal, Izuna (finally) gets mind-controlled by one of the cats. The cat gives him the thought, "I want treasure, meow! Bring it home, meow!". Izuna lunges for Lightbringer, which is in Kyria's possession, and takes it. He jumps into the portal with it, and comes to his senses as he makes a sanity save.

• Kyria grabs one of the cats in the cave and throws it into the portal.

• The cat held by Katalina attacks Skippy.

• Eventually, everyone jumps into the portal. Kyria jumps in, held by a rope tied to a stalactite outside of the portal. The two cats that were on the tower wander over. A long battle with the cats ensues. Kyria takes out a cat in one blow by cracking it across her shoulder, and the party realizes that the cats are weaker in the portal than outside of it. Izuna levitates himself to make sure he doesn't sink into the gold. Skippy ties himself to Kyria, and makes his way to the structure. Goldyna follows.

• At the structure, Goldyna finds a panel with three unmarked buttons on it. A wire of energy stems from it and looks like goes up the central pillar to the top of the tower.

• At the top is a large pedestal with a smooth spherical indentation, with a beach ball-sized sphere floating above it. The sphere has grid-like holes in it, and a smaller gold ball is inside. The pedestal has one unmarked button.

• Meanwhile, the rest of the party is trying not to drown in the gold. Izuna ties a role to himself and lets Koto hold on, Kyria tries to lift up Katalina, who is sinking, as they destroy more of the cats in battle.

• Skippy presses the buttons on the panel at the bottom of the structure, and finds that it moves the beam around. When the beam moves off the portal, the portal deactivates.

• Goldyna is attacked by the one remaining cat, which tries to tackle the sphere on the pedestal and misses. Goldyna quickly takes it out. Party is out of battle!

• Koto tries touching the sphere and is thrown backward, taking some damage. Izuna investigates the magic, and finds it is of an "old" style. What he does know is that the ball is an energy source.

• Pushing the button at the top of the tower causes the sphere to power off.

• They play with the position of the beam, trying to aim it at other islands and can see that it seems to power on other portals, but they are much too far away.

• On their way out, a couple of the party grabs some treasure (Izuna and Kikko). Skippy finds an ancient spell scroll, but can't actually read it. They create a zip line from the top of the tower to the portal using the help of Goldyna's mammet, and they zipline back to the portal. They decide to leave it open.

• As they leave, the party makes a DC 12 + (# of sanity save fails) check. Koto, Kyria, and Kikko feel the effects of repeated attempts of mind control.
• * Koto feels extremely afraid and paranoid of a childhood fear (spiders). He was barely hanging on trying to keep it together while in the cave. Lasts 50 mins.
• * Kyria feels paralyzed due to fear. Lasts 80 minutes.
• * Kikko is incapacitated due to screaming for 40 minutes.

• At this time, as the party tries to make their way back to Quarrymill, they are greeted by villagers as "the ones that saved us". A little girl copies Kikko screaming. Izuna tries to lead the party members suffering madness while Goldyna and Skippy face the villagers. We ended here.

• Party is now Level 5!