The party consists of 6 third-level adventurers: a dwarf fighter, a human paladin, a human female ranger, a half-elf magic-user, a human cleric and a hobbit thief as well as Fido the dog.
Having safely returned the farmer's daughter to her family, the party were feasted; a whole pig was roasted and plenty of the best scrumpy was served.
Many of the farmer's neighbours came from far afield. When they heard about the rescue, some farmers told the party that their young sons had disappeared. At first it was thought that they had gone off adventuring but not the farmers were beginning to suspect that they had been kidnapped. The farmers asked for the party's help to return their sons and the party agreed.
A few days later, once their hangovers had worn off, the party set off. They were led by the ranger who soon located goblin and rat tracks in the vicinity of where the boys had disappeared. The tracks were followed and they came to a ruined deserted way station. In the corner of the way station was a staircase going into a cellar.
Led by the ranger and the hobbit, the party descended. The entrance hallway had a high ceiling held up by four pillars. In three side of the room their were doors, the fourth side had bowl in which a fire burnt mysteriously without any visible source of fuel.
Two giant spiders were lurking in the webs by the ceiling and jumped down surprising the in-rushing party. The spiders were defeated surprising quickly. the room was then searched and a mixture of coins from the spiders' victims worth 15 gp were found. No other exits were found in the room, so the party returned to the entrance hallway.
The second door from the entrance hallway led down a corridor which then turned left and opened into a long room with four alcoves, two on each side. In each alcove stood a statue of a soldier. The party sent in Fido first and then followed behind without waiting to see what happened. When Fido reached the middle of the room, the statues came to life and attacked the party. It was a hard fight, the statues stone-hard armour made them hard to defeat.
Having defeated the four statues, the party was shocked to see them all stand up again. Luckily for the party, they returned back to their alcoves. The party searched the room for treasure, but none was found. However the dwarf and the half-elf magic-user found a secret door behind one of the statues.
The party squeezed through the small secret door and entered another room. The room was filled with noisome trash and debris piled into the corners. Ten giant rats had made their lair in this room.They attacked as soon as the party entered, in order to protect their lair.
The party defended themselves; the dwarf and the hobbit doing the most of the killing. Having removed the threat from the rats, the party searched the room very quickly before moving on through the door in the right hand wall.
The party entered a small room. This room had the appearance of a storage room that was hit by a tornado. Crates and barrels were smashed, clawed and scattered throughout the room. The smell of rotted food and rat dung is overpowering. The room contained nothing of interest except a door in the left hand wall.
They opened the door and were met by a wererat and four rats. The wererat had heard the noise of the party fighting its way towards him so he was expecting them and not at all surprised.
It took a while before the cleric remembered that lycanthropes cannot be harmed by normal weapons. They soon noticed that the wererat was concentrating his attacks on the paladin who was attacking with a magic sword. Now aware of the challenge, the ranger opened fire with two magic arrows. The dwarf finished off the rats while the paladin and ranger did for the wererat together.
The room was searched and bags of copper, silver and gold coins worth 150 gp were found hidden among the debris.
There being no other exits from this room, the party retraced its steps to where the corridor branched. They followed this second corridor and met a party of 8 wandering goblins.
Five goblins were quickly dispatched, the remaining three fled along the corridor and into a room that was full of mushrooms.This room had a deep, earthy smell with a muddy, dirt floor. Moisture dripped from the severely cracked ceiling. The nature of the room has allowed a wild variety of strange mushrooms to grow. The goblins hid among the mushrooms, trying not to be seen.
The party opened the door, looked in and decided that it was not worth the effort to follow the goblins.
The party returned to the entrance hallway and the final doorway.
They entered through the door, with the dwarf and the paladin leading as usual.
Through the doorway their was a corridor leading straight ahead. The corridor widened into a hallway and there stood eight skeletons on guard. As the party advanced a portcullis fell, separating the leading two adventures from the rest of the party.
The dwarf and the paladin advanced to attack the skeletons and the hobbit tried to find a lock to pick or an opening mechanism on the portcullis but without success. While the dwarf and the paladin were in combat, the cleric pulled out his holy symbol, held it above his head and shouted loud and clear "Flee Before the Power of Law, Foul Undead Things of Chaos!". However the cleric was behind the portcullis and too far away, the skeletons were not affected.
When the dwarf and the paladin had chopped up the skeletons they returned to the portcullis. As no way had been found to open it, they tried brute strength. Together with the ranger and the cleric on the other side, the managed to lift the portcullis up into the ceiling again and the whole party could continue.
Fido the dog picked up a nice femur on his way past!
The party advanced until they reached another door. This they kicked in and the dwarf and the paladin rushed in. As they entered a pit trap with spikes opened under them, The dexterous dwarf continued without problem but the less dexterous paladin fell back into the pit taking damage from the fall.
Waiting for them in the room was a evil priestess, her four charmed goblin servants and four skeleton guards.
Being afraid to fall into the pit, the party sent in Fido the dog to support the dwarf. On his four legs he had no trouble making it safely past the pit. Fido was especially effective against the skeletons, he just loved playing with their bones.
The fight was a hard one, the goblins and the evil cleric doing grave injuries to the dwarf. The fight was so distracting that the party members forgot to help the paladin out of the pit. Seeing that he dwarf was seriously wounded, the cleric rushed in to heal him. Unfortunately in his haste, the cleric forgot about the pit and slipped in. The cleric was pulled out and he could heal the dwarf who was fast approaching death's door.
The skeletons were destroyed, one goblin was dead and the other three near death. Running out of spells, the evil cleric decided to use her last spell to fill the room with darkness. In the darkness she escaped through a secret door behind some tapestries hanging on the far wall.
"I will create light to dispel this darkness" cried the magic-user. However he slipped on his way into the room and landed in the pit. He was pulled out of the pit and could then cast a light spell which would dispel the evil darkness.
From their corner, the party examined the room. The far side of the room had a compass rose on the floor. Several rich tapestries hung on the walls, depicting foul sacrifices and evil acts of the Frog God. The room had furnishings for the cleric to live and worship here. There were beds and chests along the west wall, a “throne” on the north wall and an altar to the Frog God on the south wall.
The cleric had vanished and the three remaining goblins could be seen attempting to hide under a bed in the opposite corner of the room.
The party decided that the compass roe on the floor was too dangerous to tread on when they were so weakened. It was decided that they would return to the surface to recuperate and return the next day to continue.
When they returned, the goblins had gone and the room had been stripped bare. The dwarf and the half-elf magic-user suspected that the evil cleric had used a secret door to escape. They searched carefully until the door was found.
Behind the door they found a passageway leading to a cell where the two young farmer's sons were found.
There was also a room containing a pool with a fountain in the middle. The party decided not to drink from the pool or investigate it further.
The party gave the half-starved boys some food and then returned to the surface. They were rather miffed that the contents of the evil clerics room were no longer there; they would never know what was in those treasure chests! The farmers were very happy with the return of their sons. The didn't have much money, but they through a big party for the adventurers.
The adventurers now had much more money than they started the journey with, and asked the farmers for directions so that they could pass a small town or village before they reached their final destination; that way they could buy some more supplies and equipment.
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