Apparently, leaving behind dead bodies can lead to good clues. The bodies of the different zombies that the party had defeated in a prior foray to the Moathouse were missing but drag marks were pretty obvious. The marks led to a secret door that led to the next level below the Moathouse. It also led to some ghouls. Although the party was victorious, Griff was paralyzed by the filthy claws of the undead. While waiting for Griff to become mobile again, the rest of the group started exploring this next level and that’s where we will pick up after the break.
Unfortunately, Craig will be taking a break from playing for a bit (until his work life calms down). RJ took up playing Drayton. There are definite spoilers for T1 The Village of Hommlet and possibly for A0 Danger at Darkshelf Quarry below the break. This recap is from Muse and my comments, as usual, are in [brackets and italics].
After chopping the heads off the four ghouls, we exit out into the narrow tunnel to wait and see if Griff’s paralysis will end. After a long ninety minutes, the paralysis does finally abate. Drayton goes up the rungs to let Gareth’s two guards know that we are still exploring, but they are not there. Although we are somewhat undecided about whether to continue, given the health of the party and our shrinking numbers, we decide to continue our mission as the two guards have been of little help.
[Renger and Cor didn’t seem to have a very positive view of the party either. 😉 ]
We head deeper into the crypt, Griff leading the way. We find a long angular hallway that eventually ends in a T. Molly’s keen ears picks up what sounds like dripping water coming from the tunnel to the right and we decide to head in that direction. We come across a set of stairs that descends for about twenty-feet and then turns into a room with a large pool of water in it. We cannot see the top of the chamber and the floor is mostly covered in dirt and rock.
The pool does not appear to be man made. It appears as if the pool had been created either from the erosion of the dripping water or as the result of some sort of reverse implosion.
Griff and Molly back out of the room, torch in hand, to let Drayton and I use our dwarven sight [darkvision] to see if we can discover anything. The pool is very deep and once the others join us, we decide, against Griff’s wishes to search for treasure for Molly’s dowry, that exploring the pool would be a foolish risk.
Back at the t-intersection, we take the other tunnel that leads to the left. It leads us to a door and Griff discovers an offshoot about 25 feet from the door. He briefly checks it, but it appears to go on far longer than he can see.
We approach the door and Griff opens it easily. Inside is a large room with a couple of doors and another corridor. Griff starts down the corridor but stops abruptly. The light of his torch is reflecting off what appear to be eyes! This is soon confirmed as the light brings into focus a pair of gnolls! They run up and attack Drayton before he can attack them, and I watch as my brother falls!
With a roar I fire my crossbow at the creature and knowing that vengeance will find the gnoll sooner or later, I take off out through the door, knowing we are in danger as two more gnolls are spotted. [And they were all rather low on hit points already.]
Despite of our hasty retreat, the gnolls soon catch us. I am able to fell one of them, but they start howling. I am able to fell another, but more gnolls are showing up faster than we can fell them. Molly goes down and Griff asks me to stabilize her and then run as he holds them off. I am able to stabilize her but as I grab her hand and try and run, she resists. Griff orders her to run. She grudgingly relents and we run through the corridors, eventually making it back to the tunnel, with Griff trying to get away and the gnolls in hot pursuit.
After another tussle, we make it back to the courtyard, where we can hear the gnolls howling. We hasten back to town and head straight to Lady Katerine to report. She sends for the physiker to see to Molly. She is carried back to the inn as Griff and I report our findings to Lady Katerine. We then follow to the inn to recover.
Cahill immediately approaches and offers Griff his concern for Molly and buys me a drink in memory of my fallen brother. We rest the entire day to recover from our wounds. As we are eating breakfast the following morning, Gareth approaches asking about his men. Molly lets him know in no uncertain terms just how little help his men were, which angers Gareth. He turns and walks away, muttering “bitch” as he does. Only Griff hears this and calls Gareth an asshole. In response, Gareth angrily informs the party that prices are now double at the store for them. Molly after him that the party has eight gold pieces in credit since his men had been worthless. [The party had paid 8gp for the services of Gareth’s–now missing–two guards.]
Molly and Griff head to worship as they had previously promised Tanant while I go and find a quiet spot to offer a prayer for Drayton.
After worship we head to Lady Katerine’s for a few supplies, a new crossbow for me and a longbow for Molly. Griff asks for some flasks of oil and receives three, one for each of us.
We head back to the Moathouse to continue our mission. As we approach, we see that the wagon that had barred the entrance was gone but other than this difference, everything else appears the same. We head back through the secret narrow tunnel and into the crypt.
We notice that there are no dead gnoll bodies on the ground and we are pretty sure that we’ll be seeing them soon as undead creatures. Molly notices that there are drag marks on the ground leading to the pile of bodies that the ghouls had been feasting on. As we approach the mass, it begins to move and rise up and to my horror…there…atop the creature’s mass of limbs is my dear brother’s head. Overcome with anger and sorrow, I try to throw my oil flask onto it’s mass to burn the atrocity and put my brother to rest. My grief has altered my aim and the flask crashes to the floor beside it. Griff tries to set the now spilled oil afire but his aim is off as well.
[It was a rather disturbing scene. The various body parts somehow moved together as one, legs, arms, bits of torso, and the like surged forward as on massive pile. Drayton’s head sitting atop almost seemed to be directing the abomination’s actions.]
The pile of flesh attacks and I am knocked out. I am told that Molly stabilized me and then she and Griff killed the abomination. They then used their flasks of oil to set the creature on fire before taking me back to Hilltop and straight to Lady Katerine’s.
I later learn the Lady was not exactly happy with the quickness of our journey, but she did send the physiker to tend to my wounds.
When I wake, I feel remarkably hale and hearty and the physiker is still there in my room. He says he has a message for me from Lady Katerine.
She will take the first 1200 GP worth of whatever we find. He also says that there are two more potions in the pouch on my bedside table. He has given me one already and Lady Katerine expects more from us today. I thank him and tell him to please pass along my thanks to Lady Katerine for her generosity and that the message is understood.
We head out once again to the Moathouse. Molly spends a moment to check the courtyard for any gnoll tracks to explain how they made it to the courtyard when Griff did not hear them following him as he went thru the secret tunnel. We are convinced there is a secret passage that we missed and spend some time trying to locate it.
Finally in the large pillared room that the ogre had been using as a bed chamber, Griff notices that some of the debris in the corner has been shifted and there is a wedge shaped field void of debris. I spend a bit of time there and finally locate a handhold in the wall. Giving it a tug, it opens onto a small landing and a staircase leading UP!? We had been hoping for a staircase leading down! The staircase leads up to a secret door that gives egress to the chamber in which the bandits had been camping.
Still searching for a downward staircase, we keep looking and Griff finds a second secret door across from the first one in the small room we just discovered.
We descend. As Griff steps upon the next to last step, an iron portcullis drops down at the top of the stairs, cutting off our exit. With no choice now but to keep descending, we continue on and come to a rather odd angular t-intersection. We choose the corridor to the right, but it’s a trap. The gnolls are waiting for us and they attack. I go down in battle. Molly administers a healing potion while Griff holds position and tries to keep the gnolls from reaching Molly and I.
I am back up, but Griff takes a blow and goes down. The two remaining gnolls run off and we soon find out why. As we are administering our last potion to Griff, we hear the sound of something large coming behind us and it shouts…”Dwarves!!”
[Another ogre?!? Are they on sale somewhere?]
We take off running, winding our way through the corridors until we reach the secret door and tunnel and then back up the pillar. Just as Griff gets in the tunnel, a large hand reaches for us. We start to slam the door shut and a smooth voice calls out…”I’d like to speak with you.”
I tell him to call off his ogre and we will. He wants us to come in and speak face to face, but we tell him to come to us, we aren’t trusting of the ogre. He comes to the doorway and Griff and I catch a glimpse of an amazingly handsome man…too beautiful for words. He introduces himself as Leighton and he wants to know why we keep trespassing on his home, leaving a mess, and killing his creatures. Griff tells him this isn’t his house and that it belongs to Lady Katerine and Hilltop. Leighton responds with something to the effect that he’s delayed us long enough for his forces to have circled around behind us, blocking our escape.
We proceed as quickly as possible through the tunnel. Carrying the unconscious Molly up the rungs to the secret door in the pillar above was difficult and slow. When we finally reach the cellar of the Moathouse, there are four bugbears blocking our way. They make no move to attack, holding their defensive line. We can hear gnolls scrambling through the tunnel behinds us. They’ve got us trapped. Griff takes off at a run and throws himself at the bugbear line. His tactic is successful in breaking the line as one of the bugbears collapses to the ground with Griff. He shouts for Molly and I to run up the stairs and he’ll follow right behind us.
Molly and I make it to the courtyard but Griff hasn’t followed. With no other options and no resources to fight not only bugbears but also gnolls, an ogre, and Leighton, we make the hard decision to leave Griff to his fate and quickly begin our return to Hilltop.
[That’s where we ended the night. Griff, apparently, made the ultimate sacrifice so his sister and Brenwyn could escape with their lives. Griff originally wanted to retreat into one of the small “cells” in the cellar…the same tactic they had used against the zombies quite a few days ago. This would have limited how many foes they’d have to face at a time but they had no idea how many foes they had to face. Of course, the bad guys could possibly just wait them out. I’m positive that it would have been a TPK if they had tried to hole up in the cellar. I don’t know if RJ changed his mind on his own or if the tone in my voice when I asked, “Are you sure you want to do that?” had anything to do with it.
Griff’s death isn’t one to be sad about (assuming he is dead). He did a heroic thing and I’m sure that this will significantly contribute to the future of the game. RJ had to take off as soon as we ended (silly sick kid) but Muse, Rachel, and I had a nice conversation afterwards about character death. It is great to have players who understand that character death is part of the game. Adventuring is a dangerous occupation…especially if you’re playing in a game where encounters are not necessarily “balanced” for the party’s numbers and level. Character death is just another opportunity for
the story to emerge from play. 😉 ]
