The mystics of Trollskull Manor spent the night sleeping on the floor in their armor. Some enjoyed the comfort of a bedroll, others were forced to lay down on the cold floor with nary a blanket or pillow.
Push-ta was sitting by the entrance, listening to the door. He heard the sound of chittering and arguing in a strange language - goblin! The voices approached the door.
He called for the others, waking them up. They grabbed their weapons and readied themselves before the door. Push-ta took position behind the party, his crossbow ready. His adopted sister, Kem Hearthfire, at his side. The chittering outside the door stopped.
Etlenda and Winterfrost threw open the door and prepared for battle.
The room beyond was empty. The manticore bodies had been picked clean. Only a few bones remained. Their skulls, however, were missing!
They entered the room and looked around. No goblins, no enemies.
As they left, Push-ta and Kem saw two small goblins sneak through the open doorway - watching the party in the room. The goblins were covered in skulls of all manner of creatures - rats, crows, humans, goblins - everything. They were each carrying the massive skulls of the dead manticores in both hands. The goblins carefully backed into the room and turned around.
They saw Push-ta, his crossbow ready. They froze.
Push-ta put a crossbow bolt into the head of the goblin on the right. His eyes crossed and he fell dead.
The other goblin screamed, dropped the manticore skull, and fled through the open door. The pitter-patter of his little bare goblin feet and the clattering of his panoply of skulls disappeared into the darkness.
- Winterfrost of House Silverspear - Chaotic Good Moon Elf Noble and Fighter. The daughter of elven diplomats, raised among dwarves.
- Etlenda, aka "Exile" - Neutral Good Eladrin Outlander and Paladin. Exiled from the Feywild and raised by wolves. While exploring the Feydark he crossed over into the Underdark and emerged into the Mortal World.
- Tempus Vegvisir - Lawful Good Human Trade Sheriff and Cleric of Helm. Husband and Father.
- Push-ta Tok - Neutral Half-Orc Former Smuggler and Rogue, secret member of the Zhentarim.
- Kem Hearthfire - Chaotic Good Half-Orc Former Gladiator Priestess of Gond.
Little Box of Horrors
Kem gave Push-ta a disapproving look, "Why did you kill that goblin?"
Push-ta shrugged, "It was a goblin?"
"It wasn't doing anything. It was no threat to you."
Push-ta shrugged harder, "It was a goblin?"
"Well, I hope you feel good about yourself now."
DM - this kind of became the theme of the night, as there was a lot of unprovoked murder to come under the pretense of "They were goblins. Goblins are evil. It's okay to kill evil things unprovoked."
The party regrouped and decided what to do next. They exited the manticore room and returned to the hall of heroes. They took the unexplored corridor to the right. The corridor turned several times and descended like a ramp.
They entered a room with a domed ceiling. In the center of the room was a statue of a four-armed fish-man. The fish-man statue clutched a closed box in two of its hands. There was a keyhole on the front of the box. The statue faced the north wall.
More importantly, the domed ceiling was filled with yellowish acid, magically suspended as if the room was upside down.
Push-ta was ordered to inspect the statue for traps. He circled it, looking closely for wires, triggers, counterweights, gears. He found no mechanical means of trap activation.
"What about a magical trap?" asked Etlenda.
"Of course it's a magical trap!" he shouted, pointing at the ceiling, "But I'm not a wizard am I?
Etlenda thought about it, "But you ARE a wizard! You have a spell book and can cast spells!"
"Oh, right. I have an idea."
Push-ta retreated into the hall and used his magic to try to pry the box out of the statue's grasp remotely. He was unable to budge the box. "Well, I got nothing. I'm going to open the box."
"NO!" shouted Etlenda, "ACID! There's obviously a key somewhere. Let's keep looking, maybe we'll find it."
"But I can open it!"
"NO! Come on, let's go."
The party exited the room, leaving Push-ta staring longingly at the box. Winterfrost was ultimately forced to retrieve him and drag him away.
DM - Etlenda also found the secret door in the north east corner. I told him it was empty. Etlenda's player was incredulous. I said, "Allow me to read to you verbatim the contents of 14c. Secret Room: This 10-foot-square room is empty." That got a laugh and a "Well, alright then."
Pillared Way
The party returned to the Hall of Heroes and crept past the domain of the false vampires. Winterfrost paused to listen to one of the doors. She heard one of the actors complaining to the other actor about not being able to drop a sword they found in the statue room, they had to sleep with it all night! This made Winterfrost smile.
They entered an adjoining room with several pillars covered in small concave divots.
Rotten Corpse
In a side room they found a discarded corpse lying face down. The corpse smelled awful and was covered in flies and maggots. A quick search found his scimitar and crossbow with no bolts. His money pouch was empty and his armor was badly damaged. Etlenda deduced that he had died of venom in the fight with the giant spiders.
Etlenda searched for and found a secret door in the north wall that led to the city's sewer system.
Cubicle of Skulls
The team followed a long winding passage to the south and east. There they found a closet filled waist deep with human skulls! The skulls poured out onto the floor of the passage. They left the door open and moved along.
Room of Secrets
At the end of the long corridor they found a room. The room was bare save for a copper throne, green with the patina of age. Lying on the floor in front of the throne, as if discarded or if it had rolled off the throne, was green copper skull cap.
Etlenda's eyes became wide, "I have to sit on it!"
Push-ta was offended, "What did you tell me just ten minutes ago?"
Etlenda defensively replied, "Yeah, well, the ceiling's not filled with acid, is it?"
Push-ta countered, "COPPER THRONE! It's got to be an electric chair or lightning something!"
Etlenda picked up the crown and sat in the chair. He looked a the south wall with was decorated with a mosaic of a man wearing the skull cap. A mysterious cylinder floated over the man's head.
Etlenda put on the skull cap. There was a flash and a cylinder appeared in mid-air over Etlenda's head. It fell onto his head, which was protected by the cap, with a "Tonk!"and rolled onto his lap.
"Huh." said Etlenda, confused.
He opened the cylinder. Within was a magic wand.
"Huh." he said again.
Return of the Skull Hunter
They left the room and were backtracking up the corridor. Within the closet filled with skulls they found a goblin festooned with skulls. He was rolling in the pile of skulls, pulling them around himself, and generally ecstatic as a man swimming in treasure. It was the same goblin that survived the enounter with Push-ta earlier.
The goblin saw the intruders. He hissed and pulled his treasure of skulls closer around him protectively. The others exchanged glances and shrugged. They closed the door and moved on.
Unrest Among the Vampires
The team backtracked to the entrance of the "Vampire" hideout. Push-ta listened to the door and deduced that the room beyond was empty. They carefully moved through the throne room and out the other side. They had no wish to disturb the actor/bandits. On the door of the exit was a crude drawing of the male leader of the vampires and the name "UKTARL". The drawing had a big X drawn over it.
Back in the hall with the statues of the three kings. The bodies of the actor/bandits they killed had been dragged away.
The team explored a side passage. They could hear talking behind a door. They listened and overhead a man - the male leader of the vampire, Uktarl, was conspiring with some other vampires, "Harria has gone too far this time. What could I do? Did you see those guys? They set two of my actors ON FIRE!"
A co-conspirator replied, "It wasn't your fault. Look, maybe its time for us to join Xanathar's Guild. We'll have to turn over part of our money, but they'll provide protection!"
The team decided they wanted nothing to do with THAT drama, so they quietly moved on.
Hall of Retreat
Now that they weren't chasing fleeing "vampires", the team decided to inspect the corridor more closely. Etlenda found a secret door that led into a musty old room filled with bedrolls.
Frescoes on the wall depicted villagers and farmers being terrorized by a giant bat.
In the back of the room was an adjoining chamber containing a wooden coffin draped in cobwebs resting on a large stone slab. Etlenda looked into the hole drilled into its foot panel and saw that it was empty save for some dirt. The lid opened easily. He found a small vial of water - possibly water that had been blessed by a priest or priestess.
He gave the vial to Kem and the group moved on.
Grell Hideout
The followed a long corridor to the west and entered a square room with five pillars made of mortared human bones. In the north and east walls were alcoves like large fireplaces. Winterfrost crept closer to the alcove on the east wall to peer up into the chimney-like space above it.
Suddenly long tentacles shot out from the chimney and grabbed the elven warrior. The tentacles dragged her into the alcove and lifted her off the ground. She screamed as her feet dangled in mid-air!
The rest of the team quickly moved into the room. Push-ta positioned himself by the north wall in order to loose crossbow bolts into tentacles. Suddenly a second beast emerged from the alcove in the northwest corner! It was a massive brain the size of a human torso. The brain had a large serrated beak the size of a human face. The brain floated in mid-air, long tentacles that ended in needle-like quills writhed and dangled beneath it. The second creature reached out and tried to grab Push-ta.
Etlenda charged into the room astride his spiritual war-wolf to aid Push-ta.
Meanwhile, Winterfrost overcame the paralysis of the poison. She planted the soles of her feet on the wall of the shaft and pushed away from the brain-monster with all her strength. She was able to walk it back onto the ground, momentarily pulling it out of the alcove and giving a better shot to Tempus who continued to pepper it with fiery magical bolts. Kem produced a spiritual hammer to pummel the creature. Winterfrost wasn't able to keep her footing for long. The brain creature once again lifted her up and pulled her into the shaft above the alcove.
Push-ta took a powerful swing with his custom-made greatclub. His deadly blow smashed the brain-monster menacing himself and Etlenda into the floor. With the second brain creature destroyed, Push-ta and Etlenda moved over to help Winterfrost. Etlenda stood in the floor of the alcove but was unable to reach the brain creature high above. Winterfrost was able to free herself. She fell to the floor and sent a magical bolt into the creature's mind. The creature shuddered and fell to the floor like a giant leather bag filled with wet meat.
DM - I really liked this encounter. It was very visual. It had great horror movie vibes and was quite challenging.
Hobgoblin Guards
The room with the bone pillars was a dead end so the party backtracked to the room where they found the cursed sword. They went south and descended some stairs into a diamond-shaped room filled with pillars, so many they looked like tree trunks in a forest. More stairs ascended to the east, leading to the long wide hall decorated with bas relief carvings of demons and the skeleton of a kenku.
Winterfrost advanced through the forest of pillars. Two bugbears had been hiding behind the pillars leaped out and attacked Winterfrost with their heavy spiked maces. Winterfrost staggered from the blow.
DM - this is the first time I, as Dungeon Master, have EVER been able to utilize the Bugbear's sneak attack ability! I was so happy! It never comes up!
Etlanda was unable to navigate his war-wolf through the pillars so he dismounted and joined Winterfrost. The pair were soon joined by Tempus while Kem kept a safe distance.
The two bugbear guards were quickly dispatched.
Out of the crushed skull of one of the bugbears wriggled a puppy-sized creature that resembled a brain with four legs. It shuddered and promptly vanished.
Push-ta recoiled in horror, "Ugh!" He took his greatclub and promptly smashed the skull of the other bugbear into pulp.
A search of the pillars found a secret compartment, half-open and empty. Despite the evidence of it having been long ago looted of its contents, Tempus remained certain there was something invisible or mysterious about the empty compartment.
Hall of Mirrors
A short flight of stairs led to a long hallway to the west. The long hallway contained sixteen niches, eight on each side. A burned out torch lay on the floor halfway down the hall.
Tempus and Winterfrost advanced carefully down the hall ahead of the others. Within each niche was a floor-to-ceiling mirror.
When they reached the end of the hall, they turned around to tell the others it was safe. Suddenly, dark reflections of themselves stepped out of the two last mirrors and attacked!
The others rushed down the hallway as quickly as they could to lend their aid. The dark reflections moved like shadowy quicksilver. They lacked form, darting around their opponents and disappearing into the shadows.
One of the shadows struck Winterfrost. She could feel her life force draining! She felt suddenly weak and tired.
The Mystics of Trollskull Manor found it difficult to defeat these shadows - they kept disappearing into the darkness - becoming invisible.
Kem said a prayer and was suddenly surrounded by a whirlwind of glowing mystical hammers! She charged into the fray. The tornado of hammers tore the shadowy duplicates into cloth-like tatters.
Etlenda asked, "How long does that last!"
"Ten minutes!" replied Kem.
"Then lets move! Lets make the most of it! Go! Go!"
DM- This was another fun encounter with great visual imagery and an unusual opponent.
Dead End
The team went to the right and found a dead end room, littered with trash from previous expeditions, the walls covered with graffiti.
"Disgraceful," muttered Winterfrost, "You should have some respect for your dungeon!"
Push-ta began looking around the room and searching the walls for secret doors.
"There's no time for that!" shouted Etlenda, "Move! Go! Go! Back this way!"
Nimraith’s Fate
The team rushed down an unexplored corridor to the south and took a side passage to the east. They stopped in front of the first door on the right. Winterfrost stopped to listen and heard the sounds of goblins repeating the word "Nimraith! Nimraith!" followed by the sound of jingling, like a windchime made of wooden sticks, and riotous goblin laughter.
Winterfrost kicked open the door and rushed in.
Within they found two goblins standing on stone blocks manipulating a crude skeleton marionette constructed from human bones. Other goblins were arrayed on the floor watching and laughing. Everything stopped at Winterfrost's intrusion.
Etlenda, standing behind Kem, said, "Get in there!"
Kem hesitated, "Wait, what? They're just-"
Etlenda gave her a shove into the room. Her whirling tornado of spiritual hammers immediately pummeled every goblin in the room into mush.
Push-ta eyed a stack of personal effects nearby, "Loot!"
Etlenda bellowed, "No time! Go! Go!"
DM - the players loved the skeleton marionette. They also enjoyed that Kem just massacred all the goblins before they even got to act.
The Shattered Statue
Winterfrost looked around the corner to the left. She saw two bugbears crouching near the remains of a shattered statue of black stone. They appeared to be reassembling it.
The bugbears looked up at Winterfrost with confusion, picked up their morningstars, and rushed at her.
Winterfrost and Push-ta engaged the bugbears in brief battle before Kem drew near. The bugbears were quickly defeated.
Once again, small puppy-sized creatures resembling brains with four short legs emerged from the shattered skulls of the fallen bugbears, only to disappear.
Goblin Massacre
Push-ta threw open a nearby door on the south wall of a corridor to the west. She ran inside and found a den of goblins sleeping on furs, skins, and other padding.
Kem was once again ushered into the room. Her whirlwind of death quickly dispatched nearly every sleeping goblin, mashing them into a bloody paste.
Kem felt miserable for the way in which she just massacred sleeping goblins, "No. I don't like this. They were sleeping on the floor!"
Etlenda replied, "But they're goblins!"
"I don't care! They were no threat to us!"
A few goblins woke up and loosed some arrows at Push-ta before scurrying under the blankets and furs to hide.
Winterfrost entered the room, spotted one of the hiding goblins, killed it with an arrow, and decided to leave.
DM - I, too, was starting to get annoyed at the wanton murder at this point. Etlenda's player is firmly of the opinion that because it says "Alignment: Neutral Evil" in the monster manual, then it is automatically justified to kill ALL goblins and bugbears you encounter - no questions asked.
They're not stopping to find out what's going on. They're missing all kinds of treasure. They're losing lots of story opportunity or intelligence or information - and I reminded them of this.
I also reminded them that, regardless of what they believe, they WILL encounter creatures who act against their alignment. They can play their characters however they want, but killing a creature - evil or good - without cause is still murder, regardless of what it says on the creature's alignment.
Archway
Etlenda urged the party to continue, "Keep going! Go!"
They charged down a long passage leading south. They entered a room with a strange archway supported by two slender columns. The archway stood at an odd angle in an empty corner of the room. The skeleton of an orc lay on the ground.
"Keep going!"
The party was getting pretty spread out, with Push-ta and Etlenda falling behind as Tempus, Kem, and Winterfrost moved through a door on the east wall into the next room.
Push-ta examined the archway, concluded it to be bad magic, and walked away.
Etlenda stopped and thought about it for a second. Dismounted, and walked through the arch.
He disappeared!
Push-ta cried out, "Hey! Etlenda just vanished!"
Etlenda, confused, replied, "No, I'm still here. What happened?"
Push-ta looked around the room, "You're gone! You must have turned invisible!"
Etlenda smiled, "Sweet! Hey everybody! Guess what! I'm invisible!"
Dead Tiefling
Meanwhile, next door, the party looked around at the irregularly shaped room. There was a niche in the east wall and the west corner of the south wall, and a long niche - almost a corridor - in the east corner of the south wall.
In the southwest niche were a pile of bones that had been swept into a pile in the corner.
In the southeast niche was a door on the east wall.
In the northeast niche were the desiccated remains of the top half of a tiefling prisoner, suspended by wrist manacles. The remains were missing its legs.
Written on the wall above the skeleton in dried blood were the words:
TALK TO ME
