| Session Date | January 25, 2020 |
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| Base XP Gained | 5455 |
The party departed the secret chamber of the dead priestess of Kurriteka and continued exploring the wererat lair beneath Manston. They decided not to take the wide stairs down to the west and instead turned east to explore the passages going that direction. As they made this decision, three wererats happened along, heading towards those stairs down. The party slew them rapidly, the third being backstabbed by the thief with no name. Nearby, the party found a room with a few dead guardsmen, their armor and gear neatly piled next to the bodies. Cadwaladyr found it odd that they'd heard no rumor of multiple missing guardsmen.
Further east, entering unknown territory, the party came to a room with three werewolves. They fought a brief melee, slaying the wolfmen but not before they could howl for aid. What now followed was a long, slow moving siege of the party (like with most long, running battles, my notes are pretty sparse on details and sequence of events). There was no other ways out of the werewolf lair except for a short corridor. While the werewolves were being finished off, the thief had slipped back to watch at the four-way intersection. Iban came up and he signed that there were ratmen coming from north and south, and the two retreated back to the room. They were loosely followed by a number of wererats who rushed the party; a few others remained at a four-way intersection back to the west. Bel and Amadin held the door, with Iban behind them and the others still in the werewolf lair. Over the fight, Cadwaladyr blasted a number of ratmen with a lightning bolt, killing several and causing a few others to run off howling in pain. However, a short time later, a pair of dead wererats in the intersection shuffled to their feet and attacked.
The attacking wererats were cut down one by one by the Elves, though not without being wounded in turn. But, as the last ratmen were slain, most of the party (all except ZZ, Cadwaladyr, and the thief) were engulfed in a flame strike spell from what was apparently a ratman cleric. Bel was sorest hurt and had to be dragged back and extinguished lest she die. Cadwaladyr counterattacked with a fireball (protecting the party with a globe of invulnerability). He noted, however, that the blast did not transit up the north passage of the intersection...something up there was protected from it in some manner. but, the fire did seem to have driven off the ratman cleric for the time being.
The party now only desired to get to the ladder up in order to get to safety. So, Iban blew his Horn of Valhalla and summoned five Maerling warriors. These he placed in the van and the party pushed out. A number of wererats attacked from the north, but there was no further magical attack against them. The fight went slow and Cadwaladyr was able to scan the ratmen with ESP, learning that their whole intent was delay, though what for was unclear. Finally, the ratmen were all cut down. Iban ordered the warriors to go north and engage whatever they found, and the party made it to the ladder up. They had only begun to get people up when suddenly the ratman priest ran into the room, scroll in hand. He was trying to cast a spell when he was attacked by Iban and others. He tried desperately to get that spell cast but ultimately failed and was slain; the spell he'd been trying to cast was another flamestrike, which would have engulfed the entire party, including those already climbing up.
The party pushed open the wizard locked trap door and found an army of city guardsmen about. They had secured the area after the battle, and were awaiting orders on whether or not to descend into the dungeon (they clearly didn't want to). They wanted the party to turn back and go down with them, but the party said they were in no shape to do so without rest. The guards, having little recourse, said they would keep the area secure in the mean time. The thief, now invisible, said he would return when they did to accompany them.
The party rested that day and began recovering spells. Bel was in no shape to travel and would remain behind. The Dwarves were also ordered to strengthen the guard of the party's residence. Floi, meanwhile, grumbled that he'd been left out of the last adventure, mumbling something about how his father had saved the city and it was his right to do the same or some such thing. The party told him he could come. NOTE: I forgot to mention the usually disciplined Dwarves were grumbling at the extra duty...ZZ would know that it was Moradin's High Holy Day that day, the chief religious holiday of the Dwarves, and they had been planning on having a big party.
The party returned to the dungeon and prepared to descend, with a score or so guardsmen prepared to (reluctantly) accompany them. The thief had apparently returned, still invisible, to accompany them ("not wasting this potion!" -- the thief also reported that some locals had seen a large group of folk rushing across Moon Square the previous night; nobody had seen where they went, aside from "west"). Down below, they posted a dozen guards to stay at the ladder. moving into as yet unexplored areas, Amadin sensed a secret door. Beyond, they found numerous abandoned room, clearly once occupied by ratmen or werewolves, but hastily abandoned. They also found extensive supplies that had to have been built up over time. In another area, after triggering a fiery glyph of warding, they found the ratman priest's rat god shrine and quarters. Apparently the place was abandoned in haste, as there was some treasure left behind.
This done, the party went down the wide stairs, finding yet more hastily abandoned lodgings. Amadin, who was proving to be of great value, sensed a second secret door, behind which they found a very dirty lair for one person. A search revealed scratches on the wall near the ground reading "Girion" with ten tick marks as if made with metal. Cadwaladyr speculated that perhaps a prisoner had done it with manacles. More importantly, Girion was also the name of the captain of the Lormyrr Gate, the main gate of Manston. They would proceed to interrogate him as soon as they'd left the dungeon.
The party now went back to find the dead Bugbears, who had not been touched since the day before. ZZ now used his Spirit thing to speak with one of the dead Bugbears. He asked: How had they got into the dungeon? (walked in via the trap door) How did they get into the city without raising concerns? (they were invisible and the locals were preoccupied) What were his orders? (to support the lycanthropes when the time came as additional muscle) How many total were-creatures were there? (three score and ten). For the latter, Cadwaladyr estimated that they'd slain approximately half of them. G
They know went to the ladder they'd not tried previously and were not surprised to find it led up into a dark alley off of Moon Square. Apparently the majority of the lycanthropes had fled that way, leaving behind a small force to delay the party enough to allow them to escape. They now turned towards the Lormyrr Gate to confront Girion...