Category Ptolus

The group departs the warrens and returns to the manor house to assemble a way forward. The neighbors still regard them with a mixture of admiration and concern for the way they tweaked the nose of the Vladaam House. Of course, everyone knows that they didn’t break into the place and kill the guards and possibly murder the heiress to the family crest, nor break into their secret prison to rescue a famous magic-making dwarf! Of course it wasn’t them. Couldn’t be. I mean, the saviors of Ptolus in all their lower class charm, assaulting an old and powerful family? Preposterous! It simply isn’t done. Also, no one is paying any mind to the rumors that they loosed a vampire eating creature from an ancient crypt. People say the silliest things, dontchaknow.

They meet, eat, bathe, and hav...

Digin charges down the hallway and smashes through the door. As he enters the room beyond a volley of poisoned darts whirr past his head like so many incontinent pigeons. He moves onward towards the only other door in the room and almost falls into a 60 foot deep, spike lined pit. Luckily, his flying spell prevents death.

The rest of the group enters and they quickly determine that every square inch of the room is a trap. The floor is just a mass of pit traps, separated by a few inches of stone floor – just enough to house the trap mechanisms. The demon-devil they were pursuing is nowhere to be found and Digin moves to open the door and move on. Alas, as he touches the door, he is petrified and falls 60 feet to the spikes below and shatters into several large chunks. Oh. This is not good...

Lets see…enter a pocket dimension and steal things and murder folks, or skip town altogether, or go deeper into the home of the most powerful and mace-meltingly evil stuff a righteous cleric could collect…hmm. Deeper it is!

They ask their evil magic 8-ball skull some questions and make haste to leave behind the Lothianites. While it would be good to have extra cannon fodder, having a bunch of righteous folk along might make for awkward times. They pass through the cordon of troops and return to the passages. It looks like there haven’t been any unauthorized entries into the maze of sealed vaults so they navigate to the area of the anti-magic shell. Long ropes are deployed and the chasm is traversed. Sniffles, Bayga, Zaal and Kegdrain remain on one ledge, missile weapons at the ready...

The reversal of path leads them full circle to a room inhabited by wights which do their utmost to slay the party – but to no avail. A set of doors leads to a pair of dwarven constructs and more doors -but these seem likely to open onto the prismatic wall. About face!

Further investigation of a staircase leads them into an ambush as they are blasted by a skeletal figure wielding a wand that shoot lightning into the crowded stairwell. This threat is also swiftly neutralized and the items worth plundering are swiftly plundered.

With a few avenues yet unexplored, the group regroups in front of some large double doors that are sealed in a vault-like manner...

The group trails after the fleeing gas and the techno-cleric uses a homing device to try and locate the vampire-spawn. They spend many minutes circling around, opening doors and exploring areas before realizing that their quarry might just be inside of a statue they passed by. Breaking the stone reveals a cleverly designed ‘coffin’ in which the creature is reforming. They press a flaming flail against the occupant while the rest of the party looks on.

When the satisfaction fades, the question of a missing gnome once again rises to the surface. As they set off in the last direction of travel, the mage uses his robes to track the gnomish migration path...