Session X
The cast:
- Greg, a Barbarian
- Krombopulos Michael (“KM”), an Elvish Ranger
- Brother Pele, a Mage
- Dayman, a Paladin
- Crispin, a Zaharan Ruinguard
- Maximore, a Thrassian Abomination
Although the adventurers now had an idea of how to complete the frog god idol's challenge, they remained leery of the Black Mires. Furthermore, the hobgoblins were surely close to defeat. So the buried temple was selected as their destination. Before leaving, they heard yet more unfortunate news: a band of ogres had crossed over the Mirimen river from conquered Azen Radokh to lair in the Viaspen. The forest was now more dangerous than ever.
On a whim, instead of going straight to the hobgoblin area, the party opened a previously untouched door. They quickly came face to face with an ogre, who demanded meat and gold. Dayman thought back to a trick he had read about in Sinbad's notes and threw the ogre a handful of silver. “This is hundreds of gold pieces in platinum”, he said. The ogre's piggy eyes squinted at the coins. Perhaps it saw through the ruse, or perhaps its hunger won out over its greed. In any case, it demanded that the party's tasty-looking elf be left in its lair as a treat. Unwilling to relinquish KM, but not desirous of a fight, the adventurers ran away and prepared to assault the hobgoblins.
Unfortunately, the beastmen seemed to have replenished their numbers in the intervening time. The battle proved more difficult than expected, and the ever unlucky Dayman took two spear thrusts to the shoulders. The dead hobgoblins proved to be just as dangerous as they had been while alive, for Brother Pele was later forced to amputate both of Dayman's arms. Awakening from the operation, he bemoaned how he was the only member of the party that anything bad ever happened to. His friends laughed at him and thanked him for his continued resilience in the face of tragedy. Despite the grievous extent of his injuries, Dayman's restoration in Cyfaraun went remarkably well, and the adventurers were able to return to the buried temple in only six weeks. Maximore chose to scout ahead in the Viaspen during their approach; minor disaster struck when he failed to notice a band of gnolls who proceeded to spring an ambush on the rest of the party. During the fighting, Pele went down with an injured hip, but the others held their ground, and the lizard-man returned just in time to rip apart the last gnoll
Making camp for the night, the adventurers' fire attracted the attention of a pack of wolves. On the watch, Dayman looked at the animals nervously, but the pack eventually left. As before, the hobgoblins had attracted new recruits. But this time their numbers were noticeably lessened, and the adventurers made short work of them. The party then began to explore this new sector of the temple. They came across a nest of fire beetles, but Dayman encouraged his fellows to leave the creatures in peace. Finding the beetles' bioluminescence utterly charming, the others assented.
Finally, the party came across a massive room filled with what appeared to be the remainder of the hobgoblin contingent. Initially, the fight went poorly, as Dayman and Maximore were barraged with flasks of flaming oil. Then Brother Pele and the hobgoblin witch doctor simultaneously began mighty incantations. Who can say what might have happened had the witch doctor completed his spell first. Instead, Brother Pele's magic put every single hobgoblin into a deep slumber. KM and Maximore gleefully ran around the room and slit beastman throats. Further exploring the hobgoblin territory, the adventurers found a set of stairs leading downward.
The hobgoblins vanquished, the adventurers returned to a secret door KM had noticed earlier. It turned out to lead to a makeshift prison cell that contained a few desiccated skeletons. [These were the remains of a group of merchants that had been missing since before the first iteration of the party began their quest some eight or nine months ago. They had not endured.] Guarding the prison cell was a group of kobolds. Not being aware of the secret entrance into the prison, the kobolds were more puzzled than anything else at where the party had come from. Eventually, one mentioned that it was going to ask Idimmu what to. Justifiably terrified of the dragon, the party quickly killed the kobolds and retreated.
The adventurers then began to descend down the hobgoblin staircase. What they found was truly disgusting. The walls of the lower floor were covered in thick flesh veins of flesh that undulated ominously. The air was hot and wet, smelling of bodily fluids and filth. Dayman borrowed Crispin's guisarme and poked one of the veins. It popped grotesquely and covered the blade with an ichorous slime. Quoth Dayman: “...I quickly hand it back to Crispin”.
The stairs ended in a small cave, with the only obvious means of entrance or exist being a simple wooden door. Despite its appearance, neither Dayman nor Maximore nor Greg could bash it down. The adventurers considered what to do and then remembered that they had found another set of stairs, these ones in the former lair of Drusus the bandit king. Perhaps those would lead to a more easily accessible part of the lower floor.
This proved to be both true and sorrowfully, terribly false. Following these stairs, the adventurers discovered that they led to another cavern, similarly adorned with the pulsating fleshy tendrils. Yet this cavern was bisected by a set of tightly-placed iron bars that blocked further exploration. Even after Maximore exercised his mighty thews and forced into existence a gap, the traversal of said gap would surely be slow and dangerous.
First Dayman pushed himself through. Then Pele, carrying a torch, followed. Then came Greg. As KM prepared to do the same, a low, baying howl issued from the unknown. Out of it loped four ghouls, their jaws slavering and their inhuman eyes full of hunger. Before the adventurers on the far side of the bars could do anything, Pele, Dayman, and Greg were all paralyzed by the undead. The ghouls then dragged the helpless adventurers back into the darkness, howling all the time.
KM, Crispin, and Maximore looked at each other. They knew what they had to be done, and they were not afraid. Even at this darkest of moments, their friends could not be abandoned. One by one, they pulled themselves through their bars. They charged bravely into the darkness and were devoured by the ghouls.
Death Count:
- Greg
- Krombopulos Michael
- Brother Pele
- Dayman
- Crispin
- Maximore
(For those keeping track at home, over ten sessions, sixteen characters have died. One (Sinbad) got to level 3. Five more got to level 2, and the rest remained level 1 until their demises.)