Echo Wood: The Accursed Halls

by Desfaber

I think we figured out that the party had spent all of 36 seconds inside the Halls Under The Hill before they had incurred their first casualty. Which would be the first signal that these dungeons are… they’re not fucking around.

As they progressed further into the dungeon, the level of fucking around dropped even further, mostly by chance though. Of all the ways they could have progressed in this dungeon, they pretty much took one of the most dangerous possible choices. Let me check… no, that’s the most dangerous possible way they could have gone. Which is fine if they are on their A-game. Or have a plan. And get lucky. And have a healer.

Cyrus and Tarkus left the group to go haul Mort’s corpse to a destination closer to its final resting place and further from where giant corpse eating centipedes apparently laired. The Obscuring Mist hung around in the two-level chamber in which the goblins had ambushed the party. As they prepared to go through one of three possible exits in this upper level, two closed doors, one open doorway leading to stairs, they paused to at least loot the goblins. Him found a well kitted out goblin, who had a pouch of loot and a potion which they later determined was a Cure Light Wounds potion. Beth checked out the Emerald-set ring in the pouch but found that it was not magical. While they were still in the midst of searching the goblins, Verne entered the new chamber anyway.

Beyond the heavy, but not-trapped door, he found another well lit chamber. Some stairs led down into a room with one open hallway leading off to the left and a statue standing at the far end. The statue was bronze and a man – probably. For the upper portion of the statue had been melted and disfigured, the bronze running in blobs around two red stone eyes. Mart the Bloodrager followed Verne and didn’t recognise the statue as anything… recognisable.

Fucking still makes me laugh.

The two barely had time to do much in the room before two hideous creatures scuttled along the ceiling from the open hallway and – unnatural legs whipping around, pounced on the two interlopers and fairly tore them to shreds. The fetchling and the half-orc fell beneath the thrashing claws. Bam had been in th eprocess of alking into the room and now Beth rushed past him to Stabilize Verne or Mart. Him and Bam moved in to engage the creatures, but the two beastly things struck back vigorously defending their lair. Beth managed to revive Verne, who rolled over and stabbed one of the creatures as Bam also fell beneath their attacks. The creatures turned on Beth and Verne struck again, causing the creatures to leap back to the safety of the ceiling. One of the creatures made it, scurrying back round the corner, while the other left itself open to attack as it prepared to leap and was hacked down by Him, Beth and the supine Verne.

Bastards.

Verne leapt to his feet and advanced around the corner into the hallway to find it empty. At the end of the short hallway, another doorway, this one with a wall of dark purple smoke or mist obscuring the contents of the room. He pulled out his whip and guarded the hallway while Him and Beth went about trying to revive the fallen Mart and Bam. Beth eventually found a Cure light Wounds potion stashed on Bam and she revived him with it, then Him suggested that they retreat to town as this was not the relatively safe jaunt they all thought it would be. Everyone agreed and the yet-muscular Bam, hauled Mart’s unconscious form back out of the dungeon, with Verne guarding the rear, dragging out the weird fungal insectoid creature that had attacked them for further examination.

Their cautious retreat was uneventful and once they arrived back in the mid-afternoon sunlight, they agreed that the party needed healing and the ability to heal itself. The sought out Cyrus who channeled them back to health. Bam went off to create a Cure Light Wounds potions and sleep off his mutagen hangover. Beth took the goblin’s loot and exchanged it for three Cure Light Wounds potions at the small temple of Gorum. Verne went off to salvage the poison glands from the fungus/insectoid/pouncing bastard/corpse and then flirt with wenches at the Greenforest Inn.

Eh, how about it ladies? It'll be like I'm not even there...

Eh, how about it mes dames? It’ll be like I’m not even there…

Him, meanwhile, went to seek out a seedier establishment and found The Thirsty Ogre, a dreadful dingy dive of a bar. Here he managed to pick up the alternative name of the Halls Under The Hill – “the Accursed Halls” as well as the rumour about Garhal Silvercrown and that a reward was being offered for his safe return or at least his ring. Having not read the description of the ring at the Blue Basilisk Hall, he worried that Beth had given away the valuable Silvercrown ring for a measly CLW potion from the Gorumite. So, rushing across town, using his armour as collateral, he retrieved the ring, took it back to The Thirsty Ogre, showed it to the barman, flashing around an easily fenceable item to a bar full of cut-throat degenerates and then left disappointed that it was not the Silvercrown ring. He left followed by two likely lads who had an eye on stripping this seemingly staggeringly naive tiefling of his pretty emerald ring.

More fool them, for they botched their attempt to knock him unconscious in broad daylight and the tiefling instantly called up Darkness as a defensive measure and as the men tried to back out of the sudden lightlessness, he slashed both their throats and dragged their corpses to an alleyway, before dropping the darkness and walking on, unhurried. He returned the ring to the acolyte of Gorum and retrieved his armour.

The following day, now with CLW bottles spread between them, they returned to the HUTH/AH, prepared to meet the thing again in the room with the blob faced statue. They were not disappointed, as it leapt down at Verne, slashing him up and trying to poison him. The fetchling shrugged off the effect and kept the thing occupied while Him got into an advantageous position and stabbed it to death.

They ventured into the purple smoke/mist filled room and once inside found that the mist was really only densely thick up to about two or three feet off the ground. As they entered though, they encountered terrifying visions that left Verne and Beth Shaken. They also experienced intense sudden cold which Beth and Bam both felt. Him was totally fine. They examined this room – with its one exit and dark tiled floors. It looked as though heavy furniture had once been attached to the floor here, but that was all gone, leaving just the purple mist and the occasional scary vision.

Him, Bam and Verne combined their towering intellects to defuse the trap that had chilled and shaken them, prying up tiles, breaking contact points etc. They also found a small purplish semi-precious stone in the middle of the floor and upon picking it up, the mists lost their colour and were white.

Moving on from this now safe room, they left via the unexplored exit, a much rougher, perhaps unfinished sandstone tunnel. Floating down from the tunnel they heard the grating whine of goblin voices bickering about whether something would or would not work. The goblin voices were suddenly silenced by a curt order to be quiet. Bam chugged another mutagen and the party prepared to advance…

Category: Pathfinder, Uncategorized Tags: Echo Wood, Pathfinder, recap

Icosaheathens

Live your life one die roll at a time.

Echo Wood: The Accursed Halls

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