Conquest of Frey: Chapter 1: Game 11

Game Master: Dave
Game Edition: D&D 3.5
Players: Jeff, Andrew, Elijah
Starting Level: 5 

Current Level: 6-10

Quote of the Evening:

"Remember, you guys still have those potions I gave you!?"

"Nope.. Valgard had them... 

Introduction

They had lost track of how many days they had been in this Dungeon: an impossible labyrinth on the back of a city-sized octopus.

The Duergar Necromancer Dwannis Muck-Mug (Andrew), his General the Drow Fighter Raskavas (Jeff), His Spy the Duegar Bard Bodie (Elijah), His Bodie guard the Drow Barbarian Sayer (Tom) and his unwitting disciple the Duergar Cleric Valgard (Adam), had just defeated the hydra and spent the night in the creatures layer. They knowing the reputation of the creature would keep them safe for any wandering creatures the time being.

Sadly for this run of the Conquest of Frey Adam and Tom were unable to join us. So Jeff and I took control of their Characters, and we picked up where we left off."

Who doesn't love dungeons?

Scene 1 The Hydra's Layer

The air was starting to stink, as the swampy floor of the Hydra's lair hastened the rotting of the beast's corpse. But despite the stench, each member of the party awoke hungry. Any provisions they had brought with them had been lost in the shipwreck that stranded them here, and it had been days since they had eaten a proper meal.

Gastronomic delights danced in their dreams.

Knowing that the poison of the rotting flesh wouldn't effect them,the Duergar party members began to eat their fill of the Hydra's remains. Even the Drow, needing to draw on their fortitude with each mouthful, ate some of the tainted meat to avoid from starving to death. Things were looking pretty grim.

Grim enough to consider eating that thing.

While the others stretched and prepared themselves for another grueling day in the dungeon, Dwannis studied his spells, readying himself for the trials a head.


When the spells were memorized, the armour adorned, and the joints limbered, the party set off in search of a key hole for the golden gemmed golden key they had recovered from the Hydra. 

Scene 2 The Note. A Locked Door.

Leaving the chamber, Raskavas took point as the party explored the rest of the tunnels.

The first path they chose lead them to a dead end, but on the floor there were three skeletons, and one of the them was clutching a note. Dwannis snatched the paper from the corpse's hand. The edges were singed, as if the man had been roasted as he grasped it.

Nice work on the props Dave!

Dwannis read the first half of the note to himself, learning that it was written by one of Aren Bellwick's men. They also spoke of a strange room with some comforts in it; like a fire place and some chairs. He kept that information to himself, but read aloud the dead man's description of the shadowy creature that stalked him and his men through the corridors.

Searching the corpses further, Valgard found five cure moderate wounds potions among the packs the skeletons carried, and the party sighed a sigh of relief. They would be able to survive this adventure!

Leaving the dead end the party followed the tunnel in the opposite direction and discovered a locked door. Not having a lock pick, or wanting to waste a spell, or the strength to break it down, the party turned around to investigate another chamber they had passed by. 

Scene 3 Surviving the Flood. Valgard Lost.

The room they had walked passed was the main chamber on this level, and the party had already crossed through it, coming out of one of the four other doors in the room. There were still however, three corridors they had not explored.

however, unlike their unopposed egress from the chamber earlier, as the last party member entered the room a very dangerous trap was sprung! A grind of ancient gears sealed each hallway with a large iron plate, and pipes around the cieling began flooding the chamber with water. They would need to find a way to stop the flood or be drowned!

Dwannis ducked his head under the water and focused his keen wits on a solution. There were four statues of soldiers around the chamber, each of them holding a different weapon, and one them was holding a trident!

Jetting towards the statue, Dwannis pulled the trident towards him, fighting the rust and age of the device. he managed to pull it all the way forward until he heard a loud click! As the Trident locked into place, the water stopped flowing from the pipes, and a great hole opened in the floor causing the water to spin into a deadly and powerful whirlpool, as it drained from the room.

Everyone in the party grabbed onto something as tight as they could. The force of the water lifted each of them as the strained to keep their hold. It seemed all was well, until Valgard's grasp slipped, and he was sucked into the whirlpool.

Adam's not gonna be to happy about that!

Down he went into the darkness. As the waters cleared, his comrades rushed to the edge of the drain. Below there was only darkness. Bodie called out, but no one answered. Valgard, the party's healer, was lost forever.

Scene 4 The Howlers. The Death of Sayer

Leaving the main chamber, The group followed one of the paths they had not traveled. After winding left and right, the tunnel opened into a chamber strewn with torn cloth and of bits of debris, that formed a repugnant nest.

As the group entered the room, four Howlers came out of the nest, and they were equally as repugnant as their home.

Repugnant.

Dwannis opened the fight with a blast from a fireball. It damaged the creatures, but their armour proved tough to cut through and their strikes deadly. The howlers shot poisoned quills into their attackers, slowing their movement and lessening their strikes, while their powerful claws ripped and the party's flesh.

Sayer took the brunt of many attacks, as two of the beasts attacked him from either side. He fell to the ground unconscious, and Bodie rushed to his side to revive him, but it was all in vain. The Howlers attacked Sayer again this time killing him with a single blow.

Tom isn't going to be happy about that. And we didn't have howlers, so go weird squid things!

Using his magic, Dwannis raised one of the dead howlers and the Corpse of Sayer, and with their help the group slew the rest of the beasts.

Exploring their nest revealed nothing other than the Howler's young. Bodie killed most of them, but kept one of the pups for himself. Perhaps they could eat it later.  

Scene 5 Dead Ends.

The two remaining unexplored passages proved to be dead ends. However in one of the tunnels, there was a chest, temptingly unguarded: everyone was incredibly suspicious of it. Before they opened it, Dwannis tried a number spells to determine if there was anything strange about the box.

Fool me once...

The chest appeared to be an ordinary chest, and had some some Cure Light wounds potions in it. Not that they did much for the injured party but the small boost in health was enough to keep going.

It was here that the quote of the evening was born. As the party lamented their lack of potions,Dave (The DM) commented:

"Remember, you guys Still have those potions I gave you!?"

To which Jeff replied. "Nope.. Valgard had them..."

We all had a good laugh, but inside we knew we were screwed. 

Scene 6 Back the Way We Came. The Dire Bats

Having explored every direction other than the locked door, the party decided to back track and returned to the room they had fallen into the previous day.

There was another door on the opposite side of the chamber, and Sayer's Zombie proved useful in springing the the gate trap on the door. After it was sprung, Raskavas was able to lift it and allow the party and the zombies to pass through.

After winding through more tunnels, a noxious smell from the next room filled the party's sense before they even entered it. The room was filled with a thick soup of rot and bobbing among the grotesque fluid were the skeletal remains of Dwarves, Elves, Duergar and Drow. They rolled and drifted towards the party as the stepped into the muck. Dwannis felt right home.

As they crossed the crypt soup, a flutter was the only warning they got before four Dire Bats swooped from the ceiling.

Bat-swarms work as Dire Bats right?

Each member strained to the reach the bats as they flew overhead tearing at the party. The Drow had a chance to swing when the beasts got near, but the Duergar had to jump at the bats as they swooped down. It proved very difficult.
After loosing the Sayer Zombie, and much of their vitality, Dwannis, Raskavas, Bodie and the Howler Zombie managed to slay the bats, and cross the chamber leaving it through a heavy wooden door.

Scene 7 The Comfortable Room, a Secret Passage.

Behind the door was the comfortable room that Dwannis had neglected to mention to Raskavas and Bodie. Needless to say they were shocked.

A roaring fire blazed steadily in a stone fire place, and several comfortable chairs surrounded a large wooden table with a map of a far away land. There were two statues that stood against the back wall, one carved as a simple solider, the other as a regal warrior.

Studying the key that he found on the Hydra, Dwannis was able to decipher a single word: "Crown".  He looked up at the regal statue's head and saw a rectangular key hole.

This I what Imagined the key to look like.

Using the spell Mage Hand, Dwannis was able to lift the key into the lock and turn it. The two statues parted and revealed a secret passage way behind them. Following the tunnel it opened behind two similar statues on the other end, and the party stood inside a circular room with a stair case that spiraled up. They had reached the main tower.

Conclusion

We can only assume that we have finally found the home of our true foe: The Magic-User behind all of this Necromancy and Illusion.

The first chapter of the Conquest of Frey draws to a close, and only three of the nine that entered this dungeon remain a live. Do we have enough fight in us to defeat this villain and claim his fortress as our own, or will we perish in the attempt?