Party composition is as follows:
Jake F. – Havokk Granhorn, Half-orc Cavalier 4 (Survived 1 session)
Jake F. – Sir Lemmington, Halfling Witch 4 (Survived 3 sessions)
Matt – Cassivellaunos, Paladin 4 (Survived 1 session)
Matt – Vasylko, Ranger 4 (Survived 1 session)
Tom – Carl, Human Paladin 4 (Survived 3 sessions)
Tom – Hak, Half-orc Barbarian 4 (Survived 3 sessions)

PC Deaths This Session: 0
PC Deaths In Total: 3

- The Game Proper -

The session began with the party gazing down a tunnel that they’d just dug into. Little time was spent determining what they were going to do and the party promptly began its way down the passage. After a brief walk, they came to a huge cavern (3A-7) whose length was bisected by a raging stream that opened into a stone-hewn pool of water. On the other side of a pool the members of the group possessing dark vision noted a pair of stone platforms that were each home to a dessicated corpse. After tossing a pair of torches into the room to get a better grasp of what it looked like, the party entered.

As they walked into the cavern, a black cloud issued forth from the mouth of each of the corpses upon the platforms. The clouds formed into roughly humanoid shapes and moved to attack the unsuspecting party. The ensuing battle weighed heavily on the party (nearly killing Cassivellaunos) and, had aid not arrived at the last moment, it would have likely been a TPK (total party kill).

What aid you ask? Well, as a final kindness to the group (my last, at this point) I offered them a way out if they wanted one. I’d been sitting on a few NPCs that I’d wanted to introduce so that access to the Knight of the Raven (from Castle Ravenloft but updated to Pathfinder RPG rules) prestige class could be gained. The party accepted and, at the beginning of the next round a duo (well, a trio, but the third member didn’t reveal himself) of powerful knights presented themselves by easily defeating the wraiths. Pleasantries were exchanged after the fight and the NPCs pretty much told the party that they were WAY out of their league at this part of the dungeon. Heeding their advice (and the majority of the group accepting membership to the order) the party made its way out of the dungeon and headed back to town to recuperate.

On their way back to town, whilst camping, the party was ambushed by a large number of bugbears lead by an ogre. Careful strategy on the parties’ part (and a bit of luck after the watchmen was rendered unconscious) saw the fight won without any casualties (even the pack animals lived!) and the party made a forced march back to town.

Upon their return to town the PCs were made members of the Knighthood of the Raven and with it came eligibility for the prestige class (should they manage to meet its prerequisites) as well as a 500 gold piece bump in the maximum value of gear that they could buy (the current formula I’m running is: (500 x level – 1) + 500 gp). The Knighthood’s history is as follows (modified for Rappan Athuk):

Before evil descended on the land of Barovia, it was home to an order of virtuous champions, the Knights of the Raven. United under the symbol of the raven, they set aside differences in religion and political allegiance in their quest to fight evil wherever it appeared.

They prospered for centuries before the appearance of a powerful vampire lord known as Strahd in their land. Many knights met their death at Strahd’s life-sapping hands and the order very nearly fell into obscurity if not for a single knight who stood against the encroaching darkness.

Then came the fateful day when a group of adventurers entered the land of Barovia on a mission to exterminate Strahd and bring his terrible reign to an end. Amongst them was a powerful warpriest who, by chance, met with the aging knight of the raven. The two became quick friends and the cleric pledged to spread the word of the knights of the raven. Sadly the aging knight did not live long enough to see Strahd’s eventual fall and the order’s rebirth.

To this day, the Order of the Raven patrols the land of Barovia and its neighboring countries to do battle with the foul forces of the unliving. After hearing of the evils within Rappan Athuk, a small group comprised of various members of the order has secretly moved into a nearby town to lend whatever aid they can against Orcus’ amassing army.

After spending nearly a week in town recuperating (that Constitution drain is nasty stuff; even with lesser restoration spells) the party resupplied, paid their mercenaries, and headed out to the dungeon once again. Upon their return to the dungeon the PCs once again faced off against the green gargoyles, though they easily defeated them (I hand waved it; neither I nor the group wanted to waste the time on a fight we both knew they could win — so I dealt a bit of damage to everyone and said they were done with the fight). Upon re-entering the dungeon the party decided to head eastwards into a room that they’d only looked into (1-1) and after a bit of snooping around Vasylko managed to come into contact with some green slime which quickly dealt a boat-load of Constitution damage to him before he scraped it off. All for a handful of copper coins. Things like that make my Evil DM side cackle with glee.

After determining there was nothing of value in the room, the party proceeded through the door to the east and then down a short hallway (didn’t even bother looking for traps; that’ll come back to bite ‘em later in if they’re not careful) only to come to another door which they opened. Before them was a large room (1-4) that was home to a large carpet and an empty coffin. The party, now deciding to be careful, burned the carpet before entering the room. A quick search turned up nothing of interest so the party proceeded down a flight of stairs at the eastern end of the room. As they were descending the stairs, the group managed to avoid a rather nasty trap (curse paladins and their good saving throws!) before entering the next room.

The next room (1-6) was nearly as strange as the previous. The only things of note in the room (beyond piles of garbage) was a lone table atop which sat a deck of cards; next to the table was a stool atop which sat a decayed skeleton covered in a massive swarm of ants. The party, once again deciding to be careful, employed alchemist’s fire against the ants and diffused that situation. Then Vasylko decided to pick up the cards (*Evil DM grin*). Okay, I thought, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, he grabbed ‘em by the sides. Then he decided to flip through the deck (*facepalm*) doing so put him in contact with the poison on the topmost card (an ace of spades). Luckily he made his save. After that encounter, the PCs continued onward… and right into a pit trap. This time I got one! Cassie (the paladin — we call him that because nobody can remember his full name) fell into the pit and suffered some minor damage, but was quickly retrieved and the pit cross. The party now stood in a long hall extending both north and west.

Deciding to head north, the party came to a large room (1-8) that looked to have been a battleground. Debris lay all over the place and the door appeared to have been battered in. A secret door was obvious at the northern end of the room because someone had apparently left it ajar. The party didn’t enter the room as I mentioned a familiar stink to them (pooooooooo monstaaaaaa!) which gave them more than enough reason to move the other direction. Shame.

Heading south turned up a bit more; the passage continued on for a good number of feet and the party eventually discovered a secret door. Opening the door, the party was accosted by a ghast who was pleasantly surprised to have finally been found; that did not keep him from attacking the group and summarily being put down. Exploring the secret passageway, the party discovered a small room (1-10) that was home to a small chest. Upon opening the chest, the party found their first bit of treasure of the night. Sadly, the coins were all lead.

The party returned to the hallway and headed south once more. The group came to another massive cavern (1-11) whereupon the group saw a woman being attacked by swarms of rats across an underground river. Moving for the to aid her, the group slew the rats with ranged attacks before striking up a conversation with the poor woman. After finding that she was a wizard that was part of an adventuring group that was exploring the deeper regions of the dungeon, the party decided to aid her. But then Cassie decided to detect evil (which led to a rather long argument between the players and I about why I hate DMing for Paladins — mostly due to metagame reasons, for those curious) which revealed her to be evil. To the player’s credit, he didn’t decide to immediately smite her and instead decided (along with the group) to aid her in her escape from the dungeon. After reeling her across the stream with a length of rope and moving to leave, the party was attacked by a group of wererats.

The fight with the wererats wasn’t particularly nasty. Their leader was supposed to hurl a pouch of Dust of Sneezing and Choking at the party, but after looking up the info for it, I decided against it. I like killing my PCs fairly, thank-you-very-much! The battle itself was fairly brief with the meleeists of the party rushing forth and walling in the wererats which were quickly cut down. After the battle the party did a little looting but found nothing of particular interest to them aside from some vials of poison and poisoned arrows. After the battle concluded, the party headed back for town to return the woman.

The return to town was uneventful and the party saw the woman off before resting for a time to recover from their wounds (and ability drain). The party quickly returned to the dungeon once more (avoiding any encounters along the way… *grumble grumble*). At this point I said that the green gargoyles were destroyed. Neither the party or I wanted to deal with their obnoxious presence.

Upon their return to the dungeon, the party cleared out the area where the wererats had been nesting (finding a scroll, a pair of magical goggles, and a large number of coins) and then proceeded to cross the river to clear out a small nest of dire rats. That done, the party descended to level two of Rappan Athuk.

Entering level two, the party found itself in a large-ish corridor (2-1) with a series of doors leading out of it. After checking each door the party found a key in one of the locks and a handaxe imbedded in the northern door (arm-bones still attached!). Vasylko also discovered a grisly pit filled with brackish water and body parts under one of the floor stones within the corridor. After a bit of discussion, the party decided to unlock and enter the northernmost of the doors along the western side of the corridor.

Before them another corridor stretched onwards and the party strode bravely forth. A short while later they came to another door and promptly opened it, entering yet another room (2-3). This time they were greeted by a pair of small chambers divided by a short hall that was home to a large, endlessly rolling, spiked ball. The party investigated briefly before deciding that it was a trap best left untested. As the group turned to leave they came face to face with a small throng of black-boned skeletons (who had snuck up on them from the secret entrance to room 2-2), one of which radiated an aura of darkness.

The ensuing battle was long and brutal; the skeleton’s insane screeching sent Havokk fleeing in terror (through the spiked ball o’ doom; sadly it didn’t kill him — curse his lucky rolls!) and other members of the party quickly moved forth to hold the doorway so that only two skeletons could be engaged at a time. The battle was fairly long, though the party held its own well enough. Until, that is, one of the skeletons scored a lucky critical hit (I use the critical hit and fumble decks put out by Paizo) and dealt a whopping 16 points of Dexterity damage to Hak. The barbarian went down. Hard.

The party quickly moved to pull Hak out of harm’s way (and did so successfully) before once again making a push against the skeletons. After several tense rounds of combat, the skeletons were destroyed. Picking up Hak’s paralyzed form and gathering what goods they could (including Havokk, who had made his way back to the party by this point) the group decided to head back to town to rest, recuperate, and sell off what treasures they had acquired.

The journey back to town was tense, but uneventful. After their return the group spent nearly a week lounging around while Hak’s ability damage was restored. After paying their mercenaries for an additional two weeks’ service, the group prepared to head once more into the fabled dungeon. That, however, is a tale for another time.