The party consists of 6 fifth-level adventurers: GIMLIT SON OF GROIN (dwarf fighter), ST.JOHN WILDBLADDER III (human paladin), BELWINA (human female ranger), KRANOVAL (half-elf magic-user), THE BISHOP OF BATHENWELLS (human cleric) and FRITO BUGGER (hobbit thief). The party was still carrying the dead and somewhat scorched bodies of FIDO and KOBBE.
The party camped for the night in the priest's welcome room and recovered from the toils of the previous day. Morning came, and now fully rested, the party decided to carry on exploring the dungeon below the burial halls.
The party descended into the dungeon and quickly arrived at the sinkhole. They had slaughtered the stirges and bats that lived there yesterday, and no new creatures had yet moved in.
They approached the rock fall that they had noticed the previous day. The pile of rocks was man high and would be tricky, but not impossible to cross. Gimlit examined it and his rock sense told him that these rocks had been placed there, they were not a natural fall.
After a short discussion, the party decided to cross. They were curious to see what lay beyond, and what creature had placed the rocks so. Gimlit and Frito crossed first, followed by Belwina. Then even Wildbladder crossed, but he needed help from Bathenwells to push him over on the second attempt.
While the rest of the party were pushing on, the tail end consisting of Bathenwells and Kranoval were attacked by Gorbash the Ogre. It was he who had piled the rocks to slow down any troublesome visitors.
After nasty fight, Bathenwells and Kranoval backed away from the dangerous ogre as Gimlit and Belwina climbed back over the rocks to assist. Belwina with her ranger training, was especially effective against the ogre.
This left Frito and Wildbladder at the head of the party, when Gorbash's wife, Bluzrog attacked.
Frito and Wildbladder fought a brave defensive action until the rest of the party managed to defeat Gorbash so that Gimlit and Belwina could come to their aid against Bluzrog.
Having defeated both the ogres, the party magically healed wounds and then searched for treasure. Bluzrog was found to be wearing a magic ring of protection and their lair contained 3 sacks with respectively 2,000 sp, 400 gp and assorted gems and jewellery worth 400 gp. There was also a small chest containing two potions.
The party then continued to explore and came to a door. Frito used his thieving skills to listen, but it was dead quiet.
So hearing no trouble, Frito opened the door and the party rushed in.
The room was in deep shadow. For some strange reason, Kranoval's lantern provided little light, no more than a flickering illumination, it was hard to see more than 10 feet. The room contained 8 stone sarcophagi.
As he party approached, a skeleton appeared out of each of the sarcophagi. Unlike "normal" skeletons these had bones which were bright pulsating red. They had glowing red eyes, like rubies.
Bathenwells pulled out his Holy Symbol and cried out "Flee before the power of LAW, foul undead things of Chaos!", but much to his surprise, nothing happened.
As the melee went on, the skeletons glowed even brighter every time they were hit, and when killed they exploded sending out a shower of jagged bones.
Bathenwells tried a second time to call on the gods to dissipate the skeletons, but he somehow felt that they were being controlled by a strong power. He didn't have to wait long to discover what that power was.
Hearing the fighting, Draeligor a demonvessel appeared out of an adjacent crypt. It was she who was controlling the skeletons. A demonvessel is a corpse that has been animated by trapping the essence of a demon within the body rather than relying on the more basic necromantic means of animating corpses.
Draeligor cast Fear and half the party fled with Gimlit in the lead.leaving just Frito and Bathenwells to face the undead creatures alone.
Bathenwells and Frito retired in the face of what they considered were unfair odds.
Luckily some of the party were recovering, and the party met the undead in the narrow corridor. Kranoval's lightning bolt hit Draeligor before Wildbladder and Belwina rushed in.
But Gimlit was still fleeing, heading for the stairs up and out of the dungeon.
Finally it was the magic swords of Wildbladder and Belwina that finished off Draeligor.
With Draeligor destroyed, Bathenwells yet again pulled out his Holy Symbol and cried out "Flee before the power of LAW, foul undead things of Chaos!"; this time the skeletons dissipated.
The party then explored the crypt and the shrine behind it. The shrine contained a coffin in which was the body of a warrior. The skeleton was dead, wearing rusted armour and with a rusted sword resting on its chest. On its head was a helm, but unlike the other pieces of armour it was still shining brightly after all that time in the coffin.
At the skeleton's feet was a small chest containing diamonds and gems to the value of 500 gp.
Gimlit eventually recovered from his panic and returned to the rest of the party, somewhat shamefaced.
The whole party exited the dungeon via the second set of stairs, thus avoiding summoning any skeletons in the skull room. They rested and recuperated by camping a third time in the priest's welcome room.
When they awoke in the morning, Bathenwells declared that they "really needed to make haste back to the city", so that they could take Fido and Kobbe's bodies to the temple to raise them from the dead. "If it takes more than a week to get there, it could be tricky", he explained.
So with Belwina in the lead, the party forced marched towards the city.
Great report. And the bravery of the heroes is incredible :)
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