Deciding to try and rescue whoever was unfortunate enough to be sacrificed under the knives of the priests of Ert, the party left the unconscious Desteri, the twins Ular and Tula, and the still-tied up lizardman behind in the chapel as they forged ahead. Crossing the two rope bridges in utter darkness so as to prevent agitating the bats (and giving away their position), the party used directions from the charmed warrior to move ahead. Coming to a t-section on the swaying rope bridge, the charmed warrior told the party that to the south lay a hidden guard, while to the north was the worship area where the sacrifices were to be made. Not wanting to leave anything behind them unguarded, Kal sent the warrior to the south to talk to the guard and perhaps lure him out so the party could deal with him.
Several minutes passed, Cadelaine had heard whispered conversation from the south but now nothing. Fearing something had happened, Cadelaine snuck invisibly to the end of the rope bridge where it led into a dark, dank cavern. Using her infravision she could barely make out the outlines of a tunnel that ended in a crude set of stairs which seemed to be blocked off by piles of boulders and rubble. On the floor in front of the rubble lay the now dead body of the warrior. Quickly examining the body she found he had a stab wound in the back and a slashed throat. Not wanting to hang around in the dark much more, she snuck back to the group and whispered what she had found.
Leaving Nadal, Sholo, Alando and Kumar behind at the rope bridge to watch, Endefal, Kal, Gra Gra, Mongo and Cadelaine went forward into the tunnel. Using a continual light wand, they searched the area and while they saw lots of rat tracks, they didn’t see anything else. Cadelaine soon found a loose stone that seemed to lead to a secret area. She carefully opened the entrance and it led to a stench filled small stone cave filled with waste. Suddenly, a giant rat tried to run past Cadelaine and through the tunnel to the piled rubble up the staircase! Taking swings a the rat, he was struck by Mongo and Endefal before being snatched up and crushed by Gra-Gra. At this, the rat changed form and became a dead human in a loincloth….obviously a wererat! The only thing of value upon him was a potion bottle, which Endefal determined held a potion of invisibility.
Inside the hidden cave the party found rat holes and an old short sword. They reasoned the charmed warrior much have been killed by the wererat guard, but nothing else of value was located in the chamber. Returning to the others on the rope bridge, they were dismayed to hear loud chanting coming from the north, indicating the ceremony the charmed warrior had spoken of was soon to begin. Mongo sipped the invisibility potion, and long with an invisible Cadelaine they moved quietly ahead and soon faced two white painted guards in a hallway lit by torches. Quickly, Mongo disposed of both guards using the element of surprise, and they faced a door in front of them and some kind of religious ceremony down the hallway to the west.
Just as the rest of the party arrived, the door in front of them was flung open to reveal a group of four guards and two priests! Battled was joined as Endefal and Mongo were held by priest spells. Pushing into the room before them, which was some kind of priest and guard barracks, Kal summoned insects on one priest and attacked the other. The one priest fell to the ground and although he tried to get the insects off he was soon consumed by them; the other priest was run through by Kal’s spear. As the fighters began stabbing the held figures of Endefal and Mongo they were attacked by Nadal, Gra Gra and Cadelaine. A Charm Person by Kal took out one of the guards, and soon the other three lay dead. Dragging the bodies indoors, the group questioned the charmed warrior underneath a large black marble statue of Ert. All the warrior could give the party was that the high priest Tavos had three other priests, six guards and a group of worshippers at the temple to watch the sacrifice of three slaves.
Quickly going into action, Cadelaine cast Fly on Mongo, who flew down the hall. Flying into the temple area, he saw that it was simply part of an other temple overlooking another giant crevice that led down to the lower level. The roughly 60x60 area had a large bloodstained stone surrounded by six pillars, dangerously overlooking the dark blackness of the depths. Mongo immediately focused on the high priest and his upraised dagger, poised to plunge into a sacrifice! He swung a mighty blow that injured the priest, stopping the sacrifice. At that, the rest of the party burst into the area and the battle was joined!
Immediately, Cadelaine cast Web on half the area, capturing six worshippers and a guard, while the rest of the party laid into the nearby worshippers. Suddenly, all the remaining ten worshippers changed shape into ratmen form, as they revealed they were lycanthropes. The high priest yelled with a strange language into the darkness, and a second later Endefal’s mace slammed into him. Dying, the priest toppled over the edge into the darkness below. Endefal and Mongo were then hit by Faerie Fire, and the guards rushed up to engage them only to be met by Kumar and his warclub. Meanwhile, Kal (in crocodile form), Gra Gra, Nadal, and Sholo began hacking through nearly a dozen of the foaming mad ratmen.
As the battled continued, the high priest’s entreaty to the dark was answered, as five giant bats flew to the attack. Mongo, Endefal and Kumar were all snatched into the air and flown over the blackness, where Mongo and Kumar were dropped! Endefal managed to swing up upon his bat and bashed him into flying back over the ledge, bashing against the wall and dropping the priest. Mongo, after being dropped by the bat, flew underneath Kumar and grabbed him and flew him back to the ledge and the continuing battle. Other bats flew low and began slashing at party members. Cadelaine pulled her wand of lightning and blasted one with a bolt, and as the bat fluttered around she blasted it again and it dropped, on fire, into the darkness of the crevice.
Seeing a move to be made, Kal changed into a giant bat and flew among the creatures, using their language to tell them to retreat back to their stalactite homes since the high priest was dead. They flew confused, Kal’s entreaties in their language causing them to be uncertain. Meanwhile, Mongo managed to hack through the remaining two priests, ending their threat, while Endefal and Kumar fought against the guards back to back, managing to kill two.
The battle against the wererats slowly turned the party’s way, as Nadal, Sholo, Gra Gra, and even Alando (who swung the Rod of Smiting better and more tellingly than any weapon he had yet wielded) cutting a swatch through the lycanthropes. After a bit more fighting, all opponents lay dead, the last one beheaded by Cadelaine as she backstabbed the last guard. After seeing this, the remaining giant bats, some wounded by Mongo and missile fire, flew back to their homes in the darkness. With only the creatures in the web left, it was lit afire, and the burned lycanthropes were quickly dealt with, leaving bodies all around. The three sacrificial slaves were rescued, and Mongo flew into the crevice to retrieve the body of the high priest. Finding him floating in an underground stream, he grabbed him and flew him back to the ledge to be searched. Unfortunately, nothing of value was found on any of the priests, guards or worshippers, and the party went back down the hall where they could cure themselves.
Back in the corridor, they noticed that the heavily barred door at the east end had been opened, and a large bonesnapper was dining on the guard Kal had charmed, who had obviously panicked and tried to release the creature only to fall it’s victim. As the creature fed on the guard, the door was once again quickly locked and barred to prevent the creature from leaving.
Since the party was at this point heavily injured and nearly without spells, the decided to stay in the priest/guard barracks for the night, but not before Endefal and Kumar destroyed the statue to Ert and defiled the sacred altar with holy water. Tulu, Ular, Desteri and the lizardman were gathered from the far chapel to join the party as they made ready to spend the night in the chamber. Making camp and setting guards, wounds were bandaged, and the party made ready to rest another night in the underground chambers of the worshippers of Ert.
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