I did use a pit trap INSIDE a pit trap once - and that was fun - but have to hold that one in my back pocket for at least another 5 years before I pull it back out.
Write up follows:
Connal navigated the slope up with little issue, rope trailing down the slope, grappling hook set up at the top. He had a torch up with him and one by one, the group made their way up the slope. There was the faintest smell of earth or top soil nearby but nothing showed. From here it was a passage south, west, east where we came, or a door to the north. The base of the door had a number of dents in it and the door needed to be forced open.
Once done so though, the next room was small, 10 x 20, a glyph gate on the far end of the room, and three desiccated bodies in here, dead at least half a year or more. The words above the glyph gate read: One eight a cup of, a dram, a quaff. Not rich but…This plaque be…Crimson Flowing Veining Stuff. The gem had three pairs of radiant lines around it (the one with the Chime had 4).
Shit…did we really want to do this and now? The 1st part was an ounce, and the last part was blood. But the party went back and forth before deciding that the matter didn’t need to be addressed at this time and we should continue on.
From here we went south, passing a door on the right that looked in very poor condition, and then an opening to the left that lead to a room where 8 pale barked oak trees were growing right out of the ground, twisting the flagstones, growing right to the ceiling where branches curled and twisted amongst themselves. Room was pretty big, and there was a slow burn torch right when we walked in.
A look about showed the dirt around the flagstones was disturbed and had some pretty big foot prints there – Ogre sized was our thought. Ugh. We tried tossing rocks at the trees and branches, dirt and stones – nothing happened. Eventually Vulwulf dared to enter and drew close enough to touch the trunk. It felt…like it was vibrating. He took out his water skin and poured some of it on the ground.
And the tree groaned and thrummed, and the branches above GREW, twisting even more amongst each other and making some noise for a few minutes until it finally stopped. The rest of the party was in the hall watching.
And the watched as he bent down and prayed to Idun, where the everspring goddess answered his blessing and the ground gave forth water between 4 of the trees. Which started growing. A lot. The ceiling was groaning as the trees pushed upwards and thickened and branched curled and grew denser and thicker and worked down from the 20’ tall ceiling. The other 4 trees also began to grow, although at a reduced rate since their roots were not directly where the water was churning.
The noise was echoing off in the distance and the party was really feeling uncomfortable. Vulwulf managed to get a twig broken off from the tree branches above and then the group made their way BACK down the hall to the top of the slope, and then turned west down the dark corridor. And it was a good thing as we heard ogrish voices in the distance walking around, many of them, getting closer – most likely to investigate the tree growth.
From here we went down the long dark hall to the end where it turned south, and then went that direction – the passage going on into the gloom. As we went along we could see a reflective surface ahead – a puddle on the floor – maybe 3’ wide, perhaps 7’ long, crudely oval shaped. There was no discolored water anywhere on the walls or ceiling. We tossed a few rocks at it, but the puddle was literally just a coating on the stone floor.
Ogres sort of behind us, many giant rats ahead of us. We tossed some food and the rats were watching and then ate it, still watching. And then Shim called on his innate gnomish ability and spoke with the rats. Who were excited to speak with him. They had run into adventurers MANY times in the past and spoke of them as if expecting some enslaving or the like and Shim assured them we wanted to pass. He was surprised to learn on the rats was called “Frank”. So for the price of more food and then some cheese, we were allowed passage past the … 13 giant and gargantuan rats. Crap – that would have been a shitty fight.
Oh, and we could tell that the puddle…was rat urine. Lovely.
We did see a section of the … stone wall that they ate through, perhaps a foot tall, twice as wide. Connal commented..ok, Giant rats ATE the walls of the Terror Dungeon!?! Yeah, let’s keep going. Sybil led the way as we traveled through the gloom to another puddle. And the thought was to get some of the rat urine. Whose thought? God only knows, but it was the thought.
So we wanted to pick up the urine in a vial, but not touch it. But without tongs we ended up using Sybil’s pliers. But when we tried to dip the vial in we ended up crushing the glass and then dropping the vial in the urine. So we took it out, washed it off and handed it back to Sybil who was frowning at this. Luckily one of the hirelings took the pliers and wiped it down with her cloak and then oiled it, explaining that Sybil would have a rusty paperweight in a few days if that was how we treated tools.
We travelled on to the first corner and could hear rhythmic chopping in the distance and some Ogrish voices. Seemed they had come to investigate the growth and then were harvesting the wood. We continued south to the next crossing and were far enough away to consider moving on from here. The group could smell old cooking scents and grease but when we came around a few turns, we say a room with an old water barrel, some burn marks, areas where sleeping rolls had been laid, a door on the far side of the room with a few auger holes in it, and a sizable spear rack on the south wall with perhaps a dozen spears in it and a dozen spots without spears.
We looked over the chamber with care. The rack with the spears was locked and the spears did not come out. There was a brass plaque on the bottom that read: Compliments of the Odinian League Collective, Always willing to help. Come see our representative in Erylond with a valid charter from the Greater Rand Sellsword and Adventurers Guild for other things the League can do for you.
This really pissed off the party, League of Odin doing this? But we couldn’t figure out how to open the rack so we fiddled with the empty slots for a while and then ate dinner. A few more of the Giant Rats had followed us to here and we gave up the hard cheese to them, and they ran off satisfied. It was about 6:30 and we thought to keep going.
The door out of here was closed and the lock had been bored out some time ago. We listened, heard nothing, and then opened the passage with care. A few very large bare foot prints were on the other side – we assumed Grue, and not much else. So we drew up, passed through the door, and closed it behind us as we pressed on.
The passage traveled for a bit, turning one direction then the other. We thought we heard a door close in the distance as we were walking. We hadn’t passed a slowburn torch in some time so we were on high alert. Eventually the passage opened up to a room with a sloping passage down on the far end. Rough table with busted legs, splintered chairs, numerous rough kinky foot long hairs caught in various cracks and pinch points, old blood smears, splintered shields, shattered lanterns, and maybe a dozen brass bits loose on the floor.
We assumed the hairs were from Grues and were getting concerned. Something smashed up a bunch of adventurers in here and coins were just left lying about. The slope went down to over a dozen loping paces and ended at a “T” intersection. Sybil and Connal went down to the bottom with care and saw chalked on the wall the word “Pits” with an arrow pointing south, and “Scythe” and an arrow pointing north.
Ok, trap area. We were going to check out the pit side first. Shim cast Summon Monster and got a fairly large and beefy lizardman. He was instructed to head south so he went down the slope, looked at the floor, and used his long hunting spear to hit the floor just down the passage – opening up to a pit going down with spikes. Nice.
So he stepped back up the slope, ran, and pole vaulted over the pit with his spear where he skittered to a stop and then looked carefully again. And again he hit the ground and opened another pit. When this one opened, the other one closed. Alright. So he jumped/pole vaulted over this one and went down to a door. Gave a listen and a smell and listen, and mimed a large hairy creature behind it..and then repeated the gesture. Grue…maybe 2?
Before the spell’s time ran out, we had him jump back and then it ended. We looked down the other passage and saw a long passage, with a handled farming scythe right in the middle of the hall, leaning against the wall, with a pile of small rocks scattered around it and two very dead rats.
We assumed the scythe was some sort of Weighty Chest issue item and chuckled at it. The Trog was then sent further down the hall to the door there where it listened and then cracked it open a bit.
While all this was going on, the group all excited in the room and getting the feedback from Connal and Sybil as to what was going on, the group failed to hear the sound of a distant door opening and creatures sneaking down, closer, and closer, and closer…
As for the lone trog, a long arm snaked out of the darkness and grabbed him, followed by a gurgling leonine roar. Grue!!!
Connal and Sybil backed up to the slope, dropped oil, and lit it to make a line of fire at the base of the slope – and keep the Grue back…And we could see it was two of them!
And at that point we heard the cry to “Charge” and arrows flew into the party as almost a dozen bugbears, at least 4 giant spiders, and a swarm of smaller one filled the hall behind us and pressed the advantage home to close and attack.
Vulwulf and our shieldbearer took the brunt of the immediate attacks as the bugbears charged in and filled the hall, then the spiders came, with the swarm hitting Wulfulf. Shim was concentrating and fired off a globe of darkness but it encompassed part of the party however it did prevent more arrow fire. Hjalgrim swapped positions and with two Grues on one side and host of foes hitting us on the unprepared back ranks, we wanted to flee but had nowhere to go.
Darius strongly suggested to Asher that we get the hell out of here now and to use one of our precious few Dimensional Folding scrolls – and open a portal to the Entrance Two – and then we’ll use the Chime and get the hell out of here. So Asher unfurled the scroll, read the words which turned to fire, and a 10’ diameter hole opened in time and space just ahead of him on the slope where we could see the Entrance Two room. Where we could see inquisitive fire beetles milling about.
Fuck it, time to go – passage is only open for 1 minute. So we all reached out into the darkness, grabbed arms with the next person while spiders attacked and bugbears swung. Hjalgrim tossed Shim to Percy and we all broke, running for the portal and hopefully leaving some chaos behind us as beetles and spiders clashed with one another.
Getting to the Entrance room, the stairs went up 10’…to a blank ceiling. So it was the Chime rung and it was a harmonizing reverberation that shook the entire room, and the ceiling spun crazily a moment before it opened up to the stairs spiraling to the world above. With only a 2 minute window we ran, yelling ahead of us to “Open the doors! Open the doors!” while fire beetles and giant spiders tore into one another and bugbear voice echoed behind us. The great iron doors lifted and the party burst through them just before 8 PM and emerged once again at Bork Keep.
No comments:
Post a Comment