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.

Session 113: The Discovery of a Royal Dwarf (or Two)

Feno, Armatzi, Niki, Lhoss, and I (Gnorcia) took the hallway back north, through the portcullis, and went west out of the portcullis room. In that hallway, Lhoss opened the second door to the left, which appeared not to have been explored before. It also didn’t appear to be trapped, but there were scorch marks on the door, and inside we found a device on another door on the south wall of the room. It was a sort of clock with a code next to it. Lhoss started puzzling over it, mumbling a bunch of numbers, and then exclaimed that she thought she had figured it out!

The rest of us stood back as far as we could as Lhoss dialed 15, 13, 12... We all jumped every time it clicked, but then the door opened. We peered through and saw a funeral slab and the long-dead remains of a dwarf, wearing armor and holding a hammer, with a coffer at his feet. Niki cast detect magic and the hammer glowed, as did something inside the coffer. We checked the coffer for traps and opened it to find a ring of white gold with a reddish aura about it, and a vial of cyan blue liquid with a whitish aura, glowing with power. We added those to the bag of holding.

Recognizing the value of a dwarven-made coffer, I picked it up to carry it out with us, just as Lhoss reached to take the armor and hammer. But apparently that dwarf didn’t want to lose his stuff because doing so set off a trap. The door slammed shut and poison began to fill the air. Trapped inside, Lhoss and I started choking and banging on the door. Feno quickly dialed the numeric sequence again, opening the door, but as it opened he was also hit with the poison and started to choke as well.

Armatzi and Niki grabbed a vial of cure poison from the bag of holding and another from Feno’s backpack, administering them to Feno and Lhoss. They both began choking and vomited up the poison, but seemed otherwise ok. We had no more vials of cure poison so Armatzi cast slow poison on me and I fell unconscious but was still alive (obviously, since I'm writing this.) Feno then grabbed the hammer, armor, and coffer, adding them to the bag of holding, and hoisted my unconscious body over his shoulder like a small sack of potatoes. The group hurried out of the barrowmaze and through the barrowmarsh. Feno later told me that Lhoss, Niki, and Armatzi were all very quiet and Lhoss kept her head down, looking quite defeated. We proceeded this way through the Dim Forest and back to Orlane, arriving late for dinner, though I could hardly have eaten anyway in my condition.

The entire group went straight to the temple and alerted a guard who hurried to find Priestess Misha. She scurried out carrying a vial of cure poison, which she poured down my throat. Waking up, I coughed and choked up the poison, nodded my thanks to Priestess Misha, then curled up in Feno’s arms and fell asleep again. At that point, apparently Lhoss determined to purchase all the remaining vials of cure poison that Priestess Misha had, adding them to the bag of holding. Everyone had a ration for dinner, since we had missed the meal, and Lhoss and Feno stayed up for an ale at the Golden Grain Inn. 

The next morning I felt completely recovered but hungry. Going down to breakfast, we found Arnd and asked if he could try reading the runes on the hammer we had found. As we showed it to him, Arnd gasped and fell to his knees. "This is the regal dwarven thrower of the clan of Thazuun," he read. Apparently that is Arnd’s clan, and that poison-loving dwarf skeleton was the long lost ancestor Arnd originally went into the barrowmaze searching for! He told us that the weapon is a +2 Dwarven warhammer, meant for throwing. When wielded by a dwarf, it gives +3 to hit and to damage. When thrown, it has a 60-foot range and a boomerang-like quality. It also does triple damage against giant-size creatures.

"Where did you find this?" Arnd exclaimed, and we told him the tale of its discovery. Feno then took out the armor and presented it to Arnd, who immediately put it on. He then explained that it was ornate dwarven plate mail, and that he was actually no ordinary dwarf. It turns out our dwarven friend Arnd is a prince of dwarves! Even Lhoss looked impressed.

We finished our breakfast and the group determined to spend a week in town so Lhoss and I could complete some additional illusionist training.

Flying Penguins and Falling Elves

 Day 23 of Goodmonth

Feno awoke with the smells of the blooming summer flowers and native plants around Orlane. After getting ready for the day, and enjoying their usual tasty breakfast served at the Foaming Mug, the group decided to get a few errands out of the way before heading out to the barrow maze. Feno, headed alone initially to the temple to hopefully be cured of the curse that had befallen him from the needles of the previous day. After being initially rebuffed, he left feeling agitated by the encounter. Lhoss persuaded him to head back there with her, and, due to her being much more persuasive was able to convince the temple to perform this ritual to restore his life essence back to normal. This spell, which cost 1000 gold pieces (this was a reduced rate, thanks in part to the group saving and doing good deeds in town) was successful and caused him to become extremely hungry immediately afterwards. Fortunately for him, the temple provided adequate food for him to wolf down, to ease his feelings of being famished. Once complete, both Lhoss, as well as Feno thank the temple for this work, and head back to the inn to rejoin the group, who are all enjoying the summer morning. As they begin to communicate with each other about what just happened, a loud buzzing sound starts to emanate from the direction of the temple. Initially believing that it a swarm of bees or something similar, Feno brushes it off. The group, consisting of Gnorcia, Calbach, Ronan, Niki, Armatzi, Kyro, Zraith, and Lhoss decided to see what the buzzing noise was all about. Feno decided to follow the group in their investigation as well. When they arrived at the location that the buzzing noise was coming from, they were greeted by appearance of an angelic like messenger penguin, who recited a poem to request Zraith back to his homeland. He said:

"Oh Zraith whose presence we long to see,
 a messenger arrives to urgently plea.
 From the folk of Zraith, a heart-felt cry,
 implores you to return, and don't deny.
 In their humble abode they await your return,
 for your wisdom and guidance they truly yearn.
 Troubles have befallen their peaceful land,
 and they seek your aid, lending a helping hand.
 They speak of darkness creeping near,
 of shadows cast, spreading fear. 
 Your presence, dear Zraith, is their light,
 to dispel the gloom and set things right. 
 The folk of Zraith, with hope and dispair,
 beg you to come swiftly with utmost care.
 For in your hands lies the power to mend,
 to restore their homes, their hearts to mend.
 So heed this call Zraith, fair and bold,
 answer their plea, let their story unfold.
 Bring your wisdom, and magic divine,
 for the folk of Zraith, your presence will shine.
 With haste they await your triumphant return,
 to guide them through darkness, that their fires burn. 
 Oh Zraith, beloved and cherished by all,
 come back Zraith, and answer their call."
    

At its conclusion, Zraith (whom Feno always found a bit annoying) bid the party goodbye, accepting the messengers request of heading back to his homeland. Upon his acceptance, he suddenly utilized some magical wings of his own, flies up, and then teleports to wherever magical penguins call home. He leaves a small pouch for the party upon leaving upwards. Seeing indifference from Armatzi upon its discovery, Lhoss opens it up and discovers 9 healing potions inside. She puts them into the groups bag of holding for safekeeping, and for future use. After much discussion, and the errands they needed doing, the group heads back once again to the barrow maze. They arrive at the dim forest at lunchtime, opting to eat here, on the edge of the forest, instead of the middle of the marsh, which often draws unwanted attention from the denizens there. Feno especially enjoyed the smells of nearly harvestable grain that was growing at the farms along the way: it reminded him of his early childhood. Once the usual, somewhat bland taste of their rations was complete, the group once again went through the dim forest and into the barrow marsh.

The barrow marsh greeted them with thick mists hovering over the soft ground, as well as buzzing and chirping of the insects flying about. They head back and into the usual entrance to the barrowmaze, hoping to find more unexplored routes. More routes, means more treasure. Following a previous route southward, the air in the barrowmaze was noticeably cooler, more so than usual. The passageways were also seemed darker, exuding dark and oppressive feelings throughout its many hallways and passageways. As they continue to move southward towards unexplored areas, the air becomes quite cold. Due to one of the benefits of his enchanted sword, Feno experiences minor cold, whereas the rest of the party, shivers and chatter from the very chilly environment. 

While exploring a new hallway, Niki inadvertently triggers a trap, activating and opening the doors on each side of the party. Skeletons, who appeared to be a mixture of crystalized calcium and bone, attack the party. The skeletons, seemingly drawn to Calbach, attack and hit him a few times. The party dispatches the skeletons, each taking their turn to destroy the crystalized undead bone people one by one. Once defeated, the group heals those that need it, including Calbach, and head down the hallway, only to find a brick wall blocking their progress. Lhoss, being the leader of the group, tells the strongest of the party, "Mr. Feno, tear down this wall." Kyro, Feno, and others bring the wall down with relative ease. 

The party then enters the newly discovered room on the other side of the wall, where they spot a large pile of runic tablets. As they draw near to it, the tablets come together and form a runic golem.  

The newly formed magical creature then attacks. The group take turns in attacking the magical construct, and in turn most are silenced as a result of their attacks on the magical creation. Feno, feeling a little full of himself, and a little impulsive, decides to attack the creature, knowing full well the magical ramifications that would more than likely occur. After dealing some damage to the creature, the golem unleashes a torrent of magical missiles cause a moderate amount of damage to the impulsive wood elf. The group defeats the creature, which leaves two runic tablets upon its destruction. Not wanting to tempt the gods that be, the group places each of the tablets into the bag of holding and decides to rest and recover spells in this new room. Still feeling a little impulsive, and very impatient, Feno decides to head towards the mirror towards the southern part of the room. In a momentary lapse of judgment, he forgets that they had not yet explored this room for traps and triggers a trap door near the mirror. He screams loudly in surprise as he falls downward. Using some quick reflexes, and quite a bit of luck, he manages to grab an edge of the pit with his fingers, thus avoiding a most certain death. Seeing their strongest seemly fall to his death, the group looks towards the area in shock and horror. They look inwards towards the bottomless pit, as Feno slowly climbs out of it. Visibly shaken by this new chain of events, Feno quickly moves to the entrance of the room, trying to get as much distance as he can from that pit. The rest of the group recover their spells and methodically search for traps and treasure in the room. They find nothing in the way of either, while Feno rests near the front door of the room. 

Session 111: Further Exploration and Treasure in the Barrowmaze

Feno, Niki, Armatzi, Zraith, Gnorcia, Lhoss, and Kyro continued their exploration of the Bareowmaze on Day 22 of Goodmonth. The party decided to bash down a brick wall, so Feno, Kyro, and Armatzi heaved sledgehammers while Lhoss and Gnorcia kept an ear out for trouble. Luckily, no evil undead appeared and the party found themselves facing five doorways to the south. Niki swept the area with her pole searching for the rumored bottomless pit and found the space to be clear. One door was off its hinges and hanging open, leading to an empty room. Following a protocol of safety (that was occasionally adhered to) Lhoss checked the easternmost door for traps and noticed a glyph of warding. Though it was faint and nearly blended into the door, the protective cleric symbol was detected. The remaining doors were also checked for runes, but none were seen. It’s possible that the detected rune was old and therefore easily discovered and the other doors were protected by stronger glyphs… nonetheless Gnorcia was able to remove the trap with her nimble thief skills. The next barrier was a simple lock. Gnorcia is always eager to try her collection of keys, but none of the collected artifacts fit the lock. She picked it instead. What a useful thief! (Take some notes, Lhoss!)

Armatzi opened the door to find a skeleton and some debris from a minor collapse in the ceiling. The somewhat inhuman form clutched an excellent shield with the heraldry of a gold hawk on a purple field. Armatzi cast detect magic on the shield: it was magical! On instinct, he touched the shield with Melissa and a crypt shade emerged. The battle was short and the shade was easily defeated. Feno claimed the shield, making him nearly invincible to physical attack, though we know his weakness to magical attack. Shhh! Stop talking about it!

Lhoss picked a lock to another door (atta girl!) to see a room with two funerary boxes. After examination, they were opened to show jewelry and a runic tablet. After a brief internal struggle with her impetuous nature, Lhoss read the tablet only to have it ignite and singe her eyebrows (really, Lhoss?). 

The next door was opened to an empty chamber. The last door was locked and couldn’t be opened by either thief. While contemplating bashing it down, Lhoss noticed a hidden switch that she immediately threw and revealed a hidden room (getting a little sloppy with the safety protocols, there). Luckily there was no trap, but what was revealed was gruesome: a black altar gleaming with imbedded blood stones and covered in dried blood. The stones were pried free rather easily. Feno noticed a hidden door and proceeded to open it and was stabbed with a poison needle. Whoopsie! I’m sure that this incident will compel the party to be more careful about being diligent in their safeguarding and looking for hidden traps! Anywho, there was a big bag of platinum as a reward for his recklessness. 

The group went back to the last locked door and bashed it down with sledgehammers. Inside was a table on a dusty floor and a bag of electrum. Feeling flush with riches, the group made their way out when Kyro pointed out a room that had been overlooked. Inside was a beautiful sight: walls encrusted with gold scarabs. Never ones to pass up treasure, the party took the time to pry each one out and still made it back to Orlane in time for dinner. What a triumphant and enriching day!

Session 110: Day 27 of Goodmonth, in the Barrowmaze

As we prepared to engage the rats in battle, Ronan and Calbach materialized alongside us. The rats charged and attacked Feno and Chalkboi, but of course they both avoided their attacks and Feno continued to taunt them. With their attention on Feno, Lhoss cast magic missile at one, exploding it in a ball of fire, and I jumped on the two nearest me, killing them both instantly. Kyro ran up and shot an arrow, but it flew poorly and broke on the Barrowmaze wall. Feno swung his longsword, Icing Death, instantly killing three and nearly killing a fourth. Filthfang then raised his dirty little paws and cast a spell. Instantly, Kyro, Zraith, Ronan, Feno, and myself felt like we were covered in biting rats and collapsed to the floor, screaming and writhing! Nikki tried to drag Kyro out of the way and was stabbed by one of the arrows he was holding.

One of the giant rats moved forward and bit me as I was incapacitated on the barrowmaze floor. Lhoss attacked and killed another, but Filthfang again raised his nasty paws and cast an incantation, summoning six additional rats behind us. Niki then turned and killed three of them and as another rat tried to attack her, suddenly Jack started meowing and the rat was raised up into the air! Calbach shot an arrow through another, killing it as another rat took a biog bite out of Chalkboi’s side. At that point, the spell cast by Filthfang wore off and those of us who had been affected jumped up, angry and ready to do some damage to the rats.

Lhoss then cast continual light, blinding Filthfang, and Feno swung and connected with the evil sorcerer rat, who suddenly disappeared in a poof of purple smoke, leaving only the smell of brimstone. It was as if he wasn’t even there at all! I began to suspect that there was some advanced illusion magic going on. Feno angrily screamed, “Coward!” as Kyro swung and killed another rat. I angrily lashed out at the first rat I could see and killed it instantly, and Feno swept his sword across the remaining rats, obliterating them.

Lhoss had the sudden urge to open some doors so I followed behind her in an attempt to keep her from getting hurt. Feno declared he actually wanted to kick down some doors, so Lhoss checked the first door in the hallway for traps and (finding none) Feno kicked it down, revealing a pair of carnivorous flies. One of them immediately flew at me and bit me with a nasty bite. Seeing the flies coming at us, Zraith began to sing a strange little song of penguin courage. It seemed to be mostly about fish, but it still filled us all with courage to fight. The other fly tried to bite Feno but couldn’t get past his armor and Feno immediately squished it. Lhoss then smashed the other one with her staff.

Feno and Nikki went into the room, sweeping the floor as they went. At that moment, Zraith heard a commotion down the hall and called it to our attention. Chalkboi used lay on hands to heal me and I snuck quietly down the hall, hiding in shadows, and peered around the corner. I could see two mongrelmen torturing a giant rat. Going back to the others, I suggested we go down and investigate further, but the group decided instead they wanted to open the door at the other side of the room Feno and Nikki just entered. I was going to sneak back down and watch the mongrelmen from the shadows, but Kyro insisted he was going to go with me. Not trusting his ranger skills to keep him hidden like a thief, I decided not to go. Kyro was a little put out by that, as he wanted to tell the mongrelmen to just kill the thing, but he came into the room with us and I closed the door.

Lhoss then picked the lock on the other door on the south wall and Ronan and Feno went in. They reported that room was filled with burial alcoves on the west and east walls, but the entire east wall was also covered in nasty and dangerous yellow mold. The rest of us who had previously encountered yellow mold refused to even go in at that point. Lhoss decided instead to re-memorize her spells. (Armatzi tried also but was too exhausted and nodded off for 15 minutes instead.) Her memorization complete, Lhoss then entered the room and cast continual light on the mold, turning it to a pale grey. We then began to search the alcoves. Someone found a pouch of gold, Lhoss found a finely-crafted holy symbol of Narul (made of silver) and a diamond ring, and I found a platinum cloak clasp. We divided the coin between us.

Session 109: Adventures Great and Small

Previously, the Saviors of Orlane had pulled an ambush on a group of the Band of the Black Hand and were ambushed in turn by a group of undead.  Things looked grim for our heroes for a time, but their might won out in the end.  Gnorcia, always looking out for her pocket, decided to search the remains for treasure.  Most of the group joined her, and some items were found.  Usually, undead are a waste of time when it comes to loot, but this time, Zraith lucked out.  One of the Juju (enhanced zombies) was wearing a pair of sandals that weren't the usual junk.  In fact, they looked like exactly what the poor little penguin needed to protect her bare, recently burned, feet.  Before she put them on, Niki cast a "detect magic" spell on the gathered treasures, and to everyone's surprise, the sandals were indeed magical in nature, as were a pile of arrows Feno found around the second Juju.  Zraith put them on her feet and they (amazingly) fit her (decidedly non-humanoid) feet.  She hopped up and started walking around in the magical sandals, proving one of their powers by confidently walking up the wall as if it were the floor.  Someone remembered that the Juju had been likewise walking on the walls, and it was agreed that Zraith was blessed indeed to get such a useful item.

As the heroes were readying to leave the barrow maze, an eerie green eyeball appeared from the wall and glared at them menacingly, followed by a mouth.  The grating voice that emitted from the mouth announced itself as belonging to Naynor, the main foe that they have been searching the maze for.  The evil being taunts the heroes by name, referring to them specifically as "The Heroes of Orlane", calling their deeds unimpressive and claiming that they will soon fall to his warriors and join his army of undead against their will.

Lhoss and Gnorcia attack the apparition, but as it is some sort of illusion, they have no effect.  Feno quickly turned and mooned the pseudo-face, which then faded away to the sound of echoing laughter. The strength of the magical spell was proven by the laughter lingering for some minutes.

Approaching the stairs chosen to exit the barrow maze, Lhoss is hit again by the wretched smell from a nearby room.  "I want to try to get rid of that smell," she said.  Her proposal was to gather the rotting remains from the room in the tarp that was in the bag of holding and then dump them in the charnel pit further into the maze that the adventurers had previously thrown bodies into, followed by a vial of green slime.  The slime had effectively consumed the biologicals, neutralizing the smell of them.  This sounded like a reasonable idea, since the smell of decomposition is truly horrible, so Kyro and Gnorcia agree to accompany Lhoss into the tainted room.  Unfortunately, before even entering the room, Lhoss was overcome by the stench and began vomiting.  

Gnorcia and Kyro felt a bit green, but persevered and started gathering the remains into a pile.  Gnorcia changed the plan since she didn't want to damage the tarp. "I like this tarp," she said, "so how about we just burn the mess and be done with it?"  

Kyro wasn't so sure, and asked, "What about noxious smoke?"  

"It hasn't been a problem before," Gnorcia responded.  "We've been tossing burning oil around in here all over the place."  Kyro was still doubtful, remembering the time Tatania had set fire to some frescoes honoring Narul, and all the smoke from that, but didn't feel it was worth arguing about.  Neither of the two noticed that the door to the room had closed behind them, so when Gnorcia tossed the lit oil onto the pile of rotting corpses, the room quickly filled with thick, dark smoke.  That was enough to overcome Gnorcia, who collapsed and began vomiting as much as Lhoss had earlier.  Kyro picked Gnorcia up by the back of her tunic, carrying her as he tried to find the door and get it open, but he passed out from smoke inhalation.  Gnorcia crawled over and got the door open enough for her to drag Kyro from the room before they would both have perished.    Feno suggested that Niki use her stone shaping spell to just completely seal that room off, but she was unable to because she didn't have the clay component available.  The fresher air was enough to revive all three of the group that had been incapacitated, and everyone tromped back to Orlane under their own power.

Due to the time taken to deal with the stinky room, our adventurers arrive back to base too late for supper.  The kitchen at the Foaming Mug had been closed down for the night and there was nothing available to eat.  Zraith, perhaps feeling generous because of her good fortune in gaining magical sandals, offered to cook up some fish for the whole group instead of just Armatzi like she usually confined her largess to.  Most of the group happily agreed, once Lhoss had convinced Zraith to demonstrate her fishing talents, thus ensuring the fish was fresh and not the day-old catch that Zraith had in her bag.  Zraith had offered one of those fish to Niki, but even Jack turned up his nose at it.  It seems that gaining the powers of the Lesser Ring of Jack has turned the cat into even more of a snob than cats are usually considered to be.  Jack claimed that he just has better taste now.  The sole abstainer to the meal was Feno, since he has a particular dislike for Zraith, even though she has been traveling with the group for a while now.  Perhaps this is understandable, since the penguin can be rather brisk when talking to anyone except Armatzi, whom she idolizes, and elves are a proud race that don't forgive perceived slights particularly easily.

On the morning of day 14 of Good Month, the group sold the non-magical treasures collected on the journey.  The magically enhanced small shield was identified as a +1 shield, so since Kyro was the only one who could carry a shield that didn't have one, he was allowed to claim it.  It greatly enhanced his armor rating.  The arrows Feno had gathered proved to be +1 as well, which says a lot about the skill of the Juju that lost them since he injured more of his own side than the heroes.

Chalkboi counted up his funds and decided that if he borrowed a bit from the bag of holding, he would be able to level up.  This left the rest of the group without the paladin for a week, so it was decided that a short trip to Hochoch was in order.  Armaziti needed to report in to the Temple of St. Cuthbert, several of the others wished to renew their adventurer's badges, and Lhoss wanted to revisit the grove within the city.  These tasks were easily accomplished, with Armatzi being lectured about the undead and their strengths and weaknesses.  The information he received may be of great benefit while clearing the barrow maze.  The badges were renewed on day 18 of Good Month and will be valid for another 30 days.

Upon returning to Orlane on the 21st, the bounty on the killed Black Hand members was collected and the newly trained Chalkboi rejoined the group.  The morning of the 22nd of Good Month saw the heroes returning to the barrow maze, grateful that the long heatwave had finally broken.  Instead of being oppressive, the weather was comfortable, and the countryside was beautiful.  

The good mood from travel was slightly dampened when the group entered the barrow maze and discovered that it appeared Naynor had been watching for them.  Naynor's eye and mouth again manifested on the wall within the barrow maze, and he tried to intimidate and taunt the heroes. He wasn't anywhere near as scary as he believed himself to be, and Lhoss and Gnorcia followed Feno's example from last time and mooned the apparition. A black smoke flowed from the false mouth, carrying a mild curse, "essentially a reverse blessing," Armatzi said, that wore off before the group encountered anyone or anything.  Returning to where the undead had ambushed them earlier, the rooms in that hallway were searched.  Niki happened to spot a lever that opened a hidden door, that lead to a hallway with a second hidden door and then a third hidden door.  This third door opened into the hallway that the Band of the Black Hand had approached the ambush from.  All that remained from them was a burned out campfire in the room at the east end of the hall, but there were multiple burial alcoves around the room which were searched for treasure.  A closed portcullis was discovered on the south wall of the room and the members of the group took turns attempting to raise it individually.  None were successful.  Before a group effort could be organized, Chalkboi raised the alarm from where he'd been guarding the hallway entrance.  Giant rats were approaching, and the Rat King himself, Filth Fang, called out to have Jack surrendered to him.  "No way," Niki called back.  Feno then yelled back his own challenge, "You've got a date with my sword, Rat King!"  One might get the feeling that Feno dislikes the Rat King, and who could blame him?