Birthmonth the 6th, 8 AM, we talked at length about what our next actions were going to be. We wanted to wait for nightfall, stay out of town, and kept to the temple grounds for now. We rested during the day to make sure we were able to adventure late into the night and after getting Father Falder to add a few more rags from the donation bin, we let the clock run out.
By the 10 PM call from the docks, we snuck out of the Temple of Uller grounds and made our way westward to the main avenue. From here we took it to the back of Temple Row, hid in the collective ruins and underbrush there, and donned our rags on our feet. We wanted to let the lighter party members go first through the waste culvert, even though it was not full, the bottom had a sludge mix in it that was going to get churned up as we walked along.
It was 20 after 10 by the time we arrived at the collapsed wall behind the Temple of Gruumsh. Rhareli and Gun gave the area beyond a thumbs up and the party crawled through the 2’ tall gap to the back of the temple grounds. We unlaced and let drop the many numerous fouled up rags here and crept up to the back of the temple itself, 30 or 40 feet from the back wall.
It took us 10 minutes to find the marked cross stones that Father Falder indicated would be the secret door. We took out the copy of the key, tried it, and it would not turn. Fjord was convinced it was because the interior of the lock was crudded up and hadn’t been used for 4 years. We spent some time scrubbing and oiling the inner workings before finally the door was unlocked. After that it took some strength to force the thick door open.
There was a passage here, set in the wall of the temple itself. 10’ tall, 10’ long, 5’ wide. Ended at a door on the other side poorly disguised from this side. Fjord checked it for traps, we could faintly see light through the edges of the door. Gun volunteered to open it. The halfling opened the door, but did not notice the pin and rope trigger, which dropped the heavy beam covered in nails, spikes, glass, and other sharp objects at an angle down to slam into the assassin, dropping him with some pain.
“Damn it, Fjord!”
“Brian! I must have missed that!”
“You get the next damn doors, boy.”
As we were looking about (long hall, left and right, door at the end of the left end running north), we realized that in the garden area we had made a very obvious trail in the mud and paths of us coming here and this way. We could spend some time trying to obscure it, or we opted instead to have half a dozen of us stomp all over the ground, disguising our path and trail to the secret door.
We entered, closed both doors but did NOT lock the outer door (in case we needed a fast escape), and followed the passage west to the door there. In order, Fjord looked for traps, opened the door which squeaked very bad, listened, heard nothing, and then shut the door which also, squeaked very bad. “All clear,” he said as the group just looked at him in wonderment.
It was about 5 after 11 and we opted to check out the hall behind us first. It circled to the north and ended with some crumbly grey small piles of grit on the floor and a door on the east wall. We looked first for secret doors (finding none), and then decided to open with care. 20 x 15 room, the room had been victim of a fire a few years ago, and the east wall showed signs of being repaired – but not with wood and plaster, but with block and mortar. That’s what the grey gritty stuff was. Not sure, but we guessed the repair was over a year and less than 2 old.
Yandr did a short detection of evil and got 2 pings through the east wall – spicy cinnamon and rock dust. We talked at length about taking the wall down but we decided against that action for now. We returned to the long hall and went on to the far door, opening it showed a long hall – 50’ long. We guessed we were along the outer western edge of the temple. Yandr assumed back here it would be passages and rooms for the priests when the place was active. Right now the passage was formerly fire scarred and the plaster in poor repair.
At the end of the hall, the passage turned east and 5’ ended at a door. Some of the slats were missing but the door was forced and melted in some place, stuck fast where it was. While Gun was checking it out, could see a room past here, open to the sky as the 2nd floor had collapsed on the 1st, a scabrous grey hand and arm shot through the gaps in the door and tried to grab the halfling who dodged out of the way. It spat and snarled, and there were 3 arms before they threaded back and grew quiet again. “This is turning into bullshit,” Gun muttered, moving back a few ranks from the front of the party.
Reshuffling the line, Carl, who had a great hate for anything not…human, took point. Hrimvir and Rhareli lined up behind with Yandr up there if something went wrong. Cara shot off a globe of light into the room, attracting the ghouls who attacked it. Then a Combine spell went off and the combined clerical energy flowed into Carl who…TURNED with the strength of Odin – a wave of white yellow light poured through the door – and 6 of the 8 ghouls there were consumed from within by Odin’ holy light and were destroyed.
2 Ghouls and 2 Ghasts (who had held back) then tried to get to the group but the door was stopping them. The party was reshuffling the line when the Ghasts ordered the ghouls to pick up some of the heavy masonry and CHARGE the door. Splintering the wood. “Damn! They can DO that?!?”
And then they hit again and were in the hall. Yandr was in the front and the paladin’s aura of courage prevented the undead from keeping enough of a contact with him to paralyze him. But it was touch and go. One of them LEAPT forward, running into the hall behind. Combat ensued and the ghoul was having a hard time hitting as the paladin’ presence made direct touch difficult. Eventually it died and Hrimvir called to Thrym, causing a spiritual hammer to appear and fly about.
At the front with 2 ghasts, the smell was making everyone sick (-2 on all rolls), Carl turned again, and this time 1 of the ghasts turned and fled. The last was beating the paladin with lengths of broken stone. Spiritual Hammer slammed out hitting. It was not stupid, so it turned and ran, just a bit ahead of the attacks as its back. It scrambled up the wall and OUT the hole in the roof.
We all ran into the room, Yandr climbing the walls and watching it run across the temple grounds to the east and leap off the side of the building into the night.
We came down, healing was dispensed, we looked over the room for treasures (finding an iron box we could not open as the cover was caved in but we would try tomorrow), and Yandr let us know that we have allowed 2 ghasts to escape the temple grounds and were now in the Streets of Highport – this was our fault ultimately and we should take eventual pains to correct it.
The door on the other side of the room was nailed in place. We popped the hinges and Hrimvir used his saw to cut the spars of wood nailed to the frame from the other side away. 12:30 AM, Birthmonth the 7th. We pressed on.
After a short run, the passage turned north. There was a side cut and set of stairs going up, and a parallel passage heading to an alcove. No one trusted it. “Well, go on boy,” Gun offered to Fjord, the Half-ogre making a quiet Brian noise. Someone gave him the door we had removed to the Ghoul room and he used it as a shield as he inched down the hall, checking everywhere for traps or dangers. There were none.
Exhausted, we reconvened and then went to the stairs heading up. Room was long, 30’ by 20. There was a pit in the middle of the room, taking most of the floor. The floor had burned out down to the 1st floor and THAT floor had burned out down to the basement. 30’ down to broken spars and busted stones. The left side had about a foot of jagged burned floor, the right side was 3 times that width and solid seeming, and the middle had some fallen 2 x 12’s spanning the pit itself. We looked everywhere and talked about passage for a while.
We settled on Fjord crossing the east side, figuring if the half ogre can make it, we all can. Tied a rope to him and before he went, changed our mind. Instead Rhareli took it, rope tied to the gnome. Atlas had a feather fall spell ready and we watched as the gnome stayed near the wall. About 20’ across the floor under him shifted and a 20’ section of floor AND wall fell free with the gnome, dropping all of them down into the pit, the rope he was tied to cutting and splitting as he fell.
When the last of the falling beams echoed away, we could hear the gnome groaning below. He dug himself out of the busted garbage, gave a thumbs up, and crept to the other side. Once there, he climbed the wall to the top and then the other side of the room.
He could smell vinegar from here, and there was some distant wet on wet sound (like mayo). Taking a piton and hammer, he drove a spike here and then tied one end of the rope to it. Not liking being here alone, he crawled back across the middle of the pit, staying on the wooden beams, and rejoined the group.
We then drove another piton here and tied the rope to this one as well. Now, if the wood broke, the rope would span the pit and whoever was crossing could stop their fall. Hrimvir called to Thrym and fired off a light spell as far as he could across the way. It was interrupted by a wall just beyond the opening on the other side of the room. But illuminated everything. Cara crossed next, smelling the vinegar and hearing the wet on wet mayo sound. 1:25 Am, Birthmonth the 7th.
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