“This is my Boomstick!”
Petra and Milgrom facing the mouth of the cave, weapons
drawn, braced themselves for a fight. After what seemed like forever of
holding, Milgrom let out a blast with his blunderbuss, knocking back the first
four of the small zombie army swarming them. Petra dropped her crossbow and
rushed forward, punching the zombies with her armored gantlets making room for
more people on the ledge. Wilhelm was the next down, swinging with his two
handed great sword, as Milgrom dropped his damaged weapon and switched to his
axe. Finally, Bartleby found his way down. In back of the zombies there was
some chanting in the back. None of the party could get close enough to do
anything about it. Next down was the Champion of Mor, who held onto the rope
with one hand while taking a shot with the other. He managed to shoot Von
Bloomburg who let out a yip of terror. As Petra waded in deeper to the zombies
to clear room she was cut down into unconsciousness. The rest of the party
managed to defeat all but one of the skeletons and make enough room for the
Sister of Shallya to get down. When the path cleared, Von Bloomburg screamed
and ran down the hall with the Champion chasing after him. Wilhelm also fell unconscious. The sister
managed to bring Petra back to consciousness, just before the final zombie was
destroyed. Gunther descended since he did not have to bring anyone back up the
rope and everyone was preparing to go after Von Bloomburg. Suddenly, there was
a horrible scream in the darkness.
Aragog’s Big, Angry Sister
Just as everyone was preparing to go down into the tunnels,
the Champion of Mor came back with a horrible gash on his cheek. He also had
spider webs on him. He lost Von Bloomburg and it was too dark for him to see. With
the lantern and a torch, everyone pressed into the tunnels. After a while, they
spiderwebs got thicker, and small spiders the size of a human hand started
dropping down. There was no sign of Von Bloomburg. Wilhelm set fire to some of
the webs directly above the group, then Milgrom saw it, a spider the size of a
house and ten more spiders that had bodies as big as humans. Wilhelm waded into
the webs to attack one, but lost his footing on the crumbling ledge and fell
twenty feet below onto rubble and dirt, but he quickly realized that he was not
alone. Four of the spiders were down with him. Bartleby slid down to protect
his master, while Petra, the Priestess attacked some of the smaller spiders and
Milgrom and Gunther attacked the huge pissed off mama spider. Though they
hacked at her and the Champion of Mor managed to hit her, she barely took any
damage due to her thick carapace. The Priestess managed to cast a spell to heal
Petra of some of her wounds, as the smaller spiders attacked. Everyone took
heavy damage as the spiders slowly started to die, except for the large mama
spider who was barely wounded. The Champion of Mor slid down to the second
level, found the cocoon that contained Von Bloomburg and cut it open. Retrieving
the book, he then took a few more shots at mama spider. Finally, after stomping
a few smaller spiders, the Priestess chucked her lantern at the big spider, but
it missed, starting a fire under it. Gunther fell as did the Priestess of
Shallya, and Petra rushed forward, trying to use her torch to chase the spider
into the flames, without luck. After taking several bites and hacking the thing
with his axe, Milgrom fell to the spider. Finally, with the last of the small
spiders dead, Wilhelm wrapped his shot and powder in his cloak, set it on fire,
and threw it at the spider. With a huge explosion, it finally died.
Unfortunately, when Petra checked on Gunther and the Priestess, she learned
that they had died as well. As Wilhelm and Petra gathered Milgrom’s unconscious
body up in a cloak to carry him, the spirits of the slain zombies appeared and
urged the group to move on, pointing down one of the halls.
More Argjendi Misdeeds
After going down a few halls, Petra learned that the
Champion’s name was Fritz Todt. They finally arrived in a room that had a vast
and wonderful wine collection, and a corpse with fine clothing, a sword, and a
crown. Just as Wilhelm thought about looting some of the fine wine, the corpse
spoke. He was the former Lord of the Keep, Lord Adelbrecht von Malmstein. He
said that 150 years ago, the Argjendis stole the keep from him and he hated
them all. He had one captive, and he would help Wilhelm. The group traveled
down, only to find a 16 year old boy, trembling with a page in his hand. He
said he hated his family and had fled. He wanted to get away, and though he was
a kid, Fritz said that he was damned by his necromancy and corrupted by the
book. If the kid (Alexandru von Argjendi) went back to the city, he would be
tortured before he was killed. If they killed him down in the cistern, it could
be quick. Though no one liked it, and everyone debated, in the end, Wilhelm beheaded
Alexandru quickly to spare him the pain of torture. The page attached itself
back into the book. Pleased with the killing of the Argjendi, von Malmstein
gifted the group wine.
The Departure of Fritz and Horse
Back up top, Fritz told Wilhelm that the last place he heard
of an Argjendi appearing was the Mootland, the home of the Halflings. He took a
packhorse, Petra’s horse (named Horse) and the bodies. He gave the group a
stake carved with holy symbols and also said that a group of crazed Sigmarites were
coming to scourge the area. Everyone needed some place to go heal, so Wilhelm
led the group to the Red Abbey, where they were granted shelter, but told they
could only stay a day. The abbot also said that they could have access to the
maps to find their way to the Mootland.
No comments:
Post a Comment