Dark Passage

The reference map

Session 5 [18 February 2005]:

The party descents the treacherous stairs into the dark passage, below level 2 (A).  Soon enough some devil kin attack but sadak is quick enough to shoot a croosbow bolt into one of them, injuring it badly.  The fighter rushes up and finishes it off while a second devil kin attacks him but misses.  The barbarian crushes down the devil kin with a mighty blow.  In the mean while, Lysander attacks a carver but the morning star passes harmlessly above the demon's head.  The carvers attack back but they pose no threat to the heroes.  The mage turns and attacks one of the carvers, injuring him slightly.  Magnus bashes his halberd upon the carver's head, which ends up dead.  The barbarian engages another of the little demons, and cuts him in half with the butcher's cleaver.  Among the fallen remains, the fighter finds 136 gp.  A search among the barrels, Sadak finds 16 gp in one of them while Magnus picks up a gleaming ring from another.

As they continue down the passage (b), they encounter some goat-like demons.  The adventurers soon recognized the insignia  on their chests as being part of the Moon Clan.  Sadak puts bolt to crossbow but the triggering mechanism failed!  The barbarian lost no time in finishing off one of the moon clan.  Devil kin demons swarmed out of a dark corner, attacking the mage and injuring him badly!  Another moon clan shoots with his longbow towards the barbarian but the arrow past harmlessly by.  A carver moves up swerving its weapon hitting the cleric, while a second carver hits the barbarian too.  The morningstar comes suddenly down on top of the carver's head, and the imp is crushed dead, while the fighter engages and kills a devil kin.  The mage approaches cautiously a couple of carvers and burns them with a scorching fire!  The barbarian disengages from the carver and runs up (c) to the moon clan "archer".  Blog Goth hits the demon and inflicts some serious injuries into him.  However the demon steps back and shoots another arrow but from such a close range the arrow couldn't make any damage.  Some carvers attack the barbarian, injuring him slightly, while a devil kin attacks but Blog Goth managed to avoid the attack.  The cleric utters a terrifying shout, and the sound from it reverberated throughout the whole chamber.  All the evil creatures seem confused for a few moments, except the carvers.  The sound waves hit the demons with a force they weren't prepared for it causing some minor pain.  The moon clan shoots another arrow but seems disoriented for a moment, the arrow sticking into the wall behind the barbarian.  On the other side of the chamber, the fighter killed off a carver who was threatening the mage.  Free from dangers, Sadak moves to join his friends, casting a protective mage armour against him in the process.  Blog Goth, still being surrounded swings his axe at the first carver.  The powerful blow took down a couple of carvers and a devil kin at the same time!  Another devil kin assaults the towering barbarian and hits him slightly.  Seeing the party was largely outnumbered, the cleric summoned a celestial riding dog to help them out.  The dog bites the moon clan with the long bow, digging his fangs into the demonic flesh.  Other moon clan shoot the cleric with their longbows, one of the arrows driving home into the clerics body. The fighter was engaged with a devil kin and managed to drive the halberd home into the small demon's head, killing him outright.  The moon clan tries to hit the summoned dog to no avail.  In the meantime sadak moves up to 3 of the goat demons and scorches them with his magic fire.  The barbarian turns to strike down a devil kin, but the axe misses its target.  In retaliation, the small imp demon thrusts its sword missing the barbarian by an inch.  However the moon clan nearby shot the barbarian in his leg, injuring him slightly.  The cleric magically threw an invisible aura around the moon clan demon and killed him.  The dog leapt upon the moon clan archer biting at him and wounding him more.  Having pushed the dog away, the demon loaded another arrow and shot the cleric, hitting him slightly.  The fighter manage to kill another devil kin while sdak shots a magic missile on another moon clan, wounding him.  The barbarian hits the moon clan again with his axe but the demon resisted.  However it went down when the dog leapt upon it biting off its throat.  Lysander began mumbling some inaudible words and everyone could see his wounds heal rapidly.  Seeing this, another moon clan (d) shoots Lysander, driving another arrow inside his body.  The fighter started running towards the narrow passage over the water, while the mage casts a magical missile on one of the moon clan.  The barbarian moves up too but the moon clan was prepared for his attack.  The dog leapt up from behind the barbarian, taking the demon by surprise, toppling him over the edge into the water.  Screaming in hellish fury the goat-like demon decomposed immediately upon touching the water!  The other moon clan loaded an arrow but in his hurried movements he completely failed in his shot.  As the cleric spends some time curing the mage, the fighter slashes the last on clan in half with his halberd!  On some devil kin Magnus finds 118 gp and 122 gp while sadak pockets 136 gp and finds a short staff underneath a moon clan.  Lysander stoops to pick up a magical handaxe from a carver while from another carver blog goth takes his short sword.  In a barrel, the cleric finds a magical ring.

After a moments breath, the party moved up along another passage (e) coming face to face with more creatures.  The barbarian immediately runs into the first carvers, killing them both.  The devil kin behind them immediately attack the  Blog goth but fail miserably.  Sadak shoots one of the devil kin, injuring him slightly, while the cleric moves up and finishes him.  The last devil kin finds his end under the fighter's halberd.  The fighter immediately takes his victim's dagger, while Lysander takes a magical studded leather armour off a carver.  On the other carver Blog goth finds 124 gp.  In a barrel the cleric finds a charm.  However whilst peering inside another barrel, it goes off in the barbarian's face!

Killing all the monsters had enabled the waters to run clean again, and so the quest was completed.  They returned back to the surface to talk with pepin.  Pepin gave them a magical ring, the ring of truth, which they agreed would be more suitable to be worn by Magnus.  Cain identified the magical items found, a vicious handaxe, a ring of chance and a studded leather of thorns.  As they were resting and lodging in the tavern, Ogden, the innkeeper, told them of the curse which befell king Leoric.  He begged them to kill his accursed shadow to lay to rest his soul.