Session 120: A Horde of Skeletons Attacks

Recorded by Gnorcia:

We stayed the day in Orlane and had a wonderful but not exactly memorable day. Lhoss and I spent the day checking in on the mayor, Vilma, and the elves. The next day was Day 6 of Harvester. Feeling refreshed, we arose early, had our meal, and were on our way toward the Barrowmaze by 6:30am. It turned out to be a gloomy, rainy day. Sergius grumbled about the rain because for some reason he did not have a cloak, but the rest of us just pulled our cloaks over us and started the march down the road. I loaned my cloak to Chiki, who also did not have one, knowing it would require cleaning after a day around that gnome and his chicken. Also in our party were Kyro and Eldriel the Grey.

It was a somber, melancholy march with no sunlight and a steady pour of rain. We could smell Sergius and his increasingly-wet chain mail. The road got muddier as we went, then the trees from the Dim Forest dripped on us as we traveled through there. The Barrowmarsh trail was even wetter and murkier than usual, with a supernatural-looking fog. Despite the gloom and rain, we were excited and determined to find more treasure and possibly the Font of Law. We entered the Barrowmaze and made our way back through its silent hallways to the room we had been exploring two days before.

Peering through the portcullis, we saw a lot of dust and cobwebs and two doors to the left—one of them broken down in pieces on the floor. We raised the rusty portcullis and Kyro began sweeping the floor for traps. He soon discovered a large pit right in front of the second, broken door! Avoiding the pit, Kyro peered into the room and was immediately attacked by three crab spiders that dropped down from the ceiling. Lhoss ran in and attacked one and I leapt onto the back of another, destroying them both. Sergius then ran in and attacked the last spider but it turned and bit him, poisoning him. He dug a poison cure and a healing potion out of his bag and drank them down. I managed to harvest the poison sacks from the crab spiders and carefully packed them away as Lhoss and Eldriel did a quick search for hidden doors or anything on the walls. We then headed back out to look into the other room.

The other door was ajar and Kyro pushed it open, revealing two open sarcophagi. He looked carefully at the ceiling—which appeared normal with no hidden crab spiders—and began to sweep the room. The skeletons lay still in their sarcophagi—as skeletons should. We determined to head back out and try the closed door in the large room to the west. Kyro entered the room and began to sweep the floor for possible danger. At one point he found a hollow-sounding spot on the floor and Sergius hit the floor with his battle axe, revealing the seam of a pit trap in front of the first door on the south. Kyro continued sweeping and found yet another pit trap to the northwest in front of another door there. Beyond that, the floor appeared to be safe.

Kyro then began sweeping the floor in a hallway to the south and discovered a large group of 23 skeletons that began lumbering toward us from both hallways, north and south! One attacked Lhoss and another attacked me. Fragile elf Eldriel had gone wandering off across the room and found himself attacked by two skeletons at once. As the skeletons swarmed we all took some damage and Sergius quickly fell to the floor but Chiki grabbed him and dragged him out into the hallway, then poured a healing potion down his throat. He immediately jumped up and sort of stumbled around the room, mindlessly. In the meantime, the rest of us determined to get out as well. Kyro and I both turned and ran out the door, taking a hit from skeletons as we did so, but were able to escape.

Lhoss then cast magic missiles on the two skeletons attacking her, disintegrating one and distracting the other enough that she could jump up onto the wall and climb quickly to the ceiling of the room, beyond their reach. She then doused her lantern just as I closed the door, leaving her and Eldriel alone with a horde of skeletons in the dark dungeon room. As the skeletons bashed on the door, trying to get out to us, Lhoss scrambled along the ceiling to where Eldriel was trapped in the corner by the bony undead creatures. She then cast levitate on him just as he fell to their attacks and passed out, bleeding. After Eldriel floated up to the ceiling, Lhoss bound up his wounds and poured a healing potion down his throat. She then tied him to herself so he would float along behind her as she silently moved across the ceiling toward the door. She noticed that the skeletons had stopped banging on the door and were click-clacking their way back to their hidey holes.

At the door, Lhoss made a low whistle and Kyro—who was waiting outside for her signal—quickly opened it to let them through, then closed it again. In the meantime, Chiki had cast a wall of fog to obscure the rest of us, just in case any skeletons got through, but it wasn’t needed as the skeletons had disengaged. Lhoss poured more healing potions down Eldriel’s throat and swallowed another dose herself. The poor druid looked drained, but we were all safe from the skeletal threat.

Session 119: At last, a gelatinous cube

Feno, Niki, Arnd, Sergius, Lhoss, Chalkboi, and Kyro could tell they were in the vicinity of the Font of Law, but they had thoroughly explored the current corridor and found nothing. They decided to retrace their steps back to the obelisk room and search beyond the eastern door. Upon opening the door, Feno was greeted with an odd sight: beyond some rubble stood a man with his back to the group; one arm was raised and frozen in place as if to ward off or wave. The figure did not respond to Sergius' calls, which was... disturbing. The party took in the rest of the room and noticed the walls of dark granite and limestone, distinct from the rest of the barrowmaze, as well as a rusty portcullis. As Niki moved further into the room to probe with her 10' pole, she noticed an odd ripple in the air. Immediately though, she was able to discern its true form: a large cube of transparent material... and it was moving toward her! The jiggling form attempted to advance and engulf her, but Niki outmaneuvered it. She struck out at it but it was Feno that delivered the destroying blow, absolutely demolishing it. The human figure, no longer supported by the gelatinous cube, fell and revealed to the group that he had been half devoured by the goo. Upon close inspection, it was believed that the half-consumed man had been a member of the Band of the Black Hand. Ah well, no great loss.

Sergius was the first to begin exploring a passageway to the south. He found burial alcoves and limestone walls that turned into rougher walls. There were eight hallways, each containing many differently-shaped burial alcoves. The adventurers closed the door behind themselves, as not to be snuck up on, and worked together to systematically search the alcoves. It was clear they would not wrap up in time to be back to Orlane for dinner, so the group ate a hasty dinner of bland rations and tried to make quick work of the searching. The haul was impressive: a gold circlet, brass cup, circular polished stone, ivory carving, bracelet, fire opal, glass box, jade idol, earrings, copper inkwell, ornate plate, mithril brooch in the shape of an elven tree, necklace, coral, and a healthy amount of gold, silver, and electrum. Feeling good about the day's work, everyone was prepared to head back to town. Feno carved a small star into the wall as a reminder that he had been here.

Alas, behind the door, the way was not clear to depart. A swarm of three stirges barred the way with a pair of sapphire skeletons advancing in the background. Two of the enormous mosquito-like creatures attacked Niki and began to suck her blood. Arnd swung out with his throwing war hammer and squished one. Lhoss used her spider climb to hang from the doorway and strike down at another, killing it. Unfortunately, this put Lhoss in a vulnerable position and she was stabbed by both of the skeletons. Feno squished the last stirge. Working swiftly, Chalbkoi and Sergius felled the two skeletons, their sapphires glowing ominously. This group has fought enough of these skeletons to know that they can only be fully defeated if their sapphires are smashed. Kyro and Chalkboi cleaved one each and the valuable shards were gathered up. The group headed back to Orlane as night fell.

The treasures were tested for magic and two items proved to be imbued with powers - the brooch and the polished stone. The group decided to divvy up some of the magical items and potions they had acquired. Anyone willing to pay the price to identify a potion could claim it. Feno claimed two and Lhoss claimed one. In addition, the ring the group had previously found was identified as a ring of fire resistance and given to Sergius. The polished stone was determined to be a luck stone and given to Feno. The brooch was shown to turn any fine cloak into a cloak of elven-kind (and therefore decrease the odds of being perceived) and given to Kyro. The rest of the treasure was sold to the jeweler Haskall with the proceeds split among the party for a handsome payday.

Welcome, Sergius Radizki, to our crazy adventures

 In circumstances that only make sense within the Barrow Maze, we've had a new member join our adventures.  Niki was healing herself and Ronan from their injuries while Chalkboi healed himself with his Paladan ability, when I looked around for Armatzi, only to find that he was nowhere to be found and instead there was an unknown mountain dwarf standing with our group.  I honestly have no idea where he came from (aside from the mountains, obviously) or how he got here so quietly but he introduces himself by saying, "I'm Sergius Radizki, and I'm a mountain dwarf."  

Someone asks, "What can you do?" and he says, "Uh, I'm really strong?"  Everyone kind of shrugs, says "OK" and boom, he's part of us now.  I think that Arnd is pretty excited to have another dwarf in our midst, even though Arnd is a hill dwarf and not a mountain dwarf.  Of course, I'm none too clear on the distinction there, so maybe they're actually as compatible as Hookhill and Hochoch are (ie only on the surface, with a ton of unseen conflict underneath).  I hope that things keep going smoothly, since some snarky banter like Niki and Armatzi share is pretty funny but having companions that actively look down on others (or even hate them) is way more drama than I want in my life.

Anyway, Lhoss examines the spell book that the recently defeated necromancer had left behind and discovers that it holds three spells.  Sleep (which is unsurprising since he'd used it on us), Magic Missile, and an unknown spell.  She says that there are also several additional blank pages, so maybe one of our magic users will be able to use it as a backup?  I don't know, since while I've heard tales of rangers that prove their dedication to nature enough to be able to do Druidic magics, I'm nowhere near that level yet, so I'm not worrying about it at the moment.

Niki dutifully uses her pole to sweep the room for traps and pits finding none.  There are four tall marble pillars holding up the ceiling, and in the middle of the room is a rune-encrusted obelisk that gives off waves of malevolence.  The writing is a combination of Elvish, Dwarven, and some sort of ancient common in addition to the cryptic runes.  Lhoss can read enough to let us know that it's describing nasty rituals in the worship of Nerul.  Immediately, everyone except Calbach decides that the evil thing needs to be toppled.  Calbach himself is still very wary about statuary dedicated to the death deity, recalling his injuries from trying to destroy that goat-headed bust that was guarding a hallway.  

Lhoss quickly scrambles up the 30-foot obelisk with a 50-foot rope that she ties in place, then while she and the others begin to tug, Feno and I use sledgehammers to break up the base.  Our efforts are soon rewarded with the stone crashing to the ground and breaking into chunks, the largest of which is a mere four feet long.  I'm glad my companions are as nimble as they are since Sergius came close to being smashed beneath the rubble.  As we watch, a smoky black shade with glowing red eyes solidifies above the wreckage, glowering balefully.  Everyone tenses in alarm, but the shade doesn't attack; it simply dissipates into the Aether.  Once it's gone, we all go toward the door to the south.  I whack the largest chunk with my sledgehammer as I pass, causing several chips of stone to fly off.

The passageway past the door is dark and murky, and it has several doors in pairs off either side for as far as I can see.  The doors are decorated like burial crypts rather than like what we now consider to be standard Barrow Maze doors.  My lantern begins to gutter, so I quickly refill it with oil, and several of the others in the group light fresh torches to improve visibility.  The first door we come to is unlocked, and when opened reveals a dirty but otherwise nondescript room.  There are not even any places to search for treasures.  The second door is locked, but Lhoss examines it and says that there doesn't appear to be any traps.  When her lock-picking skills aren't up to the job, Feno just uses his great strength to force it open.  The second room is equally dirty and dusty, but there is a slab of stone where a shrouded skeleton is lain out.  We've been attacked by skeletons many times in the past, so are on guard, but this one seems to be inanimate.  Niki sweeps the room for dangers and discovers a runic tablet on the floor.  I feel a bit nostalgic for a moment, remembering when Armatzi and Tatania would sort of compete to see who could read the most runic tablets, but feel no desire to read this one myself.  Sergius, on the other hand, snatches it up and quickly reads it.  As I feared, a negative effect quickly begins, with a grey mist appearing and attempting to penetrate Sergius's head.  Fortunately, he seems to have some natural resistance to such attacks since he fairly casually shakes the mist off and remains unaffected.

Feno and Lhoss decide to examine the skeleton closer, but don't find anything of note.  Feno goes so far as to remove the shroud, but the skeleton has its arms crossed over its chest in peaceful repose and remains still.  With a shrug, Feno puts the shroud back and tucks it around the resting skeleton.  We close the door behind us and continue to search down the hall.

Lhoss checks the next set of doors for traps and doesn't detect anything out of the ordinary.  The door on the east side of the hallway is cautiously opened, revealing a damp room with water dripping from several spots on the ceiling.  There are four sarcophagi arranged around the room, absent lids but filled with slimy peat-colored water.  It's impossible to see what, if anything, is in the stone boxes so Feno attempts to push one over to drain.  The dripping water has caused a lot of mineral calcifications, sticking the sarcophagus rather firmly to the floor and it doesn't want to move.  Before anyone could go offer assistance, an equally calcified skeleton arises from each of the sarcophagi and spikes fear in all those who were unfortunate enough to be outside Chalkboi's holy aura's radius.  The skeleton closest to Chalkboi swings its mineral-encrusted sword at Chalkboi but misses him by quite a bit.  Niki retaliates with her war hammer, breaking off bits of the skeleton.  Ronan is right there with his cudgel in an attempt to assist, but his swing goes wide as well.  As we've come to expect, Feno turns his foe into powder with a single hit and Sergius proves his claim of being "really strong" by doing the same.  Arnd misses his attack, followed by Lhoss attempting to utilize her spider-crawl to arrange a back-stab which she likewise misses on.  I use my magic sword, Dynasty, to smash the third of the skeletons and nearly stumble into the icky water so I miss seeing who takes out the final skeleton, but I know someone did it since it's gone by the time I recover my balance.  Now that the skeletons are no longer an issue, Feno resumes pushing on the sarcophagus to dump out the water while Arnd, Niki and I work on a second one.  Ronan, Chalkboi, Lhoss and Calbach tackle the third and Sergius manages the final one by himself.  The rush of fetid water is accompanied by the jangle of coins hitting the floor.  A quick search gathers a total of 72 gold pieces which we quickly divide between ourselves.

The door across the hallway is locked, but Lhoss uses her lock picking skills to open it.  Feno opens the door but when a skeleton inside stirs, it raises a cloud of yellow mold dust that billows towards the doorway.  I'm very grateful for Feno's superhuman level reflexes since he gets the door slammed shut before even a single spore of the mold can escape.  Something, probably the skeleton we'd seen in there, is scratching at the door and trying to get out, but it can't.  Lhoss readies her "Continual Light" spell since we've seen that it can neutralize the deadly yellow mold and Sergius prepares to attack the skeleton, hoping to catch it by surprise.  Timing everything to perfection, the door is swung back open just as Lhoss's spell is cast, sanitizing the mold and leaving it a dull grey in color.  Unfortunately, Sergius didn't catch the skeleton by surprise, nor did he even hit it, but it had no better luck in attacking him.  Lhoss proves how nimble she has become with her new gauntlets by scrambling right over the skeleton and attacking it from the rear, but it moved just at the wrong moment, and she didn't get her strike to connect.  As I was right there in the correct place, I use Dynasty to shatter yet another foe.  Niki is preparing to sweep the room with her pole but before she gets a moment, Calbach stumbles his way into the room and slips on the mess that was left over from denaturing the mold, falling hard onto his back and rattling his brain.  He is rather dazed for a bit but recovers quick enough.  Hopefully he won't do that again, since repeated concussions will lead to brain damage which is not something that any sort of adventurer can afford.  Nothing more is found in that room, so we move on.

The next doors appear to be the final set in the hall, and Lhoss checks them over for traps.  She is pretty confident that the door on the east is in fact safe from traps, but it has a lock that is beyond Lhoss's skills in lockpicking.  Feno tries to use his strength to bust in but doesn't quite manage so Sergius applies his muscles and finishes the job.  This room holds another sarcophagus, which isn't much of a surprise all things considered.  Niki successfully sweeps the room, finding no pits or other traps, and Lhoss decides to check the sarcophagus for traps as well.  Unfortunately, in doing so she surprises a trio of spitting cobras that had set up house there, and they surprise her in return by spitting at her with their venom.  The venom falls short, so Lhoss is uninjured.  Feno quickly beheads two of the cobras with his sword and uses his wisdom and dexterity to harvest their poison sacs.  He knows that he can take the prized items to the Temple of Merikka where they use such things in making helpful potions.  Unfortunately, the third cobra was bashed with Calbach's mace, and the poison sac is too damaged to be harvested.  Checking out the empty nest, Calbach spots a pair of gold chalices which he puts into the bag of holding for later.

The final room of the hallway is opened to the disgusting sight and sounds of a pair of ghouls gnawing on the bones of a previous victim.  Sensing fresh prey, they both attempt to bring down Feno, but they are sorely outmatched and badly miss in their attacks.  Niki tries to get one of the ghouls with Mr. Paws, but just doesn't seem to be as effective with the weapon without Jack beside her, and she fails to do any damage.  Feno isn't about to let the ghouls have another chance at him and so he slaughters the nearer ghoul while Sergius destroys the other.  I kind of wonder what our next step is going to be since I suddenly remember that we were supposed to find the Font of Law in this area of the Maze, and not only didn't we find it yet, but we seem to be running out of places to look for it.  I can only hope that Chalkboi is open to promptings from St. Cuthbert, since without Armatzi here, Chalkboi is our only hope.

Shadows of the Necropolis: A Tale of Obelisks and Bones

 Day 4 of Harvester

The group awoke to the smell of breakfast being made at the Foaming Mug. Lhoss eagerly hopped out of bed and hurried to get a plate of the hot goodness. The rest of the group enjoyed their meal before discussing the plans for the rest of the day. Once finished, Lhoss, unsure she take ownership of the newly discovered magic gauntlets, ask if any of the group would like them as well. The group decides that they would be best served in Lhoss' capable elven hands. Sensing an opportunity to test them out, as well as to show off a little, Lhoss steps outside of the inn, and decides to scale the wall. She climbs up to the second-floor balcony with little effort. The party stares in wonder and amazement. She leaps off the balcony doing a backflip and midair flourishes. It is clear that the gauntlets enhance her existent abilities to new levels. Following all of this, Feno decides to head to the jeweler to get some money exchanged. Kyro heads off to the tailor to get some more clothes, as his were previously acid washed. A few members of the group join Feno a little later to see if they can get the equipment to remove the silver that inlayed in one of the walls of the barrowmaze. They discover that the town of Orlane does not carry the tools or expertise for that endeavor. Following their errands, the group decides to head back to the barrowmaze. Upon entering the dim forest, Niki decides that it is a good idea to harvest some holly, so she can do her spells. They arrive at the barrow maze and have a quick lunch before continuing on their quest to find the Font of Law. 

As they descended into the depths of the barrowmaze, the walls were covered in their usual dust and dirt of ages long forgotten. Torches in hand, the adventurers pressed forward, their footsteps echoing through the cold corridors. After consulting with the Ronan, the resident cartographer, the group heads toward the set of ancient double doors. As they enter the double doors, they discover a hallway with doorways on each side. As they enter the first doorway, they are met with eerie silence, as the room is filled with debris. Lhoss, presses the group onward, and the next room, they are met with 4 zombies. Armatzi, is summoned away, and the rest of group quickly destroy them before moving on their quest. 

Torches illuminate the next room, revealing ancient tapestries from civilizations long past. The group experiences excitement, mingled with apprehension as they venture deeper into the cold stone labyrinth. They reach the end of the hallway and find a staircase downwards. At its bottom, they discover a lock door. Per protocol, they search it for traps but find none, so they proceed inside. The room opens up to a vast cavern with four obelisks in the central part of the room. Feno, Niki, and Ronan proceeded into the vast room with caution, with Niki sweeping ahead for hidden trap doors. As they neared the southern portion of the room, a door that was near them, opened, revealing a horde of skeletons led a necromancer named Kilmock. This sudden reveal sent a small shiver of fear down each of their spines. Feno draws his sword in anticipation, and Ronan steps forward to engage the skeletons head on. The skeletons advance and attack, but don't find success in their attacks on their attacks. Clad in dark tattered robe and wielding a staff, the necromancer Kilmock, responsible for raising the undead, revealed himself. The necromancer's baleful eyes locked eyes onto Niki, Ronon, and Feno. With a wave of his wrist, he cast a powerful sleep spell that washed over the heroes. Niki succumbed to the enchantment first, followed closely by Ronan. Hearing the clashes of battle, the other members of the group sprinted towards the fray. The skeletons advance on Niki and Ronan, and finding them defenseless and asleep, strike with deadly accuracy. They both lay unconcious, as blood starts to form from their new wounds. Seeing her comrades fall from the necromancer's spell, Lhoss prepared a spell of her own. She extended her hand conjured forth two orbs of magical energy - the iconic magic missiles. The orbs hummed with arcane power, each one representing Lhoss's mastery over the arcane spell.

With a swift flick of her wrist, Lhoss sent both missiles streaking through the air towards Kilmock. The missiles homed in unerringly on their target, the pulsating spheres of energy leaving trails of incandescent light in their wake. As the first missile struck Kilmock, it exploded into a burst of vibrant energy, crackling with magical potency. The necromancer staggered, his concentration momentarily broken, but he quickly reasserted control over his skeleton army. The second missile found its mark, dealing significant damage to the necromancer, but Kilmock's dark resilience held firm. With a malevolent grin, Kilmock turned his attention to this new threat. Lhoss, contemplated her next move amidst the swirling currents of arcane energy that permeated the chamber. Feno advanced on the nearest skeleton, attacking it. With each attack Feno's sword danced with deadly precision, cleaving through bones with each swing. As he swings and destroys, he is also able to dodge the pitiful attacks of the lumbering skeletal minions. The skeletons strike again on the unconscious bodies of Ronan and Niki, causing them to bleed more aggressively. The rest of the party arrives and joins in on the action. Lhoss fires another arcane missile at Kilmock, killing him before he could fire off another spell of his own. Undetered by the fall of their leader, the skeletons continue to attack. Feno destroys another skeleton, and the rest of the party are able to sidestep and block the skeletons poor attacks. Seeing reinforcements arriving, Feno put his sword in his sheath quickly and grabbed his only healing potion from his gear. His focus was on another matter entirely: the fallen companion laying before him. Feno knelt beside Niki, his concern evident in the furrowed brow that graced his scarred elven features. Gently cradling Niki's head in one hand, Feno carefully uncorked the small vial of healing potion with the other. With a soft and reassuring smile, he held the vial to Niki's lips, tilting it just enough to allow it go down her throat but not enough to spill. As the potion took effect, a faint warmth spread through Niki's body, mending wounds and revitalizing her spirit. Feno's keen senses detected the subtle change - a sigh, a fluttering of eyelashes, and a faint hint of color returning to her cheeks. He remained by her side, his gaze unwavering, his presence a source of comfort. She slowly stood up, still weak from what had just happened. A skeleton rushes forward to attack Lhoss, and she counters and attacks it with her staff. With her focus on that skeleton, another skeleton takes advantage and strikes Lhoss, successfully cutting her in the attack. Calbach attacks a skeleton with his mace and destroys it. Feno destroys another skeleton. Niki uses her druidic magic, and heals Ronan, but not fully: he has a wound that won't heal quite right. He stands up, dazed from the ordeal. Calbach moves to search the fallen necromancer. He finds the necromancer's staff, a spell book, some dark necromancer robes, a money pouch with a few platinum coins inside, and the parts of his broken mask. After Feno and Ronan advised him to put it in the bag of holding, he did, and the group gathered around to discuss what to do next. 

Session 116: Spider Lhoss climbs like a spider does

The super-sized party of Feno, Ronan, Niki, Chalkboi, Armatzi, Lhoss, Gnorcia, Kyro, and Calbach continued their current quest for the Font of Law. Heading eastward, they encountered a door that Gnorcia dutifully checked for traps. Finding none, Lhoss opened the door to find a common 10-foot pit and the rubble of a collapsed wall. Beyond the pit were two archways. Niki probed the rubble and found only harmless spiders. In an open room to the right, the group noticed mummies, grease spots, and evidence of a battle. The mummies had clearly been looted. Calbach felt a desire to show respect to the dead and rewrapped the corpses and, with the aid of Kyro and Gnorcia, placed them in the room's alcoves.

Moving onward, the heroes saw a set of double doors. Double Doors! A thrill ran through the party; were they on the cusp of discovering the Font of Law? Before anyone could so much as check the doors for traps, a swarm of carnivorous giant flies set upon the party from where they had been buzzing around a giant statue. Gnorcia in rare form, struck out solidly with her daggers, injuring one fly which was finished by Feno. Lhoss shot out the flaming sparks of her magic missile and exploded a second while Ronan slew the third. The insects were falling like flies. Armatzi healed Chalkboi who had sustained an injury. Gnorcia with deadly accuracy and a double attack skewered the final two flies and ended the battle. 

Moving toward the statue, it was sensed by several in the party that it had been a holy statue, but as it was severely defaced, no one could determine who it was meant to depict or glorify. Kyro and a few others brainstormed ideas to restore the statue, but it became clear that none of the party had the requisite skills to do so. Some rudimentary cleaning was performed before the group moved on.

The double doors were opened to show a set of descending stairs. Seems like this is the right way... Niki swept the area and noted a door to the left (containing a corpse), a door to the right (containing four corpses), and a granite arch approximately 30 feet in the distance. Moving into the room on the left to probe it with her pole, Niki was attacked by the corpse which was in fact a ghoul. Owing to her half-elf protections, she was luckily not paralyzed by the creature. Gnorcia, once again the hero, sprung into action and killed the brute. The ghoul was searched and, to the group's surprise, a pair of magical gauntlets was discovered tucked into its clothing. Lhoss' elf ears perked up at the mention of gauntlets. She had long quested for a pair of Gauntlets of Dexterity. Being a middling thief, she hoped these magical artifacts might improve her skills. Lhoss persuaded the team to let her have the gauntlets, slipped them on, and tried to pick Niki's pockets. While successful, Lhoss didn't think the gloves had actually aided her. Then she felt an urge to climb the wall. Don't get me wrong, Lhoss can climb a wall, but she scaled this dungeon wall with such speed and deftness and then perched so easily on a spot with no visible ledge, it was clear what the true power of the gauntlets was: climbing ability.

The party decided to pause to eat and contemplate next steps. Calbach made the grievous error of eating his rations in the hallway instead of joining his compatriots in the room. This move had previously been known as "pulling a Chiki", but Calbach just might have given cause to rename it because the reckless act drew some ravenous dead. Gnorcia attacked one by jumping on its back and Chalkboi used a "powered up" Caliburn to sunder another. Lhoss attempted to use her new skill in combat by climbing along the walls to achieve an advantageous position, but needs to develop this skill more and was unsuccessful. The remaining dead were killed... again.

A plan was formed to clear the room on the right, since it was suspected those four corpses were in fact ghouls. Feno and Gnorcia lobbed two vials of oil each, acting as Molotov cocktails to set the ghouls and room itself afire. In the melee, two ghouls succumb to the fire, and the other two are slain by Feno and Calbach, but not before the foes paralyze Gnorcia and Chalkboi with their terrible venom. Eventually the paralysis wears off, the group finds a runic tablet (added to the bag of holding), and shakily return to Orlane.

Session 115: An Ooze, Foul Decay, and the Cry of an Angel

Feno, Niki, Kyro, Gnorcia, and Chalboi went east down the hallway and found a room with ornate, silver-plated decorations on burial chamber doors.

We began to search and found nothing but dust until an ooze-like creature appeared out from gaps between the chambers, using a psuedopod to attack Kyro, burning him like acid and causing him a lot of pain. I cast hypnotic pattern but it did nothing against the creature. Chalkboi attacked and killed it with Caliburn, chopping it into pieces. Chalkboi and Nikki then both healed Kyro. The acid seemed to simply slip off the magical weapons used against the slime, as well as Kyro’s armor, though his clothes began to fall apart beneath.

Finishing our search, we found nothing else in the alcoves, and the silver decorations appear not to be removable without extensive work. We explored a hallway to the north, finding a room we had been in before, with decomposing bodies that were pinned to the wall. We quickly closed the door to close-off the smell, and went back to investigate another door to the south, discovering it was a hallway we had previously explored, where we had an encounter with the Band of the Black hand.

We then closed all the doors and Kyro, Feno, and Chalkboi used sledgehammers to break down a brick wall on the south wall. As they did, we all heard an inhuman sound from the northwest which both gave us chills and energized us. The sound faded away as the wall fell and we peered into a room with more burial alcoves. All of us except Chalkboi then searched the burial alcoves and found a golden holy symbol, silver earrings, and a small topaz. I handed over the golden holy symbol to Chalkboi as it appeared to be a symbol of St. Cuthbert. We put the rest in the bag of holding.

Chalkboi then said of the sound we heard, “That sound seems familiar... I'm pretty sure I've heard that as an angelic voice from one of St. Cuthbert's servants.” We decided to go north and chose to take our chances against vomiting by going through the putrid room up the hallway. We all held our noses and ran through the putrid room with the decomposing bodies, making it safely through without anyone getting sick.

Session 114 - Back to the Maze, Again

Well, it's Day 3 of Harvester already.  Time sure seems to fly by sometimes!  It's hot and overcast when we set out toward the Barrowmaze, Feno leading out followed by Niki and Ronan, then me (Kyro) and Armatzi, with Gnorcia and Calbach at the rear.  I note that the crops in the fields we pass are growing well although one field of wheat looks a bit anemic.  I'm thinking that farmer should grow a crop of beans next year to balance out his soil nutrients. Rotating crops gives a much better yield, even if you can't usually get as much income from beans as you can with wheat.

The dim forest is surprisingly calming instead of so gloomy today.  I don't know why that would be, but I'm grateful for it.  Unfortunately, the change distracted me enough that I forgot to remind Niki to get fresh holly and mistletoe while we were there.  I hope that doesn't come back to bite me later since a druid needs her reagents, and fresher is always better with these plants.

As expected, the swamp is horribly muggy and there are swarms of biting insects.  I think about refreshing myself on my pest-repelling cantrip, but that would require me to visit the temple of Merrika, so I can't do anything about it now (when it would be handy).  Instead, we all hurry into the maze through the entrance we think of as the primary entrance and settle in the initial room to eat our lunch.  I light my lantern and torches are lit by Gnorcia, Ronan, and Feno, so we have plenty of light.  Fortunately, nothing disturbs us while we eat and recover from the outside heat in the cool yet eerie interior of the maze.

It's been a while since we've come this way and memories are somewhat dim, so we decide to explore to the south and see if we can find the Font of Law that we've been tasked with obtaining.  On the floor, there are a pair of scuffed lines made from some sort of grey powder.  Armatzi looks closely at them and can't figure out what the powder is or why the lines are there, and Ronan experimentally lights the powder on fire (it burns with a sullen, low flame and nasty smell) but quickly extinguishes it to avoid attracting negative attention.  We continue through a series of rooms that I know we've been through before but only vaguely remember.  It seems that my sketchy memory is common since nobody else seems to be any better.

Eventually, we come to a shrine to Farlahgan (sorry, he's not my Diety and I don't know how to spell his name, but I did my best) that I remember gave us a tiny boost last time, but it's been defiled and sorely neglected so we can't expect anything from it now.  Niki considers rededicating it, but she only has some older holly and no mistletoe on her, so can't help.  It is made more hopeless since she worships Obad-Hai and not Farlahgan, so her deity won't assist like he would if it were his own shrine.  Sadly, we leave the shrine closed up as much as possible since the door was broken by whatever creature defiled the shrine in the first place.

Armatzi and Ronan notice some tracks heading further south and we follow them.  We find a pit in the floor but safely skirt around it without incident.  Just past the pit, there is an arch over the hallway that is guarded by a pair of evil-looking goat-headed stone creatures that are mounted on the wall, about 9 feet up. The normal creep factor of the maze bumps up a notch, but we all pass under the arch without incident, except Gnorcia and Calbach (being last through) both note a glint of red in the eyes of the sculptures.

Suddenly, Gnorcia hears a noise and she hands her torch to Calbach before going back to the pit to investigate.  Her gnomish dark vision is sufficient for her to peer around but she doesn't see anything of note.  Upon turning to rejoin us, she sees that the goats' eyes are pulsing with red light and she feels a spell attacking her.  Fortunately, her saving throw against spells is successful and with effort she is able to pull herself from the enchantment.  She quickly informs all of us to avoid looking at the statue eyes.  Calbach gets the idea of bashing one of the goat heads with his mace but miscalculates how high it is and misses.  For his trouble, he is hit by a blast of hellfire from the demonic entity the statues are dedicated to (most likely Narul).  Armatzi heals Calbach while Niki shakes her head in bafflement over the idiocy of trying to blindside a dedicated statue.  We've had experiences with such things in the past and most of us have learned the futility of it.

After Calbach had been healed, Armatzi falls into a trance regarding the location of the Font of Law.  He says he was told to backtrack to an east-west running hallway and to there find a set of double doors with steps leading downward.  I'm not sure if the steps are inside of the doors or outside, but I'm not in charge of this quest so I don't much care about that kind of details.  Just lead me there and I'll bash what I need to.  We go toward the nearest east-west hallway and Armatzi notices an old skeleton lying on the floor.  For some reason, he feels the need to tap the skull with Melissa (his war hammer) and the skull shatters.  When Armatzi just kind of shrugs about the destruction, a dark spirit cloud emerges from the skeleton and curses Armatzi temporarily.  I am a bit disturbed by the lack of respect he showed, but don't really say anything at the time.  We find a door that nobody remembers exploring and Gnorcia searches it for traps.  Behind the door is a room filled with burial alcoves.  I decide that if I can find one that is empty, I'm going to move the skeleton Armatzi damaged into it.  I know it's a bit strange that I have little problem with looting the alcoves while at the same time want to show respect to the dead, but ... I'm a complicated kind of guy, I guess.

So, we searched the alcoves for about a half hour before noises from down the hall to the east let us know that we're about to have company. Six zombies shamble down the hall and Ronan throws a vial of oil into their path.  Niki tosses her torch and ignites the oil, damaging some of the zombies.  Feno, with a single swing, demolishes a zombie before anyone else has time to do more than blink.  That elf is amazing!  Calbach, not to be outdone, uses The Banisher to eliminate his own zombie but it had a companion close behind that then attacks Calbach and injures him.  Even worse, the second zombie was on fire from the oil and Calbach gets burns on top of the slashing damage.  Feno splats another zombie with ease while Calbach takes out the zombie that hurt him.  Armatzi hurries over and heals three points of damage on Calbach. During all of this, I've been stuck behind everyone, still in the room with the burial alcoves, unable to do anything to help.  It's a good thing all my fellow adventurers are so skilled that my assistance isn't so much needed this time around.  Ronan manages to hit the fifth zombie of the six who attacked, and while he did damage, it wasn't enough to destroy it.  Niki takes on the sixth one and kills it, while Gnorcia chases down the one Ronan had injured.  Unfortunately, she skids in the gore on the floor and misses with her attack.  I know that if it weren't for that bit of bad luck, she would have gotten it, and then Feno was right there to end the menace completely.

Everyone comes back to the room I'm in to finish searching for treasure, and we end up finding a bunch of silver along with a nicely tooled belt and buckle that Ronan discovers.  Armatzi and Ronan get bored and wander out into the hallway, and then Feno and Niki hear some sort of noise and they go in search of whatever was making it.  I didn't see exactly where they went but they described finding a strange pyramid made of slate that was almost unnaturally symmetrical.  Just hearing about it makes me feel a bit creeped out, but apparently, they didn't discover anything more and barely remembered anything about it when I asked later for clarification.  That's actually extra creepy, but ... it is what it is.