Session 30 - Still Rats & Zombies

The party battles more zombies and giant rats – and finds what may be a teleporter to who-knows-where.

This write up is from Kay's notes from our May 20, 2024 session. Since our group is scattered around the country, we used Discord for our voice communication and Roll20 for our virtual tabletop. Thanks to Kay and JoJo for the screen shots.

Continued from: Level 3 Rats & Zombies

Date: May 20, 3517

10:40 AM
The Mouth of Doom, Level 3.

The group was standing in the north-south hallway at an intersection with a short corridor going west, leading to a large room on the west end. The room was furnished with large tables and broken chairs and crockery on the floor.  It looked like a refectory. There was a large bas-relief on the west wall of a fat leering face with goat horns. In the northeast corner of the room was a nest of rubbish and two zombies were sitting on it.

As we entered, they got up and moved towards us. We noticed that the two zombies were both missing their left hands. In the nest, there were also one monstrously huge giant rat and twelve regular giant rats, also now moving towards us.

Elron, Blaze and Parahelia were inside the room next to the hallway. Both zombies moved towards Elron, and Parahelia stepped up next to Elron. Blaze moved back into the north-south hallway and held her attack. She told everyone to move out of the way; she’ll cast flaming sphere in the west hallway to create a bottleneck forcing the creatures to move around it, and the group could then concentrate their fire at the targets.

Beneddar cast Toll the Dead on the zombie on the right and moved back. Sinis moved back next to Blaze.

The first giant rat moved up to Elron and bit his armor, but didn’t get through. Giant rats two through ten moved toward the open exit. Breena, Elron and Lark all moved back. Artie took up a rear-guard position in the south hallway.

Blaze cast flaming sphere in the west hallway, and both zombies stepped into the fire oblivious to the flames. One zombie tried to bite Parahelia and then slammed its fist and missed, hitting the wall instead. Parahelia moved back into the short side hall out of its reach. Beneddar moved back near the flaming sphere and cast thunderwave on both zombies; one took full damage and the other one took half damage. Both zombies took damage from the flaming sphere as well.

Blaze hit the zombie to the north with a witch bolt and lightning arced between them. Sinis hit one zombie with acid splash for damage. The giant rats were piling up behind the zombies, unwilling to step into the fire. Breena cast thunderwave, hitting both zombies; the first one disintegrated completely and the second one looked almost ready to. When the first zombie exploded, the lightning arc stopped.

Elron killed one giant rat with his sling. The remaining zombie moved up to Breena, tried to bite but missed, and slammed her with its fist. Beneddar cast Toll the Dead on the remaining zombie which exploded, showering Breena with body parts which made her feel sick.

Sinis cast acid splash on the left-hand rats behind the two dead ones. One was hit and the other one dodged.

The other giant rats were moving up to the fire trying to find a way past it. Breena shot a rat with a crossbow bolt. Elron’s sling missed, and he moved up. Beneddar moved up and shot one with his crossbow, then stepped back. Blaze hit the right-hand giant rat with a witch bolt.

Lark’s torch went out.

Sinis cast acid splash on the left rat with a splash-over to the right-hand rat; it killed the rat on the right but not the left.

The giant rats began retreating to the northeastern corner of the room, and Blaze’s lightning arc was broken. Breena moved back into the north-south hallway. Elron moved up to the flaming sphere.

Beneddar moved into the room and saw the rats and stepped back. The rats were all in the NE corner.

Blaze moved the flaming sphere into the room. Breena told people she’d been poisoned by the zombie and was staying put.

Elron moved into the room and saw no rats; Beneddar said that they had disappeared into the pile of junk in the corner.

Parahelia walked over to Breena and looked her over. She had what Parahelia was calling “zombie rot” and it was a disease. She cast lesser restoration and Breena started feeling better right away.

Beneddar moved up next to Elron.

Blaze moved into the room and moved the flaming sphere to the northeastern corner rat’s nest, catching the debris on fire.

After a few seconds, Blaze snuffed out the flaming sphere but the nest material continued burning for a while after that; but eventually died down, leaving the poorly ventilated room very smoky.

Breena walked over to examine the broken crockery and cast blade ward. Elron began exploring the room. Lark moved into the room and told Artie, who was the last one still in the hall, to come in as well.

The room appeared to have been a refectory, with large tables and broken chairs and littered crockery. In the middle of the west wall was a bas-relief of a fat leering face with goat horns. There were the remains of a wooden frame around it that seemed to have held a cover over it, which is gone now.

When Breena approached it, she said that it felt like there’s a repulsion spell on it, pushing her away.

Beneddar used his longsword to move the debris around at the northeast corner.

He found an iron kettle, a small earthenware statue of Solanus, 7 forks, 1 spoon, 1 utensil that seemed to be a mix of fork and spoon, 272 cp, 307 sp, 256 gp, a sapphire gem, a jeweled coronet, and 6 daggers.

Beneddar examined the daggers; some are worn and others are in better shape. There is a hole in the floor that goes down at an angle. All the rats have gone.

Lark went back out into the north-south hallway.

While Sinis checked the bas-relief, Blaze identified it for Lark; it’s Orcus, the demon prince of the Undead, Chaos, Death, Destruction, Evil, War...

He gets the point.

There were the remains of a cover that once hid the face, but only shards of it remained.

As Sinis got closer, at 5-7 ft away he started feeling a repulsion and needed to force his body forward to touch it. Someone put a spell on it to not touch.

Beneddar threw a pebble at it; it veered off before hitting the face. Beneddar cast mage hand to throw crockery at it; the crockery didn’t touch it. Beneddar used his crossbow, aimed, and hit it with a bolt, which vanished without a trace. Disintegrated… or Teleported somewhere.

Leaving the face behind, the group went back to the N/S hallway and continued north to a corner that turned east. On the north side of the corner were a set of double doors and around the corner was a door on the south side of the east corridor. Beneddar, with elf eyesight, said it kept going and that there’s a room up ahead; he can see a large blood stain on floor and a door about 120 feet to the east.

Artie checked the northern double door; it’s unlocked and he didn’t find any traps. Beneddar cast mage hand but couldn’t open the door; it’s stuck. Elron opened it with a strong push. Behind the door was a hallway to the north with another set of double doors at the far end.

Artie checked the south door on the east hallway; it was not locked either and looked like it was opened recently.  He also checked for traps but found none.

Elron opened the door easily and the hinges squeaked.  It opened into a room that contained rotted bags of grain, wine jars, and barrels. It looked like a pantry or larder. 

Continued in Session 31: A Giant Spider, a Fountain of Pestilence and Jossel's Room.