| Session Date | September 22, 2017 |
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| Base XP Gained | 1682 |
As the party continued their explorations, their rearguard noted some noise behind them. Cautiously approaching was what appeared to be a dwarf...he held up his hands for a parley and named himself Torig. He'd been in the alehouse when the party caroused previously and had overheard much of their planning and decided to follow along in the hopes of plunder. The party welcomed him despite his unorthodox methods.
Continuing on, they next entered a room with nine Gargoyles, and a long melee ensued in the hall, with Torig, Rowan and Aldeberon in melee, while Cadwalider supported with spells and wands and the clerics Havok and Wulfred each cast spiritual hammer to add to the firepower. While slow due to the constriction of the passages, the Gargoyles too could not bring their numbers to bear and were slowly whittled down. Cadwalider, in particular, had excellent luck with his wand of paralyzation. When the last active Gargoyle was finally slain, the party finished off the three paralyzed ones and found an ancient, desiccated corpse of a dwarf in the corner of the room. From it, they recovered what appeared to be magic armor, sword, potion and some coin.
Approaching another door farther down the same hall, Kyrii the Halfling fell into a 30' deep pit trap. When he'd been pulled out, the door was opened to reveal a room with a statue of a dwarf. This one was of a similar style to those they'd seen before, but differed in that its arms were crossed on its chest and it had a fair amount of gear carved on it. The party made a conscious effort to not approach it, though they checked the other walls for secret doors, without success.
They now headed to the north to continue exploring, coming soon to an octagonal room. In it, they sensed an evil presence; meanwhile, Parker also sensed a secret door to the west, and Sir Rowan confirmed that a strong evil lay beyond. Wulfred now cast bless on the party, expecting trouble. Opening the secret door, they entered a smallish room empty except for a table holding a goodly deal of treasure; the evil felt stronger here. Cadwalider cast detect invisibility in the room and discovered that a great Mezzodaemon stood in the room. Seeing itself discovered, it attacked with a longsword. In the small quarters, the thing proved to a whirlwind of destruction. But, conversely, the party was able to bring many weapons to bear on it. Still, Iban went down unconscious and seriously hurt before the thing was at last destroyed (vanishing into a puff of smoke as it died). The treasure proved to be sizable, with a number of unusual magic items of unknown nature.
The party now decided a rest was in order, and thought this room would suffice, as the evil had been destroyed (and a second secret door connected to one previously located, thus allowing two directions to flee, if needed). As they settled down to do so, Havok cast remove curse on himself, which worked to lift his strange paranoia developed in the room of the great stone dragon (Note: Parker and Rowan are still afflicted). After a little while, however, a strange tapping began, as if metal on stone. It was strangely rhythmic and most unsettling. After a while of this, the sound began to really get into the minds of the party. Havok, Zhould-zir, and Aldeberon were particularly afflicted by it. It became clear that no rest would be possible here, and the party decided to return to the dwarf city as quickly as possible. As they made their way, they ran into a single strange creature following them, dwarf-like but with pale, translucent skin and wearing rags. It was briefly engaged but not slain, and the party fled into the afternoon above ground and headed back to the city for a proper rest in their new quarters.