Back again, we are, in the barrowmaze. It is a gloomy place and fills me with dread to experience it. Titus, Lalie, Aila, Armatzi, Maeve, Tatania, Sergius, and Veyda are all present and prepare themselves well for whatever it is they may encounter behind this brick barricade. They know it will be something terrible, based on the awful moaning they can hear coming from behind the wall. Sergius and Aila grab sledgehammers to bash through the brick while Armatzi casts prayer and Veyda casts bless. With each swing, the moaning and thrashing seem to intensify. The wall comes down to reveal a disgusting zombie and two ghasts. Quickly, Maeve dispenses the zombie with her axes. The ghast gives off a noxious and ghastly odor that effects Titus and makes him nauseated. Sergius is attacked physically by one of the remaining ghasts and is paralyzed. Lalie dodges an attack by the other and in turn swings on it with her holy mace, aptly named Grace. It is such an effective weapon against the evil ghast that one hit causes the creature to be destroyed in a puff of holy flame. What a display! Armatzi attempts to turn the remaining ghast, but is unsuccessful. Tatania blasts it with her unerring magic missiles. Maeve attempts to hit it with a dart, but strikes Sergius by mistake! Feeling terrible, she retreats from throwing missile weapons. Lalie moves in with Grace and deftly dispatches the ghast in another burst of holy flame. Armatzi heals Sergius of his paralysis and the party moves on.
Niki and Dwerom join the group. The party seems somewhat aimless and meanders around into places that some swear they have already explored. They encounter a worship room with a stature of Nerul (ugh) and another room that had once held a plinth dedicated to Polis, but is now nothing but blackened and shattered debris (oh dear). Maeve points out a room she wants to explore. It is in disrepair with crumbling walls. The group does not move fast enough, and a large chunk of ceiling collapses. All of the party sustain some damage, but Maeve is completely crushed and loses consciousness. She is revived by the healers of the group, but begins to act strangely. She is babbling incoherently and has a wild look in her eyes. The party tries to question her about her behavior, but Maeve becomes very defensive and shuts them down. Nobody in the group has a good handle on what her typical behavior is, so they chalk it up to her being a little odd (she is wearing the motley clothing of a jester, after all).
The group next encounters an archway dripping with ooze. They discuss how best to navigate the situation when Lalie just goes for it. She gets a little slime on her arm, but is not negatively affected in any way that anyone can perceive. So, the rest of the team walks through with some getting "slimed" and some coming out clean. Regardless, there is no harm done to anyone. Lalie pauses and detects evil coming from behind two closed doors, one to the right and one to the left. The party forms a plan to hide out in two rooms further up the hall and send one person to draw out whatever is in the rooms back so that they will be forced through the bottlenecks of the doors, as there is insufficient room to battle more than two across in the hallway. The flaw in the plan is that Lalie volunteers herself as the "bait" to draw out the creatures. She is clad in heavy armor and therefore moves quite slowly. The folly of the plan becomes apparent when the doors burst open and Lalie is met by a horde of evil undead. She attempts to draw them back to the rooms where the rest of the group lies in wait, but is quickly overtaken by the swift moving creatures. She raises a cry and the adventurers move out to assist, only to see her paralyzed and killed. Their initial plans scuttled, the brave band engages with the evil undead horde. Will they rise to the occasion and avenge brave and righteous Lalie? We shall see!
Your faithful storyteller,
Vilma
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