Archer Arrowsmith - Human Scout (250 points)
Elana - Human Holy Warrior of Melora, goddess of the wilderness and sea (262 points)
Puddin' Noddington - Gnome Thief (266 points)
Mahk Strawngmussle - Human Labourer (62 points)
Vaelcor Treehippie - Human Druid (258 points)
Jahn the Bear - Bear (193 points)
Celebor the Huntsman - NPC High Elf Hunter (??? points)
Amothius 34th, 2546, Kral Aklaz
Masha and Uncle Ruckus decided they were tired and headed back to camp (their player wasn't present), ending the party's plans to cast Dispel Magic on the trapped door leading to the wizards' area. They decided to backtrack to the temple and use the Glasswall tapestry to scout the main hall that, according to Thrunvir's map, should be just past the south wall. Puddin' had to lockpick their way back in, as Thrunvir keeps the doors locked, and then went to the south wall.
The tapestry showed a 6m chasm on the other side of the wall, with ruined anchor points for a bridge on either side. 2 giants were playing some sort of dice to the west, and 3 were talking to the east; engaging either would likely result in the other group throwing boulders during the fight. Past the giants on either side, the giants had smashed out the second floor to make a passage that went further south, and likely looped around the ruined bridge.
Puddin' was also able to spot a small, rough opening 15' down the east side of the chasm, which Vaelcor suggested might have been made by acid lizards; Thrunvir had no idea about it, but pointed out that the bridge would have been in the way his entire life, so that hole could have been there forever. The party decided to check out the barracks to the west, where they'd hopefully find a staircase up.
Before leaving, Puddin' took the tapestry all around the walls of the temple, but the only place the stone was thin enough to see through was the northeast corner, which showed a living space for 4-6 dwarves that seemed to have been abandoned in a hurry. They exited the temple's west door, and went forwards to a an iron locked door on the wall of a T-intersection, which they figured went to the barracks; south was an open archway into the main hall.
Puddin' popped the lock and saw a fairly long barracks with three armoured dwarf bodies pinned under a boulder that had knocked a hole in the south wall, which was lined with arrow slits. There were some bunk beds with foot lockers at the far end, which Puddin' went to loot; when she moved past the boulder, she noticed a staircase up set into the north wall which had been imperceptible from the doorway.
The lockers held mostly worthless spare clothes and cloaks, though they tallied up 13cp and 2sp in loose change. Before heading upstairs, the party decided to check out the rest of the residential hallway to the north, and headed back out the iron door and north to a T. First, they checked out the large living area they'd seen from the Temple, but found only an empty jewellery box. The next room, Puddin' looked through the keyhole and saw a concealed crossbow with a line running from it to the door.
She opened the door just enough to cut the tripwire, disarmed it, and handed the crossbow off to Mahk. The room was decorated with many bright red and yellow curtains, but nobody was certain of their value, so they were left for now. Another room's door had been forced, and the room looked to have already been tossed, but Puddin' took another look anyway. While she searched, Celebor got bored of all the waiting, bid the party luck, and headed off to the crypts to look for the artifact he was after. Puddin' found a false bit of floor that had been broken open already and lamented that she'd missed all the hidden compartments in the other rooms.
The next living space was very orderly, and they found a coinpurse with 1gp, 4sp, and 23cp, as well as a journal. They debated against resting to read the journal and Puddin' flipped through the first few pages only to find that the entire thing was written in Dwarven, which nobody could read anyway. After agreeing that the journal probably detailed the directions to the dwarves' hidden gold, the party headed to the last door in the hallway, which was elaborately engraved with geometric patterns.
Puddin' went up and took a look through the keyhole and saw that the walls inside were also engraved, but not glowing or obviously magical. After some hesitation, Puddin' opened the door ("Am I cursed?" "Do you feel cursed?") and tossed the place, but found only 2 (possibly cursed!) cp, which Puddin' absolutely took. The engravings would probably be worth something, but they didn't feel like stealing a door or walls and headed back to the barracks.
As Puddin' opened the door, she heard hushing followed by the breathing of Giants waiting in ambush outside the boulder hole. They decided against running past and headed back towards the crypts. The party sent Puddin' to scout the hole in the wall leading to where the two giants and child were, and lucked out; they were just leaving (thanks to a crit fail), and the party made it past with no worries of being detected.
The door that supposedly led to the crypts was iron, and above it an angular inscription of a raven on a branch watched the hallway. Elana remarked that it was a sign of the Raven Queen, the goddess of fate, winter, and death. Before heading down, though, they decided to send Puddin' through a door to the south to scout what Thrunvir had labelled "Forge", which turned out to be a very wide room with many forging stations set up.
A giant anvil, inscribed with hundreds of tiny hammer and anvil symobls, loomed in the northeast corner beside the great forge Puddin' had seen from the ventilation system. A dozen or so racks held arms and armour, and a shield with a bullseye pattern was hanging on the north wall. Puddin' went to take the shield, but felt a tripwire when she went to remove it, and groped around to find the trap: a bottle resting on the wire.
Puddin' went around the hallway and used the Glasswall tapestry to get a better look at the trap first, then went back into the room, held her breath, and put a Gizmo'd red curtain from earlier underneath the shield, so that the bottle wouldn't break. This turned out to be unnecessary and she grabbed the bottle, clear and filled with a milky-white liquid, without issue. That done, they opened the door to the crypts just in time to find three giant black lizards walking up the staircase.
Nobody was surprised, and Vaelcor was brought up to cast Beast-Soother while the acid lizards hissed. He realized that the lizards wanted up, and made a successful Animal Handling roll to lead them into the forge without anybody getting eaten. The party finally moved down the staircase and found a room with floor to ceiling shelves filled with stone figurines of dwarves in front of an assortment of long-decayed objects.
More inscriptions of ravens watched from overhead and the party took a hall south, and continued past a T to a hall lined with doors before doubling back and heading east down the T. They passed by four doors and arrived at an entrance to a far larger chamber, which Puddin' was sent into alone. Two braziers were lit on either side of the room in front of raised statues of dwarves, with many empty plinths past them.
Puddin' continued in a bit before feeling a chill followed by a voice that yelled "Boo!" from behind. She drew her sword and spun around, but there was nothing there. She started to back out, but was interrupted when an ethereal robed dwarf with an eye-patch and a crescent-headed staff appeared and apologized for his comrade's rudeness. Three other dwarves materialized shortly; one shirtless with a mohawk and decked out with axes, another in heavy armour with a great axe, and the last in leathers and a hood which obscured their face.
The rest of the party, at a signal from Puddin', walked into the chamber, and Elana, who Hates Undead managed to restrain herself from attempting to kill the ghosts (though she had no way of actually doing so). The party asked if the ghosts could help fill out their map, but the shirtless ghost responded that they'd been dead more than a while, and weren't sure how things were laid out. Elana noticed that holy wards against undeath by the door had been deliberately scratched out.
Puddin' informed the ghosts of the current giant situation, and then asked if they knew of a way over to the acid lizard side of the basement. The ghosts got into a heated debate in Dwarvish, which nobody could understand, and the armoured ghost broke off conversation and angrily disappeared. The robed dwarf informed the party that there was a secret path, but he would only inform them if the party would do them a favour first, prompting Elana to shout "They want to possess our bodies!".
The shirtless dwarf replied "Aye, that's the ticket!", and they outlined their request; in exchange for knowledge of the secret passage, the party would allow one of themselves (preferably a dwarf) to be possessed by Dolgvar, the shirtless one, who would slay the giants. Once the giants were dealt with, the party could also have his arms and armour if they were able to restore the spirits to rest.
Elana voiced strong objection to this idea, and the party turned to look at Mahk, who refused unless he received the arms and armour as payment. The party entered a huddle and discussed what to do; Vaelcor suggested kidnapping the giant child and getting it possessed. They questioned how the dwarf would kill a dozen or more giants, and he stated that he wasn't called "Dolgvar Dragonbreaker" for nothin', and had killed a white dragon and four wyverns alone in life.
The party asked if the ghosts had seen an elf or anybody else, and they had seen a woman and child leaving right as they were "waking up" a month or so ago, but the memory was foggy ("Imagine you've been asleep for a hundred years and someone jerks you awake on another planet"). They ultimately voted the possession down (only Archer voted yea) and informed the ghosts of their decision; Dolgvar called them cowards, and the ghosts turned around and disappeared.
They headed back to the hallway and checked an door to the north, which featured engravings of a crowned axe flanked by a dozen smaller axes on shields with dwarven runes above. Puddin' found that the lock was highly-advanced and tricky, but managed to pick it anyway and popped the door open. A sarcophagus on a dais rested in the center of the room, with large locked chests at each corner. Six suits of armour, cross arms holding axes and shields, stood guard on each side.
Puddin' passed her Greed, but went to take a look anyway, which instantly set off her Danger Sense. She quickly backed out as a chill breeze blew over her, draining 1FP, and closed the door. Vaelcor labelled the room "Angry Ghost" on the map, and then checked it looking for a place to rest. They decided against the chamber with the dwarf ghosts in case they were angry, and the forge in case the acid lizards had equipped plate armour and weapons. Eventually, they decided to try a door on the south wall and hoped that it was empty.
It wasn't, and 22 skeletons sprinted towards Elana, who had opened the door, forcing her back and ensuring that the door could not be closed to lock them in. The party started a slow retreat down the hallway towards the dwarf ghosts, leaving Jahn to be surrounded. Archer missed a shot from her bow, Puddin' ran away, Vaelcor handed the mapping equipment to Mahk, and Elana activated her Holy Might. The Calcium Horde continued to rush, two getting swatted to pieces by Jahn, but even with two crits, they didn't inflict any injury with their feeble bony hands.
Archer crit-failed Fast-Draw (Arrow) and accidentally emptied her quiver onto the ground. Elana used tip-slash and the bonus from Higher Purpose (Slay Undead) to kill two skeletons, and Vaelcor got his axe ready. A bunch of skeletons managed to isolate Elana after Archer retreated, but she managed to fend them off and dropped her spear (which was useless in close combat), but crit failed a punch anyway. Archer, now that she was out of arrows, started to put her bow away.
Now on the other side of a wall of skeletons, Jahn continued to smash them to bits on the very edge of the Lantern of Continual Light's range. Elana crit-failed a dodge and fell prone before getting kicked in the face and grappled. Archer and Vaelcor got attacked by two skeletons each; Archer's light mail proved poor against punches, but Vaelcor defended against both of his. Elana managed to struggle against the skeleton holding her and made it to her knees.
In a frenzy, Jahn crit failed a punch and hit the wall instead, crippling that foot, but still managed to take out another skeleton. The skeletons landed a bunch of punches, but failed to penetrate the armour of Jahn, Archer, or Vaelcor, while Elana took another kick to the face for only 1 damage. Archer managed to get her cavalry saber ready, though it wouldn't be much use, and Elana finally regained her feet and punched the skeleton holding her into splinters. Mahk shouted encouragement.
Elana got grappled by a different skeleton almost immediately, but dodged a punch to the face anyway, and nobody else got hit. Puddin' finally made it over the threshold into the dwarf ghost room, where Dolgvar appeared and mentioned that it sure would help if she let him possess her and fight off the skeletons. Elana made an All-Out Attack punch and caved in another skull, while Vaelcor used his axe to take out one of the skeletons blocking Elana off from the rest of the party; Archer attacked the other, but it dodged.
One of the skeletons over by Jahn crit failed and punched the wall which caused it to disintegrate, while the others just grappled and got ready to try to take him down. Elana got grappled by another skeleton, and Vaelcor, after Luckily dodging one, got grabbed by a second anyway. Archer dodged both of hers using Feverish Defence, but was now running low on FP. Jahn finished off another 3 skeletons without further injury, bringing the horde down to 6; 2 each for Archer, Elana, and Vaelcor.
Vaelcor was dragged to the ground and stomped on, while Archer critically dodged a punch but then got grappled. She swapped her saber over to her other hand to punch with her main hand, but failed, and Puddin', finally out of line of sight, Disappeared. Elana's Holy Might ran out and she was knocked to the ground again; she struggled to regain her feet but was held in place. Vaelcor missed a swing with his axe and got stomped on some more, and Archer got beat up by the pair of skeletons holding her.
Archer and Elana both managed to land a punch, but they ineffectually bounced off of the skeleton's bones, and Vaelcor managed to get back up to kneeling. Mahk offered to help beat up Archer's skeletons and got his blackjack ready, just as she was taken to the ground and stomped on, bringing her below 0HP. Elana missed a kick and fell over, while Jahn finally made it over to where Vaelcor was getting beat down and shattered the skeleton grappling his master with his mouth.
Archer managed to grapple the skeleton hold her and Mahk swung his mighty blackjack at it and... missed. Elana critically parried a skeleton to pieces from the floor with a "take your own damage" result on the crit fail table, and Archer tried to break free but only managed to lose her own grapple. Puddin' stayed invisible, and Vaelcor regained his feet and swung his axe only for it to bounce off of the apparently calcium-enriched bones of the mighty skeleton, which Jahn promptly finished off.
Mahk managed to hit the second-last skeleton with his blackjack, freeing Archer from its grapple. The last skeleton looked around, shrugged his shoulders, and did an All-Out Attack kick on Archer's torso, knocking her out. Puddin' finally reappeared and stabbed the last skeleton with her katar for only 4 damage; fortunately, Vaelcor managed to finish it off with his axe.
After a short bit of argument over whether unconscious people counted as "consenting" for possession (they don't), they rested in the hallway, Elana and Jahn were sent into the room the skeletons had come from. They found that the skeletons seemed to have come from graves in the walls, where bodies were slid in horizontally, and that there was a small tunnel on the far side. Jahn was set in front of the tunnel, the party went in, dragging Archer, and Vaelcor crit failed a Major Healing on Archer, but it only ended in wasted FP.
They rested for an hour to regain FP and cast more healing spells, but declined to use the Phial of the Mad Alchemist to make a Greater Healing Potion out of fear it would kill the imbiber. That done, they headed back to the staircase and out of the crypts; the giants were back in the room past the hole, but they managed to sneak past (even with Mahk's Stealth-9) and back to the chimney access, where they rested to regain enough FP to make the climb.
Puddin' lit a torch made out of curtain + broomstick and oil from the Phial of the Mad Alchemist, and took it up the shaft to light it. Jahn managed to squeeze up and out this time; the party followed up the rope (Archer and Elana went up and then pulled up everybody else) and they made the trek back to camp without further issue.
Notes:
Puddin' used the Glasswall tapestry enough that she got below 1/3FP, because they never rested. In fairness, once in the crypts, there weren't any obvious safe spots.
There was some discussion on how to actually kill ghosts; silver does nothing, so you need magic weapons (Ghost Weapon, specifically) or somebody to cast Affect Spirits. Alternatively, somebody could kill themselves in a tragic manner, come back as a ghost themselves, and kill the other spirit off. The biggest threat to ghosts is, of course, other ghosts.
I was kind of surprised by how doubtful they were of Dolgvar's alleged prowess, considering that Elana has more-or-less single-handedly killed a wyvern already.
The skeleton horde battle had to be finished online because of sheer numbers.
After the skeleton fight I pointed out how funny it was that Puddin' ran away, because she was borderline immune to them; their damage could not have penetrated her armour, and they'd be at an extra -2 to hit her.
XP was 4, MVP was Puddin' for looting stuff.
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