Session 143: The end of Brewfest and exploring the side of a volcano

Feno, Arnd, Gnorcia, Niki, Armatzi, Kyro, Lhoss awoke on day 7 of Brewfest in the town of Woods Edge. Determined to find the displacer beasts as quickly as possible and return to Orlane, Lhoss asked the innkeeper if there were any holy temples or shrines in town. She was hoping to track down a druid who had the ability to locate animals the way Hilja had in the past. The innkeeper told Lhoss there was a temple of Wee Jas and a shrine of Fharlanghn. Lhoss got excited that Niki could enlist the help of her fellow worshipers in tracking displacer beasts until she remembered that she was confusing Obad-hai and Fharlanghn again. Arnd and Gnorcia waited at the inn, but the others tracked down the shrine to Fharlanghn. On the way, Lhoss recognized a small shrine to Zuoken. Telling the others to wait, she hurried over to the shrine and spoke in hushed tones with the attendant. She was informed that the lawful orders (Wee Jas, here in Woods Edge) were putting pressure non-lawful orders. Feeling intimidated, followers of Zuoken had been laying low in the city and trying not to draw attention. Lhoss pressed two platinum pieces into the attendant's hand as tribute and vowed to return after nightfall to worship.

The group came upon the Fharlanghn temple, which was a grove of white birch trees. A follower greeted the party and raised an eyebrow at Armatzi, asking if he would be entering. Armatzi questioned whether he would be welcome and was reassured that he would be, so long as he made a donation. Armatzi gave four gold pieces, as did Lhoss and Niki. Feno handed over a platinum as he was short on gold and Kyro produced two gold as he was short on gold and platinum. The man thanked the adventurers and invited them to sit on some boulders arranged in a semi-circle. Lhoss inquired about the possibilities of a druid of the order enlisting to help the group fight displacer beasts. The man paused thoughtfully and then conceded that the displacer beasts had made incursions into the edges of town and that they had become unruly. But he countered that the beasts are native creatures and that nature balances itself. He resolved that the creatures were not troublesome enough for their order to intervene. Although, he said that they could be hired for a price. As the group contemplated this thought, the Fharlanghn follower inquired why our own druid should not be skilled enough to track down the displacer beasts for us. It seems Niki had forgotten some of her old training and was in fact able to use her magic to locate any animal she should choose to find. Contented, the party turned to leave when the man shared that the location of the displacer beasts is on the side of the volcano located in the Dim Forest. At least some valuable intel was acquired for all the gold spent. So the destination is a volcano! Feno, while protected from cold, has no such immunity to fire. He inquired about purchasing fire-resistant clothing and was rebuffed. As promised, Lhoss returned to the Zuoken temple accompanied by Gnorcia before the Brewfest celebration kicked off in earnest.

For the last day of Brewfest, several in the party paid five gold pieces for an all you can eat and drink night of revelry. What a deal! The group partook of the tasty meats, potatoes, gravies, fruits, veggies, stews, breads, pies, and drinks. There was a level of temperance, however, as each member of the adventuring group knew of the daunting task that awaited them. Lhoss alone indulged heavily in drink and as such, it was mid-morning before she was put together enough to venture out with the rest. They might as well have joined in the revel with her!

Everyone they talked to warned of the danger of entering the Dim Forest and fighting displacer beasts. First the innkeeper who gave them directions out of town, then the city watch who instructed them to bushwhack a path toward the volcano. Living up to its name, the forest was dark and chill. They worked in shifts to hack through the hanging branches covered in moss, ever making their way closer to the volcano and the thin trails of smoke emanating from within. The first night, Kyro cooked up a ration donated by each party member with a few of his spices to make a tasty stew. The group took watch in turns and groups of 2-3 until morning. It was an uneventful night. After breakfast and tea, the adventurers made more progress through the forest. Late in the afternoon, the volcano came into full view and Lhoss spotted a cave about halfway up. It would take half a day to climb to it, so the group set up the tent and settled in for an early night. Feno hunted for eggs and Lhoss set up some snare traps. Feno only found one egg, but it had gone bad and Lhoss's traps caught nothing. Again, there were no disturbances during the nights' watches.

The next morning, the group found and followed a trail up the volcano slope. They tracked some paw prints and came upon two creatures in mortal combat. One was large and deep blue with odd tentacles growing from its sides. The other appeared to be a large brown dog. The blue creature moved in a blur and the brown one disappeared and reappeared. Then the dog creature turned somewhat and the group could see that it was actually whitish/yellow with large tufts coming off its tail. There was barking, yipping, snarling, and growling and then suddenly they both ran off and the dog creature disappeared. Gnorcia wanted to lure the big dog back, so she laid out some rations. The animal did not return, so they all continued up the trail. Around a bend in the trail, the adventurers found themselves facing a cave entrance.

Session 142: At our leaving, darkness

Gnorcia here. It seems much has happened and been recorded in the writings here.

I had been resting at the inn on the last night of my training, but awoke to find myself somehow with the group, on a trail through the Dim Forest. I blame Jack. He likes to teleport things. Why not people?

As we walked, the group filled me in on what I had missed during my week of training and told how they had stumbled into some terrifying and amazing experiences, great danger, and loot. Of course. At least I learned a few things while they were off adventuring. (Did all that really happen in just a week? I wasn't even sure what day it was, but knew it had to be Brewfest and we were missing out on that.) 

One interesting story they told was about a map they purchased.

One evening back at the inn, a cloaked figure approached Lhoss and said, “I hear you’ve been searching for a map.” Lhoss responded in the affirmative and the stranger continued, “I have a large map of the surrounding nations for a certain price.”

Lhoss was unsure what price a copy of that map might be worth and the stranger suggested starting at 1000 gold pieces. Of course Lhoss balked at that and said she would have to consult with her friends as she did not have that sort of sum. She bought him an ale and said she would return with an answer.

The group talked and schemed, then Lhoss went back with our finely-cut sapphire as a counteroffer. He seemed to have some knowledge of gems and thought about it for a minute, then smiled and said he would be willing to take the sapphire and 100 gold. Lhoss countered at 50 and he countered back at 75, which she then accepted. A deal had been made! And a good thing because otherwise we would have to rely on the often-lousy verbal directions of farmers and other travelers.

Map in hand, we traveled for three days through the Dim Forest to the northeast toward Hookhill. Along the road we were passed by travelers moving swiftly on horses in both directions and wished we could travel with such great speed. We also encountered a small group of pilgrims who were worshippers of Farlonigan, traveling from Hookhill to Hochoch. They seemed to have good information that matched with our map.

At the far edge of the forest we came to the road that would take us north to the town of Woodsedge. Apparently that town and a volcano was our goal, but the group had learned the map wouldn't help beyond that because there was no path from the town to the volcano. Obviously. Who in their right mind would make a road to a volcano?

Two more days took us north toward the town of Forestwatch. Along the way we encountered other pilgrims, travelers passing us on horses, and merchants with wagons. They were all friendly but not talkative. At dusk on the second day we arrived at Forestwatch and discovered they were celebrating Brewfest. At last! We hoped to join in the revelry for at least one evening.

As we entered the hamlet, a large building had a sign reading “The Gold Duke” and appeared to be a tavern. We went in and were greeted by a large, boisterous man named Olaf. He offered us roast pig and fried potatoes along with a selection of vegetables and spirits. I immediately requested a bed in a room that wasn’t the common room, and Arnd agreed to share a room with two beds. The three elves took another room with two beds and Lhoss planned to meditate on her bedroll on the floor.

We had delicious meals with cider and ale that evening and celebrated in the square with others in the town, then slept well that night. A little too well, actually. As we slept soundly, a thief or thieves crept in and as a group we lost 20 gold pieces.

Upon hearing of our loss the next morning, the innkeeper was generous with a free breakfast and offered to contact the constable to discuss it. It was now day four of brewfest, a crisp autumn day. We stopped at a shop on the way out of town and purchased some rations. A few of us also bought some utensils, bowls, and plates before we began traveling again.

The next leg of our trip was uneventful. Arriving in Woodsedge, we found it had a stone gatehouse with a guard requesting 1gp each for entrance. After paying the fee and entering the town, we found ourselves at the Two-Cup Inn, a well-kept tavern. The rooms were only 2gp for private rooms with locks and food included in the cost! We were happy to hear about all of that. The proprietoress, Gretchen, asked about our business in the town and referred us to a member of the local watch, Marcus, who she said knows something about displacer beasts.

Gretchen also shared disturbing rumors she had heard of hordes of undead near Orlane. This was very troubling because we thought we had just saved Orlane from the undead! She encouraged us to return and see if the people there needed help. As Arnd, Nikki, and I solemly ate our dinner and discussed possible methods to return quickly to Orlane, Lhoss and Feno found Marcus in the tavern and went to speak with him.

Marcus was a talker and elaborated further on Gretchen's disturbing rumors. He said that Naynor had somehow been strengthened and become bolder in his raids, and the necromancers also seemed to have only been strengthened by the Pit of Chaos being closed, which was very disturbing news to us. He seemed perplexed that we had left Orlane in increased danger, though Feno and Lhoss explained repeatedly that we had thought it even more safe after our efforts.

Feno of course also pressed Marcus for more information about the goal of our quest—the displacer beasts—and he said the beasts seem to have a nest to the west in the forest, but the townsfolk and the watch combined had only been successful in battling them with large groups, and with casualties.

All of this was terribly worrying, of course, and most of us became unsure about our quest and what we could do to serve our beloved friends in Orlane, but Feno convinced us that since we had finally reached our destination, we should seek out the displacer beasts and then find a way to quickly travel back to the town and take on whatever dark forces have taken hold since we left.

As the group finished eating and talking, I said a silent prayer to Zuoken for strength and added a request for Jack to stop puttering about in Orlane and assist us on the displacer beast quest. And maybe he could bring Armatzi, Ramne, Dorian, Llewellen, that snobby Bernard guy, and even some random farmers. We're going to need all the help we can get.

Session 141: The Road So Far

 Day 26 of Harvester:

The morning began like most: with a delicious breakfast from the Foaming Mug before the group and I headed to do some last-minute shopping before heading on our adventure. The group finally had agreed to hunt some displacer beasts (it took some convincing these last few days) in the northern portion of the Dim Forest. At the general goods store I purchased a tent, and some fishing equipment (maybe there will be some opportunities to supplement my rations?), as well as purchased some extra rations from Armatzi. The rest of the group topped off their rations, and purchased tents, bedrolls, and other necessities for the march through the forest. At some point either the group, or the shop keeper, started waxing on about borders and politics, but I stopped paying attention. I don't know what they were talking about. Growing up in a portion of the Dim Forest (a more enjoyable part if I do say so), I've never really concerned myself with the affairs of the humans. Following this morning shopping trip, the group and I head out to towards the small, wooded towns Dorian and the other Orlanian elves described to Lhoss and I not so long ago. We travel over 15 miles before supper time approaches. Kyro suggests cooking a ration stew using the rations people contributed and stewing it up with seasonings. I liked the idea, but having no way to eat the stew, opted just to munch on a ration by myself. Arnd it seems was in the same boat and ate ration solo as well. We decided to rest here for the night and decided that the best course of action would be take night watches in pairs. I volunteered for the least desired time, around midnight. Lhoss decided to join me in my watch time. I figured our elven ears and eyes would be at the best at that time. Following dinner, I decided to lay down and meditate until it was my time for the watch. After a few hours (too short in my opinion) Kyro nudged Lhoss and I to consciousness, and with a little fear in his voice let us know of eyes that were nearby watching them. 

I quickly realized that the fear was unjustified: the eyes were from harm animals and insects found throughout the Dim Forest. Letting Lhoss know this, we quickly perform our watch duties. We walk in opposite rotating circles, ensuring that the camp is covered. Nothing eventful happens during the watch. We awaken Niki and Arnd for the next watch, and I go back to my meditations. 

 

Session 140 Day 24 and 25 of Harvester

 After the trip and some partying the party decides to go to bed. 

They then wake up and after some discussion they decide to have the majority of the party investigate Kyro's ring that has been talking to him by going to the temple. 

 

Feno went to get his custom bandolier from the Weavers. 

 

Niki started gets told of the craziness of Jack's actions in Orlane (which is completely and utterly her fault). 

They eventually decide to take the ring to Rhame and ask him about it. Artmazi had a strange feeling to put on the ring however he fails his attempt to snag the ring. They deicide to leave the ring with Rain to study it. 

They all eventually end up at the store. They sell their treasures and get some money. After the very joyful shopping they do a very unique style of training to fight the displacer beasts. 

They then return to the Inn and enjoy some meatballs.

 

Session 139: Closing the Pit of Chaos

The battle looks grim. With Feno fleeing and Arnd asleep, only Kyro, Lhoss, Niki, and Armatzi remain to fight. Lhoss calls out that the party needs to retreat and regroup. Lhoss attempts to shove a skeleton into a zombie with her staff and Niki tries to sweep another off its feet with her scimitar; both are unsuccessful in their disarming strikes. Kyro prepares to drag Arnd out of the room while Armatzi moves forward with the Fount of Law to shield the two of them. The presence of the holy relic causes all the undead to retreat a few steps and shudder. With no resistance, Lhoss, Niki, Kyro and Arnd retreat effortlessly from the room. Armatzi, however does not retreat and stares down the crowd of foes. He turns his head back to the group and mouths the words "I'm sorry, I have to do this" and presses forward to the pit. Arnd, ever filled with a sense of bravery and duty charges back into the room to assist Armatzi. The cleric slowly moves closer to the gaping maw, causing the skeletons and zombies to shiver and move mechanically away from him. The beholder screeches out "I will feast on your flesh!" but if this strikes fear into Armatzi's heart, he does not show it. Suddenly a bone golem bursts forth from the pit. The hole is a mass of twisting blackness and body parts with teeth and fangs inlaid, jutting inward. With a belch of putrid stench, two more bone golems emerge and jostle their way into position in front of the fetid chasm. One of the golem pushes a quivering zombie away and decapitates it in a swipe. The beholder laughs manically at the scene. Armatzi presses his advance toward the pit. Niki holds back, but Kyro joins Arnd at Armatzi's rear while Lhoss sprints off to try and catch Feno. She sees him in the distance just as the spell breaks and Feno turns to head back to the battle. Lhoss and Feno exchange an Elven high-five (perfect cracking sound, slight stinging sensation on the palm) and the two sprint together. Meanwhile, Armatzi has moved close enough to the pit that he feels confident he can toss it into the downward sloping crevasse. The onlooking party members seem to hold their breath as the orb arcs slightly up and falls toward the hole. The beholder follows the font with his eye stalks; the lesser demons freeze; the golems seem to recognize the power of the object and consider it while it sails through the air, then tip aside as if to let the now strobing globe of light pass by to its destiny. With a huge blast of stinking air, a force erupts from the pit and every person and creature in the room is stunned and thrown back, onto the ground. Even Lhoss and Feno feel the vile wind blow past them. In a blink, all of the enemies are defeated, leaving behind nothing but clouds of bone dust and piles of gore. All that remains of the Pit of Chaos is a deformed mound of black crust. While the rest of the party feels a great sense of relief and accomplishment, Armatzi receives a message from St. Cuthbert: the maze is not yet clean as there is a greater presence of Nerul to the East. The pit of Chaos had been masking this evil, but it is now evident. 

The light in the room has changed. The statues are no longer emitting an unholy light and are now each holding something in their arms. The group collects a few potions, a scroll, and leather armor. Kyro finds a gold ring set with a diamond. He peers at it curiously and then places it on his finger and appears exalted. The group questions Kyro about the ring, but he is secretive and refuses to remove it. Niki casts detect magic on the items and they all glow with magic. Jack appears, takes one look at Kyro, and immediately his hair stands on end and he begins hissing at the ranger. Kyro mentions to Niki that she needs to be nice to Jack and then the cat pops back out of sight. This whole exchange makes Lhoss extremely suspicious. She questions who Kyro serves and he replies that he serves Merrika, but this does not put Lhoss at ease. She insists that in order to trust Kyro and travel with him, he needs to remove the ring. Kyro acquiesces. He then discloses that the ring allows him to understand and communicate with animals. That seems harmless enough, why was he being so secretive about it?

On the road back to Orlane, the group sees an approaching figure. He is wearing patched brown clothes and has a brown beard and striking blue eyes. The group hails him and has a brief, but friendly conversation with the traveler. He identifies himself as a Wanderer and a worshipper of Fharlanghn. As he moves on, the group notices that the traveler moves with great speed. Behind, he left a small wooden chit; it is dark walnut and carved with runes.

Back at the inn, Lhoss overhears some townsfolk talking about a stranger that was ranting about the lesser pit being destroyed but boasting about the rise of necromancers. Lhoss inquires if it was the man they had met on the road, but no - this stranger was dressed in a black cloak. Lhoss imparts the news of their most recent success with the pit and then warns the townsfolk that this was an evil person and not to engage with him. They thank her and buy her a drink, which she happily downs.

Jack pops back into the inn and points to Kyro's new ring and identifies it as a ring of evil. It's possible, though, that Jack simply doesn't like the idea of another being who is able to know his thoughts. Jack and Niki bicker over which one of them is smarter and Niki points out that she has a skill that Jack does not: healing. Jack scratches her arm and then proclaims that Niki is right, he cannot heal. Feno orders a dish of chicken for Jack, which the cat gulps down with delight. The cat winks at the elf and indicates that a favor is owed to Feno. In fact, Feno is flush with generosity and buys the whole room a round of drinks. Lhoss sees the mayor in the crowded inn and passes on the good news that the pit has been closed. A cheer is raised and more drinks are poured as what is sure to be an evening of revelry begins in earnest.

Session 138: In the Eye of the Beholder

 Day 24 of Harvester:

The usual group of Feno, Kyro, Lhoss, Armatzi, Niki, and Arnd head quickly head back to town in order to try to get back to the Foaming Mug for a late dinner. With a hurried pace through the creepy maze, marsh and forest, the group makes it just in time for dinner. Following dinner and the evening rest, the group gets up and heads back towards the Barrow Maze. When they arrive at the Barrow Marsh, the smells, and the general atmosphere makes the groups' stomach churn. With their collective nausea, they enter the Barrow Maze early afternoon. Entering in and heading towards the area they were last in; the group hears the unmistakable sounds of scratching nearby. It is coming from the pit the group had discovered in a previous adventure. Not feeling the bit curious, Feno trudges onward and forward, avoiding whatever is making the noise. Arnd and Niki following him into the next room. Lhoss, decides to look into the pit, and in that instant realizes the folly of that decision. The moment she peered down into it to look into it, the smell of rotten flesh hits her nostrils. This rotten flesh smell causes her to expel her partially digested breakfast along the floor of the Barrow Maze, and the edge of the pit. At nearly the same moment, Armatzi decides to investigate the noises coming from the pit as well. The sights and sounds from the pit overcome his stomach, and he lurches out his breakfast as well. While they are vomiting near the pit, the rest of the party are blissfully unaware and enjoying their ration lunch in the next room. Lhoss and Armatzi make their way slowly towards the next room and eventually rejoin the party, with Lhoss slowly sipping water in respite for the recent actions. After some time, both Armatzi and Lhoss are able to eventually eat lunch and the party moves forward to the area with the steel porta coulis. 

When they arrive in that area, they discover that the porta coulis is down, and in a locked position. This surprises the group, as they had left it open when they passed through it last. After some discussion on what to do, they decided to back track and head towards an area Feno remembered they forgot about in a previous visit. As they were traveling in that direction, Lhoss noticed a hidden latch along the wall, and upon lifting it, found a secret passage to the hallway that connected to area near the porta coulis. This hallway was just past the room that had the lever that controlled the metallic gate, thereby circumventing the obstruction. The group follows this hallway and Lhoss discovers more hidden doors along the way, thanks to more discoveries of hidden latches and switches. Feno, in a moment of clarity, grabs a few fist-sized rocks and places them strategically in front of the hidden doors. He does this in order to see if there is any movement, one way or the other, from them. The group then continues to follow the passageway, which opens up to an area that goes up to the north, and down to the south. The Fount is glowing very brightly now. The group opt to try going south, and immediately notice the Fount slight dim its light, and lessen its intensity. Armatzi immediately says they should proceed north instead. The group then turn about face, and marches northward. As they do so they notice large piles of refuse and rubble from the collapsed ceilings nearby. The group leaves the piles alone and proceeds north ward, entering the northern door. 

Upon entering this new room, the group's eyes are greeted to a large antechamber filled with four large demonic statures. The stench of death emanates throughout this new antechamber. As they march forward, they view each statue, and upon closer inspection, the statues eerily glow and leer with unholy light. With each step forward, the stench of death becomes more and more pronounced, almost overpowering. The Fount of Law glows brightly and pulsates. As the group nears two open double doors, a large army of undead creatures comes into view. The familiar skeletons, zombies, are among the creatures, as well as a new formidable creature lurking in the shadows. This large creature, full of eye stalks, often causes terror to those that behold it. As the group attempts to quickly formulate a battle plan, the monsters move forward. Feno moves forward in order to throw oil, but Armatzi quickly gives him holy oil to throw instead. When Feno moves forward, the large Beholder states:

“Foolish mortals! You dare to trespass upon my domain, wielding your feeble holy relic as if it were a weapon against me! Know this: I am Ibixibildo, master of this realm. Your presence fills me with nothing but disgust and contempt. You come seeking to vanquish me to rid the world of my glorious presence? You are nothing more than insignificant insects compared to my might. Your precious holy object may cause me pain, and may fill me with fear, but know that I am not so easily defeated. I am a creature of darkness and power and shall not be cowed by the likes of you.”

And with that, Feno throws the vial of holy water at few skeletons that were bunched together. The vial shatters, destroying one skeleton in the process, and damaging several others with the holy water spray. Lhoss steps up and fires her ever reliable magic missile at the Beholder. The magical creature swats it away effortlessly. Her jaw drops, as she had never seen that happen before. Kyro notches an arrow in his bow and fires at the Beholder. It finds its mark and the Beholder screams in anger, "You will pay for that treachery!" Kyro fires again but fails to connect on the second arrow. The skeletons, zombies, and the Beholder advance to attack the party. The Beholder focuses its magical eye stalks and makes magical attacks on Arnd and Kyro. It first tries to attack Arnd, but the spell fails, as the stout little dwarf's blood gives him immunity to that particular attack. Kyro is next to be targeted, but thanks to being favored by the gods, is able to shrug off the spell. The Beholder once again focuses on Arnd, and this time is successful in its attack, causing Arnd to fall asleep. The creature launches once more spell at Kyro, but Kyro is able to resist once more. The skeletons come charging in and attack Kyro. While most miss in their attacks, one particular skeleton is able to get a grazing wound on the ranger. Some skeletons attack Feno, but naturally they all miss. Some skeletons attack Lhoss, causing some minor damage. Feno opts to try to clear a path, attacks and destroys a skeleton first, then a zombie shortly afterwards. The Beholder, sensing that Feno is currently the biggest threat, focuses its magical attacks on him. The first spell, a charm spell has no effect thanks to his elven blood. Unfortunately, the second spell, hits Feno full force. The second spell, a fear spell, causes him to look at the creature, quake in terror, and turn to flee from battle. Lhoss readies another magic missile spell, but a skeleton disrupts it with a successful strike on her. When Armatzi moves into the room to take action, the skeletons quake as if in pain and the Beholder speaks:

“You speak of righteousness and virtue, of light and purity. Your words are hollow and meaningless in my wrath. Your so-called holy relic may be a thorn in my side, but it is nothing compared to the fury that burns within me. I shall crush you beneath my gaze and tear you limb from limb with my disintegrating rays! I revel in the agony of your demise. Know this: you’ve invoked the wrath of Ibixibildo, and you shall pay dearly for your decisions. Your holy relic may give you strength, but it is nothing to the power that I wield. Prepare yourselves for annihilation! For your end is nigh, and there is no escape from the wrath of the beholder!”

Armatzi attempts to turn some of the undead army, but they resist due to the power of the beholder. Niki attempts to strike a nearby skeleton, but unfortunately misses on her attack. The beholder attacks Armatzi, causing him to writhe in pain. It then lifts him into the air and drops him to the ground causing him further damage. At this moment some forgotten knowledge is jogged back into his brain, forgotten after given from Sir Guy:

“Sir Guy urged Armatzi to do what he could not do and finish his task. And what was his task? Long ago, before he was usurped by his children, this temple was used by evil cultists to worship Narule, the god of the dead. The temple was built on a spacial weakening in the layers between other planes of this realm. Evil rites took place here and the bodies of sacrifices were thrown into the pit. Through these sacrifices the cultists called forth all manner of demons and unsavory creatures through the gate. The lawful order saw this temple as a great threat, and a small group of knights, and priests led by Sir Guy entered and battled the cultists and their undead minions. Sir Guy carried a powerful, gleaming white orb called the Fount of Law, created specifically to close the gate. Sadly, Sir Guy and his henchmen were betrayed, captured, and killed. The Fount of Law was hidden. The Fount of Law must be found and thrown into the pit to seal the gate!”

As Feno runs away into the next room full of demon statues terrified of the beholder, the group attempts the to attack and destroy some of the horde of skeletons, but instead causes minimal damage to them. Meanwhile, the portal in the back opens up, and three more undead appear...

Session 137 Afternoon of day 23 of Harvester

 Day 23 of Harvester, afternoon in the Barrow Maze

Jack the cat is a troll.  OK, not literally, but he's maybe possessed by one?  Ever since he got that Lesser Ring of Jack, he's become really snarky and kind of mean.  I don't know, maybe he was like that before and we didn't know because he couldn't speak common.  He certainly doesn't treat Niki with the respect she deserves.  I'm quite tempted to try to take the ring from him and re-bury it deep in the barrow maze again.  Sure, it gives him some great power, but he doesn't use that power responsibly.  I'm sure glad he's not my cat. Then again, I'm more of a dog person anyway.

Anyway, after that strange cat magically appeared, caused mayhem, and then disappeared again, we continued to explore this latest area of the Barrow Maze.  Moving north from the pit we'd found (things that fell in disappeared at about 10 feet down, so we don't know how deep it actually is, and have no interest in finding out), there was a midden pile in the corner of the room. Thankfully, the smell isn't much different from the rest of the Barrow Maze, although nowhere down here smells pleasant.  Arnd was checking the rest of the floor for stability when he heard a somewhat familiar growl from behind a half-closed door. As one might expect, it is more of the ravenous (un)dead like we'd fought off earlier.  Nasty critters!  There were only two this time, so I wasn't worried. First, they swung at Arnd since he was in the front of our group, but they missed him completely.  Armatzi attempted to use his gauntlet to "Turn Undead" but it didn't have any apparent effect.  Lhoss used her "spider climb" ability, gaining a back-stab advantage that allowed her to destroy one of the attackers.  Arnd tried to hit the one that attacked him, but he missed, so Feno stepped up and slaughtered it before it could do anything else.

Upon looking into the room the monsters had come from, we found the bodies of two unfortunate adventurers that the undead had been devouring.  It was obviously much too late for us to do anything to help them since they are both mangled and one is completely missing his face.  Despite not being able to identify the (probably) human men, Armatzi was moved to perform funeral rites on them.  He first asked Niki for proper herbs, but she didn't have anything fresh so I offered to let him use my sage that I always carry.  It was sufficient for his needs, so I helped him to arrange the bodies while the others searched the backpacks we found with the deceased men.  They found a fairly large amount of stuff and Niki cast "Detect Magic" on it, finding that only a crossbow was magical.  Unfortunately, nobody in our group uses a crossbow, but I ended up with a nice footman's mace, Armatzi added to his supply of writing materials, and Lhoss packed up the unused bandages they'd had. Everything else was packed up to be sold in Orlane at loot.  Once Armatzi cast his blessing spell on the bodies to consign them to the grace of St. Cuthbert, we placed them in a pair of empty burial alcoves out in the hallway and continued down the passageway to the west.

There was a door in the passageway that seemed to have been warped by moisture, and when Arnd tried to open it, he accidentally smashed it in. The room revealed was full of alcoves which most of us decided to search while Feno guarded the damaged doorway and Armatzi tried to concentrate enough to regain his spells, but he ended up feeling too frazzled for it to work. We did find a bit of treasure in the alcoves but before we could complete our search, Feno let the rest of us know that he heard voices approaching. As is to be expected, we quickly determined that the newcomers were not friendlies since they were talking about gaining a source of power and about undead servants. We extinguished our light sources to avoid letting our presence be known too soon and Lhoss considered using her spider climb ability to crawl out and spy on them but changed her mind since it was too likely that she'd be spotted and then be at a disadvantage.  Niki used her "Stone Shaping" spell to open a passageway between the room we were in and the previous room that we'd found the dead men in since our hope was that we could then send half our group behind the bad guys in a pincer move and have them surrounded. Feno held the damaged door in place so they couldn't get in while Lhoss, Arnd and I tried to sneak out the other door. 

I don't know if we weren't quiet enough or if they were just that aware of their surroundings, but what turned out to be a group of zombies under the thrall of four Necromancers of Set were not surprised by our attempted ambush.  My arrow, which should have pierced the chest of one of the Necromancers, was deflected harmlessly by a spell and then Arnd, Niki and Lhoss all missed hitting the zombies they were attacking.  Fortunately, of their return attack, only Arnd was hit while Niki and Lhoss were both unharmed. Armatzi tried to cast "Turn Undead" but was unsuccessful, possibly because the Necromancers were right there to reinforce their control. 

Admittedly, there was rather a lot of ineffectual fighting between us and the zombies until Feno stepped out and obliterated a zombie with a single blow, which shocked the Necromancers because of his strength and speed. They decided to enter the fight then, to their ultimate destruction. One attacked Niki and one attacked me, but both of them missed, followed by Feno expressing his contempt by smashing to paste the one that had attacked Niki.  I managed to kill the one that had attacked me, and the third one committed suicide, calling out, "My life for Set," as he died.  Feno finished off the final Necromancer with little effort and we focused on cleaning up the zombies that were left.  

It wasn't as quick and easy as I would have liked and Armatzi for some crazy reason tried to attack with a water creation spell (which was completely ineffective in doing any damage, although it may have helped with the smell a tiny bit) before we finally eliminated the scourge. One bright spot was when Armatzi cast "Cure light wounds" on Lhoss and managed to fully restore her health. Best casting ever!

The zombies were typical zombies and had no valuables on them but the Necromancer corpses had platinum, daggers and a staff on them. As we finished looting, a disembodied voice proclaimed pride in the dead Necromancers, which absolutely disgusted me since they'd been pretty pathetic and the one even had killed himself rather than fight for his standards! My goddess, Merikka, would never find pride in such a thing. Sympathy for a damaged mind maybe, but never pride.

We finally finished going through all the alcoves we'd been searching before Set's wimps interrupted us and decided to head back to town. That is when we remembered a slight problem.  In that room we'd gone through that had all the holes in the floor, the portcullis had been triggered and dropped down, blocking our exit. We tried to lift it, since we'd done that successfully before, but it seemed to be locked in place somehow. Even my companions using their superior elven eyesight couldn't see any way to release it.

Suddenly, Feno remembered that there was a piece of paper in the bottom of one of the floor holes and decided he wanted to see what it said.  Lhoss looked in the hole that had appeared green and discovered that was because it had a quantity of green slime at the bottom of it, so she quickly backed away from that hole. Feno found the correct hole but didn't want to risk putting his hand down inside it.  Using a bit of ingenuity, we put a blob of sap from my kindling onto the end of a piece of rope and were able to snare the paper without endangering anyone.  The paper read, "First Up, then Down" which Lhoss interpreted as instructions for opening the portcullis.  She bravely reached into the hole that held the lever that had triggered the portcullis dropping in the first place, grabbed the lever and followed the directions.  She pulled the lever upward and then when it made a clanking noise, she pushed it back down.  To everyone's relief and joy, the portcullis noisily raised itself back up and we were free to go on our way. Thinking about it now, I know we were extremely lucky that it worked, but I kind of think that there is some sort of diety or power of the dungeon, a master perhaps, that is watching over us as we bumble along and helping to keep us going, even against great odds.