The adventuring party reassembles once more, in almost full numbers! Cahir was replaced just for this session by a surprise guest, the assassin Nor. A good thing too, given the prevalence of combat encounters during the evening.
The adventurers continued where they left off - in the smelly lair of the monster. They decided on exploring the adjacent rooms, and found another dining hall. This one was smaller and less ornate, however, it did have a well-preserved beer stein tucked underneath a table. The thieves and assassins made a comical picture, as they all huddled around the table to inspect the object, given that the floor tile on which it was placed was slightly depressed. After long deliberations, the party decided to retreat out of the room, and have the wizard lift the stein using telekinesis. Sure enough, the ceiling opened and a huge, monstrous blob fell right out. Shamil summoned his elemental, which the blob promptly consumed. Retreat!
The party pulled back to a larger intersection, expecting to draw out the blob and surround it. However, it never came out. So Nor creeped on forward, aided by a floating lantern...
In the end, Felgrin shot off a blaze of fire into the room, which was enough to draw out the monster.
Biznard summoned his own elemental strength, freezing the floor underneath, which only helped to speed up the slithering/charging abomination. Ylimor soon found himself squeezed to the wall!
However, with the monstrosity in view, the adventurers laid in with everything they had. Swords, bolts, hammers and spells were answered with freshly grown hands, grabbing at the adventurers and draining their life energies. The fight was short but intense, and in the end Biznard smashed himself a way into the center of the blob, splitting it apart under his hammers. The stein survived as well, plopping out with a wet sound.[1]
The final dining hall had a long-dead thief's skeleton hanging around, and a cold storage with a pulsating frost rune. Felgrin went in to test it, enjoying his frost immunity as the rune let loose, freezing everything within the chamber.
Next up, every adventurer's greatest enemy: a locked door. Well, this was a lowered portcullis, but the thief Dalibor detected two slightly different stones in the walls just in front. Time for Nor to shine! He carefully unhinged one of the stones, immediately triggering a poisoned dart trap. With some poison damage out of the way, the adventurers dismantled the other stone as well, shielding themselves with a chair back. Then Ylimor focused on his strength and lifted the portcullis. All is well, including the two tables they jammed underneath to keep their way out open.
The long hall behind was pretty much empty, except for the alcoves sheltering creepy full plates and the skeletons inside. Of course Dalibor tried to take off a shining bracelet from a skeleton, which animated all of them. The thief was promptly cut down, and the party found itself hard pressed. They made a fighting retreat while Felgrin teleported in to help out the thief with a potion.
Dalibor started crawling out, but as Felgrin retreated as well, the armored skeleton had no other targets. Another teleport, another health potion.
Everybody else retreated underneath the portcullis, and the assassins yanked out the tables. The undead looked at them with contempt, and retreated to their alcoves. Half were cut down by fire magic before they could reach their resting places, but the party was left bruised and battered as well.
What next?
[1] I used a lot of mouth-made sound effects during this encounter, greatly enjoying the extra immersion.
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