Adventure 26

Party Members:
Hammar – 6th Level Cleric
Cloverdung – 6th Level Ranger
Othello – 6th Level Thief
Gubikla – 6th Level Magic User

So, the party is all set at the fancy inn, waiting on the suspicious guy to return. And they wait. And wait. Finally, Hammar is bored, after about 10 minutes of waiting. Of course, by this time, Othello has defiled the room used by the dwarves and has thrown their tankards al over the hallway floor. Suddenly, the alarm back at the abandoned stable goes off! It is almost 2am, something is afoot. The party decides to go check it out, but not before Gubikla casts another alarm spell on the room of the weird guy.

As the group is approaching the stable, they notice the lock on the front door is missing. Othello decides to climb onto the roof from the adjacent building. Hammar and Gubikla are trying to think of a way inside when Cloverdung kicks open the doors. Well, they actually open out, so Cloverdung has to grab the handle and swing them open. As Cloverdung walks into the stable, he starts talking in a loud voice that he and his posse are searching for people who are out on the town after the imposed curfew. Cloverdung barely hears the drawing of a bow string, so he leaps under the loft in an effort to not be visible by the creature up in the loft with the bow.

Hammar shakes his head and walks into the stable. An arrow quickly strikes between his feet and a voice says “Do not move or you will die!” So, Gubikla begins to wiggle around with all of his mirror images, as a rebellious protest to the command. Twing! Twack! Spoote! Three of Gubikla mirror images dissolve as an arrow pierces each of them. With only two left, Gubikla decides to back off a little. Cloverdung begins to hack away at a support pole for the loft in an effort to create an unstable platform for the person up there. Gubikla offers a little acid splash on the pole to make the cutting easier.

Othello finds a small hole in the roof and begins to clear some of the slate tiles so he can possibly get down into the stable. Craaaack! One of the support poles is broken by Cloverdung. Othello can now see a person, with a bow, hidden behind some bales of hay in the loft and notifies Cloverdung of his exact location. Cloverdung walks under the spot where the person is standing and taps with his sword under the person’s feet, while saying “Come on out. I know exactly where you are.”, and then proceeds to start chopping on another support pole. Cloverdung then notices that there are a dozen more support poles to go so he adds “You have about 12 minutes to decide to come down…”

The voice from the loft yells “If you stop chopping on the support poles I will talk with you!” Cloverdung stops hacking, walks to the center of the stable with his sword by his side. An elf steps from behind the hay and lowers his bow.

Cloverdung asks “Who are you? Where are you from? Why are you here in town?” The elf ranger answers the questions as quickly as they are asked. Turns out, this elf ranger is in pursuit of the same, cultist we are. They had apparently taken a small elven child and killed her for one of their sacrifices. The elf ranger knows of an old abandoned temple that the cultist have been using. The party asks the elf ranger if he would like to join us in removing the cult, as we are sworn deputies, charged by the bailiff to clean up the city. The elf ranger agrees to join us.

The group heads to an old looking building that has a doorway but no door. The party enters and searches around. Othello discovers some marks on the floor around the altar that appear to be tracks from something sliding. Hammar, after trying the other three sides, successfully pushes the later to the side and reveals a stairway going down.

Othello leads us down, by falling and tripping, and not detecting any traps. The group start walking through the tunnels and hear someone approaching from around a corner. Othello jumps out at them and tosses an acid bomb in the midst of few cultist. Four of them melt away in agony. Hammar jumps around and tris to sacred flame one of them. They make the saving throw, so no damage. Gubikla jumps around and fires off a lightning bolt. This kills the remaining cultist, except one, who is damaged but not dead. Cloverdung jumps around and fires a couple of arrows. The last cultist is hit but still lives. The cultist turns and runs away, down a long hall, into the dark.

Hammar and Othello begin to advance towards the end of the hall where the villain fled. Gubikla casts a fireball down in the general direction and several screaming voices are heard. And then quiet. Suddenly, a black streak of light comes flying from the dark and strikes Gubikla. Bam! Gubikla is paralyzed. Cloverdung casts fogcloud at the end of the hall to block the line of sight from whatever hit Gubikla. As the group continues to advance, what is left of the group, they can hear chanting from within the room at the end of the hallway. Hammar runs through the fogcloud and finds himself standing in a room, with a squid-looking creature right in front of him. Saving throw time for Hammar. He does not save and takes damage from the beast grapping at Hammar’s head, trying to dislodge his brain. Fortunately, the entry point, Hammar’s ear is made of stone so the creature does not eat Hammar’s brain, yet.

Othello goes through the fogcloud and strikes the creature with a bolt. Cloverdung dismisses the fogcloud and fires a couple of arrows at the creature as well. The elf ranger decides to join us and leave the paralyzed Gubikla at the other end of the hall. The squid-head attacks Hammar again for more damage. Cloverdung pierces the creature with a javelin that does some cool damage. Suddenly, Gubikla is in the fight (making a saving throw last round) and hits the creature with a Chill Touch spell. Finally, Hammar brings the squid-thing down. As Hammar is healing himself, the others determine that it appears from the various tracks that this creature was the previous cultist we attacked. The elf ranger determines that these cultist are stronger than he realized seeing how they can transform into the shape of their deity.

The room is searched and there are several dead cultist and some bunk beds. This appears to be some kind of sleeping quarters. There is a room next to this one that appears to be the dining area. Othello searches the room off of the dining area and determines it to be the kitchen. Only a few ovens and tables are in that small room. The party decides to head back towards the entrance and search the other passageways. Upon approaching the entrance again, a sound of someone entering the dungeon can be heard. The party waits at the corner and are suddenly surprised by a group of townsfolk, out hunting cultists themselves. In the excitement a few crossbow bolts are discharged and hit some party members. Othello takes out his lightning wand and blasts the civilians. All of them are killed, except one who is trying to sneak back out. Hammar and Cloverdung kill that last one. Stupid town folk. Oh well, they will count as dead cultist upon our turning in findings to the bailiff. But for now, there is still some dungeon to explore.

Othello and Hammar explore a dead end, to find a secret panel that reveals a staircase going down. Hammar wants to check out the rest of this level before we go down, so he leads us through the other unexplored halls. The party comes across a cool section of the hall that ends in a room that itself is cold. Seeing all the dead, skinned bodies, hanging from the ceiling explains why this section of the dungeon is so cold. To help preserve the bodies.

The group backtracks into another new area and finds a small pool sitting in the center of a room. Cloverdung cautiously enters the room, trying to keep his distance from the pool. There is a quick, brief stir in the pool. Othello enters and tries to retrieve some liquid using a vial tied on the end of a string. The vial is ripped off the string by something and disappears. Gubikla decides to throw an electrical orb into the pool. After some crackling sounds, several small versions of the squid-thing float to the top, dead. They must have been babies. But for what? Cloverdung goes into a small adjacent room and sees a statue of the squid-thing against the back wall. Othello searches the statue but does not find anything. Gubikla detects magic on the statue and discovers one of the tentacles is magically. The elf ranger pulls on the magic tentacle and a secret door open up revealing some treasure. Othello starts collecting. Hammar joins in and grabs some gold bowls. Othello finds a secret lever that reveals a hidden chest under the floor. There are three locks on the chest and Othello can only unlock two of them.

Time to camp so Gubikla can get a knock spell.

COD Piece Award
(Character Of the Day)

Cloverdung