Temple of Elemental Evil - Meet 32, 5/17/23

The group was torn between more exploring and going back for some hirelings/henchmen. Decided to go back, train a bit, and hire some people. Good call!

Follows (Sorry, no pics this time):

After some discussion, we opted to leave. Maybe go to the Tower and rest up, but we’ve done a good exploration of the greater Temple for now. We wanted to maybe talk about some further training, set up the wizards for a mage’s test, and possibly hire a thief if we could before going deeper into the Temple. So we worked our way to the exit corridor when we heard voices down there. Snarling and murmuring. Damn it – Ophelia confirmed it along with Pestle and Albert – ghouls. And more than 1 easily.

So we drew ourselves up and the thought was to hit the corner hard and then go on through, but the ghouls were closing and…they were armed! Three of them had shields standing in front at the ready, 2 with clubs, and one with a crossbow that was shot as Pestle – knocking the gnome to the ground. Damn it – everyone got behind a column as we hoped to goad them to come in – but they were wily – and knew about the cage trap – so stayed back and loaded up again.

We then came up with the half dress/on fire/ tied to a spear/flame burst version of great plans – and it worked! The ones in the front were battling the flames while Furd hurled one of the nickel bowling balls at them, making the lead one splinter his shield. With only 1 missile weapon on their end and not wanting to risk the cage trap, the ghouls were surprising to us in their decision to withdraw – showing more cunning and thought than we were comfortable with.

At this point, we wanted out so we drew up with Torrand and Furd in the front, and then the rest of the group behind. And we jogged down the hall, engaging 2 ghouls that were at the corner and waiting for us! As the 2 fighters struggled against the undead, the rest of the group hit the corner and turned south, running. Once everyone was clear, the two of them disengaged and ran after the rest of the party, Torrand’s new bracelet preventing him from being paralyzed. Thanks Furd!

Pestle shot off a Mirror Image spell in case things went horribly, and the group could hear MORE ghouls giving chase – the number now swelling to 9. We ran south the next intersection, turned west, and hit the stairs at over 12 mph, legs pumping and arms reaching as we raced up them, the ghouls not too far behind. Once up to the priest’s room, we ran out the door, Albert already casting, finishing his spell a split instant after Torrand and Furd ran from of the portal, slamming it closed. It immediately sealed up in place, a deep red and silver glow coming from it. “Three minutes people!” Sir Albert of Blackstaff shouted out, spurring the group to run on.

We ran through the temple, the nave, and the vestibule, hitting the main doors out about the same time that echoing crashes from in the Cathedral let us know the ghouls were no longer held by the ensorcelled door. We ran across the grounds, leaping over brush and roots, the cry of Ravens chasing us as we charged through the Uskfruit grove and then finally the Tower.

Once there we exhaustedly entered and decided yes, we are going back to Nulb for now. Torrand was invited, but we didn’t know if he could come, and how that would work. He went to his room, came out and relocked the door and we left, heading north and west. Pestle used her new Figurine to summon a horse, feeling pretty good sitting in its saddle. Once at the area that we had hacked our way through, we made it out of the Temple grounds and back to the Gnarley Woods.

Torrand had some sort of coughing fit, almost making his fall over, weird smoke was billowing off his back, nose, eyes, and ears, and then he stood up and was able to talk. He was Sir Torrand Feywind and he and his troupe had been hired to escort a group of scholars and merchants southward to Hommlet maybe 6 or 7 months ago when they were waylaid and lured off course, eventually overrun and brought to the Temple Grounds. Since then he has been doing his best to survive, and his older memories of the Temple are a jumble, but the last week were still clear, as well as any time before he was on the grounds. He has a family, wife, and kids.

We agreed to go back to Nulb and he’d head home, let everyone know he was fine, and then return here in 2 weeks and rejoin them for the same rate: 10 crowns/day plus a share of the treasure. It took us 4 hours to get back to Nulb, Pestle loving her steed, learning that it could ride across water as we rode through the river here and it ran across the top. Albert gave a withering glower and offered an ill meaning, “Very nice.”

It was 9 PM when we arrived back at the College at Nulb and then eventually a meeting with Shev Jackson. We were given leave to stay on campus tonight and would meet with the 4 heads tomorrow to share what we had learned. We also spoke with the Viscountess’s man, Eela, catching him up to speed. Finally we paid a portion of the funds we owed to the Church of St Cuthbert: 13 crowns, 18 nobles, and 40 coppers – leaving us with about 8,485 crowns to go. Ugh

We rested and after getting dispensation to study, some of us spoke with Percy Threecoppers about our mage’s tests. He arranged to have it done during the next 2 weeks while others spoke to Tricia Ferris about hiring a thief if possible. She arranged for us to meet with 3 of them to interview and we had a nice meet with 2 of them so far. Still much to do before we go back out there and 2 weeks pass quickly.

Meet 54, Adv 11, 5/13/23

Plantmoth the 29th and the group was going to go across South Wind Lake to the caves there, and find not only the Desmondian Diamond, but also the remains of the Benson Trimend’s group and their gear – which we would then use to go back to Wendover and get our original gear again. In order to do that, we would need some equipment now – and for that, Benson went over what stores and gear he or others had here in Nobleton to equip the party with.

It was a surprising amount of items – leather and chain, shields, helms, swords, spears, even a crossbow. We discussed who would be taking what and it was here that Darius pulled Rhygar aside and let the young half-orc know that he was not going to go on this trip. Rhygar didn’t understand and spelled out why he’d be a help on this adventure – and he had been on the other ones as well, but Darius was pretty firm about it. This was not his fight and he could not risk the young valet to falling victim. Eventually, he had to make it an order – a fact that rubbed Rhygar very much the wrong way. He agreed to it, but you could tell that the 2 of them were going to further discuss this when Darius came back.

While we were outfitting ourselves, we also had the idea to send all we learned in a note back to the rest of the party in Erylond. So we wrote it down and addressed to the rest of the Vanguards of Ragnarok. Sail let us know that post goes about once a week to Paxian and then it goes out from there. Nothing now obviously with the Canaslanian Chickens at the gates – but the gnome promised to send it off when the coast was clear and the caravan returns. We hoped to be home long before the note arrives there – but in case things go wrong – this would be a good second.

By 10:30 we were ready to go and loaded into the rowboat before shoving off and rowing. And it was obvious that this was not going to go well. Grendel and Darius were the main rowers and it took almost 9 minutes before they achieved any sort of rhythm and pulled with some skill away from the shore and northward. The rowing was hard, the breeze blowing that way helped, but it still took the better part of an hour and then some to reach the rocky shore on the other side. Grendel hurt his arm during the long rowing and would need some time to rest once we arrived at the beach.

We dragged the boat up and took the shore and area in. The wind was a constant here and it has carved the south facing hills here into a long slope, 500 feet plus tall. Scattered stones and grasses and wildflowers abounded. There were 5 obvious caves over here, and we had been warned that the Rooster, Rikki Kawa, makes his home over here somewhere.

We looked around, spotting violets growing everywhere. We went up slope and down beach, checking a cave for any signs of chicken prints – and finding none. We discussed which cave to go to, thinking the beastie, dragon? Would be at a higher or more distant cave. The counter argument was that Desmond, a priestly Seer had come to this area to hide the diamond, so he would not go to the most difficult cave if he felt he was being followed. So we went off to the closest one – maybe 200 feet west and perhaps 70’ off the ground level.

Grendel’s arm was better by now so we headed off to the cave, talking about what we were going to do and how to do it when there was a weird stutter and we were all standing back at the boat at the beach.

What?

Did we teleport? Nope, we could see our tracks coming down from the hill, through the dirt, across the sand and stones and ending here. Alright. We tried it again, eyes peeled and watching with care as we got closer to the cave…stutter…back at the boat.

Ok, did anyone see what happened now? Eoghan was pretty sure we were about a good hundred feet from the cave that time, and Wilhelm thought there was something different about the flowers up there. So we got closer and once there, Shim volunteered to go closer and we watched as he walked right up to the area, turned and started walking back. Darius tossed a rock at the gnome's head and we had to get in his way to stop him before his vision cleared and he looked around, asking why his head hurt.

Ok – it can be broken. We got closer and Wilhelm was sure the other purple flowers up here were not just violets, but Forget-me-nots as well. Did they have something to do with it? Once more an attempt was made to get to the cave and at 100’ they turned around but now when we stopped in front of them and they “saw” us – they did not go all the way to the boat. Alright – we were closer. Grendel offered to jump, running at the “100’” mark and then leaping into the air, and tripping amongst the flowers. And he stopped turning around. Seems he had ripped up some of the Forget me nots and that allowed him to pass on through. We gathered up handfuls of it and Shim plaited it for us, making sure we were carrying it as we stepped through the area – and kept going. Alright! To the caves.

It was about quarter to 2 when we came to the cave. 15’ wide, 9’ tall. Dirty and smelled a bit. We went in with care and realized that it got dark after 20 odd paces. Wilhelm fired off a light spell on a rock and we moved on. As we went further in, cave sloped down faintly, running straight for the most part. An odd hissing was ahead of us when through a faint jog to the right in the passage, we could see a larger chamber with 4 lizardlike creatures in it, eating various vermin and moss and lichen. They were red of skin with few patches of scales. The 2 smaller ones were very fast and about 6’ in length. The next larger was a 10’ in length and more vicious looking. And the last was easily 15’ long and had to be a few hundred pounds.

Wilhelm and Eoghan let us know they were most likely drakelings, maybe resistant to fire of some sort and distantly related to dragons. Full sized ones are over 20’ in length and get that size after 5 years. Our gut, spawn of the beastie that took out Benson’s party. We came to the passage cant and tried to entice them to come to us. But the drakelings only ran forward to a certain point then stopped and hissed at us. Why? Looking back, Eoghan guessed they were 100’ from the cave entrance and are subject to the repulsion effect we felt outside – except from the other way. Most likely why the dragonkin or Lord Emberia never left over the last 3 plus years.

We started off with sling stones and spears, wounding the hell out of the 2 youngest drakelings – especially that we realized they could run up the walls and on the ceiling. They ran to the back of the cave and left, allowing us to close to melee and do battle with the 2 larger drakelings, the larger one taking quite a number of hits before it fell over. We regrouped, came to the corner of the cavern, and save the smaller drakelings were gone. Back in marching order, we moved on.

Passage narrowed a bit but stayed tall until we came to a larger chamber. The floor was a shattered mess of rough edged chasms going down 20’ to the gloom. There were some places to leap across along the way. SO we gave Connal one end of the rope we had while Darius held the other end, and the monk jumped all the way across to the other side, carrying Shimlagesh to ferry the gnome easily over.

Once there, it was dark, the light was on the other side with the party, so Shim was on watch with Infravision while Connal held the rope high and taut on his end, Darius doing it on our side. Grendel offered to cross first, holding the rope for balance and aid – and stepped off.

Missing his mark and dangling over the chasm leg kicking until he managed to get purchase again. What the hell? Stuff it, I got it! Grendel tried again – and this time was able to navigate his way from one side to the other. Helped over to Connal and Shim he sighed and nodded thanks. Sword out, the two of them kept watch while on the other side, Wilhelm was ready to go.

Got the rope? Yep. Can you see the step to that side? Yep. Feeling confident? Got it! The elven druid stepped out, missed the edge, let go of the rope, and fell 20 feet down the pit, managing to twist his body in time so that he didn’t impale himself on the sharpened rock spars below. Fucking damn it! You ok? No..Yes…No. Fuck! Wilhelm looked about and sighed, dusting himself off. “I’m going to just walk along the bottom here to the other side, send Eoghan across!”

Meanwhile, all the noise attracted the 2 smaller drakelings back who were running across the ceiling and dove down to bite at Shim and Grendel. The two of them held their own as Connal held the rope for Eoghan, the Ranger making his pass along. A few scratches and bites before the drakelings were turned into paste. Once over to our side, Connal gave his end of the rope to Grendel, skipped back to Darius’ side, and held the rope there. The fighter then made his way back over to everyone else and the monk skipped and leaped his way over again.

Finally we lowered the rope down the pit for Wilhelm, making sure not to rub the shard edge of the pit, and hoisted the elven druid back up.

Alright. Had to be about 2:30 when we went on, Wilhelm letting us know we had about half the light spell still remaining. The passage went on for a while to a large chamber, 60’ by 50” It was dark, and the light spell seemed to be less intense in here. Infravision also showed the room was cold, easily 15 to 20 degrees colder than the rest of the area. We didn’t want to just walk in, no one trusted it. So we decided to go back for a drakeling and try to throw it in. Grendel and Connal went one, two, three. And the drakeling went about 4’ in and sat there.

Damn it. We risked reaching in and grabbing in, the two men talked about exactly how to throw it, and then aiming a bit away from the direction we wanted to go, arced back and let it fly – much better. 10 to 15’ in and it stopped. We were watching it for a bit, not sure what was going on, discussing hugging the wall or straight through when a 15’ diameter  patch of darkness fell from the ceiling and engulfed the fallen drakeling! It convulsed around it, biting it from underneath, before it disengaged and went back to the ceiling again.

Darius was a big proponent of how much this sucked and not going in like that. So we got the 2nd drakeling, took aim, and hurled it in. And after almost a minute, the Cloaker fell from the ceiling 20’ up and hit the other drakeling. We moved, single file weapons out, at full pace. But the 3rd of us in marching order had a bit of misfortune as a 2nd Cloaker fell down and hit…Darius! (of course!)

A patch of blackness with 4 sets of teeth on the underside and numerous red eyes tried to engulf the fighter who had his shield up, keeping it off his face. We swung and stabbed at it, some of our blows telegraphing through the Cloaker to hurt Darius! Shim’s magic missile spell was the most effective, ripping through the Cloaker alone. Darius took a number of bites and it whipped its tail around, slapping at Shim in the process. But when it tried to let go and fly back up to the ceiling, Darius held on the edges and pulled back, the entire Cloaker billowing and snarling like a living parachute. “Hit the fucking thing!”

With it not on the fighter, the party shot and slammed and tore at the Cloaker, Connal and Eoghan nothing the 1st Cloaker was done biting the drakeling and was going back to the ceiling. The one we were struggling with was getting badly hurt and it tried to wrap around Darius again before we finally landed the killing blow. Holding on to it like a blanket, Darius and the rest of the party ran out of the room.

Back in the hall, some healing was dispensed and we decided, fuck this, let’s kill the other one. So we coaxed it down with a summon monster spell and as it dropped on the bait, we ran in and stood ON the Cloaker! Stabbing, slashing, and cutting. IT tail whipped about hard but in its poor position, it was easy enough for the party to finally finish it off.

Alright!

We were talking about going further in or not. We were a bit broken and beat up, and Shim was pretty low on spells. But we had no torches, no food, no water, no bedrolls. Nothing. Do we row back across the lake? It was almost 3. Going through our assets, we figured that Eoghan and Shim could make some cuts of the drakelings from the first room palatable. As for water, Wilhelm could create 8 gallons of it. Yeah we had no blankets or bedrolls but it was worth the risk of a terrible night sleep to stay here. As for fire, Wilhelm was willing to Log of Everburning some branches if we could get them – which would burn longer and hotter – 4 hours.

A few of us, armed with our held Forget Me Nots, risked combing the slopes for branches, driftwood, dried grasses and kindling.  We set up a camp near the mouth of the cave, well beyond the 100’ line inside the cave where the “Beastie” and others within can’t seem to pass. We ate the drakeling meat after it had cooked enough, tasteless but filling. We drank what water Wilhelm made and the party rested, doing their best in the rough conditions to get some sleep.

We awoke the next day and it was cold. The fire had gone out, and it was drizzling – temperate barely going to be 45 today. All of us were sore and achy from the hard ground but rested enough to get some health back. Except for Darius and Eoghan – the two of them did NOT have a good night’s sleep and their attitude was abrasive and curt today. Wilhelm poured out whatever spells he had left, offering some healing to the group that needed it before he prayed once more and eventually got his spells back.

It was 8:30 AM on Plantmonth the 30th and we felt we were ready enough to go back in and take down the Beastie, get the treasures, and find the Desmondian Diamond.