Previously, in Nightwick Abbey...
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Session 94 - 30th of Youngers, 1398
This week's adventurers:
Blossom (Rogue 6)
Ulf (Magician 4)
Liminal Space (Changeling 4)
Poppy (Fighter 4)
Krupe (Cleric 4)
Thekla (Magician 3)
Lump (Frogling 1)
Hirelings: Niklaus (Fighter 2), Assman (Fighter 2), Helusch (Magician 1)
Downtime in the Village
Ulf has been away from the abbey for some time, but is back now and ready to delve again! He's heard tales of the defeat of Balotis, the Piteous Worm of the Abbey and of how our adventures have caused the architecture of the abbey to rearrange on level 3.
Liminal has spent his downtime researching old tomes for rumors of a magic shield. He has come away with two rumors - first that a magic shield was buried with a figure known as "Great King Death." Second, the other adventuring party has been looking for the treasure store of the wicked demon known as Plutus, which could contain such an item.
We have already had dealings with Plutus's Flymen underlings on level 4 and know of a Staff of Dispelling in his possession - perhaps there is a shield there as well.
Back Into The Crypts
We decide to go into level 3 this week to continue to map out its new layout. Additionally, if Great King Death was buried in the abbey, it would likely be on level 3.
And so we proceed up to the buried abbey outside of Nightwick Village early in the morning and enter through the graveyard entrance directly onto level 3.
As soon as we enter into Nightwick the outside light behind us disappears instantly - the entrance chamber has long since shifted into the middle of the floor. It's a strict one-way passage for us now.
Gaining Our Bearings
We find ourselves in a room 30' deep and 100' wide, with a dark hallway behind us.
We 'backtrack' down the hallway to see a set of stairs up - the way to level 2 and our likely exit our of the abbey.
We proceed south, to where a statue of one of the lieutenants of hell was - the party stole its crown last week, but it hasn't procured a new crown since then.
From this room there are hallways to the west and north - to the west, the hallway goes off into darkness with doors on either side.
Woefully Unprepared For Monsters We've Fought Dozens of Times Before
To the north is a 20' by 20' room with several figures standing on a sigil drawn on the floor. We can only make out that the frontmost figure is wearing rusted, ancient chain - a blind brudder.
We also spy something shiny behind them and, as all that glitters is gold, we decide to fight them.
We win initiative and circle around the entrance to the room to greet them with hammers, swords, and spears.
Unfortunately, these skeletal undead are all but unaffected by spears and bladed weapons.
One of them grabs onto Liminal while Thekla throws holy water at the group, but misses and the bottle breaks against the ground. Where it landed, the floor begins to smoke as if the water was acid and we hear the abbey shift around us - Nightwick Abbey does not like holy water.
We Finally Hit Back
Poppy and Lump step forward with strong attacks and kill two undead, including the one grabbing Liminal. Krupe strikes a third one standing just outside the room, knocking off its hat, but not killing it.
Thekla throws more holy water, burning an undead. As drops of holy water fall to the floor, we hear more shifting of the abbey around us. As the Dungeon Master laughs in the background, we worry if we have lost our route out of the abbey.
Liminal and Poppy advance with their effective blunt weapons and finish off the last two undead!
Valuable Yet Bulky Treasure
Searching their bodies, we find nothing of value, but we discover a huge pile of copper coins in the middle of the sigil room - 2,500 pieces (worth 250sp).
However, we have no floating disk spell and not enough sacks to carry the coin, so we leave it here for now.
What's the Point of Having a Magician if They Can't Read Magic
There is a sigil on the floor with something written around it - a Read Magic spell could decipher it, but none of our magicians have it prepared.
Alas, how woefully unprepared we are this week!
We leave the coins for now and go down the hallway west. 20' down are two doors, to which Liminal listens and hears whispering to the south. Krupe forces open the door to reveal a 30' by 20' room with a sarcophagus on the opposite wall.
We Ruin A Perfectly Good Smoke Break
Standing in front of it are 11 devilmen, apparently on a smoke break. Thekla casts Sleep, dropping 2 and Liminal casts Phantasmal Force in the image of a Fireball. Five more go down to an imaginary fireball. Ulf casts Light on one of the remaining ones, but it saves.
Four devilmen remain and two draw swords and rush at us, but miss their attacks.
Next round, Liminal casts Hypnotism, entrancing two Devilmen, ordering them to Hug the two remaining Devilmen. We quickly kill of the various incapacitated devilmen after that.
We spend a turn searching them. They all have mostly worthless chainmail and swords. However, two of them have solid gold upside-down crosses - each is worth 2,000sp!
In the room is a sarcophagus with a broken lid. Inside is a body with twisted and broken limbs and nothing else.
Never Stop When You're Ahead
After taking a rest turn, we cross the hallway to try to force open the door north. We fail to force the door open with crowbars and grey goo sprays out of the door from which eight hideous Dregs, squat ratmen, burst out.
They don't seem initially hostile and so Liminal Space attempts to communicate with them. He gets met with silence and confused looks, so he casts sleep upon the group.
He puts 5 of them down and the rest run away into the darkness.
We attempt to force open the door again...and succeed!
Let's Fucking Fight a Demon
We see a great shaggy beast in the room, standing over a sarcophagus - a lesser demon, a Knight of Armadeus, King of Hell.
Liminal asks to come in and is denied. Upset, he casts a Phantasmal Force Fireball upon the demon.
The beast sees through the illusion and disappears with a laugh - the front three ranks of our party are covered in darkness and Poppy is struck by a great metal hook for 11 damage.
They're left standing, but wounded and we have no way to reliably attack this beast while it can't be seen.
Back To The Village
At this, we decide to flee battle, outmatched. We're able to escape, hearing his hideous laugh at our backs the entire way. Luckily, our route out of the abbey through level 2 was unchanged and we're able to safely escape.
We each receive 682xp from the delve, with our hirelings each getting half that. After selling the gold crosses, we each also get 470sp for our troubles.
Overall, not a bad delve, especially considering how under-prepared we were for everything.
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