Otto teleports the group back to the Ilora’s camp near the
river and using invisibility sphere and stealth they make their way towards
the fabled WMMD site.
Night starts to set in and under the cover of darkness the group approach the hill where atop it stands the ruins of what use to appear to be an abbey though lights could be seen along the walls and oddly appearing and disappearing around the undergrowth of the hill.
Some time is spent discussing how to approach the ruins without being spotted when Otto slaps himself on his forehead.
Moments later under still under an invisibility sphere Otto teleports the group directly inside the walls and next to a building of the old abbey.
They take a minute or two to take in the surroundings and figure out what is where when they notice that on top of the abbey tower were two look outs and down in the graveyard most likely a will-o-wisp or two.
The group slowly attempt to climb the tower where Miro manages to sneak up on one guard with so much stealth and surprise he manages to kill the guard in one blow with no noise, everyone one else pounded on the remaining guard as quietly as they could killing the poor man.
Whilst atop the tower both Vaneer and Natalia notice that amongst the shrubs of the hill a shambling mound was roaming around the place.
Once they were all back on the ground Otto cast another invisibility sphere over them and they made their way into the old abbey building.
As they push open the door to the abbey they find themselves in a small chamber that has a spiral staircase heading down, two further doors one left and one right of them and in the main chamber ahead is busy with tables, alchemical equipment, six alchemists, a stone stair case heading up and a genie roaring at the wandering alchemists.
They think the rumours might be true but to make sure that nothing can sneak up on them the group decide to head down the spiral stairs first.
The stairs ended in what appeared to be a kitchen that has seen recent use but was now currently unoccupied, a corridor could be seen leading out of the kitchen into darkness.
Exploration of the lower level revealed nothing much other than sleeping quarters where Miro soon disposed of any sleeping figures and a wine cellar stacked with crates of wine which again Miro cases for later retrieval.
With nothing of any further interest the group return to the spiral staircase and head back up to the abbey entrance without their invisibility.
As they return to the main chamber it is obvious that they had been spotted as the genie roars at them and the guards hiding round the corner ready their weapons to attack.
Vaneer casts Invisibility purge which reveals a female spectacled caster in the far corner of the main chamber near some barrels,
A wererat hiding up in the beams of the ceiling shoots at Vaneer and hits,
Otto casts cone of cold over the chamber which kills two of the alchemists,
Boss shoots at the wererat and hits,
Miro moves to attack one of the guards but trips over one of the wooden benches and tumbles to the ground,
Hugo attacks one of the guards and hits,
Natalia casts quench on the genie and hits,
Bob attacks one of the alchemists and hits,
Vaneer summons an insect plague and sends it to distract the spectacled caster,
The wererat shoots Natalia and hits her hard,
A thumping whooshing whomping noise is heard from the floor above,
Otto casts another cone of cold which kills the remaining alchemists and the genie,
Boss shoots at the wererat and the spectacled caster, injuring the rat but kills the caster,
Miro manages to attack one of the guards and hits,
Natalia casts flamestike at the wererat but the critter avoids the spells damage,
Bob attacks one of the guards and this,
One of the guards attacks Hugo and hits,
Vaneer moves his insect swarm to distract the wererat before casting a healing burst on the group,
Wererat shoots at Natalia three times and hits with each,
Suddenly a sickly looking yellow vapour begins to sink down through gaps in the ceiling,
Otto casts a hold monster spell on the wererat then tries to use finger of death which fails to kill the blighter of cheese,
Boss shoots at the wererat multiple times which finally kills the critter,
Hugo shouts at the remaining guards to surrender and leave the abbey to which they agree as they and the group leave the abbey with the descending vapour.
Once outside the group as the guards about the vapour but before they could answer they’re sent to the ground as bolts of fire from above hail down on them.
Atop the abbey roof stood a humanoid wearing a leather cowl and clutching a knobbly staff, the stranger thing though was it appeared his body was made up with a mass of red wriggling worms!
The group try to engage him in conversation but the most they could get from him was that he was here for some sort of ‘project’ and whilst working with Pitax to create the WMMD was intending to betray them and use it shortly afterwards.
Vaneer chimed in after hearing that with “Well then it seems
you're no longer needed so why don’t you just kindly bugger off!”
The worm/humanoid responds with “Ok” as he opens a portal and then walks through.
The group would have stood there for longer looking gob-smacked but the spellcaster's sickly yellow cloud was now rolling out of the abbeys front doors towards them.
They work round what has now been identified as a mega massive cloudkill as it works its way out of the abbey and downhill, whilst Natalia takes to the air to investigate where the cloud originally came from only to find the upper floor of the abbey ablaze.
With the cloudkill rolling away from the abbey the group return to the building and make their way up the stone stairs whilst Natalia quenches the blaze.
What they find is disappointing as it appears the weapon has been destroyed completely by the worm based spellcaster and is of no use to anyone.
They slowly return to the abbey grounds and soon find a tunnel going underground into the hill so with Vaneer leading they head into the tunnel. Exploration of the tunnels is long and pretty much uneventful until after the 6th tunnel when something attacks Hugo causing him to turn a shade of white.
Then something attacks Bob causing the badger to look unwell,
Something attacks Hugo again and causing him to look even whiter,
Again something attacks Bob making the badger woozy,
Then the group can’t sight of their assailant…a Shadow!
Otto casts off a magic missile followed by a quicken haste on the group,
Boss shoots at the shadow four time and manages to disperse it only to find out there were two of them.
Miro attacks the remaining shadow and hits,
Natalia casts a spell and hits,
Bob manages to attack the shadow and also lands a hit,
Vaneer casts Daylight which obliterates the shadow,
Vaneer then sets to work restoring Bob and Hugo’s strength before they continue down the tunnel.
The tunnel eventually ends and opens into a massive underground chamber with a large crescent shaped pool of glowing blue water and a small island in the middle of it joined to the cavern only by a really old rickety bridge.
Natalia changes herself into an air elemental and moves towards the old bridge as a water form of a naked elf appears on the island begging the druid to “Turn Back! Don’t come any further!” before disappearing as soon as she had appeared.
Otto casts water walking whilst Vaneer cast water breathing as they both head onto and under the water to investigate the area.
As soon as Otto and Natalia are about to touch the island a blue mist begins to rise from the well that sits on the island and starts to take the form of a short humanoid creature with a troll like hairstyle (Ghostly Gnome) whilst four will-o-wisps descend from the cavern ceiling.
Miro rushes across the bridge to join Natalia and Otto whilst managing to score a cheeky hit on wisp(1),
Hugo follows Miro’s example and also rushes into fight wisp(1),
Otto casts an acid cloud getting the ghost gnome as well as wisps 1 & 2,
Otto then casts a quickened magic missile at the ghost gnome,
Boss shoots at the ghost gnome and hits once,
Ghost Gnome taunts the group as he casts quickened haste on himself the wisps and the water elemental that erupts from the lake,
Ghost Gnome then uses his horrific appearance on the group only to affect Hugo who starts running,
The elemental slams and beats the submerged Vaneer hard,
Wisp(1) attacks Miro and hits,
Wisp(2) attacks the fleeing Hugo and hits,
Wisp(3) attacks Otto and hits,
Wisp(4) attacks Natalia and hits,
Natalia casts a wall of fire around the ghost gnome and wisp(4),
Bob charges at Wisp(1) and hits,
Vaneer attempts to use dismissal against the elemental but misses,
Miro attacks Wisp(1) and kills it,
Otto casts resist electricity on himself and backs away from Wisp(3),
Boss shoots at Wisp(2) and hits twice,
Wisp(4) attacks Natalia and hits,
Wisp(2) turns itself invisible,
The elemental attacks Vaneer again but misses,
Ghost Gnome attacks and hits Natalia really hard,
Natalia casts fairy fire and highlights the invisible wisp(2),
Bobb attacks wisp(3) but misses,
Vaneer attempts another dismissal which succeeds allowing the cleric to pull himself out of the water,
Miro attacks Wisp(2) but misses,
Boss shoots at Wisp(2) and hits,
Otto magic missiles the Ghost Gnome and hits,
Wisp(2) attacks Hugo and begins to heal up,
Wisp(4) attacks Natalia and hits,
Wisp(3) attacks Otto but does no damage,
The ghost gnome introduces himself as the “The Gardner” before smacking Natalia so hard that she passes out and falls to the ground (-44 hp),
Bob attacks Wisp(3) thrice and hits twice,
Vaneer rushes over to Natalia and casts Heal on her hoping it isn’t too late,
Miro attacks Wisp(3) and hits,
Otto magic missiles Wisp(2) which kills it,
Boss shoots Wisp(3) killing it,
The Gardner attacks Vaneer and hits,
Natalia begins to wake and rolls out of the way,
Wisp(4) attacks Natalia and hits,
Bob bounds through the wall of fire to get closer to Natalia,
Vaneer turns his healing bursts against the Gardner,
Miro leaps through the wall of fire screaming “I fricking hate Gnomes!! DIE!!!!!” as he attacks the Gardner and kills him,
Otto magic missiles Wisp(4) and hits,
Boss shoots Wisp(4) twice which finally kills it.
Miro then runs to the water to put out his smoking clothes whilst Vaneer sets about healing the group especially Natalia.
After some minutes of talking amongst themselves they suddenly notice that they could hear a muffled distorted voice nearby.
Miro soon discovers that the voice appeared to be coming from one of the casks with a false bottom, as he looked further he soon found a glass water clock.
The clock in his hands said to him “Break it! Free me!”
Miro struggles with what to do, he could smash it and free whatever it contained but then a talking water clock would certainly be worth a fair bit of gold.
Otto getting frustrated at Miro’s delay snatches the water clock from the halflings hands and throws the clock to the ground causing water to spill from it.
The water sat on the surface for less than a minute when it
started to move by itself and was soon taking on the form a naked elven women,
the same that had appeared before the fight.
“Thank you, it appears I have been trapped in there for some great time” the figure said,
She introduces herself as Evindra and is the keeper of this cavern and its magical properties but without her magical shawl she can’t return the pool and the hill above to their former glory.
When asked what had happened to her shawl Evindra told the group that King Irovetti had taken her sword ‘Briar’ and shawl as part of a bargain he had made with the ghastly gardener.
As Evindra was a fey type known as a Neried the group thought to ask about the fey named Emissary and if she had any dealings with him. Her response was that of a 'No' but she knew that he served a fey queen known by many names and was linked to the sword Briar. Unfortunately she could not give any further details as she was forbidden to do so by the holder of her shawl, King Irovetti! But with its return she could give them some much needed information.
The group promised Evindra that they would retrieve her items and return them to her as soon as possible as they dragged the drooling Miro and Vaneer away to find a place to rest ready for tomorrow's travels.
