It was quarter to 7 on Icemonth the 15th, 195 of the 30th age. We discussed our next steps and figured we did not want to risk getting into a fight here and now. So we retreated to the room with the Giant Shrew. From there we returned to the octagonal chamber. The eastern door was open, a spear was jammed under it, and someone had drawn an arrow on the wall. There were also 2 dead goblins here, obviously killed from the fall.
We listened, heard nothing, and figured we’d try and remove the spear and then head east, following the goblins. Removing the spear was…pretty much impossible. So we instead followed the passage. It went east, looped around to the south and then west again, sloped for a bit, and there was a goblin camp here. Lots of crap on the floor, old food stuffs, marking and signs. But it was obvious they had moved on.
So we kept going and ended at the end of the passage – a dead end. We looked all over for a secret door (found none), and figured we’d camp here. A few of us went back to the goblin area down the hall and drove 2 pitons there. Then we tied a rope there with a few pitons wove in it as an alarm. Then we returned to the end of the hall, set up a rotation of watch, and slept.
It was Icemonth the 16th when we woke up. Healing was dispensed. On a lark, we checked over the wall and found that there WAS a secret door here, on the north side! Going back to our trip rope trap, we disassembled it, and then opened it up. Required some strength to get it to budge and a few attempts, but we managed to shove it high and look in.
Oval chamber, 20 x 45’ ish crude. And a number of dead stirges in here. 8 or so. It appeared that 3 of them were bloated from whatever they had attacked, but all had been slain. We guessed the goblins did it. Hrimvir pointed out that 8 stirges would be a challenge for us but the goblins had defeated them. Our guess was 15 or more goblins at least so we were at the ready. We went to the west end of the room and this time, found the secret door there with ease. By 8:50 we had it open and were heading on.
Passage went south and was curving east, Gun felt it might link up with the Octagon room at some point. There was a passage heading south but a vinegar smell was in there air. Plus we thought there was something ahead. Hrimvir outfitted one of the skeletons with a torch and sent it ahead. And it walked a short distance then stopped. Its torch went out and it seemed to be hanging there as its arm was dissolving away.
Nope. Back up. Now. Whatever was devouring the skeleton was coming after us. We went back to the secret door and ran in. We could either go out the other door or another plan. We shoved all the stirges to the north end of the chamber and waited. Whatever it was came to the secret door, and oozed through, changing its shape to fit. It was indistinct to make out, but 10 x 10 cube of some gelatinous material scouring the dungeon floor clean. The skeleton inside was almost entirely gone. And it was coming for us. Moving very slow, but coming.
We dumped a flask of oil on the stirges and set them alight – the light and heat changing the attraction of the scouring cube. It instead went after the carrion and we ran past. Yandr threw handfuls of coins at it to mark its edges. We then took the secret door and pulled it down, trapping the cube here.
We paused for a bit so Hrimvir could animate his last pile of bones (dwarven), and we were ready to go on by 9:30. We arrived at the side passage south and we had a few choices. Head east to what Gun was sure was the octagon room, head south and west, or head south and east. We discussed it and decided to head south and west for now.
Corridor went west and south, slowly pivoting east and angling down for a while. The distance passed behind us for a while until almost 150 feet away we came to a door. Fjord listened and was sure the door was not locked, trapped, and nothing behind it.
We voted to go BACK to the 3 way and check the south and east passage. So we walked the way back, turned to the new passage, and followed it. 20 paces and it turned north to a small cave with a pool of water on the east side. Cara tested it, convinced it was pure water and not tainted. But it was deep. We lit a stone and dropped it. 12” down? But nothing down there.
We went BACK to the long passage and took it to the eventual door. Where we opened it – to show a room 30’ octagon with 8 doors here.
WTH?
Ok, it was another octagon room, not the same. Gun was sure it was south and east of the other one. Also, we were sure there was no passage down here from above. We spent the time and listened to each one. We could discover 2 things, the east door had some hissing sound behind it, and the southeast door felt like moving air. A piece of paper at the bottom to test it out – east door the paper rippled out towards us and was damp. Southeast the paper was sucked tight to the door and floor. Ok, moving air on the south east. We wanted to wait on that one. The east was something else.
We narrowed down some ideas and went to the north door. It went north and drifted east, 40 paces and then turned sharper east. Also there was the same heat and hissing we heard from the eastern door. A faint slope up and then a “Y” intersection. Could go south to a passage..or east and north to a glowing chamber.
50, 60’ oval, a chasm on the north end of the chamber. Steam vent, billowed out rhythmically every minute. Superheated steam filled up 60% of the chamber and then cooled. A chest/box was a bit more than halfway across the chamber, a few chains wrapped around it. We figured to check it out but did NOT want to get burned. So we attached 2 grapples to ropes, gave them to the dwarven skeletal servant, and Hrimvir instructed it to enter the room and then place each grapple around the chain on the box. It would allow us to drag it back. Good plan!
It walked in, came to the box, but a 16’ long grey and red stony carapaced lizard burst out of the chasm and bit the skeleton in the midsection! Bones snapped and ground. And then it vomited up 6 points of lava mucus dissolving the center of the servant. “Go! GO!!” We ran away from the lava lizard and back down the hall to the octagon room where we shut the door and rethought our plan.
“I see the north and east corridors are done then,” Gun said, marking them off his map. We then decided to go to the north east passage after eating lunch. By 12:45 we opened the door and went in. Corridor went for a bit to the north and east, 70’, sloping down as it did so. It then turned northward and then back to the west. A section opened up to a sleeping area where it looked like an Ogre (our best guess based on size, smell, and druid’s estimation) would come and bed down. We left his stuff alone and kept going.
Corridor took a meandering path west, south west, and then south and south east – ending up BACK at the octagon room, this time the northwest door. “So I’ll just mark 2 more off my map, a’here.” Gun said, giving the group a side eye. Southest (some moving air), South, or Southwest. We voted south and checked it out, opening the door.
Passage went south 20, 30’ and then turned west, where the dusty and webbed passage went west (with a faint occasional nudge to the north) for hundreds of feet before it came to a dead end. “Brian! Ok people, let’s look for a secret door here.” The group spent some time looking and found…none! “There has to be one here.”
We busted out a sledge hammer and were talking about beating the north wall until it opened up when Yandr decided to detect evil – and got a ping! It was muted through the stone so no detail other than a definite single obvious evil being – 20 to 30 feet from the wall. We decided instead to NOT make a butt ton of noise and headed back to the Octagon room again. 2:25 PM. With 2 choices left, we went to the southwest door. Passage went southwest and then west for quite some distance but after 15 minutes of walking, Fjord decided to look for traps, just in case.
And found a pit trap! 10’ down, spikes at the bottom. Yikes! We got it to hold open and seeing a skeleton of some long dead guy down here, Hrimvir wanted it since we lost 2 just recently. So Cara with a rope was lowered down and she gathered the bones in a box. Then we came out and went back down the hall to the Octagon room again.
“There are a few doors in the 1st octagon room we didn’t check out,” Gun offered. “We should go look before opening the last door here,” Yandr suggested. So we left here out the west door and took the long walk all the way back to the 3 way split, and then east to the original octagon room at a bit after 4 PM.
Looking the map over – we had north, north east, south east (we had looked there and then returned), and southwest. So we decided southwest. We traveled along, the passage sloping down a bit, turning south, and the southwest. And we could hear voices again ahead. It was the same bersekers we had heard yesterday. Gun and Fjord said the passage past their chamber had continued so it must end up at this one. 5 of them and we did not want to risk it, so we turned and headed back to the Octagon room to discuss either another passage or find some place to rest soon.
While talking the door opened and the 5 berserkers had come, following us here. There were all men, human, tall and thin, looking like demented Vikings in rags and ruined armor, holding makeshift weaponry and appearing wild eyed and dangerous. The leader was wearing a crown made of a broken wine cask and sporting a filthy purple carpet as a cloak. “I am King Derrwinkle the Third! Lord of the Undercommon! Who are you !?!” The other 4 seemed barely restrained ready to attack.
We all dropped to one knee and genuflected. Yandr and then Cara took point on talking to the berserkers, placating them and admitting they were hoping to help out and be part of the kingdom. Cara offered the king some wine and he almost cried. Drinking it down he was thrilled and proclaimed her “Duchess of the Underland! Bringer of wine!” The others all cheered and Gun was vibrating. He took out some of his contact poison, applied it to something for the berserker to eat or drink, and Derriwinkle inadvertently poisoned himself, choking and gasping before falling over…Dead.
The others were stunned and we were expecting a fight (a few dice rolls later), but the others turned to Cara and proclaimed her their new ruler. “It’s what Derriwinkle would have wanted. It’s better this way.” They adorned her with the dirty carpet and looked over Derriwinkle. “May we?” they asked her, pointing to the body.
She nodded and the berserkers then tore Derriwinkle apart with their bare hard. Stuffing raw human meat into their mouths with wild abandon and practically bathing in the blood. “Meat! Meat!’ Waste not, want not! Bless our new Duchess!”
It was ten after 5, Icemonth the 16th, 195 of the 30th age. And we had 4 crazed berserkers at Cara’s behest.
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