OSRealms -- Session 161
Something followed u-Heury and I up the stairs. I still cannot name it. It was a cloud with tentacles, and ominous crackles of lightning, like a storm cloud only smaller and much closer. Plus the tentacles.
Spooked by the number of enemies following him, u-Heury called for us to run and hide. We both climbed through the nearby window to take advantage of the natural terrain, and concealed ourselves nearby. We were waiting to see if the ominous cloud would follow beyond the stairs, or retreat below. When it eventually did follow us out the window, the cloud overlooked me in my hiding spot. It moved towards u-Heury instead and moved towards him. Seeing my chance, I struck with sword and shield. It seemed insubstantial, but the enchantments on both of my weapons did damage. Substantial damage. I could see it waver and flicker for a moment. But then it let out a bright flash of light. It felt as if I had been sunburned.
OSRealms -- Session 160
Session map
No one felt quite ready to take on the rag man. After some discussion, we decided to investigate the Abbott’s study. The secret door into his study had been smashed open by the party prior to my arrival. Morin and Pish scouted ahead. The study itself was empty, but Pish heard voices from close by and moved to investigate. She was immediately spotted. As it turns out, the next room had a force of knights standing guard, the ones who had refused to flee after the exit was revealed. They were not at all happy to see Pish or Morin. We managed to talk them out of fighting, and found a small anteroom filled with knights and monks who appeared unwell. u-Heury speculated they had not come all the way back from being resurrected in he pool. The Abbot himself was among the disabled knights, and he essentially threw us out.
OSRealms -- Session 139
There were three trogolodytes, one for me, one for Punchman, and one for Pusha. Verminbane sliced mine in half deftly; I took only a small scratch in return. The others did not fare as well, both falling to their opponents quickly. Morin, however, struck from the shadows and killed one. The remaining creature fled down the ladder into what I assumed was their hideous larder of rotting flesh. Trusting Morin to hold the lantern and watch over our friends, I followed the creature down the ladder, hoping to slay it before it could find reinforcements. My luck was no longer with me, however, and the thing escaped. A quick glance around showed a circular chamber filled with carrion, larger than expected. I swiftly ascended the ladder to help revive my friends, and by the time I finished – healing Pusha through Clocea’s grace – there were more trogolodytes climbing up out of the pit.
OSRealms -- Session 138
We spoke with Bryce and Tristan, getting directions to the place their friend went missing. I took the opportunity to buy a bullseye lantern and oil, hoping that the longer range would help our explorations, and the ability to close the lantern to shut off the light would help us avoid notice.
We descended into the sewers, following the directions given to us by the guild of sewermen. A slippery path downwards led to a long passageway north. A semicircular pool area preceded a porticullis blocking the way, but a lever set into the wall released a wave of water and lifted the porticullis. Shortly after that we were attacked by giant rats from the south. Somehow, they had gotten behind us. Verminbane made short work of the first, cleaving the rat in half in a single blow. Death to vermin!
OSRealms -- Session 137
The amulet and potion turned out to be magical under Pish’s examination, the rest did not. We estimated the value of the dagger at 1500gp, but determined that no one is Eastdale would want to buy such a thing after Retep the antiquities dealer lowballed us. We determined that the best chance to get full value was to travel to a larger city, either Threshold or Prigswort, and determined to go to Threshold as I had other business there. We took a caravan to Threshold and managed to sell the dagger for 2000gp, with Nifty claiming the magical amulet for “testing”.
OSRealms -- Session 136
Session map
We spent the next day hunting and recuperating. Nifty and Pish hunted up a nice fat deer, which was roasted over a fire. We kept watch over the entrance to the grotto, hoping to get some warning if the strange ooze creature left. It did not, at least not that we saw. We spent a second night, and Closea’s grace healed my wounds. The platinum ring turned out to not be magical. We went back down the next day, finding that most of the frog corpses had been dragged off, or perhaps consumed. There were drag marks leading east, and an awful stench. I suspected the trogolodytes, but the drag marks led in the wrong direction. We checked the remaining corpses for treasure but found nothing.
OSRealms -- Session 135
Session map
We left u-Heury negotiating with the slime monster and headed north, hoping to find the killer frogs by the underground stream and explore further. On the way, Nifty found all sorts of trouble: first she tried to dust the pillar of skulls and nearly died when it triggered some sort of magical effect. Then, in the next room, she bumped into a floating dust ball and had to be tied down with a rope to keep her from floating away. Just as we finished dealing with that, noises to the south suggested matters with u-Heury had come to some sort of conclusion; we met up with u-Heury again, who reported that the mysterious monster was free and hostile. We decided to continue with the frogs, as that plan would let us stay well away from where the slime monster was likerly to go. We were just returning to the frogs’ area when the killer frogs arrived and attacked.
OSRealms -- Session 134
Session map
We met in Eastdale, hoping to finish exploring the Grotto. With Morin along, we hoped to open a door that had previously been locked and impassable; beyond that, there were areas on the second level that we had yet to explore. While the undead areas might hold serious danger, the river with the frogs seemed possibly safer. Eastdale itself was not at all friendly to elves; Pish had some trouble getting inside the walls, though she spoke little of it. The paladins of Ygg there charged me to bring proof of Ygg’s approval of my lady Closea, which I planned to satisfy by asking Forrest from Threshold (originally a paladin of Ygg himself) to write a letter of introduction. That would, however, require travel, so I put it off.
OSRealms -- Session 133
Somehow we managed to escape the supernatural pull of the henge, and decided it was time for a break from adventure after that close call.
I passed the tip about Aster’s fashions and the market in Prigswort to Oscar, who made an obscene amount of money trading on it.
Nottanis spent some time researching the ivy ring we found, which turned out to be capable of magically controlling plants. I’m sure he’ll find that very useful. I’m more useful hitting things, but his weak elf arms aren’t as strong as mine. The half-elf was also smirking about something he wouldn’t talk about, so no doubt he’s got some sort of surprise cooking.
OSRealms -- Session 132
We traveled further towards the southwest, but ended up walking in circles. I made the best of it and hunted up a small fox. There wasn’t enough left for a hat.
Later on we encountered two groups of four strange walkers. We evaded them and watched the two groups meet up and become a circle of eight. They headed off in a new direction together, one close to a weird magnetic pull we were all feeling. We went in the same general direction, figuring it might be a pull leading us towards the hag’s lair.
