Session 16 (part 2): The Dungeons of Thistletop

Session Date: 03 Oct 2011

[Continued]

The Heroes found a second, wider set of stone stairs leading down into the depths of Skull Rock, but decided to take the narrower set of staris that they had found earlier. At the bottom of those stairs was a stone door. Larissa descended the narrow stairs and pressed her ear to the door. She could hear the quiet but animated voices of two goblins. It sounded as if they were arguing. She quietly checked the door and saw that it was unlocked, and motioned for Halfred and Charrone to come to the door. Charrone threw open the door and rushed in, closely followed by Halfred.

The room held a large wooden table with chairs. Stone doors led east and west. There was a paper map of the town of Sandpoint tacked to one wall, and two chalkboards on other walls. The table was littered with papers-- and sitting at it were two goblins playing cards with a poor-quality Harrow deck. The goblins appeared surprised at the intrusion, but quickly recovered, shouting death threats in goblin and pulling out swords. But two goblin warriors were no match for the combined forces of the Sandpoint Heroes, and they lay dead on the stone floor in scant moments. Ted quickly scanned to papers, and saw that they appeared to be plans for a full-scale sack of the town.

Larissa noticed some kind of writing on the western door, and investigated it. As soon as she got close enough to make out the script, the letters exploded in a burst of magical energy, the force of which blasted her flat on her back, and she lost consciousness. Declan saw to her injuries. The door itself seemed to be weakened by the blast, and Charrone threw it open and stepped through.

A black bolt of magical energy struck the paladin, and she felt both chilled to the bone and that it was slightly difficult to breathe-- almost as if some of her essential life energy had been sapped. An attractive young human woman stood in the corner of the room. She had the dark skin and hair of a Garundi, and her long hair was done in dozens of tight braids. Most of the braids ended in the skull of a small animal. She wore a black silk dress with a silver skull pattern embroidered onto it. She held an ebony wand tipped with a human skull. Charrone could also see that the woman had Thassilonian runes tattooed onto her face and hands. "So, you're the ones who slew all those goblins. I expected better." She began to cast a spell.

That was the opening Charrone was looking for. With lightning-like speed, the paladin swung at the sorceress' arms, interrupting her spell. Halfred then burst in, swinging his axe, and he connected as well. Larissa then ran in, and shot the woman with an arrow. McGregor wtruck her with a bold of magical energy, while Ted just looked at her with disdain. Surprisingly, she still stood after taking successive hits, and pointed her wand at Halfred. The black ray went wide this time. Charrone thrust her sword through the sorceress' chest, twisting the blade. Still trying to summon her magic, she feebly pointed her wand again and tried to utter a command word, but only blood came out of her mouth. She collapsed to the floor, dead.

The sorceress had several spell scrolls on her, but the big find was a black leather-bound book. Inside the front cover was written in a neat hand, "Hermetical Grimoire of Lyrie Akenja." Inside were spell formulae in the manner of wizards. The spells in the book were mostly necromantic, but with many others that dealt with exploration or discovery.

The room itself held archaeological artifacts of ancient Thassilon, texts about the same, and also shovels, picks, survey tools, and other implements that one would use to explore ancient ruins. However, the party decided to explore the rest of the dungeon before their defensive spells expired, so they pressed on.

Following the worked stone passages, they found themselves in a small room where the illiterate goblins seemed to records their exploits. Painted onto the walls were representations of goblins raiding caravans, fighting a bat-winged creature, fighting other goblins, and setting things on fire. One particularly large drawing apparently showed Skull Rock from the side, with Thistletop at the top, a layer of passages just below the surface, and in the middle an immense goblin with snake-like eyes and a sword in each hand. If the scale were to be believed, the goblin would be about thirty feet tall. "Hmmm," said McGregor, "Tsuto's letter mentioned that Nualia was working in the 'lower levels' to free something called Malfeshnakor. I wonder if that's it?" Without commenting, the group pressed on.

They came to a chamber with several passages leading out of it, including a set of stone double doors. The doors were covered with detailed carvings, but the carvings were extremely disturbing: monsters engaged in sex acts with seemingly unwilling women; creatures bursting from the wombs of pregnant females; the face of a three-eyed jackal watching over all of it. "Lamashtu," said Declan quietly, "this is depicting rites of the cult of Lamashtu, Demon Mother of Monsters. This must be a temple."

Charrone tried the doors, which opened easily. The paladin brought to mind the Sight of the Inheritor, which let her see the evil that needed to be judged-- and felt the strong presence of otherworldly evil hovering near the ceiling just on either side of the door! Glancing up, she saw two demonic doglike entities staring down at her. They both lunged, their fangs bared!

[To Be Continued!]