The Crypt of Rendar Serouc
This 7 hour session was played on Friday, January 4, 2013.
Attending PCs were:
Ulfgar the Repulsive
Brother Hothfire Arroway
Kleego Saltpounder
and Snake the Cowardly Thief
As well as their respective hirelings who included, but were not limited to, Filthas the Elven, Bran the Regular, and Gor.
The party met with their new Dwarven cleric, Ulfgar in town, and had a good lark at how uncharismatic the surly, ugly cleric was and then soon left town to descend into Barrowmaze. Upon arriving, the party headed to a previously visited area that was not fully explored and found a room that contained many silver plated skulls, burial alcoves and an altar with fresh blood still upon it. As the party went about looting the place they were beset by several mongrelmen. One of the beasts was contained by a hold person spell, the rest were slaughtered under the weapons of the party. After the room was looted, the party peered south to find a large room with a trail of breadcrumbs in it. They also explored to find a room with an innumerable amount of gargoyle carvings and statues in it. Wishing to avoid a potential conflict with gargoyles, or some other thing in the shadows (the party got the feeling they were being watched…), the party headed back to Barrowcrest. On their way back, the party was confronted with more mongrelmen. The now somewhat experienced party slew the beasts with ease.
After refreshing themselves in town, the party returned to the deadly Barrowmaze. Going back to the same general area, the party stumbled across a room with a bricked up wall. As the party drew close, a wind from beyond it quickly extinguished their torch! The quick thinking party urged Ulfgar to cast a spell of light to put the human members of the party at ease. Cursing the cowardly humans, Ulfgar obliged. Beyond the wall the party found a pillar encrusted with many valuable rubies. After testing the room at length for traps and the like, the cowardly cautious party deemed it safe. As the halfling thief, Snake went about extracting the jewels, the party heard footsteps of people from beyond the spiked and barricaded doorway. Remaining very still and silent, the footsteps eventually receded. The party finished looting and headed south, to some forgotten crypts. Inspecting the hall, it looked as though all of the crypts had been sacked, so Ulfgar broke from the party and descended south to scout with his dwarven darkvision. Not finding much, he turned to return to the party, but was descended upon by some mummified cat creatures. They howled loudly, but Ulfgar, true to his dwarven stubbornness, held fast. He attempted turning the vile things to no avail, and the rest of the party came rushing to his aid, felling the beasts quickly. Down the way, the party entered one of the crypts, seeing silver bracers lying with some interred skeletons. Bran, was ordered to enter the room with a 10 ft. pole to test for traps, but was quickly attacked and killed by giant spiders! The party slew the vicious arachnids and claimed their loot.
After exploring some more, Filthas' keen elven sense noticed a secret door. Opening it revealed small three inch holes in the ground, a quick examination revealed a tripwire in front of the door. Disarming it revealed a spear trap that would have skewed unwary adventurers. Inside the secret room were many alcoves which were looted, somewhere along the line, a false floor panel was lifted to reveal a potion, later to be revealed as a potion of treasure finding.
During their last trip to town, the party had discussed the merits of Fenril's Faithful Compass. Deciding that it generally led to treasure of some kind, just not reliably, the party attempted its usage once more. This time, the compass pointed true. From somewhere around the gargoyle room, the party headed north to find a secret door in a suspicious looking hallway. The party opened and entered the secret hallway which led into a room of great treasure. before entering, Snake scouted ahead and checked for traps. a huge stone block was found hanging from the ceiling that would not only crush any attempting to enter, but seal off the room as well. A corresponding tripwire was found. So it was that the party closed off the secret door, and let the nimble thief retrieve the many rubies and golden skulls encrusted in the wall. Ready to celebrate their great haul, the party trekked back to town.
Before they could make it, however, they were attacked by not one, but two shambling mounds! Even though these two looked slightly less beefy than the other shambling mounds they had ran into before, the party was terrified and thought about fleeing. The realized though that they (the dwarves at least) could never outrun the monstrosities so turned and fought. This was one of those long epic battles were alot of things happened. Kleego did a good job of taking one on, while the other attacked Ulfgar. Ulfgar attempted a bless spell but it was ruined. Seeing no way he could damage the monstrosities, Ulfgar casted a sanctuary spell, which prevented the creatures from attacking him (and him, them). Luckily Ulfgar concentrated on healing Kleego who had almost destroyed one of the creatures before he was absorbed into it (along with several of the hirelings). Snake, who had been flanking it at this point retreated, after one final slash. Arroway, with a desperate volley of attacks manage to outdo the creature and slay it, freeing Kleego and everyone turned their attention to the second shambling mound. At this point, Ulfgar used his quick fading sanctuary to get in a flanking position with the final mound. With Kleego and Ulfgar flanking, as well as Snake and Arroway firing ranged attacks, the final mound quickly succumbed, and the party fled back to town. All in All it was only the hireling Gor who perished (everyone else making their death saves).
When the party returned, Snake drank the potion of treasure finding he had found. The potion led them to the series of rooms where Cromwell had fallen down the bottomless pit, along with the Fount of Law. Twisting the hand of a statue of Nergull to the north, a hidden passageway was revealed. A hallway leading north with six adjacent rooms were revealed. Everything was coated with a thick layer of dust. The rooms contained one with four treasure chests, another with a heavy onyx statue of Nergull, an armory with many fine weapons and armor, as well as some magical, an two tombs with sarcophagi. The north end of the hallway revealed a secret door. Traversing it and the small hallway that followed, and through a bricked up wall, the party came to the lost and ancient crypt of Rendar Serouc. Massive piles of treasure lined the walls, along with two great statues at the back wall and an opened up sarcophagi. Before the party could think or act however, a dreadful voice came from the shadows, along with two glowing malicious eyes: "You have dared disturbed the crypt of Rendar Serouc? You shall die for your insolence" at once, the dreadful barrowight Rendar Serouc advanced upon them. Its gaze settled upon the party (and they made their saves versus insanity, hurrah). It called upon the two large statues at the back wall to attack the party, which they did. The statues got in some good hits on Ulfgar and Kleego who held the front lines. The party though, focused its attacks on Rendar, who seemed the more obvious threat. Kleego let his dwarven hammer fly, Filthas shot at it was a magical bow, and Arroway loosed a handaxe. Before the evil wight could meet the party, Snake finished it off with a mighty toss of his dagger. Before Rendar fell though, he called his undead lieutenants to him, evil ghasts. A noxious cloud of stench and filth descended upon the party, who all managed to stomach the toxic odor and fight on. The ghasts managed to paralyze and kil the torchbearer as well as Filthas the Elven, but were then slain by the valiant efforts of Snake and Arroway. All the while the two massive statues attacked the dwarves, dealing moderate damage. The party attacked and Ulfgar loosed a cause wounds on one of the statues as well as a blow with a hammer (getting it stuck inside the statue). Kleego wailed away with his hammer, and along with the new magic Halberd acquired by Arroway, and support fire from Snake, the statues fell to pieces.
The party now looted a massive amount of treasure from the room, innumerable valuable gems, gold, electrum silver, all totaling well over ten thousand gp! many magical items were found including a +2 shield, a ring of water walking, a staff of striking, a clerical scroll with dispel magic, cure serious wounds, commune and true seeing. A powerful 2 handed sword and 5 potions. A long eventful and profitable 7 hour session then came to its end
