Session 25

Date Played: January 12, 2002

Moldain, 25^th of Thaumont, 1,000 A.C.

12:20 am

Once the party had rested a bit after the battle, the party decided to regroup and try the western door they found in the library. Beyond this door was a short, 10’-wide, 10’-long hall lined with shelves on the north and south walls. Markus and Chow-Lin entered first, setting off a trap door on the floor which dropped them into a pit. Then the doors snapped shut again, leaving them in a heap on the floor of a 10’-deep pit. Before the startled eyes of Eric and Hamlin, their friends, and the light source, simply disappeared. Eric and Hamlin eventually figured out that the floor had been trapped and set about trying to get it open again, hopefully finding their companions alive on the other side. However, Markus and Chow-Lin had problems of their own as the pit began to fill with oil from holes in the walls. It was a race against time! Once the oil stopped pouring in Markus heard a sound from an open chute and covered it with a sack as a torch came skittering into view. Just then, Hamlin and Eric managed to figure out how to open the trap doors again, then disabling them with a pull lever concealed just inside the doorway. It took some time for the oily Chow-Lin and Markus to extricate themselves from the pit, but with some help they managed to escape the trap.

Eric reset the pit trap and the party continued to explore, this time bypassing the trap by circling around to the main east-west corridor and trying the first door they could see. During the pit analysis, Hamlin had climbed onto the shelves and was able to open the door on the other side enough to see a room beyond. It was into that room that the party now filed. It seemed to be a deserted classroom. At the door came a familiar sniffing noise. From the outside corridor, the party ran into a black bear, thin and apparently very hungry. Eric decided to feed the bear and make conversation with his speak with animals spell. From his conversation he learned that the she-bear was named Urgra and was caught in the entrance when the red glow appeared. She has been wandering the halls ever since, looking for food and water. Eric fed her 3 weeks of iron rations before she was content, but very thirsty. He led her north to the fountain area and they trapped her in the collapsed stairway area by closing the doors. Returning to the party, Eric led them south out of the classroom, down a long corridor. At the end of this corridor was a half-finished stone room with a table bearing a statue of a silver dragon guarded by five zombies. The zombies would move to attack anyone entering the room, and would even attack those foolish enough to enter the doorway, but would eventually break off and head back to guard the statue when the party fled the doorway. Markus and Chow-Lin decided to try and pick the zombies off using spells (she cast magic missile twice) and missile fire (mostly Markus and his crossbow and Hamlin with his sling). Erik remained by the door to attack with his spear and to draw the zombies to the doorway. It took some time, but eventually the party destroyed all the zombies and took the statue. The statue is made of silver and in the form of a dragon about to take flight. On the base of the statue is inscribed “Ariksbane, Destroyer of Evil.”

Once the party recovered what they could of their expended missiles, they discovered that the room connected with the previously mapped southeastern corridor. They continued to explore the doors along this corridor, finding one that led into a sitting room filled with couches surrounding a crystal harp in the center of the floor. A decorative wheel was painted on the floor and the harp sat in the center of it. To the north was a door, beyond which was a butcher’s shop complete with butcher’s block and sand covering the floor. Exhausted after a long march and extended combats, the party decided to barricade the doors of the sitting room using the couches and rest in the relative safety of the room.

END TIME: 3:10 am

Burning time remaining for Hooded Lantern = 8 turns.

Session 24

Date Played: January 5, 2002

Tserdain, 24^th of Thaumont, 1,000 A.C. (continued)

SYNOPSIS: The party was involved in a quest to help the people of Haven. A red magic glow had begun to spread from the ruined Palace of the Silver Princess, spoiling crops and killing or infecting livestock. Hordes of humanoids have descended from the northern Thunder Mountains, barely held in check by the Protectors, powerful faerie spellcasters who have summoned the party here to help. The Protectors had opened a tunnel in the red glow, keeping it open just long enough for the small party to make it into the Palace. There they hoped and prayed that they could find some way to stop this terrible menace before it destroys all of Haven and spreads beyond into the Duchy of Karameikos.

10:20 pm

Once the party arrived at the eastern portcullis, they investigated to make sure that no one else was in the entry room before exploring the passageway to the east. The party found two eastern corridors linked by a short hallway containing a door. Both eastern corridors ended in stairs leading down into darkness. Not wanting to descend at this time, the party chose to open the door. Inside, the room was coated with an oozing, greenish slime, so Eric quickly shut the door. The party then headed back south along the main corridor to the side passage at the half-way point. A short hall ended with a door to the south. Once they entered, the party found a room stocked with crates. However, the crates were all nailed tightly shut, so the party had to find a hammer to find out what was inside. The closest location where a tool could be found was back amidst the dead kobolds in the old scriptorium. The party headed west but came upon a group of five orcs coming down the western corridor towards them. Chow-Lin managed to cast sleep on the group, catching them all before they had a chance to attack. Markus happily killed them all and then looted the bodies, gaining a battleaxe (to use on the crates), 3 torches, and 19 gp.

10:50 pm

The party backtracked to the storeroom and began chopping the crates open. Inside one crate they discovered 12 tins of iron rations (containing 1 week worth of food for one person in each tin). They split these up amongst themselves before proceeding, taking care to close the door behind them. A little more than ¼ of a flask of oil remained in the lantern. The party headed back to the southeast corridor beyond the broken crystal statues. They explored and mapped but found nothing unusual except for a very long corridor and several doors. They stopped exploring and turned back when the corridor began to turn to the west.

11:40 pm

The party headed back north to examine the very first door in this long corridor. Beyond the door was a library filled with bookshelves, scroll shelves, and writing tables with chairs. Chow-Lin, Eric, and Hamlin begin searching through the shelves while Markus kept his eye open for trouble, armed with his crossbow. Unfortunately, trouble found him! A huge spider, hiding camouflaged on the ceiling, leapt on Markus’ back, viciously biting him and injecting him with venom. The spider was killed during a quick battle but Markus was obviously in danger of dying from the poison. Eric was unable to save him with his spells or abilities, but Chow-Lin remembered that one of the potions identified at the Alchemist Shoppe was a purification draught known as a potion of sweet water. Not knowing if the potion would have effect, she administered it to Markus anyway, and just in time. As the potion was absorbed into his body, the effects of the poison subsided and then disappeared entirely. By this time, the lantern oil had grown quite low and the party was winded from the battle. Before the fray began, Chow-Lin had discovered a scroll that she could not read. Believing it to be a magic spell scroll, she folded it up and tucked it into her spellbook for safe keeping.

END TIME: 12:10 am on Moldain, the 25^th of Thaumont

Burning time remaining for Hooded Lantern = 1 turn.

Session 23

Date Played: December 29, 2001

Gromdain, 23rd of Thaumont, 1,000 A.C.

5:30 pm

Burning time remaining for Hooded Lantern = 10 turns. After taking out the servants of evil, the party continued to explore the open passageways to the east. The party investigated the semi-circular room at the end of the eastern corridor, taking precautions to not alert anyone that may have been within. They backtracked along the path the humans used and it led to this room. Within was nothing but bare stone floor and walls. A pair of crystalline statues depicting powerful warriors flanked a deep, rounded alcove in the center of the eastern curved wall. Hamlin and Chow-Lin began looking about for secret exits and other hidden details while Markus remained on watch in the corridor with his crossbow. Eric moved forward to investigate one of the crystalline statues. A single door was set in the back of the alcove, a possible location for ambush. Before Eric’s startled eyes, the statues animated and began to pummel him. The party, alerted by his shouts of surprise, retreated towards the entrance, the statues following after them. One of the statues closest to Eric continued striking him with its glassy fists, knocking him to the ground and then continuing on to attack the party. While Markus and Hamlin hacked away at them with axes and swords, Chow-Lin resorted to a magic missile spell. Eventually the statues were shattered and broken into glassy fragments. The party took many serious wounds and was in no condition to face another challenge. They decided to retreat some distance to a known location in order to rest and recover some strength.

5:50 pm

The party retreated to the safety of the north-south corridor storeroom across from the first set of stairs. Markus carried Eric over his shoulders while the others gathered his equipment. They entered the storeroom and laid Eric comfortably on the floor under a blanket. Markus set up a simple trip-line trap across the door. The watch orders were established, leaving Chow-Lin on first watch with her lantern still lit. It wasn’t long before she noted voices beyond the door and activity in the corridor. She took precautions to hide the light by removing it from the entranceway and stuffing one of Markus’ sacks under the door to hide any light leaking into the corridor. During Hamlin’s watch, the lantern ran out of oil and had to be refilled.

Tserdain, 24^th of Thaumont, 1,000 A.C.

After 12 hours of rest Eric still was unresponsive so the party decided to make this a day camp as well. Watches were set once more, even more alert than ever for noises. They also rationed the oil in the lantern by turning it off during Markus’ watch. At some point during the day some creature was heard at the door, sniffing under the door and clawing at the entranceway. During the last watch of the day, the party noted a light source and heavy, armored footsteps in the hallway, but luckily no one discovered the camp in the storeroom.

5:30 pm

Eric finally awoke from his restless sleep. The party filled him in on what occurred during his period of unconsciousness. He then set about healing whomever he could with what few spells remained to him. Once that was accomplished, he set about praying for new spells, as did Chow-Lin. The room was swept clean of any traces of the party’s camp.

6:50 pm

Refreshed and anxious from their full day of rest, the party cautiously made their way back along the same route towards the eastern semi-circular room. Taking the northern corridor once more, they began a systematic search for secret doors along the south wall.

7:50 pm

No luck was had looking for secret doors. Hamlin was left to guard the passage heading south while Chow-Lin stood guard in the corridor, maintaining the lantern to allow the half-elves to scan the walls. Hamlin spotted an animated skeleton that had been attracted by his presence and now advanced up the corridor. The other members of the party retreated as the skeleton advanced, meeting it halfway down the corridor in a short battle. Hamlin eventually hit the skeleton hard enough to destroy it. The party, nonplussed by the encounter, maintained their guard at the end of the corridor and continued looking for secret entrances, having to stop only long enough to refill the oil in the lantern.

9:30 pm

A fruitless search for secret doors in and around the semi-circular room led the party to quit the room and explore beyond the obviously once-guarded door to the west. Apparently, some traffic had passed through the room during the 24-hour rest period, as crystal fragments from the destroyed statues had been tracked through.

Beyond the wooden door the party discovered a small room containing a water fountain and two tapestries: one of a young, golden-haired woman sitting upon a silver throne wearing a silver crown and bearing a scepter and huge ruby; the other of a sitting man dressed in black plate mail armor with his feet propped on a stool. The party filled their water skins after Eric declared that the water was pure and potable. A single door led north from this room, leading to a short corridor that turned off to the east. A closed door stood at one end of the corridor; an abandoned guard station by a collapsed staircase stood at the other end. A dim red glow could be seen coming through the rubble of the staircase. Assuming this led back outside, the party turned towards the door and proceeded west along a dark corridor.

The long, corridor stretched some distance to the west before turning north. It continued straight north back to the eastern entrance portcullis. Along the route the party noted three side corridors to the east. The southernmost of these led to a short corridor and a closed door. The others were somewhat longer and stretched beyond the lantern’s light. The northernmost of these corresponded to the eastern passage mapped by the party upon their first examination of the castle entrance.

END TIME: 10:20 pm

Burning time remaining for Hooded Lantern = 12 turns.