| Session Date | February 12, 2022 |
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| Player Characters | |
| Base XP Gained | Carry Over |
| Player Notes | ZZ's Notes |
Back in their normal resting location, Knar declared that he would be leaving soon for a sabbatical (note, I think the party needs to determine a reasonable cut of treasure for him to take). During their rest, two wraiths popped into the room from above. Modecai made to turn them...and failed! One managed to strike Hans, draining him. The second almost hit Burt. Given the grave danger they posed, ZZ put on the Pallid Mask and managed to compel them...barely! He ordered them to return to whence they came and never returned. this worked and they left, seemingly angry with this situation. Later, the glowy globe returned and simply floated nearby as it had done before.
Later in the night, the party's rest was interrupted yet again. This time, the western secret door opened (which was easily noted by all the noise it let in form the marching zombies). Orion slipped over to peer out and saw a bunch of zombies gathered at the secret door. They appeared much different than the marching ones (those wore ornate copper armor, these looked more "ordinary"). One now came into the room walking into the fire glyph and incinerating itself. Orion now slipped to see what was going on outside but saw nothing but zombies, though he felt as if a spell had been thrown at him from some unknown entity; he retreated back inside and shut the door, which the party wedged shut. A steady knocking began, with an intermittent dead voice saying "Open. Message." The party did not open the door but asked what the message was but got no response. The knocking eventually ceased and was replaced a few minutes later by a very heavy, steady bashing at the secret door. The door soon was forced inward by a group of zombies wielding a heavy beam as a battering ram (it was apparently the main stock of the old ballista outside). A lone zombie entered and stood before the party, which Mordecai blasted with his holy power. It left behind a scrap of parchment which simply read "Depart in 10 minutes or perish." The party shoved the secret door closed again.
They debated their next action and decided to simply wait to see what happened. About fifteen minutes later, the door was opened yet again but, instead of a zombie entering, a massive swarm of biting and stinging insects flooded the room. The glyphs in the room all exploded in fire, but this did nothing to stop the swarm, which made visibility poor and spellcasting impossible. Moments after this, a swarm of snakes slithered into the room, all of which went after Burt who was poisoned by the bite of one. The party now fell back to the adjacent room to the east, where fortunately the insects did not follow. ZZ was able to then cast dispel magic on the snakes (which worked), followed by slow poison on Burt. Of course, the party was unrested and had not been able to replenish their depleted inventory of spells, so they remained in a rather precarious position. They decided to go north and circle around and see if they could get at the apparent cleric that was harassing them. They then ran into a lone zombie simply standing in their way. Mordecai blasted this one, leaving behind only another parchment note, this one saying, "Do not return." He also gave the royal jelly to cure Burt.
Back in the long east-west corridor, they found three zombies shoulder to shoulder, blocking the western direction; Mordecai blasted them, too. Jarrik now began to track them back from whence they'd come. Coming to the door leading into the throne room, Orion went to the door and set off a glyph of warding fire trap! The party then entered the throne room. Jarrik was able to maintain his tracking. Amidst a number of shuffling tracks he noted a set of non-shuffling tracks among them. All seemed to track back to the southern door of this room. Orion went to check that door just as ZZ began to suggest casting detect traps...too late! Orion set off a second glyph! Given the party's lack of healing at this point, this put him in a somewhat precarious state! However, Jarrik was now able to determine that there were apparently two non-shuffling tracks and both had departed back into the marching zombie hall. This they now entered, seeing no signs of the zombies or whatever traveled with them. The tracks seemed to end at the secret door; further south all tracks were obliterated by the marching zombies.
The party now decided to return to the room east of the secret one, rather than follow the trail of glyphs and footprints. There they found yet another zombie, this one holding another parchment note. ZZ placed the Pallid Mask back on -- and screamed in agony as it morphed his face into a blank one matching the mask itself! However, this passed, and he compelled the zombie to his will with seeming glee. The note read "you have been warned." He ordered the zombie to open the secret door and pass inside, hoping to set off any glyphs recently set. From the room came the sound of chanting and a reddish glow. A number of zombies now moved to block the way in. The chanting had stopped and was followed by another insect swarm and snake medley. Mordecai did manage to blast the zombie blockers, while Burt cast a fireball from his wand into the temple itself. This cleared the bugs, as well. Jarrik rushed in immediately, where he was promptly engulfed by a flame strike and a hold person spell! Orion went in far more stealthily and slipped behind the clerics in the confusion. Burt, meanwhile, had been poisoned once again by the snakes which Knar and Mordecai both hit with dispel magic (one successful, the other not, which validated their thought that they should both try it). Meanwhile, Bel, Hans, Knar and Mordecai followed Jarrik into the temple room. ZZ rushed towards Burt who, knowing there was no way to save him from the poison's effects left to the party, used the ring of wishes to wish himself back to full health and well-being. He and ZZ then followed the others into the other room.
The enemy was at last revealed to consist of three wights screening three human clerics in black and red clothing; a score of blasted zombies lay everywhere. Although all were clearly wounded from the fireball, they were not going to go so easily. Orion tried to backstab one and failed! Mordecai only was able to turn two Wights (bad role, that one) so Bel, Hans, and Burt rushed it, hoping to overwhelm it before it could strike. ZZ, still wearing the Pallid Mask, was able to take control of it before it could do any harm. This seemed like a success, until another flame strike came down on both the wight (killing it) and all those fighting it! Hans was knocked unconscious, and many others in the party were in bad shape (Burt, back to full hit points for a hot minute, ended up down to 4 in short order!) But the demon worshipers were in a bad way, too, and called for a parley. The melee ended abruptly and, despite some serious tension, the two sides spoke. The clerics were pilgrims to this place and the party's presence profaned their temple. They had tried to be reasonable and avoid a fight, but the party had attacked their servants and refused to leave peacefully. The party asked that, if they agreed to use the room to the east to rest and not reenter the temple, would the demon worshipers agree to ceasing hostilities. They said yes but were still extremely angry about the destruction wrought in their unholy temple by the fireball. The party offered to give them one of the demon idols they'd recently recovered as compensation. This very much met with the approval of the clerics, who took the valuable idol (and its XP) greedily. The party also asked about the wraiths that periodically appeared, but the clerics said they were not under their command and not their business.
The deal made, the party now moved back into the not-secret room to considwer their next actions. Knar, meanwhile, made good on his pledge to depart and dimension doored form the dungeon after saying he would keep in touch with the party as best he could in order to possibly rejoin them at a later time...