AtD 011: An Ambush Well Sprung

The semi-liquescent, foul-smelling lake and its mephitic rim intrigued Thonn. Although the half-orc was on the verge of entering the black, soot-coloured, stagnant water sanity finally won out and the party decided the lake could wait for another day.

Bodrum used a ritual casting of detect magic on the lake and the attendant ruins, but discovered nothing of interest. After a brief discussion, the party pushed onwards to the squat mausoleum. Saeldur quickly climbed its vine- and creeper-shrouded wall to get a better view of the surrounds.

While the keen-eyed ranger kept watch over the party, the rest of the heroes approached the large building to the south. Several doors pierced its southern wall, and these were—one after another—smashed open. Three of the doors gave into rooms lined with bunkbeds. Now redolent with mould and rotting furniture these rooms offered little of interest. The fourth room opened into a larger dining hall. Here again, was rot and decay and a virulent growth of yellowy-green mould. The mould grew voraciously over the furniture nearest the door and although the room had two more doors which led deeper in the building, the party declined to enter.

As they re-grouped and pushed north to glimpse the tangled garden, Saeldur noticed a small swarm of unusually large centipede rushing the party from behind. He shouted a warning, and the party quickly dealt with the monstrously-sized vermin (although one of the creatures managed to bite and poison Thonn).

With this danger dealt with, the party gazed upon the tangled garden and spotted three small tunnel entrances cut into the intertwined mass of vegetation. The entrances were small—the heroes would likely have to crawl inside which seemed unwise; thus, the heroes returned to the south to investigate the mausoleum proper.

Two lines of columns carved to depict skeletons on guard lined the approaches to the mausoleum’s double doors. Bodrum, scraping away the moss and lichen, discovered a gigantic carving of a skull across the doors. Suspecting a trap, he began another ritual casting of detect magic.

Sadly, however, rituals take a long time to cast and while he was doing so a trio of hobgoblins entered the ruins. Most of the party immediately hid, but Thonn hit upon a clever ruse: he wandered toward the hobgoblins as if unaware of their presence. When he got closer to them, he looked up, feigned terror and fled back the way he had come, arrows flickering around him in the summer sun.

Thus was the party’s hasty trap sprung. As Thonn lured his pursuers toward the mausoleum the rest of the party leapt from hiding. Two of the hobgoblins were quickly slain while the third was knocked unconscious, tied up and dragged around the back of the building for “questioning”…