September 11th, 2016

Relighting the Lights - An Angel and A Demon

The party for this adventure from my left to my right:

Christopher playing Valandil the elven spellsword with some minor debates because a gnome minstrel named Klobowick Mekkawizzle was a possibility 

Sabre playing/retiring Mordecai Ali Van oh never mind the human cleric then playing/introducing Meridova the half-elven witch

Nick playing Merrick the human fighter

Hunter playing Dorni the gnome thief

Nilo playing Arden the halfling cleric

and Zackery playing Ahri the elven magic-user

When last we left the party they had retreated to the bunkroom for students in the main level. The charmed orcs were left outside the barricaded door to keep watch at the request of their new best friend Ahri the elven magic-user. The party rested for the night, got a bit of healing, then decided that they should try to take their battered selves back to Twinlakes to rest, recuperate and get experience.

While they were in town, the human cleric Mordecai John Jacob Jinkelheimer Schmidt Olly Olly Oxenfree decided to take his overly long name to the local church and to try to do some good works there. He was replaced in the group by their new friend(?) Meridova, a half-elven witch that Dorni their gnome thief introduced them to. While Valandil the elven spellsword considered leaving these nutjobs and going somewhere else, it was determined that the only other available and willing adventurer in town was a gnome minstrel named Klobowick Mekkawizzle. Merrick, the human fighter, had a simple thought about that along the lines of "Oh, dear Gods, no." and the elven spellsword was convinced to hang around a bit longer.

After selling off some items and resting in town in real beds for a few days the party made ready to return to the hidden citadel and to continue exploring the doors that they had not yet opened off of the trophy room. The party arrived back at the stronghold and discovered to their mild dismay that all the lights in the room before the trophy room were off. Some frustration was evident when it was discovered that the mapmaker had neglected to mark which levers/switches were in which rooms for activating the lights again. Mumbling and swearing (except from Nick who is above such things) ensued as the party tried to figure out what was where and how it was done. Once they had mostly sorted out the correct rooms they began the journey through the map to light the lights.

They started in the "Wrath of Zelligar" trap room where the green lever was on the pedestal. Once most of the party entered the room, with Ahri the magic-user staying outside to see if the doors disappeared from that side too (they did), the doors vanished, the pronouncement of doom was made, and the fighter and spellsword took off around the edge of the room to try to get to the lever that created the bridge to the central pillar, and then across it to the pillar to pull the correct lever before they were all blasted into unconsciousness. Unfortunately two disturbances in the air became identifiable as salt mephits and attacked the two heroes. The spellsword used his dexterity to skid on past without slowing down while Merrick took them both on to keep them from chasing the spellsword. The first salt mephit died fairly quickly, but not before scoring a hit on the fighter. Merrick failed his saving throw and the salt mephit dehydrated him seriously, dropping his strength by two points. The fight against the second salt mephit was longer, even with the cleric's assistance and the witch's "assistance" (FYI, the sound made when a sling stone hits the back of the fighter's head is *tonk*), but it was finally vanquished, though not before it had leeched away four more points of Merrick's strength. In the meantime, the elven spellsword had made it to the central pillar and pulled the levers that created the green glow, deactivated the magical trap, and caused the doors to reappear. Some time was spent waiting to see if the fighter's strength would return, and it did over the next half hour or more. Unfortunately during that time a third salt mephit was encountered but luckily it was defeated before making the situation worse.

On the way back to the next room, the party encountered a spectral wanderer and attacked it doing enough damage, thanks in part to the halfling cleric's holy aura spell, to cause it to flee out of phase. The party continued on expecting to encounter it again at any moment. When it reappeared it did with surprise attacking the witch from behind. A brief fight did enough damage to cause it to vanish, though the party was uncertain if it had been killed or if it was simply hiding again. After reactivating the lights the party entered the trophy room where they again saw what they believed to be the spectral wanderer floating inside the drake's ribcage. Their attacks, other than the burning hands from the witch, seemed rather ineffective and after a while the party decided to ignore it and continue their explorations, but not before the human fighter (by virtue of three natural 1's in a row) had converted his longsword into a janky shortsword. The gnome thief failed to pick the lock on the northern door, and so the elven spellsword resorted to other means. Venturing back above ground he found a likely fallen log and brought it back so the party could use it as a battering ram. The fighter-types used it well and soon had smashed the door off of its hinges, revealing a storage room filled with crates and boxes.

A search of the storage room took the better part of an hour and mostly revealed some items in poor quality that might have once been intended for the trophy room but where determined to not be good enough. Though most of what was found ranged from the ordinary to absolute junk, some items on interest were discovered including some weapons to add to the party's arsenal. One crate revealed a gem-studded scepter wrapped in cloth with a "DO NOT TOUCH!" card on it. An identify spell showed that it was a scepter of madness that likely had been used to overthrow a king at some point. It was wrapped up carefully in cloth and stored in the gnome's backpack because it seemed like a better idea than letting the magic-user use it. Other things that were found included a suit of elven spellsword's armor, a variety of objects d'art and perhaps of use as well, a silver bastard sword that the fighter took to use, a wavy-bladed dagger that the thief kept, and several other items of interest.

Once they were done with the storage room the party went to open the east door out of the trophy room. The largest key on the keyring the spellsword carried opened the door and beyond was a twenty foot wide and forty foot long hallway that had all its surfaces covered in engraved tiles, some of geometric patterns and some in what looked like stone faces, in no discernible pattern. The party was given a clue of what they might expect when the DM said "Have you ever seen the opening sequence of Raiders of the Lost Ark? It looks a lot like that hallway." The spellsword decided to roll Stumpy (his name for the battering ram they had used on the north door) down the hall to see what would happen. The result was that gouts of flame jetted out of some of the tile faces and turned Stumpy into Ashy. However, there was a safe place along the walls; a roughly 2 foot wide by 3 foot tall space where no flames were. The party did their best to cross in this safe space, though the magic-user decided to poke one of the faces that was out of the safe space in the eye as she crossed and got burned for her troubles. Once on the far side the witch attempted to open the far door (with her five strength) and was notably unsuccessful, so much so that she ended up stumbling a bit too far back and getting scorched for her trouble. The fighter opened the door and revealed a north/south hallway on the far side.

Using the right hand rule they went south and after 40' of hallway the hall ended in a stone door carved into the shape of a leering demon face. The party's immediate action was to drop to the floor seeking cover, but after nothing much happened they tried to open the door but they could not get it open. While they tried different things to open the door, the fighter decided to go north and see what was there. He went 40' past the door they entered through and found that the door there was carved into an angel's face. He tried to open it, and it opened easily at his touch. He failed a saving throw and walked in, and the door closed behind him.

After a while the party began to wonder what had happened to the fighter. Except for the gnome who was trying to use her lockpicks to pick the demon's nose, they went to the angel door and opened it. The spellsword and cleric made their saves and did not follow the others inside the brightly lit room that was so brightly lit that it was like staring into a searchlight. The gnome came and volunteered to be the doorstop and everyone but the spellsword and the gnome went inside. The door began to slowly close in spite of the gnome's efforts, so the gnome dashed inside though the spellsword declined. The spellsword went back to the demon faced door and cast a light spell on it off of a scroll. The spell was absorbed by the door, but this caused the door to swing open revealing perfect pitch blackness beyond. The spellsword entered and the door slowly closed behind him.

At some point the party realized that they were sitting on the ground in the room where they had first entered the dungeon. Everyone was there, and everyone had been healed of all their damage. The members of the party who had gone through the angel door felt rested and blessed, and the spellsword said he felt fine too. The rest of the party wondered what the spellsword had experienced, but he didn't say much about it. No worries. Just fine.

And there we ended for the evening.