PREVIOUS - 02 Deep in Quasqueton

Day 3 Continued -

They opened the door to the outside of the tower and encountered a pleasant but ungroomed field and two adventurers from a secretive monestary in the hills. Atlas is a human monk who was turned away from her order for lack of focus. Shee feels a quest will give her time to find her path. Seraphina is a halfling cleric who prays to the Raven Queen. She was visiting the monestary, and has joined Atlas on his quest in order to seek opportunities to pay tribute to her deity. The group welcomes them in their exploration, and now they are seven.

They group spends the rest of the day exploring more of the complex. They discover a mostly empty armory, the barracks for the force at arms that lived here, and a room of amazing pools. The group bravely examines the pools, some of which are manevolent, and some benign. One is a green ooze which rises up and attacks them, another is a pool of healing, one is of wine that was so compelling that it ensourcled Immeral to stay and drink beyond sensible, and the group had to drag him away. One was hot, another icy cold but hard as a rock, and one was filled with an acid with a key at the bottom. Nowhere the Tiefling dipped her tail into the acid to try to quickly get the key, but failed and suffered the consequences. Fortunately they could use the water of one pool to heal. Although the room was made of hard tile, the group rested overnight here, within reach of the healing waters.

DAY 4

The next morning, the group finds a secret passage to the chambers of Marevak, apparently an advisor to Rogahn and Zelligar. Although the advisor left a trapped desk behind, the rogue Orryn made quick work of the lock and discovered elven boots which imparted silent passage, and several magical scrolls, as well as a gold ring.

The group discovered a throne room. The throne room revealed little of interest, but a secret passage unveiled the bedroom of the warrior Rogahn, with another passage connected to the bedroom of his mistress. There were more storage rooms, and ultimately the group discovers a stairway down to a lower level, but the group encounters giant mosquito-like stirges in the room, and they manage to seriously harm some of the party. Some of the group race back to the room of pools to heal their companions, because they discover the healing waters have no effect outside the room.

Some of the group unwisely stayed behind and battled animated skeletons in some sort of trophy room which included four dragon claws and a dragon hide. They vanquish the skeletons, and decide to stay with their companions. They decided to investigate a bit more of the complex before going down, encountering hated orcs in a dining hall. Nowhere and Dain expressed their particular hatred of orcs with their ferocity. There was a men's lounge with a bar, and nearby the personal chamber of Zelligar, the wizard. There was very little left behind by the wizard, save for a strange corridor with the illusion of a treasure, the stones around charred. Perhaps it was an area for magical experimentation. The group comes to a door, and as they reach the handle a huge pit trap drops them to the level below into a pool of icy water.

The lower level is raw cavern, and the explorers shake themselves off and quickly find a door, where a pair of filthy lizard-like Troglodytes were holed up. They battled and retreated from their stinking room. Then they came across an orange-colored pool which turned out to be another ooze-like creature, an ochre jelly, which they also defeated. A passage blocked by sticky webbing revealed a secret stash of magical armor and an enchanted great sword with a note left by Zelligar for Rogahn.

A maze of natural passages awaited them, and they came to another door in the rough walls. This one led to an ampitheater of sorts in a large cave. As they explored it, a monstrosity revealed itself from the ceiling, a carrion crawler, a horrid giant worm with many legs, tentacles, and a tooth-filled maw. Atlas was the first to engage the creature, and instantly learned that its touch brought short-term paralysis. If not for the efforts of his newfound companions, Atlas would surely have found the end of his journey. The group continued and found a large storeroom with 28 barrels of very tasty wine. Although they found a wheelbarrow, and found the 600lbs. movable, when they got to the stairs of the complex, they realized traveling with the barrel would not work, and would make inquiries for a team to come and secure the wine for sale.

They decided that they had enough of Quasqueton, but there was one room left to check. Near the fungus room, there was a door they had heard noises behind and avoided. They decided to return to the room and opened the door. It was some sort of meeting room with a half dozen goblins loitering about and searching. The team quickly shut the door and ran, but were chased down. A quick illusion allowed the team to escape unchallenged, and they left Quasqueton in the early afternoon, and made their way back to Pine Vale.

NEXT - Campaign Journal 4 - Meeting Gundren