The Altar of Evil

We continue our story in the dungeon with our heroes sleeping.  Jimini the halfling rogue is on third watch, his back to the door, sitting on the chest against the door so he can see through the peephole if need be.  He hears the sound of footsteps approaching and looks to see two spear-men as they knock on the door.  Nadia the monk is awakened by the sound of the guards knocking on the door and sits up.  Jimini sees her rise and she quietly pads over to join him at the door. He holds a finger in front of his lips and listens at the door.

“The officers are probably all sleeping, you should knock harder.” says one the the guards to the other.  Followed by a louder knocking at the door. And still they waited, Castor snores loudly in the corner still unaware of the situation at hand.  As they waited the guards begin to argue back and forth.

“Well what are we going to do?”

“I don’t know, we are suppose to tell them what’s going on.”

“Well somebody is down here and we should tell the officers what happened but nobody is at the door.”

“Maybe they already took them out too,who knows? But I’m not gonna stand here waiting at the door if nobody is gonna do something.”

At this point Jimini calls out “Ahh.. Hold on, hold on.” trying to imitate the voice of the man whom Castor and Nadia had interrogated earlier.  Jimini and Nadia push the chest quickly to the side unbar and tear open the door coming face to face with two spearmen.  Nadia strikes without hesitation stunning the guard in front of her as Jimini lashes out stabbing the other in the unmentionables, while shouting a harsh whisper at Castor to wake up!  Castor who is actively snoring on his pallet in the corner awakens to the sound of combat at the door and rises eagerly to his feet taking up his large great sword as he does so.  The man across from Jimini stabs wildly with his spear but misses as Jimini dances back and out of the way.  Nadia strikes twice at the stunned man in front of her and steps aside just as Castor charges into the fight cleaving both of the opponents to the ground in one fell swoop.

Having ended the threat they quickly drag the bodies in and close the door.  Nadia checks for vital signs and stanches the bleeding of the unconscious but still living combatant. She could do nothing for the other man who’s torso had been severed in two. Shortly after the commotion had ended the rest of the party awaken and begin preparing for the the day. They then proceeded south to the boat and make their way across the underground lake.  Taking heed of  the previous warnings they stayed in the boat and did not explore the waters any further.  Upon disembarking from the small craft Mr. Whiskers, the small weasel familiar of the old wizard Ramne from the grove of elms in the Village of Orlane, scampered down from Ivy’s shoulder and skittered up ahead sniffing and indicating it wanted to take the passage to the east.  At the end of the hundred foot hallway the passage took a turn to the south and abruptly ended at a doorway which appeared to be barred from the other side.  This time, instead of beating on the door right away they pulled back and decided to try a ploy of their own.  They went back and got two of the guard’s uniforms and when they returned with Castor and Zarkon wearing the guards gear, they knocked on the door while everyone else crouched just around the corner waiting.  A short moment later they hear footsteps and the bar being drawn away from the door, suddenly they found themselves face to face with a troglodyte.  Castor stares hard at the reptile for a second and the beast quickly steps back, as if expecting them to follow him in to the room, and so they oblige.

Castor and Zarkon move forward with Jimini hiding behind the bulk of the barbarian and without warning Castor strikes at the second of the two critters with the guard’s spear but unfortunately misses.  Jimini steps out and flings a dagger which buries itself in the second reptile while shouting “The gig is up. Get in here!” then directed at Castor with a sarcastic lilt “You missed…”  Nadia instantly steps into the room and strikes the first reptile stunning it with the blow as Zarkon launches two glowing blue magic missiles which burn into the second creature.  Brother Thimble steps to the door and fires his crossbow missing the mark as his bolt thuds into the timber of the wall.  Jimini quickly somersaults across the room and stabs the first troglodyte in the posterior with a flanking motion and the reptile drops to the ground unconscious and bleeding.  At this point the second troglodyte releases an expanding cloud of stench which fills the room, and knocks on the door, alerting the others waiting in the next room to the attack.  Castor, with his Mask of Sweet Air, is not affected by the stench and tears the spear free from the wall and buries it in the monster, pinning it to the wall were it stood.  The rest of the party takes a moment to get over the nausea from the stinking cloud, then Zarkon cast Bull’s Strength on Castor who rages and knock the second bared door straight off its hinges.  The door flies into two more of the creatures slamming them back into the wall behind them.  Nadia leads the way through the gaping doorway striking at one of the two stunned lizard creatures followed by Castor who cleaves both of the pitiful creatures in half with a single blow.  Seeing their comrades bisected by the raging mass of muscles and leather welding a larger greatsword than should be possible the last two troglodytes release their stench and throw their javelins at Castor, only one strikes him but he fails to notice, and both of the critters dart off into the darkness.  Nadia pulls out a torch and lights it providing more illumination for the group and everyone enters the room to find the last of the creatures cowering and snarling on the back of the next cavern.

Dispatching with the last two beast quickly, our heroes head south to a set of stairs that lead down and to the east.  Coming to the bottom of the steps a clearing opens out to the north but ends in a thick pool of mud stretching off to the south west, the west and around the corner to the north.  Mr. Whiskers again scampers down from his perch and scents his way to the edge of the mud but is not able to leap across to the stepping stones  he is pointing to.  The stones continue off into the dark to the west and split off to the north also.  Following the stones to the north our adventurers cross the mud and come to solid ground in a tunnel that runs northwest in one direction and east in the other.  Upon reaching the tunnel Mr. Whiskers is not able to pick up the scent he had been following and clambered back up onto his spot on the druids shoulder with a somewhat puzzled look on his face.  Confronted with a decision of which way to go our heroes take a moment to listen and hearing a strange insect like sound coming from the northwest passage they decided to head to the east instead.  Coming to a fork in the path first they follow the southern tunnel and found a hidden boat at the edge of a body of water but choose not the continue that way so they double back to the northern fork and came to a door which while not lock or bared is swollen shut with moisture.  Castor slams the door and it swings in banging against the inner wall.

They enter the room and a creature which once must have been human but now resembled a zombie stumbles around pillar in the center of the room and begins advancing on the party.  Ivy slings a bullet right on target nailing the monster right in the forehead but the creature seems to shrug off the majority of the damage.  Zarkon steps forward pointing his wand and a cone flames engulf the thing charing into it’s already rotting flesh.  Brother thimble strides in to the room brandishing his wooden holy symbol and calls on the power of his god. Something about this creature bothers him but he is not quite sure what.  The creatures eyes lock on the little gnome cleric in what could only be an expression of terror and it began to turn away, but it was to late.  Castor lunges forward flattening the thing with his oversized great sword and it drops to the ground immobile.  Thimble steps a little close and realizes that it only looks like a zombie but it is actually a coffer corpse.  At that very moment the coffer corpse rises up from the ground once more, all of our heroes feel the icy chill of the grave reaching for their very souls.  As the creature stands it swings at Jimini but misses and Ivy screams and runs back down the hallway. Brother Thimble clutches his holy symbol again, and again the coffer corpse lurches away from the gnome in terror hissing in pain.  Castor also turns and runs as fear rips his control away from him temporarily. Nadia strikes the creature twice, a flash of blue light emanating from the charm on her necklace and her fists, and the coffer corpse falls lifeless to the ground.

To the north is a locked door which Jimini quickly checks and opens.  On the other side of the door is a hallway to the north with another door to the immediate west.  A few of the party check the hallway to the north while Jimini unlocks the door the the west finding a room with prison cells lining the west wall.  Here they find and rescue four human prisoners, the son and daughter of Orlane’s carpenter, a merchant who’s caravan had been taken in the dim forest, and a farmer’s wife. The prisoners had saved verses the Naga’s charm affect but had not yet been murdered and raised as undead by Garath Primo.  They were all too happy to share and confirm the stories the hero’s had heard regarding the Naga “Explictica Defilus” and that Primo was acting as the creatures right hand. Throughout the questioning the heroes learn Garath Primo’s chapel is north of the small room with all the bodies in it.  After a brief moment to pass along the information the prisoners quickly proceed back the way the party had come from and the heroes continue north through the “zombie factory” to Primo’s Alter of Evil.

To the north, Jimini checks and finds the door untrapped and unlocked.  Brother Thimble cast detect magic and is practically blinded by Castor’s sword right in front of him, but looking past him and the rest of the party he is able to make out several magic auras in the room as well.  Throwing open the doors and rushing into the room the party sees the wood paneled walls and floors of a chapel, ribbons of skin hanging from the ceiling in places, with a raised platform on the north end of the room. On the platform behind the wooden alter with the stone statue on it stands an undead creature of some kind.  Next to the alter stands Garath Primo robed in dark cleric attire, sporting a chainmail shirt and holding a wicked looking snake-headed  hammer and a wooden shield.  He was waiting for the heroes. Brother Thimble sees the creature and shouts out a warning that it is a wight and not to let it touch anyone. Zarkon fires off two glowing blue magic missiles which burn into the wight standing behind the alter.  Castor instantly charges the villain and Primo reacts casting hold person.  As the barbarian’s momentum carried him like a missile to his target he suddenly found himself frozen in place mere feet from his intended victim, unable to even bat an eyelash as he glared at his foe with murderous intention.  The others from the party file into the room and without warning two masses of skin hanging from the ceiling drop from the roof and begin flapping their five foot wingspans of stolen skin. These skin kites attack Jimini and Zarkon attempting to latch onto their targets and feed on their skin.  Zarkon swings wildly with his torch knocking the thing loose and feeling the pain of it tearing at his skin as it let go. Jimini was not so lucky as the mass of rotting skin and fangs wrapped around him feeding on his skin he lets out a scream of pain as he wrestles with it.  While all this commotion is happening on the south end of the room back to the north a wight has crept out from behind the alter and advances recklessly toward the now held and helpless Castor Troy. simultaneously Garath chants out an evil sounding verse and points at Brother Thimble menacingly.  The gnome cleric wails in terror scampering away from Primo into the corner to huddle in fear. With quick thinking Ivy the druid is able to summon a small fire elemental at the wights back in an attempt to distract the undead monstrosity from it’s motionless target. Garath calls out a few choice words and silence falls over the heroes half of the room. Echoing in Castor’s ears alone, an evil cackle escapes Primo’s lips as it would appear our heroes face certain and utter doom!

What ever will happen to our brave heroes?  Will Castor Troy be torn to pieces by the rotting undead, unable to respond while being held by the vile magic of the evil cleric Garath Primo? Will Brother Thimble regain his composure or will fear grip him while his companions suffer?  Will the flying abominations continue to strip the skin from Zarkon and Jimini?  Will our adventurers die with their silent screams unable to escape their lips?  Who, I ask you who can save our heroes now?