Quasi’s shield bearer, Xon, had earned his spurs and came back to the group a confident and capable warrior. Vroc returned to the temple to tend to his flock’s spiritual needs. Milo performed across town to much acclaim and gold, the Halfling was becoming very famous across the region. Draven worked as a scribe amongst the town’s elite. Thagmar returned to his role as a mercenary for hire, wreaking a path of destruction throughout the village. I returned to the people of Karlsburg providing healing and ministering to the faithful of Desonia around Karlsburg.
After 20 or so days the group got together and prepared to journey to the Mount of the Red Door, our group now included a much improved Xon, his companion Dirk Daggers, and the brave son of one of my parishioners Smithers the Archer. We returned to the Mount and the Orc level.
Upon entering the level, we retraced our steps to ensure the sorcerer we had fought twice previously was truly dead, we found his skeleton. For some reason Draven became excited and collected the bones and added them to the bag of holding. What a weird, hairy, little man.
We continued on toward the area we had not finished exploring. We reached the western edge of the map, descended the stairs, and found a long hallway. We came across a door leading West and it opened into a storage room that contained spoiled dry goods. Hanging from the wall is a small holy symbol of Midis, the group removed the symbol and placed it into the bag of holding.
We continued down the hallway and came across a large room that branches into multiple exits. The room was unremarkable and empty.
- There were two exists to the south, a door and a hallway.
- The doorway to the south lead to a large room containing several cages with the skeletal remains of some poor humanoids.
- The group looked down the hallway to the south and saw that the hall ended in a closed grate.
- To the east a hallway leading into a large room, empty except for a large sack in the corner.
The group headed down the eastern hallway and came to the red-bronze door to the south, a series of strange symbols covered the door in a language we could not read. Thagmar threw open the door and inside were walls covered in bookshelves with molding, decaying books. A search of the library found two scrolls of note; dispel magic and conjure animals. Searching the room Quasi found a secret door with stairs leading down into a much deeper section of the Mount. The group decided to finish the level before descending the stairs, we shut the secret door and headed down the eastern hall way.
We approached the red-bronze door heading north and found wooden debris covering the floor. The wall was covered in a fresco of magic experimentation on animals. Converting them from animals to abomination unto nature! I became irate at this, urging the group to leave this foul room of torture and defilement. Vroc digging through the debris, found two silver tankards.
Finally, we left that horrible room and continued down the eastern hallway and found another door leading south and found debris once again covering the floor and a foul dampness hung in the air. Quasi entered the room and slowly began poking warily through the debris. After pushing his rapier into the debris, he pulled out a stub of a rapier covered in a green slime! Something had dissolved his blade, Quasi was inconsolable about the loss of his favorite weapon. Milo, being the diplomat he is, offered his blade to the elf. He then switched to his crossbow and dagger.
After leaving the death trap the group continued to the east and we came upon a bend to the south and the hallway continued east. We came across a door leading south. Thagmar opened the door and we found a room that was covered in a white sand, with a door to the south. Quasi drew his 12’ pole from the bag of holding to probe the sand. It varied in depth until he came across a sack buried in the sand at the middle of the room. Dirk Daggers volunteered to retrieve the bag containing silver coins and the group left the room. Continuing to the east to a hallway leading north.
We headed north and found a large circular room, sitting in the center is a large machine that represented the solar system. The device sits inside a large clear dome. On one of the sides of the dome was a door into the device. Draven grabbed a sheet of paper and quickly sketched a diagram of the machine. While he was doing this Milo found a secret door that led to some sort of storage room, with what looks like parts for the machine in the main room. Among the parts was a large adamantine 3’x3’ cube with red writing on it, the cube was warm to the touch. The group left the room and Draven used the rod of opening on the box and found a cylinder he immediately recognized as a fueling rod for the duplication machine. Quasi took a suit from the bag of holding and wrapped the fuel rod in it, dropping it into the bag of holding.
After thoroughly exploring the machine room we returned to the sand room, traveled through the door to the south, and entered a hallway leading east/west. We had previously explored the eastern hallway so we headed west. Along the southern wall we found an adamantine hatch, inside we found 6 large tanks filled with clear liquid. One of the tanks along the southern wall had been shattered. The southern wall had a hallway leading east. The group found a connecting passage to similar sized room, inside was a large 10-foot diameter cylinder made out of a smoky glass. Ever curious, Quasi tapped on the glass and there was some type response as the liquid rattled the tube in response. This startled the group and we decided that is was better to leave the thing alone.
We returned to the western running hallway, another red-bronze door leads south. The group entered the room and found, a large room filled with the debris of once expensive wooden furniture that had been smashed to pieces. A small desk did remain unscathed in a corner of the room. Draven found a small magic trap on the desk, he carefully opened the drawer with a mage hand spell. Inside we found two scrolls, protection from evil and web. The group searched the room and we found nothing else of value.
Our group continued down the hall to the west and we found the hall bent south, that wrapped west again. Midway down the hall was an adamantine door leading north, inside we found a supply room full of dust covered various supplies. The group took the valuable supplies.
We headed down the hall to the west and found a hallway ending at red-bronze door, with a branch in the hallway heading north. The northern hallway ended in another grate.
We entered the door leading west and found a large room covered in crystals of various colors. Standing in the middle of the room was a humanoid statue made of crystal. The statues head has been knocked off and is on the ground. The group carefully entered the room, led by Thagmar. Quasi, used a glove from one of the silver suits to recover several loose crystals. He then placed the crystal head upon the statue. The creature came to live and immediately attacked the group. After several attacks, Thagmar finally connected with the creature shattering the creature into large chunks. The group collected the large loose chunks we could find and left the room.
Kills – Thagmar I
We left the room and found that the northern hallway ended in a grate opening into a circular room with a stairwell heading down. Thagmar, with the help of Quasi, bent the bars open. We looked around and decided to return the eastern section of the level that we had not explored.
We started in a room with empty weapon racks that had a door leading north, we entered the room and found a room filled with mold that glowed with a sickly light. I found the glow to be very bright and caused me discomfort, the rest of the group seemed unaffected by it. We decided to avoid the room as everyone feared for my health and frankly I was much relieved.
We went to a parallel hallway that lead north, we came across an empty room to the east. It was large with a table that had been vandalized. Quasi added his mark to the wood as well.
We continued north to a door that ended the hallway, we found an empty room with a door leading to the mold room and a door leading north. We headed north.
Inside we found a long hallway leading north, midway down it branched into a western leading room. We took the hallway heading east, we found an eating room that the filthy orcs had left into total disarray. As soon as we entered the stench of rotted meat was overwhelming. The group decided to search the room and found various treasures, however the filth was overwhelming. Our group began to feel feverish and weak, the foul humors took their toll on our health. We left the room and Vroc and myself cast Lesser Restoration on our group to recover our health. We then found a location to rest safely and recovered our spells.
After our recovery we returned to the hallway outside the eating room, hurried through the room to a hallway leading north. Along the hallway we found a latrine that Quasi explored while the rest of stayed outside and watched uncomfortably as he searched the room. We found nothing of value.
We returned to the northern hallway and found a barracks and after a quick search we found a sack of gold! This brought us back to the room where we had the final showdown with the orc shaman. We took the western hallway and found the doors we had left before, finding nothing of interest.
We returned to King Ruck-Ruck with our map of the Orc’s level to receive his reward for mapping the level. We received 500 gold for our efforts. Milo decided to sweet talk Ruck-Ruck, he could not move the hobgoblin king.
The group then decided to head to the next level (3b).
We used the hidden staircase in the library to descend into the level below. At the bottom of the stairwell we found a large room, with two large statues of Vrok flanking the stairwell. One of the statues held a globe in an outstretched hand and the other triumphantly raises a key into the air. Otherwise the room had two doors leading east, a door heading north, and a door leading south. The group decided to examine the statues and found nothing of value.
After a moment of indecision, the group decided to head through the northern door. The door opened into a hallway that t-boned into hallways running east and west. We entered the intersection and found the hallway had doorways on both the north and south walls of the east and west hallways. The western hallway, ended in a turn to the north, the eastern hallway continued into the dark.
We decided on going to the southern door to the west, inside we found a small room that has fissures running the length of the southern wall. Crawling out of the fissures in the wall were two gigantic segmented creatures that prepared to attack the group. We met their ferocity with our own and battle was joined. After trading initial volleys with creatures, Milo cast faire fire, causing a bright green glow to surround the monster. Quasi rushed into the room and drove his rapier clean through the creature, twirled and delivered a series of quick strikes to the other in a feat of pure athleticism. Both creatures reeled from the damage. Draven cast poison spray on the creature that Quasi had driven his rapier through earlier, the spell killed the weakened creature. As the creature dropped, Smithers noticed that several giant beetles were charging down the hall, he fired an arrow into a charging beetle and yelled a warning to the group that he was under attack. I rushed to his aid and cast gust of wind to try and push the beetles off Smithers. Unfortunately, the lead creature was unmoved by my spell and in utter horror I watched as it thrust its horn straight through poor Smithers, killing the archer instantly. Against the initial creatures, Thagmar pummeled the last creature into a puddle of purple and orange goo. Seeing the last monster dead, Quasi rushed to the aid of our group and raced into the hallway, all the time muttering under his breath. As he reached the hall the elf grunted with exertion and leapt into the air, flying over our squad and the lead beetle, landing beside it. After landing he stabbed the lead beetle, twice, once per eye, killing the beetle instantly. With a growl full of rage and anger, Thagmar charged down the hallway and drove his blade clean through the beetle., ending the threat for good.
Kills – Draven I, Thagmar II, Quasi I
After the battle, I gave last writes to poor Smithers, laying him to rest with a full honor. The group sadly decided to continue on, returning to the room with the fissures in the wall and exited the room through the door to the west. We entered a small room with two large piles of ash sitting in the center of the room. A red-bronze door lead out of room to the west, the group decided to proceed with caution as Draven used a mage hand to open the door.
The door opened into a medium sized room, a door leading to the north, a hallway to the south, and two large unlit braziers along the southern wall. After a careful inspection of the braziers, Draven determined that the braziers had last been lit about a day ago. The door leading to the north had a flame engraved into the red-bronze material. Quasi explored the hallway leading south which he found curved to the south and ended in a door. Draven decided to light both braziers, as soon as the fire took on the first brazier, a massive blast of flame coalesced into a gigantic monster of pure flame.
Milo immediately cast faire fire, causing the beast to erupt into a bright green glow. Quasi charged into the room and thrust his blade into the creature, however the heat radiating off the creature blistered the elf’s skin. Vrok entered the room and moved to the rear of the room, casting a guiding bolt on the creature, blasting the creature with the force of his faith. The creature moved forward and engulfed Thagmar in flame, causing his clothing to burst into flame, horrible blisters and damage erupted across his flesh. With a howl of anger Thagmar swung the mighty Blood Drinker in a viscous arc, inflicting terrible wounds upon the beast. Milo attempted to heal the half-orc, causing some of the wounds to close but Thagmar continued to suffer from the horrible burns ravaging his flesh. The creature charged into Thagmar and myself, causing horrible burns on both of us. My clothes burst into flames, causing unimaginable pain to rip through my body. It took all I had to not to turn and run, instead I staggered away from the shambling monster in an attempt to get away from the flames. Vroc cast a healing prayer, bathing the group in a blue light of divine healing and comfort, my wounds closed and relief spread through my body. Draven cast Reduce upon the best, shrinking it to a miniature version of its self. Draven unleased a powerful blast of Magic Missile into the beast, hopefully dealing damage to the monster. Xon stepped around the corner of the hallway and unleashed a crossbow bolt straight in the head of the creature. Vroc once again cast Preserve Life and channeled the healing light of his god through Thagmar, healing some of the horrible burns. Milo followed up with a Cure Light wounds, mending most of the remaining burns Thagmar was suffering. Thagmar finally killed the creature with a slash through the body, causing the flames to disperse.
Kills – Thagmar
After the battle we returned to the library on the floor above to rest and after a brief discussion we decided to return to Karlsburg to train.
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