Maiden Hunt
The next step was to check the next door. An antechamber led to a large room dominated by a lava filled pit. As we edged around it we were attacked by a salamander wearing a bejewelled helm. A brief battle and our Ranger was wearing the helm, after allowing a suitable cooling off period of course.*
*Insisted on by the FSA apparently
The monk took the apparently heat resistant spear, speaking of which old Malachai had avoided some harm from his wounds thanks to a ring of fire resistance. The exit to the room was an impressive set of double doors.
Whilst a certain warmth and the background rumbling from the pit had given us some hint of what lay in this room, the monk could hear nothing behind these heavy doors. The ranger’s spell did warn us of a trap ten feet beyond the door, but it was not connected to the door so we entered.
The room beyond was divided into two levels by stairs that crossed the breadth of the room. The room itself was all black; black carpet and obsidian walls and ceiling, on the upper level of the room gathered around a throne on a dias a dozen or more skeletons looked up on our approach and without hesitation started towards us, readying javelins. The ranger and I withstood the first volley, only a couple of hits, worryingly they appeared to resist his efforts to drive them away with the power of his god.
Taking care to avoid the invisible trap we knew to be there we returned fire with magic missile and arrows, the monk hurled back their own javelins that lay all about us. Then we were in melee, the ranger seemed concerned that one of the skeletons must be a leader but he was unable to discern which one, his theory would later prove true. Several times during the fight we felt a chill pass over us as if something was trying to enter our minds but each time we resisted.
The skeletons were falling slowly, the magic users missiles seemed to need three to kill one and both I and the ranger seemed to need multiple hits to kill them. My battle axe was less effective than the mace and staff used by my comrades. Malachai tried a dispel magic spell to no effect, then the ogre we had met earlier appeared behind us and attacked the mage.
He tried his wand of paralysation to no effect, later he told me that from the start something was not right about the creature, but for the moment he was locked in struggle with it. Hit several times, he cast Mirror Image to protect himself. The skeletons were now down to just one but this one was different, definitely more powerful, fighting far more skilfully, continuing to maraud amongst us despite Zunee setting his spiritual hammer against it. It wore a hideous looking talisman around its neck.
Now two major setbacks: Malachai broke and ran (along with his three remaining mirror images) affected by the waves of fear given off by the daemonic creature, and the ranger fell unconscious. The Monk swung at and hit the ogre and it vanished – an illusion! She and I then were able to finish the demonic creature, but it was a close run thing.
Malachai returned and I wasted more of my precious diamonddraught bringing the ranger round so he could heal himself. We rested up, Malachai taking the evil looking talisman that he later blamed for bad dreams. There was little else in the room, the monk took a few javelins. No one fancied the knucklebones or the jar of dead rats by the throne. Then a piece of luck, the ranger found a secret door behind it.
A stairwell led down to a small chamber, it contained a chest which Zunee investigated with his spear. Although his find traps was running, the mimic, for such it was, did not register on the spell and attacked, striking and glueing itself to him until we were able to finish it off. The disintegrated body revealed that it concealed a door – another stairwell, another small chamber, another chest.
This chest was open and filled with gems, until I got a good look at them – paste, junk, worthless the lot. Might fool the rest but not me. Zunee was convinced there must be something here. We emptied the contents looking for false bottoms and secret panels in the chest and checked the walls thoroughly with no luck. Then it occurred to him to move the chest. Below there was an inscription carved into the floor. Zunee read it aloud and another chest gated in, and this one was as they say, a doosey.
There was gold, silver, gems- we could only carry about 2000 in gold between us, plus 800gp worth of gems. There was a book containing runes, a sword, 2 potions, a ring, a silver circlet that reeked of magic.* There was also a clerical and Magic User scroll, both with several powerful spells.
*After re reading that paragraph I wish to make it clear that the book contained runes only, not the other items listed.
So heavily laden we had reached a dead end and back tracked, scouting the main approach corridor to the east. As we suspected it linked to a teleport that took us back to the north south corridor that formed the eastern third of the map Bernice was sketching.* Zunee was convinced there was more to find as we had only found one missing girl so far. As we searched the corridor again we found another secret door, opposite the room where we had killed the transvestite bandits earlier. We must have missed it several times.
*Malakai had writers’ cramp this week
A narrow corridor descended west and then turned south taking us to a lower level. The monk scouted ahead, moving silently and we approached a lit room. The room had a chalky floor and curtains along the far wall. Two large statues of robed humans dominated the far side of the room. The walls were decorated with frescoes of monks, a single exit was located on the west side. All was quiet.
Bernice stole in heading for the south west corner, worried about the statues. She was paying them so much attention that the man with a two handed sword bursting from behind the curtain took her by surprise. I rushed forward with Zunee as two more men burst from the curtains. One waited until we were all engaged and then charged to attack Malakai who he floored with a single blow of his open hand. Fortunately the others were not so tough and we were able to despatch all three relatively swiftly.
The leader wore a valuable looking pendant but there was nothing else of note. We found three girls in separate cells through the exit. They were pleased to see us having suffered quite an ordeal, two in particular were badly bruised and cut up. They gave the corpses a kick on the way out. We checked to see if we could pick up the first girl we had found and left in the second bedroom, but she was not there. Nor was the magic user we had left bound and gagged in a pit in the secret corridor. Not good.
We checked out the bandit room with its secret stairwell to the surface. It was dark when we looked out, I could see a few small animals with my infravision but nothing nasty. We locked the door and settled in to rest and recover spells. We were all asleep in the midst of this with Bernice on watch when she noticed one of the sleeping girls acting oddly, moving to investigate a wererat leapt from underneath the blanket and attacked her.
We managed to kill it and fortunately the Ranger was able to cast cure disease to make sure she did not become a rat herself. Explains why one girl seemed in much better shape than the others: wererats are hard to hurt and don’t bruise easy. So, with just a small section of the south eastern dungeon unexplored, only 2 survivors found,* a hostile magic user on the loose and potentially looking for revenge, plus the little problem of the druid and his followers who we fled from into the dungeon in the first place presumably lying in wait for us if we leave, it’s all going very well.
*Well 4 found but 2 lost
22.1.22
Experience awards
Malakai
Characterisation and roleplay 50
Salamander 280
Salamander Helm 625
Enhanced skeletons 130
Suspecting the nature of the Ogre 50
Dando’s Talisman 250
Taking off Dando’s Talisman 250
Use of Mirror Image 200
Mimic 300
Main treasure cash/gems 1500
Scroll 800
Libram of runes 800
Circlet 750
Potions 100
Ring 25
Monk pendant 1250
Rescuing 2 girls 125
Wererat 50
Total 6,335 +bonus = 6,969
Requires 12,098
Zunee
Healing 200
Salamander 280
Salamander helm 625
Trap avoidance room 21 thanks to Find traps 1000
Enhanced skeletons 130
Resisting Dando’s Fear 100
Suspecting one skeleton a leader 50
Use of spiritual hammer 100
Dando 350
Not touching Dando’s talisman 50
Dando’s talisman 250
Secret door detection 21 25
Suspecting and detecting Secret door 11 100
Mimic 300
Moving the chest 22 250
Main treasure cash/gems 1500
Sword 800
scroll 800
Circlet 750
Potions 100
Ring 25
Monks 250
Monk pendant 1250
Rescuing 2 girls 125
Wererat 50
Cure disease Bernice 250
Characterisation and roleplay 100
Total 4,905/4,905 / + Bonus = 4,905/5,396
Required 13,836/26,219 LEVEL UP CLERIC
Bernice
Mapping 50
Characterisation and roleplay 50
Salamander 280
Salamander helm 625
Enhanced skeletons 130
Resisting Dando’s fear 100
Dispelling the illusory Ogre 50
Suspecting that destroying Dando would destroy the Ogre 50
Dando 350
Not touching Dando’s talisman 50
Dando’s talisman 250
Mimic 300
Main treasure cash/gems 1500
Circlet 750
Potions 100
Ring 25
Monks 250
Monk pendant 1250
Rescuing 2 girls 125
Wererat 50
Total 6,335 Reqd 11.907
Varamir
Salamander 280
Salamander Helm 625
Enhanced Skeletons 130
Dando 350
Dando’s talisman 250
Resisting Dando’s fear 100
First aid Zunee 150
Identifying fake gems 50
Mimic 300
Main treasure cash/gems 1500
Circlet 750
Potions 100
Ring 25
Monks 250
Monk pendant 1250
Rescuing 2 girls 125
Wererat 50
Total 6,285 + bonus = 6,915
Reqd 27,643
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