Players: Kathi, Chris, JC, Davy, Kris

Characters: DM, Lew, Illuverin, Caland & Saunder, A'Tora & Erin

Saunder (pulling Erin along behind him as he is returning to the Temple of Lythandir) is surprise attacked at the entrance by several of the flying things, the first of which uses a fire breath weapon. Another uses an ice breath weapon. Saunder lets go of Erin who floats up to the ceiling because of the levitation. Then, after the creatures get another round of attacks, the cleric is free to respond. He casts Protection from Evil and the battle begins in earnest

MELEE

After a few rounds he uses his Staff of Curing to heal himself from the effects of the creatures repeated attacks and then casts Cure Blindness after one of the nasties gasses him. A Wall of Fog appears but it doesn't seem to affect Saunder. In fact, some of his "guess" swings find their mark for solid damage on the creatures. After having killed three of them the battle ceases and the cleric casts Dispel Magic and the fog disipates. The last creature is nowhere to be seen. Unfortunately neither is Erin. Dejectedly, he decides to return to the group.

Begin with the group examining the secret door that A'Tora found.

Illuverin checks the door for traps and finds one. He checks the floor finding nothing, checks the side wall and finding nothing, and then is about to check the ceiling but just as he looks up there is a grating, scraping sound followed by the door slamming shut with a loud thunk. Immediately afterward there is the sound of gears and arrow slits appear on the far wall. Not wasting anytime given that arrows are now raining down on the party, Illuverin removes the trap on the door and tries to open it. It's locked.

Caland casts Stinking Cloud at the far wall in one corner where we've seen arrows come from nd we can hear coughing and gagging. Suddenly we are showered by a boiling hot water and all take damage. Illuverin unlocks the door and opens it with sword ready. It's a 10' wide passageway leading directly inward for roughly 50 feet and ending at an aparent dead end. Grabbing Lew's hand Illuverin steps into the passageway but the door slams shut (relocking) and he is forced to jump out of the way, back into the room.

A'Tora and Lew both begin to cast spells. Lew calls out, "What happened to the lights?" As he is unlocking the door, again, Illuverin is hit in the back by a jet of hot water for minor damage. When the door is open Illuverin steps in and braces himself against it to hold it open for the others. Suddenly we begin to hear screaming. Looking back, Illuverin sees a mass of the same black tenticles that killed Merlor on the ship appear in the back corner of the room. His eyes widen in terror and the half-elf nearly bolts down the hallway in a blind panic.

Continuing to hold the door for the others Illuverin waits until everyone is inside the cooridor and then closes the door. He checks for traps on the floor every 10 feet and then the back wall but finds nothing.

Meanwhile Saunder has come almost to the point of entering the odd shaped room when a battle axe appears from nowhere embedding itself in his shoulder. He rips it free, flinging it behind him and turns back to look at a creature charging towards him. It spits a jet of flame at him and hits for some damage. Ahead of him are a three humas that are also charging to attack. One has a halberd and will be able to attack him even though he is still floating up near the ceiling. Deciding he is badly outnumbered Saunder begins casting "Meld Into Stone" but is hit by a dagger disrupting the spell and knocking hm unconcious.

Fortunately A'Tora sees a secret door on the north wall of the cooridor. It's not trapped but is locked and Illuverin is unable to unlock it. Caland casts Knock and the door unlocks and opens. It's the big main room. Suddenly arrows are launced toward us, only to be absorbed y A'Tora's staff.

Returning through the cooridor to the original secret door Illuverin opens it a few inches to look out but there are bad guys on the other side waiting. One kicks the door open. Reaching for one of the small poisoned daggers Illuverin jumps out of the way while one of the bad guys slashes at him. Bonk off Stone Skin. He jabs the poisoned dagger at him (hitting with a natural 20) but the man saves. Another one hits him Bonk off Stone Skin.

A'Tora casts Tasha's Uncontrolable Hideous Laughter at all three collapse in the gruesome throws of the spells. Illuverin stabs one for some very serious damage. A'Tora casts Pebble To Boulder and slams one to the ground. He stops laughing! Illuverin hits his again for major damage but is stunned when the man tries to attack. Bonk off Stone Skin. Caland kills the other with a Chak poisoned dagger.

Illuverin retrieves the small belt buckle dagger and carefully returns it to the buckle. The short sword is of incredible workmanship and is obviously mithril. It will glow on command. Looking around we see the body of Saunder. He is quite dead and has been for at least half an hour. Illuverin removes the Gauntlets of Ogre Power and puts them on.

We put the body of Saunder in the Bag of Holding. Then we hear the running feet of someone approaching. Whoever it is calls to us thinking we're for his companions. Illuverin answers and convinces the man he is one of the bad guys. The deception continues and Illuverin tells the man to come on in and help. We kill him quickly.

Deciding to proceed in a direction where we know that bad guys have been A'Tora casts Reduce on us all so that we fit through the arrow slits. When we get on the other side A'Tora cancels the spell on everyone but Illuverin, who wishes to remain small, and Caland who nearly gets stuck in the arrow slit when the spell disipates on its own. We follow the cooridor on the other side and after several turns come to a closed door. Illuverin crawls under it and reports a large room with several large stone chests.

A'Tora opens the door and we look around the room. The stone chests each have stone lids and she pushes one open a few inches. Looking in there is a small stone hammer roughly three inches tall. It has an inscrption that reads "Here lies the King of the Dwarves". The other containers are empty. We head out through the door at the far end and follow the cooridor for several turns and discover several doors. Illuverin crawls under several of them in reconaisance. Behind one he finds a small bunk room.

Caland investigates another cooridor and as he is returning get a nasty sensation of something behind him. Turning he can barely make out with infravision what appear to be eight undead things which surround him and attack. The mage ignites into a large Fireball killing all of them. They appeared to be living shadows.

Next date 8/12/2001