Conquering the Barbarian Altanis: Session 173
Adventurers
| Character | Race | Class | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tarkus the Promising | Human | Cleric level 5 | Follower of Bachontoi, God of Red Wisdom. |
| Beorg the Gravedigger | Human | Fighter level 5 | Inspired to adventure after burying several adventurers. |
| Thorinda Bung | Human | Monk level 2 | She has blonde hair done up in a tight pony tail and wears light, loose suit. |
| Jacob Vin | Human | Assassin level 1 | Slick black hair, inconspicuous dress, youthful for his age, and of keen instincts. |
| Kenso San | Human | Fighter level 4 | An arrogant and self-assured sellsword wandering Wilderlands to prove he can best anyone. |
| Tam o' Shanter | Human | Cleric level 4 | A boisterous wine-lover of Losborst on a Great Crusade of the Grape. |
| Wilbalt Abendeurer | Human | Fighter level 1 | AA burly blonde barbarian; Warmund's younger brother and a better swordsman of the two. |
| Warmund Abendeurer | Human | Fighter level 1 | A burly blonde barbarian; Wilbalt's older brother and the stronger of the two. |
Redleaves 4th, Fireday
Fat stone lizard sat there, immovable. Its two large eyes—green gems—gazed upon woman prostrated beneath it, her belly exposed. Fire cackled in stone bowl.
Blood splattered the ground and walls as adventurers clashed with four vile creatures. Reptilian monsters excreted stench most foul and fought with wicked barbed spears.
Beorg hacked one with his halberd, while Kenso executed the other with two precise slices. Three more troglodytes joined the fray, rushing from the north.
At the same time, two burly blonde barbarians—Wilbalt and Warmund—arrived from the south.
“We are here to crush some skulls!”
Warmund, the bigger of the two, rushed to dame's rescue. He bowled his way through and stepped over her in order to fight. Ge was promptly stabbed and rendered unconscious.
Wilbalt, the younger of the two, was much more successful. He elected to ignore the scantily clad lady, and focused on crushing skulls instead. His focus paid of handsomely as he indeed crushed the skull of one troglodyte.
Kenso focused on the foul beast with glowing dagger. He splits its head in half, and then kicked the corpse away. Tam crushed another one.
Final monster suffered a humiliating death as Jacob slit holes in its back, and then pulled both of its kidneys through them.
“Just like they though me in the school for assassins!”
Adventurers heaved and retched from foul smelling corpses. They briefly scanned the room. Wilbalt took care of his brother, while Thorinda tended to the woman.
The woman introduced herself as Silugnia, Adept of Sinakad. She was captured when her adventuring party was vanquished by the troglodytes. Tam was suspicious of her and wanted to smash her. Thorinda said no.
Ignaeus noticed that something was off in the chamber—there ought to be secret doors or passageway somewhere. Taking a mental note of it, adventurers decided to proceed north, pushing through stuck doors.
Meme by Jan.
This led them to an empty chamber. Moving on they reached a turn and doors just before it. Bursting through faced them with four pig-faced orcs clad in chainmail and armed with scimitars.
With nowhere to run, the monster put up a desperate fight. Kenso was nearly hacked to death. Wilbur claimed first kill, followed by Tam. Tarkus soon followed, his hand guided true by Bachontoi. Jacob killed the last one, with a precise throat thrust with spear he had appropriated from the troglodytes.
Sweeping the chamber revealed fifty-eight golden pieces and little more of value.
“Hey, let's take their armour. It is quite difficult to get by chainmail in Ironburg...”
Indeed, the orcs were liberated of their armour quite rapidly.
Returning to the corridor, the party went north-east, reaching a T-junction. To the left were doors leading into a square chamber with broken through wall. Sounds of rushing water could be heard in the distance.
Straight ahead were doors and corridor turning further right. And slightly before the former was another T-shaped junction. At this moment adventurers decided to retreat to Ironburg. Two of them were badly injured, they had dazed Silugnia, and they were hauling a little bit of treasure.
Thus they backtracked, going back to the sacrificial room, then past the golden spider statuette, and straight into a band of ten zombies. Tarkus turned them without missing a beat. Adventurers decided not to pursue. Next was long chamber of the Ratmaster that was incinerated by Ignaeus, pass the doors with Arnulf's flayed face—”What an ugly fucker” Warmund muttered—and up the stairs leading to the first level.
From there they headed straight to the gnome chamber, and then north through double secret doors, then east into the many-doored chamber, through north-west doors, and then west, north, through illusory wall, and up the stairs.
Air was warm. Summer will be here soon. Night has already fallen by the time they left the ruins of Castle Yukanthur. They found a safe spot to rest some time after midnight. There they slept until evening. They reached Ironburg by nightfall.
Redleaves 8th, Earthday
A party of eight adventurers—Tarkus the Promising, Beorg the Gravedigger, Thorinda Bung, Jacob Vin, Kenso and his retainer Agathon the Promising, Tam, and Wilbalt—returned to the ruins.
Most of the goblin corpses have been picked clean to the bone. Those that did were liquefied, hosting thick, blubbery maggots as well as swollen flies. Beorg picked few of the nastiest maggots and put them in his pouch.
“How about we check the cave?” Tam suggested.
Just east of the castle, twenty feet below the ground level, was a cave entrance blocked by a large boulder. Weeks ago, when the adventurers had found freshly massacred goblins, they also found that they broke a hole through the boulder. At that time the hole was closed shut by dozens of goblins corpses jammed into it.
The hole was now mostly open. If one was willing to crawl through putrid, maggot-infested, and disease-ridden remains. Tam was the man.
He endured and crept through the hole. Smelly but alive he emerged into a spacious cavern. Shining the bullseye lantern to the right revealed two tunnels, one narrow and one wide. Shining it to the left revealed two adjoining caves. More goblin remains were in the cave. Tam could endure no more and he fled the cave.
“Let's go into the dungeon. That we know.”
Party followed by now well established route. Through the illusory wall, into the many-gated room, south-west, through square chamber with double secret doors, past the gnome statue chamber, and then follow the long corridor until the flail wielding statue.
There they ran into nineteen giant rats. Kenso the Ratkiller butchered eight, Beorg the Ratburrier skewered seven, and the rest were dispatched by others.
Party waded through the corpses and descended to second level. This time they turned left, into the unknown. This led them to a thirty by thirty chamber, bereft of anything worth noting except another exit. Following it led to a T-junction splitting north and west. The former connected to corridor leading to south-west entrance into the Ratmaster's lair. The latter led into the unknown.
From the unexplored darkness four ravenous ghoul came charging. They were promptly stopped by Tarkus's holiness. They cried and whimpered and fled for their unlife. Ten zombies pushed through, slumbering towards the party. As Tam turned them, another pack of ghouls came charging from the doors to the far west.
Zombies pivoted, fleeing the awesome divinity of Losborst's vicar. Ghouls, one the other hand, were unaffected. They tore through his defenses, rendering him stiff as a plank.
Kenso, Wilbalt, and Thorinda were now completely exposed. Jacob and Agathon were just behind them. Tarkus and Beorg, the mightiest and most powerful were at the rearguard. Will they have time to help, or will they witness their allies being eaten alive?
Poster by Lord Jubalon Flux.
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