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Recap 25: You Spin Me Right Round, Baby, Right Round

February 21, 2009


Whoosa Cute Widdle Possessed Dwagonkin?

As Brecaryn finally stopped twitching, Alana and Snow could stand again. All light sources had been doused, including the continual light torch, but magickal weapons, armor, and items gradually began to glow again.

Brecaryn reached under the armrest and triggered a mechanism that opened a drawer under the throne. Inside were a jewelled crown, a jewelled scepter, a jewelled bowl marked with symbols matching the dial in the other wing, a solid silver pipe, a jewelled box holding 10 diamonds, and a gold scroll case. Looking about, she ordered Flerm in an imperious tone to retrieve them for her, not sounding at all like her usual brisk self. Shaking her head and looking bewildered, she quickly apologized to Flerm.

Malouf was finally able to pull open the doors from outside where he had been waiting with Lieralyn and Oliver. They lit torches so that the rest of the room could be explored for more hidden doors or drawers. Satisfied there was nothing more to be gained from this room, the party headed back to the southern corridor to see what the bowl had to do with the dial.

Inverted, the symbols on the bowl were right-side up. The bowl fit on the dial perfectly. When it was rotated, it would click into place whenever a symbol was in between two small markers on the side of the dial, but nothing happened. The group speculated that setting a symbol in between the markers was the way to control where the dial stopped. Unfortunately, they could not find a way to turn the dial while the bowl was in place.

After several failed attempts to get the mechanism to work, they finally opted to go with chance, spinning the dial until it landed on a favorable outcome. Der.


Pat, I'd Like to Spin the Wheel Again

After many many tries, the best outcome was when the door opened to reveal 7 soldiers in antiquated clothing just like the ones the group had encountered earlier in the northern corridor. Josy performed last rites for them, and they dissipated.

The rest of the spins resulted in


  • Oliver's flesh decaying while a doppelganger tried to convince the others to kill the real ranger

  • Ghasts paralyzing at least 2 party members with their stench before they could be destroyed

  • The ghost appearing and aging Snow 10 years

  • Flaming skeletons

  • and Wights. That's right. Wights, plural.


Now, having learned from prior experience, they knew that once the pointer stopped spinning, anything might burst through the door. So, they cleverly spaced themselves out, making themselves harder to target, and all the archers cocked their bows, prepared to shoot anything that came out of the door. Josy readied her holy symbol to turn back any undead.

The door was removed so that whatever creature inhabited the room could be identified as soon as the room came to a stop, and the archers would have a clear shot at it. The downside was that Snow and Oliver had to position themselves right by the doorway in order to push in the mechanisms simulating a closed door. At least there was booty.

One room contained three ornamental helmets, seemingly sized for large lizardmen. Six of the hooks were empty. Flerm loaded them into the mirror. Another room had four large suits of armor, not sized for humans. These the group decided to leave.

Finally, the spinner landed on the room with a descending staircase they had seen earlier when the ghost appeared. Not wanting to deal with anymore surprise wights, the party decided to check out the next level


Oh, Wait. Subterranean Passages are Usually More Likely to Contain Undead

Yes, that's right. As soon as the last of our intrepid heroes stepped of the bottom step of the stairwell, they were surrounded by ghouls, ghasts, wights, and skeletons from all four directions. Instead of making a strategic retreat to the stairwell which would have limited the number of undead that could attack, the group stayed spread out and tried ungracefully not to die.

Skeleton champs hurled fireballs. Oliver went down, severely injured. Lieralyn's backpack caught fire. Thinking quickly, she hurled it at a group of skeletons and ghasts. The oil in her bag ignited, killing or injuring the creatures.

Snow, attempting to take out one of the magic-wielding skeleton champs was instead electrocuted and beaten. Lieralyn and Brecaryn are felled by a fireball. Flerm dies.....again....for the THIRD TIME (for those who don't remember the first and second times).

Malouf, Alana, and Josy, the only party members still standing, manage to kill the remaining undead. They were only just able to get to their downed companions and treat their wounds before any more of them died. Josy "luckily" (meaning they acquire them whenever they have the opportunity, knowing they'll need them) had a resurrection scroll with which she was able to bring Flerm back to life.

As with any resurrection, the person brought back is visibly weakened and shaken from the experience. Flerm was no exception, and was perhaps even more shaken than the previous two times. This time, when he was brought back to life, a silvery mark appeared on his forehead - an Ankh. It was a permanent mark, seemingly a natural part of his skin. Nobody knew what it meant. *shrug* Move on.


Discernible....discernible....I checked. It's right. It just looks funny.

With a doorway in each of the four directions, the party decided to start with the northern corridor. They headed towards it. A few minutes later, Snow realized they were all huddled together by the foot of the stairwell, crying in fear. What on earth just happened?

Determined to find out, Snow told her companions to head down the western corridor while she stood by the stairs. They were able to enter with no problems so she headed for the north door, steadying her thoughts, calling on her training to get her down the hall. The others saw what she was attempting, waiting for her return.

The further she went, the more the fear tried to grip her, to make her flee, to drive her mad. But she pressed on. Eventually, she came to the end of the corridor, stopped by a wall. The wall had two round holes and on the ground was another scroll. Snow forced herself forward to retrieve the scroll. Looking through one of the holes, she saw a skeletal dragon. This must be what was causing the fear to manifest. Not waiting to see if the dragon was alive or simply remains, Snow quickly headed back to her party and told them what she saw. Brecaryn added the scrolls to the others they had already collected in this cave.

At the end of the western corridor, there was a set of iron doors with no discernible way to open them. They moved on to the south door. Partway down the corridor, it split. The southwest path led to a room strewn with some bones. On the far wall, runes were written. Underneath these runes, close to the floor, was a round hole, approximately the size of an arm. Inside are spaced grooves, almost like the grooves found on a lock, made to fit a specific key. They had no such key.

While investigating the room, wights and ghasts closed in from the corridor behind, the bones formed into skeletons. Josy destroyed most of the skeletons, Malouf and Flerm taking care of the stragglers. Brecaryn once again became possessed, speaking in a completely different tone, outraged that these creatures would dare attack her. Still possessed, she unleashed a powerful lightning attack and decimated them. Once this was done, Brecaryn became herself again.

Back to examining the room. Brecaryn is able to translate some of the runes: "Tail handle...unlocks...Memoritorium". Now they had to find a "tail handle" and some area called the "Memoritorium" plus figure out a way to open those iron doors all while avoiding undead. Bugger.

The southeast path contained more undead and an unopenable door. The east hallway led to another set of iron doors, just like the west hallway. This set of doors also had a round hole, like the room with the runes. Surmising the "tail handle" was on the suits of armor in one of the dial rooms, they trooped back up to the previous level.


Stairs Are Good For the Butt

Adding to all the other precautions they had taken when using the dial before, they decided to create a fire trap right in front of the spinning doorway. Back towards the entrance were two defunct traps fueled by a pool of some oily, greasy substance. Flerm, Alana, Oliver, and Lieralyn went to collect some while the rest remained with the mirror by the dial.

Snow and Brecaryn studied the dial some more, hoping to find a way to make it work so they wouldn't have to risk several random encounters before finding the correct room. Although they had carefully examined the dial twice before, they somehow managed to miss the fist-sized round hole at the base. This hole matched the two other holes they'd seen. The tail handle was the missing key to make the dial work properly. But to acquire the tail handle, they needed to use the dial.

Meanwhile, Flerm, Alana, Oliver, and Lieralyn encountered more undead. Flerm was turned into a snail. Snow and Malouf rushed to help as soon as the sounds of battle were heard. Josy and Brecaryn followed at a slower pace. Malouf reached the battle first and quickly helped turn the tide. Seeing they had the situation well in hand, Snow returned to the dial room, uncomfortable with leaving the mirror unguarded for too long. Josy restored Flerm to his charming, bipedal self.

The undead dispatched, Alana and Oliver collected the oily substance and even dipped a couple of their own arrows in it in case the need arose for flaming arrows. After a few spins, a few battles with more undead, and a beautiful wall of fire, the dial finally landed on the room with the armor.

Removing one tail, Flerm stores the rest of the suits of armor in the mirror. Now with the tail handle, they were able to choose what room they wanted and got back to the lower level without incident.

Able to enter the Memoritorium, the group found statues of Dragonkin wearing ornamental armor. Four of the statues were armed with quivers full of arrows. Alana took one from each, marking them so she would remember which arrow came from statue. The statues were dressed in some way representing each of the four elements. Perhaps the arrows would have some elemental properties.

Oddly, one of the statues was helmetless. Opening the mirror, one of the three ornamental helmets collected from before was taken out, chosen for its similarity to the armor the statue already wore.

Once the helmet was in place, the southeast door opened. Inside was an alchemists lab. Malouf detected magick as soon as he entered. Luckily, Lieralyn, on watch for just such a situation, was able to tackle him before he destroyed anything. Unhappy but willing to control himself at least long enough for the others to examine the room's contents, Malouf was released.

Only one more room to go...





Tags: Alana, Brecaryn, Flerm, Josy, Lieralyn, Malouf, Oliver, Snow


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