Rappan Athuk: Clensing the Healer's Halls

Session played on 11/14

Nick the Pike, Fighter  (Me)
Lada, Thief (Robby)
Koltic, Cleric 6 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf (NPC)

Restocking on holy water and oil, and shelling out 4,000gp for 2 scrolls of cure disease, the party returns to the worm tunnel. With Lada in tow, Nick leads the party back to the triple locked door. It takes some doing, but he manages to figure out the sequence and get the door open. Through the door was  what looked like a study/lecture room. 4 lecterns stood empty around a large pool of bubbling ick. On the far wall was a bookshelf and cabinet. Skirting around the pool, the cabinet is opened, and some scrolls are found, then the bookshelf is looted. Unfortunately one of the books was coated in contact poison. Thankfully Koltic was able to negate that with a potion.

While all this was going on, the bubbling pool spewed forth a trio of zombies toward those at the bookshelf, and another toward the three amigos guarding the door. Nick tells the amigos to back up and close the door. They do. Unfortunately the door locks behind them, and there doesn’t seem to be a way to open it on this side.

Combat is joined, holy water and melee weapons win the day over one handed plague zombies. Even after a third trio emerges from the goop. Koltic, keeping back to provide support, bumps against a carving of a hand on the wall, and disappears. He returns moments later, slightly crispy and telling of a work room with a ball of lightning that zapped him. He doesn’t want to go back. With the zombies dead, and Koltic back, it was time to reopen the door. Sadly there wasn’t any good way to do it from inside, so out came the tools and magic ax… After a long and loud process, the door was opened. Permanently.

Moving down the other open doorway, down a hall with a stream of goo flowing slowly down it, the party comes to a large circular room with a giant pond of the noxious goop. At the northern side of the room was a large statue of a healer, defaced with smears of goop and a necklace made of hands. The hands looked oddly fresh. While scoping it out, the pond began to bubble, and emerging from it were 4 of the evil chocolate demon babies! Combat was quickly joined. Multiple vials of holy water were thrown, most missed and landed with a ‘blop’ in the thick fluid of the puddle. The combat went as follows
+4 chocolate demon babies, Aroon diseased
-2 Chocolate demon babies
+2 plague zombies
-1 chocolate demon baby
+20 diseased rat zombies
-1 chocolate demon baby, -1 zombie
-10 rats (flaming oil)
+5 giant centipedes, Lada drops, Aroon poisoned
-10 rats (flaming oil), Lada healed, Aroon given antivenom
+5 giant centipedes
-6 centipedes
-1 zombie, -1 centipede
+3 chocolate demon babies, Koltic diseased, pool stopped bubbling
-4 giant centipedes
-3 chocolate demon babies

Everyone was nursing serious wounds as the last of the demons dropped. The stillness of the room was eerie after the chaotic and messy combat that, had it lasted another round or two, would have been the end of the party. They quickly get to exploring the room, discovering that under the pool was a summoning circle! Clearly this is the source of the contagion. Nick tries dumping some holy water into it. It bubbles and fizzes but has no other effect that he can see. After minutes of searching and looking and talking, the pool begins to bubble… With a curse and a prayer, Nick takes the hands off the statue. The bubbling continues to build. Nick asks Koltic to bless the hands, and then he tosses them into the guck.

There is an immediate reaction and the pool begins to contract on itself. The bodies of the demons, zombies and vermin all begin to boil away. In under a minute the pond is gone, as are most traces of what had happened. 6 black sapphires, the eyes of some of the chocolate demon babies remained.

Gains: 6 sapphires, 10 books, 3 scrolls of cure disease, 2 scrolls cure light wounds
Kills: chocolate demon babies, plague zombies, diseased rat zombies, giant centipedes
Losses: