Game End

Well, we played 3 whole games before the group decided to quit in order to do something else. Maybe we'll come back to this one at some point. Maybe not.

It was a dark and stormy night

As we were checking our wounds from the rats, we learned that we were not alone. An elf had sneaked into our shelter. We declared "Storm Peace", as did she, and after learning that she was a rogue(with "PC Glow"), we tightened our belts, secured our pouches, and welcomed her into the group. The 6 of us went down the hallway from where the rats had come from. The hallway opened into a large chamber with several tables and a rope hanging from the ceiling.

Upon entering the room we were ambushed by 4 goblins with crossbows who were hiding behind the tables. A pair of hobgoblins quickly slid down the rope and joined the fray. The bunch were a good fight and we took some decent damage. Several unfortunate events occurred during the battle. Many party members ended up with crossbow bolts sticking out of them. Unfortunately, the elf cleric had charged, missed, and was hit by a critical blow, reducing him to zero hit points. That didn't make his bodyguard, the barbarian, happy. He raged. The Rogue was heavily damaged and retreated behind our front flanks. The battle was not quick nor easy yet we somehow emerged victorious without casualty.

We decided to rest before venturing forth. A few lousy heal spells from the elf cleric later and the party was not 100%, but we continued on.

We approached what appeared to be a Bugbear's tomb. A bugbear statue holding a ceremonial sword laid upon the furthest altar. A gold shimmer was barely noticeable beneath the thick dust covered floor. While discussing strategy in the hallway the barbarian rushed into the room and grabbed the mace from the statue's hands. The statue became a Bugbear Zombie and won a contest of Strength for the mace. The other 2 figures became skeletons and all 3 attacked the party. The barbarian attempted a grand maneuver, trying to jump on top of the altar to gain some upper ground. Unfortunately, he fumbled and tripped over the altar and landed on his face on the other side. This did not make for a happy barbarian. He raged again. The Elf Cleric tried to turn the undead using the Power of Corellon. The first attempt failed but the 2nd attempt was successful, causing the 2 skeletons to cower in the corners and allowing the entire party to concentrate on the Bugbear zombie, which was fortunate because he was fairly tough. He broke his ceremonial mace and brought out a masterwork long sword. Nearly everyone was in melee with the zombie, except for the sorcerer who used magic missiles from afar and the elf cleric that had to stay a bit away from the fight or risk canceling his turning efforts. The characters (and a few of the players) learned that some weapons were more effective against zombies and skeletons than others. The party once again emerged victorious, albeit moderately damaged. The rogue found a few good loot items and we returned to the central chamber.

One hallway remained... covered in webs. Since the storm was not letting up, we decided to rest yet again. The Half-elf cleric realized he could memorize more than 1 cure spell at a time. His cures were well rolled and the party was finally at full strength.

We noticed a thin film of webbing covering the doorway, but saw no threat. As the fighter tried to peek inside, a Giant Spider dropped from above and assaulted him, poison dripping from its open jaws. The fighter barely made his saving throw as the rest of the party tried to get in on the action. The Elf cleric had cast Magic Weapon on the Longsword, but due to crowding was unable to engage in melee. The sorcerer happily cast a few magic missiles as the barbarian and fighter engaged the spider. The spider was soon dispatched. No one was really hurt.

The game concluded as the storm subsided, we divided up the loot, and decided to form a party to journey North to the Valley of the Obelisks that we all sought.

Game #1: One storm to rule them all, and in the darkness bind them.

We started fairly late due to several players getting distracted by stuff. Once we actually started though things went pretty smooth. We started in pairs except for the death cleric. We were coincidentally walking around the same area when a storm came in. Seeking shelter we all found a large rock protruding from the ground. Lighting shot from the sky, encouraging 2 of the players to enter the cave at the base of the rock. After declaration of Storm Peace, we all made our way into the main entry chamber.

The large boulder which used to close off entry had broken into rubble by the passage of time. The entry chamber consisted of a old campfire in the middle and crap (literally) in a corner. It was old and dusty, but featured intricate painting details along the walls. It was indecipherable to us, though the death cleric tried very hard to inspect it all.
A door with a inside lock plate was on each of the 3 walls of the room as we entered it. After building a small fire and deciding that the storm was not going got let up anytime soon, we decided that it was safer to explore the area rather than get ambushed in our sleep by whatever could be behind those doors. Not raving a rogue in the party, we tried brute strength, but it was to no avail. After several DM hints we eventually grabbed the tree trunk from the outside which had been struck by lightning and used it as a battering ram, along with a flask of acid. This too did not work out too well, and bad rolls after bad rolls plagued our attempts. We tried the other doors and thanks to some DM generosity, we finally bashed one of them down.

The first chamber was to the right of the entryway. A short hallway led to an open room with a small chest sitting in the middle. Our untrained eyes saw no traps, so the barbarian opened the chest as we stood in the hallway. Several darts shot out within the room, barely missing him. He took the bag from the chest and we all went back to the entry way. I inspected the bag and found 100gp, 2 pearls, and a leather strap /headband. We decided to wait on detect magic spells until the other rooms had been explored. No one could cast Identify anyway. We split the gold and I kept the rest for the time being.

The 2nd door was straight across and we bashed it down after a while of trying. It opened to a hallway which we decided to check out later. We then bashed in the 3rd door that was to the left of the entry way. In it was a vertical sarcophagus against the wall. As we entered the head turned into a Vargouille and attacked us. It screeched and paralyzed our gnome sorcerer and our human fighter, much to his dismay. The rest of us quickly dispatched the monster as a second one burst out from the coffin and also attacked. We kicked its ass the next round. No one ended up taking any damage and the paralysis wore off after a few rounds. I looted the coffin and found a ring with a silver engraving.

As we went back into the entry chamber we were surprised by four Dire Rats running out of the hallway from the 2nd door we had breached. We killed them all after a few rounds, but not before one of them was able to bite me. The game ended as I wondered if I was now diseased.