Turn Back This Is Not The Way (Session 72)

Summary

Detail

The group used some healing potions to help recover from their fight with the Clay Golem. The pain from those injuries ran deep, so deep that it will likely take a lot of time and healing from someone of greater skill than their departed friend Pyreece to fully heal them. They decided to first explore areas that weren't in the tunnels marked by the voice saying, "Turn back, this is not the way!".

They went back to the first side passage at the bottom of the stairs. As they advanced, the passage grew darker, lacking the usual phosphorescent moss seen elsewhere in the caverns. Finding no tracks in the stony floor. The cave appeared to be a dead end.

In this small cave, Brandy and Kipp were suddenly attacked by Orpsu. They swooped down from the ceiling and made fly by attacks. They used a piercing shriek during the attacks, resulting in Brandy being paralyzed for two rounds. More of them became paralyzed as the fight continued. They eventually struck them down and ended the encounter. Searching the area, they gathered 150 gold pieces, 50 silver pieces, and five gems valued at 150 gold pieces from sacks found nearby.

They examined other areas in the main chamber where there might have been secret doors or hidden areas but found none. Following another passage, they found that the tunnel circled back around on itself. There was nothing up there.

They found and entered a chamber littered with ancient human bones and discovered a crude sacrificial alter dedicated to the Elemental Eye. Two bags lay near the base of the alter. When the party attempted to open one of the bags, a humming sound arose, causing the bones to assemble themselves with "spectral sinew", forming several skeletal horrors. These Blood Skeletons immediately attacked, declaring, "Intruder!".

The party found that although their physical and magical weapon attacks dealt damage, the skeletons would rapidly reassemble and stand back up after being struck down. Elenor realized physical means were ineffective and cast Burning Hands, dealing substantial magical damage that successfully destroyed two of the skeletal creatures. Everyone backed up to protect her while she cast a Wall of Fire. This destroyed the rest of the reanimating undead. They searched the bags finding more coin.

Realizing that Eleanor was low on magical firepower, they decided they needed to rest. The room they decided would be the best place to hide and heal was the golem room. They went back to that room and set up watch. The watch would be easy as anyone coming into this area would set off the alarming message, "Turn back! This is not the way!". That alarm would alert them to anyone approaching.

Before resting, Eleanor used her detect magic and identify spells to identify which items they had recovered were magical and then identify what magics were associated with them. She identified newly recovered magical items: a pair of Boots of Levitation, a Dagger +2 Long Tooth which functioned as a short sword +2 for Brandy, Arrows +1, a Potion of Vitality, and Bracers of Armor Class 5.

After resting, they continued their search. They searched several smaller paths that were "not the way". They searched one path that led them to several offshoots, some of which circled back around on themselves.

They followed one path that opened into a larger room with a slippery floor. Before they could ascertain what caused them to slip, huge bat like creatures attacked. Eleanor cast an improved invisibility on Oglesby, hoping to give him some advantage in the fight but the Mobats used echo location to hunt in the dark. This nullified that advantage.

After a brutal fight, the party defeated the creatures. Eleanor gathered quite a lot of bat guano for spell components. Audra used her new boots to float up a sharp incline to see what was there and what lay beyond. She found the area at the top sprinkled with coins and gems. They gathered all of that up.

Just beyond this rise was a drop-off that lead to an underground stream. The current flowed east. Audra floated over the water and used the wall to pull herself along. She floated out and could see in both directions, east and west, using her continual light gem. The water continued to the east and the west. She spotted a shore line to the west, across the stream.

This is where the session ended.

Please start the recorder!

Exp: 1356 + 136 = 1492