Game Session Seventeen

Game session Seventeen: Saturday June 22, 2002

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The game session started the morning of Reaping 24, 3080 YE. With the party at the end of the secret passage, camped on the ledge overlooking the chasm and waterfall. They have had a couple days to rest and re-spell.

Everyone decided that instead of traveling down the chain ladder they should check out the rest of the level they were on first. So they went down the secret passageway to the other end and looked out the door.

Outside the northern door was a large open chamber that contained a dark pool in a low stone basin in the center. The room was littered with the remains of both dwarf and orc warriors, all lying where they fell in the great battle years ago. The corpses had been stripped of arms and armor, what was left behind was a handful of broken weapons and shattered shields.

Sending Flairian and Moss out to scout they saw a bunch of doors leading off of this chamber and a long hallway with even more doors. The rest of the party moved into the room with the light from Cebo's everburning torch. The first two room they checked out were empty, ransacked long ago with the just the remains of more dwarf and orc corpses.

The room to south of the chamber though opened into a large room that was once a study or library. Bookshelves stood against the walls and books were piled on a table in the center of the room. There was also a very comely, slender woman with long, black hair seated at the table looking extremely sad. Her clothing looked well worn but it didn't detract from here beauty at all. The women greeted the adventurers with cries of "My saviors!".

She said her name was Idalla and that she was cursed by an evil wizard that lived on a lower level to remain in this room until someone gave her permission to leave. Well this raised the eyebrows of the party who asked her many questions about the evil wizard, most of which she was unable to answer. They searched the room she was in along with the adjacent rooms. Finally they could come up with no good reason not to give the woman permission to leave, thus freeing her from the wizard's curse. After they all crowded outside the room they gave her the permission she wanted. As she walked freely from the room she thanked the party and offered to give any one of them a kiss in thanks. Flairian stepped forward to receive a kiss. As she leaned forward and kissed him her form changed slightly, a hint of a red glow in her eyes and the faint outline of small horns on her head. Flairian could feel his life energy draining away as Idalla smiled to the rest of the party telling them "not everyone is as they appear to be". With that she disappeared from sight.

Well now Flairian was down a level and the beautiful women, who turned out to be not so nice after all, had vanished.

The party next went to search the rooms along the corridor to the west. Most of the rooms were empty, except for the old bodies of orcs and dwarves from the battles long ago. They did find a looted armory where they were attacked by animated arming dummies. They also came across a room that had not been looted and contained nicely furnished contents. As they went in to search the room though, both Cebo and Rhino were attacked by the large rug on the floor, which captured them and managed to inflict a lot of damage before they could be freed and the animated rug destroyed.

As they went to the end of the corridor they came across another chamber with a dark pool in the center. As they approached they heard a weird moaning of what seemed to be dwarvish words (that they couldn't make out), as they stood there the moaning grew louder, taking on a crazed intensity of gibbered phrases and shouting, as they saw a strange ghostly creature drifting towards them. Flairian and Moss found themselves standing entranced as the creature flew through the air and attacked! The strange ghostly creature attacked Flairian first causing him to lose points of Wisdom as they rest of the party countered, attempting to hit the incorporeal shape. Luck was with the group as several of their attacks struck home and they brought the creature down in the first round.

Looking around they saw another short corridor with doors leading from it. Searching the rooms they found most were empty except for one that contained a half dozen dwarf skeletons that attacked the party, which made short work of them. As they looked around the area Moss noticed a secret door in the end of the corridor which lead to a small room that contained another secret door. As they carefully opened the second secret door they saw a shrine to the dwarvish gods.

The large chamber was carved with dour images of dwarves and a low stone altar stood at the far end of the room from them. There were stone benches that looked to have once stood in even rows, now smashed and thrown askew. The icons of the dwarvish gods had been defaced. The room looked to have been the scene of a terrible battle.

Atop the altar they could see the corpse of an old dwarven warrior in half-plate armor, his arms folded over his chest. Bones and corpses of orcs and larger creatures littered the floor around the altar and at it's base was the leathered remains of a large orc in half-plate armor.

As the party slowly entered the room they could sense an evil presence, the cold whisper of death and dark magic. As they approached closer the bones at the altar's feet stirred and formed into four towering skeletons that resembled ogres, they rose upwards grasping large bronze maces in their hands. The dead orc in half-plate turned his head and looked towards them, grinning evilly with green fire burning in his hate-filled eyes. The party quickly tried to attack with Rhino attempting (and failing) to turn the undead creatures. As the rest of the party attacked the skeletons Rhino faced the undead orc who made a beeline straight towards him. There was a viscous fight during which the evil, undead orc managed to hit Rhino with his cold fingers. At his touch Rhino felt himself lose a level to the evil creature. After that horrid touch the party attacked even harder finally bringing down the skeletons an the undead orc warrior.

Looking about the room after the battle, the party realized that this must be the final resting place of Durgeddin the Black himself, and that that was his dead body on the altar. Looking about they found a secret cache behind the altar that contained a sack of gold and some scrolls. There was one other door in the room that they guessed led back to the Great Hall. As they opened the door they saw written on the front of the door in orcish "Beyond this door the Maker of Death is chained. May he gnaw on his own hate until the sun dies and all things end". They all remarked that this might have been a good thing to know before they went into the room.

As there was only one door leading from the Great Hall that they had not checked out they went to look at it. The door was at the top of a short flight of stairs and led to a large kitchen area. After checking it out they decided they needed to rest. Besides being down on hit points, both Flairian and Rhino had lost levels and need to prepare for the morning where it would be found if the level loss was permanent or just temporary. After healing and resting both Rhino and Flairian made their Fortitude checks and shrugged off the effects of the level loss. Flairian was still Wisdom drained though, that did not go away.

Looking through the loot they had garnered so far they had a goodly amount of coins, a couple really nice gems, a masterwork scimitar (not Durgeddin's work though), and several scrolls containing spells.

The game ended here on Reaping 25, 3080 YE. With the party camped inside the old kitchens of the dwarf stronghold.
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Unanswered Questions:

• You found the final resting place of Durgeddin the Black, but still not the great treasure that should be here. - Somewhere there must be more treasure, where could it be?
• The demoness Idalla told of a wizard that lived in a lower level, how powerful a wizard must he be to bind a demoness?
• The only way to a lower level you had found so far was the chain ladder leading into the chasm, beyond the forges
• Though those that lost levels regained them, Flairian is still down 4 points of Wisdom

Session Seventeen Experience

Page Last Updated Tuesday, August 20, 2002