So it's a win, but they are again loosing more than gaining - no treasure, material and items being used up, armor and weapons breaking down - and right now no treasure yet to replenish what they are spending. They need a longer trip in and that is the focus of their next foray - to get the Brass Chime to summon the steps no matter what time of day.
Write up follows:
It was 7:35 when we arrived at the Entrance to the Terror Dungeon where we were met with the chronicler Kara and the 2 guards. We made sure our name was entered and was assured that another adventuring group, Fishers and Farmers, had gone in earlier today and by our estimation were at Entrance 2.
After the doors were opened we went down with care, Dizzy and Sybil in the front, Connal and Hjalgrim following, then Peris and Percy, and finally Negan and Gryg taking up the rear. At the main entrance room we could see the slowburn torch on the eat wall was getting low and we heard NO noises from any of the doors. We went back over the map Darius had given us and were aiming for a storage room past the hall with the floating table in it where supposedly the slime in question was located.
We proceeded with care, Gryg once again propping up lengths of wood on the doors behind us to hopefully alert us of anyone’s presence following. When we arrived at the room with the zombies, bodies, and couches, it was obvious that something had happened here as the door was blocked by a large dead body with many blunt force marks about its head. Beyond and further into the room more bodies were strewn about.
We went in with care, Dizzy calling on Sif to assure him that no undead barred our way. Of the 16 odd bodies in here, more than half were dragged off the couches and left upon the floor. The vermin in the room were loud but gave us a wide berth. We continued past, Percy lighting a candle with Tyr’s light and in due time, made our way further into the Dungeon.
The short hall with the slowburn torch was next and then eventually the room with the floating table. We slowed down here and looked around the corner. Where once there had been a single ogre keeping guard, now there was nothing. Sybil thought she heard the door at the far end of the hallway close and that spurred the group on to press on.
At the door to the trophy room, Dizzy and Sybil let the group know the door was not trapped – but was LOCKED and from the inside! Listening revealed only faint breathing and nothing else. In wait? For us? Sybil, Dizzy, Connal and Hjalgrim made their way further down the hall, Peris and Percy staying near the corner, and Negan and Gryg remaining in the room with the floating table for now.
Peris cast a “stick” spell on an arrow and placed that on the door to the trophy room, a last ditch chance to alert us should something try to come out. At the end of the hall Dizzy listened and could hear fair shuffling beyond. He took a rope and tied it from that door back 16’ down the hall to another door handle, effectively stopping both doors from opening. As for the room with the slime, with slow measured care, Connal shifted that door about ¼ open and we were able to see. It was 20’x20’, and there was a line of salt on the floor past the swing of the door from wall to wall, blocking off the entrance corner of the chamber. Lumpy greenish slime shot through with sickly red veins was affixed on the floors, lower walls, and stone shelves of the room.
From there, she drew out her metal tongs and a glass flask. Using a few drops of pig’s blood in the vial as a lure, she placed it near the slime, stretching into the room while Connal stood behind her ready to pull her back if need be. The slime stretch out towards the vial and then entered. When she had a small amount within, she turned her tongs, rolling the slime over the metal and spinning off a small section from the larger amount. Her tongs were beginning to smoke and she pulled the vial back until it was between both of the salt lines. She then turned the tongs over entirely and placed the vial on the floor mouth end down, hoping it would trap the slime within.
Instead it spilled out slowly and made a puddle on the floor about 8’ in diameter. Her tongs no longer useful, she tossed them into the room and the group then thought about how they were going to lay Hjalgrim backwards into the slime puddle.
Upon further thinking it through, they realized it would bring them TOO close to the larger slimes inside the room which were agitated by our presence. Connal tried tossing salt at it and it seemed to make the slime grow frenetic as tendril shot out violently almost 3’ before the slime seemed to slough a bit off the wall and then try to climb the surface again.
At this point a new plan was hatched. Taking one of the older K’Morat javelins, Connal dripped some pig’s blood on it and then dipped it into the slime on the floor while Percy helped Hjalgrim remove his armor, gambeson, and underwear to reveal the “Crackling” afflicted area. As the slime was growing on the javelin he brought it close to Hjalgrim’s back and PUSHED. The pain was terrible and Hjalgrim arced in agony as the slime hit the Crackled area, spread out, and was absorbed – turning to speckled dust.
His back? Still afflicted but less.
Peris moved closer to the group and now realizing they were too far back, Negan and Gryg moved up to the corner near the closed trophy room and watched alternately the party and Hjalgrim and the hall they had come from.
Reintroducing more pig’s blood to the javelin Connal carefully gathered another larger dosing of slime from the puddle on the floor. He did note that a large patch (some 3’ around) had broken off from the rest of the slime in the room and was crawling up the wall at a tangential angle, bypassing the salt on the floor and oozing slowly towards the hallway. Problem for later.
The second dosing of slime was brought to Hjalgrim and PUSHED again. And AGAIN the dwarven cavalier bucked in pain but the slime MOSTLY turned to dust, his skin flaked off to normal, and then it was over! With slime on his back, Percy shoved the lit torch against it, burning the patch away and singing the dwarf a bit – but the Crackling was now gone. Some healing was cast, taking care of the most obvious wounds followed up by a folded length of bandage wrapped about the cavalier’s midsection.
Hjalgrim was just…touched. He was so thankful to the group and appreciative that everyone felt just a bit better.
And it was at this point that Negan and Gryg both realized that there was an odd click or something coming from the hall they had come from…and the light from the candles was now gone. Plus, the smell of rotten eggs was growing stronger and the two of them were suddenly unsure. Gryg looked forward, creeping up and saw two ogre sized shield bearing figures coming closer from the opposite hall of the table room.
Company, and now. As the dwarven ranger came back, the half-ogre cleric called on Odin to produce flame in his hand. A ball of fire the size of a volleyball appeared in his palm and began to spark blue fire and he whipped it away and deep into the room.
And the dungeon seemed to implode. Air rushed TOWARDS the room and then LIT, and then a concussive blast raced AWAY from the room along with a wall of fire. At the last moment Negan slammed his large shield down between Gryg and the fire, hugging the dwarf close and the wall of fire hit the corner and blew the two of them off their feet and back. The shield absorbed most of the blow, crackling apart and raining burning brands everywhere while his armor snapped upon impact and caught flame.
The fire continued down, most of its impetus stolen but it was still enough to drop Peris on his ass and burn the form of the elven sorcerer. As the group was trying to figure out what was going on, from the table room we heard an Ogrish voice shout out, “GET THEM!” followed by pounding feet. From the trophy room, the door tore open and two ogres each with 14# mattocks strode into the hallway and laid into Negan who was still on the floor and struggling to his feet. Gryg fired his crossbow and Sybil let bullet fly. Percy and Hjalgrim quickly started relacing the chainmail hauberk back in place while Dizzy tried to get down the hall to heal Negan as the Half-ogre finally rose to his feet and met clubs with great sword.
From around the corner we could see the upended floating table being used as a barrier as the ogres behind it maneuvered it into the hall and prepared to rush down. Peris let fly two magic missiles and Connal enticed a large swath of Slime onto his javelin by literally stabbing himself in the leg and then shoving it at the wall patch of slime.
Negan took another smash to the head and Gryg dodged blows from the furious ogre while more sling bullets and magic missiles when flying. Dizzy managed to get a much needed heal on Negan who was staggering down to single digit hit points and then we heard voices at the END of the hall trying to rip open the door that we had tied shut!
Connal charged down the hall and told the group to DUCK and everyone did, including the ogre Negan was fighting, and the green slime coated javelin flew out and slammed point first into the table being used as a barrier – transferring slime to it!
With the ogre line slipping down one and Negan doing terrible damage to the other one, the three ogres in the back, one dropped the table on its face (burying the slime beneath it) and with its own two handed sword, two more of them marched forward to do battle while the last lifted its crossbow and fired, shooting into our tightly packed group. The last poorly armed ogre fell as the battle line closed to the two armored ones and the fight was a chaotic mess. From the closed door behind us we could hear goblin voices chanting, dozens and dozens of them as the door thrashed and bounced and the rope began to fray
Gryg lost a shot at one point, driving it into Hjalgrim’s back, mortally wounding the cavalier who redoubled his efforts against the ogre before him. Negan was once again horribly wounded and was beginning to bleed terribly as his hit point total plummeted. Using the rest of Connal’s rope we went back to the roped off door and tied a second length again between the two doors, giving us another precious handful of minutes.
Another ogre died and the one with the crossbow shot into our ranks as the table in front of him grew softer, and eventually succumbed to the slime which was consuming it – and then the dead ogres on the floor around it! Deciding it was time to leave, he turned and ran back around the corner while more magic missiles and sling bullets helped finish off the last ogre.
Hjalgrim was staggering, Negan had perhaps 1/10th of his health, goblin horde was breaking into the door at the hall’s end, and there was now a 12’ swath of green slime on the floor between us and the way out. Connal took Gryg’s hammer axe and smashed the green slime door down, pulling it away and bringing it to Negan who took aim and threw it into the middle of the 13’ puddle of slime. We then tossed two of our folded up bedrolls on top of the lime and using the entire thing like a bridge, the entire group ran and jumped their way across the mess until we arrived at the other side and then dodged into the trophy room. A well places ray of frost rolled the slime away from us as we ran in and then shut the door behind us.
Percy and Dizzy managed to pull the bolt out of Hjalgrim’s back and get him a healing. The cavalier was going to power through it but he was mortally wounded and would need some rest when this was all over. More healing was dispensed on Negan and the rest of the party and we took stock of our situation.
We didn’t want to stay. At all.
So after 5 minutes we cracked open the door and then ignoring the now 16’ puddle of slime in the hall and the door at the end of the hall the goblins were forcing open, we made a run for it, charging out of the room and back towards the now burned out room where the table once was. No ogre was here but we kept going. At the zombie room we could hear suddenly MUCH louder goblin voices in the hall behind us, indicative that they had forced the door open. We moved double time into the hall, through the zombie chamber, and then down the long hall.
We paused briefly at the door to the entrance room and once sure it was not filled with ANYONE, we made our way to the stairs and up fast until was arrived at the top and at 9:33 on Spiritmonth the 9th, emerged back out of the Terror Dungeon and safely once more in Bork Keep.
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