Journal Entry: 4/2/05

Dear Mother:

{We began our journey by creating characters. We ended up with a Female Elf Knight (Elinara Zearana (E’Ze),  played by Nick), a Female Halfling Ranger (Rain, played by Mindy), a Female Human Druid (Talla, played by Amber), a Male Elf Bard (Gregor, played by Jason), a Male Elf Sorcerer (Croaker, played by Dan), and a Male Human Rogue (Devan played by Niles). The Rogue was and will be a guest performance.}

We came back from a temple. We had just retrieved the necklace we were hired to get after it had been stolen (we were hired to retrieve the necklace for 100 gold pieces each). We were in an extreme rush, due to the horde of zombie that was after us from the temple. Some us did not make out of the temple, like the cleric and the fighter. Like I said we barely made it out of the temple.

We arrived at a structure, lucky for us it was a church, but it wasn’t luck. The church had been abandoned probably due to the zombie horde that nobody cleared out. What kind of a world is this that I have been sent to? I sure do wish I were in my meadow with the butterflies. Oh well, I digress. The front doors were torn off their hinges and the entire building was empty. We entered the building, because the zombies were everywhere and they were catching up to us. We didn’t have a whole lot of choices. Some started to barricade the doors with pews. This church was not a secure location too many entrances (front and rear), and way too many stain glass windows. The ranger (Rain), climbed to the roof and kept a look out.  I proceeded to check the back rooms, mostly empty, but some contained storage.

Good thing the rogue decided to go all creepy on us. The rogue searched the Alter, but he didn’t find anything. Then he even poured water on the cracks, lucky for us he did that. Sure enough there was a secret entrance to a stairwell that leads to an underground stairwell. We started to head below, but the ranger (Rain) waited to the last moment and then started the roof on fire, climbed down, closed the entrance, and joined us in the stairwell. While we waited I headed down the stairs and found an intersecting hallway that went both directions (left/right). Finally, the rest of the group caught up to me and we proceeded to the left after much debate (see map).

We found a few empty rooms. One room did contain a fountain of healing, but we were not alone. Suddenly, a horde of goblins came out of a room we hadn’t gotten to yet. I backed down a side corridor the ranger (Rain) and the bard (Gregor) came forward to meet the goblins. I waited till they were past me to come out and attack; this kept them in a two-sided offense. Unknown to me at the time, the sorcerer (Croaker) and the rogue (Devan) went down the other way, but the zombies intercepted both of them. Unfortunately, we were caught in between the zombies and goblins. The rogue and sorcerer started a fire in the stairwell and cut the zombies off for a few moments (sure we had to work at it, all rogue and everything, but the zombies, well they just get lucky and hit it, go figure). They came back just as we started to push the goblins back, not wanting to be in the middle we retreated to the healing fountain room.

There in the fountain room we made our last stand. I used my shield to brace the door and acted as a barrier between the zombies and us. We could hear a lot of fighting going on outside the door, but then it became very quiet until the zombies started beating on the door. The ranger (Rain) held the bottom, I held the middle, and the rest based as best they could. Some just had to wait (not enough room). The zombies and ‘zomblins’ started to beat the door down. It didn’t last long. Moments later they were coming through. The first one popped its head above my shield, I obliged and by cutting it off. Lucky for us the goblins were rather proficient at cutting them down. They proceed to come into the room, but we managed to kill them off just as they continued to pop their ugly heads around my shield. After what seemed like an eternity of fighting we killed the last of them.

We proceeded to explore the rest of the dungeon area. It’s a good thing that we did, because we found a bunch of slaves/prisoners in on of the prisons. They weren’t very healthy it seems the goblins were using them for food. We found the church’s priest, but he was dead. We rushed them out of the dungeon and proceeded back to town.

Love,

-E’Ze