May 22, 2016 – The Journal of Roland Red Oak
After a full night’s rest to recover from our ordeal with the savage orc warriors, the group of Quasi, Vroc, Milo, Draven, Thagmar, myself, and our two hirelings (Xon and his forgettable friend) readied our weapons, spells, and prayers as we prepared to kill their vile shaman.
We descended the stairs into the circular chamber and found the slaughtered corpses of our foes lying where we left them, the smell was overwhelming. We decided to head to the right and checked a door shortly down the hall and we found shelves lining the wall with ceramic jars on them. Thagmar opened one of the jars and found red, blue, yellow, and green liquids inside of the four jars. The room had a door at the back, Thagmar opened the door and found a long hallway leading west and a door directly across from the storage room.
We continued through the door to the north, it appeared to be a barracks, filled with old moldy workbenches. Milo found a bag stashed under one of the benches, opened it, and found a small fortune in copper and gems. At the rear of the room was a hallway that lead into a larger featureless room with two stone dwarves bound in iron shackles, they appear to have been beaten to death. Draven was incensed by the violence perpetrated upon his kin, he solemnly laid them to rest, and swore bloody vengeance upon the orc spawn. I said a silent prayer for the departed as we laid the dwarves to rest.
The group continued through a door to the north that led to a medium sized room containing a long forgotten forge. The group decided to press on and continue north through a wooden door. The door leads to a hallway that breaks to the west at the end. Quasi, carefully snuck to the corner and looked down the hallway that leads west for several hundred feet and t-bones in intersection heading north/south. Quasi snuck to the intersection and spied down both hallways.
The south hall led to a large; half-circle of a room with a metal fence cutting it in half. Quasi fearlessly snuck down the hall and found that the room we were in overlooked a large room with a table that had switches, restraints, and blood splatters on and around the table. In the room, some type of creature was in a fight to the death versus several large hungry rats. Quasi returned and we traveled to the ledge to observe what is going on. Milo yelled down to the creature asking if it needed help. The creature and the rats not currently attacking the creature turn to look at our group! The creature yells back, “Sure help yourself” in the orc tongue. The rats look up and nodded to the group too, some type of weird sorcery is going on here. During our indecision, the creature smashed another rat, killing his 6th rat. Milo yelled for everyone to stop and the rats took off to the south, the creature took after them, killing a 7th rat. Milo having enough of this monster’s murdering of the rats attempted to cast hold person on the creature but its will was too strong. The continued murdering of the rats caused the group to burst into action, Vroc pulled out his ladder, and the group prepared for battle. The fighting began with Draven casting a spell that shrunk the attacking creature to ½ its size, evening the playing field with the rats. Suddenly faced with fighting angry heroes and rats of unusual size, things looked dire for the monster. Roland tried unsuccessfully to tell the creature to throw down its arms and surrender. Thagmar pinned the creature in an attempt to stop the fight, but Draven still incensed over the murder of his kin, cast a spell that caused the creature to reek of cheese. Finally, the creature surrendered.
After the battle the rats approached the group, and bow before us, and head to the hall leading to the west. Thagmar slammed the creature onto the table and the group strapped him down and began interrogating the monster. We found out he worked for the orcs, he hates the rats, and the orcs are in the northeast. The group left the monster on the table, bound and gagged, and left to follow the rats.
As we followed the rats we found out that they have always been rats and they understood common. As we reached the end of the hall it appeared the door has been blasted to pieces and inside the room we see a pock marked room with various debris in it. Sitting in the center of the room is a badly damaged skull in a ceramic helmet. The group entered the room, still following the rats, we were lead to a door heading west.
We entered a room with many shelves covered in shattered glass and two large cabinets. Inside the we found a locked metal chest, Draven used rod of opening, and we found a potion, scroll, and spherical glass container with what looks like a dead cat inside of it. After an exhaustive search we found nothing else of value and decided to follow the rats on.
After following them through several twists and turns in a long hallway we reach a door, the rats stop, and frantically indicate that we open the door. Draven then began asking question and we find out that the room has something(s) that are threats to the rats. The group prepared and entered the room.
Inside the room we found a large room with five large creatures and one smaller one. Battle was joined as soon as the door opened with the monsters firing their bows at our group. Milo strode forward and cast Faire Fire upon them, causing the monsters to glow in a purple light. Quasi pulled out the silver arrows (formal arrows) and fired them into the group with a blast of thorns, turning them into pincushions. Vroc cast spiritual weapon and conjured a floating blue flail that swung wildly at the monsters. After several volleys of arrows, Roland cast fog cloud, obscuring the group and keeping the monsters from firing arrows at the group. Thagmar roared in rage and sliced one of the monsters in half, killing it instantly. Draven cast magic missile at the remaining close monsters, causing it to roar in pain. Roland blasted the closest monster with produce flame, putting it out of its misery. Vroc charged into the room and attacked the largest of the monsters, the big monster unleashed a flurry of heavy blows upon him, causing horrible slashing wounds. A second monster joined the attack and speared Vroc in the back, nearly dropping the stalwart dragonborn. Thagmar charged into the room and challenged the large monster, hoping to draw its ire away from Vroc. The group traded blows with the monsters for several minutes, no one gaining a clear advantage until our rat allies swarmed into the room and began attacking our foes. Just as things looked most dire for Vroc his spiritual hammer, smashed the monster archer in the skull, killing it instantly. The battle continued to rage as Milo snuck in and delivered a brutal stab to one of the monster’s back, killing it. With only two of the monsters left the group focused on the large monster, trying to bring the behemoth down. Vroc’s magic flail smashed the large one from behind while he cast Guiding Bolt, killing it with his holy power. The final monster faced the full wrath of our group as we turned our attention to it. The final monster was dropped by our hireling, Pokey with his first kill.
Kills: Thagmar I, Roland I, Vroc II, Milo I, Pokey I
After killing the last of the monsters the group searched their bodies and found some useful equipment, gathering arrows to replenish what he lost. While the group was searching the dead the rats became frantic and started scratching against the wall to the south. Draven found a hidden door that led to a small room full of treasure, including weapons, potions, etc. After the door was opened the rats bowed before us and left the group to return where they came from.
After our battle the group decided to take a long rest to lick our wounds and identify our treasures. Milo found that the dagger was a very valuable weapon to add to his arsenal. The rest of the potions turned out to be of various types.
After the rest the group explored the hallway to the west, Quasi snuck down the hallway and found a door leading west and hallway leading south. The door was adamantine steel hatch, Thagmar opened the door and we found two machines. Both made of red bronze and one smashed to pieces, nothing else of value in the room. A door to the west exists the room. Quasi, always curious, opened the hatch in the side of the machine and found that a large cylinder shaped hole.
The group checked the door to the west and entered the room, we found a medium sized room filled with glass containers, all but four are shattered. There are doors leading out to the north and south. Quasi grabbed the empty bottles and tossed the glass bottles into the machine in the previous room. Nothing happened.
We headed through the northern door, we entered into a large room with several exists. The ceiling had mosaic tiles that depicted arcane symbols. In one corner of the room was a skeleton that had three creatures gnawing on it. The creatures immediately became violent and attacked our group. Quasi shouts out that they were a undead creatures called ghouls as they charged to the attack.
Vroc cast bless on the group brining the aid of his god to bare in the battle, Milo attempted to cast faire fire on the ghouls only catching one of them, and Quasi fired a hail of thorns at the monsters. Quasi’s first shot was dead on target, sticking several arrows into the creatures. Draven charged to the front of our party and cast ice knife spell into the group dealing significant ice damage to the group, killing one of them. Thagmar charged forward and cleaved one of the monsters in twain, ending its foul life. Just as the ghoul dropped to the ground, three new shambling ghouls joined the battle, flanking Thagmar and slashing him with their diseased claws. Flying into a rage, Thagmar slashed the wounded ghoul across chest and face, killing it instantly. Draven stepped into the room and confidently cast scorching ray, blasting two of the creatures with the spell. Vroc enters the battle, conjuring his spiritual weapon and using the flail to smash the closest ghoul. Thagmar took a wicked slash, barely noticing the new wounds. Roland moved into position and cast thorn whip, dragging one of the ghouls away from Thagmar and into the path of a charging Milo who drove his rapier through the creature’s chest, killing it instantly. Quasi charged into the room and ran one of the ghouls through with his rapier, dealing horrible damage. Turning to face one of the two remaining ghouls, Thagmar ramed his blade clean through it, splattering the ground with the dead creature’s guts. Again Thagmar barely noticed the new wounds the ghoul scratched into his flesh. Quasi stepped up to the remaining ghoul and ran it through with his blade, ending their threat to our group.
Kills: Draven I, Thagmar II, Milo I, Quasi I
The group searched the room and found the skeleton on the floor that the ghouls were gnawing on had a sword, the group took the blade to sell in town. I composed the skeleton and performed a brief ceremony for the dead. Draven examined the runes on the ceiling and was stymied by the symbols. I then patched up Thagmar’s wounds to prevent infection and heal the warrior. While I patched up the barbarian, Quasi cut the tongues out of the ghouls as either a trophy or to sell in town, I have no idea which.
Quasi began exploring and the group headed north and found a large room. The west wall of the room is covered by multiple clocks, all of which are not working, and all on different times. Quasi advocated for taking one of the clocks back to Karlsburg to sell, this man is one hell of a merchant as he knows his markets. Quasi attempted to yank a clock off the wall and shattered it into several hundred pieces, a second attempt resulted in successfully pulling one down. He quickly stowed it into the bag of holding and the group headed off to the exit in the eastern wall. It was a stairwell heading up.
The group decided to return to the room we fought the ghouls in and headed into the western door. We found a room with doors that are covered in art, inside the room there is a desk, chairs, wooden shelves, and book shelves. A quick search of the room found a stack of bound paper written in a strange script. The group took the bound pages and left the room.
The group returned to a door we had passed early and ignored. Inside was a room filled with a large number of bones from several different sources (mainly rodent/vermin size). We split up and began to search through the bones, we found some treasure in the room, a magic ring and some sort of a magic rod or symbol. Draven began acting strangely and picked out humanoid bones and storing them in his sack.
The group left and explored a hallway we had passed by earlier and continued exploring this level of Mount and found a huge room with a pool filled with a clear/white thick liquid, on the south wall is a control panel with a human standing next to it, and several gnolls in the room. The gnoll closest to the human appears to be guarding him for some reason.
Milo attempted to reason with the gnoll’s and their human friend. The human responds and asks the group to leave the area as he has work to do. Apparently, Milo said something upsetting and the human mage cast a fireball spell at the group. A split second before he unleashed the spell, Vroc shouted scatter and the group ran to the four corners of the room, dodging the deadly spell. Milo cast faire fire upon the gnolls on the northern side of the room, causing them to glow in purple making them much easier to hit. I cast poison spray on gnoll attacking Thagmar, coating it in a green cloud of gas, causing it to hack and wretch from the effects of the poison. Vroc cast a guiding bolt at the mage, missing wide. The gnolls responded to our attack by charging into Thagmar and Quasi, missing on all attacks. Draven cast magic missile upon the mage, dealing stinging damage to the mage. Thagmar flew into a rage and ran through the closest gnoll to him, killing it. I cast thorn whip at one of the gnolls, wrapping the whip around his throat and dealing horrible damage and dragging it into the pool of clear liquid. Draven blasted the wizard again with magic missile dealing horrific damage to him. The gnoll that I drug into pool, pulled himself out of the muck cursing, swearing and coated in white slime, to attack Thagmar and miss. Quasi took a vicious spear wound to the side from the remaining gnolls. The mage turned to the group in melee on him and cast burning hands, inflicting horrible burns upon them. The room was filled with the agonizing screams of Pokey being incinerated into a pile of ash. Xon ran through the gnoll that was pulled into pool. The group horrified by the death of our hireling, charged into the fray ready to end the mage and his gnolls. Draven cast magic missile on the mage. I cast moonbeam on the mage, bathing him in the light of the moon and burning his unrighteous hide with the wrath of nature. The mage cast wall of fire in retaliation for all the damage he has taken, causing burns to Vroc, Quasi, Thagmar, and one of the gnolls. After the spell, the mage attempted to get out of the moonbeam which allowed Vroc to smash him with his flail, crushing his skull and ending the mages life and spells. A horribly burned Quasi, pulled a healing potion from his pack and drank it in the hopes of soothing some of the burns he had taken. Quasi then slashed the gnoll closest to him and ended its life. Milo, running up to the group heaved his dagger at the gnoll and missed horribly. The group ganged up on the remaining gnoll, with Draven finishing him off with a chill touch spell.
Kills: Thagmar I, Xon I, Vroc I (Mage), Quasi I, Draven I
After our hard fought victory, the group searched the corpses of our fallen foes and found mundane armor, weapons, and a duplicate magic rod or symbol that we found earlier in the room of skeletons. I led the group in mourning the loss of our hireling, Pokey. Quasi and Vroc rounded up the dead and tossed their corpses into the pool, for vengeance or expermentation?
The group then set up camp in the hidden room we had found earlier in our exploration and rested to recover from our battle with the evil mage. The group was able to identify the ring as a ring of fire protection (reduces fire damage 1 point per die), which was awarded to Thagmar. Draven copied the comprehend languages scroll into his spell book, cast it, and read the bound pages. Draven found an instruction manual for the pool of life and the essence machine.
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