A Dungeoning We Will Go

Deug the 11th

The Party:

• Rig Bigny, Gnomish Beastmaster
  • Flit, the bat familiar
  • Clench, the Wardog War-Badger
  • Midnight, the Panther
  • Faufe Yitaw, Dogwere (Badgerwere?)
    • Rawf, Wardog familiar
    • Aroof, Wardog familiar
• Caranthir, Human Leader of Men
  • Rhea Trueheart, Elvish Nightblade
  • Lucille "Luce" Burwood, Fighter
  • Elenora Garrard, White Mage
• Gróin of Norston, Dwarven Sapper
  • Zarc, Thrassian Gladiator
  • Laurita Gomez, Priestess
• Llarm Paphyra, Elvish Polydoctorate
  • The Metal Man, construct
• Quetgar, Thrassian Assassin
• Gottes Segen, Cleric

In Wallace, the party sold the goods they had collected; while they were there, Llarm happened to run into a human cleric from her hometown, Sacred Grove. Recognizing an emblem on his robe, Llarm introduced himself, and offered the cleric a place in the party.

Gróin's henchman Zarc, meanwhile, met a fellow lizardman - an assassin from the jungle. He, too, was invited to stay with the party. Rather than spend his hard earned (?) money, the lizardman elected to stay outside in his tent. A pup tent, as it turns out - nine wild dogs, smelling something similar to food, wandered over. The two lead dogs and the alpha male investigated the tent... and met the big lizard. Needless to say, in a few seconds, the alpha and the two other dogs were dead, and the remaining animals fled into the gray morning light.

After gathering supplies, the party returned to the Tower, intent on traipsing to the depths. At this point, levels 1 through 3 have been cleared; level 4 was partially cleared. The party advanced, clearing rooms; in one, they found 5 zombies, and easily dispatched them. In another, they managed to find a magical mirror that seemed to know about the dungeon, but could only answer questions "yes" or "no". Unfortunately, the mirror distracted them from a trap - water was slowly filling the room! After a few moments of scrabbling, the lizards ganged up and slammed into the metal door to the north, ripping it off its hinges. The water flowed out into the rest of the dungeon.

In that room, they found a statue; Llarm and the new cleric knew that it was a representation of Alehim, and his wisdom. Careful inspection found traces of gem-dust in the wide offering bowl at his feet. Unfortunately, though the water was flowing more slowly, it was beginning to fill this room as well. Slogging through the water-filled rooms, the party investigated the tile from which water was flowing. Moving it revealed a small hole; reaching inside, they found a simple jug - a decanter of endless water! Plugging it with its magical plug, they stopped the flow of water, which slowly trickled down into the cracks at the feet.

Further on, they saw three rust monsters - the leather-clad lizard-assassin was unafraid, but the heavily armored Caranthir was a little more leery about attacking the armor-eating creatures. After several rounds of slashing and thumping the tough beasts, they were destroyed. Stuffed into a corner, they found a shiny helmet and three gems: a lapis lazuli, and two turquoise. Excited, they returned to the statue, and after some debate, the lizardman assassin placed a single turquoise gem on the bowl. After a moment, there was a rumble, and the lizard felt himself grow wiser! However, placing further gems on the alter had no effect; returning to the mirror, they learned (through a series of yes and no questions) that the alter only worked every hundred years. Bother...

It was getting late by the time they reached the 6th level, so the party bedded down for the night. Rhea was placed on third watch, and told that Caranthir and Luce would be sleeping, in the hopes of perhaps catching whatever odd curse had befallen her before. Sure enough, Rhea was already awake when she was called for her turn at watch. After she was sure the second watch had fallen asleep, she slipped off, up the stairs to the third level, and uncovered a secret door. Caranthir followed, telling Luce to wake the others if he wasn't back in twenty minutes. Rhea scrawled a message on one wall: "Beware the elf!" - in goblin. Rhea didn't know goblin...

Caranthir stepped forward and accosted her; after playing innocent for a while, the others arrived, and a short scuffle broke out. She flipped here and there, displaying amazing acrobatics, before ultimately being taken down. The nightblade she was concealing skidded away... and she began to laugh. "I'm free! It worked!"

After a bit more discussion, the story came out: Rhea was being possessed by the spirit of an ancient nightblade, one who was trapped in his own dagger by a mad mage. Unable to free himself, the nightblade spent a thousand years testing the boundries of his cage. In the possession of another nightblade, he finally was able to overcome the curse, and swapped his soul for Rhea's. He was attempting to better arm and enrich himself, so as to escape in Rhea's body. He agreed to swap back... for now.

• XP from Encounters:
  • 12 wild dogs (35 XP each)
  • 5 Zombies (29 XP each)
  • 3 Rust Monsters (200 XP each)
• XP from treasure: none
• Total XP: 745 XP
• XP per PC: 71
• XP per Henchman: 36
• (The Metal Man returned 36 copper)
• Additional XP for the Thrassian Assassin: 135 XP