Sic Pixie's Carrion Crown Adventure Path

Pringle blows himself up (fireball to the face)

They all head back to the temple while Nashkar is reluctant to step foot in another faith’s temple he hangs back outside and takes a walk around the exterior. Grembor walks with him making sure there are not oddities in the stonework and any other exits. Sayuri and Pringle head inside leaving Zordlan covering the entrance. The first room the find it is a foyer which has 11 pairs of shoes against the walls; they both remove their shoes and put them in Sayuri’s bag before continuing onwards. They can see from the foyer that four cloaked figures and praying before another statue to Gozreh; as they approach they all turn to look. Rising to their feet they approach and request that they leave the temple as it is a holy place and they are defiling it’s holiness with their evil ways and mindset of violence before diplomacy. Sayuri and Pringle look at each other as they have no idea how these yokels would know anything about them. Sayuri states that she would like to know more about their faith and requests if she could join while Pringle backs up a few paces in readiness to blow them up should they become violent. When Sayuri refuses to leave when asked they try asking her to leave not so politely as they aggressively try to intimidate her. She laughs in their faces but soon backpedals as they reach for weapons as she unleashes five orbs of force towards on of them; giving space for Pringle to unleash his fireball. However the four priests have different idea’s as they close in on the not so distant Pringle and make several bloody holes in his body with their choice of weapons. Pringle will never be able to look a sickle in the eye again; Pringle feeling weak from lack of blood and the fact that each of the supposed priests stuck their sharp pointy objects into really sensitive areas steps back and unleashes some more orbs of force into their faces causing one of them to collapse to the floor with a sigh.

Sayuri with a grin positions a spell behind them and they are taken by surprise as a forest of tentacles take them all roughly from behind and make out to be exceedingly friendly and want loads of hugs causing another one to expire in a fountain of blood erupts from his mouth as his ribcage is crushed. Zordlan manages to notice their plight runs to the rescue as he strikes out from the perimeter of the spell quickly helping to remove the other two. Sayuri cancels the spell and calls back Pringle who had left the building as they examine the bodies and the statue they were praying before. Sayuri just looks at it as a weird depiction of the sea and nature god Gozreh while Pringle who is more knowledgeable about such things recognizes it for what it is. He informs the party that it is a depiction of the Demon Lord Dagon with the squidlike tentacles for hair and other weirdness going on. Seems this Temple has a lot more to it than just an innocent temple to Gozreh. Pringle heals himself up using his tattoo as the sickle waving fanatics almost killed him.

They quickly explore the adjacent rooms and behind one door they can hear the sonorous sound of chanting as if prayers are being said or spells being cast. Pringle in a spark of inspiration takes a step back from the door and prepares to launch one of his world famous fireballs into the room when Grembor opens the door. In hindsight not the most intelligent of idea’s; Grembor opens to door and finds another of those annoying sickle wielding priests in the way of the door closely followed by someone who looks to be rather higher in the religious food chain. The Vicor behind him whose eyes open wide at the sight of a ball of flame speeding towards him as the priest before him moves nimbly out of the way somehow avoiding the implosion of flame entirely. The fireball detonates in the Vicar’s face scorching his fine robes and knocking him back a step. However all is not finished here as Grembor standing beside the door managed to avoid the blast also by stepping to the wall while poor Pringle is blown onto his back by his own spell which detonated significantly closer than he expected. “For someone who is a certified genius that was pretty damn stupid” he thinks to himself as he blanks out from the damage. Zordlan runs to Pringle and drags him from the room while Sayuri uses a charge from her wand of healing to bring him back from the brink of death; some of the burnt flesh becomes pink and the rattle of his last breath becomes a slightly more stable breath of recovery. Sayuri heaves a sigh of relief while Zordlan unlimbers his sword.

The Vicar intones a swift spell stepping back from the doorway and blasts the room with unholy power causing Grembor to chuckle as that spell only really effects those of a good outlook and that does not suit him at all. The Priest returns to the doorway and pulls out his sickle managing to stick Grembor with the pointy end. Grembor stepping back causes his arrows to flame and unleashes a trio of arrows into the Priest causing him to cough up a fountain of blood before collapsing to the floor. The Vicar upset that his previous spell failed to have the desired effect intones another spell in a dark chilling tongue and steps up to Grembor to touch him. Grembor just laughs in his face as the spell washes over him with no effect. Zordlan leaves Pringle to Sayuri’s tender mercies and joins in the fight slashing at the evil Vicar with his sword. Sayuri uses the wand to bring Pringle back to consciousness as he groans in pain as his burns and scars knit over with some new skin.

The Vicar tries another spell upon Grembor which again has no effect very much to his frustration and he backs away hoping to run for re-enforcements; Grembor again unleashes some arrows in his general direction scoring a few hits while Zordlan flails around with his sword. It’s all over when Sayuri arrives and unleashes a bolt of bright blue electricity through the Vicar. The team takes him out with no more serious injuries while Pringle rests in the entranceway.

DM Note: Pringle very nearly killed himself here with the fireball. He had not fully healed from the incident with the sickle’s and the amount of damage from his own spell put him on negative his con. I figured if they managed to heal him this round then he would be ok. Think I am going to have to leave some scars on his face to remind him of this lesson. Nashkar’s player was absent due to sickness so he hung outside refusing to enter another faith’s temple. Of course this becomes moot when it’s a load of Demon Worshippers.

Up next Pringle goes evil …

Hi,

Am enjoying your write up of Carrion Crown.

As a DM who is running Carrion Crown at the moment I just wondered how you were finding it to run?

I myself have tried to be a bit freeform with it as the Adventure Path seems to me to be a bit railroady so I have added in other D and D adventures that have a similar horror theme - the idea being that the actions of the Whispering Way have awoken other dark forces within the land.

Dantardis said:

Hi,

Am enjoying your write up of Carrion Crown.

As a DM who is running Carrion Crown at the moment I just wondered how you were finding it to run?

I myself have tried to be a bit freeform with it as the Adventure Path seems to me to be a bit railroady so I have added in other D and D adventures that have a similar horror theme - the idea being that the actions of the Whispering Way have awoken other dark forces within the land.

Click to expand...

Thank you; Glad you are enjoying it. I enjoy writing this up but it does indeed take up a large portion of my time. It is pretty easy to run and my players are all pretty green so they are currently happy with the linear aspect of the adventure.

I allow a lot of freedom for my players but so far they seem to have stuck with the story; requiring a little hint now and then to remember what they are supposed to be doing. I included the Carrion Crown adventure as suggested in the module as it did indeed fit in with the story quite nicely and would have granted them some cool items to help if they had not sold practically everything they had to bring back party members they got killed.

With a little adjustment here and there the party are doing quite well and I am enjoying running it. I foresee a very bloody death in their future however if they continue in their current manner. Either from creatures or from each other as they seem to be heading on a downward spiral ...

Regards

Sic

Pringle; the downward spiral continues.

Nashkar upon hearing the commotion heads on into the temple and finds Pringle only just getting back to his feet; Checking him over he heals him up with some of his divine granted powers while Sayuri and Grembor search through the loot on the Vicar. Grembor also notices a concealed door in the far wall and makes a mental note to investigate that later as they still have some normal doors which they have not checked yet.

Sayuri and Zordlan stump up to one of these doors; well Sayuri glides while Zordlan in full plate rattles and squeaks. Listening at the door she can hear furtive movement on the other side as if they have been heard and they are preparing to receive unwelcome visitors. Sayuri moves back to the group which has gathered again in the foyer and discuss tactics. They finally decide that Pringles plan while flawed has merit and that Zordlan while greased up would open the door while Sayuri throws in her tentacles spell hoping to reduce whoever is in there to a pile of crushed and mutilated bodies without any pain on their part. The initial part of the plan goes very nicely with Zordlan all greased up throws open the door and Sayuri launches her spell into the small room. Sayuri only just missed out on catching herself in the spell effects as she stood back significantly further away than Pringle did on his attempt. However the one major flaw in this plan is that the people on the other side of the door decided that this tiny little room was not a favorable battle ground for their tactics and so they moved into another room so the spell is wasted.

Sayuri curses in a most un-monk like fashion and stamps about petulantly for a while deploring how other people can have tactics and not conform to her whimsical wishes as the rest of the party look on in surprise. Grembor and Pringle shaking their heads move onto another door further into the temple and perform a similar tactic although Pringle holds back on unleashing a spell as soon as the door is opened. Grembor checks out the room which looks to be a relatively lavish bed chamber; some of the shadows at the corner of his eye seem to shift in a funny ways but apart from this it’s normal. However after stepping into the room four figures emerge from the various shows and behind drapes and attempt to sink their sickles into his vulnerable parts. Grembor being very experienced at such a tactic is however not caught with his pants down and easily evades such an amateur move. Nashkar in the doorway stays in the doorway blocking them moving to hit the more squishy Pringle while Zordlan opens another door to the room and Sayuri repeats her tactic of earlier with much better results. All the Priests are caught in the grasping tentacles; as are Grembor, Nashkar and Pringle along with Pringle’s monkey. Some greasing up from Sayuri soon aids in their release and the wayward Priests are soon brought to account and sent to meet their Demonic patron personally. After Sayuri cancels her tentacle spell they all search the room finding several items to do with water activities and a few expensive looking gold statues depicting disturbing images. Again Grembor finds another concealed door but declines to mention it while Sayuri Zordlan and Pringle go and search the Vicar’s room as they were somewhat indisposed when this room was looked over. Sayuri finds the secret door that Grembor found earlier and moves to open it.

Opening the door they discover a young couple sitting and looking very scared; they hold each other in an attempt to comfort themselves. Sayuri tries talking to them but they politely request they are left alone; Sayuri accepts their request and backs from the room. Pringle suspecting something is afoot pulls out his crossbow and shoots the female in the head; he is somewhat surprised and disappointed as her head explodes due to the force of the bolt leaving her still twitching body pinned to the wall behind her with an impressive blood splatter covering the wall. The male in shock leaps to his feet with a scream of fear and charges across the room in righteous anger attempting to punch Pringle but missing by a rather large margin. Pringle calmly reloads his crossbow and shoots again point blank hitting the poor man in his chest; the bolt goes right though his broken heart but he no longer needs it as he is thrown backwards with his blood pouring our and mingling with his wife’s as it trickles to one of the many pools of water in the room which begins to glow gently

Sayuri and Zordlan look on in shock as Pringle calmly puts away his crossbow; he turns towards them and seeing their faces looks surprised. Shrugging he starts to walk away before he hears a whispering in his mind with a voice like a million throats spluttering their last breath as they drown. “Not performed in the usual manner but sacrifice accepted puny mortal.” Pringle spins around and his magical sight allows him to see the trickle of blood from the corpse’s pulsating with a sickly green light as it seeps into a nearby pool which also then glows with an eldritch light. The two corpses wither and dry as it the life is sucked from their no longer required bodies as sounds of crackling laughter come from a doorway leading further into the temple.

Grembor opens the door and finds himself looking at an evil alter to Dagon where the blood from the two sacrificed victims looks to have seeped to. The altar is currently swimming with vividly pulsating blood as it seems to beat in tune to Pringles swiftly beating heart. He feels as if someone had grasped hold of his heart and squeezed finding it difficult to catch his breath for a moment before he recovers and draws in a huge breath. The altar of blood explodes in a torrent of bloody water covering most of the party who all flinch away reflectively. When they turn to look back a large tentacled creature is squatting before the altar with bloody water running over its glowing rune marked carapace. Pringle takes one look and several thoughts pass through his troubled mind prompted by the insidious whispering before he screams clutching at his head and runs from the temple screaming about the voices in his head. Everyone watches him leave with various thoughts on their mind; mostly that the mass of arcane energy his mind holds seems to have finally broken it.

Pringle, upon the summoning of Demons.

The Feindish Chull however has no such thoughts; its divine mandate is to remove interlopers from the temple and protect it from the curios. This it attempts to do by grasping Grembor in both of its claws which rip holes in his skin and armor. Zordlan takes out some holy water and pours it down his blade hoping it will help fight off this monstrous creature as Sayuri and Nashkar both argue about its origins and weaknesses. Sayuri predictably fires off some force missiles which impact upon its shell each with a sharp retort while Nashkar attempts to send it back to where it came from with a powerful spell but strangely it does not work. Grembor is squeezed by the claws as they twist his poor body relentlessly; he screams in pain as he feels ribs cracking and joints popping. Zordlan runs in with his holy watered sword and hits the creature which annoys it and cracks some of its carapace. Sayuri takes out some holy water and pours it over her hands intending to beat the overgrown lobster into the pot with her bare fists while Nashkar channels positive energy hoping to damage the creature as it is a denizen of Hell. The positive energy washing over it makes it giggle in an odd jiggly fashion as the runes carved into the shell glow brightly in response.

Grembor is passed to its writhing tentacles surrounding its mouth and he goes limp as the Chull chews down upon him blood pouring from his paralyzed body as his mind looks on in horror. The Chull if it had them would be smacking his lips in appreciation of the aberrant tainted elf that is Grembor. Zordlan continues to hammer upon its shell with his sword causing it some annoyance while Sayrui circles around the creature to find a suitable place to attack the creature; she advances and unleashes a fist of fury which misses. There is a torrent of unladylike mutterings from Sayuri’s mouth which causes Zordlan to look at her sharply. Pringle still hears the whisperings in his mind and considers briefly bashing in his head with a rock to stop it but the logical part of his mind overrides that thought quickly before it takes hold. He is standing outside of the Temple and the locals who can see him look very scared as he talks to himself. With a mental shake he turns and re-enters the Temple as he can hear the faint sounds of battle within. Nashkar Channels again healing up Grembor as his tortured body had taken a substantial beating from the creature’s claws.

The Chull lashes out at Zordlan lifting him into the air in its claw; his armor squeals in protect as does Zordlan as the claw squeezes him tightly; there are popping sounds as the buckles fastening his steel breastplate pop. The Chull does not have anywhere else to put him but holding him tightly hopefully prevents the annoying little thing from hitting it. Zordlan struggles to break free of the creature’s hold but fails while Sayuri stepping back fires off some more force missiles which again strike upon the Chull’s shell causing minute cracks to spread from the area’s of impact. Pringle can see the combat and rushes to help; seeing the situation of the party with the two main combat figures helpless he starts summoning some help in the form of another Demon. Disturbing sounding vocals and the aroma of death and decay arise from the area surrounding Pringle but he does not seem to notice; around his feet a shadowy forest of clutching hands and tentacles spring into being vainly trying to grasp hold of Pringle’s robes and drag him down to Hell to be with them but they are unable to hold anything in their insubstantial fingers. Nashkar seeing the problems the party faces mutters a powerful transmutation and grows to the size of a giant; with this added power he advances upon the creature and attempts to pull Zordlan from its grasp.

Fiendish lobster grabs for Zordlan attempting to tear him apart to consume in gobbets of still warm flesh; Zordlan is pulled and torn but thankfully remains whole. Grembor finds he has life returning to him limbs and manages to slither from the tentacles grasp sliding to the floor beside the beast; Zordlan tries to extract himself but is held fast but is assisted by Sayuri who casts a quick spell covering him in grease which makes it much easier for Nashkar to pull him from the Chull’s claws. Pringle finishes his summons and a portal opens behind the Chull; the portal dips blood onto the floor and as it opens in an eye wrenching twist of reality; out steps a blood dripping Babu Demon. The Demon looks towards its supposed master Pringle, cocking his head as to receive his orders. Then he seems to commune with a higher power before nodding to Pringle and attacking the Chull from the rear ripping into shell and delving into the soft flesh beneath with it’s wicked bloody claws.

The Chull stands no chance now and soon expires in a fountain of gore from the animalistic Babu Demon ripping it to shreds, Grembor sinking his sword and dagger into whichever vulnerable spot he can find; Zordlan’s sword and Nashkar’s now large sparking axe. It is a very messy evening in the temple to Dagon the Demon Prince and who is to say the Demon didn’t enjoy his evening’s entertainment.

Pringle dismisses the Babu Demon with a flick of his hand; the Demon looks at him with a knowing grin and a friendly nod before stepping back into the re-appeared portal and slinking away. Pringle hears muttering and the occasional whisper resounding inside of his skull and clutching his head in his hands starts making his way towards the door. The rest of the party with concerned looks his way investigate the one remain door. Inside they discover some headless bodies; closer inspection reveals that the heads were not severed but the best idea they could come up with is that the heads were torn off by some powerful force; possibly the Chull had something to do with it. Grembor notices that one of the bodies looks like it is not local and does a quick search finding a scrap of paper that he is sure matches the ledger in the stable they were assaulted in Thrushmoor. The note reads “Rider on the way with effigy. Meet at Old House outside town for exchange.” While the content of the note means little to them they are sure it is important and the effigy could mean the Seasage Effigy they are tracking. They pocket it for now and continue searching; Sayuri heads to the two locals killed by a paranoid Pringle and a quick search reveals the couples possession’s included several items used in nurse a young baby including bottle and changes of diapers and such. Sayuri does a quick scan to make sure they have not missed the baby but can find nothing else to indicate where this is.

Pringle decides to head back in and passes close to the weird statue of Dagon; the voices in his mind continue to whisper and taunt him; promising secrets and powers beyond imagination. Pringle tries to ignore them but fails to see the danger as a sluglike being launches itself at him and impacts upon his leg. He screams and drops to the floor clutching at his leg in agony as the slippery slug burrows into his flesh and disappears into his leg with a final taunting wave of its tail. Pringle screams for help shouting ‘It is in my leg, the slug is in my leg” and the party come running. An examination by Nashkar and Sayuri shows no evidence at all that anything attacked Pringle however; there is no broken skin and the only slight suggestion anything is out of the ordinary is a small red mark left by the slug’s apparent passage. Pringle can’t believe it and feels a twinge in his hip and hysterically tells them that the slug is inside him and trying to reach his heart. Another hurried search finds nothing out of the ordinary and Nashkar’s professional opinion is that Pringle has lost his somewhat tenuous grasp on reality and he is seeing things. They are all still shocked over his apparent cold blooded murder of two innocent locals and can only assume he has lost him marbles.

They pick up Pringle who shakily gets to his feet and staggers over to sit down on an available seat while the rest of the party clean up the Temple checking for clues and loot when there is another scream from Pringle as he feels something pinch at the base of his skull and he is certain that whatever killed all those headless people was going to kill him too. It take much longer to calm him down this time and many in the party are considering powerful sedatives as a crazy delusional mass murderer who can teleport and throw balls of fire from his hands is a serious liability.

DM Note: Yes in a temple dedicated to the Demon Lord Dagon Pringle thinks it is a great idea to summon another Demon … This is after killing (sacrificing) a pair of innocent locals close enough to the Demon Lords Altar to draw his attention and the attention of the temples fiendishly divine protector.

A restless night

The party head back out into the night; the sun went down a while ago and most of the village is indoors. They try talking to the Mayor but the town hall is locked up tightly. They head back to the Inn and have some dinner before heading to bed; several of the group decides they need a bath after being covered in bloody gore and order hot water is brought to their rooms. It has been a long and frightening day for all concerned and they feel the need to wash the day off them.

Everyone has a good nights sleep; that is except Pringle who as soon as his eyes close he can hear the scratching sound in his mind; scratching like a cat at the door wanting to gain entrance. He gets up and checks the door several times to see if there is an actual animal outside but there never is. The whispers constantly bring him back from the verge of sleep once he gives into the exhaustion; his night is a restless night of constant interruption and lying awake listening to the whispers that only he can hear. He wonders if he is going insane.

Wake of the Watcher Part 2

The following morning everyone is feeling refreshed apart from Pringle who is sporting a pair of sleep deprived eyes and the slumped shoulders of fatigue. They sit and have a quiet breakfast while worried eyes watch the sleep deprived mage as he talks absently to himself while looking through his books.

After breakfast they head to see the mayor who seems happy to see them; motioning them into nearby seats he leans forward and looks at them expectantly. “What have you discovered my friends, what can you tell me.” They tell what they found with the probable missing people, the fact that the temple does not actually worship Gozreh but is actually dedicated to Dagon; Mayor Greedle does an astounding job of looking surprised and alarmed at the same time; so good in fact that the party belief he is in fact surprised and alarmed. When they mention the abandoned house outside of town he grins; “I do believe you can kill two birds with one stone in this matter. I think I saw the high priest Albor Voltiaro heading that way a day or so ago, if he was not at the temple I assume he is still there. Plus your dark rider headed that way; sorry I did not wish for you to run off there without looking into our other problem first.” He finishes his statement with a sly grin; they all look at one another, thank the mayor for the information and request directions to the abandoned house. Directions are given and they leave to head straight there.

They pack up their gear and head out up the carriage trail to this old house; Grembor scanning the ground find evidence of several beings passing this way recently; one with very large feet. Additionally there are the tracks of a horse which are older but not quite yet faded away. He is unable to decipher how many people but it’s more than a couple.

They approach the house and find Undiomede House is a 200-year-old, two-story stone manse built on the shore of a small, swampy lake near the edge of the Soddentimbers roughly 2 miles east of Illmarsh. The house is constructed of mortared stone for both interior and exterior walls. As a result it has weathered the years fairly well despite the 7 decades of abandonment. The ground floor has flagstones, while the floors of the second story are wood and sag alarmingly. The wooden roof sags and is riddled with holes allowing the elements to ravage whatever furnishings once stood in the house. All of its windows are now little more than gaping openings in the walls with only a few fragments of glass in their remaining wooden frames. The house consists of two wings around a central dome with a cupola and widow’s walk. Unlike the wooden roof covering the rest of the house, the stone dome is still intact. A small family cemetery lies 50 yards east of the house on a low rise which is just barely visible through the screening trees. The party approaches with little regard for stealth; they peer in windows with little thought to whom or what may be watching them. They finally decide to split up as Nashkar and Pringle head to the carriage house while Sayuri and Zordlan head for the main door.

Nashkar and Pringle discover a badly treated horse in the stable, a piebald mare with a symbol upon its rump which they seem to think they have seen before but just can’t place. Nashkar creates some food and water for the poor beast and continue searching. Sayuri and Zordlan discover a few seemingly empty rooms; they decline to enter these rooms just opening the doors and peering in. The last door they open finds Nashkar looking at them down the length of his crossbow; he relaxes as he realizes who it is. They continue exploring the derelict mansion opening doors and peering into rooms as they go without fully exploring them.

They get to one door however and they can hear the sound of something large moving on the other side. Sayuri and Zordlan on one door while Grembor, Pringle and Nashkar man the other. On the count of three they both open their doors together which causes some surprise for the creature within.
However this also causes some surprise for the party as well as they were not expecting a large Marsh Giant to be standing in the middle of this large room waiting for them. They had made little to no attempt to be quiet in their approach.

The Marsh Giant opens with a double strike upon Sayuri which almost takes her to her knees as its huge club causes tremendous amounts of damage to the stunned Monk. Sayuri staggers back out of the room as Zordlan charges in catching it with his sword. Grembor unleashes a flurry of fire arrows at the unfortunate creature and Pringle sends in some rays of flame from his finger; one of which misses while the other scores a scorch upon the giants shoulder. Nashkar quickly heals up the shaken Sayuri who is not used to this sort of abuse. The giant is actually brought down very quickly; its obscuring mist aside they close and hammer, slash and pierce it’s tough hide sending it crashing to the floor bleeding it’s last upon the strange looking alter in the room. Only then do they look around the strange looking round room.

The main room on the mansion seems to have been build around the much older remains of an ancient stone circle; the uprights are looking to have been used as the supports for the walls and floors above. In the centre of the circular room seems to be an alter stone of some sort; its current use or the use to which it was intended in the house is only to be imagined. They decide to head up the stairs instead of fully exploring the lower level so the sneaky members of the party start up. (Like they have not made enough noise already) Grembor and Sayuri both make it to the single door on the upper floor and they can hear the sound of someone chanting on the other side. They motion the rest of the group up and the clatter and bang of full plate echoes around the house.

Normal Service will resume shortly. RL impacted and not been playing for a few weeks. Have a little to write up and post but other things keep getting in the way.

I Love Gold!!! Greed is a great motivator.

Through the doorway is a human wearing more gold than the party has seen in their lifetime. Wielding a trident which looks to have been fashioned from gold and an impressive headdress again gold and formed in the likeness of a giant fish its mouth gaping open. The party all think they want the headdress as Sayuri, Pringle and Nashkar drool over the artistic piece of priceless ornamentation. However the current owner of this item is less than willing to give it all up and initiates discussions on ownership with some offensive magic. He has already had time to prepare as the group was like an approaching avalanche as they ascended the stairs.

Grembor opens noting that this important looking evil unholy person is preparing to cast slides into the room positioning himself in one corner and hits him with an arrow which glances off his shoulder armor leaving a bruise. The high priest turns towards Grembor grinning insanely as he drops a wall of spinning and slashing blades separating himself from Grembor as it extends through the doorway causing Sayuri to leap into the room to avoid its deadly effects. This however has the added side effect of leaving Sayuri and the high priest in the same room only a foot or two apart. Her eyes wander over his body absorbing the mass of potential loot and a greedy grin appears upon her attractive face. Sayuri casts carefully considering the closeness of her foe and unleashes a bolt of lightning point blank into the high priests face; he takes the full force of the spell and grits his teeth as it rips through him. Zordlan looks at the wall of blades before him and pulls out his bow and fires off a pair of arrows one is chewed up by the wall of blades but the other strikes the priest high in his leg bouncing off his armor. Pringle summons some energy and surrounds himself in some armor. Nashkar stumps up to the top of the stairs behind Zordlan and looks around and decides that he is not walking through that.

Grembor fires several arrows through the wall; some of which are chewed up by the spinning and twirling blades while the others make it through to hit the priest. In response he casts a quick spell and covers his hand in a black swirling energy; reaching out to touch Sayuri he runs his fingers down her cheek. Sayuri shudders in response as the fell energies course through her but she resists the majority of the effects and glares at him in response. She again summons her lightning and fires it into him point blank which again he fails to avoid as he takes the brunt of the damage in his chest. Zordlan looks at the wall of blades before him and sighs in resignation before steeling himself; dropping his bow and charging through it; he emerges on the other side battered torn and cut but still alive. He draws his sword and gets ready to attack the upstart priest. Pringle looks at the spell effect before him and shakes his head as the crazy elf runs through the wall; he takes out some expensive diamond dust and sprinkles it over himself making his flesh harden and glitter like stone. Nashkar Channels some energy to heal everyone up a little.

More arrows burst through the wall from Grembor’s bow impacting upon the gold adorned figure of the high priest; in response he calls down a hail of ice covering the area with a slick slippery surface which hamper any movement and bludgeoning the party with the solid ice. He is looking more desperate now as the full plate wearing elf is getting too close; he had hoped the ice spell would reduce him to his knees after passing through his wall of blades. Alas for him our Zordlan is made of sterner stuff than that. Sayuri fires off a torrent of force missiles each of them impacting upon his head and shoulders with jaw breaking force while Zordlan slashes him across his chest with his blade causing some bloody rents in his armor. Pringle decides against running into battle through the wall of blades and sits back to observe the proceedings. Nashkar again channels energy through the party of which Zordlan is heavily in need of as it takes him from the point of collapse to a point where he only wants to collapse.

The high priest sees the end in near in the form of three burning arrows speeding towards his chest from Grembor who is shooting him from the other side of the barrier; each arrow strikes true knocking him back against the wall as he sinks to his knees his eyes glazing over. Sayuri before the body could even hit the ground grasps hold of his golden helm in both hands in glee wondering how much it would be worth and how it would look on her head. However as soon as the helm clears the priests head the head explodes sending brain and skull matter splattering over Sayuri and Zordlan. They both stagger back as a writhing mass of tentacles erupt from the now headless corpse and whip at them. Sayrui is immediately caught in their grasp and they tightly squeeze her chest as she feels a rib or two snap under the unbelievable pressure but she still keeps hold of the gold helm; Zordlan however is almost as surprised as one of the high priests hand smacks his across the jaw with tremendous force as he sees stars before his eyes before he shakes his head to clear the fogginess of impending unconsciousness. Grembor feels his sanity draining away as he looks upon the horrific visage before him however everyone else seems to be immune to the mind shattering implications.

Pringle with his protections in place runs through the spinning blades of the spell and into the room, thankfully his spell takes much of the damage; he is awarded with the sight of Sayuri being lifted off her feet by a mass of writhing tentacles that have somehow erupted from the body of the high priest. Pringle feels a twinge at the base of his skull as if something there moved in sympathy to the abomination. He staggers out of the spell his mind analyzing the creature before him without actually registering the horror of it; Pringle is becoming more and more mentally in line with the creature than with his companions. Nashkar standing on the other side of the wall of spinning blades tries firing a spell through the blades but the beam of light is deflected by the barrier and does not affect the aberration. However the creature is just one opponent, a tough one with many resistances but just a creature and it is soon brought down low by arrows, swords and spells from the party and it ruptures into four sluglike creatures which makes Pringle scream as they swiftly slither from the room. Sayuri requires some serious healing to remain alive and Zordlan had several shades of bruising all over his body from the assault of the creature’s fists but these are soon alleviated by Nashkar’s healing.

Sayuri is still holding tightly to the golden circlet and gifts it to Nashkar for healing her; Pringle goes off in a sulk as he wanted the fine piece of fish gold to wear on his head. Grembor searches the rooms and discovers a little treasure but nothing of any true worth apart from a gold trident, the gold headpiece and a strange looking golden magical talisman which radiates almost negligible conjuration magic. The rest is just gold and not magical in nature.

Dangerous things Libraries

Pringle sulking wanders into another room which looks like it could have been a library at one point. However as he pokes through the remains of old ruined books a sudden chill descends upon him. Looking up from the floor an apparition glides out of one of the walls and descends upon him; driving its spectral hand into his chest he feels something tear inside of him as the Spectre pulls part of his life force out of his spasming chest and absorbs the energy into itself becoming more solid. “Could this get any worse” Pringle thinks to himself as he screams out loud in a wailing fear filled scream which makes the rest of the party jump. Then it does get worse as another Spectre slides into the room and forcibly removes another fragment of his soul into itself. Pringle in a panic retreats from them running through the doorway and into the corridor outside. They however effortlessly glide through the wall and they both attack Pringle again stripping his life from his body and leaving him with only the abilities of a fledgling adventurer and the lowest of spells left to him. Nashkar channels energy into them healing up the minor scrapes and bruises left the party and dealing some damage to the pair who recoil in pain at the onslaught. Sayuri fires off some force missiles which easily strike one of the pair ripping some of its insubstantial form asunder but it manages to hold itself together. Grembor fires off several arrows of which most pass through them; as Zordlan goes to shoot one but his arrows pass through them harmlessly.

Pringle retreats again to hide behind the party while the Spectres advance upon the source of their pain and strip Nashkar of some of his life force reducing him to his knees with the shock as they both heal up some of the damage to their forms; they both grow more solid. Nashkar channels again with less effect than previously due to the result of the life draining touch of the undead but they both writhe in agony as the positive energy rips through them. Grembor again fires arrows each trailing fire towards them which seem to have more effect as the bust upon impact ripping the tenacious link to unlife of one of them close to final death. This one rounds upon Grembor intending to suck the life from him as the other still gazes down upon the kneeling dwarf. Zordlan draws his sword and steps before Sayuri to protect her.

Pringle fires off a weak force missile from a wand as the Spectre’s move into action again. One which is still trailing smoke approaches Grembor and with a fond caress of his face sucks some of his life force out while the other manages to miss the almost prone dwarf with its life draining touch. Another channel and several arrows and force missiles later both Spectres and dismissed back to the netherworld with a scream of pain and anguish and the party are feeling decidedly weak and under prepared for this place. Unfortunately the Spectre’s had stripped the spells from Nashkar’s mind that would have helped restore their flagging powers and as there was only a few remaining rooms they had not explored yet they made the decision to continue onwards.