The Barrier Peaks Expedition : Of Crates and Madness Session 24

The Barrier Peaks Expedition : Of  Crates and Madness
4/09/2016

Name	Player	Race	Class	Present	Survived	Replaced
Blake	Carl	Human	Bard	N	Y	N
Catherine Lastation	Chris	Human	Oracle	N	Y	N
Faolan Ironhand	Glen	Dwarf	Paladin	Y	Y	N
Cecilia	John L	Human	Wizard	Y	Y	N
Goran Stonecrucher	Guest Player	Dwarf	Fighter	N/A	Y	N
Halvar Gunnarson	Cory	Dwarf	Ranger	N	Y	N
Menyw Daolg	Danielle	Elf	Fighter	Y	Y	N
Ranold Winterhare	Tim (T.J.)	½ Elf	Magus	Y	Y	N
Ruis	Johnunce	½ Drow	Magus	N	Y	N
Thadious Bullskin	Mike K.	Human	Wizard	Y	Y	N
Mrs. Page	Mike’s npc bard	½ Elf	Bard	N/A	N	N
The Homunculus	Mike’s critter		Critter	N/A	Y	N

Greetings in our last session (23) the players had returned to the shaft they had repelled into that was outside of the arboretum area to heal and rest after several deadly encounter. After a strange nights rest (the arboretum seemed to have a day/night lighting cycle) of jungle sounds just beyond the simple rope barrier create by Halvar using his robe of twine. The “morning” was met with the choice made not to renter the arboretum area and explore where the nearby downward ramps lead.

         

       The ramp lead deeper in the complex opening up into a wide hall with a “Grey” and a couple of “Brown” doors in line of sight the “grey” door being just to the left while a “brown” one was a few feet to the right and another one a ways down the hall. Choosing to take the closer door they carefully used one of their rare grey crystal plates to open the door. As they entered in to the room the light turned on revealing massive storage room.  Spending only a little time exploring the crates here Faolan guided the party northward where they found a “brown” door. This door also lead to a crate filled room as they explored this room Ranold had a buzzing feeling of Deja vu but could not put finger on what it was. The explorers continued traveling northish following Faolan’s lead, while taking notes of labels on crates, discovering another “brown” door. Passing thought this door again triggered Ranold feeling that they had been here before and as they explored deeper into the room Ranold noticed a large scorch mark covering the walls and crates. This was the room that cost them Thadious’s Bard Miss Page and nearly slayed them all. They had been here before, with that piece of knowledge in their belts Faolan insisted that they press forward. Keeping with their current pattern they ignored the “brown” door to the south and headed to the westward one.

             

      Unlike the last few room where the lights came on as they entered the light in the storage room were on already. This set them slightly on edge and they explored the room in a more defensive pattern keeping the more fragile members closer to the center. An unexpected crash followed by a deep growl set the team on alert but with the clutter of crates in the room nothing was seen so with caution they advanced forward. As they approached the end of a row of crates Halvar cursed as he noticed the destroyed end of a crate leading back down the party’s line as a loud crash announced the huge attacker, another Umber hulk! The huge creature massive clawed hand swiped viciously at Catherine and Thadious scoring near lethal blows, but both were quick witted enough to avert their gaze to avoid its madding stare not so was Blake or Goran who for some odd reason choose to discuss the mating habits of fungus, rabbits and elves. Catherine and Thadious quickly extracted themselves by ducking behind a few crates then moving out of reach, meanwhile Ruis attempted to slay the creature while fending off Goran who chose this moment to try to kill the treacherous drow in their ranks. Ranold know that this creature could slay the whole group quickly leaped into action lunging past Catherine as she retreated and stabbing the creature a mighty blow but as he was doing so looked his prey dead in the eyes and was sucked into madness. Menyw also leaped into action eager to send more of the horrors that fill this place back into the abyss. Her vicious attack wounded the creature dearly but she also follow her blood lust into her own mad ravings. As the madness consumed them Menyw and Ranold turned their blades on each other, while Goran and Blake took turns either injuring themselves to prove the point of their argument or slay the Drow before turning on each other.

 Seeing that as long as the Umber Hulk was still alive more of them would eventually fall to its madness inducing stare Faolan called forth his divine might and laid the creature low just a Ruis fell to Goran’s hammer. Ranold thinking that he was now surrounded by the creature launched a devastating attack on the nearest, sadly it was no Hulk but Faolan and not to be out done Menyw nearly cut down Catherine before she could get to the safety of Thadious’s location behind sturdier crates and out of line of sight of the team’s very dangerous swordspersons (and quite mad). Seeing the danger both Menyw and Ranold presented to the team both Halvar and Faolan attempted to restrain them only to meet the edge of their blades for their trouble. Though while sorely wounded from self-inflicted wounds Blake and Goran kept to themselves after felling Ruis but Catherine’s magic had kept him Ruis knew that playing dead until the Hulk’s madness wore off was in his best interest so he stayed down after the beast was slain. Meanwhile Halvar and Faolan had their hands full keeping Menyw and Ranold from killing each other or them. Halvar finally landed an impressive stunning blow to Menyw with his shield just as Faolan managed to a good grip on Ranold to keep him from harming anyone. Halvar, bleeding from wound trying to contain them both and having had enough of their madness induced attacks chose to repeat the shield whack rendering Ranold unconscious as well. Catherine confirmed that no one was dead but until her status spell confirmed that the madness had left all of them refused any healing.

Here is where we end for the night Time elapsed 1 week 5 days 2 hours since entering the metal castle.