Monday, March 14, 2022

Castle Whiterock 31 January 2022: Sick, sick, I'll tell you!

The murderhoboes

Garreth, half-orc swordsman
    Bleu, droning elf wizard
Zaber, suave and debonaire man
    Logan, wolverine
Polly, cute and deadly elf archer

What happened

People in town are excited about the treasure. Ixnay's egg is getting bigger and even more glowing. I rub the egg.

Anyways, onto the dungeon. We fly to the water level, then Bleu casts water spells instead of Flight. Then, we have her Apportate the rubble in the right passage. Garreth helps her out, but the rubble is too rubblesome for me and Polly, so I tell her tales of my town hijinks. This keeps her from wandering off.

Once the tunnel is clear, we go down it. The tunnel ends in a dead end, so we think there's a secret door, and behold, there is. I force it open, and find a narrow rough-hewn tunnel that climbs up to a natural cavern about 20 feet long and barely 10 feet wide. Along the west wall are two arrow slits, choked with a carpet of algae, its long hair-like filaments waving from a soft water flow. The rest of this chamber looks empty.

I check out the slits, and beyond there is an old graveyard covered in water. Nearby is the crumbling wreck of a stone wall, with spots as high as six feet. The ground is a fine layer of silt, and the water itself tastes bad. Flat stones poke through the mud in rows. Metal shines off the bottom in many spots.

The others catch up, and I slip through the arrow slit. Beyond I see that this graveyard is a part of a big courtyard. Garreth can't get through, so he starts chopping the stone. I pick up a coin to show the others, and suddenly the ground bursts open. Awful rotting bodies pop out, and come at me.

I swing at them, but many come at me, and I lose my knife in the fray. I swim towards the arrow slit, slowed from my wounds, where I see Logan biting at the lacedons, and Garreth has made it through and started taking swings. The lacedons are grabbing me, holding me down. I wiggle out of one, but another grabs me again.

I'm in it, deep.

All of the sudden, the lacedons near me stand, stunned. I see Bleu through the widened arrow slit, having just cast Mass Daze. As I try to get out, Polly tries to get through, and we get stuck in the arrow slit together. Meanwhile, Garreth and Logan keep chomping away at the dazed lacedons, with Logan taking out an eye. Garreth cuts up the nearest lacedons with my old knife.

Bleu casts Great Haste on Polly, while I get out a Major Healing Potion and drink it in a swift move. Polly slips past me, and joins Garreth and Logan as they cut up the dazed lacedons. Indeed, Polly is even more deadly than my drinking buddies, though Garreth ends them with a few easy cuts after a body blow, then chops off the skullcaps of three of them.

I feebly point Garreth at the coins, who gathers up many over the next hour. I don't feel all that well, with a fever and stiff joints. I puke. Garreth drags me off, while Logan pukes in solidarity. Garreth brings me outside, and starts treating me for ghoul fever, sticking me with needles. The needles don't feel good, but I do feel better afterwards.