One hell of a fight with a series of ghouls where it worked out that every party member was eventually paralyzed by the ghouls - and only the passage of time had the 1st 1 paralyzed finally able to act as his wore off as the last one was affected. Youths and I had a wonderful encounter here.
Follows:
A detect evil let the group know that nothing was here as of yet, but we would hopefully get an alert before Lareth and his followers would show. The group moved the bookcase across the chamber and then lifted the huge countertop near the south east door to act as a barrier for the fighters to stand behind. Still feeling clear, the party opted to look in the far south west door first – showing a narrow closet like room with maybe 30 skins of water (?) on pegs hung around the chamber.
The central door was opened and had a scree of stones fall out, but more importantly, a rope slithered up and then through a hole in the wall! Almost right after we heard the sound of falling metals and bells. Alarm! “Burn those books now!”
Two flasks of oil were poured on the books dumped in the room with the flasks and they were lit as the group got together spells and weapons at the ready.
But coming through the door 2 minutes later was not Lareth and his people – but one, two, three ghouls! And the necro-ghoul as well! Not quite ready for this fight (thinking we were going to fight Lareth), the party scrambled to make the best of it. Ophelia called to Athena to help turn the ghouls – but her prayers were not strong enough to repel the flesh eaters. Magic missiles and arrows fired and then the lead ghoul closed to the barrier.
And Furd answered the call. The Half-ogre ran out to meet him, sword swinging, sailing over the ghoul’s head and missing twice before the undead returned the assault – ripping into the fighter. And paralyzing him! Furd! Elmo shot his crossbow as the group cursed long and hard. Albert summoned a handful of flying beetles to distract the necro-ghoul and Aredhel fired off a disrupt undead spell, stripping some flesh off the lead undead.
The next ghoul leapt onto the barrier and struck Elmo three times, eventually getting through his armor and then paralyzing him! Elmo!
With both main fighters out more magic missiles were shot and the Necro ghoul staggered from the impact – she returned the favor by firing a darkness spell at Albert – blinding the bearded wizard and everyone within 20’ The dark was countered by a light spell and Albert had a weird strobe effect going over his head as we could all see again – and see a ghoul had closed to us!
Albert summoned another creature – getting Jimmy the kobold who attacked the Necro ghoul while Ophelia buried her enchanted sword, Grace, into the wounded ghoul – killing it! Huzzah! For return, the next ghoul struck Ophelia and the cleric to Athena was frozen. Ophelia!
Aredhel was having problems getting her spells to land and Jimmy found himself paralyzed as well. Jimmy! Another magic missile shot off and the necro ghoul opted to flee – leaving the last ghoul to continue to assault the group. Through the door Furd could see Lareth’s people finally coming and he was grunting and moaning in fear. Albert raced across the room as Pestle was paralyzed next, Pestle!, and shot off a hold portal spell at the door – slamming it closed and locking it in spectral chains a few minutes. “Guys!”
Rowan fired off another arrow and the ghoul was wounded even more. Aredhel suffered a series of attacks and the half elf was paralyzed next. Aredhel! 5 of the 7 party members were now frozen and the door was about to be bashed open. Albert had tried to knock Furd backwards into the door, hoping to block it with his body, but couldn’t budge the fighter. Instead Albert tore the hold portal spell from his book and read it aloud – sacrificing the spell but once again rewrapping the door in spectral chains for another precious few minutes. Rowan fired again, hurting the ghoul but was struck in return, also paralyzed! Rowan!
Albert and the ghoul faced off as we could hear Lareth’s people trying to pound the door open. The wizard dodged to the side but was hit hard and was frozen in place – also paralyzed!!. Albert. 7 for 7!
THEN – it had been 10 rounds, and Furd…could move! Hearing the door about to give way, the half ogre picked up the 8’ long huge 400# plus counter and SWUNG it. The ghoul ducked under, but the counter finished its swing and slammed into the door, jamming it closed still for now!
And then the ghoul leapt upon Furd and tore at him again…paralyzing Furd again! NO!!!
And then again…it had been 10 rounds…and ELMO…could move! The fighter took aim with his cross bow and shot…striking the ghoul and finally killing it! With no time to spare, he ran around the room grabbing every chair, desk, table, and case he could find and piled it in front of the doorway to slow down Lareth. As he was doing that, the rest of the party one at a time regained the ability to move and helped out, before opting to get the hell out of here. Each of us was wounded, some of us terribly, as we ran from this room (again) and then off to the north.
We opted to go east from here to the old bugbear area, hoping the ghoul we had turned hours ago had gone…and hopes that Lareth and his people would imagine we went up to the surface again.
We were hurt, and the pile of healing potions we had just gotten were used as well as a number of spells from Ophelia and Rowan. Pestle and Albert studied a few spells just to make sure we were ready before we decided it was time. Our hope was that Lareth’s people might be out wandering around looking for us, making the leader alone for now. We hoped.
It was almost 4 PM on the 12th of Restmonth when we started the walk back. Eyes peeled and weapons ready, we knew the necro ghoul was still about as well as a single ghoul. We made it back to the main chamber and noted a few things. The books had burned (over half), but some seemed to be missing. Also, the skins of water were all missing. Weird. We went through the south west door and there was a faint “fishy” smell to the air. The passage also split, south and south west. Furd was sure that Lareth’s people came from the south west (no fishy smell that way), so we went.
The passage was pretty long, at least 70’ and ended at a door. Normally a guard area, but was currently unmanned. Nice. Through it we could see a long passage that went west quite some distance (maybe outside?) and a door on the north wall. Spying a deck of cards, Furd took them and we all went north. As we travelled we could hear some conversation up ahead and we tried to sneak up. Even though we did make a little noise, whoever was up there wasn’t paying attention.
We came to a sitting room. Fireplace, a few low chairs and benches. Well armored guy talking to 2 lesser armored guys. We quickly spaced out and then charged in. Furd took one down swiftly and the party ganged up on the other guard and then eventually the sergeant. They were surprised by our attack and could not prepare for it, quickly overwhelmed and then put down. Hoorah.
Rowan updated his club to a morning star (thanks Sergeant!) and we checked the north passage, quiet and ready to move on.
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