Dwimmer Deep

[Mistwell]

Session 28

May 22, 2014
Present: Max, Noah, John, Matt A.

Leaving the realm of the elemental caves, the party discussed the possibility of attempting to charm one of the dark elves to gain passage to to the region beyond the bridge, but opted instead to explore the remaining door in the lair previously inhabited by the orcish warriors and their evil clan.

Slink listened at the door and examined it for traps. Hearing nothing, he did find a small panel that raised to view past the door to within the chamber beyond. Peering through, Bear could see nothing but a stone pillar in the way of his view, about 15 feet in, and otherwise it appeared to be a large dark chamber.

Slink then oiled the hinges on the door (which were on his side), and a plan was devised. They would open the door, and first Bear would look within, identify what he could, and then close the door again to revise the plan.

The door was carefully opened silently, and Bear slowly stuck his head within the chamber.

And there, atop a glittering pile of coins, deep in the darkness on a raised area within the large chamber, lay a dragon! It was difficult to identify the color with darkvision, but it was perhaps red!

He closed the door. Quickly.

The party started to sweat. A dragon? Could they handle a dragon? "Of course!" said Slink! But, he'd been acting like that since he donned his new armor, so what did he know?

"Could it be an illusion?" speculated Milo. "Maybe it's an illusion put there by the drow to fool the orcs?" answered Slink.

"There's gold. Keep that in mind, lots of gold. We should investigate further," said Bear.

The party reluctantly agreed, and a new plan was devised.

The two bugbears, who could see in the dark, would lead the way. Slink would follow, keeping contact with the shoulder of one bugbear as he went, while Milo held the arm of the other bugbear. Hollin and Father Rivers would stay within the orc chamber waiting to charge in at the opportune moment. Luther held a copper piece in his hand with a Light spell cast on it by Milo, covered entirely in his palm waiting for the signal to throw it and commence the attacks on whatever might lay within. Milo, casting Detect Magic from the orc chamber, held his concentration and would determine if any magic items were within the pile of treasure. If there were, the dragon was likely real, and he would give the signal to throw the Lighted coin and attack.

The door was once again opened, and the party stealthily and slowly crept in. Bear and Luther eagerly peered into the darkness, attempting to discern any movement or warmth within. The dragon stirred, but still lay still on the pile of coins. Milo, blind in the darkness, could nevertheless sense points of magic beneath the dragon, perhaps several. It seemed to be real. "REAL!" he cried, and the coin was thrown and the assault was one!

As soon as the chamber lit up the dragon awoke, but too late to act before the stalwart heroes. Immediately Milo and Slink recognized that this was of the dragon family, but not quite a full fledged dragon itself. Instead, they faced a Wyvern - a deadly creature that could fly rapidly, and strike with deadly accuracy with a spiked tail that contained a potent poison.

Slink, who had been awaiting the signal with his bow drawn and an arrow ready, focused on his foe with the calm of a trained assassin. Zeroing in on the things vulnerable neck, he let lose an arrow that struck home perfectly! With a roar the Wyvern reared back, thrashing as the arrow opened a wound that spouted dragonblood across the chamber.

Bear then charged and attacked, followed quickly by three deadly flame strikes from Milo two of which struck home. Luther attacked with his polearm as Father Rivers tried to char it with his own holy flame but missed as the thing thrashed under the horrible series of attacks it had just suffered. Finally, Hollin charged in and struck a hard blow to the already injured neck of the creature, severing it through!

The Wyvern was dead, and before it had even gotten off a single attack!

Carefully dragging the body from the pile of treasure, the party made a quick count of the treasure (with Bear leading the way) as Milo first detected magic and then Identified any magic items.

The treasure horde turned out to include the following: 1600 copper pieces, 300 electrum pieces, 80 gold pieces, 10 platinum pieces, 13 citrine gems worth 11 gold pieces each, three potions (climbing, speak with animals, and disguise self), and a Black Dragon Scale Mail (AC 15 +2 Dex Modifier).

The black dragon scale mail is made from midnight-black scales which fit together perfectly and move with the smoothness of a slithering serpent. The suit of this armor usually has a matching helmet that incorporates a dragon’s horns. While worn, this armor trails a ghostly darkness resembling a dragon’s folded wings and tail. When the wearer is agitated or attacked, this shadow cloak flares and spreads, suggesting outstretched wings, as the tail thrashes behind. The wearer would be immune to acid, and once per day (renewed at dusk) the wearer would be resistant to slashing, piercing, and bludgeoning damage, for up to 5 minutes. It may have some additional properties which Milo was unable to determine with his spell.

Bear decided to take the scale mail for now, as the party stowed the remainder of the treasure, and moved on to the door to the south.

Listening at the door, Slink could hear mutterings of someone who seemed to be talking to themselves in alternating dwarven and common.

A similar sneaking plan was devised, but this time Milo would charge in and cast a charm spell from his newly acquired staff at whatever was within. The sneaking proved unnecessary, as the thing within was a mad dwarf who was convinced the party was one of it's hallucinations. Milo's spell did charm the creature, who said his name was Arthur (though he had trouble remembering his name for a bit).

Arthur explained he and his party had come down through a chimney, using potions of diminution to do so, after having fought some harpies. The party had then avoided the dragon, and explored the chamber further to the west past a now-barricaded door. There, they had found creatures that could turn you to stone, with perhaps snakes for hair. All the rest of his group had perished to the snake-stoning people, and only he had escaped. He had been here in this smallish chamber ever since, which was a very long time.

How did he eat? Why, ale of course! One of his barrels (of which he had many) was a magical ever-ful barrel of ale. That, along with a bit of food (though not enough of it) had held him over to now. But trapped as he was, and without an additional potion to escape back through the chimney or further down the hole (which had since been converted to a latrine), he had remained trapped here for a long time.

The party convinced Arthur they were real, and escorted him to the exit of the dungeons. They also, though painstaking planning and hauling, managed to eventually carry the magical barrel of ale back to the exit. Slink hoped Arthur could start a bar with the ale (and the previously found everfull waterskin) creating an endless supply of product for their future bar.

Traveling back through the dungeon to Arthur's prior chambers, the part stopped briefly to recover some shards of steel left over from the broken steel lid from the elemental caves, to use as reflective surfaces to peer at the potential Medusa without risking stoning.

The party slowly, carefully, opened the door to the west, and crept inside. The bugbears could see very long corridors to both the north and the west. They also saw a statue, an apparent victim of the Medusa.

Slink crept north ahead of the party, as Hollin had light cast on his sword again. Slink peered around corners with his shard of metal, and was able to identify further corridors, twisting and turning like a maze.

And there, squeezing through a small opening and turning his shard of metal to see further around the corner, he spotted a creature with it's back to him! He crept back to the party, to discuss a plan of attack.

[Everyone except Max should be available next week]

 

[Mistwell]

Season 29

June 12, 2014
Present: Kyle (first time), Matt A, Jason, Noah, John

[I do not have a full record for this session. This is a brief summary]

The players slowly entered the lair of the medusa, moving as quietly as they could and checking for traps and creatures as they went. They had decided on an elaborate plan to have Slink disguise self with potion of disguise, as statue. They would then web the southern corridor, and lure the medusa in to kill it.

But fist, the party revived two statues with water from the magic well (see entry around August 1, 2013). They were one ancient human female, and one modern dwarf. From these two, they were able to discovery there are at least two medusa in the room.

They put the plan into action, and it almost worked. However, Slink missed his assassination attempt! Slink was nearly turned to stone, but Father Rivers' blessing saved him.

The party managed to dispatch the medusa, and formulated a new plan for the second one. They would send Slink to run down the hall, and lure the medusa into an ambush.

However, it turned out not one, but two basilisks showed up!

Slink damaged one, dodged the gaze of the other, as the party moved in. With the basilisks killed, the plan to lure the second medusa began again.

While Slink moved down the hallway however, the rest of the party noticed something moving in south-eastern corridor, that seemed to be cleaning behind it. Someone else then spotted something moving in south-western corridor as well, a yellow oozing thing on ceiling.

With the Medusa likely coming from the west as Slink ran back, the party realized they were quickly being surrounded.

Stopped there for the week.
[Should be good for next week]

 

[Mistwell]

Session 30

June 19, 2014
Present: Kyle, John, Jason, Noah, Matt A

[Another Summary]

The combat against the Medusa and her allies continued!

The party was in a tight spot, with a medusa known to be to the west somewhere out of sight, an ochre jelly on the ceiling to the west of Hollin, and a possible Gelatinous cube somewhere to the east.

Hollin and Luther split the jelly.

The Cube surprised Hollin and engulfed him!

Milo sent a flaming sphered at the jelly.

Slink assassinated the medusa, but was surprised by a second medusa (third total). They both charged him, turning him to stone as he cried out a warning!

Hollin split the Jelly again, before getting trapped in the cube. The flaming sphere took out three of the four jellies.

Hollin got himself out of the cube, taking some acid damage in process. He hit it, and retreated.

Father Rivers engaged the medusa, along with Bear, after Bear took a whack at the cube.

Milo too out the last Jelly with the sphere and concentrated the sphere's attack on the Cube, followed by three flame jets.

Father Rivers and Bear, then finally Luther, took down one medusa as the other fled.

Hollin took down the Cube, then moved to help with the last medusa.

Bear and Luther took down the last medusa.

The party found a chest containin 2700 Copper Pieces and 180 silver pieces . There was also a flame tongue longsword, and a scroll of hold person (cleric) and a potion of climbing.

Hollin got the longsword, and the party went to unpetrify Slink.

 

[Mistwell]

Session 31

July 24, 2014
Present: Max, Noah, Jason

Very short session tonight. Talked a lot about Basic edition, Starter Set, and Alpha playtest document, and plans for altering characters to conform to the new information (or not).

Noah, who took the flametongue sword, traded his remaining +1 Sword with one of the NPCs rescued from petrification for a magical wooden mace that changed form every time he used it, in subtle ways, and had some ancient inscription on it from some lost ancient human kingdom that he could not read.

The party created a plan to raid the drow, and were about to do that when we left off. Plan included surprise, a medusa head, and trouble!

 

[Mistwell]

Session 32


July 31, 2014
Present: Max, Noah, Jason, John

The night of the epic battle against the drow!

The plan, as conceived last week, was for Slink to unlock the door, and everyone to run in with as much stealth as they could muster, taking down any guard seen, leaping the chasm to avoid the known-trap where possible, and turning anyone to stone with the head of the medusa held by Father Rivers, hopefully.

The plan was put into action, and it went rather well! Everyone except Father Rivers got the drop on the one guard in the chamber with the chasm. Bear and Luther leaped over the chasm, clearing 15 feet with ease. Hollin ran in, but hesitated prior to the bridge, as he did not want to jump the chasm in heavy armor, and as unsure exactly where the trap might be. Milo and Slink also held back on the far side of the chasm.

Bear and Luther took the guard down, but not before the guard could yell for help. Unfortunately someone was on the other side of the door from the guard. The door opened, and darkness dropped on the half of the group on the near side of the chasm.

Father Rivers finally moved in, as Slink uncovered the trap on the bridge and Hollin and Milo moved across.

Bear managed to spot some unusual dark headgear with glass in them over the eyes of one of the drow, before the darkness hit. He grabbed it off the dead guard, found a trigger button on it, and found he could see in the deeper darkness spell with the glasses on!

He moved in and took down the next guard, while grabbing more glasses and trying to get them to Hollin. Meanwhile Father Rivers, moving as best his memory of the surroundings could guide him, ran to the wall and using his Thumaturgy and medusa head, attempted to turn one of the drow to stone.

It seemed to be working, though Rivers couldn't tell, blind as he was in the darkness.

Hollin managed to grab the glasses from Bear and trigger them, and he moved in as well, all while Slink lite a torch and Milo tried (and failed) to dispel the darkness with a light spell.

Many more drow could be seen down the corridor now, and one of them hit Bear with a poisoned crossbow bolt! Bear felt like he was starting to drag his feet a bit, but was able to press on.

Finally, the guy who Rivers had attempted to turn to stone did, indeed, turn to stone. And with that, his concentration broken, the Darkness spell fell. Yay everyone could see again! For now...

Everyone moved in, with Bear, Luther, and Hollin in the lead, followed by Slink, Milo, and Rivers. Several more drow dropped to the combined attacks, as another further back let loose against the party with twin hand crossbows. Bear survived the onslaught, and charged down the passageway after the drow who had just shot him, with reckless abandon at his hatred for the drow! Luther, not to be outdone, followed him.

The twin-crossbow drow did manage to pound on a door to his north before falling to Hollins flaming sword, as Bear challenged a drow with flaming eyes further down the cooridor. That drow didn't last long, while Bear caught someone opening the door to the north. With a cry of rage he smashed into the rapidly opening door, knocking down the drow behind it!

With a quick slash of his weapon, he dropped that drow and moved further into the new room. This room seemed to be full of drow wizards of some kind.

Luther followed him in, as did Hollin, and Slink, while Milo and Rivers stayed in the passageway. Hollin made short work of another guard with his flaming sword. It was obvious to the remaining drow wizards that death was soon to be on them.

Suddenly, in an act of savagery and revenge, one of the remaining drow wizards let loose with a fireball, in his own room!

BOOOM! Both remaining drow were instantly incinerated. Slink dropped as well, as Bear, Luther, and Hollin did their best to jump behind furniture and dodge the deadly blast. The room's walls were charred as flames licked across every surface.

Knowing the sound made from the blast would alert more drow nearby, everyone held their guard. Rivers started to heal the fallen Slink, as Luther and Hollin steeled themselves for the coming onslaught (second wind). Rivers cast another healing spell, as Milo hid behind the newly minted statue of a drow, and everyone else prepared in the now-charred room.

A door opened further down the corridor, as six more drow wizards came charging in a pack to the sound of the fireball. The party readied for further battle...

"I'd love to just charge in, but then these guys will cast 'ray of hatin life' and such, so maybe not." -Noah

[Most people think they will be available next week, though Jason is iffy)

 

[Mistwell]

Session 33 and 34

August 14, 2014 AND August 21, 2014
Present for 14th: John, Noah, Max
Present for 21st: John, Noah, Max, Matt A

The pack of six more drow wizards ended up being pretty tough. They tended to cast Hold Person, Magic Missile, and even a fireball again (which again burned up some treasure, much to the chagrin of Bear). This time, some Darkness was added to the mix as well, and the party discovered that the magical glasses that allow one to see in magical darkness have charges, and the charges seemed to be running low for the day...or perhaps were out entirely.

Once the six were killed, a seventh was spotted to the north down a long passage. That guy was killed quickly as well, but not before he began to pound on the door he was next to that led to the east, alerting his allies to the presence of foes.

After killing that guard, the party decided retreat was called for, as everyone was burnt, and wounded. Milo did cast detect magic on the way out, grabbing a magical dagger, two magical stones, and two magical potions.

Back at the hidey-hole, Milo identified the Dagger as follows:

+1 Dagger, dark blade with ancient human script on it in some forgotten dialect. The bearer is immune to the effects of temperatures from 0 degrees to 120 degrees (Fahrenheit). However, anyone wielding the dagger also feels constant low-level pain in the join of the arm holding the dagger. It's not enough pain to interfere with it's use, but it is noticeable.

The potions were: healing, and disguise self.

The stones are message stones. Each can send one short message to the other once a day, and receive one short message once a day.

During the rest, Milo finally perfected the Fireball spell he'd seen the drow cast, while Slink finally grew into his magical powers, becoming adept at Magic Missile, Color Spray, Silent Image, and a number of cantrips. (Note: Everyone is fifth level now. The fighters got multiple attacks, everyone's proficiency bonus is now +3, hit points were increased (Bear rolled a 1, for 2 total additional hit points), etc.).

On returning to the drow lair the next day, the bodies of the drow were gone, and the hallway door remained closed.

Slink inspected a door to the south, and found it radiated heat. It also bore an inscription in the Primordial language, one of the rare languages he does not speak nor read, but which he and Milo knew was spoken by creatures such as elementals. Slink deduced that perhaps the Mad King prison testing area was to the south, given it's proximity to the western door from the Medusa lair and the information previously gathered from a revived ancient prisoner from that lair.

The party moved north, opening the door. A drow was on guard at the same door that the prior one had been pounding on (though this time the door was open a bit). Father Rivers cast bless, as the party moved in. Slink let loose with magic missile, as Hollin and Bear attacked, and the drow dropped before he could react. Arriving at his door, the party found a very large room full of more drow wizards.

In that room there was a large pool of water, many tables with a variety of books and arcane implements, a small secondary pool to the north, a raised area, some small fires and crucibles, and a variety of other arcane paraphernalia. And, there were five drow wizards, aware of the party, and clearly preparing spells to cast.

Rivers started things off with a Silence spell, cancelling his Bless spell to try and take out some of the wizards ability to fireball the party. Luther moved in to attack one to the north, as Milo fireballed four of the five drow wizards.

BOOM! Massive damage was caused to the four, though two were able to dodge some of the effects.

Meanwhile Slink presented the head of the Medusa, "Here guys look what I found!" Heads turned, but most (though not all) were able to avert their gaze in time.

One of the drow ran out of the Silence area, and retaliated with his own fireball! BOOM! The entire party became crispy. Hollin, Luther and Father Rivers all took the blast full in the face, as Bear, Milo, and Slink dodged some of the blast in a mad scramble to escape the heat. That was followed by a Hold Person spell on bear, and a magic missile to each of Bear, Luther, Hollin, and Slink. Things were looking grim, but at least one of the drow seemed well on his way to turning to stone from the Medusa head.

Luther, deciding that he didn't care what cooler heads might think about retreat being the better part of valor, decided a good offense was the best offense. So he attacked, wounding the drow wizard to the north mightily. Hollin moved in to finish that one off (the only one who had entirely been outside Milo's fireball spell). Father Rivers added some much-needed healing to the mix as well, as Slink moved mumbling a new spell under his breath.

Milo then decided screw this, time to end it. So, he fireballed again! BOOM!

That did it. Some drow were left as nothing but steaming boots, while others were merely really quite dead. Tables were on fire, steam was pouring from the pool of water in the center of the room, arcane devices clattered to the ground with some metallic thuds and shattered glass, the room was a mess.

"Hey guys, I found a secret door!" said Hollin, outlining a shape on the northern wall.

[Everyone things they are available next week]

 

[Mistwell]

Session 35

August 29, 2014
Present: John, Max, Matt A, Noah

Found on the bodies of the spellcasters from last session were 5 pouches, with a total of 62 silver pieces, 11 electrum pieces, 56 gold pieces, a scroll of Tasha's Hideous Laughter, a scroll of Water Breathing, 3 star quartzes worth 10 gold pieces each, and 6 red spinels worth 40 gold pieces each.

Breathing a sigh of relief from a battle well-fought, the party rested for an hour to recovery from their burns and other wounds. Hollin and Slink carefully examined the secret door that Hollin had found in the northern wall, and finding nothing of consequence Hollin tried to open it. It did not yield easily, and he had to put his shoulder to it, but eventually the door did open.

On the other side was a musty room, decorated mostly in wood, with a number of tables. In one corner a flame came to life with the opening of the secret door - which turned out to be the other side of a bookcase. Three green skulls lay at rest on tables in the room, and a book was left on the ground. The whole room seemed to have a thin layer of dust, and smelled of long disuse.

Slink and Milo examined the room carefully, as Rivers detected magic. The skulls radiated some form of magic, though they were not sure what type. Nothing else seemed to be magical in nature.

Slink carefully entered, examining everything as he moved through the room. Picking up the book he found it to be written in an unknown language, which was a surprise to his usual polyglot self.

Others started to file into the room, as Slink, feeling particularly invulnerable and daring, lifted the central skull in the room to examine it further.

Suddenly, green flames sprouted from the eye-sockets and dome of the skull, and the think flew into the air! The other two followed, and a green beam of flame jetted across the room in all directions as the party came under surprise attack.

Luther took the first scorching hits, and cried out in pain. Finally reacting to the shock of the formerly inanimate bone, everyone focused their fire on the skull the furthest to the west, knocking jaw bones off and caving in an eye socket.

More flames erupted, carving painful lines across a variety of party members, before Father Rivers raised up his Symbol of the God of Life, and commanded the creatures to return to the dreaded land from whence they rose.

The skulls appeared terrified of his words and the divine might they represented, and started to flee. Hollin managed to smash the western one to bits despite it's sudden blurriness, as fire was focused now on the central skull, while the eastern one fled into the corner.

The central skull tried to retaliate with more green flame, but was no match for the combined might of the party, and was brought low. Finally, the one in the corner was damaged in an attack, and faced down it's terror at the divine might of the cleric, and retaliated with a powerful series of five magic missiles at Bear standing next to it. Milo, Slink, and Rivers returned fire, and it too went down in a bout of greenish flame and shards of bone.

Panting at the exertion, everyone sank to the ground and tried to relaxed from the adrenaline of the battle. After nothing further seemed to move, and a thorough search of the room turned up not much more than dust and boring books, Slink listened at the door to the west and heard nothing. So, he opened the door.

On the other side, he found a medium sized room, with two fleshy, extremely muscular creatures within. Each stood on a platform, and they opened their eyes at the opening of the door. He also managed to ever so briefly catch sight of some symbols on the ground.

"Flesh Golems, shut the door!" someone hollered. And so he did. And he waited for the inevitable smashing of the wooden door.

Everyone held their breath, but the inevitable did not arrive. Nothing but silence could be heard, beyond the party's own heart beats.

After a while, everyone started to relax, and a discussion was had as to what was to be done about the situation. Across the way was seen another door, and a third door was to the north-east. Slink hadn't caught a good enough look at the symbols to know what they meant, but he didn't seem to have a good feeling about them, and he thought they might have been intended to be obscured and not obvious.

After a while, everyone agreed to hold attacks, prepare for battle, but to not step on the symbols and to attempt to cross the room to the door to the west without antagonizing the golems, if possible.

The door was re-opened, and Slink daintily crossed the room, followed by Bear, and Hollin,e ach avoiding stepping on the circle of symbols Slink pointed out.. The golems eyes followed those who passed it, but it did not move to attack.

Slink listened at the door but heard nothing, as Milo explained he felt the symbols would trigger the golems to attack.

After still others moved into the room, carefully avoiding the symbols, no aggression from the golems was to be seen. It was then agreed that Slink would open the western door.

Surprise! Two trolls were in the next room! They moved to attack.

"Retreat to the skull-room, and maybe they will trigger the golems!" said Slink. And everyone followed that keen idea, slowly withdrawing to the skull-room and firing at the nearest troll as they went. Milo let loose with a fireball in the troll room as well, carefully protecting his party members, Bear and Hollin, while also preventing the nearest golem from taking damage.

The trolls howled in rage at the flames, and attacked! One charged Bear, clawing through his armor. The party retaliated, but continued to withdraw into the skull-room.

Finally, one of the trolls, enraged by the onslaught, charged heedlessly forward towards the party. It was unclear if the troll was aware of symbols, or simply so angry it wasn't thinking straight, but trigger the symbols it did.

Down stepped the golems from their platforms, as they attacked the nearest troll. The things screamed, as one fled back into it's lair, and the other was slain outright by the golems.

Carefully avoiding harming the golems, the party tried to stay back in the skull-room. Bear was pounded by one of the golems, though he was standing right next to one. He considered retaliating, but instead opted to take a step back into the skull-room himself, leaving nobody beside a golem, and nobody stepping foot in their cooridor.

The golems stood at the threshold of the skull-room, glaring menacingly at the party, but declining to approach them further. It was a standoff.

To be continued next week.

[Everyone said they thought they were available next week]

 

[Mistwell]

Session 36

September 4, 2014
Present: John, Jason, Noah, Matt A.

Hoping that the Flesh Golems would reset and return to their platforms, the group closed the door (remotely, thanks to Slink's handy new Mage Hand spell), and took an hour rest to plan.

The decision was to check out the door with heat radiating from it, down to the south. On arrival, Slink had a great deal of trouble with the lock (Jason gave Matt his inspiration die, and that with Bless was enough to do it, barely).

Behind the door was....another door!

But this was was familiar. The grim, rictus face of the demon in the walls peered back at them from it's copper plated visage, in a door virtually identical to the one seen in the first room of the first floor of the dungeon.

"We beseech you, speak to us," said Father Rivers.

"I am amazed you've gotten this far. Yes, please, come in, come in."

"What will we find behind this door?" asked Rivers.

"Oh, nothing you can't handle," said the door, leaving no doubt in the minds of the party that something dire lay behind the door.

Some discussion was had at this point, but it lasted but a moment as Slink said, "Well open then!"

And it did, with a wide grin on the door's face.

Behind the door was a very large chamber, split in two between fire and ice. The entire fire was covered in a glass-like substance. Beneath the western half was roiling flames and lava, and beneath the eastern half was turbulent icy air. Slight heat radiated from the western half, and cold from the eastern portion.

In the middle of each half, stood an elemental creature. To the west was a Fire Elemental, flames roaring from the faint outline of a giant humanoid shape. To the east was an Air Elemental, though with icy undertones, whirling like a tornado but with a giant face billowing from within the form.

The two creatures did not seem to move with the opening of the door, however.

Also in the room were two more doors, one to the east which apparently led back to the Medusa lair, and one to the west leading to an unknown locale.

Slink created an illusion of himself walking into the room, to see what the elementals would do. They did not react, so Bear tossed a coin into the room.

That got their attention!

The fire creature charged into the party, smashing into Luther and Hollin and lighting them on fire. Hollin chopped at it, his magic sword doing damage but the flame appearing to add nothing to his powerful hits. The creature then smashed at Luther and Hollin, as Luther backed up and Bear and he tried to strike at it. Their strikes did some damage, but each time they attacked from near it the flames overcame them and they inhaled hot air enough to sear their lungs. Luther backed up further and swiped with his glaive, and that seemed to help.

Meanwhile, the air elemental went flying past Luther, Hollin, and Bear. Holling and Luther each took swipes at it as it passed by, and it finally arrived at Milo and Slink. It smashed into them both and spun like a tornado, tossing milo into a nearby table, knocking him prone and harming him. Slink however was even worse off, as most of his blow was absorbed by his body slamming against a nearby wall, and he fell to the ground almost like a rag doll, clearly badly wounded by not out for the count just yet.

Father Rivers raised his holy symbol and chanted the breath of life back into his allies, and every suddenly felt quite a lot better. Unfortunately for Rivers, he was standing right next to the air creature, and the thing took two massive slams into him. Rivers screamed in pain under the barrage of attacks, and was even more wounded than Slink had just been, as blood oozed from a dozen wounds.

BOOM! Milo set off a fireball, sparing Slink and Rivers in bubbles of safety from the explosion. The air creature reeled back, wounded by the flames, and angry.

Back in the southern portion of the hallway (all of this taking place in the hall outside the elementals room), Bear, Luther, and Hollin continued to hack away at the fire elemental. None of the three opted to try and suppress the flames spreading across their armor, and Bear and Hollin continued to take additional damage from being so close to the thing as they attacked from right next to it, but they did make progress in ripping chunks of fiery mass off the creature with their magical weapons.

Back to the north, Rivers limped away from the creature, as Milo and Slink stood up and assailed it from range. Slink tossed his one magic dagger at the creature, followed by another...

BOOM! As Milo let loose with a second deadly fireball attack, flames deadening gusts of icy wind across the creatures surface, though it still stood.

Slink, out of magic items and spells, shot an arrow at the thing, lightly wounding it but mostly deflecting the attack. Milo followed with three bright beams of flame centered on the mass of the tornado, and that finally brought the creature low, as air was briefly sucked from the area while the mass of the tornado disintegrated.

The battle in the south raged on however, as Hollin, Bear, and Luther continued to chop at the fire elemental. Flames continued to lick across all three, but finally their focused attacks brought this elemental down as well.

Hollin, Bear, and Luther began to pat each other's flames out, as Slink coughed up some blood and marched into the elemental lair with little fanfare and much courage or stupidity, depending on one's perspective.

The ground turned out to not be glass, but instead the surface seemed a bit tacky to the touch, and quite warm but manageable provided one did not stand in place for too long a period of time.

Slink made his way to the eastern door, and found it to also be identical to one of the doors in the entryway to the dungeon, this one being the large unusually locked door which he had failed to open weeks earlier despite his best efforts, and which contained unusual writing.

Slink returned to the party and let them know what he had found, and they all returned to the nearby library to rest and recuperate. Slink tried to check out the Golem room first, but Milo convinced him to rest for am evening before continuing on.

The next day, Slink drank a potion of spider climbing, and marched into the golem room walking on the ceiling. Fortunately, the golems did not trigger. He walked north, to check out the door to the east, which abutted the northern wall. Using his mage hand, he picked the lock on the door. Carefully listening to the door, he heard the sounds of growling, roaring, and rending and crunching sounds.

He then, perhaps foolishly, opened that door while he also remotely closed the door to the rest of the party.

His hope was that the creatures within would rush out and try and attack him, triggering the golems symbols on the ground, and the rest of the party would be spared the golem attack as he would remain safely on the ceiling.

However, behind the door was a pride of unusual, unexpected creatures. With bodies of lions, but bat-like wings, four manticores could be seen ripping into some dead bodies and meat in their lair. One walked to the door and spotted Slink on the ceiling. Growling, it's wings started to move.

"Ah damn, they can fly...I wasn't expecting that" said Slink, perhaps for the last time.

Roll Initiative everyone, though only Slink and the Manticores can act this first round, as the rest of the party is effectively surprised due to the closed door.

[Everyone thinks they are available next week]