| Session Date | March 2, 2024 |
| Start Date | 22 Reaping, 1273 |
| End Date | 24 Reaping, 1273 |
| Starting Location | Lich Tomb |
| Ending Location | Temple of Yig |
| Player Characters | |
| Base XP Gained | Carry Over |
| Player Notes | ZZ's Notes |
The party spent a night in the Lich’s crypt in order to recover. During this time, Helga had the strangely disturbing dreams of a dark desert under a purplish sky, the same dream others have been periodically having. Meanwhile, an augury acquired by Burt indicated that Hans should use remove curse on himself to eliminate his own, much more disturbing, nightmares, which he did successfully. Harvey, tired of all this, decided to make his way alone back to the Dark Market and its abundant alcohol. He said he’d “catch up later” but did graciously hand his thieves’ tools over to Deaglan to replace his broken stuff – new tools should easily be acquired among the thieving Dark Folk!
When finally ready, the party first tried to open a door nearby. Repeatedly. Unsuccessfully. Loudly. After many tries, a patrol of ten Bugbears appeared and demanded to know what the party was up to. There was some tension but they did not seem intent on immediate hostilities. They explained that the party was pressing towards the realm of the Troll Kings and that they should desist and “take the road like everyone else to the Dark Market.” There was some chirping between Hans and their leader for a time but this did not lead to blows. Apparently the Troll Kings lie to the northwest of their current location and this was a basic patrol checking around the periphery. They refused to say what lay beyond the door Hans had failed to open. The one time they got their hackles really up was a chance remark by Hans about coming from the Serpentine Lord, clearly an enemy of the Troll Kings. This was smoothed over, though. But, unless the party had legitimate business with the Troll Kings, they should scurry off elsewhere, like South, or another level. When they learned that the party had penetrated the bronze door to the crypt they got excited, but Helga threw their own words back in their face and refused to tell them anything. Finally, the Bugbears departed peaceably enough, though with some crude gestures and harsh language directed at the party.
The party decided to go elsewhere and continued exploring. After a short time, they ran into a single Troll who was acting oddly, signaling that he meant no harm. Happily, Burt spoke Troll and learned that this was Ligor and all he wanted was to chat with the party and see if they needed help with anything. He was clearly as stupid as a normal Troll despite his extreme divergence in character. He just wanted to be friends. He explained that he did not work for the Troll Kings who were “very bad and unkind, and liked to hurt people.” He had come up from the level below recently without much of an idea of what he was doing. He was very hungry as he had not eaten in a long time and couldn’t possibly hurt anything to eat it. In fact, he wanted to avoid doing anything bad as he had done many bad things in the past and felt horrible about it. He himself was not a member of the Church of Religious Consciousness but had met the flower Orcs and had gotten on well with them. When asked, he was emphatic that he had eaten neither the Orcs nor their flowers. Unsure about this lumbering goon, the party asked him to precede them and he readily agreed.
They now came to a room with a statue in the closer end depicting a man in robes with a stern visage and hand held out in warning. The Troll balked at passing it, saying he did not want to do something he was not supposed to, but was easily talked into remaining in the lead. The party moved on to explore some nearby areas without result and soon returned here, where they found a secret door. But it would not budge open so Sirius cast knock which opened it (it had been wizard locked). A rush of air left the room, revealing a bare, empty chamber. A sense of glee and movement around the party occurred for a moment then faded. But, the party then noticed the Troll a little apart, waving his great claws as if swatting at flies. He claimed he heard a whispering laugh in his ears, though no one else could hear it. ZZ used a scroll of true seeing and caught the faintest hint of some movement around the Troll but couldn’t really see anything. The party then tried using a bless spell to see if they could herd whatever it was back to its apparent prison. It was unclear if it worked but the Troll reported that the presence was indeed gone.
The party continued on, demolishing a group of spiders and coming to a room with a half dozen serpent man statues, all garishly painted, freshly cleaned and polished, with three facing to either direction of the axis of the chamber. They found nothing in the area where two statues stood back-to-back, but south of there Deaglan found a secret door. Beyond was a short passage ending in a door. Mordecai cast find traps and sensed a strange rune on the door. Not wishing to try this, the party moved on.
The next notable room they found contained freshly slain corpses of several Bugbears, one of which had cut its own throat. The party told the Troll he should go eat up. He balked a little but it was not hard to convince him that the corpses would just go to waste otherwise. He entered and began to gnaw on one of them, though he seemed to grow momentarily confused for a brief moment. The party decided it was safe enough to send Deaglan in alone to search for secret doors (and they’d seen some coins) while everyone else waited outside. He felt a mental impingement for a moment but shrugged it off and got about his burgling. As this happened, the Troll came out just as a will-o-wisp rolled into the party at high speed and attacked the poor Troll, who was too non-plussed to fight back. But the party did, Hans with magic missiles and ZZ in melee. Burt then threw a darkness spell at it, causing some confusion until Sirius dispelled it with a light coin. Poor Ligor was then beset by an invisible attacker, apparently the same invisible tormenter from before had returned at a most inopportune time. Fortunately, the will-o-wisp fled leaving the single attacker. Sirius threw dust of appearance at it and this made it almost visible, or at least sufficiently to see where it was. Hans and Burt hit it with magic missiles, the former with effect and latter without. It took a few hits in melee and soon fled, also at high speed. The Troll was quite happy his new friends saved him. Meanwhile, Deaglan did not find any secret doors.
The party now continued to loop around counterclockwise, trying to come at the secret door from the opposite side (they would end up doing a full 360-degree maneuver without finding a second approach). During their circumnavigation, they ran into and blasted some Ghouls and sent a pair of Ghasts packing. One room contained a beautiful fountain of clear water and a sign saying to drink and be refreshed. It turned out to be a delayed action poison. Deaglan was the only one who drank to succumb, but a gulp of a sweetwater potion restored him. Another nearby door was quite cold. Hans and ZZ opened it only to be hit by a blast of intense cold. The room beyond (glimpsed before they slammed the door shut) was covered in yellow-brown mold or fungus with some humps here and there and some bones sticking up in places. A large space was found to contain old firepits and the sign of having been used more than once as a camping area. They also found a long staircase downwards. Finally, they passed a rough-hewn block of stone apparently the beginnings of a statue. One door they did not open was crudely painted with two interlocked crowns, apparently the mark of the Troll Kings.
The party now returned to the Lich’s crypt, where they rested for 2 nights to fully recover. During this time they cast remove curse on the Troll without apparent effect. They also cast know alignment and learned he was Lawful Good.
Fully recovered now, they made their way through the untried secret door to the next door, where Sirius cast dispel magic on the rune, removing it. It opened to a small room with an elaborately robed Serpent Man. Unlike the ones encountered previously, this one was not hostile even if he was surprised by their presence. He was a priest of the god Yig and had been sent here by visions to maintain the small shrine outside (the six statues). His people and Yig had nothing to do with the Serpentine Lord – most of his people dwelt much deeper than that potentate. He was aware of the will-o-wisps (more than just one) and re-confirmed that the Troll Kings sigil was the interlocked crowns and that they were to the north and east of this place, a realm of Bugbears, Trolls, Ogres, and many others. He explained some other minor geography and told them that the main way to the lower dungeon was through the Moaning Caves, though other paths existed. When asked about two mural rooms the party had not actually entered or examined, he got excited and told them they should go view them. The party should not be offended, but they did speak the truth, a holy truth. He also told them that the Troll Kings were a relatively new power, an ephemeral one at best; the true, long term power around here was the Serpentine Lord.
During this, he offered tea to the party. ZZ tried it and it tasted like brackish marsh water. The priest of Yig clearly loved it…