Westmist Session #82 - Damm That Duncal!! Again!!!

While waiting for the rest of the party to prepare for the trek to the Cerebral Shield of the Gann, Kern began to think about Duncal again. It had been a few weeks since they had last left the troubled heir, and given his history of trouble, Kern felt it was time to check in on him again. He convinced Erijay to join he and Bjorn for the trek through the winter snow to Sir Janus' lair. First though, Erijay had him open the metal box she and Lomar had recovered a few days before. Successfully opened, inside the found two items. A black ebony wand with the word "chinoes' inscribed on the butt; and a strange silver and gold bracelet, decorated with spiders, and with two spikes, one over and one under the hand. Taking these finds outside, the duo found a cute bunny and aimed both items at it. Erijay's wand did nothing she could see, but when Kern pressed a small gem on the under-spike, and a web shot forth at the poor bunny. Satisifed, he now started wondering how he could keep it from Lomar ...

Before leaving, Kern also gave a rousing speech to put the Stonehell Resistance Army (SRA) into action, and presented his rose hilt magic sword to Barfirth to cement that stuttering fighter's loyalty to the cause (and to himself). He also sent the SRA into town to get horses and supplies (and a new dog, Flipi, for Erijay). With that, Erijay, Kern and Bjorn headed out for the two day journey to the old drwarf hold where Sir Janus and Duncal awaited ...

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... and almost didn't get there. On the first afternoon out, they heard the sound of harness jingling on the trail ahead. Quickly leaving the trail and hiding in a nearby copse of trees, they watched as the Company of Good Cheer rode into view. They watched with bated breath, hoping their trail would not be seen. For numerous reasons, neither wanted to tangle with Lord Merdwyn's tame adventurers at this point. Luckily the Company went on, headed presumably back towards Westmist. But Kern and Erijay both had the uncomfortable feeling that the Company was looking for them. And suddenly realized they may have tracked them to Sir Janus and Duncal! So the trio rode hellbent for leather through the snow, and were relived to find the camp just as they had left it. Speaking with Hafus, they learned to their relief that there had been no visitors. Hafus also let them know that Sir Janus' morale was flagging. And Duncal was being a pain. He had rarely left his tent since the winter cold hit, and had managed to insist on being assigned two man-servants to tend to his needs. With a sigh, Kern and Erijay went to speak the Si Janus, and managed to raise him out of his funk with news of the SRA. They then went to see Duncal. Calling out at his tent, there was no answer. They called again; no answer. Fuming, Erijay thrust aside the flap and marched inside; into a cold, deserted tent. There was no sign of Duncal or the other men, and the fire pit was cold. She tore outside, turning the air blue with curses no elf maid should know. She and Kern circled the tent, and found evidence of a trail leading away from a spot where the tent had been lifted up. The trial was slowly filling in with snow, so with a few more choice words about Duncal, Erijay, Kern and Bjorn saddled up and headed off deeper into the Western War Peaks.

They followed the trail to a point where a spur from the mountain reached down to the edge of the lake, the shore of which they were following. Seeing it partly frozen, they moved out onto to ice and traveled another few miles, coming to a point where a stream flowed out of the lake. Nearby was also a frozen marsh, in the centre of which could be seen a reed boat. Kern approached the boat, and inside found the dessicated remains of a dwarf covered in furs. He reached in to push the furs aside, when suddenly the corpse sat up and lunged for him! Kern called for help as he backed away, and Erijay and Bjorn answered with a barrage of magic missiles. Which ended that threat very quickly, and the corpse disintegrated into dust and rags. Which Kern pushed aside to uncover a find woven reed mat studded with small malachite gems.

That done, the party headed over to the stream. It was shallow and easily forded, but someone had recently pulled a fallen tree across it to use as a bridge. Figuring it must have been Duncal, they crossed over, and climbed into the wooded pass that led to the south-west. After several more hours riding, the sun was setting and the trio began thinking of setting up camp. Ahead they could see a crude collection of huts next to a stream. But before they could investigate, they were interrupted by fierce howls, as a mass of orcs jumped out of ambush beside the trail. The swarmed the three, and with nets and ropes tried to the pin them down. Kern Erijay and Flipi were successful, but Bjorn was pulled off his horse and held down with a knife to his throat. 'Surrender or he dies' croaked the leader. Seeing no other choice, Kern and Erijay put down their weapons and tried to negotiate. They had no luck, until someone mentioned trading their lives for a good meal of dwarf. That got the orcs interested, and they agree to let Erijay and Kern go to get 9 dwarves in trade for their lives, and the lives of the orcs other three prisoners (who Kern and Erijay quickly realized were Duncal and the two men). The orcs gave then 3 days, and kept Bjorn as a hostage.

The orcs left with Bjorn, watching Kern and Erijay to make sure they went on their way. The two did, but set up camp about an hour away to sleep and plan. There was some of talk of actually going to find some dwarves, but in the end they decided on a  sneak attack. Waiting for the next nightfall, they headed back to the orc camp under cover of darkness and invisibility. Erijay set up a blind by casting web between a pair of trees. She then laid a fireball that incinerated half the camp, followed by a pair of sleep spells to drop the remaining orcs as they streamed from their huts. Meanwhile, Ken started firing his crossbow into the confusion, and it was not long before there was nothing left to do but slit some orc throats. Kern also checked out a hut that had guarded, and inside found Bjorn, Duncal, and the two men-at-arms. All naked and hog-tied, covered in some sort of cooking sauce. He unbound Bjorn and the two men, but left Duncal 'as is' while he went to search for treasure. Finding nothing, he returned to Duncal in a foul mood, and threw the trussed-up heir over his horse and berated him all the way back to Sir Janus. The hope was Duncal might actually learn his leason and not wonder off and get captured again ...

Westmist Session #79 - Duncal Rescued (Again); Kern Dead (Again)

The party awoke the next morning to a blanket of snow covering the ground, and to find Riley, Gurruk and Darnorth had departed during the night on some urgent business. None the less, Kern, Bjorn, Lomar and Erijay decided to brave the abandoned halls of the Blackhammer clan once more before, Duncal and Janus were lost forever and beyond saving.  Passing once more through the entry chamber, and following the oil/stone trench to the right, the party paused briefly for some spell casting. Erijay caste locate object to hone in on Janus' mighty warhammer, while the ever cautious Lomar cast find traps to ensure the path to that hammer was clear. Erijay was able to get a fix on the direction of the hammer, so the party turned right again to investigate a new corridor. Here, the found that the oil/stone system ended here in front of a pair of iron double doors. On the opposite corridor wall, two additional iron doors could be seen.  Erijay's spell seemed to point towards the two smaller doors, so Kern stopped to listen. Behind the second he could here the faint sound of whimpering.  "Must be Duncal" said Erijay, so Kern knocked on the door and called out.

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There were a few tense moments as Janus tried to confirm that it was the party and not some foul fiend intent on tricking the watchful knight. Inside  stood Janus, four of his men (and a crestfallen Duncal), in what proved to be a storage or supply room for the dwarven blast furnaces, At the back lay a body, wrapped in a cloak. Questioned by Kern Janus revealed he had dragged Duncal along into the dungeon  so the young man could learn to 'face dangers and fight like a man and leader'. That didn't work out too well, and they'd ended up trapped in here, forbidden to leave by Duncal for fear of encountering more slime beasts. Once Duncal recovered his composure now that salvation was in sight, he raged at Kern and the party for not honoring the intent of their bargain (he lives in luxury, plays along with the coup attempt, but then gets to go his way). Much foot stomping and hissy-fits followed before the erstwhile 'March Baron in waiting' was placated. Ready to leave the awful darkness, Duncal was once more crestfallen when Sir Janus agreed to accompany the party on further exploration of the dungeon.

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With Janus, Duncal and entourage in tow, the party choose next to investigate the double set of double doors. Lomar carefully tied a rope around his waist, gave one end to Erijay, and poled himself across the oil pool on one of the stones. Opening one set of double doors revealed a large room with three blast furnaces on the opposite wall. Scattered around were barrels, heaps of slag, piles of ore and charcoal, and various implements and bellows. Erijay crossed over the join Lomar, and stuck her head in one of the blast furnaces. Disturbing some ash and soot, the elf also disturbed another of the ash creatures encountered previously, which billowed down from the flue to pummel and blind and suffocate her. As Erijay stumbled away, Sir Janus lead his men in a charge across the oil/stones (in which one slipped into the viscous stuff and began to drown), dragging a terrified Duncal after them. Lomar turned to try assisting Erijay and/or the drowning man-at-arms, while Kern and Bjorn provided missile and magic missile fire support from behind. While battle raged, Erijay dunked her head in the oil to try washing the ash off her eyes and throat, but instead just made things worst as the molasses thick liquid coated her head. Lomar tossed her a wine skin, which the elf pored partly over her head and partly down her throat.  Then Lomar pulled out the drowning man-at-arms. Sir Janus, Kern and Bjorn continued to fight the ash thing. The knight's men however, unable to hit their foe and with one eye on the simpering Duncal, thought discretion the better part of valour, and turned and ran. In the process of which another slipped in the oil and began to thrash around and sink. All was not lost though, as the ash thing was finally dissipated, the drowning man rescued, and Duncal's tears dried.

After some discussion, the party decided it best to escort Duncal and Janus out of the dungeon before exploring any further. With some coaxing and slapping by the elf, Duncal was made to look leaderly for his emergence from the dungeon, with great (well, some) cheers from the assembled men. Duncal disappeared into his pavilion, and the party disappeared back into the dungeon (but only after Erijay rounded up a suitably ornery porcupine to slip into Duncal's tent). Heading back to finish exploring the corridor they;'d just left, the party was surprised by the sudden appearance of another slime beast at the first intersection.  Erijay, then Kern, were pummeled by the dwarven pseudo-pod which appeared, and both ended up paralyzed and being slowly engulfed by the thing. They were luckily rescued by Lomar and Bjorn, respectively, and a series of potions of healing  rammed down throats revived them from paralysis. They then rejoined the fight, assisted by a haste spell from Erijay, fireball from both Erijay and Bjorn, and lots of flaming oil from Lomar. It was not long before the great monster was an ankle deep layer of crispy goo on the floor.

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Rather than continue to their original goal, the party decided to explore the hallway off this intersection. Like the others it was a 20' wide corridor, but unlike the others it contained no oil/stone trench. A set of double doors lay at the far end, while a pair of regular doors lay to the west, and a small hatch or door lay to the east. This small door intrigued Kern, so he hustled over to listen and search for traps. Hearing/finding nothing, he opened it up to reveal a narrow, low tunnel. This extended about 20' before opening up into what appeared to be the massive flue and chimney for the blast furnaces. Poking around uncovered nothing but ash and soot, so the party moved on to the other doors. At one Kern heard sounds of movement, so they bypassed that one and entered the next room. This looked to be a dwarven domicile, complete with stone furniture and a stone chest. The chest received immediate attention, and Kern disabled a scything blade trap before opening it to reveal the shine of gold coin.  Which were quickly swept into Kern's chest of holding. The second room was quickly checked later, but left unexplored when the sounds proved to be 5 more of the stone centipedes.

Moving on now to the double doors at the end of the corridor, Kern opened these up (after the usual noise and trap checks) to find a vast hall on the other side. In the center stood a stone lectern, formed of three large black hammers, on a circular base. Scattered around were stone benches, all at weird angles. Something shimmered on the wall to the east, but of immediate concern was another large slime beast at the south west end of the room. It lunged forward as the party opened up with flasks of oil , crossbow bolts and a scroll cast fireball. This all made relatively short work of the thing, but alas Kern did not live to see it's defeat, and he fell dead to it's terrible blows.

Temporarily leaving Kern's corpse in the safe dwarven domicile, the party continued to explore.  Erijay poked about the lectern and discovered that the whole thing (including the round base) could be turned with some difficulty and a god-awful grinding sound. Eager to find what lay below, she and Lomar rigged up a block and tackle to lift the whole thing out of the floor. Inside the shaft and on the base itself, they found a series of now somewhat stripped gears. Putting it back in place, they discovered the thing moved easier when pushed opposite the way they'd turned it before, but still saw no sign of how the mechanism was activated normally.

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Bored with the mechanical stuff, they now moved on to check out the shimmering wall. There they found and arched opening filled with what looked with a film of quicksilver, A little experimentation proved that there was some 'give' in the film, but nothing (10' pole, hand, face) could penetrate it. A little flummoxed at this point, the party decided to move off and check out a few other doors they'd missed. Behind one was a dwarven workshop where fine iron work was done. The other was empty, except for a stone font filled with a silvery liquid. Again much poking and prodding ensued, until Lomar exclaimed "hey, maybe this has something to do with the silver door", and everyone started filling vials and empty wine skins with the liquid. Marching back to the lecture hall, Lomar tossed a vial of the liquid at the wall, and it miraculously passed through! Bjorn then stood in front of the shimmering arch, quaffed a flask of silver liquid, and tried to walk though. To no avail. Next he spread some on his arm, and was able to stick it through the wall. At which point, Lomar dumped a flask over his head and walked right through. On the other side was a small room with an interesting feature. Three black metal pillars stood in the center, each forming the point of a triangle. In the center was a rapidly spinning matching pillar of what appeared to be liquid gold. Passing the news on to his compatriots (who now followed him through the gate), Lomar moved towards the gold. And was immediately drawn into one of the pillars, where he remained stuck until Erijay the brawny elf-maid pulled him free. She then proceeded to pick up a small stone, and toss it at the golden pillar. It immediately started to wobble and oscillate until it was obvious it was about to collapse or something equally unpleasant. Lomar and Bjorn quickly dashed out the gate, but Erijay was too slow and was caught in a spray of hot liquid gold as the pillar burst out of it's containment and scattered all over the room. Once she stopped cursing the pain, the elf beckoned Lomar and Bjorn back into the room to help her scrape the massive pile of now cooling gold off the floor and walls. Which was stuffed into the magic chest to be smuggled out of the dungeon. And with that the trio headed out, after picking up the cooling Kern along the way.

Westmist Session #78 - The Cold! It Burns!

A little perturbed by the boneless corpses (and considering it was nightfall), the party retreated from the dwarf hold to rest and regroup with Janus' men. Who were anxiously awaiting word of their leader Janus,  and their (new) liege, Duncal. There was some grumbling and grousing when the party emerged empty handed, and only Darnorth's rousing speech, and promise of a share of found treasure, kept the band together. Thankfully, reinforcements had arrived in the from of Riley and Gurrak, so the much strengthened band hefted weapons at first light to make another delve for Duncal. As they were preparing to enter, there stumbled from the ruins a bedraggled man, armed and armored much like themselves, but with one arm hanging limp. Challenged, the man replied he was Lomar, an adventuring cleric of Salue. Lomar could offer little more immediate details, as he was much traumatized from encountering the slime-monsters, showing off his be-jelloed arm as proof of his previous encounters. After some discussion, the cleric agreed to join the party in their search.

Heading into the dungeon, the party cut left at the end of the entry hall, and explored a narrow corridor that ended in another pile of rubble. Along the way were a series of stone pillars in 10'x10' alcoves, on one of which was a rusty iron dinner plate. With whispers of 'mind the tetanus' from the nervous Lomar, Darnorth and Kern investigated. Scattered on top of each was some bits of old organic matter of uncertain, but probably food related, origin. While curious, it didn't help in their search for Duncal, so the party headed back to the hallway where they'd fought the gelatinous slime-thing. Turning the corner and advancing slowly, they soon observed another 20' corridor in a T-intersection with the narrow one they were in. A floating stone/oil trench could be seen here as well. Before advancing further, Kern crept forward under the protection of his elven cloak, and listened at the intersection. To his horror, he heard loud squishing sounds to both left and right. Peering around the corner, he saw two of the slime-things, one to each side of him and about 30' feet away. Backing away, he conferred with the party. Erijay decided a well placed fireball should take care of things. A burst of flame filled the corridor ahead of them, and the sound of something wet being burned and broiled could be heard. Once the crackle of flames died out, Kern once more listened. And noe heard the slime things approaching! He gave Bjorn a poke, and the magic user flicked his own fireball down the corridor. Again the flames subsided, and again the sounds of squishing could be heard. But this time moving away. Well, that couldn't be, so the party rushed forward to finish their gelatinous foes. While Kern fired his crossbow, Erijay and Bjorn flicked magic missiles, and Darnorth and Riley rushed up to lay axe and hammer on the closest one. (Lomar and Gurruk held the rear) The slime thing lashed out at the dwarf and cleric via two dwarf shaped pseudopods, striking both and paralyzing them. It began to slowly engulf the two, but Gurrurk rushed up to pull his master free, while a final magic missile from Bjorn slew the creature and freed Darnorth. The two, however, remained paralyzed, until Lomar used a pair of cure light wounds to bring them back to full fighting form. There was no fighting to be done however, as the second creature had retreated out of sight and reach, despite Erijay and Gurruk's best efforts.

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 After a short discussion, the party decided to head to the right, to see if the corridor they were now in connected with the other 20' corridor. It did, and they also discovered the long deceased skeleton of a dwarf lying on the floor. On the wall above was a  red sandstone block, which Kern investigated and deemed trap free, but obviously some sort of mechanical device. Darnorth, assuming that as the dwarf hew knew what he was doing, pushed on the block. There was a a few second pause, then a awful rumble of falling rock was heard coming from the end of the corridor they'd just vacated. When the last sounds of falling ruble and wisp of dust settled, new sounds could be heard coming from behind. obviously something attracted by the ruckus. Taking up a defensive position at the 'T-intersection' of the two 20' corridors, the party confronted a pack of 3' long centipedes, heavily armored with stone like plates growing along their backs. They scrambled across the oil/stones (and one fell in and disappeared from sight in the viscous liquid), and were met by a sleep spell from Erijay and a web from Bjorn. This took out most of the beasts, and only one was left for Darnorth to to clobber and the others to pelt with bolts and sling stones. It stony carapace make this harder than it looked though, and Darnorth received a nasty bite on the ankle (as well as a bone chilling stone cold feeling) before it was destroyed. The others were dispatched likewise, and to everyone's surprise Gurruk started piling the bodies in a neet stack to one side of the corridor. "Gurruk make good strong armor from insect things" grunted the wild man. 

Collection done, the party headed east down the new corridor, finding more intersections as well as a pair of rusty iron doors. Once certified 'safe' by Kern, Darnorth opened the first. On the other side was a room with several odd 45 degree angle walls. All the walls, plus one down the middle, were covered in stone tablets engraved with dwarven runes. After a little study, Darnorth declared it to be the history and lore of the Blackhammer clan. He was able to discover one passage that explained one of the battle scenes in the entrance, a battle between dwarven clans (one of which on the side opposite the Blackhammer were Darnorth's own Longbeards. Who lost the battle apparently). Kern meanwhile, using Darnorth's helm read the last few tablets, which descibed in part the opening on new deeper mines that intruded on some sort of alien structures. Humm, guess that tunnel collapse took care of that. While all this study was going on, Erijay was checking the angled walls for secret doors, but to no avail. .

Exiting through another door, they part found themselves in an elongated hexagonal chamber. On one wall was a series of angled shelves, each with what appeared to be a 1" cube of metal on it. On the opposite wall were three words in 1' tall bas relief letters: Errukiz, Ezdrubal, Elomcwe. Treachery, Sloth and Foolishness according to Darnorth's translation. Curiously, the letters of the bottom word (Elomcewe) could be pressed into the wall. After some thought, the letters were pressed to spell the word "Welcome", at which point the wall pivoted open revealing another small alcove like the one in which they'd found the axe. Here, piled in the corner, was a stash of jewelry and gems. "I'll handle this" said Kern, and the thief reached towards the treasure. At this point, the ghostly figure of a dwarf appeared, and demanded to know by what right they claimed the treasure. The figure deemed it foolish that any would take the treasure were they not deserving of it. At which point Darnorth started the mock the long dead Blackhammer, enraging the spirit thing. It surged forward, but Lomar and Riley raised their holy symbols and the thing was kept at bay. Kern took this opportunity to reach for the treasure, but that was enough to interrupt the power of Salue and Habuu. The dwarf spirit reached out and touched the thief, who screamed as the cold chill of lost vitality seeped into his body.

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With treasure in hand, they all retreated and slammed the secret door shut. The spirit passed through the stone however, so Riley held it off with the power of Habuu as everyone fled and retreated out of the dungeon. Back in daylight, Janus' men again grumbled that the party hadn't brought back their leaders, although little of this could be heard over the sound of Kern weeping ...

Westmist Session #77 - Destined to Delve Depths for Duncal 'til Doomsday

Kern, Bjorn, Erijay and Darnorth prepared to leave town. Loading up on luxuries for Duncal, their plan was to first check in on he and Janus, before then proceeding north along the Black Spine Mountains in search of the Cerebral Shield of the Gann. Before leaving, Erijay sold Synthini some of the alchemical goo she recovered from Chateau d'Amberville. Darnorth paid a visit to Slate to see how the reverse engineering of his 'fire sticks'  was going. Not well, as the prototype the dwarven inventor offered exploded in Darnorth's face.

An uneventful two day ride found the party descending the pass towards the abandoned dwarf-hold where Janus and his men were holed up with Duncal. In the valley below they could see a great deal of commotion just outside crumbling ruin walls, as well as a large tented pavilion that wasn't there last time they visited. A band of Janus' men milled about, as as the party approached, Hafus emerged from the press. He had been just about to ride out in search of the party, for Duncal and Janus had gone missing. After the party had left Duncal in the care of the loyal Janus, Duncal had first insisted that they prepare a pavilion to suit his baronial stature (which would be the flag bedecked and palatial tent complex they could see) As a result, they were not able to start excavating the ruins, as the party suggested, until a few days ago. They quickly broke through the rubble and forced open a pair of rusted iron doors that lead into the depths of the mountain. Janus gathered a handful of men, and dragging the reluctant Duncal along, headed into the gloom to search for treasure with which to finance the coup d'etat against Lord Merdwyn. Before the day was out, one of the men stumbled out of the darkness to say Janus and Duncal were trapped in the dungeon by some sort of hideous and monstrous slime things.

With much eye rolling and cursing, Kern, Bjorn, Erijay and Darnorth left their horses with Janus' men and prepared once more to recover Duncal from a dungeon. They managed to convince a pair of Janus' men to join them (Bill and Ted), and into the hole they marched. Passing through a narrow dug tunnel, they came to the massive rusted iron doors, each with a black war hammer inscribed upon it.. These had obvious been chiseled and chipped open by Janus, and lead into a wide and high hall. In the centre rose a 15' tall step pyramid, and along the sides of the hall itself were 6 alcoves. In each alcove stood the statue of a dwarf, and the alcoves themselves were painted with battle scenes. Darnorth studied these closely, and proclaimed this to be the abandoned home of the Blackhammer clan. Unfortunately, the dwarf could recall little more except the Blackhammer's were renowned for their ironwork. Meanwhile, Eirjay climbed to the top of the step pyramid, but found nothing of note. After closely examining each statue and battle scene, the party moved on.

https://the-circle-of-light.obsidianportal.com/adventure-log/session-11-engias-last-stand

The north end of the chamber intersected with a 20' wide corridor with a most unusual feature.  Down the centre ran a trench filled with a thick viscous oil. On top of this oil floated a series of stone blocks, about 8' wide and 10' long. Gingerly, Darnorth tested one and found that it wobbled but held his weight. The dwarf crossed to the other side of the corridor, followed by the rest of the party. They first investigated a connecting 20' wide corridor, which soon ended in a pile of rubble. Darnorth sized it up but could not determine if the collapse had been deliberate or accidental. Backtracking, they came to a locked iron door. Kern tried picking the lock, but the rusty old mechanism defeated his lock picks. Darnorth then applied the time honored dwarven locked door technique, kicking it open with a resounding boom that echoed throughout the silent corridors.

Inside was a trapezoidal room, the floors of which were covered in dwarven skeletons. At the far end a raised platform held a large iron bowl. Close examination of the skeletons showed no signs of violent death. Investigation of the bowl was interrupted when a dark dusty cloud drifted through the open door of the room. It coalesced into a 10'  tall cloud of ash with two faintly glowing eyes, which proceeded to pummel, suffocate and blind  Darnorth and Erijay. A flurry of magic missiles from Erijay and Bjorn, plus missile fire from Kern and hammer blows from Darnorth soon dissipated the cloud, sending the remaining ash to drift over the skeletons on the floor. Battle done, Darnorth walked over to the iron bowl. Inside he found a pile of fine ash, which he stirred around uncovering a fist-sized opal.

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Done exploring this room, the party proceed to a second door in the room, heading north. This also proved locked and resistant to Kern's skills. This time Erijay tried the dwarf opening technique, but it apparently didn't work for elves. So Darnorth once more busted open the door in a spray of rust and noise. On the other side was a small room. A corridor lead directly north opposite the door. To the right a line of 4 dwarven statues stood with backs a against an angled wall. Darnroth approved to examine them from the front, while Erijay tired to poke around behind. With a stomp of stone boots, the statues came to life and turned to attack the intruders. The part formed ranks to fight them, and Bjorn cast web to lock them in place. The statues were resilient though, taking little damage from the swords and spears of the party. Only Darnorth with his hammer seemed to be doing much damage, so Kern pulled back to summon the chest of holding, in which he was keeping a magical mace and war hammer. These he and Erijay used to help chip away at the statues, while Bill and ted did what they could from the back rank with their spears. The statues meanwhile had almost broken out of the web, so Erijay cast another so they could be battered into dust safely. Which soon they had been. Sweeping rubble aside, the elf starting looking for a secret door behind the statues, but to no avail. Meanwhile, Darnorth was examining the weird angular cuneiform like carvings on the wall. He found one area where the carvings could be rearranged to form dwarven runes. They eventually formed the word "Drazak", dwarven for "honor". At this point , the wall Erijay had checked for secret doors swung open, revealing a small room. Inside was a stone bench, on which lay a silver and mithril chain surrounding mithril hand axe. Darnporth scooped up both, and the party then proceeded north.

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After just 20', a room joined the corridor from the east. Triangular, the interior walls were surrounded by a series of 1' round iron bars. After the party first searched for secret doors (and found none), Darnorth started picking at one of the poles. With a loud rumble, the ceiling started to collapse. Kern and Danrorth dove out the door, but Erijay and Bjorn were pummeled by the falling rock At this moment, Bill and Ted (left to guard the aprty's rear) shouted a warning. A large gelatinous slime thing approached from the north! Pulling the elf and mage from the rubble, the party formed ranks. The corridor was blocked by a gelatinous goo thing, from which two pseudopods shot out. These morphed into the shape of a man and a dwarf and proceeded to pound Erijay and Darnorth in the front ranks. The party landed blow after blow, included Bill and Ted with spears form the back back rank, and Kern with crossbow bolts. But the thing still fought on. Erijay tried her wand of cold, but to no effect. She then cast haste to increased the flurry of attacks, and the thing was eventually beaten down. But not before it landed a killing blow on Ted, which led Bill to grab his friends body and flee.

Examining the 'body', the party found it had mostly collapsed into a couple of inches of slime on the floor. There was also the squished corpses of a dwarf and a man, more or less intact except that the bones had somehow been pulled from their bodies ...