Rappan Athuk: The Mouth of Doom: Yowza, it's Yaza!

Session played on 4/11

Nick the Pike, Fighter 6 (Me)
Borumar, Thief 9 (Josh)
Tim the Elf (Jake)
Lada the Thief (Robby)
Darryl, Cleric (NPC)
Biffin, Fighter (NPC)
Cassandra, Sellsword
Cory, Sellsword
Wilsig the Mystic

In Zelkor’s Ferry, Nick gathers up the usual suspects, and checks to see if anyone is interested in signing on. The creepy Hilgrun is again turned down, but Leisha is hired. In addition, Borumar found a pair of newly arrived wet-behind-the-ears adventurers in the tavern, Tim the Elf and Lada the Cleric. They agree to join up for half shares till they prove themselves useful.

Hitting the trail, only a short while out of Zelkor’s, they literally stumble on the warg and his pack that they’d run into just a few days before. The fight was quick, close quartered, and bloody… mostly for the wolves. One injured wolf and the warg escaped due mainly to poor archery skills from the hirelings… Something to practice on their downtime. One of the wolves had a fancy leather collar with a gem on it… and a rune. Figuring that they were close enough to the village that they could quickly sell the skins (and the gem), they returned and did just that.  The rune  was that of a crazy wizard who used to lair nearby, but had since abandoned his holdings. Might be worth looting later.

The next day, they again head out to the dungeon, getting chased by some giant bees near a field of flowers.

Arriving at the Mouth of Doom, the party sees some large footprints among the kobold prints. They go up to the MoD, but don’t seem to go in. Perhaps trading with the kobolds? A mystery for another day. Heading into the dungeon, Borumar shows Lada the ropes, checking the 2 pit traps for anything left behind. The party then circles around to the trick stairs with the iron snake statue. Tying a rope to the statue, Lada discovers that the trap is triggered by breaking a light beam between the 2 plinths. He also discovers a secret drawer in one plinth that has 3 saphiers in it! Really should have checked that last time…

Down in the Throat of Doom (aka Mouth of Doom level 2) the party follows the map to the unchecked doors. The first one opens into a round room at the center of which is a statue of a ram horned helmeted warrior. A scattering of coins is found around the statue, as if thrown from the door. The party collected the coins.

Circling back around to the weirdly trapped door that gave Borumar a weird feeling, he checks again, and decides to drink down his potion of gaseous form. Slipping through the cracks around the door, he finds it trapped with poison darts. He disables the trap, and opens the door for the rest of the party. The hallway isn’t long, and has 3 steel doors with small windows that open into small cells. The first has a coin wedged in between the stones. The third has actual treasure including a small hand mirror in gold, a silver holy symbol for a god that hasn’t been worshiped locally for over a century, and a vial of holy water.

Exploring further they come to a weirdly empty room that connects to a room covered from about 8’ up the walls down to and onto the floor with weird scribbling. The words are understandable, but they make no sense in any context. A slip of paper in the corner has more writing on it, and Tim figures it for a scroll…

Beyond that is a well kept room with a crazy man in it. The writings were his, the rantings and ravings of a twisted mind. Before the full depth of his insanity was revealed, he invited the party in and offered to read their fortunes. Tim accepted the offer. He stepped into the room and sat at the table. Nick stepped up and stood behind Tim’s chair. Yaza took Tim’s hand, and began to tell his fortune. Then Tim began to shake and foam at the mouth. Nick swung his ax, and Borumar and Darryl charged in. The fight was quick, and Darryl was able to save Tim. While searching and looting the room, and Yaza’s body (including his well made tentacle helmet that Tim took) Tim shuffled out and meditated on the writings in the other room. He fell into some sort of stupor. Dragging his unresisting body along, they decided they’d seen enough for one day, and headed back to the village. Tim seems to have shaken off whatever it was that got into his brain… but he kept the helmet.

Gains: small amount of coin, potion of healing, Mace +1
Kills: Wolves, Yaza of Orcus
Losses: Tim’s Sanity?