Gygax and Greyhawk Session #37 - Around and Down

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Ranzel of the Wood (Human Ranger 5)
Solcha (Elf Fighter 5 / Magic User 4)
Skeef Hawkridge (Half Elf Druid 5/ Thief 5) w/ trained bear Wojtek & henchman Caron (Half Elf  MU1)
Goro (Half Orc Cleric 4 / Fighter 5) 

Date/Time

Brewfest-Godsday (early afternoon) to Brewfest-Godsday (early evening)

As the party examines the fallen hobgoblin, three more of the shambling creatures appear around the corner. These too are dispatched. Examination of the corpses show no signs of trauma apart from the sickly yellow pallor and drool. Pushing forward, the party turns the corner and spots a vine climbing up the  wall at the turn of the corridor, reaching towards a ragged opening in the roof. It seems to make no obvious threatening moves, so Goro pushes on the see what is around the corner. There is nothing there except a passage blocked by rubble. But a flower on the vine releases a cloud of dust into the half-orc's face, and Goro is hypnotically drawn into the plant, which send fine tendrils into his brain. The rest of the party leaps to the rescue; Skeef slips the ring of free action off the cleric's hand, allowing Solcha with her necklace of adaptation to safely enter the danger zone and try to pull him free. In the end, the party kills the plant by driving swords into it's bulbous root. Goro is a little more dense than usual, showing signs of mental decay.  Digging around the plant, they uncover a body with a bone scroll case and a potion bottle. 

On the way back down the corridor, they encounter another of the vines growing out of the fallen hobgoblin. This they dispatch quickly, and then drag all the bodies to the courtyard and burn them next to the troll-fire. Returning to the keep, they head for the main foyer and make for the stairs leading down. This triggers the flanking two-headed statues to animate and fight. One is destroyed, and the party figures out that they will only animate if you pass between them. So they scramble over the now empty statue base and head downstairs. 

The stairs descend quite a ways before coming to a T-intersection. Exit into the intersection is flanked by wolf headed statues, which they find do not animate. Along the corridor are a series of alcoves with troll skulls nailed to the back wall. These all glow a sickly green colour when approached, only to fade to darkness when left alone. Tinkering with the well at one end of the passage causes the closest troll skull to speak, reciting the following lines:

"Beneath the keep, a place to scry,

Where devils sing their songs, then die.

As deep cold wells keep waters fresh,

So keep she all her wickedness."

Further empty rooms are explored, and a strange door carved with  a dance macabre is encountered. It is both physically and magically locked, so Solcha opens it with her knock spell. It leads to another steeply descending stairs, this one covered in dozens of orcish skeletons, long dead. Feeling now they may be pushing their luck after a long and arduous day, they party decides to retreat back to camp to rest and refit ... 

GAINS

Magic User Scroll - 4 spells (Invisibility, Continual Light, Clairvoyance, Stone Shape) 

Potion of Healing 

KILLS/VICTORIES

3 Yellow Musk Zombies

2 Yellow Musk Creeper

Caryatid Column 

LOSSES

Some of Goro's brains