The next morning, the party was somewhat at a loss for any further action. They had been in the Forbidden City over a week and all that they had accomplished was to set almost every group in the city against them! At this point there didn’t seem to be a lot to go on….the group had managed to alienate every group they had come upon, that or make them dire enemies. Not having a lot of direction, Alando cast an Augury that seemed to say their destiny lay to the “south”. With nothing more to go on, the party began heading that way in hope of enlightenment.
As the party very carefully and quietly crossed a large avenue, They were suddenly set upon by a gigantic Rhinoceros beetle that happened to be lumbering down the street! The large creature attacked hungrily, as Nadal and Mongo stood to protect the rest of the party with Cadelaine hitting the giant beetle with magic missiles. As the group battled the insect, soon several giant wasps began also attacking, attracted by the movement. Everyone at that point was engaged in the battle, either hand to hand or missile weapons. Soon, five giant wasps lay dead and after a long battle the rhino beetle finally was chopped to pieces despite heavy injuries to Endefal, Nadal and Mongo.
The party quickly moved to the south after the long and noisy battle, and found a quiet set of ruins to heal up and prepare. Suddenly, the lycanthrope warriors from the day before, Damu and Jamal, appeared before them! They said that they had spoken with the rest of their group, and decided that it was imperative that they show the party the trail through the sewer system that led to the serpentmen’s lair.
Agreeing to follow them, the wererats led the party to the large temple of the bat the party had passed the day before, and through a long, dank stairway that led down. The smell of bat guano and decay was strong, and several rats scurried around in the darkness as Damu and Jamal led them to a large entry chamber. Saying this was part of a larger temple, the wererats led the party down a large corridor to the west, saying that it eventually led to a sewer line that led to the serpentmen’s camp.
As the party pulled out their continual light objects and followed the guides into the gloom of the corridor, they were surprised after fifty feet to come to a solid stone wall! Ominously, at this they heard a loud sliding noise and a boom, and saw the eastern entrance had been shut off by a stone wall. With a bad feeling, the party turned to Damu. Apologetically, Damu explained that a meeting of the wererats had concluded the party could better serve their needs as lycanthropes themselves….their power added to the existing rats could swing the battle between the serpentmen and wererats towards the rats! At that, several rats in the chamber changed formed into ratmen, and these (along with a horde of giant rats) began to attack!
Quickly, Cadelaine used her Web spell to entangle almost all the giant rats at the end of the corridor. A desperate battle followed with the ratmen (Damu and Jamal themselves turning into rat form and escaping) attacking and attempting to bite the party members to infect them with lycanthropy. Through the battle, only Ular and Cadelaine were bit, and several of the ratmen were killed, Finally, the battle turned in the party’s favor and the surviving ratmen turned into rats and escaped into holes in the walls. Five ratmen lay dead in the chamber, and searching by Cadelaine revealed a hidden catch that raised the stone wall at the east end.
Attempting to retrace their steps, to their dismay the party found their exit was blocked by a huge iron wall that had apparently been triggered to fall by the wererats. Attempting to use Stone Shape to go around the iron wall was ineffective as the stone walls themselves were constructed of some sort of unique material that resisted the spell.
After a quick conference, the party resigned themselves to further exploration into the underworld to find another way out of this trap that they had walked into. Exploring the nearby chambers, it was discovered that the temple was one to Ert, the Delosian God of the Dead, and it looked to be long abandoned. One chamber held a stone statue to Ert that was left alone, while another contained a quartet of lizardmen who were apparently capturing giant centipedes for food. The lizardmen were quickly killed, except for one that was Held by Alando and then tied up by the party for questioning. Dragging the captive lizardman behind them, the party went through a secret door in one of the tombs and came upon a group of underground froglike beings…known as troglodytes….who attempted to spring a ambush on the characters. Kal, Endefal, Mongo and Nadal entered combat with the primitive beings, their stench sometimes driving them back. A judicious use of another Web spell by Cadelaine that captured three of the amphibious creatures and led to a easy end to the battle. All the trogs lay dead, and another secret passage lay exposed in a hallway the trogs had sprung their ambush in.
Carefully investigating the passageway, the party saw no evidence anyone or anything had passed this way in a long, long time. At the end of a corridor, a large ancient iron door led into a large room that looked like some sort of worship area to Ert. There were several pillars, pews, a large altar at the front, several slumped figures in the pews and four large urns from which some sort of odd smoke oozed forth from! The chamber was lit by a continual light spell in the center, and it was quite an eerie and spooky looking scene.
Slowly, several members of the party came into the room to examine the figures. Unfortunately, at this, several of the figures sprung up and began to attack….they were undead wights, hungry for life energy! Endefal and Alando attempted to turn them to no avail, and the party found themselves facing eight of the beasts. Unfortunately, to make matters worse, the greenish smoke began causing party members to fall unconscious one by one! This made the battle even more desperate. Alando was struck a couple of times, which caused him to lose some of his health and energy, but after a long battle that involved collapsed characters being dragged out of the room by non-combatants until they awoke, only to re-enter and then sometimes fall back asleep, Alando found out pouring holy water in the urns caused the smoke to stop rising. After the smoke was stopped, the battle was fought on more equal terms, and Nadal, Endefal, Mongo, Kal, and Cadelaine soon had destroyed all the undead.
Afterwards, the party decided to search the room, and discovered two large doors to the north and south, and a secret passage in the SE corner that led to a long deserted passageway. Binding their wounds and curing themselves, the group decided the hidden chapel would be a good place to rest and recover, hidden as it was, as long as no more undead came within. Posting guards, the party uneasily set up camp for the night. As they rested Alando examined a pendent taken from all eight of the destroyed wights, a skull shaped ceramic piece of jewelry on a chain that was a holy symbol of Ert, God of the Dead. Thinking they might come in handy, he placed all eight of the symbols within a pouch for perhaps further use….
No comments:
Post a Comment