Previously, in Nightwick Abbey...
Session 67 - 31st of Sextember, 1392
This week's adventurers:
Blossom (Rogue 5)
Mayfly (Magician 4)
Cherwe (Cleric 4)
Mechtilde (Fighter 4)
Verinka (Changeling 3)
Ulf (Magician 3)
Gerung (Magician 3)
Franz Croakenbell (Frogling 2)
Krupe (Cleric 1)
Hirelings: Assman
Downtime in the Village
A few days after our last delve, a new spellbook is delivered to Ulf and Gerung. They thumb though its pages in awe at some of the powerful magics contained within. Gerung, who just leveled up, learns Protection from Evil from it, and Ulf begins studying Phantasmal Forces.
Blossom studies her new sword, the Shard of God, through a weeks worth of practice. We discover that it is a +3 sword that severs limbs on a roll of 18 or 19 and decapitates on a 20.
Pondering the Orb
This week, we decide to return to the orb room and attempt Lightning Bolt on it, to see if it will be more successful than last week's Fireball.
We return to level 3 through the graveyard entrance. However, before we find the orb, the orb finds us. As we're creeping through an ossuary, we see its light in the distance.
Mayfly creeps up ahead of the groups and he sees the orb of light floating over the body of two cultists we previously killed, tendrils of wet, ropey ectoplasm stretching from the orb to the body.
He notes that the corpses are far too decayed for the length of time they've been here - it appears that the orb feeds on the remains in the dungeon.
Mayfly casts Mirror Image first to protect himself, then casts Lightning Bolt on the orb.
A Change of Plans
The bolt passes harmlessly through the entity, bouncing off the wall behind it.
The orb was not only unharmed by the bolt, but it seems completely unphased by it and continues to feed on the corpses.
We debate casting Permanent Darkness on the creature, arguing that it might be a creature of pure light.
We decide to creep past it while its feeding, but, as we pass it, the corpses it was feeding on disintegrate into dust. The two tendrils detach and it starts to float slowly towards our party.
Not sure how to fight a creature we can't damage, we bet on it only having one speed and run away, back toward where we came from.
The orb gives up the chase and extends more tendrils onto the rat skulls in the room we just left.
A New Route Up
After our short retreat, we go north, past where we fought a Meister. When we were last here, Blossom had spied a set of stairs leading up that we had never seen before and don't know where they lead to.
We reach the room with the stairs without incident, which is filled with dried ectoplasm. Mayfly collects some of the ectoplasm for later study.
From here, we go up the stairs. After too long a climb, we come out on a small landing with two columns. The floral decorations on the columns tell us that this is area of the garden and Bloatus on level 2.
We Really Didn't Think This One Through
There are doors north and south and behind us, to the east, are the stairs back down. Naturally, we next check the bare western wall for a secret door, finding nothing.
Mechtilde uses her magical sword, Dhinron, to detect silver to the south of us.
We force that door open, revealing a hallway. Before us is a single humanoid form covered in mushrooms, which looks over at us and starts screaming.
A chorus of screams erupts out of the darkness behind it and a single, louder, scream comes from the west - is it Bloatus, the demonic glowing worm-like creature who roams this area?
Gerung is Useful!
We shut that door and spike it and, before we finish, we hear hammering against the door as the mushroom zombies attempt to break in.
Mechtilde forces open the door to the north to reveal a room with piles of corpses - though none of them are covered in the fruiting bodies of any fungi, so it's an improvement.
The bodies are wrapped up in linens, like mummies.
There is a loud thump from the door and one of the spike holding it shut falls out, so Gerung casts Hold Portal on the door to keep it shut.
This new room we're in has a passageway to the east and to the north, but the northern route is blocked off by a giant scab.
Mechtilde detects gold with Dhinron and gets a mild tingle off of each of the mummy-corpses, but gets a strong feeling to the east by southeast.
She tears a single mummy open, revealing a mummified corpse in red blood drop robes, like the cultists who serve the Bloody Baroness.
We decide this isn't worth out time and proceed east.
Manimals Again
The hallway winds for 30' and exits into a large room with a wooden building built in the middle of it. This is the Manimals' cabin in the old garden of the Abbey. We appear to be at the norther end of the cabin, where we've previously approached it from the south.
"Begone from this place!" A Manimal comes out of the cabin and yells at us.
Mayfly, holder of the Master's golden skull, calls back, "Fools, make way for the Master and his Entourage."
After some back and forth, a couple of the Manimals cheerfully beckon us to come with them. They appear too cheerful and we wonder if they serve the Builder - the Master's perverse rival.
Not trusting the duo, Mayfly casts Web over them, to which they react by calling out with ape and bird calls.
We hear movement from beyond the web - more Manimals must be responding to the distress calls.
From the sound of their footsteps, the reinforcements appear to be coming around the back of the cabin. While we wait for them to reach us, we back up into the hallway and form a chokepoint.
Mechtilde the Hero
The Manimals come spilling forth against our swords and spears. Mechtilde shouts a warcry and charges forth, dispatching almost a half dozen with her blade.
She taunts them and calls the Manimals cowards, but they are defending their lair and their resolve is strengthened.
Through the crowd, a large Manimal, looking like the cross between a tiger and a person, comes forth and hits Mechtilde with its sword.
After a few more rounds, she and Verinka dispatch the rest of the foes and Mayfly ends the battle by setting the two Manimals on the web on fire.
We find 140sp among the bodies and we proceed into the cabin.
Rebuilding the Master
We find ourselves in a hallway with several doors on either side. We take the first door on the left, which contains a single bed in the room and a Manimal. The lone creature lunges at Cherwe, who clubs it down.
We see a glint of gold under the bed and Mayfly pulls out a golden arm. Yes, YES! Cries the golden skull of the Master - we have found one of his arms. With it, we are closer to reassembling him, which may or may not be very bad.
We go into the next room. Mechtilde yanks open the door and a crossbow set up on a stool fires at her, bouncing a quarrel harmlessly off her armor.
Mechtilde goes to open the chest, but immediately feels something sticky on her hand when she touches it and nopes away from there.
Studying the chest, we discover some kind of adhesive and black powder on the chest.
Mayfly pops it open with a crowbar, so as to not touch the surface of the chest. We find a pile of silver pieces in it with a silver dagger resting on top of the pile.
The dagger is a stiletto with an onyx handle decorated with skulls.
Blossom estimates the pile contains 2,000sp.
We scoop the treasure from the chest onto the floating disk, being careful not to touch the chest itself. This takes time, but nothing untoward happens while we transfer the treasure.
Back To The Village
Content with out treasure haul, we retrace our steps out of the abbey and return to the village. We each receive 393xp and 237sp in addition to the silver dagger, which Gerung takes for himself.
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