Gygax & Greyhawk Session # 64 - Darloch's Downfall

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Skeef Hawkridge (Half Elf Druid 7 / Thief 6) 
Goro (Half Orc Cleric 6 / Fighter 6) 
Solcha (Elf Fighter 5 / Magic User 6) 
Chanee (Human Paladin 4)
[Baqua Irontoes (Halfling Fighter 4 / Thief 4)]

Date/Time

Planting 12 (mid-afternoon) to Planting 19 (mid-day) 

Sheef reaches over and carefully pulls aside the clever camouflage curtain. Behind it is a small alcove, and in it crouches what appears to be an old woman in a tattered and dirty dress. On questioning, she says she is a captive of Darloch, a former member of the Lord's household taken and held here for some unknown purpose. Smelling a rat, since the woman radiates intense evil to the paladin, Goro moves to cast a hold person spell so they can search her safely. The woman resists, snarls at the cleric, and whips a grotesque mace of rust and dirt and bone from under her skirts and strikes at Goro. Combat ensues, and the woman starts to throw spells about in return. But numbers start to show, and she pulls out a potion, drinks it and turns to gaseous form and attempts to drift away. The party chases their vaporous foe into the next room, where Goro uses dispel magic and returns to woman to corporal form. And then they kill her. Looting the body, they find potions, a wand and the mace, the later two radiating intense evil. They also find she is no woman at all, but some sort of goat-legged satyr. 

The room they are in is actually a vaulted tomb. At the centre is a stone crypt topped by the effigy of a woman, and sitting at the base is a small pool of water lined with green marble. The room is old, but the tomb in quite new. Inscribed on the front is an effigy to Moura, Lord Darlochs wife. The party pokes about a bit, but is more interested in the blank wall the gaseous form was headed towards. Solcha and Baqua find there a secret door, leading to steep stairs going down. 

The party descends to a room damp with moisture and graced with another pool, this one deep and seemingly bottomless at one end. A door off the chamber leads to an old and neglected shrine to Beory, where they are attacked by a pair of shadows. Moving down a corridor, they bypass a trapped false door and a locked door, focused on the door at then end of the passage. They fumble through this one, find on the other side a well appointed sitting room with wood panelling and shelves lined with books and trinkets. And sitting in an overstuffed reading chair is their target, Lord Darloch. Pale and wan with sunken eyes, he holds his sword across his knees and one hand strokes a massive opal sitting on a stand next to him. Few words are said and combat ensues. Darloch opens throwing bolts of necrotic cold, and Solcha replies with her own lightning bolt. Skeef and Baqua, attempt to sneak around behind Darloch but are observed. Instead, Baqua throws a sack over the gem and carries it out of range. A pair of zombies emerge from a  hidden alcove and attack the parties rear, but are soon taken out. Once more, numbers start to show and moments latter Lord Darloch falls to the blades of the party.

After a cursory search, they loot and decapitate the body and take the head and bagged gem away. Stopping to check the locked door (thanks to a key about Darloch's neck), they rescue three emaciated and haggard women, captives of Darloch, tortured and abused by him. 

Done with this dank dungeon, they party emerges into the equally dank and damp Gravemoor to journey back to Count Oldvain. There they offer Darloch's head as proof of his demise. The Count is disappointed he could not bring the rogue Lord to trial, but nonetheless thanks the party for their service. He offers eacha ring with his signet, informing them he will remember them to Duke Eyah at the imminent Mustering of the Host. 

With that, the party heads back on the road to Redspan for the next stage of their journey. 

GAINS

Two-Handed Sword +2

Chainmail +2

Potion of  Healing

Mace of Dark Focus

Wand of Animate Dead

Midnight Opal 

Wedding ring [25gp]

5 x 250gp rings (gifts of Count Oldavan) 

KILLS/VICTORIES

Ach na Creig the Glaistig

2 Shadows

2 Zombies

Lord Darloch 

LOSSES

none

Gygax & Greyhawk Session # 63 - A Ghast-ly Affair

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Skeef Hawkridge (Half Elf Druid 7 / Thief 6) 
Goro (Half Orc Cleric 6 / Fighter 6) 
Solcha (Elf Fighter 5 / Magic User 6) 
Chanee (Human Paladin 4)
[Baqua Irontoes (Halfling Fighter 4 / Thief 4)]

Date/Time

Planting 12 (mid-morning) to Planting 12 (mid-afternoon) 

The party pushes forward into the passage, and the darkness plays havoc with their light sources which flicker much dimmer than usual. Suddenly Skeef disappears into a hidden trapdoor in the floor. They pry open the hinged lid, and are surprised to find nothing but an empty 20' deep pit. Figuring it must be a portal to some place their friend might need their help, the party all leap in one by one. Meanwhile, Skeef has found himself in a silenced 8'x8'x8 cube with a ghast for company. The monster does not attack right away, and Skeef used his cloak to alter form to look like a ghast. The creature then reaches gently forward, touching and paralyzing the the druid/thief. Then suddenly the rest of the party lands in the cube, making for very tight quarters indeed. A fight ensues, which very nearly sees all the party paralyzed and presumably food for the ghast. Only Solcha escapes the creatures touch, and succeeds in taking it down. As everyone's paralysis wears off, they discover they are in fact at the bottom of the original pit, hidden by an illusion and silence. A series of failed attempts to get out of said pit ends with Skeef turning into a gecko and hauling a rope up to the surface for everyone to climb. 

After a few rounds of healing (which to their dismay doesn't work well in this gloomy environment) the party moves on, following a twisting maze of stone-slabbed passages leading deep into the barrow. Twice they are ambushed by ghasts who seem to appear out of nowhere, and pay a price in paralyzation  and pain. The second ambush occurs just as they reach a great stone door, flanked by a pair of low alter stones and illuminated by a faint candle. The candle is newly lit, and once scrubed bare of dirt and growth, the two alters are found to be dedicated the Beary the Earth Mother. 

The door opens into another corridor, with two similar doors at the far end. Through one the party finds a small chamber lit by a pair of flickering touches. Low stone benches line the walls, and in the centre is a disturbed area of earth mixed with shattered and broken bone. Chanee immediately warns them that evil lurks in the room. Examination of the wall between the torches reveals that it is not stone, but a cleverly painted canvas sheet. Skeef is just about to pull it aside when the pile in the centre of the floor starts to stir, forming into a large humanoid shape made of clay, broken bone and rotting flesh. Battle ensures, and the creature is soon beaten back to a heap on the floor ... 

GAINS

None

KILLS/VICTORIES

7 ghasts

LOSSES

none

Gygax & Greyhawk Session # 62 - The Gravemoor

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Skeef Hawkridge (Half Elf Druid 7/ Thief 6) 
Goro (Half Orc Cleric 6 / Fighter 6) 
Solcha (Elf Fighter 5 / Magic User 6) 
Chanee (Human Paladin 4)
[Baqua Irontoes (Halfling Fighter 4 / Thief 4)]

Date/Time

Coldeven 23 (morning) to Planting 12 (mid-morning) 

After weeks in Nevond Nevnend shopping, training and resting, the party is once more ready to head out on adventure. There is a general feeling that it was time for a change, to explore beyond the borders of Tenh and see more of Oerth. Skeef reminds them all of one entry in the tome "Of Fabolous Relics and Artifacts etc etc" which speak of Daoud’s Wondrous Lanthorn and Iggwilv’s lost treasures hidden in the Yatil Mountains to the West. Knowing some of the story of that Witch Queen of Perranland, his thief side longs to loot this famous lost treasure. And it look little to persuade his comrades, so on a rainy early spring day they party leaves Nevond Nevnend, traveling to the merchant city Redspan on the Artonsamay River, where they could find water passage south and west towards their destination. 

Their first few days of travel were uneventful, until they reached the rolling downs to the south of the town of Stroun. There, they came upon a scene of recent battle on the slopes below a castle and village. Figures could be seen gathering up bodies and detritus from the fighting, and a dozen mounted warriors at the village edge watched the party approach. They hail the party and ride towards them, giving sign they mean no harm. The leader identifies himself as  Caerwyller, Count Marshal to his liege-lord Count Oldvan of the Heithwald. The party learned from him that there had been an uprising again the Count led by a rebel Lord Darloch; what they see on the field is the fallen of the final battle. Having also learned something of the party, Caerwyller asked that they accompany him to see the Count, as he may have need of the party's service. 

The Count Marshal leads the party up the slope to the castle, passing the peasants and men-at-arms gather bodies and debris  from the battle field. Goro pauses occasionally to offer solace and gather info. He learns this Lord Darlock was a bit of a hot head, know to be a good man to stand in line of battle with you but prone to tempers and vengeance. He seems to have started this uprising because the Count had arrested Darloch's wife Maura on accusation of witchcraft and burned her at the stake. When they reach the castle, Count Oldvan confirms this story and the party gets no sense that he is being insincere. The Count further tells them that Darloch survived and fled the battle; scouts tracked him to the depths of the Gravemoor, a flooded fen of ancient Flann barrow mounds. His men are both tired and fearful of crossing Beory by hunting down Darloch amid tombs under the goddesses protection. Knowing the party's special 'skills', the Count asks that they hunt down the fugitive and bring him justice, either dead or alive. After some discussion, the party agrees, with Goro's orcish ears perking up at the mention of Darloch's powerful heirloom two-handed sword. 

Count Oldvan provides a scout, Tayv, to lead them into the Gravemoor. They reach it late in the day; an unnaturally chill and misty bog with occasional broken barrows sinking into the muck. Their scout leads them into the mist, weaving from one dry patch of land to another. They camp for the night on a dry-ish hillock; strange lights appear in the twilight mists, but the party wisely ignores them. They continue their journey the next day, fighting off a wandering band of zombies before coming to the edge of a thick obscuring mist. Tayv points to the hill that rises in the distance above it, saying this is as far as he tracked Darloch. Their scout then retreats and leaves the party to their own devices. 

Pushing through the mist, they come to the base of the hill. It is surrounded by a still black pool of water, some 40-60 yards across. The top of the hill is crowned by an old barrow. As they stand there discussing what to do, a sword wielding figure bursts out of the water and attacks. They see immediately this is Darloch, who lands (and takes) several mightily blows (and drains giant beaver Skeef's constitution) before diving back into the pool. Solcha follows, but Darloch has moves too fast and she can see no more than a foot through the dark murky water. After a futile search for a secret entrance at the base of the hill, they climb to the top (assisted by Skeef in the form of a giant eagle) and enter the tomb through a pair of broken stone slabs. The entrance chamber is lined in stone slabs with a dirt floor. Cobwebs hang thick from a vaulted ceiling, and the chamber is overlooked by carved gargoyle-like figures along the top of the walls. As Baqua and Skeef check out the door at the far end of the room, one of the figures flies down to attack and is quickly slain. The thieves certify the door as trap-free, and Gorro pushes it open ... 

GAINS

None

KILLS/VICTORIES

7 zombies

1 lion-goyle

LOSSES

none