In our last session, the party had attempted to gain entry to the bandit caves below Ednowain’s keep but were unsuccessful. Shory had heard the sound of the warning horn sounded by the bandits coming from the keep and so they went back to explore. They headed down the sinkhole that had all of the pole like tracks exiting from it in the hopes that they could find an entrance to the bandit caves from within. After exploring a small area below, Shory heard a skittering noise coming from a nearby tunnel just as Drogar found a secret door in another wall.
Rachel and Bridgett were absent for this session so RJ and Todd pulled triple duty. This entry is from Todd as we finally got back to the players writing the session logs instead of me reconstructing them months later since this was an ongoing campaign now.
There are potential spoilers below the break for the adventures, “The Crucible of Freya,” from Necromancer Games (although a heavily modified version) and, “The Mysterious Tower,” from Goodman Games (also a heavily modified version).
I think we started the night with initiative, as a giant ant came into our torchlight. We got to go first, so Clarissa stepped up to the spot in front of the tunnel, hoping to keep us from being surrounded. Nice thought, but the ants could climb on the walls and ceiling. And they were FAST!
On the ants turn, Tim put it to Romulus and rolled a 20 on the attack die. Double damage was applied and Romulus was on the floor. In short order, there were five or six giant ants in the room with the characters.
Drogar, indeed, had found a secret door. It opened up into an old torture room. Bryn forced a healing potion into Romulus. We quickly decided to make a break for the torture room, since we would not be able to out run the ants, and the fact that Drogar had noticed that our rope was no longer hanging from the sinkhole opening.
We made a fighting retreat into the torture room, but not before Romulus went down again. Romulus was dragged into the room and the door was closed. We killed the one or two ants that got in. Remus was able to heal Romulus for one hit point, I think. But he also lost his healing spell, due to complications. I think Romulus had also lost his healing spell.
My dice were coming up with middle numbers. Enough for a spell to work but not without being lost. The numbers weren’t high enough for melee attacks on the ants. Clarissa had enough bonuses to kill the ants, but there were a lot of them. Shory and Brynn attacked with their bows.
I think we opened the door and tried to kill some more, but were almost over run again. Oh, I forgot, when an ant died, a living ant dragged it away. The torture room had many dead ants, so I had the bright idea that we cover ourselves in ant guts, so that we would not be attacked.
I know that we had come out of the torture room once or twice to see a lone ant at the tunnel entrance. It would run away when it saw us and bring back reinforcements. Also, Romulus and Remus spent some hours praying and studying spells, a few times.
One of us remembered that we had not seen any ant tracks down the hallway that led to the trap door under the half-ogre’s home. So covered in ant guts, and carrying a couple of dead ants for a distraction, we made a break for the armory room. As we ran through the jail cell room, someone call down the sinkhole. It was Oscar. Clarissa, Romulus and Remus had not had the pleasure of meeting Oscar, before now.
We made it to the armory, with ants hot on our trail. We waited some more, maybe praying for more spells. Drogar snuck out in the darkness to spy on the ants. I don’t remember if we had to fight them yet again, but at some point Drogar had noticed that the ants were smaller than the earlier ones we had fought and a bit less ferocious. We were finally able to leave our safe room, and did not see any ants. We all also had lit torches, in the hopes that the ants would be afraid of the fire.
We made it to the ant dug tunnel, no ants. We followed in the direction that we thought would lead us to the tower. Eventually, the dug tunnel intersected with a man-made hallway. We followed the hallway to the left, through an archway and it ended in a brick wall. No secret door.
On our way back, someone noticed a symbol over the archway. There was no symbol over the arch on the side we had entered from. Remus made a knowledge check, successfully. The symbol belonged to an order that hunted demons and devils. I do not remember the name of the order.
We followed the hallway back and past the ant tunnel. We came to an area where the hallway was blocked by rubble, except for a space at the top big enough for Brynn to crawl through. She went exploring. On the other side, a dug tunnel entered in to the hallway, and around a corner the hallway opened up in to a larger room. She came back, Drogar started clearing the blockage, and the twins studied their spells.
We followed the hallway past the rubble and around the corner. Brynn checked for traps. Across the room from the hallway were a pair of large stone doors with the symbol engraved in them. The doors split the symbol down the middle. We checked for any kind of seal. We did not find one.
We opened the door and were hit in the face with the stale smell of death.
[That’s where we ended the session.]
