Session 44 - Drogan Rushes In. No Change There Then!
In-game timeline: Uktar 23 - Uktar 23 DR1489
Our "Heroes" survey the scene of more dead lycanthropes lying at their feet. Alwaith searches the bodies, wanting to get in before Devon and Grarth realise they hadn't been searched yet. The dead werewolf, now shown to be a human female, has a tear-stained face which receives absolutely no sympathy at all from our honourable adventurers.
They search the nearby room, finding the body of Jacob, the werebear, lying on a bed, next to an empty bottle of a greater healing potion. Luckily they also find a full bottle of a greater healing potion, as well as two standard healing potions, in a drawer. Given their current state of health, and lack of healing, these are welcome additions to the party inventory and are shared around.
The group cautiously check out the remainder of this level of the ruins, finding two more rooms, empty of creatures, though one of them contains the dead bodies of the werewolves they killed on the level above, and the other is obviously the bedroom of the corrupted wererats that they recently killed, now known to be young male dwarves in their non-were forms. Drogan is none too impressed.
Finding the stairway heading down, Devon heads down first, quietly, and reports no creatures immediately below, so the others follow.
The next level, the fourth below the surface, is quite small. Only a single room and a second staircase (going down), though they do find a blocked corridor heading off of the single room - the blockage is old and seems to be impassable.
Getting into the room however was somewhat eventful - for Devon at least. The room is locked, so Devon uses his family heirloom - Milo's thieves tools. Unfortunately they break in the process. Whether he will be able to repair them, and at what cost to repair a magic item, remains to be seen.
The room is of interest, however. It contains a large chair with restraints built into it, and a number of implements and vials on the tables nearby. A box of dried tangleweed is a welcome find, given that two of the party are now suspected to be infected with The Curse during their battles with were-creatures. A few vials of a strange black liquid are found and handed to Alwaith. In addition, a number of flasks of the purple poison that they believe was supplied by Belak were also found.
Alwaith discovers some interesting notes on the table that he spends some time reading. Then, living by his mantra of "knowledge is power", he decides the notes are not fit for showing to the others, and he mysteriously and cryptically drip-feeds information he obtained from the notes to the others. Strictly on a Need-to-Know basis, of course.
The group presses on.
They work out that the staircase heading down will lead to the 5th level below the surface. Milo's note implied that there are (or at least, were) only 5 subterranean levels, so our "Heroes" are even more cautious than usual, thinking that the next level must contain all the bad stuff that they have been expecting.
It leads into an empty room, and an empty corridor.
Relaxing a little, they open the door at the end of the corridor to find themselves in a dining room of sorts. Nice pictures adorn the walls and a table is set for four, with inviting fruit and sweetmeats in bowls on the table. Grarth immediately tucks in and starts to smile and relax, whilst stuffing more fruit into the small space left in his pockets. The others check out the rest of the room, wondering only briefly why Grarth was smiling sweetly (whilst the DM wonders how the half-ogre could pass TWO wisdom saving throws!). Two locked doors, one with a notice on it - "Lights!" - and a heavy iron grating in the floor leading to a set of stairs heading down, all pique their curiosity.
They decide to try the door containing the notice first. Not knowing if the "Lights!" sign is an instruction or a warning, they manage to open the door and Drogan immediately throws a lit torch into the room. As Drogan, Devon and Grarth stand and stare down the long corridor which seems to end in a room containing some bookcases, three strange looking, 'glass-like', knights seem to materialise before their eyes. Alwaith fires off a couple of Eldritch Blasts, one of which misses completely whilst the other does seem to make contact with one of the knights, but the ray of force seems to pass right through the target and hits the wall beyond. Drogan quickly decides to reach in to grab the door and close it before anyone else can act, though he does provoke swings from all three knight's swords, all of which manage to miss him. He manages to get the door closed and nothing else emerges from the room.
Believing that the knights are now trapped the other side of that door, they focus on the larger doors to the west. Devon fails in his attempt to pick the lock (now using his 'normal' thieves tools) and Drogan fails to break the door lock using his strength, though he does make a bit of a racket in the process. They decide to use the table to ram into the doors and manage to break them down on their first attempt with this method.
However, it seems that whatever was beyond these doors was aware of their presence. Grarth runs in and immediately slips on a slippery patch on the floor. He manages to recover and runs back out of the room as a javelin is thrown by a very powerful, and very vicious looking werewolf from the southern end of the corridor. At the same time, a swarm of rats appears close to him in the corridor, looking to attack.
The rat swarm was quickly taken care of. But soon after another appears. Drogan runs in and manages to avoid the slippery floor using his clever boots - he runs towards the werewolf and what looks like a young, female gnome that they recognise as Lispeth. Alwaith is not so fortunate and falls on the greasy floor. He decides it is safer to blink out of this plane rather than stay and be peppered by javelins or crossbow bolts, that seem to be being fired down the corridor. Drogan continues to rush towards the two enemies at the end of the corridor, despite having javelins thrown at him. He reaches them and very quickly regrets his decision as he takes the full force of all their numerous attacks. He is surprised at just how many attacks he receives, though he shouldn't be - he is, after all, in their lair.
Drogan decides the safest course is to run back, using the extra speed granted by his boots. Unfortunately the werewolf is just as fast, and catches up with him, biting him and clawing him badly. As Drogan falls unconscious to the floor, he feels The Curse enter his body and start to flow through his veins. Devon and Alwaith are trying to take down the Werewolf, and scoring important hits, but it remains standing over Drogan's unconscious body. Grarth rushes in and manages to get a potion of healing out of Drogan's pocket and down Drogan's throat, then uses his action surge to get a couple of key hits on Redback, the werewolf, ensuring he is looking pretty beaten up now. However, the wolf is still standing, and gets some good hits on Grarth. Lispeth is firing her hand crossbow from a distance too. Things are looking difficult, but the whole group pile in on Redback, getting good hits with Eldritch Blasts, hammers and axes. He still stands, but a final attack from a distant shortbow from Devon, firing a silvered and poisoned arrow hits Redback straight between the eyes, finally taking him down.
Devon runs towards Lispeth, hoping to take her out before she can do more damage to the beaten up group but she disappears, reappearing behind Devon, near to one of the pictures on the wall. She runs to the picture, touches it and immediately disappears from the corridor.
We leave our "Heroes" nursing their wounds. Drogan is walking slowly, having been downed twice in one afternoon. Grarth is looking a bit worse for wear too. Alwaith and Devon are looking healthy, but worried about their survival chances, should their primary meat-shields fall again. Lispeth seems to be gone, and Grarth touching the picture did not seem to have the same transportation effect on him. They consider their options….