Meet 110, Adv 7, 2/1/20

The group had a chance to enter their 2nd Glyph Gate. In the Terror Dungeon there are small pocket areas that need an additional "token" to get into - and there is typically a reward to be gotten. For the 1st Level, the items are important for use later in the dungeon - and don't typically need to resort to combat although it is certainly a viable option.

Write up follows:

Icemonth the 1st, almost 8 PM, and we left the Terror Dungeon swiftly. From there we went back to the Barrack’s Hall where we saw the wounded dwarf was now along with his own adventuring group. Friendly waves were given back and forth and their leader, a half-orc with a red and grey set of leather clothing identified himself as Duragond, leader of Duragond and company. They were about 9 of them, a mix between orcish, dwarven, and humans.

There was much talking about our foray and theirs (they had been in 4 days) and the revealed they had picked up a second Chime some time ago – to be used for any party member that is badly wounded and needs to leave, they can get out of the dungeon and the rest of the party can stay. Good to know!

We talked about bugbears, lower levels, and the Vault of Lathandar and getting a weapon there – supposedly real important. We thanked them for being so open and eventually we rested. The next day Darius talked about the charter, what our goals in the dungeon should be, getting to the Glyph gate by Entrance one and then eventually mapping out where and how all the entrances touch each other. The thought was NOT to go through Grue Alley unless we had no choice – and if so to press on with lights blazing next time.

If we’re going to find treasure, we will need to eventually get off the beaten bath and/or risk going deeper – but that led us back to not going deeper until we know roughly how the upper level plays out. We studied and prayed, Sybil bartered for more food for the group and we all got back together heading back to the entrance by 8:30 in the morning; Duragond and Company commenting they would be entering about 10:30 or so and wished us well.

At the gate, Kara Farmer took our names again, and at some prompting from Sybil, flirted with Darius who was surprised and flirted back. From there we made our way down into the gloom and eventually came to the bottom of the steps in a large room with a “1” by the entrance. Two torches lit we looked around. Times were scratched on the wall with chalk, echoing the period that Darius had been tracking. There were some other small helpful hints and a door to the south and east (with the lock drilled out).

We assumed South the way we wanted to go and made our way there, checking to portal briefly before daring to open it. It showed a long passage heading south with a slow burn torch on the west wall. It seemed similar to what we had the Lizardman run through when we summoned him yesterday. Confident we made our way through until we arrived @ the corner which indeed did lead us to the room just outside the Bugbear lair.

Alright!

We travelled west to the slope, and Connal took the run up there where he once again set grapple and had the rope run down slope. He guarded the corner while we shuttled our way up slope until we were all outside the door with the dents along the bottom. Listening, we heard nothing, and then opened the door – revealing the same 20’x10’ room with the glyph gate at the far end – but only 2 bodies in here dried and dead! One missing since yesterday.

Hmm. Only a few of us entered as we made our way to the door here. After listening and confident that there are not enemies nearby, most everyone hid around the corner and Connal held aloft a vial of pig’s blood and touched the glyph. Red light flared out, crushed the vial and absorbed the blood, went out past the door and into the hall – and then all swooped back in to the gem – pulling along with it loose stones, gravel, and grit from the floor which hit the door with a heavy staccato beat. Aha, that explains the dents.

We followed Connal back and the gem above was red, but light was leaking out the op slowly. Two doors beyond here, right and left. The right door had written in chalk upon it. “This door. No joke, Open this door first.” We debated only a few seconds and then Connal touched the door to open it – and it flew open to reveal a mid-sized chamber with 5 animated dead ogrish sized zombies and 3 gossamer clad decaying women beyond who were beginning to keen loudly. Shrill and loud.

Fuck shit fuck damn it.

The party ran back, sliding out of the chamber and cutting around the corner while Asher, Sybil, and Connal held off last, Connal getting clubbed terribly for the effort by the closest zombie. But we backed up and turned the corner, door slammed closed behind us until after the glyph gate gem finished bleeding its color free – and the door slammed closed and the one lone Ogrish zombie fell over.

Ok…we took a moment to regroup and decided that whoever wrote on the door is a dick, and we should go left. Taking another vial of pig’s blood, we once again enacted the glyph and then enmasse made our way westward through the door to what could be best described as a Seraglio. Reddish curtains, gauze, pillows, harp music coming from somewhere, door on the north wall closed, large central column going up 15’, symbols of Lathandar, elvish god of sunshine and life quite prevalent. The door on the north wall had a series of wheeled tumblers face out to the group, all set to “0”. Hjalgrim and Percy gave Sybil a leg up to look them over and she was convinced they turn and would unlock the door – but need a 3 digit code to do it.

Asher let us know what he could about Lathandar while the group looked around for secret doors as well as listening where they could. Although nice, nothing really jumped out until we gave the central column a once over. It had depictions of elves carved from the bottom to the top, all of them cavorting happily. But they had had chiseled marks over their eyes, blinding them.

It was after some time that the group discovered that near the top of the column, about 8’ off the ground was an elf without his eyes gouged. Hoisting Shim on his shoulders he looked through the eyes and saw the number “1”. Alright. We looked over the column and found 2 more elves without eyes gouged, getting two other numbers. But what order? Looked at the elves that had the eyes whole, we did note that one had 7 fingers up, one had 8, and the last had 9.

But on further contemplation, instead of running up the total 7, 8, 9 as the order – we looked instead at fingers down, getting a reverse order or 1, 2, and 3. Sybil adjusted the dial and the tumblers slid into place, the door opening towards us.

Showing a hallway CHOKED with over 2 dozen skeletal figures with spears, shields, and helms. And only a barely wide enough path running through the mess of them further into the place.

We looked around and through, and Sybil was sure he saw a cotton tailed rabbit just at the edge of her vision, amidst the skeletal feet, but it hopped away. No one else saw it. So we decided to sneak our way through, the larger people forced to drop shields and backpacks off their shoulders in order to get through. There was a door on the right hand side past the room of skeletons with a metal locking bar down across it on our side to keep whatever was within…in.

Beyond that the passage eventually turned to the left and showed 2 doors and a painted area of the wall indicating this way to the Sun Vault of Lathandar, Key of Light needed, see Priest Alorn. The last door was fancifully carved and showed a depiction of the elven god amidst a pastoral forest scene with a number of reverse carved animals…except for the rabbit – that carving was smooth.

We listened to the doors and the middle door we felt was cool, almost cold to the touch. So we began discussing our options on which way to go – cold door or latched door and we noticed that we heard faint noises behind the latched door and sparking lights that faded – except when we tries talking in elvish – then the light stayed. But nothing on the other side replied.

We were getting closer to just opening it when Sybil saw the rabbit again, this time hopping into the Seraglio. So she went in and was moving pillows around, hoping to find in when the party noticed she was gone, again. So we corralled her back and the group decided to go to the cold door instead.

We opened the door and it was COLD – like 40 degrees cooler than the rest of the place – there was a round table with 12 chairs about it, 11 of them empty the last one had a beautiful elven woman sitting there just staring, her hands on the table top. One by one we all sat down and relaxed, looking at her and then she spoke saying we can each ask her a question once and only once, and then we were free to go.

So we sat and looked about and then Shim started the questioning off, where is the Key of Light. We went through everyone, eventually learning the Key of Light is with Priest Alorn who was here and cursed eternal for the crime of murder, locked behind the barred door and the key is around his neck but you would need to be unseen by the dead and or the living to get in and remove the key without issue.

As she answered the questions she became more drawn and wane, skin paling and eyes sinking in, seeming more like a Banshee than not. So once the last question was asked we got up from our chairs and left the room with a thank you and Lathandar’s Blessing on our lips. Ok, so we went to the barred door and it was going to be Asher and Shim going in – Asher can cast Invisibility to Undead and Shim was small, light, and the light inside responded to him already.

The entered the room – 8 steamer sized trunks, 3 had light flittering in between the cracks, a dwarf chained to the back wall of the chamber his guts torn open and roped around his lap, various desks and office furnishings jammed in the corners. The two of them entered and a trunk popped open…and a Ghoul appeared, sniffing the air and looking around.

The hid against the north wall as it sniffed about, and then set up by the open door in order to snatch someone coming in. Then another trunk popped open, and a zombie staggered out and the ghoul and zombie looked each other up and down and then went back to watching the open door. Asher and Shim went to the wrecked furnishings and then around the room to the dead dwarf. The key was on his neck, faintly glowing, on a thin gold chain.

Another zombie appeared and milled about, but nothing more happened. Asher carefully picked the key off the figure’s chest…and yanked – the chain broke and he had the key in his hand. Another ghoul appeared and the ghouls seemed happy to see one another, literally hugging and licking one another. Ugh. We snuck, around the room while a ghoul lunged forward at the door and snatched what seemed to be a rabbit from the ground and ate it.

Not wanting to be caught here any longer, they made it to the door, and then slammed it closed and latched it, trapping the undead inside. Hooray!

From there we went to the vault door, inserted the key and entered the Sun Vault of Lathandar. It was cool and red and blues, a few weapon racks and armor stands that look like it had been picked over, some shields, helms, spears, hammers and the like. Looking them over, we decided to take a spear first for Asher, the half elf taking one when there was a loud buzzing and we all then found ourselves outside the glyph gate in the narrow room with the 3 dead dried out bodies.

From outside the door we heard some echoing voices and laughter and carefully stepped out, hearing to the south, the voices of Duragond and Company. We went down to see them and they saw us, wishing us well and congratulations on the Glyph Gate and Vault of Lathandar. They did let us know that any item left on the racks would be silver blessed by Lathandar the next time we went in. Good to know! They were taking advantage of the ogre woodcutting tribe who had left yesterday to sell/barter their cuttings to make their way right to the stairs down. Where? Not too far, 3 or 4 rooms away.

We were talking about the 3rd glyph gate and thinking it was by Entrance 3 when they laughed and said nope…not too far from here and the stairs down…maybe 5 or so rooms away.

We wished them well and it was about noon when we were discussing either going on to the Glyph Gate again, or somewhere else.

Meet 109, Adv 7, 1/18/20

There are certain traps that I like to use and because of that I make certain that I don't overplay my hand. One that I like is pit trap right after a pit trap. I don't know where it came from, but I've used it before and my current group, especially the long term 11+year players are always on guard for it because it IS such a nasty neat surprise.

I did use a pit trap INSIDE a pit trap once - and that was fun - but have to hold that one in my back pocket for at least another 5 years before I pull it back out.

Write up follows:

Connal navigated the slope up with little issue, rope trailing down the slope, grappling hook set up at the top. He had a torch up with him and one by one, the group made their way up the slope. There was the faintest smell of earth or top soil nearby but nothing showed. From here it was a passage south, west, east where we came, or a door to the north. The base of the door had a number of dents in it and the door needed to be forced open.

Once done so though, the next room was small, 10 x 20, a glyph gate on the far end of the room, and three desiccated bodies in here, dead at least half a year or more. The words above the glyph gate read: One eight a cup of, a dram, a quaff. Not rich but…This plaque be…Crimson Flowing Veining Stuff. The gem had three pairs of radiant lines around it (the one with the Chime had 4).

Shit…did we really want to do this and now? The 1st part was an ounce, and the last part was blood. But the party went back and forth before deciding that the matter didn’t need to be addressed at this time and we should continue on.

From here we went south, passing a door on the right that looked in very poor condition, and then an opening to the left that lead to a room where 8 pale barked oak trees were growing right out of the ground, twisting the flagstones, growing right to the ceiling where branches curled and twisted amongst themselves. Room was pretty big, and there was a slow burn torch right when we walked in.

A look about showed the dirt around the flagstones was disturbed and had some pretty big foot prints there – Ogre sized was our thought. Ugh. We tried tossing rocks at the trees and branches, dirt and stones – nothing happened. Eventually Vulwulf dared to enter and drew close enough to touch the trunk. It felt…like it was vibrating. He took out his water skin and poured some of it on the ground.

And the tree groaned and thrummed, and the branches above GREW, twisting even more amongst each other and making some noise for a few minutes until it finally stopped. The rest of the party was in the hall watching.

And the watched as he bent down and prayed to Idun, where the everspring goddess answered his blessing and the ground gave forth water between 4 of the trees. Which started growing. A lot. The ceiling was groaning as the trees pushed upwards and thickened and branched curled and grew denser and thicker and worked down from the 20’ tall ceiling. The other 4 trees also began to grow, although at a reduced rate since their roots were not directly where the water was churning.

The noise was echoing off in the distance and the party was really feeling uncomfortable. Vulwulf managed to get a twig broken off from the tree branches above and then the group made their way BACK down the hall to the top of the slope, and then turned west down the dark corridor. And it was a good thing as we heard ogrish voices in the distance walking around, many of them, getting closer – most likely to investigate the tree growth.

From here we went down the long dark hall to the end where it turned south, and then went that direction – the passage going on into the gloom. As we went along we could see a reflective surface ahead – a puddle on the floor – maybe 3’ wide, perhaps 7’ long, crudely oval shaped. There was no discolored water anywhere on the walls or ceiling. We tossed a few rocks at it, but the puddle was literally just a coating on the stone floor.

That’s when we saw the red eyes in the gloom ahead. Squeaking and staring at us. They crept closer and showed a number of giant and gargantuan sized rats. Fuuuuuuck.

Ogres sort of behind us, many giant rats ahead of us. We tossed some food and the rats were watching and then ate it, still watching. And then Shim called on his innate gnomish ability and spoke with the rats. Who were excited to speak with him. They had run into adventurers MANY times in the past and spoke of them as if expecting some enslaving or the like and Shim assured them we wanted to pass. He was surprised to learn on the rats was called “Frank”. So for the price of more food and then some cheese, we were allowed passage past the … 13 giant and gargantuan rats. Crap – that would have been a shitty fight.

Oh, and we could tell that the puddle…was rat urine. Lovely.

We did see a section of the … stone wall that they ate through, perhaps a foot tall, twice as wide. Connal commented..ok, Giant rats ATE the walls of the Terror Dungeon!?! Yeah, let’s keep going. Sybil led the way as we traveled through the gloom to another puddle. And the thought was to get some of the rat urine. Whose thought? God only knows, but it was the thought.

So we wanted to pick up the urine in a vial, but not touch it. But without tongs we ended up using Sybil’s pliers. But when we tried to dip the vial in we ended up crushing the glass and then dropping the vial in the urine. So we took it out, washed it off and handed it back to Sybil who was frowning at this. Luckily one of the hirelings took the pliers and wiped it down with her cloak and then oiled it, explaining that Sybil would have a rusty paperweight in a few days if that was how we treated tools.

We travelled on to the first corner and could hear rhythmic chopping in the distance and some Ogrish voices. Seemed they had come to investigate the growth and then were harvesting the wood. We continued south to the next crossing and were far enough away to consider moving on from here. The group could smell old cooking scents and grease but when we came around a few turns, we say a room with an old water barrel, some burn marks, areas where sleeping rolls had been laid, a door on the far side of the room with a few auger holes in it, and a sizable spear rack on the south wall with perhaps a dozen spears in it and a dozen spots without spears.

We looked over the chamber with care. The rack with the spears was locked and the spears did not come out. There was a brass plaque on the bottom that read: Compliments of the Odinian League Collective, Always willing to help. Come see our representative in Erylond with a valid charter from the Greater Rand Sellsword and Adventurers Guild for other things the League can do for you.

This really pissed off the party, League of Odin doing this? But we couldn’t figure out how to open the rack so we fiddled with the empty slots for a while and then ate dinner. A few more of the Giant Rats had followed us to here and we gave up the hard cheese to them, and they ran off satisfied. It was about 6:30 and we thought to keep going.

The door out of here was closed and the lock had been bored out some time ago. We listened, heard nothing, and then opened the passage with care. A few very large bare foot prints were on the other side – we assumed Grue, and not much else. So we drew up, passed through the door, and closed it behind us as we pressed on.

The passage traveled for a bit, turning one direction then the other. We thought we heard a door close in the distance as we were walking. We hadn’t passed a slowburn torch in some time so we were on high alert. Eventually the passage opened up to a room with a sloping passage down on the far end. Rough table with busted legs, splintered chairs, numerous rough kinky foot long hairs caught in various cracks and pinch points, old blood smears, splintered shields, shattered lanterns, and maybe a dozen brass bits loose on the floor.

We assumed the hairs were from Grues and were getting concerned. Something smashed up a bunch of adventurers in here and coins were just left lying about. The slope went down to over a dozen loping paces and ended at a “T” intersection. Sybil and Connal went down to the bottom with care and saw chalked on the wall the word “Pits” with an arrow pointing south, and “Scythe” and an arrow pointing north.

Ok, trap area. We were going to check out the pit side first. Shim cast Summon Monster and got a fairly large and beefy lizardman. He was instructed to head south so he went down the slope, looked at the floor, and used his long hunting spear to hit the floor just down the passage – opening up to a pit going down with spikes. Nice.

So he stepped back up the slope, ran, and pole vaulted over the pit with his spear where he skittered to a stop and then looked carefully again. And again he hit the ground and opened another pit. When this one opened, the other one closed. Alright. So he jumped/pole vaulted over this one and went down to a door. Gave a listen and a smell and listen, and mimed a large hairy creature behind it..and then repeated the gesture. Grue…maybe 2?

Before the spell’s time ran out, we had him jump back and then it ended. We looked down the other passage and saw a long passage, with a handled farming scythe right in the middle of the hall, leaning against the wall, with a pile of small rocks scattered around it and two very dead rats.

Um…not a scythe trap? Is this it? Not trusting it, we had Shim call another spell and got a troglodyte. It was ordered to go down the hall and when it got to the scythe it tried to move it…and couldn’t! It tried pushing it, pulling it, nothing it did had it move it was as if rooted there…until it tried to lever it away from the wall with its spear – and the scythe fell to the floor. But now he couldn’t lift it off the floor…again unless he used his spear as a lever.

We assumed the scythe was some sort of Weighty Chest issue item and chuckled at it. The Trog was then sent further down the hall to the door there where it listened and then cracked it open a bit.

While all this was going on, the group all excited in the room and getting the feedback from Connal and Sybil as to what was going on, the group failed to hear the sound of a distant door opening and creatures sneaking down, closer, and closer, and closer…

As for the lone trog, a long arm snaked out of the darkness and grabbed him, followed by a gurgling leonine roar. Grue!!!

Connal and Sybil backed up to the slope, dropped oil, and lit it to make a line of fire at the base of the slope – and keep the Grue back…And we could see it was two of them!

And at that point we heard the cry to “Charge” and arrows flew into the party as almost a dozen bugbears, at least 4 giant spiders, and a swarm of smaller one filled the hall behind us and pressed the advantage home to close and attack.

Vulwulf and our shieldbearer took the brunt of the immediate attacks as the bugbears charged in and filled the hall, then the spiders came, with the swarm hitting Wulfulf. Shim was concentrating and fired off a globe of darkness but it encompassed part of the party however it did prevent more arrow fire. Hjalgrim swapped positions and with two Grues on one side and host of foes hitting us on the unprepared back ranks, we wanted to flee but had nowhere to go.

Darius strongly suggested to Asher that we get the hell out of here now and to use one of our precious few Dimensional Folding scrolls – and open a portal to the Entrance Two – and then we’ll use the Chime and get the hell out of here. So Asher unfurled the scroll, read the words which turned to fire, and a 10’ diameter hole opened in time and space just ahead of him on the slope where we could see the Entrance Two room. Where we could see inquisitive fire beetles milling about.

Fuck it, time to go – passage is only open for 1 minute. So we all reached out into the darkness, grabbed arms with the next person while spiders attacked and bugbears swung. Hjalgrim tossed Shim to Percy and we all broke, running for the portal and hopefully leaving some chaos behind us as beetles and spiders clashed with one another.

Getting to the Entrance room, the stairs went up 10’…to a blank ceiling. So it was the Chime rung and it was a harmonizing reverberation that shook the entire room, and the ceiling spun crazily a moment before it opened up to the stairs spiraling to the world above. With only a 2 minute window we ran, yelling ahead of us to “Open the doors! Open the doors!” while fire beetles and giant spiders tore into one another and bugbear voice echoed behind us. The great iron doors lifted and the party burst through them just before 8 PM and emerged once again at Bork Keep.

Meet 108, Adv 7, 1/11/20

It had been planned the the party would meet an important person of the Terror Dungeon somewhere in the first long foray. And they did, he introduced himself as Anton, a stylized merchant with a cart bulging with tarped supplied and pulled by a giant slug.

He doesn't sell whatevers, but always does have what the party "needs", but at a cost. In this case Sybil took advantage of Anton's spiel and the group got a chance to get a leg up in a direction that would get them through the Bugbear Warren.

Write up follows:

Icemonth the 1st, roughly noon. The group talked about heading west into the next area but there was a body just inside the passageway. Humanoid, tall (maybe 7’), goblin like in his bones, and his skull and collar bones smashed. Been dead at least 9 months, mostly just bones with some thin skin. No clothes, no belongings. With torch light we could see the room was perhaps 20 x 30, at least a 15’ tall ceiling, and numerous stalactites and stalagmites again, like the hall and the prior room we came from. Some broken stone on the floor and little else. There was another passage on the opposite side of the chamber along the north wall.

Sybil went back and forth and the thought was to sneak slightly into the room so she could look down the passage. So she crept forward slowly…slowly…making it to the nearest stalagmite…

When some dropped from the ceiling, smashed into the back of the halfling’s head, and smashed her to the ground. It was a damned stalactite! And as we watched, it slowly turned itself around like a mollusk or some sort. Looking up, we could see LOTS of other stones hanging above shuffle about. Thalin charged in, grabbed her ankle and one tried to fall on him, but he reared back and gave it a punch – and it was like hitting a damned rock!

But he did run out of the room with her and we spent 10 minutes waking her up, patching up her head, and coming up with another plan. We wanted past here – but do we go back to the straw room? Discussed the matter for a bit and eventually decided that if we hugged the wall in here, we might avoid any more of the piercers.

That’s when we thought about dousing the torches and once dark – we could easily see 20 of the piercers on the ceiling and 5 on the floor radiated heat and visible to infravision. But not everyone had it so we had to link hands and pick our way through the room without delay, watching above and dodging the slow moving piercers. Once through though Sybil grew alarmed that we had NO light’s lit and that meant we were ripe for a Gru attack so we lit torches quickly and regrouped.

The passage here went north to what seemed to be a former camp of some sort. Torn bedrolls, smashed brazier, bloody (very dried) blanket. Door to the left and passage leading to the gloom to the right. We looked around and discussed options for a while until the vote was to go check out the door. It was here that we heard a voice coming from the side passage say, “Oh, I wouldn’t do that. But I’m willing to watch and see how this plays out.”

Human (?) male about late 20’s/early 30’s, handsome, oiled hair slicked back into a pony tail, wearing a bulging backpack, short sword at his side. Had a giant slug toting a cart laden with covered bundles. Identified himself as Anton, he’s a trader down here, always looking around for a good deal. The group spoke to him and he had an acerbic wit and a biting retorts but wasn’t fazed by the group and was willing to trade. Like for magic items? No, you don’t NEED magic items, do you? I’ll trade what you need. And I’ll always be fair.

About a third of the group had a feel that he was honest but we should be careful. But it was Sybil that he did his dealing with – and she was looking for the best way through. Well he was visiting his friend who was out, had a place just around the corner. He might have a way to get you through that door – because there are over 200 bugbears in that warren. And they were going to come out that door very soon.

What did he want for the trade of information? Simple Sybil, just a little bit of that baby fat you were carrying. And Sybil took the deal – shaking his hand that was a HOT flash and Sybil was sweating madly as 10 lbs boiled away – she looked flush and tired and wild all at once as 1/6th of her body weight slid away.

Anton honored the deal, gave her the information that the wizard was not at home but did have disguises to get the group through. He then thanks the party and let them know he might see them again at some point in the future, or he might not. But wished them good luck!

We went down the hall to the door, it was locked and Sybil worked the lock until it snapped open – and we all entered. It was a fairly large chamber – 30 x 30, that had been retrofitted as living and working quarters for a single someone. Bed, armoires, table, pantry, chairs, library, some robes. Robes were wizard looking , black and chased in silver and gold. There was a feeling that the person here was elvish, but the furnishing were “whatever” – touched up and bedecked after the fact.

There was a door on the other side of the room, also locked (twist lock from this side). We locked the door and looked around a bit. At some point we had cast for magic and found a few places that had some glowing – but no one wanted to risk touching anything just in case. During all this Shim had parked himself at the wizard’s writing desk and once we came to the conclusion we were going to take nothing and just go out the other door, Shim figured he’d leave the wizard a note detailing that they had come to do some trading but he wasn’t here. And they’d like to try again to get some disguises.

And then as he put the pen down, right below where he had written, SOMEONE else was writing a reply! No pen, just the letters appearing. It was the wizard and he was Busy right now, but wanted to know what they wanted so he can help. Identified himself as “V”.

Shim said this was so damned cool.

What followed was a slow conversation back and forth with some wizard somewhere else and Shim where he did identify he did have some bugbear disguise potions. Would last 3 hours – and should be long enough to get them through the warren. Thought the group was pretty ballsy for doing it. Would also give them the ability to understand and speak Bugbear if need be. We dickered a bit but the wizard was Busy and the more we asked him things, the more curt his replies got.

Shim didn’t want to piss him off and the party elected to buy the potions over Darius’ serious concerns – the bugbear warren was massive and we were sitting ducks there. But being outvoted we all took out coins, paid the wizard (just laid it on the table and the coins disappeared!). He thanked Shim, gave him some Falser rootbeer candy as a thanks once he learned Shim was a gnome, and a hidden compartment under the table opened and we saw about 60 small vials – 3 groups of 20, each marked with a B, a D, or an L. V had told us to take the “B” potions so we did.

From there we drank them down and one by one, we all changed outwardly to bugbears. Our heights remained the same, appearances changed. So the Halfling and gnome appeared as if children. But when you looked at yourself, you saw yourself!

We went to the north door, left, was in a small 10x10 room that had been used as a portal, and then beyond that was a larger room with a DIRT floor – not stone, various bones sticking out. On the walls were some commendation to Hel. We went beyond it to the far door and opened it – to see 9 bugbears here.

And this led to our 3rd wacky conversation of the night. The bugbears were under the impression we were a group that had gotten lost and at some point we turned to Asher and acted as if he knew what this happened. Which then had the bugbears remember that we were Asher and the Runts. Yeah..we know you. What did you do Asher? Why were you gone so long?

And then it got weird. There was a brothel beyond here that we were taken to after some good natured dueling in the hall where first blow landed wins the fight. Asher had to have sex with three of the Bugbears as demanded by the silent gods and he gamely did what we could. But Darius was trying to fill in the “fake” missing gaps and couldn’t come up with a reason for some of the questions – saying that his memory was foggy.

And he was asked How do the silent gods get rid of fog? They blow it away. So he needs to get blown to remember. And one of the women came forward and there was some back and forth and Darius really got into the bugbear mindset, punched the girl in the face for too much talking and demanded a different priestess to the silent gods blow him. And she did.

Sybil and Shim were looked at as the kids of the group, Sybil being the chatty of the two and Shim making growling noises. They were given some candied rat to nibble on and the legend of Asher’s Troupe continued to grow as we fielded other odd and leading questions.

Eventually guards from King Zandark came in and waited from Asher to finish. From here they took us further into the Warrens past some store areas and a smithy until we arrived at a throne room. King Zandark was a giant of a bugbear, bare chested, dressed in pinks and yellow puffy pantaloons, and sporting a 5’ tall black sword against his throne.

He welcomed Asher back, asked how his parents were doing, and then wanted to know about the barrels. Where were they? Asher was very ready and we quickly put together a plan where we would follow a war party out against the Ogres who took the barrels and then bring it back to the King. There were some threads lost in the conversation and King Zandark had to be reset a few times, but we took the mission to…return with the ogre stolen barrels with the mystery stuff inside. Yeah, we’re on it.

The King then beat Asher for a bit until the half-elf admitted he didn’t want to be hit anymore and was not ok, and then he did the same to Darius who also eventually relented. The king was satisfied and we made our way out of here following some guards who lead us through a number of large corridors, a massive chamber well over a hundred feet long with a 30’ tall arched ceiling, with bugbear homes mounted against the ceiling in places. We saw other passages and even a room with some ogres, liazrdmen, and a human..a fucking GHOUL in a cage. Why a ghoul?? According to the bugbear’s there, if someone is badly hurt and needs to have their skin sewed or a spear dug out of them, the cage is lowered and the ghoul scratches that person, paralyzing them so the bugbear Chirurgeon’s can operate.

How…dreadful.

We did get out of the warren and found ourselves in a passage beyond that we then followed to a room with a door on the north wall and a passage that led to a sloping corridor to the left. Rotten bunks, old straw, rancid smell. According to our guess we had under an hour on the potions until it ended . Which way to go?

Sybil seemed hungry and was nibbling a lot. We looked up slope, it was a good 30 degree angle and there was grit, rocks, and … teeth at the base of the slope! Like over a dozen of them – and all canines and molars. … Ok.? Top of the slope was lost in the gloom. Door on the north led to a passage and wound a bit, some light down the hall, and then eventually a long hall going north.

We then decided to summon a monster to check out both halls as we didn’t like either one. So Shim called out and got…a lizard man! But unlike any lizard man we had seen before. Almost 7 1/2’ tall, 400 lbs, plates running down its back, strong and terrible looking. It looked at the group and Shim had it go down the long hall. Before it went, Darius pulled out the lizardman disk we’ve had forever and it was a holy symbol to some lizard god – and the sign was two fingers on one hand and pinky thumb on the other!

The lizardman called Shim “Little food” and did trundle down the hall, calling out what it saw. Long hall, some 80 plus feet, ended at a door, opened to a room with some torch light and a set of stairs going up next to a large number “1”. Hot damned – another way out!!

We then had it come back and then go up the sloped passage (which it did with its clawed feet). 4 way intersection, door on the north. Went through door, small room, Glyph gate here. Um,..Touch glyph – light shot out, but nothing happened.

And then spell ended.

Ok, we decided we were going to work our way up the slope and see what the Glyph gate had for us, knowing that our illusion was only going to last another half hour tops.

Meet 107, Adv 7, 1/4/20

This is the group's first trip back to the Terror Dungeon for quite some time. It's also the 2 new guys at the table try in it as well. This adventure is pretty much them going in and out, with some plot moving on the outside for the rest of the group. There will be a few tweaks along the way, but it should be a dungeon delve from the word go.

Write up follows:

The other group returned from up north where we all discussed what happened, shared stories, swapped information, and met the new recruits. There was training to be taken care of, moneys to be divided up, and eventually – our trip to Bork Keep and the Terror Dungeon.

As the days passed on we discussed who would be going in and who would not, on the assumption that half the group would remain here in Erylond and do what short work we can for the Adventurer’s Guild. It was here that we came to the conclusion that we were going to be short some spots on out roster.

The party wanted to hire a porter and that also meant they wanted to hire a Shieldbearer as well. So we put an ad in with Pha-Iyr Carom and the Facilitator lined up a group for us to interview – 3 of each. We met with the all, asked questions, and came to the conclusion on 2. For the porter we hired a 40 year old woman named Silk Valour. She had a hard and rough life and has portered on and off for a number of years but had been badly wounded on the recent trip in.

She got healthy but without her Journeyman papers as a Cobbler or a Barrelmaker, she could only get menial jobs. So only now that she’s on the last half dozen coppers in her pouch, she put her hat back in the ring and is looking to lend her skills to a group that can use her. She took an advance of 2 nobles for 1 days pay to outfit herself on a few items and would be ready to go on the 30th.

As for the Shieldbearer we hired Menaria Roses, a large and imposing figure of a woman and warrior who came dressed for the job in breastplate, tower shield, and two braces of axes. She had been in the dungeon some 6 times. She had been friends with a leader of another adventuring group for 7 years, actively travelling with them for 4.

She had a falling out with them after things had gotten tense and outright torture was performed on some captured people in the Dungeon. She had words, and there was a parting of ways. Since then she’s been looking for another group to join and we were happy to have her.

Once everyone was in place, we decided who was going to the Terror Dungeon: Sybil, Darius, Connal, Rhygar, Shimlagesh, Asher, Vulwulf, Hjalgrim, Percy, Silk, and Menaria – 11 of us. We then went shopping, loading up on whatever gear we needed or thought we’d need and on the 30th of Deathmonth, loaded out sleighs in the morning and set off in the cold 10 degree temperature on our way.

We passed through Canaslan, deciding NOT to stop for now, and pushed on, making it to the far end of the border and thenceward to Bork Keep. The knight’s brigade rode out to make sure all was good, and we made our way to the Keep itself. There were 5 other adventuring parties here right now from what we were told. We parked our belongings in Visitor’s Hall One and then made our presence known to Lord Corface Bork.

In the hall was a very battered and beaten dwarf, swaddled in bandages and resting. We slept well and the next morn woke up, loaded up provisions, and wanted to wait for the stairs to migrate to entrance “2”. It was 11:35 when we approached the doors, gave our name to the girl at the desk, and the two dwarves manning the portal pulled on the chains and revealed the passage going down into the dark.

One by one, we entered, an earthy dank smell coming out along with the faint inrushing of air. Torches lit we continued down until we arrived at long last down the spiraling steps to the entrance room. There were 4 main passages out, a slow burn torch, a side door, and looking down the southeast passage, a pile of loose off white rags.

Sybil made sure the place was clear before inviting the rest of the group down. The party staying together, weapons and spells at the ready. Not trusting the rags, she prodded them aside and seeing another small batch to the end of the side “T” junction (that we did NOT want to go down), the party all drew in close.

She informed us that we were going to pass through the room with the 4 armed ogre skeleton. Touch nothing, don’t dawdle, keep going. Do not stop – loiters will set off the noise trap. She checked the door, confident it was ready, and opened the door.

30’ square room, alcove on the other side with another door closed, 9’ tall 4 armed skeleton figure in the center. It was time to go. We ran through the chamber as she gave the other door the quickest of glances, threw it open, and we all pushed our way into the next chamber. Roughly the same size, there was a 7’ tall statue of a trout in here, made of brass, and had a half dozen bashes in it as if made by a battle axe. The ceiling rose to 15’ in height and there were 2’ tall stalactites and stalagmites.

As the last of us passed through we could feel the wind starting and we slammed the door and waited…and the wind died down – trap averted.

In the room we were in, there was a passage out to the north that led to a short hall going west and a single door on the north wall. But we could hear water dripping in here – but the area was dry. A Phosphorous fungi was growing on the walls that Vulwulf let us know needed moisture to thrive, but again, place had no visible water but we could HEAR water dripping.

We checked out the statue and even had Shim lifted up to peer in the mouth of the fish – in the back of the mouth was a hole about an inch and a half in diameter. We rapped on the fish, sounded thick walled but hollow. Eventually a brass bit was tossed into the mouth hole…it rattled down and we heard it stop with a faint jingle…and the dripping sound stopped.

Nice.

Sybil gave the north door a once over for traps, confident that there were none, and we opened the door with care.

Again, ceiling was still 15’, rough walls, some stalagmites, but growing from the ceiling down, about 6’ long, were waves and waves of rippling pale hay. Growing upside down. And there was a pile of the hay in the southwest corner, almost 5’ tall and covering a good 300 square feet easily. A door was on the opposite side of the room. Briefly we thought about going in, but the rippling hay growing overhead, dense and undulating, made the party uneasy so the decision was to shut the door.

We were talking about heading west to another large chamber, but Sybil let us know she could faintly see the skeletal remains of something on the floor in there.