Stonehell: As the worm turns

Session 116 was played on 12/29

Borumar, ½ Orc Thief 7 (Josh)
Joho, Mystic 5 (Chris)
Brother Dimetri Andropov, Cleric 3 (Jeff)
J, Fighter 1 (Jay)
Drolo, linkman (NPC)

Having completed his recovery, Joho was ready to rejoin the party and continue the exploration of the side dungeon. Brother Dimetri decided that their ranks could use a little filling out, and he stopped by the taverns and recruited the drunks most willing to go into a monster infested hole in the ground. Joining Drolo in the ranks of meatshields were: Kallo the Linkman and Hurtag, Nolgar, Farwood, & Falkon the men@arms..

Returning to the side delve, the party enters through the temple of the elementalists, and then heads back up to the Medusa’s prison level. There they come upon what looks like a wizards dorm room, protected by a glowing glyph on the door. Borumar uses his force bow to strike the glyph, and where the magic arrow strikes, the glyph stops glowing. With the glyph disabled, they open the door, and enter the dorm room. The 4 crystal statues in the corner of the room come alive and attack… or try to. They’re incredibly clumsy (can I roll above a 5? Please?) and end up as shattered chunks of crystal strewn about the room.

Noticing another glowing rune coming from under the wardrobe, J tries to scratch it off with his sword. A blast of flame chars the outside of the wardrobe, and injures the poor fighter. Checking out the rest of the room, they discover only the old wizard’s robes. Brother Dimetri collects them to have the metallic thread collected from the moth eaten fabric.

Returning to the medusa’s prison, they’re set upon by a carrion crawler who has apparently eaten the remains of the medusa. The plate armored members of the party were hard to hit for the carrion crawler, and it died quickly.

With this level apparently explored they checked their map, and decided to head down to parts unexplored. Finding a natural stairway, they headed down, coming to a large chamber… inhabited by a large white worm. Borumar is all for attacking it at range, but J and Joho charge in. As the worm pulls itself from the ground, they realize just how big it is. And then it bites J… and then swallows him. The party hacks at the worm, killing it, as it continues to force the armored body of J deeper into its digestive tract. They cut the monster open, and pull out J’s slimy, burned, pierced, and crushed form. Too far gone, the party wraps the body in a cloak, and tucks if off to the side, and then checks the rest of the worm for anything else. They discover 4 uncut gems in the beast.

Joho, while checking out the rest of the chamber, discovers a hidden door, well designed to blend into the natural rock wall. Opening the door, the party finds themselves facing three very startled looking humans, a man, a woman, and a teen. They reach for what weapons were at hand (some improvised) while the party just closes the door.

Talking through the door, the family basically tells the party to go away and come back later, and they’ll tell their king that the party wants to meet with them. The teen is sassy, and the woman picks on the man as they talk.

Rather than try to force the issue, the party presses on, going deeper. Again, a large chamber opens up, this time one with two obvious exits, one to the northeast, one to the southeast. Joho sneaks up to the north, and after a short-ish passage creeps into the bedchamber of a minotaur! And he’s asleep on his bed. Also in the room is a large cookpot with a trussed up figure sitting in it. Joho sneaks out of the room to tell the party what he saw.

Joho wasn’t as sneaky as he thought, and had woken the minotaur, who, once Joho had left the room, got up with his large 2 handed sword, and circled around to get behind the party.

The party decides that the best plan is to try to steal the sword, and free the trapped person in the pot. Joho sneaks back, only to discover the minotaur gone. He quickly rushes to free the man, just in time to hear the bellow of the beast as it charges his friends.

The minotaur watched Joho sneak off, and then rushed into the mass of intruders, chopping Nolgar clean in half. Swinging the massive sword around trying to keep the party from dog piling onto him, he was still outnumbered, and in a final blow of revenge (or self preservation) Falcon speared the monster under the arm, piercing his heart.

Feeling the rush of victory, but also the loss of their second party member, they decided to return to the surface. The rescued human was grateful for the save, and asked to join the party, as adventuring with a group seems to be far safer.

With J and Nolgar dead, Hurtag and Farwood decide that dungeon delving isn’t something they want to keep doing, and so leave Brother Dimetri’s service.

Gains: 4,000gp worth of gems (from the worm) and jewelry (from the minotaur)
Kills: Minotaur, Crystal statues,
Losses: J, Nolgar