Adventure 5

Party Members:
Hammar – 2nd Level Cleric
Cloverdung – 2nd Level Ranger
Bone – 2nd Level Fighter
Kavis – 2nd Level Fighter
Othello – 2nd Level Thief
Gubikla – 2nd Level Magic User

We left our adventurers resting in the dungeon. Othello pulls out his map and leads the group back to the secret staircase, going down.

As the party is filing down the stairs, the gnomes get a tingling feeling. Looking up, the gnomes see two carrion crawlers lurch down and bite the cleric and fighter. As Bone and Hammar have critters gnawing on their body parts, the other members rally to kill the crawlers.

Continuing down the staircase, more cautious now, the group finally finds the bottom of the dungeon. Kavis estimates that the group is about 325ft under ground. There is a corridor leading into a large room. Othello decides to peer into the room to see what is lurking around. He sees a couple of statues, dressed in armor, standing on pedestals along the center of the long room. Bone searches one of the pedestals but does not notice anything. Hammar casts light on an arrow that Cloverdung shoots into the room. As the arrow flies further into the room, small orbs in the wall begin to glow a soft red color. With more light, it can no be seen that there are 8 total statues in a long room, with 4 more statues in an adjacent room at the end. There are 3 doors located on the far end, behind the 4 statues that are dressed in armor with bows.

Party members search various statues, with no luck. Othello decides to try and remove the armor from one of the statues. As he begins to undress the statue something weird happens. No, the statue does not come to life. The armor and weapons come to life. The animated weapons begin attacking the party members. Bone smashes the bows trying to get him while Hammar and Gubikla freeze and burn a few swords and chainmail. The battle lasts a few rounds before the group can defeat the animated weapons.

Othello decides to inspect the doors on the far wall. After picking a couple of locks and not finding any traps, he opens a door. Inside the small room are three chests. Hammar stakes claim on all the chests, “Mine!”, however, everyone ignores him. Othello opens one of the chests and finds some goodies. Kavis and Cloverdung begin beating the crap out of one chests to try get it open. Hammar grabs a crowbar and starts working on the last chest. Kavis finally smashes a chest and loots the goods. Hammar almost breaks his crowbar but finally opens the last chest.

While everyone is going through the bootie, Othello head to another door to investigate what is inside of it. He picks the locks and discovers a large chest sitting in a small room. As Othello begins to work on the locked chest, arms suddenly spring out and a large fanged mouth appears in front of his head. The Mimic misses with the bite but connects with smashing Othello’s head with the arms. Othello takes a swing with his dagger and the disengages with the Mimic.

The other party members, while still looting, suddenly see the thief running out of a room being chased by a treasure chest with arms and teeth. Hammar does some fire damage to the chest but also draws its attention. Everyone else joins the combat and eventually kill the beast.

A lot more cautious now, Othello investigates the last door. It seems to have some kind of magical glow about it. The thief does not like magical traps so he steps back to study the door further. Others are also trying to find a way to bypass whatever spell may be protecting the door. Kavis, tired of waiting, picks up a sword and starts prying on the door to force it open. Swoosh! The door swings UP, causing Kavis to go flying through the air about 30 ft into the middle of the room. A little groggy, Kavis notices a section of the ceiling above him begin to fall. The stone is headed for Kavis like the coyote chasing the road runner. Kavis jumps to his feet and Cloverdung pulls him to the side as the large 2-ton stone falls on the floor.

Behind the door that just launched Kavis is a blank wall. Now, the party knows what the magic on the door does.

The party searches for other doors and hidden chambers but no luck. Kavis breaks one of the glowing orbs because he wants to know what is making it work. A small creature comes flying out. It seems to be a fire breather of some kind but before it can reach Kavis it is frozen, impelled with arrows, and slashed in half by the others. Now we know why the orbs glow.

So much noise is made by the party that they all stop their actions when a slithering sound is heard coming from the original entry into the room. As the creature enters the light around the party, a couple of members feel stiff, almost paralyzed. As the creature fully enters the light, headed towards Cloverdung, both Bone and Hammar become more than paralyzed. They turn to stone. Apparently, they did not avoid looking into the eyes of the Basilisk. Cloverdung takes damage from the claws while other members surround the large lizard and slay it. All are safe now, except the two newly formed statues. They are still stone.

Not wanting to leave any treasure behind, the remaining party members decide to head back to town. They figure help may be available for their stone friends. Before leaving, each character poses with the stone members. Photo bombs are fun.

After returning to town, the group contacts Borris, the magic user who they were doing a favor, to see if he can assist with saving the stone members. After providing our proof of delivery of the letter to the druid, and some additional treasure, Borris is willing to assist in saving our friends.

When the group returns to the burial mound with Borris, he states that these are ancient tombs and should not be entered by the likes of us. The group leads Borris down to the bottom level where the stone characters are waiting. When the group enters the room with their statue friends, eery undead demonic sounds can be heard. There are several creatires milling around looking for living flesh to devour. Borris steps forward, sends a fireball into the middle of the creatures, destroying them all.

Borris looks at Hammar, a dwarf, and makes a face. He moves towards Bone, human, and decides to return him to flesh first. Bone is changed back into flesh, but then dies because he failed his saving throw. Borris scoffs at the fighter and pounds him in the forward with his staff, which restores his life. Bone is permanently marked with a grey patch of skin on his face from the experience.

Borris goes back over to Hammar. Drawves are much tougher to restore to flesh than humans so Borris works up his energy and then casts the transformation spell. Poof! Hammar is flesh again, but then suddenly dies because he too rolls a one on his saving throw. Borris jabs his staff into the forehead of Hammar restore life. Of course, Hammar now has a stone ear as a result of the failure to be returned to flesh without incident.

Borris, fed up with the paltry party teleports everyone back to town. Before leaving Borris, the party provide Borris with treasure items and gold in order to identify some of the items they have found in the dungeon.

The party returns to the inn to get some well needed sleep. Squint is glad to see Hammar has returned. She notices the stone ear and is excited to know a part of Hammar will finally remain hard for a long time.