Session 35

The rust is mightier than the sword.

This session (Barrowmaze 18/Northern Reaches 34) was played on Monday, April 23, 2012.

Apperaing in this session is:

Kelg
Cromwell and his Man-At-Arms Alson
Sol and Durdir the Dwarven Man-at-Arms
Serge and Darmore the torch-bearer
Arn
and later, Stink flipper.

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The first order of business in this session was opening more portcullises that were located inside Barrowmaze. The party singled out a portcullis to the north that seemed to lead into a small area. Thinking that it could be explored quickly, the party retrieved the stout oak beam from last session and lugged it to the new portcullis. Inside was a hallway with about six doors. the three on the Eastern wall were either locked or swelled shut. Between the three western rooms, two silver stauettes were found sitting on a low table, another room contained a horde of rats and a runic tablet, but the room was quickly abandoned by the players. Also, a room with a phantom that almost scared the hell out of Sol [who made his save]. The party moved to the end of the hall after exploring the western rooms. The party carefully opened the door found at the end of the hall and were quickly beset by three giant and deadly scorpions. Cromwell beseeched Serge to use his magic before the scorpions could poison and kill Sol and Kelg, who were taking the brunt of the attack, but Serge was hesitant. It wasn't until Sol was stung by the gigantic scorpion and almost killed by deadly venom [made his save] that Serge used his magic to lull the deadly arachnids into slumber. The party quickly stabbed them in their sleep. After they were dead, the party harvested their venom glands for use on their weapons. Inside the room, several dead adventurers were found. Among their bodies a small fortune in gem stones, and coins was retrieved. Along with three mysterious but magical potions. After this, the party searched the alcoves in the room finding a suit of magical chainmail which was given to Arn for safe-keeping.

On their way out of this crypt, the party smashed open the three locked doors. Of note, the party ran afoul some ghouls who were quickly turned and and destroyed. The ghoul-room contained a fresco depicting ritual sacrifice. The next room had a small hole chewed in the corner of the door and the party could see giant rats scurrying around in there. The party broke the door open and slew the rats. In this room two platinum bracelets were found along with a fresco depeicting a man fishing. Ritual sacrifice to fishing… The characters or the players couldn't really see the theme here.

Now that this area had been explored, the party set their sights on a different portcullis. I believe it was near an area that held a great deal of vermin and many Giant Spider, Blood-Thirsty that nearly killed Sol awhile back. Opening the portcullis here, the party explored several rooms and crypts, finding only minor treasure. Eventually as the party cautiously made their way down the dark and silent halls, they approached a door at the end of the corridor. Listening at it revealed nothing, it was silent as death. The party opened the door, and immediately saw a strange creature on all fours animate (it was standing stone-still before as the door opened) and skulk towards Sol and Kelg. The thing was a hideous worm-like creature with many tentacles. Sol avoided them, thankfully and struck it with his magic broadsword. Something bad happened here. The blade, along with the magic it held, rusted off of it. The thing was still usable, however mundane. the party gasped and realized they now faced a rust monster!

RM.jpg

Sol and kelg are well-armored warriors (luckily they stayed that way through this battle) so they managed to avoid the rusting tentacles of the beast for the entire battle. Hammers, daggers and all manner of things were thrown at the beast, and Kelg's magic war hammer slipped from his grasp and fell somewhere in the crypt (luckily!). The final blow was struck, just as Cromwell and Serge prepared magical spells to hurl at the beast, [a light spell and a sleep spell that were wasted on the thing's corpse] and it was quite dramatic. A special mention needs to be made to the broadsword +1 Sol was using. It was found in the skeletal knight burial mound in session 28 it was here by some ill fated curse of the owner that Shaft slew himself with the gleaming weapon mid battle, its debut into the game and its refusal to be used by the thief [read all about it, it was due to incredible die rolls but fit the situation flawlessly]. It was next taken up by Locke, until he was slayed by Krothos Ironguard, then taken by Kelg who in turn passed it down to Sol who subsequently named it Rat-Cleaver [That very session infact]. Sol, disheartened but furious at the loss of the weapon's magical edge, thrust the sword deep into the beasts face, watching it rust into a red-brown dust as the beast convulsed and died. So it was the end of Rat-Cleaver the thief bane, it served its purpose marvelously. The party now joked about tieing the rust monster to a stick and chasing well-armored knights with it, but its power to rust things died with it. In this room the party found some treasure, including several magical arrows!

broadsword.jpg

Moving along down the corridors, the party came to a strange room with about 8 arm-sized holes covering the floor at even intervals. Cromwell was cautious here and threw sling stones into four of the holes. Seeing no effect, the party entered the room. Sol began fishing around in the holes with the ten foot pole and found them to hold items!. ever in Sol's nature, he ordered his hirelings to reach into the holes and retrieve the treasure. In seven of the holes, the party found a magical wand, an extremely valuable gold ring, a dirty holy symbol to Nergul, a paper containing the message first up, then down, two switches and… a severed hand! The severed hand may have indeed been the most useful item found because probing with the stick in the eighth hole revealed it was filled with a slime. not wanting to risk anyone's hand on a potentially corrosive substance, Cromwell suggested using the severed hand to test the goo at the bottom of the hole. Serge tied the hand to the ten foot pole with cloth and rope and submerged it. It came back up towing a viscous green slime and being melted to the bone. the party dropped their now 7 ft. pole and torched the goo in the bottom. Unfortunately, no treasure was found in that hole.

The party searched two more rooms to the north. One of the doors there released a strange gas on the party, and several hirelings began laughing for about twenty minutes. No enemies were attracted by the sounds. In the rooms the party found some minor treasure, along with an arcane scroll. While searching, a group of seven or so Mongrelmen encountered the party. Cromwell who was standing watch paralyzed two of them, and the rest of the party viciously tore through the mob causing the remaining one or two to flee. Of the two that were paralyzed, Serge charmed one. [the party had a fun time determining its Frankenstein-like composition and found it to be part elf, dwarf, merfolk, troglodyte, orc and goblin. Serge affectionately named it Stink flipper and killed the other paralyzed creature. before the party left for town, they commanded Stink flipper to pull the two switches in the holes while they stood safely outside the room. the first switch set off a poison dart trap that paralyzed Stink flipper and the next opened the portcullis that was being propped up with the stout oak beam. The party then went back to town and found that Stink flipper would not join them, but instead meet them next time they ventured into Barrowmaze

On a side note, Cromwell finally finished his reparations to Lord Ironguard and can now begin building a temple to St. Ygg.

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