After successfully surviving the Proving Grounds, the door to the Inner Sanctum is opened. Inside the group finally catches up with the leader of the Blackfang gnolls, Maldrick Scarmaker. The group interrupts the gnoll trying to complete a sacrificial ritual with the final 2 remaining slaves the group is trying to recover. Unfortunately, stopping the ritual and rescuing the slaves will have to wait until they get past the 3 carnage demons, a barlgura and a bonecrusher skeleton.
Without a dedicated fighter, the group has a tough slog of this battle, with everyone getting more than a little bloodied. "Boy" is almost hit so hard that he would be beyond any healing, but Osirian intervened and teleported the boy out of harms reach just in time. Fluffy, who is used to having his spirit companion, Princess, take the brunt of the damage for him finds himself dying on the floor after being hit by the barlgura demon.
Zaya is hurt enough to require several healings as she cannot seem to move away from the burning cauldrons, from which emerge slimy tentacles which lash out and injure much of the party throughout the encounter. Once, upon being bloodied, Zaya, who was unknowingly cursed during on the nights within the labyrinth, screamed a minotaur battle-cry and attacked "Boy". She quickly recovered from her violent fugue to discover that he had seriously injured her companion.
Maldrick is able to sacrifice one of the humans and moves onto the second human before the party can stop him. Finally after a combined effort the gnoll is killed and the rest of the demons quickly follow suit.
Treasure Found: +2 elven cloack a silver key which pulls back towards the Seven Pillared Hall
The group tends to the injuries of the now rescued slave and return him, along with the body of the slain slave, to his townsfolk who have been waiting for them in the Seven Pillared Hall. There is much rejoicing and much grieving upon the 2 missing slaves return.
Zaya, worrying about being still cursed, calls to the local mage, Orontor, for assistance. He readily assists her and removes the curse, only to find his awkward advances rebuked.
After a short debate and inspecting the silver key, the group decides to let the community within the mountain of Thunderspire deal with its own issues from here on (for the time being at least). The group is ready to hit a big city.
1,000 XP for the rescuing of the slaves from Riverdown.
(They haven't returned to Winterfell where they can collect their 500 gp reward)
The Hill Giants Of Diafthora 900 XP
The map they have recovered from the dragon's hoard leads them towards the city of Diafthora. It will be a 3 day travel through the woods nearing a range of mountains.
Very scenic....until Hill Giants try to make a meal out of you.
During their 3 day journey they encounter a landslide that temporarily impedes their way and encounter a group of witches sacrificing a rabbit (which they carefully avoid). Finally, on their last day of travel towards the city they come across a farmer and his boy being attacked by a couple of hill giants. With little difficulty they are able to defeat the giants but no before the giants are able to throw the farmer's horse at them, killing it in the process. The young boy in his grief attacks the offending giant, much to the disappointment of Osirian who reluctantly saves the boy from being eaten by the giants who are arguing over who gets the first bite.
In return, the farmer. Rickster, offers his home for recuperation and a meal (and ale to drink which immediately convinces Fluffy). Once there the farmer sends his boy, Gedlong, off to fetch the local cleric, The boy returns with the cleric who introduces himself as Zanneiros and proceeds to tell the adventurers of the difficulties in the locals going to the city to sell their wares.
It seems rumors of people going missing in the night has made it so few of the villagers are willing to stay long enough in the city to make enough money off of their fields. Zanneiros proposes that the group accompany the villagers to the city and act as their protectors overnight. In return the group will be paid 100 gp and room and board will be paid for them for the night in the city.
During their brief stay in the village, Zaya is made uncomfortable by all the attention from the villagers over the fact that she is an elf. It seems elves have not been seen in this area for generations, though it is not said why. After much attention in the village, on the road and finally in the city she decides to stay hooded.
Before entering the city they are met by the local militia, The Order Of The Thundershields. They obviously try to swindle the group (as well as many common folk) out of as much gold they think they can obtain from travelers entering the city. After tense negotiations, the soldiers try to obtain the PCs weapons but are put off by Zaya's elfishness and Osirian's sharp tongue. They enter the city fully armed.
Once their the villagers setup their wares in the marketplace while the group sets off to explore the city. They first travel down the market street to try and trade, sell and buy.
Dire Rat Traps! Be the envy of your friends with a dire rat trap!
They come across various things such as
The Bag Of Holding, a store full of magical potions and various other items. There they buy Potions of Healing and Hide From The Undead.
Clearwater Jewlers, a goblin run jewelry store where they try to buy specific gems
The Golden Thread, a clothing and tailoring store where Zaya is requesting a cloak made from her dragon scales, teeth, claws and horns
They pass many oddball things in the stalls in the streets such as:
direrat traps
miracle cloths for cleaning swords
mechanical wings which are claimed to really work (though his brother hasn't come back to attest to this yet)
guaranteed dragon bones, to which Zaya holds up her own dragon bones and declares the stall to be selling cows bones.
oranges and lemons.....or lemonages as the dm cannot speak sometimes.
kittens being sold by hungry orphans....to which Osirian tosses carefully thought-out coins
Pointy arrows, which Zaya discovers have actual elven crafted arrow heads among crappy arrowheads
Nettle Ale being sold by a clearly ale-addled junky. Fluffy of course is intrigued and Zaya feels she has to intervene to save Fluffy from himself. (Osirian later robs the junky of the ale and threatens the old man to straighten out his life and apologize to his mother.....then gives the nettle ale to Fluffy)
PCs present:
Osirian Silvertongue
Zaya
Fluffy
'Boy'
and introducing 'Erdrich'
W8 - Hall of the Howling Pillars 1,750 XP
Cool, but as columns not very structural
After resting following the water tasting adventure the previous day, the group decides to retrieve the items necessary to perform the ritual to open the door to the 'Inner Sanctum'. They decide to tackle the room to the south first.
Entering the room the group is excited to see a room with pillars made from random body parts intertwined and all the while moaning and reaching. They rightly deduce that staying away from the pillars is an important safety tip, unfortunately there is not enough room to avoid the first spray of acid that covers most of the group. It is then that carnage demons emerge from the pillars throughout the room.
Battling the carnage demons while trying to avoid the pillars proves difficult at first but Osirian casts his 'Scathing Rebuke' and now can move among the demons without fearing any attacks will do any damage. The group also finds a small area where the pillars effects cannot reach them. It is then that the barlgura appears and finds certain party members separated from the main group and starts to seriously damage them.
After defeating the demons and the barlgura the group still has to contend with the pillars and find themselves variously grabbed, teleported radomlly and burned with acid. 'Boy' discovers the foretold bell at an altar near which the barlgura appeared from. After the party hotly debates whether or not he should try to ring the bell. Finally 'Boy' rings the bell only to have spikes emerging from the handle skewer through his hands.
(DM Note: Had the group discovered the bell which is the 'Bell Of Fury's Calling' and rang it before all the monsters where defeated they would have found themselves flying into a fit of rage and given bonuses to their attacks while receiving minuses to their defenses. An interesting twist that never happened. Oh well.)
Leaving the room seems to puzzle the group temporarily until Osirian decides to just run for it. He manages to evade any attacks from the pillars but when Zaya decides to try the same tactic she gets sprayed with acid. One by one the group finally emerges from the room without too much wear.
W7 - Hall of the Crimson Whip 1,250 XP
The group then decides to tackle the room to the west. There they discover a room with 2 large pools of blood with large minotaur statues in the middle of each. There on the far side they see the knife the need to retrieve. Unfortunately, it is in to pieces on opposite sides on the far side of the room.
Osirian decides to lasso the nearest minotaur statue and anchors the other end to a nearby statue to make a rope bridge to cross hand over hand to the base of the large statue. Unfortunately, as he tries to cross the statue awakens and begins to move and attack, while root to it's base. Dropping into the blood pool Osirian makes it across with the help of the fighter, Erdrich. Erdrich is in fact instrumental in helping both Osirian and Zaya cross and return from the pools of blood, while 'Boy' and Fluffy remain safely on dry ground attacking from afar.
The group discovers that the blood pools conceal 3 carnage demons within it's depths. While Zaya easily crosses the pools and is able to retrieve the pieces of the dagger, she is constantly hit by the far side minotaur statue and is repeatedly hit and thrown into the blood pool where she has to contend with a carnage demon. Once she has both pieces and puts them together the blood pools start to churn and large waves make it difficult to make it back to the exit. Only with the combination of 'Wild Step' and the assistance of Erdrich, Zaya is able to make it back.
Also thanks to Erdrich, Osirian is able to return to the exit by a well placed halfling toss. The group is able to leave the room somewhat more bloodied (in the literal sense).
W6 - Hall Of Enforced Introspection 1,250 XP
Moving on to the last room to the north, the group enters a room curtained off by thick velvet curtains. Moving the curtains aside they discover a clean empty room, save for numerous mirrors scattered throughout the room. Erdrich enters the room and sees his reflection in the mirror in front of him, only his reflection is sickly and weak. Erdrich immediately feels the draining effects of this mirror and he is damaged.
The others enter the room while careful to stare at only the ground at their feet. Finding it difficult to navigate the room, effectively blind the walk until they encounter walls. Osirian boldly runs into the room without guarding his eyes. He immediately catches a glimpse of one of the mirrors which only shows a shimmering reflection. He then finds himself in a small bright room in which his only companion is an insane gnoll.
Seeing his mentor teleported away, 'Boy' immediately approaches the same mirror and now finds himself in the same room beside Osirian.
(DM Note: They have discovered the Oubliette Of The Empty Mind which I interpreted as a sort of alternative dream-like dimension. Overly bright white with physical properties that aren't quite real.
Zaya moves along the wall she has found and travels along it still staring at her feet. She soon hears shuffling and then sees skeletal feet in front of hers. She is being attacked by 2 boneshard skeletons and being damaged by their necrotic scimitars. Eventually, she realizes she must look up in order to minimize the damage they are inflicting on her, only to find herself pulled into the nearest mirror and teleported to the same room beside the now battling Osirian, 'Boy', and the gnoll. The trapped group handily defeats the gibbering insane gnoll and begins to inspect their prison. They can find nothing of interest or help. Osirian decides to try and break his way out by striking the walls only to find that any damage he seems to do, vanishes when he inspects it.
That leaves only Erdrich who alone must battle the skeletons after he finishes destroying the mirror in front of him that had injured him. Eventually he is able to defeat both skeletons and moves along the wall blindly until he reaches the inner altar protected from the mirrors by another heavy curtain,
There he finds a mask and a minotaur sized hand (hoof?) print in the center of the altar. After being coached by some inner voices, he decides to lay his hand in the indentation and his teammates appear beside him at the altar. Wondering if the enchanted mirrors have been deactivated, Fluffy stares at the nearest mirror teleported to the far side of the room back near the entrance and feeling a fair bit of damage. As the rest of the group removes the curtains surrounding the altar they move under its cover back towards the entrance.
Fluffy on the other hand has other ideas. He sees the skeletons and their scimitars which so quickly damaged Zaya with their necrotic damage. He decides to retrieve them....only to glimpse a mirror which teleports him back into the prison.
Having to backtrack Osirian returns to the altar carefully and releases Fluffy from the prison. They both look into the mirror which just recently transported Fluffy to the other side of the room to have the same thing happen this time. They find themselves emerging from the mirror nearest the entrance safe if a little more damaged from the teleport. But before leaving Fluffy is insistent on gaining a scimitar (or two) only to find they are just plain, non-magical, scimitars that are coated in a rotting necrotic ooze which is quickly dripping off of it. Disappointed, he tosses them back on the floor and the part leaves this room......never looking back.
W9 - Proving Grounds 1,800 XP
Having finally obtaining the four necessary magical items to perform the ceremony to open the door to the Inner Sanctum the party returns to the Proving Grounds complex and discusses their strategy. Osirian rightly guesses that the Proving Grounds is where each one of them will be tested in their separate rooms where they must place the items on the circle or runes. After preparing, the group readies their items of each of the circles and at the countdown and go from Osirian they place down their items simultaneously.
As they do so the entire complex bursts to life and the group hears a thunderous dragon's roar.
Zaya, is in the Temple to Baphomet and the small minotaur statues roar to life shake her to her core forcing her to run into the inner circle with the thought of fleeing the complex. She quickly regains her senses only to find herself being chased by a Doom Sphere which ball of black force energy which in its relentless course moves over Zaya and inflicting a lot of damage and leaves her lying on the ground.
Erdrich is in the room with broken minotaur statues and when his item is placed on the circle 2 crossbow turrents drop from the ceiling and begin to fire upon him.
Fluffy and 'Boy' are in the room with the pools and as they place their item, an Elemental Vortex emerges from the blue pool and attacks them. Fluffy, using his dwarven greaves, he is able avoid being grabbed by the elemental. 'Boy' on the other hand is grabbed and hurt badly. Fluffy rightly senses that attacking with 'Wrath Of Winter' would give advantage over a water elemental and successfully lands an attack. Temporarily frozen the elemental cannot attack and the two use the opportunity to flee the room.
This is what happens when you don't clean up the bodies after a battle.
Osirian is in the room with several skeletons chained to the wall and as he places his item, the skeletons begin to stir back to life. Casting his 'Scathing Rebuke' again the skeletons who have low Will are unable to inflict any damage to the halfling. Feeling invulnerable Osirian strides out of the room to aid his companions.
Outside of each of their rooms finally, the find themselves in the inner rings of the complex and find themselves caught between the relentless circuit of the Doom Sphere and a Young Green Dragon which flies out of the large well in the center of the complex. Pleased with finding a long awaited for sport and a meal, the dragon constantly flies by the group picking off separated PCs and inflicting poisonous bites and gouging claw gauges.
Zaya is bitten and has trouble shaking off the poison for several rounds and is scarily close to death at least a couple of times and has to use a Second Wind and relies on Fluffy for a couple of healing spells. Erdrich is clawed at a few times as well and he too must rely on the aid of Fluffy to keep from dying.
Whenever the group comes together in order to be healed the dragon moves in and tries to use it's dragon breath on them. Fortunately for the group, none of the dragon breath attacks does much damage. Osirian tries to goad the dragon into a battle of wits and failing that tries to get it taunt it into coming closer but the dragon will have none of it.
The group finally finds their warrior spirits and very quickly, hit after hit, begin to take a toll upon the dragon and finally defeat it. Erdrich who only had his one hammer for a ranged attack and had already used it, ran by Fluffy who had proffered a crossbow as Erdrich moved on towards the dragon. Erdrich took aim and fired into the damaged scales of the dragon. Finding it's mark the bolt killed the dragon. Unfortunately at the time of it's death, the dragon was overtop of the well from which it emerged and after dying it plummeted into the depths below
MetaGame Spoiler Inside
(DM Note: the group had to survive at least 10 rounds and then the complex would have started to shut down and the dragon would retreat. The group made it to round 9. It was very close and some of the group was very close to death a few times.)
After a whole evening of collecting up magical items only to have to use them up for a magical ceremony for which they are rewarded with almost dying. The party was desperate to try and find some sort of treasure. They were extremely disappointed the dragon died only to plummet back down a 100 foot deep well. Zaya decided she would be lowered down the well on a rope by the others only to find herself in complete darkness about a quarter way down. Osirian tossed down a torch to the bottom where Zaya commenced carving up the dragon for horns, teeth, scales and claws.
Looking farther in she noticed an adjoining natural cave and within, a small pile of treasure. It was a collection of coins, gems and random fun and junk.
(everything from a lump of coal to an old game board and pieces)
MetaGame Spoiler Inside
(DM Note: the campaign book didn't specifically give any treasure for this complex but the group seemed so excited to defeat a dragon that actually felt like a challenge and were intent on finding it's treasure hoard. I quickly used a random treasure generator online and was super pleased everyone was excited over a small amount of loot and even random junk like board game and pieces. It was a fun gaming moment for me.)
The evening was an extended run. I was happy we completed it but the night was long and the morning came soon so if I have mis-remembered things or forgotten cool things you want in here let me know or jot it down in the comments.
PCs present:
Osirian Silvertongue
Zaya
Fluffy
"Boy"
and Brugg
Taming The Wild Beast 175 XP
'Bob' The Boar
After resting, barricaded in the gnoll's archery practice hall, the party awakes to attempt to tame and heal the caged and injured dire boar. With Zaya and Fluffy speaking in soothing tones to the beast and Osirian playing a calming ballad on his mandolin, Fluffy approached the animal and began to remove the protruding arrows from the animals body. After successfully removing a couple of arrows the third arrow proved difficult as the shaft broke off leaving the arrow head still embedded.
Osirian decides to 'Glimpse The Future' to lend assistance to Fluffy but fails to see anything useful. 'Boy' decides to help and approaches the beast and casts his spell of 'Memory To Mist'. Temporarily dazed the dire boar gives no resistance to Fluffy's digging and retrieval of the arrowhead. Zaya ties a rope around the beast's collar and the group makes their way back to the Seven Pillared Hall. Osirian has a grudge to work out with Gendar for tricking Osirian into donning cursed armor.
Back in the Seven Pillared Hall, Osirian quickly finds Gendar, the drow elf, who is trying to piece back together his 'Curios and Relics' shop. Looking up from behind his makeshift counter and sees the party which just closed and locked the front door. Angry words were bandied back and forth until finally Osirian brow beats and physically dominates the drow into submission and demands the drow find a way to uncurse the armor. Now tied together at the wrists they walk to the teleportation circle at the foot of the minotaur statue and Gendar calls for Orontor who appears before them. Orontor claims not to have the skills to remove the curse but decides, in the name of peace, to study up on the practice and tells the party to come back in a week and he shall attempt it.
After locking Gendar in his own shop for the duration of the wait, Zaya is approached by a few townsfolk who are surprised to see her riding the dire boar who they claim is the property of Ulthand Deepgem who runs a gem store on the far side of the hall. Zaya, a very honest thief, rides the dire boar over to its owners store. There is a great reunion with much hugging and waaaay to much licking and kissing for most normal people. Ulthand offers Zaya a reward for bringing back "Bob" the boar to him. Zaya, whose gem collection is nicely growing says that she would like a nice diamond, as she eyes a nice diamond sitting behind the glass cased shelf. Ulthand procures a diamond, not from the showcase, but from a drawer behind the counter. It is very large and Zaya quickly agrees.
After returning to the rest of the group, Zaya shows off her newly acquired gem. Both Osirian and Gendar agree, she has been swindled. The diamond is a true diamond but of an incredibly flawed nature. Angrily, Zaya returns to Ulthand's gem store and demands a better diamond. After almost ending up with the dire board instead, Zaya is satisfied with a nice quality diamond.
The week quickly passes and the party finds their welcome slowly wearing thin and Fluffy's gold diminished after almost running the local tavern dry. The group is finally standing before Orontor the mage who says he is now willing to attempt the enchantment. The first attempt failed miserably but the second attempt was a partial success. The curse is now lifted. Osirian and 'Boy' check the magic surrounding the armor and do indeed find it no longer cursed but also find the armor is not enhanced to the degree it once was. Incensed, Osirian, rages at the mage saying any idiot could have done that. He wanted the curse removed but not the enchantment. After suffering a humiliating berating, Orontor teleports back to inside the temple, but not before the party sees the tears welling in his eyes and hearing the parting sniffles of one trying to hold back sobs.
(DM note: Hey the armor still has some enchantment left. Don't be so hard on the mage.) W4 - Shrine To Baphomet 1,300 XP
Returning back towards the 'Well Of Demons' in order to find the last two slaves, the party travels down the corridors of the Labyrinth until they again have to make camp and sleep in the dark, cold corridors. It is Zaya again who is awakened in the night. This time it's a small demon that pokes her and welcomes her to the 'Well Of Demons' and offers the answers to any 3 questions she may have, in return for 100 gold or a portion of her life force (a healing surge). Zaya ponders this then wakes Osirian. Long story short they end up getting 2 feeble answers to 2 feeble questions. When Zaya wakes Fluffy and informs him of the demon's deal, Fluffy asks if he can ask a question, the demon answers 'yes' and demands payment. When Zaya refuses to pay for such inadequate answers the demon approaches her, touches her forehead and Zaya feels a surge of life force leave her body. With that the party decides to resume sleeping, all except Zaya who lies awake stewing in anger.
(DM note: Hey Zaya, it seems you seem to keep getting the weird stuff happen to you during the nights. I'm not picking on you. The dice keep simply picking you.)
Upon waking the group decides to investigate a room they had come across the previous time but didn't go into. Here they encounter a gnoll demonic scourge who's meditation was interrupted by Zaya, not so stealthily, stumbling into the room. For a moment they stare at each other and then the battle ensues. During the next round the party hears a roar from the next room which they find was from a Barlgura who then emerges from the room. The party is surprised and excited to see such a creature but with a series of amazing hits both the gnoll and the barlgura are defeated.
In the shrine where the barlgura was summoned, Osirian finds a magical tome which he discerns is probably used in a cult of Baphomet ritual.
If Your Not One Of My Players Click The Button.
They have now discovered The Book Of Wrath Unveiled which is one of the items they will need in performing the upcoming ritual to open the doors to the inner sanctum.
Hey! Fluffy! I thought I told you not to click on the button!
Fluffy and Zaya, in the other room, find a small treasure chest which Zaya easily picks open. Inside they find treasure in the form of gold, and jewelry and a pair of Shadowfell gloves.
Fluffy then searches the body of the gnoll and finds the key to the chest.
Zaya scoffs. Who needs keys.
W5 - The Restless Dead 1,000 XP
Ghosts! Will one of the ghosts turn out to be Gendar in disguise?
The party moves on down undiscovered corridors until they approach a room which has an cold blue glow. Here they encounter 3 ghosts, Valdrog The Brute (a human male who wears chainmail and who bears a large slash across his face and down through his armor), Sir Terris (a prim and proper dwarf who's one side of his head is crushed) and Mendara The Mystic (a female wizard who appears every so often as completely burned).
The ghosts challenge the party to prove their worth to them. Osirian fails to impress with his athletic prowess but demonstrates his knowledge of arcana. Zaya overwhelmingly impresses the spirits with her ability with the bow. Fluffy impresses with his dungeoneering knowledge but fails to impress with his attack ability.
With that the spirits impart their knowledge of the Proving Grounds: - The party must find the 4 magical items: a knife, a bell, a mask and a book. - Each of the items must be placed on one of the four circles of ruins within the complex at the exact same time. - 3 of these items are found in rooms off of this complex to the north, west and south. - the fourth item is on an altar in a shrine to the east - to the east of the complex is the Inner Sanctum whose doors will only open when the proper ceremony is completed.
After wandering around the complex inspecting the various areas the party comes across a room with 4 pools glowing a different color. The group excitedly debates the merits and risks of drinking from one of the pools.
Osirian is the first to step up and drink. He chooses green. He feels nothing unusual.
Zaya drinks from the blue. She finds it cool and refreshing.
Fluffy drinks from the red pool and immediately feels a surge of energy and rage.
'Boy' is told by Osirian to drink from the yellow pool. As soon as he does he vomits and feels horrible and loses 5 HP. The pool is poison and 'Boy' is taking ongoing poison damage.
Fluffy figures the boy should drink from the green pool in hopes that it might cure the poison. He is right and 'Boy' is put right.
(DM Note: I'm not sure how Fluffy figured that out but it was a good instinctual guess, which I was impressed with enough to grant an 'Action Point' reward for)
At the end of the evening, the group is now prepared to search for the other magical items in order to perform the ritual.
After returning to the Seven Pillard Hall from the adventure in the cisters, no one seemed aware of how close the whole of the community within the vast cavern had come to total destruction. No one even seemed to notice the PCs return. Returning to the tavern, Fluffy comes across Terrlen, the former adventurer turned werewolve, and eventually offers to take up Terrlen's plea for help. Collecting up the rest of the party they follow Terrlen down into the Labyrinth.
Supplemental - House Of Silence
from an issue of Dungeon Magazine #156
1,150 XP
Terrlen leads them turn after turn while he assures the party that he does, in fact, know where he is going with more than a bit of backtracking. After wandering, seemingly, endlessly for a day within the darkened corridors of the Labyrinth the party decides to rest in a small alcove. Sometime during the night the party is awakened by scratching and digging sounds from all around them.
Random Encounter - Kruthiks!
1,375 XP
Yay! Kruthiks
The party is up and ready as the sounds get louder until, from the crumbling corridor walls emerge a group of kruthiks.
One by one the party is bloodied, which of course sets off Terrlen's lycanthropic curse. Before he can fully turn werewolf, Fluffy performs a healing spell which staves off the transformation. That is until he is bloodied again. This repeats itself until Terrlen is a mess of skin and fur randomly all over his body. When he is finally able to heal to a point he is human he backs away down the corridor.
Orisian, who is quickly hit enough to turn bloody decides to cast 'Scathing Rebuke' and hence forth moves with impunity, as none of the monsters can harm him.
Zaya on the other hand, has no such power and is beaten brutally until she falls and has to be healed then surrounded by the others for protection.
Finally the largest kruthik is killed and the others scurry away the way they came. (DM note: Yay kruthiks! The party during the 'Keep On Shadowfell' campaign decided to bypass a whole section of dungeon missing my awesome kruthiks I had prepared. But now I get to use them)
The next day they finally arrive at the House of Silence, a series of corridors leading to Minotaur statues and a shrine. The corridors are all lit with cressets burning oil. The party quickly notices magical traps which Zaya quickly disables. (DM note: so much for getting to use the fun Hell Hounds I prepared)
While inspecting the shrine furthest in, a wraith appears and does battle. The cressets in turn blaze and explode in a series which, even after being warned to move Zaya, the elf, gets torched and is set ablaze. The wraith seems to recognize Terrlen and decides to run past all the party simply to get to Terrlen in revenge for bringing the adventurers to this place in order to undue his curse. The wraith grabs Terrlen and is about to bite and tear at his neck, when Osirian teleports the injured (and ablaze) Terrlen to safety.
After quickly dispatching with the wraith, Zaya approaches the once hunky adventurer/werewolf and pees on him to put out the fire. With the temple smelling like burned dog hair, the party begins to try and destroy the various magical items within. Zaya and Fluffy scour the room for treasure, and the elf eventually notices the statues all have amber jeweled eyes. Finally succeeding to destroy the altar sustaining Terrlen's curse, the adventurers make their way back to the Seven Pillard Hall in silence.
Back at the Hall, Terrlen thanks them for their efforts and tells them of his family that he has avoided since his curse years ago. He now goes to try and reunite with them.
The party decides it may need some help in retrieving the last 2 missing slaves so they seek out the assistance of Brugg, the ogre. After some searching Osirian finds Brugg amongst the caves in what the citizens of the Hall call the Pigeon Holes. After getting everyone's attention with a song dedicated to Brugg, except for Brugg himself, Osirian climbs towards his cave. Unable to complete his climb, Osirian calls out to Brugg for assistance and is able to bribe and cajole Brugg into accompanying the party. Returning to the Hall's floor, Osirian rides Brugg's shoulder to the Minotaur statue in order to call to the mages for information.
Orontor, the last remaining mage in Thunderspire (to his knowledge) appears. The party learns from him that: - Paldemar was a member of the Mages Of Saruun who has been missing for many months. - The Blackfangs are a group of gnolls lead by Maldrick Scarmaker - According to the letters the party has, apparently Paldemar has gone rogue and is associating with the gnolls for some reason and may be in the Well Of Demons, a long avoided section of the Labyrinth. - The Well of Demons was once a monastery dedicated to Baphomet and the Well Of Demons was a complex designed to test the faithful.
Very astutely, Osirian thinks to ask the mage about his new armor found from the adventure in the cisterns. The mage quickly discerns that there is something wrong with the armor and that Osirian should probably attempt to take it off. It seems the armor was perhaps designed with a halfling in mind and Orontor, with only a sly sympathetic smile, asks whether Osirian may know of anyone wishing to do the halfing any harm. (DM note: Well played Gendar. Well played)
With that, they are off towards the Well Of Demons, using the rough map given to them by the mage.
After a day's travel they party decided to use 'Wizard's Curtain' to conceal themselves in a large corridor of the Labyrinth. During the night Zaya awakes, thinking she has heard a noise and feels a chill down her spine. After trying to rouse the rest of the party to be ready, no one else perceives anything and falls back to sleep. Zaya lays back down, this time in the shelter of Brugg but fails to get any sleep.
W1 - The Chamber of the Well
1,050 XP
Here the party huddles around the rooms entrance and Zaya throws in a burning torch to light the room. Finally Osirian boldly steps to the middle of the room and now they encounter 2 Cavern Chokers, a Ghoul and a Phalagar.
It's much larger in 'real life' than in this picture
The party has some difficulty dispatching these monsters between the cavern choker's tentacle grabs, the phalagar's tentacle grabs and the ghoul's bite. But eventually they succeed with Zaya shooting a poisoned arrow at the phalagar and Brugg uprooting it and tossing it down the well.
Zaya scours the room only to find a few silver pieces, an old compass and some rotten teeth.
W2 - The Gnoll Barracks
1,200 XP
Here the party encounters a small group of gnolls who are tending to several starved hyenas which they turn on the party. It's a bit of a tough slog mainly because the fighting was crowded into a small corridor. After watching Brugg throw a hyena, Osirian instructs him to throw a gnoll into a more open room so Osirian and Boy can finish him off. Brugg proceeds to pick up a gnoll but, unable to throw it, simply walks it into the room and sets him down nicely, says 'Ok..bye now' and goes back to the corridor. Not exactly what Osirian was wanting but it works anyway.
When the monsters are defeated the group proceeds to do the usual inspection of the area. Zaya again finds a bit of gold and a topaz but the real debate comes to whether or not anyone wants to inspect the fetid and rotten hyena pen. Everyone decides whatever is in there cannot be worth smelling like hyena crap for the rest of the campaign. Everyone that is except Fluffy. (who can know what goes through a kobold's mind)
Fluffy starts to poke through the vile muck and with a huge smile pulls up a magical cloak of resistance. Not wanting to put the smelly cloak on just yet, Fluffy packs it away in an empty chest he has been waiting to find a purpose for.
(DM Note: I was going to be a little disappointed if they didn't find it but I totally understood why they thought it might not be worth it)
W3 - Practice Hall
1,300 XP
The PCs enter a long dark corridor with 3 doors along its length. Zaya checks one door...no sounds. Zaya checks another door and hears animal sounds. Calling over to Fluffy to listen, he discerns it sounds like a boar in distress or injury. He stealthily opens the door....and completely fails at hiding himself. But before being shot in the arm by an arrow, he notices the room contains a large cage containing a dire boar and several hyenas surrounding the cage.
After quickly closing the door the party moves to the third door and bursts into the room for a surprise attack. The room is filled with several gnolls who were using the animals as target practice from behind the safety of a crude barricade. The party moves among them to try and quickly dispatch the gnolls.
Two of the gnolls who were holding bows shoot towards Osirian but the gnolls, and Osirian, are completely baffled by the shots that were going wide seem to swerve at the last moment in order to hit the hafling dead on through the armor. The entire party, and gnolls, seem to pause as they try to take this information in. (DM Note: it was a guilty pleasure (no really I tried not to take pleasure in this....really) in seeing everyone seem to forget about the warning about the armor only to be completely surprised at this turn of events and try to figure this one out)
After seeing the baffling success of the bowshots, the other gnolls try to move into position in order to send their arrows down on the halfling. Osirian is quickly taken down, Fluffy is able to heal the dying Osirian and the rest of the party moves into position to protect him.
The party finally is able to finish off the gnolls and then proceeds to continue the barbaric game that the gnolls were playing, killing off the hyenas (with Brugg playing wack-a-mole with the hyenas). With the hyenas dead they players approach the caged dire boar, which they discover is has been domesticated...someone's pet.
Fluffy carefully opens the cage and successfully uses a nature skill to calm the beast down in order to try and heal it. The healing skill fails and the creature bites at him. So Fluffy again attempts to calm the beast down with another nature skill....and fails. Now the creature is scared and angry and Fluffy is chased out of the cage while Osirian slams closed the cage door behind Fluffy.
The evening ends with the party at the barricaded end of the room trying to get a good night's sleep in order to heal their wounds.
