Personae dramatis
Grignok, orc druid often in panther shape
Felcanis, elf cleric
Honsou, larcenous bowman
Mēnévē, broken-nosed fighter (NPC)
Quid occurrit
The heroes walk through the balrog's lair and find there is no balrog therein. They go through the tunnels, past the well, and into the room with the carvings. They turn to the left to look at the pillars in the middle of the room, and see that beyond them there is a double door, and two folks with swords, shields, and armor. One of them yells, "Hey, who the hell are you?"
Grignok roars, and the two fighters start walking warily towards the gang. Grignok runs to the shadows, and gets a better look once nearer. One is a paunchy woman with a craggy face, wavy black hair over her ears, tattooed forearms, and a shortsword. The other is a barrel-chested man with short, bushy, dark brown hair, bulging blue eyes, an earlobe cut off, and a broadsword. The woman yells, "You're gonna regret being assholes, y'know!"
Everyone starts pulling out weapons and getting nearer, with Grignok moving behind the two. Felcanis tries to cast Command on the woman fighter, but she's too far away to get it to work, so he casts Armor on Honsou instead. Honsou steps around the pillar, aiming at the woman, and Mēnévē, once near enough, yells, "Fut du du dirbate sat o' shid!" and swings her warhammer into the woman's shield.
The woman sneers. "Imma get you, you know?" She steps and tries to stab Mēnévē in her face, but she steps away. The man walks towards Grignok. Honsou keeps aiming, as Mēnévē blocks his way, as she has stepped back to ready her warhammer. Grignok rushes towards the woman and claws her in the back of the skull.
Amazingly, the woman doesn't drop from the goring, and instead spins and stabs Grignok in his face. Mēnévē yells, "Fuddin bitz!" as she puts her warhammer into the woman's flank from behind and pulls it back. Honsou shoots at the woman but misses, and Grignok bites her face, dropping her.
The man yells, "NOOOOOOO!" charges to hit Grignok's neck, but Grignok steps away. Honsou gets out another arrow while Mēnévē tries to put her warhammer in his side, but it gets caught in his shield. Grignok claws his sword arm twice, crippling it and making him drop his sword. Felcanis casts Command on him but it fails as she is too far away.
The man tries to kick Grignok in the face but Grignok steps back, and he falls down. Honsou steps and shoots him in the innards. Mēnévē steps up, leaving her pick in, tries to kick his balls but misses. Grignok bites him twice. The man starts to wiggle arm out of his shield. Honsou runs up to him, pulls out his sword, and tries to slash him but misses. Mēnévē kicks his face. "Dum muddafudda!" Grignok bites him twice, crippling his shield arm.
The man lies there, unable to do anything other than spit defiantly at the heroes, who aren't acting too heroic. Honsou keeps missing with his sword and Mēnévē keeps missing with her face stomps, falling. "Fud!" Grignok bites him again and again, killing him.
They loot the bodies. The man has heavy leather armor, a broadsword, a medium shield, and four javelins. The woman has the same other than her sword, which is a shortsword, which Felcanis feels is magical. She also has a potion. Felcanis casts Stop Bleeding on Grignok. Honsou kills the woman, who is still breathing until this.
They rest for a short time. They check the double doors, find they have no traps, and Honsou easily picks the lock. The smell is dusty there, no dampness in it. The hallway splits, so they walk left, and find alcoves with sarcophagi therein. Honsou pushes open the lid to a sarcophagus, and inside there's … dust. They walk down the other hallway and find more sarcophagi. Honsou thinks these all have nothing but dust, so they leave them alone and leave the dungeon.
They find themselves outside in the afternoon, so they start heading towards town. After hiking for an hour, Grignok coughs a little when he catches a sudden burst of perfume, akin to Chanel No. 5 but sweeter. Up ahead is a man-sized flower with waxy white petals. Honsou guesses the smell comes from the flower, so he starts walking towards it.
Grignok thinks the flower is a vampire blossom, which dulls its victims' feelings to sleep with its perfume, then moves over them and drains their blood, making its petals turn red. He casts Beast Speech and asks the plant, "Can you not please, master plant?"
The vampire blossom says back, "Must feed on beast blood."
Grignok says, "We can bring you something better to munch on"
The vampire blossom says again, "Must feed on beast blood."
All the while, Honsou, knife drawn, keeps walking towards the plant, even though he starts to feel dizzy. He makes it to the plant, and slashes its stem. Felcanis casts Sunbolt, getting an easy-to-guide one. She throws it at the plant, burning it greatly. The plant swats its petal and hurts him. It wraps its petal around him, starting to drain his blood. He tries to wiggle out, but cannot.
As the vampire blossom drains Honsou of blood and senses, making him pass out after a few seconds, Grignok casts Lightning and Felcanis casts a bigger Sunbolt. Alas, Grignok's Lightning bolt doesn't burn it as much as he hoped, while Felcanis's Sunbolt misses it wholly. Grignok tries to grab the plant but cannot, but it lets go of Honsou after Felcanis's next Sunbolt burns it greatly.
