The secret door is chosen, much to the party’s dismay. For, behind the door lurks a large and angry humanoid that pulps the Lad’s head with a single blow and nearly kills the mage as well before retreating into the corridor. The party pursues and slays it near some large doors.
The doors are opened and investigated. A cavern is found and explored – a river runs through it and large boulders litter the floor. A strange substance coats many of the rocks. The substance is explained when the giant slug heaves into view. It is slain in short order after the mage transforms it into a fish and the adventurers resume exploration mode.
The party deploys the galley as a bridge and begins to cross over tot he other side. There, more doors that conceal a band of barricaded orcs...
The next days pass in much the same way as the previous ones. A bit of idle speculation about the motives of the lunatics who built the monastery, a bit of exploration, some pitched combat, the odd trap and doors. So. Many. Doors.
Eventually, the doors end in the foyer of the second tower – on the opposite side of the monastery from where the party defeated the lich, lo about two tendays ago. Although stairs lead upwards, they also lead downwards and it is on the downward path that the party treads onward.
The bottom of the stairs give rise to five paths, some more menacing than the others. The least menacing path ends up pelting the party with multiple magic missiles before they retreat...
Post-rope, the party returns to investigating the dormitory of the departed. They check to see if any of the corpses resemble Conrad the Righteous, but no. No Conrad. The elf gives the walls the elven once-over and finds nothing. Firmly convinced that the absence of secret doors can only mean there must be secret doors that are really well hidden, the group invests several hours in pursuit of these nonexistent doors. The elven x-ray vision does reveal that there are spaces beyond these walls, but in the end it is decided that other avenues should be sought before walls are passed by magical means.
More exploration reveals little except a door that opens to the garden – and the dental hygiene ghost – until they meet another trio of were-spiders and slay them...
With the elf’s charmed pudding in tow, the group resumes exploration and uses a secret door to gain entrance ot a chamber occupied by a number of orcs. The orcs attempt to brain the elf with a number of hurled missiles, including an overflowing chamberpot.
Understandably annoyed, the elf begins slaying all within sight until he is tackled by a quartet of desperate orcs. The pudding engulfs them as the elf rolls away and the rest of the party is alarmed by the homicidal ooze. The party slays on and leaves on ly a few orcs who surrender in despair.
The elf questions them and learns little of value, save that there are other orcs who have come to this place. The orc’s fate is discussed, but in the end they are put to the sword in the name of evil reduction...
Retreating from the martini ghoul, the group decides to passwall into a different direction. The find a large dog, saddled and ready for travel, though very hungry. The dog was the steed of the halfling found dead elsewhere in the monastery.. A stone carving room is found, full of partially completed grave markers. Three especially large ones are covered by sheets and when the cleric whisks the sheets away, the central tombstone had his name etched upon it, with a date of death that seems awfully close to now.
With that, the stone animates and beats the cleric to death before being slain by the rest of the group. Talk about your prophecy! The camp follower – er – foreign ambassador Ophelia is distraught by the failure of the cleric to cheat death. Little else of interest is found...