Post by Admin on Nov 28, 2005 16:02:10 GMT -5
Disclaimer: I'm pretty sure I got all of the actual events listed, I'm just not certain I got them in the proper order of when they happened...I was A LOT tired by the end...and things were a bit fuzzy...any errors are unintentional...
Late in the afternoon of June 3, the party re-entered the dungeon of pain. They made it as far as the lower level, when from the underdark passage emerged six feathered raptors, feasting on the bodies of dead drow. The party was able to dispatch them with relative ease and continued on to the black iron door.
Once in front of the impenetrable iron, the name “Pyrrhea” was spoken and the door swung freely open. The party entered the secret vault. Immediately, they were assaulted by more of the raptors; while they were without feathers, they were still fearsome. Hagar sneaked toward the left of the raptors, hoping to flank them; he found a pit trap instead. Falling twenty feet, he was nearly unconscious. Inside the pit were small round creatures with sharp teeth and talons. They bounded out of the pit and headed toward the party, although three stopped to attack a raptor.
A well-timed sleep spell dropped the unengaged monsters, along with the unseen beast that had latched on to Hagar at the base of the pit. The creature, which had wounded Hagar and dropped him into a coma, would certainly have been able to kill him had it not been for the spell.
The raptor that had been surrounded by the balls of teeth and talons bit into one of the small creatures causing it to explode. Few of the raptors teeth survived the powerful explosion. The raptor then raked at a different one, again, causing an explosion. This created a chain reaction and the last creature also exploded from the percussion.
While several party members climbed down to aid Hagar, the remaining group moved away from the sleeping explosive creatures. Ulaanbaatar slung a stone at one, it exploded into another chain reaction which caused all of them to erupt.
After the party was once again together, they followed the hallway to the right which, set off another pit trap. Hagar leaped free, while Cindari and Draco were hanging on the ledge. Rising from the pit was a raven-like bird creature. It began pecking at Draco’s fingers, but Autumn and her spear soon dispatched it.
The hallway led to an area filled with knee-high water…it sloped down until the entire hallway was underwater. After checking a nearby room, also filled the stagnated water, the party chose to leave that area alone. A nearby room, above water level, held a statue of a black horse with a single horn…flames seemed to be coming from its hooves and mane. The finely detailed statue was also left untouched.
The group then explored one of the two doors leading from the main entry. A small hallway led to another door. Hagar, led the group searching for traps. He opened the door and dozens of small creatures were slithering around the room. The large mouths on the amoeba-like beings were murmuring and muttering. There seemed to be a white line on the far side of the room which the creatures could not pass.
Cindari moved into the room, only to trigger yet another pit trap. She was again able to catch herself on the lip of the pit. Three large manta creatures rose from the pit. The party was able to kill them quickly.
The amoeba-like creatures moved in to attack Cindari’s fingers as she had been unable to pull herself from the pit. Draco and Autumn protected the hallway and Cindari. A few sleep spells were helpful in clearing the room. The white line was salt, nearby, the party found a large bag of it. The portioned it out so they all had some of the salt which kept the slimy creatures away. They quickly examined the attached rooms, on the other side of the salt, was a spacious set of chambers. The group found yet another pit trap while walking into a large chamber which clearly the room belonged to a large predator, as a pool of blood had collected under a hook holding pieces of raptor. Also in the room was a fire pit with a spit made of bone.
Afterwards, the party was pretty beaten up, out of spells and needed a rest. Raj especially needed a chance to recharge his Psi powers. The party decided to make camp in the narrow hallway since they realized that they could not open the iron door…they were trapped in the vault. This gave the party a chance to rejuvenate.
Most of the party used the time to sleep and heal. Raj, checked in with Nerumi and found out that two strangers had come to the Inn. Alice, a gruff dwarven warsmith, and Hermia, a saucy human fighter, were here to help the group succeed in their mission. At dawn, Nerumi led them to the mound and in to the first room, while Raj maintained contact with Alice, in order to lead them down into the earth. Here they encountered a nearly-naked human form. The bald man spoke to warn them away from the dungeon. Nerumi began casting a spell that explained the creature was created a few weeks before as a servant of the EEG. Unwilling to be deterred, Alice and Hermia attacked and killed the creature, which showed it to be made of a silvery slime substance.
The two warriors then moved quickly to the lower level, pausing only briefly when they heard snuffling behind them. Five large guinea-pig creatures, with large viscous-looking mouths, were following them. The two quickly made it to the iron door, spoke the name of Pyrrhea and passed through. The door closed behind them.
The group began the new day, June 4, by heading back into the room previously housed by the amoeba. The quickly moved through it and into the room with the fire-pit. Gone were the raptors hanging from a hook, instead, there were now drow hanging there. A door led into a bed chamber….sleeping under the blanket was a straw-like creature. Cindari was very quickly able to annihilate it with Cmerelkir’s flaming sword. They searched the small quarters, then proceeded into another room where they found another iron door. Three skulls were embossed on the door with a small button under the middle skull.
About this time, the party heard a shout and scuffle from Mikos and Ulaanbaatar who had remained in the other room. A large creature, called a Measal, held a garrote to Ulaanbaatar’s neck, slowly squeezing the life from her. The creature had tried to kick the small peg leg out from Mikos, but failed, leaving the gypsy in a position to magic missile the beast. Autumn was the first to reach them, and tackled the measal and Ulaanbaatar. The creature lost its grip and dropped the unconscious mage to the ground. The creature reacted with amazing speed, and ran off after another volley of missles blasted into it.
Autumn, Draco and Andy charged after it. As it ran into the room with the salt, it pulled a rope and left fly a crudely made ballista, it slammed into Autumn’s chest and knocked her to the ground. The creature then accelerated off down the open hallway. Andy, moving quickly himself, sped after him. He was close enough to see the creature run to the heavy iron door and utter the name “Ahto” at which point the iron doors swung open. The creature had escaped.
Doing what they could, the party re-grouped, shut the hall doors and went back to the room with the skulls. After some deliberation, the button was pushed. The eyes of the middle skull began glowing red, but the door did not budge. Unsure what to do next, the group decided to go back and check the other door in the main entryway.
The door led to a large cavern-like room with a stone ceiling and a loosely packed dirt floor. Hagar, using his dagger, made his way across the room, while Autumn pushed her spear deep into the dirt, realizing that the dirt went down about six feet. Autumn, Cindari and Alice stepped into the room with him, when ghouls erupted from the ground. Hagar was immediately surrounded by three of the creatures, while Alice had four attacking her. Autumn leapt out of the room entirely to the safety of the stone work and engaged one, while Cindari leapt in to engage two others. Draco moved forward to engage another one, while Hermia ran to help Hagar. Andy too raced across the dirt to assist Hagar, but was bombarded by two more of the undead coming up from the ground. The scene looked bleak.
Draco attempted to turn the creatures, while another one partially burst from the ground and grabbed Alice to pull her under. Autumn attempted to grab the dwarf, but missed. Cindari turned her back on the one attacking her in hopes of killing the one grabbing Alice, but to no avail. Finally, Mikos, who felt a tremendous connection to Alice, leapt in to free the dwarf from the dirt.
Hagar, meanwhile, had been paralyzed by the creatures surrounding him. Hermia, who had blazed a path over to assist the thief, was holding her own. Andy, who was about to run away, was paralyzed in place. With no one available to come to his aid, he would certainly be pulled underground. In an act of desperation, he willed his magic tattoo to take form. It was a tree of life. Almost instantly vines began growing around Andy, creating a protective barrier. Roots burst from the ground and pulled the two menacing undead back into their unholy grave. The tide changed quickly and the party was able to defeat the undead creatures.
The party pulled back, beaten and bloodied, they retreated to the relative safety of the hallway. They closed the doors, posted watches and slept to restore their spells and powers. Near dawn on the 5th, the party was awakened when something was trying to get in the door. Autumn, who had lain across the door was being battered. Quickly, the party mustered, and opened the door. There, they found many goblin-like creatures, a few of which had fallen into the pit and died. The fighters were very quickly able to kill the rest of the odd cave-goblins. They continued to rest the night.
Morning of June 5 had the party returning to the dirt-floored room in order to explore the doors. Three doors led out of the room. One, a non-descript wood door, while two others were stone, with an odd glow coming from around the edges. The party opened the wood door first, only to find a hallway leading off. They closed the door and turned to the stone doors.
Once opened, the party found two horse-like statues. The light in the room, and the light sources the party brought in, flickered with the same rhythm, flaring up followed by a short period of darkness. The group saw a stairwell leading down…on the landing below, were two more horse statues and a black unicorn in the middle of the landing.
The group moved to engage it. Alice was first to reach it. She struck at it; it attacked back slashing her with its horn. The creature’s mouth moved and tears could be seen falling from its eyes. Cindari stopped her attack and asked Raj to try to communicate with it telepathically. Raj let out a scream and collapsed to the ground holding his head. Thinking the creature had attacked Raj’s mind, like the creatures that killed her lover Cmerelkir, she lashed out and the unicorn and killed it. The creature disappeared in a cloud of black smoke.
Autumn knelt to aid Raj, while Cindari scooped up Alice’s body and brought it to the healers, who gave her curative spells to bring her conscious. It was at that point the Measal struck again, critically wounding Mikos as he stood by the door. Andy, who was invisible, raced after the creature and tripped him, while Autumn too rushed after the creature. Despite being tripped, the creature was still able to get away and race back into it’s lair.
Draco, Autumn and Cindari followed, searching high and low for the creature. Finally, Autumn pulled out a scroll of Fire Trap and cast the spell on the door of the hallway, so if the creature wanted to come back this way, it would have to take fire damage. Meanwhile, shadows erupted from the walls in the previous room and attacked the party members who remained behind. Andy raced to get help. The three raced back in time to help defeat the shadows.
As the last of the shadows are defeated, a loud explosion is heard from the hallway. Autumn rushed back to see the body of the Measal, destroyed by the fire trap. The party took the treasure from the creature, along with his head. They would question the creature later using the harp.
It was still mid day of the 5th, while the party was not too badly injured but Raj could do nothing but sit there, with no will to continue. The party limped out of the dungeon and made it back to the Inn. They spent the day healing and decided they would return to the dungeon the next day….
To be continued…
Late in the afternoon of June 3, the party re-entered the dungeon of pain. They made it as far as the lower level, when from the underdark passage emerged six feathered raptors, feasting on the bodies of dead drow. The party was able to dispatch them with relative ease and continued on to the black iron door.
Once in front of the impenetrable iron, the name “Pyrrhea” was spoken and the door swung freely open. The party entered the secret vault. Immediately, they were assaulted by more of the raptors; while they were without feathers, they were still fearsome. Hagar sneaked toward the left of the raptors, hoping to flank them; he found a pit trap instead. Falling twenty feet, he was nearly unconscious. Inside the pit were small round creatures with sharp teeth and talons. They bounded out of the pit and headed toward the party, although three stopped to attack a raptor.
A well-timed sleep spell dropped the unengaged monsters, along with the unseen beast that had latched on to Hagar at the base of the pit. The creature, which had wounded Hagar and dropped him into a coma, would certainly have been able to kill him had it not been for the spell.
The raptor that had been surrounded by the balls of teeth and talons bit into one of the small creatures causing it to explode. Few of the raptors teeth survived the powerful explosion. The raptor then raked at a different one, again, causing an explosion. This created a chain reaction and the last creature also exploded from the percussion.
While several party members climbed down to aid Hagar, the remaining group moved away from the sleeping explosive creatures. Ulaanbaatar slung a stone at one, it exploded into another chain reaction which caused all of them to erupt.
After the party was once again together, they followed the hallway to the right which, set off another pit trap. Hagar leaped free, while Cindari and Draco were hanging on the ledge. Rising from the pit was a raven-like bird creature. It began pecking at Draco’s fingers, but Autumn and her spear soon dispatched it.
The hallway led to an area filled with knee-high water…it sloped down until the entire hallway was underwater. After checking a nearby room, also filled the stagnated water, the party chose to leave that area alone. A nearby room, above water level, held a statue of a black horse with a single horn…flames seemed to be coming from its hooves and mane. The finely detailed statue was also left untouched.
The group then explored one of the two doors leading from the main entry. A small hallway led to another door. Hagar, led the group searching for traps. He opened the door and dozens of small creatures were slithering around the room. The large mouths on the amoeba-like beings were murmuring and muttering. There seemed to be a white line on the far side of the room which the creatures could not pass.
Cindari moved into the room, only to trigger yet another pit trap. She was again able to catch herself on the lip of the pit. Three large manta creatures rose from the pit. The party was able to kill them quickly.
The amoeba-like creatures moved in to attack Cindari’s fingers as she had been unable to pull herself from the pit. Draco and Autumn protected the hallway and Cindari. A few sleep spells were helpful in clearing the room. The white line was salt, nearby, the party found a large bag of it. The portioned it out so they all had some of the salt which kept the slimy creatures away. They quickly examined the attached rooms, on the other side of the salt, was a spacious set of chambers. The group found yet another pit trap while walking into a large chamber which clearly the room belonged to a large predator, as a pool of blood had collected under a hook holding pieces of raptor. Also in the room was a fire pit with a spit made of bone.
Afterwards, the party was pretty beaten up, out of spells and needed a rest. Raj especially needed a chance to recharge his Psi powers. The party decided to make camp in the narrow hallway since they realized that they could not open the iron door…they were trapped in the vault. This gave the party a chance to rejuvenate.
Most of the party used the time to sleep and heal. Raj, checked in with Nerumi and found out that two strangers had come to the Inn. Alice, a gruff dwarven warsmith, and Hermia, a saucy human fighter, were here to help the group succeed in their mission. At dawn, Nerumi led them to the mound and in to the first room, while Raj maintained contact with Alice, in order to lead them down into the earth. Here they encountered a nearly-naked human form. The bald man spoke to warn them away from the dungeon. Nerumi began casting a spell that explained the creature was created a few weeks before as a servant of the EEG. Unwilling to be deterred, Alice and Hermia attacked and killed the creature, which showed it to be made of a silvery slime substance.
The two warriors then moved quickly to the lower level, pausing only briefly when they heard snuffling behind them. Five large guinea-pig creatures, with large viscous-looking mouths, were following them. The two quickly made it to the iron door, spoke the name of Pyrrhea and passed through. The door closed behind them.
The group began the new day, June 4, by heading back into the room previously housed by the amoeba. The quickly moved through it and into the room with the fire-pit. Gone were the raptors hanging from a hook, instead, there were now drow hanging there. A door led into a bed chamber….sleeping under the blanket was a straw-like creature. Cindari was very quickly able to annihilate it with Cmerelkir’s flaming sword. They searched the small quarters, then proceeded into another room where they found another iron door. Three skulls were embossed on the door with a small button under the middle skull.
About this time, the party heard a shout and scuffle from Mikos and Ulaanbaatar who had remained in the other room. A large creature, called a Measal, held a garrote to Ulaanbaatar’s neck, slowly squeezing the life from her. The creature had tried to kick the small peg leg out from Mikos, but failed, leaving the gypsy in a position to magic missile the beast. Autumn was the first to reach them, and tackled the measal and Ulaanbaatar. The creature lost its grip and dropped the unconscious mage to the ground. The creature reacted with amazing speed, and ran off after another volley of missles blasted into it.
Autumn, Draco and Andy charged after it. As it ran into the room with the salt, it pulled a rope and left fly a crudely made ballista, it slammed into Autumn’s chest and knocked her to the ground. The creature then accelerated off down the open hallway. Andy, moving quickly himself, sped after him. He was close enough to see the creature run to the heavy iron door and utter the name “Ahto” at which point the iron doors swung open. The creature had escaped.
Doing what they could, the party re-grouped, shut the hall doors and went back to the room with the skulls. After some deliberation, the button was pushed. The eyes of the middle skull began glowing red, but the door did not budge. Unsure what to do next, the group decided to go back and check the other door in the main entryway.
The door led to a large cavern-like room with a stone ceiling and a loosely packed dirt floor. Hagar, using his dagger, made his way across the room, while Autumn pushed her spear deep into the dirt, realizing that the dirt went down about six feet. Autumn, Cindari and Alice stepped into the room with him, when ghouls erupted from the ground. Hagar was immediately surrounded by three of the creatures, while Alice had four attacking her. Autumn leapt out of the room entirely to the safety of the stone work and engaged one, while Cindari leapt in to engage two others. Draco moved forward to engage another one, while Hermia ran to help Hagar. Andy too raced across the dirt to assist Hagar, but was bombarded by two more of the undead coming up from the ground. The scene looked bleak.
Draco attempted to turn the creatures, while another one partially burst from the ground and grabbed Alice to pull her under. Autumn attempted to grab the dwarf, but missed. Cindari turned her back on the one attacking her in hopes of killing the one grabbing Alice, but to no avail. Finally, Mikos, who felt a tremendous connection to Alice, leapt in to free the dwarf from the dirt.
Hagar, meanwhile, had been paralyzed by the creatures surrounding him. Hermia, who had blazed a path over to assist the thief, was holding her own. Andy, who was about to run away, was paralyzed in place. With no one available to come to his aid, he would certainly be pulled underground. In an act of desperation, he willed his magic tattoo to take form. It was a tree of life. Almost instantly vines began growing around Andy, creating a protective barrier. Roots burst from the ground and pulled the two menacing undead back into their unholy grave. The tide changed quickly and the party was able to defeat the undead creatures.
The party pulled back, beaten and bloodied, they retreated to the relative safety of the hallway. They closed the doors, posted watches and slept to restore their spells and powers. Near dawn on the 5th, the party was awakened when something was trying to get in the door. Autumn, who had lain across the door was being battered. Quickly, the party mustered, and opened the door. There, they found many goblin-like creatures, a few of which had fallen into the pit and died. The fighters were very quickly able to kill the rest of the odd cave-goblins. They continued to rest the night.
Morning of June 5 had the party returning to the dirt-floored room in order to explore the doors. Three doors led out of the room. One, a non-descript wood door, while two others were stone, with an odd glow coming from around the edges. The party opened the wood door first, only to find a hallway leading off. They closed the door and turned to the stone doors.
Once opened, the party found two horse-like statues. The light in the room, and the light sources the party brought in, flickered with the same rhythm, flaring up followed by a short period of darkness. The group saw a stairwell leading down…on the landing below, were two more horse statues and a black unicorn in the middle of the landing.
The group moved to engage it. Alice was first to reach it. She struck at it; it attacked back slashing her with its horn. The creature’s mouth moved and tears could be seen falling from its eyes. Cindari stopped her attack and asked Raj to try to communicate with it telepathically. Raj let out a scream and collapsed to the ground holding his head. Thinking the creature had attacked Raj’s mind, like the creatures that killed her lover Cmerelkir, she lashed out and the unicorn and killed it. The creature disappeared in a cloud of black smoke.
Autumn knelt to aid Raj, while Cindari scooped up Alice’s body and brought it to the healers, who gave her curative spells to bring her conscious. It was at that point the Measal struck again, critically wounding Mikos as he stood by the door. Andy, who was invisible, raced after the creature and tripped him, while Autumn too rushed after the creature. Despite being tripped, the creature was still able to get away and race back into it’s lair.
Draco, Autumn and Cindari followed, searching high and low for the creature. Finally, Autumn pulled out a scroll of Fire Trap and cast the spell on the door of the hallway, so if the creature wanted to come back this way, it would have to take fire damage. Meanwhile, shadows erupted from the walls in the previous room and attacked the party members who remained behind. Andy raced to get help. The three raced back in time to help defeat the shadows.
As the last of the shadows are defeated, a loud explosion is heard from the hallway. Autumn rushed back to see the body of the Measal, destroyed by the fire trap. The party took the treasure from the creature, along with his head. They would question the creature later using the harp.
It was still mid day of the 5th, while the party was not too badly injured but Raj could do nothing but sit there, with no will to continue. The party limped out of the dungeon and made it back to the Inn. They spent the day healing and decided they would return to the dungeon the next day….
To be continued…
