From The Well To The Arch (Session 44)

Summary

At the end of the last session, the group finished off some thugs. Though they killed off a few in the alley trap that they'd been led into, there were two that escaped into a well. The party started this session climbing down slim covered rungs placed in the walls of the well leading down the side of a wall. Oglesby, Kipp, Brandy, and Audra followed by Elenor and then Pyreece started climbing down. Part of the way down, a section of the rungs suddenly withdrew into the wall leaving no support.

Oglesby, Kipp, Brandy, and Audra all dropped twenty to forty feet into a pool of water, that was about 8 feet deep. Elenor lost her footing rung but the hand rung was still there and she held on tight. Pyreece was only just now on her two rungs and they were both stll there so she had footing and handholds. Oglesby, Kipp, and Brandy made their way to the shores that surrounded the pool. With all of the heavy armor she wore, Audra sank like a rock.

Kipp and Brandy swam Northwest. They were quickly attacked by a crocodile. Oglesby moved off to the Southwestern shore to avoid a direct confrontation opting to use a range weapon to assist in killing it. While they were fighting, Pyreece attempted to reach down to pull grab Elenor's wrist and pull her up but the rungs were too slippery. She opted instead to throw a rope over a beam that laid across the opening above. She tied it off and then let it fall and as it did, it disappeared out of sight, into the darkness below. They began hearing the sounds of splashing.

Elenor grabbed onto the rope and wrapped her legs around it and slowly shimmied down. Pyreece followed behind her. As they got to the bottom, Elenor dropped down into the water. Pyreece knew the armor she wore would drag her down. She tried to swing on the rope and get closer to the shore before she dropped. While she was doing that, a second crocodile attacked Kipp and Brandy who had just finished off the first one.

Pyreece was stuck by a couple of arrows before she finally reached a good arc in her swing near the shore and dropped from the rope. The sand was soft and wet and she sank a little into it but she managed picked herself up and quickly raise her shield to block some arrows coming at her. Audra, unable to jump high enough to break the surface of the water and get air, had to start shedding her armor. She stripped off her chest plate but that wasn't enough to allow her to break the surface to get air. She had to dropped her leggings as well. With that, she was able to break the surface and gasp for air.

To the Northwest, Audra saw Kipp and Brandy fighting some beast and top the South, Elenor was swimming off toward an empty shoreline. She opted to follow in her direction and before long, was able to stand and keep her head above water. She was struck with an arrow as-soon-as she popped her head up. Brandy and Kipp finished off the second crocodile. Brandy and Oglesby moved down the Western tunnel looking for a way out. They didn't see an obvious path forward as the tunnel ended only a short distance around a corner. Brandy returned hearing more fighting going on but Oglesby kept looking for a way out.

About this time, a pipe in the Northeast corner of the chamber suddenly began pouring a lot of water into the chamber. More arrows rained down on those exposed. The arrows were coming from arrow slits in the walls to the East and the South. Kipp and Brandy picked points and could see the heat signature coming from their attackers through the arrow slits. It was tricky shooting but they began firing back. At one point, Brandy ran to the Southern arrow slits and climbed the wall looking for a way in. She was very angry at them and wanted to kill them. She couldn't find a way in.

Pyreece spent part of this time being a shield wall for Elenor who was able to see the people inside the Eastern arrow slits and hit that person with a magic missile. Between the many missiles and Kipp's fine shooting, they finally killed him. They backed up out of view of the Southern arrow slits. Shots began hitting them from the North then. The waters were rising quickly and Oglesby saw the trap for what it was. There was a way out and here had to find it, fast. He spotted it high up on the Southern wall of the Western tunnel. He tried to climb up to it but the dirt was too brittle and hard to climb.

Audra managed to get back to her armor and swam down to gather it up and walk toward the Southeastern shore. There was a spot mostly out of sight of the enemy firing on them. She managed to get the armor, even though she was soaked to the bone, back on. She made her way toward the others. Elenor cast a Wall of Fog spell to block the archers from being able to see any targets. That is when they all made their way to the opening that Oglesby found.

Kipp lifted Brandy who then pushed her way through the door and into the hallway beyond. The rest of the group followed. They closed the door and began making their way down the hall, turning this way and that. They finally found their way to the Southern arrow slits from where their enemy had been firing on them. They found a little blood but nobody. They followed the trail for a bit but the blood trail disappeared. The continued on and found a door. Passing through it and following the hallway further, they found the thug that they'd killed through the Eastern arrow slit. He had two tattoos, one of a flower and one of a dragon.

They continued on and found a door. When they opened the door, they spied a room with four thugs and an archway whose opening was filled with an electrical, magical, and sparkling energy. Brandy ran into the room and attacked one of the thugs. Kipp followed with Oglesby, Audra, and then Pyreece. Elenor fired from the door. After only a few rounds, they killed the four thugs in that room. Brandy had the idea that maybe the should throw one of the dead bodies into the energy within the archway assuming it was some sort of portal. They did that.

The body disappeared into the energy field without a sound. Audra tried to move another body next to it and moved a part of it's arm into the field. She wanted to see that if if was still there if she pushed it's hand into the opening and pulled it back out. When the thugs hand touched the field, and since Audra was touching the thugs arm at the time, both the body and Audra disappeared. That's when Brandy said, "Ah hell", as she followed in after her. The rest followed.

What happened to all of them? Did they pass through some sort of portal to a destination unknown or did they all just leap into energy field of disintegration and are no more? Tune in next week to find out. "Same bat time! Same bat channel!".

Start the recorder"

Exp: 500 + 450 + 45 = 995