Session 19- Delving Lareth’s Lair
Day 42 8pm. After dealing with the green slime, and due to the darkness, the party elects to sleep amongst the rubble and ruins of the hilltop. They set their standard watch, and while Gruumsh and Draden are on watch, the woods at the base of the hill rustles, and the characters perceive it as some kind of signal. Unsure, and unwilling to walk into a trap, they call out to it, but it makes no more noise or signs. They pass the info on to the remaining watches and the rest of the night passes. Day 43 morning. In the morning, the party assumes their standard marching order, now including Rev. Ramsey and they decide to bring the henchmen, Manny and Mondy into the dungeon due to their own ineptness when left alone. They smartly trigger the other green slime poised above the stairwell doorway with a long stick/torch and burn it on the floor harmlessly. The stairs descend onto a large chamber with a wide passageway going south. It contains a large rubble pile against the west wall, a door to the NE, but before long from the southern passage some zombies emerge, slowly pouring into the room. The party doesn’t do too well with turning, but manages to pummel and slash them down without too much damage. They find the southern passage to contain a series of cells with bars and barred doors lining the west side and a opening into a second chamber, which at first glance contained torture chamber devices. A thorough search of the cells brought up a valuable looking gem, and a search by Draden and Mandigor in the torture chamber revealed both a trail of blood leading up to a large column in the room, and a secret door in the column revealing a tunnel down. Deciding to take the risk, they decide to descend the narrow tunnel. Carefully walking ahead, Malden scans in all directions for the presence of evil, finding nothing, but still very wary in the underground darkness. The passage descends a level and straightens out heading south in a narrow tube ending in a dead end that could only be the backside of a secret door. Mandigor takes point and opens the door cautiously with his shield out, only to find that the rustling of the secret door has aroused 4 ghouls living here. Finding that the door opens into a narrow alcove of a larger chamber, and if he does not rush forward and push back the ghoul the rest of the party will be unable to exit the tunnel, Mandigor bullrushes into the 2 forward ghouls, incurring some extra attacks that do not get through his armor and making a hole for the rest of the party to exit the tunnel. The ghouls are particularly attracted to killing the paladin, as his protection from evil was quite effective against them. But alas the plate mail armor of the party absorbed most of the ghouls blows, and they were taken out, Gruumsh only barely resisting the ghouls' paralysis due to Malden’s holy aura. With the ghouls defeated, the party finds themselves in a large T shaped room with many many alcoves dug out along the walls. The alcoves reveal themselves to be burial crypts, and the party agrees to search thoroughly. Finding a dug out passage opposite the secret tunnel that could only be the ghoul vile lair. They do however find a good bit of treasure, some silver, holy water, potion of undead control, and a scroll of protection from undead. Beyond the lair, they find a maze of tunnels and a trail of gold pieces leading in, they avoid the obvious trap, wondering just what kind of trap they just avoided. After searching 2 large areas, 2 combats, and a need for the party to rest, the session ends Day 43 noon.
Session 20- Brief Meeting With a Potential Ally
Day 43 noon. After resting and searching the ghouls lair, the party leaves the chamber through the only hallway out of the crypt. While on the twisting passage that moves mainly east, Mandigor picks up the signal of a shadowy figure hiding around the passageway corner. He infers the signal to be some sort of ranger speak, and is reminded of the rumor of Zara the local ranger. Attempting to return the signal, exactly that, a woman ranger reveals herself to the party. Zara tells the party time is of the essence, Lareth keeps a close watch on her. She is an unwitting participant in the kidnapping plot due to Lareth giving Zara’s sister to the Naga as blackmail to aid in the kidnapping plot. Fearing her sister already dead, she sees the party as the best chance to defeat Lareth and vows to aid them in the final confrontation with Lareth. She also tells them that on the floor above there is an ogre who works for Lareth and has his own set of prisoners that were payment/food from Lareth in exchange for loyalty. She says there are also 2 prisoners in Lareth’s chambers and they will be moved out tomorrow along the human trafficking chain. She also tells them that at the end of this passage to the right there is a chamber with a large creature guarding a pile of treasure. With that she disappears back into the darkness of the passage. Armed with this new information, but unsure of the veracity of Zara, the party decides to test her clues by going back up the secret tunnel in the ghouls chamber back to the first level and seeing if there is an ogre with some prisoners. They find just that, behind a small chamber filled with litter that had some well oiled and quiet doors that led into a larger chamber with 5 pillars, and a large ogre with a bardiche. He pauses as if to receive a signal or message, then engages. The fight is mighty, with the ogre dealing a heavy blow to the Paladin, but ultimately the grit of the party slays the creature. They find a pile of copper, some silver and a fine cloak. They also find a barred room containing 2 human merchant prisoners and a badly injured gnome prisoner. The merchants offer a reward for the rescue, but the party declines, cures the gnome of some injuries and directs the freed prisoners to the stairs up and out of the dungeon. In the search of the room a series of 2 secret doors is revealed leading to stairs down. At the bottom of the stairs the hall goes two directions, the party searching south first. It opens into a large room with 3 doors arranged on the far wall, and a hall leading to the west. Searching the doors first, one causes a large clang down the hall the party came from, and before the 3rd door can be investigated a group of snarling yet cautious dog men holding longbows engages the party, acknowledging but not attacking. Through crude attempts to speak gnoll, the party realizes the gnolls have been hired by Lareth as muscle, but the gnolls are unhappy with their pay. The party entices the gnolls with a large pile of copper they got from the ogre. The 9 gnolls indicate that for 6gp each plus an extra 6gp worth of coins to the gnolls will buy their loyalty and agree to leave Lareth’s lair and no longer aid him. They depart through the southern door the party has yet to check. Going back from where they came to investigate the clanging noise, they find an iron portcullis is now blocking the stairs they came down. Continuing along the corridor, it ends in a second room identical to the previous one, with 3 doors set along the opposite wall, and a hallway leading out. Choosing to investigate the hall first, they find 6 bugbears ready to attack. Draden tries to throw out a Sleep spell, but the Bugbears get initiative and some of the spell hits the party. Malden and 2 bugbears fall asleep, and the rest of the party dives into fierce melee. The party defeats them but not before receiving a few wounds from the monsters. They find the leader to be wearing a very valuable necklace as a bracelet. With the combat over, some of the party feels the need to rest and heal, but others see the need for urgency as the prisoners are said to be moved tomorrow. They decide to press on, as the session ends. End Day 43 4pm.
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