At the end of the eventful hour that was Session the Sixteenth the party was in rough shape, and also clean out of healing spells. Kyril handed Gonchar 4 goodberries, bringing him up to 37 points. We needed to rest, but were in no position, literally, to do so. The minotaur had fought us from the mist at (I) back to the hallway at (H). We formed ranks and marched back to the door at the end of the long hallway.

Flint found no traps on or around the door, and it wasn’t locked. On the other side we heard the labored breathing of some large creature. Menka held forth his ankh and cast detect evil, sensing a large, evil presence on the other side of the door to the left. Gonchar decided to simply barge in, and Menka commanded our pet mummy to follow him in.

The Apparitionist#

Once through the door we found ourselves confronting a very large demon-like creature, 20’ tall at the shoulder. Menka cast silence 15’ and Ulland nailed the creature with an arrow. It dissipated immediately but was backed up by 2 angry men. One a fighter type in plate mail with a sword and an older, more ascetic-looking assailant armed with a fighting staff.

• Gonchar was surprised and got hit by both men (sword and fighting staff) for 15 points. Just to get the ball rolling again…
• Menka, within range, read a cure light wounds scroll and healed Gonchar for 8 points
• initiative win
• Flint climbed the northern wall and attempted to flank our attackers
• Gonchar nailed the fighter for 15 points
• Menka commanded the mummy to attack the monk, successfully, and it smashed the monk with one of its powerful blows for an unspecified amount of damage
• the monk with the staff missed Arkadios
• Phane, of all persons in the universe, “appeared to walk right out of the northern wall” and commanded the mummy to attack Menka
  • the mummy seemed to “recognize” Phane and obeyed him without hesitation, even though a silence is in effect
• initiative loss
• the fighter missed Gonchar
• the mummy bashed Menka for 11 points
• just at that moment colored bubbles flowed in our general direction, emanating from the eastern wall
• Gonchar saved vs spell
• Menka rolled an 18, turning the mummy, again, but no longer controlling it\footnote{ The rules for turning vs controlling/destroying undead are based on the good or evil status of the relevant priest. Since Menka is true neutral it can probably work either way. }
• Ulland missed whatever he aimed at
• Gonchar hit the fighter twice, though he was dazed by the bubbles, for 28 points
• Arkadios hit the monk for 7 points
• Lycovyne hit the monk for 11 more points
• the monk seemed to be calling upon inner strength to heal himself while he fought
• initiative loss
• the fighter missed Gonchar, again
• the monk hit Lycovyne for 6 points
• a stationary pattern of dancing lights appeared in front of the party, probably hypnotic pattern (PH, pg. 95)
  • Gonchar became dazed, as did Flint, who promptly fell off the wall
• Ulland attacked, missing
• Kyril cast heat metal on both attackers
• just as Kyril cast the spell Menka nailed the monk with the Flail of the Desert Kings (and a natural 20, praise Thoth!) for 20 points, crushing his skull like a melon and splattering monk brains all over the front rank
• Arkadios hit the fighter for 9 points, killing him, and wasting the heat metal…
• human fighter, 47 HP
• human monk, 27 HP
• Gonchar and Flint were drooling idiots thanks to the hypnotic pattern
• Arkadios failed his save and decided to join them, but passed it next time around and cleared
• Gonchar made his save and began to clear
• Lycovyne failed his save and is now blind (??)
• Ulland became dazed
• Arkadios, further inside the room and no longer dazed, yelled out that an illusionist was casting his spells from behind the eastern wall, operating through openings cut into the same
• Gonchar put out a general hail for a flask of oil
• initiative tie
• the hypnotic pattern dissipated
• Kyril cast detect magic
  • the monk’s staff glowed, as did a ring being worn by corpse of the fighter
• Arkadios, who was striking steel against flint to light Gonchar’s oil flask, failed some sort of save via percentile dice, crapped his armor, dropped the flint and steel and ran like hell back to the hallway at (H)
• Gonchar made the same save and succeeded
• Menka soiled his armor and ran out the door
• Flint and Ulland made their percentile saves
• Gonchar lit the flask himself and hurled it overhead over the eastern wall (which did not extend to the ceiling), rolling a 20, eliciting screams of pain from someone on the other side
• initiative win
• Arkadios and Menka finished crapping their armor and begin the long trek back to where the action was
• Arkadios threatened the DM with complaints in the form of a series of formal letters should the armor-crapping keep happening
• Gonchar began to prepare another attack (there was no apparent way for us to get past the wall to the other side - was it created via stone shape??
• initiative tie
• speaking of which, Kyril cast stone shape, creating a cut-out section of the wall that could be pushed inward by someone of sufficient strength
• Gonchar, Flint, Lycovyne and Ulland all roll their percentile save again
• Gonchar saved
• Flint did not save, er, saved, thanks to a Ring of Protection
• Lycovyne failed his save and was compelled to attack Ulland, even though he (Lycovyne) was blind
• Ulland failed his save as well and simply walked away, forcing Lycovyne to attack anyone who wandered into his reach
• Gonchar rolled a natural 1 while throwing the second flask over the wall, covered himself in flaming oil, doing 8 points of damage to himself, and shrieked like a 4-year-old Japanese schoolgirl
• (right before the next initiative roll, Kyril’s stone shape went off)
• initiative win
• the dwarven flamer took 2 more points of damage
• Ulland failed his saving throw and kept wandering
• Arkadios and Menka walked up to the wall and, making their strength checks, succeeded in pushing in Kyril’s stone shaped portal
• Lycovyne failed his save, again, and attacked Gonchar, missing badly due to persistent blindness
• Gonchar finally succeeded in blowing himself out
• initiative win
• Arkadios and Menka burst into the room behind the eastern wall and attacked the illusionist
• Arkadios missed him
• Menka nailed him with the Flail for 6 points, interrupting his spell, praise Thoth!
• Flint hit him for 4 points, then Gonchar hit him for 9, killing him
• Duneen, 25 HP

Lycovyne’s blindness finally dissipated. We all decided rather a bit too late to keep him alive, but the blows had already been delivered and he collapsed in a bloody heap. Menka would like to have picked his brain a bit to get some info about who, whom or what he was working with.

Duneen’s Hideout#

We were in a 30x20 room with a very high ceiling. Like other rooms we had visited in this dungeon all the furniture seemed to be dragged here from somewhere else. A large, ornate bed was present.

The carpets were still on fire, and Lycovyne put them out via some unspeakable method. Tapestries on the wall presented scenes of Gaelic priests healing people and performing acts of mercy and charity. A beautiful table in the center of the room had a few stacks of books on it. An open chest in a corner held closed sacks and open bags of extremely expensive silverware. Duneen was robbing the place blind, as it were, pilfering everything of value. High quality, if mismatched, furniture. Everything had been dragged to this room, like the other rooms before. There was also a ladder on the floor along the eastern wall, tucked into a recess in the wall.

And then Kyril’s pack started making noise. The eldritch sigil given to us at the beginning of Session the Sixteenth was buzzing. Kyril took the sigil from his pack and “answered” it (by making a strength check) and the cosmic satyr leapt from it, landing among us. He looked down at Duneen’s hacked and burned body and said, simply, “Well will you look at that!”

He then poured out some wine from a flask on the table. Lycovyne and Menka accepted a glass of wine, with no apparent ill effects.

“I can’t stay here long but I have nothing but thanks for all of you.”

He walked over to the ornate table and picked through the stacks of books. He found there, apparently, what he had sent us to retrieve. He picked through the volumes and named them:

• Health and Healing By Use of the Arcane Arts by Sir Gordon Walmsley
• The Healing Powers of Honey, in Praise of Dianececth by His Holiness Patrick O’Sheehan, commissioned by no less a grand personage than his Lordship Conlon O’Mordha.
• Grimoire Illusionati by Phillip of Navarre
• Las Reglas de Ruina also by Phillip of Navarre
• Cultes des Goules by Francois-Honore Balfour

“Those working below are trying to bring back powers which would upset the balance. These books would certainly help.” Menka had heard of the Cultes des Goules and shuddered at the thought of its proximity. “Alas I must take my leave as I do not feel secure in this place. What you find here will help you in the realms below.”

Kyril gave him back his sigil. The satyr grabbed the last two volumes listed above, walked to the doorway, pointed at the slain monk and fighter, said “I’ll send these two back on my way through” and vanished. (Did the monk and fighter vanish as well?)

(The notes contain the HP table to the right, at this point. Lycovyne seems to have gained 10 HP but the notes do not specify how)

Kyril shaped changed to a bat, went off in search of Ulland, found him, changed back and the 2 walked back to the party. Changing back, Kyril regained 60% of his lost hit points, bringing him back to 37 points. Ulland was dazed and looked like he had had his bell rung thoroughly. He slowly came back into shape.

Menka walked over to the turned (but not controlled) mummy. As he got nearer the mummy fled (at a mummy’s pace) through the door, as hoped. Goodbye to our undead pet, for now. Menka then returned to the table and began to thumb through the books.

Flint climbed the walls in the tall room and checked the place out, specifically looking for a use for the ladder.

Kyril searched the room for secret doors and found one in the eastern wall. Leaning in to investigate he suddenly dropped through the floor and fell “in” to something with an audible thud and groan, taking 8 points of falling damage in the process (to 29). Apparently, part of the floor was an illusion, with a large opening going downward below it.

Asking after Kyril’s good health, Lycovyne heard Kyril respond that he would be back up presently. Lycovyne lowered the ladder into the hole, and the illusory floor closed back in. A permanent illusion.

Kyril climbed out of the hidden, lower area after having looked around a bit. He told us that there appeared to be a labyrinth below. There was excrement coating everything, even a latrine would not have been so foul. There was a long-dead, desiccated goblin lying on the floor not far from the illusory wall.

Worst of all things he found was a statue, a terrifying, broken statue (K, right). Unpleasant tentacles, claws, fangs, in pieces. There was no way, no way the pieces could be re-assembled into any sane form. He shuddered to think what it looked like, in one piece. It was an abomination, the antithesis of anything natural. Kyril was repelled. Had we heard about this lower labyrinth from the Lancers of Leilon? We pulled the ladder back up out of the hole.

Kyril held on to the monk’s fighting staff and the fighter’s ring, for safe keeping. The open chest with sacks and what looked like glittering silverware was against the southern wall on the other side of the illusory floor section. Flint was able to climb over to it. It was indeed filled with very expensive looking Celtic silverware. Flint carried some of the other sacks back to the party. Lycovyne examined them carefully. One contained vials of what seemed to be mead yeast cultures. Great effort was expended convincing Gonchar not to drink them, that large quantities of mead could be fermented using these cultures. There were 9 vials, total. The other sacks contained other sacks, each one filled with coin:

• 500 platinum
• 2500 gold
• 2500 silver
• 1000 copper

The sacks were stamped with the insignia of well-known mercantile guilds in the region. Thieves and smugglers, indeed.

Looting Duneen’s body we found his cloak emanated magic - it had survived the oil flask conflagration without so much as a charring. A necklace of lenses also radiated magic, as did 2 of his rings and the dagger on his belt.

It’s Time We Had Some Leave#

Pulling the ladder back up from the pit and spiking the door at (I) we decided to rest for a few hours, pick some spells and regain some hit points.

Prior to resting, Kyril cast 2 cure light wounds on Gonchar, bringing him up to 35 points. He ( Kyril) then changed shape and came back, gaining 20% of his missing HPs back, bringing him to 32. He then cast summon insects betting on the 30% chance to some giant ants. The chance was met, and 2 giant ants and a beetle walked up to the door. Kyril spoke with the creatures and all went well. They would be our watchdogs for a while.

Watch 1: Kyril and Menka. Uneventful beyond Kyril frolicking with his noisome pets. Watch 2: Gonchar and Flint. Uneventful. Watch 3: Ulland, Arkadios, Lycovyne: Uneventful.

Kyril and Menka then cast a total of 4 cure light wounds spells on Gonchar, bringing him up to 70 points, praise Thoth and Skerrit! We then rested for 2 more hours so the healers could get those spells back. (Not sure how Menka got back to 37, nothing in the notes beyond the 3 points for resting)

No Bone Movies#

Having regenerated somewhat, we decided to save the newly-found labyrinth for later, packed up our gear and marched toward the warded door at (F). Flint tried to read the language inscribed upon and around the door without luck.

Lycovyne cast knock on the door but it seemed to bounce right off. It probably removed one ward while leaving the rest intact. Kyril cast warp wood on the door which did deform it somewhat but did not free or unlock it. Lycovyne then pushed his quarterstaff through the margin created but was unable to pry it open. Menka suggested using one charge of the Ring of the Ram on the door, allowing him to hit with the force of a battering ram. This worked somewhat, twisting the door open just enough to fit a person through, though we could see nothing behind it but darkness.

Kyril volunteered to go in first. A frigid draft passed through the opening as he stepped through. Into a room of inert skeletons. Human sized, a few perhaps a bit larger. We all manage to fit through the opening except for Ulland and the door closed over with a wall of ice, locking him outside. Then all the skeletons began to animate. Of course.

Menka turned them all with an 18 but they attacked anyway, though their phantom limbs and weapons passed right through us, doing no damage. Little more than a haunted presence. Feeling uneasy (also locked in) we moved around the perimeter of the room. As we reached the western wall we became even less easy, and something materialized in the center of the room.

• Menka saved vs. something
• Kyril saved vs. something
• In the middle of the room, among the dancing skeletons, a 9’ tall skeleton with a scorpion’s tail and a giant bone hook in its hands appeared
• it attacked Gonchar and missed
• initiative win
• Gonchar hit back with his non-magic axe and it essentially bounced off
• Kyril hit the creature for 5 points, then 4 more (with what?)
• Arkadios missed
• Menka missed
• Flint missed it (with a 17), then missed again
• Kyril made a save of some sort, and then found himself “within the gaze” of the giant skeleton
• initiative win
• Kyril cast faerie fire on the creature, giving us all +2 to hit
• Menka cast prayer, giving us a further +1 on all attack, damage and save rolls (and giving the skeleton -1 on the same, praise Thoth!)
  • that’s +3 to hit, total
• Arkadios missed, with high charisma
• Lycovyne cast fireball burning hands on the creature, doing 5 points of damage
  • the creature looked both injured and irritated by this damage
• it attacked Kyril, hit him for 12 points of damage and snared him with its bone hook
• Flint missed, twice
• initiative tie
• an ensnared Kyril took 2 points of damage from the creature’s tail barb yet saved vs poison
• Menka nailed the creature with the Flail for 20 points (with a natural 20), but failed his save vs. fear, ran like hell and began clawing at the wall of ice
• Lycovyne missed
• Gonchar (having switched to his +1 long sword) hit the creature for 14 points
• Arkadios failed his save and joined Menka in trying to claw through the wall of ice
• Lycovyne joined them in their watery, icy effort
• Flint, with a natural 20, killed it
• bone devil, 54 HP

What the hell was a bone devil doing down here? Who summoned it? Should we find its talisman? (MM20)

The creature had died in a haunting, terrible fashion, finally collapsing in a heap of dust and dry bones. Looting its “corpse” we found a very nice-looking long sword in a long-rotted sheath, a complete set of chain mail (in good shape) and a necklace wrapped around the devil’s rotting skull. The wall of ice had dissipated with the devil’s release from the material plane, and the fraidy cats were released from their spate of fear.

We stuffed the skeleton’s loot in the Bag of Holding and considered our next move. We decided to head back to the broken statues at (C). It was a long trek, back through the mausoleum to the brackish water. No reinforcements had arrived, nothing had changed.

We reached the broken, defiled statuary at the doorway without incident. Having previously found no traps or locks on the door, Gonchar opened it. Stairs headed down on the other side, into inky blackness. An old, disused stairway with crumbling masonry. We formed ranks and headed down the stairs. Kyril’s giant hymenopteran concubines, however, refused to travel down the stairs and departed immediately.

• initiative loss
• a large spider dropped from the ceiling
• Kyril made some new friends
• the spider chittered to Kyril that it needed food for its babies
• we went back up to the brackish water, fished 3 bloated lizard man bodies out of the broth and dragged them back to C as spider baby food
• the large spider watched us from the ceiling but did not attack us

We continued down the stairs and followed the passage east and then north to (M). The passage came to a stop with opposing doors in the east and west walls. The western door was covered with blood and claw marks on our side, and locked. The eastern door was unlocked and not covered in blood and claw marks.

Flint checked both doors for traps but found nothing. Gonchar tried to open the bloody door, of course. It opened. We formed a marching order and headed in. Blood lead down the hallway in front of us. We came upon boxes and crates stacked in defensive positions. Gonchar saved and did not take damage from the crossbow bolt that shot down the hallway when he triggered the trap. Flint climbed the walls, headed down the hallway via the ceiling and found a crossbow pillbox at the far end of the hall (N). The pillbox was empty.

A trail of blood lead through the pillbox/bunker. The blood seemed to be flowing in one direction. Several bodies in the room that served as a “last stand” showed no outward signs of damage or injury, while one was sorely wounded and held in his comrade’s arms. A battle had raged through here and the defenders seem to have taken the worst of it. The bodies seemed to be a couple weeks old.

Flint checked the room for traps and secret doors. We were in a 30x30 room that smelled bloody awful, with barrels and crates of well-rotted food lying about. Flint groped one of the bodies for valuables and regretted it immediately as it exploded, doing 16 points of damage to him.

Session the Seventeenth Loot#

• the fighter’s ring, page 118
• the monk’s staff, page 118
• Duneen, page 122, all magic:
  • cloak
  • necklace of lenses
  • ring
  • ring
  • dagger
  • 9 mead yeast cultures
• bone devil, page 124
  • “very nice sword”
  • chain mail “in good shape”
  • necklace wrapped around his rotting skull - could be his talisman!