Guards, shadows and Hydell

Mace Blackstar (Mike D.; Human Fighter)
Wilbered The Silent (NPC; Human Cleric)
Castor Bean (Steve B.; Human Bard)
Trygvie (NPC; Elven Wizard)
Kane (Al G.; Human Monk)
Zuran (NPC; Human Fighter)
Ryneh (Tom S.; Human Rogue)

players map drawn by their prisoner

Last session ended with the party deciding to rest a bit with the rescued hobbits and dwarves before proceeding onward.  The former prisoners were in pretty bad shape --- they had been mistreated and poorly fed for serveral weeks.   One of the hobbits in particular was whining about wanting to be escorted back to civilization.  Mace took first watch.  Shortly thereafter,  the door opened and a man dressed in armor bearing a halbard stuck his head in the door and said, "Hey, you guys are late for... WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?"  Obviously surprised by the sight of Mace with a drawn sword, he and three companions charged into the room and started swinging... it proved to be a big mistake.  Mace's cleave and great cleave took care of these warriors in about the time it took the rest of the party to wake up, roll over, rub their eyes and figure out what was going on.  In three rounds, three of the warriors were dead or dying and the fourth had surrendered.

The captured guard was pleading for his life.  The party grabbed him and demanded to know what he had meant when he said, "Hey, you guys are late for..." 

"They were late for the changing of the guard," the prisoner replied.  Upon being questioned, he revealed that there were 12 guards in his guard group (and, by the party's calculation, they had taken care of eight guards, including this one, thus far).  Their instructions were to wait in this room while on duty and if the "alarm" (illusion) went off,  check on what (or whom) had triggered it.  He revealed that prisoners were brought into the lower levels of the dungeon, but he never saw them come out.  He had not been permitted to go into certain rooms or deeper into the dungeon --- he knew the location of the guards room, a barracks, a "slink room" and a room called "the captain's room" as well as the location of a stairs down.  They showed him the map marked "Castle Hydell" that they had obtained in their raid upon the Earthsblood Miner's Guild, but the map did not look familiar to him.  He thought it was possible the map portrayed a lower level.   At Mace's insistance,  he draw a map of the dungeon --- at least the parts he knew about.  If the map proved inaccurate, Mace warned, each mistake would cost the prisoner a finger.

After resting and casting healing spells, they had a lengthy discussion with the halflings and dwarves who had been former prisoners of the inhabitants of Dungeon Hydell.  One of the halflings in particular wanted to leave the dungeon and begged and whined for the group to "take them back to town."  Finally Castor the Bard agreed to take them back.  He led them back to the tower and used a rope to lower them down off of the battlements onto the ground outside.  Returning to the dungeon, Castor once again had a bit of difficulty getting past the illusionary guard system, but was finally able, through effort of will, to convince himself that the demon wasn't real.

After Castor rejoined them, they forced the bound prisoner to lead them east, past the room of the black pillar.  The guard said that they did not go that way normally -- it was considered "dangerous" but the players insisted.  They entered a room with four doors -- one in each wall.  The floor was covered in dust and grime and a path was worn through the grime to the opposite door but the doors in the north and south walls appeared to have been undisturbed for a long time.  Castor opened the south door and a trap fired a half a dozen arrows at him.  The trap was old and weak and each arrow did only a small amount of damage.  There was only a blank wall beyound the door with the spring mechanisms that had fired the arrows.   Mace opened the north door and found a small closet filled with spider webs.  Using Castor's flaming spear, they set the webs aflame.  Small spiders were burned to a crisp.  Afterwards, some assorted coins, two gemstones and the remains of a burned up scroll were found.

Mace forced the prisoner to open the third door.  The prisoner opened the door and stepped through it.  Thinking he was seeking to run away, Mace grabbed him.  They players then proceeded into the hall and Mace made the prisoner go first.  Having apparently had enough, the prisoner attempted to run away up the hall.  The monk, Kane, ran after the prisoner and subdued him.  They stashed the prisoner, bound hand and foot, in the closet where they had burned the webs earlier.

Retracing their steps to the hallway that they had been exploring before the prisoner ran off, they encountered a shadowy room with a door in the far wall and two hallway exits.  As they began to cross the room, Mace, Kane and Ryhneh began to feel weaker.  Kane spotted a shadowy form against one wall and Trygvie announced, "Look!  Kane is casting TWO shadows!"  As they grew weaker, Mace attempted to run across the room and out the other hallway, thinking it was a localized magical effect.  Soon they saw enough to convince them that there were three magical creatures that looked like nothing more than shadows (thus being very difficult to spot).  Their touch seemed to drain the strength of the victim.  Raising his holy symbol, Wilbered turned two of the creatures and Mace managed to slay the third with his sword.  The sharp eyed Trygvie reported that he saw the two shadow creatures flee across the room and slip under the old door in the north wall.

Since Mace's strength was vastly reduced (from 18 to 5!),  they decided to turn and head back to the guardroom.  Here Wilbered cast remove curse on himself (finally removing the cursed armor, which he exchanged for a suit of chainmail taken from one of the slain guards) and restoration on Mace.  After checking on their prisoner, Castor fed him a dose of a sleeping potion he had picked up back in Marshville.  They returned to the room with the shadows and Wilbered boldly presented his holy symbol and the shadows fled.  They then proceeded past the rooms marked "Slink Room" and "Captain's Room" on the map and went on to the guard's ready room.

Trygvie noticed the outline of a secret door in the small hallway on the way to the guard's ready room.  Rather than bother with that, Castor listened at the door and heard someone saying, "Hah!  You lose," and, "Damn!  The cards don't favor me today!"  They burst into the room, surprised four more guards playing cards around a table and managed to slaughter them in short order.  They found 20 goldpieces, some cards (now spattered with blood) and a small bottle that Kane appropriated.

The adventure ended here.

character/player:	class/level:	XP at start:	XP award:	bonus:	XP at end:
Mace (Mike D.)	human FTR 7th	29,513	86		29,599
Wilbered (NPC)	human CL 7th	26,024	43		26,067
Castor (Steve B.)	human Bard 6th	20,715	86		20,801
Trygvie (NPC)	Elven MU 6th	22,107	43		22,150
Kane (Al G.)	Human Monk 7th	26,510	86		26,596
Zuran (NPC)	Human Fighter 4th	8,727	none		8,727
Rhyneh (Tom S.)	Human Rogue 5th	11,126	86		11,212