Icemonth the 3rd, 11:45. We doled out a little healing (like just enough) before we moved ourselves around the sanctuary in order to surprise the next ogre who we assumed would be right along. By 3 PM, we were stiff, bored, and frustrated – the ogre did not come and we did not want to meet him on his location or terms. We decided – there is another door in here – let’s move on. The half-orc agreed to carry the paralyzed Halfling for now.
The door was rechecked one more time (no traps or sounds) before we forced it open. It was at one point the monastery’s library – but was now in terrible repair. 3 walls of shelves with remains of books and assorted garbage, and a mound in the middle of the floor at least 6’ wide and almost 2’ tall in the center. The gnome fired a couple of sling stones at it, expecting to see some rats jump out – but nothing. There was another door on the east wall, south of the door we are entering.
We came in, lit 2 torches, and split up, a few hung by the 2 doors, a third went to check the shelves, and the last third looked over the garbage pile. We did stumble upon an ivory tube that took 4 of us to unscrew – revealing 4 clerical scrolls (detect magic, 2 CLW, and a bless). Otherwise everything else was pretty much a mess. We went to the east door and after some doing, got it open.
Was the dining room. Would seat 60, many long trestle tables and benches. Covered in yellowish-green mold. The smell was heady. There was as door on the south side of the west wall, and 2 door across on the east wall. The decision by the druid was don’t touch the damned mold! Good advice.
We went to the closer door first, Nevah the gnome leading the way. There was a faint cool breeze coming from the gap below. We did enter though. It was a novitiate barracks. Would sleep 60. Wooden pallets for sleeping and a few boxes. Place had been tossed and the few windows on the south wall – 8” wide, and 2 and a half feet tall, two panes of glass, had been busted some time ago – right now snow and cold were blowing in, making the room unpleasant. We gave a short look over and then decided we were done.
Back to the dining room we crossed the hall to the other side and (we tripped into the mold, no issue just gross) we listened to both doors – neither was trapped or had any noise. So Nevah opened the northern most door.
And 8 giant rats the size of large cat/small dog boiled out and attacked the gnome. He was scratched, buffeted, and bit at least 4 times (luckily no disease)! We moved around to help, the druid casting charm animal on one of them, getting it to come to his side. A few more bites followed before the last rat was finally killed. A little more healing was passed out before we looked into the room.
It was the monastery’s kitchen. Just about nothing was usable anymore, oven was a rusted cold mess, broken pottery and a pile of trash the rats had been using as a warren. A few of the party went through it an might or might not have found some coins and a gems…and maybe a platinum unmarked bar or not. All good! It was after 5 now but we wanted to press on – one more door.
Getting it open we could see it was another initiate’s barracks, smaller and in better repair – would sleep 20. Sleeping pallets and chests – and a large cabinet on the east wall. Halfling was able to groan and get some feeling back, but still couldn’t freely move. So the Half-Ogre borrowed his thieves tools again (poor Gun!) and got the lock picked.
Two bronze statues to Aine, vestments, holy symbol, bow and some arrows – and one of the 3 tomes we needed to find! Booyah! A detect magic followed by the wizard Atlas and we could tell the bow was magical (to hit only), the arrows were 2nd order magic and might be reuseable, and the vestments had a 4 tier protection weave through it. We split up the treasures, bagged the statues and tome, and figured we’d head back to the garrison outside to rest.
As we made our way through the dining room, the library, and to the door to the sanctuary – we were dismayed to hear hooting and chirping and monkey noises. Damn it – we did not want to fight any big apes or the like. We left the area, went back to the small barracks and figured we’d sleep here for now. The druid took out her lantern, and we lit it, so we’d have some light during the night. We ate cold rations and then fitfully fell asleep.
We awoke the next day Icemonth the 4th 6 AM. We spent an hour studying and praying, broke our fast, and packed up ready to go. We figured if the sanctuary was clear, we’d head off to the Ogre area and get that taken care of. We entered the sanctuary and could see it was still snowing above (25 hours so far of snow?!?). We went through the secret door and the paladin detected evil – sensing 18 goblin pings beyond the door. Nope, moving on.
To the T intersection and then behind the sanctorum. We approached the Ogre door beyond there and the paladin again detected evil – getting the ogre ping again…and 2 hobgoblin ones as well!
It was Icemonth the 4th at 8 AM and we knew we were going to come in this way but were going to come up with a plan first.
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