Nightal 5
Nightal 5, 1369: (full moon)
High = 40, Low = 20
No precipitation
Wind gusting to 8 mph from the prevailing direction.
Cloudy.
About two hours after dawn, Altilitac Mithar, Cassie, Darius,
Denyae, Dexter, Etiste Birdstalker, Henkles, Holmain, Nephew of
Harso Valtac, Jan, Marcae, Narthan, Stalker, and Steve assembled
at Fair Winds and proceeded to the Yawning Portal. There they
paid 13gp and the cost of a flagon of beer (for Holmain) from
party treasure and were lowered into Undermountain.
They entered the minotaur labrynth and proceded to the bottom by
their usual route. Along the way, Stalker, Holmain and Narthan
were engulfed by a trapper. The party managed to kill it in time
to save everyone, but many healing spells were expended, Stalker
had 8 goodberries and Holmain had 7. Darius noted that the
creature had already been wounded when the party arrived. It was
speculated that the trapper had been moved to that location by
force.
2750xp to Altilitac, Cassie, Darius, Denyae, Dexter, Etiste,
Henkles, Holmain, Jan, Marcae, Narthan, Stalker, and Steve
for a wounded trapper
Entering the lowest point in the labrynth, the party detected that
the deadfall trap that had caught them in the past had been reset.
They disarmed it.
As they ascended into the less accessible section of the labrynth,
the party noticed that runes had been painted, in blood, on the
inside of a doorway on their route since their last visit. Marcae
observed that they were a form of non-human magic, possibly
ogre-mage or some other large, magic using, humanoid race. They
reluctantly continued through. Shortly after that they
encountered another doorway that had been marked in this manner.
In the slavemaster's area, they discovered that many, perhaps all,
of the doorways had been marked with the same or similar runes.
Cassie examined one doorway closely and determined that the runes
were similar but that there was some variation from doorway to
doorway. She used the Glim Gauntlet to see if the runes were
magical and determined that they weren't.
When they opened the doorway to the room south of the slave
quarters area, they were unsurprised to find more runes. However,
when Cassie checked this doorway, she determined that the runes
were indeed magical. Dexter cast Dispel Magic and Cassie
confirmed that they were no longer magical.
At this point, Ursula and Maanamere caught up with the rest of the
party, having paid another 2gp from Party Treasure to get into
Undermountain. The party proceded through the doorway, checked
the side room and privy, and started up the stairs to the corridor
where Stewart died.
As they headed down the corridor, it became obvious that they were
expected. A 10' high stone wall had been erected in the room at
the end of the corridor, about 5' from the entrance. Firing bows
over the top were two ogres like the ones that had been here
before, plus a bunch of orcs. Two of the orcs had bottles of
greek fire oil, which they hurled into the corridor to slow the
party's approach. Henkles used the power of the Sproing Ring to
cast Jump on Narthan, and he lept to the foot of the wall,
dodged a few dropped rocks, and lept over the wall. He landed on
a crate that the ogres were standing on, with several orcs nearby.
Two of three minotaurs who had been waiting at the end of the wall
also headed over. Narthan engaged the ogres.
250xp to Narthan for honoring his god, if not his own hide
Shortly therafter, Henkles cast Jump on Maanamere and he
attempted to follow Narthan over the wall. Unfortunately, he
panicked mid-leap and grabbed an orc off of the catwalk behind the
wall in a desperate attempt to halt his fall, both landed badly
and Maanamere found himself in melee with several orcs.
250xp to Maanamere for honoring? his intelligence
In the mean time, Cassie managed to charm one of the orcs
remaining on the wall, eliminating him from the fight.
120xp to Cassie for making a new friend
As Narthan managed to slay one ogre and got started on the next
the rest of the party began a general charge around the wall,
engaging the third minotaur and more orcs. Maanamere slew several
orcs and headed to join Narthan while Henkles, Stalker and others
meleed behind him and Marcae added fire to the fun. The remaining
ogre fled and Narthan started on the minotaurs. Soon, the
remaining 7 orcs surrendered and the minotaurs were finished off.
6855xp to Altilitac, Cassie, Darius, Denyae, Dexter, Etiste,
Henkles, Holmain, Jan, Maanamere, Marcae, Narthan,
Stalker, Steve and Ursula for a fortified group of mixed
humanoids
The orcs were relieved of their weapons - scimitars with some sort
of poison on them - and all the humanoids were relieved of their
cash, totalling 30sp and 35gp. Maanamere and Narthan each got 8
goodberries. While that was being done, Darius took a close look
at the new wall and declared that it was likely created with a
Wall of Stone spell.
The orcs had been wearing what looked like very crude tunics with
equally crude imitations of the light brown hand emblem from the
ogres tunics painted on the front. After they were captured, they
turned the tunics right-side-out, revealing a large 'H' emblazoned
on the front and started begging for their scimitars back so that
they wouldn't get into trouble when they went back to work for
"other boss". Questioning revealed that the 'H' was "other
boss"'s symbol, that "other boss" lived in the city above, and
that none of the surviving orcs had actually laid eyes on him.
After some discussion, the orcs were sent packing and told that if
they were good, the party would leave their swords behind for them
to retrieve later. It is assumed that they did this.
Maanamere stayed on the wall to make sure they didn't double back
until the party was ready to leave the labrynth. He was
immediately surprised to report that he saw Moogh coming down the
corridor looking for the party. Moogh had apparently just arrived
in town to tell the party that Bambi was pregnant and had come
down looking for them.
Cassie's charmed orc was sent down to try to lure some of those in
the romm down below up the stairs, this got him shot. After that
a Darkness spell was used to mask the entrance to the room
below. Henkles charged, which brought down the darkness
spell, but also revealed an ogre mage, who hit the forerunners in
the party with a Cone of Cold. There followed a
complicated melee, mostly fought on the stairs leading into the
room and involving quite a few area-effect spells being squeezed
into the room below. When the smoke cleared, one ogre archer and
one minotaur had been captured and the rest of the rooms
occupants, Chief Hrongornk, the Ogre-Mage Pankgard Grandakl, 7
young minotaurs, 4 more adult minotaurs and another ogre, were
slain.
14230xp to Altilitac, Cassie, Darius, Denyae, Dexter, Etiste,
Henkles, Holmain, Jan, Marcae, Moogh, Narthan, Stalker,
Steve and Ursula for the final destruction of a people,
their culture, and their proud warrior traditions.
300xp each to Moogh and Henkles for roleplay, corpse
tossing and wild leaps
50xp to Marcae for fireball craziness
The party commenced looting the room and Darius checked for secret
doors. Denyae, who was guarding the minotaur, saw him make a
"threatening move" and killed him. Darius discovered that there
was a secret door behind a large throne in the north of the room
and the throne was muscled out of the way. The door opened to a
short, trapped corridor, which Stalker fixed, and which in turn
lead to a small room filled with bones and loose copper pieces.
Many of the bones had been assembled with care into four large
bizarre sculptures of three impossible creatures and a tree with
humanoid ears for leaves. The statues made the party nervous, but
never did aything.
At the back of the room where what appeared to be three chests
stacked in a pyramid against the wall. Unfortunately, when Cassie
got close to them, she discovered that the lower two were actually
a mimic, which did her considerable harm before the party
dispatched it.
3000xp to Cassie, Darius, Dexter, Henkles, Jan, Marcae,
Moogh, Narthan, Stalker, Steve and Ursula for a killer
mimic.
The loot collected from the throne and treasure rooms that
survived the fireballs and lightning bolts was:
o 414cp, 79sp, 19ep, 88gp, 4pp
o 7 claymores
o 1 Longbow made for 18/90 STR
o A piece of coral .
o Chief Hrongornk's horns, badly charred, but recognizeable.
o Two carnelians from the remains of Pankgard Grandakl's
gold-elfskin gloves.
o Grandakl's ogre-sized plate mail.
o Grandakl's large gold ring set with an aquamarine .
o Grandakl's massive halberd, the shaft of which is decorated
with 2 giant eagle feathers, one with a banded agate bead and
one with a moss agate bead .
o The melted remains of Grandakl's fine rivitted gold chainmail
purse .
o Four potions, marked with simple pictures as follows:
- Feather
- Heart
- Elephant's Head
- Mouth
o Many sleeping hides:
4 G. Lizard 4 poor 3 good
7 Dog 3 poor 2 fair 4 good
1 Rothe 1 poor 1 good
1 G. Rats 1 poor 1 good
4 1/4 G. Snake 4 poor 4 good
1 Bugbear 1 poor
4 Moose 2 poor 1 fair 3 good
2 Owlbear 1 poor 2 good
1 Ogre 1 poor 1 good
3 Hobgoblin 1 poor 2 fair 1 good
2 Gnoll 2 poor 2 good
1 Leucrotta 1 fair
1 Human 1 poor 1 good
1 1/8 blk dragon 1 fair
o Chief Hrongornk's predecessor's horns.
o A crude copper ring carved with runes. The runes are an
orcish prayer to Gruumsh for unfair advantage in battle.
The ring radiates magic.
o A suit of worn, elf-sized armor made from what appears to be Green
Dragon hide,
o 1 Carnelian
o 1 Amber
Moogh elected to take the remaining ogre, Golargh Gagh-Urml, as
his share of the treasure. The party interogated him extensively
about his knowledge of Undermountain. Moogh decided to name him "Fluffy".
100xp to Moogh for creative prisoner abuse (over next several
days)
The party, plus "Fluffy", then left the dungeon, to the tune of
17gp from party treasure.
From there, a small group from the party went to the home of
Razaar Slissin and delivered Hrongornk's horns, which his niece
identified. Slissin assured the party that their reward would be
delivered the next morning.
17000xp story award to Altilitac, Cassie, Darius, Denyae,
Dexter, Etiste, Henkles, Holmain, Jan, Maanamere, Marcae,
Moogh, Narthan, Stalker, Steve and Ursula for The Labrynth
On returning to Fair Winds, the party learned of a burglary that
had occurred in their absence. Apparently a half-orc woman had
broken into the house through a window on the second floor and was
quietly going through the bedrooms when she accidentally knocked
something over. Gulkker came upstairs to investigate and was
surprised by the thief in the hall. She used a spell to paralyze
him and was approaching him with a knife when Mrs. A. came up the
stairs after him. The thief likewise used a spell to partially
incapacitate Mrs. A., but then fled through a window (breaking it
and apparently leaping to the ground below), where she
dissappeared from sight. The party learned all of this from
Gulkker and Mrs. A.
A check of their rooms revealed that a gem had been stolen from
Narthan's room, a drow pistol-crossbow had been stolen from
Henkle's room, and Steve's room seemed to have been the most
thoroughly searched. Dexter got Elvis to try tracking the
burglar's scent, but had no luck
Some members of the party decided to see if any of the thieves
they had recently interviewed didn't have an alibi. They found
Dusty Donnybrook, who had an alibi and whom they asked to
investigate the crime. He agreed to do it in exchange for two
nights at the Blushing Mermaid with Ursula (100gp from party
treasure). They were unable to contact anyone else at that point
and so returned to get ready for Stewarts funeral service.
Altilitac Mithar, Etiste Birdstalker and Holmain, Nephew of Harso
Valtac were paid for the day (52gp from undivided loot) and
discharged from the party's service. They were told to return the
next afternoon for the dividing of treasure. They expressed
regret that they were leaving the party so soon.
With most party members in attendance, Stewart's remains were laid
to rest in the House of the Moon at moonrise. Dexter performed a
memorial service.
When they returned to Fair Winds, the party encountered three
drunk students from the nearby bard's college on their front lawn.
There was one man, who was standing on the low stone wall
surrounding the property with his shirt off to the two women, who
were lying on the ground and cheering him on. The party managed
to convince them to go indoors and elsewhere without any violence
or frostbite occurring.
After they got inside, Stalker, with the help of two Alternate
Reality spells from Darius, drew Death from the Deck of Wondrous
Transformations, giving him the knowledge of how to use an
amulet he'd inheritted from his uncle to develop some
spellcasting abilities, which he did not immediately discuss
with the party.
