Clifton's Keep

Nanoc, having heard around town that the party was in Clifton’s keep, clearing out the castle, headed out of Tilverton to rejoin the group. After a days travel on foot, Nanoc reaches his destination: Clifton’s Keep.

Having already cleared out the entire first floor and Clifton having a wizard open the magically sealed door, Nanoc heads directly for the door to the first floor. He opens the door and notices that there is nothing to hold this thing up. Screw it. I’ll go in anyway. Closing the door behind him Nanoc realizes that now the door is sealed and he won’t be able to get out this way. Drat. At least I’m down here with the group…. If they are still alive that is.

After some bumbling in the dark Nanoc hears something… or someone. Turns out, it’s Rowyn, Rosencrantz, and Minasha. Thank god. Now to get out of this infernal place. After scaring the bejesus out of the group, who by the way, were adventuring with little to no light, the party fills Nanoc in on their latest trials and tribulations. Now with a light source [yay Nanoc and his oil flasks] the group decides to go and try and slay this “gelatinous cube” that was locked inside a room in the keep.

The group heads back to the room with the cube in it. Rosencrantz casts shield […and has the highest saving throw versus magic…] and is used as the first line of defense. Who woulda thunk it? A wizard taking the lead in a battle! With room, Nanoc pulls out his darts and begins firing them in succession at the “gelatinous cube.” After some beating, the cube finally is slain as it melts to the floor in a puddle of ooze. The group gathers their projectile weapons. I know Nanoc had to clean his darts off…

Now to finish clearing this keep and find a way out of here. It’s not looking too good right now. The group does some more meandering around the keep. They stumble upon a room where there is piles of treasure laying next to a chest. All glowing green. Rosencrantz whips out his trusty copper piece and immediately throws it into the green light. It vanishes. Rowyn, drunk with money lust, lunges toward the booty. In a flash of light, she also disappears! By this point the party is freaked out. So in a moment of brilliance, Nanoc and Rosencrantz decide they will tie “Rosy” to his rope and will have him go into the green glow. In a moment, Rosencrantz disappears with Nanoc! After a few minutes, Minasha comes teleporting into the room. The group looks around.

The group is now in a room with a large circle in the middle of the floor. After some thought, discussion, and deliberation, [and Rosencrantz’s magic copper piece] they decide to jump onto the circle as a group so they will teleport together. We are now in a room with numerous sarcophagi lining the walls. 2 on the south walls, another 2 on the way up to the north wall and 8 [I think…] against the north wall.

After inspecting the room, the party finds that there is no real way out. So Nanoc tries to move a sarcophagus himself. Won’t budge. Finally, after everyone gets in on the act, the cover to the first tomb is opened. A green light appears. Deciding to maybe go through the tombs first and then play with the green “teleporting light,” seeing as how the group doesn’t have many options and light is running low, the party starts opening the tombs one-by-one.

[NOTE: This is not the exact order of what happened, although I know Jason noted the order and which had what in it.]

By now, we know that the first sarcophagus opened dealt with the teleporting. Moving along, the group opens the tombs one after another. In the first 2 they find silver, lots of silver. In the next tomb, there is light inside and something is starting to crawl out! Battle time!

The group then decidedly attacks this “tomb zombie” together. Rowyn gets hit and feels a cold sensation creep over her chest where she was wounded. That did not feel good! After some combat the zombie is subdued. [You go last, ha, ha!] The group returns to happily plundering through the tombs.

In the next tombs, the group finds more silver bounty. Yum. Moving along, one of the tombs is opened and Rosencrantz and Nanoc are hit with a magical mist! Suddenly, and without warning, ALL our metal items turn to dust! [In case you’re counting, I’m on my thousandth 2-handed sword at this point]. And I mean everything even the steel that came with the flint. Uh, oh! Our light source is starting to run thin….

In the next tombs, more silver is found and a scroll with some markings on it is found.

It says:
[Again, not word for word]
In order to get out, say the following words.

Ohwha Tagoo Siam.

There is also a map with it as well denoting on it the place where to say the “magic words.”

Now that all the tombs are clear, the group decides to try this teleporting “green glowing glow” again. They move the proper sarcophagus and the green light appears and the group one-by-one heads into the light.

Everyone appears back at the doorway that led to the original room with the chest and green glowing treasure. Except when they enter the room, the chest and the treasure are in another corner of the room. So the group decides to have Minasha cast “detect magic.” After doing so, the group checks out this room and the surrounding hallways and walls. They see another wall outside of this room glowing. But we can’t get out of it yet. Let’s try to teleport again now that the chest and treasure is in another part of the room. The group decides to have Rowyn and Minasha wait in the room with the chest and treasure in it. If we’re not back in 5 minutes, we tell them to go ahead and jump through the teleporter.

Before the five minute mark hits, Nanoc and Rosencrantz come crashing back through the door. It appears that this teleporting thing is leading us nowhere! After some more thought, the group heads over to the spot on the map and says the “magic words.” NOTHING happens. And I mean a whole lot of nothing. So now out of avenues, the group walks up and down the corridors and all around chanting the words “Owa Tagoo Siam.” Still a whole lotta nothing.

After numerous tries at different intervals and after making themselves look like fools running around chanting these “magic words” Rowyn finally says something with the pronunciation and suddenly, a door appears! Yay! We can get out now!

So the group finally gets out of the keep, very rich may I add. [Ballin’!] Battered and broken […and with no metal on Rosencrantz and Nanoc. Can anyone says AC10 for Nanoc at this point…?]the group heads back to Tilverton. As night starts to swallow up the day, the party sees a group of bats over head and they are starting to swoop in!

Battle time! So now with no armor and no sword, Nanoc is forced to fight with a club. After some time battling the bats […And with Nanoc at like 11 HP left…] the group finally kills the last bat. After a bit more travel, the weary adventurers make it back home to Tilverton for some much needed food, sleep, and supplies.

END OF SESSION