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Session 13:

A very brief session, because there were only 2 players.

Elrohir and Val went shopping at Ofergenga's booth in the market, and bought some scrolls, a few potions of healing, a wand of light and some luck tokens. Bicwiden the mule put on quite a show at one point, trying to eat Val's steel helmet, and then finally accepting a biscuit instead. Val noticed that he wears an odd iron ring with some sort of device engraved on it. El was able to see that it was a pair of scales, but neither of them knew what it could represent. El detected magic on it and found none. At the end, Ol' Man Genga asked El if he knew Piven Golaster. When El said yes, the old guy asked if El would deliver a small package to the old hobbytlan wizard, in return for a 10 sp discount. El quickly agreed, though he thought it odd that Genga couldn't go himself.

That afternoon El, Val, and Arith all set out for Piven's house. Partway there (a 15 minute walk from the center of town) they heard an odd noise in the woods. El ignored it, but Val, hearing what sounded like an animal's cry, decided to investigate. Arith stayed with the wizard to guard him. Val soon found six goblins surrounding an old dead tree, and up in the tree was a large grey cat. The goblins unfortunately heard Val's approach as she brushed through the understory, and turned on her as she drew near. Val tried to shoot one as two threw javelins and a third charged her. She missed, and one javelin grazed her. The goblins yelled in enthusiasm, but moments later El and Arith appeared, having heard Val's shout of "Goblins!" Short work followed, as three goblins fled and the other three were briskly cut down.

Afterwards, it took Val a few minutes to coax the frightened cat out of the tree, but soon it was riding on her shoulder in comfort. Piven's house was not far away, and they were soon knocking on his door. The old hobbyt seemed only slightly surprised to find them at his gate, and happily accepts their delivery. He's quite surprised to see the cat with them, and tells them it is an "elven cat". El is a little perturbed that he didn't recognize the critter at once. The cat first tries to get Val to accept him or her (nobody has asked!), but eventually switches his interest to Elrohir.

Session 14: (8/14/11)

The PCs decided pretty quickly to return to the dungeon (after Max and Jasper did a little shopping, too). Max urgently desires to get his last 200 sp to Chasmal so he can seek out his cure for lycanthropy. They journey to the dungeon, but on the way are ambushed by a party of 3 hobgoblin warriors, 3 hobgoblin archers, a gnoll warrior, and a gnoll adept. By the barest of luck, Max sees the hobgoblins who were hiding at ground level just before the ambush is sprung, and alerts the party, so there is no surprise attack. A brutal battle begins as the PCs close on the only foes they see; three hobgoblin warriors. Max drops one instantly, Elrohir takes a second out with his rapier (!), and all seems well at first. But moments later, the adept casts sleep from her tree. She catches Jasper, Val and Max (only Max saves) in the area. Then the three archers fire at Elrohir and Max, and finally the gnoll warrior steps out of hiding. Elrohir responds by casting a ray of flame at the adept, catching her on fire. Max steps forward and engages the gnoll warrior. They exchange several rounds of brutal strikes before Max is able to put  him down. Elrohir's new cat friend (still nameless) runs to Val and spends a round waking her up, then does the same for Jasper. The archers focus on Elrohir and Max, but are able to do little damage. Elrohir dumps the adept out of the tree with a grease spell; between the flames and the falling damage, she is killed. After that, the archers try to retreat, but Val and Jasper are able to rejoin the combat and put an end to them. Max finishes the last one off with a thrown hand-axe.

Battered, and uncertain of their safety, the party almost at once hears the crashing thuds of running feet; fearing more enemies, they duck into the trees. Moments later, a sturdy dwarf dressed in the colors of Kehret (the war god whom both Maximus and Val follow) comes trotting into the clearing. Seeing the dead goblinoids, he stops, and Max hails him. The dwarf introduces himself as Udrock "Rocky" Phyrchaz (Rocky Earthblesser is the best translation of his name). He's a priest of Kehret, and was sent by the High Temple of St. Justin in Greenvale to find and act as a follower for Maximus.

After Rocky healed Max up a bit, the party decided to continue on to the dungeon. A bit of exploration of the Temple of Glarias occurred (one ghoul and one ghast killed easily) and then the PCs moved on through the bluesteel door (they'd long since gotten the password from Chasmal). Once they reached his chamber, the PCs made a terrible discovery; his room had been ransacked, and Chasmal was missing. Two goblins lay on the floor; one was dead, but the other was merely deeply wounded and stabilized. Minor healing brought him back to a point where he could be questioned, and he quickly informed them that "the new priestess" had ordered Chasmal's capture for sacrifice "on the altar of the Beast God". The party immediately raced off in that direction, to the rescue.

Reaching the main hall of the Bestial Host, they were waylaid by the hall's newest guardians; an ogre and three hobgoblin warriors. Max stepped forward to meet the Ogre's bellowed challenge; Rocky stood at his back. Val intended to move to take on the hobgoblins, while El and Jasper remained on the steps above to shoot at them. The Ogre was a tough foe; he dealt Max a tremendous wallop and almost took him down! Rocky healed him, and Val sliced at the Ogre as well. Next round, Rocky cast Enlarge on Val, making her as big as the Ogre.  After Val was hit by one hobgoblin archer, she directed her attention to them. The battle between Max and the ogre was terrible, but eventually with the aid of the archers, Max took him down. Rocky moved over to help Val with the hobgoblins, and so eventually did Max. After the battle, Rocky used his last heal spells on Max and himself. Several healing potions were also consumed.

The goblin prisoner then revealed that the new priestess and her minions were in the Temple of the Beast God, just beyond. Knowing that there were two entrances to that chamber, the party divided; Rocky and Max went in the front door, but the rest crept around to the side entrance, which was locked but less well defended. Max threw open his door and shouted "For St. Justin!" An orc standing at the door was surprised and cut down at once. further into the room, six goblins stood between Max and the altar, where the priestess stood over Chasmal's form, tied down and half-wolf. The rest of the party, on hearing Max, slid open their door. Val and Elrohir were able to wound the orc there quite badly, but not kill it. In turn, it walloped Jasper, taking him down to 1 HP. The priestess tried to disable Max with a hold person spell, and he failed his Fort roll! However, a rain of arrows from Jasper and Elrohir take her down before she can do more damage, and with her death, the hold fades. In moments, all but two of the goblins are slain, and the others surrender.

(We stopped here for the week and will pick up with searching for treasure and getting Chasmal (and everyone else!) back to town safely. Rocky and Elrohir are out of spells, Max has used up his laying on of hands, and everyone has drunk at least one healing potion.

Session 15 (8/21/11)

Chasmal was rescued, treasure was looted (several potions and scrolls, a nice set of +1 chainmail (too small for anyone in the party), and a good bit of silver). The Party, out of spells, decided to retreat immediately to Brindenford; they were luckily able to do so without running into any more bestial host or wandering forest-creatures. They first went to Mother Iris at the temple of Elanora, but her attitude towards them is pretty grumpy - she refused to heal the PCs, and gave Chasmal quite a lecture. In disgust, they left and went to the temple of Kehret. There, Brother Harrud is happy to cast the remove curse on Chasmal (once properly paid, of course), and heals Max and Jasper. However, he refuses to heal Valkrist, because, as he says "women should not fulfil men's roles, and when they do, they must take the harm that comes to them as their own fault". Val is not amused, and later, Rocky says that he feels it is his mission and duty to attempt to save Brindenford from the ugly grip of Belestros-worship. (Elrohir and Val both leveled up at this point; this means the PCs are a mix of 2nd and 3rd level).

After a couple of days' rest, the group decides it is high time to return to the dungeon. They briefly swing back through the Bestial host chambers, finding nothing of interest and no sign of the goblin prisoners they left there. After that check-up, they decide to start at the far door out of Chasmal's chamber, and explore to the north. Jasper is unable to pick the lock on a sturdy iron door, but Elrohir demonstrates a new spell, knock, and they are able to enter. Here they find 3 swords embedded in the stone, and a message carved in the rock. By examining the brazier above, they quickly figure out the riddle, and Val draws the silver sword from the floor. At this point Jasper and Val decide to play a trick on anyone (hopefully Burr-buggle) who comes later to this chamber. They mix up a slurry of mud and pour it over the writing and the hole they took their sword from; they hope that one of the other adventurers will mistakenly take a cursed sword instead; such  nice people! Surprisingly, Max has no quarrel with this dishonesty.

Continuing north, they find the elephant statue room, and are able to avoid the electricity trap without much effort. ( I completely forgot Chasmal's axe trap, darn it!) They spent considerable time searching the elephant, expecting to find something others had missed, but failed to do so. Continuing north, they worked their way through the room with the clay pots, and to the strange muck on the floor. It disturbed them quite a bit; they spent some time trying to burn it, but eventually decided they didn't have the resources to get around/over it at this time. They may come back later. Instead, they went through the other door into the spider halls. Several small battles ensued, and Max was nearly netted first, then barely missed being leaped upon. Slaughter of spiders ensued. Finally they came to the chamber of pedestals, where they examined and retrieved 3 of the 4 covered items; they did not open either the sealed jar nor the silver urn, and they left the demonic statuette behind. From here, they went west, through the far door, through the secret door, and into the tree room. Here they heard the message from Glarias' tree, and that is where we paused until next week.

Session 16 (8/28)

With a little thought, the PCs are able to solve the riddle Glarias posed them, namely that shadow lies between darkness and light. Thus the secret door in the east wall is revealed. However, they decide to finish searching the first level before descending into darkness below. Trudging east, they pass two small rooms that have already been looted. They decide that Burr-buggle and his crew must have been here, as the doors are smashed and looted. In one room, bundled up with a bunch of women's clothes, they find a peculiar red dragonskin cloak, which Maximus puts on without caution. Fortunately, it has no ill effects upon him. Going further east, they search a room with a very fragile ceiling, and nearly collapse it upon themselves, but do manage to find a small amount of treasure. Finally, they come to a door in a northern hallway, and find "the dagger room" to the south. Investigating the door, they trigger the zombie assault. It takes them only a few rounds of newly appearing zombies to realize something in the room is generating them. Val forces her way in, taking an AoO in the process, but sees the mirrors and realizes what they are doing. Rocky tries to turn the undead and fails, so the others set out to smash them. Elrohir's new fiery burst feat is VERY handy in the situation, and he does considerable damage. Max chops zombies vigorously, but finds his damage severely reduced. Rocky, on the other hand, wields his mace with great power and reduces two of the zombies to nothing. Val smashes one mirror very quickly, then another, but the final two zombies appear. Rocky and Max destroy the other two mirrors, before the "dead" zombies can regenerate. All in all, not  very risky...

Finally going south, they reach the dagger/altar room. The daggers have replenished themselves, but the party is strong enough now to deal with them more easily. Elrohir uses his fiery burst to burn the table, and the daggers do little to hurt the PCs. Rocky and Val both realize that the big statues and the small one they saw in the "covered treasure" room resemble each other, and she goes to fetch it. Jasper found that there was a word carved on the statuette, but couldn't read it. Amazingly, Max could - it was the word Rivenyk, written in draconic, which he did not know how to read or speak... Carrying it into the room, Val's stunned by the spirit as it rushes into the idol to occupy it. Rocky made a religion check at this point to realize it was a poltergeist-like spirit, and they then smashed the statuette. Oh, they also set the grigs loose, and Elrohir, speaking to them in Elvish, managed to convince them that the idol was their enemy. Between smashing the statuette and the grigs attacking it, they banish the spirit (I had to assume that destroying the statuette banished the spirit)...

A search of the altar allowed Jasper to find a secret lever hidden there; it opened a compartment in the altar, revealing a greatsword inlaid with the symbol of Kehret, god of War. Maximus happily claimed this as his own, but in turn Jasper demanded that Max give him the red dragonskin cloak; he said it wasn't fair that Val had the sword of Silence, Elrohir had Serrestique's staff, and Max had both  the cloak and the greatsword. Seeing that he was right, Max relinquished the cloak to Jasper. It was only then that he realized the cloak was what granted him the ability to read the draconic script on the statuette. Max is also very curious when he finds the words "Bane of Evil" engraved on his Greatsword.

At this point they carefully studied their map of the 1st level, and finally remembered that they had never investigated the trapdoor in the floor of one bestial host chamber. Going back, they found two rooms that were concealed under the floor. In one, they stumbled on the first of the twelve Sigils of Dragonbane. Maximus recognized it after some study, and remembered that in his training he'd been told that there are twelve sigils, rumored to have been inscribed by a great dragonhunter in the distant past; when all twelve are found and used by one person, they will give great power over all  dragons. He's eager to be the first to rediscover them!

Because they are all slightly battered from fighting zombies and flying daggers, the party rests in the secret rooms overnight, and Rocky uses the last of his spells to heal them up. By morning they are refreshed and ready to descend to the second level. They return to the "tree root room" and investigate the secret door they found when they answered the riddle. Beyond they find the second set of stairs (they had expected them to be there, according to the map they found long ago in the lantern). They soon found the secret landing room, and the illusionary wall; Max and Rocky were quite intrigued by the gear left behind, and Rocky said a prayer for the souls of the adventurers who left it, presumed dead in the dungeon somewhere. It appeared to have been at least a year since the food was left, uneaten.

They then explored the room with the oddly angled walls, and eventually heard the gnolls singing down the western hall. Careful snooping revealed that there were four of them; they decided to lay an ambush; Val lured the gnolls with a shout of "Arf! Arf! Your mother was a dog!" and when the gnolls reached the corner, Elrohir greased the floor. 3 of the four gnolls fell, and Jasper sneak-attacked one from the alcove. It went down. The party made quick work of the others... (Note; the gnoll ranger heard them and decided to hold off on her ambush). The PCs found the goblin prisoner, questioned him briskly, got only a few statements about how "Ramscorn will kill you all!" and decided that his ear belonged in their bounty collection. Max executed him in Kehret's name, and they continued on. Moving further west, tehy searched the gnoll lair, and found the vesh beside the landing. I screwed up, here, and had all 4 vesh attack on dry land. I think I'll have 4 more lurk nearby and try again to bullrush them into the water. The vesh were a very easy fight, and went down without ever getting an attack...