session recap, 5/31/2012

CAST
--------
Razoe the Fantra Paladin (2) and his dog Brownie
Mongo the Fighter (4) and his henchman Prinny the Dwarf (1)
George P. Burdell the Cleric (2) and his henchmen, Slick Eddie the Thief (1) and Seegar the Elf (1)
Gutboy the Cleric (4), his henchman Trezgar the Elf (1) and his dogs Rufus II and Alpo

The party spent a good amount of time staring at their feet in Chelmsfordshire, worrying about how they would survive without Gutboy's help, who had yet to arrive.  Their bosom companion Drunk Eddie and his henchwoman Pepa disappeared quietly into the corn - the only sign they were still alive were the occasional cries of "Push it, baby, push it!" from the corn fields surrounding the village.

Eventually, they manned up, and headed off into the dungeon, the captive necromantic midget Fizzworth in tow.  The first level was uninhabited, but covered with painted symbols - the three E's of Slezgar's Excellent Elven Edventurers, a black triangle, and an orange leaf.  Mongo wondered aloud why they were the only adventuring party that didn't paint graffiti.

They paused briefly before descending to the second level, just long enough for Mongo to slit Fizzworth's throat.  Whatever plans Razoe and Mongo had been cooking up for an army of blade-faced zombies were to be put aside (for this session, at least).  The party hunched over their maps as Fizzworth breathed his last, and they chose a destination - the room with many murals, and the eye-holes in the wall of skulls that revealed crystal skulls in a secret room behind it.

They marched through the room with the silver lattice supporting a glass jar, and into the mural-room. More careful searching was performed, but no way into the room behind the wall of skulls was found. The party surmised there must be a secret door somewhere else in the dungeon leading to this room, and began exploring nearby passages.

The first room they entered was filled with partially-dissolved eyeless corpses.  Mongo instinctively looked up, and found that the ceiling was looking back at him, with hundreds of eyes lolling about in a clear jelly.  The eye jelly dropped to the floor and began lashing out with eye-laden pseudopods.  It was quickly dispatched, but not before slaughtering Razoe's dog Brownie.  Razoe's grief was assuaged by the gold they found when searching the corpses.

The next room they explored contained a mahogany cabinet with sixteen drawers.  Each drawer contained one dozen black glass spheres, 2" diameter.  George accidentally broke one, and it let out a horrible death-groan.  Razoe then went on a sphere-breaking spree, tossing a dozen at the ground one by one, and each had a distinct death cry.  Razoe and George decided to load up on the spheres, each carefully packing a few dozen into a sack.

As they left this chamber, they were surprised to see that Gutboy and his entourage had tracked them into the dungeon. Thrilled to have their companion back, the quartet headed back to the mural room for some more searching - and while there, Razoe decided to shoot the glass jar in the neighboring silver-lattice-room from beyond the door.  He was still too close - when the jar shattered, electricity arced all over the room and past the door into the hall, badly shocking Razoe.  George prayed for healing for the paladin, and divine favor was granted.

Now that the jar was gone, the party began yanking up the silver rods that made up the lattice-work, using ropes and brute strength to avoid direct contact.  They had soon thoroughly looted the room.  Despairing of a way into the crystal-skull-room, they headed into the fungus-filled caverns to the north.

Their first stop was at a vine-covered marble temple.  On a previous expedition, the party had tried to seek refuge from a herd of rampaging pillbugs within the structure, but a terrible voice had shouted into their minds "Bring me your sorrow!" and driven them out.  George entered, and had a repeat of that experience - he tried leaving his sack of black spheres as an offering, but the voice was not appeased, and he too was driven from the temple.

They continued north, into an unexplored section of the cavern, and found a chasm dropping down into the depths. A 30' wide fast-flowing river flowed across the fungal cavern and into the chasm.  They followed the river west, fighting off a pack of log leeches, and saw a great tower of a mushroom to the south - 80' tall and 40' wide at its cap, with many ropes dangling off it.  Some of the ropes reached the ground, and some terminated in nets, each containing a struggling blade zombie, dangling 20' off the floor.

Heading south to investigate, they saw that the ropes leading down ended in net-traps.  They briefly wondered who set these traps and why - but they were soon to find out.  Searching the perimeter of the cavern, they stumbled across a stone stairway leading up to a tunnel - guarded by a pair of troglodytes.

Missile fire was exchanged, and the two troglodytes went down - and Seegar's sleep took out another half-dozen that were coming out to investigate.  Throats were slit, and the party climbed the stairs, entering the troglodyte warren.  They made their way through a larder stacked with painted-man corpses and bowling-ball-sized vegetable spheres (Mongo taking one for further study or perhaps a mid-day snack), and then stumbled into a round with a dozen more troglodytes, and a CHEST.

The troglodytes were preoccupied, and the party easily surprised them - Trezgar cast his sleep spell, putting four down, and then the party decided to retreat, the numbers were just too great.  As they tried backtracking out of the warrens, they found that a half dozen trogs had circled around, cutting their retreat off.  Back in the cave with the CHEST, the sleeping trogs were being awoken.

Battle began on two fronts - Gutboy used his hold person to paralyze a few of the trogs at one end, choking a narrow passageway with their rigid bodies, while Mongo, Razoe, and one of the dogs fought at the other.  Alpo the war dog went down quickly, Prinny was knocked unconscious, and panic began to set in - and Razoe improvised, tossing his sack of black spheres into the midst of the trogs.  The incredible cacophany of death cries panicked the trogs, who retreated back into the warrens, and the trogs at Gutboy's end of the cave likewise fled from his prodigious magic.

Most of the party fled to the warrens' entrance, leaving unconscious Prinny behind - but Razoe had seen a CHEST, and the rumors of a shotgun grabbed by wandering troglodytes were enough that he decided to risk heading deeper, George following closely in case he ran into trouble.  The cave with the CHEST was clear, and he quickly opened it - discovering three gold bars the party had lost in a prior expedition, and 100 gp further - but no shotgun.  Unwilling to keep pressing their luck, they retreated to the rest of the party, also passing Prinny's helpless form without a second glance.

The group decided that it was time to head out - and made it to the dungeon's entrance without much effort.  As Mongo stepped into the fresh air of the surface world, he was surprised to see some familiar faces - Chrissie and Mr. and Mrs. Roper were there waiting for him.  Mr. Roper took a blast with his laser-arm and shouted "GIVE US MONGO AND THE REST OF YOU MAY LIVE!", while Chrissie and Mrs. Roper closed for some metal-armed fisticuffs.

The party retreated back into the cave-entrance, with Chrissie and Mrs. Roper in pursuit.  They handily slaughtered the pair of women, and then headed deeper, as Mr. Roper shouted threats: "NEW INSTRUCTIONS RECEIVED - YOU HAVE DESTROYED THE CHRISSIE UNIT.  YOU WILL ALL DIE."

They waited expectantly for further action - but after an hour, it was clear that Mr. Roper wasn't heading in.  They carefully made their way back out, and saw that Chrissie's corpse had been dragged off.  Mrs. Roper's body was still there, so the cybernetic parts were quickly and brutally carved away from her flesh and packed away.

The trip back to Chelmsfordshire was uneventful, with no further Roper sightings.

Gains: 700 gp, 500 gp of silver rods, vegetable sphere, three gold bars worth 750 gp each, Mrs. Roper's cybernetic parts
Kills: Eye jelly, four log leeches, 11 troglodytes, Mrs. Roper, Chrissie
Losses:  Brownie the Dog, Alpo the Dog, Prinny the Dwarf (1)