[AD&D1e] 2020-08-11 Tiwesdæg Myrgþ | Dungeon of the Mad Hermit 2

"Dungeon of the Mad Hermit"

Sinister Six:
(Dwight) Hælen a Human Ranger [AC3/HP12]
(Kitten) Areyn the Elf F/M/T [AC8/HP11]
(Chase) Kruger the Elf F/M [AC4 HP11]
(Kurt) Gorlim the Half-Orc F/C [AC4/HP10]
(Evan) Raven the Human Monk [AC7/HP11]
Late Arrival: (Clay) D'Corry a Dwarf Cleric [AC?/HP13]

We chill for a day to heal up and regain magic/divine power. Back to the dungeon. We head straight to secret door and I open it. We see some fungus that shrieks at us turning Kruger homicidal and giving Gorlim a headache. We smell an awful stench of composting vegetation. Raven jumps past me and suggests we leave. A mound of vegetation rises and pseudopods start pummeling me. I switch to my bow and miss the shambling mound. I don't even see which pseudopod knocks me out.

Dreamtime...
The party breaks out of it's stunned countenance. Raven engages the vegetation. D'Corry starts to drag Hælen out but Raven gets knocked down hard in front of him and he casts a cure light wounds on him, leaving Hælen to ebb toward death. Areyn attacks the mound. Gorlim throws oil on the vegetation and lights it, then goes to drag Hælen out of the room. Kruger rushes and attacks the shambling bits. The creature seems to excrete moisture and puts the fire out. Kruger hits it again. D'Corry binds Raven's wounds. Gorlim drops the dying Hælen and throws a club at the monster. Areyn strikes the killing blow. Hælen continues toward death's embrace. D’Corry stabilizes Hælen with a divine healing. Back to our camp for a long discussion before sleeping. Just before sleep, D'Corry uses his divine power to bring Hælen back to the conscious world.
...End Dreamtime.

I check out the spot where our missing horse was tied up. The earth is loose so I start digging and Raven steps up to help. After awhile we figure something came up from beneath and ate the horse. Maybe this isn't a good place to stay. I hear about these land sharks again but the only things I read about that could do this are giant worms.
Gorlim crafts a draggable stretcher.

[rules clarification made - casters must sleep four hours to regain spells, once a day is complete though, they lose their spell whether it's used or not]

I scout out and find a new campsite across the road. Kruger wants us to set traps. Areyn sets up an alarm system around the camp (jingly noise when people come near). D'Corry heals Gorlim. We sleep.

Watch 1: Gorlim - nothing happens
Watch 2: Hælen and Kruger - approached by seven Orcs. When they see my Bastard Sword they hesitate and we parley in Orcish. They say that they're looking for horses to get back to town as they have a wounded member. I tell them this is not hunting ground for them and they should look for easier pastures. In Common I instruct Kruger to wake the others up and in that moment the Orcs attack me and I'm almost dropped. I can still feel my head spinning from that hit when I write this. Like everything around me went 'boing!'
My reflexes kick in and I return the violence while Kruger pulls something from his pouch and while reciting some arcane words blows a powder toward the Orcs and six of them fall. The last flees. I chase. Raven wakes up and helps me track the last one down. He mentions how nice my riding crop is. It is.
We don't bury the bodies.
Watch 3: Raven - easy peasy
Treasure: 42gp (7 each, already split among party), 7 crappy swords and 7 crappy pieces of armour.

A new day dawns.

Some healing and we work our way back to the secret door. We take precautions and try to avoid setting off the Shriekers however one goes off anyway. The far door of the vegetation room is locked.

I contemplate my own death and reincarnation as a Gnome Illusionist/Thief. That might be fun. I grew up thinking I was a Half-Elf. Apparently I’m not. I’m not sure who was more shocked, me or my Elven father. Oh mother…

Areyn isn’t able to pick the lock but between her and Raven they jimmy it open quietly. They step to the sides as I open the door to see a red-eyed dog. Offering myself as a friend to a wild animal, we see it doesn’t attack. Raven steps into the room following my lead and starts petting the dog who seems pretty okay with it but eyes the doorway wantonly.Clearing our people out of the way it snarls a bit, flame slipping out of it’s mouth and dashes for the exit.

In the Hound’s room Areyn finds a secret door. Good thing she’s here, the rest of us found zilch. She goes ahead and opens the door to find a goat. She engages it in conversation learning that it claims to have been transformed by an evil sorceress and once was a crusading knight. It continues to alert us that the next room has a horse. It’s apparent by the look on Areyn’s face that like me she finds the goat’s words to be suspect. I lean back and whisper to Gorlim that we should kill the goat. I think Areyn’s Elvish ears overheard me based on her twitching in my direction and changing to a battle stance. Gorlim steps into the room and sets my bullseye lantern down in the corner. The goat jumps at him with a surprising elegance of motion and disappears. Gorlim cries out about being stung and goes stiff.

In the next room we indeed see a black horse. We name it, ‘not the best dream I’ve had mare.’ Areyn immediately attacks it and I follow her lead but catch myself on the partially open door and lose my hand and a half sword to the floor. Spun around I see Gorlim’s face, frozen in fear. “N-n-n-n-n-nighhhhhhh…” Kruger fires his crossbow (at least not hitting myself or Areyn) and Gorlim jumps into the fray followed by D’Corry. Raven lunges into the room Wuxia-style with his spear, driving it into the daymarish beast which immediately disappears.

Expecting another secret door, we can not find one and engage in speculation about how to get through a wall. We decide to traverse back to the start and go the other way into the room we suspect a Displacer Beast is located. Yet when we open the door back to the Hound’s room, it’s not there but a different room appears before us! D’Corry spills that we’ve gone further underground. Inside we see a Satyr.

I begin a parley with the goatman. He doesn’t seem to wish us harm. Supposedly he was out doing his daily cavorting and fell asleep by a stream, awaking in this room that has a basin, prison-slot for food and a curtained off area he called ‘poo corner.’ We name him Christopher.

He believes that he’s supposed to represent a devil so people would attack him. Groups come and then go back the way they came. He alerts us that they won’t go anywhere if he accompanies us. We try closing the door and reopening it from his side, but everything looks normal so we leave him to his fate and go back the way we came and close the door.

Re-opening the door D’Corry notes we’ve gone even deeper. In front of us is a 40’x40’ room with the top half of a head coming out of the floor like a buried statue (Titan sized) and four giant-sized skeletal fingers reaching up from floor to ceiling as if they’re holding it up.

Upon visual examination Raven alerts is that this is some chaotic maniacal nonsense. Having heard him speak this way before I (and possibly others) wonder if both rooms are part of some diabolical trap. Raven does know how to turn a phrase. As Raven sends his hawk to fly around the room I mumble something about a buried giant. We close and reopen the door but nothing has changed.

I start wishing I had a pick-axe.

Kruger ties a rope around Raven and a few of us hold on the end as Raven walks into the room. D’Corry pokes me in the shoulder pointing at the floor which is moving upward. Our room is elevating and will soon cut off the rope, stranding Raven so we quickly yank him back into our room. Our room returns down level with the Titan room.

D’Corry makes a nice freeze pose as if he’s about to enter the room. We all…