"Never say die!"

@Edwin Voskamp's AD&D Game: Freehold 2000-05-21

The party:

• Zooo, a Dwarven Fighter.
• Lothar, King of the Hill People, a Human Fighter.
• Angus, a Human Fighter.
• Banba, a Human Fighter.
• Claire, an Elven Cleric of Labelas Enoreth.
• Rynna, a Halfelven Mage.
• Thalen, a Halfelven Ranger-Cleric of Solonor Thalandira.

Dwarf Fishing

We check out the situation: we are looking at an 8 foot manhole, cut through bedrock. The remains of an iron ladder are sheared off, through means unknown, about a foot below. Looking down with a bullseye lantern we see a dead (i.e. no water, dry) cave about 60 foot below. A broken sword is the only sign that people have gone there before.

We have Claire knot a harness for Zooo, give him a shuttered bullseye lantern and tie a heavy rope to the harness. We have Angus, Lothar and Banbar hold the rope and belay it about 40' long on the donkeys, handled by Rynna. Claire and I stand to the sides of the manhole, arrows nocked and drawn.

We lower Zooo ten foot and find some goblins shooting arrows at him. They shoot well too: they hit him three times in the first salvo (4, 4, 1 wounds!). We pull him out, but Angus and Lothar get somewhat confused: one wanting to lower him, the other trying to pull him out. I yell at Rynna to take off with the donkeys. She does and we send Zoo flying out of the hole, one last arrow in him. Claire bandages Zooo and casts a Healing spell (6 wounds).

We set up and decide to throw a flask of oil with burning rags in it, to light up the set and try and hit the goblins. Zooo leans over and tries and swing the bottle out towards the goblins. He does, but overbalances and falls in. Fortunately he's still tied to the rope and hangs in there, dangling 20' off the ground. The snaking rope trips up Lothar and he goes down, but avoids falling in. One goblin is on fire, Clair wings one and kills another. I shout at Rynna who takes off with the donkeys. Zooo zooms up, but he hits the edge of the manhole (2 wounds). She lowers him a bit, and, on the second try, pops him out, with, yet another arrow in him (4 wounds). Lothar's gotten up and kills another goblin. The rest bugs out. Claire bandages Zooo's new wounds.

After the last events Zooo, in a rather terse way, obviously exerting great self control, teaches the remainder of the party rope belaying commands: belay on, climb, up rope and slack.

We decide this is not the way: even if we could get a fighter down, we might not be able to establish enough of a foothold to get the rest down. Also, we could not get the donkeys down, possibly not the war dogs and we could never get back out in a hurry.

We decide to plug the hole, so we can track if someone came up: Angus puts together something with wood pieces and puts a wood cover on that cannot be removed without us noticing it. We check the room on the other side of the kitchen: it is another library.

We put the box down in the kitchen, back off to the entry room and Rynna uses a Knock spell to open the box. It is a bunch of writing. We don't trust it and back off to a small park outside where Claire communes with her god and casts an Augury. It comes out good and Rynna reads the papers.

It is an Abbott's Diary. It describes the work on the church, naming about 10 priests by name and indicating there were a bit more than 70 priests altogether. We have accounted for sleeping space for 150. The Abbott describes how, in expanding, they dug into the cave and sent some adventurers down: only one returned, gibbering madly. The diary continues, describing how "unholy creatures" come out at night and walk the town, from at least one other entrance to the cave, from somewhere else in town. The Abbott writes that they will make a last attempt to close the hole, but that, in case it goes wrong, he will seal the diary away. That is where the diary ends.

We decide to find the other entry, but, as it is getting on in the day, we back off to our camping ground outside the dead zone. That night, we see stuff moving in town.

Through the Brewery

The next day we go back into town and check the church: the cover is undisturbed. Fortified by this additional indication of another entrance to the cave complex we decide to search the town. We think it has to be a sizable structure, but this town had many. As we go around town, I find tracks of four mansized creatures. I lead the party along their tracks: it leads to the brewery, 200 yards North of the church.

We enter the brewery, a 30' radius ramp leads down into the ground. After three turns Zooo informs us we are below even the level of the cave. The ramp opens up into a cave that was used as a storage area by the brewery.

A strangely dimmed Continual Light spell in a corner of the cave lights up 150' of one end of the cave, without showing the other walls. There are multiple racks, probably for storing barrels. Rynna tracks our progress, making a map and checking by compass as we hug the east wall.

After 300' we get to a passage way due South. As we walk it, Zooo tells us it goes up slightly and that it was originally formed by water, probably from the cave under the church, which is the direction we are going in. After 300' we get to a big cave, we see a human skeleton, with obvious sword wounds. I judge it to be about 10 years old. As we walk along the east wall arrows rain down from the sky. Banba is nicked by one. The second salvo bounces along harmlessly. I take an arrow out, light it and send it two, three hundred yards out in a flat arc. It skitters away and lights up a badly burned goblin body and a broken sword, making it clear we are in the cave under the church. The arrows come from the southeast. We move along the east wall, several salvos miss, but one arrow hits Zooo (6 wounds). It is clear we can't keep this up, moving around and being shot at from out of the dark. I give Lothar another oil bottle and he throws it as far as he can, lighting up 10 goblins. I kill one with an arrow shot and Banba brings one down with a sling bullet. Rynna hears them skitter away and points. Angus throws another bottle, but too far left of where they are. An arrow finds him and wounds him (4 points). He throws again: an inspired throws as the oil fier back lights them perfectly. I kill two goblins, Claire hits one and Lothar finishes it off, then kills one more. Claire spots a tunnel ahead and left of us and a group of creatures come out.

She Holds two of them and they are a pasty white, with all-white eyes. They carry crude stone tools. Angus throws the bottle of oil he's holding at them and sees 5 more appear behind the first one. I nail one straight in the chest (10 wounds), but it keeps koming. Lothar hits one (7 wounds), but it does not go down either.

They attack us. Banba and Zooo get attacked by creatures with arrows still sticking in them! Angus burns one (6 wounds) with another bottle of oil, Banba takes one down, Claire kills of a Held one, I kill the one that is burning. Four more appear and behind them two, bigger, nastier looking ones with swords. Banba and Lothar both kill one, I hit one and Angus finishes him off. Claire kills one of the big ones, I hit the other one, but it charges Banba, who's fighting three and hits her from behind, as I put another arrow in it and kill it. Angus kills one of his attacker and Banba kills one more. I sic Sinnan and Sannen on one of the ones swarming Banba, Rynna commands Thaddeus to attack it as well. Claire kills the other Held creatures. Sinann takes a chunk out of it (5 wounds), but gets hit (6 wounds). Rynna throws a dagger and hits Sinann (4 wounds). I shout that if she kills my dog there won't be any Healing for her. Zooo kills his attacker, but the one in the pack of dog keeps going after Sinann and hits her again! I Command him to surrender, drop my bow, draw both swords and Charge in to protect my dog. Banba kills her attacker, Thaddeus kills the creature. We take stock and Claire bandages Banba (full), Zooo (+5) and Sinann (2). We quickly check the bodies and find 160 silver, 122 electrum and 84 gold.

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