| Session Date | January 23, 2021 |
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| Base XP Gained | Carry Over |
| Player Notes | ZZ's Notes |
The party was back in Bristol. While resting at the Fusty Budger, Iban scried their previous horse enclosure sooth of Solen and noted several of Lord Solen's soldiers had apparently found it and were checking the area. Armed with this knowledge, the party rode on and arrived at the Goat and Bull tavern in Durnton by dark. An uneventful night was spent there; the locals told them they'd heard nor seen anyone from Castle Solen in the past few days.
The next morning, they rode out after procuring some heavy stakes and extra rope to make a horse corral. They followed the track southwest from Durnton a few miles before turning due south into the slowly descending grassland. They found a low lying area some six miles or so east of Castle Solen, where they erected a temporary horse enclosure. While they waited, Iban scried the room where they'd fought the zombies. There were now three guards present, clearly set to watch the sortie port. The party debated for a short time on how to enter the castle. There was some talk of climbing the walls and slipping in that way, but in the end they settled on using the same entrance as before, despite the fact it was clear that they're use of it had been discovered. Iban cast invisibility 10' radius on the party and they made their way on foot to the sortie port without incident, arriving a few hours after noon.
Once there, still invisible, they cast a plethora of detection spells (Iban cast detect invisibility, Knar cast detect magic with his wand, and Mordecai cast both detect traps and silence 15' radius on a rock). All were negative, so the party slipped into the sortie port and passageway, eventually coming to the secret door into the dungeon itself. This door they found to be wizard locked and, unfortunately, it took several dispel magics to open it. once inside, however, both clerics hit the three guards with hold person. All three were frozen, including one that had begun to run to the west. The guards were trussed up and put into the secret passageway. Iban did his second scrying of the day at this point, checking the crypt to the north. It was dark. A short discussion on route ensued and the party finally settled on passing through the crypt. Happily, Mordecai's detect trap spell was still in effect, as there was a pit trap just inside.
The crypt consisted of about 10 closed crypts, each with a brass plaque denoting names and dates. A half dozen or so unused ones sat slightly ajar. Near the northern end of the room was a sarcophagus with a lid carved to represent a warrior, lying before a statue of an angelic-like being in heavy robes, its face turned to the floor. ZZ decided to use his Earth Dragon ring to check for minerals and determined that every closed crypt contained some sort of valuable. Deciding a little plunder on the way was worth the effort, the party decided to open multiple crypts simultaneously, while a few stood guard. This they did, and from all of the closed crypts erupted a mummy, while the statue came to life, revealing a death mask of a face. The mummy fear paralyzed Amadin, Mordecai, and Iban for several minutes. The mummies now went after the only visible persons, ZZ and Mordecai. But, Knar threw a web spell that completely encased four of the ten, making him visible too but eliminating a lot of the threat. Floi and Thunderfist now attacked, also becoming visible, as did Bel. The later two began to attack the statue, which seemed to be somehow directing the mummies. Indeed, when ZZ tried to turn them, the statue seemed to counteract the effect; the same occurred when he used his chime of undead attraction to try to draw the mummies away. The statue proved to be quite tough, and managed to deal some damage of its own (to Thunderfist). The melee was rather long and complex, but the party seemed to maintain the upper hand throughout. The mummies fell but slowly, but fall they did. The statue seemed the linchpin for the enemy, so Knar hit it with fairy fire form his ring, which aided in finally taking it down. Finally, the statue was shattered into many pieces and the remaining mummies followed soon after. Sure enough, each mummy was found to be wearing some jewelry, a sizable haul of treasure. The party was not in bad shape, except that Knar, Iban, Amadin, and Floi all seem to have developed some sort of skin rash where the mummies struck them. ZZ tried a remove curse spell, but without effect. The sarcophagus proved to be empty. (My favorite visual was probably Iban leaping through two mummies to jump atop the sarcophagus to fight the statue).
Pleased, the party moved north, soon coming to a storage room near the quarters of the slain priest of Roshim. They searched through all the junk here, even using a detect magic without effect. Seeing no further way this direction, they now turned south of the former zombie room, coming to yet another wizard locked door. They managed to dispel this one and came into a room with some carpets and a few pieces of furniture. A narrow staircase descended up some 40 feet or so to a blank wall. Amadin (not Bel) sensed a secret door on the east wall. Opening it revealed a closet full of ceremonial robes, some with the vile holy symbol of Roshim (a black stone archway) and others that of Morbidus, lord of the undead (rotting hand holding a sword). There were also two tall staves of weird black wood, completely covered in foul carvings and topped with a green soapstone carving depicting a tentacled horror. Knar cast identify and learned these were ceremonial staves of Roshim, evil items used by his devotees. The party destroyed both of them. Checking the stairs, Amadin (not Bel) sensed a secret door at the top.
The secret door proved to be wizard locked yet again. Fortunately, Amadin was able to dispel it and the party found that they had reentered the castle's ground level. The room was a richly appointed study and library. The party was unsure of what to do, as they believed the gem of true seeing to lie below the castle. However, ZZ tried to detect gems and found a rich source behind a bare wall. The elves (both) quickly found a secret door. As they discussed checking for traps with another spell, Iban did so the hard way. A fiery explosion engulfed the party from a glyph of warding, while poisoned darts shot at Iban even as a huge block of masonry fell from the ceiling above to clock his head. Happily, he survived them all. What they found within were two large, heavy chests. ZZ finally cast his detect traps...both had trapped locks and one had a magical trap of some sort. The decided that, even if these did not contain what they sought, it was a potential rich find. So, they fled down the stairs with them.
But the loud crash of the heavy stone had clearly alerted the castle's denizens. As the party man-and-dwarf-handled the big chests, Knar took position to watch the stairs. Sure enough, Lord Solen himself appeared. He and Knar traded lightning bolts, but Knar's ioun stone absorbed the one targeting the party, while the one fired at Solen was absorbed in some sort of shield. The party now fissioned a bit on what to do next, flee or kill the wizard while he was apparently alone. Things were a bit chaotic for a short time, as ZZ used his Horn of the Earth Dragon to summon evil Dwarves to block the passage between them and the wizard Solen. Finally, the "kill the wizard" party won and they returned to where he had been, only to find him gone. They suspected he might be moving to cut them off at the sortie port, so the party decided to flee at maximum speed. The emerged into the late afternoon sun, fining no one to stop them. A detect invisibility from Knar found no one nearby, either. They fled on foot at best speed to their horses, arriving a few hours later as night fell.
There was no way they could get the large chests on their riding horses. So, after some experimenting, they got the magically trapped one into the large bag of holding. The second chest Iban smashed open after taking some precautions. Inside was a great wealth of coin: silver, gold and platinum. The party shoveled it into their bags as fast as they could without much order, but in a hurry to be off. As they finished this task, the nearly full moon revealed to them a very disquieting sight. Floating from the west towards them, some 100 feet up, was a white, incorporeal figure flying towards them. Below it, there was black movement in the moon-shadows along a wide swathe of the ground. Whatever was coming was fast, very fast. And it would be on them very soon...