Session 52: Day 20 of Planting

It's mid-morning of day 20 of Planting and we've just had a rest after our fight with the wooden golems.  Everyone who had been injured was healed and we decided to retain our marching order from earlier.  Therefore, Arnd and Armaziti are in the lead, followed by Lhoss and Kyro.  Gnorcia and I (Tatania) are next with Adelbertus and Yldarb in the rear.  The dungeon master made some provocative comments, so just to be on the safe side, Gnorcia checked in the bag of holding and looked at the leather bag that had that creepy skull in it.  She was worried about her leather bag, and wanted to make sure the skull didn't gnaw its way out.  We don't know what it actually does, aside from being labeled "paralyzation" (according to my glasses of translation), but everything looks the same as before. She hangs the bag from her belt to keep it in sight.

We continue to explore this hallway, and the next alcove has another skull sitting on a note of some sort as well as a fancy jeweled gold chalice.  The skull looks like an ordinary human skull and the note has a burnt edge.  Lhoss pushes the skull off with her dagger to read the note.  It appears to be a crudely drawn map of the Temple of Nerul but has no new information to us.  Lhoss wants to grab the chalice, since it is so pretty and sparkly, but everyone is being cautious. Arnd uses his new sword, Bonesplitter, to nudge the chalice and dust billows up. I decide to cast my "Detect Magic" spell and have Gnorcia get close so that both skulls and the chalice are in range.  Both the new skull and the chalice are inert, but Gnorcia's skull is definitely magical in nature.  Lhoss quickly grabs the chalice and comments that she wants to "taste that rainbow" but decides to wait until mealtime to do so.

The next three alcoves appear empty but the final one has something moving in the shadows.  Lhoss bravely (or perhaps foolishly) enters the alcove and finds that it is a swarm of beetles; fortunately, they are normal in size.  Thinking quickly, she pulls out one of her oil flasks and sticks a wick in it, lighting it on fire.  When she throws it, the flask shatters and the oil splatters over the swarm.  Many of the beetles burn to death but some are still alive.  Arnd steps up and bashes the survivors with his sword, ending the potential danger.  The reek of burning beetle chitin is horrid, but luckily nobody ends up vomiting.

Lhoss enters each of the empty alcoves to ensure they really are empty, which they are.  Kyro has stayed on guard in the hallway the entire time so nothing could sneak up on us, but suddenly a loud disembodied voice yells out, "Grave Robbers!" which startles everyone.  We all look around and don't see anyone or anything new, and I yell back, "We're not grave robbers.  We're just hunting nasties!"  The others laugh at me, telling me that I'm in denial since we are most definitely robbing graves.  I reluctantly have to agree, even though I'd prefer to focus on the noble portion of our adventuring.  Since we're exiting back through the Temple of Nerul, Lhoss compares the map piece to reality and it appears to match.  She even holds up the map piece against torchlight to see if there's anything additional hidden (perhaps this is why the edge was burnt?) but nothing shows up.  We look to see if the birdlike creatures were still there, but they have gone away.  

As we're leaving the area, Lhoss notes a door that we haven't opened and is struck by the need to open it now.  She tries but isn't strong enough so Arnd opens it for her.  I think I can safely say that we all immediately wish he hadn't.  Inside the room is a bunch of cobras, and not just any cobras but spitting cobras.  Or at least the three in the front immediately spit venom towards us while the other three slither forward menacingly.  The spitters aimed for Lhoss and Arnd, and lucky for my friends, the first two miss them completely.  Unfortunately, the final one hits Lhoss in the face.  It burns at her eyes before she can wipe them clear again.  Harming Adelbertus is the goal of the moving snakes, which is kind of ironic since as a dwarf he has resistance to poison.  Not one of the three succeeds in biting him.

Arnd swings his sword at one of the spitting snakes but somehow misses it. Lhoss also tries to hit a snake, using her dagger, but the damage from the venom in her eyes probably messed up her depth perception as she also misses.  Adelbertus has much better luck and severely injures the center snake with Oddwood, his magical staff.  Yldarb swings his spear, Falstaff, only to find that what he thought was a lucky +3 spear is actually cursed; if you attack unsuccessfully with it, it will take damage out on you instead. He falls back, angry and injured. Armatzi pulls Melissa out and attempts to smash a snake with her but it wiggles out of reach before he can manage.  I fire a magic missile into the injured center snake and flay the flesh from its bones, killing it.  Kyro fires a pair of arrows from his short bow.  The first skewers a snake, eliminating it, but his second arrow crashes into the dungeon wall harmlessly. Gnorcia has a trio of darts that she attempts to use.  The first misses completely, and then the second and third hit the rightmost snake, causing a lot of damage but not finishing it off.  The left side snake attacks Adelbertus a second time and successfully bites him while the injured right side snake misses Arnd a second time.  Adelbertus bashes the snake that bit him with his staff, pounding it into paste, but then falls to the ground as the poison courses through his system.  Resistance to poison doesn't mean immunity to poison, unfortunately.

Arnd switches his sword for his snake-handled mace, hoping that it will give him luck against this foe but misses again anyway.  Armaziti comes to Adelbertus' rescue and casts his Slow Poison spell.  We are very grateful for this since nobody else can do anything to help.

Yldarb wants nothing to do with the cursed Falstaff now and tries to put it away.  He thinks he is pulling out his sword but discovers to his dismay that the curse on the spear won't allow him to put it down.  It turns out that the backbiting aspect of the curse only kicks in if an attack is unsuccessful.  Fortunately, the attack he pulled was successful and the spear slices the snake in half, proving that the +3 stat was true as far as that goes. Since I don't have any further ranged attacks, I stay back out of the way.  We are down to two snakes now, and Gnorcia goes after the larger of the two, easily slaughtering it with her magic dagger.  Lhoss fires her magic missile and the final snake explodes in a shower of gore.  

Yldarb is frustrated and disgusted with his spear.  He again tries to intentionally set it aside, but despite going through the motions, it remains in his hand. Armatzi remembers at this point that he has a potion of neutralize poisons and he hurriedly gives it to Adelbertus.  The potion works its magic quickly and when Adelbertus is completely healed, he goes ahead and heals the backstab wounds on Yldarb while Armaziti heals the poison burns from Lhoss' face and eyes.  Gnorcia take the opportunity to search the snake room but comes back empty-handed.  What a waste of time!  In annoyance, we toss the snake bodies back into the room and shut the door again.

Yldarb really wants to get rid of the spear now, so we go back to the burial alcoves where he found it.  It's no use, he still can't release it.  Somebody, I don't remember who, came up with the idea to use one of the heavy metal doors that were controlled by the three switches that we'd encountered earlier to trap the spear so maybe Yldarb could walk away from it.  Everyone agrees this is as good an idea as any, so we go and place the spear on the floor under the open door.  I try to hold the spear in place so that Yldarb's fingers aren't underneath the spear when the door comes crashing down on it, but it seems that the spear has more of a mental hold on him than we'd thought because as soon as the switches were thrown to close the door, Yldarb snatches the spear out of the line of danger before it can be hit.  It is decided that the best chance we have of getting rid of the spear (or at least the curse on it) is to head back to Orlane.

By this time, everyone is feeling a bit hungry.  We decide to go to Polis's shrine to have our lunch.  On the way, we clean up the mess of dead froglings that were left in the hallway, placing them in some burial alcoves but without any ceremony.  When we get to Polis's shrine, Lhoss uses a bit of her water to rinse the fancy jeweled chalice clean and then uses it for her drink with the meal.  She says that she feels very Queen-like to have such a sparkly cup.  As we finish our lunch, we hear voices in the hallway outside speaking in common.  As a quick precaution, everyone takes a turn standing on Polis's plinth to gain his blessing of +1 to hit.

It is fortunate that we took that precaution because when Gnorcia (being fastest) exits the room, she finds that there are 9 members of the Black Hand coming toward us.  Four of them attack with short swords, two of them hitting and two of them missing.  The other five band members stay back to watch and wait.  Kyro and I jump out of the room and attack, him with his long sword and I with Sylvia (my magic silver dagger).  Despite our enthusiasm, we both miss our targets.  Lhoss tosses her second magic missile but it does minimal damage.  This is all disheartening, but Yldarb swings his cursed staff and luckily hits.  Adelbertus barrels into one attacker with his shield and bashes him into another Black Hand member.  The guy that was hit initially had several bones break and the other guy was beat up pretty well too.  Arnd throws a flask of burning oil at the back flank, killing two immediately, leaving a third incapacitated and cutting the final two off from their mates.  They watch as Armatzi defeats one of the remaining four in front of the flames using Melissa, and they run away from the battle, abandoning the others.  The three that are left apparently decide they want to get away too, so they try to retreat.  Armatzi and Melissa take care of one, Gnorcia gets the second, and the third is so scared that he foolishly attempts to run through the wall of flames, immolating himself.  He never had a chance.  Finally, there is nothing left to do but loot the corpses.  OK, fine.  I admit it.  I'm a bit of a grave robber, although this isn't technically grave robbing since these guys were never buried to begin with. 

Session 51: Day 19 of Planting (evening) and the morning of Day 20

Arnd, Armaziti, Chiki, Gnorcia, Kyro, Lhoss, and Tatania ate a quick dinner and memorized spells in preparation for further adventuring. Tonight's goal was to retrace our steps to the temple of Nerul in an attempt to pick up at the location we had last explored. Some of the party had a vague memory of where we were, but it was honestly a bit of guess work to get to where we were going. The group noticed a slime trail that had been avoided previously and decided to investigate it this time. There was a thought that it might be the same devouring green slime that the group had encountered, but this slime was a translucent gray instead of green. Lhoss dipped a skeleton femur that she had been lugging around to see if it would be devoured; it was not affected. Still, the team decided to give the slime a wide berth. 

Moving forward, Lhoss opened a door to find an animated skeleton dressed in black chain mail and wielding a sword of light. The skeleton immediately engaged with Lhoss but fortunately missed. Tatania made a stunning hit with her magic missile and Armaziti delivered the killing blow with Melissa. Lhoss examined the fallen foe and noticed the sword and armor were worth scavenging. Chiki claimed the sword which was determined to be magical and named it Toffee Sword. Kyro claimed the armor which was a significant upgrade for him.

We followed the slime trail which seemed to originate from behind a closed door. All seven of the party tried unsuccessfully to open the door. Yearning to know what was behind it, Chiki began to bash on the door with his mace. The loud noise attracted unwanted visitors. From the shadows, we heard a croaking noise. Into view appeared two frog men carrying spears. They immediately targeted the closest of us; Lhoss was able to dodge the first blow but was hit by the second. In retaliation, she hit one with a magic missile. Tatania was able to finish it off with Sylvia. Chiki itching to wield his new sword slashed the second asunder with one blow. Chiki and Toffee Sword, an auspicious paring! Unfortunately, the vigor with which Chiki slashed the frog man sent innards spraying onto Kyro which caused him to lose his most recent meal. Looking back on it, the sound and smell of the retching may have attracted the second wave of frog men...

For soon we were facing another round. Gnorcia, moving quickly, fatally slashed one with Vengeance; Chiki again showed his skill by killing another. Then with great deftness, one of the frog men stabbed Lhoss as it leapt over her. Another leapt even further to attack Armaziti. Tatania exploded another magic missile right in the abdomen of one of the foes, sending gore spraying onto Gnorcia and Arnd. There must be something particularly foul about the insides of these creatures, because Gnorcia and Arnd (who have seen plenty of blood and guts) immediately began puking. Fortunately, the fight was soon ended when Armaziti slayed the penultimate frog man and the final combatant fled. The escapee was too swift and evaded our pursuits. Perhaps we will see him on another day.

Not eager to attract more attention by bashing down the door, the group made another attempt to open it. After four failed attempts, Kyro was able to force it. It was a disappointingly empty room. But the group thought it could serve as a relatively safe place to heal, memorize spells, and get the fitful type of rest one does in the barrowmaze. Fortunately, it was an uneventful night.

In the morning, after a hurried breakfast, the group managed to find our way back to the room of switches. We quickly opened the south door and made our way cautiously into the temple of Nerul. The vicious birds we had previously encountered were gone. Sensing the evil of the place, we hurried on to the spot where Lhoss had gone insane. At last we could pick up where we had left off. 

We passed the western pit and came upon a series of alcoves. The first contained the remains of a human in armor. The walls, floor and ceiling were covered in a yellow mold. The deceased's armor was rusty and no good, but Arnd claimed the long sword Bone Splitter that is especially useful against the undead (a boon in this gloomy place). Chiki lingered in the room, examining the yellow mold. Though he knew that the mold was dangerous and asphyxiated those unfortunate enough to come into contact with it, still he paced around the room. It was faithful ChickChick, digging her claws into Chiki's shoulder that finally caused him to flee.

The second alcove contained a wooden bowl with 10 platinum, a pair of bone dice, and an astrolabe that could prognosticate the weather. Chiki took the astrolabe, the platinum was split amongst the group, and Gnorcia stealthily pocketed the dice.

The third alcove revealed a gold skull perched on a pedestal. Its black opal gems inset as eyes made for an intimidating figure! An inscription of "dlohnoitisop" could be read on the base of the skull. I say read, but it didn't make sense to any of us. Luckily, Tatania recalled her glasses that allow her to read other languages. The closest translation that she could approximate was "paralysis". That seemed ominous! But of course we couldn't pass up such a treasure, so Gnorcia deftly tipped the skull into a bag without touching it. It was noted that the base of the skull was silver.

The next alcove presented an interesting tableau: a skeleton flanked by two wooden statues. Chiki was deeply interested in the statues and made a valiant attempt to carry one off. As it was 200 pounds or more, he was struggling to inch it along. For who knows what reason, he decided to draw his sword and strike at the first statue. Immediately, the two figures animated and attacked Chiki, dealing serious damage. Kyro moved to withdraw Chiki from the battle, but Lhoss called out that such an action would leave Chiki vulnerable to attacks. Kyro decided it was worthwhile anyway and pulled Chiki away from the statues. As predicted, the statues viciously slashed Chiki, leaving him bleeding out and on death's door. With a huff of indignation at being proven right at so high a cost, Lhoss rushed over to bind up Chiki's wounds. One of the statues attacked Arnd, and in an act of vengeance with Vengeance (and using a move she had observed from the frog men), Gnorcia leapfrogged over the top to backstab it. Two magic missiles from our magic users and one arrow from Kyro later and the second statue was defeated. Our valiant healer Armaziti brought Chiki back from the brink causing Gnorcia to remark "Chiki, you're awfully small to be so hugely irritating!"

Session 50: Day 19 of planting, return to Barrowmaze

The party had arrived back in Barrowmaze during the late afternoon, and approached the barrow that has the entrance. There was some concern about the wolves that had been heard before, but nothing was seen of them. The visibility was poor due to mist and rain. 

The group quickly traced their steps to the pillared room, and found bodies of the band of the black hand disturbed. These were the dead bodies that the party had slain more than a week before. They had the appearance of being half eaten by something grotesque. 

The party travelled further to the alcove of the god Solis, and several of them followed the procedure to obtain a blessing. A secret door was then found, revealing several animated skeletons that attacked. At first the party thought that they were normal skeletons, but when they were slain, they exploded. Armatzi recalled from his clerical training that they are known as "exploding bones". 

Another secret door was found after the battle, revealing a stragely presrved white body. The body was uncanny. It was hard to determine if that was the natuarl skin, or if it had been painted - it was flaking off in parts. A gold pendant with a large pearl was around the bodies neck. Lhoss attempted to claim the staff, and it fell in a most unnatural way. It was also seen that it eyes and lips were of a darkened color as well. Lhoss managed to obtain the pendant. 

The group left, obtaining new blessings from Polis before moving on. They returned to the large open room, with an altar at the northern area. The altar was examined more closely, and it was covered with dry blood. The deity of the altar couldn't be determined. There was a fading fresco behind the altar that was also inscrutable. 

Adjacent to this room on the west was the room that a dead mongrelman had been found. This corpse had also been partially consumed and dismembered. Tatania and Gnorcia moved the corpse and remains to the alcoves in the room, and Tatania used some of her water to clean up the mess on the floor. The group then ate dinner and memorized/prayed for new spells in that room. 

Session 49: Day 19 of Planting, On the Road to the Barrowmaze

It was a cold, overcast day. Blizzard, Armaziti, Lhoss, Adelbertus, Hoddour, Arnd and I ate a hearty breakfast at the inn and then hoisted our bags and headed north out of Orlane toward the Barrowmaze. As soon as we stepped out of town, a cold drizzle started, turning the road to mud, which slopped all over our boots and even inside the boots of us smaller adventurers. We pressed on as the drizzle turned to a steady rain before we arrived at the Dim Forest.

As soon as we were inside the forest the rain cleared up under the heavy tree cover, but the temperature dropped even more with a heavy mist that seemed to have cast a disturbingly quieter-than-usual spell on the timbers. The misty hush chilled both our bodies and minds and we pulled our cloaks around tighter as we ventured deeper into the forest. We knew the road quite well now, and soon found our usual resting spot where we paused to fill our water skins in the slow-moving creek and clean the mud from our boots as we rested and ate some food.

Moving again, we had been traveling for a few more hours when Lhoss caught a glimpse of something strange off the side of the path, in the underbrush. Peering through, we realized it was a carcass of some kind of large animal. It didn’t smell like rot at all, so it could not have been there very long. We certainly hadn’t noticed it the week prior on our way back to Orlane. We discussed for a minute what to do, and of course curious Lhoss wanted to get a closer look so I went with her to investigate.

It was a cow, and a bloody mess. The neck and belly had been ripped out and seemingly devoured, the rest of it left behind in a pile of skin and gore. The flies must had been held off by the rain but we decided it couldn’t have been dead longer than 12 hours anyway. The group then considered the danger that such an unnerving attack could mean to the people of the area and decided to investigate further. Even without a ranger in the group we could see where whatever had attacked this poor bovine had then tromped off through the forest, leaving a trail of blood behind it.

Tatania and the dwarf brothers decided to stay behind as Armaziti, Lhoss, Blizzard, Arnd, and I followed the trail deeper into the brush. Before long we realized the path had petered out, but we had moved far enough past the bloody trail that by the time we stopped and turned back it was no longer obvious which direction we had come from. We picked what we guessed was the right way and moved along for about 20 yards, but didn’t find the trail. There was a buzzing sound in the air then and we turned back to where we recognized a tree we had been standing by when we first stopped. From there we moved yet another 20 yards in the opposite direction and were startled to discover a steep decline into a basin with a pool of water. Fortunately no one fell, but that was clearly not where we had come from. We also noticed the buzzing sound had become a little louder as we approached the edge.

Moving back again to the tree where we had first stopped, Lhoss carved an L into it so we could recognize it again. Suddenly we heard a faint cry of “Lhoss?!” that sounded like Tatania’s voice. Lhoss yelled back and Tatania must have heard because she started banging on her cup, making quite a racket that we were able to quickly follow to get back to the others near the path. What a relief it was to see those dumb dwarven brothers again! Our little investigation party was now an absolutely miserable mess of mud, dirt, and cold sweat. We tried to rest a few moments but before we could recover more than our wits we heard a loud crashing sound moving through the underbrush in our direction. Apparently all the noise had attracted something, and we knew it couldn’t be something good.

It seemed only natural to make an effort to get off the ground, so I suggested that everyone pick a tree and start climbing. I quickly climbed up the nearest trunk and settled myself on a strong limb, turning to find that while Lhoss, Hoddour, and his brother Adelbertus had managed to get themselves up into the trees, the rest of the party was still on the ground. We yelled down to them to try again and soon both Blizzard and Tatania were up into the safety of the tree branches.

Arnd and Armaziti, however, proved to need a lot more practice at tree climbing. Giving up on the effort, Arnd turned toward the sound that was getting ever closer, and prepared to fight whatever was coming. Armaziti prepared by casting a blessing on the group. Tatania was still trying to find a secure branch to sit on and Lhoss had pulled out an old femur bone and was holding it over her head like a club. We all then watched in horror as a pair of fast-moving zombies crashed into sight, their hands outstretched and their eyes glowed with an unholy light, spreading a shudder of fear through the entire party.

The first zombie immediately grabbed for Armaziti’s neck and got a tight hold on him, doing some small injury, and the second creature tried the same with Arnd, but the little dwarf dodged the attack. Armaziti tried to cast his Turn Undead spell, but it appeared not to affect the awful creatures.

Giving up on her weaponized femur, Lhoss decided to jump down to help. I stood on my tree limb and cast color spray at the zombies, hitting the creature that had grabbed Armaziti. It collapsed to the ground, asleep but still squeezing Armaziti in its death grip and dragging him down with it, injuring the cleric even more as he fell. Armazi grabbed for warhammer, Melissa, and struggled to hit the zombie’s locked arms but it was a futile effort.

Arnd swung his mace at the zombie in front of him, hitting it and causing it to moan loudly in what one would assume was pain, if a zombie could feel pain. This question slipped through my mind for just a moment and I watched Blizzard hit the same zombie with a bolt from her magical crossbow. It moaned loudly again.

Adelbertus then tried to shoot with his crossbow, but slipped and fell from the tree, taking bodily damage as he hit the ground in a flailing pile of arms and legs. Arnd swung his mace again, knocking the zombie closest to him to the ground, where it lay, unmoving. Lhoss then jumped in with her sword and tried to slice off the arms of the zombie that was still strangling Armaziti, but despite hitting it squarely, the weapon did nothing and slid right off the creature. Seeing that, Hoddour announced that he would be staying up in his tree, cowering in fear. Tatania and I both scrambled down to the ground.

Abandoning her non-magical sword, Lhoss shouted that we needed to use magic weapons. She grabbed her own magic blade, slicing off the fingers of the unconscious zombie that was clinging to Armaziti. Blizzard joined us on the ground again, just as the zombie that appeared to have fallen to Arnd’s attack jumped up and attacked him again, reaching out for his neck and grabbing him in a death latch! Poor Arnd tried to hit the creature but completely failed. Blizzard leapt in and also tried to slice it with her knife, but the knife wasn’t magical and it just slid right off.

Screaming in frustration with these creatures, I leapt onto the back of the one holding Arnd and sliced it open with my stout blade, Vengeance. It released the dwarf from its grip and fell to the ground, defeated. Adelbertus jumped up, brushed himself off, and tried to shoot an arrow at the other unconscious zombie, but his crossbow was not a magical weapon and the arrow just flew off into the forest, at least managing not to harm any of the rest of us. Armaziti then stood and smashed his warhammer down into the final creature, exploding its guts everywhere.

Finally free and able to talk, Armaziti told us these were no normal zombies. He had immediately recognized them as Coffer Corpses, horrid creatures more dangerous than normal zombies, with deadly grips and magical defenses. We were all relieved to put a stop to the attack, but still each doubly afraid from the encounter. Lhoss was actually shaking and starting to behave a little strangely again. Hoddour finally agreed to climb back down and everyone gathered around Armaziti as he chanted a ritual. A holy glow emanated from his gauntlet and we each felt a peaceful relief as the fear abated.

Despite my frustrated pleas to go back to Orlane, sleep in a real bed, and try again tomorrow, the group decided to leave this adventure behind us in the Dim Forest and press forward toward the barrowmaze. It wasn’t far and as we descended into the valley there seemed to be even more heavy mist than usual there as well. We were all dirty and tired from our day’s adventures, but it was good to be back on our quest. When we arrived at the entrance to the underground tombs, Adelbertus and Armaziti cast healing spells to heal Armaziti from his battle with the Coffer Corpse, and Adelbertus healed himself from his fall. We steeled ourselves for the next descent into the fear-inducing darkness.

Session 48: Return to Orlane, days 12 - 18 of Planting

 After a long day followed by a bad night's sleep, the 12th day of Planting began when we rose at 6:00 am. Because of the incident with Lhoss and her sanity, it was an unanimous decision among the group of Lhoss, Gnorcia, Ronan, Armaziti, Calbach, Adelbertus and myself (Tatania) that we should head back to Orlane post haste, although Ronan expressed some sorrow that we couldn't finish exploring just a bit more. However, the safety of the group needs to come before gold or glory, so we turned back to the dread Temple of Nerull (which is what we decided to name the area of the crypt where we found that malevolent statue of same). That place is just creepy.

As we walked toward the north entrance/exit, a screeching noise surprised us all and we looked up to see baleful eyes glaring down at us from the dark ceiling.  The ceiling is probably about 30 feet high, and unnoticed by us before, there's a ledge about 20 feet up that is apparently an ideal roosting spot for Barrowmaze-dwelling avians.  Aside from the screeching, the birds didn't act aggressively, but we all know how quickly that can change.  Ronan and Adelbertus both quickly whipped their shields overhead, just in case.  Huddled under that meager protection, everyone inventoried their weapons, specifically looking for arrows or darts that might be effective if we had to fight off the birds.  We peeked out carefully to observe the birds.  They were unfamiliar to all of us, appearing to be rather reptilian in nature, with large, leathery wings and vicious-looking claws and beaks.  It was suggested that they could be Rocs, but there was no way of knowing, and it didn't really matter much anyway.  Ronan held up his arrowhead that he'd found that featured the symbol of Nerull, on the assumption that since the birds were in Nerull's temple, it might make them leave us alone.  The birds were completely unimpressed, but didn't make any moves against us either.

In an effort to distract the birds, several of us took the meat portions of some of our rations and placed them in a pile.  We then backed away; as soon as the offering was revealed, one of the birds descended in a flurry of wings and began feasting.  The rest of the birds, realizing they were going to miss out, swooped down enmass and attacked the meat voraciously.  That was all it took for our group to move out with alacrity.  We hurried to the metal doors that guarded that area of the crypt and closed them securely.  Then, we continued to the maze entrance as rapidly as we could while still being as safe as possible.  That half hour was harrowing, but fortunately, nothing else happened while we were still inside.

Outside the dark cave that enclosed the Barrowmaze entrance, we could hear haunting howls from the North-West, sounding like wolves.  We looked around, but the swamp mist tends to keep visibility to only about 150 feet, so we didn't see anything.  We exited the cave cautiously and could hear movement, like the wolves were approaching but we still couldn't see them.  The uncertainty kept our travel brisk until we stopped for lunch.  There were no further encounters and we reached the Slumbering Serpent by midday.

As expected, Orlane and the Slumbering Serpent were both much busier than they have been on past visits.  Still, there was an 8-person room available that we decided to take, at a cost of 8 silver per person per day.  Everyone was pleased to be able to clean up and take off the heavy armor that several of us were wearing.  Since there were still a couple hours before dinner, we decided to go and have our treasure evaluated.  It turned out to be quite a haul, and most of it was sold.  We exchanged some for 50 gold piece-valued gemstones, so that if Armaziti has to cast his spell for regaining sanity again, we can afford it.  These gems were stored in the Bag of Holding.

Speaking of the Bag of Holding, we discovered that Armaziti was lugging around multiple gallons of water on his person, which was affecting his speed and stamina badly.  He was convinced to store most (if not all) of it in the Bag of Holding since much of the weight would be negated by the spells on that bag.  I wonder what other foolish decisions we are each making that will be discovered later on?

Once we had our money, we talked about who could and wanted to level up.  It's kind of silly to say it like that, since I think everyone would want to level up, but the only ones who could were Calbach and Lhoss.  Calbach obtained level 3 as a Ranger while Lhoss had to borrow from a few friends to be able afford to get her Level 2 Magic User.  Armaziti decided to make a trade from his Scale Mail armor to Banded Mail as it gives improved protection as well as weighing less.  Good choice, Armaziti!

Session 47: Final part of day 11 of Planting - the maddening

 We pick up the story again after dinner, accompanied by the memorization and prayer for spells. Lhoss, Gnorcia, Adelbertus, Tatania, Armatzi, and Hoddour all present and accounted for. Ronan and Calbach join shortly afterwards. 

The group proceeded southwards, and Ronan tripped a pit trap that was hidden just to the east. Lhoss was able to rescue him from the pit with her trusty rope. He then narrowly dodged falling into an open pit just south of the hidden pit. The group managed for the most part to slink past the two pits. However, Hoddour has a free spirit, and wandered west, triggering another hidden pit, and fell into some spikes. His faithful mate Squirbo was so disturbed by the fall that he chomped a bit of dwarven ear as he fell with him. 

A little healing happened (but no discussion of how to avoid future traps such as this). A door was found to the south, which proved difficult to open (Lhoss, Ronan, Armatzi all made attempts before Calbach finally succeeded). A room was revealed with two lime encrusted skeletons, which animated and attacked the group. The group was able to easily dispatch the two, with both magic and force of arms. The skeletons possessed two white gold necklaces. Some discussion of what white gold actually means happened. Armatzi insisted that gold is yellow, not white. 

The group decided that all of their primary weapons needed names, and these are what are now on record: Armatzi, with the previously named hammer Melissa, Tatania with a silver dagger named Sylvia, Adelbertus with his odd staff Oddwood, Lhoss, with Gary (Indiana) the dagger, Gnorcia with the foreboding stout blade of renown Vengeance, Ronan with Kimber the cudgel, Calbach with Banisher, the short sword of slaying scaly creatures, and Hoddour, with Ronald the dagger. 

The room had several rotting tapestries that were examined, but nothing interesting was found, and from fear of some dangerous mold, the group retreated. 

Lhoss discovered a secret door to the north. In the room was a worn bow, and three arrowheads, that were determined to be magical. Each of them had a different rune of some deity scribed on them: Ronan claimed one dedicated to Herne the Hunter, Calbach that to Heronious, and Ronan one to the evil god Nerull. 

The party exited, and found another door to the south east. Lhoos immediately opened the door, revealing rubble and many electrum pieces scattered throughout it. As the party scrambled to gather the treasure, a glowing yellow skeleton appeared and menaced the party. It must be noted that the horrors of the tomb began to take a toll on the minds of the party, with Lhoss being the most susceptible. She began to mutter and moan softly. The skeleton was dispatched rather easily, with a killing blow by Armatzi. 

A runic tablet was found, which Lhoss covets almost as much as opening doors. She quickly read the contents, but to her horror, she found her strength drained significantly - a curse of enfeeblement! The party realized that they needed to rest and recover, especially as Lhoss began to behave more strangely. They decided to stay in the room of the glowing skeleton (which had stopped glowing shortly after its destruction). The party healed up, and set the watch. Calbach and Tatania took the first watch, and it wasn't too far in before a moaning sound was heard, followed by increasingly discerned vocalizations of "Brains". This pushed Lhoss over the edge, and she curled up in a ball and began to mutter and mumble. 

After a bit of fight and chase (Armazti was finally successful in turning undead creatures), the group came back to find Lhoss acting in a somewhat peculiar manner, stroking her dagger. The group became quite proactive, and made attempts to grapple Lhoss, which she initially dodged. She also stabbed in fury with Gary, to no effect. Ronan was able to put a rope around her waist, but Lhoss slashed it off with Gary in a blaze of fury. Calbach then lept at Lhoss and was able to overbear her. The party held her down, while Armzatzi used a remove fear spell on Lhoss. To all the party's fortune, the spell not only cured Lhoss of her overwhelming fear, but also cured the insanity that had taken her over. The group then went back to watch and rest, but it was filled with foreboding and a growing gloom. 

Session 46: Great Treasures and Further Adventure in the Catacombs of Nerull on Day 11 of Planting

Having thoroughly explored most of the rooms in the hallway, our group went back east to the room with the door-opening levers. Lhoss manipulated them and opened the south door, then set the levers so it would to stay open. We then went south into the next room and through the door on its west wall. Moving to the end of the hallway behind that door, we found some rubble that had collapsed off the wall, though the remaining wall was intact. There the hallway turned south and we noticed a round circle imprinted on the floor, about 2 feet in diameter. As Calbach was looking at it and prodding it a bit, Yldarb noticed a movement on the wall and discovered a small alcove had opened to reveal a leather pouch. Peering carefully into the pouch, he found 5 darts. None of our magic-using party members had memorized a spell to detect magic so we added the darts (inside their pouch) into the bag of holding for later investigation.

I (Gnorcia) turned back to the circle, stood inside it, and turned around in a circle, but only managed to get dizzy from the spinning. Bored with the circle, Lhoss, Tatania, Adelbertus, Yldarb, Calbach, and I searched 57 square catacomb alcoves in another hallway to the east. In addition to finding some mummified remains, I discovered a coral shaped into a funny little fat man, Yldarb found a pewter chalice, and Tatania found a broken spear and a bag of 35 gold pieces.

Searching 49 hexagonal alcoves down another hallway to the west, we found some gnawed bones. Armaziti also found a circlet and a small wooden coffer, Calbach found a sparkly diamond, and Tatania found a much-less-sparkly dented helm. Lhoss examined the coffer and discovered a needle trap, and I was then able to disarm it, revealing a poison dart.

All this time, Hoddour, uninterested in searching, had been standing out in the hallway and staring at the wall. Fortunately his squirrel companion, Squirbo, was paying attention, recognized the poison on the dart, and ran excitedly in circles as a warning. Tatania carefully took the dart and placed it in a vial closed with a cork, where it would be safe. I then handed the box back to Armaziti, who opened it to reveal a large, human-size, gold ring. He was hesitant to put it on but it was so beautiful and sparkly that I excitedly grabbed it and slipped it onto my biggest finger. Amazingly, it shrank to fit and I felt an instant aura of protection. It was a +1 magic ring of protection!

As the group discussed their findings, I sneaked down to the next hallway to the south and discovered 51 triangular alcoves. The group soon followed and began searching there. Adelbertus discovered 54 copper pieces, another golden circlet, and a silver spear point, and I found a beautiful amethyst. The next hallway to the east contained 50 circular alcoves, each with a silver-plated skull over it. Lhoss poked at one of the skulls with her dagger and discovered she could pry it off, so we went through and pried off all the silver skulls. They were a little heavy so we added them to the bag of holding. Searching through these catacombs, Calbach found a bracelet, Adelbertus found a ruby, Lhoss found an ornate figurine, and Tatania found a small locked metal box.

Keys are very useful in opening locks so I got out my ring of keys and tried the small silver key in the lock. It opened the box! Inside was an ornate scroll and a silver dagger. Tatania carefully took the dagger in her hands and instantly bonded with it. She could tell that it was a +2 silver dagger and named it Sylvia. Looking back into the box, she lifted the scroll and discovered beneath it a pair of spectacles. The scroll was magical and written in magic language that she couldn’t read. Holding up the spectacles, she squinted through them first, then bravely put them on her face. Blinking, she discovered they magically enhanced her eyesight and she could read the scroll! They were glasses of comprehending languages and reading magic. Reading the scroll through them, she could tell then that it was a scroll of protection from missiles, a 3rd-level magic-user spell. Looking through the glasses again, Tatania pulled out the previously-unreadable spellbook that was in the bag of holding, discovering that she could now read those spells, and noted that they were the level 1 spells sleep, light, read magic, and detect magic, and the level 2 spell web.

Heading south again in the main hall, we could then see to the end of the hall and were surprised to discover a large statue of Nerull, standing in an engraved circle with a star inside it. At his feet was a sword! Hoddour suddenly got really excited about the sword, crying out, “Dibs!” and ran toward it. Unfortunately, the sword was merely an illusion and as he raced up to it the floor collapsed and Hoddour fell into a pit full of green slime! The slime began to grow across him and he instantly started screaming in pain. Lhoss quickly pulled out her rope and threw it down to him, yelling for him to climb out. Once he was out of the pit, Calbach used his knife to scrape the slime off Hoddour and was able to get it all off. It settled into a puddle on the ground and the statue appeared to be smiling at the scene. Adelbertus quickly healed his brother as Yldarb retrieved the 5 glass jars we had in the bag of holding, filling them all with the slime and stopping up the lids with wax seals. There was still some slime left on the floor of the hallway so Lhoss tried to push it back into the pit with her staff, but it instantly latched onto the staff and started growing up it toward her! She hastily grabbed her sword and hacked at the end of the staff, trying to get the slime off, but only managed to destroy her staff in the process. Throwing the staff with the slime into the pit, she cleared her throat and spat angrily down into it. The slime in the pit quickly consumed everything and wobbled with a strangely-satisfied gelatinous shimmer.

Hoddour carefully crept around the edge of the pit and began examining the statue, which was now fully grinning. One of its eyes appeared to sparkle and he poked it with his knife. Suddenly a feeling of intense nausea overcame him and he fell back, puking all over the floor in front of the statue. Disgusted with the result of his investigation, he attempted to direct his vomit onto the statue but discovered he could not, and in the process nearly stumbled into the pit again. He tried glaring at the statue but quickly found its malice was overwhelming and he was forced to avert his eyes.

Turning from the frightful statue, the rest of the group began to search the catacombs in the final hallway to the west. It was filled with square alcoves and we found they were all disappointingly empty. The last hallway to the east contained 50 circular alcoves and we continued our search through them. Adelbertus found a beautiful golden statuette, Lhoss found a bloodstone, and I found a spear that was more than three times my height. Yldarb took the spear from me and found that it felt marvelous in his hands. He quickly granted it the name of Falstaff and discovered it was a +3 weapon, so powerful and wonderous to him that he realized he had a preference for it over any other weapon.

As Yldarb stood holding the spear in great wonder, Lhoss noticed a catch on the wall at the end of the hall, and did what Lhoss does. She hastily tripped it. The hallway opened, revealing…