Not wanting to leave just yet, we opted to wait in the secret room for now until we could hear the gargoyles pass by. We discussed what we’d like to see happen next (locate stairs down) and figured we had 2 hours or so tops as per Shimlagesh (who also reminded the party that he was running low on spells). It was some 10 minutes later that we heard the heavy treads of the returning ‘Goyles…and we waited another 10 minutes just to be sure.
Finally we emerged and looking both ways, decided to head north. The passage opened up to a decent sized chamber with a 6 count of wide trunked but shortened subterranean trees growing from the stone floor and hitting the ceiling 20’ above, twisting around and growing back down. The floor was a mix of crushed rock and thick soil. And numerous prints had gone through it – the latest seeming the ‘Goyle’s prints as well as some ogre prints. On more alert, we opted to continue onward, eyes peeled. We lit another torch here and refilled the lantern as well.
“We should get torches when we get out of here,” Brendon suggested.
“Maybe an eventual trip back to Paxian would be in order I would think,” was suggested.
We continued north here where a door at the end of the hall looked like it had been beaten in, the passage turning left. Thon went close enough to let us know there were no heat sources in the chamber and it smelled a bit …caustic? Leave it for now. Let’s go left.
The passage ended some 30 paces later at a “T”, running north and south – with north having the faint echoing noises of ogrish voices talking. “Do we want to face Ogres?” Asher asked.
“The Captain has a point,” Darius agreed, looking at his map.
“ “Map” “
“Who said that?” The slinger asked, getting a number of blank faces in return, the gnome touching his nose and saying, “Not it.” Shaking his head, he rolled up his paper and said, “South might lead us back in the direction of Entrance 2. I suggest that way.”
We went down to a chamber that had a double thick reinforced door – showing many signs of an attempt to bust it open. A good listen let us know it was quiet on the other side, not trapped, “And the door opens away from us as well as not being locked, “ Thon added.
“You’re being real helpful these last few days,” Asher noted, getting a blank smile and shrug from the half-orc. “Ok, let’s see if the door is still held closed from the other side.”
And Connal turned the knob…and it opened; making the monastic laugh.
It was some sort of bedroom private chamber. A look around reminded the group that it might have been a safe single room like “V” has near the bugbears. But it had been ransacked in the past. On the back of the door in chalk, someone had said that the room can be used as a safe chamber but to put the bar in place – it’s repelled ogres in the past. Sure enough the back of the door had a deep iron set of clamps set up and there was a 5’ long 4” x 6” length of wood that could be used as a brace. Nice.
We spent some time looking for secret doors, finding none. So we decided to head back as it was already 11:30. Thon went ahead relying on infravision but the half-orc (WMC yes and successful listen check) thought he heard something around the corner near the caustic room and we all hissed, “Grue?” bringing the lantern and torch up fast. And sure enough, flapping heavy feet retreated away. We turned the corner and looked and infravision did pick up really big bare foot prints on the floor. “Yep, Grue.”
“We are good,” Darius said, “Put Thon in danger and then immediately got him out of it.”
“Um…thanks?” The Fighter thief said.
“Our pleasure.”
“So horrible.” Asher was looking around and sighed. “Let’s let the Grue get a bit ahead. Shall we check out this chamber then?” he asked, pointing at the door on the north wall. A review of the chamber’s door showed that it had been most likely busted open from inside the chamber out to the hall. “Someone really wanted to leave.”
Still sure it was ok, we entered with care and looked around.
“Yeah. Not for us,” Darius muttered.
There were remains of 7 adventurers in here, skeletal, the bones and equipment melted looking in places. There were also the skeletal remains of a 60’ snake in here, mixed in with and around the adventurers. We spent some time looking about and came to the conclusion a few things. The Snake was most likely squirting some sort of acid. It was also a constrictor and evidence by at least 3 of the adventurers crushed under the coiled bones. And this was a terrible terrible fight.
“Ok, new rule. Any room with giant acid spitting snakes is not a room we need to clear. Hands?” Pretty much everyone agreed.
Asher was rubbing his chin. “Door is busted out of here, right? Like someone was escaping?”
“Yep,” Thon agreed.
“Bet he didn’t make it far.”
“Let’s move it people,” Darius pointed out the room. “Time to go.”
The group went south through the tree room, to the secret door, through that room and out the other secret chamber to the dwarven god’s room. From there Shim cast an Open spell on the one way secret door and we all stepped through heading down the hall where normally a slow burn torch would be burning. But wasn’t. It was out.
And then we heard someone walking up slowly and chatting with someone else. One was slow and spoke simply, the other was obviously smarter and spoke eloquently. And then they stopped as we stayed there in the dark. Some sniffing followed and the smarter one said, “We can smell you, yes? Half elf, gnome, dwarf, half orc, humans. We don’t want to fight with you, ok. We’re on a schedule and honestly don’t want any issues.”
“Um, ok?”
“Adventurers! How exciting, it’s been weeks!” And coming around the corner was a giant sized head, and then another. They saw us and waved and said, “Now don’t be alarmed.”
And out stepped an Ettin. Walking a bit hunched over, would be a notch around 11’ tall, and well over 2,000 lbs. Its clothes were split between well made and tailored on one side to seriously worn out and filthy on the other. “My name is Horatio,” the smarter head said, pointing to its opposite side and added, “And this is Grunt.”
“HI!!!!” Grunt said.
Using a sparker, Horatio clipped the top of the torch on the wall where the burnt section seemed to regenerate and then lit up. “Well, now that that’s done. Let’s get a look at you all.” Followed was a strange conversation with a 2 headed monster whose job it is to light all the torches on the 1st 3 levels of the Terror Dungeon. They wouldn’t give anything away but Darius did manage to trick it to revealing the stairs down were to the south of the Gargoyle room. Nice. We did share some alcohol with it and it let us know that if we wanted a bit of renown and notoriety, we could take out the Gargoyle King. He’s a bit undead now and has an enchanted axe, and the other gargoyles have him trapped in the room marked with the “pain” sign. Brading was excited for the chance to go there and we had to convince the young dwarf that we’d get there. Soon. Not today. Soon though.
Horatio and Grunt moved on and we wished them well, the Ettins continuing on their way to light the next torch. We pressed on to the Entrance 2, ran up the stairs, and rang the Chime – spinning the exits about until it settled above us. We knocked, the doors were opened , and we left the Terror Dungeon at 12:20 AM.
Success.
We checked in with Mara, and then made our way to the Visitors hall. We banked the fire, stripped down, and went to much needed sleep.
The next day, Restmonth the 22nd, had us wake up and feel good. We wanted to go back in, using Entrance 2, and head off to the stairs down. We prayed, studied, and ate breakfast. Darius went over the books with Kira and they narrowed down the dead humans we took from the over to either being hirelings from the Chosen of Asgard or the Warriors Four. He wrote a missive that would be brought back via post eventually to Agrosility and given to Pha-iyr Carom. We did some shopping, paying a bit of a premium but getting a few needed items (torches!) and Brading having his battle axe looked at and fixed up.
“If we were to kill the Gargoyle king I could save some money and just take his magic axe. You know, thinking ahead.”
“Not yet, Brading. Soon.”
“Ready when you all are.”
It was 11:30 when we all once more reconvened at the entrance and went down again, Coming in to the dungeon around Entrance 2. There was a cold current of air running from our knees down. And the smell of manure was pungent as well. We moved with care through the area, coming around where the giant sundew in the pit was (lots of dead flies here as well – killed by the cold?), and then through the 1 way door. From there it was to the secret room and then from there to the other side.
“Ok, Gargoyles. Talking? Fighting? Or what?”
We discussed options and decided on just walking through. Confidence. Like we were supposed to be there. Last time we were furtive, unsure, and backtracked. So we squared up and did just that, walking through the gargoyle chamber with almost a swagger. And it worked.
Once through we went to the far end, turned south, smelled more manure, and saw 3 huge long piles of it. 6’ long, 2’ wide, and maybe 8” deep. Ugh. The room beyond here was pretty big but there had been signs that some sort of major fight occurred here. Lightning score marks, at least 5 or 6, were burned in the floor. A portcullis on the west end of the room had been torn open. The reek of ozone had been burned into the stones. Another passage went south but we went to the portcullis area to check it out.
And saw more lighting bursts had occurred in this smaller chamber. 2 of them were so intense, they burned a shadow in the wall of at least 2 different figures. Seeing nothing else and no stairs, we avoided the shit piles and went south, looking around as the passage turned west, and from there…more manure and then a passage of steps going down!!
It was a bit before 1 and we decided to go…just to take a look, you know? So we went down the stairs some 60’, until it opened up to a chamber down here. The room was pretty big and we could see a passage north. But something was in the room here and we were not sure what it was. So we came up with a few ideas, eventually settling on Shim summoning something to go and look.
And a Lizardman appeared! He had it go around and to the south and then tried to go under the stairs, where there were LOTS of whipping noises and eventually the lizardman stopped moving. Ok. Go back? Go on? Whatever was down here sounded like it was eating. So Connal chanced entering the room, heading NORTH, and avoiding the back of the stairs going right for the exit and then looked back.
And saw 3 Carrion Crawlers had paralyzed the lizardman and were eating small circles of flesh from its legs. There were also a half dozen plus boxes and crates here to be shipped either up or down throughout the dungeon. As long as we didn’t approach the Crawlers, they seemed content to leave us alone. We all joined the Monastic in the hall and looked both directions. We settled on heading east and then north – as there was a faint odor of alcohol in that direction.
We went a short distance to a room with a few doors set up on sawhorses, a few benches. Some chipped and poor looking bottles and cups, a spike in the floor with a 6’ ragged rope attached to it. 2 other ways out – East and north. As we entered we could hear really poor ghostly slow and pathetic tavern music coming from somewhere. There was a stone bowl on the table with the word “Tips” on a sign above it, and a single copper piece within. Taking a chance, Connal dropped a copper in and a cup lifted wobbling in the air and made its way, so slowly to his hand. He took a drink. It was some really poor tasting ale. But it did get better as he drank it.
Asher did the same, getting a glass of wine, and Darius eventually got a mug or beer. As you drank it, it started off really poor but got better as you finished it. There was a crude dart board on the wall and 3 darts spilled out of the air. When someone else mentioned they’d like to play, another 3 darts absently fell out of the air. We threw it at the board, and there were some real anemic “yeas” in the distance. The entire thing was ghostly, quaint, and also sad in some way.
By this time Connal was looking around for more to possibly do when the rope lifted off the ground. He took it, looked up and said, thanks, and then pulled it.
And we all felt a jerk and jump, sliding through a dimensional rift and appearing in the exact same room – but MUCH better and livelier. The proprietor was a hulking ogre sized individual with a huge long brow and eyes set at each end like a hammerhead shark. “Bout time you all made it,” he smiled. “Welcome to the Terror Tavern! I’m the Tavernkeeper and you are all welcome here!
There were ogres and bugbears here as well, all drinking and laughing. Someone was playing a lute real well. The bar wench was a hideous looking ogress but the rest of the tavern patrons thought she was attractive. This was a safe area and there was NO fighting here. Limit to 1 hour and then the hour glass runs out and you return to the Terror Dungeon. The Ogres were happy to chat with us and the bugbears thought Asher was almost a demi-god, his exploits legendary. We joked and laughed and drank – the food and alcohol was really good. But at the end of the hour as others had left and then it was our turn, we emerged back in the Terror Dungeon (it was a bit after 2 PM) with the knowledge that once per day, if need be, we could come to here and get a moment of respite.
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