Tiger Beetles. Six of them.

Aretain quickly closed the secret door that we had opened to get to them, just barely before they whacked and scratched against it from the other side.

We discussed options: The beasts were huge, and looked tough. Did we have poison? No. Oil? Yes, but fire and smoke can be a mixed blessing. Apoqulis suggested Darion should tank the beetles while the others could support him with ranged weapons from back, but Darion felt that was a losing game and didn’t like it. Neither did he like the idea of Thippet shooting slingshot bullets from between Darion’s legs.

Darion suggested continuing along the secret corridor to check if there was an alternative way down. Maybe on the western end of it. If no such alternative was found, he suggested blocking up the door except for a small gap, and then sniping the beetles through the gap.

Aretain didn’t want to go into unknown parts of the corridor, but relented at last when Darion kept insisting.

Throne

At the end of the corridor, not yet in the west but in the middle, there were stairs leading a quarter of a level up and ending in a secret door. Aretain opened it and looked into a filthy, grimy, stinking throne room with a Troglodyte King and a whole squad of lesser Trogs. They all saw the wall open and stormed at it, and once again Aretain closed a secret door into advancing faces.

Darion quickly threw two iron spikes and a hammer to Thippet, and the nimble hobbit blocked the secret door so it would not open even if the Troglodytes would find the mechanism.

Tower Shield

The party went south to check out the last door that they had not opened. Darion took point to protect their rear, while the softer PCs checked the door. Stuck!

Darion traded places with them and kicked the door down. He found himself in a smithy with a massive, glowing anvil with obvious magical qualities. Everything was squeaky clean, as if never taken over by any chaotic entity, ever. And: on the opposite wall there was a slightly damaged tower shield. Darion didn’t hesitate and stormed in to grab that shield. “Exactly what we need!” And so he ran into the ambush.

Stabbed in the back

Feeling save because everything was so spotless he ran in and got attacked by two Troglodytes. Behind him, another attacked Apoqulis and one other attacked Aretain.

Aretain got hit thrice and went down. Darion was hit twice and lost 6 hp. Apoqulis’ armor held. On the return swing, Darion cut one attacker in half with a crit, while the other got him in the back for 4 hp. Thippet tried to shank the one who had attacked Aretain but only scratched him. His foe disregarded the little attacker and decided to help take down the bigger threat, Darion. He never made it: Thippet got him in the back and killed him on an opportunity attack.

Meanwhile, Apoqulis cast “Hold Person” on his foe and froze him up.

Only one remained in Darion’s back: He cut the creature down.

The crew quickly worked to aid Aretain with some modifiers to make her Saving Throw. One of those three pluses was needed: She made it and came back to us on this mortal coil, with 2 HP. Shaken by the experience, she drank our last Healing Potion while Apoqulis executed the “Held” Trog. The tower shield was not all that fantastic: It was for dwarves, and also scratched and bent. But still it did its job.

Getting the plan straight

Once more we went into debates to formulate a plan.

Darion still wanted to block the door and kill the bugs with ranged weapons, while Apoqulis wanted to combine that idea with burning oil. Aretain suggested we feed parts of the Troglodytes to the bugs, arms and legs, to see if the Bugs were interested in that kind of meat. If they didn’t, we would fight them. Darion didn’t like that because once again it would be back at the “Darion tanks the bugs” idea from before. He didn’t like the oil idea either because then we would be affected as well, by heat and by smoke.
He tried to explain the blockade idea again, and Aretain added a vital component: For the lower half of the door we could use the workbenches from the smithy.

Apoqulis was adamant about taking a long rest before our beetle-combat (Darion: “No! Not a combat!”), because he wanted to have his spells back, so we had that – not with another earthquake as Darion feared, but with an avalanche of bad dreams.

Implementation

Finally we went into implementation: We blocked the lower half of the door with the workbenches, and Darion would hold fast the top with his tower shield. Maetrius with his crossbow would shoot bugs as they were clawing and pushing against the shield.

Darion forbade anyone to use slingshots and ordered everyone far to the back who wanted to stab at the beetles from up close. “I don’t want combat. I don’t want the bugs to ever get near enough to anyone for melee attack rolls.”
Right up until the last moment Apoqulis offered to help him hold the shield, but added he would attack the beetles with his mace when they peeked through the gap. Darion demanded he leave his mace up on the higher level so he would not even get tempted to do anything with it.

Once more he made the roles for the plan clear as day:
Darion and Apoqulis would hold the shield and do nothing else, not a thing.

Maetrius would shoot at the bugs through the gap. Only bolts and arrows would be allowed for that, no thrown weapons, no slingshots. And when Aretain spoke about her Magic Missile Spell and Darion promised her she could use it if the bugs broke through and came up the stairs. Until then she should just stay back.

And then we did it.

The GM calculated from Darion’s and Apoqulis’ CON that Maetrius would have time for X number of shots before we tired and the bugs pushed through. That was plenty. Maetrius is a cool sniper, so he got all the bugs executed in barely half the time he got.

So we kicked the dead beetles out of the way and checked out the boxes and chests in there, with hundreds and hundreds of old candles, wires, and yarn.

And next time we shall move on to explore more of this level.

Addendums from the party:

Remember, Apoqulis is a bit traumatized by the death of his friend Heidel and near death of Aretain when she got shredded by that trog. He’s a bit flustered by Darion’s successful battle plan. He’s relieved that the no damage taken by our party. As he climbs the stairs to pick up his mace, he compliments Martrius’ systematic execution of the giant beetles. “Nice shooting, drac killer.” he says as slapping him on the shoulder. But quickly his thoughts turn to the coming fight with Azequia and how lethal that will be. He collects himself and fist bumps Darion, “Well done” he says. “You are becoming an great tactician, Darion.”

Retro-Add for the long rest before the excursion

The night before the battle, no one seems to sleep very well. You have shadowy dreams in which you find yourselves alone in the narrow, hidden passages of the dungeon beneath the keep. The passages seem endless and dark, though filled with shadows. Some of these shadows blend into horrible troglodyte figures, but then they are absorbed by the old walls. The next moment, you are absorbed too, and find yourself in pure darkness. You hear the vile laughter of cruel imps coming from behind you. When you turn around, you see a woman in a black robe. Her eyes burn as she points her finger at you. Suddenly, the whole world around you starts to shake. You remember the earthquake the night before. Then you wake up. The others around you are still sleeping. Everything seems quiet.

You have all more or less had the same nightmare. Aretain also remembers seeing the faint, pulsating glow of a beautiful red crystal in the distance. She had never seen anything so wonderful in her life and was drawn to it, feeling the need to get near it. Whispering voices merged into a menacing echo in the dark: ‚Come and see me. Free me.’ But when she came close, the crystal revealed its true form: It was covered in blood and exuded an aura of pure, otherworldly evil. Then she woke up.

Aretain gasps as she wakes up and scrambles awkwardly to her feet. She looks around with fearful expression, so very grateful to see someone else awake. “Everyone wake up, we have to get moving. Apoqulis, we have to wake them up. Now.”

Yes Aretain. Let us wake them if they haven’t woken already. That was some “mental incursion”. It seems like the dark priestess is eager to take us on. I wonder why?

“I think she’s almost done. It was calling me …. I’ve never been so afraid in my life.” As she spoke, she went to each of the others and woke them up with a rough shake of the closest shoulder. “Wake up. We have to go now.”

Apoqulis: Why would the evil thing call you Aretain? Think!

Darion: “Well, why not? She’s a wielder of sorcery. It makes sense that the demon host knows her a bit, maybe even feels her presence, or at least feels when she uses magic.” “And how many seals are broken? Three, four? Five? Of how many? Seven? Six? She’s right. Keep your secret stash of sweets, let’s get going and finish this.”

Aretain: “It is obvious we didn’t all have the same dream. You should feel lucky and right now I wish I had trained as anything else than magic.” She rubs her head and gives a heavy sigh.”All I can figure is either they want to convert me to their side somehow or another. It isn’t like magic is innate so they can’t pull it from me and I don’t know many spells as of yet.”

Thippet: “All alone in the dark…. endless corridors. Trogs there and then gone… devils…endless terrifying laughter. Evil woman with cruel, cold eyes staring into my soul! SHAKING… THE WHOLE FREAKIN’ WORLD…. SHAKING!!!

More Morgansfort: The story from A-Z