The Fight to the Finish

Mace Blackstar (Mike D.; Human Fighter)
Wilbered The Silent (NPC; Human Cleric)
Castor Bean (NPC.; Human Bard)
Trygvie (NPC; Elven Wizard)
Kane (Al G.; Human Monk)

When the last session ended, the players had an unknown number of slinks as well as a female dressed in armor bottled up in a stairwell.  Two of the three ogres had been killed and the third had been trapped behind a locked door.   A pit trap, which opened and closed via a lever in a nearby room, stood open, trapping the slinks and the mysterious human female on the far side of the pit.  A bearded man dressed in a scholar's robe was also known to be on the far side of the pit, but could not currently be seen around the stairwell corner.  The door through which they had entered was webbed closed via Trygvie's web wand, but the webs were slowly burning and would be gone in three rounds.  Here's a photo of the battlemat.   Given their tactical advantage and a wish not to retreat back through a room known to be occupied by shadow monsters, the players resolved to hold the room at the head of the stairs.

The female in armor bent down and touched the body of one of the dead ogres, mumbling a spell.  On the other side of the pit, Wilbered began chanting the words to his Spiritual Weapon spell and Castor began to sing in order to inspire his comrades.  Suddenly the alarm bell started ringing, the pit trap closed up and the door which trapped the ogre opened --- all three of these  were triggered by levers in the room nearby.  The dead ogre got up and shuffled towards Wilbered.  The live ogre burst into the room.  Things didn't look good. 

Mace, Castor and Kane leapt forward and engaged the enemy.  Wilbered got hammered by the two ogres for over thirty points of damage in a single round --- ouch!  Trygvie ran into the other room to shut off the alarm and perhaps open the pit again.  As he approached the levers, the bearded man in the scholar's robe suddenly appeared in front of him, stabbing him with a dagger.  Trygvie countered with his quarterstaff and then the bearded man tried using a wand, which had no effect.

Meanwhile the other party members were fighting the slinks and ogres.  Wilbered's spiritual weapon kept the woman in armor occupied while Mace cleaved his way through ranks of slinks.  Although it looked pretty bad for a while, the tide soon turned.  The ogres went down, then the woman in armor went down, and, after that, it was an easy matter for Mace to cut down the slinks one by one since they were in the stairwell and stupidly kept attacking him one at a time in the narrow hallway.

Trygvie, meanwhile, wasn't faring as well.  He snatched out his web wand, intending to web up his opponent and then use his ring of free action to move about, but his opponent whipped out a potion, downed it and then breathed fire on Trygvie.  The mage then blasted Trygvie with a color spray spell, causing Trygvie to stand there stupidly for a round doing nothing while the bearded man breathed fire on him again.  Wilbered arrived and saved Trygvie by healing him while Trygvie blasted the bearded man in webs.  The bearded man didn't appear to be bothered by the webs; he just burned them away with his fire breath and then dissapeared.

Trygvie and Wilbered heard what sounded like footsteps running past them and attempted to catch the invisible mage, but to no avail.  The alarm bell was pretty distracting, along with the sounds of combat and everything else.   As soon as the flaming webs had burned away from the levers, Trygvie shut off the alarm bell.  After the slinks had been taken care of, the players spread out and went across the room where they had defeated the slinks and ogres, trying to find the invisible man.   Having found nothing, they went to the room with the levers and did the same thing.  Kane heard a supressed sneeze from the corner and they surrounded the area, flailing around hoping to hit the man.  Kane flipped over a small bed and his foot hit  something invisible that said, "ooof!"  The monk attempted to subdue the invisible man  and heard him say, "Don't kill me: I surrender!"  They bound his hands and put a gag in his mouth and decided to leave the room.

The woman's armor and heavy mace as well as four potion bottles detected as magic and the players scooped these items up.

Castor took the magical studded leather armor worn by the female cleric.  He notes that there is the runic letter "P" inscribed on it. Is he wearing it or is he just carrying it?  If he is wearing it, did he abandon his old armor there?  Did he take Rhyneh's +1 studded leather?  I see +1 studded leather marked on his character sheet.

Wilbered took the heavy mace that radiated magic from the female cleric's body.  Since it is written on his sheet under combat weapons, he plans to use it.  What does he do with his old mace?

The female cleric was carrying 4 potion vials.  Two of them appear identical.  Who is carrying those?

I forgot to tell you about this but there was also a large brass key hanging on a string around the cleric's neck along with a silver disk that seems to be some sort of holy symbol.  It has waves engraved on one side and a woman's face with tentacles for hair on the other.  Do you want to take either or both of these items?  If so, who will carry them?

The ogres and the slinks did not have any treasure.

Trygvie has 2 new and unidentified wands -- 1 is from the ablino elf who you killed session before last (it is made of bone) and one you took from the bearded man you captured (it is made of gnarled wood).   Trygvie also has a scroll recovered from room 20 the session before this one.  He needs to cast read magic and identify and learn how to use these new toys.

What other plunder did you take?  The +1 rapier?  The elven cloak and boots?  I believe Castor is carrying the Rapier and Trygvie is wearing the magic cloak and boots. 

Boy, you guys got a lot of magic gear...
 
The session ended here.

character/player:	class / level:	XP total at start:	XP award:		XP needed for next level:	XP at End:
Mace (Mike D.)	human FTR 8th	31,896	1,940		36,000	33,836
Wilbered (NPC)	human CL 7th	27,216	970		28,000	28,136	Wooowee!  8th level!  Bob, you hear that?
Castor (NPC)	human Bard 7th	21,950	970		28,000	22,920
Trygvie (NPC)	Elven MU 7th	23,299	970		28,000	24,269
Kane (Al G.)	Human Monk 8th	28,866	1,940		36,000	30,806