Party composition is as follows:
Jake F. – Kharron Vernn, Human Fighter 4 (Survived 1 session)
Jake F. – Sir Lemmington, Halfling Witch 4 (Survived 1 session)
Matt – Arcturus the Blue, Human Inquisitor 4 (Survived 1 session)
Matt – Darerim Brewdrinker, Dwarf Cleric 4 (Survived 1 session)
Tom – Carl, Human Paladin 4 (Survived 1 session)
Tom – Hak, Half-orc Barbarian 4 (Survived 1 session)

PC Deaths This Session: 3
PC Deaths In Total: 3

- The Game Proper -

This session picked up right where the last one left off. The PCs found themselves trapped in a mausoleum (G-7) with nowhere to go but down. After assessing their current situation (ex. re-familiarizing themselves with what resources they expended last session), the part decided to carefully make their way down the shaft located at the southern end of the mausoleum.

After reaching the bottom of the shaft, the party found themselves in a dirt-floored tunnel (G-8) leading to the north-east. Following it for a short while, they came to a dead-end. The dwarf, with his great knowledge of stonework, immediately found a hidden door at the end of the tunnel; moments later, so did the majority of the party. The group spent a time puzzling about whether or not to bash the door down before they came upon the bright idea of just trying to open it (it wasn’t locked).

Upon opening the door, the party was assailed by a blast of disgusting smells, thankfully, they were strong enough of fortitude to avoid the nauseating effects of the place. The party’s light spells revealed that beyond the hidden door was a tunnel that, after a short distance, branched out to both the north-west and north-east. The party carefully crept up to the intersection and got a look of what was down each branch: to the north-west the passage branched once more (again to the north-east) and also continue along northward, while, to the north-east, the passage seemed to open up into a room of some sort.

After electing to head to the north-east, the party came to the entrance to a small-ish (about 25×25 ft.) room (1-1). Looking inside they saw nothing of interest beyond scraps of bones likely taken from the graveyard above, so they decided to pull back and check out the other branch in the tunnel. This proved, in a round about way, to be their undoing.

After falling back, the party decided to look into the branch within a branch (that’d be the second branch leading to the north-west). They found that it lead to a dead end and decided it would be a good place to hole up for a rest (*insert evil DM laugh here*). Not only that, but they decided on resting for twelve hours instead of eight so that all of the casters in the party could regain their spells.

Kharron Vernn had first watch, and he hardly had time to get comfortable before he was assailed by a pack (well, five) ravenous ghouls! Rolling well on initiative, and hearing them sneaking up on him, he shouted for his companions to wake (which they did), he readied himself for battle. Moments later the ghouls were upon him. The first rounds of combat were tense as Kharron held off the ghoul swarm on his own while his companions gathered their weapons and prepared for battle. Once battle was joined, however, it was all over for the ghouls. Sir Lemmington opened up with his first kill by firing a bolt directly in the the brain matter of one of the already injured ghouls while Hak single-handedly slew two of the beasts (crushing one’s throat with his bare hands whilst splitting its skull a moment later with his axe). Kharron then impaled one upon his trident and Darerim’s flail reduced the head of the last ghoul to mound of reeking gore.

After combat concluded, the party decided to return to rest once more. Dear gods did this turn out to be a bad idea. An hour or two passed before the next encounter occurred; Kharron Vernn was still on watch when, all of a sudden, he smelled something utterly terrible approaching (*evil DM grin*). I gave the party enough time to rouse and equip themselves before the ferocious dung monster rounded the corner.

Initiative was rolled.

Luckily for the party I rolled terribly for the dung beast’s initiative (something like a five, I think) so it went last in the round. Kharron Vernn went first. Lunging forth with the trident he struck the beast only to find that not only did he not hurt it, but his weapon was in fact quite stuck to the beast! What followed was a delightful (to me) exercise in the PCs learning that ‘just because it has stats’ doesn’t in fact mean it can be killed.

Initial group morale was good, they figured it was just a particularly tough ooze of some sort and pressed the attack. Only after the monster ignored all of their attacks (literally, they didn’t deal a point of damage to the thing) did the party realize they were in trouble. Half the party decided to flee towards the north with Arcturus the Blue stumbling through the darkness while under the effects of invisibility, Darerim, Sir Lemmington, and Hak followed along as Carl and Kharron stayed behind an to hold the beast while the party escaped. Somehow in the scuffle Kharron managed to grapple the thing and did indeed hold it at bay for a few moments before it decided to move after the party members fleeing to the north.

Rushing through the darkness aided by darkvision (and, in Sir Lemmington’s case) dancing lights the party came to a large empty room whose only distinguishing feature was an empty coffin and a collapsed tunnel to the east. (1-2) Dead end. A few moments passed and all of the north-bound survivers were the now hiding — except for Darerim who was making as much noise as possible in an attempt to draw the creature away from the others — in the recesses of the room. The silence of the dungeon was rent asunder by a scream of pain followed by a wet snap and crunching sound as Kharron was slain (messily snapped in half by the beast’s ‘engulf’ ability) by the dung monster. Carl immediately backed away from the beast and began to heal himself after also nearly being slain as well(only being saved by his ability to Lay On Hands as a swift action).

The beast seemed most interested in the survivors that fled to the north and decided to pursue them. Carl did not follow the beast as he was grievously wounded and instead deigned to begin healing himself. Several tense rounds after the beast slithered down the northern passage, Arcturus moved past it (he hid in an offshoot tunnel) and met up with Carl once more; the two of them decided to get Carl back into his armor as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, Darerim continued to make as much noise as possible and succeeded in attracting the beast’s immediate attention. The other members of the party managed to slide out of the room behind the thing’s substantial reach (after Hak provoked an attack of opportunity but luckily escaped the beast’s grasp). Darerim, however, did not fare so well and was slain by the creature.

With everyone away from the beast (who was busily digesting its two meals) they quickly grabbed what they could from their camp and decided it would be best to get the hell out of the dungeon. Moving back along the path that they followed in (making sure to seal the door behind them) the party arrived once more in the mausoleum. Spirits were low after the day’s losses but they decided to try to get some sleep (which they did) before attempting to escape the halls of Rappan Athuk. It wouldn’t be easy, though.

After a night of rest, the party decided they were going to fight their way through the gargoyles; having a suitable choke point would make the fight easier. Or so they though. Early on the battle against the beasts went well with both Hak and Arcturus holding the door against their assault. However, that did not last. Midway through the fight Arcturus was unlucky enough to be struck by both of the claws of one of the gargoyles (which causes paralysis as a hold person spell) and promptly failed his save against the effect. Several rounds later and he was borne aloft and summarily dropped 170 feet to his (rather messy) death.

The fight became particularly tense when, due to a spree of odd luck on my part the gargoyles managed to score (and confirm) five critical hits against Hak. All told he had a finger (left hand, middle finger — he rolled it) bitten off and faced a blinding cut to his forehead (blood does that y’know); however his wounds were quickly healed by his companions and he fought on. A number of additional rounds were spent fighting the beasts (and keeping Hak healed as best as possible while he held the line) before the PCs hatched a genius plan. Sir Lemmington fired a screaming bolt (these cause enemies nearby to become shaken) while Hak employed a dazzling display to disperse the crowd (I ruled that shaken and shaken stacked to make the enemies frightened) long enough for the party to flee. And flee they did.

Moving without ceasing towards town the party made it roughly three-quarters of the way before they were waylaid by a dozen wolves and a trio of wargs. Instead of making this a combat encounter (which the PCs would have lost as they were exhausted from a forced march and had next to nothing in reserves spell-/item-wise) I instead had one of the wargs demand a toll for passage (basically ‘your money or your life’). With an excellent Diplomacy check (seriously, the total was like a thirty; for what he was going for I’d have set it at something like DC 25 so I figured I’d let him have it), Carl instead got away with only giving them the armor and shield of one of his slain compatriots. The party then limped the rest of the way back towards Town, shadowed by someone that, in their haste, they did not realize was even there.

And so ends session two.