Berghof (Greyhawk) play report 22/04/26

The gang (who are currently debating whether they should keep the name "Stone Smashers" or pivot to "The Punishers" - due to the high volume of puns) planned to ambush the followers of Vecna on their way to the human sacrifice at Vecna's hidden temple. But first they had to deal with the morale of their retainers, who just yesterday witnessed the death of the well loved retainer Loradil. Bilbur the Dwarf and David the Torch Bearer both decided to stay after a well placed motivational talk from Roland and Stern respectively, but Magnus was not able to convince his retainer Arnie to stay on. Arnie told the Magic User Magnus to "gif zem haiiil" before disappearing into the night. The party found some healing herbs and set up camp.

The next morning, the party crossed the Hool River and scouted the terrain surrounding the temple of Vecna to find the best spot for an ambush. They searched a dormant volcano crater, which now housed a small forest and rain water lake where they fought two giant wasps who were in the process of laying eggs into an albino deer carcass. Stern, Roland and Bilbur killed the wasps with a little help from the others. Feuersicht then skinned the deer carcas as such a rarity is worth a lot of coin. They investigated the bramble fields to the south where they found a mushroom that Magnus tried the mushroom shaped wand on. This revealed to the party that it was a Wand of Mycanoid Control ( my own little creation: once per day the wand can be used to turn a mushroom into a servant which will obey simple orders and can communicate with single word phrases). As Magnus had used the wand on a small mushroom, they gained a small mycanoid ally for the day.

When scouting the area directly around the temple of Vecna, the party came accross a glowing skull. This turned out to be bait set there by four cultists who ambushed Stern as he carefully approached it. Despitr being out-numbered, Stern held his ground long enough for Feuersicht to cast sleep on all four cultists. They dispatched the three foot soldiers and bound the leader before waking him up for interrogation. The leader was unwilling to speak at first and mocked the party and their "false gods" but a combination of torture and threatening to give him the rites of St Cuthbert loosened the necromancers lips. The party were able to get the layout of the temple, numbers on how many other cultists were coming to the sacrifice, the direction from which the cultists were coming (Chiswell) and where the victim was kept. After that they dispatched the necromancer and Stern performs the rites of St Cuthbert on him anyway - this was only common sense.

With the new information the party decided to not wait until the next day, and instead get in and out of the temple quickly to save the sacrifice victim. They drank two healing potions to be at full strength, and made their way to the temple. This time the party rushed past the first room, heading north into the room with the three magic items and the guardian statues. They again heard taping from inside the wall. This time they also felt a cool breeze coming from the eastern wall and were able to identify the outline of a secret door. They deliberated on whether to open it, or stick to the plan. A reminder from Bilbur, that the entrance to this temple did say "some doors are better left shut", made the party decide to leave it for now. In the room that the victim was meant to be, the party again encountered the coffer corpse that had previously thwarted their efforts. This time equipped with magical weapons, they were able to cause meaningful damage to the undead abortion and take it down for good. The room had four graits on the floor, each containing a 20' deep chamber with a silent human in white linen, with a white linen bag over its head, grasping upwards. The party dropped rope down to them one by one, but only one actually grabbed the rope and was able to be hauled out of the chamber - the sacrificial victim who had had a silence spell cast on him. While this was happening, the magic users in the party heard a voice whispering in their head telling them to betray their comrades in exchange for great power. They honourably resisted the voice but not without winding the non-magic users up a little along the way.

The party decided to explore two more rooms (I'm using 3D6 Down The Line's Feats of Exploration rules). They entered two more rooms to the south, triggering a skeleton with red glowing eyes and black plate mail in the last room. The party decided to exercise caution and fled. They made it back out to their mule. Once outside of the temple the rescued human let out and audible gasp. He was able to speak again! And we'll leave it on that cliff hanger...