Vaeva’s player was present on this day, Heidel’s player was away. So we switched the guard at the dungeon entrance and got Vaeva to the front, Heidel out of danger. Another session for our Morgansfort Crew!

Before and during our fight with the lizardmen we had heard weird singing, now it was gone. Darion asked Vaeva to please go and check out where that was coming from, using the elven night-vision ability. However, the singing voice started up again, and we all heard it. Darion, Lalu and Apoqulis were all charmed by it and trooped forward like morons to throw themselves at the mercy of the singer.

Vaeva kept cool and watched the proceedings, discovering a mermaid in a water-filled side room as the source. As the hapless audience stumbled toward the mermaid, two lizardmen advanced from the sides to slay the listeners. The mermaid was in cahoots with the lizards!

Vaeva kicked and shook the dreamers and got them awake just in time, and a battle broke out. Darion, protected by the magical plate, sliced and diced side by side with Lalu, and the mermaid, seeing her allies drop, felt it was time to go for a swim. She dipped under the water and was gone.

In the Dark all Elves are Grey

Meanwhile, Hezeroth the Cat suggested that he had noticed someone close by. An elf. Apoqulis and Vaeva went looking, but the silent elf eluded them. Hezeroth pointed him out again, and finally the party discovered the guy: A hooded elven thief who explained he was following our party for a while now, but we had never heard him. Hezeroth agreed that our hearing ability was lamentable.

The Elven Thief was a new player character called Bubo Shadowstep: Reinforcements for our party. He was here to look for a secret library of an Elf who used to live here … presumably our old friend the burned elf from L1, the animal tester.

Together we inspected the width and length of the cave and discovered a huge double door of rotten wood. Darion suggested smashing it with his axe, and Bubo, after failing to pick the lock, agreed. Crack, crack, crack, the door went down and we went in.

Throne Room

Again, water: The southeast of the room was flooded. By now these rooms were so large that we were wondering how they would even fit under level 1. This throne room could potentially reach out farther under the lake.

Apart from the water there were some big stone blocks, some eel-bats, and a raised platform with stairs to go up and a throne with bones on it. And — and here trouble comes — two Nazgorian guards.

As abandoned as most of this complex appears, down here there were actual living Nazgorians, speaking their language that we still did not understand. But we understood their signs and body language when they saw us and started running toward us: They wanted Lalu’s spear and my armor, the items we had taken from the Nazgorian statue only five to ten combat rounds away.

No means No

Neither Lalu nor I wanted to part from our magical items, so we resisted: I tried to shake them off running around a boulder, Lalu tried to stab one of them in the guts. But they were fast — oh, so fast. And at the same time, the eel-bats were coming for Vaeva and Apoqulis.

The fight went pretty badly, with us being slow, them being fast, and also their four arms, which meant two two-handed attacks each round! And us missing. Missing often, and consistently. Bubo to his credit risked his skin and tried to backstab the biggest of them, but it was way too little to tip the scales.

These Nazgorians were better than we, as became painfully apparent very soon, and manifest in one of them stabbing strong, brave Lalu through the chest with enough force to run him right through and break a whole bunch of ribs front and back. That convinced Bubo that it might be wiser to slink back into the shadows and not annoy these big guys unduly.

Cat Power

“Hez! Help us!” begged Darion, as the three Nazgorians surrounded him and pointed six heavy spears at him.
“Why should I?”
“We will bring you into your castle!”
The cat scoffed. “Like, twice?”
No, he demanded a second boon from us.

But he also delivered. As Darion threw down his axe and surrendered to the Nazgorians, they initially went on to pummel him, but then continued their roughhousing only half-heartedly, and as soon as they had the Nazgorian armor off him, they immediately ignored the puny little human warrior in between them. As the biggest Nazgorian donned armor and spear and presented his might in all Nazgorian Green Sheen to the awe and excitement of his lesser peers, Darion carefully slipped away and dragged his possessions with him. He dug out his old Chainmail under the watchful eye of Hezeroth and to the complete disinterest from the Nazgorians.

Meanwhile, Apoqulis and Vaeva struggled with the eel-bats and slowly got rid of them, as the happy Nazgorians retreated into the water, taking the magical plate armor and spear with them. We had won them just a moment ago … and now they were gone.

Gone like Lalu, our dear retainer friend whose mighty quest for the Shield of Doom would now go unfulfilled, as we quickly discovered: The damage to his torso was too extensive, nothing could bring him back.

Secrets, Stairs, and Stamina

Bubo discovered a secret compartment in the throne, hiding a golden ring, a mysterious flask and one more set of Nazgorian statues.

In the south there was also a rusty, narrow, winding stairwell leading up all the way to the very high ceiling… a place that had to be on Level 1, but located somewhat south of the big entrance hall.

Apoqulis and Darion were pretty beat up and felt like they were too winded to take on the Shadow Devil now. Yet Bubo volunteered to at least give the room up there a little peak: it might serve as a resting place?

It didn’t: it was small, dark, wet, and moldy, and right in it was a carved metal double door; presumably the entrance to a special chamber, likely the actual hiding spot of the Shadow.
We were sure we could not handle that now. So we retreated, bringing out Lalu and the fallen Druids, with a mind to make camp here, rest for days until we were healed and our spells replenished.

Spellcraft

On the way out we showed Bubo the dead Elf’s living quarter, animal testing facility, and small library… and the scrolls we had found there. We decided to let Bubo copy these spells into his own spellbook and then deliver the source material to Rovan so he could learn them too; one of them being “Continual Light”. Ideal against the Shadow Devil, even though too steep for Bubo to master at this point.

Lucky for us, learning a new spell only takes a day per spell level under these rules. Which means our sneaky friend has a productive use for the time that we need to heal.

Druid Exit

The surviving, but wounded Druid did not stay. She had had her fill and went away, her sense of adventure sated thoroughly by the loss of her “sisters” and the pain in her arm. Good for us: Without our animal rights brigade we were free to eat fresh game and rabbit stew instead of black roots and mushroom soup.

For brave Lalu we discussed possible burial options and settled on a hero’s cairn of boulders. Darion took his magical short sword and lent Rovan’s borrowed magical dagger to Bubo.

And Hezeroth the Cat sits there, licking his paws with an enigmatic smile.

More Morgansfort.