Hammer 13


Hammer 13, 1370: (half moon, waning)
    High = 0, Low = -10
    Moderate precipitation (2" snow) starting @ 7:00am
    Wind gusting to 50 mph from the prevailing direction.
    Partly cloudy most of the day.

Excerpt from the notes for The Amazing Autiobiography of Jan of Halruaa, Sometimes called Misery Jones, Part I - The Humble Years a work in progress.
13th! In the morning M'rap is sleeping on Manamere's head, smelling badly. Accounting: Stalker buys a cloak for 8 Gold. 1 dagger is to be sold. 1 dagger goes to Jan (me). Necklace, party item carried by the tall gnome with lots of blades. Dexter buys the other Gnomish cloak for 5GP Back into Henkle's private bank with the heavily armed clerks that hate to give you money and want a pound of flesh in return. At the Yawning Portal we are accosted by some very annoyed Dwarfs. I am quite shocked by their hostility and do my best to show the politeness my people (but not I) are known for. They are angry at AFAL because someone killed a party member of theirs (a Halfling, Bunko Bigtoes) and used his head to cross out the graffiti about us in the no-magic room with the words "that's not nice." I am quite bewildered about how using a head to cross the words out was nice in any way. Manamere suggests we raise the dead and Darius immediately insists we can't and we do NOT have that kind of cash in ANY WAY and we WILL swear to that under clerical interrogation. That is still 600 GP, so we convince the Dwarves it was likely Arcturagana, a Vampire with a grudge. We suggest that crossing her is a good way to develop the need for a raise dead spell. Dexter swears on his Holy Symbol and the Dwarves believe it eventually after much direct statement and absence of political weasel-wording (at least as seen by the dwarves). We spend 10GP buying the Dwarves drinks. We confirm that a hot blonde chick was seen entering the dungeon when we checked the betting board. Manamere sighs.

Excerpt from the notes for The Amazing Autiobiography of Jan of Halruaa, Sometimes called Misery Jones, Part I - The Humble Years a work in progress.

13th!

In the morning M'rap is sleeping on Manamere's head, smelling badly.

Accounting:
Stalker buys a cloak for 8 Gold.
1 dagger is to be sold.
1 dagger goes to Jan (me).
Necklace, party item carried by the tall gnome with lots of blades.
Dexter buys the other Gnomish cloak for 5GP

Back into Henkle's private bank with the heavily armed clerks that hate to give you money and want a pound of flesh in return.

At the Yawning Portal we are accosted by some very annoyed Dwarfs. I am quite shocked by their hostility and do my best to show the politeness my people (but not I) are known for. They are angry at AFAL because someone killed a party member of theirs (a Halfling, Bunko Bigtoes) and used his head to cross out the graffiti about us in the no-magic room with the words "that's not nice." I am quite bewildered about how using a head to cross the words out was nice in any way.

Manamere suggests we raise the dead and Darius immediately insists we can't and we do NOT have that kind of cash in ANY WAY and we WILL swear to that under clerical interrogation. That is still 600 GP, so we convince the Dwarves it was likely Arcturagana, a Vampire with a grudge.

We suggest that crossing her is a good way to develop the need for a raise dead spell. Dexter swears on his Holy Symbol and the Dwarves believe it eventually after much direct statement and absence of political weasel-wording (at least as seen by the dwarves).

We spend 10GP buying the Dwarves drinks.

We confirm that a hot blonde chick was seen entering the dungeon when we checked the betting board.

Manamere sighs.

        750xp to Jan for chronicling (600 roleplay, 
            150xp timeliness/completeness)

    

    dexter on drg

    look for secret door in shield rm, find 1gp

    through demongate, easy riddle

    on to 1-way, find moogh (1gp)

    room w/3 big statues - kill hobgob, find hidden room,
    search thoroughly, moogh leaves stick on statue
        65xp to Darius, Denyae, Henkles, Jan, Maanamere, Stalker, and Steve
            for 1 hobgoblin

    find 208 in J corridor cul-de-sac N of 42B, henk take spike, jan take note

    room w/6 carrion crawlers, one very large steve
    looks in but backs out w/o entering

        10xp for moogh putting stuff away under counter

    area 40, ignore, doub doors fire trapped 14pts, 1/2 to stalker,
    full to henk

    dexter off DRG

    big room w/4hd urds, stink on henk & rug, steve up, 3 attack,
    poison hit, steve saves,
    darius 2 MM, steve 1. dexter FF, all killed, break before
    searching bodies, steve 1/2 way to ceiling on stinky rug
        540xp to Darius, Denyae, Dexter, Henkles, Jan, Maanamere, Moogh,
            Stalker, and Steve for flying kobolds

Excerpt from The Chronicles of Anything For A Laugh by Steve, Bard from Neverwinter
"... Theo then arrived from guarding the party's rear, with Maanamere taking the task over from him. After narrowly missing being hit by stink poison (the Tensor's Throw Rug not being so lucky), I (Steve) saw two groups of the flying kobolds (or urds) head from the south part of the carvernous room towards us. The larger group of nine (accompanied by bats) flew at the rest of AFAL, and a group of five, holding a net, plus a leader/shaman type, headed towards me. I moved higher with the rug while Darius shot the larger group with Snilloc's, killing the bats and wounding the urds. I then cast a Fireball at the smaller group, which caused them to retreat back up to the ceiling. The Fireball also set portions of the sails and nets on the ceiling alight, which resulted in screams from hidden urds. Killing the group of nine was the work of a few minutes of missile spells and arrows. The hidden urds started chanting "Moag". They kept this up for a minute before the southern double doors opened allowing the entry of a monster, looking like a giant, rough-hewn gargoyle. This monster was preceeded by an urd shaman. The urd shaman was quickly felled by arrows. I attempted a Ray of Enfeeblement on the monster, which seemed to have no effect. Theo summoned a group of unusual looking birds, Which attacked the monster with no obvious effect. Darius and Jan both hit the monster with missles. Moogh then tried to hit the monster with his two-handed sword, finding that the monster could not be injured by non-magical wearpons. He then went at it with a magical bastard sword, killing it with a few strokes.

Excerpt from The Chronicles of Anything For A Laugh by Steve, Bard from Neverwinter

"... Theo then arrived from guarding the party's rear, with Maanamere taking the task over from him.

After narrowly missing being hit by stink poison (the Tensor's Throw Rug not being so lucky), I (Steve) saw two groups of the flying kobolds (or urds) head from the south part of the carvernous room towards us. The larger group of nine (accompanied by bats) flew at the rest of AFAL, and a group of five, holding a net, plus a leader/shaman type, headed towards me. I moved higher with the rug while Darius shot the larger group with Snilloc's, killing the bats and wounding the urds. I then cast a Fireball at the smaller group, which caused them to retreat back up to the ceiling. The Fireball also set portions of the sails and nets on the ceiling alight, which resulted in screams from hidden urds.

Killing the group of nine was the work of a few minutes of missile spells and arrows.

The hidden urds started chanting "Moag". They kept this up for a minute before the southern double doors opened allowing the entry of a monster, looking like a giant, rough-hewn gargoyle. This monster was preceeded by an urd shaman.

The urd shaman was quickly felled by arrows.

I attempted a Ray of Enfeeblement on the monster, which seemed to have no effect. Theo summoned a group of unusual looking birds, Which attacked the monster with no obvious effect. Darius and Jan both hit the monster with missles. Moogh then tried to hit the monster with his two-handed sword, finding that the monster could not be injured by non-magical wearpons. He then went at it with a magical bastard sword, killing it with a few strokes.

        1841xp to Darius, Denyae, Dexter, Henkles, Jan, Moogh, Stalker,
            Steve, and Theo for Moag

I then lowered myself back to the floor.

While we searched the bodies of the urds, we were discovered by a group of six carrion crawlers, attracted by the sounds of the fight. These were quickly dispatched (Darius used Color Spray.)

        2520xp to Darius, Denyae, Dexter, Henkles, Jan, Moogh, Stalker,
            Steve, and Theo for small carrion crawlers

Jan then started back up on the rug, which caused over thirty urds to start to attack us. The horde mostly attacked by dropping rocks on us.

Darius cast another Snilloc's and I used the Rod of Phantasmal Fireballs against the horde. I had headed towards the south wall of the room to get out from under the urds and got surrounded by four urd shamans. They were without weapons and were not able to hit me through my armor however. A group of urds were successful is netting Jan on the rug, but the party killed three of the four before that had a chance to pull him away. A general melee ensued, resulting in me getting hit by Faerie Fire. While we dealt with the horde, a shaman and what we think was the chief covered the women, children (and smarter males) retreat through the gap in the southwest door.

        5355xp to Darius, Denyae, Dexter, Henkles, Jan, Moogh, Stalker,
            Steve, and Theo for lots more flying kobolds (includes 1^st
            shaman)

The presumed chief and the shaman then followed the others out of the room.

AFAL searched the dead and gathered up copper pieces, a few small semi-precious stones and the poisoned mini-spears.

        650xp to Steve for chronicling (250 roleplay, 400 timeliness,
            completeness, format)

Loot:

34 small spears, most coated
with low-grade poison
carrion crawler mucus
728cp
4 10gp fire agates

Excerpt from The Chronicles of Anything For A Laugh by Steve, Bard from Neverwinter
Brother Theo and Jan joined Maanamere in protecting the party from rear attack. Once the urds abandoned the room, I used the rug to investigate the sails and nets attached to the ceiling. I failed to find any more urds, but did find pouches suspended from spikes via lines. I gathered a number of them, using a blanket from my pack and brought them down for Stalker to look over. They contained bits of moldy cheese, some iron spikes, and other junk. Moogh, becoming bored with watching this, decided to head out the southern doors. He was quickly followed by Henkles, who had a memory flash that warned of a trap on the western path (arbalests.) Seeing our companions wander off, I came back down and the rest of us followed them. We found that what we thought were two south going corridors was the northern part of a large 60' by 100' room. This room seemed to be a torture chamber. A number of bugbears were strung up, partially eviscerated. There were what looked to be two sets of human remains in metal cages. There were six alcoves, three each on the long east and west walls about ten feet off the floor, containing what looked like gargoyle statues. The floor of the room was covered with carrion, but not as much as you would expect for this room to have been used this way very long. At the far end of the room, there was a trapezoidal platform about ten feet above the floor, ten feet deep and forty feet across. Once we fully entered the room, the six "statues" animated and flew to attack us. Henkles readied "wife". Darius quickly hit two of them with a Steam Blast spell from a scroll and I sent two missiles from the Ring of Missiles at another. Henkles, Moogh, and Stalker attacked the monsters with their enchanted weapons. Working together, we quickly killed two of them, but the rest were tough enough to take more than a few minutes to dispatch, causing injuries using their claws, fangs and tails. Stalker was severely wounded during the melee, with Denyae, Henkles, and Darius taking lesser wounds.

Excerpt from The Chronicles of Anything For A Laugh by Steve, Bard from Neverwinter

Brother Theo and Jan joined Maanamere in protecting the party from rear attack.

Once the urds abandoned the room, I used the rug to investigate the sails and nets attached to the ceiling. I failed to find any more urds, but did find pouches suspended from spikes via lines. I gathered a number of them, using a blanket from my pack and brought them down for Stalker to look over. They contained bits of moldy cheese, some iron spikes, and other junk.

Moogh, becoming bored with watching this, decided to head out the southern doors. He was quickly followed by Henkles, who had a memory flash that warned of a trap on the western path (arbalests.) Seeing our companions wander off, I came back down and the rest of us followed them.

We found that what we thought were two south going corridors was the northern part of a large 60' by 100' room. This room seemed to be a torture chamber. A number of bugbears were strung up, partially eviscerated. There were what looked to be two sets of human remains in metal cages. There were six alcoves, three each on the long east and west walls about ten feet off the floor, containing what looked like gargoyle statues. The floor of the room was covered with carrion, but not as much as you would expect for this room to have been used this way very long. At the far end of the room, there was a trapezoidal platform about ten feet above the floor, ten feet deep and forty feet across.

Once we fully entered the room, the six "statues" animated and flew to attack us. Henkles readied "wife". Darius quickly hit two of them with a Steam Blast spell from a scroll and I sent two missiles from the Ring of Missiles at another. Henkles, Moogh, and Stalker attacked the monsters with their enchanted weapons. Working together, we quickly killed two of them, but the rest were tough enough to take more than a few minutes to dispatch, causing injuries using their claws, fangs and tails. Stalker was severely wounded during the melee, with Denyae, Henkles, and Darius taking lesser wounds.

        3360xp to Darius, Denyae, Dexter, Henkles, Moogh, Stalker, 
            and Steve for 6 BFGs

After a quick discussion, Denyae put the injured bugbears out of their misery.

        30xp to Darius, Denyae, Dexter, Henkles, Moogh, Stalker, 
            and Steve for 3 helpless bugbears

After binding our wounded, Henkles and I went to check out the large platform, while the others picked through the carrion on the floor to see what could be found.

As I used the rug to ascend to the platform, Henkles discovered a Gelatinous Cube right next to him. I tried to assist by using the Ring of Missiles, only to find that its dweomer was exhausted. Henkles was able to destroy it in a few minutes, assisted by Moogh throwing his privy stick at it.

Henkles and I then returned to the northern side of the room and helped to sweep the room to discover any further Gelatinous cubes. It was Denyae who found one (at very close range!) Luckily, she did not get paralyzed. It was destroyed by a general melee.

        1300xp to Darius, Denyae, Dexter, Henkles, Moogh, Stalker, 
            and Steve for fiesty jell-o

We then spent an hour going over the room. Dexter found no secret doors in the alcoves or on the platform. The party found: 26gp, a few small gems, some adventuring gear (a 10' pole, a set of thieves picks without a carrying case, a lantern filled with oil, some iron spikes), 3 longswords, 4 daggers, a mace, a metal flask labeled with a symbol of Chauntea, and a ring that glowed when the Glim was used. We gathered up what we found. Moogh tried the throw rug and found that he could only cause it to rise when he was unarmored. He then used the rug to get to the metal cages that held the human remains. He tried to wrench open the cages, but was unsuccessful.

I then went up and was successful in opening the lock on one of the cages and retrieving its contents. The rug, slightly overloaded, descended to the floor, but I landed without getting injured. I attempted to open the other cage but failed, requiring the use of a Knock to get it open. Once again, the combined weight caused the rug to slowly sink to the floor.

An examination found that the two had been dead at least a week. The first had been wearing banded mail armor, and was carrying a glaive (which glowed for the Glim), a staff sling and bullets, a heavy crossbow, a short bow, 12cp, 7sp, 3 gp, 2 Toals, and a gold earring (believed to be worth 20gp.) The second was also wearing banded mail (that detected as magical), along with a shield (also magical), carrying a footman's mace, short bow, a Guisarme-voulge, battle axe, and short sword. He had 3 sp, 3ep, 1 gp, and 5pp.

Henkles expressed surprise at the number of weapons they had been carrying, and was quite disconcerted when Darius pointed out that Henkles was carrying three swords himself. He claimed to not realize that he had strapped his recently acquired sword (the one with darts stored in the handle) across his backpack. He claimed that he had purchased it to display in his collection, not to use. The sword was again checked for magic, but no aura was found. (I wonder if this is related to his memory flashes and dreams?)

AFAL brought the mortal remains, along with the equipment, with us up out of Undermountain. We were unmolested during our path back up to the Yawning Portal. We asked about them, and were told that they were probably two of a group of four that had gone into Undermountain over a week ago and had not been heard from since. We also found out that Arcturagana was believed to be currently in Undermountain. We then went home to Fair Winds and went to bed.

        300xp to Moogh for roleplaying
        150xp to Henkles for roleplaying

    

    (That night, Henkles dreams of chasing a 9-fingered man down an
    endless corridor while his comrades fall and become pursuing
    zombies.)

Hammer 12, 1370

Year of the Tankard

Hammer 14, 1370