Sewer Patrol
We had barely settled again when an orc patrol crashed through the door but fortunately they were no match for our fighter team, even the somewhat tougher leader fell without too much trouble, causing his followers to flee, but Varamir pursued and cut them all down, the last just yards short of a pair of double doors that lay to the north where we had not yet explored.
We resumed our rest but only a few minutes before our spellcasters had recovered their spells a second orc patrol arrived, this one from the south descending the stairs. These orcs were tougher but once the leader fell again Varamir made short work of them,* despite at one point being shot in the back by Bernice with a light crossbow. I’m sure it was an accident.
*Well, to be fair he makes short work of everything.
Forced to rest again this time we made it through six hours to get all our powers restored. We went north again but decided not to try the double doors.* We returned and headed east descending again to the trapped chamber where we had fought the insect men. We headed east than south following the narrowing passage.
*We bottled it in other words
We could hear the occasional scuttling of giant insects, tracks showed many giant ants and the strange humanoids. The smell of sewage remained overpowering. Then we unexpectedly reached a dead end: We found ourselves at the bottom of a thirty foot shaft with a ladder propped at the bottom. At the top we could see a trapdoor and Find Traps indicated there was a trap on the far side. We decided to try other directions and headed west.
*Yes we bottled it again
As we continued the air became warmer and more oppressive and we emerged on the edge of a garbage filled cavern with scum covered trash all over the floor and multi-coloured slimes coating the walls. Our find traps spell hinted at trouble a short distance into the chamber. Zandeep now decided to:
a) Use his creativity and intelligence
b) Make good use of some less commonly deployed magicks
C) Annoy the DM
He cast Tenser’s Floating Disc and used it to ferry himself halfway across the room, he then cast rope trick and hanging from the pocket of interdimensional space transported us across one at a time to the far side of the room where we could see the beginning of a stone corridor. His position was just right to enable the disc to traverse the width of the room without going out of range. We ignored the tunnels north and south deciding the stonework must lead to somewhere less ant nesty.
As we crossed, one of two of us caught site of something or things swimming in the mire, something briefly broke the surface, I didn’t see anything myself though I did think I caught some disturbance in the mess out of the corner of my eye once or twice. Comrades who claimed to have glimpsed something described it variously as slug or snake like.
We found ourselves in a large sewer running north west, a ledge on the left hand side enabling is to keep dry and lemony fresh.* and we now further upset the DM by detecting a trap using our trusty Find Traps spell. Bernice could not be sure but the dwarf was certain that a large section of the ledge was designed to tip unfortunate sewer goers into the mire. We also noted that the sluggish flow of you know what which ran in the same direction we were walking met a flow from the north at this point and formed a very slowly moving whirlpool, barely discernible unless you studied it for a minute or two.
*Although of Course Varamir’s smell may have actually improved after a dip
Using our tenser disc avoided any unpleasant dunking / drowning/ disasters and we reached a major junction the sewer. The main passage turned due north, a slightly narrower tunnel turned south west. The ledges continued in both directions, a wooden bridge allowing us to head north if so desired. As the southern way looked blocked by a collapse we crossed the bridge and headed along the main tunnel.
As we continued we began to hear an erratic drumming coming from ahead, when we reached another major junction it turned west and North East, both directions appearing blocked after a fairly short distance. To the west we could see an upturned tun onto which water dripped, and the noise was amplified by the upturned barrel. Move it and stop the noise? Good way to alert all nearby denizens that something is amiss. We continued North East to the end and then began to back track looking for secret doors.
Again it was our stunty friend who spotted a revolving slab in the west wall that allowed us into a secret passage. It paralleled the corridor in the same heading before becoming an earthen tunnel again as we had seen around the ants nest area. West though, a stone corridor led to stirs up to a lit area, and we headed in this direction led by the dwarf.
We emerged into a large room containing many cells, floor to ceiling iron bars forming more than a dozen cubicles containing a prisoner in each, men and women of working age, each huddled miserably in their small living spaces. Between the rows of cells, 5 orcs were leading/escorting a group of three humans.
We were immediately spotted having taken no precautions and we charged in, the element of surprise lost. The dwarf had little trouble dealing with four orcs at once and Bernice engaged a chain mail clad female. Malakai fired his wand of paralysis at one of the 2 unarmoured humans successfully freezing him out of the battle. The other was cut down, possibly as he tried to surrender but we may have mistaken his gestures for an attempt at spell casting.
Bernice was being cut to pieces by the female fighter’s battle axe and a hold person from Bob failed to alleviate the situation, but Varamir and I arrived after assassinating the paralysed Magic User and she was overwhelmed, already badly wounded by a fusillade of magic missiles from Malakai.
A check of the bodies revealed nine gems worth around 500GP each, a strange black stone, carried by the fighter, a spellbook a ring, some bracers and of course some gold and weapons though none very special. The most richly dressed man who had only an ornamental dagger was clearly a merchant in to stock up on slaves. He had a bone scroll case containing a map to a location a few days travel inland from Highport.
There were seven women and six male slaves, all nervous and cowed, we released the women and pondered what to do with the rest. One man said he was a soldier and offered to fight with us, his name was Porric. Two of the girls claimed to be from Steeplefell when we enquired, Maive and Finaerys, they said the other three village girls had already been taken elsewhere, hopefully nothing worse than being sold.
Of the noblewoman Althea, there was no sign though someone thought they recognised her name and description. We pondered our next moves; stairs up led out of the north east corner of the room and two exits lay unexplored on the east wall. What to do with 13 slaves?
Zunee
20.8.22
Experience Awards
Bernice
Gold/Gems this session 815
Orc patrol#1 20
Black Stone 3,000
Slaver/Orc party 100
Freeing Maive and Finaerys 200
Total 4,135
Reqd 3,301
Bob
Gold/Gems this session 815
Use of Find Traps 100
Healing 50
Freeing Maive and Finaerys 200
Total 1,165
Bonus 117
Reqd 12,128
Varamir
Gold/Gems this session 815
Orc patrol#1 100
Orc patrol #2 110
Detecting tilt trap 9 100
Detecting secret door 10 100
Slaver/Orc party 250
Freeing Maive and Finaerys 200
Total 1,675
Bonus 168
Reqd 21,734
Malakai
Gold/Gems this session 815
Slaver/Orc party 750
Freeing Maive and Finaerys 200
Total 1,765
Bonus 177
Reqd 777
Zunee
Gold/Gems this session 815
Orc patrol#1 20
Orc Patrol #2 30
Slaver/Orc party 250
Use of Find Traps 100
Healing 50
Freeing Maive and Finaerys 200
Total 733/733
Bonus 0/73
Reqd 10,862/22,948
Zandeep
Gold/Gems this session 815
Use of Tensers Disc and Rope trick room 2 1,500
Spellbook 1,400
Freeing Maive and Finaerys 200
Total 1,958/1,958
Reqd 10,324/15,324
Unallocated Ring (With Monk) bracers (with Zunee) Both room 18
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