Marpenoth 1
Marpenoth 1, 1369:
Early in the morning, a guild rep showed up and asked where the
party was yesterday. They made excuses and arranged for keys to
two grates. The rep expressed surprise that they were exploring
tertiary passages, as the guildmembers that had been attacked had
not gone there.
The party dropped off a list of monster bits at Phalantir's
Philters & Potions to see if they could get any money for them.
They were told that he would contact them, but there had been an
influx of monster parts that day, so don't expect much.
- Umber Hulk
- St. Elmo's Hounds, sans fur
- Narleth
The party also dropped off the St. Elmo's Hound pelts to get
tanned for 5gp.
They then went on to the guildhall, picked up the two keys and
Maanamere's advance, and headed into the sewers. They got through
the first gate without incident and began exploring tertiary
corridors to the southwest of the main corridor up to the fault
line. They found a secondary corridor that didn't connect to the
one they were in, but no monsters.
Shortly after passing through the first gate, the party came apon
4 ghouls feeding on an old rotting corpse. They fought and
defeated the ghouls easilly. Narthan's armor proved to be a great
source of frustration for the ghouls. They found 2 torches
wrapped in oilcloth on the body.
700xp to party for ghouls
Shortly after that, the party heard movement behind them. Dexter
used his detect undead ability to see if more undead were
approaching. The party took the fact that Dexter then tried to
flee as an affirmative result. Four more ghouls and two ghasts
attacked the party moments later. During the fight, both Henkles
and Narthandarkanas where paralyzed, and Henkles was dragged into
the muck and nearly drowned, but eventually all of the undead and
none of the living were killed. One of the ghasts had a 60gp
black pearl.
2000xp to party for ghouls and ghasts
Further along the same passage, the party came across a junction
which had been set up as a sort of staging area for the sewer
workers at some point in the past by means of adding a wooden
floor and some furniture. The room was filled with dead sewer
workers and damaged and overturned furniture. When the party
entered the room to investigate, the corpses animated and
attacked. Unfortunately the combined weight and comotion caused
the floor to collapse, dropping the party and zombies down a
fissure opened by the recent earthquake and eventually into an
undergroung lake being filled by a torrent from the fissure in the
ceiling. The party spotted a shore to one side and started
swimming there. As they swam a giant undead serpent started
swallowing swimmers, fortunately the slower zombies went first and
the party made it safely to shore. They then fought the serpent
and managed to kill it fairly quickly.
7325xp to party for 11 zombies (one very large)
Dexter decided to try exploring the lake and spent an hour or so
swimming around and diving in it. He recovered what turned out to
be a suit of Full Plate +1, which the party decided Maanamere
should wear, and a pouch containing 400gp.
250xp to Dexter for taking a profitable bath
Leaving the shore was a corridor that led to a huge bronze symbol
of Myrkul, set into the floor and stretching from wall to wall.
Beyond that the party saw an intersection filled with zombies.
Henkles charged, gore happened.
100xp to Henkles for low-risk role playing
650xp to party for zombies
The party discovered that all magical light died when brought
across the symbol. Eventually, because there was nothing else to
do, the party went across and lit a torch. Darius left his light
button on the floor outside the symbol.
Beyond the four-way intersection, each of the corridors ended in a
set of bronze double doors, each held closed by the seal of
Myrkul. The party elected to continue straight and found that the
corridor continued beyond the bronze doors. Finding a door to
their left, the party opened it and discovered the bedroom of two
wights. In the ensuing fight, Henkles was drained one level,
reducing him to 4th level with 49 max HP. Under a floorboard, the
party found 600gp, a clerical scroll of Inflict Moderate Wounds,
and a clerical scroll of Aid. The two scrolls were given to
Stewart to carry.
2800xp to party for wights
Just beyond the bedroom door was a door on the right side of the
corridor. Openning that, the party found a sermon room,
containing a chest with a pedestal on it, many pews, 8 zombies and
6 skeletons. Henkles and Narthan led a charge and a brief messy
fray followed. No one was severely hurt, although Stewart was
briefly trapped beneath the rotting corpse of a falling zombie.
In the chest they found 500gp and 3 potions.
910xp to party for mutilating the bodies
Further down the corridor, there was a door to either side and
beyond that the corridor ended at a set of double doors. Opening
the door to the right, they found a shrieker in a closet. The
shrieker attracted a wight and 5 skeletons from the meditation
cells in the room across the hall and a spectre from the altar
room at the end of the corridor. Darius made judicious use of
Maximillians Stoney Grasp to disable the wight while Cassie made
very effective use of Enfeeblement spells. Mostly for these
reasons, no levels were drained in the fight. A search of the
bodies, closet, altar room and monks cells turned up some +1
studded leather armor, 70gp, an 80gp piece of amber and a golden
scythe eventually appraised at 100gp.
4725xp to party for big climactic battle scene
While the party was searching the altar room and examining the
altar and a large fissure in the wall and ceiling, 8 zombies
appeared on the altar and attacked with predictable results.
Stewart then smashed the altar, which set of some magical
protection and did 24 points of damage to him (because he saved).
There were some bags in the altar and the party decided to grab
them and go.
300xp to party for more zombies
Outside they opened the bags and found 1100gp, 1350pp and
Perditor Mortua, a silvery mithril mace with considerable magical
power. The mace was assigned to Dexter. The party then went home
and took baths and then reported to the guild and collected their
reward. The treasure they collected was cashed in and divided,
with one extra share given to party treasure. Stewart was given
25gp from party treasure for materials lost.
1000xp to party for completing the job
By noon there is a story circulating that the sewers in the
earthquake area are hauntedby dead sewer workers. One woman swears
she heard her privy crying for help two days ago, and her neighbor
claims his privy was unnaturally cold the same afternoon.
Speculation as to whether this was the first sign of Higharvestide
trouble or unrelated seems evenly divided.
By nightfall the story is circulating that Halaster was kidnapped
by some powerful unknown forces and all the gates to and from
Undermountain went wild in his absence. The Lords of Waterdeep
were forced to actually send The Neverwinter Wolves, with help, into
Undermountain to rescue him. Nobody is sure why they had to go
into Undermountain if he was taken from there. Folks begin calling
it Halaster's Higharvestide.
That night, folks cast Identify. Darius, (at 5th level)
identified one potion as Enlarge (at 5th level) with no other
properties, then failed his roll for the other two potions and the
Sproing Ring. Steve missed for one of the remaining potions but
identified the other as a Blur Potion. Cassie (still at 4th
level) was unable to identify the last potion.
