Gricks, Cloakers, and Puddings (11th of Bearguard, Rose: 47)

Having dispatched the Gricks, the party did a little more exploring of the mine.

Gorbash told the party of what he saw with the ghostly apparitions leading away from this segment of the mine.

(DM's note: Gorbash also made a successful save against being aged by the ghost having been touched by it before the game started, an oversight that I didn't run in the last session).

Exploring that section of the mine more, the party found about six dwarven miners, their bodies fairly well preserved in this airless environment, crammed into a little nook - an unfinished area of the mine. The corpses were not turned to stone; they were apparently hiding, perhaps suffocated. They pulled out the stiff corpses and laid them out, and Tamroohk performed a Dwarven last rite ritual, dashing holy water of Berronar Truesilver on their heads; it streaked into silver. During that hour, the party rested, and proceeded to the next archway in this plane of the mine which was labeled Alexandrite.

Gorbash immediately triggered a spear trap: a pressured plate on the floor caused an array of spears to jet out of the ceiling! Wounded, the party took some time to help Gorbash back on his feet. The trap was reset when Tolman recognized that a nearby chain anchored to the floor and ceiling seemed to retract the spears and re-arm the plate.

Pressing on to the right-most cavern, the party encountered statues of three dwarven miners - apparently turned to stone, their faces in shock, terror, and fear. The pseuodragon found a bag that was tucked away in a corner containing 4 large raw (uncut) diamonds. With Tolman's help, the pseudodragon was able to pull on the pack and bring it to Tolman's Mage Hand.

Exploring more, the party found more caverns that dead-ended, and, another spear trap (that Gorbash walked right into again). But ... as Tamroohk descended some dark stairs cut into the cavern floor, using only her dark vision, she encountered a dead end ... that wasn't dead at all! The ceiling itself seemed to have eyes and moved abruptly. It was large, had wings like a manta ray with a span of almost 10 feet, and hook-like claws that gripped the ceiling with a mouth of teeth in its underbelly. The Cloaker revealed itself and attacked the dwarf!

Meanwhile, the party began to respond only to find a second cloaker right above the head of Gorbash in the same wing of the cavern! Luckily, the Cloaker rolled poorly and Gorbash didn't get his head eaten in a surprise attack, but the battle was on! The party then noticed how poorly positioned they were to take on these threats in such dark, narrow corridors ...

But while all this was happening, Ma'yah noticed that a black ooze was descending from the ceiling near her. The ooze took form on the floor, spawning a pseudopod of an arm with claw-like appendages that grasped the floor and wall for movement; more appendages appeared and, at times, the hideous thing had five or six arms moving it along the floor and walls - the arms appearing almost like dwarven-sized arms. The ooze attacked Ma'yah and she took a significant amount of damage - down to 1 HP! - and she ran for her life back to the chamber with the dwarven statues to recouperate.

Meanwhile, a pitched battle was going on with the dwarves and halfling combating the two Cloakers. There was a lot of damage dealt to all. Elan, Llew, and Siegride provided missile weapon, healing, and magical support for battling the Cloakers and Ooze; it was Llew's shrewed taunting that was able to force the Ooze to run away and for Siegride to take an attack of opportunity against it!

Just then, as the Ooze departed - slithering into a hole - on the ceiling, another row of eyes appeared. A Cloaker, just near the archway, and it had its beady eyes on Ma'yah! Ma'yah, fearing for her life, cast Mirror Image, and three half-naked Ma'yah's appeared, looking over each other from multiple angles. She was going to try and confuse the Cloaker, for, at just 1 HP, it's the only card she had to play!

Suddenly, Tolman rushed forward with his thievy-speed and engaged the third Cloaker. Both took significant damage and at one point the Cloaker was able to attach to Tolman (as to eat him and perform damage transfer - it's all part of their special abilities), but Llew was able to psychically-scare the thing away and it retreated for its life, ditching Tolman.

Soon, Gorbash and Tamroohk had dispatched the last of the Cloakers.

Safe, the party attended to wounds and healing, then, explored the treasure trove amassed by the Cloaker at the end of the cave. Piles of Silver and Gold Dwarven Dubloons, little pieces of art, and some ointment. (Somebody kept a record of this - it was randomly generated).

Further exploration noted more empty sections of mine. We left off around mid-evening on the 11th of Bearguard, Rose: 47! A long rest awaits, and then - more exploring!

R

In the Hall of the Rat King (10th-11th of Bearguard, Rose: 47)

Well. This should go pretty quickly.

After fighting the harpies, the PC's retreated to the anti-chamber at the top of the mine and sealed themselves inside. In a defensible position, there they healed up and made plans to explore the rest of the mine. They set out in the late hours of the 10th of Bearguard and descended to the 3rd plane of the mine shaft.

On the 3rd plane, one portcullis on the left was up and the one on the right was done, and, locked into position. The mechanism to lift it appeared to be broken.

There, on the landing of the 3rd plane, they encountered a combination lock mechanism built into the floor. It had an inner and outer circle, and six holes with sliding, levered stones within them, and there was a raised convex center. They tried pulling on a few of the stones but each time they'd unlock and drop back into their recess. While they were working on the puzzle, a bunch of rats collected on the opposite side of the right portcullis and watched what they were doing, and, Vongur told a story. Having enough of that puzzle, they pressed on.

They went into left passageway and encountered a colony of myconids - living anthropomorphic mushrooms - who spewed pacifying spores and attempted to communicate with the party. Horrifically, some rodents and even a harpy were transformed into a sport servant, a re-animated corpse now part of the colony; there was some treasure about; the walls had eyes; apparently, the party was pretty freaked out. Adding insult to injury, four of the PC's were enthralled and were communicating telepathically with the myconids who were encouraging them to stay, become part of the collective, learn from each other, ponder things (great things!) together. Having enough of that, the lucid PC's dragged the others out of the room for some fresh air. The myconids? Well, they just continued doing what mushrooms do and didn't mount an attack.

Meanwhile, they ran through a couple of STR checks and broke the portcullis on the right, they explored the mine and tripped a trap that sealed three or four of their members in a cranny. A voice from the darkness offered to free them so long as there was no violence; that no harm would come to "my brothers and sisters".

There they met Naphid Kazeezee of Agamadar. Naphid explained that he had been exploring this mine but was captured by the harpies, tortured, and he escaped; when he broke the portcullis to prevent their entry, the rats made him king. He's the King of the Rats. But now that the harpies were dead, he didn't know what he was ... just a tired old man with nowhere to go.

Naphid had an oddity: a pseudo dragon (a small 1'-long dragon) in a cage. It was rather lethargic but seemed very interested in the party. Naphid would explain that he's caged so that the dragon stay around and not leave him, and, Naphid would eventually admit that the pseudo dragon was his familiar and that he was a magic user by trade.

Naphid lead the party down to the 5th plane where there was the termination point of the mine shaft and a locking mechanism. The buttresses for the mine carts were now sculpted dragon heads instead of rams. Naphid explained what else the PC's might find in the mine if they were to explore it, but he also explained that he'd never been to the levels below ... no one has; nobody has a key. The party, of course, had the key, but they didn't tell Naphid that, and they didn't unlock the dias. Instead, they went back to the harpy's lair to look for Naphid's old possessions.

Naphid became increasingly hostile while searching for his things (apparently his spell book, arcane focus, and a black marble - all of which the party had found but denied having found), and Naphid began to suspect that the party was lying to him. Ultimately, the agitated Naphid's Altered Self spell evaporated revealing an old man with a wounded, carved-out eye; and, he began to transform into what he really was: a wererat. King of the Rats!

There was a pathetic battle. The wererat had spells and had a natural immunity to non-magical, non-silver-laced weapons and I figured it'd take a while to bring him down. Well, one shatter spell and a natural 20 rolled using two magical weapons, well, pretty much brought the King to his knees and finished him off. Two rounds, end of story. There was a nice moment where Naphid threatened to bite Ma'yah and curse her with lyncthropy forever like him, should she not surrender his stuff, but Ma'yah tossed the goods to Siegride who threw them into her cloak. Enraged, the wererat was mightily stabbed and taunted by the bard who laid upon him psychic damage, and the wererat was finished. All of his little rats either blinded by Colorspray or fallen asleep with a Sleep spell. Sigh. Quite unmomentous.

Anyway, the pseudo dragon suffered a catastrophic hit of pain having his master die like that, and the party rushed back to heal it. They did so. The pseudo dragon wiggled and danced with happiness, and gladly ate meat chunks fed to it by Elan.

And that's where we left off!

R