3 July 2015
With the overcast sky showing hints of dawn, our heroes reopened the secret door and descended the narrow stairway into the dungeon. The stairs ended in a 10-foot by 10-foot by 10-foot room with no apparent egress—a root cellar? Karox found a secret door in the east wall, by throwing herself against it. Valiniriel found another secret door in the west wall, via more delicate methods.A quick look through the eastern door revealed stairs descending. The party elected to go west, to explore before delving deeper. Through the western door, Anaïs saw the back of a giant, yellow-skinned humanoid wearing a couple of bearskins stitched together. She also spotted his bardiche leaning against the wall. The party elected to attack, so we checked for surprise—neither side was surprised. The giant tied initiative with Anaïs as they both lunged for his weapon. She got there first, but missed her grab, and he yanked it away, slashing her from shoulder to hip and putting her down and out in one hit. The more cautious thief, Kheldar, sneaked around behind the giant, while the cleric and fighter charged in. Valiniriel held back, in the usual formation. The giant was unable to hit the heavily armored cleric and fighter, and Kheldar missed his chance at a backstab. Largely thanks to Karox, the giant was soon dying on the floor.
Graham quickly tended to Anaïs’ wounds, rescuing her from death. She rested quietly, while the rest of the party examined the giant. Upon closer inspection, someone decided it was an ogre—purple eyes with white irises are pretty distinctive. They searched the room, finding a gnawed foot, probably human. In the ogre’s nest, Kheldar found a Cloak of Elvenkind, just his size! And in a chest, they found a 3 gp, 23 sp, and 41 pounds of copper.
Though once more conscious, Anaïs was unable to engage in combat or any strenuous activity. She needed a good day’s rest, but no one, including her, wanted to quit the dungeon so soon. She elected to stay in the rear and use her bow.
Next, they were faced with two normal doors out of the room. One was barred from this side, the other unlocked. They chose the barred door, hoping the ogre was keeping something in, rather than out. Indeed, that turned out to be his larder, and within were two lightly used men and a poor gnome, looking like one big bruise. The men were happy to be freed, and promised to send a reward back to Hommlet. The gnome was grateful, but not immediately in a position to make his way out. He took the food and water offered by Kheldar, gave Kheldar a plain iron ring, and passed out.
Through the only remaining door: a large, L-shaped chamber. The area to the west contained a pile of junk, and stairs up. The southern branch was somewhat of a corridor, with a line of doors on the western wall, five in all. Kheldar scouted, and was able to see the far end of the corridor, just past the fifth door. There was also an archway in the wall opposite the doors. As soon as he had passed the first pillar in that door area, he spotted two middle-aged human women, naked but for ragged skirts. Gypsies? They appeared drunk, and interested in him, though they didn’t speak. Hmm … he ran away, and they pursued, as best they were able. Good Billet Graham used the power of Cuthbert to repel the ladies, which proved that they were some form of lesser undead. But then a door hinge squealed further down the corridor, just out of the torchlight, and two young men, also poorly dressed, shuffled forth. These were obviously undead, having gaping chest wounds.
The party quickly took up positions on either side of the pillar, and attacked the silent undead as they came forth. And more came forth. Each minute, another pair emerged from another door, each time closer to the party. Because rolling 1s on attack rolls was the new vogue, the party had great difficulty repelling the undead, which soon overwhelmed the front line and tried to eat the thieves and magic-user. They learned that arrows do only one point of damage. They also learned that Cuthbert was not very willing to help in turning the undead. Graham turned another two, but had better luck whacking them with his Holy Mace, which turns undead as a 5th-level cleric. Somehow, the more vulnerable members avoided death at the hands of the shufflers—someone decided they were zombies.
Eventually, five of the “zombies” were grouped in the far end of the chamber, hiding from the nasty cleric, and the rest had been dismembered to a sufficient degree to break the magic that animated them. That was enough. That was more than enough: Graham was nearly down, Anaïs was recovering from being mostly dead, and even Karox had been hit hard, with a broken leg. Kheldar dashed in and dumped some oil on the cowering undead, and lit them on fire. Then the adventurers retreated the way they had come, gathering up the gnome in the process.
In fact, they kept retreating. Even before they had reached Hommlet, they had decided to go to Verbobonc, to report and to reflect on their victories and failures (i.e. to train and level up). They were also piling up treasure that they wouldn’t get decent prices for in Hommlet.
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