We leveled up to 6th.  On to the game.  The town elders show up with some guards.  They wanted to assess our power level to decide if the town guards would be able to help in the upcoming confrontation with the agents of the Kartos Consortium.  They had 6 guards and TerStegan said he could take them all on by himself.  He took them out in two rounds with multiple crits and they never touched him with multiple critical failures.  So, they will stay out of the way.  Then Carmine stepped into the ring and they fought to a critical laden draw.  We had 2-3 days of downtime.  TerStegan tried to get work at the upscale Crow’s Cache to earn some extra Income.  He missed his roll so they had nothing available.  He bought his full plate and transferred his current +1 rune for which he borrowed money from Clarisa.  The Rowdy Rockfish was eager to have him since we saved their son. He rolled great and got 5 silvers plus 5 more the next day.  And then he went back to Crow’s Cache the last day and earned 2 gold.  Oakwood picked up his +1 hand wraps from Amecia.  He planted some more trees in the surrounding area and searched for hidden armies.  And then guarded the ballot place on election day.  Clarisa translated some of the spells that we’ve gathered into her spell book. Xeelie built a booby-trapped ballot box.  Oakwood failed to Aid her but she rolled a 20.  She then built magic items for herself and TerStegan.  She worked with Amecia and told her about them being half-sisters.  They buried the hatchet and bonded over blaming their parents for not telling them.  Last was Briscoe. He searched the guard barracks, looking for breeches already in place.  He intimated the guards about being tree lovers or he’d sick TerStegan on them while he was at it.    

So, then we transitioned into planning for the night.  Xeelie would hide under the counter.  Her familiar would be up on the counter.  Brisco wanted to use his “turn into a shrubbery” power to guard the front door.  TerStegan would patrol around outside.  Oakwood would hide upstairs overlooking the lower level and the windows.  Clarisa would hide in a cabinet on the lower level.  At the end of the day, Xeelie switched the ballot box as planned.  She noticed the hinges were not quite right once they were besides each other.  (I.e. she missed that first hidden roll.)  And tossed her flour in the holding cell.  TerStegan was randomly at the south side of the building on his rounds when things started happening.  A tiny gold dragon-like familiar(?) flew in a window, past an alert Oakwood and landed on the railing above the holding cell.  Xeelie didn’t notice anything but she didn’t have any line of sight up that high.  Briscoe noticed a pane of glass hovering (invisible person) by the same window and some sort of gold creature climbing in.  He chose to raise the alarm.  He figured breaking and entering was a sufficient crime.

He saw a black figure drop down from the same area.  They hit the ground and ran into the bushes across the street.  Oakwood stepped over the railing, onto the cage and grabbed the familiar with a 30.  And then turned on his powers.  TerStegan came around the corner but couldn’t see anything.  Brisco ran across the street, after the figure. Unfortunately, that put him off the map which complicated things.  When he got close to it, it looked more blobish than man.  A roll identified it as an illusion.  He yelled that at TerStegan.  He looked around for the caster but didn’t see anyone.  Xeelie heard someone on the cell (Oakwood).  A hidden perception rolled revealed nothing.  Or nothing had happened.  Clarisa heard the yelling as well but inside the cabinet, her line of sight was limited to a sliver.  She could see Oakwood acting but chose to stay hidden.  Next, the GM did stuff that we were unable to perceive.  Briscoe’s illusion disappeared, likely no longer being sustained.  Xeelie and Oakwood took an Arc of Lightning, failing saves of DC 26.  But it was only 7 points.  It came from somewhere on the top level but we still couldn’t see them.  But the window was now open.  The dragon broke free but with only one action, it didn’t go anywhere. 

Oakwood failed on a Seek action and then used his Flying Flame since AOEs don’t need to be targeted.  Something was hit for some fire damage but not illuminated since that’s too useful to get for free.  TerStegan ran up and opened the front door.  He couldn’t see the foe but didn’t have any actions left anyway once he turned on his stance.  Briscoe ran up to the building, rolled a 1 and didn’t climb it.  Xeelie stood up, cast fast healing on herself and did a Seek on the lower level but found nothing.  Clarisa stood up, jumped on the counter and did a Seek of the south balcony.  We had to roll a great perception and guess right so our odds were poor bordering on hopeless.  “Thankfully”, Cryde became visible and cast a Fear.  Oakwood succeeded, Xeelie failed and Clarisa and TerStegan critically failed.  TerStegan used a hero point to avoid the fleeing condition and got a critical success.  Credence became visible, Devised a Stratagem and attacked Oakwood.  He crit for 32 plus 2d6 bleed.  Oakwood turned on the Thermal Nimbus and did Battlefield medicine on himself.  And then took 6 more bleed damage.

TerStegan wanted to superleap across the room and up to the balcony but he couldn’t do it with Jump or Leap.  After much discussion.  So, he used his helm to get an extra Stride, went through the door and most of the way up the stairs.  Briscoe managed to climb up through the window and up to the balcony level.  Xeelie crit failed her Lore roll, gave up on her attack and moved towards the stairs.  Clarisa had to flee out the door.  Cryde cast Dimension Door and ended up down below in the cell. She did reenter Oakwood’s fire aura so took more damage.  She examined the box and identified the defect. We stopped there at Credence’s turn.  Most players had spent their rounds moving and seeking so we’ve barely touched them.  However, only Oakwood has taken any serious damage.  So, after 2 rounds, it’s pretty much a draw.  The turning point will be if we can counter whatever spells they have left when they decide to flee again.  As we’ve seen, we can’t do much against Fly, Dimension Door and Invisibility.

It was a night of dead ends and unbeatable foes. Xeelie snapped into existence and was forced to make a save from the Shrinking Trap we had passed through last time. She critically failed and she became tiny. There was still no guidance as to what that meant, rule-wise, however we thought her reach became 0 which was more of an issue for a melee character. She switched to her less effective star knife. And then the teleporter activated and a bunch of battered creatures appeared. A redheaded woman with a great axe and a plague doctor each carrying two halves of a body. Plus, a crawling hand and one of those Bounders and a bat demon. They had the symbol for “winner” floating on their forehand in a language that only Xeelie knew. That body looked like one of those adventures we met on level one so long ago. TerStegan did a Warfare roll and didn’t get much of anything. Xeelie rolled on the bat thing and identified it as the result of a necromancy ritual. Giant ghoul bat. And that it would be an even match for one of us. So maybe as a whole, they’d be a tough fight for us but we agreed we wanted to defer that fight as long as possible. They moved into the dorm area we hadn’t explored yet. So, we avoided that.

Soon after, another group came through. The losers. The rest of that adventuring party. They had gotten transported down here by the Grinning Man to fight and could not get past the barrier to get back out. We told them we had recently removed the barrier. And then asked them about the winners in case we had to fight them. Giant axe is obvious. Bat is a ghoul. Tough and probably undead. It had a bone chilling screech. The Plague Doctor was a healer and probably a necromancer. The hand just did damage and we had seen a Bounder. Evidently surrender is an option however the victors get a boon. In this case, the body of their friend. Which will probably be turned into another ghoul? They would be losers for 24 hours. We told them there was a path to the exit. They wanted to leave but were afraid the Grinning Man would not allow it. They were going to take a rest and then try it. They headed to the dorm area we had already explored.

TerStegan started talking about sending Xeelie into the saw trap room. But then Zara and her riding dog came up the stairs. She was pleased to see more competitors and asked if we were going to fight. We begged off for now, due to the fact that we were still shrunk. She was a spectator and not a fighter. She went into the mural room and closed the secret door. Evidently that’s where she slept. We had already learned we couldn’t defeat her. So that was another unbeatable dead end. The last door led to stairs down. The other stairs down lead to double doors and presumably to the arena. We didn’t want to go there so we chose the door. That door also went down. Is down the next level? That ended in a big room. There was a large creature chomping on the crystal shards. And big dangerous worm thing with a wand that seemed to be ordering it around. We rolled initiative and fled in order. The beast was large and the stairs, small. But the GM insisted we play it out. It had a sonic attack that sickened on a save and stunned and deafened if you failed. Xeelie failed and used her one remaining action to identify it. Then Clarisa grabbed her and we all fled. Not that way! We guessed that was the 6th level and wanted to face it as 6th level characters.

We recovered and headed to the shrinking room since everywhere else was death. Xeelie thought the shrinking would not be cumulative but would likely extend the duration. But we tried to limit our time in the room regardless. One of the doors was locked. TerStegan bashed the door and it was another teleportation circle chamber. On the normal network. He and Xeelie tried to activate it with a 10-minute ritual. Neither succeeded on their roll. And evidently were Stupefied 1 for 24 hours. That’s minus 1 on Int plus a flat roll to cast a spell. But they were mostly melee guys. They tried again and failed again. The Stupefy didn’t stack but did make their rolls one harder. One more try. Failed again. Use hero points and succeeded. It would be working for d6 days. That gobbled up some time for them and us. The next door was spiked closed. The GM said it would take minutes to remove them. At least Oakwood had the right tool with his climbing kit. He assumed Xeelie was right and stayed in the room. The trap didn’t go off again. Xeelie, seeing that it was safe, searched. However, the shrinking duration ran out while we worked on the spikes. We got big and then we got shrunk again. Eventually Xeelie realized it was triggered by weight. I.e. M but not S or T. It was needlessly complicated and time consuming since it didn’t really impact anything.

After all that, it was a single room. It had more runes on the floor and walls. Ruined furniture and a mummy. “Who are you?”, in a language only Xeelie spoke (DR-I think this was Necril.  Clarissa speaks it too but by the time I looked it up it didn't matter any more). Chaffekim. Xeelie thought the runes were “boosting” its power? It switched to common. “What’s going on? Was Belcora still in charge?” We told him she’d been dead 500 years but power was rising and we were trying to stop it. He called her a fool. Evidently, he was providing an army for her back in the day. We asked what he would do, now that we freed him. Return to Oserum where he’s from. But if we were to perform a service for him, he’d reward us. He wanted Jafarkey or the imp Zuk, killed and proof brought. He described them and the main one sounded like the same species as the thing we fled from not long ago. Evidently there are a bunch of them on the next level.

For our reward, he’d provide the password for the blade trap which he built and a map of this level. But the foes were on level 6 so a map wouldn’t do us much good then. TerStegan said that we’d get to level 6 faster if he gave us a map of level 5 first. He tore a page out of a book and sketched a map on it. The page had a Freedom of Movement (level 4) from a spell book on it. We asked about the Grinning Man and the arena and he knew nothing about it. We could have spent all night questioning him but he said he had things to prepare and closed the door on us. Our best guess, he went afoul of Belcora, was imprisoned and used his spell knowledge to turn himself into a mummy in order to survive. I.e. unbeatable again. I doubt we want to release a mummy to walk the land but I’m not sure we can do much about it.

Somewhere in here, the adventure party showed up, asking about the exit. We hadn’t had a chance to discuss as a group, whether we wanted to reveal to them about the teleportation circles. They said,”what’s in that room?” Brisco said, “what room?” Xeelie said, “you mean the one with the teleportation circle we just fixed? Help yourself.” So, they left. Whether they actually got out, I guess we’ll find out. Back past the mold room, we found a kitchen. The map pointed us to a secret door. That corridor had bones similar to the saw room. That trap is big and had 3 entrances into it, according to the map. Even with a map, this place was very maze-like mainly because there were crisscrossing levels within the same level.

We went down a hallway to a bridge across a grand north/south hallway. That hallway lead to the arena? That hallway had a star mosaic on the ceiling. A skill roll indicated the stars were from the perspective of a different planet. Impressive but not very useful. Far to the south, we could see statues of various fleshwarp creatures. Most of them were broken and melted. Mouthers and abominations. TerStegan tried to get more information but it was too far away. We could see the Grinning Man, sitting on his throne. TerStegan was still headed for the guard room mentioned in the letter since it said something about an exit. Oakwood and Clarisa, being in the back, noticed the Grinning Man noticing us. Another unbeatable foe. We went across another bridge that ended at a portcullis. And double doors behind it. Some of the bars were melted and twisted such that a small person could slip through it. And as luck would have it, we were all currently small or tiny. It was still a DC 18 acrobatics roll which isn’t trivial, especially if you didn’t happen to have that skill. Tiny Xeelie slip past with ease examined the locks on the doors. We could see arrow slits but no one was shooting. Oakwood made it through on two tries. Since there was only room for two between the bars and the doors, they opened the door so that we could move more through. That revealed a room with more doors.

And a Greater Shadow emerged and attacked. It had a +20 Stealth and went first. It hit Oakwood for 17. Then stole his shadow and gave Enfeebled 2. (STR drain.) That created a new shadow called Oakwood’s Shadow. It then hid in Xeelie’s tiny shadow. It was now Concealed which meant a flat check of 5 to hit it. But Xeelie’s lantern made it a 4. Clarissa cast Revealing Light in the area. It succeeded as did Oakwood but Xeelie failed. That meant Dazzled for 2 rounds or 1 minute but canceled concealments. So, it was not concealed but everything was concealed to them. Brisco missed with Ray of Frost and then missed with his trident. TerStegan faced a Acro 18 or an Ath 30 roll. He used his helmet for a +2. Only got a 23. He used a hero and failed again. And then he used Acrobatics and made it. GM let him move into the room since the thing was hiding and not resisting. Xeelie moved to get flanking and then rolled her knowledge thing and rolled a 20. It was resistant 10 to everything except force, ghost touch or vitality. And then she missed. And missed again. Oakwood crit but remembered he was Dazzled, rolled a 2 on that check and lost it. And tried to attack Oakwood’s shadow and missed.

It went again. It hit TerStegan, stole his shadow and created another shadow spawn. And missed Oakwood for its last action. But it was Dazzled, so retroactively it missed that flat check and none of that happened. Clarisa did a Full Force Barrage and finally hurt it. Brisco did Vitality Lash and it saved for half damage. He wanted to throw his trident again but it was pointed out that he could not go through the portcullis. So, he cast Guidance on Oakwood instead. Oakwood’s shadow walked through the portcullis and attacked Clarisa in the back rank since she was the one doing damage. And it missed twice. TerStegan pulled out his Ghost Touched hatchet and attacked. (It was debatable whether he’d do more with his great axe, taking the minus -10 to damage but if you got it, might as well use it.) He hit for 9, but it took it all. Xeelie attacked and made the flat check. But then she missed and then missed again. And again. Oakwood made his flat check and missed and made it and missed. It went and did something. Clarisa felt “marked for death” whatever that meant. And then it fled through the north door. However, TerStegan got a Reactive Strike and crit for 18. And that dropped it. GM assumed its spawn died too.

The north door was to another room. A guard room but no guards. Nothing worth anything on the empty weapon racks. Another door, another empty room. Arrow slits here and there. The south door did the same. The mummy’s map indicated a secret door down there. Brisco looked but didn’t find it. TerStegan tried and found it. It’s helpful to have a map. Meanwhile Xeelie attempted a crafting roll to hold the portcullis open. And failed due to the still present Stupefy. That secret door led to double doors which led to a long hallway. 100 feet down the tunnel was collapsed. The GM said it would take hours to clear. Although the tiny might be able to get by. Since the letter indicated there might be an exit/entrance, we dug. It led to the smuggler’s den. That’s 10 minutes from our house. How the elevations work out, we’re not sure. And the fact that this circumvented the whole gather items to remove the barrier thing, we’ll ignore. We stopped there. We’re fine on hit points and not down too many spells since we can’t seem to find much we can fight. But the conditions are adding up. Although some had expired. We might try to finish off the level before sunset or just head home. The re-election is 3 days away. From the map, there are 4 rooms yet to have visited. Plus, the arena? Brian declared us 6th via email so hopefully that’ll help.

We awoke in our beds at the clubhouse after a long rest.  At breakfast, we started the same debate we had the previous morning.  To hang around town and prepare for the (re)election while Xeelie built magic items or go back to the Gauntlight.  But that was cut short by a knock on the door.  It was the town elders including mayoral candidates Osef and Carmine.  They wanted to consult with us about the election.  Evidently Carmine had agreed to withdraw from the contest.  He had never intended these sorts of tactics. He was just taking advice (and money) but didn’t fully realize what was happening. Despite the lack of hard evidence, they were now convinced the accountants aiding him were under the employ of the Kartos Consortium and they meant harm to the town.  They were looking for ideas on how to catch them so that they can arrest them? I’m not sure what happens to them if caught.  It’s not like Otari has a prison.  Execute them? Send them packing? Away, we were pulled back into this mess.

Some ideas were bandied about.  None of them were very hopeful.  Mostly TerStegan came up with a plan of sorts.  Carmine can act as a double agent to try to get them to tell him their new plans.  It was pointed out that they didn’t include him in the old plans but perhaps if he said something along the lines of “I didn’t realize you guys were prepared to use such tactics.  I’m all in.  What’s next?”  It seemed obvious to us that if we took no new measures, they’d be suspicious and were not likely to try again for the ballot box.  However, Osef said that it would take a unanimous vote from the council to deviate from town tradition and that’s not likely to happen.  Along those lines, Carmine will tell them our plan was to count the votes the day of the election but that he could stop that vote and put them back in the guard house overnight.  With extra guards.  (I.e. some of us.)  If they tell him they have a new plan, we counter that.  If they go for the box again, we’ll put a paint bomb in it and they’ll be marked.  Caught red handed.  Of course, if we catch these two, that still doesn’t tie them back to Kartos but I guess first things first.  While they pulled it together, we were told (by the GM) to go back to work on the Gauntlight.  Xeelie did get Carmine to agree to have his daughter work on our magic item transfers.  It doesn’t actually save anything, having Xeelie doing them so it doesn’t cost us anything to have Amica do them.  That way, we can push that forward without leaving Xeelie in Otari.

Brian wanted to know where we would be entering the current level.  That prompted a discussion on fixing the portals.  It turns out, reactivating dead portals takes no money.  Just an hour of time and some skill rolls.  So, we turned on the one on level one, near the swamp dragon lair.  (The one on level zero was broken and would require money and acquiring a more difficult ritual.)  Xeelie made an Arcana roll and TerStegan made an Occult roll.  That turned it on for 1-6 days.  Next, we went to level 3 in the library area.  That ghoul we didn’t kill was busy repairing books and shelves and such.  Along with some of the other left alone creatures.  Oakwood asked if he needed anything since he was kind enough not to give us any trouble.  He needed paper, ink and such.  He had piles of books ready.  Each 1 Bulk was worth 5 gold pieces.  And now that we had extra portable holes, we could haul some away.  (So much for helping him.)  We repaired that portal and since one of them rolled a critical success, it would be activated indefinitely.  We then proceeded to level 4, next to the dining room. 

It was here that Brian sprung his trap.  (We should have been suspicious when he cared which way we were coming.)  We saw an undead thing in the form of Volluk Azrinae.  We had already faced a version of Volluk in this room and almost died so we were not thrilled to have to face him again.  But this was a different form.  First of all, its stats were jacked up as usual to face a whole party.  Each round, it got a reaction to cast a Deathly Gaze which Drained.  1 on a stiff Fort save and 2 on a failed.  That gives -1 to Con stuff including a level’s worth of hit points off the top.  TerStegan and Xeelie were soon afflicted.  Once “gazed” it had another attack that did damage and put the Doom condition on them.  That meant you were one or more steps closer to death.  And to add insult, it was against that depleted Fort save.  Plus, a fist attack, high AC and saves etc.  Xeelie’s attempts to identify it kept bouncing.  It didn’t do a ton of damage so the real worry was the threat of character death.  Once again, Brisco showed up in time to start healing people.  Oakwood hit above average and Clarisa used a full load of Magic Missiles.  On its 3rd round, Clarisa actually saved against that gaze.  Thankfully Oakwood, who’s primary stat is Con, did not get targeted.  So as often is the case, we were afraid for our lives in rounds 1 and 2 and it was dead by round 4. 

Evidently it was a remnant of the original monster.  According to the rules, Drained and Doom take a long rest per level to recover and they were down 3 and 4.  However Brian said that this “depends on the monster”.  So, we spent a couple hours mending the teleportation circle.  One of them rolled a critical success so it was up permanently.  Evidently, they recovered a level per hour (or was it two).  We healed up and decided to press on since this was the first fight of the day.  (I’m not sure why we didn’t wait some more hours for them to fully recover.)  We hadn’t found the circle on the current 5^th level but we hadn’t seen much of it yet.  We went down to that level and down a hallway and came to a door.  Xeelie was prepared to pick it but Oakwood used the copper key we got last time.  It was a storeroom full of organs in jars and limbs wrapped in paper.  There were some medical instruments but they weren’t worth anything.  What there was was two weapon racks with a “gnarled stick” on each.  One was identified as a Wand of Summon Animal, level 2.  There was much discussion on what kind of animal a level 1 animal was.  Answer, not much and certainly not worth a 3-action cast and an action to sustain.  Brisco took it but I think it will be sold.  The identify on the other wand failed so it was stowed for another try later.

The next room had two pits in the center plus three more in alcoves on the far wall.  There was a stone throne with two levers.  And two creatures.  They were abomination sort of things with frog legs and multiple tongues.  Their stats were comparable to ours which was good but it was their special attacks that were the issue.  One went first.  It leapt onto Xeelie, tossed her 5 feet on a stiff Reflex save and threw her down the pit.  She got a Grab an Edge Reflex save which she made.  It then hit her with a trip attack which dislodged her but then failed to toss her into its mouth.  Good news, she fell 55 feet down, taking 22 points.  When the second one went, it did the same to TerStegan except he missed the Edge and just fell.  And before anyone could go, the party was split.  That’s never a good thing however most of the healing was up and most of the damage dealing was below.  So that became two fights as Brian switched from map to map.

Above, when they could finally go, they used movement to back away from the pits and get into the hallway.  Thankfully, they didn’t have reactive strikes.  The monsters were still hitting and tripping but 5 feet or 10 feet on a crit wasn’t going to get them down the holes.  Thankfully those attacks suffered from MAP.  Neither side did a lot of damage.  Certainly not the TerStegan’s 30-50.  Once they got Injured, they backed away too and started using a ranged acid spit attack.  Those hurt more and did persistent acid damage which are always trouble.  Oakwood got good use out of his Aeon stone again and his shield, acting as the hit point buffer.  They finished them off right about the time the other half got back up.  Meanwhile TerStegan and Xeelie landed in an underground lake.  They actually landed on two slumbering Hydras.  TerStegan got to the shore as did Xeelie.  She cast Fast Healing on him.  We could see the curve of the Gauntlight Tower but the stone was transparent.  As if this was an observation area.  Probably so that they could watch people tossed down the pits be torn apart by hydras.  Thankful, the first Hydra rolled a 1 on its perception and didn’t notice them.  It snapped at the second, assuming it woke it up.  The second spotted the fleeing teens but snapped at the first.  All that gave our heroes a couple round head start and they made it to an exit around the corner.  From there, it was up the spiral stairs and back to the rest of the party.

We stopped there.  Brian chose not to do any healing or refocusing or repairing.  So, we’ll start there next time.  A new dungeon level but the same constant fight for our lives.  It’s not easy, saving the world.  

We were still in the circular staircase room at the start of level 5 and chose the door to the east.  In there was a big room full of chains, similar to the torture room we found the level above.  There was a rusty looking grate over a pit in the center of the first area.  And another chain fiend standing there.  There was discussion about trying to fight her from the hallway and avoid the room of chains (i.e. at range) but TerStegan would have none of that.  We moved in.  Xeelie came in saying “Hello” and TerStegan came in saying “We killed your sister, prepare to die.”  Sort of mixed messages.  We rolled initiative and she started attacking us with the various chains in the room.  She could pretty much attack anything she could see in there.  She had the usual Fear effect, forcing everyone to make a Will save or be Frightened 1 or 2.  She also got an opportunity attack on anything that moved (but only once a round).  And 3 actions with a high attack value but at least she suffered from MAP.  TerStegan charged in and she fell back into the corner.  Xeelie moved up and did her evaluation thing.  It was resistant to most everything but vulnerable to silver and holy.  (Holy, not vitality.)

When Clarisa moved in, she plotted her path across the grate.  BTO squawked in surprise and was accused of meta gaming.  So, Clarisa went ahead and fell 40 down to the next level, taking 20.  Oakwood threw her a rope on his turn but it took all 3 actions to fish it out and toss it.  She then spent 3 actions climbing and he spent 3 actions pulling her up the rest of the way.  The net effect was that it was TerStegan and Xeelie alone for the first 2 rounds.  They got battered.  On the second round, TerStegan was crit with a chain and took lots of damage plus 2d6 persistent bleed damage.  And he was grappled (no movement actions and flat-footed) and impaled (can’t recover from the persistent damage).  That was one action for her.  She beat on Xeelie with the rest.  So, when Brisco showed up, TerStegan was almost out and Xeeile is badly injured.  Once he did his usual “I’m running away”, he charged forward and did his battle medicine.  But that and Xeelie’s fast healing wasn’t enough to keep him up.

From there, it was a scramble.  We tried to keep him alive and he tried to fight from the ground.  Xeelie used a healing scroll and Brisco used both of his day’s battle medicine on him.  The other two joined the effort.  Oakwood’s new Aeon stone bounced the persistent damage on him.  Clarisa tried her vitality lash, discovering that holy was not the same as vitality.  By the way, the fiend also had fast healing 10, However, any round that Xeeile hit it with her silver starknife, it didn’t get it.  After a few more rounds, our numbers won out but we were beat pretty good.  Oakwood started handing out Fresh Produce and Brisco did his Treat Wounds.  We searched and found nothing.  Clarisa said that the pit led to another hallway with more doors so we figured we’d get to it when we got to the next level. 

There were double doors to the north that lead to 3 cells.  Each had a pile of garbage and filth but nothing was moving.  We started to search and someone spotted the gleam of copper under the center pile.  Oakwood used his Mage Hand to pull it free and awakened 3 undead blob things.  He turned on his fire damage and took a shot at one.  Xeelie said these were resistant to slashing and piercing and vulnerable to vitality.  Did they have a fear effect? I can’t recall.  They did a flesh slap or a bone shard range attack.  They had no trouble passing through the bars.  They also had an engulf power but Brian was unable to land it.  After a couple rounds, we finished them off.  We searched and found nothing but the copper key.  Our only treasure of the night.  We ate more fruit and went to the double doors to the south. 

This seemed to be an examination room or maybe a morgue.  There were 3 tables and various scary equipment hanging from the ceiling. There was one body on the furthest table.  Brian sort of forced the action, having Clarisa check under the sheet.  It was a carved up Morlock body from which a Specter emerged.  This was similar to the monster we fought in the Otari crypt and pretty mad about being chopped up in its past life.  It had a fear zone and was resistant to everything but vitality and ghost touch.  Thankful, our bright lights made it Clumsy 2.  TerStegan started swinging while the rest of us moved up.  He took advantage of Clarisa standing there to get flanking.  Xeelie attacked and then Oakwood got flanking from her.  However, then BTO logged off and Oakwood’s flanking ceased to exist.  And then Clarisa fled, stopping TerStegan’s flanking.  But then he moved around and finished it off with a 58 point crit.  Again, no treasure or anything of interest.  This level, at least so far, has been much emptier.  It was late so we stopped there.  There was a debate about returning home for a long rest or pressing on.  The casters won out and we went home.  That’ll reset the battle medicine and TerStegan’s Bless as well.  Xeelie is eager to make magic items for people and people are eager to get them so we may stay in town a few days.  That’ll allow us to protect the next election although I think it is still 5-6 days away.