Youth Meet 5, Adv 1, 1/5/18

It was nice getting the youth’s together so many times in the last few weeks since my own game was on hiatus. They are still plowing through the main floor of the mansion but I ramped up the “haunted” this session since they decided to make camp within one of the living room areas. There was still the “herding cats” feeling on my end as I did my best to keep the game focused and moving along, but as long as they are having a good time, it’s working for me.

Write up follows:

The party decided to reenter the mansion, staying just inside the foyer while they discussed either returning to Saltmarsh or staying out here. The decision was made to stay out here for now and to further explore the remainder of the main floor for any signs of the haunting or things of interest/value. Talion lit a fresh torch, the group taking a quick count of what was remaining and we decided we had enough possible light sources for today and tomorrow for now.

Magnus took the lead, taking us down the east wing from the foyer where there were 2 doors on the right hand side. The first door was fairly swollen, blocking the frame and preventing it from opening. A shove on the knob had the entire thing break off in his hand and a hole in the wet wood of the door itself. Valerie helped shove the door open and we had a chance to look in.

It was a living room of some sort, but there was no furnishings left anymore, the fireplace on the right had a ring of red toadstools surrounding the hearth. A 2nd doorway on the left wall most likely led to the same last room as indicated in the hall. No one wanted to mess with the ring but Magnus was willing to take the lead. He crept up to the ring, scimitar out, and carefully…slit one of the toadstools near the base. Nothing happened. He did the same again and again…and then he felt confident and cut huge swaths of the mushrooms out.

Valerie informed us the toadstools were edible and we bagged them for now to add to our dinner later. As for the hearth and fireplace, Deja was on point and after verifying no spiders waiting within, gave it a once over and was happy to see another hidey-hole up near the back by the flue. She moved the stones aside and felt within for a cracked and dry leather bag. After pulling it out she could see it held a small yet nicely cut purple amethyst which the party pocketed with aplomb and good cheer.

As for the rest of the room, nothing else was of note so with care, they looked through the east door to the last chamber. It was a mirror image of this living chamber except the ceiling was in very poor condition and broken plaster littered many places. The naked floorboards above were visible and there was suspicion that they sagged, meaning the floor above this room was going to be a mess if at all stable to walk upon.

Deja quickly checked the fireplace in the 2nd living room but once she was sure it was empty, returned to the party and we all went outside the mansion. We had checked out the entire lower floor and wanted to rest before attempting the 2nd floor and eventual basement. At first we talked about camping outside the mansion but we had no tents, no shelter out here, and no place to stay warm and dry. With trepidation, we opted to camp within the mansion for now.

We went back to the east wing and the room that at one time held the toadstools. While a few of us swept the floor clean, Valerie and Magnus went to the dining room and gathered up the fallen table there while Talion went to the library and brought as many shelves and books he could to be used as kindling and fuel source for the night. We propped the door back up in its frame and then shoved the table in front of it just in case. A fire was lit and we heated up our food with some pots scavenged from the kitchen, also toasting the mushrooms as an added treat. We felt good after eating and set up a round of watches to start about 8:00 or so with Deja, Magnus, Veldryn, Talion, and then Valerie taking turns. While the fighter types were tending to their weapons and gear, Deja was reading through the notes taken from the desk in the study, and Veldryn was reading the difficult pages from the Metaphysics of Math and Magic tome.

By 8 everyone was tired, the room was warm and toasty, and the group settled down to sleep. Deja was able to note that the alchemist had ordered many things but there were 5 odd items he ordered continuously that ranged from Greenblood Oil to Brain Juice. Yes, Brain Juice. Juice from a brain. And someone who supply it to him. Like 15 plus times over a period of 2 or 3 years. Admittedly most of these orders were 20 years out of date, but when we returned to Saltmarsh, it was something that the party was going to want to investigate and review.

The group slept while Deja kept watch. Shortly into her time though she heard movement throughout the mansion, footsteps from somewhere. She woke up Magnus who used his connection with Tyr to detect evil and found 1..2..3..4 sensations of evil to the north at the limit of his reach. One of them went up and then moved about upstairs, coming closer and then a bit overhead. The decision was made to awaken Veldryn next since she had detected skeletons earlier in the day somewhere below us and the thought was these were the same.

However when she awoke she yelled in fear and we heard the running footsteps upstairs run back to the north and Magnus lost his concentration. We waited but whatever it was and whoever it was did not come to investigate us on the main floor and we assume went back to the basement. With an unsure confidence, the party went back to sleep and Deja’s watched passed without further incident. Magnus and Veldryn had the same quiet watch, the Speaker for the Dead no longer needing to sleep, instead she went back to reading her tome while Talion kept watch.

And then the house shook, waking the party up. There was a scream form somewhere which had the group on edge. Veldryn called on Hel to remove fear in Talion who was getting shaken, not only fixing his fear, but also removing his concern about the room on the west wing that had a voice yell at us yesterday.

The noises did stop and the group hunkered back down to sleep, the party eventually awakening together but no one getting a “great” night’s sleep. We broke our fast, ate  quickly, and the paladin, druid, and cleric all spent an hour praying. By 6:30 we were ready to go and the party all discussed last night as well as what Deja had learned from her notes.

The decision was made to go upstairs and check out the second floor for two reasons – to make sure nothing was left unturned, and to make sure that no one was “behind” us waiting on the floor above. We climbed the stairs from the Foyer and looked around. The floor to the left over the foyer was a bit suspect but we could see with a fresh torch hallways going to the north and west wing. However, we wanted to head east (where we heard noises AND where the ceiling/floor here was in poor condition) and make sure the area was explored first. Three doors and we went to the first one where Deja assured us it was unlocked and untrapped. She opened it to reveal a small room that was pretty webby and dusty, but there was something glinting in the fireplace.

Youth Meet 4, Adv 1, 12/26/17

The youth’s have added another player to their table, bringing the number to 5 – a perfect number as far as I’m concerned after 3 and a half decades of playing and DMing. Allows for a person to miss a session and the game to go on, a deviation from the 2 + 2 for set up of combat, and the possibility of overlapping and sharing skills and sets comes into play.

They continued their plumbing of the ground floor of the mansion and a look at the clock shows that if they left now, they wouldn’t arrive back at Saltmarsh until after dark – so the question for next meeting besides finishing up the group floor – is stay and camp or go and return?

Write up follows:

Before Deja could climb back in the hearth to look around we heard a bang from the front door and a voice yelling out, “Veldryn?! Everything ok!?” Who the hell…?

We went out to the hall to see a 6’ tall, 220 lb female half-orc barbaric looking fighter type with a humongous war axe on her back looking about, her lower tusks distending her upper lip. Veldryn was surprised as the half-orc was a druidic friend from the Karon Circle of Frey named Valerie and a friend of the elven necromancer.

From the story we got, the Druid of her circle had fostered Valerie’s innate wanderlust, inspiring the young woman to go and explore, learn of the world, and then return and share her views with the rest of the circle of how Frey’s power works in the greater world. She had heard of her friend (and her friend’s friend, Magnus the paladin) trip to Saltmarsh to take up the adventuring charter and decided to follow Veldryn and offer her aid. On arriving at Saltmarsh she was dismayed to learn that the party had already left this morning to seek out the alchemist’s mansion and see the haunting within, but set out along the marshy land until she only just arrived and heard a high pitched scream, running in to help out of need be.

Once introductions were passed around and the group felt good with one another, we went back into the drawing room and returned to both the hearth and the hidden spot, and the giant spider and the poison glands. Magnus and Deja managed to pry the stone aside and the Halfling carefully extracted a metal box some 5” x 5” x 2” with a rusted hinge. She oiled it a bit and then pried the cover open, revealing a nest of torn bedding and a wide banded iron ring with a series of shields butting up against one another along the outside.

Valerie called on Frey and revealed the ring was not only magical, but had something to do with warding. We talked briefly on the ownership of the ring and the party accepted Deja wearing it for now. The inner band was oily to the touch. When she slipped it on, the band shrunk down in size until it fit firmly on her finger with no discomfort.

As for the spider, Talion and Veldryn managed to extract the two poison glands and squeezed it carefully into a vial, sealing it with another application of wax. The last of anything noticed was by Magnus who commented that the chairs that were here had been torn and cut, but the tears were NOT 20 plus years old, much more recent, and they were not ragged like an animal’s claws, but deliberate cuts as if from a blade.

Someone had been here in the last year.

There had been little haunting so far, just a feeling of being watched and a gloomy bearing the longer the party stayed.

We went back to the hall and went to the last room, opening the door to reveal a kitchen with a stove, sink, and cabinet on the wall, a set of stairs going up to the next floor, and a door on the east wall heading elsewhere. A check of the oven was decided on first, with Deja, Valerie, and Magnus scouring the room and Veldryn and Talion watching the hall. The oven door was stuck, rusted in place, so Valerie was asked to add her strength to it…and she tore the 9’ iron door off the oven. So sorry! Don’t know my own strength!

We put the door down while looking in the oven – cold and empty. Valerie decided the iron stove door might not be a bad thing to hold on to, so into her pack it went. The cabinet was the next object to look over, so Valerie lifted Deja up so she could look it over. It wasn’t locked, so it was door open…

And the weight of the open doors pulled the cabinet away from the wall and crockery, knives, dishes, bowls and what not started falling back and away onto Deja and Valerie…who tried to dance back and shield the Halfling but instead tripped and ripped the cabinet entirely off the wall where it all fell on top of both of them amidst a hell of a lot of noise!

As Magnus went to lift the cabinet off of them and help, the two of them cut and bleeding badly, the noise and open front door attracted the attention of…a giant weasel! 6’ long, 70 lbs, sleek and chittering nastily, it stalked in to the house and fixed a beady eye on Veldryn and Talion as it stalked towards them. Talion readied his bow but Veldryn told the ranger to hold as she called on Hel to give her the power…and commanded to weasel to “leave”.

The beast paused, and then turned back, stalking slowly towards the door where it turned and went to the left. The cleric ran forward and shut the door, barring it closed and we all breathed a sigh of relief as Magnus was able to help the thief and druid up. Healing and herbalist kits came out and we managed to fix Deja’s painful wounds and a few points of damage repaired on both of them before it was time to look onward.

Before going upstairs, we went to look in the east door first. A copper boiler was near the north wall, damp, decaying, moldy; a set of stairs was across the chamber heading down to the basement. A brief check in the room and too long a few of the party members stayed, mold spores and other damp vapors robbing them of breath. Veldryn turned and succumbed, falling down and knocked out.

We managed to get back to the kitchen and Magnus laid his hands on Veldryn, curing her of the toxins with the power of Tyr. Once we were all up and better, we decided to keep the steps down on the back burner for now and finish the main floor. Before going though, we did take a glance up the steps on the second floor, seeing it was also in poor repair with a hole in the ceiling leading to the attic.

We went back to the foyer and decided to check out the west wing of the mansion first. Long hall, three doors, one on left, one on right, one at end. As the torch was beginning to sputter, Talion lit a new one and we went on our way. Decided to check out the 1st door on the south (left) and a shoulder and shove showed us a study. Most of the place was a mess of wet papers but a writing desk with a few drawers still working took up the space near the window.

Deja was on point again as she looked over the desk. No traps, drawer opened but was stuck. Valerie and her half orc muscles helping to tear the drawer out of the desk. Lots of papers, 3 years worth of receipts and purchase documents the alchemist had ordered such as chemicals and lab equipment. Veldryn and Talion were highly interested in them and shoved them in their backpack to be read later. Not much else of interest.

But before the drawer was put back in place, Deja noticed the base of the drawer did not match the height of the bottom on the inside of the drawer. Secret compartment? There was a spot along the edge for thin fingers of a blade to be inserted – and the bottom lifted out to reveal a hidden compartment with lots of padded areas for a dozen or so small ampoules – but only two were left. Deja looked them over, small tastes, touch, her knowledge of poisonry coming in handy as she let the group know these were two doses of neutralize poison. Probably the alchemist in his working did accidentally poison himself in the past and these were here to help ward off whatever toxin he exposed himself to. We took them and then left the chamber feeling good.

We went to the north door next and it was the mansion’s library. Much of it was a wet wreck many of the shelves broken and useless, but there was a stack of a dozen or so tomes in the corner that had escaped much of the decay. The group looked over them and found 3 of them useful which had Veldryn thrilled: Magical Properties of Gemstones, Magical Properties of Herbs and Flowers, and Metaphysics of Math and Magic. She perused them a bit, and a scrap of paper fell out of the third one with a scrawled message still readable…”Beyond Skeletons”.

We left the library and went to the end of the hall where the door beyond opened to the Living Room. A door lead out to a cracked overgrown glass enclosed patio and there was a pile of refuse in the corner. But before we entered, we noticed prints in the dust and dirt, shoed prints leading across the room to the north and west. Talion took care of the prints where the ended as nothing, Magnus and Deja went to the fireplace, Valerie poked at the refuse looking for anything of interest.

Talion was sure there was a secret trap door here and there was a spot to pry up a part of the floor. Valerie was once again called to help, the half-orc druid lifting…but the door held. After resting a moment, Magnus pulled out his crowbar to help. Meanwhile Veldryn called on Hel to help detect any undead…and got numerous pings below! She wanted to get down there and now, Talion was willing to appease her, but we needed the door open. So again, Valerie and Magnus worked on the door while the party hovered about…and the trap door lifted free!

And when it did, we heard a raspy cold as the grave voice cough out, “Welcome fools! Welcome to your deaths!” followed by piercing laughter. Veldryn, Talion, and Deja all turned and ran while Valerie tried to shut the trap door and Magus was shouting for them to come back. The three friends terrified hit the foyer and ran for the front door. After struggling to get it open, they trampled each other a bit and ran across the garden towards the front gate, still breathing and beating hearts. A glance back showed the mansion seemed to be staring at them, baleful lights in the top most windows like eyes.

Magnus and Valerie were running after their friends, trying to get them to stop. They got hung up at the gates and eventually Talion and Deja calmed down, physically restraining Veldryn who eventually was able to relax. Looking back the place no longer looked like eyes but Valerie still threw the 9# oven door up where it smashed through one of the shuttered windows at the attic. Nothing but tinkling glass and busted wood sounds followed.

We discussed heading back in and looking the rest of the place over (Veldryn did NOT want to go back to the living room) or risking the 4 hour trip back to Saltmarsh and try again tomorrow.

Youth Meet 3, Adv 1, 12/22/17

First time the group has left town and went on their way to the adventure (not that the town isn’t an adventure, it’s just not the focal/goal portion of the quest).

Some time was spent outside before walking in. At this point, I have to ramp up the “haunted” feel of the house a bit more. Otherwise, I’m pretty happy with the group and the pace of things so far.

Write up follows:

The group talked at length about the leadership and the name eventually voting Talion the ranger as the leader and calling themselves the Tides of Valhalla – both as homage to most of their fishing village origin as well as the paladin’s deep abiding love of the heaven for courageous warriors.

The council reiterated our mission and then by 9 that morning, we were on our own. The thought was to go to Rosensteel’s Tradegoods and load up on rations for a few days, and then leave Saltmarsh with little delay. There is supposedly a long abandoned cliffside road closer to the Haunted House, but most of the trip would involve up trailblazing through swampy fens and uneven ground.

We purchased food, shuffled our packs around, and then took a trip to the Moneylender. A stone building well guarded by two dwarven warriors and further protected within by a Half-ogre with a claymore, the moneylender was a 4’ gnome called Rizle Tizle McDizzle, but call him “Mick” for short. We changed a number of crowns in for nobles and commons, a few of us getting brass as well. Mick was thrilled when Veldryn talked to him in his own language and we left there feeling good about the moneylender and comfortable that we’ll be well treated in the future.

We did talk about the haunted house and our adventure to go there, and were told that a talkative poacher named Curis Thanger would wax long about the one time he tried to sneak in the haunted house and was scared off. Works a longshoreman off a boat called the Third Heaven if we wanted to talk to him. After we were out in the street through, we decided that it was not necessary to talk with anyone else and the trip to the House will already take some time.

We walked south out of Saltmarsh, trying always to stay closest to the shore and beach of the Mastelic Ocean. The Eider Down Fens became thick within half a mile of Saltmarsh as we left the last of the hovels and peasant’s houses behinds. We had to walk back and forth often looking for better passage, slowing our trip. Eventually the time ticked past 1 and we were slowly working upslope to a series of cliffs that looked over the Ocean, 60’+ in height. We could see the dark outline of the lone mansion in the distance and by quarter after one, we had arrived at the locale in question.

It stands at the top of a cliff, 70’ above the surf and ocean, maybe 80’ back from the cliff. A partially collapsed stone wall encircled the place, 6’ in height where it still was functional; an iron gate partially hanging on rusting hinges blocked the entrance. As for the mansion, 35’ tall, heavily gabled, black windows shuttered – the entire edifice looked foreboding. Deja entered through a gap in the wall first, testing the garden beyond. The grasses were over 2 feet tall, plants, roses, flowers, and vegetables had grown wild in the last 2 decades, twined about amidst burrs and scratching weeds. But nothing was here except the sensation of being watched from the house itself.

Satisfied it was ok, she motioned the rest of the group through, Magnus going first. The paladin sadly knocked part of the weak wall over and fell into the garden amidst lots of noise and fallen mortar and brick. Deja looked at him with contempt, satisfied that any chance of surprise we might have had, should we need it, was now gone. After getting up, Magnus cleared the way and Talion and Veldryn followed.

The thought was to circle the house first, keeping closer to it, and see if there was anything in the grounds we needed to look at and concern ourselves with first. We went counter clockwise, staying in the shadow of the mansion as we looked around with care. That was the remnants of a few apple trees in poor condition, and a large weeping willow that had been partially uprooted but still alive and growing. But beyond it, close to the rear quarter of the mansion, was a 5’ well with the house collapsed, a bucket chain going down into the gloom.

The thought was to pull up the chain which was rusted but functional; a 2 gallon wooden bucket on the end. It was not in the best of condition and did leak, but was serviceable should we need it. A set of iron rungs went down the side of the well. Talion and Veldryn offered to go down and check it out, the water level looking like it was 15’ below the surface.

While the ranger did get closer to the water, Veldryn called on Hell and summoned a globe of light which she placed in the water, illuminating its 3’ depth. But while hanging there, Talion failed to notice a long snake emerge from a crack in the wall and bite him on the arm! The fangs got stuck more on leather and bracers, not piercing to his flesh. But the ranger was just as quick, tearing a dagger free and stabbing it into the snaked spine and tearing down, ending at its heart with a single critical assault! Veldryn helped Talion extract the now dead snake from the wall – 12’ long! Seeing there was nothing else down here, they climbed up and laid out their find for the others to see.

Deja and Veldryn then spent some 10 minutes cutting back the snake’s jaw and pulling the flesh out until they arrived at the poison sacks. With exaggerated care, the cut the full venom sack free and Deja deposited the liquid in one of the priest’s empty vials, sealing it with some wax. The thief was sure the venom was somnolent, whoever would get it in their bloodstream would eventually fall asleep. Talion took the vial for now, and Magnus thought the use of poison was not worth our time.

We did keep on keeping on, circling the rest of the house and coming back to the front door. We approached and after making sure the door wasn’t locked, put shoulder to the door and pushed our way in. The entrance hall had a set of stairs on the left going up to a balcony and 2nd floor while three dark passages in the dusty cobwebby gloom led off to the east, west, and north wings respectively. The smell of decay and the groaning of the ancient timbers were all we heard mixed in with the cool ocean breeze blowing through the doorway.

A brief discussion followed and we opted to go north wing first. After crossing the room and seeing the dim corridor beyond, Talion lit a torch and we looked. The north passage went some 15 paces or so and turned to the right, a door on the right, left, and at the end of the visible passage was seen. We travelled along, Deja looking for locked doors and Talion keeping a weather eye out for traps. None so far. At the end of the passage, the corridor turned to the right and went some 30 feet, ending at what seemed to be a door that led outside and presumably to the gardens.

The group opted to check out the left door first. Magnus managed to open it after Deja declared it trap free, and we could tell it was a dining room at one point. A massive table with no legs, a few broken chairs, and a pile of busted crockery and china from the broken shelves of the cabinet in the corner. Deja checked the east stuff out and Magnus took point on the table – but at the end of the day, there was nothing here and we left the chamber.

We went across the hall to the right door and after assuring ourselves it wasn’t trapped or locked, opened it up to reveal a drawing room. Two stuffed arm chairs that someone looked like they had slashed some time in the past, broken table, and a pretty large fire place. We entered and looked around with caution. There was a whistling coming from the fireplace and a look up showed that the flue was closed, keeping the wind and rain out for the most part. The wood box was empty, but there was a set of iron fireplace grates in the middle of the hearth.

A check in the chimney showed that up near the back wall was a displaced stone, not an uncommon spot to hide something if need be. Deja was asked to come forth and give it a once over before anyone opened it but when the Halfling entered the fireplace and glanced up on the other wall, there was a big spider perched there about the size of a beagle! She ran back, the group was not anxious to go and brave the spider and didn’t want to attempt to remove the displaced stone in the back of the fireplace without taking the spider out first.

A plan was hatched where Deja would ready an arrow, fall back INTO the hearth looking up, and shoot the spider swiftly from 4’ away – while Magnus would hold Deja by the ankles and pull her out as soon as the shot went off. Everyone seemed ok with this plan but Deja, however the Halfling didn’t have much choice as she was helped into place and Magnus already held her ankles. She fell back, looked up at the spider, and fired.

The shot went true, and went up to the fletching in the spiders midsection, raining gore and juices down on the Halfling who was screaming and sputtering – followed by the spider actually falling on top of her! She kicked and rolled free, the spider’s legs curling up into one another as her one shot killed it outright. Once the excitement ended, Veldryn and Talion was hoping to extract the spider’s poison glands like they had done the snake while Magnus and Deja were determined to head back to the hearth and see what, if anything, was behind the stone up in the wall.

Youth Meet 1, Adv 1, 11/25/17

So the youths have a new campaign and during the weekend near my daughter’s 15th birthday, she asked me if we could have a longer than usual get together – 6 hours. The youths spent some time rolling up new characters while I explained some of the inherent differences between B/X and my own 1st/3.5 amalgamation.

For the youths I’ve rewound the rule set to be a bit more 1st edition heavy. Ability scores – right out of the 1st edition handbook, including percentile strength. Class skills – right out of the 1st edition handbook – as written, no power creep. As for everything else, 3.5 saves, BAB to hits (no THACO’s), skills and crafts, feats, and similar the like.

Since we are playing “for real”, I have planted them on my map and world in the Barony of Dilabria, the County of Reet, at the shores of the Mastelic Ocean and in a Norse inspired area. One member showed up late but we fast tracked him through character creation and the group ended up with:

Human Male Paladin to Tyr
Human Male Ranger to Loki (bounty hunter background)
Female Half High-Elf/Half Drow Cleric to Hel (product of drow raid, emphasis on necromancy)
Female Tallfellow Halfling Thief praying to Loki

Wove in the background and situated them in place. They are going to go through a skeletal framework of Saltmarsh that will deviate off the adventure’s rails in almost no time.

Write up follows:

Veldryn was born a bit over 3 centuries ago to a High Elven healer who had been the victim of a Drow raid near the city of Glowerspire. Upon her birth there was concern that the child would exhibit drow characteristics and although her hair was white and eyes red, her skin was as alabaster as any High elf’s could be.

The violence of her conception and the frenetic period of her birth had unhinged Veldryn’s mother’s mind and she was sent along with her daughter far to the north and east to live with a small commune of healers near the Elvenwoods, south of the Windy Peak Mountains. She grew up amongst dwarves, elves, and humans who treated the young girl with respect and a bit of pity with the crushing mental abuse her mother would often subject her daughter to. Her raping was mentioned often, and her distrust of people would make her become shrill and unapproachable often.

When the great Reetersbeard dwarven migration occurred, Veldryn’s mother moved her and her daughter to the healing houses of Huntington, “just for a change”. Then it was a move to Windressa 2 decades later, then Dragonhole after a few decades, then Bandit Hills, then Dilabria, and so on. Ever moving and taking her daughter with her regardless of the girls’ interests.

After they arrived in Karon, a small fishing village north of the Eider Down Fens, Veldryn, already approaching her 3rd century informed her mother that she would NOT be moving again and began to distance herself from her odd parent. She took to working with the healing houses on her own, helping to cure the sick and tend to the wounded. It was when a bad case of Redcough had swept the village and the plaguedoctors had finally made it to the fishing village to tend to the townsfolk that Veldryn’s life took a turn.

One of the plaguedoctors was a Speaker for the Dead, a skilled and capable priest of Hel who talked to Veldryn about her duties as a physiker, but also what position Hel has in the great scheme of things and how the passage of death isn’t to be feared, but to be spoken of. Discussed in such a way to remove the negative stigmata of death. Veldryn was hooked. She spent much time afterwards learning from the Speaker and others who would come and visit Karon, taking pilgrimages to Flat Rock to read the ancient texts and pray at the menhirs that depicted Goddess of Nifelheim.

And her piety paid off in time. Hel first started answering her prayers in small ways, globes of light in the dark, a comforting voice at night. Then her powers grew and the Speaker for the Dead ordained her as a follower of Hel and priestess with all the rights due to her. When her mother wanted to leave and head south to Eider or Principia, “just for a change” Veldryn, now a touched priestess, broke ties with her mother who screamed, shouted, and harangued her daughter; hurling her violent conception at the girl’s face before cursing her to “misery and ruin!” and leaving.

Veldryn was heartbroken but threw herself into her work and decided not to feel that weak ever again, taking up the mantle of warrior-priest of Hel and training herself in weaponry as well as her god’s wishes.

Magnus had lived his entire live in Karon and to him it was the center of everything. 516 people fishing and plying the ocean, trade caravans coming from far flung places; it was a place of honorable people doing honorable work. What was the most interesting to the young man were the knights who would pass through during the tournament season. Outfitted with steed and armor, gleaming spears in the sun, pennants and tabards in glorious color. The shining example of nobility and chivalry to all.

For Magnus though, a fast young man with deep chest and wide shoulders, he would spend his time at the militia and training yards, sharing his letters with the soldiers there and acting as a live training target for them during their sparring matches. He learned swiftly how to take a blow and how to dodge them. He grew to understand the basics of shield play, became cognizant in different weaponry, and could be trusted to be a gracious winner as well as loser in whatever bouts he fought in.

He struck up a friendship with the strange white-haired elven priestess, sharing her stories of Hel and her own life with his own interest in the other Norse gods especially Tyr, the one handed god of justice. They had an easy friendship that brought Magnus from the awkward teenaged years into his early 20’s with nary a hiccup.

Many a time Magnus would be joining Veldryn at the Hospice, tending to the wounded and the sick. Most everyone knew that young Magnus was a man to be trusted; a man who exemplified everything that he felt a knight should be regardless of his less than affluent background. But strange things began to happen when Magnus was about. Some young girl who had a terrible cough was much improved after Magnus had tended to her. Some days later while helping a physiker set a fisherman’s broken arm it was discovered the arm didn’t seem as bad off as originally expected. Then there was the aura of fearlessness that he exuded in addition to the sensation that people got of being at peace when in his presence.

It was the arrival about a year ago of a contingent of Tyrian holy men who traveled almost 2 weeks from Cymbarton to meet with Magnus that the truth was revealed. Magnus, for reasons only Tyr knew, was a selected champion of Tyr and a paladin. The news shocked the town of Karon who took the news well and shared it long and wide that one of their own, a fishing village on the back waters of the barony, had one of its very own as a paladin. He was invited to return to the Capital but Magnus demurred, saying that he could do more in Tyr’s name here that he could far from home.

So the friendship between the paladin of Tyr and the white necromancer of Hel might have seemed odd to others, but was natural to Magnus and Veldryn.

Deja was the 8th of 10 halfling children whose parents were jolly and well meaning merchants situated in Dilabria. While most of her brothers and sisters were happy to be a part of the Thistledown Merchant House, finding jobs and places within the organization, Deja was disillusioned. Smart, capable, dexterous, charming, she instead took to petty pilfering, games and dice, drink and weed; smoking often late and making friends in “low” places.

Her father tried, long and often, to redirect his unwilling daughter to better choices and honorable pursuits but it was difficult to rein her in. First it was money, then favors, then payoffs to the watch. It didn’t matter; Deja would do well, straighten out, and then fall off the wagon weeks or months later and need to be helped once again.

Deja had been running with a group of unguilded rogues and thieves on a number of jobs and petty thefts around Dilabria when her group was caught up by the Dragoons (County Guards and Rangers) and had to flee. She had been making her business to align her fortunes with the stronger and more capable fighters and scrappers, knowing her skills to martial matters were a bit lacking. But her companion was felled by a truncheon to the head and Deja barely escaped through an open street drain, the watch hot on her trail.

She had not only been caught red handed, but identified by name. Dilabria was no longer a home and she would have to flee and do it soon. Since her thieving had not landed here in a guild as of yet, she had no protection in that direction. And her father had flat out told her that if this happened again, she would go to stocks, jail, hard labor, or even the gibbet – he was done.

She dug herself out of the sewers, snuck into her family’s home, took what belongings she could as well as coins, and then fled out of Dilabria heading north on the back of a turnip wagon – her friends, family, and life behind her for now.

She ended up in Flat Rock where for a few days she worked at the local tavern sweeping floors and pilfering loose Bits and Commons when able to. She was miserable, unhappy, and alone. Her life was going to need to change and she needed a direction.

It was while she was here that a group of Umbarian Slavers had come in and strode right up to a travel worn ranger who was at a table near the fire, a man bound in manacles at his side. The slavers pointed to the bound man and demanded that he be released to their custody as he was an escaped slave from Principia.

The bounty hunter stood slowly, hand on the hilt of his dirk, and produced his papers to the angry slaver, attesting that he was well within his rights to apprehend this FUGITIVE and suspected murderer, returning his to Twark. At just under twenty, the bounty hunter whose name was Talion, would not back down; citing rule, cipher, and edict that his bounty was more legal than their questionable claim of escaped slave. If was a tense standoff and Deja decided there to lend her aid to Talion, sneaking up to the secondary slaver and placing her own poignard against the man’s spine causing him to stiffen with concern.

The slavers, seeing the mood of the tavern turning and the resolution of Talion, willingly stood down but the slaver gave Talion a piercing threat that he would rue this decision as some point in the future. They left and the mood lightened.

Deja and Talion greeted one another, shared a few pints, and by the night were fast friends. She left with Talion the next day on their way to Twark where he received his bounty and decided that they were going to lay low for a while. The slaver’s guild did not have much sway, but there were many of them and it was best to hide out for the time being than further antagonize them. They hopped on a caravan that headed off to Karon and decided it was a perfect place to set up home for the time being.

Talion wanted to keep his skills honed and often trained with the militia, befriending the town’s shining prodigal son, an honest to Loki paladin named Magnus. Within time, the ranger, paladin, cleric, and thief bonded together, performing small jobs for the Mayor and helping out the townsfolk where needed.

But Karon was a small pond and the four friends after six months decided they wanted to bite off something meatier. That was when some fishers and traders from down coast came with stories that the Council of Saltmarsh was looking for adventurers to help out with an important matter. The foursome discussed it and decided it was a worthy job. So they gathered their belongings, bid farewell to their friends and neighbors, and booked passage on the Jolly Frog as it was making the day and a half run south down the coast to Saltmarsh.

It was an uneventful trip and within time the sturdy sloop arrived at the seaside large town. Surrounded by the Eider Down Fen, the town itself was built on mounded up earth and raised wooden posts and walkways. A sturdy quay stuck out into the Mastelic Ocean taking up most of the shore line. Six different major docks were home to many smaller and larger boats. The shore was a mass of small rounded stones and broken shells.

Upon docking, they left the Jolly Frog and made their way to the town proper where they met the Wharf master Kurly Ludbrook, a stout dwarven male with a clipboard and clay plate. They spoke at length as to who they were (Kurly had heard of Magnus the Tryian paladin and was welcomed) and our interest in meeting with the council for some help.

We were directed to get a room at the Saucy Winter Wench, an Inn west of the docks just past the cooper, and as for the council, perhaps Sir Archibald Regurin would be the person to talk to; he had a Demesne on the south end of town. We thanked Kurly and strode the raised platforms of Saltmarsh. There were many warehouses and businesses about, and we could see that homes and apartments were situated above some of them.

The Saucy Winter Wench was a two story affair with a wraparound porch and the smell of ale was strong even out here. We entered; the Common Room was sizable, able to house a hundred, hundred and fifty with ease. Some women of ill repute were along the edges and a four count of wenches were plying the floor and tables. A set of stairs on the far end of the room went up to the second floor where a minstrel was strumming a lute. There was a hearth and fireplace and a long bar where two barkeeps were working the taps.

We made our way through and were directed to talk to the Inn keep in the back where we made our way through the throng. A heavy set brassy haired woman with questionable hygiene was here and with a guttural voice identified herself as Pettis. We bargained for a room, getting a larger one on the second floor with a bath. We also learned of a few traders we could go visit to get outfitted, taking Uri Rosensteel of Rosensteel’s Imported Goods as a place to go and visit.

We went to our room, had the page fill the tub for us, left some soap, noted where we would sleep and rest, and then locked up and took to the streets. Traveling south at the next block we went to Rosensteel’s and spend some time purchasing armor, arms, and some equipment for our hopefully soon to be adventure.

We left at 4:30 and continued south, climbing up the hill to a stately manor along the shore, overlooking the ocean. We were stopped at the gate and announced who we were, waited to get admitted, and then had an audience with Sir Archibald himself. At almost 60, he was one time a squire and knight, getting thick with years and good food. A landholder of some repute, there were 4 other council members and he would meet with them tomorrow to make sure we were accorded a charter.

There was a manor house some 4 miles south of town where a disgraced alchemist and wizard of some repute had lived 20 years ago. He had been working on an enslaving mind control potion when he had died with no heirs to speak of. His Esquire handled the ending of his affairs but the place had an evil reputation and those who would go there spoke of strange noises, lights, and terrors that would consume them. So the place was left alone; an eyesore some distance from Saltmarsh and forgotten by many.

But recently there have been more odd lights and a few who have dared to brave its grounds have left with strange screams chasing their running feet. The Council wants the matter resolved and the place investigated. We accepted the job, the promise of some payment in the future good enough for us for now.

Meet 16, Adv B4, 11/15/17 - Youth Group

And it was bound to happen – TPK for the youth group. And it was at an area that I wouldn’t have expected them to wipe at (expected it to be Zargon). Came down to treating the NPC’s as deaf dumb and unmotivated – a recipe for disaster.

So it was with a heavy heart that we drew B4 to a close and in the next week or two, the youths will add one more to their table and roll up an AD&D character for their next campaign.

Write up follows:

Feeling the horror at Safir’s sudden passing and very unsure about the still active pressure plate, Vulkan cast levitation on himself and then one by one, ferried the party over the plate and through the crushing walls. We stopped at the door and spent a few minutes listening – hearing the occasion mournful yelling interspersed with constant muttering.

We debated on blasting in, looking for Kellis and Sharon, is Darius close by, hitting the room with a sleep spell. Eventually it was narrowed down to just carefully opening the chamber and peering in – making a decision AFTER we knew what was going on. Delsin took point and the door opened – revealing a very sizable chamber. There were 10 Cyndicians sitting in a circle amidst cushions, pillows, and blankets. They were wearing fanciful monster masks and were occasionally yelling as if in despairing fear now and again. Outside of glancing at the group – they didn’t move. There was a door on the north wall and one on the south wall.

We discussed it and decided to enter. Once inside we tried to talk to the Cyndicians, but for the most part, they ignored the group. One of them did get up when we were making some threatening comments, walk over to the party, stare intently at Vulkan (who had made the comments) and yelled softly in his face before heading back to the circle. At this point the Cyndician’s then all got up, congregated in the center, yelled together, and then went back to sit down, just in different positions.

Alright. Leaving them alone!

We went to the north door and listened, hearing some music, shuffling movement, and some gentle rhythmic conversation beyond. At best, we could tell more than half a dozen people in there. Before we were to make a decision, we wanted to check out the south door next.

On peering in there, we could see it was some gambling hall – poker tables, roulette wheels, etc. Maybe 12 Cyndicians in here wearing colorful animal masks playing and having a good time. However, Delsin gave a grimace as Demetrius was shouting in Delsin’s mind that across that busy room was a secret door that would lead to Darius’ private chamber. This close…t..h..i..s.. close.

We closed the door and discussed tactics on how to cross the gambling room and avoid any problem with the locals. It was here that Vulkan came up with the idea of a disguise. “We should kill three of these guys in here, like those three, and take their robes and masks.”

The moaning, muttering, and mournful wails stopped as the group of 10 Cyndicians all as one stared at the group. Then one by one, they bent down and moved the cushions aside, lifting up axes, swords, and even a couple of crossbows. Vulkan tried to levitate – but the ceiling was only 12’ tall so he didn’t have far to go. And he was shot – critically in the chest and then shot again in the stomach. He slumped over, still floating in the air while Mark and Delsin drew up lines to repel the other 8 Cyndicians who began to assault the party. There was talk of getting the hell out of here and now.

And then the north and south doors opened, and 20 more plus Cyndicians entered the chamber, also armed with swords, axes, and more crossbows. They descended on the group like a living wall, 30 of them grunting and spitting as they plied axe, sword, and quarrel against us.

Even though Vulkan wasn’t responding, a few of the Cyndicians continued to hack as his dead floating body, actually severing his leg in the wild frenzy. Mark fell next, the cleric struggling to head left and make his way to the door, cut down on three sides until he was gasping on a sword in his throat. And then it was Delsin. The Sword of Delsin swept back and forth, hewing at the Cyndicians as he tried desperately to get away, but first he was hit in the leg, then the back, the chest, the head, the arm, and finally one too many blows and the fighter fell over curled about a sword sticking out of his kidneys.

As he faded he could hear a commanding voice coming in saying something about “there’ll be no more talk of prophecy and those from outside. Hack these up and add them to the food. Send the bones down to Zargon to feed upon.” And then he faded away, Demetrius spirit sobbing the last this he heard as it muttered over and over. So close. So close.

So close.

Meet 15, Adv B4, 10/27/17 - Youth Group

The youths are on the trail now for Darius, Demetrius’ the ghost’s brother riding shotgun on poor Delsin. However on the trail to hunt the rebel scum down, they ran afoul of a few pseudo-zargonite NPC’s who charmed the carp out of them, the group all failed their saves, and got robbed in the process. I broke their charm after a short time and the group ran in force to go and take back their stolen property.

And one of the members died from a trap in the process. When it happened there was a collective gasp from the table, one smack on the surface, a wail of “no!” and a few other muttered noises.

As said in Bad Boyz II – “Shit’s just about the get real.”

Write up follows:

We thanked the Gormites for their efforts and help again, the group each donating a topaz as appreciation for the information, time, food, and gear we had been given and purchased. From here we went back through the wards and to the main hall – discussing how we were going to progress our way east. We could continue north into the unmapped section of the pyramid and hope to find an eastern passage, or we could head all the way back south and then turn east – making our way east of the pit trap that was north of the office room. The group discussed it at length and decided to head south and then east since we already knew that area.

We made good time back south, and then turned east, eventually arriving at the area of the ground that Safir had marked off. From here we jumped diagonally over the pit south and then east and continued down the long corridor. We did note that this section of the level was strangely clean; almost ritualistic spotless as if someone had taken broom and mop to the floors and walls shortly before we traveled in this direction.

It was some 70 or so paces before the passage “T’ed” North and south, and a quick look at the corner showed the north passage heading 12 odd paces and ending at a blank wall, while south it was some 30’ to a stone doorway, hinged on our side. The group thought it was odd that a passage heading north went anywhere and then ended after only a short distance and suspected there might be a hidden passage up that way. However their search proved fruitless and frustrating as no section of any wall moved, twisted, lifted, and shifted.

Vulkan was convinced we were missing something and wanted to retackle the search again for the elusive secret doorway when we heard footsteps running down the long corridor we had come from heading our way, followed by gasps and sobs of whomever was making that noise. We drew ourselves up, unsure of what was coming towards us but not wanting to be taken unawares when arriving at the corner were a group of 4 Cyndicians.

They were carrying a stretcher and each of them had on a mask: Hawk, Fish, Cat, and Fox. They were sobbing and begging Mark for help “for their terribly sick friend, Dog!” We looked around, but the only thing on the stretcher was a rather large gourd. We pointed it out to the 4-some who all nodded and agreed it was a gourd. “And we need you, oh cleric, to fix him! He’s terribly hurt, our friend, Dog! Fix him!”

Delsin wanted to grab his sword for more of this Cyndician foolishness but Vulkan shot him a glance and motioned for him to remove his hand from the weapon’s hilt. Mark wanted to help, but…it’s a damned gourd. So he dropped to his knee and made some halfhearted prayer asking Gorm to help out Dog who was a gourd, get…better. This did not sit well with the 4 Cyndicians who were getting frantic. Mark was getting very tired of these antics as well, so he went into his pouch, removed the potion of death he had gotten from the desk drawer a few hours ago, and rubbed off the loosely held label, replacing it with the “healing” label he had taken as well.

He held it up and made like it was a healing potion and the 4 Cyndician’s went nuts, scrabbling for the potion. During the mess, Hawk had kicked the gourd off the stretcher which made the other three just stare at him with hatred. Hawk yelled out a strangled, “Sorry!” scooped up the gourd, and ran back down the hallway waving his one arm like a wing, crying, “I am so sorry, Dog!”

The other three gave chase and Mark felt terrible, shouting, “Stop! It’s not a healing potion! Stop!” He ran after them as well. However, he had the party’s lantern so as he raced off, taking the light source with him, Delsin, Vulkan, and Safir were forced to run after the cleric as he chased the Cyndicians who chased their 4th.

It was when we heard a cry in the distance followed by a thud the group drew closer to see Hawk had fallen down the pit and broke his leg, dropping the gourd “Dog” which smashed on the floor. This infuriated the rest of the Cyndician who were going to use the potion to fix either or both when Mark tackled Fish and struggled with him as he tried to get the potion back. They fought around and Fish took out a stick and was beating Mark with it as they hit the walls trying to fight over the potion. Then Vulkan power drove himself into Fox he slipped over the edge and cracked his skull on the floor of the pit – dying on impact.

Delsin took his fight to Cat who was dodging the fighter’s blows, struggling with our guy and Vulkan gave him a stab in the leg, hamstringing the Cyndician. He growled in his throat and lunged at Delsin, wrapping his arms around the fighter’s neck and struggling to shove them both into the pit. Mark was getting hit again and again, but managed to get the potion out of Fish’s hand as the two of them continued to fight.

Delsin slipped, twisted, and Cat fell into the pit, trying to drag Delsin in, but Vulkan’s lunged out and grabbed Delsin’s backpack, keeping him barely on the edge of the pit, but the combined weight was too much and the three of them tumbled down, Vulkan letting go of Delsin at the last moment and hugging the corner wall at the last moment. Cat took the impact and died under the fighter who was shaking his head at the fall. Hawk dragged himself towards Delsin, screaming “It’s your fault! It’s your fault!”

No longer fighting Fish alone, Vulkan joined the fray with Mark as two more Cyndicians showed up; these two were carrying bundles of black painted wood and wearing vulture masks. Seeing the fighting and yelling, they looked at one another and immediately sprang into action – building a coffin. Again.

Vulkan and Mark took out Fish while Delsin helped finish off Hawk. We then dropped rope and helped our fighter up. Some healing was dispensed and when were done, the Cyndicians had lifted up Fish and placed him in the coffin, nailing it closed. They then turned to the group and asked them for 10 crowns.

We looked at one another and then paid, Vulkan complaining as he was forced to pay the last few coins on his own. It was pointed out that Vulkan had done the most murdering of the Cyndicians so he should just accept it and move on. The vulture masked Cyndicians thanked us, tossed the coffin into the pit, and then left; talking about getting more wood and following the party some more as they seemed to be good for business.

The group walked…quieter…back down the passage to the east, this time heading south to the door there. After listening and hearing nothing, Vulkan hooked up a rope to the handle and pulled. The room beyond was simple, bed, table, chair – but it shimmered as if seem through a distortion or a pool of water. Weird. We looked at it, saying little, while Mark took out the Book of Gorm and was scouring the pages for something about this phenomenon.

Vulkan took his staff and pushed it at the portal, felt a bit of resistance, and then the staff slid into the room as if it was forced through for some reason. He tried to move the pole around but it was slow to respond. We did note that the pole was becoming indistinct and fuzzy, blurred looking where it was through the portal. “Pull it out!” was the cry and Vulkan responded – but the bottom 4’ of the pole was now about half as thick as it had been, smoking slightly, and shot through with what seemed to be acid scoring.

The portal then looked like it was bulging towards us ad Mark was shouting, “It’s a cube! A gelatinous cube! Don’t touch it!” Delsin tried to shut the door but the cube was already pushing through it so he was able to close it most of the way, but the ooze was coming out the top and bottom of the doorway. Vulkan took out a torch, lit it, and had Delsin back up. The door slammed open and the cube was once more coming through the opening when Vulkan thrust the torch out in order to burn the cube!

It literally oozed around the flame and the end of the torch, plucking it out of Vulkan’s hand, and extinguishing the flame with no obvious effect on the monster.

Screw this, let’s go.

We backed up down the passage, watching the cube pick up the pace as it entered the hall and began picking its way down towards us. With that we turned and ran back down the corridor to the pit, picked our way over it and to the north passage and stopped here. It explained why the passage was so clean looking; the cube must come down here often enough to feed. It also couldn’t get past the pit – which is why the other passages didn’t have the same swept clean look to them.

We decided since we were already in the northern (and final) passage, we would take it and hopefully find another way east from here. It was a short walk to a closed doorway that upon listening to, we were faintly able to hear voices, but nothing we could make out distinctly. We readied weapons and then opened the door.

The chamber was massive, lit by patches of glowing fungus and candles. The ceiling was 20’ tall and the chamber had to stretch out almost 200’ long and maybe 100’ wide. It was a gathering temple for the three gods, Gorm, Madura, and Usimagarus. There were pews and seating for hundreds. Two fountains were on either side of the chamber, burbling happily. Near the head of the room where we entered were three statues of the gods similar to the top of the ziggurat, but had been knocked over and were now leaning on their sides. Across the chamber to the east was a single doorway, and to the north at the far end of the room was a main passage running north and two more doors, one on the east, and one on the west wall.

Two figures were here near a rail used for prayer. A man and a woman, each wore an ornate fox mask and a robe. They greeted the party and identified themselves as Kellis and Sharon, brother and sister. We talked for a bit, feeling the duo out. They were here sorry about the long loss of Cyndicia in the past; looking longingly on the days when the fallen gods would be worshipped again. They informed us that they wore masks but did not pray to Zargon, doing so only to avoid questions by the Zargonites in the city below.

When it was asked of us we admitted we were from outside the pyramid and they said that they had heard of us and the prophecy. We hoped to have them help us at some point and they did comment, “this was going to change a few things.” The two of them then said something and the group all got a bit dizzy.

Kellis and Sharon? Why they were our GOOD friends! The best really! Who doesn’t like them? Hey, they want to see the ancient weapons of Cyndicia we had struggled to get to eventually kill Zargon. Sure, let’s show them! See, this is the Mace of Gorm! It’s great. Yeah, you can hold it. That? That’s the Scepter of Queen Zenobia; blessed by Usimagarus. Of course you can hold it! Sure, sounds great. Can you see the Sword of King Alexander? Yep, but it’s now the Sword of Delsin, runes changed and everything. Here. Oh! It burned you! I am so sorry, let me pick it up. Never mind, I’ll just leave it here on the floor and stare at the two of you. Kellis and Sharon, our best friends.

Why don’t the 4 of us go over to that fountain, drink for a bit, wash our face, and refill our water skins and not worry about Sharon of Kellis for what…5 minutes? Our friends tell us not to worry about them for 5 minutes while they hold two of our enchanted weapons and totally trust them.

La … la … la.

Exactly 5 minutes and 1 second later the charm effect wore off on all 4 members and they looked at one another in horror! The eastern door on the other side of the temple HAD been opened and then closed and the two fox mask wearing bastards had gone! Mace and Scepter missing! We ran, Delsin scooping up his sword, and charged to the door, blasting it opened and running down the hallway as it wove through the pyramid.

As we ran along Demetrius’ voice was crowing in Delsin’s head, “I know this corridor! I know this corridor! Darius is close by!” And we charged along until Demetrius was then shouting, “Stop! Stop! STOP!! TRAP!!!!” and Delsin managed to grab us as we ran along and got the party to come to a stop.

Just around the corner was a short passage ending at a door, but a pressure plate was on the floor – raised, 10’ wide, 3” tall, metal, and 3’ deep. Too deep to step across, possible to jump though. Safir gave it a once over and commented that he could disable it – but would need 6 of Vulkan’s daggers to do so.

Getting them he dropped to his knees on this side of the plate and taking Mark’s small hammer, lightly tapped one of the daggers under the plate’s edge slowly to avoid having it activate. Once it was in far enough, he did a second one. Then he did a third one.

But the plate shifted and in an instant both walls in a 10’ space slammed out and met in the middle and Safir was crushed instantly, spraying blood bone gore and bits of fire from something in his pack back at the party. The group just stood there, shocked and muttering as the walls separated slowly, leaving a red and mangled hunk of meat to slide away between them; all that was left of Safir.

Meet 14, Adv B4, 10/15/17 - Youth Group

Before getting to the less interesting lower 5 levels of the ziggurat, the two big showdown fights are with wight in Queen Zenobia’s tomb, and the Darius/Demetrius fight with the Cyndician/Zargonite supporters. I have had people wipe on the wight fight, I have also had no one find the tomb, and I’ve have people do well on it.

For this fight, the dice were so in the youth’s favor that everything they did worked out for them and they managed to flee with the scepter/rod. Trust me, I TRIED to hit them with the wight, but at no point were they in any danger from Queen Zenobia's terrible rolls.

Write up follows:

We decided that we’d go up the northern passage, assuming that it was Queen Zenobia’s tomb we’d be going to since her false tomb was also on the northern end of the chamber. However, before going down, Vulkan was feeling a bit unsure and wanted us to pause while he studied the Web spell in his book. Having recently become more confident in his skills, he felt he could add a 2nd level spell to his repertoire and if things were not going to go well for us, it’d be nice to have more firepower at our fingertips.

So we waited an hour, and during that time, Mark and Delsin heard goblinoid voices getting closer from the other side of the door. Unsure of what was being said; they instead moved themselves in front of the door and quietly braced it with their backs, Safir joining the two men. It was good that they did so because the goblinoids were trying to push on the door and realizing it was lock/stuck/held, bitched and moaned a bit before giving up and heading back the way they came. Delsin didn’t trust the situation and had everyone wait a few moments when they felt the door tested AGAIN.

It seemed the goblinoids left one of their members behind to try and trick anyone on the inside but since the party hadn’t moved or changed anything, the last one got up and left, heading back down the irregular sized passage where we caught it calling out to the others and then all the voices faded.

No other issues occurred and by 1:30 or so, the group of four made their way to the northern secret passage. The floor was thick with dust and spider webs hung low in curtains. We had Safir go first, the scout making small clouds with each step but he went the 20 paces to the corner, looked around and headed back. Passage turned to the left, went another 20 plus paces and ended at a door on the left.

Delsin took point and the party travelled along until arriving at the heavy portal. There was a clay seal on the door covered in old Cyndician script. Mark studied his book of Gorm and the script and let us know it was seals of protection for the dead within – and that it shouldn’t be disturbed.

So we took hammer to clay and beat the seal apart, chunks of thick clay falling to the floor in dried flakey clumps. As they broke the seal, there was a brief flash of a sickly olive green light from the jamb…and then nothing.

Hand on the handle, Delsin put his weight to the door and pushed in and to the right.

It was a fairly decent sized chamber with a 7’x3’x3’ stone box in the center of the room with a flat slab cover upon it. We wanted to check it out, but Vulkan was uncomfortable and Mark wanted the group to be on alert. Safir stood by the door, bow out and arrow loaded, Vulkan right next to him nervously twisting his fingers. Delsin had Heatstroke out and Mark kept the Mace of Gorm in his grip as he braced his hands under the slab cover and pushed.

The lid popped up and slid a good 2 feet across the top of the sarcophagus, sitting upright was the dried out and very dead form of Queen Zenobia. Her crown was twisted in place by her matter hair and baleful greenish glow was coming from her eyes and blackened snarling slack jawed mouth. She lunged to grab Mark but Safir’s arrow shot out – striking her in the shoulder and then bouncing harmlessly away.

Mark and Delsin rocked back as Vulkan shouted out his arcanic words and strands of cloying sticking webs blew from his fingertips and fell around the undead form of Queen Zenobia.

Who literally dodged to the side and tore the webs to shreds as they passed around her.

Delsin slammed his sword forward, hitting her in the stomach, but even Heatstroke’s enchanted edge couldn’t penetrate her skin; instead running along her midsection and raising a black torn gash in her side which did nothing to deter her flailing arms. Mark howled for Gorm to help turn this evil beast but even as his holy symbol began to flare blue and white, Queen Zenobia ducked under the influence and her eyes burst green light – breaking the turning glow before it even hit her.

She swept out wildly, getting to her knees and then standing in the coffin, snarling and ripping at the two front line guys, raising sparks on their shield but not actually hitting anyone. Her off hand held a scepter of some weight which she slammed down like a cudgel, trying to beat Delsin in the head with it.

Safir fired again, and another arrow hit the queen but blunted and broke upon contact. Vulkan meanwhile was ripping out Auriga’s copy of his spellbook, flipping the pages and yelling to “watch out! Watch out!” Finding the page he wanted, he read the spell right from the book, the page turning to fire and then ash – and fired a 2nd Web right at the Queen. This time she was unable to deflect it and it surrounded her, trapping her under the layers of webbing and preventing her from hitting the party.

“Get the scepter! Get it!” Vulkan tossed a pair of knives at Mark and Delsin who stood as close to the furious queen and slashed at the webbing over and around her scepter. The edges of the knives quickly grew duller but the strands slashed apart and eventually her arm with the scepter was free. She tried to smash Mark with it and he danced back. Safir stood right over the queen and fired and arrow into her face under the web – and it broke on her forehead.

Vulkan was holding her arm, feeling cold as he tried to grip the arm in place, while Mark twisted and pulled the scepter about, breaking her grasp and retreating with the prize. Vulkan backed up, just missing getting swiped by the queens flailing clawlike hand. The web was being torn apart from the ground as we made to run from the room. Just outside the door, Vulkan again ripped through the spellbook until he found another spell he wanted, shouting for the party to “go go go”.

Once everyone was outside the chamber, the sound of the webbing snapping apart inside and the Queen howling and screaming, Vulkan finished reading the page from the book and the paper turned to fire and the spell shot off – surrounding the door and frame in tight green and yellow runes and holding it in place – preventing it from being opened for some time.

We jogged back to the main chamber where we shut the secret passage to Queen Zenobia’ s chamber and then dragged the false sarcophagus in front of the door to further confound it from being opened and the undead from getting out to attack us.

The scepter was black, flanged, lightly jeweled and according to Vulkan, radiated magic. He had seen things like this before and suspected it would hold spells, a few of them, for the mage – beyond what he normally was able to memorize in a given day.

We then wanted to go to King Alexander’s chamber – this time more away of what we were going to find and hopefully be done in there before the Queen escaped the held chamber and came out to find us.

The passage was similar to the other side, from the dust to the webs to the door and also the clay seals. We took hammer to seals and during the beating of them, we didn’t see a flash of green – but instead a brief whining high pitched cry. Not wanting to be caught off guard and using the whine as a warning, we took out a few candled, heated up the wax and molded it until it could fit in our ears, deadening our hearing for now.

We drew weapons and as one, opened the door and peered in. Room was similar to Queen Zenobia’s, except this time there was a baleful spirit hovering over the King’s sarcophagus, red tears for eyes and a ragged hole for a mouth. It merely stared at us. No one wanted to walk in. So we talked to it. Explained who we were, what we were doing, talking about Cyndicia and how it had fallen and how Zargon is polluting it all. We needed the ancient king’s sword to help defeat the beast and wanted the spirit to know that King Alexander would feel the same way.

Whether it was the pleading, the connection to King Alexander, or who knows what – but the spirit did come over to the door and we showed it the Scepter of Zenobia with the markings of Usimagarius, and the Mace of Gorm with the Gormian runes. All that was missing was the Sword of King Alexander and we’d have one of each weapon from the ancient Cyndician gods and be able to take the fight to Zargon himself.

The spirit went back to the sarcophagus, disappeared within, and came out with King Alexander’s sword. Delsin was instructed to remove Heatstroke – and the two weapons swapped places. He now held the wide bladed 4’ long rune encrusted sword which read on one side: Sword of Delsin, and the other: Knight of Cyndicia. Taking it reverently, he also had his king’s guard platemail swapped out for the enchanted platemail that King Alexander had been buried in.

We left the room humbled and decided to head our way down to the 5th level and hole up again in the secret room with the chest, rest, eat, study, pray, and heal our wounds. We made our way out of the tombs, through the rocks until we arrived at the section where we had to crawl underneath the standing stone. Once through we kicked the rock repeatedly until it finally settled down in place – hopefully sealing the tombs and possible escape of the undead creature Queen Zenobia turned out to be.

We then went to leave, making our way through the swinging pendulum axe blade traps, until we arrived back at the secret door which we lifted up and…came face to face with 4 rock baboons. Mark stepped forward confidently, talking to the baboons, hooting and pantomiming with them, even peeing when they did – the same as he had done days ago when we first faced them. They were pleased to remember Mark and we swapped food, and they wanted to explore the new now open room. So we let them, and made our way down the ladder in the middle of the hall to the 5th level.

We emerged back into Darius’ chamber and then went to the north west corner where we opened the secret chamber, shuffled in, and shut it behind us. From here we rested and awoke the next day feeling much better. Spells were studied and prayed for and then we emerged, heading our way through the bedroom south to the next door.

It was here that we saw the kitchen and dining room – the two big snakes that had been in here were not seen – but we ran across the chamber to the next room south and opened the door there. Two metal statues, low divans and a door on the east. Oh yeah, they remembered this. We dragged Vulkan across the room who was convinced that this time he had a good idea on how to take care of the statues, ignoring his pleas as we hit the eastern corridor and shut the door behind us.

We passed the remains of the gargoyle, made our way to the large carpeted office with the desk, and decided to look the room over again. We looked in the drawers and found some silver coins, a handful or topaz gems, and a potion in a drawer where the label had fallen off but the drawer had two labels in it: Potion of Healing and Potion of Death.

What? How did we know what this was?

The decision was made to find one of the many mice in the tomb and feed it a few drops of the potion. Which we did, and the mouse died. Ok – potion of death! Got it!

From here we left the office north, back to the hallway where the pit trap had been identified, and decided to head back to the waystation of Gorm on the west side of this floor to ask the priests there if they knew of where Demetrius might be so we could take care of him.

The walk was uneventful and in no time we passed through the wards and had some words on where to go. The east side of the floor past the great room, Demetrius could be found surrounded by the Cyndician followers of Zargon. So that was where we were going to go.

Meet 13, Adv B4, 9/22/17 - Youth Group

With the start of school, the youth’s game had been fallow for a month but they had a great session to make up for it. The larger adventure and world is coming along and they are damned close to more to the ancient weapons of Cyndicia which they will hope to use against the demonic Zargon at some point.

They’ve been talking about what happens after this adventure is finished – and the consensus is to continue – but make the leap from B/X to Advanced. Going to get them all a PDF of the 1st edition player’s handbook in the near future and that’ll be the go to in about 5-7 more meetings from where I’m sitting.

Write up follows:

With the Crawler rearing back for another wave of tentacle infused assaults, Mark took a daring chance and lunged forward; Mace of Gorm upraised, and brought it crashing down on the beast. There was a flash of light and a concussive blast and when it was over, the Crawler’s head had been stove in and a line of smoke was curling up from the mace’s surface.

The situation now well in hand, there was the question of whether the Crawler’s paralytic goo was still effective. Mark dared to touch a tentacle and on feeling the numbing buzz; backed away and swiftly wiped his hand clean – yeah, still works.

So the group whacked one of the tentacle ends off and Safir lifted it with the hem of his cloak, positioning the tube like end into a cautiously held flask Vulcan was gripping – and squeezed. We were rewarded with the sound of the fluid tinkling into the flask. It took time, but we hacked off the other 7 tentacle pods and duplicated our efforts until we had about half a flask of this paralytic ichor.

It was time to open the coffin and a look inside showed us three pouches along with the mummified remains of a body. The first held a set of superior thieves tools which Safir happily took charge of, the second had 20 sapphires of good quality that we split evenly, and the last was a document declaring that the mummified individual had a deal to follow King Alexander and Queen Zenobia into the afterlife as the royal thief. We kept the treasures – and left the contract, shutting the coffin lid and then leaving the room.

Our internal map had now wrapped up every possible passage or room on the 4th level except or the central portion of the map that we had not been able to find our way to as of yet. There was the long corridor that led down to the 5th level still to investigate – it had continued beyond our original egress. So the group left the master thief’s room and began the long trek west through the dark passages, eyes peels and ears perked for anything to be found in the gloom.

As we were coming back around near where the shadows had been slain, we could hear a voice from a growing glow ahead hail us as aske who we were. They drew closer and we saw 7 silver masked robed members of the Cult of Usimagarus. The leader, Krantis, was rude and abrupt, identified us as followers of Gorm, and were on their up to the 3rd level to find out why Auriga was a few days late in checking in. Vulkan made the mistake of saying they knew of Auriga but then deflected it, saying that Pandora of the Madurans had mentioned him.

Krantis and his goons then charged the party 1 silver noble each to walk past and we paid it, to avoid an issue, being out numbered, and to save our fights for something else further on. After they had gone past, Mark bared down as hard as he could and blew wind in Krantis’ direction – but 5 days of rations had his digestive track not working right and sadly his passing of gas came out more liquid that he expected.

We waited while the cleric took off his armor, then his pants, then his underwear, wiped himself clean, put on a new set of hose and got dressed all over again. As he came back to the group with his underwear held in a ball, the party was yelling at him to “leave it, are you crazy?” Not like they’ve found the laundromat down here yet. So he dumped it in the hall, and then Vulkan used one of his graphite sticks to write an expletive to Usimagarus around the underwear and the party continued on their way, chuckling.

We came to the long hall and walked up until we arrived at the hole in the floor that would lead to the 5th level…and then kept going north. The passage ended a dozen or so paces later abruptly which had the group then search the wall…finding what was apparently a poorly designed secret door. We pressed shoulder to the door, slid it in some 3 inches, and then lifted it up and out of the way.

The corridor beyond went to the east in the dimly lit chamber, the floor covered in 2’x2’ checker boarded white and red tiles. From the dim recesses to the east, we could see the chamber ended at a passage that kept going, but was only 2’ in height.

We had Safir look for traps and the group came in after the scout. We decided to walk only on the white tiles and made our way east. After about 1/3rd the distance, there was a loud crackling sound and a weighted pendulum lurched out of the ceiling and arced across the floor, the edge sharpened like a massive axe and honed to a scintilling edge. He managed to jump back barely in time and we watched it arc across about half the width of the chamber twice before locking back into the ceiling and we presume, resetting.

Safir then went south and using Vulkan’s staff as a prodding rod, further checked out the area, noting it clear, and we kept going…until another pendulum arced down and across. This time the edge of the staff took the impact and 3” of it was cleanly sliced off. Vulkan grew furious but Safir ignored him as we waited for the 2nd pendulum to return to its resting position. Safir then led us to the northern part of the room again as we serpentine our way along and eventually to the end of the chamber.

It looked like a block of stone had been designed to fall here and seal off the passage but got hung up, leaving a 2’ tall gap, 10’ wide and 10’ deep. 6 tons of rock just hanging there. And we had to get under it. Vulkan volunteered and three times tried to crawl under the stone and three times had to back away terrified as the rock groaned and seemed to shudder as he was making his way beneath it. Finally, backpack off and shoved ahead, Vulkan shimmied his way beneath frantic and was safely through. Safir went next, also raining rock dust down, but no issue.

While Mark and Delsin were deciding who would go next, we heard angry voices coming down the long corridor and Krantis was berating the other Usimagarians that they “wanted to talk to those bastards and see what REALLY happened to Auriga!” Time to fly.

Mark dove under the stone and was hunching his way beneath, scraping the stone top and bottom with his platemail, the cleric panting in his efforts to get through, grit falling in his hair, down his collar, and getting in his face. As soon as the way was clear and Delsin was able to see the glow from the approaching wandering troupe, he kicked the candle he had been using for light under the stone and dove beneath; crab crawling and dragging himself along as quick as he could, ignoring the almost quivering rock over his head. Once on the other side he was helped up, pulled to the side, and Safir lowered the flame of the lantern and we waited.

Krantis was dimly heard cursing and others asking where we were. Thought was we went down to the 5th level or maybe Cyndicia and he was going to find us. Did they go to the tombs? Doubted it, but to be safe they pulled the secret door closed and were then gone from our hearing.

Whew.

We looked about the room we were in. There was a 7’ mound of rubbled rock ahead of us, testament that more of the stones that were to seal off this area failed on some level. We made our way slowly and methodically over the rubble until safely on the other side. Once there we beheld the last issue – more fallen stones to bar our way – but these 10’ blocks did not fall square, and now had 2’ gaps running between them. Safir went first with Delsin following.

But after half way through, even with packs off and dragged behind us, Delsin was stuck and had to go back and take his armor off as well. Safir kept going and would wait for us in what he said was “a clear area”.

So the party took off armor and then dragging packs and armor behind, inched their way through the stones until they arrived at a clear area, 20’ x 10’. A double set of ornate doors was ahead and there was Safir’s lantern on the ground. No Safir.

We grabbed the lantern and put our ear to the door. There was some sort of grunting coming from the other side, so we readied weapons and burst the door opened. It was a huge crypt – two golden sarcophagi, tons of chest, broken chariots, thrones, bones, and ruined art. And in the middle were two 400 lb albino apes, one of them holding up an unconscious Safir whose face and head was covered in bruises and bleeding.

The two apes hooted at us and Mark and Delsin ran in to do battle. The first ape lifted up Safir and HURLED him at the party, the scout hitting the ground with a bone jarring snap and then rolling towards us the rest of the way, his left arm flopping wildly and against the normal bend of his elbow.

Ouch!

As the battle was joined, Vulkan finished yelling out his own spells and a wave of black energy flowed out and hit the two apes – putting one to sleep. Delsin fired up Heatstroke and went toe to toe with Mark against the still awake ape while Vulkan charged to sleeping one and slit its throat with a single stroke of his dagger.

Delsin’s shield rang on the ape’s blows while his burning sword tore into and through the apes back and then again its chest. The primate would have taken enough damage to drop anyone in the group, and still it railed against the group until finally Delsin’s last blow drove 2’ of Heatstroke into its left lung and the albino ape fell over dead, right next to its companion.

We healed Safir and then helped him back to his feet once he regained consciousness. He was woozy but getting stronger. We felt pretty good at achieving our goal and decided to split up to open each sarcophagus at the same time. Safir was assured that neither was trapped and we took our knives and proceeded to slit the thin clay seals on each coffin.

That’s when Safir noticed we had a problem. His knife had slit the top of the golden coffin – but if it was gold, it wouldn’t have cut as cleanly or as deeply as the blade did. He and Vulkan tested it out and were sure the coffin was in fact gold painted wood. A quick check of the second one showed the same.

We opened them anyway – seeing a skeletal form, no mummy wrappings, and no ancient weapons of Cyndicia. Nothing. The party was not convinced these were the king and queen. We then opened one of the chests and took out a handful of golden coins, but Safir once more proved they were fake by scratching the pain off the lead slugs. All the chests were the same.

OK…what now? Vulkan suggested we look for secret doors in here and try to uncover the true lair.

It took 20 minutes to search two of the very long walls but the group did discover a secret door on the north wall near the west corner, and then a second secret door on the exact opposite wall – south wall, west corner.

On the count of three, both doors were opened and we looked. Each showed a dusty unused passage that went 20 paces off the main room and then turned west. The only decision now was do we head north or south?

Meet 12, Adv B4, 8/23/17 - Youth Group

The youths’ had their first “captured monster interrogation situation” where there was the call to let them go or kill them upon completion. We had 1 vote for let them go, one for torture and let them go, and the last was looking for a place to sheath his sword and hobgoblin spleen seemed like a good scabbard.

It was settled on one and one and the bloodletting happened. Knowing this adventure the sheer amount of Cyndicians they are going to run into, the “let’s kill them” player is going to be hard pressed to keep his sword out of the NPC’s backs

Write up follows:

The first hobgoblin was awake and was willing to answer questions. He could understand common but couldn’t speak it, so it was up to Volkan to do the questioning. There was some talk to torture the guy, including slicing off his nipples and cutting off a foot – but we settled on stern words and continuous questioning – mainly to get a better feel for the Zargonite was of doing things.

Finally he was appealing to Volkan to let him go – stick and carrot. Offered to answer a variety of further questions and even though he had been stabbed in both thighs and we took his Morningstar – when we cut the ropes free and let him go he thanked the party profusely and made his way back to the portal down to the 5th level and disappeared from sight.

That left the other hobgoblin who eventually awoke and claimed to have amnesia. He could speak common and hobgoblin, and had some symbols to Zargon branded into his shoulders which upon seeing, called out a prayer to heal himself and the broken leg he had gotten from Mark during the capture had healed up.

Hobgoblin priest. Not a good idea.

So it was Delsin and an overhand chop severed the hobgoblin’s legs and then with Heatstroke flaming he cauterized the wounds while Volkan finished him off with a single thrust of his dagger.

We listened. No wondering monsters, just the sound a door opening and closing far in the distance. The group discussed options and we wanted to explore the few areas left on this level. First we were going to go back to the room that radiated cold. Mark’s connection to Gorm had been growing and he was able to place a prayer on Delsin that would protect the fighter from cold and cold based attacks.

So we all made our way to the door, checked it (yes, it was still cold), and then opened up and peered in. The room was huge, there was a raised metal bin on the northwest corner, 4 huge tables, and three of the falls had shelves on them with clay jars and pots. Seemed to be some ceremony or embalming room. Delsin entered, sword out but not active – just the strange ghostly green swirls coming off its blade. The cold and frost in the room wasn’t affecting him, actually melting under his footsteps and then refreezing when he moved on.

About half way across the chamber he decided to turn around and return to the door when his way was blocked by a 7’ tall anthropomorphic shadow. He made noises like he wished to pass and the shadow remained between him and the door. So he raised his weapon and said Heatstroke, igniting the fires and making the blade glow brightly.

Unfortunately, this revealed 4 other shadows stalking out of the gloom and behind the fighter, surrounding him. Mark raised his symbol and called out to Gorm to help TURN these undead! And although it was good prayer, the effect seemed to fizzle as the shadows lunged towards Delsin.

The fighter swung his sword down from Crown to Crotch, hoping to split the shadow and run through it. It didn’t happen. Instead he felt a weakening and shuddering as the shadow stole some of his strength, the fighter gasping in shock as he pushed through the non-corporeal enemy and staged towards the door.

The shadows were moaning and running across the floor towards us. We let the door slam closed and charged down the hallway to the 30’ square chamber that had all the scattered skeletal remains about the floor. We hit the door here, piled in, and slammed it closed – the party whirling around swords up and ready to attack…nothing – the shadows did not follow us.

However, we heard a shuffling behind us and there were 2 Cyndicians, wearing black cloaks and what seemed to be bird or vulture masks. They had a tool belt under their cloak and were carrying a number of thin boards cut to lengths and strapped with lengths of leather.

Delsin wanted to kill them.

He was talked out of it by the other 3. He was not happy.

We talked to the vulture men who said they were waiting. Waiting for what? Waiting to wait. What could they be waiting for? Death. Coming here? He’s always coming. Do you worship death? No, we are waiting.

Delsin was growing more wroth as they spoke and he flat out asked one of them do you want death to come now? The vulture man nodded yes and our fighter drew Heatstroke in a single flaring sweep and before anyone could stop it, slammed it down and across the first vulture man’s chest. As he was going down screaming, Mark was at the Cyndician’s side and calling on Gorm to heal this man – reversing most of the damage.

Delsin was castigated to knock that crap off but the fighter did ask the Cyndician if he saw death in that split instant before he was healed. All he did was hiss and look at his ripped robe and angry scar. The two Cyndician’s looked at one another and said they would follow Delsin for now. Because it’s obvious that he will bring death.

As for the rest of us, there was talk of making another run at the cold room and the shades within. Mark wanted to try to turn them a second time and the group was going to be ready. So we went down the hall, pushed to door open, and Delsin went in, Heatstroke on and spitting hot light. One by one, the shadows emerged from the gloom surrounding our fighter until the last one showed – and then Mark called out to Gorm once again, demanding that these undead things flee and turn!

And it worked.

And unseen wind surrounded Mark, bathing him in Gorm’s blue tinged light, streaking out and sending all 5 of the Shades across the chamber and piled them into the metal bin where they stayed moaning and flailing about.
Delsin crept to the bin and peered in. It was filled with gray linen wrappings used for mummification and filled to almost 3’ in height. While the shades were scrabbling away, he felt around until he managed to grip the metal handle of some chest. He dragged it up and out, bringing it to the hall and then went back to the bin. Mark was sweating fiercely now – the struggle to hold the undead at bay was taxing him and he muttered out for Delsin to hurry. The fighter poked around the bin for a bit until he came upon a burlap sack. He snagged it, pulled it free, and turned as the shades pushed off from the wall and started to cross the room.

“Run!”

Everyone yelled, Mark dropping his arm and Delsin dragging the priest out of the room and back to the hall. We let the door slam behind us and ran down the hall again and back to the skeleton room. Door closed we waited…and the shadows did not follow.

The vulture men were watching us as Safir used his picks to open the chest lock and we tilted it back to peer within. There were hundreds of gold crowns, a smattering of silver, and on top was a translucent potion which a quick test showed to be invisibility. We gave that one to Safir and split up the treasure accordingly.

This left the other bag which we opened to show 5 humanoid skulls that have gone yellow with age. Mark had an idea and lined them up one after the other. He then lifted his Mace of Gorm and brought it smashing down on the first skull. It shattered and in the not too far distance, we heard a high pitched whining scream. Shadows? Maybe! He did it again, and another scream! Three, Four, Five! After some time the screaming faded away and the group went back to the cold room again to look around.

The room was opened and it was…cool. Not cold, just cool. There was still frost on the ground but the shelves and tables were wet. We cautiously looked, and the shadows were gone. The only sign they had been here were the black glue like staining on the linens in the bin.

We looked over the chamber for anything else of value and again for secret doors – finding neither.

So the talk was to go back through the area where the zombies had attacked us, Delsin letting us know that he had shut the door on two of them, and then after taking care of them, continue on to the corner area where there is a small section of the level we hadn’t checked yet. If it was a bust, we would go back to the hall with the ladder down to the 5th level and check the rest of the distance north. Our investigation shows that there is a decent section in the middle of the 4th floor that had not been accounted for.

We crossed the chamber and went out the door on the east side. From here it was as we remembered a day and a half ago down the hall and a turn south. There were a number of back and forth passages here, the dead Cyndician in the wolf mask and the 4 hacked up zombies were still here where we left them. Down the last western passage Delsin led us back to a closed door where we once more drew up in line and then marched in.

Two zombies were here in some government functionary’s tomb. The coffin had been torn apart and the two zombies headed for us. But Mark once more called to Gorm and with another blue tinged blessing – sent both of the zombies staggering back and cowering along the back wall.

We stalked forward and everyone swung at once. Delsin’s run in with the shadows earlier had sapped the fighter’s strength a bit but he was still able to do punishing damage. As we struck the zombies the turning faded and the undead spun about to face us. The party hit and struck and stabbed repeatedly until one and then the 2nd one fell over.

As soon as the 1st zombie was taken down the two vulture wearing Cyndicians said “it is time” and whirled into action. They took off the wooden planks and undid the straps. Then they laid them out and quickly the sound of hammering filled the room. We were watching bemused until after a few minutes it was obvious – they were building a simple coffin.

As soon as it was finished they ran forward, grabbed the zombie, and tossed it in the coffin. They then nailed the lid closed and sat back exhausted and happy. As one of them was bundling up the now smaller pile of wood, the second one came to the group and said, “Waiting is over. Coffin is built.” He then held his hand out and said, “10 crowns please.”

What?

Delsin was ready to hack up another one when Safir said, “please. That was actually impressive. I will give 5, if you want to, or anyone wants to, match my donation?”

Mark took out 3 crowns and Volkan pulled out 1. We all looked at Delsin who muttered this was a Gorm damned waste of time and money and then thrust the coin at the vulture guy saying, “Here, take it.”

The vulture masked Cyndicians thanked us and then left the room, 10 crowns richer and seemingly happy. The group was pretty sure Delsin was murmuring “never again” but no one wanted to challenge the fighter on this for now.

We left the now dead zombie room and made our way back to the hall and then south. From here we travelled east until we arrived at a turn to the north where a 7’ diameter stone boulder was propped up here. This was the rock that scared us yesterday. We picked past it and started heading north up the long passage when we saw another closed door on the left hand side.

Some listening allowed the party to hear something wet and fleshy moving in there, so it was weapons ready and then bursting the door open. A 30’x30’ room with a coffin in the center. A 9’ long, 3’ diameter worm like thing with 8 2’ tentacles around its mouth was questing towards us and making gurgling snoring sounds.

Weapons were hot as we plied in. Safir’s arrow was lost in the fleshy back of the worm and Volkan channeled his energy down, ripping the air in front of him with a shoving blast and shouting out, “Mahjykiyu Missihlyu!”. A bolt of yellow fire tore into the worm who reared back but kept on. We hit and thrust and stabbed, but the worm didn’t die. Instead it flailed out with its tentacles – smacking wetly into Mark and Delsin who were at the front, and a few tentacles managed to sneak past and strike Volkan.

The hits were painful but not damaging. But it was the slime on the tentacles that gave the group pause and each person struck on bare skin or through clothes felt a burning buzzing on their skin that threatened to paralyze them – but for each one – only the adrenaline and sheer will at this time kept them from freezing in place. But knowing now the danger they faced (Mark called it a Crawler) the group was going to have to redouble their efforts and take this menace down swiftly.